Candidate.—"Yes!"
Captain.—"To be of us and not with us, is Treason, and the reward of Treason is Death! Every Southron belongs to us, by birth, by education, by the love of liberty inhaled with the balmy breezes of the sunny South, by the hatred of the northern clans imbibed with his mother's milk, by the inherent detestation of hypocrisy and the myriad social and political abominations of the North! You are of us, you must be with us! The reward of Treason is Death! You are prepared to take the oath."
[The Captain here recites the following oath, the candidate repeating it after him:]
"By all the loved memories of my native land, by all the hallowed associations of home and family, by the memory of friends and brothers slain, by the lurid flames of war and desolation spread over our happy homes by the Lincoln hordes, I swear that by day-light and darkness, at all times and on all occasions, the steel shall pay the debt of steel, the lead shall recompense for lead, the Southern Cross shall yet defy the world!"
The Southern Cross in the order has a double significance. It represents the dagger of the assassin as well as the cross.
The Captain then declares:
"Welcome the new Brother of the Southern Cross!"
And thereupon the band make the challenging sign of the order, by cocking and snapping their gun-locks. The Captain then proposes the second oath, the candidate repeating it, as follows:
"By southern homes despoiled and broken, by southern women outraged, by the lingering torments of northern prisons, by all the desolation brought on our people by famine, pestilence and sword, I swear that desolation shall answer desolation, pestilence shall pay for pestilence, until the Southern Crescent span the continent, and carry over the North the furies that have desolated the South."
The Captain then declares again: