Moby Dick

by Herman Melville

“I have dreamed it again,” said he. “Of the hearses? Have I not said, old man, that neither hearse nor coffin can be thine?” “And who are hearsed that die on the sea?” “But I said, old man, that ere thou couldst die on this voyage, two hearses must verily be seen by thee on the sea; the first not made by mortal hands; and the visible wood of the last one must be grown in America.” “Aye, aye! a strange sight that, Parsee!—a hearse and its plumes floating over the ocean with the waves for the pall-bearers. Ha! Such a sight we shall not soon see.” “Believe it or not, thou canst not die till it be seen, old man.” “And what was that saying about thyself?” “Though it come to the last, I shall still go before thee thy pilot.” “And when thou art so gone before—if that ever befall—then ere I can follow, thou must still appear to me, to pilot me still?—Was it not so? Well, then, did I believe all ye say, oh my pilot! I have here two pledges that I shall yet slay Moby Dick and survive it.” “Take another pledge, old man,” said the Parsee, as his eyes lighted up like fire-flies in the gloom—“Hemp only can kill thee.” “The gallows, ye mean.—I am immortal then, on land and on sea,” cried Ahab, with a laugh of derision;—“Immortal on land and on sea!”