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 terest in Pythianism deepened, his knc >dge N ' I29 ' ^ S An S eles ' Lal 
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 them a great benefit in the instruc 
 
 19 
 
D. K. TRASK 
 
 GRAND CHANCELLOR OF CALIFORNIA 
 JUDGE OF THE SUPERIOR COURT OF LOS ANGELES COUNTY 
 
K^tbian Sketcbes 
 
 X* TL Glemans, 1BL TR. anD p. 0* 1R. 
 
 ' Ifc. 1ft. ., Gauntlet Uo&^c mo. 129, las Bnaeles, Cal, 
 arrt 
 
 dapt 10. (5. TOlebb, m. TR. an> p. 0. 1R. 
 
 Uinttc !!Lo^gc Ifto, 18, IRobinson, TUtab 
 TKIlttb an Untrobuctton bs 
 
 5)* 1R* Urasft 
 (3ranD Chancellor of tbe Domain of California 
 
 "1foe tbat batb li^bt witbin bis own 
 clear breast, mas sit in tbe center of 
 tbe night an& enjos brigbt ^as " 
 
 Xos Bn0ele0, Cal. 
 
 Glemans & IPdlebb 
 IP. P. it 
 
Copyright 1903 
 
 b2 
 Clemans & "QClcbb 
 
 TIMES'MIRROR PRINTING AND BINDING HOUSE 
 
OSS 
 
 
 \ 
 

 
INTRODUCTION 
 
 By the Grand Chancellor of California* 
 
 Brother Knights'. 
 
 11 Pythian Sketches" is intended to answer the questions most 
 commonly asked by those seeking information about the Order 
 of Knights of Pythias. It is a ready reference manual of 
 Pythianism, convenient for the purposes of all seekers after 
 knowledge concerning the subjects here treated. The selection 
 of topics is good, their treatment is clear and concise, and the 
 result is a book that, while reasonably comprehensive and 
 thorough, is of a size and cost such that it can and should be 
 owned, possessed and used by every member of the Order. 
 
 If this little book shall be so received among our lodges and 
 membership that it shall accomplish a large measure of useful- 
 ness, its author will be compensated by a recognition which his 
 labors merit. 
 
 Fraternally, 
 
 D. K. TRASK. 
 
 Los Angeles, Cal., April 1903. 
 
 117018 
 
TABLE OF CONTENTS 
 
 I. 
 THE ORIGIN OF SECRET SOCIETIES. 
 
 SECTION i. Secret Societies not New. 2. Inventions Lead 
 to Secrecy. 3. Ancient Workshops. 4. Guild Brother- 
 hoods. 5. Secret Societies Among the Indians. 6. Ancient 
 English Societies. 7. Their Objects. 8. Their Names. 
 9. By-Laws of the Exeter Guild. 10. Social and Craft 
 Guilds, ii. Membership. 12. Fees and Benefits. 13. The 
 "Three Guilds' Statutes/' 14. Two Classes of Secret So- 
 cieties. 15. The Criminal Class. 16. The Benevolent Class. 
 
 II. 
 THE ROMANCE OF KNIGHTHOOD. 
 
 SECTION 17. Chivalry Had no Separate Origin. 18. Came 
 Probably from the Customs of Ancient Germans. 
 19. Definition of the Word Knight. 20. Knighthood, a 
 Freemasonry. 21. Its Development. 22. The Rank of 
 Page. 23. Rank of Esquire. 24. Rank of Knight. 25. The 
 Knighting of Varocher. 
 
 III. 
 ORDEK OF THE KNIGHTS OF PYTHIAS. 
 
 SECTION 26. The Founder. 27. Its Origin. 28. Washington 
 Lodge, No. i. 29. First Grand Lodge. 30. Franklin 
 Lodge, No. 2. 31. Reorganization of Grand Lodge. 
 32. Progress. 33. Proceedings of Grand Lodge, 1867. 
 34. Organization of the Supreme Lodge. 35. Second Ses- 
 sion, 1870. 36. The Conclaves. 37. Rathbone Resigns from 
 Order. 38. Supreme Lodge, Session 1876. 39. Cry for 
 Help. 40. Endowment Rank. 41. Progress. 42. Status of 
 Order in 1902. 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 IV. 
 THE UNIFORM RANK. 
 
 SECTION 43. The Rank a Source of Prosperity. 44. A Re- 
 serve Force of the Nation. 45. Its Origin. 46. Its Devel- 
 opment and Growth. 47. The U. R. is a Higher Rank. 
 48. Its Present Prosperity. 
 
 V. 
 
 THE ENDOWMENT RANK. 
 
 SECTION 49. Institution of the E. R. 50. In an Experimental 
 Stage. 51. Progress and Drawbacks. 52. Now on a Solid 
 Foundation. 53. Safely Guarded in Every Way. 
 
 VI. 
 
 THE RATHBONE SISTERS. 
 
 SECTION 54. Several Petitions Rejected. 55. Action of Su- 
 preme Lodge, 1888. 56. Institution. 57. Change of Title. 
 58. Status in 1901. 59. Benefits Derived by Local Lodges. 
 60. Why Should the Sisters Not Be Officially Recognized? 
 
 VII. 
 THE DRAMATIC ORDER OF THE KNIGHTS OF KHORASSAN, 
 
 SECTION 61. Its Origin and Membership. 62. Its Cere- 
 monies. 63. The Social Element of the Order. 64, Its 
 Invitation. 65. Its Maxims. 66. Is Worthy of Support. 
 
 VIII. 
 THE STORY OF DAMON AND PYTHIAS. 
 
 SECTION 67. Who Were These Men? 68. Two Phases of 
 the Story. 69. The Fiction Phase. 70. The Authority for 
 the Historic Phase. 71. Cicero's Account. 72. Diodorus'. 
 73. Valerius' Version. 74. The Story as Given by Por- 
 phyry. 75. That of lamblicus. 76. Summary. 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 IX. 
 THE LIFE OF PYTHAGORAS. 
 
 SECTION 77. Many of the Same Name. 78. Mythological His- 
 tory of Pythagoras. 79. Historical Facts. 80. Pythagoras 
 Studies in Egypt. 81. And Elsewhere. 82. Returns to 
 Samos. 83. Settles in Crotona. 84. Founds the Brother- 
 hood. 85. Objects of the Order. 86. Rules of the Order. 
 87. The Results in Italy and Greece. 88. Pythagorean 
 Philosophy Found in the Essenic Sect of the Jews in Time 
 of Christ. 89. The Philosophy of Numbers. 90. The 
 Mathematical Relationship of One Thing to Another. 
 91. The Doctrine of Transmigration of Souls. 92.' The 
 Discoveries and Writings of Pythagoras. 
 
 X. 
 
 THE ISLAND OF SICILY. 
 
 SECTION 93. Its Situation. 94. Its Importance. 95. Its Geo- 
 graphical History. 96. Geographical Summary. 97. The 
 Colonies. 98. The Aborigines. 99. The Phoenician Colo- 
 nies. 100. Grecian Colonies. 101. Syracuse. 102. Leon- 
 tenoi, Catina and Zankle. 103. Northern and Southern 
 Coasts. 104. The Partition of the Island. 105. Last Greek 
 Attempt to Colonize the Phoenician Quarters. 106. Status 
 of Syracuse. 
 
 XL 
 
 THE HISTORY OF SYRACUSE. 
 
 SECTION 107. The Citizens. 108. The Government. 109. The 
 Word "Tyrant." Ho. The Early Tyrants, in. Hippoc- 
 rates. 112. Gelon. 113. Troubles with Natives and Hired 
 Troops. 114. Fifty Years' Peace. 115. Quarrels with Old 
 Greece. 116. War with Athens. 117. Siege of Syracuse. 
 118. Hermocrates. 119. Dionysius. 120. Dionysius the 
 Younger. 121. Timoleon. 122. Tyrant Agathocles Be- 
 comes King. 123. King Hiero II. 124. Syracuse Becomes 
 a Dependency of Rome. 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 XII. 
 THE RULE OF DIONYSIUS. 
 
 SECTION 125. The Rise of Dionysius. 126. Made General. 
 127. Made Tyrant. 128. The Southern Coast Lost to Syra- 
 cuse. 129. Dionysius the Greatest Ruler in Europe. 
 130. Extends His Dominion. 131. Prepares for War. 
 132. First Punic War. 133. Invades Italy. 134. Dionysius 
 a Poet. 135. Later Campaigns. 136. Close of the Reign. 
 .137. Character of Dionysius' Rule. 
 
 XIII. 
 THE ARTS OF ANCIENT EGYPT. 
 
 SECTION 138. Mummy of Earliest Known Man. 139. Rise of 
 Egyptian Power. 140. Pythagoras Studies in Egypt. 
 141. Architecture. 142. The Art of Painting. 143. Irriga- 
 tion. 144. Industrial Arts. 145. Linen. 146. Metal Work. 
 147. Embalming. 148. Writing. 149. La Plungeon's View 
 of the Origin of the Hieroglyphics. 
 
 XIV. 
 THE SCIENCE OF ARABIA. 
 
 SECTION 150. The Two Arabias. 151. Origin of the Arabs. 
 152. Southern or Town Arabs. 153. Northern or Bedouin 
 Arabs. 154. Early History. 155. Later History. 156. Foundation 
 of Spanish Universities. 157. Arabian Language the Pride of 
 the Nation. 158. The Rise of the "Science of Arabia." 
 159. Literature. 160. Astronomy. 161. Mathematics. 
 
 162. Painting. 163. Medicine and Chemistry. 
 
 XV. 
 
 THE PHILOSOPHY OF PHOENICIA. 
 
 SECTION 164. Phoenicia Had no Philosophy. 165. The Ori- 
 gin of the Nation. 166. The Extent of Their Voyages. 
 167. Sidon. 168. Tyre. 169. Joppa. 170. Colonies. 
 
 171. Manufacture. 172. Mining. 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 XVI. 
 
 THE LORE OF THE CHALDEAN SAGES. 
 
 SECTION 173. Chaldea, the Center of Ancient Civilization. 
 174. Traces of Early Civilization. 175. Ancient Records of 
 Ereck. 176. Library of Ereck. 177. Contents of the Li- 
 brary. 178. Library of Ur. 179. The Confederacy of Cities. 
 180. Arts and Sciences in an Advanced Stage. 181. The 
 Emigration of the Phoenicians and Hebrews. 182. Gudea, 
 King of Lagash. 183. Sargon, Founder of Accad. 184. The 
 Arch an Ancient Invention. 185. The Phoenicians Took the 
 Alphabet with Them. 186. Nebuchadnezzer Rules in Chal- 
 dea. 187. The "Lore" in the Time of Pythagoras. 188. Ar- 
 chitecture and Sculpture. 189. Metal Works and Manu- 
 facturing. 190. Astronomy and Mathematics. 
 
 XVII. . 
 
 THE OCCULT MYSTERIES OF THE PERSIAN MAGI. 
 SECTION 191. Iran or Persia. 192. Bactria. 193. The 
 Median Empire. 194. Reign of Deioces. 195. Of Phraor- 
 tes. 196. Cyaxares. 197. Cyrus Conquers Media. 198. The 
 Magi. 199. Zoroaster, the Founder of the Magian Religion. 
 200. The Zend Avesta. 201. The Teachings of the Magi. 
 202. Reformed Doctrines. 203. The Magian Orders. 
 
 XVIII. 
 PYTHIAN BON MOTS. 
 
 SECTION 204. C. L. S. Calkin, P. G. C., California. 205. Ed. 
 Schulze, P. G. C., Connecticut. 206. W. F. Robinson, P. 
 G. C., Colorado. 207. D. E. Webster, P. G. C., District of 
 Columbia. 208. Hon. W. G. Brantley. 209. D. E. Storm, 
 P. G. C, Georgia. 210. M. Yewell, P. G. C., Kentucky. 
 211. E. E. Murphy, P. G. C, Kansas. 212. F. L. Schaffer, 
 P. G. C., Manitoba. 213. J. D. Corwell, P. G. C., Wash- 
 ington. 214. Henry T. Gage, ex-Gov. of. California. 
 
THE ORIGIN OF SECRET SOCIETIES 
 
 "If Fraternal Love held all men bound how beautiful this 
 world would be.*' 
 
 THE truth of the old adage "There is nothing new under the 
 sun" may be exemplified in the case of secret societies, 
 for it must have been very early in the history of man that 
 they began their existence; possibly in the times when man lived 
 a primitive life; when his wants were few and easily satisfied; 
 and his intellect had not yet been brought to bear upon the 
 means of obtaining his livelihood. 
 
 2. Upon the discovery of means of producing fire came inven- 
 tions to utilize it and man began to have a knowledge of art. 
 This knowledge increased as generations passed by until in cer- 
 tain branches some became experts ; and as competition existed 
 in early times very much as it does in ours, this special knowl- 
 edge was naturally kept within the small circle of the family or 
 tribe, who banded together to preserve the secrets of their work, 
 and for the advancement of trade. 
 
 3. We know during the rough stone period, the earliest period 
 of which we have any knowledge of man, that man had attained 
 considerable skill in many of the arts; and scattered over this 
 country and Europe are found localities where their workshops 
 once existed and where some remains are left to tell the tale. 
 Most of these old factories were for making arrow-heads and 
 spear-heads, some of which are found perfect, others in all stages 
 of manufacture from the rough stone to the perfected article; 
 while fragments of flint are scattered about in thick profusion. 
 Others of these factories were used for making pottery of every 
 description, and here broken specimens of this ware, as well as 
 perfect articles, take the place of flints and rocks. To a cer- 
 tain extent the workshops are localized, which seerns to show 
 
6 PYTHIAN SKETCHES. 
 
 that only a certain class worked on one kind of production, and 
 it is evident that even at this early period, man had formed him- 
 self into bands for mutual benefit. It is man's nature, too, 
 to seek the society of others ; he first finds it in his own family, 
 then he selects a few friends with whom he and his family es- 
 tablish relations of fraternal intercourse. This social feeling is 
 prompted by the desire for companionship or the requirements of 
 mutual protection against a common enemy. 
 
 4. We can see from the above that there may have been two 
 beginnings of secret societies ; the former giving rise to the 
 "Trade Guilds" and the latter to those fraternal and benevolent 
 societies to which our order belongs ; or the latter may have been 
 evolved from the former, which is perhaps the more probable. 
 Gradually these associations of workmen assumed the position 
 of distinct societies for the preservation and protection of the 
 special branch of trade in which they had been working, and 
 eventually became Guild Brotherhoods. These Guilds soon be- 
 came so important that they gained entire control of the trade 
 for the protection of which they had been formed. In Europe 
 they came into existence at a very early period and some of 
 them still hold meetings. 
 
 5. Secret Societies are found among all nations, savage or 
 civilized. We find them among our own native Indians, where 
 they are chiefly used to keep up the knowledge of the history of 
 the tribes, and for the teaching and making of medicine men. 
 These Indian societies have several degrees through which a 
 candidate must pass to full membership ; the lodge rooms, built 
 of boughs of trees, are different for each ; the ceremony also 
 varies, as do the signs and pass-words. The ritual is mostly of a 
 religious character; the candidate goes through these ceremonies 
 much after the style of the modern neophyte; the dress and facial 
 painting indicate the rank each member has taken in the order; 
 and there are other signs by which he is known. 
 
 6. In England secret societies sprang up in the days when the 
 Britons were still governed by their own chiefs, and before any 
 foreign nation took away their lands. Afterward, when history 
 began to give an account of this country and its rulers, writers, 
 
SECRET SOCIETIES. 7 
 
 speaking of these Guilds, say that they preceded any known King. 
 They are spoken of in books that contain the oldest relics of 
 English law. The old laws of King Alfred, of King Ina, of King 
 Athelstan reproduce older laws which speak of the Guild as a 
 matter of well-known fact. As time rolled on knowledge of the 
 origin of these societies was lost. The evidence of their exist- 
 ence, however, is found not only in law books but in the actual 
 records of those few that still remain. 
 
 7. These records show that the principle of association for 
 mutual help (supposed to be a modern thought) was found in 
 name and fact. The Guild looked after the welfare of the living 
 brothers and paid respect to the dead. If any got into trouble 
 the order paid his fine, and in one ordinance we find these words, 
 "And we have also proclaimed respecting every man who has 
 given his 'wed' (pledge) in our guild-ship, if he should die, that 
 each Guild brother should give a five loafs for his soul, and sing 
 a fifty (of psalms) or get it sung, within 30 days." Peace and 
 good 'behavior were strictly enjoined at the meetings. 
 
 8. We know the names of some of the Guilds that existed in 
 these far off times. The "Cnihten-Gild" (or "Young Men's Guild") 
 of London was as old as the time of King Edgar, who gave it its 
 charter. We have notice of even an older Guild in a grant of 
 land made in the time of Ethelbert. There is still in existence 
 the agreement and by-laws made by the brothers of a certain 
 Thegns' Guild at Cambridge and others at Abbottsbury, Exeter 
 and Woodbury. 
 
 9. In the by-laws of the brotherhood at Exeter we find "That 
 the assembly was collected at Exeter for the love of God, and 
 for our souls' need, both as regard for our health of life here, 
 and for the after days which we desire for ourselves by God's 
 doom." It then provides for these meetings once a year at which 
 their dues or offerings of malt and honey were to be paid. 
 Each brother was to pay five pence at a brother's death and one 
 penny if his house burned down. The fine for non-attendance 
 was, "for the first offense three masses, for the second five, for 
 the third offense let him have no favor unless his neglect arose 
 from sickness or his lord's need." If his dues were not paid 
 
8 PYTHIAN SKETCHES. 
 
 when due they were doubled, and "If a brother misgreet another 
 let him make boot with thirty pence." " Now we p 7 ray for the 
 love of God that every man hold this meeting rightly, as we 
 rightly have agreed upon it. God help us thereto." 
 
 10'. There are Social Guilds and Craft Guilds. The former 
 were founded for the purpose of brotherly aid and advancement; 
 the latter for the preservation and regulation of the different 
 trades. Although these Guilds latterly obtained their charter 
 from the King, they had been in existence long before they were 
 legally recognized, nor was the King's charter ever necessary for 
 their formation. 
 
 IT. Women as well as men were admitted into the orders; the 
 members were of all grades of life, from the highest to the low- 
 est, and all enjoyed social equality at the meetings. King Henry 
 VIII. and Cardinal Wolsey were brothers of the Guild of St. 
 Barbara of London, and the Guild of the Trinity at Coventry 
 boasted of Henry IV. and Henry VI. as members. 
 
 12. Each member on admittance took an oath of obedience, and 
 was received lovingly by the brothers with a kiss of peace. He 
 then paid his entrance fee, sometimes in money, ofttimes in 
 kind. Assessments were made for the poor and distressed and 
 for funerals. Each brother (or sister) wore the robes or uni- 
 form of the Guild to which he belonged, and at the opening of the 
 assemblies paraded the streets. The Lord Mayor's show of Lon- 
 don is the last vestige of these prgeants. It is a parade of those 
 ancient orders that still exist, escorting the chief magistrate of 
 London to their Guild Hall to take the oath of office. 
 
 13. The oldest and most reliable account, however, comes from 
 a leg?l document known as the "Three Guild Statutes," which 
 was drawn up in the seventh century. It tells us of one Guild 
 which was founded and richly endowed by Orey, a friend of 
 Canute the Great, at AbSottsford, in honor, of God and St. Peter. 
 Its objects were the support and nursing of infirm Guild members, 
 the burial of the dead, ?nd the performance of religious services. 
 The Guild met once a year, at which time the poor were fed 
 and clothed. Insults offered one brother by another were pun- 
 ished by the Guild and reparation made, and he who had under- 
 
SECRET SOCIETIES. 9 
 
 taken an office but had not properly discharged the duties was 
 severely punished. As already stated, some of these old Guilds 
 are still in existence, and are recognized by law as corporations 
 of the cities to which they belong, and although very little is 
 heard of them, still they are in active operation, as shown by 
 their action in 1897 when the British engineers and tool-makers 
 were locked out. The employees in the tool-makers trade had 
 been receiving advanced wages for a day of nine hours. The 
 London unions demanded eight hours; this being refused, the 
 men began to strike. Then the Guilds stepped in, resisted the 
 demands and the unions lost. This branch of secret societies kept 
 its trade requirements to the front; others branched off on the 
 fraternal side of the question, while others, again, held to both. 
 
 14. The secret societies of today may be divided into two 
 classes, those whose every action, and even membership, is kept 
 from public knowledge, and those whose only secret is the method 
 by means of which one member may know another, and the 
 process of initiation. 
 
 15. The first division consists of orders like that of the anar- 
 chists, Mafia, Clan-Na-Gael, who not only keep their membership 
 secret but the place and time of their meetings, and the object 
 for which they are bound together. The only thing known about 
 them is their names, and the pernicious, unlawful and criminal 
 results of their deliberations. It is the acts of such societies that 
 have brought odium and suspicion upon all secret orders, and have 
 caused the opposition of. some of the Christian churches toward 
 them. This objection, however, is not confined to the churches, 
 but extends to individual members of society; and in nearly all 
 cases we may state that these objectors know nothing of their 
 own personal knowledge of secret societies, and never having 
 entered a lodge room, they cannot legally or logically form 
 any opinion of their merits or demerits. They judge the first 
 named societies by the results of their meetings; why not judge 
 the fraternal societies in the same way? Were they to do so 
 their verdict would be different. 
 
 1 6. The secrets of the second class of secret societies ?re few.* 
 They proclaim themselves to the world in the parades seen upon 
 
ID PYTHIAN SKETCHES. 
 
 our public streets, in the jewels and buttons worn upon their 
 persons, and in the pride with which they own their membership. 
 We find among them the most law abiding citizens of the coun- 
 try, from the President to the laborer; any good, sober, honest 
 man can join them; their places of meeting are known and 
 published, and their objects are seen by the love and care they 
 give to their sick members, by the comfort they carry into the 
 homes of the distressed, by the care and education of their or- 
 phans and by the burying of their dead. As the " tree is known 
 by its fruit," so should the secret society be judged by its ac- 
 tions ; if bad, condemned ; if good, commended and encouraged. 
 The objects, as enumerated above, are the lessons taught and en- 
 forced by obligations and vows taken at the altar of the lodge 
 room ; and there is no doubt that each member (and therefore 
 all mankind) is brighter and better for his membership. 
 
IL 
 THE ROMANCE OE KNIGHTHOOD 
 
 " Chivalry is the Christian form of the Military profession; the 
 Knight is the Christian Soldier." 
 
 THE origin of chivalry, if indeed it may be said to have had 
 an origin, is found in the ancient customs of the Celts, Ger- 
 mans and Arabs. Chivalry may be defined as the moral and 
 social laws and customs of the noble and gentle classes of the 
 middle ages. It is, strictly speaking, a characteristic of true 
 gentlemen. Its three principal factors are war, religion, and love 
 of ladies. His service to God, his lord and his lady underlay all 
 the actions of the knight. He can never escape, nor does he 
 wish to escape, from the rule of service imposed upon him by 
 his religion, military duty, and love. 
 
