CHAPTER 83

  Jonah Historically Regarded

  Reference was made to the historical story of Jonah and the whale in

the preceding chapter. Now some Nantucketers rather distrust this

historical story of Jonah and the whale. But then there were some

sceptical Greeks and Romans, who, standing out from the orthodox

pagans of their times, equally doubted the story of Hercules and the

whale, and Arion and the dolphin; and yet their doubting those

traditions did not make those traditions one whit the less facts,

for all that.

  One old Sag-Harbor whaleman's chief reason for questioning the

Hebrew story was this:- He had one of those quaint old-fashioned

Bibles, embellished with curious, unscientific plates; one of which

represented Jonah's whale with two spouts in his head- a peculiarity

only true with respect to a species of the Leviathan (the Right Whale,

and the varieties of that order), concerning which the fishermen

have this saying, "A penny roll would choke him"; his swallow is so

very small. But, to this, Bishop Jebb's anticipative answer is

ready. It is not necessary, hints the Bishop, that we consider Jonah

as tombed in the whale's belly, but as temporarily lodged in some part

of his mouth. And this seems reasonable enough in the good Bishop. For

truly, the Right Whale's mouth would accommodate a couple of

whist-tables, and comfortably seat all the players. Possibly, too,

Jonah might have ensconced himself in a hollow tooth; but, on second

thoughts, the Right Whale is toothless.

  Another reason which Sag-Harbor (he went by that name) urged for his

want of faith in this matter of the prophet, was something obscurely

in reference to his incarcerated body and the whale's gastric

juices. But this objection likewise falls to the ground, because a

German exegetist supposes that Jonah must have taken refuge in the

floating body of a dead whale- even as the French soldiers in the

Russian campaign turned their dead horses into tents, and crawled into

them. Besides, it has been divined by other continental

commentators, that when Jonah was thrown overboard from the Joppa

ship, he straightway effected his escape to another vessel near by,

some vessel with a whale for a figure-head; and, I would add, possibly

called "The Whale," as some craft are nowadays christened the "Shark,"

the "Gull," the "Eagle." Nor have there been wanting learned

exegetists who have opined that the whale mentioned in the book of

Jonah merely meant a life-preserver- an inflated bag of wind- which

the endangered prophet swam to, and so was saved from a watery doom.

Poor Sag-Harbor, therefore, seems worsted all round. But he had

still another reason for his want of faith. It was this, if I remember

right: Jonah was swallowed by the whale in the Mediterranean Sea,

and after three days' he was vomited up somewhere within three days'

journey of Nineveh, a city on the Tigris, very much more than three

days' journey across from the nearest point of the Mediterranean

coast. How is that?

  But was there no other way for the whale to land the prophet

within that short distance of Nineveh? Yes. He might have carried

him round by the way of the Cape of Good Hope. But not to speak of the

passage through the whole length of the Mediterranean, and another

passage up the Persian Gulf and Red Sea, such a supposition would

involve the complete circumnavigation of all Africa in three days, not

to speak of the Tigris waters, near the site of Nineveh, being too

shallow for any whale to swim in. Besides, this idea of Jonah's

weathering the Cape of Good Hope at so early a day would wrest the

honor of the discovery of that great headland from Bartholomew Diaz,

its reputed discoverer, and so make modern history a liar.

  But all these foolish arguments of old Sag-Harbor only evinced his

foolish pride of reason- a thing still more reprehensible in him,

seeing that he had but little learning except what he had picked up

from the sun and the sea. I say it only shows his foolish, impious

pride, and abominable, devilish rebellion against the reverend clergy.

For by a Portuguese Catholic priest, this very idea of Jonah's going

to Nineveh via the Cape of Good Hope was advanced as a signal

magnification of the general miracle. And so it was. Besides, to

this day, the highly enlightened Turks devoutly believe in the

historical story of Jonah. And some three centuries ago, an English

traveller in old Harris's Voyages, speaks of a Turkish Mosque built in

honor of Jonah, in which Mosque was a miraculous lamp that burnt

without any oil.