Some Sample Walks 67 



killing, unless it might be of rattlesnakes, 

 vermin, or mad dogs. Most of the mem- 

 bers of the community are in middle life 

 or beyond it, and to some of them Mount 

 Lebanon is a refuge from chills and anxi- 

 eties. They are owners of one of the finest 

 farms in the world, they have no dread as 

 to the future, no fear for the present, their 

 material needs are met, and their associ- 

 ates are men and women who are strangely 

 free from vice, sordidness, and sin. They 

 are spiritualists, believing that the souls of 

 the dead continue their activities on earth, 

 and Elder Evans solemnly assured me that 

 John the Baptist had been seen leading his 

 people in the dance, that peculiar cere- 

 mony whereby is typified the shaking out 

 of carnal things. 



This was the only statement made in our 

 long talk that savored of oddity, for the 

 elder was broad-minded and practical. 

 Said he, "We do not take the Bible lit- 

 erally, for much of it is allegorical. The 

 true Bible is all Bibles, ours, the Koran, 

 the Talmud, the Bhagvat, the Zend Avesta, 

 the moral guides of all people. Our Bible 



