KEYSTONE.
The stone placed in the center of an arch which preserves the others in their places, and secures firmness and stability to the arch. As it was formerly the custom of Operative Masons to place a peculiar mark on each stone of a building to designate the workman by whom it had been adjusted, so the Keystone was most likely to receive the most prominent mark, that of the Superintendent of the structure. Such is related to have occurred to that Keystone which plays so important a part in the legend of the Royal Arch Degree.
The objection has sometimes been made, that the arch was unknown in the time of Solomon. But this objection has been completely laid at rest by the researches of antiquaries and travelers within a few years past. Wilkinson discovered arches with regular keystones in the doorways of the tombs of Thebes the construction of which he traced to the year 1540 B.C., or 460 years before the building of the Temple of Solomon. And Doctor Clark asserts that the Cyclopean gallery of Tiryns exhibits lancet-shaped arches almost as old as the time of Abraham. In fact, in the Solomonic era, the construction of the arch must have been known to the Dionysian Artificers, of whom, it is a freely received theory, many were present at the building of the Temple.
KHEM.
The Egyptian Deity, Amon, in the position that is metaphorically used in representations of Buddha and by the Hermetic philosophers, extends one hand toward Heaven and the other toward Nature.
KHEPRA.
An Egyptian Deity, presiding over transformation and represented with the beetle in place of a head.
KHER-HEB.
The Master of Ceremonies in the Egyptian system of worship.
KHESVAN
or CHESVAN. Hebrew, The same Hebrew month as Marchessan, which see.
KHETEM EL NABIIM.
Mohammed, the seal of the prophets.
KHON.
The title given to the dead, subject to examination as depicted in Chapter 125 of the Book of the Dead in the Egyptian Ritual.
KHOTBAH.
The Confession of Faith under the Mohammedan law.
KHURUM-ABI.
A variation of the name of Hiram Abi.
KI.
A word used in some old ceremonies of the Eighth Degree of the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite.
KILWINNING.
As the city of York claims to be the birthplace of Freemasonry in England, the obsscure little village of Kilwinning is entitled to the same honor with respect to the origin of the Order in the sister kingdom of Scotland. The claim to the honor, however, in each case, depends on the bare authority of a legend, the authenticity of which is now doubted by many Masonic historians. A place, which, in itself small and wholly indistinguishable in the political, the literary, or the commercial annals of its country, has become of great importance in the estimation of the Masonic antiquary from its intimate connection with the history of the Institution.
The Abbey of Kilwinning is situated in the bailiwick of Cunningham, about three miles north of the royal burgh of Irving, near the Irish Sea. The abbey was founded in the year 1140, by Hugh Morville, Constable of Scotland, and dedicated to Saint Winning, being intended for a company of monks of the Tyronesian Order, who had been brought from Kelso. The edifice must have been constructed at great expense, and with much magnificence, since it is said to have occupied several acres of ground in its whole extent.
Lawrie (History of Freemasonry, page 46, 1859 edition) says that, by authentic documents as well as by other collateral arguments which amount almost to a demonstration, the existence of the Kilwinning Lodge has been traced back as far as the end of the fifteenth century. But we know that the body of architects who perambulated the Continent of Europe and have frequently been mentioned under the name of Traveling Freemasons, flourished at a much earlier period; and we learn, also, from Lawrie himself, that several of these Freemasons traveled into Scotland, about the beginning of the twelfth century. Hence, we have every reason to suppose that these men were the architects who constructed the Abbey at Kilwinning, and who first established the Institution of Freemasonry in Scotland. If such be the fact, we must place the origin of the first Lodge in that kingdom at an earlier date, by three centuries, than that claimed for it by Lawrie, which would bring it much nearer, in point of time, to the great Masonic Assembly, which is traditionally said to have been convened in the year 926, by Prince Edwin, at York, in England.
There is some collateral evidence to sustain the probability of this early commencement of Freemasonry in Scotland. It is very generally admitted that the Roval Order of Herodem was founded by King Robert Bruce, at Kilwinning. Thory, in the Acta Latomorum, gives the following chronicle: "Robert Bruce, King of Scotland, under the title of Robert I, created the Order of 8t. Andrew of Chardon, after the battle of Bannockburn, which was fought on the 24th of June, 1314. To this Order was afterwards united that of Herodem, for the sake of the Scotch Freemasons, who formed a part of the thirty thousand troops with whom he had fought an army of one hundred thousand Englishmen. King Robert reserved the title of Grand Master to himself and his successors forever, and founded the Royal Grand Lodge of He rodem at Kilwinning."
