In 1740 an extraordinary sect, known as the “Jumpers,” arose in Wales. According to the description given by Wesley, their exercises were not unlike those of certain frenzied states among the Indians. “After the preaching was over,” Wesley[7] wrote, “anyone who pleased gave out a verse of a hymn; and this they sung over and over again, with all their might and main, thirty or forty times, till some of them worked themselves into a sort of drunkenness or madness; they were then violently agitated, and leaped up and down in all manner of postures, frequently for hours together.” There were sometimes thousands at a single meeting of the Jumpers, shouting out their excitement and ready to leap for joy.[8] Wesley has also described instances of tremendous emotional outburst at Methodist meetings which he addressed. “Some were torn with a kind of convulsive motion in every part of their bodies, and that so violently that often four or five persons could not hold one of them. I have seen many hysterical or epileptic fits,” he wrote, “but none of them were like these in many respects.”
Among the dervishes[9] likewise the dance is accompanied by intense excitement and apparently tireless movements. “The cries of ‘Yâ Allah!’ are increased doubly, as also those of ‘Yâ Hoo!’ with frightful howlings shrieked by the dervishes together in the dance.”... “There was no regularity in their dancing, but each seemed to be performing the antics of a madman; now moving his body up and down; the next moment turning round, then using odd gesticulations with his arms, next jumping, and sometimes screaming.”... “At the moment when they would seem to stop from sheer exhaustion the sheikh makes a point of exciting them to new efforts by walking through their midst, making also himself most violent movements. He is next replaced by two elders, who double the quickness of the step and the agitation of the body; they even straighten themselves up from time to time, and excite the envy or emulation of others in their astonishing efforts to continue the dance until their strength is entirely exhausted.” Such is the frenzy thus developed that the performers may be subjected to severe pain, yet only show signs of elation.
In all these dances the two most marked features are the intense excitement of those who engage in them and the very remarkable physical endurance which they manifest. Although there is no direct evidence, such as was obtained in examining the football players, that bodily changes favorable to great neuro-muscular exertion are developed in these furies of fanaticism, it is highly probable that they are so developed, and that the feats of fortitude which are performed are to a large extent explicable on the basis of a “tapping of the reservoirs of power” through the emotional excitement.
The Fierce Emotions and Struggles of Battle
Throughout the discussion of the probable significance of the bodily changes in pain and great emotion, the value of these changes in the struggles of conflict or escape was emphasized. In human beings as well as in lower animals the wildest passions are aroused when the necessities of combat become urgent. One needs only to glance at the history of warfare to observe that when the primitive emotions of anger and hatred are permitted full sway, men who have been considerate and thoughtful of their fellows and their fellows’ rights suddenly may turn into infuriated savages, slaughtering innocent women and children, mutilating the wounded, burning, ravaging, and looting, with all the wild fervor of demons. It is in such excesses of emotional turbulence that the most astonishing instances of prolonged exertion and incredible endurance are to be found.
Probably the fiercest struggles between men that are recorded are those which occurred when the wager of battle was a means of determining innocence or guilt. In the corners of the plot selected for the combat a bier was prepared for each participant, as a symbol that the struggle was for life or death. Each was attended by his relatives and followers, and by his father confessor.[10] After each had prayed to God for help in the coming combat, the weapons were selected, the sacrament was administered, and the battle was begun. The principals fought to the end with continuous and brutal ferocity, resembling the desperate encounters of wild beasts. A fairly illustrative example is furnished in an incident which followed the assassination of Charles the Good of Flanders in 1127. One of the accomplices, a knight named Guy, was challenged for complicity by another named Herman. Both were renowned warriors. Herman was speedily unhorsed by Guy, who with his lance frustrated all Herman’s attempts to remount. Then Herman disabled Guy’s horse, and the combat was renewed on foot with swords. Equally skilful in fence, they continued the struggle till fatigue compelled them to drop sword and shield, whereupon they wrestled for the mastery. Guy threw his antagonist, fell on him, and beat him in the face with his gauntlets till he seemed to be motionless; but Herman had quietly slipped his hand below the other’s coat of mail and, grasping the testicles, with a mighty effort wrenched them away. Immediately Guy fell over and expired.[11] In such terrific fights as these, conducted in the extremes of rage and hate, the mechanisms for reënforcing the parts of the body which are of primary importance in the struggle are brought fully into action and are of utmost value in securing victory.
The Stimulating Influence of Witnesses and of Music
It is noteworthy that in all the instances thus far cited—in the great games, in dancing, and in fighting—two factors are present that are well known to have an augmenting effect both in the full development of emotions and in the performance of unusual muscular labors. One of these is the crowd of witnesses or participants, who contribute the “mob spirit” that tends to carry the actions of the individual far beyond the limits set by any personal considerations or prudencies. The other is the influence of music. As Darwin long ago indicated, music has a wonderful power of recalling in a vague and indefinite manner strong emotions which have been felt by our ancestors in long-past ages. Especially is this true of martial music. For the grim purposes of war the reed and the lute are grotesquely ill-suited; to rouse men to action strident brass and the jarring instruments of percussion are used in full force. The influence of martial music on some persons is so profound as to cause the muscles to tremble and tears to come to the eyes—both indications of the deep stirring of emotional responses in the body. And when deeds of fortitude and fierce exertion are to be performed the effectiveness of such music in rousing the aggressive emotions has long been recognized. The Romans charged their foes amid the blasts of trumpets and horns. The ancient Germans rushed to battle, their forces spurred by the sounds of drums, flutes, cymbals and clarions. There is a tradition that the Hungarian troops are the worst in Europe, until their bands begin to play—then they are the best! The late General Linevitch is quoted as saying: “Music is one of the most vital ammunitions of the Russian army. Without music a Russian soldier would be dull, cowardly, brutal and inefficient. From music he absorbs a magic power of endurance, and forgets the sufferings and mortality. It is a divine dynamite.” And Napoleon is said to have testified that the weird and barbaric tunes of the Cossack regiments infuriated them to such rage that they wiped out the cream of his army.[12] A careful consideration of the use of martial music in warfare would perhaps bring further interesting evidence that its function is to reënforce the bodily changes that attend the belligerent emotions.
Only a few instances of the combination of extreme pain, rage, terror or excitement, and tremendous muscular power have been given in the preceding pages. Doubtless in numerous other conditions these two groups of phenomena occur together. In the lives of firemen and the police, in the experiences of escaping prisoners, of shipwrecked sailors, in the struggles between pioneers and their savage enemies, in accounts of forced marches or retreats, search would reveal many examples of such bodily disturbances as have been described in earlier chapters as augmenting the effectiveness of muscular efforts, and such exhibitions of power or endurance as are evidently far beyond the ordinary. There is every reason for believing that, were the conditions favorable to experimental testing, it would be possible to demonstrate and perhaps to measure the addition to the dynamics of bodily action that appears as the accompaniment of violent emotional disturbance.