Page:Early western travels, 1748-1846 (1907 Volume 11).djvu/256

 of idling; no time for it. Religious service takes place three times every day. They must be in the chains of superstition, though Rapp professes to govern them only by the Bible, and they certainly seem the perfection of obedience and morality. People who have left them say, that Rapp preaches, that if they quit the society, they will be damned, for his way is the only way to Heaven. He does much by signs, and by an impressive manner, stretching out his arm, which, he says, is the arm of God, {266} and that they must obey it; and that when he dies, his spirit will descend unto his son Fred. The people appear saturnine, and neither very cleanly nor very dirty. They are dressed much alike, and look rather shabby, just as working folk in general look. None are genteel. The women are intentionally disfigured and made as ugly as it is possible for art to make them, having their hair combed straight up behind and before, so that the temples are bared, and a little skullcap, or black crape bandage, across the crown, and tied under the chin. This forms their only head-dress.

I rode round the town, which will soon be the best and first in the western country. At present, the dwellings, with the exception of Rapp's, and the stores and taverns, are all log-houses, with a cow-house and other conveniences. One is given to each family, and a fine cow, and nice garden; other necessaries are shared in common. Their horses, cattle, and sheep, are all in one stable; herds and flocks are folded every night, in comfortable sheds, particularly an immensely large flock of Merino sheep; and so secured from the wolves. They have a fine vine-*yard in the vale, and on the hills around, which are as beautiful as if formed by art to adorn the town. Not a spot but bears the most luxuriant vines, from which they