Music And The Masonic Ritual—No. Ii.

Por the accuracy of this we do not intend to vouch , the attempt being sufficient for our purpose . Mr . Kni g ht further adds , " Dancing was also a parf of the ceremonial in all mysteries , whence it was held in such high esteem that the philosopher , Socrates , and the poet , Sophocles , both persons of exemplary gravity , and the latter of high political rank and dignity , condescended to cultivate it as a useful and

respectable accomplishment . The author of the Homeric hymn to Apollo , describes that god accompanying his lyre with the dance , joined by the other deities ; and a Corinthian poet , cited by Athenseus , introduces Jove , the father of gods and men , employed in the same exercise . The ancient Indians , too , paid their devotions to the sun by a dance imitative of his motionwhich they performed every morning and

, evening , and which was their only act of worship . " It would be futile to multiply authorities in favour of the dance being the chief musical characteristic of the early mysteries , both refined and barbarous , as it is presumed the foregoing extracts , from Payne Knight will , from the reputation . of their author , be found sufficient to establish it .

Without attempting anything like a description of the various ceremonies attendant on initiation into the mysteries , ive cannot conclude this portion" of our subject without reference the phallic , or song dance used in them , and to the general character of the music- so adopted . In commencing Avith the solar fire worshi p of Hindostan , we find the song dance to have been an impassioned , vehement ,

musical recitative or declamation , called betarmus , accompanied with leaping , dancing , aud the smiting together of swords and shields , which Bryant says was intended to be symbolical of the confusion when Noah , his family , ami the preserved animals left the ark . From what we can gather of the musical sounds used in initiation , in Hindos an , it appears they Avere chiefly composed of groanscriesand

, , bowlings , which Avere succeeded b y the jingling of bells , and these latter by the soundings of conchas , or shell trumpets . In the Mifchrafcic mysteries of Zoroaster , in Persia , there were the same intimidating cries , and howling , but in this case there was added a mimic thunder , and Strabo * says that Zoroaster also introduced " melodious music , " in order to give his ritual a more imposing effect . He

further informs us that this kind of music was only resorted to towards that stage of the candidate ' s reception when he had become nearly exhausted from his trials , and fearfully excited by his perils , and that then , and not till then , the " melodious music" was put into requisition to soothe and calm his excitement . Unfortunately we are left quite in the dark as to this melod y being

vocalinstru-, mental , or a mixture of both , and we can only conjecture that from the country , and era , it must have been produced by the soft breathin " flute , and accompanied by the tabor ( the flute being , not such an instrument as we UOAV recognize it , but a more melancholy shepherd ' s