would last for almost a year. The Filipino native troops surrounding the church had failed to let the Spaniards know that the war was over. Before dawn, Gitlmore dropped off two scouts and headed to the river to act as a decoy so the scouts could locate the church. The boat was ambushed and four Americans were dead or dying. Captured, Gillmore and the surviving ten crewmen began a nine-month adventure as the prisoners of rebel General Aguinaldo. They were finally rescued in December of 1899. At no point in the article does Gillmore say anything about the Katipunan, tribal initiation or the Great Snake. While in one prison camp, the Americans were united with twenty-six fellow countrymen. When the American Army marched through Luzon, pursuing Aguinaldo, all the American prisoners were sent up into the mountains to be executed. The leader of the Filipino unit guarding these prisoners decided against the execution of the Americans, and left them in the middle of the jungle. An advance unit of the United States Army eventually found the prisoners. Some of the Americans, who were not attached to Gillmore’s command, might have had some of these Khatipunan experiences, but it wasn’t anyone in the original Gillmore unit.

The members, called companions, dressed in exotic native Filipino costumes. The ritual was usually preceded by a parade of the companions called "The Crawl." The crawl was followed by a ritual play were captured Americanos were tortured by their Filipino tormentors. On the local level, these Americanos were often initiates who had recently been accepted by the Military Order of the Serpent for membership. The ritual is full of live and fake snakes, skeletons, skulls, bones, spears, bolos and other props. As not all members could be part of the ritual, a small group of companions formed a "degree team" to perform the rite (Figure 2).

In 1903, Colonel Fred M. Fanning and Major Walter Scott MacAaron created the ritual that would become the foundation of the first Military Order of the Serpent degree, Khatapunan. On January 1st, 1904, the first Military Order of the Serpent ritual was presented before members of the Spanish War Veterans of Cleveland, Ohio at the hall of the Garretson Command (after amalgamation, "commands" would be changed to "camps").

From 1904 until 1908, the Military Order of the Serpent was a regional phenomenon, found mostly in the Great Lakes states. The 1908 National Encampment of the United Spanish War Veterans in Boston helped to spread the Military Order of the Serpent liturgy to the United Spanish War Veterans departments of the Northeast. After this encampment, the antics of the "Snaix" were a part of most department and all national encampments. From 1908 on, the Military Order of the Serpent was a defacto affiliate of the United Spanish War Veterans. In 1921, the United Spanish War Veterans made it official. Members of the Military Order of the Serpent had to be members in good standing in the United Spanish War Veterans. In 1940, the Supreme Convocation ruled that members of the Sons of Spanish-American War Veterans, who were at least 18-years old, could be admitted to the Military Order of the Serpent as full members.

The Khatapunan ritual of the Military Order of the Serpent can only be described as lowbrow burlesque.

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Figure 2: Degree team at Boston, Massachusets in 1908.

The Military Order of the Serpent ritual would eventually consist of three degrees. The first and entry degree was the degree of Khatapunan. In 1913, another degree, Bayani, was created for the Military Order of the Selpent by Colonel John Henry "Gatling Gun" Parker, who was the military governor of Batangas Province, PI. Batangas was the epicenter of the Katipunan Society activity. Col. Parker was very knowledgeable of the Katipunan Society. While suppressing this society, Parker became acquainted with the society and its rituals. Parker wrote most of the degree ritua!, with MacAaron writing the section known as "the traitor’s lament." The degree was first presented

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at the 1913 Supreme Convocation in Buffalo, New York. The Pangasinan Lair of Columbus, Ohio, under the leadership of Captain James N. Alward, gave the first performance of the degree at the Supreme Crawl. Members of this degree were given a Filipino name, which was printed on their Bayani degree card.

Another degree, Kaul, was created in 1919. The Supreme Lair awarded the task of creating this degree to Past Supreme Gu Gu Grandississimo (Commander-in-Chief) Captain James Newell Alward. The "Mystic Shrine" section of this degree is credited to Billy Florence. The Degree of Kaul ritual was adopted by the Supreme Lair at Convocation held in Minneapolis, Minnesota, September 12, 1921. The first presentation of the degree of Kaul was produced at the department encampment at Lorain, Ohio in 1922.

