Free Masonry - The Masonic Trowel

OF FREE MASONRY. 291
run him through the heart for the crime with which he is
accused. After various frights, he obtains his life, on condition
that he will revenge the father of Masonry in the death
of his assassin. He is shown to a dark cavern. He is to penetrate
into it, arid they call to him, strike all that shall oppose
you; enter, defend yourself, and avenge our master;
at that price you shall receive the degree of elect A
poniard in his right hand, a lamp in his left, he proceeds; a
phantom opposes his passage, he hears the same voice repeat,
strike, avenge Hiram, there is his assassin. He strikes,
and the blood flows. Strike off his head, the voice repeats,
and the head of the corpse is lying at his feet. He seizes it
by the hair,* and triumphantly carries it back, as a proof of
his victory; shows it to each of the brethren, and is judged
worthy of a new degree.
" I have questioned divers Masons whether this apprenticeship
to ferocity and murder had never given them the
idea, that the head to be cut off was that of kings, and they
candidly owned, that the idea had never struck them until
the revolution had convinced them of the factt
* The reader may easily conceive, that this corpse is no more than a
mannikin containing bladders foil of blood.
t Observations on the degree of elected knights.—WcW* Monitor, New-
York, A. D. 1802, p. 236. Degree ©/ Dalcho, No. 9. Of F. M. L. No. 19.
on the list of degrees.
« The master represents Solomon seated in the east with a table before
him covered tsiih black. All the brethren mnst be dressed in black, and their
hats flapped, with a broad black ribbon from the left shoulder to the right
hip, on tho lower part of which are nine red roses, four on each side, and
one at the bottom, to which is suspended a poniard. - The aprons are white,
lined with black, speckled with blood; on the flap a bloody arm, with a
poniard, and on the area a bloody arm, holding by the hair a bloody head."
[Daughter of the night! what is next?]
44 Near to the lodge is a small, dark place, representing a cavern, in which
is placed a lamp, a place representing a spring with a basin to hold water,
, and a table on which are laid a poniard, and a representation of a bloody
head, as just severed from the body. Near the table a large stone to sit
on, and below the lamp, in capital letters, VENGEANCE."— Vide Abduction
t>f William Morgan.