8 Crossing the Line 



Lafitau and Arnold Van Gennep, but once more I found disappointment. 

 The good Jesuit, Father Joseph François Lafitau tells us much in his Mœurs 

 des sauvages Amériquains, comparées aux mœurs des premiers temps 

 (Paris, 1724) but in none of his four volumes did I find anything hke this, 

 even though they are so fuU of interest. Much the same must be said about 

 Arnold Van Gennep's Religions, mœurs, et légendes: essais d'ethnographie et 

 de linguistique (Paris, 1908). 



Remember that when we shall first hear about a special marking of the 

 crossing the ceremony is purely religious. Not long, however, does it stay so; 

 within a few years it is accepted as normal and natural, hallowed by time and 

 by general observance. Most of the quotations set forth below are first-hand 

 reports, most from men, the handful from women all the more welcome. Few 

 show any curiosity as to what it means, who started it, how far back it goes. 

 My own speculations on such points I knew full well were but tentative, 

 worthy perhaps of passing attention until something more neaiiy final turned 

 up. As time went on, however, I came to find a few other wonderings about 

 the origins. Below, under 1792, is quoted the hvely tale of the scene on an out- 

 bound Indiaman printed in The Gentleman's Magazine, and there we find a 

 query as to how far back it goes. Under 1801 we read of a lawsuit in India 

 based on a squabble that ended in a serious fight over a youngster's refusal to 

 submit to the tender mercies of the crew. When Chambers's Book of Days 

 talks about the ceremony some years later it notes this trial (with some slight 

 errors in detail ) , and then goes on to ask when and where and why it began, 

 but gets no nearer the answer than seems the fate of us all. 



Another thoughtful and careful study of the whys and whens comes in 

 France Maritime ( v. 3, p. 281-288 ) where Jules Lecomte goes into past and 

 present in a way to call for giving it in full under 1837-1844 in the pages which 

 follow. 



Whether influenced by Lecomte, or quite independently, Larousse grand 

 dictionnaire universel du XIX^ siècle ( Paris, 1867, p. 190-192 of v. 2 ) under 

 Baptême gives elaborate and understanding, sympathetic and extensive, pic- 

 tures of the sailor's point of view. The entry reminds us that we find nothing 

 in maritime history to fix a precise date for origin, and tells us the rite is 

 generally admitted to go no farther back than the discoveries of the Portu- 

 guese in Africa. These first navigators daring to venture into the torrid zone 

 — iminhabitable by tradition, by the teachings of the ancients, by general 

 consent — saw a new world opening before them and felt it was fitting to 

 mark the event by baptism as they began this new life. Since then the sailor 

 has carried it on almost without a break. For some it has come to be "une 



