ment, and of irreproachable manners, or, as it is technically termed, "under the tongue of good report." No atheist, eunuch, or woman can be admitted. The requisites as to age, sex, and soundness of body, have reference to the operative character of the institution. We can only expect able workmen in ablebodied men. The mental and religious qualifications refer to the duties and obligations which a Freemason contracts. An idiot could not understand them, and an atheist would not respect them. Even those who possess all these necessary qualifications can be admitted only under certain regulations. Not more than five candidates can be received at one time except in urgent cases, when a dispensation may be granted by the Grand Master, and no applicant can receive more than two degrees on the same day. To the last rule there can be no exception.

ADONIRAM. The principal receiver of King Solomon's tribute, and the chief overseer of the 30,000 brethren who were sent to cut the timber for the temple in the forests of Lebanon. He is introduced in the degrees of Secret and Perfect Master, and Intendant of the Building, in the Scotch rite, and in the degree of Royal Master. He is said to have married a sister of Iliram the Builder.

ADONIRAMITE MASONRY. Maçonnerie Adonhiramite. This rite was established in France at the close of the eighteenth century. It consists of twelve degrees, namely: 1, Entered Apprentice; 2, Fellow Craft; 3, Master Mason; 4, Perfect Master; 5, Elect of Nine; 6, Elect of Perignan; 7, Minor Architect, or Scotch Apprentice; 8, Grand Architect, or Scotch Fellow Craft; 9, Scotch Master; 10, Knight of the East; 11, Knight of Rose Croix; 12, Prussian Knight.

Of these degrees, the 6th, 7th, 8th, and 9th are peculiar to Adoniramite Masonry; the others do not much differ from the corresponding degrees in the ancient Scotch rite. The title of the order is derived from Adoniram, who took charge of the

works after the loss of the principal conductor, and to the time of whose superintendence the legends of the most important degrees refer.

ADONIS, MYSTERIES OF. The mysteries which, in Egypt, the cradle of all the Pagan rites, had been consecrated to Osiris, in passing over into Phenicia were dedicated to Adonis.* According to the legend, Venus, having beheld Adonis when a child, became so enamoured of him, that she seized him, and concealing him from sight, exhibited him to Proserpine alone. But she, becoming equally enamoured of his beauty, sought to obtain possession of him. The dispute between the goddesses was reconciled by Jupiter, who decided that Adonis should dwell six months of the year with Venus, and the remaining six months with Proserpine. This decree was executed; but Adonis, who was a great hunter, was afterward killed on Mount Libanus by a wild boar, who thrust his tusk into his groin. Venus, inconsolable for his death, inundated his body with her tears, until Proserpine, in pity, restored him to life. Macrobius explains the allegory thus: "Philosophers have given the name of Venus to the superior hemisphere of which we occupy a part, and that of Proserpine to the inferior. Hence Venus, among the Assyrians and Phenicians, is in tears, when the Sun, in his annual course through the twelve signs of the Zodiac, passes over to our antipodes. For of these twelve signs, six are said to be superior, and six inferior. When the Sun is in the inferior signs, and the days are consequently short, the goddess is supposed to weep the temporary death and privation of the Sun, detained by Proserpine, whom we regard as the divinity of the southern or

Adonis, in the Phenician language, like Adon in the cognate Hebrew, signifies lord or master. The idol Tammuz, mentioned in the 8th chapter of Ezekiel, was considered by Jerome, and after him by Parkhurst, as identical with Adonis.

By superior hemisphere, he means the Northern, and by inferior the Southern.

antipodal regions. And Adonis is said to be restored to Venus, when the Sun, having traversed the six inferior signs, enters those of our hemisphere, bringing with it an increase of light and lengthened days. The boar which is supposed to have killed Adonis is an emblem of winter; for this animal, covered with rough bristles, delights in cold, wet, and miry situations, and his favourite food is the acorn, a fruit peculiar to winter. The Sun is said, too, to be wounded by the winter, since, at that season, we lose its light and heat; effects which death produces upon animated beings. Venus is represented on Mount Libanus in an attitude of grief; her head, bent and covered with a veil, is sustained by her left hand near her breast, and her countenance is bathed with tears. This figure represents the earth in winter, when, veiled in clouds and deprived of the Sun, its powers have become torpid. The fountains, like the eyes of Venus, are overflowing, and the fields, deprived of their floral ornaments, present a joyless appearance. But when the Sun, emerging from the southern regions of the earth, passes the vernal equinox, Venus is once more rejoiced, the fields are again embellished with flowers, the grass springs up in the meadows, and the trees recover their foliage."