 18. Tacitus, speaking of the customs and rites of the ancient 
 German race, tells us of one in which we really find all the mili- 
 tary elements of the future chivalry. The scene takes place in 
 the shadows of an old forest. The whole of the tribe is as- 
 sembled in expectation of an important ceremony to be performed. 
 A young man, who has just attained the age of manhood, ad- 
 vances into their midst. He has long, fair hair, eyes of a green- 
 ish-blue tint, and his body is tattooed. He advances to the chief, 
 who has already taken his position in the center of the assembly, 
 and stands proudly in front of him. The chief, without further 
 delay, places gravely in the hands of the young man a sword and 
 a buckler. " Such is the first honor of their youth," Tacitus says. 
 " Till then the young man was only one of a family. He becomes 
 by this rite a member of the Republic. The sword and buckler 
 he will never abandon." The solemn ceremony of the handing 
 of arms to the young German is the first germ of chivalry which 
 is one day to be animated into life by Christianity. Similar cus- 
 
12 PYTHIAN SKETCHES. 
 
 toms were in vogue among the Celtic and Arab divisions of the 
 human race. 
 
 19. The word " knight " comes from an Anglo-Saxon word 
 meaning a boy between the ages of childhood and manhood. It 
 afterward came to mean an attendant, then a military attendant 
 or retainer of a sovereign, or prince, or person of high rank. At 
 the time of the Norman Conquest of England, the knight was the 
 military attendant to the earls, bishops and barons of the coun- 
 try. 
 
 20. Throughout the whole period of chivalry, knighthood was 
 a kind of freemasonry. Nations, except for the accident of lan- 
 guage, were then less clearly distinguishable from each other 
 than now. Knight errants and troubadours were welcomed every- 
 where, and French being the common language of the courts of 
 England, France, and Germany, was the medium of converse. 
 When the church took control of knighthood, which became al- 
 most a sacrament, Latin was also introduced, which with the 
 French, made a perfect medium of speech throughout Europe. 
 
 21. Knighthood was fully developed during the eleventh cen- 
 tury, at which time crusades were formed and knights from 
 every part of Europe met as brothers in arms. The church then 
 consecrated knighthood by sacramental forms, and about the same 
 time the doctrine of love became an essential part of chivalry. 
 " Knighthood from Feing a matter of war and feudal dependence, 
 gained dignity by becoming romantic," and so great had its dig- 
 nity become that the greatest prince thought it an honor to be 
 knighted by some noted captain. Although knighthood had no 
 special rules as to who should enter its ranks, customs and ex- 
 penses kept it within the families of the nobles. No one was 
 born a knight, and only after a hard apprenticeship, first as a 
 " page " and then as an " esquire," could a young noble be " dub- 
 bed " (from A. S. " dubban," to strike) a knight. 
 
 22. Until the age of "seven the boy was under his mother's 
 charge ; at that age he was sent as a page to the estate of a noted 
 baron, bishop or some knight of fame to be brought up and 
 taught gentleness of manner and the duties of a knight. All 
 pages were placed under the control of an esquire, who directed 
 
ROMANCE OF KNIGHTHOOD. 13 
 
 them as he saw fit, but who was obliged to give them an educa- 
 tion. Reading, writing, and music were some of the requirements, 
 and these were generally undertaken by the lady of the house, 
 while the duties of service were taught by the master of the 
 henchmen. For seven years this servitude was willingly given; 
 nor was it ever thought a degrading one ; it was as natural to the 
 boys of old as going to school is to the boys of today ; in fact, 
 it was the school of those early times. The page was much 
 with the ladies, but he was also learning the duties of an esquirt 
 in the stabks, armory and kennels ; pages also waited on the table, 
 and the modern institution of " fagging " is a relic of this 
 mediaeval service. 
 
 As before mentioned, reading, writing, playing the harp and 
 singing were the accomplishments of the knight, to which were 
 added French, the language of the court. If the mistress did not 
 undertake the duties of teaching them herself she hired some poor 
 troubadour, in need of help, to educate the boys. Chess, a kind 
 of bagatelle, the rules of good manners and the rudiments ol 
 gallantry were, however, always under the supervision of the 
 ladies. 
 
 23. The rank of " esquire " was bestowed upon the page when 
 about fourteen years of age. He then left his mistress' service 
 and entered upon the duties of service to his master. He attended 
 to the hall, the armory, the tiltyard, the stables, the parks, and all 
 that pertained to hunting and hawking. All these duties he had 
 to learn personally and perform with his own hands. In a 
 wealthy nobleman's estate, whose chief glory was to be able to 
 show a great number of retainers wearing his livery, and liv- 
 ing at his expense, the work would be comparatively light on 
 account of the number to do it. Thus the chief part of the 
 work done on an estate was discharged by esquires, old and 
 young, and pages; but under these were grooms, huntsmen, and 
 domestic menials. The esquire carved the meat in the hall, 
 handed vessels of meat and served wine, followed by " varlets " 
 or pages carrying dishes. He gave water for the guests' hands 
 after dinner, he made his lord's bed, helped him to dress, 
 groomed his horses, and cared for his armor. He armed his 
 
I 4 PYTHIAN SKETCHES. 
 
 lord for the tournament or for battle; and when at war he pro- 
 vided him with fresh horses or new lances. During a fight two 
 esquires always attended a knight and fought by his side. 
 
 The most pleasing part of all his duties, however, was his 
 attendance upon the ladies. He played chess with them, some- 
 times rode with them, and at other times attended them while 
 hawking and hunting. In this service, the highest in rank, even 
 the king's son, thought it no degradation or loss of pride to per- 
 form these menial tasks, for as groom, valet and table-servant, 
 he was but learning duties that were to be rendered to himself 
 when he had passed through the degrees of page and esquire, and 
 these obligations of precedence and etiquette became to him as 
 a matter of course. 
 
 When an esquire had learned the duties of a knight and 
 had proved himself worthy, he could then aspire to the dignity of 
 knighthood. Not all, however, cared for the higher rank, and 
 many, though in all respects qualified, never assumed it, some on 
 account of its expense, ot'hers on account of its responsibilities. 
 
 24. The ancient ceremony of dubbing a knight was simple. 
 It consisted in robing the esquire in white and red, arming him 
 with a sword and lance, hanging a shield about his neck and 
 placing a helmet upon his head, with the command " Be brave. " 
 He then vaulted upon his horse without the use of the stirrup 
 and rode away. Afterward, when knighthood had reached its 
 prime, the ceremony became more elaborate. The esquire was 
 solemnly stripped of his clothes by his fellow esquires, put into 
 a bath, the 'symbol of purification, and conducted to his bed to 
 get dry. On rising he was clothed in a white robe, the emblem 
 of purity, and a scarlet doublet, the emblem of nobility. The 
 night before his admission to the order of knighthood, in imita- 
 tion of the vigil of the catechumens, he w r as kept, fully armed, 
 sometimes alone, sometimes with two priests, watching in the 
 church before the altar. In the morning his sponsors came to 
 him and the ceremony proceeded. Mass was sung and the sacra- 
 ment taken. The esquire then delivered his sword to the priest, 
 who laid it on the altar, blessed, and returned it. He then gave 
 it into the hands of his patron knight, to whom he made his 
 
ROMANCE OF KNIGHTHOOD. 15 
 
 knightly vow. Then kneeling at the feet of the lady who was 
 to arm him, he was invested with halberd, gauntlets, spurs, and 
 the rest of his armor, and lastly with the sword and belt. Kneel- 
 ing again before his patron, he received the accolade, three strokes 
 upon the shoulder with flat of the sword 
 
 25. There are several instances where poor and ignorant men 
 have been knighted for their own intrinsic worth. One, a poor 
 woodcutter, named Varocher, so devoted himself to the Queen of 
 France that he left his own wife and children to become her 
 guide and defender. He led her through Hungary and protected 
 her and her infant child, Louis, who was born while in exile, as 
 he would his mother. After the queen's trouble was over and 
 she returned to her husband, Varociier was knighted for his faith- 
 fulness. The King, Charlemagne, himself girded on the sword, 
 a duke buckled the spurs, and the queen invested him with the 
 emblem of nobility, exclaiming as she did so, " There is not in the 
 whole world a man more loyal." 
 
 All knights had the power to bestow knighthood upon others, 
 but this right was not generally taken advantage of. It was 
 left to those who had gained distinction on the battlefield, or, in 
 time of peace, to the sovereign. 
 
 The age of chivalry may be roughly stated to have extended 
 from the time of commencement of the Crusades to that of the 
 end of the " War of the Roses " in England. Within this period, 
 about four hundred years, all that was peculiar to it arose, at- 
 tained its maturity and fell into decay. Its life as a distinct pro- 
 fession was short, yet the spirit, and many of its external forms, 
 were in existence long ages before that time and continued until 
 about the sixteenth century. 
 
IIL 
 ORDER OF THE KNIGHTS Q OF PYTHIAS 
 
 "Big Oaks from Little Acorns Grow" 
 
 JUSTUS H. RATHBONE, the founder of the Order of 
 the Knights of Pythias, was born at Dearfield, Oneida County, 
 N. Y., Oct. 29, 1839. After completing his education he became 
 a teacher in the State schools of Michigan, where he remained 
 until the breaking out of the Rebellion, when he joined a com- 
 pany of Volunteers at Detroit, but as this company was not ac- 
 cepted he joined the army in another place. This was in 1863. 
 Soon afterward he was sent to Washington for service in the medi- 
 cal department. After the war he held several other government 
 offices. He died in 1889 at Lima, Ohio, and was buried at Forest 
 Hill Cemetery, Utica, N. Y., where a splendid monument has 
 been erected over his grave by the grand lodge of that domain. 
 
 27. It was during his professional career as a teacher at Eagle 
 Harbor, Mich., in 1859, that the idea of a secret order first came 
 to Mr. Rathbone. He had organized among a few of his friends 
 at Eagle Harbor a Dramatic Society, and he was appointed to 
 select the plays, " Among the plays sent in," he says, " was 
 the well known and popular drama ' Damon and Pythias/ I had 
 seen this play rendered on several previous occasions and it was 
 a great favorite with me. It was this play that suggested to me 
 the order of Knights of Pythias. I at once commenced the prep- 
 aration of a ritual for the prospective order." 
 
 28. On Feb. 15, 1864, Mr. Rathbone being then in the govern- 
 ment service at Washington, a meeting of the Arion Glee Club 
 took place and the ritual was read. After a discussion it was 
 decided to form a society, to be known as a mutual protective as- 
 sociation, among the clerks of the various departments at Wash- 
 ington. It was resolved that each one present should invite such 
 
KNIGHTS OF PYTHIAS. 17 
 
 of his fellow clerks whom he deemed worthy to join the club 
 in forming the order. 
 
 On the following Friday, there being a sufficient number pres- 
 ent to organize a society, the meeting was called to order and 
 the ritual read and adopted, each person having been put under 
 oath to reveal its contents to no one. The officers elected were 
 J. H. Rathbone, Worthy Chancellor; Joel R. Woodruff, Vice, and 
 J. T. K. Plant, Patriarch or Prelate. All the members attending 
 this meeting were government clerks except Mr. Plant, who had 
 been especially invited by Mr. Rathbone by consent of the others. 
 Such was the beginning of Washington Lodge No. I, Knights of 
 Pythias. Meetings took place on the 23rd and 27th of February, 
 when numerous applications for membership were received. 
 
 29. The next month a grand lodge was formed by choosing 
 three representatives from among themselves, of which Brother 
 Plant became Grand Chancellor. There seems to have been some 
 misunderstanding among the members at this time, for we find 
 on the 2ist of the following April that Brother Rathbone sent 
 in his resignation of office and membership, which was accepted. 
 
 30. The Grand Lodge was organized on April I2th, and Frank- 
 lin Lodge No. 2, at the Navy Yards, 'soon after came into exist- 
 ence; on May igth Columbus Lodge No. 3 was organized, fol- 
 lowed by Potomac Lodge No. 4 on June 2nd. It was on Feb. I, 
 1865, that the order stepped into the neighboring state of Virginia 
 with the organization of Alexandria Lodge No. i. Then came a 
 lull. Potomac and Columbia ceased holding meetings in April 
 for want of quorums ; Alexandria followed suit five months after 
 institution, so that when the Grand Lodge met in annual session 
 in June, 1865, only two lodges were represented, Washington No. 
 T and Franklin No. 2. The next July saw the consolidation of 
 Washington No. I with Franklin No. 2, so that on Aug. I, 1865, 
 the only lodge in existence was Franklin down in the Navy 
 Yards. As the Grand Lodge became extinct Franklin took its 
 duties upon itself. This lodge seems to have been in a prosperous 
 condition in spite of its Master of Finance, or Banker, as was 
 then the title, having decamped with some $225 of the funds. It 
 had a membership of sixty and there was about $200 still in its 
 
i8 PYTHIAN SKETCHES. 
 
 treasury. New life soon was manifested, and on April i8th a 
 charter was granted to Mt. Vernon No. 5 by the Past Chancellor 
 of Franklin No. 2, and fifteen members were added to the gen- 
 eral roster. 
 
 Up to this time no printing had been done; the ritual was 
 in manuscript, the ranks closed without charges, except the second 
 (modern third), when an extempore address was usually given; 
 the grip, 'signs and obligations were imperfect and a mere rep- 
 etition of one another. 
 
 On April 26th, 1866, Past Chancellor J. H. Rathbone applied 
 to the Franklin Lodpfe for re-instatement. This was formally 
 reported upon and granted, and Bro. Rathbone once more became 
 an active member of the order, after an absence of two years. 
 
 31. On the first of the next month a committee of Past Ch?n- 
 cellors with P. C. Rathbone as Chairman met and reorganized 
 the Grand Lodge. Bro. Rathbone was appointed Grand Chancellor 
 to fill the unexpired term, which ended June 30th, 1866. At this 
 meeting the signs, grip and password were changed, a secret 
 cipher made and adopted, and the ritual ordered printed. 
 
 On May 28th, following the reorganization, P. G. C. Plant 
 was expelled from the order for " divers reasons," and was 
 requested to deliver to the grand lodge the books, seal and 
 papers belonging to it, but he refused to do so. At the regular 
 annual session in July of same year Ed. Bunn of No. 2 was 
 installed Grand Chancellor and P. G. C. Rathbone succeeded to 
 the chair of Venerable Grand Patriarch, the highest office of the 
 order. A special meeting of the Grand Lodge was called on the 
 3Oth, to grant a charter to forty-three members constituting Lib- 
 erty Lodge No. 6 at the Navy Yards. . 
 
 31. Progressive work now seems to have been the order of 
 the day, and during the next August Webster Lodge No. 7 was 
 instituted, while the charter of Franklin No. 2 was opened for 
 new members, who were to be disqualified from benefits for six 
 
KNIGHTS OF PYTHIAS. 19 
 
 months. At the end of the year there were four lodges in ex- 
 istence : 
 
 Franklin No. 2, with 79 members. 
 
 Mt. Vernon No. 5, " 101 
 
 Liberty No. 6, " 165 
 
 Web-ster No. 7, " 34 
 
 making a total membership of 379. This is rather a poor showing 
 after two years of existence, but these four lodges were the result 
 of the weeding out of all poor material and this left them on a 
 good social foundation. 
 
 33. The next meeting of the Grand Lodge took place Feb. 27, 
 1867, when Washington No. i was ordered to be reorganized, the 
 proceedings of the Grand Lodge were declared "null and void," 
 a new seal ordered, and P. G. C. Rathbone declared the Senior 
 P. G. C. of the Order. Excelsior No. i of Pennsylvania was in- 
 stituted Feb. 23rd. The order now seemed to have a fair start, for 
 at the end of 1877 there were eight lodges in good working order 
 and the Grand Lodge created itself into a provisional Supreme 
 Lodge, doing for the time double duty. 
 
 Soon after we see the order firmly settled in the following 
 states : 
 
 Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Maryland, Delaware, besides the 
 District of Columbia; and delegates from these states met to 
 . formulate plans for a Supreme Council. Rules and resolutions 
 were adopted and referred to the Grand Lodges. 
 
 34. On the nth of August, 1868, the First Supreme Lodge 
 Convention met at Washington, D. C., P. G. C. Rathbone was 
 elected " Founder and Past Supreme Chancellor." The officers 
 of the Council were elected and duly declared installed. Bro. 
 Woodward, who had presided over the Provisional Supreme Lodge, 
 was elected P. S. C. and Wm. H. Myres of Pennsylvania be- 
 came the first Supreme Chancellor. 
 
 The next meeting of the Supreme Lodge on Nov. 9, 1968, 
 saw a good deal of business transacted. It adopted its seal, the 
 ritual, the regalia, grip, constitution of the Supreme, Grand and 
 Subordinate Lodges, and made arrangements for the incorpora- 
 tion of the order. On account of the neglect of duty on the 
 
20 PYTHIAN SKETCHES. 
 
 part of Bro. Plant these articles of incorporation were not per- 
 fected until 1882. At this meeting a committee to translate the 
 ritual into the German language and report at that session, was 
 appointed. When the matter was called up, it was found that 
 the chairman of that committee had started to Philadelphia with 
 the translation in his pocket. A committee was sent after him 
 and the ritual was recovered and presented to the lodge just in 
 time to be acted upon. Although it was regularly adopted, at a 
 subsequent session all foreign rituals were abolished and called 
 in. As there had been several German lodges established this 
 brought about a good deal of bitterness, nearly causing a rupture 
 in the order. 
 
 35. At the second session held in Richmond, Va., in 1870, 
 there were eight Grand Jurisdictions, with a total of 35,000 mem- 
 bers, while in 1871, at the meeting held in New York City the 
 Grand Jurisdictions were increased to sixteen and the member- 
 ship to 54,663- During the session of 1871 and also the ses'sion 
 of 1872 a petition for recognition was received from the Pythian 
 Sisters, who had several lodges in existence with a numerous 
 membership, but at both sessions the petitions were tabled. Dur- 
 ing this session trouble was brought about by the revision of 
 the ritual. Pennsylvania Grand Lodge refused to adopt it, and 
 in turn was refused the S. A. P. W. and its charter was sus- 
 pended. After a great many cross fires, however, the grand lodge 
 gave in and was restored to its former good standing. 
 
 Trouble was brewing for the session of 1873 on account of 
 the conclave question, and as a consequence the order made but 
 little progress; but by the time of the session of 1874 in Balti- 
 more, the membership had risen to 78,297. 
 
 36. This trouble about the " conclaves " originated in the first 
 call of a Supreme Lodge. At that meeting the members passed 
 a resolution (though never recorded) authorizing Bro. Rathbone 
 to organize a higher degree unconnected and not interfer- 
 ing with the present ritual. This he was prevailed upon to do. 
 A new ritual was composed, and the " Supreme Pythian Knights" 
 instituted, which met in conclaves. The Supreme Lodge deny 
 ever having passed this resolution and strongly fought against 
 
KNIGHTS OF PYTHIAS. 21 
 
 its provision. The Grand Lodges were ordered to demand the 
 withdrawal of their members from all connection with the new 
 rank. On the refusal of some of them to comply they were sus- 
 pended. The difficulty was finally arranged after the reading of 
 the ritual by the Supreme Lodge, and placing the conclaves under 
 its own control when it was disconnected altogether from the 
 order of the Knights of Pythias. It afterward existed as an in- 
 dependent order, and finally died out. 
 
 37. Not being satisfied with one or more officers of the Su- 
 preme Lodge, P. S. C. Rathbone once more sent in his resignation 
 from the order, and it was not until some six years afterwards 
 that he again sought and obtained readmission. 
 
 38. The Supreme Lodge now made some important changes 
 in the order. The word " Rank " was substituted for " Degree ;" 
 it was decided not to institute lodges in foreign countries ; and 
 the ritual, nearly as we now have it, with 'its amplified Third 
 Rank, was adopted. This amplified rank was prepared by Bro. 
 (The Rt. Rev.) Ussher Bishop of Illinois Domain. The titles of 
 officers of subordinate lodges were changed to those now in use. 
 The fifth annual session was a notable one, as during its pro- 
 ceedings the fate of tlie order hung in a balance. Supreme Re- 
 corder and Cor. Sec. C. M. Barton was found to be a defaulter 
 and the lodge became heavily in debt to the amount of about 
 $17,000. Barton would not settle, and as the articles of incor- 
 poration had not been entered in the proceedings of the lodge, 
 (which no doubt had been purposely omitted by Barton) nothing 
 could be done to compel him to make restitution. He was ex- 
 pelled from the order in disgrace, and the Supreme Lodge would 
 have become bankrupt had it not been for the Supreme Chan- 
 cellor, Henry Clay Berry, who came to its rescue and engineered 
 it out of its difficulties. 
 
 When Supreme Chancellor S. S. Davis retired in 1878, after 
 four years of hard work, during which time he visited every 
 Grand Jurisdiction where the order was established, he left it, 
 not only free from debt, but with $7,000 to its credit. 
 
 39. The chief event of 1878-1880 was the cry for "help that 
 came up from the Southern States. In 1878 a plague of yellow 
 
22 PYTHIAN SKETCHES. 
 
 fever broke out in the southern cities, Memphis, New Orleans 
 and Vicksburg being the greatest sufferers. Supreme Chancellor 
 Woodruff immediately sent to the Grand Lodges for help, which 
 was very generously responded to and generous aid was for- 
 warded by telegraph. The official report shows that the sum of 
 $477,780.85 was pafd for relief during these two years. 
 
 40. The Endowment Rank had now been in existence three 
 years and had proved a complete success. Four hundred and 
 fifty sections had been founded, 21,685 certificates issued and 
 $399,477.00 had been paid in death endowments. A special com- 
 mittee was appointed to prepare a ritual, constitution and laws, 
 for the Uniform Rank. This work was accomplished by Nov. ist, 
 1878, and divisions authorized. Up to the meeting of this ses- 
 sion fifty-four warrants had been issued. 
 
 41. The next two sessions of the Supreme Lodge were chiefly 
 devoted to the Endowment and Uniform Ranks, both of which 
 were rapidly attaining a position of great importance in the 
 order. In 1884 the office of Sup. Secy, of the Endowment Rank 
 and Major General of the Uniform Rank was created. The 
 session of 1886 was notable as being the first time in the history 
 of the order that it was held outside of the United States. It 
 was held in Toronto, and it has gone on record as the pleasantest 
 and most enjoyable ever held; made so by the magnificent enter- 
 tainment of the citizens and government of that city. The Uni- 
 form Rank made its first appearance since its perfected organiza- 
 tion and won great applause. 
 
 Thus the order has grown and prospered " through all the 
 ages " of its short life, and is still growing stronger and stronger 
 both in numbers and financial condition. 
 
 42. The last report of the Supreme Lodge gives us a total of 
 54 Grand Lodges, 6740 Subordinate Lodges, and a membership of 
 nearly 600,000. The assets of the different lodges amount to the 
 magnificent sum of $9,759,127.69. Outside our own country our 
 lodges are located in Canada, Mexico, Alaska, Cuba, and the far- 
 off Islands of Hawaii and the Philippines. 
 
IV. 
 THE UNIFORM RANK 
 
 "Military organisation is a science, and is admirably adapted to 
 every branch of business." Gen. W. T. Sherman, U.S.A. 
 
