Masonic Notes And Queries.

tallers , and of the Assassins , was drawing to a close , being about to fall before the celebrated Beyhars or Malik-id-Dhabir , Sultan of Egypt of the Memlook dynasty . The Hospitalers , or Knights of St . John , being hard pressed , sent an embassy begging him to maintain peace in that part of the country Avhich borders on the Ismaeleek , and he would only consent on their remitting the tribute which they received from the Ismaeleek , namely : — 2000 pieces of gold and 100 measures of corn . In 1269 , Beybars

took the chief castles of the Knights Templars , and of St . John in those parts , namely , Safeetab and Husu , and the Ismaeleeh paid to him the tribute before paid to the Knights ; but after a short respite their castles too , were taken , one by one ; and last of all Muneika , Kahf , and Kadmoos , in 1272 , in which year the Friday prayers were celebrated in them , * p . 45 . * * * Von Hamanerf- says : ¦— " Remains of the Israelites still exist both in Persia and Syriahut merely as one of the sects

, many and heresies of Islamism , without any claims to power , aud -without the means of obtaining their former importance of which they seem , in fact , to have lost all remembrance . The policy of the secret state , subverting doctrine of the first lodge of the Isuiaelites , and the murderous tactics of the assassins , are equally foreign to them , p . 47 , * * * " On the failure of the rebellion of II Mohrannaa and Baber ,

Abdallah , son of Maimoon Kaddah , fonnded , as we have seen , a sect called the Ismaeleh , from Ismaele the sou of Djaafar-is-Sadik , whose name he made use of to give authority to his system . His object was to gain political power , and to effect that by secret propagandism which had not succeed by open violence . ' Similar attempts have been made in different ages -of the world : the colleges of the Indian and Egyptian priests ,

the association of the Magi , Avhich more than once shook the throne of Persia , the secret societies of the Pythagoreans in Southern Italy and Sicily , the Bacchanalians of which Livy give such a singular description , the Templars in the middle ages , and the Jesuits in our own , are all examples of secret -secieties formed under the pretext of religion , hut really aiming at the establishment of their order in the plentitude of political power . !

"Abdallah , son of Maimoon , divided his system 'into seven degrees , after the fashion of the Pythagorean and Indian philosophers / into which his disciples were initiated gradually . 'The last degree inculcated the vanity of all religion , —the indifference of actions , which , according to him , are neither visited with recompense nor chastisement , either now or hereafter . This alone Avas the path of truth and right , all the rest imposture and error . He appointed emissarieswhom he

, ¦ despatched to enlist disciples , and to initiate them , according to their capacity for libertinism and turbulence , in some or all of the degrees . The pretensions of the descendants of Mohammed , the son of Ismail , served him as a political mask : these his missionaries , asserted as partisans , Avhile they were secretly ¦ hut the apostles of crime and impiety . § "These degrees Avere afterwards increased to ninebthe

, y western Ismaeleeh , in the time of the Falamite caliphs of Egypt , and as they became then more known , and are described by Makrisi , the great historian , I will give them as they Avere taught in their lodge at Cairo : — ' This account , which Makrisi has preserved , concerning the promulgation of these degrees of initiation , forms a very precious and the most ancient document on the history of the secret societies of the East , in Avhose

steps those of the West afterwards trod . ' || pp . 79 , 80 . * * * "The Grand Master was called Sey yidna , our Lord , and commonly Sheikh-ul-Djehd , the old man or supreme master of the mountain , because the Order always possesed themselves of the castles in mountainous regions . He ivas neither king nor prince in the usual sense of the word , and never assumed the title either of Sultan , Malik , or Emeer , but merely that of Sheikb

, which , to this day , the heads of the Arab tribes and the superiors of the religious orders of the Srofees and dervishes bear . His authority could be over no kingdom nor principality , but over a brotherhood or order ; European writers , therefore , fall into a great mistake in confounding the empire cf the Assassins Avith hereditary dynasties , since , in the form of its institution , it was an order like that of the Knights of St . John , the _ Teutonic Knights , or the Templars . The latter of these , besides having a Grand Master , Grand Priors , and religious

