224 Crossing the Line 



The best records of the Kullen-baptism are quite modem and have been 

 written down from the relations of Esthonian and Latvian sailors. The sea- 

 trade of these countries began in about 1850 and was highly influenced by 

 German navigation. Probably also the customs of the sailors derive from 

 there. The baptism off KuUen hved longer there than in other mercantile 

 marines; in about 1930 it is said to have been still perfonned on Esthonian 

 and Latvian ships. I quote an older example, told by an Esthonian sailor 

 in 1898:19 



Here I want to write about an old custom among seafaring folk that even to-day sailors still 

 anxiously observe, that is the sailor's baptism or, more correctly, the baptism of the cabin boy or 

 young sailor who for the first time sails a larger sea. This baptism, however, is performed only in 

 one place, namely in passing by St Kullen ( Kullisaar = Hawk's Island ) ,20 which stands in the 

 sea off Denmark, a little rock of an island. As soon as some ship on which there are young sailors 

 who are for the first time passing St Kullen has approached that island, so that the island can be 

 seen with the naked eye, a curious bustle begins on board the ship. All hands are driven on 

 deck, where they are stood in rows. Now the mate takes an old paper-rag in his hand and bawls 

 forth, as if reading from it the law of the ship, incomprehensible words of some foreign tongue 

 (mostly Enghsh). After this the young sailor is dragged from among the rest of the crew, and 

 in front of him steps one of the very oldest sailors of the craft, a tin with the tar-mLxed shaving- 

 lather and a wooden razor with one edge smooth, the other toothed like a saw, in his hands, 

 and asks him, 'For how much do you wish to be shaved, for three or for five?' This means that 

 the young sailor must stand the crew drink for three or five roubles, as a fee for the shave and to 

 celebrate his becoming a seaman. But there is another special difi^erence between tliree and five — 

 if you express a wish to be shaved for three, you are shaved with that edge of the knife that 

 is toothed hke a saw. Your tar-lathered cheek is scrubbed with it, to draw blood. But, if you vvish 

 to be shaved for five, you are shaved with tlie smooth edge and scraped fairly gently. Such 

 shaving the sailors call hentseldusß''- No sauor has ever escaped hentseldus, since an unshaved 

 sailor is regarded as no sailor at all. The shaving-lather for hentseldus is compounded of tar and 

 several other kinds of muck. The process is as follows, — 



When the young sailor has said for how much he wishes to be shaved (if he knows the 

 difference between three and five, he will never vdsh it to be for three, but always for five), 

 a big tub, in which the crew usually wash themselves, full of water, is carried on deck. Across 

 it a round wooden bar is placed. On this round bar the young sailor is made to sit in such a way 

 that he perches lengthwise above the water in the tub. Thereupon the old sauor wdth the tar- 

 lather tin and the wooden knife steps up to him, lathers his cheeks with the tar-lather, whether 

 he has a beard or not, and starts scrubbing him with his wooden knife. Lucky he who has no 

 beard, for those who happen to have one, especially if it is big, have the devu of a job to clean 

 it of the tar-muck; for the beard, of course, remains full of tar, and naturaU)' the wooden knife 

 removes neither the beard nor the tar. 



When the shaving or rather hentseldus is done, the baptism of the sailor begins. A big sooty 

 sheet-iron chimney is brought from the galley, stood upright between several men, and held in 

 mid-air above the victim sitting across the tub. Now tlie young sauor is told to thrust his head 

 right under the chimney-shaft and shout 'KuU huu, kull huu, kuU huu!' ( = 'Hawk hoo!' The name 

 of the island St KuUen has been identified with the Esthonian word for hawk, hull ) three times up 

 the chimney. No sooner has he shouted for the third time than one of the crew hits the chimney 

 a hard blow vvdth his fist, so tliat the loose soot in it falls all over tlie victim's face. At the same 

 time another sailor strikes the round bar the candidate is sitting on another good blow, and the 

 sitter tumbles head over heels into tlie tub, out of which he climbs as wet all over as a tadpole. 

 Now he has been baptized a seaman, and the whole crew congratulate him, whereupon tlie 



19 O. Loorits, 'About the Baptism of Novices as Practised by the Baltic Sailors', in Tautosakos 

 Darhu, Vol. I ( 1935), pp. 130 seq. 



20 This is a popular Esthonian etymology based on a misunderstanding, as Kullen means 'the 

 mountain'. Saint Kullen is of course also false, and it is no island. 



21 From tlie word hpme in the German form hänseln. 



