THE MAQA CLUB. 59 



Goodsir — " You were unanimously united with, us 

 in the Brotherhood, so I now hail you as Frater." 

 In offering an explanation of this laconic and mysteri- 

 ous note, the writer has to revert for a moment to 

 Forbes's student - life, and his relationship with 

 Goodsir, that being marked by a hearty co-operation 

 in science and much, pleasant sociality. In 1834-35, 

 Forbes and a few other students formed themselves 

 into a "Maya Club," wdiose objects were literature 

 and good-fellowship — the latter for a time w 7 as pro- 

 bably the more demonstrative. The literature of 

 the Club found vent in the " University Maga" — 

 a weekly sheet of poetry and prose, and felicitous 

 portraiture of lecturers, students, and snobs — that 

 delighted every son of Alma Mater. Forbes, though 

 foremost with both pen and pencil in the Maga, and 

 distributing healthy satire and fun broadcast, was 

 alive to a higher feeling of association than "Club 

 nights," with Maga toasts and "Kule Britannias." 

 He and his friends C. E. Stewart and D. Macaskill, 

 therefore, resolved to found a brotherhood for mutual 

 help and encouragement in their several spheres of 

 occupation, be it Art, Literature, or Science. The 

 Brotherhood, or " Order," as it was called, had a 

 freemasonry repute among the uninitiated ; and the 

 words, oinos, EPH2, MA0H2I2 (wine, love, Learning 

 were adopted as the watchword. As symbolic of 

 the "Order,* the members wore across the breasl ;i 

 aarrow silk ribbon, rose-coloured and black, with 

 the mystic letters 0. E. M. worked mt<> its texture. 



