| Citation |
NYP-F.783.021
21 Aug 1783:32 (330)
Just come to hand, and to be sold at the printing-office,
Fish Kill: Brief Hints of a Religious Scheme, taught and
propagated by a number of Europeans, living in a place
called Nisqueunia, in the state of New-York. Written by
Valentine Rathbun, minister of the Gospel. The following
extract will in part shew the wild and extravagant
enthusiasm and phrensy of this sect, more commonly known by
the appellation of The Shaking Quakers. When they meet
together for their worship, they fall a groaning and
trembling, and every one acts for himself. . . [4 lines]
some will be singing, each one his own tune; some without
words in an Indian tone; some sing jig tunes: some tunes of
their own making in an unknown mutter, which they call new
tongues; some will be dancing and others stand laughing
heartily and loudly; others will be drumming on the floor
with their feet, as though a pair of drum-sticks were
beating a ruff on a drum-head; others will be agonizing as
though they were in great pain; . . . [2 lines] 'till the
different tunes, groaning, jumping, dancing, drumming,
laughing, talking and fluttering, shooing and hissing, make
a perfect bedlam: This they call the worship of God'.
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