Jachin And Boaz
Or the Free Mason’s Catechism.
To Which Is Subjoined,
The Mason-Word.
by Samuel Prichard,
Late Member of a Constituted Lodge.
The History of Masonry
Origin of Masonry
The original institution of Masonry is laid on the foundation of the liberal Arts and Sciences; but more especially on the fifth, namely, Geometry: For on the building of the Tower of Babel, the art of Masonry was first introduced; and from thence handed down by Euclid, a most worthy and excellent Mathematician in Egypt: and he communicated it to Hiram, the Master-Mason, concerned in the building of Solomon’s Temple, at Jerusalem; where was an excellent and curious Mason, that was the chief under the Grand Master, Hiram, whose name was Mannon Græcus, who taught the art of Masonry to one Carolus Marcel in France, who was afterwards elected king of France: And from thence it was brought into England, in the time of Ethelstane; who ordered an assembly to be held every year at York, which was the first introduction of it into England. And Masons were made in the manner following:—
Whilst one of the Seniors holdeth the Book, then he or they put their hands on the Book, whilst the Master ought to read the Laws or Charges.
Which Charges were:—That they should be true to one another without exception; and should be obliged to see to their brothers’ and fellows’ necessities, or put them to labour and reward them accordingly.
But in these latter days Masonry is not composed of artificers, as it was in its primeval state, when some few catechistical questions are only necessary, to declare a man sufficiently qualified for an Accepted Mason.
The new terms of Free and Accepted Masonry, as it now is, was not heard of till within those few years: No Constituted Lodges, or Quarterly Communications were known till 1691, when Lords and Dukes, Lawyers and Shop-keepers, and other inferior tradesmen, porters not excepted, were admitted into this mystery, or no mystery. The first sort being introduced at a very great expence, the second sort at a moderate rate, and the latter sort at the expence of six or seven shillings; for which they receive the Word, as they term it; which is more ancient and honourable than the order of the Star and Garter; which antiquity is accounted, according to the Rules of Masonry, as delivered by their tradition, ever since Adam, which I leave the candid reader to determine.
From the Accepted-Masons sprung the real Masons; from both sprung the Gormogans, whose Grand-Master, the Volgi, deduces his original from the Chinese, whose writings, if to be credited, maintains the hypothesis of the Pre-Adamites, and consequently, must be more ancient than Masonry.
The most free and grand Society, is that of the Grand Koihebar, which consists of a select company of responsible people, whose discourse is concerning trade and business, and promote friendship without compulsion or restriction.
But if, after admission into the secrets of Masonry, any new brother should dislike their proceedings, and reflect on himself for being so easily cajoled out of his money, declines the fraternity, or secludes himself upon account of the quarterly expences of the Lodge, and the Quarterly Communications, notwithstanding he has been legally admitted into a constituted and regular Lodge, he shall be denied the privilege, as a visiting brother of knowing the mystery for which he has already paid, which is a manifest contradiction, according to the institution of Masonry itself, as will evidently appear by the following treatise.
Entered Prentice’s Degree
Q. From whence came you?
A. From the Holy Lodge of St John’s.
Q. What recommendation brought you from thence?
A. The recommendation which I brought from the Right Worshipful Brothers and Fellows, of the Right Worshipful and Holy Lodge of St John’s, from whence I come and greet you thrice heartily well.
Q. What do you come here to do?
A. Not to do my own proper will.
But to subdue my passion still;
The rules of Masonry in hand to take.
And daily progress therein to make.
Q. Are you a Mason?
A. I am so taken and accepted to be among Brothers and Fellows.
Q. How can I know that you are a Mason?
A. By signs and Tokens, and Perfect Points of Entrance.
Q. What are signs?
A. All Squares, Angles and Perpendiculars.
Q. What are Tokens?
A. Certain regular and brotherly grips.
Ex. Give me the Points of your entrance.
Resp. Give the first, and I will give you the second.
Ex. I hail it.
Resp. I conceal it.
Ex. What do you conceal?
Resp. All secrets and secrecy of Masons and Masonry, unless to a true and lawful Brother, after due examination, or in a just and worshipful Lodge of Brothers and Fellows well met.
