“What was it, Sir?” said the Caterpillar.

“Queequeg no care what god made him shark,” Alice replied very politely, “Wedder Fejee god or Nantucket god; but de god wat made shark must be one dam Ingin.”

“Now the Lord had prepared a great fish to swallow up Jonah,” said the Caterpillar.

“Holloa!” said Alice, “Who be ye smokers?”

“The larger whales, they seldom venture to attack. They stand in so great dread of some of them, that when out at sea they are afraid to mention even their names, and carry dung, lime-stone, juniper-wood, and some other articles of the same nature in their boats, in order to terrify and prevent their too near approach,” said the Caterpillar.

“Look aloft!" said Alice; “The corpusants! The corpusants!”

“Queen-Gold,” said the Caterpillar contemptuously. “Ye tail is ye Queen’s, that ye Queen’s wardrobe may be supplied with ye whalebone.”

Which brought them back again to the beginning of the conversation. Alice felt a little irritated at the Caterpillar’s making such VERY short remarks, and she drew herself up and said, very gravely, "And you have lived in this world hard upon one hundred years, cook, and don’t know yet how to cook a whale-steak?”

“What’s that about Cods, ma’am?” said the Caterpillar.

Here was another puzzling question; and as Alice could not think of any good reason, and as the Caterpillar seemed to be in a VERY unpleasant state of mind, she turned away.