He brought his bounty forrard, and shared it out as far
as it would go with the greatest delight and good nature
possible. Whatever he might have been thought of aft, certainly,
for the time, he was a very important personage forrard; even the
Portuguese, who were inclined to be jealous of what they
considered an infringement of their rights, were mollified by the
generosity shown.
After every sign of the operations had been cleared away, the jaw
was brought out, and the teeth extracted with a small tackle.
They were set solidly into a hard white gum, which had to be cut
away all around them before they would come out. When cleaned of
the gum, they were headed up in a small barrel of brine. The
great jaw-pans were sawn off, and placed at the disposal of
anybody who wanted pieces of bone for "scrimshaw," or carved
work. This is a very favourite pastime on board whalers, though,
in ships such as ours, the crew have little opportunity for doing
anything, hardly any leisure during daylight being allowed. But
our carpenter was a famous workman at "scrimshaw," and he started
half a dozen walking-sticks forthwith. A favourite design is to
carve the bone into the similitude of a rope, with "worming" of
smaller line along its lays.
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