舌尖上的航海丨第10集 “赤道龙王”与“酒鬼”

“达利森”号船长是位华裔美国人，名叫布莱恩·曹；快人快语，幽默率直，深受船员喜爱。

“达利森”号是艘“混搭船”，船员来自世界各地。

这天，“达利森”号将驶往赤道海域，船长接到船舶代理公司通知；正值赤边附近国“赤道龙王”节，一场在船舶上举办的“赤道仪式”必不可少。希望船方给予配合。

曹船长见多识广，过赤边活动经历多次。不仅连说ok，还特地让船上准备了丰盛的菜肴。

过赤道仪式是项古老的传统活动。首次过赤边的海员必须接受“赤道龙王”的洗礼。“赤边洗礼”最早出现在十五世纪末，航海不发达，人们扯蓬扬帆，漂洋过海，凶多吉少。过赤道时，老水手扮成“赤道龙王”，用绳索把年轻水手，从一舷抛下海，再从另一舷拉上来。说是到赤道龙王那里报过到了。今后航海就不危险了。

这是一种古老传统的迷信活动，已经销声匿迹了。

不过，逢年过节，赤道附近的居民还与船方 举办过赤道仪式。

船上大厨贾瑧是位地道的“山东大汉”，高大敦实，有个突出的“啤酒肚”。被船长戏称“酒桶贾”，其实贾瑧平时滴酒不沾。贾瑧首次过赤边，十分兴奋，不仅做了满桌佳肴，还特意的打扮一番。

中午时分，一艘五彩缤纷的小船靠上“达利森”号船舷。

船长率领船员列队在甲板上欢迎。

贾瑧和首次受洗礼的船员身着短裤，光着脊梁，毕恭毕敬地站在甲板上恭候“赤边龙王”洗礼。

“赤道龙王”是赤道附近一位老者装扮的老者身披鱼皮，肩挂各色木制饰品手持金色龙杖，威风凛凛，在一群脸上涂满各种油彩“小鬼”的簇拥下登上甲板。

仪式开始，贾瑧和伙伴们在一群手持钢叉和腰刀的“小鬼”监视下，依次被唤到“赤边龙王”面前。先由拿着碗口大小“听诊器”的“鬼医生”检查身体，接着把船上通风筒取下来放在甲板上，受洗礼者依次钻过去，叫“脱胎换骨”。然后两名手持钢叉的“小鬼”轮流朝每人头上画一种涂料，叫“改头换面”。随之又把成桶海水由头浇下，称作“冲洗灵魂”。

经过以上“考验”，受洗礼船员被重新唤到“赤道龙王”面前。

“赤道龙王”正襟危坐，嘴里念念有词，正式宣布在“生死簿”上勾掉了受洗礼者的名字，并根据每人的特征分别起了个赤道诨名：“沙丁鱼”、“月亮神”、“磁铁猫”······。

轮到贾瑧，“赤道龙王”朝贾瑧上下打量一番，接着将鼻子凑近贾瑧脸前，闻了闻，摇头摆尾说：“酒鬼！”

引起人们一阵哄笑。

整个仪式充满了欢乐和友好气氛。

贾瑧高兴之余，却满脸无辜；自己滴酒未沾，竟给起了“酒鬼”的绰名，难道是自己“啤酒肚”造成的。

晚餐时，贾瑧找到了船长。开始船长不以为然，笑着说：“怕是’啤酒肚‘惹的祸！”当闻到贾瑧满嘴酒气时，说“喝酒了。”

贾瑧拼命地摇头：“不喝酒，船长是知道的。”

当人们从贾瑧嘴里闻到一阵阵酒气时，人们不再怀疑：“贾瑧喝酒了。”

