Note 92 — Chapter XVI · PEASANT HOME AND LIFE.

A French writer, Picot, went so far as to say of the peasants of Valais: “The Valaisans, far from desiring to attract attention from the world, are jealous of their obscurity, of their ignorance, and even of their poverty, which they believe essential to their happiness.” Many localities have their written existence in song or story. The words of the Vaudois poet, Juste Olivier, “Vivons de notre vie,” have sunk into the hearts of a number of writers who, under their own public alone, are cherishing and seeking to reproduce the life about them, dwelling especially upon those local and traditional phases which they feel daily to be giving way before the march of progress.