And thus, through the courage and great skill in obstetrics of Queequeg, the deliverance, or rather, delivery of Tashtego, was successfully accomplished, in the teeth, too, of the most untoward and apparently hopeless impediments; which is a lesson by no means to be forgotten. Midwifery should be taught in the same course with fencing and boxing, riding and rowing.
這樣,靠了魁魁格的膽識(shí)和采用手段高明的產(chǎn)科學(xué)即接生法,也可以說(shuō),就在最不順手,仿佛是最無(wú)希望的百般困難中,順利地完成了對(duì)塔斯蒂哥的接生工作,這是一個(gè)決不能忘記的教訓(xùn)。因此,教授助產(chǎn)學(xué),同時(shí)還得教授擊劍,拳擊,騎術(shù)和劃船這些課程才是。
I know that this queer adventure of the Gay-Header's will be sure to seem incredible to some landsmen, though they themselves may have either seen or heard of some one's falling into a cistern ashore; an accident which not seldom happens, and with much less reason too than the Indian's, considering the exceeding slipperiness of the curb of the Sperm Whale's well.
我知道,這個(gè)該黑特佬這番奇遇,在某些陸地人看來(lái),一定會(huì)被認(rèn)為不足信的,雖然他們自己也許曾經(jīng)耳聞目睹到有人掉進(jìn)了岸上的水槽的事故;可是,鑒于抹香鯨那只大井口非常之滑,這倒并不是難得碰到的意外事件,況且過(guò)去所發(fā)生的也遠(yuǎn)不及這個(gè)印第安人這番遭遇更來(lái)得有根有據(jù)。
But, peradventure, it may be sagaciously urged, how is this? We thought the tissued, infiltrated head of the Sperm Whale, was the lightest and most corky part about him; and yet thou makest it sink in an element of a far greater specific gravity than itself. We have thee there. Not at all, but I have ye; for at the time poor Tash fell in, the case had been nearly emptied of its lighter contents, leaving little but the dense tendinous wall of the well—a double welded, hammered substance, as I have before said, much heavier than the sea water, and a lump of which sinks in it like lead almost.
但是,萬(wàn)一也許有人聰明地詰問(wèn),這是怎么一回事?我們認(rèn)為,抹香鯨那只薄絹似的?;闈B透的頭顱,就是它身上最輕和最象軟木體的部分;你卻說(shuō)它會(huì)沉在一種比它本身比重更大的元素里。這你就輸了。且慢,完全不是這么回事,我還要告訴你;因?yàn)榭蓱z的塔斯蒂哥跌進(jìn)去的時(shí)候,那只腦窩里的最輕的東西已經(jīng)差不多被掏空了,只留下一層厚密的腱質(zhì)體井壁——一種連接在一起的雙層體,我在前文已經(jīng)提到,這是比海水重的東西,把那東西放上一塊在水里,它簡(jiǎn)直會(huì)象鉛一般沉下去。