Doctor Oliver says that "the Royal Order of Herodem had formerly its chief seat at Kilwinning; and there is every reason to think that it and Saint John's Masonry were then governed by the same Grand Lodge. "
In 1820, there was published at Paris a record which states that in 1286, James, Lord Stewart, received the Earls of Gloucester and Ulster into his Lodge at Kilwinning; which goes to prove that a Lodge was then existing and in active operation at that place.
The modern iconoclasts, however, who are leveling these old legends with unsparing hands, have here been at work. Brother D. Murray Lyon has attacked the Bruce legend, and in the London Freemasons Magazine (of 1868, page 14) says:
Seeing that the Fraternity of Kilwinning never at any period practised or acknowledged other than Craft degrees, and have not preserved even a shadow of a tradition that can in the remotest degree be held to identify Robert Bruee with the holding of Masonic Courts, or the Institution of a Secret Order at Kilminning, the Fraternitv of the "Hero(lim" must be attributed to another than the hero of Bannoekburn and a birthplace must be sought for it in a soil Still more favorable to the growth of the high grades than Scotland has hitherto proved.
He intimates that the legend was the invention of the Chevalier Ramsay, whose birthplace was in the vicinity of Kilwinning.
Brother Mackey says, "I confess that I look upon the legend and the documents that contain it with some favor, as at least furnishing the evidence that there has been among the Fraternity a general belief of the antiquity of the Kilwinning Lodge." Those, however, whose faith is of a more hesitating character, will find the most satisfactory testimonies of the existence of that Lodge in the beginning of the fifteenth century. At that period, when Jarnes II was on the throne, the Barons of Roslin, as hereditary Patrons of Scotch Freemasonry, held their annual meetings at Kilwinning, and the Lodge at that place granted Warrants of Constitution for the formation of subordinate Lodges in other parts of the kingdom.
The Lodges thus formed. in token of their respect for, and submission to, the mother Lodge whence they derived their existence, affixed the word Kilwinning to their own distinctive name; many instances of which are still to be found on the register of the Grand Lodge of Scotland such as Canongate Kilwinning, Greenock Kilwinning, Cumberland Isilwinning, etc.
But, in process of time, this Grand Lodge at Kilwinning ceased to retain its supremacy, and finally its very existence. As in the case of the sister kingdom, where the Grand Lodge was removed from York, the birthplace of English Freemasonry, to London, so in Scotland, the supreme seat of the Order was at length transferred from Kilwinning.to the metropolis; and hence, in the doubtful document entitled the Charter of Cologne, which purports to have been written in 1642, we find, in a list of nineteen Grand Lodges in Europe, that that of Scotland is mentioned as sitting at Edinburgh, under the Grand Mastership of John Bruce.
In 1736, when the Grand Lodge of Scotland was organized, the Kilwinning Lodge was one of its constituent Bodies, and continued in its obedience until 1743. In that year it petitioned to be recognized as the oldest Lodge in Scotland; but as the records of the original Lodge had been lost, the present Lodge could not prove, says Lawrie, that it was the identical Lodge which had first practised Freemasonry in Scotland. The petition was therefore rejected, and, in consequence, the Kilwinning Lodge seceded from the Grand Lodge and established itself as an independent Body. It organized Lodges in Scotland; and several instances are on recordof its issuing Charters as Mother Kilwinning Lodge to Lodges in foreign countries.
Thus, it granted one to a Lodge in Virginia in 1758, and another in 1779 to some Brethren in Ireland calling themselves the Lodge of High Knights Templar. But in 1807 the Mother Lodge of Kilwinning renounced all right of granting Charters, and came once more into the bosom of the Grand Lodge, bringing with her all her daughter Lodges.
