Nevertheless, it may well be believed that since they have such a ravenous finger in the pie, it is deemed but wise to look sharp to them.  Accordingly, besides the monkey-rope, with which I now and then jerked the poor fellow from too close a vicinity to the maw of what seemed a peculiarly ferocious shark—­he was provided with still another protection.  Suspended over the side in one of the stages, Tashtego and Daggoo continually flourished over his head a couple of keen whale-spades, wherewith they slaughtered as many sharks as they could reach.  This procedure of theirs, to be sure, was very disinterested and benevolent of them.  They meant Queequeg’s best happiness, I admit; but in their hasty zeal to befriend him, and from the circumstance that both he and the sharks were at times half hidden by the blood-muddled water, those indiscreet spades of theirs would come nearer amputating a leg than a tall.  But poor Queequeg, I suppose, straining and gasping there with that great iron hook—­poor Queequeg, I suppose, only prayed to his Yojo, and gave up his life into the hands of his gods.

Well, well, my dear comrade and twin-brother, thought I, as I drew in and then slacked off the rope to every swell of the sea—­ what matters it, after all?  Are you not the precious image of each and all of us men in this whaling world?  That unsounded ocean you gasp in, is Life; those sharks, your foes; those spades, your friends; and what between sharks and spades you are in a sad pickle and peril, poor lad.

But courage! there is good cheer in store for you, Queequeg.  For now, as with blue lips and blood-shot eyes the exhausted savage at last climbs up the chains and stands all dripping and involuntarily trembling over the side; the steward advances, and with a benevolent, consolatory glance hands him—­what?  Some hot Cognac?  No! hands him, ye gods! hands him a cup of tepid ginger and water!

“Ginger?  Do I smell ginger?” suspiciously asked Stubb, coming near.  “Yes, this must be ginger,” peering into the as yet untasted cup.  Then standing as if incredulous for a while, he calmly walked towards the astonished steward slowly saying, “Ginger? ginger? and will you have the goodness to tell me, Mr. Dough-Boy, where lies the virtue of ginger?  Ginger! is ginger the sort of fuel you use, Dough-boy, to kindle a fire in this shivering cannibal?  Ginger!—­what the devil is ginger?—­ sea-coal? firewood?—­lucifer matches?—­tinder?—­gunpowder?—­what the devil is ginger, I say, that you offer this cup to our poor Queequeg here.”

“There is some sneaking Temperance Society movement about this business,” he suddenly added, now approaching Starbuck, who had just come from forward.  “Will you look at that kannakin, sir; smell of it, if you please.”  Then watching the mate’s countenance, he added, “The steward, Mr. Starbuck, had the face to offer that calomel and jalap to Queequeg, there, this instant off the whale.  Is the steward an apothecary, sir? and may I ask whether this is the sort of bitters by which he blows back the life into a half-drowned man?”