They were stains of some sort or other.

At first I knew not what to make of this; but soon an inkling of the truth occurred to me.

I remembered a story of a white man--a whaleman too--who, falling among the cannibals, had been tattooed by them.

I concluded that this harpooneer, in the course of his distant voyages, must have met with a similar adventure.

And what is it, thought I, after all! It's only his outside; a man can be honest in any sort of skin.