The Dillon herald. [volume] (Dillon, S.C.) 1894-????, 1911-08-31
ANCIENT sEcREr SOCIETIES.
Tests for Egyptian Neophytes-The
Dreaded Assassins.

Tests for Egyptian Neophytes-The
Dreaded Assassins.
The earlier secret societies were
religious rather than political. In
the mysteries of Persia, India and
Egypt and inner ring Of priests form.
ed an exclusive association whose
members gradually became the re-
positories of the bulk of the learn
ing OF the community. Severe
tests of courage and nerve were i'm
posed upon all aspirants for admis-
sion to the Order.
Among the Egyptians the neophy-
te was taken down a deep shaft in
one OF the pyramids and subjected
to three-fold trial by fire, by wa
ter and by air. He had to walk
across a grating of red-hot iron
bars, with narrow interstices where
upon he might tread in safety, or
swim a wide and dark channel
communicating with the Nyle, and
to hang suspended by two iron
rings over an abyss in the blast
OF two swiftly revolving wheels; ev-
en- then he had to undergo pro-
longed fasting and silence and to
take an oath of secrec-' ere his ini-
tiat:on was complete.
A secret brotherhood of mobiles,
partly religious and partly political,
which aimed at the concentration
of knowledge and power in the
hands of it's members, says the Lon
don Globe, was established by Py-
thagoras at Crotona, in the south
in Italy. for time it succeeded in
gaining the supreme direction of
affairs, but after the Sybarites had
succumbed to the Spartan discip-
line of the Order it was suppressed
by a rising of discontented dem
ocrats.
During the Middle Ages the un-
settled and lawless condition of
many countries, engendered by the
weakness or the absence of their
nominal rulers, was especially fav-
orable to the growth of secret so
cIeties. Toward the close of the ele-
venth century Hasan-den Sabah. a
Mahomedan fanatic, seized the cas-
tie of Almut and founded the sect
OF the A:ssassins.
1t is still a moot point whether
the word which their evil deeds
have given a permanent place in
the languages of Europe as a syn
onym for murderer be derived from
the founders name or from the
founders name or from the hemp
opiate "hashish,'' wherewith they
were wont to fuddle their brains to
pitch of Sullen frenzy. The Vene-
tian traveller, Marco Polo, tells of
an ingenious plan adopted by their
ch!eftain to insure the unquestion-
the unquestioning devotion of his
dupes.
This was no less than the crea-
tion of a sham Paradise, with lux
urious gardens, rivers of honey and
wine and houris, all complete, thith-
er the man selected for any danger
Gus exploit was transported in a
state Of intoXiCation, and on his re-
a toretaste of his life after death
The terror of their name soon
spread through Europe
No potentate was safe from the
vengeance of a sect which regarded
death in the execution of their
lords DEGREES as the gate of Para
a., -: King Philip Augustus, of
France, the contemporary and foe
of Richard Occur de Lion, having
incurred their enmity, was so
afraid of them that he dared not
stir abroad without his guards
round him, and perhaps his fear
appeased the ruthless sheikh, for
their plan rarely miscarried The
order was intimately crushed in
1926 by an irruption of Mongols
under Hulaku Kahn.
In Germany the violence and an
archy that prevailed after the out
lawry of Henry the Lion, when
every petty baron tyranized without
let or hindrance over all whom mis- !
power could reach, led to the in
stitution of a very different secret |
society. whose functions were pure
judicial. The "Vehmgericht" was
an attempt to check the license of |
the feudal lords and to secure the
due chastisement of crime.
1t was the proud boast of the
Court that it judged in secret and
punished in secret, like the Deity.
Its origin was :--SSaa::SS,onally ascrib-
ed to Charlemagne Every member
was sworn to reveal all crimes that
came to his notice, even IL commit
Ted by those nearest and dearest to
nim; hence 1t became a maxim of
the jurists of the time, Non frater
3 fratre, non hospes ah hospite tu-
tus."
The sentence of the Court involv-
ed outlawry, degradation and death;
the condemned was declared wa.
hmbar" and was relentlessly pur-
sued by at least a hundred thou
sand daggers. To speak i'll of the !
Hoy Vehm was treason, and 1t will
ae remembered that this was the
charge preferred against the exiled
Lancastrian in "Anne of Geirstein"
at his trial in the subterranean
vaults OF the inn of the Golden
Fleece,