I would like to thank the several persons who offered definitions of "cowan" as an intruder, an interloper and a dry-stone dyker. These definitions relate to the use of "cowan" in the Masonic lodge. I still have my Shorter Oxford English Dictionary from my MA days at UNC. The earliest use of the word is 1598. It is a Scottish noun, and the definition is, "One who does the work of a mason, but has not been apprenticed to the trade." This definition indicates that the word was properly used to describe a person who worked as a stone mason but who did not have the training and appropriate apprenticeship to qualify him to work as an unsupervised master mason. In today's jargon, he would be a non-union employee, endorsed by management, maligned by fellow employees. Speculative masonry, that is, Freemasonry, took the terms and tools of the stone mason's craft and used them as teaching devices for instruction in the morals and lessons of Freemasonry. Hence, the 2nd definition in the OED is, " One uninitiated in the secrets of Freemasonry, 1707." The first lodges of Freemasons in Great Britain date from the early 1700's, so the OED seems right on in the historical framework. The noun "cowan" would have had about 100 years of use from 1598 to the early 1700's when it showed up in the written Masonic work of the first regularly constituted Masonic lodges. In slang terms, per the OED, a "cowan" is a "sneak, an eavesdropper." Again, these terms relate to the demeaning non-union shop employee: one who is trying to work in a field for which he is not thoroughly trained. Other dictionary terms, not OED, are "dry stone dyker," one who builds without cement ..... interesting because the really good masons fitted each stone so perfectly to place that cement was not required, and in today's labor force cement is used to cover and conceal a multitude of flaws, but in freemasonry, cement is the bond of fellowship and affection that ties the masonic membership into a solid and united organization. In my opinion, the situation we have here is the learned and sophisticated London gentleman who, in assuming the role of a Master Mason, looks with disdain upon the work of the uncouth but not necessarily unskilled Scottish stoneworker. The typical city slicker doesn't respect the work of the country bumpkin because he doesn't fully understand it, so he demeans a "cowan's" efforts. I am suggesting here that the literate Brit has a cultural conflict with the practical Celt. The Brit is a White, Anglo-saxon protestant, at least in 1707 he was. The Scot is a Celt, a White Celtic protestant, and never the twain shall meet. It's a problem of How do you Stack Your Stones! The Brit wants stone wall fences cemented into regularity that pass the test of the square and the level. He's of the school described by Robert Frost, "Good Fences Make Good Neighbors." His farms look like checkered quilts: neat, organized, well-defined. He wants his fields contained, walled-off from an intruding stray, i. e. the neighbor's sheep or cow that would crop his grass too close. The Scot, he doesn't take the field stones and make boundry fences from them. The Scottish fields have thinner soil, are less fertile and the stock has to roam freely over a large area to gain sufficient feed. The Scottish glens do not conform to the tilled fields of the Brit. A year ago I was in Luss, at Loch Lomond, for the 2000 Millenium Gathering of Clan Colquhoun. We toured the Scottish Glens west of Loch Lomond to view historic clan sites. The glens look lush, but they are deceivingly marshy. The farmers do not wall off the fields but pile the field stones in heaps, a dry place to sit and watch the sheep. A place from which to preach to the humble masses. The Brits like walls and fences. The Scots like heaps. The Brits write the OED. The Cowans don't read what the Brits write. They do what they have been taught. They stack their stones in piles. They can mark corners and not impede a free range. The Brits think the Scots are too lazy to build a proper fence. The Scots don't care what the Brits think. God Bless the OED. The Scots won't and the Cowans don't. Amen. jcmaclay