Now the Military Order of the Serpent had three degrees. The first or entry-level degree was the degree of Khatapunan, the second, Kaul, and the third and highest- ranking degree, Bayani. Of the three, Colonel MacAaron wrote: "Its first two degrees are purely humorous and reminiscent of life in savage Filipinodom. Its third degree is historic and tragic and centers about the martyrdom of the heroic Rizal. It is the one soldier organization whose whole atmosphere is in keeping with the traditions of the service and the amusing events of our Oriental campaigns of 1898-1902." Later, C. W. Yerbury described the three degrees in a history of the Military Order of the Serpent article he wrote in 1924. "The degree ofKhatu Puna is the savage degree and is to show the condition of the Filipino during the insurrection of 1899 and 1902. The degree of Kaul shows the changed condition after a few years of United States rule. The Bayani degree shows the advance in civilization of the savage to the present day." The Original Filipino society used the rituals to gain loyalty of their members and foster militant patriotism in the tribes. The Military Order of the Serpent’s use of the rituals was to have its members remember the conditions of that war. It was also used for humor. The Military Order of the Serpent is often called the "playground of the United Spanish War Veterans." The Military Order of the Serpent proved to be a valuable recruiting tool for the United Spanish War Veterans. In order to belong to the Military Order of the Serpent, you had to be a member in good standing in the United Spanish War Veterans.

The highlight at any United Spanish War Veterans encampment was the Military Order of the Serpent Crawl (parade). The crawl would be led by a serpent band. The Grand or Supreme Datto would follow, leading the

ragged column. A large snake belching fire and smoke would be carried by the slaves (first-degree companions) winding its way through the streets of the encampment city. The degree team, dressed in Filipino tribal costumes, guarded the snake and its handlers. Neophytes (initiates) followed, loaded down with chains. The remainder of the delegates and guests would follow dressed in white costume. The white costume represented Filipinos who had become civilized.

As most fraternal organizations of that day, the Military Order of the Serpent created a number of badges for membership/degree, officer and convocations. The degree badges stayed relatively unchanged throughout the history of the Military Order of the Serpent. The first-degree badge was a pendant hung from a jet (black) and scarlet ribbon with a broach to pin to the United Spanish War Veterans uniform. The colors of the Khata Puna and Kaul ribbon are symbolic of death and vengeance. The pendant was the Filipino cross bearing the arms of the United States military services together with the Khatapunan in the center. Crossed Bolos (a Philippine machete) and a skull are also part of the design. The badges were never worn on their costumes, only on their United Spanish War Veterans’ uniform.

Figure 3: Pendant for the Khatapunan and Kaul degree badges with cutout crossed bolos and skulls.

30 JOMSA

There are two versions of the pendant to the Khatapunan

and Kaul degree badges. On one pendant, the crossed

bolos and the skull at the bottom are cut out (Figure 3).

On the other version they are not (Figure 4). The

manufacturers of these badges were Whitehead & Hoag,

Mayer Brothers, Stephen D. Lea and the Colorado Badge

& Novelty Co. Many badges are found without makers’

marks.

(Figure 5) has a serpent with a red eye in the center. This

was obviously MacAaron’s inspiration for the Military

Order of the Serpent "Filipino Cross".

Figure 5: Sigma Nu badge.

Figure 4: Pendant for the Khatapunan and Kaul degree badges with the crossed bolos and skulls not cut out.

The Military Order of the Serpent called the pendants of

the Khatapunan and Kaul degree badges, the "Filipino

Cross," but it looks suspiciously like the cross of the

French Legion of Honor. It turns out that Walter S.

MacAaron, a Military Order of the Serpent founder,

attended Western Reserve College and belonged to a

campus fraternity called Sigma Nu. The fraternity was

founded by Virginia Military Institute Cadet James Frank

Hopkins, a civil war veteran from Arkansas, and two

friends in 1868. The three cadets did not agree with the

fraternal rite of hazing and decided to create their own

fraternity. Hopkins created a badge for the new fraternity.

He had admired the White Cross of the French Legion

of Honor worn by a professor and used it to create the

new Sigma Nu badge. The Sigma Nu badge shown below

Figure 6: Second-degree badge.

The second-degree badge (Figure 6) is the first-degree

badge with a pin bar added to the ribbon. The second-

degree bar was similar to the bars used for Military Order

of the Serpent officer badges. The center of the bar

displayed two crossed bolos with the number 2 on either

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