Moby Dick

Chapter 13

"Wheelbarrow"

Ishmael and Queequeg paid for their room and left. They borrowed a wheelbarrow to carry their luggage to the packet schooner, "the Moss". Queequeg related a story about the first wheelbarrow he saw; he, not wanting to admit ignorance of it's use, loaded his chest, picked up the barrow, and carried it up the hill on his back! Ishmael remarked that people must have laughed at him, and Queequeg told another story. A Captain who had stopped on Rokovoko had been invited to a feast, and part of the ceremony involved blessing a bowl of water, which the High Priest did by appropriately running his fingers through it. The Captain then wrecked it all by washing his hands there, thinking it merely a larger version of a finger-glass.

They were soon on the boat, and sailing out. A little while after they had left the dock, Queequeg caught a green sailor mimicking him behind his back, and tossed him up in the air for his impertinence. The captain rushed up, and warned Queequeg off, when a boom came loose, whipping about wildly and incidentally sweeping Queequeg's recent victim overboard.  No-one seemed to know what to do, until Queequeg caught the boom with a piece of rope, and then immediately leapt overboard for the rescue. He soon brought the fellow up safe, and was cheered all around, the captain asking for his pardon.
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References:
"for a block"
"finger-glass": a finger bowl, a (usually small) bowl for rinsing fingers
"every ropeyarn tingling"
"like Indian canes in land tornadoes"
"I clove to Queequeg like a barnacle"