"Old Man of the Mountain."

This title was first applied to Hassan Ben Sabbah, who founded a formidable dynasty in Syria, A. D. 1090.

He was the prince, or chief, of a sect of the Mohammedans.

Having been banished from his country, he took up his abode in Mount Lebanon, gathered around him a band of followers, who soon became the terror alike of Christians, Jews, and Turks. They paid the most implicit obedience to his commands, and believed that if they sacrificed their lives for his sake they would be rewarded with the highest joys of paradise. For two hundred years these "Assassins," as they called themselves, continued to be the terror of the country.

Whenever their chief, the "Old Man of the Mountain," considered himself injured, he despatched some of his assassins secretly to murder the aggressor. This is the origin of our use of the word assassin for a secret murderer.