In South Carolina. 275 



lioe; lie did accordingly, and made an exceedingly small crop. An 

 o)d lady said that siie had an impression that one of her neighbors 

 ought to break her crop of flax for her ; he accordingly did as she 

 said the Lord had directed. I was well acquainted with a man 

 among these people who told me that he went one day to hunt his 

 cows, and looked all over the woods in which they generally grazed 

 but did not find them. "At last," said he, "the Lord came upon me, 

 and a light appeared before me ; I started right after it through the 

 woods, over the logs and over the brush, till at length I came to my 

 cattle in a place where I never would have thought of looking for 

 them; then the divine power left me; the light disappeared, and I 

 understood the whole matter." These fanatics held night-meet- 

 ings two or three times a week, and would often visit several houses 

 in one night, because some one would, have an impression aftei 

 assembling at a particular place that they ought to go elsewhere. 

 They would sometimes gather around the roots of a tree and bark 

 as dogs, saying that they had treed the devil. They pretended to 

 administer the sacrament among themselves, and used a kind of tea 

 instead of wine. Some who were regarded as men of intelligence 

 and worth in the community, fell into this strange and deplorable 

 delusion. 



There was another exercise among these people called the mar- 

 rying exercise. A young man would go to a young lady and tell her 

 that the Lord had given her to him for a wife, and they must get 

 married or be lost ; and sometimes the young lady would have the 

 same kind of impression. Three couples were married in this way 

 at one prayer-meeting, and many were so married on other occasions. 

 I believe the people have these kind of impressions at the present 

 day and try to obey them, but not exactly in the same way as did 

 these fanatics. 



The Rev. Joseph Moore encountered these fanatical 

 extravagances, and thus speaks of them in a letter ad- 

 dressed to Jesse Lee: 



May 16th, 1806. 

 Some of the Presbyterians got into some extremes and brought a 

 reproach upon the good work. They got into what they called the 

 dancing exercise, the marrying exercise, etc. Sometimes a whole 

 set of them would get together and begin dancing about at a most 

 extravagant rate. Sometimes they would be exercised about getting 

 married, and one would tell another he or she' had a particular rev 



