Page:Haiti- Her History and Her Detractors.djvu/400

364 "for sinners. He leaped high into the air, placed his hands on the top of the tall pulpit, and vaulted back and forth over it. He grovelled on the floor, pounded his head on the timbers and worked up to a point of delirious frenzy, performing feats of contortion which rival those of a professional circus athlete. &hellip; Men and women groaned aloud, grovelled in their seats, their minds answering sympathetically every emotion depicted by the exhorter. 'How much will you give to the Lord?' he shouted in thunderous tones. 'All, all!' answered the people, rising in their seats, and they meant it. On Friday night of last week the most violent meeting of all was held, continuing until after midnight. At this meeting the villagers turned their pockets inside out for the preachers. They gave the few valuables they had with them. It was arranged that a final meeting of renunciation was to be held on the following Sunday, at which a monster contribution was to be made to the preachers. The people of the island, with few exceptions, prepared to sell their homes and lands, their places of business and fishing tackle, their cattle and household possessions, so that all could be converted into cash for the purpose of the offering. They were in a frenzy, practically insane with the intoxication of their emotions.

"Stranger rites and ceremonies were performed, and finally Elder Buber announced that by reason of divine power he could perform miracles.

"Thurman, the nine-year-old son of Mrs. G. F. Beal, a cripple since birth and beloved by all on the island, was brought into the church. He was placed on the altar before the congregation. He was then covered with a sack, while the exhorter, working himself into a frenzy, commanded the spirit of which the child was possessed to depart. The miracle was a failure. The child remained a cripple, but, strange to say, the people did not lose faith. They ascribed the failure as due to a devil in the boy. This meeting ended at