As we crossed the equator Father Neptune came on board ... a curious sea-ceremony that must hark back to the Greeks and Romans....
The bow-legged sailmaker played Neptune.
He combed out a beard of rope, wrapped a sheet around his shoulders, procured a trident of wood....
"Come," shouted one of the sailors to me, running up like a happy boy, "come, see Neptune climbing on board."
The sail-maker pretended to mount up out of the sea, climbing over the forecastle head—just as if he had left his car of enormous, pearl-tinted sea-shell, with the spouting dolphins still hitched to it, waiting for him, while he paid his respects to our captain.
Captain Schantze, First Mate Miller, Second Mate Stange, stood waiting the ceremonial on the officers' bridge, an amused smile playing over their faces.
A big, boy-faced sailor named Klaus, and the ship's blacksmith, a grey-eyed, sandy-haired fellow named Klumpf, followed the sailmaker close behind, as he swept along in his regalia, solemnly and majestically. And Klaus beat a triangle. And Klumpf played an accordion.
"Sailmaker" (the only name he was called by on the ship) made a grandiose speech to the Captain.
Schantze replied in the same vein, beginning,
"Euer Majestät—"