Still on they came, and now the near woods resounded through all their aisles with their demoniac cry.

and a frightful, demoniac laugh finished the sentence, which was lost in a hoarse rattle.

They think me mad--Starbuck does; but I'm demoniac, I am madness maddened!

Few or no words were spoken; and the silent ship, as if manned by painted sailors in wax, day after day tore on through all the swift madness and gladness of the demoniac waves.

And now that at the proper time and place, after so long and wide a preliminary cruise, Ahab,--all other whaling waters swept--seemed to have chased his foe into an ocean-fold, to slay him the more securely there; now, that he found himself hard by the very latitude and longitude where his tormenting wound had been inflicted; now that a vessel had been spoken which on the very day preceding had actually encountered Moby Dick;--and now that all his successive meetings with various ships contrastingly concurred to show the demoniac indifference with which the white whale tore his hunters, whether sinning or sinned against; now it was that there lurked a something in the old man's eyes, which it was hardly sufferable for feeble souls to see.

Not only evil spirits but also diseases, often ascribed to demoniac influences, could not endure the sight of fire.