大厨贾瑧偷偷喝酒的消息，很快传遍了全船。

一直快言快语的船长一时也无语了。

从不相信鬼神的贾瑧，也开始怀疑“赤道龙王”的魔法，彻夜做起噩梦。

不久，“达利森”号进船厂船修。贾瑧借口离开船厂来到医院检查。

护士从贾瑧血液里居然发现酒精浓度高达3.7%。

贾瑧惊呆了，自幼滴酒不沾的人，血液里怎么会有高达醉酒的酒精浓度。

贾瑧将这个结果告诉了船长。船长建议他到大医院做一次全面彻底检查。

医生终于找到原因；贾瑧的肠道里有过多的酿酒酵母，只要摄入含有丰富淀粉的食物或饮料，特别是巧克力，酵母就会分解的糖酿成酒精，存放在人体内，平时没有什么症状和感觉，久而久之，体内就会产生酒精。

从小贪食巧克力的贾瑧终于找到了原因。

医生解释说：贪食巧克力的人有61%以上的人患有自动酿酒症。由于巧克力含糖较高，在人体内经分解的葡萄糖可变成葡萄糖酒精，使人容易患上自动酿酒综合症。这种人群占比例不大，平时也没有更多反应。长期下去会影响健康。由其是在生长发育时的青少年应节制进食巧克力。。

贾瑧把结果写信告诉了船长；决心节食巧克力，加强锻炼，去掉“啤酒肚”，有朝一日重返“达利森”号。

船长布莱恩·曹给贾瑧发来短信：如果有机会再参加“赤道洗礼”，让“赤边龙王”给你重新起个浑名。

The captain of the Daleson was a Chinese-American sailor named Brian

Cao. Brian spoke fast and was straightforward, but was also humorous and

easygoing, making him a well-liked figure amongst his crew. The Daleson was

a mixed cargo ship, with its crewmen hailing from all over the world.

One day, as the Daleson was sailing into a region near the equator,

Captain Cao received a message from the ship’s agency: the countries near

the equator were celebrating the Festival of the Golden Dragon, and they

had asked the ship to perform a line-crossing ceremony to commemorate the

occasion.

Captain Cao had voyaged near the equator many times, and knew that the

line-crossing ceremony was a tradition that was valued by many. He agreed

to assist the equatorial countries in their celebrations, and asked the

crew’s chefs to prepare a lavish meal.

The line-crossing ceremony first appeared at the end of the fifth

century, and has since been performed by seafarers from all over the world.

Back then, nautical routes were not as well-established, so sailors often

drifted on the sea without much knowledge of their surroundings, running

into harsh environments and ferocious storms. When they crossed the

equator, old sailors would dress up as King Neptune or the Golden Dragon,

use a rope to throw younger sailors over the port, and then help them back

up using another rope. They believed that this signified new sailors’

arrival to King Neptune, thus casting away any storm or danger.

Now, this age-old tradition has become virtually unknown, but on

certain festivals or celebrations, townspeople who lived near the equator

still sometimes performed a line-crossing ceremony with ships that passed

by.

One of the ship’s chefs was a paunchy man from Shandong named Jia

Zhen. He was tall and large, with an obvious beer belly, and even though

his crewmates affectionately called him “Wine Barrel Jia”, he actually

disliked drinking alcohol. It was Jia’s first time crossing the equator,

so he was rather excited about the ocasion, helping out during his free

time and even putting on a suit.

At noon, a small, brightly colored boat stopped at the side of the

Daleson, and Captain Cao gathered his excited crew on the deck to welcome

their visitors. Jia Zhen and the other first-timers wore nothing but a pair

of swimming trunks, stood bare-backed at the front of the deck and waved

hello to the locals.

The Golden Dragon was the mayor of a town near the Equator who dressed

up as King Neptune. He wore fish skin over his back, with wooden ornaments

hanging down from his shoulders onto his chest. Most astonishingly, he held

onto a golden staff with a dragon embellished onto it and had an army of

kids and younger townsmen surrounding him. Jia Zhen stared at the Golden

Dragon in awe, wondering what exactly he was going to do.

As the ceremony began, Jia Zhen and his fellow first-time sailors each

grabbed a trident or a knife, and under the supervision of the Golden

Dragon’s henchmen, stood in a line in front of the Golden Dragon. The

Golden Dragon used a small detector the shape of a rice bowl to graze over

the sailors’ skin, checking for any anomalies.