Q. Where was you made a Mason?
A. In a just and perfect Lodge.
Q. What makes a just and perfect Lodge?
A. Seven or more.
Q. What do they consist of?
A. One Master, two Fellow-crafts, and two Entered Prentices.
Q. What makes a lodge?
A. Five.
Q. What do they consist of?
A. One Master, two Wardens, one Fellow-craft and one Entered Prentice.
Q. Who brought you to the Lodge? A. An Entered Prentice.
Q. How did he bring you?
A. Neither cloathed nor naked, bare footed nor shod, deprived of all metal, and in a right moving posture.
Q. How got you admittance?
A. By three great knocks.
Q. Who received you?
A. A Junior Warden.
Q. How did he dispose of you?
A. He carried me to the north-east part of the lodge, and brought me back again to the west, and delivered me to the Senior Warden.
Q. What did the Senior Warden do with you?
A. He presented me, and shewed me how to walk up by three steps to the Master.
Q. What did the Master do with you?
A. He made me a Mason.
Q. How did he make you a Mason?
A. With my bare-bended knee, and my body within the square, the compass extended to my naked left breast; my naked right hand on the Holy Bible, there I took the obligation or oath of a Mason.
Q. Can you repeat that obligation?
A. I will do my endeavour. Which is as follows:—
“I hereby solemnly vow and swear, in the presence of —— and this Right Worshipful Assembly, that I will hail and conceal, and never reveal the secrets or secrecy of Masons or Masonry that shall be revealed unto me, unless to a true and lawful Brother, after an examination, or in a just and and worshipful Lodge of Brothers and Fellows well met.
“I furthermore promise and vow, that I will not write them, print them, mark them, carve them, or engrave them, or cause them to be written, carved, or engraven, on wood or stone, so as the visible character or impression of a letter may appear, whereby it may be unlawfully obtained. All this under no less penalty than to have my throat cut, my tongue taken from the roof of my mouth, my heart plucked from under my left breast, then to be buried in the sands of the sea, the length of a cable rope from the shore, where the sea ebbs and flows twice in twenty-four hours; my body to be then burnt to ashes, my ashes to be scattered upon the face of the earth, so that there shall bo no more remembrance of me among Masons.”
Q. What form is a Lodge?
A. A long square.
Q. How long?
A. From east to west.
Q. How broad?
A. From north to south.
Q. How high?
A. Inches, feet, and yards innumerable, as high as the clouds.
Q. How deep?
A. To the centre of the earth.
Q. Where does the Lodge stand?
A. Upon the highest hill or lowest vale, or in the valley of Jehosaphat, or any other secret place.
Q. How is it situated?
A. Due East and West.
Q. Why so?
A. Because all churches and chapels are or ought to be so.
Q. What supports a Lodge?
A. Three great pillars.
Q. What are they called?
A. Wisdom, to contrive; Strength, to support; and Beauty, to adorn.
Q. What is the covering of a Lodge?
A. A cloudy canopy of divers colours, or the clouds.
Q. Is there any furniture in a lodge?
A. Yes.
Q. What is it?
A. A Mosaic pavement, the ground-floor of the lodge; blazing star, the centre; and indented tarsel, the border around it.
Q. What is the other furniture in a Lodge?
A. A Bible, compass, and Square.
Q. Who do they properly belong to?
A. The Bible to God, the compass to the Master, and square to the Fellow-craft.
Q. Have you any jewels in the Lodge?
A. Yes.
Q. How many?
A. Six, three moveable, and three immoveable.
Q. What are the moveable jewels?
A. The Square, Level, and Plumb-rule.
Q. What are their uses?
A. The square, to lay down true and right lines; a level, to try all horizontals; And the plumb-rule, to try all uprights.
Q. What are the immoveable jewels?
A. The trazel-board, rough-ashler, and broached thurnal.
Q. What are their uses?
A. A trazel-board, for the Master to draw his designs upon; rough-ashler, for the fellow-craft to try their jewels upon; and the broached-thurnal for the Entered Prentice to learn to work upon.
Q. Have you any lights in the Lodge?
A. Yes, three.
Q. What do they represent?
A. The sun, moon, and Master-mason.
N.B.—These lights are three large candles, placed on high candlesticks.
Q. Why so?
A. The Sun to rule the day, the Moon the night, and the Master-Mason his Lodge.
Q. Have you any fixed lights in the Lodge?
A. Yes.
Q. How many?
A. Three.
N.B.—These fixed lights are three windows, supposed, though vainly, to be in every room where a Lodge is held; but more properly, by the four cardinal points, according to the ancient rules of Masonry.
Q. How are they situated?
A. East, South, and West; to light the men to, at, and from their work.
Q. Why are there no lights in the North?
A. Because the sun darts no rays from thence.
Q. Where stands your Master?
A. In the East.
Q. Why so?
A. As the sun rises in the East, and opens the day; so the Master stands in the East, with his right handupon his left breast, being a sign, and the square about his neck, to open the Lodge, and set his men to work.
