the
men and boys, most of whom gradually congregate on the outside to
whittle, gossip, drive bargains, and debate among themselves some point
of dogma that is too good to keep still about.

Nearly all of our highlanders, from youth upward, show an amazing
fondness for theological dispute. This consists mainly in capping texts,
instead of reasoning, with the single-minded purpose of confusing or
downing an opponent. Into this battle of memories rather than of wits
the most worthless scapegrace will enter with keen gusto and perfect
seriousness. I have known two or three hundred mountain lumber-jacks,
hard-swearing and hard-drinking tough-as-they-make-'ems, to be whetted
to a fighting edge over the rocky problem "Was Saul damned?" (Can a
suicide enter the kingdom of heaven?)

The mountaineers are intensely, universally Protestant. You will seldom
find a backwoodsman who knows what a Roman Catholic is. As John Fox
says, "He is the only man in the world whom the Catholic Church has made
little or no effort to proselyte. Dislike of Episcopalianism is still
strong among people who do not know, or pretend not to know, what the
word means. 'Any Episcopalians around here?' asked a clergyman at a
mountain cabin. 'I don't know,' said the old woman. 'Jim's got the skins
of a lot o' varmints up in the loft. Mebbe you can find one up thar.'"

The first settlers of Appalachia mainly were Presbyterians, as became
Scotch-Irishmen, but they fell away from that faith, partly because the
wilderness was too poor to support a regular ministry, and partly
because it was too democratic for Calvinism with its supreme authority
of the clergy. This much of seventeenth century Calvinism the
mountaineer retains: a passion for hair-splitting argument over points
of doctrine, and the cocksure intolerance of John Knox; but the
ancestral creed itself has been forgotten.

The circuit-rider, whether Methodist or Baptist, found here a field ripe
for his harvest. Being himself self-supporting and unassuming, he won
easily the confidence of the people. He preached a highly emotional
religion that worked his audience into the ecstasy that all primitive
people love. And he introduced a mighty agent of evangelization among
outdoor folk when he started the camp-meeting.

The season for camp-meetings is from mid-August to October. The festival
may last a week in one place. It is a jubilee-week to the work-worn and
home-chained women, their only diversion fr