THE ANCIENT MYSTERIES.
22
On the arrival of any
the episcopate), specially qualify him to enlighten us on this point.
he says, belonging to the same belief, they have a sign given by the man to the
stranger,
woman, and vica versa. In holding out the hand, under pretence of saluting each other, they
feel it
and
tickle
comer belongs
it
in a particular
to the
same
by means
recognition or salutation
many
To
religious
and
sect.i
social
manner underneath the palm, and so discover
The preferable opinion, however, would seem
of a "grip" or
systems, and
is
"hand-shaking"
especially prevalent
is
if
to
common
a
the
new
be that
feature of
amongst the Eastern people.
day the Parsees of Western India, after prayers on Pappati or New Year's Day, visit
"
and relations, when the Hamma-i-jour or "joining of hands is performed.'- A
this
their friends
symbolic language appears to have existed in the old monasteries, the signs not being optional,
similar custom prevailed in
but transmitted from antiquity, and taught like the alphabet.^
A
"
Louis XIV. of France, the Eoyal Jesuit, received," says the Due
the great religious orders.
de St Simon, " the vows and sacred signs at his initiation, and the proper formulary of prayers
and absolution, on giving the almost imperceptible sig7i of the order, from the hands of Le
'
Tellier."
on very insufficient authority, that the Dionysian architects, also
a fraternity of priests and lay architects of Dionysus or Bacchus, present in
said to have been
their internal as well as external procedure the most perfect resemblance to the Society of
It has been alleged, but
They seem, says Woodford, to have granted honorary membership, and admitted
members, as we term them and it has been asserted that they had grades and
of recognition."
Our chief interest in their history, however, arises from the claim
Preemasons.^
speculative
secret signs
;
that has been advanced for their having employed in their ceremonial observances
the implevienta which are no w used by the Freemasons for a similar purpose.
test the learning even of Cardinal Mezzofanti himself, were that great linguist
it
would
still alive,
fully conversant with the literature belonging to each of the languages
of
many
But
and
—
he spoke so iluently to
or place illumined by the faintest glimmer of philosophic science
with the
identify any period
invention of architectural symbolism.
In support of this position, I will merely adduce the
philosophical teaching of one ancient people, but it will suffice, I think, to establish its
—
In the oldest of the Chinese classics, which embraces a period reaching from
the twenty-fourth to the seventh century before Christ, we meet with distinct allusions to the
"
"
symbolism of the mason's art.^ But even if we begin," says Mr Giles, where the Book of
correctness.
'
'
History
ends,
we
written language
1
find curious
—more
masonic expressions to have been in
use —
at
than seven hundred years before the Christian era
King, The Gnostics and their Remains, p. 121.
"
army to another (Ibid.).
"
A
iiair
of clasped
hands— symbols
;
any
rate in the
that
of concord
is
to say,
— were usually
sent from one nation or
-
Dosabhoy Framjee, The Parsees
'
T. D. Fosbroke, British
:
their History, Manners, Customs,
Monachism, 1802,
vol.
ii.,
p. 5.
"
Sipia
and Religion, 1858,
scire studeant
p. 60.
omnes
necessaria
"
(Let us
all
endeavour to learn the necessary signs), ibid, citing Matthew Paris, 403.
*
Memoires du M. le Due de St Simon (Supplement, tome i., p. 8).
'
Lawrie, History of Freemasonry, 1804,
"
So
"Ye
far as I
p.
31
;
Professor Eobi.son, Proofs of a Conspiracy, 1797, p. 20.
See also H. J. da Costa,
The Dionysian Artihcers, 1820, p. 46.
of Government, apply the compasses" (Book of
H. A. Giles, Freemasonry in China, p. 4.
History).
"
aware, Mr (now Sir Walter) Medhurst first drew Masonic attention to the Chinese terms for "compasses
''Kenning's Cyclopedia, p. 163.
officers
am
and "square," representing "order, regularity, and propriety." An
interesting letter, which he addressed to the
"Northern Lodge of China," was sent by me from Shanghai to the Freemason's
Magazine, and published in that journal,
June 6, 1863, p. 454.
V