| Citation |
NYP-F.783.022
28 Aug 1783:11 (331)
Just come to hand, and to be sold at the printing office,
Fish Kill: Brief Hints of a Religious Scheme . .. 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 common known by
the appellation of The Shaking Quakers.
When they meet together for their worship . . . another
one is knees and his head in the his hands on the floor;
another will be muttering over particular sounds, which
neither they nor any body else understand; some will be
singing, each one his own tune; 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 other 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-heal;
others will be agonizing as though they were in great pain;
others jumping up and down; others fluttering over somebody
and talking to them; others will be shooing and hissing evil
spirits out of the house; 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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