CHAPTER 113

  The Forge

  With matted beard, and swathed in a bristling shark-skin apron,

about mid-day, Perth was standing between his forge and anvil, the

latter placed upon an iron-wood log, with one hand holding a pike-head

in the coals, and with the other at his forge's lungs, when Captain

Ahab came along, carrying in his hand a small rusty-looking leathern

bag. While yet a little distance from the forge, moody Ahab paused;

till at last, Perth, withdrawing his iron from the fire, began

hammering it upon the anvil- the red mass sending off the sparks in

thick hovering flights, some of which flew close to Ahab.

  "Are these thy Mother Carey's chickens, Perth? they are always

flying in thy wake; birds of good omen, too, but not to all;- look

here, they burn; but thou- thou liv'st among them without a scorch."

  "Because I am scorched all over, Captain Ahab," answered Perth,

resting for a moment on his hammer; "I am past scorching-, not

easily can'st thou scorch a scar."

  "Well, well; no more. Thy shrunk voice sounds too calmly, sanely

woeful to me. In no Paradise myself, I am impatient of all misery in

others that is not mad. Thou should'st go mad, blacksmith; say, why

dost thou not go mad? How can'st thou endure without being mad? Do the

heavens yet hate thee, that thou can'st not go mad?- What wert thou

making there?"

  "Welding an old pike-head, sir; there were seams and dents in it."

  "And can'st thou make it all smooth again, blacksmith, after such

hard usage as it had?"

  "I think so, sir."

  "And I suppose thou can'st smoothe almost any seams and dents; never

mind how hard the metal, blacksmith?"

  "Aye, sir, I think I can; all seams and dents but one."

  "Look ye here then," cried Ahab, passionately advancing, and leaning

with both hands on Perth's shoulders; "look ye here- here- can ye

smoothe out a seam like this, blacksmith," sweeping one hand across

his ribbed brow; "if thou could'st, blacksmith, glad enough would I

lay my head upon thy anvil, and feel thy heaviest hammer between my

eyes. Answer! Can'st thou smoothe this seam?"

  "Oh! that is the one, sir! Said I not all seams and dents but one?"

  "Aye, blacksmith, it is the one; aye, man, it is unsmoothable; for

though thou only see'st it here in my flesh, it has worked down into

the bone of my skull- that is all wrinkles! But, away with child's

play; no more gaffs and pikes to-day. Look ye here!" jingling the

leathern bag, as if it were full of gold coins. "I, too, want a

harpoon made; one that a thousand yoke of fiends could not part,

Perth; something that will stick in a whale like his own fin-bone.

There's the stuff," flinging the pouch upon the anvil. "Look ye,

blacksmith, these are the gathered nail-stubbs of the steel shoes of

racing horses."

  "Horse-shoe stubbs, sir? Why, Captain Ahab, thou hast here, then,

the best and stubbornest stuff we blacksmiths ever work."

  "I know it, old man; these stubbs will weld together like glue

from the melted bones of murderers. Quick! forge me the harpoon. And

forge me first, twelve rods for its shank; then wind, and twist, and

hammer these twelve together like the yarns and strands of a tow-line.

Quick! I'll blow the fire."

  When at last the twelve rods were made, Ahab tried them, one by one,

by spiralling them, with his own hand, round a long, heavy iron

bolt. "A flaw!" rejecting the last one. "Work that over again, Perth."

  This done, Perth was about to begin welding the twelve into one,

when Ahab stayed his hand, and said he would weld his own iron. As,

then, regular, gasping hems, he hammered on the anvil, Perth passing

to him the glowing rods, after the other, and the hard pressed forge

shooting up its intense straight flame, the Parsee passed silently,

and bowing over his head towards the fire, seemed invoking some

curse or some blessing on the toil. But, as Ahab looked up, he slid

aside.

  "What's that bunch of lucifers dodging about there for?" muttered

Stubb, looking on from the forecastle. "That Parsee smells fire like a

fusee; and smells of it himself, like a hot musket's powder-pan."

  At last the shank, in one complete rod, received its final heat; and

as Perth, to temper it, plunged it all hissing into the cask of

water near by, the scalding steam shot up into Ahab's bent face.

  "Would'st thou brand me, Perth?" wincing for a moment with the pain;

"have I been but forging my own branding-iron, then?"

  "Pray God, not that; yet I fear something, Captain Ahab. Is not this

harpoon for the White Whale?"

  "For the white fiend! But now for the barbs; thou must make them

thyself, man. Here are my razors- the best of steel; here, and make

the barbs sharp as the needle-sleet of the Icy Sea."

  For a moment, the old blacksmith eyed the razors as though he

would fain not use them.

  "Take them, man, I have no need for them; for I now neither shave,

sup, nor pray till- but here- to work!"

  Fashioned at last into an arrowy shape, and welded by Perth to the

shank, the steel soon pointed the end of the iron; and as the

blacksmith was about giving the barbs their final heat, prior to

tempering them, he cried to Ahab to place the water-cask near.

  "No, no- no water for that; I want it of the true death-temper.

Ahoy, there! Tashtego, Queequeg, Daggoo! What say ye, pagans! Will

ye give me as much blood as will cover this barb?" holding it high up.

A cluster of dark nods replied, Yes. Three punctures were made in

the heathen flesh, and the White Whale's barbs were then tempered.

  "Ego non baptizo te in nomine patris, sed in nomine diaboli!"

deliriously howled Ahab, as the malignant iron scorchingly devoured

the baptismal blood.

  Now, mustering the spare poles from below, and selecting one of

hickory, with the bark still investing it, Ahab fitted the end to

the socket of the iron. A coil of new tow-line was then unwound, and

some fathoms of it taken to the windlass, and stretched to a great

tension. Pressing his foot upon it, till the rope hummed like a

harp-string, then eagerly bending over it, and seeing no strandings,

Ahab exclaimed, "Good! and now for the seizings."

  At one extremity the rope was unstranded, and the separate spread

yarns were all braided and woven round the socket of the harpoon;

the pole was then driven hard up into the socket; from the lower end

the rope was traced halfway along the pole's length, and firmly

secured so, with inter-twistings of twine. This done, pole, iron,

and rope- like the Three Fates- remained inseparable, and Ahab moodily

stalked away with the weapon; the sound of his ivory leg, and the

sound of the hickory pole, both hollowly ringing along every plank.

But ere he entered his cabin, light, unnatural, half-bantering, yet

most piteous sound was heard. Oh! Pip, thy wretched laugh, thy idle

but unresting eye; all thy strange mummeries not unmeaningly blended

with the black tragedy of the melancholy ship, and mocked it!