226 Crossing the Line 



h0nsning, paying money for drinks and — less often — being baptized, was 

 in use. Most of these places were only known to the local shipping, and it 

 is therefore very difficult, in many cases quite impossible, to collect material 

 about them in our days. Only by lucky chance a few testimonies have been 

 preserved up till now. 



Along the Danish shores we find some place-names, compounded with 

 the word h0nse, e. g. H0nsekollen and H0nser0n ( r0n = shoal with big 

 stones ) on the island of Sjaslland and Hansebugt ( bugt = bay ) on the island 

 of Fyn. H0nsebroer ( bro = bridge ) are known in Copenhagen, at Elsinore 

 and on the island of Christians0. From the H0nsepold ( pold = hül ) on the 

 island of Sams0 we know that the novices on the local ships who passed by 

 for tlie first time had to give money ( about 1750 ) ,^* and this custom was 

 observed tül ovu: days. 



The rather flat and sandy northern end of Jutland near the Skaw (Skagen), 

 where is the invisible frontier between Kattegat and Skagerrak, was also 

 a remarkable point where sailors often had to pay (mentioned for the first 

 time in 1688).^^ On this dangerous point a light-house was erected in 1561. 

 We hear that, when the Danish East Indiaman Kronprinsesse Maria in 1804 

 passed by the tower, the crew got an extra ration of brandy.^^ Both Danish 

 and Swedish sailors used to h0nse here. Still in our century the young 

 sailors have had to take off their hats, in order to greet 'the Long Man 

 ( the light-house. ) 



For the ships coming from the Baltic countries the island of Bornholm 

 was a very remarkable place; east of the island the water was so fresh that 

 they could use it for their cooking, but to the west it was too salty. Before 

 1914 many Latvian and Finnish sailors were baptized here.^^ 



Along the shores of the Baltic Sea a lot of local /î^nse-places are known. 

 A baptism was rarely performed, but the novices had to offer a drink to the 

 old hands. In many places this has stul been observed up till our time. Rather 

 important was the mountainous south end of the island of Gotland, Ho- 

 burgen, where an ogre, the Hoburgsguhbe — a relative of the Kullagubbe — 

 was thought to dwell. The sailors were obliged to hönsa for him, when they 

 went by.^^ 



German sailors — and probably others — paid, when they reached Land- 

 sort ( south of Stockholm ) , according to a testimony from the year 1686.^^ 

 The skippers on the Mälar-Lake, west of Stockholm, probably used to hönsa 

 near Kungshatt, about 10 kilometres from the Swedish capital.*^" Other 

 Swedish /lönsa-places were, for example, the island of Stora Karlsö near 



24Thura, Beskrivelse af 0en Samspe (1758), p. 39. 



25 Peder Syv, op. cit. p. 360. 



26 Logbook in Handels- og Spfartsmuseet. 



27 Loorits, op. cit. p. 137; Sven Andersson. 

 28 E. Smith, Nautisk ordbok (1914), p. 174. 



29 O. Rudbäck, Atlands ..., Tridie Del ( 1947), p. 765. 

 so Sam Owen Jansson. 



