“I know too little of their history, to agree with you or not; surely, theirs was a purely political association,” answered Lathom.
“Their original and avowed object was the placing a caliph of the race of Ismael on the throne of Bagdad; but their sacred doctrines are supposed to have embraced a wider sphere, and are known to have been converted into the means of private revenge by the adept, who afterwards became known as the ‘old man of the mountain.’”
“Where did the old man reign?” asked Thompson.
“On the mountain of Alamoot, in the north of Persia. The Vulture’s Rest, as its name imported, was not unlike the hill of Cotonolapes, or the Castle of the Magician of the Gesta. There Hassan ben Sabah gathered round him an independent society of seven degrees, with himself as their head, by the title of Sheikh of the Mountain.”
“What was the date of that event?”
“Within a few years of the close of the eleventh century,” replied Herbert. “His seven degrees commenced with the three grand priors, under him, the practical rulers of the society. Then came the dais, or initiated ministers; and fourthly, the refeeks, or companions. Below these were the fedavees, or devoted, who were followed by the laseeks, the aspirants, the novices of European orders. The profane, the common people, formed the last of the seven orders of the Assassins.”
“The mysteries, I suppose, were not revealed to any below the third class?” remarked Lathom.
“No, the dais were alone acquainted with these; what they were, besides implicit obedience to their chief, and the principle of interpreting the Koran allegorically, it is impossible to discover. By the rest of the society, the text of the Koran was to be observed in its strict letter. The fedavees were, however, the support of the society. They were composed, too often, of youths stolen from their parents, and educated in such a system as recognized the sheikh as omnipotent, and impressed on them the moral and religious duty of obeying his commands.”
“From this order, then, the common idea of the Assassins arose?” said Lathom.
“Undoubtedly,” rejoined Herbert. “They were led to look to his mandates as direct from heaven, and as impossible to be evaded. They were clothed in white, with red bonnets and girdles, and armed with sharp daggers; but when a secret and dangerous mission was imposed, the disguises of the fedavees were appropriated to the task enjoined.”