 MAJOR GENERAL JAMES R. CARNAHAN, U. R. K. 
 P., in his " Pythian Knighthood," commenting on the 
 Rank, says : "The establishment of the Uniform Rank 
 marks the beginning of the era of permanent prosperity of the 
 Knights of Pythias. In the Uniform Rank we show the world 
 a complete military organization, systematically officered, thor- 
 oughly drilled, that might in case of need be utilized as a means 
 of untold good in the defense of the national government, and 
 with credit to the order. It stands not only as the representative 
 of a fraternal and benevolent organization, but it also proclaims 
 citizenship and loyalty to the_constituted authority." 
 
 44. The Uniform Rank has been so quietly, -though surely, 
 building itself up in numbers and perfection since its institution 
 that when the late war with Spain broke out, and the Major 
 General offered the services of an army corps of 25,000 well 
 drilled and disciplined men, it took the world by surprise. Yet 
 it is true that our beloved order boasts of an efficient corps of 
 over 50,000 men, uniformed, officered and drilled in every re- 
 spect according to the regulations of the U. S. Army, and the 
 Uniform Rank of the Knights of Pythias is now recognized as 
 one of the reserve forces of the nation. 
 
 45. It has had a somewhat peculiar history. In 1871 it was or- 
 dered that a uniform should be worn by all Knights of Pythias. 
 The next year this was somewhat modified by the omission of the 
 headdress. Knight James Pettibone then designed a helmet 
 which was adopted; in 1876 more changes were made. These 
 changes, together with the fact that no order had been given as to 
 the pattern of the garments or as to the shade of the color, led 
 
24 PYTHIAN SKETCHES. 
 
 to much confusion ; and such were the varieties of shades and 
 styles of dress and trimming of the various " drill corps," as they 
 were then called, that there were no two companies alike. The 
 Supreme Lodge ordered that "cap, baldric, sword, belt and cuffs" 
 be worn, but said nothing about material or any particular shade 
 of the colors, which were to be blue bordered with yellow. Many 
 corps were neatly attired, but there was such a dissimilarity of 
 costumes that they only added to the grotesqueness of the as- 
 sembly, and, as General Carnahan says "the ununiform uniformed 
 Drill Corps became a laughing stock to kindred organizations." 
 
 46. Great activity, however, was manifested in the formation 
 of these bodies, and in the Supreme Lodge of 1876 there were 
 presented " Rules and Regulations for the formation of Uniform 
 Division of the Knights of Pythias." This resolution was re- 
 ferred to a committee who reported that the Constitution did not 
 provide for such a Uniform Rank. In the next year's session the 
 Grand Lodge of Ohio petitioned that a higher rank or ranks be 
 established, wherein no member should be admitted without hav- 
 ing procured the uniform of the order. The committee to whom 
 it was referred reported favorably. The Supreme Lodge passed 
 the following resolution: 
 
 "Resolved, that the Supreme Chancellor appoint a committee 
 of five to prepare a ritual, constitution, etc., for the proper or- 
 ganization of such higher body, under the control of the Supreme 
 Lodge, into which the rank proposed by Representative Forstone 
 of Ohio be incorporated." The committee reported with the 
 ritual and regulations and with the request that they be per- 
 fected by the Supreme Chancellor, S. Vice Chancellor and S. 
 Keeper of Records and Seal. After great opposition the report 
 was laid on the table but was taken up again the same day, and 
 referred to another Committee. This second committee, after 
 several meetings, completed its work, and on Nov. I, 1888, the 
 Supreme Chancellor promulgated the order for the formation of 
 Divisions, and the Uniform Rank started on its course. Gen. 
 Carnahan, who from the first was one of the most persistent 
 in having the Rank started, and has ever since fostered and 
 protected it, is spoken of as its founder. 
 
UNIFORM RANK. 25 
 
 The first Division formed was Columbus No. I of Ohio. It 
 was mustered in eight days after the promulgation of the Su- 
 preme Chancellor. Rapidly following this came other Divisions 
 in Ohio, Indiana, Maryland, Virginia, Missouri, Michigan, Penn- 
 sylvania, New York, Minnesota, and Wyoming, all having one or 
 more Divisions before February of 1879. The next year fifty-four 
 were reported. 
 
 47. From this time on this Higher Rank of the order has in- 
 creased in popularity and strength until now it has reached such 
 proportions as to be almost too unwieldy to be governed under 
 its present system. It has grown to manhood and is restless un- 
 der the petticoat government of its mother; it feels restrained 
 and unable to branch out to still greater dimensions ; it is prac- 
 tically at a standstill for lack of the right to pass its own laws 
 and be independent. It is the earnest desire of its members to 
 occupy the same relation to the order as the Knights Templar 
 does to Masonry. And why should it not? It is already rec- 
 ognized by the words of the resolutions passed by the Supreme 
 Lodge as of a Higher Rank, and it should now tc.ke its proper 
 place in the order. 
 
 48. The report of the Major General up to August, 1902, 
 shows that there were then 906 companies in active service, 
 which were organized into 99 regiments and these regiments 
 into 24 brigades ; 25 companies, however, were unconnected with 
 either regiments or brigades. The reports says, " There is not 
 a page in all the history of the Uniform Rank that does not tell of 
 the good it has done to the Pythian cause. There is not a brother 
 in the Rank that is not thoroughly loyal to the best interests 
 of his lodge. Can you have a greater devotion shown, any 
 greater self-sacrifice by any body of men than has been shown by 
 the members of this Rank coming all the way across the conti- 
 nent at their own expense in order to add glory and prowess 
 to the Order? How many of your representatives will do this 
 without their mileage and per diem?" 
 
V* 
 THE ENDOWMENT RANK 
 
 "// is the duty of every Knight to provide for his family and 
 those dependent upon him." 
 
 WHEN the Order of Knights of Pythias was first insti- 
 tuted benevolence was its first aim, and in continuance 
 of this thought . a life insurance plan was soon de- 
 veloped. As early as 1875 a resolution incorporating an Insurance 
 Rank was introduced to the Supreme Lodge, which was reported 
 upon the following year and tabled. In 1877, however, the sub- 
 ject was again taken up, as a result of whicn the matter was 
 referred to a 'special committee which was ordered to report, 
 "written and unwritten work for a Fourth Rank of the Order, 
 with provisions for Endowment." By Sept. 30, 1877, this commit- 
 tee prepared a ritual for the secret work, and laws to govern the 
 financial and insurance system of the Rank. On Nov. 21, 1877, the 
 first supplies were sent from the office of the Supreme Mester 
 of Exchequer, and the Rank became an accomplished fact. 
 
 50. At the next meeting of the Supreme Lodge, in 1878, it 
 was found that warrants had been issued for 235 sections, 
 which had 3,274 members of the first class, and 5,356 members 
 of the second class. The Rank was in charge of Bro. John 
 B. Stumph, S. M. of E. It was still in an experimental stage 
 and continued so until 1888, when an entire change took place 
 in its management. Previously the level assessment plan held 
 the fort; but now this was changed to a graded schedule, and an 
 entirely new code of laws took the place of the old ones. 
 
 51. Gradually, step by step, the Rank has been placed upon 
 a sure and safe footing, and now, from a business, as well as 
 from a fraternal, point of view, it is one of the safest and most 
 thoroughly organized institutions of its kind. 
 
 In conjunction with many of its confreres, it has had its 
 
ENDOWMENT RANK. 27 
 
 drawbacks and troubles. It has but lately rescued itself from 
 the throes of an upheaval that for a time threatened its life; 
 but happily, through the staunch support of the whole order, it 
 stands now on a firm and solid foundation. A careful search 
 of the expenditures of the Rank during the past years shows 
 marked increase without a similar increase in its income, there- 
 by causing a deficit. There were two reasons for this ; an error 
 in judgment by unwise investments and the paying of large salar- 
 ies and bonuses to solicitors of insurance, whose salaries ex- 
 ceeded the premiums taken. This, however, has been remedied, 
 the whole deficit wiped out, and the Rank stands today in a bet- 
 ter financial condition than ever before. The experience of the 
 last ten years has been of such benefit to it that the Rank will 
 never again undergo the same state of depression, but having 
 been purified in the fire will forever soar to the glory and 
 honor of Pythian Knighthood. 
 
 52. Such is the confidence reposed in the Rank that its mem- 
 bership is now 60,000, carrying endowments of over $105,000,000. 
 Its resources at the end of last September (1902) were $402,- 
 417.20, while its whole liabilities amounted to only $189,485.47, 
 leaving a net balance to the good of $212,932.12. Of this sum 
 $208,324.78 was in the First National Bank of Chicago, as 
 shown by its certificate. A better state of affairs could hardly 
 exist. 
 
 53. Great credit is due the present president of the Board 
 of Control, Bro. C. F. S. Neal, for having so successfully 
 brought the Rank to its present state of prosperity. Being a 
 component part of the Order of Knights of Pythias it deserves 
 the hearty support of every Knight, and that the Rank is grow- 
 ing in strength month by month is a sure proof that it holds 
 the confidence of the order in general and that its certificates 
 are held to be safe and secure. Every safeguard has been 
 thrown around its affairs, and all who have the handling if its 
 funds are bound by bonds issued by a reliable Surety Company. 
 
THE RATHBONE SISTERS 
 
 " The basic principle of our order is Love that principle 
 which, if developed to its utmost, would leave no room for 
 differences." Belle Quinlan, Supreme Chief. 
 
 SOON after the Order of the. Knights of Pythias had be- 
 come assured, the wives and daughters of its members de- 
 termined to institute a ladies' lodge in connection with it; 
 and as early as 1871 a petition was sent into the Supreme Lodge 
 for its institution, and again in 1872, but in both instances the 
 petitions were tabled. It was not until the session of 1888 that 
 anything definite was done. 
 
 55. Just previous to the meeting of the Supreme Lodge 
 the session of the Grand Lodge of Connecticut was held, and 
 the following resolution was introduced : 
 
 " Resolved, that our Supreme Representatives use their ut- 
 most endeavors at the session of the Supreme Lodge to secure 
 such legislation as will result in the speedy establishment of the 
 ladies' rank of the order." 
 
 The question was vigorously discussed between the time of 
 this meeting and that of the Supreme Lodge which met at 
 Cincinnati on June 12, 1888. The Supreme Lodge had been 
 severely censured for so often declaring " it was inexpedient." 
 But again great efforts were made on behalf of the sisters and 
 once more the question was formally taken up. A ritual for 
 the proposed rank was presented by the representative of In- 
 diana which had been prepared by Past Chancellor Hill of the 
 same domain. A committee was appointed to deal with the 
 subject, which committee reported in favor of allowing wives, 
 mothers, widows, sisters and daughters of Knights of Pythias 
 in good standing to establish a society to be known as the 
 Order of Pythian Sisterhood. The committee reported that it 
 was not practicable to create a ladies' rank in the Order of 
 
RATHBONE SISTERS. 29 
 
 Knights of Pythias, and that the ladies could better control 
 their own order. The report was adopted and Hill's ritual rec- 
 ommended. 
 
 56. This semi-recognition was all that could be obtained. 
 The first temple was instituted on Oct. 23, 1888, at Warsaw, Ind., 
 by Bro. Hill, the founder. So great had been its success that 
 June in the next year saw the first Grand Temple organized in 
 the same state. By the following Sept igth, Ohio also had its 
 Grand Temple. About a week after this Bro. Hill sent out a 
 call for representatives from the Grand Temples, and from 
 Temples in States having no Grand Temples, to meet at In- 
 dianapolis for the purpose of forming a Supreme Temple. On 
 Oct. 16, 1889, the assembly took place and the Supreme Temple 
 was instituted, a code of laws was adopted, and the right and 
 title of the ritual, paraphernalia, etc., was transferred by the 
 founder to the Supreme Temple. 
 
 57. Up to 1894 the title of the Pythian Sisters remained as 
 quoted, but as the Supreme Lodge, K. P., forbade any Knight 
 of Pythias to become affiliated with the Pythian Sisterhood, 
 since it was a society using its name and which was unauthorized 
 by and unconnected with the order, its name was changed to 
 that of the " Rathbone Sisters." 
 
 58. The order has now been in existence some fourteen years, 
 and under the admirable administration of the sisters it has 
 grown to large dimensions. On Dec. 31, 1901, there were 21 
 Grand Temples having jurisdiction over 1064 Subordinate Tem- 
 ples. Since then, and up to June, 1902, two Grand Temple's 
 and five Subordinate Temples have been added. Besides these 
 there are 65 of the latter owing allegiance direct to the Supreme 
 Temple, making a total of 1134 Subordinates, having a total 
 membership of 65,718. 
 
 Not to be behind the Knights of Pythias, the Sisters have 
 their Endowment Rank called " The Rathbone Sisters' Endow- 
 ment Branch " which is in a very flourishing condition and 
 under their full control. They ha.ve had no drawbacks such 
 as the Knights have had, nor is it probable that they ever will 
 have. Whatever the Sisters have undertaken has been carried 
 
30 PYTHIAN SKETCHES. 
 
 to a complete success. They have thus shown their capability 
 of managing the affairs of their order, and it is fully time that 
 the Rathbone Sisters be recognized officially as a " Componenf 
 part of the Knights of Pythias." 
 
 59. The benefits derived from the Sisters by the local lodges 
 arc inestimable. Sister Pringle, Grand Chief of California, says 
 on this subject: "The beautiful lessons taught in the Rathbone 
 Sisters' work, the broad, true principles of living, cannot but 
 make every nature better that is brought in contact with them, 
 if the heart is at all receptive of truth. For this reason, then, 
 if for no other, women should desire to enter and maintain 
 such an opportunity for mental and spiritual growth, and the 
 Knights of Pythias, knowing the good that comes from their 
 own noble lessons, ought to appreciate these efforts of woman 
 to create for herself a society that will be a means of better 
 living and greater improvement, and whatever makes the in- 
 dividual better has a direct influence upon the home and the 
 home life." 
 
 To detail all the unobtrusive acts of kindness and love 
 performed by the sisters would fill volumes, for their deeds of 
 goodness are many; so o>ften have the afflicted and sorrowing, 
 the poor and needy received their consolation and assistance, 
 and the world been none the wiser; for the Rathbone Sisters 
 do not " let their left hand know what their right hand doeth," 
 nor do they " wear their hearts upon their sleeves for daws to 
 peck at." 
 
 60. The following is .quoted from the report of the committee 
 on Fraternal Review given to the Grand Lodge of the Domain 
 of California : 
 
 "The Rathbone Sisters have not been mentioned in many cf 
 the journals. Some of our most pleasam evenings have been 
 spent in their Temples. This is another social adjunct of our 
 order and has assisted in bringing many a worthy fellow into 
 our ranks. The Sisterhood is ever ready to lend a helping 
 hand whenever it is po'ssible to advance the interests of our 
 order. Why, then, should - they not be recognized officially? 
 Give this quiet study and 'see to it, brothers, that they are 
 recognized." 
 
vn. 
 
 THE DRAMATIC ORDER OF THE KNIGHTS OF 
 KHORASSAN 
 
 "Heaven lies about us in our infancy, and the world 'lies' 
 about us when we are grown up." Khorassan Maxims. 
 
 ITS OBJECTS : Friendship, Brotherly Love, and Good Fellow- 
 ship. 
 
 ITS MERITS: Carrying out its object and purpose. 
 
 ITS STRENGTH : Knowing they are commendable and worthy 
 of support. 
 
 THE Dramatic Order of the Knights of Khorassan is 
 neither a higher, side, nor branch rank of the Order of 
 Knights of Pythias, but membership in a lodge of that 
 order is necessary before one can become a member of the 
 Dramatic Order. It was organized in 1894 at Milwaukee 
 in order to cultivate the social side of life, and as an aid for 
 members of the Knights of Pythias to become better acquainted 
 with each other than is possible in the lodge room; it forms 
 the meeting ground upon which members may meet without 
 the usual routine of business, thus breaking down the barriers 
 that very often exist between members of different lodges. 
 It bears the same relation to the Knights that the "Mystic 
 Shrine" does to the Masons. It is not a branch of the 
 order in any respect, but in such favor is it held by the members 
 that it has grown in six years to a membership of about 
 18,000, distributed among the 116 temples that have now been 
 instituted. It presents an opportunity for those who enjoy 
 a Dramatic ritual to spend an occasional evening in association 
 with kindred spirits, wherein to participate in cere- 
 monies enlivening, entertaining, and provocative of amusement. 
 62. Its initiation is new and pleasing, and is performed in a 
 
32 PYTHIAN SKETCHES. 
 
 dramatic manner by dramatic characters. The ceremony is 
 beautiful, refined in thought and amusing in form. It is entirely 
 free from all vulgarity and degenerating practices, intended only 
 for gentlemen to whom, and to none others, it extends an in- 
 vitation. 
 
 63. The regular Knights of Pythias organization represents 
 the Fraternal; the Uniform Rank, the Military; tBe Endow- 
 ment Rank, the Protective; and the Dramatic Order Knights of 
 Khorassan, the Social side of life the one thing that had been 
 neglected. 
 
 64. The following may be taken as a sample of the invitation 
 sent out by the D. O. K. K. : 
 
 " Incline youi ear to the whisperings of the Prophet while 
 he saith, 'The hot winds of the summer have gone to sleep and 
 the alkali dust no longer fills the air on our beloved desert; the 
 early autumn showers have macle the Oasis to bloom again; our 
 camels and asses have withstood the drought, and their young 
 are frisking on a thousand hills. Abide in our tents and see 
 how we graze our camels and feed our votaries, giving them 
 strength to overcome the Tiger's claws. 
 
 " We are brothers all of the desert sands, 
 
 Though our tracks lie far apart, 
 We meet on the road with outstretched hands, 
 
 With the warmth of an Orient heart." 
 
 "A few thoughts expressed expressly for your guidance: 
 
 " Leave your latch key at home ; you won't need it 
 " Say good bye to wife and babies ; you may never return. 
 " Wear your best clothes : they'll be ' worst ' enough after- 
 wards. 
 
 " Bring no arnica or witch hazel, we'll provide all necessities. 
 " Don't come without your appetite : we'll ' wet ' it. 
 
 'Allah be praised.'" 
 
D. O. K. K. 33 
 
 KHORASSAN MAXIMS: 
 
 65. Virtue is its own reward. 
 Policy is the best honesty. 
 Many hands like light work. 
 
 A bird in the hand lays no eggs. 
 The wages of sin is debt. 
 A pitch in time saves nine. 
 Osculation is the thief of time. 
 Every dogma must have its days. 
 
 A thirsty man will catch at a straw. 
 It is not good for a man to give a loan. 
 Straws show which way the gin goes. 
 The lack of money is the root of all evil. 
 It's a wise child that owes its own father. 
 
 66. Yet with all this fun and frolic the under stratum of its 
 work is elevating and instructive, and every Pythian can learn 
 good lessons from its ritual, since its tendency is to build up 
 the moral and mental standard of those who become members. 
 Although full of fun there is nothing which approaches vul- 
 garity, and therefore no one demeans himself in his own esti- 
 mation, nor that of his brothers. 
 
 This social rank is worthy of the support of all good and 
 true Pythians. 
 
 It is the warmest society that has crossed the Sands of the 
 Desert, or singed a candidate for many decades. . 
 
 And for all good things let Allah be praised. 
 
vra. 
 
 THE STORY OF DAMON AND PYTHIAS 
 
 "As the sacred temples are the places of religious rites, so the 
 faithful hearts of such men are like temples filled by a 
 special divine influence." Valerius Ma.rimus. 
 
 THE question is often asked, "Who were Damon and 
 Pythias? Were there ever such men living, and if so, 
 then why do we 'not read of them in history?" It is 
 in answer to this that the following short sketch is written. His- 
 tory only records events that affect the whole country of which 
 it treats, and the reason we do not read of these two of nature's 
 noblemen is, that the event which made them famous was of a 
 private nature and unconnected with the history of the times. 
 The incident would never have been known had not Dionysius 
 the Younger, after his exile to Greece, entertained his friends 
 there with the story. For him to have thought it worth while 
 to relate the event at all, shows that at the time it must have 
 created a profound impression upon all who saw or heard of it. 
 It certainly excited the admiration of those to whom Dionysius 
 told it. Among his hearers was Aristoxenus, a voluminous 
 writer, whose works have been lost, and we only know of them 
 by their being quoted by other and later writers, and thus did 
 the story of Damon and Pythias come down to us, 
 
 68. There are two phases of this story, one of fiction and the 
 other of history. The fictious phase is in the form of a drama 
 written by John Bannine, an Irishman, and first produced in 
 London at Court Garden Theatre, on. May 28th, 1821. In it the 
 main facts are adhered to and followed to the end ; but it is 
 hedged about with all the license that poets and playwriters are 
 allowed. Consequently we have an account so garbled by omis- 
 sion here and addition there, that it is doubtless far from being 
 the original story; but, as it was from this narrative of Damon 
 
DAMON AND PYTHIAS 35 
 
 and Pythias that the order of Knights of Pythias took its rise, 
 we will first give the story as contained in the drama, and then 
 tell what Aristoxenus said while quoting Dionysius. 
 
 DAMON AND PYTHIAS IN FICTION. 
 
 69. In the summer of the year 405 B. C. three friends, Publius, 
 Vecius and Caius, met in the streets of Syracuse and discussed 
 the question that was occupying the minds of all. the rumor tnat 
 the life of Dionysius was threatened, and that a bodyguard for 
 him had been recommended. Caius reminded the others that 
 the bodyguard would be against the law. In the course of the 
 conversation, Caius informed them that an officer had been seen 
 trying to bribe some private soldiers to bind themselves to the 
 persorfal service of Dionysius, and that Damon, a Senator, who 
 happened to be standing behind a pillar, overheard these remarks, 
 and, stepping forward, charged the plotter with treachery to the 
 state. This occasioned a bitter quarrel, which might have had a 
 serious ending had not Pythias, an officer of the Army and a 
 friend of Damon, approached and diverted it by wise counsel. 
 The next day dawned fair and beautiful. In one household there 
 were early risers, for it was the wedding day of Pythias and 
 Calanthe. The bride had risen at the first flush of day and was 
 standing gazing at the beauties of the scenes around her, when 
 her maids came to prepare her for the nuptials. They cast aside 
 her maiden robes, put on her garments of wifehood, and led her 
 to meet the bridegroom. 
 
 In the meantime, Damon had passed a sleepless night, busy 
 with thoughts of his country's dangers. Liberty was threatened, 
 the rights of the people violated, and the law set at naught. He 
 felt, as one of the guardians of state, that he ought to warn all 
 his fellow senators against the demand of the tyrant Dionysius 
 for an armed guard, even if it cost him his life. 
 
 Having made up his mind, he serenely took his accustomed 
 place in the Senate and awaited events. The usual routine of 
 business having been completed, the motion was proposed that 
 Dionysius be allowed a bodyguard. Damon then arose, and, in a 
 most eloquent speech, denounced the proposition as against the 
 law, and called upon his fellow senators to uphold the law and 
 
36 PYTHIAN SKETCHES. 
 
 stay this peril; "Beat back this usurping force and let ambition 
 hide its head when freemen speak." Dionysius stopped him, 
 sent him to prison and condemned him to death. Then there 
 arose a cry through the tumult that ensued, and Pythias forced 
 his way through the crowd to the tyrant, and told him that as 
 he stood by the altar waiting for the words which were to make 
 Calanthe his wife, he heard that Damon was to die, and had 
 hastened hither, for he was Damon's friend. He begged the 
 tyrant to grant Damon time to see his wife and child before he 
 should die, and offered himself as a hostage for his friend's 
 safe return. After hesitating for some time to grant this mad 
 request, as he deemed it, for, he said, "Friendship is bought and 
 sold by special favor," Dionysius gave Damon six hours respite, 
 Pythias being bound and sent to prison. 
 
