nner
light; that the soul was a seat of divine and spiritual authority, and
that the Spirit came to them as a direct revelation. They did not eat
meat or drink wine. They washed each other's feet after their religious
services, wore their beards long, and gave themselves new names that
they might not be tempted by any worldly ambitions or rivalries. They
thought it wrong to take oaths, to hold slaves, or to treat the Indians
differently from other men. They would receive no payment for preaching,
but held that it was the duty of all men to live by what they earned by
their own labor. They traveled wherever they felt moved to go by the
inward monitor. They were a peculiar people, but the prairie States owe
much that was good to their influence. The new settlers were usually
glad to see the old Tunker when he appeared among them, and to receive
his message, and women and children felt the loss of this benevolent
sympathy when he went away. He established no church, yet all people
believed in his sincerity, and most people listened to him with respect
and reverence. The sect closely resembled the old Jewish order of the
Essenes, except that they did not wear the garment of white, but loose
garments without buttons.

The scene of the Tunker's journey was in Spencer County, Indiana, near
the present town of Gentryville. This county was rapidly being occupied
by immigrants, and it was to this new people that Jasper the Parable
believed himself to be guided by the monitor within.

Early in the afternoon he passed several clearings and cabins, where he
stopped to receive directions to the school-house and meeting-house.

The country was one vast wilderness. For the most part it was covered
with gigantic trees, though here and there a rich prairie opened out of
the timber. There were oaks gray with centuries, and elms jacketed with
moss, in whose high boughs the orioles in summer builded and sang, and
under which the bluebells grew. There were black-walnut forests in
places, with timber almost as hard as horn. The woods in many places
were open, like colonnades, and carpeted with green moss. There were no
restrictions of law here, or very few. One might pitch his tent
anywhere, and live where he pleased. The land, as a rule, was common.

Jasper came at last to a clearing with a rude cabin, near which was a
three-faced camp, as a house of poles with one open side was called.
Spencer County was near the Kentucky border, and the