ernoon, as I came out of school, Cuffy said, "You promise to
jine praise with we some night dis week, Missus," so I told him I
would go up in the evening if Mr. G. would go with me. When we went up
after eight they were just lighting the two candles. I sat down on the
women's side next a window, and one of the men soon struck up a hymn
in which the others joined and which seemed to answer the purpose of a
bell, for the congregation immediately began to assemble, and after
one or two hymns, Old Peter offered a prayer, using very good
language, ending every sentence with "For Jesus' sake." He prayed for
us, Massa and Missus, that we might be "boun' up in de belly-band of
faith." Then Mr. G. read to them and made a few remarks to which they
listened very attentively; then some hymn-singing, Cuffy deaconing out
the lines two at a time. Then some one suddenly started up and
pronounced a sort of benediction, in which he used the expression
"when we done chawing all de hard bones and swallow all de bitter
pills." They then shook hands all round, when one of the young girls
struck up one of their wild songs, and we waited listening to them for
twenty minutes more. It was not a regular "shout,"[26] but some of
them clapped their hands, and they stamped in time. It was very
difficult to understand the words, though there was so much repetition
that I generally managed to make out a good deal, but could not
remember it much, still less the music, which is indescribable, and no
one person could imitate it at all. As we walked home we asked Cuffy
if they considered the "shout" as part of their religious worship; he
said yes, that "it exercise the frame." Mr. G. told him that some of
the old people had told him they did not like the shouts, or think
them religious, but he said old Binah did not object to them in the
praise-house, but she did not like the shout "out in de world," _i.
e._ before they joined the Church or came to "strive behind the
Elders." He makes his own hymns, "praying to de Lord Jesus to teach
him as he in de woods--jine one word 'ginst toder." They were almost
unintelligible as he deaconed them out, but I daresay they were his
own, unconsciously caught, perhaps, in part from what he had heard in
the white people's church. The only song I could remember ran somewhat
after this fashion:

Oh, Jacob's ladder.
Climb high, climb higher!
Oh sodier of de jubilee,
When you git dere 'member me,
Oh! so