43S THE LORD'S PRAYER 



beasts, and the richer the deceased the smaller he is cut 

 up. This sounds very horrible, but, unless cremation is 

 practised, are not all dead given over to some creature to 

 feed on? 



And so with nearly all religious customs. They seem 

 odd, often what we characterize as heathenish, but they 

 are really no worse than many of ours — who should know 

 better. The howling dervishes, if properly considered, are 

 truly devout worshippers, and make no more noisy dem- 

 onstrations than some of our revivalists at home, even 

 when they work themselves up to real religious fury in 

 their cry of "Allah Hu ! Hu ! Hu !" (Allah, He is God! 

 He ! He !) The twirling dervishes are assuredly more 

 dignified in their services than many troops of the Salva- 

 tion Army ; and, after all, did not David dance before the 

 Ark ? Do not all nations sing their praises ? 



In this connection I must tell you of one of the most 

 curious cases of misapprehended religious fervor that ever 

 came to my notice. Years ago, I was once taxing an old 

 negro, deacon of a colored church in Washington near 

 which I lived, wnth the fact that his congregation made an 

 undue racket in their Sunday evening services. " Meejor," 

 said the old man, seriously and respectfully, " doan' you 

 know de Lawd's Prayer?" "Why, of course. Uncle Dan; 

 but wdiat has that got to do with it ?" I queried. " Mee- 

 jor," he replied, with evident sorrow for my apparent ig- 

 norance expressed on his good old black face, "doan de 

 Lawd's Prayer say ' Hollered be Dy Name V " This col- 

 ored brother honestly believed that the second clause of 

 our daily invocation was a direct command to praise the 

 Lord with loud hosannas, and no doubt so did the entire 

 church. I was silenced. There was no time to instruct 

 Uncle Dan in the A B C of religion. 



Reverence is much the same the world over, but it is 



