Litchfield enquirer., 1847-06-10

to goad another, alternately on every Slde, with piece of red hot iron. The exercise commonly bcganin the head, which would fly backward and forward, and from side to side, with quick jolt, which the person would naturally labor to suppress, but in vain-and the more any one labored 10 stay himself and be sober, the more he stagger- ed, and the more his witches increased.- He must necessarily, go as he was stimula- ted, whether with violent dash on the ground, and bounce from place to place like a football: or hop round, with head, limbs and trunk twitching and jolting in every direet tion, as if they must inevitably fly ass under. And how such could escape witA> ou! injury, was no small wonder to specta- tors. By this strange operation the human frame was commonly so transformed and disfeured, as to lose every trace of it's natu> ral appearance. Sometimes the head would be twitched right and left, to half round, with such velocity, that not even feature could be discovered, but the face appear as much behind as beiore-and in the qnick progressive jerk, it would seem as if the person was transmitted into some otker spe- cies of creature. Head dresses were of little account among the female jerkers.- Even handkeTchiefs bound tight round the head, would be firted of almost with the first ttwich, and the hair put into the utmost confusion-,his was very great inconven> fence, to redress which the generality were shorn, though directly contrary to their confession of faith. Such as were seized with the jerks, were wrested at once, not only from under their own government, bu. that of every one else, so that it was dan> gorous to attempt confning them, or touch> ing them in any manner, to whatever dan ger they were exposed--yet few were hurt, except it were such as rebelled against the operation, through wilful and deliberate en, mity, and refused to comply with the in- functions which it came to enforce"
 From the universal testimony of those who have described these spasms, they ap- pear to have been wholly involuntarily.- Thus they have been represented by Mc> Nemar in the passage jus, cited. This re> mark is applicable also to allihe other bod> fly exercises. What demonstrates satis> factorily their involuntarily nature is, not only that, as above stated the twitches pres vailed in spite of resistance, and even the more for attempts to suppress them-but that wicked men would be seized with them while sedulously guarding against an attack and cursing every jerk when seized. Tray. elers on their journey, and laborers at their daily work, were also liable to them.
 Instances have been given of men cons cealing whips on their persons, with the in. tention of using them upon the subjects Of advocates of these contorlions, who have themselves, 10 their great surprise and hor- TOT, been suddenly seized in similar man. ner, and their whips have been violently jerked out of their hands to a distance. A young man. the sen of an elder, who was a tanner, feigned, sickness one Sabbath mor- ming, to avoid accompanying the family to camp>meeting. He was left alone in bed with none others in the house but few black children. He lay some time trium> phing in the success of his stratagem, bu, afraid 10 rise too soon, lest some might be actually lingering and detect him. As he lay quiet with his head covered, his thoughts were naturally directed 10 the camp. meets ing, and fancy painted the assembled null titude, the public worship, and individuals falling into the usual spasodic convulsions. All at once he found himself violently jerk. ed out of bed, and dashed round the room and against the walls,in manner al.ogeth> CT beyond his control. Recollecting that praying was said to be good sedative on suck occasions, he rcsor,ed to the experi. ment, and to his great satisfaction found it successful He returned to bed quite res lieved. but only to be again affected in the same way. and to be again quieled by the act of praying. He then dressed himself, and, to occupy his mind, went to the tan. yard, and drawing skin from the vat, pres pared to unhair il. He rolled up his sleves and grasping the knife, was about 10 com- mence the operation, when, instanssneo usly, the knife was Airted ont of his hand, and he hiDself jerkcd backward over logs and against the fences as before. Gaining re> lief by resorting to the former remedy, he ventured 10 resume his occupation, and again was he interrupted. But, finding his ialisman losing its efficacy, he began now to be really alarmed and, quitting the yard, he returned to his chamb.r and betook him- self torfayer in good earnest. In this cons di.ion, weeping and crying to God for mer> cy. he was found by the family on their e. turn. The result of this singular incident A-AA l. A--- n