 Soon afterward, while under the peaceful influence of his 
 benevolent thoughts, Pythias was visited in his prison by Dio- 
 nysius, who entered in disguise and called himself Fannius. He 
 told Pythias that Damon would not come back, that his child's 
 tears would keep him at home, but that he, Fannius, would help 
 him to escape. Pythias answered, "Lighter would be your task 
 to stay tomorrow's sun than for Damon to break his pledged 
 word," and "As free from peril do I stand as a babe that 
 sleeps on his mother's breast." 
 
 Seeing that he could do nothing alone, Dionysius sent Ca- 
 lanthe to urge her lover to escape. For this purpose he placed a 
 ship at her disposal, and told her that he had ordered his 
 guards to prevent Damon's return. But all to no purpose; 
 Pythias would not break his word. "Honor was more to him 
 than life." 
 
 The time draws near is at hand and Damon Has not re- 
 turned ! The headsman's axe is uplifted, when there is a shout 
 from the populace, and Damon comes running just in time to 
 save his friend. Damon's servant had slain his horse to prevent 
 his return. 
 
 70. Such is the story as told in fiction, and now let us hear 
 what history has to say. As before stated, the historic accounts 
 are all taken from the writings of Aristoxenus, who received 
 
DAMON AND PYTHTAS. 37 
 
 the story from Dionysius the Younger, son of the Dionysius of 
 the story, who became tyrant after his father's death, but was 
 afterwards deposed and exiled to Greece. Here he met Aris- 
 toxenus, to whom he told the story of Pythagora's, and who had 
 retold it in a book, which has long been lost, but which was 
 still in existence as late as the time of Julian the Apostate, Em- 
 peror of Rome, which reign was during the lifetime of 
 lamblicus. 
 
 DAMON AND PYTHIAS OF HISTORY. 
 
 71. The translations below will tell their own story. They are 
 copied 'in full, by the kind permission of Gen. J. R. Carnahan, U. 
 R. K. P., from "Pythian Knighthood." The first was written in 
 Latin by Cicero, who lived in the first century, B. C. He says, 
 
 "Damon and Pythias, two of the followers of Pythagoras, 
 were so closely attached to each other that when Dionysius, the 
 Tyrant, ordered one of them put to death on a certain day, and 
 the party condemned begged respite for a few days, so that he 
 might go home to attend to his own before he should die, the 
 other voluntarily became his substitute, to die in his place if 
 he did not appear. At the time appointed the condemned re- 
 turned to meet his fate. Thereupon the tyrant was so much 
 amazed at their extraordinary fidelity that he sought to be ad- 
 mitted as a third in their friendship." 
 
 On another occasion Cicero writes, 
 
 " How low was the estimate which Dion) r sius placed upon 
 those friendships which he feared would fail, he shows by what 
 he says of those two disciples of Pythagoras, Damon and Pythias, 
 for, when he accepted one of them as a substitute for the other, 
 who was doomed to die, and when the other, to redeem his 
 surety's life, had promptly returned at the hour appointed for 
 the execution, Dionysius said to them, 'Would that I could be 
 enrolled as your third friend/ How unhappy was Dionysius' 
 lot to be thus deprived of the communion of friends, the social 
 intercourse an^ familiar converse of daily life." Cicero, Tus- 
 culan, Bk. V., Ch. 22. 
 
 72. The second historian to write this story was Diodorus 
 
38 PYTHIAN SKETCHES. 
 
 Siculus, a Greek, who wrote after Cicero and a little before the 
 time of Christ, and like Cicero, probably took his account from 
 Aristoxenus. He says : 
 
 "Phintias, a certain Pythagorean, having conspired against 
 the Tyrant, was about to suffer the penalty He sought from Di- 
 onysius an opportunity to arrange his private affairs as he de- 
 sired and he said that he would give one of his friends as surety 
 for himself. As the despot wondered whether there was such a 
 friend, who would put himself in the Bastile in his stead, 
 Phintias called a certain one of his companions, Damon by name, 
 a Pythagorean philosopher, who, nothing doubting, immediately 
 became substitute for Phintias. Thereupon some commended 
 the extravagant regard existing between these friends, while 
 others, indeed, condemned the rashness and folly of the sub- 
 stitute. 
 
 "Now, at the appointed time, all the people assembled, eager 
 to see whether he who had made this recognizance would keep 
 his pledge. Indeed, the hour was already drawing to a close, 
 and all had given up Damon in despair when Phintias, having 
 accomplished his purpose, came running at full speed at the 
 turn of the critical moment, just as Damon was being led away 
 to execution. At this manifestation of a most remarkable friend- 
 ship Dionysius revoked the sentence, pardoned all concerned 
 and called on the men, Damon and Phintias, to receive himself as 
 a third into tKeir friendship." Diod. Bk. X, Ch. 4. 
 
 73. Valerius Maximus, a Roman historian, contemporary with 
 Diodorus, writes as follows : 
 
 "Damon and Pythias, having been initiated into the 'sacred 
 rites of the Pythagorean society, were united together by such 
 strong friendship that when Dionysius, the Syracusan, proposed 
 to kill one of them, and he had obtained from him a respite, 
 by which, before he should die, he might return home and 
 arrange his affairs, the other did not hesitate to become surety 
 for his return to the tyrant. He who was free from danger of 
 death in this way submitted his neck to the sword; he who was 
 allowed to live in security risked his head for his friend. There- 
 fore all, and especially Dionysius, watched the result of this new 
 
DAMON AND PYTHIAS. 39 
 
 and uncertain affair. When the appointed day approached and he 
 did not return everyone condemned the surety for his rash folly; 
 but he declared that for himself he did not at all doubt the 
 constancy of his friend. However, at this moment, even at the 
 hour determined by Dionysitis, he who had received the respite 
 returned. 
 
 "The tyrant, admiring the disposition of both, remitted the 
 punishment of the friend, and, moreover, he requested that they 
 would receive him into their society of friendship, as a third 
 member of the brotherhood, as the greatest kindness and honor. 
 Such friendship, indeed, begets contempt for death, is able to 
 break the charm of life, to make the savage gentle, to repay 
 punishment with kindness, and to transform hatred into love. It 
 merits almost as much reverence as the sacred rites of the 
 immortal gods ; for while these preserve public safety, that 
 conserves private good, and as sacred temples are the places of 
 religious rites, so the faithful hearts of such men are like 
 temples filled by a special divine influence." Valerius Maximus, 
 Liber XIV, Ch. 7, E*t. i. 
 
 74. Porphyry, a Greek philosopher, who wrote in the third cen- 
 tury after Christ, and who says he followed the account of 
 Aristoxenus, as quoted by Nicomachus, a Pythagorean of Gerasa, 
 who wrote during the reign of Emperor Tiberius, writes the 
 next account. 
 
 "Pity, and tears, and all such, these men, Damon and Pythias, 
 excite; this certainly is admitted. Now this is the account, as well 
 of the flattery, and of the entreaty, and of the prayer, and of all 
 such as these. When on a certain occasion some having said 
 that when the Pythagoreans were apprehended they did net 
 stand to their pledge to one another, Dionysius, wishing to make 
 trial of them, thus arranged: Phintias was seized ?nd brought 
 before the tyrant ; then accused that he had conspired against 
 him; indeed, he was convicted of this and it was determined to 
 put Kim to death. Then he (Phintias) spake, that since it had 
 thus happened to him, at least the rest of the day should 
 be given him, in order that he might arrange his own 
 private affairs, and also those of Damon, who was a companion 
 
40 PYTHIAN SKETCHES. 
 
 and co-partner with himself, and he, being the elder, much of 
 what concerned the management of their business was referred 
 to him. When asked that a substitute be furnished he offered 
 Damon, and Dionysius, having consented to this, sent for Damon, 
 who, having heard what had happened, became surety and re- 
 mained until Phintias had returned. Then, indeed, Dionysius 
 was astonished at these results. But they, who from the 
 beginning had prosecuted the trial, jeered Damon as having been 
 entrapped. Yet, when it was about the setting of the sun, 
 Phintias came back to be put to death. At this all were as- 
 tonished. Then Dionysius, having embraced and kissed the 
 friends, requested them to receive him as a third into their 
 friendship ; but though he very earnestly besought it, they would 
 by no means agree to such, request. This much, indeed, Aris- 
 toxenus declared he had heard from Dionysius himself (meaning 
 Dionysius the Younger)." Porphyry, Life of Pythagoras. 
 
 75. The fifth and last writer to quote this story is lamblicus, 
 a Greek and a pupil of Porphyry, who also wrote a life of Pytha- 
 goras ; he derived his version also from Aristoxenus. He lived 
 in the reign of Julian the Apostate, Emperor of Rome, A. D. 361- 
 
 363. 
 
 " When Dionysius. having been expelled from his tyranny, 
 came to Corinth, he often entertained us with the particulars 
 touching the Pythagoreans, Phintia's and Damon, and the circum- 
 stances under which one became surety for the other in a case of 
 death. He s?id that some of those who were familiar with them 
 frequently misrepresented the Pythagoreans, defaming and revil- 
 ing them, stigmatizing them as imposters, and saying that their 
 temperance, their gravity and their confidence in one another were 
 assumed, and that this would become apparent if any one should 
 place them in distress or surround them with disaster. Others 
 denied this, and contention arising on- the subject, recourse was 
 had to artifice. 
 
 " One of the prosecutors accused Phintias to his face of havirg 
 conspired with others against the life of Dionysius, and this was 
 testified to by those present, and wa.s made to appear exceedingly 
 
DAMON AND PYTHIAS. 41 
 
 probable. Phintias was astonished by the accusation, but when 
 Dionysius declared unequivocally that he had carefully investi- 
 gated the affair and that Phintias should die, Phintias replied, 
 that since it had fallen to him to be thus accused, he desired that 
 at least the rest of the day might be allowed to him, so that he 
 might arrange his own affairs and also those of Damon ; for these 
 men collected the vintage from all around into wine cellars, and 
 disposed of it in common, and Phintias, being the elder, had as- 
 sumed, for the most part, the management of their domestic con- 
 cerns. He therefore requested the tyrant to allow him to depart 
 for this purpose, and named Damon for his surety. Dionysius 
 was surprised at his request and asked whether there was such 
 a man who would risk death by becoming surety for another. 
 So Phintias requested him to send for Damon, who, on hear- 
 ing what had taken place, said he would become sponsor for 
 Phintias, and that he would remain there until Phintias returned. 
 Dionysius was deeply impressed by these results; but 
 those who introduced the experiment derided Damon, as being 
 left at the lurch, and mocking him, said that he would be devoted 
 as a stag to sacrifice. But when it was already about sundown 
 Phintias came back to be put to death, at which all that were 
 present were astonished and overpowered. Whereupon Dionysius, 
 having embraced and kissed the friends, requested that they 
 would receive him as a third into their friendship, but they would 
 by no means consent to such a thing, although he earnestly be- 
 sought it. 
 
 " Now, indeed, Aristoxenus relates these things as having 
 learned them from Dionysius himself." lamblicus, Life of Pyth- 
 agoras, p. 233. 
 
 76. In summing up these accounts we find that Damon and 
 Pythias were partners, conducting the business of wine merchants 
 in Syracuse. Pythias was the managing partner and had charge 
 of the books and accounts. In all probability they were both 
 bachelors and belonged to the Pythagorean Brotherhood. Dionys- 
 ius, wishing to test their sincerity of the professed friendship, 
 arranged to have a false charge of treason served upon Pythias. 
 When, having been tried and sentenced to death, he asked per- 
 
42 PYTHIAN SKETCHES. 
 
 mission to have the rest of the day to put his business affairs 
 in order, and offered Damon as an hostage during the time, 
 Damon was called, and learning the reason, gladly offered him- 
 self. It does not appear that he was imprisoned or otherwise 
 mistreated. To the surprise of all, Pythias returned, and Dionys- 
 ius not only granted free pardon, but asked them both to re- 
 ceive him as their friend, too. 
 
 In the above accounts it was Pythias who was condemned to 
 death, and not Damon, as is given in the drama, and while the 
 play makes Damon a married man, Cicero and the other histo- 
 rians say that both were bachelors. 
 
IX. 
 THE LIFE OF PYTHAGORAS 
 
 " Dear youth, I warn you cherish peace (Civine 
 4nd in your hearts lay deep these words of mine." 
 
 From -a sacred song of Pythagoras. 
 
 DIOGENES LAERTIUS, who is believed to have lived 
 about the end of the second century of our era, gives a 
 fuller account of the life of Pythagoras than any other of 
 the ancient writers. He says that there were four men of that 
 name living at or near the same time. One was a native of Cro- 
 tona, who seems to have been a ruler, for he gained great tyran- 
 nical power ; a second was a Phliasian, an athlete and a trainer of 
 wrestlers ; another was a native of Zacinthus, while the fourth was 
 "this our philosopher to whom belong the Mysteries of Philosophy, 
 and in whose time that proverbial phrase * Ipse dixit' was first 
 introduced into ordinary life." 
 
 Men of the same name are also mentioned, too, by other writ- 
 ers, among whom we find a sculptor of Rhodes, another sculp- 
 tor of Samos; an orator of no mean reputation; a physician who 
 wrote a treatise on squills and essay on Homer; and a historian 
 of the Dorian Greeks. 
 
 78. Pythagoras was a man gifted with a great thirst for 
 knowledge ; a great reformer, and a " wonder worker." One of 
 his biographers describes him as being the favorite, and even 
 the son, of Apollo, from whom he received his doctrines by the 
 mouth of the Delphian Priestess. He is recorded as having said 
 of himself that he had formerly been Athalides, son of Mercury, 
 who desired him to select for himself any gift he pleased except 
 immortality. He asked that he might preserve the memory of 
 what had happened to him. This was granted, and when he 
 died and his soul had passed into the body of Euphorbus, he 
 remembered all that had taken place. 
 
44 PYTHIAN SKETCHES. 
 
 The transmigration of souls, or the passing of the soul after 
 death into some other body, either animal 'or vegetable, was 
 said by Pythagoras to have come also from his god-father, 
 Mercury. After existing for a time as Euphorbus, his soul 
 passed into Hermotimus, thence into Pyrrhus, a fisherman of 
 Delos, and when Pyrrhus died he became Pythagoras. It is said 
 he had a golden thigh, which he displayed to an assembly of 
 Greeks at Olympia; that at one time he was seen at Crotona 
 and Metapontum. at the same time.* He was also reputed to 
 be able to tame wild beasts at a word. 
 
 79. The actual facts in the career of Pythagoras are very 
 meager and it is difficult to cull the truth from the mass of myth- 
 ical tradition that exists. The following, however, is probably 
 as near the truth as it is possible to obtain : 
 * Pythagoras was born about the year 580 B. C., and was a 
 native of Samos, one of the principal and most fertile of the 
 islands in the Aegean Sea, famous at that time for its navy, its 
 industry and its commerce. He was the son of Muesarabus, a 
 stone cutter or seal engraver, and seems to have been the young- 
 est of three brothers. He married Theano, daughter of Bron- 
 tinos, of Crotona, by whom he had a son and daughter named 
 respectively Telanges and Damo. The earlier part of his life 
 was spent in study and preparation for his later work. His 
 home, during that period, was at Samos, where he became a 
 pupil of Anaximanda; a fellow pupil in the same school was 
 Heraclitus, whose works are the only contemporary writings, 
 now extant, giving testimony of the life work of Pythagoras, 
 and who says of the Philosopher, " He was the most learned of 
 all other men in history; has practiced research and inquiry 
 more than all other men and from their writings he thus formed 
 his own wisdom, and extensive learning and mischievous art/' 
 
 This invective, the result of cynicism, is amply atoned for by 
 the numerous train of disciples, who have admired and lauded 
 
 *Crotona lies on the east shore of lower Italy, Metapontum some one 
 hundred miles north, while Syracuse is in Sicily, about the same dis- 
 tance south. 
 
PYTHAGORAS. 45 
 
 to the utmost their great master, and whom posterity has hon- 
 ored like a demigod. 
 
 80. During the first part of his career he made several dis- 
 tant journeys in search of knowledge. Diogenes says, "He quit- 
 ted the country and got initiated into all the Grecian and 
 barbarian sacred mysteries." As a mathematical student he 
 visited Egypt, which was then the cradle of that science, and a^ 
 he carried with him letters of introduction he was enabled to 
 obtain access even to the " holiest part of their temples." He 
 learned the Egyptian language, and becoming initiated into the 
 priesthood of that land, it can scarcely be doubted " that he 
 borrowed from the priesthood all kinds of practices that have 
 ranked as distinctive features of his foundation." And most 
 probably he obtained his belief in the transmigration of souls 
 from that source. 
 
 81. It is doubtful whether Pythagoras ever saw the City of 
 Babylon, though Diogenes asserts that he associated with the 
 Chaldeans and with, the Magi. He visited Crete, and descend- 
 ing into the sacred Idean Cave, he " learned all the secrets and 
 mysteries of the Cretan gods." In like manner he visited and 
 studied the religions, manners and customs of the Phoenicians, 
 Jews, Brahmans and the Druids of Gaul. Thus he "had attained 
 the knowledge of ages;" and the arts of ancient Egypt, the 
 science of Arabia, the philosophy of Phoenicia, the lore of the 
 Chaldean Sages, and the occult mysteries of the Persian Magi 
 became to him an open book. 
 
 82. Having completed his travels and studies he returned to 
 Samos ; but finding the island under the rule of the tryant Polyc- 
 rates he looked about for a more suitable locality in which to 
 commence his experiment of reform. 
 
 83. The second part of his career began with fiis removal 
 from his old home in Samos to southern Italy, where he found 
 in a Greek colony of Crotona, (or Croton) a place suitable for 
 his enterprise. Here his work made him famous, and the in- 
 fluence of his teaching was felt for centuries after by those 
 schools of thought that sprang up throughout the Grecian Re- 
 public and her colonies, and here he became the centre of a 
 
46 PYTHIAN SKETCHES. 
 
 widespread and influential organization, which had for its aim 
 that of a religious Brotherhood and an Association for the 
 Moral Reformation of Society. The colony of Crotona had for- 
 merely been noted for its healthy locality, excellent physicians 
 and powerful athletes, but at the time of Pythagoras' visit it had 
 fallen into decay, having been defeated in battle by its old time 
 enemy, the Sybarites. 
 
 84. Finding in the depressed spirits of the inhabitants an ex- 
 cellent soil upon which to sow his seed of moral, religious and 
 political innovations, he founded the Brotherhood, which con- 
 sisted of both men and women, with distinct and recognized de- 
 grees of membership. The discipline of the order was of a 
 strict, aristocratic nature, and entirely out of keeping with the 
 democratic spirit of the Greeks. 
 
 85. The aim of the order was the moral education and 
 purification of communities. Its members were required to cul- 
 tivate abstinence and the habit of silence; while explicit obedi- 
 ence to the Master was enjoined. The brothers put all their pos- 
 sessions together in one store and used them in common ; they 
 were forbidden to kill animals, or eat flesh, and were only al- 
 lowed to eat food that did not require cooking; water was the 
 only beverage. 
 
 86. For five years the neophytes kept silence, doing nothing 
 but listening to discourses, and not seeing the face of Pythagoras 
 until they had been approved and admitted into full membership. 
 Another of the requirements of the Pythagorean Brotherhood 
 was fidelity to friends, the feature that Damon and Pythias so 
 thoroughly learned, and which they so perfectly exemplified in 
 their after life, and to which the Order of Knights of Pythias 
 owes its existence. Thus, we find, some twenty-five hundred 
 years ago, in a land of heathenism and idolatry, that Pytha- 
 goras taught to a small band of earnest men and women about 
 three hundred in number, says Diogenes that beautiful lesson 
 of friendship which, five hundred years afterwards, was taught 
 by the Supreme Chancellor of the Universe, and now found in 
 the Book of Law upon our altars. " What more can a man 
 give than he give his life for his friends?" 
 
PYTHAGORAS. 47 
 
 Such were some of the rules of the order. The members, we 
 are told, were men of practical efficiency of both body and mind, 
 and although held together by strict rules, they were not thor- 
 oughly ascetic nor narrowly monastic. 
 
 87. The result of this reform in Crotona was widespread; 
 it caused a revival of public spirit and brought out a strong 
 aristocratic government. Crotona soon regained her old prestige, 
 her arms were successful against her enemies, and the influence 
 of the Brotherhood extended to other cities. Then occurred the 
 uniting together of these social and religious aristocrats, who 
 entered the arena of politics, and by gradually assuming an ar- 
 rogant tone toward the populace, which caused a bitterness to 
 arise between them, they brought about their own downfall. The 
 first reaction took place during the lifetime of its founder. An 
 adverse party arose in Crotona, under the leadership of Cylon, 
 which disputed the allotments of the conquered territories. Pyth- 
 agoras then withdrew from that city and went to Metapontum. 
 Here he resided for ten years and died at the age of eighty 
 years, about 510 B. C. The Order, however, continued in exist- 
 ence until a more powerful organization, called Democrats, suc- 
 ceeded it by stamping it out with violent measures. The meet- 
 ing houses of the Pythagoreans were everywhere sacked and 
 burned. The " House of Milo," in Crotona, was surprised, and 
 some sixty of the leading members slain. But the persecution 
 of the Brotherhood did not stamp out the enthusiasm of all the 
 Pythagoreans, as the Order continued to spread in Greece 
 proper, where it flourished for a while, then quietly dwindled 
 down and finally became extinct. 
 
 88. The teachings of Pythagoras, however, were found 
 among the Essenes, a Jewish sect, who lived in Palestine in the 
 time of Christ. Dr. Riggs, in his History of the Jewish People, 
 speaking of the Pythagorean origin of the Essenes, says, 
 
 " But the striking similarity of Pythagorean ideals with those 
 of the Essenes, and the long continued presence of Greek in- 
 fluences in the land, make this explanation of its origin plausible. 
 Pythagoreanism shares with Essenism its aspiration for bodily 
 purity and sanctity, its lustrations, its simple habits of life apart 
 
48 PYTHIAN SKETCHES. 
 
 from all sensual enjoyments, its high estimate of celibacy, its 
 white garments, its repudiation 'of oaths, and especially its re- 
 jection of bloody sacrifices, also the invocation of the Sun, and 
 the scrupulosity with which all that was unclean was hidden 
 from it, and, lastly, the dnaJistic view of the soul and body." 
 (Schurer). 
 
 89. To undertake to explain the philosophy and teachings of 
 Pythagoras would require more space than can be allotted here, 
 but enough may be said to give the reader a limited idea of 
 what the philosophy contained. The Pythagoreans, having stud- 
 ied the science of mathematics, fancied that they had found the 
 archetype of all things in numbers. They say that all things 
 are numbers or that numbers are the very essence of every- 
 thing. It was asserted that the principles of numbers were 
 the principles of being, and that the whole heaven was a har- 
 mony and number. As Ten was the perfect number, so 
 there were ten first principles, ten pairs of contraries, finite, 
 infinite ; odd, even ; unity, plurality ; right, left ; male, female ; 
 rest, motion ; straight, crooked ; light, darkness ; good, bad ; 
 square, oblong; numbers were odd and even, one being both. 
 The odd was finite, the even infinite. Then one becomes 
 the Deity, the principle of all things; two, the principle of 
 variety and difference; three, the union of one and two; four, 
 the perfection of mere difference, and ten, the perfect number 
 and complete organic unity and harmony of the world. Num- 
 ber, then, became the great, perfect, and omnipotent; the prin- 
 ciple and guide of divine and human life. 
 
