The History of Initiation - The Masonic Trowel

140 HISTORY OF INITIATION
by the tumultuous clang of musical instruments, and the
screams of harsh and dissonant voices, reciting in verse
the praise of those heroes who had been brave in war,
courteous in peace, and devoted friends and patrons of
religion. 26 This sacred ceremony completed, an oath of
secrecy was administered, and hence the waters of the
cauldron were said to deprive the candidates of utterance.
27 The oath was ratified by drinking out of the
sacred vessel; and thus sealed, its violation could only
be expiated by death. 28
In the prosecution of the consecutive ceremonies, the
following characters were successively sustained by the
aspirant. Taliesih applies them to himself in his poem
29
of Angar Cyvyndawd. I
30 have been a dog ; I
I have been a blue salmon ;
have been a roebuck on the moun-
tain ; I have been a stock of a tree ; I have been a spade ;
I have been an axe in the hand; I have been a pin in a
forceps for a year and a half; I have been a cock, varie-
gated with white, upon hens in Eidin; I have been a
stallion upon a mare I ; have been a buck of yellow hue in
the act of feeding ; I have been a grain of the arkites
which vegetated on a hill, and then the reaper placed me
in a smoky recess, 31 that I might be compelled freely
to
yield my corn, when subjected to tribulation; 32 I was
received by a hen33 with red fangs and a divided crest; 34
26 The dance was somewhat similar to the wild ceremonial dances
of the Corybantes ; and is mentioned by Taliesin, in his poem of
Kadair Teyrn On; (Welsh Archaeol., vol. i., p. 65,) and more particularly
described in another poem, where the bard says, " The assembled
train were dancing after the manner, and singing in cadence,
with garlands (of ivy) on their brows ; loud was the clattering of
shields round the ancient cauldron in frantic mirth," &c. (Dav. Druid.,
p. 576.) Toland, in his History of the Druids, may also be usefully
consulted on this ceremony ; and Borlase in his Antiquities of Cornwall.
27 Turn. Vindicat, p. 283.
98
Taliesin, Preiddeu Annwn. Welsh Archaeol., vol. i., p. 45.
* Welsh Archaeol., vol. i., p. 36.
30 We have already witnessed the profuse use of this animal in the
mysteries : and we shall find as we proceed, that similar canine phantoms
were exhibited in the mysteries of Britain.
31 The dark cavern of initiation.
32 Or in other words, that the austerity of initiation might humanize
and improve the heart, and elicit the fruits of morality and virtue'.
35 The arkite goddess, Ceridwen, was represented in the initiation as
a hen with red fangs.
34 Emblematical of the lunette, or six days moon.