Nuncios , had also some resemblance to the Assassins in their spirit of political interference and secret doctrine . Dressed in white , Avith the distinctive mark of the red cross on their mantles , as were the Assassins in red girdles and caps , the Templars had also secret tenets , which denied and abjured the sanctity of the cross , as the others did the commandments of Islamism . The fundamental maxim of the policy of both Avas to obtain possession of the castles and strong places of the adjacent country ;

and thus , Avithout pecuniary or military means , to maintain an inperium in imperio , keeping the nations in subjection , as dangerous rivals to princes , p . 92 . * * * " This great secret of the mass is only administered in the presence of the initiated of the male part of the Ansaireeh sect . G * eat precautions are taken against the possibility of this , their religious service , being seen ; and it is probable , that if a stranger

were known to have been a witness to it , accidentally or otherwise , he Avould be made away with , if possible . But such are the precautions taken , by placing watchmen , and choosing times and places where there is little chance of interruption , that scarcely ever has anyone been an absolute witness of their rites . Two of my Christian servants were brought up in the district of Merkab , in villages partly Christian and partly Ansaireeh .

The father of one of them was Avell acquainted with the customr of the Ausaireeh . Five times during the year , at the time of their chief feasts , the father and son were obliged to leave the Ansairee quarter of the village iii which they were living , while the Ansaireeh entered a house belonging to the visiting place in winter , or went into the open country in summer . My other servant has told me that once , when present in a district of the Shemseen sect , he was

made to go up into a room raised above the earth on poles , and constructed of myrtle boughs , the women being put into a house while the men went into a valley , where he could see them from the tent , and where a sheikh read to them . " I was once told by a Spanish consular agent at Ladikeeh , that an old man , who had died about five years before the time of our conversation , had once been witness at a village in the plains , of one of these secret religious meetings . He was an overseer of the village , and coming there unexpectedly , concealed

himself in a room full of chopped straw . From this lie could look into the sheikh ' s house , in which a number of men Avere assembled round a large bowl of wine , Avith candles affixed to its circumference , or , perhaps , placed about it . The sheikh read some prayers . They then cursed Abu-Beer , Omar , Othmau-ibu , Uffan , and Sheikh-it-Turcoman , and others ( he said Christians among them ) , and that then he gave a spoonful of wine , first to the sheikhs present , and afterwards to all the rest . Oranges

were then eaten , other prayers said , and the assembly broken up . pp . 156 , 157 * * * " When the men go to a solemn meeting , they wear their shirts over their drawers , turn down the heels of then- shoes , and leave their weapons at home . My lad has often seen'Jfhem . thus going and returning . There are some other regulations and prohibitions connected wdth the dress and bearing of those Avho attend a meetingfor which I refer to the sermon they

, pronounce , of which I have given a translation in Chapter IX . "Such are thetheoietical and ceremonial parts of the religion of the Ansairee brotherhood . Before I proceed to speak of the other parts of their Freemasonic constitution , the commands and prohibitions to Avhich they are subject , and their conventional signs of recognition , I will , from the information I have received from my Ansairee lad and othersand from the

, formulas in their books , give an account of the process of initiation into the knowledge of , and participation in the mysteries of the sect . pp . 158 , 159 . * * * AVe come now to a part of the Ansairee system which is interesting on account of its connection with the modern , mystery of Freemasonry . I call it " modern , " not because I pretend to say when it arose , but because it is still in existence . I

leave it to Freemasons to say Avbether their brotherhood contains anything of importance Avhich is not found in that of the Ansaireeh . "' The Ansaireeh , ' says M . Victor LangloisA 'have conventional signs , of which they make use to recognise one another . " Mr . Walpole is acquainted with many , if not most of these , and once taught me some of them , but as I do not know whether he intends some day to give his information on this and other points to the public , I forbear speaking of them , and content myself Avith quoting Avhat he himself has already