He has indeed arisen.’
“At a certain place where the litany speaks of those who are buried in the churchyard, and of their rising again, we walk out into the churchyard, and the trombone players accompany the hymns that are sung. If the weather is stormy that we cannot go out, this is always a disappointment.
“When I was young, if a child was born in the morning, it was taken to church in the evening to be christened. Religious meetings were held every evening; sometimes a prayer-meeting, sometimes a sing-meeting.
“I recollect marriages by lot very well, because they continued until about 1818. All marriages were by lot. Young men and young women were not allowed to keep company, and they did not think about it.”
“They hardly dared to look at each other,” said another person present.
Mrs. B. continued: “If a young man wanted to marry,—of course he had his eye on some one he would like,—he told it to the Brüder-Pfleger (Caretaker of the Brothers), who told it to the minister, and the minister to the Schwester-Pfleger (Caretaker of the Sisters). The name that the young man chose was taken into the lot, and if the lot was favorable he might proceed, but if not he must look out for another. If the lot was favorable it was told to the young woman by the Schwester-Pfleger, and if the young woman was willing this sister told the minister. There was a Brüder-Pfleger in each brother-house, and a Schwester-Pfleger in each sister-house.
“Betrothals took place after the young woman had given her consent, in the presence of the conference, composed of the ministers and their wives, and the marriage would generally take place within a week, in the church. The wedding was public, but those who were invited stayed to the Schmaus (feast),[107] which was cake and wine in the church. Thus the ceremony was completed.
“Moravians then dressed with great plainness, much like the Quakers.”
As the Moravians were so very strict about the intercourse of the sexes, they could not have allowed two young men and two young women to sit up together with the unburied dead, as has been the custom among some of our Pennsylvania people.
I spoke upon this point to Mrs. B., who said, “Women always sat up with women, and men with men. However, in old times, as soon as there was a death, the trombones sounded, as they do now, and the body was taken when dressed, immediately to a small stone building called the corpse-house, and here remained until the funeral.”[108]