169:1 Yesterday morning at daybreak, boats put off and surrounded the vessel to take us to the town (JOPPA), the access to which is difficult, on account of the numerous rocks that present to view their bare flanks. p. 170 The walls were covered with spectators, attracted by curiosity. The boats being much lower than the bridge, upon which one is obliged to climb, and having no ladder, the landing is not effected without danger. More than once it has happened, that passengers in springing out have broken their limbs, and we might have met with the like accident if several persons had not hastened to our assistance.–Lexicon.

There is an old tradition among Masons, that the banks of the river at Joppa were so steep as to render it necessary for the workmen to assist each other up by means of a peculiar locking of the right hand, which is still preserved in the Mark Master’s Degree.–Historical Landmarks, vol. i. p. 425.

171:1 Some Lodges here call the candidate’s attention to the indenting chisel and mallet, before reading the Scripture relative to the stone.

183:1 The legend of the Degree is in substance as follows: “A young Craftsman found in the quarries of Tyre a stone of peculiar form and beauty, which was marked with a double circle, containing certain mysterious characters that greatly excited his curiosity. He had the ambition to produce this stone to the inspecting Mark Master as a work of his own. But as it was neither a single nor a double cube, nor of any other prescribed form, it was rejected, notwithstanding the beauty of its execution, and cast forth among the rubbish. The young man then frankly told the Master that the work was not his own, but that he was induced to bring it up on account of its perfect workmanship, which he thought could not be equalled. Some time afterward, when one of the arches in the foundations of the Temple was nearly completed, the keystone was missing. It had been wrought in the quarries by H. A. B. (Hiram Abiff) himself, and was marked with his mark. Search was made for it in vain, when the adventure of the young Fellow Craft was recollected, and among the rubbish the identical stone was found, which completed the work.”–Historical Landmarks, vol. ii. p. 126.


 

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