Masonic Notes And Queries.

sonic symbols . Their arrangement strictly show how lodges are opened and closed . The crypts are the most perfect lodge-rooms ever arranged , and if we could meet " E . A . " for ten minutes in the Temple Church , we would undertake to demonstrate to him , in half that time , that Freemasonry of the old York rite , was a lower grade of Templary . ]

THE FREE MASOXS , A POEM . Would there be anyobjection to reprint inyour columns , The Free-Masons , a Sttclibrastick Poem , published about 1723 , I am told it is very scarce . —A . M . —[ We could not do as you desire , because the poem itself is totally opposed to all our ideas of decency , and it really is not worth type and paper . The only imitation of

Hudibrasis in the matter is its coarseness , andeveninthat it lacks Butler ' s master-hand . Perhaps a specimen of the unobjectionable matter will better explain its worth , and we therefore present one : — " But there ' s another billet-cleux , AYhich in times past ivas much in use , It paper was , all over writ on ,

liy Spaniard , Swede , or Dane , or Briton ; Jn antient language , and eacli rover , All Masons could the sense discover ; But as where paper has no writing , So when 'tis of these men's inditing , None but their mighty selves could read , Of mystries known of Mason ' s trade ; And dashes , and no scribbling , mean Tbe self-same tiring as paper clean , To him who knows not one or t ' other-, Is not installed a Mason ' s brother . "

ST . JOHN" THE EVANGELIST A GRAXD MASTER . Where is there any authority to be found for a statement in the Craft lectures , now generally omitted , that " St . John the Evangelist , who was at that time Bishop of Ephesus , " was requested and accepted the office of Grand Master , " and thus drew the second line parallel , ' When was this legend discontinued ?—Ex . Ex . " THE MARKS 01 ' MARK MAS 0 XS .

In common with many Mark Masons , I was told that in choosing a mark it ought to be one which should present an odd number of ends or points . The reason for the dictum was not communicated to me , nor have I ever heard of its being so to others . In the example ( p . 94 of the FREEJIASOXS' MAGAZINE ) , given by Bro . D . Murray Lyon , from the '" ' minnte-book of Mother Kilwinning

Lodge , 164-2-43 , " out of a total of fifty-seven marks , as I reckon them , there twenty-nine with even points , twentythree with odd points , and five without a point . Perhaps I may have erred in selecting that example as an authority , for it does not appear , by the context , that the holders of those marks were such as we understand to be brethren of the mark degree . From what I gather

they seem to have been a purely operative guild , and in all guilds it was usual for each , member to have his mark whatever was the craft , art , or mystery , he was employed in . This latter portion it is not my intention to enquire into , but what I am desirous of knowing , not from conjecture , but reliable evidence , is—should a Mark Mason ' s mark have an odd , even , or no number of points , and why ?—TESSERJE .

DRUIPISM AND FREEMASOXRV . ( Continued from page 100 . ) But after the Phoenician colonies bad mixed with the primeval Britons , this degenerated priesthood seem to have delighted in human blood ; and their victims , though sometimes beasts , were oftener men ; and not only criminals and captivesbut their vm * y disciples were inhumanl

, y sacrificed on their ^ altars ; whilst some transfixed by arrows , others crucified in their temples , some instantly stabbed to the heart , and others impaled in honour of the gods , bespoke , amidst variety of death , the most horrid proficiency in the science of murder . But the Druid holo-caust , that monstrous image of straw , connected and shaped by wicker work , and promiscuously

crowded with wild beasts and human victims , was doubtless the most infernal sacrifice that was ever invented by the human imagination . These cruelties were certainly not attached to primitive Drnidism ; they are to * be ascribed to the Phoenician colonists of a subsequent period . Among the Druidish ceremonies , may be reckoned also the turnings of the body during the

times of worship . The numerous round monuments in Danmonium were formed for the purpose of this mysterious rite . Iu several of the Scottish Isles , at this day , the vulgar never approach "the fire hallowed karne , " without walking three times round it from east to west , according to the course of the sun . The Druids probably turned sun-ways inorderto bless and worship their gods ;

and the contrary way , when they intended to curse and destroy their enemies . The first kind of turning has been called the deisol ; the second the tuapliol . Tacitus alludes to the latter in a very remarkable passage : — Druideeque circumpreces diras , sublatis ad coelivmmanibus , fundentes , novitate aspectus perculere milites . The Koman soldiers , we see , were terrified by the novelty- of this rite—a plain proof that it was unknown in those

countries which had been subjected to the Eoman yoke . The holy fires of the Druids may also deserve our notice ; we have , at this day , traces of the fire-worship of the Druids in several customs , both ofthe Devonians and the Cornish ; but , in Ireland , we may still see the holy fires in all their solemnity . The Irish call the month , of May del-time , or fire of Belus ; and the first of May

la-bel-time , or the day of Belus ' s fire . In an old Irish Glossary it is mentioned that the Druids of Ireland used to light two solemn fires every year ; through which all four-footed beasts were driven , as a preservative against all contagions distempers . The Irish have this custom at the present moment ; they kindle the fire in the milking-yard—men , women , and children pass through

or leap over it ; and the cattle aro driven through the flames of the burning straw on the first of May ; and in the month of November , they have also their fire feasts ; when , according to tbe custom of the Danmonian as well as the Irish Druids , the hills were enveloped in flame . Previously to this solemnity ( on the eve of November ) the fire in every private house was extinguished ; hither , then , the people were obliged to resort in order to rekindle it . The ancient Persians named the

month of November Adur , or fire . Adur , according to Richardson , was the angel jjresiding over that element ; in consequence of which , on the ninth , his name-day , the country blazed all round with flaming piles , whilst tho magi , by the injunction of Zoroaster , visited with great solemnity all the temples of fire throughout the empire ; which , on this occasion , were adorned and

illuminated in a most splendid manner . Hence our British illuminations in November had probably their ori gin . It was at that Baal Samliam called the souls to judgment , which , according to their deserts , were designed to enter the bodies of mon or brutes , and to be happy or miserable during their next abode on the earth . But the punishment of the wicked , the Druids taughtmiht

, g be obliterated by sacrifices to Baal . The sacrifices of the black sheep , therefore , was offered up for the souls of the departed , aud various species of charms * exhibited . Baal-Sliamliaim , a Phenician appellation of the God of Baal , signifies tlie planet of tlie sun . Meni is an appellation of