History Of The Airedale Lodge, No. 387,

as is afforded by Instruction Lodges , etc ., in the present clay , probabl y individual pretensions would not have been so great . However , the noble heart of Bro . Hawley , refused to be comforted away from the lodge he loved so well , and on Monday , March 1 st , 1802 ( after another five years' interval , from April Srd , 1797 ) , he had again managed to rally his brethren , acting as W . Master on that occasion , ancl up to 5 th September , 1803 , when his name finally ceases to appear in the minutes . ( 2 b be continued ) .

Meaning Of The Word " Cowan."

MEANING OF THE WORD " COWAN . "

BY MASOJfIC STUDENT . WE take from the Philadelphia Keystone of January an interesting paper on this " vexata qiuestio , " written by our able brother , George Fort . As all he puts forward is worth reading ancl attending to , we reprint his remarks from our contemporary , for the information of our readers ; ancl shall append a few notes of our own at the close .

PEKHAPS no word has been the subject , among Masonic writers , of so much controversy and attempted explanation as the word " Cowan . " Futile essays have been made to trace its origin to the most diverse sources . In their range such elucidations have swept the circle of languages , living ancl dead , and whenever fancied similarit y has ocoured , to each in turn " Cowan " has been traced . Through Semitic tongues to modern French the fugitive meaning of this word has been soughtwith ever-changing success . Oftentimes the

re-, moter the source sought ancl inquired into with pertinacious scrutiny , the greater the asserted certainty of its derivation . In shifting changes of philological examination , " Cowan " has been made to assume almost as many significations totally diverse as the attitudes of a rope dancer , or the glittering but pleasing transformations of the kaleidoscope . The zealous scholiast in Oriental dialects ancl Greek roots asserts the word to

signify "clog , " in its presumed identity with the slinking worthlessness characteristic of a " Cowan , " while the adventitious gleaner of modern history with equal dogmaticism has claimed its origin in the Venclean or Brefcagne chouan , or owl cry of alarm—the signal of revolt ! There is , hffwever , a line of research , leading through the whole Masonic philology , that presents the satisfactory result of harmony with its history ,

bnt ignorance of which , or inattention , causes all investigations to terminate in futilities . It is evident that as this word is strictl y Masonic , its derivation , therefore , should be expected to identif y itself with some feature of the Craft from which it has developed . This sort of evolution may be instanced in the word " Mason , " which originated in the universal use of moveable bridgesmacince or maccina . —to facilitate the construction of walls , and in like manner the word " Cowan " arose to specify some prominent element of Craft government , wholl y involved in that strict caution against surprise which is expressed by its twin " eavesdropper . "

Doubtless it is needless to state the signification of " eavesdropper , " whose general sense , as is well known , aptly sketches nut a concealed listener , or person intently watching or lying on guard secretly to hear private conversa-