widow of the tribe of
Naphthali, who was sent to him by Hiram, King of Tyre. So much we know
from the Book of Kings, but the masonic legend goes on to relate that
Hiram, the widow's son, referred to as Hiram Abiff, and described as the
master-builder, met with an untimely end. For the purpose of preserving
order the masons working on the Temple were divided into three classes,
Entered Apprentices, Fellow Crafts, and Master Masons, the first two
distinguished by different pass-words and grips and paid at different
rates of wages, the last consisting only of three persons--Solomon
himself, Hiram King of Tyre, who had provided him with wood and precious
stones and Hiram Abiff. Now, before the completion of the Temple fifteen
of the Fellow Crafts conspired together to find out the secrets of the
Master Masons and resolved to waylay Hiram Abiff at the door of the
Temple.

At the last moment twelve of the fifteen drew back, but the remaining
three carried out the fell design, and after threatening Hiram in vain
in order to obtain the secrets, killed him with three blows on the head,
delivered by each in turn. They then conveyed the body away and buried
it on Mount Moriah in Jerusalem. Solomon, informed of the disappearance
of the master-builder, sent out fifteen Fellow Crafts to seek for him;
five of these, having arrived at the mountain, noticed a place where the
earth had been disturbed and there discovered the body of Hiram. Leaving
a branch of acacia to mark the spot, they returned with their story to
Solomon, who ordered them to go and exhume the body--an order that was
immediately carried out.

The murder and exhumation, or "raising," of Hiram, accompanied by
extraordinary lamentations, form the climax of Craft Masonry; and when
it is remembered that in all probability no such, tragedy ever took
place, that possibly no one known as Hiram Abiff ever existed,[283] the
whole story can only be regarded as the survival of some ancient cult
relating not to an actual event, but to an esoteric doctrine. A legend
and a ceremony of this kind is indeed to be found in many earlier
mythologies; the story of the murder of Hiram had been foreshadowed by
the Egyptian legend of the murder of Osiris and the quest for his body
by Isis, whilst the lamentations around the tomb of Hiram had a
counterpart in the mourning ceremonies for Osiris and Adonis--both, like
Hiram, subsequently "raised"--and later on in that which took place
around t