The Colfax chronicle. [volume] (Colfax, Grant Parish, La.) 1877-1981, 1889-02-16

The practice has been traced to the
ancient habit among seamen Of sacrific-
ing on nearing any point OF land upon
which some temple raised to a pagan
deity happened to be placed. The
equator was not in early times the
chosen spot. In remote ages there
were certain places which no man who
was passing them for the first time was
suffered to sail out OF view of without
paying the penalty of what was called
baptism: that is to say, he was coolly
swayed away up to the yard-arm and
then dropped into the sea with run.
These spots took a character of conse-
Grafton in the eyes of the crews. 1t
was no joke in those days; the practice
had not yet assumed the form of tarr-
ing and shaving; it was a custom based
on religious sentiment. Even if a ship
was making the passage of one of these
places for the first time she was dealt
with as though she had an immortal
soul to be saved. If the master hest
tated to redeem his craft by paying
money to his men, the men fell to mu-
tilating the vessel, either by cutting off
her "beak," as the projection on the
cathead was then termed, or by dis
figuring or destroying some other part
of her. The old narratives of voyages
abound in descriptions of this sort Of
procedure. The missionary monks
who came to the wide circle of the
horizon astounded from the narrow
sphere of the cloisters are particularly
graphic and full in their accounts of
these ancient sports. They describe a
marine court formed of a president and
two or three judges, all of them fore
castle hands. They could summon any
man on board the vessel to appear be-
fore them, and he was forced to obey,
though he were the captain himself.
After catechising they fined him, and
If he refused to pay they ran him up in
bowline to the yard-arm and ducked
him till he was nearly drowned. On
some of the ships of Spain or Portugal
the money thus exacted formed a sum
considerable enough to support a con-
vent.
Aubin who compiled his nautical die
tionary in 1902, tells us that in French
ships during the middle of the seven
teenth century it was customary to
range tubs full of sea-water along both
sides of the upper deck, where stood
fha allows xyifh hrrp of
in his hand. The chief steward came
to the foot of the mainmast with a
great beard hanging from his chin and
his body draped with ropes ENDS,
hanging down. Five or six seamen
similarly equipped attended upon him.
He held book in his hand, any volume
TO represent, as Aubin puts it, "the
gospels of the evangelists." The fell
low who was to be baptized knelt be-
fore this steward, who, thrusting the
book into his hand. made him solemnly
swear '.that whenever an occasion pre-
sented itself of baptizing others he
would serve them in the same way as
he was about to be served" On the
oath being administered the man got
up and walked between the rows of
buckets, every sailor saluting him
with flood as he advanced, until he
had gained the forecastle head. This
was what the French sailors called bap-
tiZing a shipmate.
Neptune apparently appears about
this time. but do not know that the
creation of this point Of the joke is to
be given to the French. A portrait of
the ocean god as he was made to APP
pear during these passages of horse
play is preserved. 1t was a second
mate, whose theories of how the di-
whites at the bottom of the sea dress
were illustrated by long cap on his
head and collar of trucks and blocks;
his beard and hair were of oakum and
decorated with shells, and his face was
blackened. He presented himself hold
ing chart book in his hand. the vol
ume lying open at the chart which
showed the position of the ship. The
whole of the crew passed before him,
every man kneeling and swearing by
bread and salt that he had previously
passed the line. Those who were
crossing the equator for the first time
Neptune hit over the head with a
wooden sword, and the crew continued
to duck them until they had paid a
penalty OF wine or money. In Dutch
vessels about this period it was custom
airy for functionary termed the clerk
of the ship to muster the crew when
passing certain places, and to inquire
of each man il he had ever sailed this
way before. II he had not he was
obliged to pay fifteen soils, failing
which he was hoisted to the yardarm