The cultivation of the mysteries of Adonis was propagated from Phenicia into Assyria, Babylonia, Persia, Greece, and Sicily. The celebration began in Phenicia at the period when the waters of the river Adonis, which descend from Mount Libanus, are tinged with a reddish hue derived from the colour of the soil peculiar to the mountain. The Phenician women believed that the wound of Adonis was annually renewed, and that it was his blood which coloured the stream. The phenomenon was the signal for the commencement of the rites. Every one assumed the appearance of profound grief. At Alexandria, the queen bore the statue of Adonis, accompanied by the noblest females of the city, carrying baskets of cakes, bottles of perfumes, flowers, branches of trees, and pomegranates. The procession was closed by women bearing two beds splendidly embroidered in gold and

silver, one for Venus and the other for Adonis. At Athens they placed in various parts of the city the figure of a dead youth. These figures were afterward taken away by women clad in the habiliments of mourning, who celebrated their funeral rites. On the second day of the mysteries, sorrow was converted into joy, and they commemorated the resurrection of Adonis. The mysteries of Adonis were, at one time, introduced into Judea, where the Hebrew women were accustomed to hold an annual lamentation for him, under the name of Tammuz, of which Ezekiel speaks, viii. 14: "Behold there sat women weeping for Tammuz." According to Calmet and Faber, Adonis was also identical with Baal-peor, the idol of the Moabites, mentioned in the twenty-fifth chapter of Numbers.

Our knowledge of the ceremonies which accompanied the Adonisian initiation is but scanty. "The objects represented," says Duncan, "were the grief of Venus and the death and resurrection of Adonis. An entire week was consumed in these ceremonies: all the houses were covered with crape or black linen: funeral processions traversed the streets, while the devotees scourged themselves, uttering frantic cries. The orgies were then commenced, in which the mystery of the death of Adonis was depicted. During the next twenty-four hours, all the people fasted, at the expiration of which time the priests announced the resurrection of the god. Joy now prevailed, and music and dancing concluded the festivals."*

Julius Fermicius, a Christian writer of the fourth century, thus describes a portion of the Adonisian ceremonies :†

"On a certain night an image is laid out upon a bed, and bewailed in mournful strains. At length, when they are satiated

* Religions of Profane Antiquity; their Mythology, Fables, Hieroglyphics, and Doctrines. Founded on Astronomical Principles. By Jonathan Duncan, B. A. p. 350.

† In an oration inscribed to the Emperors Constans and Constantius. The classical reader may compare the original language of Fermicius, which I here insert: Nocte quadam simulacrum in lectica supinum ponitur, et per numeros

with their fictitious lamentation, light is introduced, and the priest, having first anointed the mouths of all those who had been weeping, whispers with a gentle murmur: Trust ye, initiates, for the god being saved, out of pains salvation shall arise to us."

Hence the ceremonies were a representation of the death and resurrection of Adonis in the person of the aspirant.

ADOPTIVE MASONRY.

By the immutable laws of our

institution, no woman can be made a Freemason. It follows, therefore, as a matter of course, that lodges which admit females to membership, can never legally exist in the order. Our French brethren, however, with that gallantry for which the nation is proverbial, have sought, by the establishment of societies, which have, indeed, but a faint resemblance to the peculiar organization of Freemasonry, to enable females to unite themselves in some sort with the masonic institution, and thus to enlist the sympathies and friendship of the gentler sex in behalf of the fraternity.

To the organizations thus established for the initiation of females, the French have given the name of "Adoptive Masonry," maçonnerie d'adoption, and the lodges are called loges d'adoption, or "adoptive lodges," because, as will hereafter be seen, every lodge of females was finally obliged to be adopted by, and under the guardianship of some regular masonic lodge.

In the beginning of the eighteenth century, several secret associations sprang up in France, which, in their external characters and mysterious rites, attempted an imitation of Freemasonry, differing, however, from that institution, of which they were, perhaps, the rivals for public favour, by their admission of female members. The ladies very naturally extolled the gallantry

digestis fletibus plangitur. Deinde cum se ficta lamentatione satiaverint, lumen infertur. Tunc a sacerdote omnium qui flebant, fauces unguntur quibus perunctis, sacerdos lento murmure susurrat:

Θαρρείτε μύσται του θεου σεσωσμένου

Εσται γαρ ημιν εκ πόνων σωτηρία,