Kabanata Kabanata 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.