into a girdle, and again we find it elaborated into a robe.
mids of Egypt, to whom we are indebted for much of our symbolism. It is not mere empty verbiage when we are told that geometry, the first and noblest of the sciences, is the basis on which the superstructure of Masonry is erected. Through this science we are enabled to interpret the symbolism of the ancients and to discern that the mysteries upon which this great superstruc- ture was erected were hoary with age when Hi- ram Abiff began his apprenticeship. By its aid we find that the knowledge of these mysteries existed not only in the old world, but on the American continents as well. The museums of this country are full of geometrical evidence con- necting the aborigines of the American conti- nents with the ancient old - world worshipers of Jehovah, the Great Architect. Many of the Amer- ican cliff - dweller pictures in the collection of the Smithsonian Institute are of a Masonic nature, and much of a Masonic significance is to be found in the Peruvian collection of the American Museum of Natural History in New York City.
A girdle formed a part of the investure of the Israelitish priesthood. The Jewish sect of the Essenes clothed its novices with white robes. In Persia the candidate for admission into the Mys- teries of Mithras was invested with a white apron. A girdle, called the "Sacred Zennar," was substituted for the apron in the initiations prac- ticed in Hindustan. I certain rites of initiation practiced by the Japanese, the candidate is in- vested with a white apron. In the Scandinavian Rites a white shield was used instead of an apron, prompted, it has been suggested, by the martial spirit of the people, but it was accompa- nied by a charge similar to that of the Masonic apron. Throughout the ages the apron has been an hon- orary badge of distinction, and by its variations the wearer's degree of preferment has been made known to the world. In the Jewish priesthood the superior orders wore elaborately decorated and richly ornamented girdles, while the inferior priests wore plain white. The Indian, Jewish, Egyptian, Persian and Ethiopian aprons are said to have been equally superb, though each was dissimilar in design from the others. WHILE in primitive times the apron was used as an ecclesiastical rather than a civil decoration, yet it sometimes served as a national emblem. The royal standard of Persia, for instance, was originally an apron. However, the more common use of the apron was in connection with the wor- ship of a supreme being, it having been used in this manner by practically every people of the ancient world.
For instance, in the design of the an- cient ceremonial cloaks, or ponchos, of the Peruvians, we find the Pythag- orean Triangle, the basis of the Forty - seventh problem of Euclid. This was the sacred triangle of the Egyptians, the symbol of their "Sun - God," who was known as the "Eye of Heaven." This figure is the original of the Egyptian amulet,
The Masonic apron as we have it today was handed down to us from the builders of the Pyra-
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