 90. Such a proposition sounds strange, but truth prompted it, 
 for it is number, or a definite mathematical relation, that sepa- 
 rates one thing from another, and so, in a sense, makes number 
 things. Understanding is developed by the study of mathemat- 
 ics, and becomes the organ of knowledge; musical harmony de- 
 pends upon the numerical proportion of the length of the strings. 
 
 " Qualities arise out 'of the properties of bodies when they 
 are considered in relation to human purposes. The essentials of 
 properties are unity, extension, speed, persistence, and conscious- 
 ness, which under relations give rise to properties that can be 
 
PYTHAGORAS. 49 
 
 measured, which are designated as quantities. These quantities 
 are numbers, space, motion, time and judgment. 
 
 " Number is many in one, and the enumeration of the many 
 is the measuring of the number contained in the sum, which 
 is unity. 
 
 "The second quantity is space ; its essential is extension, but 
 many extensions give rise to relative position, and positions can 
 be measured. Hence, extension and position constitute space, 
 and space is a quantity that can be measured. 
 
 " Speed is the essential of motion, but the same particle in 
 motion traverses a path. Motion, therefore, is speed and path, 
 and can be measured in terms of space. Speed and path con- 
 stitute motion. Therefore time is quantity. 
 
 " The essential of time is persistence, but the relation of 
 time is change ; a portion of time from one change to another 
 can be measured. Thus persistence and change constitute time, 
 and time is a quantity. 
 
 "The essential of judgment is consciousness of self. Its re- 
 lation to others is reference about others. When consciousness 
 is aroused by another, and by inference a judgment is pro- 
 duced by that other, it can be measured. 
 
 " As essentials are developed into mathematical properties 
 called quantities, so again quantities are developed by incorpora- 
 tion into classified properties or simply properties. 
 
 " Quantities and properties are reciprocal. Number, space, mo- 
 tion, time, and judgment are qualities that can be measured. 
 Kind, form (space), energy (motion), causation (time) and con- 
 sciousness are properties that can be classified. The quantities 
 that can be measured and the properties that can be classified are 
 the same things considered from different standpoints ; one is 
 reciprocal of the 'others." 
 
 Thus we see that although Pythagoras carried his doctrine 
 to extravagant ends, there was a substratum of truth in it. 
 
 The teachings of Pythagoras were also of the heavens and the 
 planets, music, and the harmonic system. He declared the earth 
 was round and revolved upon it own axis. He was the first to 
 find out and teach that the square of the hypotenuse of a right- 
 
50 PYTHIAN SKETCHES. 
 
 angle triangle was equal to the squares on the other two sides. 
 This discovery so pleased the philosopher that he sacrificed one 
 hundred oxen and gave a great feast. 
 
 91. But the doctrine most closely associated with Pythagoras 
 was that of the transmigration of souls. The bodily life of a 
 soul was an imprisonment suffered for sins committed in a 
 former state of existence. At death the soul reaped what it had 
 sown in life. The reward of the best was to enter into the 
 highest and purest regions of the universe, while darkest crimes 
 received their punishment in Tartarus, an underground prison 
 with iron gates, as far below the earth as heaven is above it. 
 
 But the general lot of the souls of the dead was to live again 
 in the body of some other man, animaV or plant, the nature of 
 the bodily prison being determined, by tlf-e deeds done in the life 
 just ended. 
 
 92. Pythagoras is said to have been the first to proclaim that 
 friendship is equality; the first to discover the principles of 
 geometry; the first to announce separate life of the individual 
 soul; and the first to introduce measures and weights. 
 
 Diogenes says that in his time, there wei e three volumes writ- 
 fen by Pythagoras in existence; one on education, one on pol- 
 itics, and one on natural philosophy; and that several other 
 books had disappeared, among which was a sacred poem, the 
 first two lines of which are quoted below tli ?. title of this sketch. 
 
 In this brief sketch we have gained some better knowledge of 
 one of the most conspicuous characters of o iir Order, and some- 
 thing of his works. And we have been abl^.to see that it was 
 not without reason he has been made to say : " Centuries before 
 your eyes were open to the light of day, I hat attained the know- 
 ledge of all the ages." 
 
X, 
 
 THE ISLAND OF SICILY 
 
 "The pasture lands of the Oxen of the Sun!' 
 
 SICILY is an island lying off the southwest coast of the 
 Italian Peninsula. It divides the Mediterranean Sea into two 
 parts, the eastern and the western. In the early times, when 
 the countries bordering this sea constituted the whole known 
 land, Sicily was the center of the world, and this geographical 
 position led, necessarily, to its historical position as the meet- 
 ing place of the- nations, and the battlefield of the contending 
 peoples. 
 
 94. All the nations and powers that have dwelt around the 
 Mediterranean Sea have had some part in the history of this 
 island, and all the languages of the then known world have been 
 spoken in it. It has never been the seat of any one nation, but 
 a part of all, sometimes as a dependency and sometimes as an 
 independent nation. It was not only the battleground of rival 
 nations, but of rival religious creeds. In two separate and dis- 
 tinct periods it has been the battlefield of the Aryan and Sem- 
 itic races, i. e., of the Aryan Greeks and the Semitic Carth- 
 aginians. In later times it was the principal locality of the bat- 
 tles between Christianity and Islam. It has one of the longest 
 and most unbroken histories in Europe. It had two most bril- 
 liant periods in its history, one ancient and one modern, but 
 both alike came about by similar causes. This cause is found 
 in the geographical character of the land. 
 
 95. Sicily is the largest island in the Mediterranean Sea, and, 
 as stated above, was the center of the then known world. We 
 know that at one time it was joined to the mainland of Africa, 
 having, been an extension of the northeast portion 'of Tunis ; 
 and tradition asserts that it was formerly joined to Italy. Geol- 
 ogy tells us, too, that in old geological times the Mediterranean 
 
52 PYTHIAN SKETCHES. 
 
 was composed of two great .lakes, and that the island of Sicily 
 is the only remnant of the land that once joined the continents 
 of Europe and Africa, and separated the eastern lake from the 
 western. It lies close to Europe, with a narrow but deep strait 
 separating it from Italy; while the sea which separates it from 
 Africa is wide and comparatively shallow. 
 
 Being thus on the highway between the east and west, and 
 forming a bridge across the waters from Europe to Africa, it 
 became the centre of strife between the east and west, and be- 
 tween the religions accepted by the eastern and western nations. 
 As long as the lands around the Mediterranean comprised the 
 whole European world, Sicily, the central land of them all, had 
 an importance that no other lands possessed, and the possession 
 of it caused it to be the battlefield of the world. 
 
 96. To sum up the history of Sicily in a few words, It was 
 the central land of the Mediterranean Sea ; if was the central 
 land of Europe; as such it became the battlefield of nations 
 and creeds, and a prize for which Europe and Africa both strug- 
 gled. The first struggle was between the Greeks and Phoeni- 
 cians (Carthaginians). The victory was with Europe, and the 
 island was incorporated within the domain of Rome, where it 
 remained until the second strife came between the Romaiv 
 Greeks and Saracens. Again Europe was victorious and the Nor- 
 man kingdom of Sicily was established. For some time this 
 was the most flourishing state in Europe. Then, by the discovery 
 of the outer world, Sicily lost its central position, and its great- 
 ness and its history became merged into that of other countries, 
 especially of Italy, to which it now belongs. 
 
 97. The Phoenicians and Greeks were at one time the only 
 nations so far advanced in their civilization as to be able to 
 plant colonies in distant lands. The Phoenicians were the first 
 in the field; they had colonized the coast of the Mediterranean 
 on both sides of the sea, at different places as far as the Pillars 
 of Hercules, and had even penetrated beyond. Among 
 these colonies were several on the northwest coast of Sicily. 
 Long afterwards the Greeks came and planted the eastern coast 
 with their colonies. 
 
SICILY. S3 
 
 98. The colonists, both Phoenician and Greek, drove the primi- 
 tive inhabitants inland. These people were found to be of three 
 nations. The names of two of these nations are so much alike 
 that one is tempted to think they are different forms of the same 
 name and yet they are always spoken of as wholly distinct. They 
 are the Sicans and the Sikels, each of which in turn gave its 
 name to the island. It was first Sikonia and then Sikelia or 
 Sicilia. The Sicans claimed to have emigrated from Spain, 
 and were evidently of that non-Aryan race that were the first- 
 known inhabitants of southern Europe, and of which the Basques 
 ot Spain are now the only survivors. The Sikels came to 
 the island in the eleventh century B. C. from Italy, about three 
 hundred years before the Greek settlements, and are supposed 
 to have been an undeveloped Latin people. They drove the 
 Sicans toward the west, where they afterward came under the 
 control of the Phoenicians, while the Sikels remained in the 
 eastern part of the island, and not only came under the influence 
 of the Greeks, but gradually became practically Greeks them- 
 selves. They spoke the Greek language, adopted Greek man- 
 ners and were reckoned as Greeks by the early historians. 
 
 The third nation called themselves Elymians, and claimed to 
 be descended from the Trojans. Little is known of them or 
 their language. They were celebrated for their great temple, on 
 Mount Eryx, in the northwestern corner of the island. Neither 
 Phoenician nor Greek was able to conquer the whole island, but 
 instead of conquest came influence ; both nationalities largely 
 influencing the native races, and in the end, without formal 
 conquest, the whole island became practically Greek. 
 
 99. The highroad from the eastern to the western part of the 
 Mediterranean passed along the western shores of Sicily, and 
 therefore it was on the western and contiguous southern coasts 
 that the Phoenicians planted their colonies, the chief of which 
 were Motya, Solous, and Panormos, all strong posts on the 
 western shore. The modern Palermo was a Phoenician city, and 
 under. their rule and that of the Saracens, it was the chief city 
 of the island, and remained to be the capital under the Nor- 
 man kings. Thus the western part of the island was the land 
 
54 PYTHIAN SKETCHES. 
 
 of the Phoenicians, Sicans and Elymians, while the eastern part 
 was the land of the Greeks and Sikels. 
 
 100. But we must pass on to what is more interesting to us, 
 the foundation of the Greek colonies, of which Syracuse was 
 one. 
 
 In 735 B. C. an expedition set forth from Chalkis, one of 
 the chief seaport towns of Greece, and established the first 
 Greek colony in Sicily, naming it Naxos. It was situated on 
 the eastern coast, near the southern entrance to the Straits 
 of Messina. They drove out the Sikels, took what land they 
 wanted, and built their town and fortified it. A part of the 
 old walls may still be seen. The colony did not last long, 
 however, for about three hundred years afterward it was swept 
 away and never rebuilt. 
 
 101. The next year, 734 B. C., a Dorian City was founded, 
 which was the most important of all the colonies of Greece. 
 Syracuse was planted by the city of Corinth, and, as it was al- 
 lowed from the beginning to retain its perfect independence,- it 
 continued on the best of terms with the mother city. It was 
 built on the Island of Ortygia, and contained the spring of 
 Arethousa (Note i). The island lies close to the mainland of 
 Sicily and was joined to it, sometimes by a bridge, sometimes 
 by a mole. Opposite this island, which projects into the sea 
 towards the south, is a peninsula pointing northward. These 
 two points enclose on their west a bay called the Great Harbor. 
 On the north of the island, indenting the mainland, was a smaller 
 bay, this one being called the Little Harbor. It had con- 
 sequently the best position of all the Greek Colonies. The city 
 soon gre*v and spread outside the island and up the hills to the 
 north and west. 
 
 102. In B. C. 729 Naxos sent out two parties who planted 
 
 NOTE 1. Spring- of Arethousa. In the Island of Ortygia was a fresh 
 spring- of water very near the sea; not far off, in the sea itself, was another 
 spring-, babbling- up in the midst of the salt water, and so the story grew 
 that the maiden Arethousa was pursued by the river God. She prayed to 
 her mistress, who turned her into a fountain. Her waters ran under the sea 
 until they turned up again on Ortygia and her lover, Alpheios, had followed 
 her with his stream through the waves. 
 
SICILY. 55 
 
 the colonies of Leontenoi and Catina, the latter near the coasc, 
 and the former inland in a line with it. Catina has been de- 
 stroyed many times by earthquakes and eruptions from Mount 
 Aetna, but as many times rebuilt, and is now a larger town than 
 Syracuse. (Note 2). In a similar way Greek colonies were 
 planted all along the coast until the settlement of Zankle (Me:->- 
 sana) was completed. This was the last Grecian colony on tho 
 eastern coast. Zanklo was first founded by a horde of pirates. 
 It was situated on the northeastern end of the island and was 
 afterwards called Messana, which name it still retains in a slightly 
 altered form, Messina. It is a splendid site, on the strait, at the 
 foot of a hill, with a noble harbor, and fenced in with a 
 strip of land in front of it. One legend calls the place, on ac- 
 count of its beauty, " the grazing place of the oxen of the sun." 
 The city has always been prosperous, although it never attained 
 a foremost place among the cities of Sicily. 
 
 103. About 689 B. C, the Greeks began to colonize the south- 
 ern coast, and in succession grew the new cities of Gela, Phin- 
 tias, and others with which we have very little to do in this 
 inquiry. The settlement of Gela, however, caused Syracuse to 
 move. She was afraid of the southeastern corner being taken 
 by strangers, and, as she wished to retain the whole corner un- 
 der her own influence, began to send out settlers and plant out- 
 posts along the south and round the corner to as far as Kamar- 
 ina, thus controlling the whole corner of the island. 
 
 Meanwhile the inhabitants of Zankle had spread around the 
 northeastern corner, and thence along the north coast to the 
 cities of the Phoenicians, Sikans and Elymians. The most 
 easternly city was Himera ; while on the southern shore the city 
 of Silenous held a similar position. 
 
 In 599 B. C. was founded Akragas (Agrimentum or Gergenti). 
 Situated in the central portion of the southern coast, it had a 
 large trade with Africa, grew rich and powerful, and although 
 
 NOTE 2. The Pious Brethren. At the first eruption of Mt. JEtna. after 
 the foundation of Katatie, Amphimonos and Anapios, two brothers, were 
 carrying off their parents on their shoulders. When the3' came to the lava 
 it parted and allowed the Pious Brothers to escape in safety, 
 
56 PYTHIAN SKETCHES. 
 
 never a naval power like Syracuse, was easily the second city 
 in Sicily, as Syracuse was the first. A greater number of tem- 
 ples, more or less preserved, can be seen there than in any other 
 part of the island, among which is the fallen one of Zeus 
 Olympios, the greatest in Sicily. 
 
 104. Thus, in one hundred and forty years, the greater part 
 of the coast of Sicily became occupied by the Greek colonists, 
 The Phoenicians and their allies kept their own corner in the 
 northwest. The independent Sikels were located in the interior 
 and a large part of the central portion of the north coast. 
 
 105. One more attempt, however, was made by the Greeks to 
 plant a colony, and that in the very heart of the Phoenician terri- 
 tory, near the city of Lilybaion. In the war which followed the 
 Greeks were defeated and Pentathlos, the leader, was killed. 
 His followers sailed around the northwest corner of Sicily, to 
 the Lipari Island, and there settled, calling the city Lipara, which 
 has ever since been an inhabited town. 
 
 106. For about one hundred years there was comparative 
 peace in the island, and then the Phoenician cities came under 
 the influence of Carthage. Up to this time no one city materi- 
 ally interfered with the other, but all lived on terms of friend- 
 ship. Although the Greek cities were thoroughly independent, 
 they strengthened their hold on the country against the neigh- 
 boring Sicans and Sikels. Yet Syracuse was easily the first 
 city among them, and when the great strife came and Carthage 
 wished to have dominion over Sicily, she was the only power 
 that could and did successfully resist the Carthaginians and ul- 
 timately drove them out. But this belongs to the history of 
 Syracuse, which will be found in the following sketch. 
 
XL 
 THE HISTORY OF SYRACUSE 
 
 "The largest and most beautiful of all the Greek cities." 
 Cicero. 
 
 WHEN the Greek colonies began their settlements in Sic- 
 ily their government was oligarchical, the family in 
 power choosing the magistracy for itself. The first 
 settlers divided the land among themselves, and these only (th p 
 land owners) had the power of voting. Citizenship could only 
 be obtained by inheritance or by special grant. Newcomers had 
 no political rights, and as the old settlers hung tenaciously to 
 their own rights and privileges, there grew up, in and around the 
 city, a vast population who could not exercise the privilege of 
 franchise and were not considered citizens. The citizens inter- 
 married and kept all the offices to themselves. Their numbers 
 grew less. Then these outsiders pradually claimed and obtained 
 political equality with the land owners and formed a true democ- 
 racy. At Syracuse the old citizens held all the land and were the 
 agriculturists, calling in the Sikels to perform the actual work. 
 The newcomers, now Greek citizens, were the traders. 
 
 108. There was at Syracuse, and most probably at the other 
 colonies, a general assembly of all the land owners, as well as a 
 smaller body, the composition of which is not known. We hear, 
 however, of this Senate in a quarrel that is related of two young 
 men of the then ruling class ; so fierce was this that the inhabit- 
 ants took part in it, the land owners taking the part of one and 
 the traders the other. One Senator advised the banishment of 
 both, but this advice was not followed and a fight ensued. The 
 trader-citizens called to their assistance the Sikels, who were 
 the laborers or serfs of the land owners, and together they over- 
 threw the land-owners' government and held Syracuse for them- 
 selves. They then formed the first democratic government in 
 
58 PYTHIAN SKETCHES. 
 
 Sicily. This event took place about the first of the fifth century 
 B. C. 
 
 109. During this century tyrants began to arise among the 
 Greek settlements. A brief description of what a " tyrant " 
 really was is necessary to understand the subsequent history. 
 The name had a definite meaning, but was not necessarily a 
 term of reproach applied to an unjust ruler. When the lower 
 classes rose up against the prevailing government and over- 
 threw it, they generally named some one as chief magistrate, 
 who became their ruler. Sometimes this ruler was oppressive 
 and took upon himself the powers of a king, and by strengthen- 
 ing himself with a body-guard he became a tyrant. It does not 
 follow that the rule was an oppressive use of power, but simply 
 an unlawful means of gaining it. 
 
 no. The first tyrant of whom there is any record was Panar- 
 tios, of Leontinoi ; and from B. C. 570 to 554 Akragus wa's 
 ruled by the Tyrant Phalaris, who was the most noted man in 
 Sicily at that time. He took the public money and with it 
 hired mercenaries. He is most famous for having kept a 
 "brazen bull/' within which he put his enemies and roasted them 
 to death. He was succeeded by Tele-machos, who restored 
 liberty to the people. 
 
 in. But the most famous of the tyrants, and one with 
 whom we have more to do,- was Hippocrates, tyrant of Gela. 
 His brother, Kleandros, had been tyrant before him, but was 
 killed after a rule of seven years. Hippocrates began his rule by 
 extending his dominions beyond his single city of Gela. He 
 conquered the Sikels and several Greek cities, until his rule ex- 
 tended from the southern shore to the eastern sea, leaving 
 Zankle in possession of the northeast corner, and Syracuse in 
 possession of the southeast corner. He next turned his arms 
 against Syracuse, which he took, but was compelled by Corinth 
 to evacuate. This occurred during the last days of the land 
 owners' rule. 
 
 112. Hippocrates died in 491 B. C., and was succeeded by 
 Gelon, who forcibly made himself tyrant. He was a great and 
 wise ruler and soon had complete power over eastern Sicily. 
 
SYRACUSE. 59 
 
 The land owners, having been driven from Syracuse, asked him 
 to help them back again. This he did, but took over the city to 
 himself. It grew rapidly under the administration of Gelon, 
 but only at the cost of other cities, for Gelon brought their 
 inhabitants to Syracuse, so that its populace overflowed into the 
 neighboring mainland. He then gave citizenship to his mer- 
 cenaries and the settlers from old Greece. His rule was mild, 
 and he won great fame as the champion of Hellas by his vic- 
 tories over the Carthaginians, who, for the first time, tried to 
 gain control over the whole Island of Sicily, but they were so 
 thoroughly beaten that only a few gained their ships and de- 
 parted, while the rest were either killed in battle, or hunted out 
 of the island. Envoys came from Carthage asking for peace, 
 which was granted, but Carthage was compelled to pay a large 
 sum of money, and build two temples in their own town in honor 
 of the Greek goddess of Sicily. 
 
 113. After Gelon's death Syracuse grew wonderfully in rich- 
 ness and power; the tyrants were then driven out, great build- 
 ings were erected and comparative peace reigned throughout 
 the land. But there were home troubles yet to be settled. The 
 Sikels and Sicans, who had been trained as soldiers, and who 
 had fought against the Carthaginians, now thought to drive out 
 the Greeks and regain full possession of the island. A battle 
 ensued in which they were defeated. Again, the mercenaries, 
 to whom the tyrants had given citizenship, were becoming too 
 strong and outspoken for the old settlers, and it was decided to 
 disenfranchise those who owed their citizenship to the tyrants. 
 This was bitterly resented, and', after a three years' quarrel, these 
 mercenaries in 461 B. C. were driven out. 
 
 114. The cities now returned to the old state of things, each 
 being independent of the other. Their constitutions were, per- 
 haps, more democratic than before, and for the next fifty years 
 they enjoyed comparative peace. Syracuse, herself, had gained 
 in military and naval strength, but now the army and navy were 
 somewhat neglected, so that during the Athenian siege of the 
 city which occurred in the years 415 to 413 .B. C,, she was 
 greatly handicapped. 
 
6o PYTHIAN SKETCHES. * 
 
 115. We have now arrived at the time when Sicily became 
 mixed up with the quarrel's of old Greece, whose cities were 
 divided into two great alliances; Sparta at the head of the Dor- 
 ians, while Athens had her Ionian followers. In Sicily, Syracuse 
 was the leader of all the Dorian cities, while Leontinoi was head 
 of the Ionian. Quarrels sprang up between the Sicilian rivals 
 and Athens sent a small fleet to help her allies. For three 
 years a desultory war was waged, but nothing much effected on 
 either side, although Athens sent over another and a larger fleet 
 to help Leontinoi. Hermocrates, Tyrant of Syracuse, persuaded 
 the Greeks of Sicily to accept a peace which lasted for several 
 years. 
 
 116. In 416 a quarrel sprang up between the cities of Silenous 
 (Greek) and Segesta (Elymian) and the latter asked for help 
 from Athens. About the 'same time, also, Leontinoi asked help 
 against Syracuse. Full of hopeful spirits, a great fleet was sent 
 against the Ionian allies, and had it not been for the dilatoriness 
 of its commander, Sicily would have become an Athenian ter- 
 ritory. The force consisted of one hundred and thirty-six ships 
 of war, five thousand one hundred heavily armed, and thirteen 
 hundred light troops, besides thirty horsemen. The great fleet 
 frightened the Syracusans, but as it did nothing but sail back 
 and forth, the fear of it gradually disappeared, and Syracuse 
 had time to prepare for the attack. 
 
