M. 1st V. The pass is right, you have my permission to

enter this first veil. [The candidates walk in, and their bandages are raised.] Three most excellent masters you must have been, or thus far you could not have come; but further you cannot go, without my words, sign, and word of exhortation. My words are, Shem, Ham, and Japhet ; my sign is this [See plate 13, fig. 4], in imitation of one given by God to Moses, when he commanded him to cast his rod upon the ground thus [casting down a cane] and it became a serpent; but putting forth his hand, and taking it up by the tail, it became a rod in his hand as before. My word of exhortation is explanatory of this sign, and is to be found in the writings of Moses, and is as follows Exo- dus iv, 1-10.
P.S. Companions, we have passed the first guard, and will make an alarm at the second veil.
* Here the veils are suspended through the hall, and the officers take their seats (except the principal sojourner, who is with the candidates through the whole ceremony), as in plate 12.
122 ROYAL ARCH.