Appendixes — Crossing in Scandinavian Waters 233 



region; a half frightening half benevolent Old Man such as Neptune or a 

 personification of a local diety such as KuUemand. ( Here it is interesting to 

 note that only Neptune is accompanied by a female figure. Also the crossing 

 the line ceremony appears to be the only one where a new recruit is not 

 called upon to pay a fee, such as of drinks or a feast, to his more experienced 

 shipmates. ) 



On the last page of the article there is reference to the besmearing of the 

 genitals of young sailors with grease tar, etc. Sir James Frazer in The Golden 

 Bough writes that the Arcadians had a custom of whipping the image of Pan 

 with squills at a festival, or whenever the hunters returned empty-handed. 

 This was done, not to punish the god but to purify him from harmful influ- 

 ences which were impending him in the exercise of his divine functions as 

 a god who should supply the hunter with game. 



Similarly, the object of beating, etc., the human being on the genital 

 organs with squills and so on must have been to release his reproductive 

 energies from any restraint or spell under which they might be laid by 

 demonaical or other malignant agency. 



Is it, on my part, too much a flight of fancy to recognize the young sauor, 

 and especially the young fisherman, in this part of Öie article, as a repre- 

 sentative of the creative and fertilizing god of the harvest of the sea, i. e. the 



fishes? T) 



Bridport 



(Mariner's Mirror (London) November 1954. v. 40, no. 4, p. 313-314.) 



