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 THE LIBRARY 
 
 OF 
 
 THE UNIVERSITY 
 OF CALIFORNIA 
 
 LOS ANGELES 
 
 \
 
 GLEANINGS FROM MANY FIELDS 
 
 EDITED BY 
 
 GEORGE COUSINS 
 
 Editorial Secretary and Assistant Foreign Secretary of the London Missionary Society, A uthor of" The 
 Story of the South Seas," "From Island to Island in the South Seas" etc. 
 
 WITH FIFTY ILLUSTRATIONS 
 
 ILanlion 
 LONDON MISSIONARY SOCIETY 
 
 14 BLOMFIELD STREET, E.C 
 
 JOHN SNOW & CO., 2 IVY LANE, PATERNOSTER Row, E.C 
 1896
 
 BUTLER & TANNER, 
 
 THE SELWOOD PRINTING WORKS, 
 
 FROMB, AND LONDON.
 
 PREFACE 
 
 TV /[" ANY and varied are the "fields" from which these gleanings 
 are taken. But with few exceptions they are all fields in 
 which the London Missionary Society works. 
 
 For one hundred years its missionaries have sowed and planted in 
 different lands; and have also been permitted in some measure to 
 reap and bind into sheaves. 
 
 And now gleaners have been at work, and selecting here a stalk 
 and there a stalk, they have twisted them together into this little 
 sheaf, which they offer to any who may be interested in bringing 
 about the great Harvest of that Field which is the World. 
 
 The gleaners are especially indebted to Mrs. Bryson in " Child 
 Life in China " ; to Miss Fielde in " Pagoda Shadows " ; to Mr. 
 Herbert F. Standing in "The Children of Madagascar"; to Mr. 
 Chunder Bose in " Hindoos as They Are " ; and to the following 
 ladies and gentlemen, for information and stories : Rev. C. W. Abel, 
 Miss Bliss, Mrs. Du Bose, Miss Brown, Mrs. Bryson, Miss Budden, 
 Rev. J. Chalmers, Miss H. Davies, Rev. J. Duthie, Mrs. Fry, Rev. H. 
 J. Goffin, Rev. J. Gilmour (the late), Rev. I. H. Hacker, Rev. J. G. 
 Hawker, Mr. Leonard Home, Captain Hore, Rev. A. S. Huckett, 
 Rev. Dr. Griffith John, Rev. Dr. W. G. Lawes, Miss Linley, Dr.
 
 iv PREFACE 
 
 Mather, Dr. McFarlane, Rev. W. E. McFarlane, Miss Olive Miller, 
 Rev. J. Macgowan, Dr. Moffat (the late), Mrs. Moffat (the late), Rev. 
 J. Mackenzie, Miss Rowe, Rev. J. Sadler, Mrs. Stevens, Mr. A. J. 
 Swann, Dr. Southon (the late), Captain Turpie, Rev. J. Wallace 
 Wilson, Rev. R. Stewart Wright, Rev. A. J. Wookey, and to other 
 anonymous writers in the "Chronicle" and "Juvenile" magazines. 
 
 July 30, 1896.
 
 CONTENTS 
 
 I. NATIVES AND NATIVE WAYS i 
 
 II. CRUEL CUSTOMS THAT CHRIST is CONQUERING 18 
 
 III. CHILD LIFE AND AMUSEMENTS 30 
 
 IV. STORIES OF WILD BEASTS 42 
 
 V. PERILS BY LAND AND WATER 57 
 
 VI. IN THE LAND OF IDOLS. . . 69 
 
 VII. PROGRESS IN "THE MIDDLE KINGDOM" 80 
 
 VIII. LIGHT IN THE GREAT DARK CONTINENT 93 
 
 IX. MADAGASCAR AND THE MALAGASY 106 
 
 X. ISLES OF THE SOUTHERN OCEAN 118 
 
 XL RESCUING THE NEGROES OF THE WEST INDIES . . . .132 
 
 XII. FAITHFUL UNTO DEATH 140 
 
 XIII. NATIVE WORKERS FOR CHRIST 152 
 
 XIV. SCHOOLS AND SCHOLARS 171 
 
 XV. AMONG THE SICK AND SUFFERING 188 
 
 XVI. WOMEN TO THE RESCUE 204
 
 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS 
 
 PAGE 
 
 1. THREE NEW GUINEA BOYS 3 
 
 2. COAST VILLAGE IN NEW GUINEA 5 
 
 3. HINDU BARBER 9 
 
 4. HINDU CARPENTERS u 
 
 5. FORTUNE-TELLING BONES 13 
 
 6. BUTCHER'S SHOP AT Ujiji 15 
 
 7. HINDU IDOL CAR 19 
 
 8. HINDU HOLY MAN 23 
 
 9. MALAGASY TRIBESMEN 26 
 
 10. COSTUME OF CHINESE BOY 30 
 
 11. CARRYING A SICK CHILD'S CLOTHES 32 
 
 12. NEW GUINEA BOY SHOOTING BIRDS OF PARADISE .... 37 
 
 13. PALANQUIN RIDING IN MADAGASCAR 39 
 
 14. SAVING HER CHILDREN 42 
 
 15. RAMATI'S CLEVER CAPTURE 47 
 
 16. ELEPHANTS BATHING 51 
 
 17. HIPPOPOTAMUS AT HOME 53 
 
 1 8. A YANG-TSE BOAT 57 
 
 19. A FIGHT WITH AN ALLIGATOR 62 
 
 20. DR. MOFFAT PREACHING v . . . 67 
 
 21. THE CAPTURED IDOLS 70 
 
 22. BOY HUSBAND AND HIS GIRL WIFE 73 
 
 23. HINDU WOMAN CARRYING JARS . . . ... . . .77
 
 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS vii 
 
 24. CHINESE CHRISTIANS 83 
 
 25. CHINESE CHILDREN . , 89 
 
 26. AFRICAN WOMEN GRINDING CORN . . 93 
 
 27. AN AFRICAN WARRIOR 99 
 
 28. AFRICAN GRAIN STORE 102 
 
 29. KING KHAMA 104 
 
 30. THE ROAD TO TAMATAVE 113 
 
 31. A SAMOAN 119 
 
 32. A NEW GUINEA VILLAGE 123 
 
 33. A SOUTH SEA ISLANDER IN HIS CANOE 126 
 
 34. A NEW GUINEA LATAKOI 129 
 
 35. MISSION CHAPEL, DEMERARA 135 
 
 36. CARRYING LETTERS IN CENTRAL AFRICA 141 
 
 37. A COCOANUT GROVE 145 
 
 38. A CORAL REEF 151 
 
 39. A HINDU LADY IN HER JEWELS 155 
 
 40. VEMANA AND HIS KEEPER 157 
 
 41. THE REV. DR. GRIFFITH JOHN' 161 
 
 42. CHINESE BRIDE AND BRIDEGROOM 165 
 
 43. AN INDIAN CHRISTIAN FAMILY 167 
 
 44. CHILDREN OF MOTUMOTU 176 
 
 45. A CHINESE MAIDEN 178 
 
 46. THE NEYOOR ORPHANS 183 
 
 47. SCENE IN HONG-KONG HOSPITAL 191 
 
 48. A MISSION HOSPITAL, AS DRAWN BY A NATIVE 197 
 
 49. A STREET IN PEKING 201 
 
 50. AN INDIAN LADY WHO BECAME A CHRISTIAN 209
 
 GLEANINGS FROM MANY FIELDS 
 
 CHAPTER I 
 NATIVES AND NATIVE WAYS 
 
 Feasting in the South Seas 
 
 THE South Sea Islanders, like many of their more civilized fellow- 
 creatures, are very fond of feasting. They believe in pies and 
 puddings quite as much as you do, and not only at Christmas time, 
 but at all seasons of the year. Theirs, however, are much larger 
 than yours. Fancy a pie ten or twelve feet round! And a roly- 
 poly three hundred feet long, and about as thick as a man's body ! 
 You could not eat many of those Christmas pies, or many slices of 
 those puddings, I am sure ! It would not be a very easy matter to 
 make and cook such large pies and puddings in England, but the 
 natives find no difficulty in making or eating them. To make the 
 puddings, they simply dig a trench, fill it with wood, upon which 
 they place stones. Whilst the men are doing this, the women are 
 making the pudding (chiefly of arrowroot and bananas) upon beautiful 
 banana leaves laid along the side of the trench. When it is made 
 and rolled up carefully and securely in the leaves, and tied with 
 vines, they set fire to the wood ; and when the stones are heated, 
 some of them are taken out with wooden tongs. The pudding is then 
 rolled in upon the bottom layer ; the hot stones are put on the top of 
 it. These are covered with dry leaves, green leaves on the top of 
 these, and the whole is covered in with soil. 
 
 Then the cooks and pudding-makers all go home to sleep, leaving 
 the stars to watch the cookery. 
 
 B
 
 2 GLEANINGS FROM MANY FIELDS 
 
 Next morning the village is early astir, and men, women, and 
 children appear in holiday attire. The pudding is taken up by means 
 of long poles, and about a hundred men and boys raise it to their 
 shoulders with a long lift, a strong lift, and a lift altogether, and 
 with one tremendous shout they start towards the chiefs house, ac- 
 companied by the whole walkable village, singing songs as they go. 
 Mr. Lawes says that on one occasion when he was asked to the 
 village dinner, he measured this chieftain of the pudding tribe before 
 carving, and found it was 204 feet long, that is two feet longer than 
 the Monument in London is high. It was soon carved into slices four 
 yards long, and some of these were sent to distant villages, big men 
 carrying as much pudding as their strength would allow, while the 
 rest was eaten up by the guests present before three days had gone. 
 
 Mr. Macfarlane says all cooking in the South Seas, twenty years 
 ago, was done in the same way. Great holes were made for the pies, 
 which were not made of mince-meat, but of fish, and fowl, and pigs 
 whole. He says he has known a fowl-pie to contain about twenty 
 whole birds, and a fish-pie to have more than fifty pretty large fish 
 in it. A missionary was one day talking to a heathen native about 
 heaven. The man listened for a time, and then said : " Is there any 
 taro in heaven ? " And when told that there would not be any eating 
 there, he turned away in disgust, saying he did not want to go to 
 such a place. Not many years after, however, he changed his mind, 
 and became a real "eater of the Word," and has since gone to 
 heaven. 
 
 The Natives of New Guinea 
 
 The name "Papua" means, they tell us, "woolly-haired"; and 1 
 certainly the first thing which strikes one in pictures of the in- 
 habitants of New Guinea is their enormous mops of frizzy hair, 
 often adorned with bits of bone or shell, bamboo combs, cockatoo 
 feathers, and scarlet flowers. In colour the Papuans seem to range 
 from sooty black to dusky brown. Probably the colour is not in 
 all cases natural, for one has heard of a white baby becoming
 
 THREE NEW GUINEA BOYS.
 
 4 GLEANINGS FROM MANY FIELDS 
 
 quite black after being handad about from one to another of a 
 crowd of New Guinea women anxious to see and nurse the 
 curiosity. The coast districts of New Guinea seem to be inhabited 
 by a race that is partly Papuan and partly Polynesian, much taller 
 and finer in body than the inland tribes. They have prominent 
 brows, the nose large and somewhat curved, thick lips, and pro- 
 jecting jaws. They wear very few clothes the men a girdle of 
 string, and the women a grass petticoat. But like many savages, 
 what they lack in dress they often make up for in ornament, 
 especially at times of festival. Then the men for in New Guinea 
 it is the men, and not the women, who put on finery dress their 
 hair, deck themselves with ear-rings, nose ornaments, necklaces, 
 armlets, and belts. They smear their faces with red ochre and 
 sometimes put on hideous masks. Altogether, they are as un- 
 pleasant and forbidding-looking people as any in the world; and 
 it must at first be very hard for English people to live among 
 them, and try to love them and do them good. 
 
 They are wild, noisy, and boisterous; easily pleased, and as 
 easily offended. The women seem to do most of the hard work 
 cultivating the plantations, making pottery, etc. ; while the men 
 hunt, fish, ornament their canoes, houses, and weapons, or go 
 fighting. There is a terrible lot of fighting in New Guinea. The 
 country seems to be divided up into a countless number of little 
 tribes, constantly at war with their neighbours, and keeping up 
 feuds from generation to generation. Then, too, some tribes are 
 regular pirates, robbers, and head-hunters; and among them those 
 men are most thought of who have the largest number of the 
 skulls of their enemies with which to decorate their dwellings. 
 
 The houses of Papuans are very strangely built. Sometimes a 
 village will consist of great barrack-like sheds, a hundred yards 
 or more long, with a path down the middle, and on either side 
 pens divided off as the homes of different families, who thus 
 dwell together for safety. Other villages are built on piles in the 
 water, or close by the sea-shore ; so that, if attacked by land, the
 
 NATIVES AND NATIVE WAYS 5 
 
 inhabitants may escape by the back door into their canoes. In 
 inland districts houses of refuge are built in lofty trees, and 
 reached by long ladders, which can at need be pulled up into the 
 branches. Owing to the influence of our missionaries and teachers, 
 and of the British Government, the constant fighting which used 
 
 to prevail is gradually dying out, as is also cannibalism, which in 
 some parts was much practised. 
 
 One result of the wars, which has greatly hindered missionary 
 work in New Guinea, is that there is no common language. Often 
 the inhabitants of villages only a few miles distant cannot under-
 
 6 GLEANINGS FROM MANY FIELDS 
 
 stand each other ; and the number of different dialects in which 
 the work of teaching has to be carried on is very great. It was 
 surely in the good providence of God that our chief mission 
 station was planted at Port Moresby: for the Motu tribe who 
 live there are great traders, and their language is more or less 
 understood at the different places along the coast to which they 
 go to exchange their pottery, arm-shells, and necklaces for sago 
 and canoes. On these trading voyages the Christian Motuans can 
 tell what they have learnt of the Gospel. Mr. Chalmers has 
 sometimes accompanied them, and thus made friends with distant 
 tribes, and prepared them to receive teachers. 
 
 When our missionaries first went to New Guinea they found 
 that the cannibals living in one part of that great island looked 
 down with contempt upon the cannibals of another district. Those 
 in the east end considered themselves quite respectable compared 
 with some of their neighbours, who, they said, " ate every part of 
 the human body, even the hair being boiled and devoured." The 
 ovens used for the cannibal feasts are never used for cooking 
 anything else, and while every other kind of food is eaten with 
 the fingers, forks made of hard wood are used for eating human 
 flesh. These forks are handed down from father to son as heir- 
 looms, and are greatly valued. 
 
 The cannibals in the western branch of our Mission, the 
 Tugarians, are the most savage, warlike, and cruel. They are 
 pirates, and make raids upon the villages along the coast. They 
 use long, fleet canoes, and in these paddle up the rivers and 
 creeks, plundering, murdering, and making prisoners as they go. 
 They break the arms and legs of their prisoners to prevent them 
 fighting or escaping, and then keep them until they are required 
 for food, cooking one or two bodies at a time. 
 
 Their weapons are clubs, spears, bows and arrows, stones, and 
 wooden swords, which are generally made of ebony, and carved. 
 Their tools are few and very poor, and made from stones or 
 bones. On these they carve images of birds, fish, and men.
 
 NATIVES AND NATIVE WAYS 7 
 
 The Betsileo, a tribe in Madagascar 
 
 " Betsileo," says some one ; " what a strange name that is ! It 
 sounds like the name of a young lady Betsy Le"o." It is not, 
 however, the name of a young lady, but of a large province and 
 people in south-central Madagascar: a strong, stalwart race, some- 
 what of the negro type, and strikingly different from the Hovas, 
 the ruling tribe, who occupy the Imerina province. Moreover, 
 they have not had so many advantages as the latter, and there- 
 fore have not made so much progress in the arts of civilized life. 
 Perhaps if a comparison were made, there is the same difference 
 as in boys brought up in large towns and boys brought up in 
 country districts. The former are sharper, keener, less liable to 
 deception, but the latter more plodding and persevering. 
 
 They live in small huts, about ten feet long and eight broad, 
 made chiefly of wood and bamboo, which are, as a rule, very 
 dirty places. There is no proper door, but a square opening of 
 various sizes about two feet from the ground. There is also a 
 small hole on the north or east side called a window. The huts 
 are thatched with grass, with no chimney nor outlet for the smoke 
 excepting through these holes; and as everything has to be done 
 in this one room, such as cooking, eating, sleeping, etc., the whole 
 interior is very black, sooty, and anything but inviting. Yet 
 missionaries spend many a happy hour in them, talking with the 
 natives. 
 
 When you enter one of these huts, the inhabitants of the 
 village seem to think they have a right to come in too, and 
 sometimes as many as twenty crowd in to look at you, and who 
 are very desirous in the morning to see you wash, dress, and 
 perform your toilet. 
 
 They are very clannish in their habits. They care for their 
 children, visit their sick, pay respect to their dead, and some- 
 times a young man may be seen carrying his aged father or 
 mother on his back ; but home, in our sense of the word, there 
 is none, until they are brought under Christian influence.
 
 8 GLEANINGS FROM MANY FIELDS 
 
 Many great changes have been and are still being wrought in 
 their home life ; and if social improvements are any evidence of 
 true Christian progress, we have reason for encouragement in this 
 respect. Many of the people are building better dwellings, and 
 have less love for soot than formerly. They are seeking for 
 themselves and their families better clothing, no longer being con- 
 tent with the old rush garments they used to wear. 
 
 The Betsileo have not a variety of occupations such as you 
 find in this country; they are few and exceedingly simple. First 
 we notice their rice-fields, to which they devote a great deal of 
 time and attention, and in cultivating which they excel. 
 
 They are also rich in farm stock, especially oxen, which they 
 tend most carefully, and many a Betsileo lives a hard life, wear- 
 ing nothing but a mat or a piece of old rag, in order that he 
 may own a few oxen to be slain at his funeral. The women, in 
 addition to their household duties, devote themselves to making 
 baskets, mats, jackets, etc., of rushes, while some of them are 
 engaged in the cultivation of .the silkworm, the weaving of silk, 
 and the manufacture of various kinds of robes, all done entirely 
 by hand, without even the assistance of a native loom. 
 
 The People of India 
 
 The natives of India are always dignified under any circum- 
 stances. Even when you have found them out in any sin, such 
 as telling lies or cheating you, they still remain dignified and 
 self-possessed. Now, when you are accused of wrong-doing, and 
 you know you are guilty, your eyes fall, your head droops, and 
 you feel thoroughly ashamed of yourself; but it is not so with 
 a Hindu, because he has no idea of sin. To his thinking, the 
 more he can lie and cheat and steal the cleverer he is. 
 
 Religion is the first thing with them. They say their prayers 
 regularly morning and evening, they do not neglect public worship 
 in the temples, they keep the Hindu festivals very carefully, and 
 they give away a good deal of money to the Brahman priests and
 
 NATIVES AND NATIVE WAYS 9 
 
 to the poor in order to gain merit. It is part of their religion 
 to bathe often, and always before meals. Keeping their teeth clean 
 is said to be a religious duty. 
 
 There is one thing in which we should do well to imitate the 
 Hindus. It is this : they are never by any chance ashamed of 
 their religion. You will see the natives praying in public places. 
 I have often seen Mohammedan coachmen kneeling on the tops of 
 
 HINDU BARBER. 
 
 their cabs at sundown, saying their prayers in the public streets. 
 If you go out boating, the boatmen will stop twice a day to pray ; 
 and if you go into a shop when the shopkeeper happens to be 
 saying his prayers, you must wait until he has finished before 
 you can be served ; and it is all done as a matter of course. 
 There is no show about it, neither are they at all ashamed of it. 
 The Hindus have no comfort or love in their religion. They
 
 10 GLEANINGS FROM MANY FIELDS 
 
 believe that the gods are angry with them, and it is their one 
 aim in life to try and please them by good works. And so, to 
 escape the punishment of their sins and to obtain merit, they 
 sacrifice goats, or give alms to the poor, or make a feast for the 
 Brahman priests, or, if they are rich, build temples and shrines and 
 bathing ghats. In India we have a large number of half-built 
 temples and ghats, and also of temples and ghats in ruins. I 
 will tell you why that is. It is supposed to be a virtuous act 
 and very pleasing to the gods to build a temple or bathing ghat 
 (a ghat is a landing or bathing-place with steps leading down to 
 the water for bathers) ; but as the man who builds it gets all 
 the merit, no one else will keep it in repair. Sometimes a man 
 may die before the ghat is completed, and in that case no one 
 else will finish it, because he would get no virtue for doing so, 
 and so the thing is allowed to fall into decay. 
 
 The Hindus believe that they are born again and again, 
 perhaps millions of times, according to their works, whether they 
 have been good or bad. If they perform some good action in their 
 life, they will probably be born again as a rajah (king) or as some 
 great or rich man. If they do something very bad, they will be 
 born again as an animal or an insect. 
 
 But though they believe in the transmigration of souls, or the 
 passage of the soul from one body to another, they have no hope 
 of ever seeing their friends again after death. I remember one 
 day a mother was crying and telling me of the death of her 
 eldest son, a boy eight years of age. I said to her : " Well, if 
 you love Jesus you may meet your son in heaven." She looked 
 so astonished ; and I explained to her that we hoped to meet our 
 dear ones again after death, and that she might meet her boy 
 again if she believed in Jesus. I believe the words came as a 
 revelation to her, and they seemed to bring comfort to her heart. 
 
 The Hindus do not bury their dead. Their bodies are burned. 
 A large quantity of wood is piled up, some " ghee," a sort of 
 butter, is poured upon it, then the body is placed upon the pile
 
 NATIVES AND NATIVE WAYS 
 
 II 
 
 the eldest son places a piece of burning wood in the mouth of 
 the corpse the pile of wood is also set fire to, and the body is 
 burned. When a wealthy Hindu dies, sweet-smelling sandal wood 
 is used for burning his body. This, of course, costs a great deal 
 of money 
 
 HINDU CARPENTERS. 
 
 When a very poor man dies if the relatives cannot afford to 
 pay for sufficient wood to burn the corpse to ashes the body is 
 burned a little and is then thrown into the Ganges, where it is 
 soon eaten by sharks and crows and vultures. I have seen dead 
 bodies floating down the Ganges with crows sitting on them and 
 tearing the flesh from off the bones. 
 
