16 Crossing the Line 



1529, continued 



from memory. It was a choral work for 3, 4, or 5 voices by some skilled composer, who made a 

 polyphonic mass-setting based on the traditional plain song melody of Salve sancta -parens. It was 

 tlie regular practice in the sixteenth century and earlier to use a piece of plain song or even a tune 

 of a secular song as the basis for artistic elaboration in a complicated contrapuntal or polyphonic 

 composition for several voices." 



The "messe" and the "solennité du jour" fit neatly with the daily devotions of Columbus on his 

 first voyage — and not unprobably on others — as noted already in quotation from Professor 

 Samuel Eliot Morison's inviting Admiral of the Ocean Sea. It is well worth keeping in mind his 

 telling how important a part religious ceremony played on shipboard — at least then — day by 

 day. A voyage like this was a real event; the seaman was deeply religious; some formal notice of 

 tlie step was called for. 



An appreciation of "An explorer-poet: Jean Parmentier" by Professor J. C. Lapp (Modern 

 Language Quarterly, Mar., 1945, v. 6, p. 83-92) pays fitting tribute to the man, his deeds, his 

 poetry, his devoutness, his feeling about the majesty and the emotional aspects of the sea; one of 

 the earliest minds I think of as noting the beauty as well as the terrors of the great waters. 



As to the text M. Schefer writes in his Introduction (p. xxviii) that "M. Estancelin ... a publié 

 en 1832 dans ses Recherches sur les navigateurs normands, le texte du voyage de Jean Parmentier 

 à Sumatra, d'après la copie d'un manuscrit appartenant alors à M. Tarbe, libraire à Sens. Ce manu- 

 scrit, intitulé Voiage aux Indes orientalles, Dieppe, 1529, est incorrect et présente des lacunes; 

 j'en ai signalé les principales dans l'édition que je donne aujourd'hui d'après un manuscrit acquis 

 par moi à Paris, il y a déjà de longues années ... La relation du voyage de Parmentier et la 'descrip- 

 tion de l'isle de Saint-Dominigo' forment la fin du volume et comprennent soixante et onze feuillets 

 de papier oriental de diverses couleurs, non chiffrés. L'écriture moulée est fort belle et date des 

 premières années du XVIII" siècle." 



The text is printed also in Melusine, v. 2 (Paris, 1884-5), column 275, based on the 1832 issue. 

 "AcoHée," appears as "accoUée," "albacore" as albatore;" also some changes in punctuation. 



1557 



Cedit iour doncques quatrième de Feurier, que nous passasmes le Centre du 

 monde, les Matelots firët les ceremonies par eux accoustumees en ce tant 

 fascheux & dangereux passage. Assauoir, de lier de cordes & plonger en mer, 

 ou bien noircir & barbouiller le visage auec \ti vieux drappeau frotté au cul 

 de la chaudière, ceux qui n'ôt iamais passé l'Êquator pour les en faire 

 souuenir; toutesfois on se peut racheter & exempter de cela, come ie fis, en 

 leur payant le vin. 



( Histoire d'vn voyage fait en la terre dv Brésil, avtrement dite Amérique 

 . . . par lean de Léry. [LaRochelle,] 1578. p. 41.) 



How long does it take to make tradition? Is twenty-eight years a long or a short time? Par- 

 mentier tells us that in 1529, they knighted the landlubbers, sang a Mass, this to mark the 

 solemnity of the day and its happenings. Not one word about horseplay. In 1557 — according to 

 de Léiy — the "solemnity" was marked by the sailors follovsdng customs well established and 

 recognized, sanctioned by tradition, differing from the performance of our own day only in the time 

 and in the nationality of the players. Ducking, blacking faces, shaving — could the old tar of those 

 days look at the high jinks aboard ship today, he would shake his head gravely and contemplatively 

 as he said "Just as we did it. More men, more machinery. Right in line with the good old days and 

 their ways. Just to give them something to remember. Buy a drink and you're let offl" 



Did the twenty-eight years between 1529 and 1557 firmly fix the tradition? If it took more than 

 that space of time, how much farther back is the beginning, and who started it, and when? 



De Léry is happily revealing and human in plenty of ways. For instance, he tells how calms and 

 contrary winds held them up, the heat spoiling the biscuits, and the water going so bad they had 

 to hold their noses when they tried to drink it. He marvels at the way ships made of wood can 

 stand the pounding of the sea, even when the storm is so heavy that seamen wdth long service 



