An Annotated version of “The Mother-Lodge” by Rudyard Kipling
The Mother-Lodge[1]
by Rudyard Kipling[2]
There was Rundle, Station Master,
An’ Beazeley of the Rail,
An’ ‘Ackman, Commissariat,
An’ Donkin’ o’ the Jail;
An’ Blake, Conductor-Sargent,
Our Master[3] twice was ‘e,
With ‘im that kept the Europe-shop,[4]
Old Framjee Eduljee.[5]
Outside — “Sergeant! Sir! Salute! Salaam!”
Inside — “Brother”, an’ it doesn’t do no ‘arm.[6]
We met upon the Level an’ we parted on the Square,[7]
An’ I was Junior Deacon[8] in my Mother-Lodge[9] out there!
We’d Bola Nath[10], Accountant,
An’ Saul the Aden Jew,[11]
An’ Din Mohammed[12], draughtsman
Of the Survey Office[13] too;
There was Babu[14] Chuckerbutty[15],
An’ Amir Singh the Sikh[16],
An’ Castro from the fittin’-sheds,
The Roman Catholick![17]
We ‘adn’t good regalia[18],
An’ our Lodge was old an’ bare,
But we knew the Ancient Landmarks[19],
An’ we kep’ ’em to a hair;
An’ lookin’ on it backwards
It often strikes me thus,
There ain’t such things as infidels,
Excep’, per’aps, it’s us.[20]
For monthly, after Labour,[21]
We’d all sit down and smoke
(We dursn’t give no banquits[22],
Lest a Brother’s caste were broke)[23],
An’ man on man got talkin’
Religion an’ the rest,
An’ every man comparin’
Of the God ‘e knew the best.[24]
So man on man got talkin’,
An’ not a Brother stirred
Till mornin’ waked the parrots
An’ that dam’ brain-fever-bird[25];
We’d say ’twas ‘ighly curious,
An’ we’d all ride ‘ome to bed,
With Mo’ammed, God, an’ Shiva
Changin’ pickets[26] in our ‘ead.
Full oft on Guv’ment service
This rovin’ foot ‘ath pressed[27],
An’ bore fraternal greetin’s
To the Lodges east an’ west[28],
Accordin’ as commanded
From Kohat[29] to Singapore[30],
But I wish that I might see them
In my Mother-Lodge once more!
I wish that I might see them,
My Brethren black an’ brown,
With the trichies[31] smellin’ pleasant
An’ the hog-darn[32] passin’ down;
An’ the old khansamah[33] snorin’
On the bottle-khana[34] floor,
Like a Master in good standing
With my Mother-Lodge once more!
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 my Mother-Lodge out there!
[1] Annotated by Carl Oberg, Arcana Lodge #187, Minneapolis, Minnesota.
[2] According to his autobiography, Something of Myself, Kipling was made a Freemason in 1885 by dispensation, given his young age. He was immediately made the (unsuccessful by his own account) Secretary of Hope and Perseverance Lodge №782 in Lahore in British Punjab, now Pakistan. A writer and journalist his entire life, Kipling won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1907.
[3] The Master of a Lodge, more formally the Worshipful Master, is its head, President, Chairman, etc.
[4] It’s not entirely clear what the “Europe-shop” is, but this annotator assumes it is a store with stocked with goods normally only available in Britain and Europe.
[5] A Parsi name. Parsis are the Zoroastrian descendants of Persian refugees dating back to the 7th century CE, when Islam conquered the Sassanid Empire.
[6] Freemasonry emphasizes the fundamental equality of all members as brothers regardless of status outside the lodge.
[7] This line is a common and well-used masonic formulation, which conveys not only the fundamental equality in which all Freemasons meet but also the decency and honesty with which they should treat others.
[8] An officer in a Freemasonic lodge concerned primarily with guarding the inside of the lodge door.
[9] The lodge where, typically, a Mason was “raised” or first made a Mason.
[10] A Hindu name.
[11] Aden is a city in the southwest of the Arabian Peninsula, now in the country of Yemen. When Kipling was writing, Aden was a possession of the British Empire, but oddly situated. It was in fact a dependency of British India, ruled directly by the Viceroy of India. It can be said to be a colony of a colony. As much as 10% of Aden’s people were Jewish at the time, an ancient population reaching back to the days of King Solomon. In early 1950, most Yemeni Jews left Yemen for Israel.
