_Les Ruines_, p. 186) that in most
of the ancient languages of Asia, the _eye_ and the _sun_ are expressed by
the same word. Among the Egyptians the eye was the symbol of their supreme
god, Osiris, or the sun.

F

FABER. The works of the Rev. G.S. Faber, on the Origin of Pagan Idolatry,
and on the Cabiri, are valuable contributions to the science of mythology.
They abound in matters of interest to the investigator of masonic
symbolism and philosophy, but should be read with a careful view of the
preconceived theory of the learned author, who refers everything in the
ancient religions to the influences of the Noachic cataclysm, and the
arkite worship which he supposes to have resulted from it.

FELLOW CRAFT. The second degree of Ancient Craft Masonry, analogous to the
mystes in the ancient Mysteries.

The symbol of a youth setting forth on the journey of life.

FETICHISM. The worship of uncouth and misshapen idols, practised only by
the most ignorant and debased peoples, and to be found at this day among
some of the least civilized of the negro tribes of Africa. "Their
fetiches," says Du Chaillu, speaking of some of the African races,
"consisted of fingers and tails of monkeys; of human hair, skin, teeth,
bones; of clay, old nails, copper chains; shells, feathers, claws, and
skulls of birds; pieces of iron, copper, or wood; seeds of plants, ashes
of various substances, and I cannot tell what more." _Equatorial Africa_,
p. 93.

FIFTEEN. A sacred number, symbolic of the name of God, because the letters
of the holy name JAH are equal, in the Hebrew mode of numeration by the
letters of the alphabet, to fifteen; for [Hebrew: yod] is equal to ten,
and [Hebrew: heh] is equal to five. Hence, from veneration for this sacred
name, the Hebrews do not, in ordinary computations, when they wish to
express the number 15, make use of these two letters, but of two others,
which are equivalent to 9 and 6.

FORTY-SEVENTH PROBLEM. The forty-seventh problem of the first book of
Euclid is, that in any right-angled triangle the square which is described
upon the side subtending the right angle is equal to the squares described
upon the sides which contain the right angle. It is said to have been
discovered by Pythagoras while in Egypt, but was most probably taught to
him by the priests of that country, in whose rites he had been initiated;
it is a symbol of the production of the world by the generative and
prolific powers of the