Q. Where stands your Wardens?
A. In the West.
Q. What is their business?
A. As the Sun sets in the West, to close the day; so the Wardens stand in the West, with their right hands upon their left breasts, being a sign, and the Level and Plumb-rule about their necks, to close the Lodge, and dismiss the men from their labour, paying their wages.
Q. Where stands the Senior Entered Prentice?
A. In the South.
Q. What is his business?
A. To hear and receive instructions, and welcome strange brothers.
Q. Where stands the junior Entered Prentice?
A. In the North.
Q. What is his business?
A. To keep off cowans and eves-droppers.
Q. If a cowan or listener is catched, how is he to be punished?
A. He is to be placed under the eaves of the houses in rainy weather, till the water run in at his shoulders and out at his shoes.
Q. What are the secrets of a Mason?
A. Signs, Tokens, and many words.
Q. Where do you keep those secrets?
A. Under my left breast.
Q. Have you any key to those secrets?
A. Yes.
Q. Where do you keep it?
A. In a bone-box, that neither opens nor shuts but with ivory keys.
Q. Does it hang, or does it lie?
A. It hangs.
Q. What does it hang by?
A. By a tow-line, nine inches or a span.
Q. What metal is it made of?
A. No manner of metal at all, but a tongue of report behind a brother’s back, or before his face.
N.B.—The key is the tongue, the bone-box the teeth, the tow line the root of the mouth.
Q. How many Principles are there in Masonry?
A. Four.
Q. What are they?
A. Point, Line, Superficials and Solid.
Q. Explain them?
A. Point, the centre line, round which the Master cannot err: Length, without breadth: Superficials, length and breadth. Solid comprehends the whole.
Q. How many principal signs are there?
A. Four.
Q. What are they?
A. A Guttural, the throat; Pectoral, the breast; Manual, the hand; Pedestal, the feet.
Q. What do you learn by being a Gentleman Mason?
A. Secrecy, morality, and good fellowship.
Q. What do you learn by being an Operative Mason?
A. To hew, square, mould stone, lay a level, and raise a perpendicular.
Q. Have you seen your Master to-day?
A. Yes.
Q. How was he cloathed?
A. In a yellow jacket, and a blue pair of breeches.
N.B.—The yellow jacket is the compasses, the blue breeches is the steel points.
Q. How long do you serve your Master?
A. From Monday morning till Saturday night.
Q. How do you serve him?
A. With chalk, charcoal, and earthern pan.
Q. What do they denote?
A. Freedom, fervency, and zeal.
Ex. Give me the Entered Prentice’s Sign.
Resp. Extending the four fingers of the right hand, and drawing them across his throat, is the Sign, and demands a Token.
N.B.—A Token is, by joining the ball of the thumb of the right hand to the first knuckle of the fore-finger of the Brother’s right hand, that demands a Word.
Ex. Give me the Word.
Resp. I will letter it with you.
Ex. BOAZ.
N.B.—The Ex. says B. Resp. O. Ex. A. Resp. Z., i.e. BOAZ.
Ex. Give me another.
Resp. JACHIN.
N.B.—Boaz and Jachin were two pillars in Solomon’s Solomon’s porch, 1. Kings, vii. 21.
Q. How old are you?
A. Under seven.
(Denoting he has not passed Master.)
Q. What is the day for?
A. To see in.
Q. What is the night for?
A. To hear.
Q. How blows the wind?
A. Due East and West.
Q. What o’clock is it?
A. High twelve.
Fellow-Craft’s Degree
Q. Are you a fellow-craft?
A. I am.
Q. Why was you made a fellow-craft?
A. For the sake of the letter G.
Q. What does that G denote?
A. Geometry, or the fifth science.
Q. Did you ever travel?
A. Yes, East and West.
Q. Did you ever work?
A. Yes, in the building of the temple.
Q. Where did you receive wages?
A. In the middle chamber.
Q. Through the porch, what did you see?
A. Two great pillars.
Q. What are they called?
A. J.B. i.e. Jachin and Boaz.
Q. How high are they?
A. Eighteen cubits.
Q. How much in circumference?
A. Twelve cubits.
Q. What are they adorned with?
A. Two chapiters.
Q. How high were the chapiters?
A. Five cubits. (1. Kings, vii.)
Q. What are they adorned with?
A. Net work and pomegranates.
Q. How came you to the middle chamber?
A. By a winding pair of stairs.
Q. How many steps?
A. Seven or more.
Q. Why seven or more?
A. Because seven or more make a just and perfect Lodge.
Q. When you came to the door of the middle chamber, who did you see?
A. A Warden.
Q. What did he demand of you?
A. Three things.
Q. What were they?
A. A Sign, Token, and Word.
N.B.—The Sign is, placing the right hand on the left breast; the Token is, by joining your right-hand to the person that demands it, and squeezing him with the ball of the thumb of the first knuckle of the middle finger; and the word is JACHIN.