 117. One day the Athenian fleet entered the Great Harbor, 
 landed its troops, fought and beat back the^ Syracuse army, but 
 were prevented from following up their advantage by the Syra- 
 cusan cavalry; after which they sailed away, returning later, 
 however, when a complete blockade by land and sea was effected 
 and the siege began. Battles were fought, walls were built by 
 the Athenians, and counter walls by the Syracusans, but to no 
 purpose, for so bad had the 'state of affairs become that the lat- 
 ter actually fixed a day to discuss terms of peace when a Spartan 
 ship entered the Little Harbor, and with the news that others 
 were coming. This was the turning point of the war. The 
 Spartan general landed with a small number of men, gained 
 help from the Sikels, and Syracuse, instead of being besieged, 
 
SYRACUSE. 61 
 
 became the besieger, having enclosed the Athenian army by walls. 
 Still, however, the Athenian fleet was so large that for a long 
 time little could be done to close the war. After many hard 
 fights, both on land and sea, the Athenian fleet was destroyed, 
 and the men escaped to land only to be driven from place to 
 place, until out of forty thousand men who landed in camp, only 
 about seven thousand remained, and they were led back to Syra- 
 cuse prisoners. They were shut up in a stone quarry, where many 
 died, many were sold, some escaped or were set free, and the 
 rest were made to work, while all the generals were put to 
 death. 
 
 118. Hermocrates and the Syracuse ships then went to help 
 Sparta, where they won fresh laurels. In spite of this Hermoc- 
 rates became out of favor and was banished in 409 B. C. Two 
 years later he was slain in attempting to enter the city; and with 
 him was wounded one who afterward far surpassed all other 
 rulers of ancient Syracuse. This was Dionysius. 
 
 During the time of peace which followed these events, laws 
 were passed providing that the magistrates be elected by the vote 
 of the people; a new code of laws was formulated; and this 
 again made of Syracuse a democracy, purer than ever before. 
 
 119. The history of Dionysius will be more fully given in 
 another sketch. Suffice it to say here, that he managed to get 
 himself elected, first as one of the generals, then as sole general. 
 Then by another trick he procured the vote of a body-guard, 
 
 .a certain sign that he intended to seize the tyrantship. This 
 he did and entered Syracuse about 406 B. C. as tyrant. The 
 putting down of a revolution and his success' in the second in- 
 vasion of the Carthaginians, confirmed him in his position. His 
 rule lasted thirty-eight years, with success and honor to the city. 
 He extended his dominions and gained for Syracuse the second 
 great period of its history. He made it the most splendid and 
 best fortified of all the Greek cities ; its naval power was vastly 
 increased, its docks enlarged, and over two hundred larger and 
 more powerful ships were built. Its navy was the most power- 
 ful in the Mediterranean. 
 
 120. This great ruler was succeeded by his son, Dionysius the 
 
62 PYTHIAN SKETCHES. 
 
 Younger, who had not the solid worth of his father, but was 
 .a weak, good-natured sort of a fellow. Beginning in B. C. 357, 
 he was for three years turned out of his tyranny by Dion. Dion 
 was then slain and Dionysius returned to power, and again op- 
 pressed the people until 343, when he was banished to Corinth. 
 The people of the city, torn by factions and conflict and plun- 
 dered by foreign troops, were so wretched that Greek life 
 seemed on the verge of extinction, while the island was again 
 threatened by Carthage. Syracuse now sought help from 
 Corinth, and Timoleon, one of the noblest of Greek heroes, was 
 sent, and Dionysius sailed for Corinth. 
 
 It was during this banishment, that he entertained the Greek 
 historians with the account which they give us of the story of 
 Damon and Pythias. 
 
 121. Timoleon was the savior of the city from the down- 
 ward progress of the previous rule, and Syracuse grew out of 
 her desolation, by the importing of new colonists, and putting 
 fresh life into the old ones, and once more the city became pros- 
 perous. 
 
 Having again defeated the Carthaginians, and nearly the 
 whole of Sicily now being peacefully in possession of the Greeks, 
 Timoleon retired from public service, but practically he was the 
 ruler of Syracuse to the end of his life, and at his death a 
 splendid monument was raised to his memory by the people of 
 the city. 
 
 122. Twenty years later, Agathocles, by the help of the Car- 
 thaginian Hamilcar, became tyrant, and afterwards styled him- 
 self " King," and Syracuse pa'ssed through another reign of 
 terror. He died in 289 B. C., after twenty-eight years of power, 
 and an obscure period followed, being principally noted by mis- 
 erable revolutions and despotisms. 
 
 123. A better time began under Hiero II, who became king 
 in or about 270 B. C. During his reign of fifty years Syracuse 
 enjoyed peace and prosperity. His rule was mild and Just; good 
 order was found throughout his dominions, and the people en- 
 joyed a fair amount of self government. It was a time of great 
 public works, the harbors were improved, fortifications built, 
 
SYRACUSE. 63 
 
 and temples erected; Hiero was a firm friend of Rome, and 
 helped her against their common enemy, the Carthaginians. 
 
 124. Rome and Carthage had for some time been jealous of 
 each other's power and a war took place known as " The First 
 Punic War " and spoken of at the time as the " War for Sicily." 
 Carthage was now mistress of a great portion of the island, and 
 Rome, now mistress of Italy, wished to possess the large island 
 so near her own peninsula. 
 
 The end of the Syracusan independence took place during the 
 reign of Micro's grandson, Hieronymus. Hieronymus thought 
 best to ally himself with the Carthaginians. The war waged 
 fiercely for twenty-three years, and ultimately the allies were 
 overthrown, and Sicily, with Syracuse its chief city, became a 
 province of the Roman Empire. Its history now becomes merged 
 with that of Rome. 
 
XII. 
 THE RULE OF DIONYSIUS 
 
 " Great souls are not those which have less passion and more 
 virtue than common souls, but those only which have greater 
 designs." La Rochefoucauld. 
 
 DIONYSIUS was the son of Hermocrates (not the tyrant 
 of that name) and was born about the year 430 B. C. He 
 began life as a clerk in some public office, but he seems to 
 have had too restless a spirit to continue long in such an occupa- 
 tion, so we soon find him in the army, which he joined soon 
 after the Athenian siege of Syracuse. He had been in several 
 battles under the leadership of Hermocrates the tyrant, whom 
 he served faithfully. When the tyrant forcibly made his entry 
 into Syracuse, from which he had previously been banished, 
 the people fiercely opposed him. A fight followed in which he 
 was killed, and his followers either killed or banished. A few, 
 however, escaped, among whom was Dionysius, though he was 
 severely wounded. Afterward we find him with the army going 
 to the aid of the city of Akragas. Through suspicion and jeal- 
 ousy, the people of that city accused the leaders of the army 
 of having sold them to their enemies, the Carthaginians. For 
 this and other reasons, the army marched away, leaving Akragas 
 to its fate. Before its fall, most of the inhabitants forsook the 
 city, and about 40,000 persons sought refuge in other towns. 
 The majority of them went to Syracuse, and there accused the 
 Syracusan generals of treason. They were strongly supported by 
 Dionysius, who, in his speech before the assembly, broke the 
 rules governing that body, and was fined repeatedly ; each time 
 his fine being paid by a rich man in the audience. The people 
 listened attentively, and it was resolved to depose the generals 
 and elect others in their stead, Dionysius being one of those, 
 chosen. 
 
DIONYSIUS. 65 
 
 The rich man, Philisos, who was one of the chief historical 
 writers of Sicily (though his writings have come down to us 
 only in fragments) remained a firm friend to Dionysius for a 
 long time. 
 
 126. In 406 B. C. Dionysius took his first step toward mak- 
 ing himself tyrant. As the next attack from the Carthaginians 
 was expected at Gela, Dionysius was sent to the aid of the gen- 
 eral ^rationed there. He immediately took active part in the 
 politics of the city, and by accusing them of treachery, he pro- 
 cured the condemnation and death of the Geloan generals, and 
 out of their confiscated goods, gave his own soldiers double pay, 
 thereby gaining them as partisans. Afterward going to Syra- 
 c:isr, he accused the Syracusans of having received a bribe from 
 Himilkon. In B. C. 405, the generals being deposed by a vote 
 of the assembly, Dionysius was made general with full power; 
 this being the second step towards tyranny. 
 
 127. Now, needing only a body-guard to complete his triumph, 
 and not daring to ask for it at Syracuse, he marched to Leon- 
 tinoi with all his men under forty years of age, and there, hold- 
 ing a military assembly, told them how a mutiny had sprung 
 up and how the traitors had sought to kill him. He was im- 
 mediately voted a body-guard of six hundred men, which he soon 
 raised to one thousand. He now became tyrant. 
 
 128. In the meantime, Gela was forsaken, and with that city 
 and Kamarina taken by the Carthaginian general Himil- 
 kon, there -remained not a Greek city on the southern coast. 
 Great indignation broke out in the army and Dionysius' horse- 
 men hastened to Syracuse and shamefully ill-treated the gen- 
 eral's wife. When Dionysius arrived he slew or banished all 
 whom he thought deserved such punishment, and became fully 
 master of the city. He then made a treaty with Himilkon, 
 through which Carthage gained dominion of the whole southern 
 coast and a large portion of the northern, in addition to its 
 original territory in the west; the Sikels were to be free, while 
 Dionysius was to be protected in his dominion over Syracuse. 
 
 The fact seems to be that either Dionysius did not feel strong 
 enough in his tyranny to struggle against Carthage, and so 
 
66 PYTHIAN SKETCHES. 
 
 adopted this means of securing sufficient time to allow him fully 
 to establish his power at home, or that he had the intention of 
 ultimately freeing all Sicily from its enemies; which to a large 
 extent he was later able to accomplish. 
 
 129. Although he never stopped at any means by which he 
 could accomplish his purpose, it does not appear that he took 
 delight in, or indulged in, any wanton oppression, but strictly 
 kept himself from all those excesses that were the means of 
 overthrowing many tyrants. He was the greatest ruler Europe 
 had ever known; his power extended over nearly all Sicily and 
 a large portion of southern Italy. He made Syracuse the largest 
 and most powerful city in the whole of Europe. The thirty- 
 eight years in his reign cover a great space in European history, 
 extending from the latter part of the Peloponnesian War to the 
 rising of the power of Philip of Macedon. During the first 
 eight years he kept peace with Carthage, and strengthened his 
 power in Syracuse and Sicily by building and fortifying. 
 
 130. It is said that he bound Syracuse down with chains of 
 adamant. Yet he began disastrously, for in his first war against 
 the Sikels he was very nearly overthrown, and had to call in 
 mercenaries to his assistance. He drove the Sikels away, and 
 then discharged his foreign troops with presents. He next at- 
 tacked the cities of Naxon, Katana and Leontinoi. He de- 
 stroyed the first and sold its inhabitants as slaves. Those of 
 Katana and Leontinoi he brought to Syracuse and gave them 
 citizenship. The towns he gave over to the Sikels. 
 
 131. Great preparations were now made for a war with Car- 
 thage, which was afterward known as the " First Punic War," 
 and while his fortifications and navy were being completed he 
 thought to strengthen his interests by marrying Doris, daughter 
 of one of the chief men of Lokroi. On the same day he also 
 married Aristomachus, a daughter of Syracuse. This was ut- 
 terly against all Greek rule or custom, but he kept them both, 
 treating them kindly, and they lived together 'on terms of equal- 
 ity. He had a family by each. 
 
 132. The First Punic War began in 397 B. C., when Diony- 
 >sius demanded of Carthage the freedorn of all Greek cities in 
 
DIONYSIUS. 67 
 
 Sicily, and being refused, the war commenced. The war began 
 in the Phoenician northwest corner of the island. During the 
 first year Motya on the west coast was taken and its inhabitants 
 sold as slaves. The next year the Carthaginians re-took Motya, 
 drove the Greeks back to Syracuse, captured the navy, and 
 Dionysius lost all his previous year's advantage, besides more 
 than one hundred ships and two thousand men. Syracuse was 
 then besieged by the Carthaginians, and it had gone badly with 
 the city had not Sparta sent help with ship and troops. A naval 
 victory was won over part of the Carthaginian fleet, and later on 
 a plague broke out in the swampy camp of their army, and tak- 
 ing advantage of the situation, Dionysius gave battle, completely 
 routed the enemy, and thus brought the war to a close. 
 
 133. Sicily now required some attention, and after numerous 
 battles with the Sikels and Carthaginians, we find the island 
 divided between Dionysius and Carthage. Then there was a nine 
 years' peace, and the tyrant turned his attention to Italy. Here 
 he marched through the southern portion, taking several cities, 
 one after another. The inhabitants of some he pardoned and 
 gave their liberty; some he sent to Syracuse and gave them 
 citizenship; and some few, those whom he hated, he sold into 
 slavery and destroyed their towns. But one of his greatest acts of 
 warfare was the siege of Rhegion, the city that spurned him 
 when he sought an Italian wife. To -gain an ostensible excuse 
 for declaring war, he called upon the city for supplies for his 
 army, hoping they would refuse, but food was sent. He made 
 sickness the excuse for prolonging his stay, until the Rhegines 
 became tired of sending him supplies and refused all further 
 help. War was at once declared. The siege lasted eight months, 
 during which Dionysius* attempts to take the city by assault 
 were always repulsed. The tyrant had to use the whole of his 
 army before he could reduce the city to such a state of 
 starvation that the gallant defenders no longer had the strength 
 to fight. At the end of eight months Rhegion surrendered 
 unconditionally. The people were" sent to Syracuse, and all 
 who could not pay a certain sum were sold as slaves, the others 
 paying their ransom being set at liberty. The whole hatred of 
 
68 PYTHIAN SKETCHES. 
 
 Dionysitis was centered upon the brave general who had re- 
 fused all his overtures and bribes for the betrayal of the 
 city, and after suffering tortures, insults and degradations, he 
 and his whole family were drowned. 
 
 134. During the peace that followed Dionysius sent some 
 poems to Delphi, but so great was their hatred of him, the 
 judges would not hear them. Afterwards they gained some in- 
 ferior prize ; and later, the first prize. There is no doubt that 
 Dionysius was a poet of some merit. 
 
 135. Dionysius tried to extend his power beyond the Adriatic 
 by planting colonies and forming alliances with others, until 
 Sparta checked his further advance. A second Punic War was 
 undertaken, but this time Dionysius was compelled to pay one 
 thousand talents and lose some of his territory, and in the 
 third war, which occurred some years after, no benefit seems 
 to have been derived on either side. 
 
 136. This brought the long reign to a close, for Dionysius, 
 having about the time of the close of the last Punic War, heard 
 his poem had gained the first prize, was so elated that he made 
 great sacrifices to the gods, and indulged in such an excess of 
 wine that a fever set in and he died. 
 
 137. We must judge a man by the time in which he lived, 
 and according to that time Dionysius' rule was mild and to some 
 extent just. True it is that some of his deeds were cruel, but 
 less so than those of other tyrants of his age. 
 
 During the latter part of his life he became very suspicious of 
 everybody and took great precautions against conspirators, who, 
 he imagined, intended to kill him. He had a cave hewn out of a 
 rock which he then had connected^wlth his room. In this he 
 placed his suspects, so that he could hear all that was said by 
 his victims. This cave was known as the "Ear of Dionysius." 
 
xni. 
 
 THE ARTS OF ANCIENT EGYPT 
 
 "Hail to thee, O Nile! 
 Thou showest thyself in this land 
 Coming in peace, giving Uf e to Egypt. 
 
 Shine forth in glory, O Nile. 
 Hymn to the Nile, by Enna, contemporary of Moses. 
 
 THE British Museum has lately acquired the rnnmmy of a 
 man which may well be regarded as the oldest known 
 body of any human being. It was found buried in an oval, 
 shallow grave on the west bank of the Nile. The body had been 
 treated with a preparation of bitumen. It lay on its left side 
 with hands in front of its face, and its knees drawn up nearly to 
 its chin. The grave was covered with rough slabs of stone, and 
 in it, besides the body, were deposited flint knives and a number 
 of vases, together with the remains and dust of funeral offerings. 
 The style of the burial and of the flint instruments found there- 
 in, shows the man to have belonged to the Neolithic or New 
 Stone Age. This will take us back past the period of Queen 
 Elizabeth, through Mediaeval Europe and the times of Greece and 
 Rome, past the time of the Pharaohs, and even beyond that of 
 Menes, the first King of Egypt, who ruled about 5004 B. C. 
 We then come to a time when there were two prehistoric races 
 in Egypt, one the conquerors and the other the conquered, out of 
 which sprang the Egyptian race of the earliest dynasties. It was 
 to these ancient races that this mummy belonged. Certain an- 
 cient Egyptian documents contain traditions of a race called the 
 Trehennu, who had red hair and blue eyes. This body had dis- 
 tinctly auburn hair. 
 
 Such was the beginning of a nation, which, in the time ot 
 King Menes, was the most advanced and civilized of the nations 
 
70 PYTHIAN SKETCHES. 
 
 of the world. Egypt gradually grew in strength and power, un- 
 til about the time that the Israelites settled in the country, when 
 it had attained its greatest strength. It was not until after the 
 accession of Rameses II to the throne that the country began to 
 decline, and the next reign saw the Israelites depart, while the 
 Ethiopians, the Hittites and the Persians were continually at 
 war against it, and its fall was rapid. Then the Ethiopians ruled 
 the country and later Nebuchadnezzar marched against Apries, 
 King of Egpyt, and his ally Zedekiah, King of Judah. In B. C. 
 586 Jerusalem fell, the Egyptians were driven back, and Egypt 
 was overrun by the Babylonian troops and finally conquered. 
 Then the king, Amasis, being allowed to rule as a dependent, 
 and the country being free from foreign attack, seemed to regain 
 courage and Egypt again became as flourishing as ever. 
 
 140. Pythagoras was born in 580 B. C., and it must have been 
 about this time (at about thirty years of age) that he visited 
 Egypt to study the arts that were then at their height of excel- 
 lence ; and as much the admiration of the world as now. The 
 greatest attraction of Egypt today is its huge mass of pyramids, 
 its colossal statues, its tall obelisks, its enormous temples, its 
 deeply excavated tombs, and its extensive palaces, but at the time 
 of which we are now speaking, there was another attraction, viz., 
 the high state of culture attained by its priests. 
 
 141. The architecture of the Egyptians was of the grand, mas- 
 sive character. There is no single work in existence that equals 
 in mass the First or Second Pyramids. They were built some- 
 time during the Fourth Dynasty. The engineering skill required 
 was great, and the workmanship superb; the stones of which 
 they were built were immense blocks of granite, perfectly 
 squared, and the casing stones were polished on the outside. The 
 Great Pyramid is now 450 feet 9 inches high, and the sides ot 
 its present base, 746 feet. It has lost about thirty feet in con- 
 sequence of the casing stones being torn off There were three 
 large pyramids and six smaller ones, besides a number of tem- 
 ples and tombs, which with the celebrated Sphinx, clustered to- 
 gether in the district west of Cairo. 
 
 The temples at Karnak, the palace tomUs. at Memphis, and the 
 
EGYPT. 71 
 
 quarries with their unfinished work still in place, all show the 
 massive proportions of all their buildings. Of tne arts of Egypt, 
 then, architecture claims the first position, all others being sub- 
 servient to it The Egyptian temples were not built to contain 
 statues, but the statues were made to ornament the temples, 
 and paints to decorate the walls. But the object of decorating 
 was subordinate to that of commemorating, and, as life after 
 death was the predominating belief oi the people, it found ex- 
 pression in the construction and decoration of their tombs, which 
 are as lasting as the rocks themselves. 
 
 142. The art of painting was not very far advanced, the pic- 
 tures being drawn in strongly contrasting colors, yet always dig- 
 nified, and the colors, being seen only in the bright, glaring sun- 
 light outside, or by dim twilight inside the monuments, were 
 never glaring. The painting of animal forms was more true to 
 nature than were those of the Greeks, who aimed at the ideal. 
 
 143. One of the most perplexing questions of this day is the 
 art of irrigation. Congresses are taking place every year in the 
 interest of this question ; yet the ancient Egyptians, in the very 
 earliest time of their history, thoroughly understood it, and the 
 most perfect works of ancient irrigation are used to this day, , 
 and have been used continually for thousands of years; and 
 though numbers of the old canals have gone to decay, they still 
 leave their traces in the sands of time. 
 
 144. The industrial arts were carried on with a high degree of 
 perfection. In the manufacturing of furniture, musical instru- 
 ments, and the carving of alabaster, the Egyptians showed great 
 skill and taste. There were a great variety of musical instru- 
 ments; many kinds of harps played with the hands are seen 
 in their pictures, also the lyre played with a picker; the guitar, 
 which many suppose to have been the invention of the Latin 
 races, was in use among these people. The Egyptians played, 
 too, upon flutes, pipes, tambourines, cymbals and drums. The 
 musicians were probably ignorant of harmony, -but on account ol 
 the number and variety of the instruments u'sed, they must have 
 had a fine ear for music, and good execution. Danc.es and songs 
 generally accompanied their melodies, and by the pictures we find 
 the dancers were chiefly girls. 
 
72 PYTHIAN SKETCHES. 
 
 145. The art of making linen and woolen goods was well 
 known to the Egyptians, and their workmanship has never been 
 surpassed, as is shown by some of the articles taken from the 
 tombs. The dresses of the women were embroidered In very 
 beautiful patterns. Sometimes we find them ornamented with 
 crewel work. The designs are strange to our eyes, with the ex- 
 ception of one pattern, which was as common then as it is now; 
 and it is curious to find that the common blue-checked pattern 
 of our dimity dusters and ho-use aprons was in general use more 
 than three thousand years ago. 
 
 The double stitch, which is now made by our sewing machines, 
 was worked with bone needles by the ancient Egyptian women. 
 Knitting was also a common accomplishment. 
 
 146. The earliest specimens of the goldsmith's art, o<f which 
 we have any knowledge, had their origin in Egypt. Gold and 
 silver objects of beautiful workmanship, and made in the 
 earliest times, have been found. At Thebes a remarkable set o-l 
 gold ornaments has been discovered, which is 3400 years old, and 
 belonged to Queen Aah-Hotop, the wife of Rameses. The set 
 was found in a mummy case which contained the remains of 
 the queen. Among the various articles were a diadem of gold 
 
 ' and lapis lazuli, a square brooch set with precious stones, and a 
 gold boat with silver rowers, upon which was engraved the name 
 of Rameses. We are told by the Greek historian, Pliny, that 
 " Egypt stains silver in order to see her darling Anubis upon the 
 plate ; and paints the metal instead of chasing it." It was during 
 their captivity in Egypt that the Israelites learned to work in 
 metals, and were afterwards thus able to make the sacred vessels 
 required for the tabernacle. 
 
