Page:Harper's New Monthly Magazine - v109.djvu/133

Rh Once touched by religious emotions, however, the mountaineer seems to lose his sense of the ridiculous entirely—the deeps of his nature are reached at last. The metaphors of Scripture, the natural expression of the Oriental mind, are taken with a literalness and seriousness against which one cannot help thinking a touch of humor might be a saving grace.

Repetition carried to the point of wearisomeness is a favorite form of revival hymns:

Here a feeling for the supernatural is uppermost. The oddly changing keys, the endings that leave the ear in expectation of something to follow, the quavers and falsettos, become in recurrence a haunting hint of the spirit world; neither beneficent nor maleficent, neither devil nor angel, but something,—something not to be understood, yet to be certainly apprehended. It is to the singer as if he stood within a sorcerer's circle, crowded upon by an invisible throng.

It is their one emotional outlet. Having no theatre, no bull-fight, no arena, no sensational feature of any kind in their lives, they must, being a high-strung race, find vent some other way.

They rock to and fro softly, crooning and moaning, until the impulse comes upon them to leap into the air and scream and shout until exhausted. It is common for women, and even men, to injure themselves unawares; or, at baptizings, to pitch headlong into the water. I have seen convulsions and even temporary insanity brought on by these excesses. It is the music that produces this feeling; but these songs cannot be fairly judged