e
Tritons, lathered with pitch and grease, shaved with a rusty hoop, and
soused over head and ears in a huge tub, while from all quarters, as
they attempt to escape from the marine monsters, bucketfuls of water are
hove down upon them. Uproar and apparent confusion ensues; and usually
it requires no little exertion of authority on the part of the captain
and officers to restore order.

We might suspect, from the introduction of the names of Neptune and
Amphitrite, that this curious and somewhat barbarous custom must have a
classical origin. There can be no doubt that it is derived from those
maritime people of old, the Phoenicians. Ceremonies, to which those I
have described bear the strongest similarity, were practised by them at
a very remote period, whenever one of their ships passed through the
Straits of Gibraltar. That talented writer, David Urquhart, in his
"Pillars of Hercules," asserts that the Phoenicians and Carthaginians
possessed a knowledge of the virtues of the loadstone, and used it as a
compass, as did the mariners of the Levant till a late period.

The original compass consisted of a cup full of water, on which floated
a thin circular board, with the needle resting on it; this was placed in
a small shrine or temple in front of the helmsman, with a lantern
probably fixed inside to throw light on the mysterious instrument during
the night. The most fearful oaths were administered to the initiated
not to divulge the secret. Every means, also, which craft could devise
or superstition enforce was employed by the Phoenicians to prevent other
people from gaining a knowledge of it, or of the mode by which their
commerce beyond the Straits of Hercules was carried on, or of the
currents, the winds, the tides, the seas, the shores, the people, or the
harbours. A story is told of a Phoenician vessel running herself on the
rocks to prevent the Romans from finding the passage. This secrecy was
enforced by the most sanguinary code--death was the penalty of
indiscretion; thus the secret of the compass was preserved from
generation to generation among a few families of seamen unknown to the
rest of the civilised world. The ceremonies, especially, were kept up,
though in a succession of ages they have undergone gradual alterations.

The lofty shores which form the two sides of the Straits of Gibraltar
were known in ancient days as the Pillars of Hercules. Here stood the
temple of the god, and hither came the