Q. How high was the door of the middle chamber, what did you see?
A. The resemblance of the letter G.
Q. What doth that G denote?
A. One that is greater than you.
Q. Who is greater than I, that am a Free and Accepted Mason, the Master of a Lodge?
A. The Grand Architect and contriver of the Universe, or he that was taken up to the pinnacle of the Holy Temple.
Q. Can you repeat the letter G?
A. I will do my endeavour.
Q. What means the letter G?
Resp. In midst of Solomon’s Temple there stands a G.
A letter fair to all to read and see;
But few there be who understands
What means the letter G.
Ex. My friend if you pretend to be,
Of this fraternity,
You can forthwith and rightly tell
What means the letter G.
Resp. By sciences are brought to light
Bodies of various kinds,
Which do appear to perfect sight,
None but males shall know my mind
Ex. The right shall.
Resp. If worshipful.
Ex. Both right and worshipful learn,
To hail you I command,
That you do forthwith let me know,
As you may understand.
Resp. By letters four, and Science five,
This G upright does stand,
In due art and proportion,
You have your answer friend.
N.B.—Four letters are BOAZ,—Fifth Science, Geometry.
Ex. My friend you answer well,
If right and free principles you discover,
I’ll change your name from friend,
And henceforth call you Brother.
Resp. The Sciences are well composed;
Of noble structure’s verse,—
A point, a Line, and an outside,
But a Solid is the last.
Good greeting be to this our happy meeting, and all the right worshipful Brothers and Fellows.
Ex. Of the Right Worshipful and Holy Lodge of St. John’s.
Resp. From whence came?
Ex. Greet you, greet you thrice heartily well, craving your name.
Resp. Timothy Redicule.
Ex. Welcome, Brother.
N.B.—The reason why they denominated themselves of the Lodge of St. John’s, is, because he was the fore-runner of our Saviour, and laid the first parallel line of the gospel. Others do assert, that our Saviour himself was accepted a Free Mason while he was in the flesh: but how ridiculous and profane it seems, I leave to the judicious readers to consider.
The Master’s Degree
Q. Are you a Mason?
A. I am: Try me, prove me, disapprove me, if you can.
Q. Where was you passed Master?
A. In a perfect Lodge of Masters.
Q. What makes a perfect Lodge of Masters?
A. Three.
Q. How came you to be passed Master?
A. By the help of the square, and my own industry.
Q. How was you passed a Master?
A. From the square to the compass.
Ex. An Entered Prentice, I presume, you have been.
Resp. Jachin and Boaz I have seen,
A Master-mason I was made most rare,
With Diamond, Ashler, and the Square.
Ex. If a Master-mason you would be.
You must understand the Rule of Three:
And M. B. (M. Benach) shall make you free,
And what you want in Masonry,
Shall in this Lodge he shewn to thee.
Resp. Good Masonry, I understand,
Keys of all lodges are at my command.
Ex. You are a heroic fellow, from whence came you?
Resp. From the East.
Ex. Where are you going?
Resp. To the West.
Ex. What are you going to do there?
Resp. To seek that which was lost, and is now found.
Ex. What is that which was lost, and is now found?
Resp. The Master-mason’s Word.
Ex. How was it lost?
Resp. By three great knocks, or the death of our Master Hiram.
Ex. In the building of Solomon’s temple, he was Master-mason; and at high twelve at noon, when the men were gone to refresh themselves, as was the usual custom, he came to survey the works; and when he was entered into the Temple, there were three ruffians (supposed to be three Fellow-crafts,) who planted themselves at the three entrances of the Temple; and when he came out, one demanded the Mason’s Word of him, and he replied, he did not receive it in such a manner; but time and patience would bring him to it. He not being satisfied with this answer, gave him a blow, which made him reel: he went to the other gate, where being accosted in the same manner, and making the same reply, he received a greater blow; the third gave him his quietus.
