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Inilah Hasil Investigasi Ombudsman Adanya Pungli di BPLHD Jabodetabek

Written By Endonesia.COM on Rabu, 28 Agustus 2013 | 22.33

Berikut adalah hasil investigasi Ombudsman RI terhadap sembilan BPLHD yang ada di Jabodatabek. Penjabaran ini merupakan bagian dari Laporan Investigasi yang dilakukan Ombudsman RI pada rentang Mei-Juni 2013.

Dalam rangka pelaksanaan investigasi lapangan Tim Ombudsman RI melakukan beberapa kegiatan sebagai berikut:

1. BPLHD KAB. BEKASI

Hari/ tanggal : Senin, 6 Mei 2013
Tim memperoleh data dan informasi dari petugas BPLHD Kab. Bekasi antara lain: (i)
1. Rekomendasi UKL-UPL diterbitkan mengacu pada Permen Lingkungan Hidup No. 16 tahun 2012.
2. Setelah dokumen UKL-UPL diserahkan lengkap oleh pemrakarsa, maka sekitar 2 (dua) minggu pegawai BPLHD akan melakukan peninjauan lapangan.
3. Selanjutnya BPLHD memberikan tanggapan atas hasil peninjauan lapangan dimaksud dalam jangka waktu 1 (satu) minggu.
4. Setelah mendapatkan surat tanggapan, pemrakarsa melakukan perbaikan atas kekurangan, bilamana terdapat kekurangan berdasarkan saran dari BPLHD yang disampaikan dalam surat tanggapan.
5. Petugas menyampaikan bahwa “jika nanti bertemu dengan Bapak xxx (nama diketahui Tim Ombudsman RI) besarnya biaya pengurusan UKL-UPL bisa dinegosiasikan.
6. Selain itu, Tim Ombudsman RI bersama PT. xxx (perusahaan yang melapor ke Ombudsman RI) melakukan komonikasi melalui telepon dengan pihak jasa konsultan yang selama ini membantu pengurusan UKL-UPL PT.xxx bernama Bapak xxx dengan pokok pembicaraan:
a. Menyarankan untuk menghubungi pegawai tertentu dengan menyebut nama bersangkutan yaitu Bapak xxx salah satu pejabat BPLHD yang nantinya akan dibantu oleh konsultan tersebut.
b. Konsultan mempunyai jaringan di internal BPLHD untuk mempermudah pengajuan UKL-UPL dan berjanji akan memberikan besaran biaya jasa pengurusan pada pukul 14.00 WIB pada hari itu juga.
7. Adapun data lain yang terkait temuan adalah komunikiasi melalui blackberry massanger antara PT. xxx dengan pegawai pemda Kabupaten Bekasi (sebagai perantara) tentang jumlah biaya administrasi yang harus disetorkan sebesar 25 juta. Uang DP harus dibayar Rp. 15.000.000,- dan sisanya 1 hari sebelum selesai bayar Rp 10.000.0000. awalnya PT. XXX dimintai sejumlah uang ratusan juta oleh oknum pegawai BPLHD yang kemudian dilaporkan kepada Ombudsman RI. (ii)
8. Bukti percakapan pelapor dengan salah satu orang rekan yang bekerja di konsultan, bahwa biaya pengurusan bisa 80 juta jika ingin selesai 1 (satu) bulan dan 50 juta jika jadi 3 (tiga) bulan. Negosiasi bisa langsung datang kepada petugas BPLHD bernama xxx.

(i): Bukti berupa rekaman suara dan video
(ii): Bukti screen sms pada blackberry messenger

2. BPLHD KOTA BEKASI

Hari/ tanggal : Senin, 6 Mei 2013
Tim memperoleh data dan informasi dari antara lain : (iii)
1. Tim Ombudsman RI berkunjung untuk meminta informasi terkait dengan pengajuan UKL-UPL dan disarankan untuk memenuhi persyaratan yang telah disebutkan.
2. Pegawai tidak menawarkan Konsultan tetapi Perusahaan tinggal menyerahkan persyaratan nanti dari BPLHD yang akan mengerjakan. Menurut Tim, hal ini bertentangan dengan ketentuan karena Pegawai BPLHD tidak boleh terlibat dalam penyusunan dokumen UKL UPL.
3. Tim bertukar No. Hand Phone dengan Pak XXX (081xxxx6). Tim mengirim sms ke Pak xxx dan membalas SMS yang berisi : Dilengkapi bagan alir produksi, alat produksi dan jenis limbah. Biaya penyusunan 14 juta, penilaian dan survey 5 juta, jilid 2 juta, kompilasi data 3 juta.

