184 Crossing the Line 



1920, continued 



regaling the crew. We get here a distinct suggestion of a propitiatory sacrifice, 

 of "paying toll to Fortune." And this at once takes us back to very ancient days, 

 long before the Christian era. The name of the King of the Sea, Neptune, which 

 is universal and has survived to the present day, points in the same direction. 

 The Romans had a horror of the sea, and had the more reason to pride them- 

 selves on their conquest of the "unfriendly element." Among the public cele- 

 brations of the Roman year was that of the "NeptunaHa," and we know from 

 Horace how grateful travellers proferred thanksgiving sacrifices to the God 

 of the Sea for their safe arrival in port. The highest test of friendship, accord- 

 ing to the same authority, was that he "was ready to accompany his friend 

 even to the Straits of Gibraltar." 



To primitive navigators all narrow seas held special terrors. The swift tides, 

 the varying currents and the strong gusts of changing winds usually present 

 in these narrow seas made the passage of saiHng ships extremely perilous to 

 the small craft of antiquity. The passage of the Sound, indeed, remained a 

 matter of anxiety, if not very real risk, even to the best-found ships of the 

 modern era of sails. The rehgions of heathen antiquity naturally suggested 

 oflFering a propitiatory sacrifice to the Sea Deity to procm-e safe passage 

 through these difficult seas. Similarly in the old whaling days of our own era 

 the entrance upon an extremely perilous enterprise was made, by the un- 

 changing traditions of the sea, occasion for a like offering, and the Arctic Circle 

 was chosen to make a definite locaHty for the celebration. 



Writing far away from books, it is only possible to suggest that the customs 

 now observed in "Crossing the Line" have come down to us from a very hoary 

 antiquity; that they originated in the idea of propitiatory sacrifice to the Sea- 

 God in present or anticipated perils; and that, when practised by the heathen 

 navigators of the North, they were probably accompanied with human sacri- 

 fice, even in the Christian era. We seem to remember having read of a galley 

 slave being thrown overboard in an hour of extreme peril. It is possible that 

 the story of Jonah may lead us in the same direction, even much farther back 

 than the days of the Romans. The superstition of all saüormen, that the 

 presence aboard ship of a minister of any rehgion rouses the jealous indigna- 

 tion of the Sea-God (presumably as being hostile to the observances tradition- 

 ally due to King Neptune), is likewise suggestive in this connection. Influences 

 aboard ship supposed to be hostile to the sovereign rights of the ancient Sea- 

 God are still known among saüormen as "jonahs." In the "Crossing of the Line" 

 by H.M.S. Renown, the sovereign rights of the heathen Sea-God were, by an 

 amusing httle by-plot to the main theme of tlie celebration, seriously chal- 

 lenged for the first time on record. 



It is easy to see why the Line became associated with the same ancient 

 customs. In early days the Line was the threshold to a new world fuU of im- 

 famüiar terrors. The very heavens changed, the old constellations were no 

 more; the moon herself seemed to face the wrong way about; the ocean held 

 new terrors and xmf amuiar denizens; the land was peopled with strange beasts 