 When a Hindu boy is eleven years of age a certain ceremony
 
 12 GLEANINGS FROM MANY FIELDS 
 
 takes place, offerings are made to the gods, relatives and friends 
 are feasted, a Brahmanical thread is given to him, and he is said 
 to be " born again." When an English boy becomes a Christian, 
 or is " born again," he becomes a new creature, he is more loving, 
 more humble, more holy ; but it is not so with a Hindu boy : he 
 becomes more proud and vain and conceited, and also more sinful, 
 and he thinks himself better than everybody else. 
 
 The Brahmanical cord is worn by Brahmans only. 
 
 Perhaps you would like to know what a Brahman is. The 
 Hindus are divided into four classes or " castes." The word 
 "caste" means "separation." The four castes are (i) the Brah- 
 mans or priests ; (2) the Khatriyas or the soldiers ; (3) the Boishayas 
 or the merchants ; and (4) the Sudras or the servants. These foui 
 castes, like the Jews and the Samaritans of old, have " no deal- 
 ings with each other " that is, they would not eat together or 
 intermarry. If a Brahman were to eat with a Sudra he would 
 be unclean, and his caste would be broken. A Brahman must 
 marry a Brahmani. 
 
 Mothers in India teach their children to tell stories and to 
 cheat. They themselves do not know it is wrong, and so how 
 can they teach their children better? We missionaries have to 
 teach both the parents and the children. We do not argue about 
 their gods we simply preach Christ to them. And we try, by the 
 help of the Holy Spirit, to show them what sin is in God's sight, 
 and to lead them to the one true Saviour. Our work has not 
 been in vain. Some have at least renounced idolatry, others have 
 believed in Jesus, and have given their hearts to Him. 
 
 African Medicine Men 
 
 One day a man came from a place about seven miles from 
 Kuruman, and began to boast that he was clever in healing all 
 kinds of diseases. A native there whom I knew was very ill at the 
 time, and sent for the new doctor to go and see him. He went, and 
 this is how he treated him. He first of all dug up some roots and
 
 NATIVES AND NATIVE WAYS 13 
 
 boiled them, and then gave the sick man the water to drink. He 
 then pounded up the dried skin of a snake, some stuff the natives 
 call " tupa," together with the 
 feathers of a vulture burnt to 
 ashes. These things having been 
 properly mixed, he made a num- 
 ber of cuts on the man's skin, 
 and plastered them all over with 
 this mixture. Some more of it 
 was then mixed with water, 
 which was sprinkled over the 
 house, both inside and out, and 
 also the houses close by. This 
 was done to keep away lightning 
 or anything else which might 
 harm the sick man while in the 
 doctor's hands. The next thing 
 was to get a small bundle of 
 sticks split up into many thin 
 pieces and smeared over with the 
 above medicine. Some goat fat 
 was then got, melted and poured 
 over this bundle of medicine 
 sticks. The bundle was now set 
 on fire. When it was in a good 
 blaze, the doctor commenced 
 blowing the flames towards the 
 sick man, sprinkling his body 
 with the drops of hot fat. How- 
 ever, all this did not make the 
 poor fellow any better, and so 
 the doctor resolved to bleed him. 
 
 This he did by making a large cut on the front part of his 
 head, and letting a quantity of blood run away. After this, as
 
 14 GLEANINGS FROM MANY FIELDS 
 
 you may suppose, the sick man became much worse. His head 
 swelled up and was very sore. But for this work the doctor 
 was paid a young ox. 
 
 I heard he was also sent for to see a sick woman, whose arm 
 he burnt from the hand to the shoulder with his fire medicine, 
 besides nearly setting the house on fire. But the people still 
 believed in him, and I heard he had received several cattle as 
 payment in this way. 
 
 Besides giving medicine to the sick, the native doctor has also 
 other kinds of work to do. Sometimes he is a rainmaker, or he 
 prepares medicines to make the gardens bear good crops, and some- 
 times medicines to put round the town to keep evil things away. 
 He also prepares medicines for bewitching people or making them 
 sick. Then again, the doctor may often be seen throwing his 
 dice. I once saw a doctor doing so to see whether his patient 
 should take some medicine through his nose or through his mouth. 
 The dice turned up for the nose, and the medicine was taken that 
 way! While very many people no longer believe in these things, 
 there are many hundreds, even thousands, who know but little, if 
 anything, about the great Physician, the Lord Jesus Christ. 
 
 In Central Africa the natives on Lake Tanganyika, when in 
 trouble, from a drought or a cloud of locusts which have eaten 
 up their crops, usually call to the spirits of their dead relatives 
 for help. They have a name for God, but they do not know 
 much about Him. As for Jesus Christ, His name was unknown 
 to them when we went. One thing they fear very much is witch- 
 craft. When anybody is suddenly taken ill, they will say he or 
 she has been bewitched. But how can they find out who has done 
 this thing ? Only through their medicine-man, who divines, and 
 after a time finds a person. These people have curious notions. 
 They say that if you want to work in iron, well, you must make 
 medicine to help you to do so ; or if you want to hunt with suc- 
 cess you must do the same. When they are ill and are in pain 
 they will go to the medicine-man and tell him where the pain is.
 
 15
 
 16 GLEANINGS FROM MANY FIELDS 
 
 He will then ask what they intend to give, and when he sees he 
 will be paid, he gives them a charm say a goat's horn filled with 
 little pieces of wood, an insect or two, and the blood of one or 
 two animals. This he hands over to the patient, and receives 
 payment. The man who receives it fastens it on the place 
 where he feels the pain, and quite believes it will cure him. But ' 
 he finds it does not ; so he comes to the white doctor, who asks a 
 few questions, gives the proper medicine, and the pain or sickness 
 is healed ; but often they say the white man's medicine has not 
 done the good, but the charm. 
 
 A Butcher's Shop in Africa 
 
 Right away in the heart of tropical Africa is the little town 
 (if we may call it so) of Ujiji on the shores of Lake Tanganyika. 
 The picture on the preceding page shows you the butcher's shop 
 in the market, where all manner of food and wares are brought 
 for barter. 
 
 A few years ago the goats, sheep, and oxen were sold as living 
 animals, but now they are killed and the meat sold in joints and 
 portions, which is a sign that the natives are getting more civi- 
 lized. The very poor people now can buy small quantities, when 
 before they could not get any meat. 
 
 Captain Hore, who has told us so much about life in Central 
 Africa, says that this Ujiji meat shop is carried on very much as 
 here in England, except that the animals are brought to the market 
 and there killed, as there are no means of transport. 
 
 You see the large joints are hung up, just as in butchers' shops 
 at home, and the little joints and tit-bits are spread in tempting 
 array upon the counter below, fresh cool banana leaves in this case 
 taking the place of a marble slab. You will notice the gentleman 
 in the picture who has come to buy has just stuck his spear in 
 the ground, as we should place our umbrella in the stand of the 
 shop. The butcher, too, faces the public pathway when he has got 
 his wares all arranged, and calls out some strange words, which 
 are really the same as the old cry of " Buy ! buy ! "
 
 NATIVES AND NATIVE WAYS IJ 
 
 The Worship of Ancestors in China 
 
 One of the first things a Chinese child is taught is that it is 
 its duty to worship its grandfather, great-grandfather, great-great- 
 grandfather, and other ancestors. What ! worship the dead ? Yes ; 
 the Chinese often keep their dead unburied until they get money 
 enough to pay for a grand funeral, and all this time the corpse 
 will be worshipped. When they bury the dead, too, they pretend 
 to send houses, furniture, clothes, servants, money, etc., to the 
 other world for their use. These things are made of paper and 
 burnt. One of our missionaries in China was once allowed to 
 witness the rite of worshipping the ancestors, and he has told us 
 what he saw. Picture to yourselves a large dining-room with 
 curious windows in the shape of oyster-shells, with moral sen- 
 tences painted in red letters upon the wall, and gaily coloured 
 lanterns hanging from the roof. In this stood a large table loaded 
 with many dishes of rice, fowl, fish, fruits, tea, and a pipe of 
 tobacco. There was also a good supply of sweetmeats. At the 
 head of the table was a large handsome chair, and in front of it 
 six or eight red candles were burning. At the foot of the table lay 
 a beautiful cushion, and around it pieces of paper, cut into the 
 shape of gold and silver coins, were hanging. Some loud crackers 
 were let off. This was to inform the spirits of their dead friends 
 that the feast was ready. After a time the eldest son came, took 
 his place at the foot of the table opposite to the empty arm-chair, 
 and bowed several times. At last he lay down and knocked his 
 head on the floor. Next came the sons in order, then the grand- 
 children, and so on, one after another, till all the male relatives 
 had performed the same act. Then incense was burned, and the 
 paper money lighted. The last spark was scarcely out when 
 there was a perfect scramble among the boys and girls for the 
 good things on the table, and each ran off with his favourite 
 dish and enjoyed it greatly.
 
 CHAPTER II 
 CRUEL CUSTOMS THAT CHRIS2 IS CONQUERING 
 
 Cannibalism 
 
 WHEN our missionaries first went to the South Sea Islands, 
 they found many of the people living there were cannibals. 
 In your fairy-tale books you have often read of giants and wicked 
 ogres who eat people for dinner, but just think of meeting such 
 people in real life ! Even to-day in parts of New Guinea and other 
 places our missionaries still come across tribes who kill and eat 
 their enemies, but Christ is conquering these cruel customs and 
 soon they will be things of the past everywhere. 
 
 But once upon a time in Rarotonga, there lived some cruel 
 heathen men named Vakatini, Tautu, and Tearo, who were rulers 
 over the people living near them. They were very fond of eating 
 human flesh. As it was dangerous to kill the people on the eastern 
 side of the island, they were in the habit of pouncing upon help- 
 less men, women, and especially children, belonging to their own 
 districts. They used to set armed men to watch the bathing 
 places and fountains. If they saw thin and old people come to 
 them, they were allowed to go away again, but if nice fat ones came, 
 the cruel warrior would rush out of his hiding-place and seize the 
 poor bather or water-carrier and drag him to the house of Vaka- 
 tini. In this dreadful way as many as twenty or thirty living 
 victims have been caught and tied up to the beams and posts of 
 the chiefs large house. It is said that sometimes children were 
 hoisted up and tied to the rafters, so that they could not escape. 
 These poor creatures were killed and eaten, not all at once, but 
 two or three at a time, great care being taken that each warrior 
 
 18
 
 20 GLEANINGS FROM MANY FIELDS 
 
 as well as each chief should have a share. Yet Vakatini and 
 Tautu lived to know and love Jesus Christ. 
 
 Then there was another noted chief in the island. He used to 
 tell his son that when he grew up "he should become a main sup- 
 port of the king, Tinomana." This chief had at various times 
 slain and eaten a number of children, but at last the supply of 
 human flesh in his basket was all gone. So he said to his own 
 boy: "I cannot restrain my appetite, I must eat you." The terror- 
 stricken and weeping lad said: "Father, did you not say that I 
 should become a great warrior and support our king, Tinomana?" 
 The wicked father said : "I did ; but in my stomach do you help 
 me to fight the battles of Tinomana." (" De, i roto i taku kopu e 
 nai te vaka o Tinomana.") The poor boy was killed, cooked and 
 eaten. But to-day, if you were to visit Raro tonga, what a change 
 you would find ! Churches, schools, good houses, and the people 
 living at peace with one another. 
 
 Juggernaut 
 
 One of the most terrible customs in India which the Gospel of 
 Jesus Christ has conquered is that of the Juggernaut Festival. 
 
 Some time before it was put down by law, one of our mission- 
 aries paid a visit to the celebrated temple of Juggernaut at the 
 time of the annual rites. He said that more than fifty miles be- 
 fore they got to the temple they found human bones strewed by 
 the roadside. On the way they were joined by several large 
 bodies of pilgrims, some thousands in number, who had come from 
 different parts of North India. Some of these pilgrims told the 
 missionary that they had been two months on the march, travel- 
 ling slowly, in the hottest season of the year, with their wives 
 and children. Some old persons were among them who wished to 
 die in the presence of Juggernaut. Numbers of people perished on 
 the road, and their bodies remained unburied. The dogs, jackals, 
 and vultures there seemed to live on human food. 
 
 When in the early morning the great temple appeared in view
 
 CRUEL CUSTOMS THAT CHRIST IS CONQUERING 21 
 
 at a distance, the thousands of pilgrims gave a shout and fell to 
 the ground and worshipped. At the outer gate of the city of 
 Puri, where the temple of Juggernaut stands, a guard of soldiers 
 was posted to prevent any from entering until the pilgrim's tax 
 was paid. One devotee laid himself down at every step, measur- 
 ing the road to the city by the length of his body, as a penance 
 to please his god. 
 
 The missionary entered the temple and saw the great idol on 
 its throne. 
 
 On the chief day of the feast, the throne was placed on a huge 
 car, or tower, about sixty feet in height, resting on great wheels. 
 Six thick, long ropes were attached to it, and by these the people 
 drew it along. Upon the car were the priests of the idol, sur- 
 rounding its throne. The idol is a block of wood, with a most 
 frightful face, painted black, and a large red mouth. Its arms 
 are of gold and it is dressed in grand clothes. Five elephants 
 walked in front of the car, with flags and bells and crimson trap- 
 pings. After the tower had moved a little way, a pilgrim an- 
 nounced that he was ready to offer himself as a sacrifice to the 
 idol. He laid himself down in the road before the tower as it w r ent, 
 lying on his face, with his arms stretched forwards. He was 
 crushed to death by the wheels, and a shout of joy was raised by 
 the multitudes around. The idol was said to smile when such deeds 
 were done. The people threw cowries or small money on the 
 body of the victim to show their approval. 
 
 Then a woman came forward and laid herself down in a slant- 
 ing direction, so that the wheel did not kill her at once, as is 
 generally the case. But she died in a few hours. Next morning 
 nothing remained but her bones. So pilgrim after pilgrim flung 
 themselves down on that awful road, and died, thinking that 
 thereby they would win heaven. 
 
 The Swinging Festival 
 
 One other great Indian custom has also given way to the
 
 22 GLEANINGS FROM MANY FIELDS 
 
 Gospel of Jesus Christ, and that is the churruck pooj'ah, or Swing- 
 ing Festival. 
 
 It used to be held in various places in the cities, and in all the 
 large towns and villages too of Bengal. A long pole was fixed 
 firmly in the earth, on the top of which was placed on a pivot 
 one or more thick bamboos, ropes being attached to both ends, so 
 that when one end of the bamboo was pulled downwards, the 
 other end was raised. To one of these ropes was fastened two 
 hooks, something like those used in butchers' shops. 
 
 At the appointed time great crowds of people flocked to the 
 place, and amid the noise of drums, conch-shells, etc., the devotee 
 appeared. He knelt down before a Brahman who pronounced a 
 blessing, and the hooks were thrust by a blacksmith firmly into 
 the fleshy parts of his back. 
 
 The signal being now given, the other rope was pulled, and the 
 poor victim was raised about twelve or fifteen feet high. The men 
 then began to run, and the devotee was whirled round and round 
 for about ten or fifteen minutes, after which he was let down, the 
 hooks removed, and another wretched creature took his place, and 
 this would go on for three or four hours. The scars made on his 
 back he esteemed as his highest honours, while his neighbours al- 
 ways regarded him as a very holy man who would be sure to 
 gain a very high place in heaven. 
 
 The Thugs 
 
 The word "Thug" means a cheat, a deceiver, and the "Thugs" 
 of India were a band of men who lived by deceit and murder. 
 They were bound together by secret oaths, and it was their 
 custom to coax travellers into lonely places, there to murder and 
 rob them. They were careful not to shed blood, as that might 
 lead to their being found out, and so they strangled their victims. 
 Once, two travellers in India, a bride and bridegroom, were re- 
 turning home, when they were joined on the road by three men 
 who were very pleasant and kind to them. When they all halted
 
 CRUEL CUSTOMS THAT CHRIST IS CONQUERING 23 
 
 to rest and to have some food, these men offered the travellers 
 
 HINDU HOLY MAN. 
 
 something to drink, which they accepted, not knowing it was 
 drugged. It made them go to sleep, whereupon the men dragged
 
 24 GLEANINGS FROM MANY FIELDS 
 
 them into the thicket, killed and then robbed them. These 
 murderers, the Thugs, believed that their goddess Kali wished 
 them to do all these murders, and they used to bring their deadly 
 instruments to her for her to bless them before use. 
 
 Boys were allowed to join the gang as early as ten or twelve 
 years of age. Sometimes the father acted as the teacher ; but 
 happily some few years ago the British Government in India 
 hunted down the whole band of Thugs. In eleven years no less 
 than 1,562 of them were seized, and either put to death or im- 
 prisoned. The country was well rid of such a deadly foe, for it 
 has been proved that in rather more than ten years 94,700 persons 
 had been strangled by these Thugs. 
 
 Suttee 
 
 It is not so very many years since the very dreadful and cruel 
 custom of burning a widow on her dead husband's funeral pile 
 was put down by law. 
 
 Of course you know that a man in India may have several 
 wives at one time, so that at the funeral of one great Brahman 
 thirty-seven widows were burnt, and at the funeral of a prince 
 fifty-eight poor women met with the same terrible fate. The 
 following description of this "ordeal by fire," which happily now 
 the religion of Christ has conquered, is written by a Hindu, Mr. 
 Shib Chunder Bose : 
 
 " When I was a little boy at home, my attention one morning 
 was roused by hearing from my mother that my aunt was 
 'going as a sati.' I pondered and thought over and over again 
 in my mind what it could mean, and upon asking my mother I 
 was told that my aunt (living in the next house) was ' going to 
 eat fire.' Instantly I felt a strong desire to see the thing with 
 my own eyes. I had then no real notion that life would be at 
 once destroyed. I never thought for a moment that I was going 
 to lose my dear aunt for ever. I ran down to my aunt's room, 
 and what should I see there but a group of women with my aunt
 
 CRUEL CUSTOMS THAT CHRIST IS CONQUERING 25 
 
 in the middle. She was dressed in a red silk sari, with all her 
 ornaments on. Her forehead was daubed with a very thick coat 
 of vermilion, her feet were painted red, and she was chewing a 
 mouthful of betel. She was evidently wrapt in an ecstasy of 
 devotion, quite calm and composed, as if nothing important was to 
 happen. 
 
 "My uncle was lying a corpse in the next room. I was sur- 
 prised to see my aunt stretch out one of her hands, at the bidding 
 of an old Brahman woman, and holding a finger right over the 
 wick of the burning lamp for a few seconds until it was scorched, 
 in order to test the firmness of her mind. The calm way in which 
 she underwent this fiery ordeal fully convinced all that she was 
 a real Sati, fit to abide with her husband in Paradise. It was 
 about eleven o'clock when the corpse of my uncle was removed 
 to the ghat. Nearly thirty persons, forming the mourning pro- 
 cession, carried the dead body by turns. The body was laid on a 
 chdrpoy, and my aunt followed it. When we arrived at the ghdt 
 the funeral pile was made of dry firewood, faggots, pitch, and 
 sandal-wood to make a fragrant odour in the air. We little 
 boys were ordered to stand aside. We saw the dead body wrapt 
 in new clothes, placed on the pile, and my aunt was desired to 
 walk seven times round it, which she did while strewing flowers, 
 cowries, and parched rice on the ground. 
 
 " It struck me at the time that her strength and presence of 
 mind seemed failing her, but suddenly she calmly ascended the 
 funeral pile, and lying down by the side of her husband, put one 
 hand under his head and the other on his breast. She was in- 
 stantly covered or rather choked with dry wood, while some stout 
 men with bamboos held and pressed down the pyre, which was 
 by this time burning fiercely on all sides. A great shout then 
 arose from the spectators, till both the dead and living bodies were 
 reduced to a handful of dust and ashes. 
 
 "When the tragic scene was brought to a close, men and women 
 wept and sobbed, while cries and groans of sympathy filled the air."
 
 26 
 
 GLEANINGS FROM MANY FIELDS 
 
 Getting Rid of the Babies 
 
 In Amoy there is a pond that was named the Baby Pool, because 
 so many little baby girls were found in it. But the friends of 
 Jesus Christ in Amoy have now built a Babies' Home, where they 
 take in and care for any of these poor little castaways who are 
 alive when found. In many places in China there are dreadful 
 
 MALAGASY TRIBESMEN. 
 
 little towers into which parents put their babies alive, if for some 
 reason or other they do not wish the trouble of bringing them up. 
 Can you imagine anything more cruel or horrible than this ? Poor 
 little helpless creatures, and poor fathers and mothers too we must 
 say, for they know nothing about the Friend of little children 
 who used to take them up in His dear arms when on earth.
 
 CRUEL CUSTOMS THAT CHRIST IS CONQUERING 2J 
 
 Though fathers and mothers in Madagascar were generally 
 fond of their children, even in the old heathen days, yet if a 
 baby was born on an " unlucky day " they would not hesitate to 
 destroy it. 
 
 When the baby was about a week old its parents would send 
 for a diviner, who, on being told the day and hour of its birth, 
 would make a careful calculation, and then tell them what the 
 child's fate would be. He would also advise the parents what 
 to do to make baby's future better. Perhaps they were to buy a 
 hen and holding it by the legs shake it over the baby's head, and 
 while the hen cackled and flapped its wings, all in the house were 
 to exclaim : " May this remove all ill-luck and cause of disease." 
 But, sad to say, thousands of little innocent babies were put to 
 death because the diviner said they were born on a so-called unlucky 
 day, and would bring evil upon their parents. This was often 
 done by pouring warm water into a large, round, wooden tray, 
 used for winnowing rice, and then turning the little one's face 
 downwards into the water and leaving it there until it was 
 drowned. 
 
 Sometimes, however, the child was not put to death at once, 
 but placed out at the village gate, or at the entrance of an ox-pit 
 in the yard outside the house, just at the time when the cattle 
 were being driven home for the night. If the oxen all passed 
 by without touching it, the evil fates which hung over the child's 
 life were supposed to be removed, and it was taken home again 
 with great rejoicing. But if the huge animals happened to tread 
 on the soft, wee, naked thing lying in their path, it was, of 
 course, crushed to death at once, and its mother took up its poor 
 little, bruised body, wrapped it in a piece of calico, put it in a 
 large pot and buried it. 
 
 Once a little child belonging to a slave woman was placed at 
 the gate of an ox-pit when seven oxen were being driven home 
 in the evening. The first, on coming to the place where the baby 
 lay, put its great nose down and smelt it, or as the Malagasy say
 
 28 GLEANINGS FROM MANY FIELDS 
 
 " kissed it," for their kissing consists in nose-rubbing, then at 
 one bound jumped right over it and down into the pit below. 
 The second came and smelt it, and leapt over it in the same 
 way ; the ti^rd came and did just the same, and so on until all 
 the seven had jumped over the poor tiny mortal without harming 
 it in the least. 
 