Here terminates the connection of Kilwinning as a place of any special importance with the Freemasonry of Scotland. As for the Abbey, the stupendous fabric which was executed by the Freemasons who first migrated into Scotland, its history, like that of the Lodge which they founded, is one of decline and decay. In 1560, it was in a great measure demolished bv Alexander, Earl of Glencairne, in obedience to an Order from the States of Scotland, in the exercise of their usurped authority during the imprisonment of Marv Stuart. A few years afterward, a part of the Abbev Chapel was repaired and converted into the parish church, and was used as such until about the year 1775, when, in consequence of its ruinous and dangerous state, it was pulled down and an elegant church erected in the modern style. In 1789, so much of the ancient Abbey remained as to enable Grose, the antiquary, to take a sketch of the ruins.
KILWINNING MANUSCRIPT.
Also called the Edinburgh Kilwinning Manuscript. This manuscript derives its name from its being written in a small quarto book, belonging to the celebrated Mother Kilwinning Lodge of Scotland. For its publication, the Masonic Fraternity is indebted to Brother William James Hughan, who has inserted it in his Unpublished Records of the Craft, from a copy made for him from the original by Brother D. Murray Lyon, of Ayr, Scotland. Brother Lyon, "whilst glancing at the Minutes of the Lodge of Edinburgh from December 27, 1675, till March 12, 1678, was struck with the similarity which the handwriting bore to that in which the Kilwinning copy of the Narrative of the Founding of the Craft of Masonry is written, and upon closer examination he was convinced that in both cases the caligraphy is the same" (History of the Lodge of Edinburgh, page 107). It was probably written in 1665. The Anglican phraseology, and the fact that one of the Charges requires that Freemasons should be "liedgemen to the King of England," conclusively show that the manuscript was written in England and introduced into Scotland. It is so much like the text of the Grand Lodge Manuscript, published by Brother Hughan in his Old Charges of British Freesnasons, that, to use the language of Brother Woodford, "it would pass as an indifferent copy of that document."
KILWINNING, MOTHER LODGE.
For an ac| )unt of this Body, which was for some time the rival ) the Grand Lodge of Scotland, see Kilwinning).
KILWINNING SYSTEM.
The Freemasonry practised in Scotland, so called because it is supposed to have been instituted at the Abbey of Kilwinning. Brother Oliver uses the term in his Mirror for the Johannite Masons (page 120, see also Saint John's Masonry).
KINDERAUSTAUSCHSTELLE DER GROSS LOGE ZUR SONNE.
See Chilaren's Exchange Bureau.
KING.
The second officer in a Royal Arch Chapter in the United States. He is the representative of Zerubbabel, Prince or Governor of Judah. When the Chapter meets as a Lodge of Mark, Past, or Most Excellent Masters, the King acts as Senior Warden. After the rebuilding of the second Temple, the government of the Jews was administered by the High Priests as the vicegerents of the Kings of Persia, to whom they paid tribute. This is the reason that the High Priest is the presiding officer in a Chapter, and the King only a subordinate. But in the Chapters of England and Ireland, the King is made the presiding officer. The jewel of the King is a level surmounted by a crown suspended within a triangle.
KING OF THE SANCTUARY.
A side Degree formerly conferred in the presence of five Past Masters, now in disuse.
KING OF THE WORLD.
A Degree in the system of the Philosophical Rite.
KINGS, THE FIVE.
The sacred code of the older Chinese. The word kin{, signifies web of cloth, or the warp that keeps the threads in position, or upon which we may weave the somber and golden colors that make up this life's pictured history. This great light in Chinese secret societies contains the best sayings of the best sages on the ethico-political duties of life They cannot be traced to a period beyond the tenth century before Christ, although the religion is believed to be older.
Some of the superior classes of Chinese are believers in the great philosopher Lao-tse, and others in the doctrines of Confucius. The two religions appear to be twin in age, not strikingly dissimilar, and each has been given a personality in color in accordance with the character of ethics believed in by the two writers. Lao-tse and Confucius were the revivers of an older religion, the former of whom was born 604 B.C., and the latter fifty-four years subsequently.
The five kings are, the Yih-King, or Book of Changes; the Shi-King, or Book of Songs; the Shu King, or Book of Annals; the Ch'un Ts'ju, or "Spring and Autumn"; and the Li-King, or Book of Rites. The fourth book was composed by Confucius him self, while the first three are supposed to have been compiled by him, and the fifth by his disciples from his teachings.
Doctor Legge, late Professor of Chinese at Oxford, England, and Doctor Medhurst assert that there are no authentic records in China earlier than 1100 B.C., and no alphabetical writing before 1500 B.C.
