THE ANTIQUITY OF ODDFELLOWSHIP.

Kumara Times, Issue 3096, 5 October 1886, Page 2

THE ANTIQUITY OF ODDFELLOWSHIP.

A recent number of the Staffordshire Advertiser furnishes an article on the antiquity of Oddfellowship. The late Mr J. H. Marriott, whose death was recently chronicled, was wont to ask “ Who was the first Oddfellow ?” And when his audience failed to solve the query would reply with a chuckle, ‘‘ Adam." It will be seen that Mr Marriott’s first Oddfellow was of a more antiquated date than as shown in the following from the Staffordshire papers: Oddfellowship! The wards are curious, and the inquiring mind is desirous of knowing why such an appellation was given, and who they are that glory ia a title which at a first sight m«r appear strange, if not absurd. We will, therefore, proceed at once to give a brief account of Oddfellowship, and first of all will say something about the traditions relating to the subject. The

reader will probably be startled at the antiquity of our initial reference. In the second Gemara, compiled by the Babb Asa, in Babylon, about a century after the death of Jobana, who wrote that portion of the ancient traditions of the Jewish nation, known as the Gemara, reference is made to an order established among the Israelites who were captives in Babylon, to enable them to communicate with one another without exciting the suspicion of their oppressors, who had deprived them of the moans of carrying on the worship of God according to the law of Moses, they recognised each other by signs and passwords and various degrees, to which those were admitted who were considered worthy on account of their pro-, dence and zeal. After the siege of Jerusalem by Titus, and the destruction of the Temple, the Jewish prisoners carried their own traditions with them, and were still Jews in the midst of the Homans; and it is said that in the year A. d. 79 they were formed into a military legion, and having repeatedly proved their fidelity to the Emperor, were named Fellow Citizens and Odd Fellows—the latter because they knew each other by day or night. The Emperor likewise presented them with a dispensation engraved on a golden plate, which granted those who were received into fellowship certain piivileges; and it is a singular fact that several of the emblems on the dispensation are in use amongst Odd Fellows now, with here and there alterations.