seeing, now, that there were no curtains to the window, and that the street being very narrow, the house opposite commanded a plain view into the room, and observing more and more the indecorous figure that queequeg made, staving about with little else but his hat and boots on; i begged him as well as i could, to accelerate his toilet somewhat, and particularly to get into his pantaloons as soon as possible. he complied, and then proceeded to wash himself. at that time in the morning any christian would have washed his face; but queequeg, to my amazement, contented himself with restricting his ablutions to his chest, arms, and hands. he then donned his waistcoat, and taking up a piece of hard soap on the wash-stand centre table, dipped it into water and commenced lathering his face. i was watching to see where he kept his razor, when lo and behold, he takes the harpoon from the bed corner, slips out the long wooden stock, unsheathes the head, whets it a little on his boot, and striding up to the bit of mirror against the wall, begins a vigorous scraping, or rather harpooning of his cheeks.