Sketch Of An Old Lodge Book, No. 6, Ancients.

meeting . At an emergency meeting held on 5 th July , ar amendment to Rule 14 was proposed and carried , to the effect that every member shall spend the sum of sixpence " to defray the said Lodge of Emergencie Avhen duly summoned and the absent members to pay the same for not

attending . " The further business related to the absent members , and in the case of one of them , it Avas proposed that , " being a distance from the Lodge , " he " should be dealt with According to our Good Rules and orders of our Antient Constitution , it Avas Unanimously agreed to shew him Linity

for the next Quarter and not to Expend upon him . It was further proposed in the case of two other brethren , that "if they do not Appear to pay their Dues to the Treasurer , on or before the 14 th January , shall be Excluded , Accept the Brethren may exito further Linity on

their shewing a just cause for their Non-aperence . " At tbe installation banquet , on the following day , it is minuted that the brethren proceeded to dinner " Avith the Usual happiness of our Antient Constitution as York Masons . "

In July of this year is mentioned the case of a Mr . John Smith , whom , owing to his being on the point of going abroad , " the Lodge approved to make him , and Finished him " there and then . We also note the case of a

candidate being accepted and made a Mason " in Lodge No . 6 by the Recomendation " of a brother " of No . 3 . " The month following , the W . M . " gave a satisfactory Account of the Proceedings of the Stewards' Lodge . " Shortly follows a minute in which the gift of a guinea to a

brother , who is " lame and m a bad state of health , " is recorded . In October , the Worshipful again " gave an Account of the Transactions of the SteAvards' Lodge ;" and on the 8 th December the same officer " gave the Lodge a just Account of the Transactions of the Grand

Lodge , and also agreed to support Bro . John McCormick as a candidate at the election for Grand Secretary on the third of March 1779 . " At the installation of officers , on the 28 th December 1778 , we are told the Lodge "

concluded with many Harmonious Toasts suitable to the Feastival of St . John ' s Day . " At the meeting on the 26 th January 1779 , a letter was received " from Bro . Charles as a candidate for Grand Secretary , which was read . " ( To be Continued . )

The Meaning Of Certain Masonic Words.

THE MEANING OF CERTAIN MASONIC WORDS .

WE have had communicated to us the following brief , yet interesting , sketch of the early use of certain words , the meaning of which is familiar to our readers . We publish it with pleasure , for though a chosen few may have been curious in their Masonic researches , and may

have lighted on the substance of what follows , it is by no means improbable the bulk of Freemasons have but a slight knoAvledge of the use of the three well-knoAvn terms in Masonry which the writer has chosen for illustration .

The first Avord we select is " HELE . It is not at present in use in our current standard English , but yet it was once found in our best writers , and is yet in vogue in some out of the way districts , both in the west and north . In the Avest of England a man who has roofed a building

says he has " heled it . " A mother in the north of England tells her child to " hele it up ; " for the same action a mother in the south would say " tuck well in ; " in fact , the meaning is , " to well or closely cover up . " It is not

synonymous Avith " conceal , " from which it varies somewhat in meaning . It is needless to say that its true signification ought to be pointed out to every E . A . Mason , for the explanation of the word in the First Lecture is very imperfect .

Halliwell , in his Dictionary of Archaic and Provincial Words , gives this word , at page 443 , but does not give its northern use . John Wickliffe , in his Translation of the Bible , uses it ( in various moods and tenses ) no less than sixteen times , and with the meaning of " covering" about

four times . Chaucer uses the Avord three times . Wickliffe ' s Translation was made about A . D . 1380 , and was in the language used by scholars and learned men of the time , or in the current language of the day . Chaucer was a contemporary , but flourished a little earlier . The Bibles printed in Queen Elizabeth ' s time do not contain the word at all ; it had been dropped out of nse by writers and general society in

The Meaning Of Certain Masonic Words.

those days and become obsolete , and was only used by the so-called unpolite ; it is now going out of use even by such as these . The next word that we propose to examine is "ABIF , " and a very curious word it is . It means " Our Father , "

and is from the Hebrew word "ABI . " It is not to be found in most English books . The first mention the writer can find in printed books is in Coverdale ' s Bible of 1535 , in 2 Chronicles ii . 13 . " HIRAM ABI . " In the so-called Matthew ' s Bible , which was reprinted more than

once , tho Avord is used , but in every translation afterwards made it is , as we have it now , simply "HIRAM . " In German Bibles , of Luther ' s translation , the word is " ABIF , " at least , those the writer has seen , but he has not seen many . In an edition of 1716 there is this curious note : " Some books

have Huram Abi , others name him simply Hiram . " Of course the note is in the German language . It is known that Coverdale translated tho Old Testament in Antwerp , and it is curious that a Flemish translation was published in that city in the very same year , 1535 , that Coverdale

printed his Bible , and in which , in 2 Chronicles ii . 13 , occurs " HUE AM ABI . " The coincidence is worth a further careful inquiry . There is another word very commonly used by English Freemasons , and only by them , " COWAN . " It is not to be

found in any English book at present , nor is it in use amongst Englishmen of any grade or station in society . In tracing its history without any access to MSS . there is a great difficulty to contend with . When an old MS . is

printed some editors transpose the letters " v " and " w " and some do not , and as they were used in old times interchangeably , some Dictionaries not very old still mix up words beginning with those two letters .

The first use of the word that the writer can find is by Peter Langtoft , who died about the year A . D . 1308 . He Avas a Yorkshire man , and a Monk at Bridlington ; in his History , see edition of 1725 , vol . ii ., page 303 , using English type , we find " Thirty of ther couyn . " " All these and wele mo atteynt of traytorie . "

Gower , m his Gonfessio Amanhs , see Pauli s edition , 1857 , vol . i ., page 42 , uses the Avord " covine" in the same sense . Gower was a contemporary with Chaucer , and Chaucer used the word " covine " several times , e . g . in Romaunt of the Rose , see edition 1721 , page 241 .

" "Wickiu tonge , -wMche that tlie ' covine ' Of every lovir can devine . " In the sixteenth century the word was lost to the learned , and was out of use by the polite of that time , as it is not used by Shakspeare or by the Divines and other writers of that period .

Of " covitie we find that in the next century John Cowell , in his Law Dictionary , edition 1637 , gives the word as a new term in law , and from the French word " convenancer" or rather " convenir , " and says , " it is deceitfull assent or agreement betAveen tAvo or more to the prejudice

or hurt of another . T . Blount in his " Glossographia , " edition 1656 , professing to give law terms , does not mention the Avord at all . Bailey , 1736 , in his Dictionary , evidently merely copies Cowell . Halliwell gives it as an archaic or obsolete word . Jamieson , in his Scottish

Dictionary , edition 1817 , gives " Cowan , " 1 st . One who does the work of a Mason , but has not been regularly bred . 2 nd . One who builds dry walls . The word , he signifies , is Scottish only . From these examples Freemasons can have little difficulty in getting at the real meaning . There is another

circumstance that should be borne in mind , and that is when anything is Avritten or composed for the use of numbers of men , it must be in the current language , or it will not be able to command any wide or enduring sympathy . If the ritual of Freemasonry was to be made

today we should not have either " HELE , " " ABIF , " or " COWAN ;" they are dead Avords now to all Englishmen , except to attentive Freemasons , and we are only drawing a just conclusion when we say that those Avords were in current use

when the respective parts of the ritual were composed or arranged . It is fair also to conclude that they were used in their present meaning not after the fifteenth century , though it is possible the second word may have been interpolated .

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