The grandeur of the utterances and brilliancy of the intellectual productions of Confucius and Mencius, as law-givers and expounders of the sacred code of the Chinese, called The Five Kindles, are much to be admired, and are the Trestle-Board of many thousands of millions of the earth's population.
KIPLING, RUDYARD.
Celebrated author and poet. Born in Bombay, India, December 30, 1865. His writings frequently give Masonic allusions peculiarly significant to the Craft. The story of The Man Who Would be Ring is a good specimen of the kind in question. His poems, the Mother Lodge, the Palace, andL'EnvoitoLife's Handicap are splendidly typical. He was made an honorary member of Canongate Kilwinning Lodge at Edinburgh, a Masonic die tinction of which he very properly has been not a little proud. The English Masonic Illustrated (London, July 1901+ volume 1, number 10) says Brother Kipling was initiated in Freemasonry at the age of twenty and a half, by special dispensation obtained for the purpose, in the Hope and Perseverance Lodge, No. 782, at Lahore. In 1888 joined the Independence and Philanthropy Lodge, No. 391, meeting at Allahabad, Bengal. In the issue of the London Times quoted in the Freemason, March 28, 1925, there is an interesting statement from Brother Kipling regarding his active service in his own Lodge in Lahore, Punjab, East Indies.
He was Entered for membership by a Hindu, Passed by a Mohammedan, and Raised by an Englishman. The Tyler was an Indian Jew.
This is what he writes: "I was Secretary for some years of the Lodge of Hope and Perseverance, No. 782, E.C., Lahore, English Constitution, which included Brethren of at least four creeds. I was entered by a member from Brahmo Somaj, a Hindu, passed by a Mohammedan, and raised by an Englishman. Our Tyler was an Indian Jew. We met, of course, on the level, and the only difference anyone would notice was that at our banquets some of the Brethren, who were debarred by caste rules from eating food not ceremonially prepared, sat over empty plates."
To this very remarkable experience of Brother Kiplingis due the poem by him which follows and which by his permission is reprinted here from The Sawen Seaw, published by Doubleday Page and Compuny, Garden City, New York (page 177).
- THE MOTHER-LODGE
- There was Rundle, Station Master,
- An' Beazeley of the Rail,
- An' 'Ackman, Commissariat,
- An' Donkin' o' the Jail;
- An' Blake, Conductor-Sargent,
- Our Master twice was 'e,
- With 'im that kept the Europe shop,
- Old Framjee Eduljee.
- Outside "Sergeant! Sir! Salute! Salaam! "
- Inside "Brother," an' it doesn't do no 'arm.
- We met upon the Level an' we parted on the Square,
- An' I was Junior Deacon in ma Mother Lodge out there!
- We'd Bola Nath, Accountant,
- An' Saul the Aden Jew,
- An' Din Mohammed, draughtsman
- Of the survey Office too;
- There was Babu Chuckerbutty,
- An' Amir Singh the Sikh,
- An' Castro from the fittin'-sheds,
- The Roman Catholick!
- We 'adn't good regalia
- An' our Lodge was old an' bare,
- But we knew the Ancient Landmarks,
- An' we kep' 'em to a hair
- An' lookin' on it backwards
- It often strikes me thus,
- There ain't such things as infidels,
- Exceps, perhaps, it s us.
- For monthly, after Labour,
- We'd all sit down and smoke,
- (We dursn't give no banquits,
- Lest a brother s caste were broke),
- An' man on man got talkin'
- Religion an' the rest,
- An' every man comparing
- Of the God 'e knew the best.
- So man on man got talkin'
- An' not a Brother stirred
- Till morning waked the parrots
- An' that dam' brain-fever-bird
- We'd say ttvwas 'ighly curious,
- An' we'd all ride 'ome to bed,
- With Mo'ammed, God, and Shiva
- Changin' pickets in our 'ead.
- Full oft on Guv'ment service
- This rovin' foot 'ath pressed,
- An' bore fraternal greetin's
- To the Lodges east an' west,
- Accordin' as commanded
- From Kohat to Singapore,
- But I wish that I might see them
- In my Mother Lodge once more!