(iii): Bukti rekaman suara dan video


3. BPLHD KOTA ADMINISTRATIF JAKARTA SELATAN

Hari/ tanggal : Selasa, 7 Mei 2013
Tim memperoleh data dan informasi dari antara lain : (iv)
1. Tim Ombudsman RI menghadap salah satu pegawai BPLHD, beliau menyampaikan bahwa Kepala BPLHD Kota administratif Jakarta Selatan baru dilantik pada hari senin (dalam bulan Mei 2013)
2. Pada saat kepala BPLHD yang lama, biaya untuk UKL-UPL sebesar Rp. 25.000.000,- (dua puluh lima juta rupiah)
3. Tim menanyakan besaran biaya untuk pengurusan UKL-UPL saat ini akan dikonsultasikan dengan pimpinan dan tim pemeriksa. Pegawai tersebut menyampaikan bahwa jika ada yang mengurus dokumen UKL-UPL harus langsung bertemu terlebih dahulu dengan Kepala BPLHD. Sehingga pegawai tersebut tidak dapat menyampaikan berapa harga saat ini untuk mengurus rekomendasi UKL-UPL karena pergantian pimpinan
4. Petugas BPLH secara implisit menyebutkan ada peran Konsultan yang bisa membantu dalam UKL-UPL.
5. Dalam pernyataannya biaya survey dibebankan kepada perusahaan. Hal ini terdapat dalam statement : Jika nanti kita survey, ya terserah perusahaan “minuman”nya apa.
6. Tim menilai tidak ada kepastian besarnya biaya untuk UKL-UPL.

(iv): Bukti rekaman suara dan video


4. BPLHD KOTA DEPOK

Hari/ tanggal : Rabu, 8 Mei 2013
Tim memperoleh data dan informasi dari antara lain : (v)
1. Tim bertemu dengan Petugas untuk menanyakan proses pengajuan UKL-UPL. 2.Petugas tidak menjelaskan prosedur pengajuan UKL-UPL namun langsung
menyarankan untuk menggunakan konsultan.
3.Ibu XXX langsung menyarankan untuk menggunakan konsultan, dan lebih
mereferensikan konsultan dari kantor BPLHD Kota Depok dengan alasan proses
pengajuan UKL-UPL akan lebih cepat selesai.
4. Petugas memberikan kartu nama inisial RS dari PT. XXX sebagai Konsultan
Lingkungan sehingga Tim diarahkan untuk menghubungi konsultan tersebut.
5. Ketika Tim menanyakan besaran biaya konsultan lingkungan tersebut adalah sebesar
Rp. 25.000.000,- (dua puluh lima juta rupiah).
6. Setelah melakukan komunikasi dengan konsultan, Rp. 25.000.000,- (dua puluh lima
juta rupiah) untuk jangka waktu penyelesaian selama 3 (tiga) minggu, Biaya Rp. 27.000.000,- (dua puluh tujuh juta rupiah) untuk jangka waktu penyelesaian selama 2 (dua) minggu dan biaya Rp. 30.000.000,- (tiga puluh juta rupiah) untuk jangka waktu penyelesaian 1 (satu) minggu.

(v): Bukti rekaman suara dan video


5. BPLHD KOTA BOGOR

Hari/ tanggal : Rabu, 8 Mei 2013
Tim memperoleh data dan informasi dari antara lain: (vi)
1. Tim Ombudsman RI bertemu dengan Pegawai untuk menanyakan proses pengajuan UKL-UPL.
2.Petugas tidak menjelaskan prosedur pengajuan UKL-UPL namun langsung menyarankan untuk menggunakan konsultan.
3. Bapak xxx memberikan sebuah kontak telpon dengan Konsultan Lingkungan dan menelpon langsung dan meminta Tim berkoordinasi langsung dengan Konsultan lingkungan tersebut.
4. Bapak xxx tidak menyebut perkiraan biaya yang harus dikeluarkan untuk konsultan lingkungan tersebut, dan terus bertahan tidak mengeluarkan informasi terkait besaran biaya. Bapak xxx menyarankan terkait besaran biaya dikonsultasikan dengan Konsultan Lingkungan yang telah direkomendasikannya (Bapak XXX, PT.xxx).

