Moby Dick

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Perseus, St. George, Hercules, Jonah, and Vishnoo! there's a member-roll
for you! What club but the whaleman's can head off like that?



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