 But you must not think it was because the Malagasy mothers 
 did not love their babies that they treated them so cruelly. No ; 
 mother-love is the same all the world over, and these poor women 
 loved their children as dearly, perhaps, as our mothers loved us. 
 But they feared to break through the cruel custom, for they 
 thought that what the diviner said would come true. Some 
 indeed there were who could not find it in their hearts to kill 
 their children in this way, and these used to take them out on 
 some busy road and leave them by the wayside. Sometimes a 
 kind-hearted person would find the little castaway and take it 
 home, but if not baby was simply left to die of cold and hunger, 
 and its body would be eaten by crows and wild dogs. 
 
 The Tangena 
 
 In the great island of Madagascar some very strange and cruel 
 customs prevailed for finding out if a person had really done any 
 deed he was charged with or not. Sometimes a red-hot iron 
 would be passed over the tongue, or the naked arm would be 
 plunged into a pot full of boiling water to pick out a pebble 
 thrown into it for the special purpose of the trial. And in either 
 case if the victim was not hurt at all he was pronounced innocent. 
 But the usual way to try a person was by making him drink the 
 Tangena. 
 
 The Tangena is really a nut about the size of an English 
 horse-chestnut, and grows in abundance in the island. The nut 
 was scraped into some juice of a banana and mixed with water. 
 This was first tried on two chickens. If both died, the Tangena 
 was pronounced bad, as it would not give to the accused a fair
 
 CRUEL CUSTOMS THAT CHRIST IS CONQUERING 29 
 
 chance of being found innocent. If both lived, it was rejected as 
 not being rightly mixed to detect and convict the guilty. Did 
 one chicken live and the other die, it was, of course, declared 
 suitable and just. 
 
 The person to be tried was made to eat a large quantity of 
 boiled rice, and then to swallow three pieces of the skin of a fowl, 
 killed for the occasion. Then the Tangena was drunk, and if the 
 three pieces of skin were returned from the stomach the person 
 was pronounced " velona" " living," and in due time led up by 
 his friends to his village with much pomp and ceremony. 
 
 If the skin remained in the stomach the victim was guilty, 
 and a club or a spear generally put an end to his sufferings and 
 fears.
 
 CHAPTER III 
 CHILD LIFE AND AMUSEMENTS 
 
 In China 
 
 WHEN the news of a baby's birth in China is sent to the 
 relatives and friends, everybody wants to know first of all 
 whether it is a boy or girl. If it is a boy, all the friends call 
 upon the parents with presents and congratulations, and the 
 rejoicing is great. But if it is " only a girl," alas ! the parents 
 need sympathy from their friends, for they are usually very sorry 
 
 about it. 
 
 so
 
 CHILD LIFE AND AMUSEMENTS 31 
 
 But come and have a psep at master baby lying in his bamboo 
 cradle with its heavy rockers. If it is summer-time, he wears 
 hardly any clothing, but in the cold Chinese winter he is muffled 
 up in so many wadded garments that he looks like a funny 
 little round ball. His clothes are not white like our English 
 babies wear, but usually of scarlet. Round his fat wee wrists 
 you will notice a red cord has been tied. This is done with the 
 idea of making the little fellow good and obedient when he grows 
 older. Round baby's neck you will see another piece of red cord 
 tied, and hung from this are a number of small copper coins with 
 a hole through the centre. These are supposed to keep him free 
 from baby illnesses. He bites and jingles these like our babies 
 play with their coral and bells. On the day that he is a fortnight 
 old, special thanksgiving is made, and offerings are laid before the 
 family shrine of the goddess called "mother." A grand feast is 
 held when baby completes his first month, and the guests who 
 come to it bring all sorts of presents. The great event of the day 
 is the shaving of the child's head before the ancestral tablets. 
 He also receives his "milk" or pet name. Some of these milk 
 names sound very strange to English names, for the parents are 
 afraid to give fine names to their children for fear the evil spirits 
 should think they must be very precious, and should send some 
 injury to them. So you often meet with children who answer 
 to the names of "Little Stupid," "Vagabond," "Flea," "Dirt," or 
 " Spring-dog." I wonder how you would like to be called any 
 of these names! When the baby is four months old he is taught 
 to sit in a chair, and so relieve his mother or nurse. Soft sugar- 
 candy is placed on it, and it is thought that that will make baby 
 fond of sitting in it. When he goes out of doors he is often 
 strapped upon the back of his nurse. He is a solemn, patient 
 little being, with bright black eyes and sallow skin. 
 
 If the baby boy becomes ill, as most babies all the world over do 
 at times, his mother will visit some noted temple and there make 
 vows before the Goddess of Mercy that if she will only restore
 
 32 GLEANINGS FROM MANY FIELDS 
 
 her little one to health again costly presents shall be laid at her 
 feet. Baby's father, though perhaps a proud and rich scholar, will 
 humbly go begging from door to door in the city, asking each 
 family, to the number of one hundred, for a single cash, a coin 
 of which it takes twenty to make a penny. His idea is that the 
 prayers and good wishes of each of these families will follow their 
 
 money and thus secure the health of his child. Or he will walk 
 through the city streets carrying the baby's small garments at 
 the end of a bamboo pole, and cry out at intervals, " Return, 
 return," for he believes that some evil spirit has tempted the little 
 one's soul away and caused its sickness. 
 
 Though Chinese boys have no cricket or football, no marbles
 
 33 
 
 or hockey, they find plenty of fun and frolic in games of their 
 own. 
 
 Kite-flying is their great delight, and even the fathers and 
 grandfathers seem to enjoy it as much as they do. These kites 
 are made in all manner of forms birds, butterflies, and various 
 animals. Battledore and shuttlecock is also very popular with 
 Chinese boys, as well as " hitting the ball," " top whipping," 
 -'hide and seek," "turning the dragon," and many other games, 
 while a "Punch and Judy show" appears as charming to a little 
 pigtail boy as to his English brother. They are great on pets, 
 too, and rabbits, kittens, goldfish, crickets, canaries, and larks 
 claim their especial love and care. 
 
 But what a different side to the picture we find when we look 
 at a girl's life. If she is not destroyed when a baby, she is still 
 generally thought but little of, and has a hard, loveless existence. 
 You all know so much about your Chinese sister's life that I need 
 hardly say much of it here. At six years of age the foot crush- 
 ing commences, and for the first year or so it means constant 
 pain. When the feet are first bound it is very difficult to use 
 them, and girls can only move about by means of two stools, 
 upon which they rest their knees, and which are moved alter- 
 nately by their hands. Three inches is the correct length of the 
 fashionable shoes in which a Chinese woman limps about, support- 
 ing herself on a child's shoulder, or by means of a strong stick. 
 
 The guests at a Chinese wedding ask : " What is the size of 
 the bride's foot?" instead of: "Is she good, or clever, or beauti- 
 ful?" The girls have very few games and still fewer toys. They 
 are mostly kept shut up in the back of the house or behind a 
 screen in the sitting-room, if the family is so poor that there is 
 only one room for all to live in, and it is considered very vulgar 
 indeed if they are heard talking or laughing. Rich people's 
 daughters are not allowed out of doors, because it is considered 
 improper for a girl to be seen in the streets. But the girls who 
 are allowed to come to the Mission Schools have a much happier 
 
 D
 
 34 GLEANINGS FROM MANY FIELDS 
 
 time than their, richer sisters. They don't care much for holidays 
 either, and if they are not very regular in attendance it is because 
 they are wanted at home to help to wash or cook or mind the 
 baby. 
 
 Chinese parents wish their boys to learn to read and write. 
 One day, says a missionary, I heard a terrific noise in our boys r 
 school. I went to see w r hat was the matter. For there was such 
 a yelling and howling and shouting that I feared the neighbours 
 would think some of the lads were having their eyes cut out to make 
 medicine for the weak-eyed foreign missionaries, who the Chinese 
 believe find eye-broth very strengthening and beneficial if made of 
 good young eyes. Well, there was the teacher with a long thin 
 bamboo cane, slashing and cutting at a boy, who dodged round 
 under the desks and over the benches, shrieking, while the other 
 boys looked on, and a woman screamed : " Beat him, teacher, beat 
 him hard! Make him love to study ! Admonish him to come to 
 school ! Knock his stupid head, teacher ! Encourage him with 
 the cane. Make him love his books ! " She was the boy's mother, 
 and when I tried to stop the beating she got angry with me. 
 He was lazy and did not like to come to school, though she and 
 his father were . poor and worked hard in order to spare him the 
 time to learn, she said. He must be made to love studying, and 
 the only way was for the teacher to beat it into his heart ! 
 
 Sunday school is not as popular as week-day school, chiefly for 
 the very odd reason that it is so short ! It does not seem worth 
 while for a girl to do her hair and wash and dress just to go. 
 to school for an hour or two. On week-day mornings, soon after 
 daylight, they tumble up from their bedsteads, made of three hard 
 wooden planks laid side by side, with the ends resting on trestles; 
 get out of their bedding, which consists of a wadded coverlet 
 rolled round and round them, and from their little wooden or 
 china pillow, just the shape and make of a trunk with a rounded 
 top, take out their big ear-rings, which they stick into their ears> 
 then, slipping their bare feet into their funny-looking shoes with
 
 CHILD LIFE AND AMUSEMENTS 35 
 
 thick white soles, they clatter off to school. If their poor feet are 
 bound and bruised and sore from the squeezing and tight bandag- 
 ing necessary to cause all the toes, except the great one, to lie 
 under the sole, and bring the instep close to the heel, which the 
 Chinese think such a lovely shape for a foot, but which looks to 
 us very much like the hoof of a goat tied round with red or 
 white cloth, they are carried on some one's back a woman's or 
 slave-girl's. Anyway, they manage to get to school shortly after 
 six o'clock, and begin to learn their lessons at once, shouting 
 them in chorus at the top of their voices. About eight they go 
 home for breakfast, and to w r ash their faces and smooth their hair 
 a little, returning at ten for prayers and Scripture lesson, and 
 remaining till four or half-past hard at work learning to read and 
 write the queer-looking Chinese printed books. Except for an 
 hour between one and two, when the school goes into recess, and 
 bowls of nice oily yellow soup and pretty pink-topped cakes, with 
 pieces of pork-fat inside them, and well-larded sponge-cakes, are 
 brought in for those girls whose parents can afford to have lunch 
 bet\veen the two meals morning and evening rice which the 
 Chinese consider quite enough food for ordinary days, and which 
 is as much as the greater number of our scholars can get, though 
 they greatly enjoy a feast or tea party in the middle of the day, 
 I can tell you, and our school feasts are always held at noon to 
 please them. 
 
 In New Guinea 
 
 The little girls in New Guinea wear a leaf petticoat, which 
 reaches down to their knees. This is the only thing they wear, 
 but they are all tattooed, and perhaps that helps to make them 
 look decent and keep them warm. Very little girls are tattooed 
 by degrees, until their whole bodies are covered from head to foot. 
 It does not seem to hurt much. The ears of boys and girls are 
 pierced when they are very little. They have two holes in them, 
 one at the bottom and the other at the top. If they can get some
 
 36 GLEANINGS FROM MANY FIELDS 
 
 red beads to string and hang from these holes, they are very 
 proud. Then all their noses are pierced too. If you feel your 
 nose, you will find there is a nice place in the middle, just below 
 the hard part, to hang a ring from or put a stick through. No 
 boy would consider himself dressed without a nose stick. They 
 sometimes wear a little piece of reed, but the proper thing is a 
 white polished stone, a little bigger than a pencil and about as 
 long. 
 
 They often paint their faces with charcoal or with yellow paint. 
 The boys allow their hair to grow long, and they sometimes do it 
 up chignon fashion, but the girls and women have theirs cut off 
 quite short. The children live with their parents in funny-looking 
 places stuck up on poles, like pigeon houses, and standing half in 
 the sea and half out. They have no mats or chairs, no beds, 
 tables or furniture of any sort. When a little baby is born, they 
 have no nice cot to put him in, but he is laid on a banana leaf 
 on the hard boards. When he gets a little bigger he is put in a 
 net bag, something like an onion net, and hung up. Baby is then 
 gently swung to and fro, and so rocked to sleep. New Guinea 
 boys and girls love play dearly, and often get excited like you 
 about games that are well known in England. They like rounders, 
 dancing in ring, hide and seek, racing, jumping, touch- wood, kite- 
 flying, stilt-walking, marbles, football, golf, swinging, canoe-sailing, 
 and cat's cradle. In the very hot weather they tumble about in 
 the sea for hours together, just like a shoal of fish, except, of 
 course, that they make a tremendous noise with shouting and 
 laughter. 
 
 In Central Africa 
 
 Mr. A. J. Swann tells us the following story. We were sitting 
 down resting one afternoon after our mid-day meal, when all at 
 once such a screaming commenced : " Oh ! oh ! Ba-ba ! Ma- ma ! 
 Wazungu!" Out We jumped over the stools and every other 
 obstacle. " What's the matter ? Who is being killed ? Where is
 
 \\ 
 
 NEW GUINEA BOY SHOOTING BIRDS OF PARADISE. 
 37
 
 38 
 
 he?" we all shouted. "There, master; there, look! be quick! 
 let me shoot him ! " exclaimed our old head man, putting a gun 
 to his shoulder. "Stop!" we shouted; "don't shoot, you will 
 kill the boy ; into the boats and after the scoundrel, every man of 
 you, before it is too late ! " Here was a scene. Paddling away in 
 a small canoe as fast as possible was a big native, and at his feet 
 we could see the head of a little boy, who was jelling piteously. 
 It only required a second to understand the meaning of it all. One 
 of our boys was being stolen for a slave. Oh, what a feeling 
 passed through me! That man never knew what a temptation I 
 had to shoot him. By this time all our men were in full chase, 
 some in canoes, others on either bank, and in a few moments the}' 
 were close up to the wicked slaver, who was straining every nerve 
 to get away with his prize. Another moment and they would have 
 captured him, but hearing his pursuers were gaining on him, he 
 stooped down, took the little fellow in his arms, and threw him 
 right overboard in amongst the reeds. There the poor little crea- 
 ture was clinging, not knowing but that the next moment a huge 
 crocodile might seize his legs and drag him down ; and while the 
 boats stopped to save him from death, the inhuman slaver escaped. 
 How glad his father and mother were to get him back safe ! A 
 few moments' more start, and he would have been lost to them for 
 ever; they would never have looked on their boy again. That 
 evening there was great rejoicing in the village; and as I sat on 
 a large stone outside our house listening to them, I thought of the 
 great slaver prowling about amongst these Africans, every now 
 and then catching one, and not a single relative left on the bank 
 who knew anything of Jesus, the great and swift Lifeboat, lying 
 near, all ready to snatch the stolen ones away from Satan and 
 carry them back home again, where there is always great rejoic- 
 ing over every lost one rescued. Then I looked at your vessel, the 
 Good News, and felt proud to think that you boys and girls were 
 doing something towards letting these poor creatures know all 
 about it.
 
 CHILD LIFE AND AMUSEMENTS 
 
 39 
 
 In Madagascar 
 
 Malagasy bairns get up at daybreak or soon after, and wash 
 their face, hands, and feet not, however, with toilet-service in a 
 bedroom, but out in the yard, with a tin dipper to pour the water 
 over the part they are washing. The girls have one or more 
 petticoats and dresses made of white or brown calico or print, 
 
 H81 
 
 ir^^^tr 
 
 PALANQUIN RIDING, MADAGASCAR. 
 
 the boys shirts of the same; and many have calico trousers or 
 knickers, and just a few wear coats and shoes and stockings. 
 Both boys and girls wear the lamba, or sheet, thrown over all 
 the rest, the girls not feeling decently dressed without it, however 
 nice their frocks may be. 
 
 I am glad to say that many Malagasy boys and girls spend
 
 40 GLEANINGS FROM MANY FIELDS 
 
 some time morning and evening in prayer and reading the Bible, 
 hundreds of them being members of the same Union which some 
 of you belong to. In many homes also there is family worship 
 once if not twice a day. 
 
 A light breakfast of plain rice is taken by many of the 
 children before going to school, for which they usually start in 
 very good time, so that they can have a chat, or a game, or learn 
 some lessons in the schoolyard. The hours vary in the different 
 schools, but probably most are from eight to one o'clock, with a 
 short interval for rest and play at eleven o'clock. 
 
 Dinner is generally waiting for the young folk when they get 
 home. It consists of rice, with perhaps stewed meat, boiled leaves, 
 dried shrimps or locusts, or some such relish. The mother or one 
 of the chief female slaves piles the rice on plates, and puts the 
 gravy, meat, or other things in small basins, and places all on 
 the mat. The family, each with a horn spoon, sit on the mat in 
 a group round the plates, and the head of the family asks a 
 blessing (which is often quite a long prayer), and then the meal 
 proceeds : a few spoonfuls of rice, and then a dip into a basin, and 
 so on. At the close of the meal one of the slaves rises and 
 fetches a tin of water for those who wish to drink, and then all 
 go outside to wash hands, mouth, and teeth, the latter a point all 
 Malagasy are most particular about after eating. 
 
 Towards the end of the afternoon, the town rings with the 
 merry shouts and singing of the youngsters romping and playing 
 in the yards of the houses and other open spaces, and if it is a 
 pleasant evening and moonlight this lasts until quite late. Here 
 a group of little lads will be seen throwing flat round stones 
 '' Holo," something like quoits. Then a rougher set will be seen 
 chasing an imaginary fierce ox, which is a boy holding a forked 
 stick in front of his bent head, with which he tries to poke and 
 "gore" his tormentors. The girls' games are, of course, less 
 rough, and may consist of merely throwing up and catching 
 stones in a dexterous manner, or playing a game something like
 
 CHILD LIFE AND AMUSEMENTS 4 1 
 
 "oranges and lemons." Others play with dolls or tiny bits of 
 china and glass, which they patiently rub down till the edges are 
 smooth, and are then made to represent all kinds of things to 
 take the place of the toys English bairns have. In the summer- 
 tin^ gardens and flowers attract a large number of the hawk- 
 moth, which has such a long proboscis or trunk, and these afford 
 endless amusement to the children. They go about to those 
 flowers which have long tubes, singing an invitation to the moth 
 to come there for honey, and then they try to catch him by 
 pinching the bottom of the flower and the poor moth's long 
 " trunk " in it. If caught, a sad fate awaits the insect, for his 
 wings are pulled off, and he is cooked in hot ashes for a few 
 minutes and then eaten by the child, whose companions envy her 
 the tit-bit. " Nasty little thing!" I fancy I hear my readers say; 
 but what can you expect of people who think toasted insects and 
 cockchafers dainties ; and, after all, are they any worse than 
 periwinkles, which some English children eat? Supper is a meal 
 just like dinner, and directly after it (and prayers in some homes) 
 children and grown-ups all undress and roll themselves in a lamba, 
 spread out a mattress and pillow on the floor, and sleep just as 
 soundly as if they had big bedsteads and other luxuries.
 
 SAVING HER CHILDREN. 
 
 CHAPTER IV 
 STORIES OF WILD BEASTS 
 
 The Woman and the Lion 
 
 MOST travellers who have been a good deal in the interior of 
 Africa have something to tell about lions, tigers, and ser- 
 pents. You who see lions in this country can do so with no more 
 fear than looking at a rabbit. But it is not so when there is 
 neither cage nor iron bars between you and the angry beast 
 The lion, however, is far more honourable in his way, and more 
 noble than the tiger, which likes to pounce on his victim without 
 being seen. The lion will more often walk up to the object, and 
 if not used to human flesh, he will look all around him cautiously 
 first before attacking, and then only if he is hungry. And some- 
 times if a person can muster courage to stare hard at him, the 
 
 42
 
 STORIES OF WILD BEASTS 43 
 
 lion has been known to slink off something like a. dog with its 
 tail between its legs. 
 
 A native woman who had been left a widow made up her mind 
 to go back, with her two children, to the place from whence she 
 had been taken. They began their journey in the early morning, 
 and trudged on till noonday, when tlie children became very tired 
 and hungry. The mother said to them : " Sit down here and wait 
 while I go and look for some water and wood, and I shall then get 
 some food ready ; but be sure you don't move from here till I come 
 back." The water was farther away- than she had thought, and 
 the children got tired of waiting, and went away to look for her. 
 When she came back she could not find them anywhere. She 
 shouted, she screamed, but there was no answer. Running first 
 in one direction, and then in another, she came out at last from 
 the bushes into a smooth plain. Imagine her horror when she 
 saw her children there, with a big lion coming slowly towards 
 them. 
 
 She ran, or almost flew, to get between them and the lion, 
 calling out : " A lion, a lion, run and hide yourselves in the 
 bushes!" The poor little things had supposed that the animal 
 they saw was a big calf. The mother, knowing the habits of the 
 lion, dare not run, and stood face to face with his majesty within 
 ten feet of him. Then she opened on him such a shower of abuse 
 such as his ears never before had heard. Shaking her fists at 
 him, she called him all the bad names she could think of, asking 
 him what he had to do there, and did he mean to eat her 
 children? The lion seemed quite awed by all this. He stared at 
 her for a time, then crouched down on his stomach, with his head 
 on his paws, as a dog does. The woman went on raving and 
 swearing at the animal, until after a while he evidently thought 
 it wiser to get out of this storm of abuse. He actually rose up 
 and moved off in the direction from which he had come. 
 
 Love for her children armed this poor mother with wonderful 
 courage. Had she fled and followed the children, they would all
 
 44 GLEANINGS FROM MANY FIELDS 
 
 have been torn and devoured, for if his prey proves too much for 
 a lion he will go and bring his wife to help and to enjoy the feast 
 
 An Elephant as Nurse 
 
 An elephant in India was one day very much annoyed by 
 mosquitoes, which came in large numbers to bite him. While he 
 was doing his best with trunk and tail to fight his small enemies, 
 the keeper brought a little black baby, as round as a ball, laid it 
 down before the animal, with two words of Hindustani : " Watch 
 it," and then walked away into the town. The elephant immedi- 
 ately broke off a small bough of a tree so as to make a whisk, 
 and then gave his Avhole attention to the child, gently fanning 
 the little lump of Indian ink, and driving away every mosquito 
 which came near it. This he went on doing for more than two 
 hours, never thinking about himself and his own bites until the 
 keeper came back. It was really a beautiful sight to see this 
 great animal, whose weight was at least ten thousand times 
 greater than that of the baby, setting an example of devotion and 
 unselfishness, which but few Christians perhaps could have prac- 
 tised. 
 