(vi): Bukti rekaman suara dan video


6. BPLHD KOTA TANGERANG

Hari/ tanggal : Senin, 13 Mei 2013
Tim memperoleh data dan informasi dari antara lain : (vii)
1. Tim Ombudsman RI bertemu dengan Petugas, petugas memberikan pilihan dokumen
UKL-UPL dapat disusun sendiri atau diserahkan ke Konsultan, namun arah
pembicaraan diarahkan untuk menggunakan konsultan.
2. Ada 2 konsultan yang direkomendasikan oleh Ibu xxx, yaitu Bapak xxx dan Bapak xxx,
namun Ibu xxx menelpon langsung Bapak xxx dan merekomendasikan konsultan tersebut kepada Tim.
3. Presentasi Sidang UKL-UPL dilakukan oleh Konsultan dan pihak Perusahaan mendampingi sekiranya untuk menjawab pertanyaan yang tidak bisa dijawab oleh Konsultan.
4. Ketika tim bertanya tentang berapa lama waktu yang dibutuhkan dalam penyusunan dokumen UKL-UPL tersebut, Ibu xxx menyatakan silakan untuk dikonsultasikan dengan Konsultan, untuk menghindari konsultan tidak tepat waktu maka disarankan untuk pembayaran uang muka dulu saja.
5. Tim menghubungi konsultan yang direkomendasikan, dan kita kontak melalui telepon dan email, secara tertulis konsultan menetapkan biaya sebesar Rp. 17.000.000,- (tujuh belas juta rupiah) namun belum termasuk pajak. Ketika tim menanyakan berapa besaran untuk pajak, pihak Konsultan menjawab bahwa pajak bisa diabaikan atau tidak dimasukan dalam komponen biaya.
7. BPLHD KAB TANGERANG
Hari/ tanggal : Senin, 13 Mei 2013
Tim memperoleh data dan informasi dari antara lain :
1. Petugas yang bernama Bapak xxx langsung mengarahkan ke Konsultan. Pemrakarsa sekedar melengkapi persyaratan kemudian konsultan yang mengerjakan sampai dengan selesai.
2. Jangka waktu penyelesaian sampai dengan Surat Tanggapan sekitar 1 bulan dan jika sampai dengan pengesahan sekitar 2 bulan.
3. Ketika ditanya berapa biaya konsultan, silakan dibahas dengan konsultan yang telah disarankan oleh Petugas. Namun Petugas memberikan gambaran untuk yang sebelumnya adalah sekitar Rp. 17.000.000,- s/d Rp. 20.000.000,-
4. Petugas memberikan no. telepon konsultan, Bapak xxx dengan No. Telp xxx dan silakan jika mau bertemu di kantor BPLHD atau membuat janji di tempat lain.
5. Setelah pertemuan dengan Petugas, tim selalu dhubungi sebanyak 2 (dua) kali via SMS oleh petugas dan meminta untuk segera bertemu dengan Konsultan yang telah direkomendasikan.
6. Selain itu Petugas memberikan jumlah perusahaan yang mengajukan UKL UPL sekitar 50 pemrakarsa.

(vii): Bukti rekaman suara dan video


8. BPLHD KOTA TANGERANG SELATAN

Hari/ tanggal : Selasa, 14 Mei 2013
Tim memperoleh data dan informasi dari antara lain : (viii)
1. Bapak xxx menunjuk Bapak xxx, konsultan secara langsung dan menentukan Harga kisaran Rp. 25.000.000,- (dua puluh lima juta rupiah) s/d Rp. 30.000.000,- (tiga puluh juta rupiah), biaya ini termasuk untuk biaya AMDAL LALU LINTAS/ LALIN dari dinas perhubungan. Bapak xxx berjanji akan membantu secara penuh.
2. Bapak xxx kemudian menunjuk langsung konsultan dengan cara menelpon secara langsung dan membuat janji pada hari berikutnya untuk datang ke kantor BPLHD, disebutkan bahwa akan dibayar tunai sebesar Rp. 30.000.000,- (tiga puluh juta rupiah).
3. Selain Rekomendasi LALIN juga ada “Peal Banjir”, biaya ini termasuk dari Biaya Rp. 30.000.000,- (tiga puluh juta rupiah).
4. Bapak xxx menguraikan biaya tersebut sebagai berikut:
- Biaya Laboratorium : Rp. 10.000.000,- (sepuluh juta rupiah)
- Biaya Sidang UKL-UPL : Rp. 7.000.000,- (tujuh juta rupiah)
- Lain-lain (jilid, survey, dll): Rp. 13.000.000,- (tiga belas juta rupiah)
5. Dalam penjelasan mengenai waktu yang dibutuhkan dalam proses UKL-UPL sampai dengan Rekomendasi dikeluarkan tergantung “owner” atau pemilik perusahaan, jika perusahaan aktif maka akan cepat selesai.


