Masonic Notes And Queries.

ETYMOLOGY OE THE WORD " COWAN . " I , for one , thank Bro . Matthew Cooke for his paper on the etymology of the word " Cowan ' in your No . 14 of October Sth ; and would , in regard to his notes , only remark that , granting Janiieson ' s notice of "Cowan" to be correct and properly applicable to inferior workmen in Masonry , & c , & c . —as Bro . Cooke correctly

quotes at length—I do not quite agree that our defence is against inferior workmen as such , but rather as Coyons , which I find in the Delphin French and Latin Dictionary of Monsieur L'Abbe Danet ( Lyons edition , 1721 ) , to be a mot , populciire et lias , and to signify lasche , pollron , and to be translated by the Latin ivords ¦ i gnavits , vecors , faint hearted , cowardly , lazy ; or in Swede-Gothic , kitghon a silly fellow , homo imbelhts a poltroon . But still this

etymology does not to my mind appear to carry the meaning of " cowan" far enough , nor without a certain elasticity of imagination convey the reason why cowans should be totally excluded from a Mason ' s Lodge of any degree , seeing that even the uninitiated , who are not Masons , are admitted under proper regulations ; although want of courage , diligence , and skill , shoidd operate as a bar to Masonic admission and advancement , yet not peculiarly so more than man } - other qualities not heard of in " good report . " It therefore seems to me that we must still seek for the reason of the

special , unconditional , and total exclusion of cowans as " cowans to Masonry , " by reference to some peculiar meaning proper to that very term as used in Masonry . We are not helped in this inquiry by quotations of the word or its illustrated uses in Masonic documents , because , whatever " cowan" means , it maybe taken fairly to mean now what it always meant among Masons , namely , something shocking and antagonistic to the spirit and nature of

Freemasonry , its objects , ancl its obligations . It is certainly to be regretted that wc should still have to seek the etymology of a word ivhich has been in familiar use for so long with certain conventional meanings attached to it by Masons , and still more that orthographical similarity alone should have led us—in the Hebrew cohen , the Greek KVGIV , the Latin quietus whence coy , thc Swcdo-Gothic kiighonthe French coyoii and couardeor in old French

, , culvert , i . q . culiim . -eeriere to turn tail , the Italian codardo with thc same radical sense , the Icelandic kiifica to cow , i . e . to depress with fear , the Arabic tjahava , covin , to defraud , & c , & c . —to seek for the meaning of a word specially used by Masons , and that , apparently , not with a close regard to its general vernacular meaning-. What we want is , fo have " cowan" 2 mt before us , definite and constant in its meaning as applied by us , and consistent

with the sense of its root as popularly used , ( if we can find it ) , without any strained or straitened imagination to help us . This , I think , is the desideratum with Bro . Cooke as well as myself ancl many others I know , and in the same spirit of deferential hut sincere inquiry which seems to actuate Bro . Cooke , I would offer him and your readers the following extract of Masonic notes I have from time to time made for my own satisfaction .

" Cowan " from ivhat I have been able to make out , is not of Hebrew , Greek , Arabic , Eoman , Teutonic , or French origin , nor have we , so far as I can ascertain , evidence of its use in Freemasonry before thc era of Masonic excellence in Scotland , where tiic word is still vernacular , hut not to nry knowledge in any sense similar to ours , except in the West of Scotland as a slang term of reproach applied to black sheep , knob sticks , or other degenerate , political , and trade unionists ; ancl I deem it not improbable that this use of it is rather the derivative than author ofthe Masonic sense of " cowan . "

Sir Walter Scott , in " Rob Roy , " puts thc word into the mouth of a Gael , when he makes Allan liiverach say "She does not value a Cawmil (/ . e . Campbell ) mair as a cowan , and you may tell McCalhun More ( the Duke of Argyll ) that Allan Inverach said sae ; " and as explaining the sense of " cowan" he makes Major Galbraith reply "There ne'er was treason in Scotland but a Cawmil was at the bottom of it . " Now Sir Walter Scott was a

good Mason , and also ( perhaps more to our present purpose ) a sound and critical Scotch scholar , and I think may be taken as an authority here ; and this sense ofthe word " cowan" I believe to be that accepted for the word in its use by the ancient Freemasons of Scotland , apart from that other vernacular " cowan" as defined by Jamicson to mean a lazy and inferior stonemason or d yker , whichbthe byemeans "fencer" or fencemaker of turf or

