The Moby-Dick Bible
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Literary Motifs › Emblematical Adornment

Emblematical Adornment

1 passage in the novel carry this mark, in the order they appear.

And as that famous great tierce is mystically carved in front, so the whale’s vast plaited forehead forms innumerable strange devices for the emblematical adornment of his wondrous tun. Moreover, as that of Heidelburgh was always replenished with the most excellent of the wines of the Rhenish valleys, so the tun of the whale contains by far the most precious of all his oily vintages; namely, the highly-prized spermaceti, in its absolutely pure, limpid, and odoriferous state. Nor is this precious substance found unalloyed in any other part of the creature.

Chapter 77, The Great Heidelburgh Tun · verse 4

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