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Now I send her to de penumtenshury; now I send her dere to pick oakum in a crash gown and cropped hair, and an oberseer wid a big whip to drive her!" "What is she talking of? What does she mean by whited saltpeter?" inquired the judge. "'Whited sepulchre' is Katie's Scripture name for a hypocrite, I suppose," suggested Ishmael. "Not on'y for a hypocrite, Marse Ishmael!
The work given is the same as that given to felons in gaol, oakum-picking and stone-breaking. The work, too, is excessive in proportion to what is received. Four pounds of oakum is a great task to an expert and an old hand. To a novice it can only be accomplished with the greatest difficulty, if indeed it can be done at all. It is even in excess of the amount demanded from a criminal in gaol.
He was attended by his mates, who were provided with shot-plugs, oakum, and tallow, to stop any shot-holes which might be made. The surgeon was in the cockpit with his assistants. The knives, saws, tourniquets, sponges, basins, wine and water, were all displayed and ready for the first unlucky patient that might be presented. This was more awful to me than anything I had seen.
Before replacing them, he had made two or three trips to the deck-house amidships in which was the carpenter's room. Each time he tucked inside his shirt as many forged iron spikes, bolts, and what not as he could safely carry. Unobserved, he shoved this junk down the throat of the nine-pounder and wadded it fast with handfuls of oakum.
In cases in which it is necessary to keep the dressing on for a week, or in cases where the patient is, through necessity, kept in quarters that are wet or unclean, the first bandage is covered with a layer of oakum which has been saturated in oil of tar and this in turn is held in place by means of several layers of bandages. The bandages are also saturated with oil of tar.
"I'll be bound to say, if the truth was known, there isn't a nigger within a mile of us. Here, look alive, my lads; it seems a pity to burn such a boat; but orders are orders, and we shall have a gun fired directly, by way of recall. There, that will do; lay the oakum there, and pour the spirits over it. She'll burn like a firework."
Her head-dress consisted of a white flowing wig made of oakum, with a green turban; on her shoulders was an ample yellow shawl; her petticoat was red bunting; on her feet were sandals made from the green hide of a bullock. In her right hand she held a harpoon; her cheeks were thickly smeared with red ochre.
In spite of the close, sharp fighting, not one of our men received a scratch. But now comes the tug of war! Every man knows exactly what to do, for he has been well drilled. Some hand up kegs of powder and balls of oakum soaked in tar. Others carry these along the deck and down below.
Occasionally I procured an old jacket or trowsers, or a pair of shoes, at the store of an old woman who dealt in everything that could be imagined; and, if ever I picked up oakum or drifting pieces of wood, I used to sell them to old Nanny, for that was the only name she was known by.
Or, like a dentist, he seemed intent upon examining their teeth. Quite as often, he would be brushing out their touch-holes with a little wisp of oakum, like a Chinese barber in Canton, cleaning a patient's ear.
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