DUFFIELD CASTLE. 171 



these signs, as effective and simple ones, were continued and 

 adopted by others, after their original signification had been for- 

 gotten. 



Nor should it be denied that some ideas of luck or superstition 

 may have blended, now and again, with the use of these marks, 

 even by Christian masons. Captain Conder, in writing just re- 

 cently {Syrian Stone Lore), on the masons' marks to be observed 

 on different churches and castles of crusading origin in Syria, 

 several of which resemble those of Duffield, says that "They are 

 sometimes letters of the alphabet of Gothic form, and sometimes 

 signs like the pentacle, the scutum David, the fish, the arrow, etc., 

 which appear to have been used as luck marks. They are not 

 apparently the signs of individual masons in all cases, and 

 they certainly do not indicate the position of the stone in the 

 wall." 



No. 3, Plate X., is the well-known pentacle or Solomon's seal, 

 and is the most likely one of any of this collection to have a 

 possibly mystical or symbolical signification. But if once the 

 region of magical mysticism be entered, we might soon find our- 

 selves in cloudy space infinitely remote from Duffield Castle 

 stones or anything tangible. The last book that has been 

 published on this subject, excellently got up, and apparently 

 gravely intended throughout by an undoubted scholar, tells us of 

 this sign, that it " expresses the mind's domination over the 

 elements, and by it we bind the demons of the air, the spirits of 

 fire, the spectres of water, and the ghosts of the earth. It is the 

 star of the Magi, the burning star of the Gnostic scholar, the sign 

 of intellectual omnipotence and autocracy. It is the symbol of 

 the Word made Flesh, and, according to the direction of its rays, 

 it represents good or evil, order or disorder, the sacred lamb of 

 Ormuz and St. John, or the accursed goat of Mendes. It is 

 initiation or profanation, Lucifer or Vesper, Mary or Lilith, victory 

 or death, light or darkness. With two horns in the ascendant, it 

 represents Satan, or the goat of the Sabbath, and with the single 

 horn in the ascendant it is the sign of the Saviour. It is the 