- I wish that I might see them
- My brethren black and brown,
- With the trichies smellin' pleasant
- An' the hog-darn (Cigar-lighter) passin' down
- An' the old khansamah (Butler) snorin'
- On the bottle-khana (Pantry) floor,
- Like a Master in good standing
- With my Mother Lodge once more!
- Outside»"Seryeant! Sir! Salute! Salaam!"
- Insise Brother," an' it doesn't do no 'arm.
- We met upon the Level an' we parted on she Square,
- An' I was Junior Deacon in my Mother-Lodge out there!
KISLEV
or CHISLEV, Hebrew, . The third month of the Hebrew civil year, and corresponding with the months November and December, beginniag with the new moon of the former.
KISS, FRATERNAL.
The Germans call it der Bruder Kuss, the French, le. Baiser Fraternal. It is the kiss given in the French and German Lodges by each Brother to his neighbor on the right and left hand
when the labors of the Lodge are closed. It is not adopted in the English or American systems of Ancient Craft Freemasonry, although practiced in some of the advanced Degrees.
KISS OF PEACE.
In the reception of an Ancient Knight Templar, it was the practice for the one who received him to greet him with a kiss upon the mouth. This, which was called the Osculum Pacis, or Riss of Peacc, was borrowed by the Templars from the religious orders, in all of which it was observed. It is not practised in the receptions of Masonic Templarism.
KITCHENER, VISCOUNT HORATIO HERBERT.
Famous English soldier, Commander-in Chief and High Commissioner in the Mediterranean, as well as a member of the Masonic Fraternity with years of active service to his credit. Born June 24, 1850, at Bally Longford, County Kerry, England, and died, 1916, in the World War. Son of LieutenantColonel H. H. Kitchener. Entered the Royal Military Academy, Woolwich, 1868, and in 1871 appointed Second Lieutenant, Royal Engineers.
Sent to Palestine, thence to Egypt, being promoted to Captain in 1883. In 1884, serving in the expeditionary forces on the Nile, he was first Major and then LieutenantColonel. Commandant at Suakin for three years, ending 1888, having received a dangerous wound. Served as Adjutant-General until 1892 when he succeeded Sir Francis Grenfell as Sirdar (Persian for Leader, equivalent in Egypt to Commander-in-Chief) of the Egyptian Army. Displayed great skill in administrative work with the expeditionary force and he advanced the frontier and railway to Dongola in the Sudan. In 1896 he was appointed British MajorGeneral, succeeding so well that he was appointed to the peerage as Baron Kitchener of Khartoum, receiving a grant of thirty thousand pounds and the thanks of Parliament.
He was shortly afterwards appointed Chief-of-Staff to Lord Roberts in the South African War and promoted to LieutenantGeneral. He served in the field until 1900, when he was made Commander-in-Chief, Lord Roberts returning to England. The long, arduous and loyal work of Kitchener was rewarded by the title of Viscount when the war ended, a grant of fifty thousand pounds; the Order of Merit and the rank of General "for distinguished service."
For the following data as to Brother Kitchener's Masonic record we are indebted to his personal friend, Brother Lieutenant-Colonel E. C. Mugrue, Southsea, England:
His Mother Lodge, British Union, No. 114 was founded at Ipswich, England, in 1762. He was a founder member of the following: Drury Lane Lodge, No.2127, founded in 1885; Khartoum Lodge, No.2877, founded in 1901; Kitchener Lodge, No. 2998, founded at Simla, Punjaub, in 1903.
Brother Lord Kitchener was District Grand Master of Egypt and Sudan in 1899; District Grand Master of the Punjaub in 1902; Junior Grand Warden of England in 1916. "Brother Iiitchener possessed great talents as a linguist in Oriental languages which stood him in good stead in his Masonic work, and this, coupled with his strength of character and power and skill as a soldier, made him a man who was loved by all his men and by the entire English-speaking world and one of whom the Masonic Fraternity is justly proud" writes Brother Mugrue.
Brother Kitchener served for seven years in India, Id made many far-reaching reforms in the Government, —entirely reorganized the British and native forces. In 1909 he was promoted to Field Marshall, virtual command of the colonial forces. He visited Japan, Australia and New Zealand studying military and engineering problems, earning the gratitude of his Government He returned to England in 1910, refusing a Mediterranean appointment. War Minister from 1914, Earl Kitchener was in June, 1916, drowned in the torpedoed ship Hampshire, off the coast of Scotland.
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