 147. The art of embalming was one of the most important of 
 all their acquirements. The funeral of an Egyptian was re- 
 garded as of more importance than any event of his life time. 
 He who enjoyed a bountiful supply of this world's gifts usually 
 prepared for this event, by having the walls of his tomb painted 
 with the events of his life, and his sarcophagus sculptured. The 
 period of mourning for the dead varied, but was never longer 
 than seventy-two days. During this time, the bodies were em- 
 balmed, and to such perfection was this art known, that the bod- 
 
EGYPT. 73 
 
 ies are preserved perfect to this day, after being buried for 
 thousands of years, and in the instance quoted in the beginning 
 of this sketch at least eight thousand years have elapsed. After 
 being embalmed, the body was then bound with linen bandages, 
 the last of which was covered by a kind of pasteboard, and 
 painted to represent the future state, and bearing the inscription 
 " The Osiris justified." 
 
 148. The most ancient monuments found in Egypt are covered 
 with writings. This fact is one proof of the great length of time 
 between that of the New Stone Age mummy, and that of the 
 Rameses; time enough for men to have so advanced in civiliza- 
 tion and culture as to require and to invent a system of recording 
 thoughts and events. The writings on these monuments are In 
 hieroglyphics, the sacred characters of the Egyptians, and about 
 one hundred years before Pythagoras visited Egypt written docu- 
 ments were first produced. All writing up to this time had been 
 inscribed on the rocks or the walls of the tombs and temples, 
 and on the facing stones of the pyramids. 
 
 The elements of this hieroglyphic, or picture writing, are com- 
 posed of a certain number of objects, both natural and artificial, 
 imitated or engraved upon walls or rocks. Each object rep- 
 resents its own vocal sound, as does each letter in our alphabet; 
 this form of writing continued to be in general use until 700 
 B. C, when documents were needed. The hieroglyphics being too 
 clumsy for business purposes, the characters were greatly sim- 
 plified, and the' hieratic methods came into use. After a further 
 lapse of time, writing was further simplified into the demotic 
 characters, which may be called the alphabet of the ancient 
 Egyptians. The hieroglyphics are written either in columns or in 
 lines ; the latter are usually read from right to left, the heads 
 of animals and like signs show from what direction it is to be 
 read, while the later styles are always to be read from the right. 
 In the earliest monuments, the alphabet of the hieroglyphics con- 
 tained twenty-one letters ; some ten were added afterwards, as 
 nev.- sounds were required in the intercourse with foreign na- 
 tions. 
 
 149. The creation of the Egyptian hieroglyphics was due en- 
 tirely to the inventive genius of Egypt, unless, indeed, La Plun- 
 
74 PYTHIAN SKETCHES. 
 
 geon is correct in his surmises, when he says that Egyptian civil- 
 ization, arts and sciences were all brought to Egypt by Queen 
 Moo, of the Maya race in Central America. This is the 'sum- 
 mary of his story The brother-husband of Queen Moo, after 
 having for several years ruled the Maya kingdom, died. Moo 
 continued to reign as queen. The brother of the Queen revolted 
 against her rule. After a series of battles and sieges, the Queen 
 was driven from her country; she determined to seek protection 
 in the island of Atlantis, which had been peopled by the Mayas. 
 She and her followers sailed for the island, but could not find 
 it, it having disappeared ; so 'she determined to go on further to 
 her brethren in Egypt. Here she was received with joy by the in- 
 habitants, and was made their Queen. She taught them the 
 civilization of their brothers in Maya-land, together with the 
 arts and sciences, and the hieroglyphics. 
 
. XIV. 
 THE SCIENCE OF ARABIA 
 
 " Wisdom hath alighted upon these three things the brain of 
 the Franks, the hands of the Chinese, and the tongue of the 
 Arabs." Mohammed ed-Damiri. 
 
 THE two Arabias, the "Felix," so named on account of the. 
 mildness of its climate, and the " Desert," much less 
 thickly peopled than the former, were inhabited by several 
 different tribes, some of whom lived in towns while others wan- 
 dered about, changing from place to place as the necessities of 
 their flocks required. The latter lived in tents and booths, and 
 preserved their patriarchal form of government for ages. 
 
 Saad Ben Ahmed, who was at one time Cadi of Toledo, in 
 Spain, affirms that " there were two races of Arabs, one ol 
 which has passed away, while the other remains still in exist- 
 ence." The former being the people supposed to have inhabited 
 Arabia before the time of Abraham. 
 
 151. Both our own Bible, and the Arab's Koran, much ot 
 which is of Hebrew origin, claim that the Arabs were descended 
 from Abraham through Hagar, the bond servant of Sarah. One 
 remembers that beautiful and pathetic story of Ishmael, and 
 how he and his mother nearly perished in the desert for want of 
 water, and how this same Ishmael was the father of twelve sons, 
 who became the heads, or princes, of as many tribes of Arabs. 
 Modern research shows us, however, that the inhabitants of Ara- 
 bia originally came over from Africa by two different routes, 
 each party keeping separate and distinct from the other. 
 
 152. Thus the inhabitants were divided into two branches. 
 The first settlements of the country, according to the tradition 
 stories and a few writings that have come down to us, was at 
 the extreme southwestern point of the peninsula, near the present 
 city of Aden, and thence, extending west and north, populating 
 
76 PYTHIAN SKETCHES. 
 
 Arabia Felix with settlements of towns and villages, whose chief 
 occupation was husbandry. These formed the southern branch, 
 or Town People. 
 
 153. The origin of the other branch, the shepherds, the wan- 
 derers, the "Nomads," is more difficult to determine. The lan- 
 guage, customs, and. habits of these tribes have a close affinity 
 to those of the south, yet they greatly differ from them, and 
 where there is a difference, it is always of an Asiatic nature. 
 Their pastoral tendencies, their nomadic life, their idioms, clan- 
 nish feelings, etc., are all of Asiatic origin, and directly opposed 
 to the southern Arab's ideas; 'still the groundwork of both is 
 undoubtedly identical. The probability faintly indicated by tradi- 
 tion is that they entered Arabia as shepherds, from the north- 
 west, crossing the Isthmus of Suez and still traveling eastward, 
 entered the plains of Mesopotamia and Chaldea; and after a long 
 sojourn there, having become influenced both physically and 
 morally by their contact with the inhabitants of those countries, 
 they returned westward to the country already occupied by their 
 more unchanged kinsmen. They did not all return at once, how- 
 ever, but tribe after tribe, according to the pressure brought to 
 bear upon them by their Iranian and Turanian neighbors. In 
 all probability the last contingent to leave the country was the 
 clan to which the prophet Mohammed belonged. This accounts 
 foi the second branch of the race, as stated in Biblical narrative, 
 and of tradition. This dual division of the people still continues 
 to exist, 
 
 154. The history of the Arabs, before the era of Mohammed, 
 is one of quarrelings and strife. Among the "Bedouins," or 
 dwellers in the open, the quarrels occurred through the stealing 
 of one another's flocks, the tribes being sometimes reduced to 
 extreme want, or over particular pasture land, or the right to 
 certain wells. 
 
 The Southern Arabs, who lived in towns, comprised six- 
 sevenths of the whole population. They were, of necessity, a 
 more enlightened people than their wandering brothers of the 
 north, and the glorious career of the race, that the nation after- 
 ward achieved, came from these. 
 
 155. After the time of Mohammed, the kingdoms of the south 
 
ARABIA. 77 
 
 ?rid west extended their empire north into Persia, Mesopotamia 
 and Afghanistan ; then they gradually crept along the northern 
 coast of Africa, until their dominion extended the length of the 
 whole southern shore of the Mediterranean Sea. Afterwards 
 they pas'sed onward across the sea that separated them from 
 Spain, and there they founded a mighty and glorious empire. 
 This was the culmination of their fortune; for when they were 
 driven out and retired to Africa, they gradually sank back to what 
 they had been before the time of their rise to power. In Africa 
 they left several weak, 'Struggling kingdoms of Arabs in Morocco, 
 Tunis, Fez, etc. 
 
 156. Spain was conquered by the Arabs in the beginning of 
 the eighth century, and after settlement of the country, there be- 
 gan a great movement toward education. Schools and universi- 
 ties were founded and endowed ; and so great was the reputation 
 they acquired, that students from alt the Christian countries 
 flocked to them in thousands, and the Arabs became the educa- 
 tors of Europe. It is to these universities that Europe owes 
 much for the foundation of its education, especially along certain 
 lines, principal among which is that of mathematics. 
 
 157. But the science upon which the Arabs mostly prided 
 themselves was that of their own language and its modifications, 
 the construction of verse, and the elegancies of their discourse. 
 They had their astronomers and astrologers, their mathemati- 
 cians and grammarians, their poets and historians ; their musi- 
 cians and philosophers. 
 
 158. While still in their own country we may say that the 
 early Arabs were entirely without the knowledge of architecture. 
 The only buildings known of these early people are a few old 
 castles and dykes, which are only remarkable for the coarseness 
 of material, and thickness of walls. There are a few inscriptions, 
 and when decipherable show a dialect akin to the Abyssinian. 
 Later, when the Arabs began to conquer the surrounding nations, 
 they gradually acquired a peculiar style of architecture, which 
 continued to increase in beauty and loveliness until it reached 
 its perfection in the palace of the Alhambra in Southern Spain. 
 
 159. The literature of the Arabs was verv extensive. Even 
 before the era of the prophet, Arabia had its poets of no ordinary 
 
78 PYTHIAN SKETCHES. 
 
 degree of excellence, but after that era we find men who were 
 "Masters of the Art." They did not excel in prose writing, ex- 
 cept, perhaps, in stories and romances. The " Thousand and One 
 Arabian Nights," with which we have all been entertained, was 
 written by an Arab and composed in Bagdad in .the eleventh 
 century. Their historical writings are very voluminous but in 
 most cases childish. 
 
 160. The science of Astronomy was naturally evolved out ot 
 Astrology, and it made great and rapid progress. They were 
 acquainted with the rising, setting, and course of the stars; tney 
 calculated the obliquity of the elliptic, the diameter of the earth, 
 and even the processions of the equinoxes, with great accuracy. 
 Several treaties on the subject of Astronomy were written by the 
 Arabs. At the university city of Seville, Spain, Geber con- 
 structed the first astronomical observatory on record. ( NOTE. ) 
 The force of attraction was dimly seen by them. 
 
 Yet, with all this knowledge, they still thought the earth was 
 the center of the universe, around which the sun, moon and 
 planets revolved. 
 
 161. In mathematics the Arabs themselves built upon and ex- 
 tended that which they had acquired from the Greeks and In- 
 dians (Hindoostanee). Geometry they learned from the former, 
 while the latter gave them algebra, but they soon far outstripped 
 their teachers. By the tenth century they had reached trigonom- 
 etry, quadratic and cubic equations. Optics and hydrostatics were 
 studied, and the latter applied to the construction of wells, canals, 
 etc. 
 
 162. In painting they attained some distinction, although they 
 were restricted, by their religion, to vegetable forms and color. 
 They made great use of glazed tiles and stucco, and of colored 
 glass. The art of making the colored glass has now been entirely 
 lost to them. Books of songs have been numerous and all of 
 great beauty, and it seems to have been Tare for an inferior song, 
 either words or music, to have been written. 
 
 163. In medicine and surgery very little was done to advance 
 
 NOTE. By recent discoveries we find that observatories have been in 
 existence in the ancient cities of Chaldea at Ur, Ereck-Nippur, several 
 thousand years previously. 
 
 ( UNIVERSITY ) 
 
ARABIA. 79 
 
 what had already been known by the Greeks. One or two books 
 were issued, but were only enlargements of former treatises. 
 
 Botany and chemistry received close attention at the hands of 
 the Arabs and some very valuable discoveries were made in these 
 lines. The principal mercurial and arsenical preparations, the 
 sulphates of several metals, the properties of acids and alkalies, 
 the distillations of alcohol, were all well known to the Arab 
 chemist. In fact, it is only in recent times that the chemical 
 knowledge of the world has materially advanced beyond what was 
 known by these people. We are indebted to the Arab for numer- 
 ous words used in this science, such as alcohol, alkali, alembic, 
 etc., and also the signs used for the drugs themselves. 
 
 Such is a brief sketch of the "Science of Arabia/' and very 
 little material advance upon any of them has been made until 
 modern times. 
 
XV. 
 THE PHILOSOPHY OF PHOENICIA 
 
 " Upon the Syrian sea the people live 
 
 Who style themselves Phoenicians. 
 
 These were the first great founders of the world 
 
 Founders of cities and of mighty states 
 
 Who showed a path through seas before unknown." 
 
 Dionysius of Susiana, A. D. 300. 
 
 WHILE Pythagoras is accredited with having acquired the 
 knowledge of all the ages, among which is the philos- 
 ophy of Phoenicia, he is made to assume that which 
 did not exist, for Phoenicia was not a philosophical nation, nor 
 did it ever possess a noted philosopher. 
 
 Rawlinson, in his Ancient Monarchies, says, " The Phoenicians 
 were, on the whole, adapters, rather than inventors. They owed 
 their idea of an alphabetical writing to the Accadians, their 
 weights and measures to Babylon, their shipbuilding probably to 
 Egypt, their early architecture to the same country, their mimic 
 art to Assyria, to Egypt and to Greece. They were not poets, 
 or painters, or sculptors, or great architects, much less philoso- 
 phers or scientists ; but in the practical arts and sciences they 
 held a high place." 
 
 Still the Phoenicians were a people from whom a large amount 
 of material knowledge could have been obtained, and there is no 
 doubt that " our philosopher " did obtain a good deal from them 
 that he found useful in teaching his disciples at Crotona and 
 other places. 
 
 The Phoenicians were traders, merchants, manufacturers and 
 miners, and as their business carried them all over the known 
 world, they naturally became colonizers. 
 
 165. We have seen in another sketch that they originally lived 
 in southern Chaldea, and belonged to the same group of nations 
 
PHCENICIA. 81 
 
 as the Assyrians, later Babylonians, Syrians, Arabians, Moabites, 
 and Hebrews. They first lived on the coast of the Persian Gulf. 
 In some remote period they migrated to the shores of the Medi- 
 terranean. Trogus Pornpeius says, "The Syrian nation was 
 founded by the Phoenicians, who, being disturbed by an earth- 
 quake, left their native land and 'settled first of all in the neigh- 
 borhood of the Assyrian Lake, (the Sea of Nedjif, a sheet of 
 water in the neighborhood of Babylon) and subsequently on the 
 shores of the Mediterranean, where they built a city which they 
 called Sidon, on account of the abundance of fish, for the 
 Phoenicians called a fish " sidon." 
 
 166. Rawlinson says they are a people of " Industry and 
 perseverence, audacity in enterprise, adaptability and pliability, 
 acuteness of intellect, unscrupulousness, and want of good faith." 
 They were certainly in early times the most industrious of man- 
 kind; those who were not in the workshops were roaming about 
 the seas, without chart, without compass and with only the stars 
 to guide them, and thus they penetrated even beyond the Pillars 
 of Hercules (Straits of Gibraltar.) From the islands of the 
 eastern Mediterranean, they launched forth upon the unknown 
 sea in fragile ships, confronted the perils of wave and storm, 
 and the still more dreadful peril of " monsters of the deep." 
 They explored the Adriatic and Black Seas and wandered 
 about the Islands of the Aegean; thence they traversed the west- 
 ern Mediterranean, which became thoroughly known to them. 
 They afterwards passed the Straits of Gibralter " into the wild 
 and boundless Atlantic with its mighty tides, its high rollers, its 
 blinding rains, and its frequent fogs." They penetrated the 
 shores of Scythia, they discovered the islands of Britain, and 
 entered the Baltic Sea, they advanced along the west, coast of 
 India; and two thousand years before Vasco de Gama discovered 
 the Cape of Good Hope, the Phoenicians, starting from the Red 
 Sea, had doubled the "Cape of Storm's" and succeeded in sail- 
 ing completely around the continent of Africa. 
 
 167. The chief cities of Phoenicia were five in number, and 
 there were also some of secondary importance. Of these five 
 Sidon and Tyre were the leaders. The former was the most 
 
82 PYTHIAN SKETCHES. 
 
 ancient of all. In Genesis it is called " the Eldest City of Canaan." 
 It was built on the level plains between the mountains and the 
 sea opposite a small promontory which projected into the 
 sea toward the west. Its principal harbor lay to the north of the 
 peninsula, being protected from the winds by a chain of islands, 
 stretching in a northeasterly direction. It was naturally a very 
 fine roadstead, and was easily improved into a most excellent 
 harbor, by a line of walls, built out from the shore, to the most 
 easterly of the islands. To the south of the peninsula was an- 
 other harbor, which, while not so safe, was larger. Very little 
 of the ancient city is left, there being a few remains between 
 the modern city and the mountains, and an acropolis toward the 
 south. 
 
 168. Twenty miles south of Sidon was the -still more impor- 
 tant city of Tzur or Tyre. "Tzur" means a rock, and the city 
 was built on the largest of the rocky inlets, not far from the 
 coast. It was covered with houses, fortified, and in place of a 
 bare rock grew a city. Being of so small a size the inhabitants 
 soon overgrew its capacities, and a second town was built on 
 the mainland opposite, the two cities being under one rule. The 
 latter town fell into decay about the time of Alexander. The is- 
 land upon which the city was built is one of a chain of islands 
 running parallel with the coast, there being three others on the 
 south and 'seven on the north of it, and between these, two or 
 larger size which were made into one by filling in the space 
 between them. This island was further enlarged by structures 
 built out into the sea on the south, making altogether a circum- 
 ference of about two and one half miles. The whole town was 
 protected by a lofty wall. The portion of it which faced the 
 mainland was one hundred and fifty feet high. On the south 
 the foundation of this wall is still seen in the sea. It also had 
 two harbors, the principal of which was protected by a chain 
 across its entrance. 
 
 169. The most southern of the Phoenician cities was Joppa, 
 which was built on the slope of a low hill near the sea and pos- 
 sessed a fairly good harbor. It was the seaport of Jerusalem, 
 and was the port of trade between that city and Phoenicia. To 
 this place was brought the timber for Solomon's temple and also 
 
PHOENICIA. 83 
 
 the "wheat, barley, oil and wine" that the Phoenicians received in 
 return. 
 
 170. Throughout the islands and Asiatic coast of the eastern 
 Mediterranean, the Phoenicians planted their colonies. The most 
 important of these were Cyprus, Rhodes and Crete. Several is- 
 lands of the Aegean Sea also received their inhabitants from the 
 same source. In the western Mediterranean, cities were estab- 
 lished on the coast of Africa, of which Carthage was the largest 
 and most powerful. On the island of Sicily, the Phoenicians 
 colonized the northwestern corner. Malta, Sardinia, the Balearic 
 l>les and Spain were also colonized by Phoenicians. Their trade, 
 however, did not stop at these places for it was carried on be- 
 yond their farthest settlement, into Gaul and Britain, and in the 
 opposite direction to the coast of Africa, as far south as Sene- 
 gambia. 
 
 171. Their sculpture was rude, though life-like, but they ex- 
 celled in metal work. Solomon employed a native of Tyre for 
 the ornamentation of his temple, and the making of the " Molten 
 Sea," an enormous bronze basin fifteen feet in diameter, sup- 
 ported upon twelve oxen. Numerous other objects of metal were 
 made for the Temple by Phoenicians. Gold, silver, copper and 
 bronze were worked by these people into bowls, basins and 
 other beautiful articles. One of the most striking of their man-" 
 ufactures was glass variously colored. They made three kinds ; 
 a transparent, colorless glass, a colored glass that the eye could 
 not 'see through, and an opaque glass resembling porcelain. The 
 purple dye for which Tyre had long been noted was obtained 
 from the sac of the mollusk " Purpura." 
 
 172. The Phoenicians were expert miners, and were the ear- 
 liest people, of whom we have any knowledge, who undertook to 
 "mine" for metals. Surface mining, or gathering, had been en- 
 gaged in more or less by all nations, but to dig underground was 
 first attempted by the Phoenicians. Thev had mines in their own 
 country, in Cyprus, Thrace, Sardinia, Spain and Britain ; the re- 
 mains of some of which can still be seen. The methods employed 
 were not unlike those of today. They used shafts and galleries ; 
 the roofs were propped with timbers; the ores were crushed. 
 
84 PYTHIAN SKETCHES. ' 
 
 pounded, and washed, the mines being mostly worked by slave 
 labor. 
 
 Thus we discover much that is creditable to the Phoenicians, 
 and while they had no school of philosophy, they were inventors 
 and workers in metals, and in the practical things oi life. 
 
XVL 
 THE LORE OF THE CHALDEAN SAGES 
 
 "May God, my Creator, take my hands. Guide Thou the breath 
 of my mouth; guide Thou my hand." Ancient Accadian 
 Hymn. 
 
 THE extensive region in western Asia, to which the Greeks 
 gave the name of Mesopotamia, and which in ancient 
 times was known as Chaldea, Babylonia, or Accad, was 
 already, at the period which lies farthest back in the memory ol 
 mankind, the center of a great civilization, rivalling that of 
 Egypt, and disputing with Egypt the honor of having been the 
 cradle of civilization in the East. 
 
 174. Although Babylon and Nineveh were each, in their 
 turn, homes in which the bold and intellectual geniuses were 
 kindled, yet it is neither in the capital of Chaldea nor in that of 
 As'syria that we have the earliest traces of this great civilization; 
 but we find it in a country south of these, in lower Chaldea, a 
 country formerly very fertile, and the place toward which tradi- 
 tion points, and where the oldest records have been found. The 
 exploration of the mounds or tells which cover the old cities ot 
 the two Sipparas (Sepharvaim) Eridu, Larsa, Ur (the native 
 c : ty of Abraham), and Erech, gives us a surprising account of 
 the advance of civilization and culture that existed in these 
 early timei, 
 
 175. The earliest inhabitants of this region were undoubtedly 
 of Semitic origin, and came into the country either from India 
 or Arabia (see sketch on Arabia) and had lived there long enough 
 to have grown in numbers, and to have become as civilized as 
 described in the record's found in the ruined city of Erech, and 
 which date back to about 7,000 B. C. Although this date needs 
 further verification, it is certain that sometime before 4,000 B. C. 
 a certain King, Lngal-Zaggisi, ruled over the city of Erech, and 
 
86 PYTHIAN SKETCHES. 
 
 we are told that he was the "King of Erech, King of the World," 
 and that "he had filled all lands with his renown, and subdued 
 them from the rising of the sun to the setting of the 'sun, and 
 made straight his path from the lower sea of the Tigris and 
 Euphrates to the upper sea" (the Mediterranean). 
 
 176. He laid the foundation of the temple in which was found 
 an immense library, containing books upon all subjects, and 
 which shows us that Chaldeans were very little inferior .to our- 
 selves in the matter of education. As these books or tablets arc 
 gradually being translated by the finder, Prof. Hilprecht, ol 
 Pennsylvania University, we shall soon know more of this mat- 
 ter; but enough has already been read for us to know that some 
 7,000 years ago or more, the people of Erech, Ur, an4 other Chal- 
 dean cities, knew that the earth was round, that they had made 
 astronomical calculations as to the distances of the stars and 
 planets, and that they believed the sun to be the center of the 
 universe. Prof. Hilprecht tells us that one of the most interest- 
 ing subjects is one of mathematics. The Babylonian tables went 
 as far as sixty times sixty, and for astronomical purposes they 
 carried the numbers out to thirteen hundred times thirteen hun- 
 dred. The school children had to learn to read and write two 
 languages, their own and the Sumerian." 
 