(viii): Bukti rekaman video


9. BPLHD KOTA ADMINISTRASI JAKARTA TIMUR

Hari/ tanggal : Jumat, 17 Mei 2013
Tim memperoleh data dan informasi dari antara lain : (ix)
1. Tim bertemu dengan Petugas dan kemudian menunjukan bentuk dokumen UKL UPL
yang sudah final. Tim tidak menerima penjelasan tentang syarat ataupun mekanisme
pengajuan dokumen UKL UPL.
2. Petugas mengatakan jika dulu masa pimpinan yang lama pengurusan UKL UPL lebih
cepat tapi sekarang dengan pimpinan baru menjadi agak lebih sulit. Tim menilai jangka
waktu pemberian pelayanan tidak ada kepastian atau bisa ditawar-tawar.
3. Petugas merekomendasikan Konsultan PT. xxx dengan alamat Jl. Kendal. No. xx Menteng, Jakarta 10310. Setelah itu, Petugas menelpon Ibu xxx. Petugas memberikan informasi jika konsultan tersebut adalah “pemain” di kantor BPLHD di DKI Jakarta. Petugas memberikan informasi jika Konsultan tersebut nanti pada sidang UKL UPL
konsultan yang akan presentasi di depan tim dari BPLHD.
4. Tim menindaklanjuti dengan memberikan alamat email: xxxxx (email samaran, asli tapi
dibuat khusus dalam investigasi) kepada Konsultan. Hal itu ditindaklanjuti oleh Konsultan dengan mengirimkan Surat Penawaran dengan biaya Rp. 25.000.000,- (dua puluh lima juta rupiah). Saat tim menanyakan melalui email tentang besaran biaya apakah sudah termasuk dengan biaya untuk petugas BPLHD, pihak Konsultan menjawab,”Insya Allah sudah semua pak sampai rekom keluar termasuk kunjungan lapangan dll Mudah2an tidak ada masalah, lancar2 sj ”.
5. Tim menanyakan kembali kepada Petugas tentang hubungan antara Konsultan dengan BPLHD dan berapa biaya untuk BPLHD, kemudian Petugas memberikan keterangan bahwa Konsultan yang akan “masuk” ke BPLHD, karena konsultan yang direkomendasikan tersebut sudah mengenal semua BPLHD seluruh DKI Jakarta.
6. Petugas menceritakan bahwa saat pimpinan yang terdahulu pengurusan dokumen UKL UPL bisa lebih cepat dan hanya butuh waktu 1 bulan tapi kalau sekarang paling cepat 3 bulan. Hal ini menunjukan bahwa jangka waktu pelayanan tidak ada kepastian.

(ix): Bukti rekaman
 sumber: Inilah Hasil Investigasi Ombudsman Adanya Pungli di BPLHD Jabodetabek | Endonesia.COM, Portal Indonesia

At dawn on the 13th the Carnatic entered the port of Yokohama. This is an important port of call in the Pacific, where all the mail-steamers, and those carrying travellers between North America, China, Japan, and the Oriental islands put in. It is situated in the bay of Yeddo, and at but a short distance from that second capital of the Japanese Empire, and the residence of the Tycoon, the civil Emperor, before the Mikado, the spiritual Emperor, absorbed his office in his own. The Carnatic anchored at the quay near the custom-house, in the midst of a crowd of ships bearing the flags of all nations.

Passepartout went timidly ashore on this so curious territory of the Sons of the Sun. He had nothing better to do than, taking chance for his guide, to wander aimlessly through the streets of Yokohama. He found himself at first in a thoroughly European quarter, the houses having low fronts, and being adorned with verandas, beneath which he caught glimpses of neat peristyles. This quarter occupied, with its streets, squares, docks, and warehouses, all the space between the "promontory of the Treaty" and the river. Here, as at Hong Kong and Calcutta, were mixed crowds of all races, Americans and English, Chinamen and Dutchmen, mostly merchants ready to buy or sell anything. The Frenchman felt himself as much alone among them as if he had dropped down in the midst of Hottentots.