The Golden Dragon then asked the first time equator sailors to lift the

ship’s ventilation tube over to the deck, and asked them to crawl through

them as an initiation trial. Finally, the Golden Dragon told his henchmen

to smear facepaint over the cheeks of the sailors, and pour a bucket of ice

water over the sailors as the ultimate test of their resilience.

The sailors on the Daleson successfully completed all of the Golden

Dragon’s trials. They were once again called in front of the Golden

Dragon, who cleared his throat and began to read from a list of names.

Based on each sailor’s performance, the Golden Dragon each gave them a

nickname. “Sardine,” He called, followed by “Apollo” and “Iron Cat”.

When he got to Jia Zhen, the Golden Dragon took a good look at Jia Zhen

from head to toe, and said, “The Drunken Sailor!”

Jia Zhen’s crewmates burst out laughing.

A ceremony that started out as tense quickly shifted into an amicable,

entertaining environment. But instead of beaming in pride, Jia Zhen felt

ashamed of his nickname. Even though he, unlike many other fellow sailors,

barely ever drank alcohol, he was given the nickname of the “Drunken

Sailor” purely based on his pot belly.

During dinner, an unhappy Jia Zhen knocked on Captain Cao’s door.

Captain Cao saw the sorrowful look on Jia Zhen’s face, smiled, and asked

jokingly, “Did the ‘wine barrel’ cause trouble for you?” As he took a

moment and noticed the smell of beer coming from Jia Zhen, he asked again,

“Did you drink tonight?”

Jia Zhen shook his head. “I don’t drink, Captain. You know that.”

But when the Captain picked up on the smell of beer coming from Jia

Zhen’s mouth, there wasn’t a single doubt in his mind. Jia Zhen

definitely had a few drinks that night.

The rumors of Jia Zhen, the head chef who was known to strictly follow

all rules on board, had gone through a night of drinking soon spread

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through the entire Daleson. Jia Zhe, who was never one to believe in

superstitions, also started to wonder if there was some truth to the Golden

Dragon’s magic.

Captain Cao, who was always cheerful and had the utmost trust in his

crew, fell silent.

Not long after, the Daleson stopped at a nearby port for some routine

upkeep, and Jia Zhen took this opportunity to go to a nearby hospital to

check his blood alcohol levels.

To his horror, his blood alcohol percentage had shot up to 3.7%.

How could this be? Jia Zhen wondered to himself. As someone who never

drank, how could the alcohol in his blood rise up to such high levels?

He showed his results to Captain Cao, who immediately took him to a

nearby hospital to undergo a complete medical checkup. After a day of

taking blood samples and consulting a doctor, Jia Zhen found out that he

had high levels of a type of yeast named Saccharomyces cerevisiae in his intestinal

tracks. This type of yeast breaks down foods containing a lot of starch, especially sweets and

chocolate into alcohol, and keeps it circulating throughout the body. Normally, the patient

wouldn’t feel that there was anything wrong, but with age, alcohol levels in the blood would

start to build up.

Jia Zhen felt like he had found the culprit for his sweet tooth and large belly at long last.

The doctor explained that over 61% of people who had intense chocolate cravings may

suffer from the condition known as Auto-Brewery Syndrome. Since chocolate is extremely

high in sugar, the Brewer’s Yeast turns the glucose present in the body into alcohol, thus

making the person at risk of developing Auto-Brewery Syndrome. Although the number of

people who suffer from this condition wasn’t high, those who have undetected Auto-Brewery

Syndrome posed drastic risks to their health, especially for younger adolescents who ate a lot

of sweets.

Jia Zhen talked his results over with Captain Cao, and decided to take a break from

seafaring to go on a diet and cut out all sugar, start exercising more often, get rid of his “beer

belly”, and return to the Daleson when he felt much better.

Sensing Jia Zhen’s determination, Captain Cao respectfully allowed him to take a break

from drifting at sea. He promised Jia Zhen that as soon as he got better, they would sail

through the Equator again as a crew, and allow Jia Zhen to participate in the line-crossing

ceremony once more, and hopefully get another nickname.