 Monkeys in India 
 
 In India the monkey is looked upon as a very important 
 creature indeed. The Hindus even think it is quite a sacred 
 animal, and worship it. In large cities Sunday is a great day 
 with Jacko, whether because of his holiness or not I won't say. 
 One day, writes the Rev. J. Duthie, of Nagercoil, during the time 
 we were busy hi the Sunday-school, Jacko made his way to our 
 bedroom, where we found him when we returned, comfortably 
 seated on a table before a looking-glass, with our stock of rusty 
 razors spread before him, looking at them one by one. When he 
 saw us come in, he looked gravely at us, then at his spoils on 
 the table, and then he quietly went out. 
 
 Another time we found him on our medicine shelf, smelling
 
 STORIES OF WILD BEASTS 45 
 
 the contents of our bottles and our pill-boxes just like a knowing 
 chemist. 
 
 In India there is a kind of black monkey found in the forests. 
 One day a gentleman succeeded in catching one of these animals, 
 which turned out to be a very bad-tempered one. He tried in 
 many ways to tame it, but with little success. So he tied it to 
 the branch of a tree in his garden, where it lived and was 
 regularly fed. After a time the house became ours, and black 
 Jacko in the tree was given over to our care. All our efforts to 
 subdue the wild creature were no good at all, and we made up 
 our minds to send him away to a neighbour who wanted to have 
 a monkey. But how ever were w r e to send Jacko on his journey? 
 Well, we got a strong basket, and at last, after no end of trouble, 
 we managed to put him in it. Jacko was furious, and the fuss 
 he made was something terrible. However, the native who had 
 been engaged to carry the load set off without any fear, for the 
 basket was strong, and the lid was carefully fastened. He had 
 not gone far, however, when to our surprise we heard screams 
 coming from the direction in which the man and Jacko had gone. 
 We ran after them to see whatever the matter could be, and 
 found a whole crowd of bo}'s and girls rushing to the place 
 where the noise came from. There stood the poor native, scream- 
 ing and waving his hands in a most pathetic way. The people 
 in India, you know, shave off all the hair of the head except 
 a tuft on the top, called the kudami. This wicked monkey 
 having torn open the bottom of the basket, had seized hold of this 
 tuft of hair on the native's head, and was holding on to it with 
 might and main. Oh ! it was a funny scene ; how we all did 
 laugh, to be sure ! We were at last able to separate the two, and 
 convey Jacko to his new master's house. But he went on being 
 so vicious and naughty that in the end he had to be shot. Poor 
 Jacko! 
 
 The Boy and the Tiger 
 
 Bees are very numerous in India, but they are not kept as
 
 46 GLEANINGS FROM MANY FIELDS 
 
 they are here, in hives. They store up their honey in hollow 
 trees in forests and jungles. Many poor men get their living by 
 gathering and selling the wild honey, though often they are in 
 great danger from the serpents and savage beasts which abound 
 in these places. There were four men and a boy eleven years 
 old who went one day from one of our mission stations to gather 
 honey. They rowed in a boat down a river, the banks of which 
 were thickly grown with shrubs and high trees. When they 
 came to the place where they wished to land, the men jumped 
 on shore, and left little Ramati to take care of the boat while 
 they were gone after the honey. As the tide was running out of 
 the creek, the boat was soon left high and dry upon the deep 
 mud. The sun was hot, and Ramati was longing that his father 
 and the others would come back, when to his horror he all at 
 once saw a very large tiger standing on the bank looking right 
 down upon him with his great glaring eyes. You can fancy how 
 the poor little fellow felt as he saw the savage beast first fix his 
 fierce look upon him, and then crouch and crawl along the 
 ground ready to spring. Ramati, however, had all his wits about 
 him, and in a moment crept under the little deck of the boat. 
 The tiger, seeing this, gave one great leap down, but with such 
 force that one of his legs went right through the deck and got 
 jammed in between the planks just over the place where Ramati 
 lay. Without losing a moment, the boy snatched hold of a rope 
 which was lying near him, and twisting it quickly and cleverly 
 round the tiger's leg, he tied it firm and held it fast. Oh, how 
 that fierce, hungry beast did -struggle and pull to get away ! He 
 roared and groaned in the most frightful way too. But Ramati 
 knew well that his only chance of safety was to keep the rope 
 firm, and he hung on to it for dear life. After a time, which 
 seemed long ages to the poor little man, the tiger became quite 
 cowed, and lay down quietly on the deck. At last the honey- 
 gatherers came back, having finished their work. Seeing the 
 tiger lying upon the deck of the boat, of course they thought he
 
 STORIES OF WILD BEASTS 
 
 47 
 
 had killed and gobbled up little Ramati, and was now having a 
 quiet nap after dinner. They raised a great shout, which so 
 frightened the beast that he made one more desperate tug, and 
 this time jerked his leg from the hole, and leaped off the boat 
 down into the deep mud. It was really " out of the frying-pan 
 into the fire," for Mr. Tiger stuck and floundered about trying to 
 get out. But the men rushed down upon him, and with big sticks 
 
 RAMATl'S CLEVER CAPTURE. 
 
 laboured away with all their might at his head, and killed him. 
 You can imagine how surprised and delighted they were when 
 Ramati crept out of his hiding-place safe and sound. 
 
 A Fight with a Man -Eater 
 
 A terrible tiger had been prowling around a certain village in 
 India for some time, and he had killed so many people that the
 
 48 GLEANINGS FROM MANY FIELDS 
 
 Public Works officials found it very difficult to get workmen to 
 carry out the work they were doing in that district. So Mr. Mar- 
 rett, a young engineer, made up his mind to kill the beast the 
 first chance he had. He and a friend of his called Gay, who was 
 staying with him at the time, started off for the place where they 
 believed their fierce enemy was hiding. Mr. Marrett and one of 
 the natives that they took with them took up their position under 
 a tree, while Mr. Gay with the other natives climbed up the tree. 
 All were eagerly on the look-out, when suddenly the man-eater, 
 with a terrible growl, made a spring from a thicket close by at 
 Mr. Marrett, who had just enough time to drop on his knees and 
 lire. The ball struck the animal on the lower jaw and smashed 
 it. Before Mr. Marrett could rise, the tiger was on him. A fear- 
 ful struggle began, the wounded animal savage with pain, Mr. 
 Marrett and the native all rolling together on the ground. Quite 
 exhausted, Mr. Marrett fainted. Just at that moment, Mr. Gay, who 
 was perched on the tree exactly overhead, while trying to change 
 his position, so as to have a better shot at the tiger, lost his foot- 
 ing and fell straight upon the back of the furious brute. It turned 
 upon him at once most savagely, and attacked him with his claws 
 alone, as his jaws were so much hurt by the gun. When Mr. Mar- 
 rett came out of the fainting fit, he found everybody had left him 
 except the one native who had been a little hurt too. A few paces 
 off was the tiger, stilL busy mauling and mangling his helpless vic- 
 tim. His first thought was to seiz^ his gun, but this was found to 
 be quite useless. The beast, now seeing Mr. Marrett moving, left 
 Mr. Gay ; but just at that moment, the faithful native and Mr. 
 Marrett rushed to try and rescue their comrade. But no sooner 
 did they do this than the tiger made a dash at them, and once 
 more took possession of his victim, standing right across the al- 
 most lifeless body. The . other, natives who had run away now 
 came back, and after a great deal of ccaxing, Mr. Marrett got them 
 to charge the brute in a body, and with the aid of tom-toms man- 
 aged to frighten him away to a hill, where he was soon lost to
 
 STORIES OF WILD BEASTS 49 
 
 sight. They carried poor Mr. Gay to the nearest house, and his 
 wounds were dressed, but he died six hours later. 
 
 " Be Sure your Sin will Find you Out " 
 
 A tomb was about to be erected in the Mission burial ground at 
 Nagercoil some years ago, for an officer's wife who had died at 
 that station. The Prime Minister of Travancore had allowed an 
 elephant belonging to the Government to be used in carrying some 
 granite stones which were needed for the tomb. As the keeper's 
 honesty was doubted, the missionary's wife was asked to see that 
 the elephant was fed each day with the proper amount of rice. 
 So orders were given to the keeper to bring the elephant every 
 afternoon in front of the verandah, from which the lady could see 
 it fed. One day, however, she was called away into the house for 
 a few minutes as the elephant was beginning its supper. When 
 she came back she noticed that the quantity of rice which had 
 been measured out for the animal's meal had too quickly gone for 
 it to be possible for the elephant to have eaten it. So she accused 
 the keepsr of having taken some of the rice. He said indeed he 
 had not done so, and to make his denial appear stronger, he lifted 
 his hands to his head, exclaiming: "Would I rob my own child?" 
 as if he wished it to be thought that he had a parent's love for 
 his charge. 
 
 But while the keeper's arms were raised clever Mr. Elephant 
 seized the opportunity to pull down with his trunk the cloth which 
 had been tightly bound round the keeper's waist. Imagine the keeper's 
 feelings when the rice, which had been hidden in the cloth, poured 
 out upon the ground. The elephant began at once to finish his 
 meal which had been stolen from him with great zest ; but the 
 keeper seemed more sorry for losing the rice and being found out 
 than for the wrong he had done. 
 
 The Strange Freaks of an Elephant 
 
 One day a poor hill native was brought in to the Neyoor L.M.S.
 
 50 GLEANINGS FROM MANY FIELDS 
 
 Hospital a distance of thirty miles in a half -fainting condition, 
 much bruised, but with no bones broken. It seems he was one of 
 a gang of coolies carrying rice to one of the coffee estates on the 
 hills. On the way an alarm was caused by a rogue elephant 
 trumpeting and charging upon the men. The coolies threw down 
 their loads, and every one ran off for their lives. This poor man 
 was blind of one eye, and did not see the elephant till he had 
 caught him and knocked him down with his trunk. The elephant 
 pushed him over and over again with his foot as a cat does 
 a mouse, then picked him up and tossed him into the jungle. 
 After this the coolie knew no more till he was on his way to the 
 hospital. The other coolies, who had escaped from the elephant, see- 
 ing a gentleman planter, returned with him and by shouting x drove 
 away the great creature. On searching for the body of their poor 
 companion, they found that the elephant had actually buried him, 
 but fortunately had left his nose free to breathe. When taken 
 out from amongst the earth and leaves he was still alive. He 
 was unconscious for some hours, but he got well in the hospital,, 
 and was able to work again as usual. 
 
 Chased by Hippopotamuses 
 
 It was on Lake Tanganyika, that great sheet of water in the 
 heart of tropical Africa. Parts of the lake teem with crocodiles 
 and hippopotamuses, while the high mountains on some of its 
 banks are the happy home of buffalo and leopard. 
 
 On one occasion two of our missionaries set off in a native canoe 
 to cross to a distant village. They reached it safely, but on the 
 return journey, about sunset, they suddenly saw, a hundred yards 
 in front of them, two hippopotamuses with a very threatening look. 
 The missionaries ordered the canoe to b3 turned back towards 
 the shore, and the animals followed and seemed to be gaining 
 upon them. The natives were urged to pull quickly, and the 
 rifles were loaded in readiness. The huge creatures made up to 
 them by the time shallow water was reached, bellowing and snorting
 
 ELEPHANTS BATHING. 
 
 51
 
 52 GLEANINGS FROM MANY FIELDS 
 
 in a way fearful to hear. The missionaries did not wish to fire 
 until the animals began the attack, and as they leapt on shore to 
 await the onslaught, suddenly the beasts turned tail and made off. 
 
 The canoe was then put into deep water, and the men pulled 
 for some distance, keeping near the shore as the only safe course. 
 As they passed under the shadow of the cliffs, the cry was raised 
 from the stern that they were again chased by the foe. How the 
 crew pulled for their lives ! The danger was increasing, for dark- 
 ness was coming on. The rifles were reloaded, and the missionaries 
 determined to sell their lives dearly. The boy at the helm urged 
 on the men at every stroke, and turning the canoe in between 
 two rocks, they all made a leap for the shore just as the enemy 
 was upon them. When they left the canoe the hippopotamuses 
 did not follow them, but bellowed and went under water. 
 
 Climbing up the rocks, the men found that they were on a 
 point of land round which was a small bay, and beyond this a 
 forest of reeds and bushes. The great animals were coming 
 towards this bay in large numbers, as they spend the night on 
 shore, and the missionaries and crew had evidently got into their 
 land haunts. To cross the lake now was out of the question, and 
 they began to look about for some place of shelter. The boys 
 were sent to gather sticks, and they soon had a good fire, round 
 which they sat to dry their clothes and cook cobs of Indian corn 
 for supper. 
 
 After waiting five hours the bay seemed quiet, and they began 
 the journey home, keeping as close to land as possible, speaking 
 only in whispers, lest their presence should stir up another foe. 
 Matters began to improve and hope was rising, when suddenly 
 there arose out of the water the huge head of another hippo- 
 potamus. With a great bellow he made a rush for the canoe with 
 open jaws. This tune the occupants thought all was over with 
 them. But quick as thought they all jumped into the shallow 
 water, scrambled on shore as best they could, leaving the canoe 
 to the tender mercy of the foe. In soaked clothes, afraid to enter
 
 A HIPPOPOTAMUS AT HOME. 
 
 53
 
 54 GLEANINGS FROM MANY FIELDS 
 
 the forest on account of wild beasts, the missionaries and their 
 friends had to remain where they stood until they dared venture 
 once more into the canoe, which they found uninjured, and finally 
 they reached their homes safe and sound after their unpleasant 
 adventure. 
 
 A Famous Crocodile 
 
 One of our most devoted young missionaries to Central Africa 
 was Dr. Southon, of Urambo, who, after doing splendid service 
 for two or three years, was accidentally shot in the arm, and died 
 from the effects of it. I think you would like to hear a story 
 about crocodiles which he once told. He was visiting a village 
 not far from the Mission House at Urambo, and met there the 
 chief, who told him about a dreadful man-eating crocodile which 
 lived in the river near by. 
 
 This chief said that a very long time ago there were many 
 crocodiles in the river, but that, from some cause or other, they 
 had all dwindled down to one, which was very old and very 
 large. This one, which was known by the name of Ngwena, 
 was very crafty and clever, and would set traps for men and 
 animals. He had eaten a great many men, and was always on 
 the look-out for them. 
 
 Now most crocodiles run into the water if they see a man 
 coming, but this wicked Mr. Ngwena used to lay in wait in the 
 long grass close to the water's edge, and when a man or an 
 animal came near he would spring up quickly, catch his prey in 
 his big mouth and rush into the water with it. If the animal he 
 had noticed was not in a favourable place, or not near enough 
 to the water, Ngwena would draw near and with his tail shake 
 the reeds close to the bank, and as all animals are curious, some- 
 times the poor victim would take the hint and draw nearer to 
 see what it was among the reeds, and at once become the prey of 
 the crafty crocodile. In such a case even a man would not have 
 time to spring back and so escape, for Ngwena was always too 
 quick and too cunning to make a false spring. For as his strength
 
 STORIES OF WILD BEASTS 55 
 
 was very great he was able to rush out of the water with almost 
 lightning speed, and should he fail to catch his prey in his mouth 
 lie wo aid quickly swing his long tail and knock it into the water, 
 where, of course, he soon gobbled it up. 
 
 The chief sent for a poor woman in the village whose husband 
 had been caught and eaten by Ngwena only a few months before, 
 and she told Dr. Southon the following story : " About a year 
 ago my husband and I went down to the river to gather a kind 
 of plum, which grows plentifully near the water's edge. We had 
 got a nice lot, and were thinking of returning home, when suddenly 
 my husband said: 'Look yonder, in the middle of the river! Is 
 not that the head of Ngwena?' I looked where he pointed, but 
 could see nothing. We then moved away from that place, and 
 a little farther on my husband stooped down to drink of the 
 water, for we were, both of us, close to the river's edge. Sud- 
 denly he jumped up as if to spring back ; but, alas ! he was too 
 late, Ngwena had caught him by the leg and quickly drew him 
 under the water. I screamed and ran to help him, but before I 
 could reach the place he was out of sight. I watched the place 
 lor three hours where he had disappeared, but nothing more 
 than a few bubbles came to the surface of the water. The next 
 day, and for several days after, all the village people searched 
 both banks of the river, but we found no trace of my husband." 
 
 So Dr. Southon made up his mind to try and rid the village 
 of this terrible crocodile. He found that many people had tried 
 to shoot or spear him, but without success. And all the natives 
 had begun to believe that no one in the world could kill him at 
 all, for his skin seemed too hard for bullet or spear to enter. 
 Bullets that would kill an elephant did not even wound Ngwena. 
 
 Well, Dr. Southon with three men went off to kill the monster 
 the very next day. He was walking along the river bank, when 
 suddenly he caught sight of something in the long grass rather 
 like a log of wood. He stopped, and pointing to it said to the 
 nearest man, " Is not that the crocodile ? "
 
 56 GLEANINGS FROM MANY FIELDS 
 
 The man gave a sudden start, and said, "Yes, master, sure 
 enough, that's Ngwena." 
 
 Dr. Southon crept forward to within about twenty yards, and 
 then saw the back and part of the tail of the great creature. 
 He fired his gun and hit him, but without any effect, for he just 
 moved towards the water and disappeared. 
 
 However, the next day Dr. Southon tried again, and after a 
 careful search found the crocodile hiding in the reeds, half in 
 and half out of the water. He fired with a heavy bullet, and 
 again hit him, but Ngwena just made a terrific plunge and escaped 
 into the river. He watched the place for a few minutes, and 
 soon one of the men called out : " Master, master, look ! " And 
 what do you think he saw ? The crocodile ? No ; but a great 
 hippopotamus, which was swimming along very fast and dodging 
 about as if in chase of something. Presently they saw the 
 crocodile swimming in the water, with only the upper part of 
 his head visible ; but soon he dived out of sight, and the hippo- 
 potamus went after him. Soon the crocodile was seen again in 
 almost an upright position, with his head and shoulders out of 
 water and his mouth wide open. For a moment he beat the air 
 feebly with his fore-paws, and then fell backwards as if dead. 
 
 They thought that he must have been wounded by the gun, and 
 that the hippopotamus had found this out and had soon finished 
 him with his teeth. When the body of Ngwena began to float 
 on the water, Dr. Southon and the men managed to get a rope 
 round it and brought it to shore. It was eighteen feet seven inches 
 long and had sixty-six most horrid-looking teeth. The men cut 
 off the head and slung it on a pole and carried it to the Mission 
 House. As they passed through the village there was great 
 rejoicing. All the people ran out to look at the head of their 
 late enemy, and called it all the names they could think of, such 
 as " coward," "fool," "robber," just as if it could hear and under- 
 stand them. And that was the end of Ngwena.
 
 A YANG-TSE BOAT. 
 
 CHAPTER V 
 PERILS BY LAND AND WATER 
 
 Losing a Christmas Dinner 
 
 WE were sailing up the Yang-tse River, writes the Rev. J 
 Wallace Wilson, and what a river ! I wish I could properly 
 describe it. In its upper course, chiefly in summer, the stream 
 becomes a mad torrent, and yet there are many stretches of 
 smooth, almost home-like beauty upon its bosom, where the 
 traveller sees the beautiful foliage and grass of its banks reflected 
 in the water as if on a mirror. 
 
 There were two boats in company, one hired by the Friends' 
 Foreign Mission Association, the other chartered by our own 
 mission in Chung-King. It was Christmas-time Christmas Day, 
 when people at home would be having their family parties and 
 festivities. Oh, how far away they seemed! It was a beautiful 
 day, no frost, no snow, no ice-bound river, no rain, no streets 
 ankle-deep in mud. We had just wind enough to help our sluggish 
 boats on as they were pulled by the men towing them from the 
 bank. Quite 200 miles of the journey had been done, and there 
 
 57
 
 58 GLEANINGS FROM MANY FIELDS 
 
 remained as many more to be got over ere the long, tedious voyage 
 would end. 
 
 Our kind fellow-travellers gave us a cordial invitation to eat a 
 Christmas dinner on board their junk ; and how we did look for- 
 ward to it, to be sure, when the boats would be safely moored for 
 the night ! Now it often happens that boats the crews of which 
 may want to keep together get separated by many miles through 
 some accident or other. But so far we had been fortunate and 
 had succeeded in keeping well together, and at 4 o'clock our pros- 
 pects of enioying the Christmas feast were really good. But 
 " there is many a slip 'twixt the cup and the lip," you know, and 
 a cruel disappointment was in store for us. 
 
 About 4.30 p.m. the boats both reached a curious bend in the 
 river, where the men had to prepare for swinging them across the 
 stream to the opposite bank. Now this swinging business is a 
 very exciting, not to say alarming, affair. In order to prevent the 
 boat from drifting, a stout bamboo rope, perhaps 300 yards long, 
 is fastened to a rock ahead. The other end of the rope is fastened 
 to the mast, and the vessel is then slowly pushed into the current. 
 Of course everything depends upon the bamboo rope. If it holds, 
 well and good; should it break, there is enough cause for excite- 
 ment. Our boat was the first to try this passage. Everything 
 went well for about ten minutes. The boatmen were all at their 
 posts, watching and helping. Two-thirds of the passage were 
 done, when a strange, deep thud was heard, which told us only 
 too clearly that the rope had parted. Swiftly our boat was carried 
 down by the current, while the shouts of the men on board, and 
 the yells of the people ashore, showed us the need for quick and 
 wise measures for safety. Below, and not far away, were those 
 ugly, awful rocks ! At our side was a high, steep mud bank. It 
 became our aim to reach that bank. Sailors and passengers all 
 worked with a will at the oars. For a time it was a tug of war 
 between our strength and the force of the water, and, happily for 
 us, we won. Soon the nose of our boat poked and rubbed, and
 
 PERILS BY LAND AND WATER 59 
 
 rubbed and poked against the soft, muddy bank, and all was safe. 
 But oh, the noise of the moment ! I seem to hear it yet. Roar- 
 ing on board and roaring on shore the din was deafening. 
 Nothing can be done in China without a noise. 
 
