Page:Life in the Old World - Vol. I.djvu/391

Rh bear the fullest testimony to the innocence and sobriety of their life.

Their priests were called Barbes, from the word Barba, which, in their language, is used to indicate an elderly, venerable man, and which is used at the present day for the oldest person in the congregations, and principally for elderly and esteemed men. “Bou soir Barba,” said Louise Appia, when, during our rambles in the valley, we met an elderly peasant.

The oldest translation existing of the New Testament, is in the language of the Waldenses, called Romaunt, or Lingua Rustica Romana.

These Barbes were educated for some years in solitude, amidst earnest studies, at a place called Pra del Tor, in the depth of the mountains in the valley of Angrogna. There they studied the Bible, the human heart, and nature; because they were to become physicians for the body as well as for the soul. At the close of this course of study, they passed a couple of years in still deeper solitude, and tradition says that pious women also lived in a similar solitude, rigidly separated from the world.

Thus prepared, these young men went out, two and two, an elder and a younger man, to convey the Gospel to various parts of the world. Sometimes they traveled in the guise of hawkers—there still exist in the old language näive songs on this subject—and, as such, often gained access to high-born ladies, to whom they sold pearls and other ornaments. “But when, by means of these, they had awakened their