eremonies used at sea on crossing the
equator have been so often described that a voyager, at this time of
day, may be well excused for omitting any minute account of such wild
proceedings. The whole affair, indeed, is preposterous in its
conception, and, I must say, brutal in its execution. Notwithstanding
all this, however, I have not only permitted it to go on in ships
which I commanded, but have even encouraged it, and set it agoing,
when the men themselves were in doubt. Its evil is transient if any
evil there be, while it certainly affords Jack a topic for a month
beforehand and a fortnight afterwards; and if so ordered as to keep
its monstrosities within the limits of strict discipline, which is
easy enough, it may even be made to add to the authority of the
officers, instead of weakening their influence.

In a well-regulated ship, within one hour from the time when these
scenes of riot are at their height, order is restored, the decks are
washed and swabbed up, the wet things are hung on the clothes' lines
between the masts to dry; and the men, dressed in clean trousers and
duck frocks, are assembled at their guns for muster, as soberly and
sedately as if nothing had happened to discompose the decorous
propriety of the ship's discipline. The middies, in like manner, may
safely be allowed to have their own share of this rough fun, provided
they keep as clear of their immediate superiors as the ship's company
keep clear of the young gentlemen. And I must do the population of the
cockpit the justice to say, that, when they fairly set about it,
maugre their gentleman-like habits, aristocratical sprinklings, and
the march of intellect to boot, they do contrive to come pretty near
to the honest folks before the mast in the article of ingenious
ferocity. The captain, of course, and, generally speaking, all the
officers keep quite aloof, pocketing up their dignity with vast care,
and ready, at a moment's warning, to repress any undue familiarity. As
things proceed, however, one or two of the officers may possibly
become so much interested in the skylarking scenes going forward as to
approach a little too near, and laugh a little too loud, consistently
with the preservation of the dignity of which they were so uncommonly
chary at first starting. It cannot be expected, and indeed is not
required, that the chief actors in these wild gambols, stripped to the
buff, and shying buckets of water at one another, should be confin