 Well, our own boat had got over, but not the boat with our 
 dinner, and we watched its movements with a double interest. It 
 had yet to make the risky passage, and it was more difficult now, 
 ibr the shades of night were falling, and it was possible that the 
 skipper might decide not to risk the journey at all that night. 
 With the aid of our glasses we watched what was taking place 
 on the other junk, with the fear lest, after all, we should lose our 
 dinner. Soon we made out that the passage was to be made, 
 and our hopes began to revive. All might yet go well. Un- 
 fortunately the light soon failed us, and as our own boat was 
 being pulled into shallow water for safety we could no longer 
 watch our friends' movements. There was nothing for it but to 
 wait for news. Some of us tried to read, but that didn't answer. 
 Our minds were wholly given up to the other boat. At last we 
 heard that an enemy, who had a spite against foreigners, had cut 
 the bamboo rope under cover of the darkness, and the boat drifted 
 helplessly down the river for two miles. 
 
 When the men on board got her again under control, all hope 
 of getting across that night had to be given up. So they had 
 to tie her up, and our friends had to eat the dinner without us. 
 
 So there was nothing for it but to go to bed and forget the 
 disappointment about our Christmas dinner in a good sound sleep. 
 
 Taken by Brigands 
 
 A good many years ago, near the great Caucasus Mountains, 
 at a place called Karass, a missionary named Galloway lived. 
 He and his wife worked hard amongst the peasants, but one great 
 difficulty stood in their way. Very near to them were bands 
 of fierce men. These were Circassians, who almost lived by 
 plunder. Often a company of them, riding upon swift horses, would
 
 60 GLEANINGS FROM MANY FIELDS 
 
 sweep down from the mountains to the quiet valleys where the 
 shepherds watched their flocks and herds, and would drive all 
 before them. But this was not the worst. These wicked robbers 
 were not content with sheep and oxen. Whenever they could 
 they would carry off men, women, and children, to make them 
 their slaves, or else to get ransom money for their freedom. One 
 morning seven little boys had been left to take care of some 
 cattle. But, like other boys we know, they forgot their work in 
 a good game of play, and were so taken up with it that the 
 cattle wandered off and were not to be seen. As soon as they 
 were missed the boys rushed after the oxen, and after a hunt they 
 happily found them. As they were driving them home a party 
 of these Circassian brigands upon horses came galloping down 
 from the mountains, and seized not only the cattle, but the boys. 
 The robbers stripped the little fellows of their clothing, and, 
 having brought them to their mountain den, sent them half- 
 naked to tend their sheep. Poor boys! they were in a terrible 
 way. They were often hungry, for coarse bread and water was 
 all they had to live upon. They used to talk together about their 
 misery, and at last they resolved to try and escape from their 
 cruel masters, and to find the path back to their homes. To pre- 
 pare for this day by day they laid by a small piece of bread, 
 and hid it under a stone, that they might have a little food for 
 their journey. But a sheep-dog scented the store, and soon left 
 it in the state in which " Mother Hubbard " found hers bare. So 
 that plan failed, and perhaps it was as well it did, for if the boys 
 had got away they would most likely have perished among those 
 terrible mountains, which are full of glaciers and crevasses. 
 
 But there was another and a far better way in which they 
 sought to be delivered out of that dreadful plight. One of the 
 boys was called Philip. His mother was a good woman and she 
 loved the Lord Jesus Christ. Sire had always tried to teach her 
 children to trust Him too ; but Philip, when at home, had not 
 given much thought to these things. But he began now to think
 
 PERILS BY LAND AND WATER 6 1 
 
 about it, and one day he said to the other boys : " Look here, you 
 fellows, my mother used often to tell me that Jesus Christ, the 
 Good Shepherd, always hears and answers people when they are 
 in trouble. What do you say to us praying to Him?" Perhaps 
 itt another time some of those boys would have laughed at Philip ; 
 but, glad to seek help anywhere, they all kneeled down. Philip 
 just said: "Good Shepherd, have mercy upon us. Here we are 
 as poor lambs in the midst of wolves. Do help us, Good Shepherd." 
 He said no more then, but day after day the boys offered the 
 same little prayer, and it was heard in heaven. 
 
 Some time after the boys had been carried away, their parents 
 were told that the brigands would send them back if they would 
 pay 300. But these poor people had no money. It must have 
 seemed as if the robbers were mocking them by making such an 
 offer. The offer came to the ears of the missionary, and without 
 delay Mrs. Galloway resolved to try and raise the sum. She 
 wrote a letter to an Englishman living in St. Petersburg, who was 
 -a good man, and who had some influence with some of the nobles 
 in Russia. He read the letter, and the account of the seven little 
 prisoners touched his heart. He at once began to do what he 
 could. He called upon the wife of a general. She read Mrs. 
 Galloway's letter, and then said: "I have no money to spare at 
 present, but take this pearl necklace and sell it." It was sold 
 for 60. Soon the whole of the 300 was collected and sent to 
 Mrs. Galloway, who, though sorry to pay a penny to the wicked 
 brigands, was yet full of joy when she saw, through her efforts, 
 those seven boys brought back to their own homes. In this way 
 was Philip's prayer ansAvered. 
 
 A Fight with an Alligator 
 
 Some years ago there was a missionary in Africa named 
 Butler. He used to ride about the country on horseback to 
 visit the different mission stations in his district. One day
 
 62 
 
 GLEANINGS FROM MANY FIELDS 
 
 he reached the Umkomazi River, and though he saw the tide 
 was coming in, he thought his horse could manage to cross it. 
 When near the middle of the stream the horse began to swim, 
 and the opposite shore was almost reached when he plunged, 
 kicked, and struggled, trying to throw the rider off his back. Mr. 
 Butler held firmly to the horse's mane, for, as he could not swim, 
 he was very anxious not to be pitched into the river. Suddenly 
 
 MR. BUTLER'S ESCAPE. 
 
 he felt something take hold of the lower part of his leg and pull 
 very hard. He could not imagine at first what it was ; but a bite 
 a little below the knee, and another higher up, soon convinced him 
 that it was an alligator ! The horse plunged and struggled with 
 fright, and at last, with the alligator's help, managed to throw 
 Mr. Butler from his back. But he still held to the mane with all 
 his force, knowing full well that if he lost his hold of that the 
 alligator would soon make short measure of him. The horse swam.
 
 PERILS BY LAXD AND WATER 63 
 
 back into the stream, dragging the missionary, who, in his turn, 
 dragged the alligator by the teeth, which Avere firmly fastened 
 in his thigh. The poor man's strength was fast going from loss 
 of blood and exertion, and he felt his last hour had come. But 
 remembering there was One who once delivered Daniel from the 
 mouth of lions, he sent up a cry for help to be delivered from the 
 mouth of that alligator. Prayer goes more quickly than a tele- 
 gram, and the answer came like a flash of lightning. A moment 
 later the horse turned and swam towards the shore. As soon as 
 he was close to it, Mr. Butler put out his left foot, and found that 
 he could touch the bottom, and catching hold of the reeds on the 
 bank, he let go of the horse, and pulled himself partly out of the 
 water. He shouted to a native who was not far away to come to 
 his aid. The man took a large stick, three and a half feet long, 
 and struck the alligator on the head and forced open his mouth. 
 When he had beaten off the fierce creature, the native pulled the 
 missionary up the bank and caught the horse. The leg was 
 shockingly torn, and Mr. Butler was in great pain, but managed 
 to ride as far as the next mission station. He w r as put to bed, 
 and his wounds were healed by the end of seven weeks. 
 
 This event caused great wonder among the natives, who said, 
 " truly he was taken from the grave, for no one ever before 
 escaped death when bitten as this white man was." 
 
 Alone in an African Forest 
 
 You all know that Dr. Livingstone, the great African explorer, 
 was once a missionary of our Society. You will have heard 
 what a brave and good man he was, and how neither savage 
 beasts nor savage men could easily drive him from the path of 
 duty. He used to go where others would not venture, and he was 
 often in great danger, and more than once at death's door. Once 
 Dr. Livingstone, with some natives, had to pass through a thick 
 African forest, where the grass was as tall as he was, and where
 
 64 GLEANINGS FROM MANY FIELDS 
 
 there were plenty of wild beasts. While travelling, he and his 
 companions lost each other. He wandered about shouting and 
 firing off his gun, in the hope that the natives might hear him. 
 Night came on. He did not know which way to take ; he had no 
 food with him, and there was no water to be had. He felt very 
 helpless, for he had used up all his powder in firing his gun when 
 trying to make his companions hear. When the darkness grew 
 thicker, Dr. Livingstone tried to get a light by rubbing two sticks 
 together, as he had seen the natives do, so as to make a fire to 
 keep the beasts of prey away. But he could not do this, so he 
 climbed into a large tree which was covered with thorns, and 
 there he swung, while the lions were roaring all around him. 
 When the morning dawned, he got down from the tree and lay in 
 the long grass. A laughing hyaena ran up to the place where he 
 was, and several jackals, but through God's kind care no evil 
 came to him. After he had had some sleep he set out again in 
 search of his companions. The sun was very hot, and the sand 
 was burning under his feet. His mouth was parched with thirst. 
 He had tied a handkerchief round his body to still the pangs of 
 hunger, but he had become so weak that he could not draw it 
 tighter. At last he was so done up that he threw himself under 
 a tree and thought he must die. After a time he felt a little bit 
 better, prayed for help, and got up to go on his way. To his 
 great joy he found close by a pool of water, and he saw there the 
 footsteps of his companions. The rhinoceroses had just been wallow- 
 ing in that pool, and the water was very muddy, but it was more 
 delicious to him than words can say. Having drunk, he went on 
 his way, and at midnight found a party of natives, who were 
 kind to him and gave him food. 
 
 An anxious Night in a Boat 
 
 In all my experience of boating, writes Dr. McFarlane and 
 few missionaries have had more I never spent such a night 
 at sea, and I hope I may never spend another like it. When
 
 PERILS BY LAND AND WATER 65 
 
 within about six miles of Darnley (New Guinea), it began to blow 
 and rain in true tropical style. 
 
 The squalls were very heavy, and unfortunately we were in 
 the " big ship channel," through Torres Straits, with the heavy 
 seas from the gulf rolling in upon us past Bramble Cay. We 
 reefed our sails with difficulty, and tried to make headway. Tack 
 after tack, but no nearer the land. The sun went down, and left 
 us to battle with the elements in the dark. No one but those who 
 know something of boating can form anything like a true idea of 
 our position. Fifteen of us in a boat thirty feet long by eight 
 broad, with a cargo of sago in the hold and a dingey on deck ! 
 To watch the waves on a dark, stormy night from the deck of a 
 large vessel, with a feeling of security and a comfortable cabin 
 below, is a very different thing from sitting on the deck of the 
 Venture, holding on to the rigging amidst blinding rain and spray, 
 and a howling wind ; not looking down upon the great black, 
 white-crested waves as they go hissing past on a dark night, but 
 really looking up at them, and that in no very poetical mood, 
 especially as they often break over our little craft. My great fear 
 was lest, considering the great strain upon the masts, rigging, 
 sheets, etc., something should carry away. Slowly, wearily, most 
 anxiously the night wore on. Never did I long so much for day- 
 break. We were wet and hungry and cold, and had not been 
 able to make a fire for twenty-four hours. It came at last, but 
 slowly, as any other morning, notwithstanding our anxiety. Find- 
 ing ourselves near a sandbank, we made for it, anchored our 
 boat, took some firewood and w r ater on shore, and made some tea. 
 Then shot and cooked a dozen birds, and after a good meal, 
 started for Darnley, which we reached in a few hours. 
 
 In Many Dangers 
 
 In some of the long journeys that Dr. Moffat so often took he 
 met with many perils and adventures from savage men and 
 
 F
 
 66 GLEANINGS FROM MANY FIELDS 
 
 wild beasts and in other ways. Like all devoted missionaries, 
 he had indeed to take his life in his hands, and, like St. Paul, 
 he could say that he was in " dangers oft." Under the scorch- 
 ing African sun he would sometimes try to cool his burning 
 head by thrusting it into a disused ant-hill. He was often so 
 hungry that he had to wear what is known as a " fasting girdle," 
 a tight belt to still the gnawing pains of hunger. But sometimes 
 he had a good supply of zebra and giraffe steaks, for nothing 
 comes amiss to hungry travellers. Water was generally very 
 scarce, and this was a great hardship in such a thirsty land. 
 Sometimes the pools he came to were stagnant and green, and 
 more than once he had to dispute the possession of the water with 
 a lion. One day Dr. Moffat's guide led him towards a ravine, the 
 sides of which looked lovely and green, with what turned out to 
 be a kind of euphorbia, a poisonous plant. Being hot, and the 
 oxen worn out, they halted, and some of the men having found 
 some honey in the rocks, Dr. Moftat and they ate it with great 
 relish. Shortly afterwards, their throats became very hot, as if 
 they were on fire. A native coming up, and seeing their faces 
 besmeared with honey, said : " You had better not eat the honey 
 of this valley ; the bees make it from the poisoned bushes." They 
 all drank the little water which remained, but it seemed rather to 
 increase the burning pain. However, no one died, and after a few 
 days they all recovered. 
 
 Once, being in an unknown part of the wild country, they were 
 afraid to make a fire lest they should be discovered by the bush- 
 men. There were no trees, and so they lay down between ridges 
 of deep sand. The wind was cold, and they had little covering. 
 Dr. Moffat made a hole in the sand and buried himself, leaving 
 his head out, and slept comfortably. How funny it must have 
 looked ! But was it not wonderful that the lions, tigers, cobras, 
 and foxes left him alone? 
 
 They had reached the river early one afternoon after a dread- 
 fully scorching ride across the plain. The horse made for a little
 
 PERILS BY LAND AND WATER 
 
 6 7 
 
 pool, and Dr. Moffat, dismounting, lay down and took a hearty 
 drink of the welcome water. He immediately felt a queer taste in 
 his mouth, and it flashed across his mind that the water was 
 poisoned for the purpose of killing game. At that moment a man 
 from the village near came running breathless, and in a terrified 
 
 MOFFAT PREACHING. 
 
 way took Dr. Moffat' s hand and began talking with great excite- 
 ment, though no one could understand a word of his language. 
 But signs were made that the white man had drunk from the 
 pool, and the native, remaining speechless for a minute, ran off 
 to the village. Dr. Moffat followed, feeling that his last moments
 
 68 GLEANINGS FROM MANY FIELDS 
 
 had probably come. He was soon surrounded by a number of the 
 villagers, who looked upon him with eyes which spoke of heartfelt 
 pity. They evidently thought he would fall down every moment. 
 No one spoke. Seeing the down-cast looks of the poor natives, 
 Dr. Moffat smiled, and this seemed to act like an electric shock, 
 for they all began to sing and chatter, and the women to strike 
 their elbows against their naked sides to express their joy. 
 
 But the poor missionary soon became very ill, and tried to 
 make the natives understand that he wanted a certain plant, the 
 fruit of which causes sickness. They ran in all directions, but 
 could not find any. Meantime, Dr. Moffat drank large quantities 
 of pure water, and little by little the dreadful symptoms wore off, 
 and in a few days he could continue his journey. These poor 
 bushmen showed him no little kindness, and gave him zebra flesh 
 to eat. And before leaving, Dr. Moffat gave them a. good share 
 of his small stock of tobacco, which set them all dancing like 
 Merry Andrews, blessing their visitor with the most wonderful 
 signs and gestures. It grieved the devoted heart of Christ's loyal 
 servant to have to leave these poor creatures without being able 
 to tell them about Him who came to save the poor and needy.
 
 CHAPTER VI 
 IN THE LAND OF IDOLS 
 
 Capturing Idols 
 
 THOUGH many missionaries have often to go working on year 
 after year, seeing little if any result from their work amongst 
 the heathen, yet now and then they meet with a bit of real 
 encouragement and joy, and sometimes it seems to come like a 
 surprise. About five years ago a native man of Neyoor, Travan- 
 core, was living in heathen darkness. s He was a great believer 
 in idols, and was very careful in his worship of them. He built 
 several shrines, which he filled with images of Pattrikali, one of 
 the ugliest and most fierce of the many Hindu goddesses. But 
 one day this Indian met some Christian teachers, and from them 
 he bought a Bible. Probably he was curious to know about the 
 gods of the Englishmen. He was so interested in the Book 
 that he studied it well, and after a time he found the words true 
 that Jesus Christ once said, that "those who seek shall find." As 
 soon as he received the new life he began to spread it. Through 
 his influence his wife, his father, two of his father's brothers, two 
 younger brothers, and three of his children were brought into the 
 light and were baptized. That was a very glorious time for the 
 missionaries at Neyoor. 
 
 Shortly after that, this man came to the Rev. I. H. Hacker to 
 know if he would destroy an idol shrine belonging to the family. 
 He said that after enduring much opposition, and after using 
 much persuasion, all the heathen members of his family who had 
 
 69
 
 70 GLEANINGS FROM MANY FIELDS 
 
 shares in this shrine had become Christians, and he wanted the 
 idols removed at once. 
 
 THE CAPTURED IDOLS. 
 
 You will imagine how gladly Mr. Hacker said u Yes." So one 
 evening he and other missionaries went to the place where the 
 shrine stood. A number of people who had heard what was about
 
 IN THE LAND OF IDOLS Jl 
 
 to be done had gathered together. With a few Christians they 
 surrounded the place, and after singing a hymn, the H5th Psalm 
 was read (you will remember it is the one about idols), and 
 then Mr. Hacker spoke about the sin and folly of praying to these 
 " blocks of wood and stone." He then mounted upon the steps 
 of the temple, and claimed it in the name of Jesus Christ. The 
 idols, which consisted of two life-size figures and a little baby idol, 
 were removed to a cart they had ready for the purpose, Mrs. 
 Hacker leading the way with the baby idol. When this was done, 
 the work of pulling down the shrine was commenced. The roof 
 was taken off and sold the next day, and the money was given to 
 spread Christ's work. Bit by bit, by dint of hard work, the place 
 was laid level with the ground, never more to rise, it is hoped. 
 It was very touching to see the helpless, half-shuddering fear with 
 which many of the bystanders looked upon the deed done. There 
 were loud murmurs and grumblings, but no one really tried to 
 stop the missionary. Darkness was almost upon them before the 
 work was quite finished, but the missionaries went to the house 
 of the friends who had thus openly cast away the idols, where 
 they were all met, men, women, and children, and they had a 
 glorious prayer-meeting. The idols were placed in an outhouse 
 belonging to Mr. Hacker, where they cannot be seen by any one, 
 but before they were locked up a photograph was taken of them. 
 
 Beheading an Idol 
 
 In a village near to Mirzapur, in India, a missionary found a 
 very ugly idol called Mahabir, the warrior god. 
 
 It was in a very tumble-down, battered state. One hand had 
 been broken off, nearly the whole of both legs were gone, and the 
 head also was missing. 
 
 A head, however, had been made out of mud, with a couple of 
 small shells for eyes, and there stood the mud and stone image! 
 One would have laughed at its comical appearance, were it not for
 
 72 GLEANINGS FROM MANY FIELDS 
 
 the thought that men and women, for whom Christ died, wor- 
 shipped this miserable thing. 
 
 The missionary asked the people how they could think that a 
 crippled, maimed stone could help them in their troubles. They 
 said they knew it was rather battered about, but that if they only 
 had faith in it, it would help them. He asked them if they would 
 let him break it down, but they did not like their beloved idol 
 damaged. 
 
 But the missionary said : " If it be a god, it will not let me 
 injure it, and seeing it is the warrior-god, it will conquer me." 
 
 After a great deal of talk, they said: "Well, sahib, we will 
 not give you leave to do it exactly, because it is a god, and not 
 in our power ; but you can do what you like." That was enough, 
 and the missionary gave two good pokes at the head with his 
 umbrella, and down came tumbling the mud, and poor old Mahabir, 
 for the second time, found himself headless. 
 
 The people did not seem cross about it, after all, nor were they 
 very much surprised, for they were beginning, under the mis- 
 sionary's teaching, to have some dim idea of the one true God, and 
 Avere feeling after Him in their blind, groping way. And sure 
 enough, after a time, they found Him " whom to know is life 
 
 eternal." 
 
 Child -Widows 
 
 In India marriage takes place while girls are children. Some- 
 times parents have their little girls married while yet babies, 
 generally when they are from seven to eleven years old. If 
 the man or boy to whom a girl is married die w r hile she is still 
 a child, she is even then a widow till she dies. Many of the 
 Hindu girls in our Mission schools are married. They are known 
 by a red mark on the partings of their hair. A wedding occupies 
 several days. Some time ago one of the little girls in a Mission 
 school was being married, but before the ceremony was finished 
 the boy-husband died of cholera. So the poor little wife became 
 a widow, and a very sad widow she was.
 
 IN THE LAND OF IDOLS 
 
 73 
 
 It is sad to be a widow anywhere, but in India the lot of a 
 widow is very dreadful. She must never re-marry. She must 
 only eat one meal every twenty-four hours. She must shave all 
 the hair off her head on certain occasions. One day in every 
 
 BOY HUSBAND AND HIS GIRL WIFE. 
 
 fortnight is a fast day for her; she may not have her one meal, 
 no, not even a drop of water may she take during twenty-four 
 hours. She must wear no ornament nor any nice dress. She 
 must for some time after her husband's death sleep on the bare 
 floor without so much as a pillow. She is the household drudge.-
 
 74 GLEANINGS FROM MANY FIELDS 
 
 Some girl widows are very harshly treated. There was one 
 little creature who became a widow at nine years old. Her father 
 thought that if she did not observe the fast days a curse might 
 come on the family. So when the fast days came round he gaA~e 
 his little girl a good meal about four o'clock in the morning, then 
 locked her in the room, and did not open the door until the next 
 morning. The child was always found exhausted on the floor. 
 
 But the Gospel of Christ has blessed some Hindu widows. One 
 of these told her story to a missionary. She said: "My father 
 was a Hindu priest. I became a widow when I was twelve years 
 old, and oh, the sorrows of that time were hard to bear! The 
 fasting was almost unbearable in the hot season. I had to do all 
 sorts of work, and very unkind things were said to me. I was 
 always sad. One day I was seated at the foot of a tree, and I 
 heard my little nephew, who was on the roof of the house, reading 
 aloud. I did not know then that the Book was the Bible. As I 
 listened, the words so entered into my mind that I went up on 
 the roof to my nephew. He was frightened when he saw me, and 
 hid the Book. I asked what he was reading. He said : ' You 
 won't tell if I tell you ? ' ' No ; why ? ' I replied. He said : ' Be- 
 cause it is a Christian Book. Mother tore up one Book like this, 
 and threw it in the mud. If she knew I had this she would 
 destroy it, and beat me.' He read three or four psalms to me. I 
 can never forget them. I made up my mind to go and see those 
 people who followed that Book. I waited three years before I got 
 the chance." 
 
 But she found the missionary lady at last, and in finding her 
 found Jesus Christ. She married a Christian Hindu, and has one 
 little girl. 
 
 The Poor Old Shepherd 
 
 Once upon a time, as two Indian missionaries were travelling 
 through part of the country, they came to a little village 
 which was only inhabited by shepherds. They told the story
 
 IN THE LAND OF IDOLS 75 
 
 of the Good Shepherd ^ seeking and saving His wandering and 
 lost sheep. A very old man, who had been leaning on his 
 long stick, and putting his face almost in the face of the mis- 
 sionary, that his deaf ears might lose no word, when the story 
 was finished, said, with a look of deep content and joy in his 
 face : " It has fallen into my ears and cut ! " He meant that the 
 message had taken effect in his heart. He was encouraged to put 
 his trust in Christ, and to call on Him, not on Siva, for help. 
 He tried to learn the name, "Jesus Christ," but could not succeed 
 in pronouncing the latter word correctly. He took, however, a 
 firm hold of the former. The next day, as the missionaries were 
 returning by the same village, two or three men ran after them 
 saying: "He is dead, he is dead!" "Who is dead?" "The old 
 man to whom you spoke yesterday," was the reply. 
 
 On making inquiries they found that the old shepherd, soon 
 after the missionaries had left him, had gone to his fields. Late 
 in the afternoon he returned, very tired out, and asked that his 
 bed might be got ready. He lay down, and about sunset died, 
 calling : " Yesu, Yesu ! " 
 
 The old man's name was Basan. He was said to be about 
 ninety years old. He had children, grandchildren, lands and 
 houses. He was head man of his village, and was much re- 
 spected for his justice and kindness. How beautiful it was that 
 God sent His messengers that His aged servant might hear of His 
 great love before he died ! 
 
 A Sad Little Life 
 
 My name is Nitchamma. I am a child, a girl about twelve years 
 of age. They tell me I was born just twelve harvests ago, when 
 a fearful flood ravaged the country around our village. This is how 
 we generally reckon time here. I do not think I can rightly tell 
 much about myself, but I am not without thoughts at times, and 
 these my friend will write for me, and perhaps if the letter is put
 
 76 GLEANINGS FROM MANY FIELDS 
 
 into one of these strange post-offices, it may reach some gods or 
 holy spirits above us, and some good may come of it. I can but try. 
 I am not like most of the children here, although my face is dark 
 and my surroundings are very much the same as theirs. They 
 play in the dirty puddles just outside our huts, where the pigs and 
 dogs and fowls run and grub for food ; they go out to help watch 
 our scanty crops of grain against the black crows, or to drive in 
 the cattle and sheep from the hot, dry fields, or to gather up the 
 cow-dung for fuel and for house cleansing. I have to go, too, very 
 often; but I am not like them, so wholly thoughtless. Though I 
 am so } r oung, I cannot help thinking that I am in a strangely 
 cruel, evil world. See, now, my little brother, a sweet and bright 
 child, well and strong till yesterday, now lies very weak and ill, 
 with great sores branded on his body. Yesterday they did it ; 
 held him down, screaming, and ran the cruel hot iron all down 
 his breast. Everybody else laughed, and said : " Now the evil 
 spirits and our fearful small-pox goddess cannot get the child." 
 But I went away and cried, and felt that the cruel demons had 
 got the boy, had got my father and mother too, and were making 
 them torture my little brother. Ah, those cruel goddesses ! I 
 suppose I have escaped because my name is a nasty name, and 
 the goddess overlooked me ; but most of the others in the village 
 have felt her anger. They have had small-pox, and a little while 
 ago she came in a still more fearful form and killed many of us 
 with cholera men and women, as well as children. To-morrow 
 is the full moon, and then all night long our people will do 
 "Sambram" to the goddess. How I hope she will be pleased! 
 But no one can tell. I must go and see my father kill the fowl, 
 and pour the blood out on the ground, and watch the movements 
 of the cut-off head. Only so, they say, can we guess whether 
 the goddess is pleased or not. Most of the children laugh and 
 sport over all this cruelty ; but to me, somehow, it is anything 
 but pleasing it is horrible. Can I read or write? What, like 
 the head man of the village who keeps the accounts, or like the
 
 IN THE LAND OF IDOLS 
 
 priest who lives in the red and white house with a tiled roof? 
 Oh, no! girls must not learn to read. My father says they are 
 bold and bad enough as they are, and must never learn to read the 
 things written in books. Besides, we have no money to pay for 
 
 HINDU WOMAN CARRYING JARS. 
 
 teaching. Some of the boys of our village go to a school, where 
 they sit on the ground all day long beside a teacher, and learn to 
 write in the dust and to read from strips of leaves. Some of the 
 things they learn are very good true and wise sayings but some
 
 78 GLEANINGS FROM MANY FIELDS 
 
 are very foolish. I should like to learn to read, but I am fated 
 not to do so. Am I married? Yes; I was married a long time 
 ago, when I was quite a little child. They made a great feast, 
 and one whole day was spent in carrying me and the big man 
 who is my husband in a grand palanquin backwards and for- 
 wards through the streets. Some strange rites were performed, 
 and some priests from another village repeated words which we 
 did not understand. Gifts were also exchanged between our house 
 and that of the son of the wedding. But I was so frightened by 
 the noise, the blaring of the trumpets, and the beating of the 
 drums, and the rude, wild antics of the dancers, I don't remember 
 anything more of it. But, oh ! this evil man whose wife I am ! 
 He is rich, and so, of course, can do as he likes. Sometimes I 
 have to go to his house, and he but it is useless to speak. Soon 
 I shall have to go and live with him altogether. Cruel destiny ! 
 I could almost wish I might become a widow, only then a worse 
 fate might befall me. Sometimes I think I will run away to 
 another village, but then the people are just the same there, even 
 worse, some of them. 
 
 Once a strange man came to our village. He came into the 
 middle street with a man of our own country, and the two sang 
 a hymn, Avhich, of course, we did not understand. Then they 
 talked to the big people, while we children stood up on some 
 rough stones by the temple and looked and listened. They were 
 both very pleasant men, and spoke very kindly to us. My father 
 told us afterwards thut they said the goddess and evil powers 
 which we worship were nothing, could do us neither good nor 
 harm. 
 
 " Why," they said, " when the Ammatelli (the little wooden 
 image standing in the temple) is attacked by the white ants, and 
 covered all over with their red earth, she can't even brush it 
 off ! Though she has eyes, she sees nothing ; though she has 
 hands, she can do nothing. How then can it do you either good 
 or harm? "
 
 IN THE LAND OF IDOLS 79 
 
 He said, moreover, that the strange man told him that there 
 was one true God, who was the Maker of everything, and that 
 we ought to worship and love Him. That He loved us, and had 
 saved us by dying on our behalf. But this, of course, must be a 
 mistake. God cannot die, if there be a God who made all things 
 and gives all things life. I wonder if those two teachers will 
 come again ? 
 
 Poor? Yes, very many are poor in this place. My father is a 
 weaver, and we all have to help him do his work. Often we 
 have not enough to eat. And when my father goes far away to 
 other villages to sell the clothes he has made, and sometimes does 
 not send us any money, we all suffer and almost die. Just now 
 he is ill with fever and cannot work. The village doctor gives 
 us medicines and charms, for w r hich we have to pay; so we are 
 in great distress.
 
 CHAPTER VII 
 PROGRESS IN "THE MIDDLE KINGDOM" 
 
 What Cheng suffered for Christ's Sake 
 
 NEARLY a hundred miles from far-away Amoy, in one of our 
 Mission stations, lived a young man named Cheng. He had 
 heard the " Sweet story of old " from our missionaries, and had 
 made up his mind to give up heathen practices, and serve Jesus 
 Christ. This enraged his father and his stepmother, and they 
 began to treat him very unkindly and harshly. But day by 
 day Cheng strove to do right, and to seek God's help. Sometimes 
 his father became very violent, and wished to kill his son. Cheng 
 was nineteen years old and was married, but, according to the 
 Chinese custom, he and his wife lived with his parents. One da}*, 
 in a fit of great rage, because his son would not obey him and 
 worship the idols, the father rushed upon him with a big stick 
 and wounded him badly on the head. Poor Cheng got away and 
 ran off to a large city about twelve miles from his home ; but 
 his heart was still set on following Jesus, so he found out the 
 chapel there, told the preachers his story, and was kindly treated 
 by them. They gave him food and a place to lodge in. After a 
 while he went back home, and when the time came for worshipping 
 the spirits his father insisted that he should take part. Cheng's 
 father gave him the incense-stick to present, but he only snapped 
 it in two. His father became furious, dragged back his head by 
 his pig-tail and seized a hatchet. Cheng was able to ward off 
 the fatal blow by beating about with his hands until he could 
 get hold of a small table near him, which he used as a shield, and 
 
 80
 
 PROGRESS IN "THE MIDDLE KINGDOM ' 8l 
 
 cried out for help. The neighbours rushed to assist, but the doors 
 being fastened they could not get in. Cheng's little sister, who 
 loved him, ran and opened the doors. The neighbours got the 
 hatchet away from the father, but he still went on showering 
 blows on the head of poor Cheng. At last Cheng escaped and 
 took refuge in a chapel, where a native Christian gave him food. 
 He went and called upon our missionary, Mr. Sadler, and told 
 him his sad story. He said he dare not go home, and that he 
 had tried his best not to provoke his father, but to be good and 
 kind to him. Mr. Sadler urged him to return, saying he could 
 always find refuge with the Christians in case of need, and he 
 told him about the martyrs in other countries who had borne so 
 much for the Christ they loved. After praying for him, that he 
 might be made strong to bear, he sent Cheng home. After that he 
 was publicly beaten so that his cries alarmed the whole village. 
 But his parents' fury was checked by the news that Cheng's wife 
 had tried to kill herself by jumping down a well. This stopped 
 their cruel deeds, because they knew that if the girl really did 
 destroy herself they would be brought up for manslaughter. 
 
 This is just a true instance of what many people have to 
 endure in China, if they give up their idols to worship the one 
 true God. 
 
 Poor Shu 
 
 Shu was the owner of a large opium-smoking den in Tientsin, 
 but when he became a Christian of course he gave that up. He 
 was a quiet, gentle fellow, whose simple, childlike faith and good 
 life won him the affection of his fellow Christians. Having 
 neither wife nor child, he lived with the family of his younger 
 brother. This brother began to hate Shu at the New Year for 
 refusing to buy incense and other things used in worshipping 
 idols. Then he treated Shu very unkindly because he was a 
 Christian. He gave up helping him as he always had done, and 
 sometimes he would not let him have food or clothes.
 
 82 GLEANINGS FROM MANY FIELDS 
 
 Shu at last got so sad and miserable that he did not know what 
 he was doing. He forgot, or perhaps he did not quite understand, 
 that there was " One who would never forsake him," for he 
 bought some poison, ate it and died. Poor Shu ! 
 
 How the Schoolmaster learnt to know Christ 
 
 There were two well-educated schoolmasters in Amoy who 
 were heathen. The elder of the two got hold of a gospel one 
 day, and thought he would have a look at the doctrine of the 
 " foreign devil." He read in it about One who spoke and lived 
 as never other man did. He began to inquire about Him from a 
 native preacher, and because he did this he had to suffer dreadful 
 things from his friends, so that his life was in danger. One 
 relative followed both him and the preacher with a knife hid 
 about him, and he threatened to burn the chapel down. But the 
 schoolmaster, with his heart all aglow with love to God and man, 
 told his friend, who also was a teacher, of the new treasure he 
 had found. Tiong Chang was startled to hear the news, and he 
 too was led to read the Bible. He made great fun of it at 
 first, and was quite sure he would never go in for the Jesus 
 Religion. But after a time he came to be taught also, and now 
 the two friends rejoice together. 
 
 Tiong Chang's wife was very angry about it, and in her rage 
 she took her baby boy and dashed him against the wall, meaning 
 to kill him. But the child was not much hurt, and the father 
 picked his boy up and comforted him. 
 
 The schoolmasters could no longer find work to do in the 
 heathen schools, so the missionaries have opened a way for these 
 men to earn a living. 
 
 "I will not abide with Idols" 
 
 A man, who once seemed to love Jesus Christ but now forgets. 
 Him, was in great need of money. So he thought that he would
 
 83
 
 $4 GLEANINGS FROM MANY FIELDS 
 
 sell his little daughter to be a house-slave, as the law of China 
 allows him to do. The price was arranged for about 18 of our 
 money. He received 3 as earnest money, and sent off his 
 child to her buyers in a great city miles away. He did not know 
 she was a Christian, and therefore not as easily crushed as heathen 
 children. No sooner did the little maid find herself in the midst of 
 idols than she became frightened, and cried out that she had never 
 had anything to do with such things, and that she had been baptized. 
 Her owners could not imagine what she meant, and asked what 
 sort of a baptism she had had. They laughed at her and scolded, 
 but could not move her. She made up her mind that she 
 would not stay in the midst of idols. Her father was sent for 
 and blamed too because his child was so naughty, and in turn 
 he blamed and beat her. Anger, threats, beating, were of no 
 use, nor could all the force of parents or buyers change her 
 mind. 
 
 In such a case ,a Chinese parent has power to kill his child 
 if he likes. 
 
 She said : " You may kill me, father, but I will not abide with 
 idols." 
 
 She blackened her face in an ugly way to make herself less 
 cared for by the family. The master and mistress saw they 
 eould do nothing with her. But God, in His own wonderful wa}', 
 helped the poor little thing out of her trouble. He just touched- 
 the hard hearts of her parents and made them see that they 
 would gain nothing by killing her. So they gave the bargain 
 up and took her home. A Christian Chinese took her as her 
 little servant, gave her wages, and was very kind to her. So 
 this plucky little girl won the victory, and is now happy and 
 useful in serving Jesus Christ in a Christian home. 
 
 Knocking Her Head Twelve Million Times 
 
 James Gilmour, the Apostle of Mongolia, as he was sometimes 
 called, tells of an innkeeper he came across in one of his many
 
 PROGRESS IN "THE MIDDLE KINGDOM' 8 
 
 travels. This innkeeper's mother had made a vow when one of 
 her family was ill. Her vow was, that if the patient recovered 
 she would knock her head to the tablet of heaven six hundred 
 times a day. Her son said that she kept that vow. She had the 
 tablet brought in from the yard and set up in the room, that rain 
 and wind might not hinder her devotions. If she visited her 
 friends she would never stay from home more than one night, 
 and next day would knock her head twelve hundred times, thus 
 making up for the lost day. Poor old lady ! we are not told how 
 many headaches she got over doing it. Well, she kept this up 
 for sixty years, till her death! How often then altogether did 
 she knock that poor head of hers? Reckon, and you will see it 
 is more than twelve million times, nearly thirteen million. When 
 on her deathbed she called her son and asked him to carry on 
 her vow, but let him off with sixty in place of six hundred a 
 day. He said he was still carrying it out. Mr. Gilmour told 
 him of a better way of saying " Thank you " to God. He got him to 
 read some Christian books, and urged him to show his gratitude 
 by loving and serving the Great Father in heaven. He w 7 as a 
 kindly, gentle old man, and let us hope that he soon did give up 
 bumping his head, and that he began to please God another way. 
 
 Brave Si 
 
 There was a very proud man living near Amoy who was a 
 strict idolater. His forefathers had always worshipped idols, he 
 had always worshipped idols, and he made up his mind that all 
 his family should do the same. But his only son became a Chris- 
 tian, and nothing in the world would make him give up Jesus 
 Christ. At last the father determined to adopt a son who was 
 a heathen. He got a young man who was so bad that even the 
 common heathen blamed him. But this did not matter so long as 
 he would worship the idols. Well, this adopted son, named Si, 
 began to take his place in the family. The Christian son never
 
 86 GLEANINGS FROM MANY FIELDS 
 
 complained that the property which should come to him was to be 
 given to another, but he treated Si kindly and did all he could to 
 get him to believe in and love the Saviour of the world. By-and- 
 by this very bad young man, adopted because he was a heathen, 
 actually became a Christian, and would have nothing more to do 
 with heathenism. The father's rage was dreadful. He stormed 
 and threatened that Si should be put away and lose all the property 
 if he continued a Christian. But Si had made up his mind and 
 was contented .and firm. The threat was soon carried out. Si 
 lost the comfortable home and friends and all he might have had, 
 and had to go from place to place and work very hard to get a 
 living. He became a chair-bearer. This is thought the lowest 
 and hardest kind of work in China. But Si was full of joy be- 
 cause God was his Friend. All who knew him loved and admired 
 him, and praised God who can give such grace to men. 
 
 Little Nine 
 
 Some twenty miles north of the great river Yangtse stands a 
 very picturesque little market town. Just behind it rise up great 
 ranges of mountains with temples crowning their tall peaks, which are 
 known as the first, second, and third heavens. At the foot of this 
 Chinese range spreads out a vale of smiling beauty. Small squares 
 of crops of many shades of green form a pretty mosaic work. There 
 is the light green of the cotton plant, adorned with its small yel- 
 low flowers and its soft, snow-white balls; the drooping ears of 
 rice, the broad leaves of the sugar-cane, the feathery plumes of the 
 tall, waving millet, all together forming a picture to delight the 
 eye. Trees, too, are more abundant than in some parts of China. 
 Graceful bamboo groves make many a lovely spot of shade; stiff 
 dwarf palms are also very plentiful, and the mountain slopes are 
 in parts clothed with a growth of pine and maple, the leaves of 
 the latter looking perfectly gorgeous in the autumn sunshine. 
 
 It was in this country town, whose surroundings contain so
 
 PROGRESS IN "THE MIDDLE KINGDOM" 87 
 
 much to please the eye and rest the heart, that, some years ago, a 
 little girl was born. There was no particular rejoicing at her 
 birth, even though she was an only child. " Daughters," say the 
 Chinese, "are like fine young bamboos growing just outside 
 your garden fence " that is, they may be fair and dutiful, but 
 they do not really belong to you. Before many years have gone 
 by they will be taken into another man's family to be the wife of 
 his son, and then what reward will you have for all the trouble 
 and care you bestowed upon them ? and, besides, just think of all the 
 money that will have to be spent upon the marriage ! The Chinese, 
 you know, think more of money than of almost anything else in 
 the world. But this little girl being born, and everybody having 
 expressed their regret to the father upon his misfortune of having 
 a daughter, a name had to be found for her. So they called her 
 "Nine," because it was upon the ninth day of the month she was 
 born. 
 
 Little Nine grew and flourished in the fine, healthy country air. 
 She was dressed in winter in tiny wadded garments, so thick that 
 she looked like a little ball, and could scarcely move about at all. 
 In summer there was not much difficulty about her clothing, be- 
 cause so very little was needed in the long hot days. 
 
 Sometimes, when she was quite small, her mother would put 
 her into a sort of small barrel, so that she could not get into any 
 mischief, and there she would have to keep still for hours together. 
 At other times she would crawl and tumble about the floor really 
 a ground floor, because it was simply the bare earth beaten smooth 
 and hard. As she grew older, little Nine was taught by her 
 mother to spin the snow-white cotton which was gathered from 
 the fields in the bright summer days. The cotton harvest was a 
 very pleasant time for the little girl, for then whole families would 
 go off to the fields together to gather the little white balls, and 
 there would be much lively gossip and laughter in the pleasant 
 sunshine. While Nine was still very small her mother got some 
 of the strong cotton binding so much used in China, and told her
 
 88 GLEANINGS FROM MANY' FIELDS 
 
 little girl that she must .be very quiet while her feet were bandaged, 
 so that they might become very small and beautiful. Nine was 
 told that if her feet were left unbound every one would laugh at 
 her, and no one would care for a girl who was so coarse and rude 
 and low as to have large feet. So the firm bandages were bound 
 tightly round the small, shapely feet till they were quite pressed 
 out of shape, and looked more like goat's hoofs than anything 
 else. 
 
 Poor little Nine ! The pain she had to bear was very great, and 
 every few days the bandages were drawn tighter and tighter, and 
 night after night she cried herself to sleep with pain. Then one 
 day the little crushed feet became sore and festered, and had to 
 be dusted with a fine white powder, till at last all the pain went 
 away, and a sort of numbness came instead, and Nine's feet were 
 found to have been so well bound by her mother that they were 
 smaller than the feet of any of the little girls she knew, and every- 
 body who iSaw said: "What a very careful mother that child must 
 have, and how fond she. must be of her daughter to look so well 
 after her feet! " 
 
 It was about this time that the people in the town in which 
 little Nine lived first heard about Jesus and the good tidings of His 
 love. For a missionary, who had come far away from his home 
 to tell the people of China this good news, came to settle in this 
 place. Of course a great many strange stories were told about 
 this foreign teacher. Some people said he had come to kidnap and 
 carry away the children. Others said he wanted to get people's 
 eyes to make up into the foreign medicine. But some said : " No ; 
 he has been sent by the foreign Queen to try and prepare the 
 way for the conquest of China, just as they have conquered the 
 great Western land near to us ! " 
 
 But after a time, as the preacher day after day was heard tell- 
 ing of Christ to the people who came to the little Chinese house 
 which he used as a chapel, his reason for coming to this land was 
 more clearly understood, and some hearts were touched and be-
 
 90 GLEANINGS FROM MANY FIELDS 
 
 came lowly followers and simple believers in the Lord Jesus Christ. 
 A few there were, too, who, seeing the foreign pastor was kind and 
 had a heart to feel for all in trouble, thought it would be a good 
 idea to profess faith in this new religion, hoping they would in 
 some way gain benefit from it. Little Nine's father was one 
 of these people, though he used to listen very attentively 
 day after day to the preaching in the chapel, and seemed very 
 earnest in his desire to join the Church. At last he was baptized, 
 and the same day little Nine received baptism also, and had a 
 new name given to her, so that, instead of being called "Nine' 1 
 cnly, in future she was known as "Happy Nine." Her mother, one 
 is sorry to say, was not made any happier by this change in her 
 family, perhaps because there was so little reality in it. And one 
 day, in a fit of gloom, to which she often gave way, she took a 
 large quantity of opium, and put an end to her life. Little Happy 
 Nine was now left motherless. 
 
 Noticing the little one's lonely and uncared-for state, the mis- 
 sionary coaxed her father to allow her to go to the Christian board- 
 ing school for Chinese girls in a port near by. She was at this 
 time about nine years of age, and it was the beginning of a new 
 bit of life for Happy Nine. 
 
 She was* well cared for at school, and learned to read and write, 
 gained some knowledge of arithmetic and geography, and, above 
 all, was well taught in the Holy Scriptures. She was also taught 
 to make and wash her own clothes, to cook her own rice, so that 
 by-and-by she might become a good housewife in her own station 
 of life. The years rolled on till Happy Nine was thirteen years 
 old, and then a second sorrow fell upon her the death of the lad to 
 whom she was betrothed. 
 
 Probably the little girl had never seen this husband to be, for 
 such is the usual Chinese custom. But she wept violently, and 
 it was soon discovered that her sorrow was not for the dead, but 
 because her father had immediately betrothed her to another lad, 
 the son of a woman who kept an opium den.
 
 PROGRESS IN "THE MIDDLE KINGDOM" 91 
 
 Not long after this her father called to see her, and promised 
 that she should have another year at school, and during this year 
 she professed her faith in Jesus Christ. 
 
 Before the twelvemonths had expired, the father thought he 
 would sell his poor little daughter to another person, but before 
 doing this it was necessary to settle matters with the Tin family, 
 to whose son Happy Nine was betrothed. 
 
 He offered to pay back to them the cost of the betrothal feast 
 if they would return the papers, but they declined this offer. 
 
 Soon after the girl's father fell sick and died, and then the Tin 
 family determined to pay all the funeral expenses, and so strengthen 
 their claim upon Happy Nine. But she was too cautious to allow 
 this; she was now her own mistress, and the question arose how 
 would she choose. The missionary ladies could only pray that her 
 decision might be a wise one, and when soon after the widow Tin 
 called to see her, making her large promises of wealth and luxury, 
 an easy life, with servants to wait upon her, the girl stood firm 
 and refused them all. 
 
 More than a year passed by, and Happy Nine's Christian friends 
 were rejoicing in the hope that her resolution would remain un- 
 shaken, although the Tin family kept sending the girl letters and 
 messages. 
 
 At last, we know not how it came about, but in an evil hour 
 Happy Nine was tempted over-much, and her strong resolution 
 failed. It may be that as she grew older she became restless of 
 the loving restraint of the school, and that when she saw all her 
 old companions married and going away, and knew that she could 
 riot be free until the lad's family chose another wife for him, she 
 grew impatient. She consented to agree to the wishes of the 
 family who claimed her, and admit the betrothal. Without any 
 delay, the matter was arranged by the Tin family, and Happy 
 Nine was made to repeat her admission before a magistrate. Then, 
 taking off the plain school clothing she wore, they dressed the girl 
 in silks and satins, and carried her away in a chair. It seemed
 
 92 GLEANINGS FROM MANY FIELDS 
 
 to be indeed a sad blight cast upon a life which had appeared so 
 full of promise. Very deep was the sorrow of her Christian 
 friends, who could see nothing but a life of misery before her. 
 
 The last thing I heard of her since her marriage was, that 
 with her sister-in-law she Uad come one day to a service in the 
 little chapel of the town in which she lives. In the few months 
 she had changed greatly, I was told ; but we cannot help hoping 
 that, even after her grievous failure, in time of trouble she may 
 be turning again for help to that Saviour who is the only source 
 of peace and rest. 
 
 From this we see that, while missionaries have great joy some- 
 times in seeing those who all their lives have worshipped idols 
 turning to God and to His service, they have discouragements and 
 trials also.
 
 AFRICAN WOMEN GRINDING CORN. 
 
 CHAPTER VIII 
 LIGHT IN THE GREAT DARK CONTINENT 
 
 After Fifty Years 
 
 WHEN that prince among missionaries, Dr. Moffat, first went 
 to Africa, he met with many strange experiences and 
 wonderful adventures. Africa of seventy years ago was not like 
 the Africa of to-day. He found it very difficult to learn the 
 language of the Bechwana tribe, among whom he was to work. So 
 he left his wife and his fellow-missionary and went and lived 
 about a hundred miles away with the natives. He rode as they 
 
 93
 
 94 GLEANINGS FROM MANY FIELDS 
 
 did, hunted with them, prepared skins as they did, and sewed too, 
 for he found there that the men were the sewers, and that the 
 women knew nothing about such work. It was a rough and un- 
 comfortable life, and Dr. Moffat used to say afterwards that it 
 was one of those disagreeable things one does not like to think 
 about. He had certainly plenty to eat, for he could shoot the 
 rhinoceros and buffalo, and enjoy a nice hot steak. But he was 
 very glad, of course, to get back to his own home after mastering 
 the language. 
 
 After this the natives began to suspect that there must be 
 something after all in writing. Once Dr. Moffat asked a man to 
 take a letter to Mrs. Moffat. "I will do it," said the man, "on 
 condition that I put my spear through it." " Why do you want 
 to put your spear through it ? " Dr. Moffat asked. " Well, if I 
 put the spear through it, it will not have a word to say to me 
 on the road," was the reply. It turned out that a friend of the 
 man's had taken a letter a short time before, and had thrown it 
 away because he got it into his head that the letter spoke. 
 
 The idea that books could give any information was beyond 
 them. 
 
 They sometimes mocked Dr. Moffat, and put up the book to 
 their ears. " Listen ! Ah ! it has not a word to say to us ; you 
 must tell us how it manages to talk to you." Besides being so 
 dreadfully stupid and ignorant, the people w r ere cruel and wicked. 
 They killed their children, buried alive their parents when they 
 became useless and old, stole cattle, and did many other bad 
 things. There was one great savage who hated Dr. Moffat very 
 much, and he wanted to kill him. But somehow something 
 always seemed to stop him when he tried to do so. One day Dr. 
 Moffat met this stern-looking would-be murderer coming down a 
 lane. On seeing the missionary, the savage came within three 
 steps, and suddenly dropping his spear and shield, said : " For- 
 give me, my master." Dr. Moffat's heart just leapt with joy at 
 hearing these words, and he said with a smile, " Forgive you, oh
 
 LIGHT IN THE GREAT DARK CONTINENT 95 
 
 yes, with all my heart; with all my heart I forgive you, and I 
 could take you to my arms as if you were a child of mine ; for- 
 give you, oh yes; but what have you done?" 
 
 "Oh," he said, "if I had had my will, you would have been 
 dead long ago. I have waylaid you, but my hand would not throw 
 the spear ; I have drawn the bow with the poisoned arrow, but 
 I could not shoot; I have tried to poison you, but I could not." 
 
 Dr. Moffat asked him what had made him change his mind. 
 " Ah," he said, " you were kind to my wife ; when she was sick 
 you gave her medicine that made her well." So kindness melted 
 the hard heart of -that poor savage. 
 
 Dr. Moffat was at last able to give the Bechwanas a written 
 language, and after some years he had the joy of seeing thou- 
 sands of men and women, thousands of boys and girls able to 
 read God's Word in their own language. And not only reading 
 it, but bscoming in their lives what St. Paul calls " living 
 epistles." 
 
 Men whom Dr. Moffat had seen returning again and again 
 with their spears dyed in human blood ; men on whose thighs 
 were marks showing how many victims they had killed ; men 
 whose joy and rejoicing were to sing of the numbers they had 
 butchered, these he lived to see singing hymns and praying to- 
 the God of Peace and Love, and pleading with their own country- 
 men to believe in Jesus Christ, the Friend of sinners. 
 
 And what a change it made in the habits and lives of these 
 Bechwanas! Before the Gospel came, the men thought themselves 
 the " lords of creation," and their women were perfect slaves and 
 drudges. The latter had to dig in the fields all day long, and 
 then carry home logs of wood to cook food for their lazy hus- 
 bands. They had to cultivate the ground, gather in the harvests, 
 make the fences, build the houses. There was once only one 
 single plough in the whole nation, and that was the missionary's 
 plough. Before Dr. Moffat left there were hundreds of ploughs 
 everywhere. The men began to learn willingly, after their hearts
 
 96 GLEANINGS FROM MANY FIELDS 
 
 were touched the right way, to make bricks, and to build and to 
 plough ; and so we see how this corner of the great dark Conti- 
 nent changed under the glorious Light of the Gospel. 
 
 Mohiya, the Little Slave Boy 
 
 Into a little dispensary on far-away Lake Tanganyika, writes 
 the Rev. R. Stewart Wright, came an Arab slave-dealer one day 
 bringing a little slave boy. I am sure your hearts would have 
 ached as mine did when I first saw the truly terrible condition 
 of that little African lad. He was suffering from small-pox, and 
 apparently dying of starvation and the hardships he had endured 
 while on his journey. And what a fearful journey that had 
 been ! For four months he had been travelling through the 
 great forests of Manyema, sleeping at night without shelter and 
 drenched with the heavy dew, while during the day he had to 
 toil along a rough and rugged road, under a burning sky, hungry, 
 footsore, weary. No wonder then that he was reduced almost 
 to a skeleton, and was to all appearances dying. 
 
 Cruel as his master had been, the little fellow cried bitterly 
 when he left him. The Arabs, knowing how the white men hate 
 the slave trade, generally try to keep the slaves out of our sight ; 
 and further, to prevent them running away and taking refuge 
 with us, they tell them that the white men are cannibals and love 
 to eat the flesh of the black people, so that if they ran away to 
 us we should kill and eat them. Little Mohiya, therefore, appa- 
 rently thought his time had come, and that I was about to make 
 ready to dine off him ; hence his weeping. He was, then, as you 
 may well imagine, greatly relieved when, instead of cutting him 
 up and making him ready for the cooking pot, I gave him food, 
 washed and clothed him, and bound up his sore and tired little 
 feet. This seemed to show him that the white man was not ter- 
 ribly cruel and savage, as the slave-driver had made him out to 
 be, but a good, kind man, with great love for little slave boys 
 such as he.
 
 LIGHT IN THE GREAT DARK CONTINENT 97 
 
 In his weak and exhausted state Mohiya seemed little likely to 
 pull through the attack of small-pox from which he was suffering, 
 and for several weeks his life hung in the balance. 
 
 You may be sure I did my very best to save him. I waited 
 on him day and night, giving him food and medicine, and doing 
 all I could to restore him to health again, and God in His good- 
 ness answered my prayers, and I saw him gradually grow 
 stronger. 
 
 An incident that took place during his recovery before I 
 thought him strong enough to leave his bed pleased me greatly, 
 showing as it did the noble character of the unselfish little fellow. 
 One evening I was surprised by some one timidly tapping at my 
 door. On opening it, what was my astonishment to find the little 
 fellow, whom I had imagined to be snug asleep in bed, and too 
 weak to walk, had come in the darkness to call me out. Feeling 
 that he must have something very important to show me, or he 
 would not have come in his then weak state, I got my lantern 
 and followed him to the dispensary, where I discovered what do 
 you think? There, crouching down behind the door, I found two 
 poor runaway slave women, trembling and in terror. 
 
 Upon inquiry, I was told they had run away from a slave 
 caravan which had passed some days before, and had been hiding 
 in the wood until they found Mohiya, who, strange to say, had 
 been stolen from the same district as themselves. The little fellow, 
 as I afterwards found, had nobly shared his food with them. He 
 had at first been afraid to tell me, and ill as he was had gone to 
 the village to give food to the two famished creatures. 
 
 On Mohiya's recovery, he told me the story of his capture. A 
 party of these cruel slave-traders on the hunt for slaves broke in 
 without warning upon the village in which he lived, buried away 
 in the depths of the mighty forest of Manyema. 
 
 The little household, consisting of father, mother, and two 
 brothers, was broken up and the house burnt down. His father and 
 brother were either killed or succeeded in escaping to the forest, 
 
 H
 
 98 GLEANINGS FROM MANY FIELDS 
 
 for he never saw them again. He and his mother were taken 
 with others of the villagers and added to the slave gang. Then 
 they started on the long and weary march to the coast. Many, 
 however, would never live to reach it, because great numbers die 
 from cruel treatment, hardships and starvation. 
 
 Mohiya, although such a very little fellow, as he grew older, 
 became very useful to me. In course of time I made him my 
 house-boy, and a faithful servant he proved to be in fact, quite a 
 little man Friday. 
 
 Perhaps you would like to hear what work he did. He began 
 each day by coming to me with his face and hands washed clean 
 to wish me good-morning. He would then sweep out my house, 
 dust the furniture, and learn by degrees that there was a place 
 for everything, and that everything must be kept in its place. He 
 would then lay the table for breakfast, after which meal he would 
 wash the dishes. Then one of Mr. Hemans' boys would beat the 
 drum as a signal for all the boys on the station to go to the 
 stream and wash. He would then scamper off and join the others 
 in their bath before going into school. Mohiya, being always with 
 me, made steady progress with his lessons, and in school he had 
 to teach as well as learn, and a fairly good little teacher he made. 
 He also learnt in due course of time the duties of cook. He was 
 always willing to work, and so happy when able to do anything 
 for me. Happy in his work, you may be sure he was happy in 
 his play. None enjoyed their games more than he did; his laugh 
 was always one of the merriest, and sometimes, as I used to see 
 him racing after the ball, 
 
 " Turning to mirth all things on earth, 
 As only boyhood can," 
 
 my heart would rise in thankfulness to God that I had been the 
 means of saving the life of the little fellow. 
 
 You may be surprised to hear that African boys and girls like 
 salt much more than they like sugar. So, as a reward for doing
 
 :%'" t' 
 
 
 J"'< 
 
 AN AFRICAN WARRIOR. 
 
 99
 
 100 GLEANINGS FROM MANY FIELDS 
 
 his work well, I used to give Mohiya a handful of salt twice a 
 week. You all know that a boy or girl who is not greedy, but 
 shares the good things they receive, has many friends. So it was 
 with Mohiya. I am glad to say he was not selfish, and therefore 
 had lots of friends, to whom he gave many a welcome pinch of 
 salt. 
 
 Mobu the Outcast 
 
 One day the head man among the Bamangwato tribe, and a 
 constant attendant at church and school, came to the Mission 
 House at Shoshong with a miserable-looking woman, who was un- 
 able to stand erect, but crept on her hands and knees. The head 
 man explained that, as he was coming down the gorge, he found 
 a number of boys stoning the poor woman, shouting out "thief 
 at the top of their voices. It seemed that the woman, being almost 
 starved, had stoleji a little sour milk from a leathern bottle which 
 was hanging in the sun, and being perfectly friendless and help- 
 less, the cruel heathen children were stoning her in the river. 
 Turning to the poor wounded creature, the missionary found two 
 bright eyes fixed upon him, half in terror, half in entreaty. She 
 had no relatives. Her friends or owners had cast her off. They 
 said she might as well die, seeing she could no longer work for 
 them. In telling her story she hesitated and stammered in her 
 speech, for she had fora long time been afflicted with St. Vitus's 
 dance. 
 
 The head man said, in his simple way, that now the Word of 
 God had come to the town, it ought to prevent such cruel deeds, 
 and that is why he had brought her to the missionary. A short 
 time after this, Sekhome, the chief of the tribe, came to pay a visit 
 to the Mission House, followed by some twenty of his head men. 
 The poor woman was brought in to show to the chief, and her sad 
 story was told to him. "It is well," said he carelessly; "if you 
 care to feed such a creature as that, you may do so." And he 
 promised the missionary that her owners should never claim her
 
 LIGHT IN THE GREAT DARK CONTINENT IOI 
 
 again, should she ever get well under his care, saying: "The 
 woman is as good as dead ; if you raise her up again, she is 
 yours." 
 
 Mobu, as the poor creature called herself, settled down in the 
 missionary's kitchen, and tried to show her gratitude by doing such 
 little acts of service as she could render without walking, which 
 was quite beyond her power. Regular food and medicine soon 
 brought about a favourable change, and by-and-by she was able 
 to move a few paces. For a long time, however, her walking was 
 decidedly zig-zag, and it required some courage to pass her as she 
 steered her uncertain course to the kitchen, with a pot or other 
 vessel in her hand. If Mobu, however, came to grief, there was 
 no louder or heartier laugh than her own. She was just brimful 
 of gratitude and devotion to the kind friends who had been able 
 to rescue her from a most cruel death. 
 
 Buried Alive 
 
 One Sunday morning, while preparing for church, wrote the late 
 Mrs. Moffat, some of our children brought in a report that a child was 
 heard crying among the stones on the side of the hill about a 
 quarter of a mile from the house. We set off at once for the spot ; 
 we heard the cries, but could see nothing. At length we discovered 
 a poor baby literally buried alive and covered with stones. The 
 inhuman mother had pulled out stones to make a hole large enough 
 for its little body, and then put it in and laid upon it one huge 
 stone, the corner of which rested on its little nose and made a severe 
 wound. Its legs were sadly bruised 'with kicking about, and its eyes 
 all bleared with the cold. I took it up and brought it home, fed 
 and washed it and dressed its wounds, to the great astonishment 
 of the natives. They viewed it with indifference ; said the mother 
 was a rascal, but wondered much that we should love so poor an 
 object. It was only about five weeks old, but very small, like one 
 new born. It appeared that the monstrous mother, helped by the
 
 IO2 
 
 GLEANINGS FROM MANY FIELDS 
 
 baby's grandmother, had placed it in its cold tomb about four 
 o'clock the day before, where it remained the whole night till nine 
 o'clock in the morning, when we found it. It was amazing that it 
 still lived, as it had rained hard and there was not an inch of 
 covering about it. And still more that the wolves had not got it, 
 as a wolf will tear a dead body out of the grave if not well 
 
 AFRICAN GRAIN STORE. 
 
 secured. Baby's mother was a beggar, and had been in the habit 
 of getting food from us. Only the day before I gave her a piece 
 of beef for a small bundle of firewood, merely out of pity, and I 
 gave something to her mother also on the very day on which the 
 crime was committed. She had reported that her child was dead, 
 but when she heard that we had found it, both she and her mother 
 fled to another part of the country. I engaged a good-natured
 
 LIGHT IN THE GREAT DARK CONTINENT 103 
 
 Hottentot, the wife of one of the men, to take the baby for a time, 
 for which I paid her liberally, the food and clothing coming regu- 
 larly from me. It grew well and was considered a very pretty 
 child. The remarkable way in which it had been brought into our 
 family led us at once to adopt it as our own, and we have had it 
 baptised and named Sarah Roby. I felt as if I had a command 
 from God Himself to nurse the child for Him. 
 
 Here Mrs. Moffat's story ends, but it is known that when she 
 returned to England with her children, she took Sarah Roby too. 
 She received a good education and a real mother's love from that 
 great, loving heart, and when she grew to be a woman she married 
 a native teacher in Africa and had children of her own. 
 
 Passing on the Light 
 
 Mr. Hepburn, that devoted worker of our Society for so many 
 years in Shoshong, was able to establish a little mission in far- 
 away Lake Ngami, which was discovered by Dr. Livingstone. 
 After a time Mr. Hepburn felt very anxious to go back to Lake 
 Ngami and see how God's work was prospering there. Four 
 young African men, members of the Church at Shoshong, said 
 they would go with him, and they began to prepare for the jour- 
 ney. When this became known, the members of the Church at 
 once set to work to gather what was needed for the journey, and 
 to offer them presents, as tokens of their hearty good-will. And 
 so before the little party set out on its mission no less than five 
 hundred gifts of money, goats, sheep, and corn were sent in. 
 Three large dogs also were among the presents, to guard the 
 travellers from wild animals. And a dog among the Bamangwato 
 is as valuable as an ox. Then, all being nearly ready, the people 
 held a farewell service, the chief, Khama the Good, presiding. The 
 congregation numbered thousands, and the four young men were 
 formally set apart to the work of evangelists. With the usual 
 order of hymns and prayer, addresses were delivered by the
 
 104 GLEANINGS FROM MANY FIELDS 
 
 natives only. They said that now the light of Jesus Christ's 
 Gospel had come to them it was their duty to pass it on to those 
 who were still in great darkness at the Lake. Khama urged the 
 young evangelists to do their work well and faithfully. Then 
 Khama and a number of leading men in the Church laid their 
 hands upon their heads, and prayed very earnestly that " God 
 Himself would send them by His Hoi}' Spirit to do this work of 
 
 KHAMA. 
 
 the Kingdom of the great King, Jesus Christ, and that they all 
 should do with their hearts, and not with their lips, and that they 
 might rejoice that God had given them such work to do." 
 
 The services, which began at sunrise, went on until after sun- 
 set, and a glorious day they made it. The children felt that they 
 must have their share in it too, and prepared a very happy sur- 
 prise. A troop of little brown bairns came to Mr. Hepburn's study 
 door, saying : " We have brought our gifts for you to count."
 
 LIGHT IN THE GREAT DARK CONTINENT 105 
 
 And he counted, with a heart full of joy and pleasure, and found' 
 one sovereign, eleven half-crowns, thirteen two-shillings, one hun- 
 dred and twenty shillings, one hundred and three sixpences, and 
 twenty-four threepences, which made the grand total of 12 us. 
 How their little faces beamed with gladness ! It was the Day of 
 Days to the Bamangwato, and that is how they tried to pass on 
 the glorious Light to the other dark places in the great dark con- 
 tinent of Africa.
 
 CHAPTER IX 
 MADAGASCAR AND THE MALAGASY 
 
 Progress of the Mission 
 
 THE Madagascar Mission is peculiarly dear to the friends of 
 the L.M.S. Its history is a very simple one. Our missionaries 
 first went out to that island, which is as large as Great Britain 
 and Ireland put together, in 1818. Though it is so near to Africa, 
 no lions, leopards, elephants, rhinoceroses, hyaenas, or antelopes are 
 found in it. But there are plenty of buffaloes, wild boars, monkeys, 
 lemurs, crocodiles, serpents, and many-coloured birds. 
 
 The missionaries found the Malagasy a bright-minded race, 
 kind to strangers and anxious to learn. But they had many 
 stupid and cruel customs. They believed in witchcraft ; they 
 exposed their babies, if born on what they thought was an 
 unlucky day, to a cruel death. They made persons who were 
 only suspected of crime drink a cup of poison, called the Tangena\ 
 if the person died in so doing, they said he must have committed 
 the crime. (See chap. II.). They worshipped idols, and also bowed 
 down to creeping things, especially to crocodiles. When they were 
 going to cross a river where these fierce creatures were, they 
 would stand upon the bank and say : " Oh, Mr. Crocodile, do not 
 hurt us ! We do not hurt you ! Our fathers never hurt you, and 
 we promise that the children never shall." 
 
