Bone-box; Ivory Box.

In The Grand Mystery of Free Masons Discover’d, one of the exposes of Masonic rituals, published in London in 1725, the following portion of dialogue occurs: ”Q. Have you a key to the Lodge’? A. Yes, I have. Q. What is its virtue? A. To open and shut, and shut and open. Q. Where do you keep it? A. In an Ivory Box, between my Tongue and my Teeth, or within my Heart, where all my secrets are kept.” Approximately the same occurs in A Mason’s Examination, published in the Flying Post at London in 1723. Another disclosure has the following: ”Q. Have you any key to the secrets of a Mason? A. Yes. Q. Where do you keep it? A. In a bone box, that neither opens nor shuts but with ivory keys.” See RITUALS.