Ex. What did the ruffians kill him with?
Resp. A Setting-Maul, Setting Tool, and a Beadle.
Ex. How did they dispose of him?
Resp. They carried him out at the West door of the Temple, and hid him under some rubbish till high twelve.
Ex. What time was that?
Resp. High twelve at night, whilst the men were at rest.
Ex. How did they dispose of him afterwards?
Resp. They carried him up to the brow of a hill, where they made a decent grave, and buried him.
Ex. When was he missed?
Resp. The same day.
Ex. When was he found?
Resp. Fifteen days afterwards.
Ex. Who found him?
Resp. Fifteen loving brothers, by order of King Solomon, went out of the door of the Temple, and divided themselves from right to left, within call of each other; and they agreed, that if they did not find the Word in him, or about him, the first word should be the Master’s word. One of the brothers being more weary than the rest, sat down to rest himself, and taking hold of a shrub, which came easily up, and perceiving the ground to have been broke, he hailed his brethren, and pursuing their search, found him decently buried in a handsome grave, six feet east, and six feet west, and six feet perpendicular, and his covering was green moss and turf, which surprised them; whereupon they replied, Majueus Domus Dei Gratia; which, according to Masonry, is, “Thanks be given, our Master has got a mossy house.” So they covered him closely, and as a further ornament, placed a sprig of Cassia at the head of his grave, and went and acquainted King Solomon.
Ex. What did King Solomon say of all this?
Resp. He ordered him to be taken up and decently buried; and that fifteen Fellow-crafts, with white gloves and aprons, should attend the funeral; which among Masons ought to be performed to this day.
Ex. How was Hiram raised?
Resp. As all other Masons are, when they receive the Master’s Word.
Ex. How is that?
Resp. By the Five Points of Fellowship.
Ex. What are they?
Resp. First, hand to hand; second, foot to foot; third, cheek to cheek; fourth, knee to knee; and fifth, back to back.
N.B.—When Hiram was taken up, they took him by the fore-fingers, and the skin came off which is called the Slip: The spreading of the right hand, placing the middle-finger to the wrist, clasping the fore-finger and fourth to the sides of the wrist, is called the Grip; and the Slip is placing the thumb of the right hand to the left breast, extending the fingers.
Ex. What is the Master-mason named?
Resp. Cassia is my name, and from a just and perfect Lodge I came.
Ex. Where was Hiram entertained?
Resp. In the Sanctum Sanctorum.
Ex. How was he brought in?
Resp. At the West door of the Temple.
Ex. What are the Master’s Jewels?
Resp. The Porch, Dormer, and square pavement.
Ex. Explain them?
Resp. The Porch, the entering into the Sanctum Sanctorum; the Dormer of the windows, or lights within; the square pavement, the ground-flooring.
Ex. Give me the Master’s Word?
Resp. Whispers in the ear, and supported by the five points of fellowship, before mentioned, says Mackhenach, which signifies ‘The builder is smitten.’
N.B.—If any working Masons are at work, and you have a desire to distinguish Accepted Masons from the rest, take a piece of stone, and ask him what it smells of? He will immediately reply, Neither of brass, iron, nor steel, but of a Mason. Then ask him how old he is? And he will reply about seven; which denotes that he has passed Master.
P.S.—I was induced to publish this mighty Secret, at the request of several Masons, in order to prevent credulous persons from imposition.
A Prayer Said at the Opening of a Lodge, by Jewish Free-Masons
O LORD! excellent thou art in thy truth, and there is nothing greater in comparison to thee; for thine is the praise, from all the works of thy hands, for evermore. Enlighten us, we beseech thee, in the true knowledge of Masonry. By the sorrows of Adam, thy first made man—by the blood of Abel, thy holy one—by the righteousness of Seth, in whom thou art well pleased,—and by the covenant with Noah, in whose architecture thou wast pleased to save the seed of thy beloved; number us not among those that know not the statutes, nor the divine mysteries of the secret Cabballa. But grant, we beseech thee, that the Ruler of the Lodge may be endued with knowledge and wisdom, to instruct us, and explain his secret mysteries, as our holy brother Moses did (in his Lodge) to Aaron, to Eleazer, and Ithamar, the sons of Aaron, and the seventy Elders of Israel. And grant that we may understand, learn, and keep all the commandments of the Lord, and this holy mystery, pure and undefiled unto our lives end.
Amen, Lord.
