The Meaning Of " Cowan."

THE MEANING OF " COWAN . "

TY AS OLD WM . I do not think that I can add anything new to the old arguments and statements anent " cowan , " but as " every little helps , " even iu Masonic archceologyand " every mickle makes a mttckle" I think it well to ask the favour

, , of the appearance of these few words of mine in the pages of the Masonic Magazine . I begin , my kind readers will observe , by stating that my words will be few , and few they certainly shall be . Just now we seem to like nothing long , whether long leaders , long articles , long orations , or even long sermons ! No , the taste of the age is , practically , to " cut it short" in everything . And though I fear a good deal of this impatience must be set down to the

irritability and ignorance of the ago combined , yet , like the ladies , I think it necessary to be-in the fashion , aud so , " cutting my coat according to my cloth , " I " cave in . " I often see learned explanations of the word " cowan , " but I have for one never wavered iu my opinion , expressed some years ago , that it is simply a term of Masonic technical use , and belongs really and truly aud primarily to

the Masonic terminology and vocabulary alone . For , as is well known , the word is not known to the older dictionarians ; and even that most excellentwork , " Grabbe ' s Techmcological Dictionary , " knows it not . I do not say that it is not to be found , but it is the exception to the rule . It is to be found , no doubt , in some of the very modern dictionaries . Curiously enough , its Masonic use in England is very modern too . The word is not to be found in the English Guild Constitutions , though some

believe that the word "lo \ ven"in the Lansdowne MS . in synonymous with it , or rather put for it . I am myself not so sure of that , the more so as " Dowland " has it not , and the general use of the similar word in the same place iu the other Constitutions is "layer" or "Iyer . " The Antiquity MS ., indeed , uses "lowen" also , but Inigo Jones ' s MS . has no word at all ; Wood ' s MS . uses "layer . " I am , therefore , inclined to think that we cannot set much store bthe evidence of the Lansdowne MS . The earliest Masonic use I know

y of it is in the Charges of 1722 , where it is opposed to "true Mason , " and iu its purely operative sense , and curiousl y enough , the word "cowan" is not tobe found in the " old Regulations " of 1721 or the " new Regulations " down to 1738 , though the words "true brother" and "false brother" are made use of . It is , then , I think , pretty clear that the word is of ritual use alone in England , in our Lodges , and is not English either by origin or nationalty .

Indeed , the evidence appears to me to be clear that it " hails " from Scotland . Thanks to Bro . Laurie and Bro . D . Murray Lyon especially , we have Scottish Masonic regular use of it in the sixteenth century as " cowanis , " that is "irregular" Masons , or rather " non-guild" Masons ! Such is , undoubtedly , its first use and meaning , and its derivative sense of "listener , " or " eaves-dropper , " a " profane" that is a " non-Mason" altogetheris of very much later use indeed .

, , When even it was used in this sense in Scotland does not appear to be quite clear ; but in England , as far as we know , there is no acknowledged use of it in this sense before the middle of the eighteenth century It seems to have grown upon the Craft , so to say , and no doubt may be fairly claimed as a relic of purely operative use .

I am quite aware that Pritchard uses the word , but I never take Pritchard as an authorit y for anything ; and believing him to be thoroughly untrustworthy , I do not touch upon his mention of the word .