The Universal Language of Freemasonry - ArchiMeD - Johannes ...

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Chapter 6 - Peculiarities of Masonic Language
In the ritual, "Tubal Cain" is the name of the pass grip of a Master Mason.
Thus, the following dialog between the Worshipful Master and the Conductor of
the candidate is given in Duncan's Masonic Ritual and Monitor, a guide made
also available to profanes, although its purpose was "not so much to gratify the
curiosity of the uninitiated as to furnish a guide for the neophytes:" 1239
W.M.: What is that?
Conductor: The pass grip of a Master Mason.
W.M.: Has it a name?
Conductor: It has.
W.M.: Will you give it me?
Conductor: I did not so receive it, neither can I so impart it.
W.M.: How will you dispose of it?
Conductor: I will letter it or halve it.
W.M.: Halve it, and begin.
Conductor: No, you begin.
W.M.: Begin you.
Conductor: Tu.
W.M.: Bal.
Conductor: Cain. (Pronounced by the conductor - Tubal Cain.) 1240
In a footnote to this part of the Master Mason's initiation ceremony in
Duncan's ritual, the above-mentioned strange interpretation ("What does it
denote? Worldly possession. - Dr. Hemming." 1241 ) is also given.
6.18.2 Masonic "Tom Swifties"
Tom Swifties are a form of rule-governed wordplay consisting of pun-like
utterances ascribed to the character Tom Swift, a brainchild of Edward L.
Stratemeyer, who was born in New Jersey in 1862 as the son of middle-class
German immigrants, and died in 1930. Stratemeyer first used this character in
"Shorthand Tom; or, the exploits of a young reporter" which was serialized in
1894. Sixteen years later, he re-used the name for the hero of his juvenile fiction
series, which were published under the pseudonym Victor Appleton.
Desperately trying to avoid the unadorned use of the word "said", the author
never merely let Tom "say" anything, but "assert", "asseverate", "chuckle",
"declare", "grin", and so on; he employed the structure "SENTENCE, Tom
said, ADVERB" ad nauseam, until one day somebody satirized this mannerism
by using puns, thus coining the Tom Swifties. The Random House Dictionary of
1238 Ibid.
1239 Duncan, "Preface," p. 3.
1240 Cf. Duncan, p. 97.
1241 Cf. Duncan, p. 97.