In The Preface to the Mishnaw, We Find Tradition of the Jews Explained as Follows
God not only delivered the law to Moses on Mount Sinai, but the explanation of it likewise. When Moses came down from the Mount and entered into his tent, Aaron went to visit him, and Moses acquainted Aaron with the laws he had received from God, together with the explanation of them: After this, Aaron placed himself at the right hand of Moses, and Eleazer, and Ithamar, (sons of Aaron,) who were admitted, to whom Moses repeated what he had just before told Aaron. These being seated, the one on the right hand, the other on the left hand of Moses; the seventy elders of Israel, who composed the Sanhedrim, came in; and Moses again declared the same laws to them, with the interpretations of them, as he had done before to Aaron and his sons. Lastly, all who pleased, of the common people, were envited to enter, and Moses instructed them likewise in the same manner as the rest. So that Aaron heard four times what Moses had been taught by God upon Mount Sinai; Eleazar and Ithamar, three times; the seventy elders, twice; and the people once. Moses afterwards reduced the laws he had received into writing, but not the explanation of them; these he thought it sufficient to trust to the memories of the above-mentioned persons, who being perfectly instructed in them, delivered them to their children, and these again to theirs, from age to age.
The Laird of Logan’s Description of a New Year’s Day at Logan House
On Logan resuming his seat at the dinner table, the company began, open-mouthed, to rate him for the liberty he had taken: to all which he listened with the greatest patience, till he was expected to reply. “Gentlemen, fill your glasses, and I’ll give you a toast: ‘may we always do as we ought to do.’ You took the liberty of conferring upon me the honour of being your chairman, and I merely took the liberty of adding to that honour, by making you; my guests.—If I have done wrong, it was yourselves who set me the example.—I have no other apology to offer; so, here’s wishing you all a merry new-year when it comes.”—“Ah, Logan, Logan,” said Auldgavel, “you’re the old man, I see, and there’s no use talking to you; so, here’s wishing you may spend the coming new-year as merry, but much wiser, at Loganhouse, than you did last.” “Well, Auldgavel, I thank you for your friendly hint, for though it was owing to a mistake, I hope I shall never see Loganhouse in such a state again. You must know, gentlemen, that I was from home, and only returned on Hogmanae, when I was told there was no whisky in the house. Now, you know, a man may as weel try to haud a young naig without a tether, as haud new’rs-day without drink; so I told one of the men to go to Kilmarnock for a cask; and what does the drunken idiot do, but takes in the sour-milk barrel, and brings it hame fu’ to the bung, that’s to say, as fu’s himsel;—for he kent so little about what he was doing, that he filled a water-stoup wi’ the drink, and left it in the kitchen; as for the rest o’t, every one that liked went to the barrel wi’ his dish, and helped himsel’. The consequence was, that the men got a’ fu’, and they filled the women fu’. The porridge in the morning, by mistake, was made from the whisky that was put in the water-stoup; but as none of the servants could sup them, they were given to the pigs and the poultry. The pigs soon got outrageous, and set a-yelling in a manner that might have drowned the din of a hale reg’ment of pipers, tearing one another’s snouts and lugs tatters. The auld sow, trying to stand on her hind feet (for what folly will beast or body not do when they get a drop in their head) fell into the trough, and a’ the rest came about, riving at her as if she had been part o’ the breakfast. The ducks couldna’ haud a fit. The geese were little better and when such broad web-footed worthies are so ill at the walking, you may guess that the hens and turkeys made a poor shift. Even the peacock and his lady so far lost sight of their gentility, as to become birds of a feather wi’ their vulgar neighbours, and screamed and staggered about through dub and mire, spoiling all their finery, that they were lately so proud of displaying. The cock got better, but as for my lady, whether it was the vile mixture she had taken, or grief for destroying her rich dress, (for females you know, have a great regard for fine clothes) I cannot tell, but she never had a day to do well after it, but dwined awa’, and seemed to die of a broken heart. Poor thing! It’s a serious matter when females, who have been genteelly brought up, forget themselves.—poor Lady Pea! she could never regain her standing in the barn-yard, for every wide-mouthed drouthy rascal of a duck, even when sweltering in a gutter, expected her to be his boon companion.—In short, that morning there was neither beast nor body about Loganhouse that kent what they were doing, except the horses, and they were all as sober as judges; but a horse, as you a’ ken, gentlemen, can carry a deal o’ drink.
National Library of Scotland: Jachin and Boaz; or The free mason’s catechism : To which is subjoined, The mason-word. Prichard, Samuel. Glasgow: Printed for the booksellers, [1840-1850?]