He had, at least, one resource to call on the French and English consuls at Yokohama for assistance. But he shrank from telling the story of his adventures, intimately connected as it was with that of his master; and, before doing so, he determined to exhaust all other means of aid. As chance did not favour him in the European quarter, he penetrated that inhabited by the native Japanese, determined, if necessary, to push on to Yeddo.

The Japanese quarter of Yokohama is called Benten, after the goddess of the sea, who is worshipped on the islands round about. There Passepartout beheld beautiful fir and cedar groves, sacred gates of a singular architecture, bridges half hid in the midst of bamboos and reeds, temples shaded by immense cedar-trees, holy retreats where were sheltered Buddhist priests and sectaries of Confucius, and interminable streets, where a perfect harvest of rose-tinted and red-cheeked children, who looked as if they had been cut out of Japanese screens, and who were playing in the midst of short-legged poodles and yellowish cats, might have been gathered.

The streets were crowded with people. Priests were passing in processions, beating their dreary tambourines; police and custom-house officers with pointed hats encrusted with lac and carrying two sabres hung to their waists; soldiers, clad in blue cotton with white stripes, and bearing guns; the Mikado's guards, enveloped in silken doubles, hauberks and coats of mail; and numbers of military folk of all ranks—for the military profession is as much respected in Japan as it is despised in China—went hither and thither in groups and pairs. Passepartout saw, too, begging friars, long-robed pilgrims, and simple civilians, with their warped and jet-black hair, big heads, long busts, slender legs, short stature, and complexions varying from copper-colour to a dead white, but never yellow, like the Chinese, from whom the Japanese widely differ. He did not fail to observe the curious equipages—carriages and palanquins, barrows supplied with sails, and litters made of bamboo; nor the women—whom he thought not especially handsome—who took little steps with their little feet, whereon they wore canvas shoes, straw sandals, and clogs of worked wood, and who displayed tight-looking eyes, flat chests, teeth fashionably blackened, and gowns crossed with silken scarfs, tied in an enormous knot behind an ornament which the modern Parisian ladies seem to have borrowed from the dames of Japan.

Passepartout wandered for several hours in the midst of this motley crowd, looking in at the windows of the rich and curious shops, the jewellery establishments glittering with quaint Japanese ornaments, the restaurants decked with streamers and banners, the tea-houses, where the odorous beverage was being drunk with saki, a liquor concocted from the fermentation of rice, and the comfortable smoking-houses, where they were puffing, not opium, which is almost unknown in Japan, but a very fine, stringy tobacco. He went on till he found himself in the fields, in the midst of vast rice plantations. There he saw dazzling camellias expanding themselves, with flowers which were giving forth their last colours and perfumes, not on bushes, but on trees, and within bamboo enclosures, cherry, plum, and apple trees, which the Japanese cultivate rather for their blossoms than their fruit, and which queerly-fashioned, grinning scarecrows protected from the sparrows, pigeons, ravens, and other voracious birds. On the branches of the cedars were perched large eagles; amid the foliage of the weeping willows were herons, solemnly standing on one leg; and on every hand were crows, ducks, hawks, wild birds, and a multitude of cranes, which the Japanese consider sacred, and which to their minds symbolise long life and prosperity.

Fix emerged from his cabin and went on deck. Passepartout was promenading up and down in the forward part of the steamer. The detective rushed forward with every appearance of extreme surprise, and exclaimed, "You here, on the Rangoon?"

"What, Monsieur Fix, are you on board?" returned the really astonished Passepartout, recognising his crony of the Mongolia. "Why, I left you at Bombay, and here you are, on the way to Hong Kong! Are you going round the world too?"

"No, no," replied Fix; "I shall stop at Hong Kong—at least for some days."

"Hum!" said Passepartout, who seemed for an instant perplexed. "But how is it I have not seen you on board since we left Calcutta?"

"Oh, a trifle of sea-sickness—I've been staying in my berth. The Gulf of Bengal does not agree with me as well as the Indian Ocean. And how is Mr. Fogg?"

