"But Faith, like a jackal, feeds among the tombs, and even from these dead doubts she gathers her most vital hope."
Musing: Holy crap- Melville throws these lines in like a gut punch. Faith is sometimes too soft a word. It is easily forgotten - skipped over - invisible. But faith becoming a jackal? Now I'm paying attention! The faith in this section is not the faith you have in a quiet church with candles lighting the dark. The faith of a jackal is rough and opportunistic. It is most needed when things have died and it feeds on fear and sorrow and hopes for some nourishment. If you told me that faith was like the wind in the tree, I'd read on. But you tell me that faith is a jackal - I'm going to pause. And think. And that is what this novel is all about.