What A Great American Mason Can Believe.

visited . He must have used up a great many chisels in the course of his work , and these , if he preserved and labelled each of them with a memorandum of the work it had performed , would , one day , be of great value to Masonic curiositv hunters .

Some of our distinguished English brethren have recently been excited over a discovery in the Bodleian Library , which proves that the Hiramic legend existed 500 years ago . Bah ! That is a mere fleabite to what Bro . Morris can prove ; for instance , on page 45 of his book I find as follows : —

" bailing near Crotona , on the Eastern coast of Italy , recalled the name and labours of Pythagoras , commemorated in the Freemasons * Monitor ^ in these words : — ' Our

ancient friend and brother , the great Pythagoras , who , in his travels through Asia , Africa , and Europe , was initiated into several orders of priesthood , and raised to the sublime degree of Master Mason . ' "

Thus , the Masonic Monitor furnishes evidence that the Masters' legend existed , not only 500 years ago , but about 2 , 400 years ago . Bro . Morris , of course , believes that the two Saints John were Masons ; these he respectively styles

as the " June St . John " and the " December St . John . " The tomb of the former Bro . Morris could not find , but the burial place of the latter tradition assigned to Ephesus , and Brx Morris savs : —

" And there the people believe that our good December St . John lies buried behind the high altar , but his tomb , when opened , was found to have lost its body ; the pure flesh of the apostle of peace had turned into manna , or the

body itself had been translated to Heaven , leaving that Celestial bread of the Royal Arch in its place . This grave had been made under his own instructions , while alive , and on his deathday he walked there voluntarily , and laid himself down in it . "

From the above one would infer that St . John was not only a Master Mason but a Royal Archer too . Bro . Morris , of course , visited Tyre , and as some writers claimed that King Hiram ' s tomb was located on a hill , so he took with him two guides or servants , and climbed nti the hill , nrftvinns

to which he saw two eagles flying above , when he immediately ordered the servants to fall behind , and took the eagles for his guides , and they , of course , brought him to the right place . He says : —

" Kabn Hairan ( the grave of Hiram ) bears about it unmistakable marks of extreme antiquity . So says Dr . Thornion and so say I . It is impossible to disprove the local tradition which assigns this tomb to the great Tyrian king .

So says Professor H . B . Tristram and so say I . . . This is the monument of Hiram ; yonder eagles know it and I know it . " As there was no Masonic emblem on the said monument

Bro . Morris chiselled on it the square and compass . It seems that later on Bro . Sir C . Warren visited the said tomb , and he found that , in addition to Bro . Morris ' s square and compass , a cross was also engraved thereon . Hence a future Masonic high degree pilgrim will be ready to swear

that King Hiram was not only a Master Mason but a Knight Templar too . Bro . Morris climbed up to the top of the said monument , and on looking into it he found it empty . So our enthusiastic brother actually got into it , and enjoyed the delight

oi laying himselt down in the old cofhn , and gives the following reason , viz ., " Here lies the MaBter of the Widow ' s son , whose tragic history seasons every instruction of the Freemasons' Lodge . "

But that is not all . cro . Morns is very sure that the structure of Hiram ' s tomb " was drawn by the pencil of Hiram the widow's son , and that the munificence of King Solomon bore the expense of its erection . " " Thus , " he continues , " our first three Grand Masters were united in this , as in other matters interesting to Masons . " And that is not all ; for , in a note on page 113 , Bro .

