Introduction 7 



told me they obeyed the summons of Father Neptune in due fashion, even if 

 we find Httle about it in print. 



Why should sailor alone take it over? Why never a word from plodding foot 

 traveler or from cavaHer on horseback or on camel? Lack of instruments? No 

 astrolabe or sextant is needed to note such a shift in sun. 



Few if any travelers by land equal Marco Polo in the distance covered, in 

 the appeal of his tale, in the wealth of information he gives us. Not one word, 

 however, do we get from him suggesting anything like our ceremony. Out- 

 ward bound, to be sure, he never was in south latitude, but much of the home- 

 ward trip was by sea. How could a son of Venice f au to speak of such a thing 

 if any particular notice had been taken? 



He does tell us about the monsoons, and when weather held him five months 

 in the kingdom of Samara (Sumatra?) he says: "here again neither the Pole- 

 star nor the stars of the Maestro were to be seen, much or little." * The "here 

 again" harks back to chapter IX, "concerning the island of Java the Less," the 

 passage there running "but let me premise one marvellous thing, and that is 

 the fact that this Island hes so far to the south that the North Star, little or 

 much, is never to be seenl" If Samara is our Sumatra we find the equator cuts 

 it just about in half. 



Are Chinese and other eastern annals quite silent on this matter? Or, are we 

 perhaps some day to learn from them that hke paper and compass and so 

 many other things and habits, our ceremony really goes back to this or that 

 dynasty of eastern rulers and has been overlooked as to soiurce by unimagina- 

 tive westerners? 



As I scanned tale after tale of travel I found myself wondering if that 

 lively reporter, Henry M. Stanley, noted the shift in position as he worked his 

 way north from Zanzibar to Ujiji. While with Livingstone on Tanganyika he 

 must have crossed the line over and over again, but never do we get a word 

 about its being marked or noted. 



Looking at the folklore of the performance reminds us how from early 

 days man has chosen baptisms, the drinking of blood, and similar initiation 

 ceremonies to mark solemn events — the change into adult life, the accept- 

 ance of a newcomer into fuU fellowship in craft or fraternity or other groups. 

 Why should not the seaman originate his own initiation rites? 



Neither a folklorist nor a son of a folklorist, I turned to friends and their 

 books, current and older, but found no answer. Is it a mark of superficial or 

 careless search? Two men in particular seemed most promising as first aid, 



* Yule's translation, book 3, chapter X, v. 2, p. 292. London, 1903. 



