Appendixes — Crossing in Scandinavian Waters 221 



often had to be initiated at certain specially important places: big stones, 

 mountains, bridges, etc. 



It is difiScult to say how old the ceremony of h0nse ofiF Kullen may be. There 

 are no written statements from sailors — most of them could not write, and 

 perhaps they also thought it better to be taciturn about their rites. But 

 travellers who described the adventures of their voyages now and then told 

 about them. 



The oldest testimony we possess is from the year 1612. A Frenchman, 

 Anthoni de Lybrey, complained to the burgomaster and the towni-council of 

 Elsinore about his treatment on board a ship that passed Kullen. The pas- 

 sengers were questioned by the sailors, whether they preferred to be bap- 

 tized or to pay some money as a ransom. His companions paid voluntarily; 

 but he would not, and all the sailors ducked him forcibly twice in the water.^ 



Three years later a Dutch Embassy passed Kullen on a Dutch war-ship. 

 Anthonis Goeteris tells about it: ^ 



The 6th ( Sept. ) at noon we passed a cM, called het Col, where the people who have not been 

 there yet must be baptized. They are, as soon as this chff is seen clearly, bound to a rope and 

 ducked in the water from the yard-arm three times and hauled up again. They may ransom them- 

 selves by paying a coin to the boatswains, and this the honourable gentlemen, the ambassadors 

 and their attendance, did. But some boatswains who had not been there before could not be 

 released. 



Some contemporary notes in a copy of Goeteris's book in Stockholm tell 

 that it cost two barrels of good beer and three hams, and that the king of 

 Denmark ( Christian IV ) also was baptized, when he went by for the first 

 time ( 1591 ? ) . This statement cannot be confirmed. 



Charles Ogier, in 1634, accompanied the French ambassador to the wed- 

 ding of Prince Christian in Copenhagen on a French ship and wrote an inter- 

 esting book about his voyage and adventures in Denmark. He also tells us 

 about the ceremony:^ 



At davra we saw the Cape KuUen which belongs to Skane and passed by. A gun was fired from 

 the ship, and the sailors gave a shout of joy, which we took part in as we had just arisen from 

 our beds. Here the gay and — for the seamen — rather profitable custom prevails that those who 

 for the first time enter the Sound must, when they pass this Cape, either be ducked in the sea 

 and baptized or ransom themselves from this treatment. For sailors and seamen it is only a pas- 

 time, because they love the ocean just as much as the firm earth. All the young ones, both 

 sailors and soldiers, are bound under their arms and breast and hauled up to the yards, — then 

 the ropes are let loose and they fall into the sea, three times up and down. The gunner came to 

 the ambassador and told him s milin g about the old custom and asked for a good ransom. All 

 of us in attendance paid a doUar each. 



The baptism was in reality a rather solemn ceremony. Another traveller 

 tells, in 1666, that a gun was fired and the flag hoisted in honour of it, as 

 the first novice was ducked.^ The baptized sailors did not get a certificate; 



1 Laur. Pedersen, HehingiiT i Sundtoldstiden, Vol. I (1926), p. 76. 



2 Joumael der Legatie Ghedaen inde Jahren 1615, ende 1616 ( 1619 ), p. 2. 



3 Det store Bilager i Kj0henhavn ( 1914), p. 2. 

 '>:Fra Arkiv og Museum, Vol. Ill (1906), p. 32. 