Morris says : — " According to Masonic tradition the funeral rites under which King Hiram was buried were composed by King Solomon , and they were substantially the same as those in use at the present day . " As to what became of Bro . Hiram ' s bones ? Bro . Morris

does not presume that they turned into manna , or that Hiram ' s body was taken up to Heaven , but he believes that King Hiram was really never put into the sarcophagus at

all , but was buried many feet below the tomb , and he advises Sir Charles Warren to dig deep under the tomb , where the bones may be recovered . Bat what will my learned English brethren say to the

What A Great American Mason Can Believe.

following ancient tradition , which our good Bro . Morris , I presume , picked up in the Holy Land ? Bro . Morris , on page 199 , says : " It seems , from the traditions of the Craft , that various questions in regard to the construction of Freemasonry-

' Speculative Masonry' as we call it—were made subject of discussion by the three Grand Masters , and settled , from time to time , at their conferences in Jerusalem . One of the most interesting of these was that of an appropriate

colour . Upon this point the minds of the three philosophers were strangely diverse . King Solomon preferred red or scarlet , emblematic of fervency and zeal , so strikingly illustrated in his own character ; King Hiram expressed his choice for the royal colour , purple , a hue associated with his own metropolis , Tyre , ever since the purple shell had been utilized as emblematio of the . noblest precepts ; Hiram Abif was partial to blue , as suggestive of

that expansion and universality which they all hoped would become characteristic of the new society . Standing here , on this lofty point of rocks , and gazing over the vast sea before him—a sea famed in all ages for its depths of bluethe boundarv of his vision onlv limited bv a clearness of

the blue , Hiram stored his mind with arguments in favour of the adoption of that colour , that , when the three Grand Masters held their next conference at Jerusalem , his ( Bro . Hiram Abif ' s ) logic proved irresistible , and so the ' cerulean hue ' was adopted as the unchangable type of Masonry . "

But . Bro . Morris brought further information from the Orient which is even better thau the above , that is , if one of Bro . Morris ' s legends can be better than another . I must , however , premise that the title page of Bro . Morris ' s immortal book , viz . " Freemasonry in the Holy Land , "

is enclosed within a triangle , and near the top of which is engraved the picture of an oyster shell , and this shell is an emblem of great importance to Freemasonry . Briefly then , Bro . Morris recovered , when in the Holy

Land , an ancient Masonic degree , lineally descended from the time of the building of Solomon's Temple . The said degree is called the " Palm and Shell . " About the Palm I kuow nothing ; but the information I received

about the Shell is astonishing . Indeed , who could have supposed that if it had not been for an oyster shell speculative Masonry would have been minus of the third degree , and here is the tradition about the Shell , as given by Bro . Morris in his lectures when he was in Boston , viz .:

—When Grand Master Hiram Abif and the Tyrian workmen arrived in the Holy Land , for the purpose of building the Temple at Jerusalem , they landed in the port of Joppa . Of course , the coast of Joppa , like other coasts , was covered with various kinds of sea shells , and

Grand Master Hiram Abif ordered each of his working men to pick up two of these shells , one of which was to be suspended from the neck of each man and rest on the breast , and the other was somehow placed on the

forehead , and this , said Bro . Morris , was the first Masonic mark or sign whereby Masons recognised each other . Now , when the body of our lamented Grand Master was found , it was in such a state of decomposition and putrefaction that no one in the world could ever have identified it , if the ruffian when he gavo the fatal blow had not driven the shell on Hiram ' s forehead into his fractured skull ; and this shell of course furnished conclusive evidence as to the identity of Hiram ' s mortal remains .

Bro . Morns recovered at least one more * ancient Masonic degree , which is called the " Iron Ring . " I kuow not to what period the origin of that degree is assigned . It may

refer to that iron ring which , according to one story , the Crusaders found attached to a trap door in the Holy Land ; according to another story the iron ring and trap door was found in the time of Emperor Titus , and according to

Masonic luminaries and dignitaries in creation , under a firm conviction that they are bona , fide ancient Masonic degrees of the Holy Land ? But , absurd as Bro . Morris ' s belief in legends may be , he is comparatively speaking a philosopher , when put

still another story , it was discovered in the time of Zerubbabel . But be that as it may so far , though Bro . Morris conferred the said degrees in various parts of the United States of America , I have not heard as yet of any

organised bodies of those Orders . But who knows whether ere long our land , and England too , may not be covered with Lodges and Grand Lodges of Palm Shellers and Iron Ringers , which will be patronised by the highest