Chapter 95 - The Cassock Practice Quiz — Moby-Dick; or, The Whale
by Herman Melville — tap or click to flip
Practice Quiz: Chapter 95 - The Cassock
What is the strange object Ishmael describes lying in the lee scuppers?
The whale's phallus (called the "grandissimus" by the mariners), a jet-black conical object longer than a tall man.
What idol does Ishmael compare the object to?
Yojo, the ebony idol belonging to Queequeg.
What biblical story does Melville reference in connection with phallic idols?
King Asa of Judea deposing his grandmother Queen Maachah and destroying her idol at the brook Kedron (1 Kings 15).
What is the mincer's job aboard the Pequod?
To slice horse-pieces of blubber into thin sheets called "bible leaves" for boiling in the try-works.
What does the term "grandissimus" refer to?
The sailors' slang term for the sperm whale's phallus.
How does the mincer prepare the pelt of the grandissimus?
He removes the dark pelt, turns it inside out, stretches it to nearly double its diameter, and hangs it in the rigging to dry.
How does the mincer turn the dried pelt into a garment?
He cuts three feet from the pointed end and cuts two slits for arm-holes at the other end, then slips himself bodily into it.
What is a cassock?
A long garment worn by clergy. Melville uses the term ironically for the mincer's vestment made from whale skin.
What are "bible leaves" in the context of whaling?
Very thin slices of blubber. The mates cry "Bible leaves!" to urge the mincer to cut as thinly as possible for efficient oil rendering.
Why do the mates want the blubber cut into thin slices?
Because thinner slices accelerate the process of boiling out the whale oil in the try-works.
What is the "wooden horse" mentioned in the chapter?
A piece of equipment planted against the bulwarks where the mincer cuts blubber, with a tub beneath to catch the minced pieces.
What does Melville compare the mincer to in his cassock?
A candidate for an archbishopric or a Pope, standing at a pulpit in decent black, intent on bible leaves.
What deliberate pun does Melville make in the chapter's final line?
The word "archbishoprick" contains a pun on "prick," reinforcing the chapter's sustained phallic humor.
What major theme does Chapter 95 explore?
The blurred boundary between the sacred and the profane, using religious imagery to describe an explicitly physical, industrial process.
How is the mincer's cassock described as protecting him?
Melville says it is "immemorial to all his order" and "alone will adequately protect him, while employed in the peculiar functions of his office."