In South Carolina. 399 



to the other as some sudden gush of feeling venting 

 itself aloud, and perhaps with strange bodily exercises, 

 called their attention off. As to the times of preach- 

 ing, I think there were not any stated hours, but it 

 was left to circumstances; sometimes oftener, some- 

 times more seldom. The whole camp was called up 

 by blowing a horn at the break of day ; before sunrise 

 it was blown again, and I doubt if after that there 

 were any regular hours for the services of the meet- 

 ing. But what was most remarkable both at this 

 camp-meeting and the following one, a year after- 

 ward (1803), as distinguishing them from the present 

 meeting of 1806, and much more from later camp- 

 meetings, was the strange and unaccountable bodily 

 exercises which prevailed there. In some instances, 

 persons who were not before known to be at all relig- 

 ious, or under any particular concern about it, would 

 suddenly fall to the ground and become strangely con- 

 vulsed witli what was called the jerks; the head and 

 neck, and sometimes the body also, moving backward 

 and forward with spasmodic violence, and so rapidly 

 that the plaited hair of a woman's head might be 

 heard to crack. This exercise was not peculiar to 

 feeble persons, nor to either sex, but, on the contrary, 

 was most frequent to the strong and athletic, whether 

 man or woman. I never knew it among children, nor 

 very old persons. In other cases, persons falling 

 down would ajupear senseless, and almost lifeless, for 

 hours together; lying motionless at full length on the 

 ground, and almost as pale as corpses. And then 

 there was the jumping exercise, which sometimes ap- 

 proximated dancing, in which several persons might 

 be seen standing perfectly erect, and springing up- 

 ward without seeming to bend a joint of their bodies. 