[12] Obviously, a Muslim name. Kipling, in his autobiography, noted that he was initiated (1st degree of masonry) by a Hindu, passed (2nd degree) by a Muslim, and raised (3rd degree) by a Christian.
[13] The Survey of India. An office formed initially in the 18th century by the East India Company in order to conduct modern scientific surveys of India. From 1802 through 1852, the office conducted the “Great Trigonometrical Survey” that aimed to measure the entire subcontinent with scientific precision. This was completed in 1852 by Surveyor-General George Everest, a Freemason and namesake of Mount Everest.
[14] Babu is a title of respect and endearment in India.
[15] A Hindu name. Kipling may be referencing a famous Chuckerbutty, specifically Soorjo Coomar Chuckerbutty (1826–1874). He was the first Indian to attend medical school in England and was a member of the Royal Colleges of Surgeons of Great Britain and Ireland. He frequently published in British and Indian medical journals and was a respected contributor to the medical profession at a time when this was rare for Indians in Britain.
[16] Sikhs are followers of a monotheistic religion from Punjab in northwest India. Singh (meaning ‘lion) is the middle or last name of a large percentage of Sikh males. The word Kaur (“princess”) is similar for Sikh females. Sikhs are knows for having long, uncut hair, usually covered by a turban and carrying a small dagger-like sword called a kirpan.
[17] Likely an Indian from Goa, the Portuguese Colony. Portugal ruled Goa for 450 years until it was annexed by India in 1961. A quarter of Goans are Catholic and Goa is the site of the head Roman Catholic bishopric for India.
[18] Masonic regalia includes items such as aprons, hats, rods (ceremonial pikes), and jewels of office. All of these items can be elaborate and expensive or simple, depending on the lodge and its membership.
[19] The fundamental and unalterable tenets of Freemasonry. Despite this essentialism, there is great disagreement among global Freemasonry about what these landmarks are or how many of them there are.
[20] Kipling plays on the definition of the word infidel and masonry’s fundamental tolerance. All of the lodge members are infidels in the eyes of the other’s religion, so they are all infidels and yet none feel like it when in lodge.
[21] Freemasonic gatherings can be referred to “Labours” or lodges “at Labour.”
[22] Kipling has another masonic poem entitled “Banquet Night” focusing on King Solomon and other characters of the Biblical and Masonic worlds.
[23] It would be very difficult to hold an inter-religious banquet in India. No beef for the Hindus, no pork for the Muslims and Jews, no meat for the Jains, and some Sikhs are vegetarian.
[24] Regular Masonry forbids the discussion of relgion and politics in lodge. But after lodge, these topics are inevitable.
[25] The Common Hawk-Cuckoo, which is common throughout the Indian sub-continent. It is called the brain-fever-bird because its call can sound like those words to speakers of English.
[26] A picket is a military term for a sentry stationed outside the camp, ready to provide advanced warning of enemy approach. I believe Kipling is saying here that after a long night of discussion the religions start to blend together and seem similar. Masonic texts have referred to brothers believing in “the religion in which all men agree.”
[27] The narrator is likely a soldier in the British Indian Army.
[28] In the 18th and 19th century, traveling lodges were common, often connected to specific units. These lodges did not have buildings or set locations, but instead had charters that allowed them to operate wherever the battalion or regiment was stationed, with officers for the lodge drawn from the officers and soldiers of the unit.
[29] A town now in Pakistan near the Afghanistan border and the Khyber Pass. At the time of writing it would have conveyed the border of British India to the northwest and was the site of a British Army divisional headquarters starting in the 1880s.
[30] Located at the very southern tip of South East Asia, Singapore was at first colonized, like Aden, as a dependency of British India. However, in 1867, it was taken over as a separate British Crown Colony, ruled from London.
[31] More fully, a Trichinopoly cigar. These are cheap and loosely made cheroot-style cigars from southern India popular throughout the British Empire.
[32] A cigar lighter.
[33] Butler.
[34] Pantry.
