234 THE GREAT NORTH-WEST 



The sect therefore, it is needless to say, is maintained 

 entirely by recruits, and that in face of the fact that men 

 and women are not easily admitted to it. They guard 

 jealously against the admission of idle and worthless 

 characters, and there are none such among them. Their 

 austerity is awful ; it would certainly deprive some men, 

 if subjected to it, of reason. Books, which I look upon 

 as one of the chief delights of life, are rigorously for- 

 bidden, and their perusal accounted a sinful waste of 

 time. The Bible, and a few religious works, are the only 

 books to be found among them. All science, and all 

 worldly knowledge, is counted as " sin." They do not 

 smoke, and drink no intoxicants. It is certain that such 

 abstinence was not always practised among them, but 

 there has never been excess of any kind. Having ad- 

 mitted this much, I fear that I must to some extent 

 discount what I have written by mentioning that it 

 seemed to be impossible for the younger members to 

 break any of the rules, that I should say were specially 

 framed for their control, for want of opportunity. For 

 instance, should a gallant young Shaker cast sheep's 

 eyes on a buxom young Shakeress, they would have to 

 fly the fold before they could the tale of love in sweet 

 accents softly murmur. 



But what there is of loveliness in the Shakeresses, 

 young or old, they take care to hide under the most 

 abominably ugly female costume that I have ever seen. 

 Close-fitting, ungainly caps and gowns transform them 

 into a sort of living mummies, and effectually hide any 

 beauty of face or grace of person that they may be pos- 

 sessed of. The men dress much like Quakers ; but they 

 do not affect the Quaker mode of speech, though they 

 strictly obey what they ignorantly consider the Biblical 

 command to use no other form of asseveration or denial 

 than " yea " or " nay." 



I must not forget to say that these people take a 

 number of orphans to train up in their peculiar tenets. 