"As well and as punctual as ever, not a day behind time! But, Monsieur Fix, you don't know that we have a young lady with us."

"A young lady?" replied the detective, not seeming to comprehend what was said.
Passepartout thereupon recounted Aouda's history, the affair at the Bombay pagoda, the purchase of the elephant for two thousand pounds, the rescue, the arrest, and sentence of the Calcutta court, and the restoration of Mr. Fogg and himself to liberty on bail. Fix, who was familiar with the last events, seemed to be equally ignorant of all that Passepartout related; and the later was charmed to find so interested a listener.

"But does your master propose to carry this young woman to Europe?"

"Not at all. We are simply going to place her under the protection of one of her relatives, a rich merchant at Hong Kong."

The storm burst upon us six years ago now. As Mars approached opposition, Lavelle of Java set the wires of the astronomical exchange palpitating with the amazing intelligence of a huge outbreak of incandescent gas upon the planet. It had occurred towards midnight of the twelfth; and the spectroscope, to which he had at once resorted, indicated a mass of flaming gas, chiefly hydrogen, moving with an enormous velocity towards this earth. This jet of fire had become invisible about a quarter past twelve. He compared it to a colossal puff of flame suddenly and violently squirted out of the planet, "as flaming gases rushed out of a gun."

In spite of all that has happened since, I still remember that vigil very distinctly: the black and silent observatory, the shadowed lantern throwing a feeble glow upon the floor in the corner, the steady ticking of the clockwork of the telescope, the little slit in the roof--an oblong profundity with the stardust streaked across it. Ogilvy moved about, invisible but audible. Looking through the telescope, one saw a circle of deep blue and the little round planet swimming in the field. It seemed such a little thing, so bright and small and still, faintly marked with transverse stripes, and slightly flattened from the perfect round. But so little it was, so silvery warm--a pin's-head of light! It was as if it quivered, but really this was the telescope vibrating with the activity of the clockwork that kept the planet in view.

As I watched, the planet seemed to grow larger and smaller and to advance and recede, but that was simply that my eye was tired. Forty millions of miles it was from us--more than forty millions of miles of void. Few people realise the immensity of vacancy in which the dust of the material universe swims.

Near it in the field, I remember, were three faint points of light, three telescopic stars infinitely remote, and all around it was the unfathomable darkness of empty space. You know how that blackness looks on a frosty starlight night. In a telescope it seems far profounder. And invisible to me because it was so remote and small, flying swiftly and steadily towards me across that incredible distance, drawing nearer every minute by so many thousands of miles, came the Thing they were sending us, the Thing that was to bring so much struggle and calamity and death to the earth. I never dreamed of it then as I watched; no one on earth dreamed of that unerring missile.

That night, too, there was another jetting out of gas from the distant planet. I saw it. A reddish flash at the edge, the slightest projection of the outline just as the chronometer struck midnight; and at that I told Ogilvy and he took my place. The night was warm and I was thirsty, and I went stretching my legs clumsily and feeling my way in the darkness, to the little table where the siphon stood, while Ogilvy exclaimed at the streamer of gas that came out towards us.

That night another invisible missile started on its way to the earth from Mars, just a second or so under twenty-four hours after the first one. I remember how I sat on the table there in the blackness, with patches of green and crimson swimming before my eyes. I wished I had a light to smoke by, little suspecting the meaning of the minute gleam I had seen and all that it would presently bring me. Ogilvy watched till one, and then gave it up; and we lit the lantern and walked over to his house. Down below in the darkness were Ottershaw and Chertsey and all their hundreds of people, sleeping in peace.

"An' you ain't never seen bad luck," Edwin concluded triumphantly. "You're just as bad as Granser and his germs. You believe in what you don't see. Go on, Granser."

He was full of speculation that night about the condition of Mars, and scoffed at the vulgar idea of its having inhabitants who were signalling us. His idea was that meteorites might be falling in a heavy shower upon the planet, or that a huge volcanic explosion was in progress. He pointed out to me how unlikely it was that organic evolution had taken the same direction in the two adjacent planets.
"The chances against anything manlike on Mars are a million to one," he said.

Hundreds of observers saw the flame that night and the night after about midnight, and again the night after; and so for ten nights, a flame each night. Why the shots ceased after the tenth no one on earth has attempted to explain. It may be the gases of the firing caused the Martians inconvenience. Dense clouds of smoke or dust, visible through a powerful telescope on earth as little grey, fluctuating patches, spread through the clearness of the planet's atmosphere and obscured its more familiar features.