, y , , stone , or ditch— "dyke" being ditch in Scotland as well as England , tesiante , old Scotch proverb : — " February fill the dyke with either black or white , " ¦/ . c . dust or snow . I think that our " cowan" is of Scotch origin , but derived from the Erse or Gaelic stock , rather than the Saxon . Sir Walter Scott makes a Gael use it as a term of reproach against the then Duke of Argyle , well known to be no lazy bungler at any work

he undertook ; but a skilful , deep and politic personan-e notorious for his Punica fides amongst the hig hland clans , and an allv ofthe Hanoverian government lor the purpose of breaking up tlie Celtic feudal principles and clan combinations . Now the Gaelic or Erse language as spoken in the neighbourhood of Inverness , and perhaps elsewhere iu the north of Scotland , has the word couaclum pronounced koo-a-chan ( the cli gutturally ) , which means literally

a faithless , base and contemptible fellow , void of moral worth and is applied to a coward , also to a traitor ; in both cases because of the base nature of the character who wants courage ' and cannot be trusted . The force of " couachan" being increased by its being itself a diminutive—couctclian pronounced softly , and not gutturally , would be cowa ' an , and here I believe we have the very word cmoan of our Scotch Masonic formula , in the same

sense—a base man in whom trust cannot be reposed—one , in short , void of all moral worth , and who cannot seek the tyled recess uninfluenced by mercenary or other unworthy motives ; literall y a couachan , and therefore the interdicted and anathematized " cowan" of Masonry . " It is worthy of remark , that the Swedo-Gothic kiighon , and the Gaelic couacJionshould both embrace the guttural dipthongs gh

, and ch , which we know are perfectly convertible ; and it is possible that there maj' be between these two words more than a mere orthographical affinity . I trust that some brother having access to the means will improve the occasion by tracing their etymology more in detail , and favouring us with his results . —M . D . No . 68 , Haddington St . John ' s , Kilwinning ; P . M ., No . 78 C ; P . Prov . S . G . W ., Stafford .

WHO WAS G . FIELD ? In that very useful work , Watts ' s Bibliotlieca Britannica , vol . iv ., under the head of "Masonic City , " a reference is made to a " Proposal for a new System of Circular Architecture , and Plan of a Masonic City . Phil . Mag ., vol . 29 ; " and on a reference to the 29 th vol . ofthe Philosophical Magazine , p . 97 , there is this system advocated by G . FieldEsq . In the lates that accompany the

, p description ( fig . 5 ) , is a ground plan of such a city , the main roads forming a double intersecting triangle , and presenting at first sight somewhat of a Masonic emblematical appearance . The question I propound is , was G . Field a Freemason , and if so , what is known about him ?—QUINCUNX .

CIIAPITRE DE CLERMONT . As Masons our fraternal intercourse often brings us into intimate relations with continental brethren , and we hear much of various orders , and rites , that are to us wholly unintelligible , one of which , the Chapter of Clermont , we arc frequently reminded of , and when asking for a history or definition of its antiquity , purposes or powers , we constantly receive such curious accounts that

we are more mystified than ever . Can you help us out of the difficulty ?—E . J . S . and T . T . [ Our brethren hardly need to be informed that the history of the hauls grades is a very complicated one , and into which we do not propose to enter , but confine ourselves . to a reply to the query of E . J . S . and T . T . Somewhere about the middle of the last century , the degrees of the French Lodges had assumed such

a state of antagonism and dissension , owing to the many inventions and interpolations of unscrupulous , or needy brethren , that the Prince de Clermont , Louis de Bourbon , who presided over the Masonic fraternities , together with many influential brethren , became so disgusted with what had been done , in devising newdegrees , that they resolved to put a stop to the evil , which they set about in that most effectual way to produce uniformity , by

instituting another system . At the head of this party was the Chevalier de Bonneville , and in compliment to the prince , their head , they called the Chapter after him . In its rite it included all the system of Scotch Masonry which was brought forward by the Chevalier Ramsay , numbering somewhere about one hundred grades of continental Masonry denominated " Ecossais , " and which were spread over Germany ancl the north of Europeby

, the officers of the French army , and more especially by thc Baron de Hund , and the Marquis cle Bernez . ] FIRST LOWflE IX NORTH A 1 IEEICA . When was Masonry first instituted in America?—J . HODGES . [ According to Preston , the first Freemasons' Lodge in North America was established in New Jersey in the year 1730 by a-

, warrant of the Grand Lodge of England , under the hand of the Duke of Norfolk , Grand Master . ] MASONRY IN MEXICO IX 1 S 2 S . Will some one , who is better read than myself on the politics of Mexico , tell me where I can find an account of the two