942 THE GHOST-DANCE RELIGION [eth.ann.14 



Of Ann Lee, their founder, he asserts that she saw Jesus Christ in 

 open vision and received direct revelations from this source. On a 

 certain occasion she herself declared to her followers: " The room over 

 your head is full of angels of (rod. I see them, and yon could see them 

 if you were redeemed. I look in at the windows of heaven and see what 

 there is in the invisible world. I see the angels of God, and hear them 

 sing. 1 see the glories of God. I see Ezekiel Goodrich Hying from one 

 heaven to another!'' And, turning to the company present, she said, 

 "Go in and join his resurrection."' She then began to sing, and they 

 praised the Lord in the dance. On another occasion she said: "The 

 apostles, in their day, saw as through a glass darkly, but we see face 

 to face, and see things as they are, and converse with spirits and see 

 their states. The gospel is preached to souls who have left the body. 

 I see thousands of the dead rising and coming to judgment, now at this 

 present time." At another time she declared that she had seen a cer- 

 tain young woman in the spirit world, "praising God in the dance;" 

 and of a man deceased, " He has appeared to me again, and has arisen 

 from the dead and come into the first heaven and is traveling on to the 

 second and third heaven." 



Their dance is performed regularly at their religious gatherings at 

 the New Lebanon settlement. The two sexes are arranged in ranks 

 opposite and facing each other, in which position they listen to a sermon 

 by one of the elders, after which a hymn is sung. They then form a 

 circle around a party of singers, to whose singing they keep time in 

 the dance. At times the excitement and fervor of spirit become intense, 

 and their bodily evolutions as rapid as those of the dervishes, although 

 still preserving the order of the dance. (Evans'' Shakers and encyclo- 

 pedia articles on Shakers.) 



KENTUCKY REVIVAL 



About the year 1800 an epidemic of religious frenzy, known As the 

 Kentucky Revival, broke out in Kentucky and Tennessee, chiefly among 

 the Methodists and Baptists, with accompaniments that far surpassed 

 the wildest excesses of the Ghost dance. Fanatic preachers taught 

 their deluded followers that the spiritual advent of the kingdom was 

 near at hand, when Christ would reign on earth and there would lie an 

 end of all sin. The date generally fixed for the consummation was the 

 summer of 1805, and the excitement continued and grew T in violence for 

 several years until the time came and passed without extraordinary 

 event, when the frenzy gradually subsided, leaving the ignorant believ- 

 ers in a state of utter collapse. The performances at the meetings of 

 these enthusiasts were of the most exaggerated camp-meeting order, 

 such as may still be witnessed in many parts of the south, especially 

 among the colored people. Evans, the Shaker historian, who is strong 

 in the gift of faith, tells us that "the subjects of this work were greatly 

 exercised in dreams, visions, revelations, and the spirit of prophecy. 

 In these gifts of the spirit they saw and testilied that the greal day of 



