16 TRAVELS IN THE CONFEDERATION 



some 40 years ago, settled in the region where later 

 Ephrata was established, at that time for many miles 

 around thick wilderness. Alone and content he lived 

 here many years, and supplying his few wants by his 

 own industry, he could the more easily withdraw from 

 intercourse with the rest of the world. But by degrees 

 the country grew more settled, and a good many Ger- 

 mans came to live there ; several of these, moved by 

 the exemplary manner of life of this man and acting 

 on opinions similar to his, joined with him and founded 

 a society, which by the coming-in of new members 

 soon became numerous. It was thus not a sect already 

 formed and removing hither from some other place ; 

 it originated here where it still remains and has spread 

 no farther. But at present the society is in a decline, 

 and numbers hardly 200 members, a figure inconsider- 

 able in comparison to what it once was. Men and 

 women clothe themselves in summer in white linen, 

 and in winter in white woolen cloth. Their habit con- 

 sists of a long, wide, tunic reaching to the ankles and 

 girdled about the loins, and furnished with a cowl for 

 head-covering, for they wear no hats. Under this 

 tunic they wear a rough smock, and small-clothes. 

 The men let their beards grow long, but cut short the 

 hair of their heads. They are an industrious, amiable, 

 and inventive people, hospitable and beneficent. Their 

 especial food is plants and roots, for they abstain from 

 meat as detrimental to that expiatory continence which 

 Christians should practice. Their lean, pale look is 

 warrant that they do not indulge the body. Only when 

 they celebrate their love-feasts do they allow themselves 

 meat, mutton, that is ; at such times the Brethren and 

 Sisters assemble in a large hall and eat in company. 



