Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1877-03-22
The negros and his seventeen associates

The negros and his seventeen associates
continued to tramp and to intone their
| psalmody for about twenty-five minutes :;
and then they began to howl, not by any
| means in unison, but every one on his own
| account. There were those who bawled
bass and those who growled treble. Some
grunted like swine, some barked like
dogs, some lowed like kline, some bel
lowed ike bulls. some squalled like cats,
while others merely yelled and shrieked
like the human Bedlamites they seemed
! to have been temporarily turned into. In
this screening, waiiing, snarling, gurg-
ling, gasping din, the voice of the Nubian
was always predominant He was the
first to begin and the last to leave off this
diabolical clatter, but showed no signs of
sWooning; on the contrary, the rogue
looked as though he derived intense en-
Joyment from the performance.
g | should be ashamed to record-were it
not idle TO blush for any action that is
perfectly natural-that the direst difficulty
which L encountered during this mad
org1e OF caterwauling was to refrain nv
self from taking an active part in the per
torrance. There came over me twenty
times fierce and we'll nigh irrepressible
desire to howl. There was something
more than seductive, more than tempting
there was that which was absolutely
fascinating and enthralling in the oppor-
tunIty offered for proclaiming ones indi-
yIduallty In barbaric yawp, as Walt
Whitman puts it. The occasion is
fieeting,' Hippocrates tells us. When
might such another present itself as that
offered by the Howling Place of the Agia
4annl? Who was to say me nav if |
elected to yelp? I had been told by a
friend, well versed in the mysteries of
Islam, that the believing bulls of Bashan
against the wall were not protested Der
wishes. They were not even holy men
but merely penitents who, in atonement
for some crime committed, had come here
to join IN the devotional exercises of the
RoOfai, and so howl themselves into a
state OF grace. There may have been,
perchance, some penitent Bashi- Ba-
zouks, some remorseless Zaptiens, some
reclaimed kalmakams among the screech-
ing, stamping gang; and the doleful
yells OF Hoo! yah! hoo!' may have i'm
piled an expression of sorrow for the
howler's participation in the Bulgarian
atrocities. | hope that it was so with all
my heart. L have good many sins of my
own to account for, and, why, l thought,
should | not essay to howl few of them
out? We are fond enough at home
of talking of sitting in sackcloth and
ashes, of rending our garments, of beat
ing our breasts, and of lifting up
our voices and weeping; but, ask, do we
ever actually do any one of these things?
is there any abnormal demand for cinders
on Ash Wednesday? Did you ever see,
out of mad-house, anybody tearing his
or her hair? You talk about Wringing
your hands. Did you ever do so, save,
perhaps, after washing those eXtremities
at hotel, and finding that the chamber
maid had forgotten to bring you towel?
Among the Roofai facilities are provided
for converting mere rhetoric into logic,
and you may wall yourself out of breath
without scandalizing your neighbors.
There is, apprehend, another and more
deeply seated cause which might account
for the temptation, which ostensibly civ
ilized and apparently rational beings often
experience, to make fools of themselves
in the way of shrieking? Wise physicians
will discourse to you very learnedly about
the proneness of the nervous system to
hysterical affections, and the contagious
ness OF hysteria itself; but all know is
that when one wild beast begins to howl
another follows suit; that the lion roar
ing III the jungle is answered by the gar
rulous jackal and the derisively-humo
Gus hyena; and that African chiefs and
their savage taborers will, when elevated
by patriotism, piety and trade rum, shout
by the hour together. [ was fortunately
enabled to subdue my savage instincts
among the Roofai; but, had | howled my
lOudest in unison with the rapscallions
around me, should have been ceding, I
am afraid, only to thoroughly natural
intuition. Baby is quite natural char
acter, and does not he howl from morning
until night?"