The History of Initiation - The Masonic Trowel

178 HISTORY OF INITIATION, ETC.
obligations to pay due submission to the chief officers of
the state, whether civil or religious ; to practise devotion
to the gods ; and to defend and protect his initiated
companions, at the hazard of his life, from all secret and
open attacks of their enemies; and, if slain, to avenge
their death. The oath was sealed by drinking mead out
of a human skull. 42
shipped swords and spears a practice common with all who practised
the Buddhic superstition.
42 The word skull was commonly used for a drinking vessel, which,
probably, " received this name from the barbarous custom which prevailed
among several ancient nations, of drinking out of the skulls of
their enemies. Warnefrid, in his work, de gestis Longobard, says,
Albin slew Cunimund, and having carried away his
head, converted it
into a drinking vessel ; which kind of cup is with us called
schala,
but in the Latin language it has the name of patera." (Jamieson,
Scot. Diet., v. Skul.