But Queequeg, he had a mortal, barbaric smack of the lip in eating-an ugly sound enough-somuch so, that the trembling Dough-Boy almost looked to see whether any marks of teethlurked in his own lean arms. And when he would hear Tashtego singing out for him to producehimself, that his bones might be picked, the simple-witted Steward all but shattered thecrockery hanging round him in the pantry, by his sudden fits of the palsy. Nor did thewhetstone which the harpooneers carried in their pockets, for their lances and other weapons; and with which whetstones, at dinner, they would ostentatiously sharpen their knives; thatgrating sound did not at all tend to tranquillize poor Dough-Boy. How could he forget that inhis Island days, Queequeg, for one, must certainly have been guilty of some murderous, convivial indiscretion. Alas! Dough-Boy! hard fares the white waiter who waits upon cannibals. Not a napkin should he carry on his arm, but a buckler. In good time, though, to his greatdelight, the three salt-sea warriors would rise and depart; to his credulous, fable-mongeringears, all their martial bones jingling in them at every step, like Moorish scimetars in scabbards.
不過,魁魁格在吃東西的時候,嘴里總要發(fā)出一種非常野蠻的啪嗒啪嗒聲...一種很難聽的聲音...響得教那個抖顫顫的湯團簡直要看看他自己那雙瘦骨嶙峋的臂膀,是否給咬上了齒痕。這個頭腦簡單的茶房一聽到塔斯蒂哥高聲叫嚷,要他去幫著把齒縫里的骨頭拔出來的時候,就突然癱倒了,渾身抖得連掛在廚房四周的陶器都震動了。標槍手們的袋里都藏有一塊磨刀磨槍的磨刀石,他們吃飯時,還會鋪張揚厲地拿出來磨他們的餐刀;那種磨擦聲也不見得會叫這個可憐的湯團安寧。象魁魁格這樣的人,怎不教湯團認為他在他自己的島上時,一定曾經(jīng)一時興發(fā),犯過兇殺罪呢??蓱z的湯團呀!一個白種人侍者去服侍生番,是個多不好受的差使呀。他臂膀上需要掛的不是一條飯巾,而是一只盾牌。不過,到了適當時機,叫他大為高興的是,這三個海上武士就會立起身來走了;在他那副輕信流言的耳朵聽來,他們那尚武的身體,每一舉步所發(fā)出來的一切聲音,就跟摩爾人那插在劍鞘里的彎刀聲一樣。
But, though these barbarians dined in the cabin, and nominally lived there; still, being anythingbut sedentary in their habits, they were scarcely ever in it except at mealtimes, and justbefore sleeping-time, when they passed through it to their own peculiar quarters.
但是,這些野人雖然是在船長室里吃飯,并且名義上也是住在那兒的;然而,由于他們的天生習慣,他們除了吃飯時間以外,是不大到那里邊去的,只不過在睡覺前,他們?yōu)榱艘剿麄兊淖√?這才經(jīng)過了一下而已。