The Nineteenth Century 85 



giving the name of the vessel, where from, where bomid, and the name of 

 tiie commander. The same rough voice then commanded us to heave-to, and 

 he would come on board of us. The sails were then laid to the masts, and 

 Neptune, his wife, barber, and a numerous retinue, came up over the bows, 

 and passed along into the waist, where the captain stood ready to welcome 

 them on board. The ocean-god and the fair Amphitrite, were rigged out in 

 the most grotesque and fantastical manner possible. The whole was a bur- 

 lesque on the description of Spenser: 



"First came great Neptune, with his three-forked mace 

 That rules the seas, and makes them rise or fall; 

 His dewey locks did drop with brine apace. 



Under his diadem imperiall; 

 And by his side his queene with coronall, 



Fair Amphitrite." 



The imperial diadem was made of duck, covered with oakum; the three- 

 forked mace was a fish spear; his majesty's robe of state was a red baize shirt, 

 and on his shoulders were a massive pair of epaulettes, made of tarred oakum. 

 The fair Amphitrite was a strapping great saüor, rigged out in the queerest 

 toggery in which female grace and loveHness were ever burlesqued. The 

 landsmen were aU placed in the waist; and his majesty, wdth a nice dis- 

 crimination, remembered the faces of all who had ever been welcomed 

 into his realm. But the old god was for once in his hfe at fault. It will be 

 perceived that I had crossed the tropic and also the equator before; but my 

 first captain was a man of too much good taste, and gentlemanly feelings, 

 to permit old Neptime to come on board his ship. I had heard the ceremony 

 of shaving so often described by sailors, that I was au fait to the thing; and 

 my answers to the queries that had been propounded to me for several days 

 before we reached the tropic, were very satisfactory. I had secured the 

 silence of an old weather-beaten and rum-loving tar, who was with me in 

 the ship, by giving him, during the whole cruise, my allowance of grog. I 

 passed, therefore, for an affihated and matriculated one. 



The candidates having been selected, the process of shaving was now to 

 commence. Our boat was placed on deck, half-fiUed with water, and a plank 

 placed across it, but in a ticklish manner. The candidate being blindfolded, 

 was conducted to, and made to seat himself on the plank, when several ques- 

 tions were propounded to him, which, if he was indiscreet enough to answer, 

 as soon as his mouth was open, a brush, filled with tar, blacking, slush, and 

 all manner of filth, was thrust in. After they had worried their poor victim 

 for some time in this manner, they proceeded to lather him, by smearing 

 his face all over with the same detestable compound; and he was then 

 scraped with a piece of iron hoop, notched to make it more effective, untu 

 his face was lacerated to such a degree that the blood oozing out, mingling 



