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ENCYCLOPEDIA OF FREEMASONRY AND ITS KINDRED SCIENCES
by ALBERT C. MACKEY M. D.

K

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 viceregents 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, and L’Envoito Life’s Handicap are splendidly typical. He was made an honorary member of Canongate Kilwinning Lodge at Edinburgh, a Masonic distinction 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 Company, 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, beginning with the new moon of the former.