Q. What did it allude to?  A. To the manner of receiving wages; it was also to distinguish a true craftsman from an impostor.

Q. What is the penalty of an impostor?  A. To have his right hand chopped off.

* * * * *

SECOND SECTION.

Question—­Where was you prepared to be made a Mark Master Mason?  A. In the room adjoining the body of a just and lawfully constituted Lodge of such, duly assembled in a room or place, representing a workshop that was erected near the ruins of King Solomon’s Temple.

Q. How was you prepared?  A. By being divested of all my outward apparel and all money; my breast bare, with a cable-tow four times about my body, in which situation I was conducted to the door of a Lodge, where I gave four distinct knocks.

Q. What do these four distinct knocks allude to?  A. To the fourth degree of Masonry; it being that on which I was about to enter.

Q. What was said to you from within?  A. Who comes there?

Q. Your answer?  A. A worthy brother, who has been regularly initiated as an Entered Apprentice, served a proper time as such; passed to the Fellow Craft; raised to the sublime degree of a Master Mason; and now wishes further light in Masonry, by being advanced to the more honorable degree of a Mark Master Mason.

Q. What further was said to you from within?  A. I was asked if it was of my own free will and accord I made this request; if I was duly and truly prepared; worthy and well qualified; had wrought in the quarries, and exhibited specimens of my skill and proficiency in the preceding degrees; all of which being answered in the affirmative, I was asked by what further right or benefit I expected to gain this favor.

Q. Your answer?  A. By the benefit of a pass-word.

Q. What was that pass-word?  A. Joppa.

Q. What did it allude to?  A. The city of Joppa, the place where the materials were landed for building king Solomon’s Temple, after being prepared in the forest of Lebanon, and carried there on floats (by sea). [Masonic tradition informs us that the banks of this place are so perpendicular that it was impossible to ascend them without assistance from above, which was effected by brethren stationed there, with this strong grip; this has been explained; which, together with the word Joppa, has since been adopted as a proper pass to be given before entering any well-regulated Lodge of Mark Master Masons.]

Q. What further was said to you from within?  A. I was bid to wait till the Right Worshipful Master in the East was made acquainted with my request and his answer returned.

Q. When his answer was returned, what followed?  A. I was caused to enter the Lodge.

Q. On what did you enter?  A. On the edge of the engraving chisel, under the pressure of the mallet, which was to demonstrate the moral precepts of this degree, and make a deep and lasting impression on my mind and conscience.