Returning to the Spouter-Inn from the Chapel, I found Queequeg there quite alone; he having left the Chapel before the benediction some time. He was sitting on a bench before the fire, with his feet on the stove hearth, and in one hand was holding close up to his face that little negro idol of his; peering hard into its face, and with a jack-knife gently whittling away at its nose, meanwhile humming to himself in his heathenish way.

But being now interrupted, he put up the image; and pretty soon, going to the table, took up a large book there, and placing it on his lap began counting the pages with deliberate regularity; at every fiftieth page—as I fancied—stopping a moment, looking vacantly around him, and giving utterance to a long-drawn gurgling whistle of astonishment. He would then begin again at the next fifty; seeming to commence at number one each time, as though he could not count more than fifty, and it was only by such a large number of fifties being found together, that his astonishment at the multitude of pages was excited.

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With much interest I sat watching him. Savage though he was, and hideously marred about the face—at least to my taste—his countenance yet had a something in it which was by no means disagreeable. You cannot hide the soul. Through all his unearthly tattooings, I thought I saw the traces of a simple honest heart; and in his large, deep eyes, fiery black and bold, there seemed tokens of a spirit that would dare a thousand devils. And besides all this, there was a certain lofty bearing about the Pagan, which even his uncouthness could not altogether maim. He looked like a man who had never cringed and never had had a creditor. Whether it was, too, that his head being shaved, his forehead was drawn out in freer and brighter relief, and looked more expansive than it otherwise would, this I will not venture to decide; but certain it was his head was phrenologically an excellent one. It may seem ridiculous, but it reminded me of General Washington's head, as seen in the popular busts of him. It had the same long regularly graded retreating slope from above the brows, which were likewise very projecting, like two long promontories thickly wooded on top. Queequeg was George Washington cannibalistically developed.


Whilst I was thus closely scanning him, half-pretending meanwhile to be looking out at the storm from the casement, he never heeded my presence, never troubled himself with so much as a single glance; but appeared wholly occupied with counting the pages of the marvellous book. Considering how sociably we had been sleeping together the night previous, and especially considering the affectionate arm I had found thrown over me upon waking in the morning, I thought this indifference of his very strange. But savages are strange beings; at times you do not know exactly how to take them. At first they are overawing; their calm self-collectedness of simplicity seems a Socratic wisdom. I had noticed also that Queequeg never consorted at all, or but very little, with the other seamen in the inn. He made no advances whatever; appeared to have no desire to enlarge the circle of his acquaintances. All this struck me as mighty singular; yet, upon second thoughts, there was something almost sublime in it. Here was a man some twenty thousand miles from home, by the way of Cape Horn, that is—which was the only way he could get there—thrown among people as strange to him as though he were in the planet Jupiter; and yet he seemed entirely at his ease; preserving the utmost serenity; content with his own companionship; always equal to himself. Surely this was a touch of fine philosophy; though no doubt he had never heard there was such a thing as that. But, perhaps, to be true philosophers, we mortals should not be conscious of so living or so striving. So soon as I hear that such or such a man gives himself out for a philosopher, I conclude that, like the dyspeptic old woman, he must have "broken his digester."

As I sat there in that now lonely room; the fire burning low, in that mild stage when, after its first intensity has warmed the air, it then only glows to be looked at; the evening shades and phantoms gathering round the casements, and peering in upon us silent, solitary twain; the storm booming without in solemn swells; I began to be sensible of strange feelings. I felt a melting in me. No more my splintered heart and maddened hand were turned against the wolfish world. This soothing savage had redeemed it. There he sat, his very indifference speaking a nature in which there lurked no civilized hypocrisies and bland deceits. Wild he was; a very sight of sights to see; yet I began to feel myself mysteriously drawn towards him. And those same things that would have repelled most others, they were the very magnets that thus drew me. I'll try a pagan friend, thought I, since Christian kindness has proved but hollow courtesy. I drew my bench near him, and made some friendly signs and hints, doing my best to talk with him meanwhile. At first he little noticed these advances; but presently, upon my referring to his last night's hospitalities, he made out to ask me whether we were again to be bedfellows. I told him yes; whereat I thought he looked pleased, perhaps a little complimented.