 177. Only a small portion, about a twentieth part, o*f the li- 
 brary has so far been explored, and yet 23,000 tablets have been 
 brought home. Only a few of these have been translated, but 
 those that have already been examined show us work of every 
 branch of literature, historical texts, dictionaries, lists of Sumer- 
 ian (sacred language) words with Semitic equivalents, lists of 
 birds, animals, plants and stones, names of articles of furniture, 
 hymns, the number and revenue of the temples of Nippur, and 
 tablets containing grammatical sentences written by students, etc. 
 
 From the above one may form an idea of the importance of the 
 information we shall have of these times when the whole library 
 is translated and given to the world. 
 
 178. But the library of Ur was perhaps more celebrated than 
 that of Erech, for when Babylon was built and its library estab- 
 lished and this seems to have been among the first requisites 
 
CHALDEAN SAGES. 87 
 
 of a new city Nebuchadnezzar, the King, ordered a copy of the 
 whole library of Ur to be placed within it. 
 
 179. As the cities grew in power and importance, and each 
 strove for supremacy, we find that the city of Erech first be- 
 came the head of the confederacy, and kept its power for 
 several hundred years; then Ur rose to the same position and 
 afterward Larsa was supreme in the country. Thus several hun- 
 dred years before Abraham's time ; before Greece became a na- 
 tion; or Rome was founded; sixteen or seventeen hundred years 
 before the siege of Troy, Chaldea was a crowded country ol 
 highly cultivated people. 
 
 180. The first king of Ur of whom we have any record is 
 one who claimed supremacy over the whole of Babylonia. He 
 erected the great temple and adorned those of Erech, Nippur and 
 Larsa, and built temples of large size for other cities. He seems to 
 have been the first great Babylonian builder. A study of these 
 temples shows that the knowledge of the arts and sciences was 
 not even then in its infancy. The use of buttresses, of drains, 
 of ornamentation both external and ( internal was known and 
 used. Cuneiform writing, evolved from a primitive form of 
 hieroglyphics, was fully developed, and stone was elaborately 
 carved and used as signets. 
 
 181. From time to time, either from over population or from 
 pressure of Arab invasions, bands of Chaldeans left their native 
 homes to found other cities and nations, and among these were 
 the Phoenicians, who started across the desert, or travelled north, 
 skirting the desert in northern Syria, and then down the coast to 
 the 'sites of Tyre and Sidon. Centuries after this emigration, 
 Terah and his tribe left "Ur of the Chaldees" to settle in Pales- 
 tine, and to found the nation of the Israelites. 
 
 182. Long before this event, however, the records tell us 
 that Gudea, King of Lagash, was not only ruler over the whole 
 of Babylonia, but had conquered Arabia and Lebanon, from 
 which two countries he brought home stones and timber. He 
 then annexed the country east of Jordan, and the Sinaitic Pen- 
 insula. In the latter place he built temples, the ruins of which 
 may still be seen. 
 
 183. Two thousand years before Abraham left for the " Prom- 
 
88 PYTHIAN SKETCHES. 
 
 ised Land," Sargon founded and built the city of Accad, about 
 seventy miles north of Babylon, and then extended his power 
 to the Great Sea beyond. He 'says of himself, inscribed on a rock, 
 " For forty-five years I have ruled the kingdom, the Accadian 
 race I have governed; in multitudes of bronze chariots I rode 
 over rugged lands ; I governed the upper countries. Three 
 times to the coast of the 'sea I advanced." 
 
 184. The arch, which was always supposed to have been a 
 comparatively modern invention, is found to have existed over 
 six thousand years ago, in a structure under a temple of Sar 
 gon's time. This was built of brick, and when found, was in a 
 perfect condition. 
 
 185. All this has been told us by means of written records; 
 but writing means the use of an alphabet, and the alphabet was 
 always supposed to have been invented by the Phoenicians. We 
 now 'see, however, that the alphabet was in use long before the 
 tribes that ultimately formed the Phoenician nation, had left their 
 native land, and that when they did so, they carried, not only the 
 alphabet, but their whole system of civilization with them. 
 
 186. About 630 B. C. a 'revolution took place in Asia. A No- 
 mad people came down from the mountains and conquered 
 Syria and Babylonia, and extended its rule to the shores of the 
 Mediterranean, and their King, Nebuchadnezzar, thus ruled over 
 a vast empire. This, in turn, was overthrown by Cyrus, and an- 
 nexed to the Persian dominions. 
 
 187. We now come to about the time when Pythagoras either 
 visited Chaldea, or became acquainted with the Chaldean sages 
 in Egypt. We have seen how ancient, even in his time, was the 
 knowledge or lore of these people, (it was then at least 5,ooo 
 years old) ; and we have seen something of the knowledge that 
 this people possessed at the time when the earliest known rec- 
 ords were written; and this in all probability takes us back some 
 seven thousand years. Let us now see, somewhat more fully, 
 the " Open book " of the Chaldean lore that Pythagoras had ac- 
 quired. 
 
 188. Wte have seen that architecture was by no means in its 
 infancy. The material in use was brick, as they possessed no 
 stone until their kingdom extended itself north into the moun- 
 
CHALDEAN SAGES. 89 
 
 tainous regions, where the Assyrians used their native product, 
 though not exclusively. In the south, the people being of a more 
 religious turn, erected temples and tombs, while the northern 
 tribesmen built palaces. The Chaldean temples were huge 
 masses of brick work, ornamented on the outside with bright 
 colored paints, and with bronze and gilt. They were supported 
 by buttresses, and the rain was carried off by leaden pipes. The 
 sculpture was small in size on account of the scarcity of stone. The 
 carvings on some of the signet cylinders are so very fine that it 
 seems probable that some sort of magnifying lens was used. The 
 work on the cylinder of the earliest King of Ur is of a high order 
 of merit. 
 
 189. Gem cutting and pottery were carried to a considerable 
 degree of perfection. Bronze and copper instruments were In 
 abundance, and iron not unknown. Gold ornaments were beauti- 
 fully executed. Terra cotta models of great beauty have been 
 found, and in the time of Sargon the making of glass, with beau- 
 tiful iridescent colors, had long been an established industry. 
 Their carpets and variegated dresses were highly prized; and 
 their knowledge of musical instruments extensive. 
 
 190. We have seen how ancient was the knowledge of astron- 
 omy. Ur had its royal observatory, as had all other large cities. 
 The Royal Astronomer sent in his report to the King twice a 
 month. The stars were all named and numbered; the calendar 
 of three hundred and sixty days was arranged, a month being 
 added every six years, while the priests added others as they saw 
 the necessity. The eclipse of the sun had been both calculated 
 and recorded from very ancient times. Works on astronomy had 
 been written. Mathematics was much advanced, and one tablet 
 contains correctly the 'squares and cubes from one to sixty. The 
 sages were acquainted with the sun-dial, the level, the pulley, and 
 the lens. Grammars, reading books and dictionaries were com- 
 mon. Among the most interesting of these books are the 
 " Hymns to the Gods," resembling in form and substance the 
 Hebrew Psalms. 
 
XVIL 
 THE OCCULT MASTERIES OF THE PERSIAN MAGI 
 
 "We praise all good thoughts, all good deeds, which are or shall 
 be, and we likewise keep clean and pure all that is good" 
 Hymn of the Persian Magi. 
 
 BEFORE searching into the mysteries of the Magi, we must 
 find out something of the country of which they were a 
 very important factor. Persia, or Iran, as the people called 
 their country, lay to the east of the great valley of the Tigris 
 and Euphrates, and included the whole upland country from 
 Kurdistan to Afghanistan. The inhabitants, together with otner 
 tribes of the same race and their kinsmen in India, were Aryans, 
 and hence the names " Eran," " Iran," " Ardashir." The first 
 King of the Sassanian Dynasty is called on their coins, "King of 
 the King of Eran," and his son, "King of the King of Eran and 
 Non-Eran;" and he had as non-Aryan subjects the population of 
 Chaldea or Babylonia, and other peoples of the Semitic race. The 
 modern Iran comprises only a portion of the old Iranian empire. 
 
 192. At a very early period there were several regular monar- 
 chies of some size established in the Iranian Plateau ; and there 
 is evidence of an old and somewhat civilized empire 'situated in 
 Bactria, a land inhabited by a kindred race, and lying to the 
 east of Iran on the river Oxus, and northeast of Afghanistan. 
 
 193. The Medes, however, seem to have been the first to es- 
 tablish a kingdom in Persia, although in all probability they were 
 included in the great empire of Bactriana, as the Zendavesta, 
 the sacred book of Persia seems to infer. In a certain prin- 
 cipality, of which Ecbatana was the chief town, and which for 
 thousands of years had held the rank of capital, there ruled a 
 certain Deioces, and during his reign, and those of his three 
 successors, which lasted three hundred years, the principality 
 gradually merged into the Great Median Empire. 
 
PERSIAN MAGI. 91 
 
 194. The reign of Deioces was much troubled by the incur- 
 sions of the Assyrians, whose territory joined Media on the west. 
 Herodotus tells us that Deioces was taken prisoner by the King 
 of Assyria and his land conquered in 713 B. C. This ruler was 
 not, as the Persians were afterward so fond of calling them- 
 selves, " King of Kings," for several times he had to bow to the 
 Assyrian yoke, but he was the founder of a dynasty and an em- 
 pire. 
 
 195. The second King of Media was Phraortes, who extended 
 his sway beyond the limits of Media and conquered Persis, or Per- 
 sia proper, which was then ruled by its own kings, they thus becom- 
 ing vassals of the Sultan " who had his seat in Ecbatana." Dur- 
 ing the seventy-five years covering the time of these two reigns, 
 the power of the Assyrian empire had fallen very low, so that 
 Media received no further trouble from that source. 
 
 196. The reign of Cyaxere's, the next King, B. C. 625-685, 
 brought the empire to its highest strength and power. His army 
 having been thoroughly trained and organized he took the field 
 against Nineveh and besieged it, but he was obliged to return 
 without having accomplished his purpose, to repel an invasion ol 
 the northern barbarians who had overrun his own country. Hav- 
 ing come to some terms with the invaders he invited them ancl 
 their chief to a feast, and when he had made them drunk he slew 
 them all. He then returned a second time to Nineveh, and with 
 the aid of Nebuchadnezzar, King of Babylon, he took the city, 
 made Nebuchadnezzar King, and gave him his daughter in mar- 
 riage. He next conquered Armenia and Cappadocia and then be- 
 gan his campaign against Lydia. A battle took place, 585 B. C., 
 but an eclipse of the sun, occurring during the progress of the 
 fight, stopped the battle, and peace was soon afterward estab- 
 lished. 
 
 197. Of the reign of his son, Astyages, nothing definite is 
 known, but he seems to have been a cruel ruler and his cruelty 
 probably caused the revolt of Cyrus, King of Persia, who over- 
 threw the Great Median Empire, and established in its stead 
 Persian dominion. The former was not really destroyed, but 
 was transformed into the Persian Empire, both by the will of the 
 Aryan race and by the rule of Cyrus. One dynasty simply gave 
 
92 PYTHIAN SKETCHES. 
 
 place to the other. Cyrus soon made himself master of Media, 
 Asia Minor and Syria, while Egypt was made tributary, and the 
 empire was also extended east into India. 
 
 198. From the very first of the recorded history of the Medes 
 we find that the Magi, one of their tribes, was a priestly order. 
 There is no doubt that the Zoroastrian religion was a slate re- 
 ligion, and that the Magi tribe had been appointed as its priests. 
 The religion itself dates much further back than the Persian 
 Empire. It arose in the " far east," probably in that great Bac- 
 trian Empire mentioned above. The Magi were the guardians of 
 all religious observances. It was to them that the people 
 applied asking what day to sacrifice, what sacrifice to offer, and 
 to which god. As the Magi were all of one tribe, (as none but 
 the son of a priest could become a priest) and as all learning 
 and knowledge were kept strictly to themselves, both in religious 
 and political matters, their power and authority became very 
 great. They were the sages, philosophers and wise men of Persia. 
 Their reputation drew men from long distances who wished to 
 be instructed by them in philosophy and religion ; and there are 
 some old writers who assure us that it was from them that 
 Pythagoras borrowed those principles of philosophy which made 
 him so famous among the Greeks. 
 
 199. The author and founder of the Magian religion was 
 Zoroaster, a reformer who lived somewhere in northern Media. 
 He quitted his country, however, and started for the land to the 
 east of the Caspian Sea, called Bactria, which was governed by 
 a king named Gustasp, who became his disciple and admirer. 
 Hers his new religion was started and took root, and from 
 thence it soon spjead all over Iran. Zoroaster, himself, tells us 
 that this empire comprised all the country east of the Caspian as 
 far as and including Hindustani and Khorassan. The date when 
 the reformer appeared is very uncertain, but as no mention has 
 been made of either Media or Persia by Zoroaster, in giving the 
 name of the tributary kingdoms of his master we must presume 
 that they did not exist, and therefore was probably previous to 
 the foundation of those monarchies. Some authors, however, 
 believe there were two men of this name, the first the author of 
 
PERSIAN MAGI. . 93 
 
 the Magian sect, and who lived about six hundred years before 
 the second Zoroaster, the reformer mentioned above. 
 
 Among all the ancient nations idolatry took one of two forms ; 
 either the worship of images or the worship of God in the form 
 of fire. The former mode of worship was adopted by the Chal- 
 deans and the latter by the Magi. The Magi utterly abhorred 
 idolatry. They worshiped fire, looking upon it, on account of 
 its purity, brightness and incorruptibility, as the most perfect 
 symbol of the Deity. 
 
 200. In India, today, in the province of Bombay, the most suc- 
 cessful and richest of all the merchants are the Parsees, the only 
 remnant of the ancient Magi, or fire worshipers, that is to be 
 found in the world. There they have lived and preserved their 
 religion ever since the time of the second Zoroaster, and there 
 have been found, treasured by them, the old religious books of 
 the Magi, written in Sanscrit, the oldest and. purest form of the 
 Aryan language. 
 
 201. From these books, the principal of which is the Zen- 
 davesta, we learn what the teachings of the Magi were. The chiet 
 doctrine was that there existed two principles, that from which 
 all good came and that from which came all evil. The good god, 
 represented by light, was called Yazdan and Ormuzd ; the evil 
 god, represented by darkness, Ahraman. They were opposed to 
 each other and would continue so until the end of the world. 
 As this gave two supreme gods, Zoroaster, the Reformer, di- 
 verted such a catastrophe by asserting that there was but one 
 Supreme Being, independent and self-existing from all eternity; 
 that under Him were two angels, one of light, the author oi 
 good, and the other, darkness, the author of evil; that out of 
 these two came all things that existed; that they were In per- 
 petual struggle with each other; that when the angel of light 
 prevailed then good reigned, and when that of darkness prevailed 
 then evil took place; that this struggle would continue until the 
 end of the world; that then there would be a resurrection and 
 judgment, and all would receive rewards according to their 
 works. The angel of darkness and his following would go to a 
 world of their own, there to suffer in darkness for their evil 
 
94 PYTHIAN SKETCHES. 
 
 deeds; the angel of light with his disciples would go into ever- 
 lasting light and happiness, and light and darkness would mix no 
 more. Zoroaster reformed the Magian religion in another im- 
 portant particular; he caused temples to be built, where the 
 sacred fires were carefully and constantly kept up; a relay of 
 priests being organized for the purpose. 
 
 202. One of the doctrines of this reformer's religion is that 
 "everything is pure, everything is holy" and that a holy in- 
 fluence was extended over animals and things inanimate. This 
 led to the improvements of the farms, causing thorough cultiva- 
 tion of the soil and careful gardening, and attention to the do- 
 mestic animals. 
 
 203. The priestly Magian tribe was divided into three orders, 
 the Herbeds or disciples, the Mobed's or masters, and the Deslur 
 Mobeds, or complete or past masters. They alone were entitled 
 to perform the sacred offices of religion ; they alone had the 
 sacred formulae or ritual by which Ormuzd was to be addressed; 
 they alone could perform the ceremonies by which sacrifices 
 were offered; they were the intermediaries between God and 
 man. These Magi, or Wise Men, formed the most dignified por- 
 tion of the Court. They surrounded the King's person and were 
 his sooth-sayers and diviners. They were distinguished by special 
 dresses, by the sacred cap, and by a bundle of sticks. 
 
 The principal part of the education of a monarch consisted in 
 being instructed "in the occult mysteries of the Magi ;" a 
 privilege communicated to but very few outside of their own 
 order, and these few were only the most highly favored. The 
 doctrines were designated as the " law of the Medes and Per- 
 sians," and contained a knowledge of all sacred customs, pre- 
 cepts and usages of worship, and of private life, respecting the 
 duties which all were bound to perform, and the penalties for 
 neglecting them. The Magi were the ecclesiastical judges. They 
 were the sole depository of the arts . and sciences, and haci 
 the sole power of interpreting dreams. They have been so highly 
 thought of, for their knowledge and power, that their very title 
 " Magi," has passed into a 'set of classical terms applied to sor- 
 cery, enchantment and the occult sciences. 
 
XVIIL 
 "BON MOTS"; ON PYTHIANISM 
 
 ^ ^ W HAVE found that its lofty aims and noble accomplish- 
 I ments have installed it in the loving hearts of all the 
 people wherever it is known. I see its sublime teach- 
 ings spreading to all quarters of the globe, carrying with them 
 influences that enlighten and uplift. I behold its members pro- 
 mulgating and practicing that friendship which Pythias showed for 
 Damon, which the Man of Galilee held to all mankind. That 
 charity which stretches like the golden garland of Sandolphin up- 
 ward along the ladder of light from the discords of earth to the 
 ethereal music of Heaven. That benevolence which fills the 
 hours with words, the days with generous deeds ; that loyalty 
 which stands for the defense of the home circle and for coun- 
 
 try." 
 
 C. L. S. CALKINS, Past Grand Chancellor of California. 
 
 205. "The past we must honor and we may rejoice in the 
 prosperous present, but the work of our Order must go on so long 
 as time shall last. The need of good honest men men who be- 
 lieve in manhood men who know responsibility and can 
 assume it, was never more apparent than now. I ask you, 
 Brother Knights, one and all, to put your shoulder to the wheel 
 of the caravan and push forth with Pythian determination until 
 we have fraternized the world." 
 
 EDWARD SCHULZE, Past Grand Chancellor of Connecticut. 
 
 206. "You, too, have been unwittingly standard bearers, re- 
 flecting to the world your thoughts, desires, motives, from 
 which is judged the lessons of Pythian Knighthood. Our aim, 
 therefore, should ever be 'To honor God, to benefit mankind, to 
 
 -serve with lowly gifts the needs of man. They who for love 
 alone do this will win a name not only great but good." 
 
 W. F. ROBINSON, Past Grand Chancellor of Colorado. 
 
96 PYTHIAN SKETCHES. 
 
 207. "Our Order sets a high standard for her votaries and in 
 the opening years of the twentieth century let us one and all 
 resolve that the standard shall not be lowered in the selection 
 of material for our lodges. Let ivorth and not numbers be our 
 watchword." 
 
 D. E. WEBER, Past Grand Chancellor, Dist. of Columbia. 
 
 208. "No 'student of history has ever read without a thrill the 
 story 'of Damon and Pythias ; the sweet devotion, the intense 
 fidelity and the staunch friendship there recorded stir every 
 fibre of the human heart. Its creed is that 'Everyone can have 
 a friend, who, himself, knows how to be a friend.' " 
 
 HON. W. G. BRANTLEY, Member of Congress from Georgia. 
 
 209. Pythiani'sm in Indiana. "It wields a wonderful influence 
 for good. We have 45,000 members and $1,000,000 worth of 
 property, but as great as it is I am convinced that it has not 
 reached its zenith. The sun is still in the eastern hills, for it 
 is deep set in the brave hearts and lives of many men, who, with 
 friendship's song on their lips and sweet charity in their hearts, 
 will carry the tri-colored banner on and on until the highest 
 summit of Pythian greatness is reached/' 
 
 DANIEL E. STORMS, Past Grand Chancellor of Indiana. 
 
 210. "One of rny chief pleasures has been to meet with and 
 cultivate the friendship of the real Knight of Pythias, and in 
 whatever walk of life he is found, whatever his profession or 
 creed, and wherever we met him, the great big heart was in the 
 right place, his face was wreathed in smiles, and his hand al- 
 ways extended in Charity." 
 
 MARTIN YEWEUV, Past Grand Chancellor o-f Kentucky. 
 
 211. "Great is the order of Knights of Pythias, teaching, as 
 it does, those lessons that make all 'men brothers, a fraternity 
 that, in sickness and sorrow, in distress and death, comes to 
 lighten the dark places in the lives of men, that reaches out 
 its hands to cheer the sorrowful and scatter the cares that 
 cluster around the brow of distress." 
 
 E. E. MURPHY, Past Grand Chancellor of Kansas. 
 
BON MOTS. 97 
 
 212. "Every lesson of the fraternity reveals whose perform- 
 ance will help to solve some of humanity's problems, will help 
 to solve some of the dangers that lurk in our social and political 
 life. Thus it becomes a healing influence, struggling side by 
 side with the church, the school and the press to elevate charac- 
 ter, to exalt public opinion, to stimulate the masses to higher 
 works, to unify the race." 
 
 F. L. SCHAFFNER, Past Grand Chancellor of Manitoba. 
 
 213. "In this age of Fraternal Orders each is measured by 
 the personnel of its membership and its efforts for good as 
 viewed by the outer world. It is no wonder, therefore, that the 
 acts of the individual members have a powerful influence for 
 or against the future prosperity of the order, and for this reason 
 our every act should be above reproach, so that it may be truly 
 said that a Pythian is the soul of honor." 
 
 J. D. CORNEIX, Past Grand Chancellor of Washington. 
 
 214. "The Order of Knights of Pythias was founded by an 
 American and originated on American soil. The ties which unite 
 our brother Knights of other states with those of our own state 
 lodges are productive of love for American institutions, as well 
 as a fraternal regard for all American institutions, irrespective 
 of membership, and tend to establish a true American brother- 
 hood. 
 
 " True patriotism is enchanced by the principles which underlie 
 Pythian fraternity. That fraternity which astounded the tyrant 
 of Syracuse by the self-sacrificing friendship of Damon and 
 Pythias is as realizable among Americans today as it was in the 
 time of the ancient Syracusans. The history of the growth of the 
 Knights of Pythias from the time of its noble founder to the 
 present, is marked by instances of heroism. Obedient to the prin- 
 ciples of the order, and remembering the significance of the 
 words, Friendship, Charity and Benevolence, our Pythian 
 Knights can recall self-sacrifices of its members unrivalled in 
 the days of chivalry, for true manhood is in all ages true 
 knighthood. 
 
 "The history of the order is replete with unselfish and 
 
98 PYTHIAN SKETCHES. 
 
 courageous deeds, where brother Knights have braved ti.e perils 
 of malignant epidemic diseases, and have fallen victims by the 
 bedside of brother Knights and their families. Such grand ex- 
 amples bring out the best qualities of American manhood. 
 They teach charity and good will to the suffering strangers, as 
 well as to the unfortunate Knights. They teach us that life has 
 a higher aim than personal gratification, and that our lives are 
 well worth the living for the benefit of posterity, if in part de- 
 voted to the alleviation of distress." 
 
 HENRY T. GAGE, Ex-Governor of California. 
 
 
 
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