Third, or Master Mason’s Degree | Chapter 10

[paragraph continues] He answers, “We cannot find our Grand Master, my lord.”

The Master then orders the Secretary to call the roll of workmen and see whether any of them are missing.

The Secretary calls the roll and says, “I have called the roll, my lord, and find that there are three missing, viz.: Jubela, Jubelo, and Jubelum.”

His lordship then observed, “This brings to my mind a circumstance that took place this morning. Twelve Fellow Crafts, clothed in white gloves and aprons, in token of their innocence, carne to me and confessed that they twelve, with three others, had conspired to extort the Master Mason’s word from their Grand Master, Hiram Abiff, and in case of refusal to take his life. They twelve had recanted, but feared the other three had been base enough to carry their atrocious designs into execution.”

Solomon then ordered twelve Fellow Crafts to be drawn from the bands of the workmen, clothed in white gloves and aprons, in token of their innocence, and sent three east, three west, three north, and three south in search of the ruffians, and if found to fetch them forward.

Here the members all shuffle about the floor awhile, and fall in with a reputed traveler, and inquire of him if he had seen any traveling men that way; he tells them that he has seen three that morning near the coast of Joppa, who from their dress and appearance were Jews, and who were workmen from the temple, inquiring for a passage to Ethiopia, but were unable to obtain one in consequence of an embargo which had recently been laid on all the shipping, and had turned back into the country.

The Master now calls them to order again, and asks the Senior Warden, “What success?” He answers by relating what had taken place.

Solomon observes, “I had this embargo laid to prevent the ruffians from making their escape,” and adds, “You will go and search again, and search till you find them, if possible, and if they are not found the twelve who confessed shall be considered as the reputed murderers and suffer accordingly.”

The members all start again and shuffle about awhile,

p. 82

until one of them, as if by accident, finds the body of Hiram Abiff, alias the candidate, and hails his traveling companions, who join him, and while they are hammering out something over the candidate the three reputed ruffians, who are seated in a private corner near the candidate, are heard to exclaim in the following manner:

First, Jubela—”O that my throat had been cut across, my tongue torn out, and my body burled in the rough sands of the sea, at low water mark, where the tide ebbs and flows twice in twenty-four hours, ere I had been accessory to the death of so good a man as our Grand Master, Hiram Abiff!”

The second, Jubelo—”O that my left breast had been torn open and my heart and vitals taken from thence and thrown over my left shoulder, carried into the valley of Jehosaphat, and there to become a prey to the wild beasts of the field and vultures of the air, ere I had conspired the death of so good a man as our Grand Master, Hiram Abiff!”

The third, Jubelum—”O that my body had been severed in two in the midst, and divided to the north and south, my bowels burnt to ashes in the center, and the ashes scattered by the four winds of heaven, that there might not the least track or remembrance remain among men, or Masons, of so vile and perjured a wretch as I am; ah, Jubela and Jubelo, it was I that struck him harder than you both. It was I that gave him the fatal blow; it was I that killed him outright;”

The three Fellow Crafts who had stood by the candidate all this time, listening to the ruffians, whose voices they recognized, say, one to the other:

“What shall we do; there are three of them, and only three of us?”

“It is,” said one, in reply; “our cause is good, let us seize them.”

On which they rush forward, seize and carry them to the Master, to whom they relate what had passed. The Master then addresses them in the following manner [they in many lodges kneel or lie down, in token of their guilt and penitence]: