CRAZE AMONG NEGROES.

Auckland Star, Volume XXVIII, Issue 247, 25 October 1897, Page 5

CRAZE AMONG NEGROES.

EXTEAOEDINAKY SCENES.

The negroes in the State of South Carolina, seized by a strange religious frenzy, are deserting the farms and flocking'in great numbers to Mountville, terrorising the citizens. Many are going mad, tearing the clothes from their bodies and yelling frantically till exhausted.

A... fanatical uprising against the whites is seriously feared.

The excitement among the negroes in South Carolina arose through the ringing of a bell at a new chapel at Mountville, which was continued with short intervals for several days, and is still going on. The persistent ringing seized on the negroe%with irresistible strength. They became vastly impressed, and when the word was sent out that the tolling was on account of the death of the devil the excitement among them rose to fever heat. The exhorters again and again declared to their hearers tiftat the devil had beertried by the Almighty and a jury of twelve angels for his misdeeds, and that the defendant, as a punishment, had been consigned to the negroes of Mountville, to be interred for all eternity. This declaration was reiterated at every meeting—morning, noon, and night—to the accompaniment of the joyous shouting of the hearers of "Glory, Glory, Hallelujah," "Bress de Lord, the Devil's Dead," and other delirious exclamations.

The throng* in front of the church is so great that it extends over five acres of ground and is till increasing. Men and wome nshout, yell, and shriek in an ecstasy of religious excitement, or hug one another, dance wildly, and spin round until they fall exhausted to the ground, when they are removed to a platform three feet high and twenty feet square, where they lie in rows until they have recovered consciousness or are sufficiently rested to resume their religious exercises. The platform is always full.