 Several of the first missionaries went out as Christian artizans 
 to teach the Malagasy, not only about Jesus Christ, but how to 
 work in wood and iron and other things. The missionaries also 
 
 106
 
 MADAGASCAR AND THE MALAGASY 107 
 
 began schools, translated the Bible, and printed books in the 
 native language. At first the people did not like to send their 
 children to the schools, as they feared they would be shipped to 
 Europe as slaves, or be eaten. But the king, whose name was 
 Radama, knew better. He set his subjects a good example by 
 sending the little princes to the school. He also often went there 
 himself to hear them repeat their lessons and sing their hymns. 
 Soon the parents lost their fears, and the children became very 
 fond of their teachers and lessons. 
 
 The schools had not been opened very long when the missionaries 
 wanted a little rest themselves, and thought that the Malagasy 
 boys and girls, like English children, would like a holiday. But 
 the parents and the pupils were much surprised at the idea, and 
 could not understand it at all. They did not want a holiday, not 
 they ! To them school was much nicer than the fields or streets. 
 So they all got very angry about it, and even the judges held a 
 public meeting, called a Kabary, about the conduct of the mis- 
 sionaries. At last the stir got so great that the king wrote to 
 ask the missionaries what the children had done to deserve such 
 a punishment, and offered himself to punish those who had been 
 naughty. But the missionaries soon told him that instead of 
 being angry with the children they were very much pleased with 
 them, and so he was content. By the end of four years two 
 thousand children were in the schools, eager to learn. 
 
 That was a good beginning, but, alas ! this happy state of 
 things did not go on. The good king died, and a bad queen began 
 to reign. She hated the white man's religion, and made up her 
 mind to crush it out of her country. She ordered all the mis- 
 sionaries to leave Madagascar, and all her people to go back to 
 their idols. Then began the terrible persecution, which you must 
 all have heard of many and many a time. Oh ! how hard it was 
 then to be true to the Lord Jesus ! Those who would not obey 
 the queen and deny the dear Lord were sold as slaves, or put to 
 death. They tried to run away to the hills and hide in caves,
 
 IOS GLEANINGS FROM MANY FIELDS 
 
 but they were hunted down and caught. All the Bibles were 
 burnt too, and darkness and sorrow were over the land for many 
 years. 
 
 But all things come to an end, even a wicked queen's reign, 
 and she died. Then brighter days dawned for this great island. 
 The missionaries went back. Oh ! how glad and delighted they 
 were to find that after all those long dark years, without any 
 Bibles or any one to help them, there were many Malagasy who 
 still loved and prayed to their Father in heaven. So the stopped 
 work went on again joyously, the idols were publicly burnt, and 
 just before the late French war with Madagascar there were 
 some 1,300 congregations connected with the L.M.S., with about 
 280,000 adherents. We had sixty or seventy thousand children 
 in our schools, and the native contributions to the mission work 
 were five or six thousand pounds a year. 
 
 Two Wild Tribes 
 
 In some of the outlying districts of Madagascar are tribes who 
 are still heathen of the most degraded kind. They are so given 
 to rum-drinking, and to the worst superstitions, that the mission- 
 aries find it very difficult to make them understand what they 
 have come to teach them. The Sihanaka tribe are forbidden, for 
 instance, to eat fowls, lest they should become possessed by a 
 dancing mania called Salamanga. They also dare not eat food 
 by the fireside of a stranger, or look at the sun when it is about 
 to set and is red. They are forbidden, too, to work on Thursdays, 
 which is thought to be a most unlucky day. If a little baby be 
 born either on Tuesday or Thursday, it must be thrown aAvay to 
 perish, or should it be born with anything wrong with it the same 
 fate awaits it. When the missionaries beg them to give up rum- 
 drinking they reply : " That was the drink of the ancestors and 
 can never be given up." They drink the strongest rum on all and 
 every occasion. On returning from feeding the cattle, or from
 
 MADAGASCAR AND THE MALAGASY log 
 
 working in the fields, or canoeing ; when visiting friends after 
 the birth of a child, or when borrowing a number of their neigh- 
 bours' slaves for some special work, or on their return from a 
 distant town, they drink rum. They sometimes keep up a drunken 
 revelry for more than a fortnight; and at the funeral of a relative, 
 at marriage feasts, or when visiting friends, they drink enormous 
 quantities. 
 
 The Sihanaka heathen worship idols, and also pray at the 
 graves of their ancestors. When illness comes they sacrifice an 
 ox at the grave, in case the attack should prove fatal. They 
 present rum and honey, too, as food for the dead, lest the cattle 
 should be stolen. 
 
 When a Bara dies his body is buried the same day. Then the 
 stem of a banana tree is placed in the house and covered with a 
 lamba, in the place of the dead man. Then all the relatives and 
 friends assemble and commence singing and weeping, and the}' fire 
 off numbers of guns. After a time the stem of the banana is 
 buried ; oxen are driven to the tomb, and on the way are cruelly 
 speared by men till they die. When any man wishes to take a 
 girl for wife, he kills an ox and presents it to her father. 
 
 When a husband is eating his meals, his wife may neither join 
 him or even look at him. She, poor thing, has a very hard time 
 of it, for her husband won't do any work. She has to fetch in 
 firewood, work in the rice-fields, fetch water, and pound the rice. 
 The only things the men do are fighting and tending cattle. If a 
 wife leaves her husband, being miserable, she is usually shot by 
 her father, as not fit to live. 
 
 The Bara do not build their towns on the tops of hills, but on 
 level plains. Each town has several gateways. Everybody builds 
 his house as far away from his neighbour as possible, as they do 
 not trust each other. The houses are made of bamboo, and 
 plastered inside with cows' dung. The idols of the Bara are 
 legion ; they say that they believe there is one true God, but as
 
 110 GLEANINGS FROM MANY FIELDS 
 
 He lives in heaven He cannot see them in the earth. So they 
 make idols, as substitutes for God, to protect and keep them. 
 
 The Bara clans are constantly fighting. To be able to fight 
 well and steal well is a Bara's highest ambition. He sings over 
 his child : 
 
 " Oh ! be thou able to steal well. 
 Oh ! be thou able to fight well. 
 If thou diest, die by the gun or spear, 
 Oh ! thou my child." 
 
 If they have a quarrel about property, it is usually settled this 
 way. A large cooking-pot is filled with water, in which is placed 
 a pebble. A fire is made, and when the water boils the one who 
 can take out the pebble without scalding his hand is declared the 
 victor. If both men's hands are scalded, they are kept in the 
 house a week, after which they are examined. The one whose 
 hands show no marks of the scald is said to be the true and just 
 one, and the property becomes his. 
 
 The Story of Rafaravavy 
 
 This is a story of the great persecution. Rafaravavy had been 
 an earnest idolater, but she had given all that up to become a 
 follower of Jesus Christ. By her lovely example and loving 
 words she drew many to the Saviour. But, one day, three of 
 her heathen servants went to a judge, and told him that their 
 mistress kept the Sabbath day and read the Bible and prayed. 
 The wicked queen heard of this, and it made her very angry. 
 " Is it possible," she said, " that there is any one so daring as 
 to defy me, and that too a woman? Go and put her to death 
 at once ; it cannot be borne." 
 
 But some nobles begged the queen to spare Rafaravavy's life on 
 account of her father and brother, who had been useful to the 
 government, and so she escaped with a heavy fine. But from that 
 day she was closely watched. She therefore went to live in a quiet 
 place in the country, and the Christians often met at her house
 
 MADAGASCAR AND THE MALAGASY III 
 
 for little meetings. The storm, which had only lulled, burst out 
 again. Rafaravavy was seized, put in prison, loaded with chains, 
 and ordered to be speared the next morning. And she would 
 have been if a fire had not broken out in the capital during the 
 night, which frightened the queen and saved the Christian lady's 
 life. But she was kept in prison for five months and then sold 
 as a slave. Her mistress, however, was kind to her and allowed 
 her to visit her friends. And you may suppose who those friends 
 were, and what they did when they met together. 
 
 Soon this was told to the queen, and she ordered Rafaravavy 
 and the others to be seized. But they heard of this in time to 
 escape out of her cruel hands, and that night, with four others, 
 she fled. Her adventures, her perils, her hair-breadth escapes 
 would almost fill a volume. At first she and her friend Sarah 
 took refuge in the house of a Christian some miles away from 
 the capital. Generally, during the day, she hid herself in some 
 mountains that were near, and when it was dark returned to the 
 house. But one morning, being cold, she kept within doors, and 
 that very day the queen's soldiers came to search the house. 
 Sarah saw them coming and warned Rafaravavy, who crept under 
 a bedstead and covered herself with a mat. The master of the 
 house kept the men talking for an hour, when they took their 
 departure without even searching the place. As soon as the 
 soldiers had gone Rafaravavy made her escape. Travelling by 
 night and hiding by day, she and her companion came to a village 
 where they hoped to find friends. But they found the soldiers 
 were there searching every house. What was to be done ? There 
 was a pit near at hand, covered over with thorns and briers, and 
 in this the hunted Christians spent that night and the next day. 
 After this they hid themselves in a plantation, and once, while 
 hiding in some high grass, they saw the soldiers pass by the place. 
 After spending some days in a lonely cave these poor hunted 
 women pushed on towards another village. On the way they 
 saw in the distance twenty soldiers coming towards them. They
 
 112 GLEANINGS F1WM MANY FIELDS 
 
 had but just time to run. Rafaravavy fell into a bog, where she 
 sank down in the midst of some high rushes, where she stuck 
 until her friends came to her rescue. 
 
 At last they reached the house of a Christian friend, who had 
 a plantation where the grass was very long. Here he put up a 
 tent, and for three months the wanderers found rest. But they 
 worked for their Master as well, held little secret services, and 
 taught several people to read. 
 
 While here, Rafaravavy received a letter from a friend, saying 
 that Mr. Johns, a missionary, had come back to Tamatave from 
 Mauritius to help them to escape out of the country, and would 
 they meet him there. This was very good news. And yet it was 
 SL dangerous thing to do, for the only road to Tamatave lay through 
 the much-dreaded capital, which was the lair of the fierce lioness 
 who thirsted for their blood. But they resolved to run the risk. 
 Rafaravavy, dressed like a servant, followed her two friends. 
 They walked for three days, and then came to Antananarivo as 
 soon as darkness covered them, and sought refuge with some good 
 friends. But it was very difficult to find a real hiding-place, and 
 she had some narrow escapes. At last all arrangements were 
 made for Rafaravavy to join Mr. Johns at Tamatave on the 
 coast. Late one night she, Sarah, and three men set out upon 
 their dangerous attempt. After travelling about twelve miles the}* 
 entered a forest and tried to sleep. But they had no shelter and 
 were drenched with rain. When morning dawned, to their horror 
 they heard that three hundred soldiers were encamped about ten 
 miles before them. But they believed the boldest course would 
 be the safest. They went forward, and when they reached the 
 spot they were astonished to find that the soldiers had all left it. 
 
 At length they came to the river Mangoro. How were they to 
 get across? To swim was impossible, for the stream swarmed 
 with crocodiles. But they were soon helped out of this difficulty 
 too. A party of soldiers had crossed just before the Christians 
 reached the river, and as it was dark, and the boatmen believed
 
 THE ROAD TO TAMATAVE. 
 113
 
 114 GLEANINGS FROM MANY FIELDS 
 
 they belonged to the army, they were quite ready to ferry them 
 over. 
 
 Passing through several villages, where Rafaravavy was more 
 or less known, they disguised themselves as best they could, and 
 though often meeting soldiers, and indeed followed for some days 
 by two suspicious-looking men, they at last reached the outskirts 
 of Tamatave and hid in a jungle. They knew their risk of being 
 caught increased as they got nearer the port, but happily they 
 had a secret, powerful friend there -who knew of their coming, and 
 who had done what he could to prepare their way. So they sent 
 on two messengers to their friend. But they had to wait long 
 for their return, and suffered much from hunger. After being a 
 day and a night without food, they remembered that they had 
 brought with them some stale fat to be burnt in a lamp. This 
 they boiled and eat with thankful hearts. Next morning the 
 messengers brought back the welcome news: "All is right." When 
 the sun went down they went on very cautiously, and before 
 long reached the house prepared for them by their friend, and 
 found that, in ten days, a vessel, which Mr. Johns had engaged, 
 would reach Tamatave to take them away. When the ship 
 arrived some sailor suits were brought, and Rafaravavy and her 
 friends, dressed in these, managed, with great danger and difficulty, 
 to get on board, and so made their escape. They were accom- 
 panied to England by their long-tried friend, Mr. Johns, and 
 reached our shores in May, 1839. 
 
 What a warm welcome awaited this little band who had now 
 escaped out of the mouth of the lion ! Thousands wanted to see 
 and hear them, and the first meeting was held as soon as 
 possible after their arrival, in Exeter Hall. The great room was 
 crowded, and when the six refugees came upon the platform it 
 is difficult to say whether they were greeted with more smiles or 
 tears. 
 
 Rafaravavy and Sarah lived with Mr. and Mrs. Johns at 
 Walthamstow for two years, and made many friends. But the
 
 MADAGASCAR AND THE MALAGASY 115 
 
 climate of England tried them much, and Sarah fell ill and died. 
 It was soon thought well for the other refugees to return as far 
 as Mauritius, where the climate was more like that of Mada- 
 gascar and where thousands of Malagasy were living. Here 
 Rafaravavy worked for Christ, though her heart was in her own 
 homeland, and she longed to go back there. The time came 
 when missionaries and other Christians might return to Mada- 
 gascar, and both Mr. Johns and Rafaravavy did so. 
 
 The latter opened a school, and it seemed as if at last her 
 heart's desire was to be fulfilled. But, alas ! after a few months 
 the French priests made so much trouble that Rafaravavy had to 
 go back to Mauritius, where she died in 1848 of a disease which 
 had been slowly killing her for some time. Death came very 
 peacefully and gently to close the life of this noble woman, who 
 had given up all, and had suffered so much for the love she 
 had for Jesus Christ. 
 
 The Good Old Deaconess 
 
 Rasalama was a good old Malagasy woman and the senior 
 deaconess in the city church of Ambohipotsj 1 ". She was very 
 old for a Malagasy, somewhere on the heavenward side of 
 seventy. Her face was weather-beaten and deeply lined, and 
 her walk was slow and feeble. She was blind, too, and had been 
 so for many years. She was one of those that were hunted about 
 in Madagascar in the dark, sad years of the persecution. For long 
 years she was away from home, hiding in the forests or in 
 among rocks and caves of the mountains, exposed to all sorts 
 of hardships and dangers for Jesus Christ's sake. Exposed to 
 the burning heat and blinding sunshine and pelting rains of the 
 summer ; exposed to the winter cold and to hunger and thirst, 
 nakedness and weariness ; all that brought on the trouble in 
 her eyes which ended in loss of sight. She was always in her 
 place near the pulpit in the church, and as soon as the service
 
 Il6 GLEANINGS FROM MANY FIELDS 
 
 was over she hurried along in her slow fashion to the door to 
 catch hold of the missionar3''s hand as he left the church, and turn 
 her blind old face upwards to his and say a kind word. She often 
 went about, with her little grand-daughter leading her from house 
 to house, talking with the people about Jesus Christ. Though,, 
 when young, she was a good reader, of course when she became 
 blind reading had to be given up, but knowing a great deal of the 
 Bible off by heart, she could explain much of it to any one who 
 would listen to her. Sometimes she went away for a fortnight or 
 a month into country villages, that she might speak of her Master to 
 the half-heathen villagers, and in every little way in her power 
 this poor old Malagasy woman worked for Him whom she loved. 
 
 The Idol -keeper's Daughter 
 
 There was a man in Madagascar who was very rich. He 
 had plenty of money and cattle and slaves, and he thought him- 
 self a very lucky man. He and his wife used to go to the little 
 chapel every Sunday, but they did not really love and believe in 
 the God worshipped there, and the dear Christ was nothing to. 
 them. They thought their idols were much better, and they 
 trusted in them and prayed to them night and day. But they 
 did this in secret, and only went to chapel because they were- 
 ashamed of what people would think and say if they did not do^ 
 so. When God sent them a little child they were delighted, and* 
 they named her Rasoa. As she grew out of babyhood she began. 
 to do just as her father and mother did. She began to be quite 
 clever in cursing and swearing and doing all sorts of naughty 
 things. Poor little thing! she did not know that it was wrong.. 
 One day she was playing with some girls who went to the 
 Mission School. They began to sing that little hymn " When 
 mothers of Salem their children brought to Jesus." Rasoa 
 thought the singing lovely, and said to herself: "I wish I could 
 sing like that. I did not know they learnt that sort of thing.
 
 MADAGASCAR AND THE MALAGASY l\J 
 
 in what they call school. I will go there myself." Her parents 
 would not hear of her going to such a place, but being a wilful 
 girl she went off and became a scholar. She very soon learnt 
 to read, for she was wonderfully diligent and punctual. She 
 kept on until she reached one of the upper classes. One day, as 
 she was learning her Scripture lesson at home, her parents heard 
 her say : " Thou shalt not have any gods beside Me. Thou shalt 
 not bow down thyself to them nor serve them, for I, thy God, 
 am a jealous God." Her parents were quite startled at hearing 
 their child say these words, and they asked her to repeat them. 
 They stuck in their minds, and after this they never dare let 
 their little Rasoa see them pray to their idols, because they 
 knew she had changed and no longer believed in the things in 
 which they believed. 
 
 After they had been going on for some time hiding their evil 
 practices from the child, a change came over them too, and they 
 began to lose faith in their idols. Perhaps Rasoa had been 
 praying that this might happen ; and you may imagine how 
 happy she was when she found her father and mother loved the 
 things that she did. They became very true and earnest servants 
 of Jesus Christ, working and giving in every possible way for 
 Him. I am sorry to say that a great grief came to this man 
 and his wife, God wanted their little Rasoa, and they had to 
 let her go. She became very ill, many of her schoolfriends and 
 teachers came to see her, and they sang a hymn and prayed 
 together. Just before she died she said : " I am so happy. He 
 is taking me away that I may go to heaven to be with Jesus, 
 my dear Master. Don't grieve too much for me, for we shall 
 meet again. Good-bye."
 
 CHAPTER X 
 ISLES OF THE SOUTHERN OCEAN 
 
 From Darkness to Light 
 
 BEFORE English missionaries settle upon islands of the South 
 Seas, native Christians from other islands often begin working on 
 them. After living on one for five months, the teacher, whose name 
 was Samuelu, was able to speak the language of the people, and then 
 got to work. The very first thing he did was to preach a sermon 
 on the text, " The Son of Man has come to seek and to save that 
 which was lost." The next day he began a school. Of course it 
 was a great novelty, and all the people came, and all were naked. 
 Samuelu wrote an account of what he was able to do for this 
 heathen island, and as it has been translated, I can give you his 
 story in his own words. He says: 
 
 " I heard the shell blow for a meeting. I went. The people 
 asked me what was to be done with the idols now that I had 
 brought them a new religion. ' Break them up and burn them,' I 
 said. On this the priests and their people burst out into a ' death 
 wail,' crying as if some one were dead, and declaring to me that 
 destruction would fall upon all of them: Then I told them how 
 useless their idols were, and at last persuaded them to let me 
 destroy them. Then I turned to the heathen night dances, and 
 here I found difficulty again. The people said: 'Let the idols go, 
 but we cannot give up the night dances.' There was one leading 
 man who had the chief rule in them, and I did my best with 
 him ; but he was obstinate, and said he knew nothing of any other 
 
 118
 
 ISLES OF THE SOUTHERN OCEAN 
 
 119 
 
 God greater than himself, and that he would not give up his 
 night dances. I said to him that if he persisted in these heathen 
 
 A SAMOAN. 
 
 orgies they would be his ruin. He then turned and said: ' If your 
 God is powerful, tell Him to come to me, and let us have a fight,
 
 120 GLEANINGS FROM MANY FIELDS 
 
 and see who is the stronger.' Then I said to him : ' God is a true 
 God. He can do everything. He is powerful, slow to wrath, and 
 of great mercy.' I went on talking to that man for three months, 
 and then he got angry, forbade my going near him, and said that 
 if I persisted in going he would kill me. I gave up going to him, 
 but soon I heard he was ill and crying out in fear. He sent for 
 me and said if I had any compassion left for him to save him. I 
 said I had no power over the disease, that I was only a man, and 
 the power was with God. The disease got worse, and he died, 
 and that was the death also of the night dances. 
 
 " My next difficulty was with an old man who was a rain- 
 maker, and was said to be the god of the winds. I persevered with 
 him for four months, but still he said it was no use my trying to 
 change him. I told him that he was only a deceiver, that the 
 God of heaven alone had power over the winds and rain. But to 
 that he only jeered, squinted his eyes, and declared that he had 
 the power over the heavens and the earth. I then proposed to 
 him that he should show us his power by causing wind and rain 
 on the following day ; and that if he could do so I would give 
 him a reward, but if he could not do so that he should let me 
 burn his god-house, where he said he made the winds and the 
 rain. He replied that it was very good, and advised me to go 
 home at once and make ready for shutting in my house against 
 a storm of wind and rain which he would bring on in the morn- 
 ing. That night the people in their conversation were pitying me, 
 and saying that the storm of the next day would be death to me. 
 Next morning there was not a single cloud or a breath of wind. 
 All day nothing but blazing sun, and so it went on for days. 
 Then I said to one of my young men: 'Now let us go and burn 
 the god-house of the old rain-maker.' Away we went, and found 
 the old man at his house. He begged us to be merciful, and 
 merely burn the house and not the gods inside. As he begged so 
 hard, and promised me that he would give up the rain-making 
 business and part with his gods, I yielded to his wishes, and did
 
 ISLES OF THE SOUTHERN OCEAN 121 
 
 not burn the house. He was true to what he said, cast away his 
 gods, and began to worship with us. I had still two troublesome 
 men to deal with. One pretended to rule the land, and cause the 
 food to grow, and the other ruled the sea and the supply of fishes. 
 The sea-god forbade that fish should be preserved by sun-drying, 
 claimed all drift-wood or large fish cast ashore, or a turtle caught 
 by any one. These, he said, were presents to him, and it would 
 be death for any one else to take them. The land-god also for- 
 bade the use of several things. I said that every one should be at 
 liberty to do what he chose with any fish or other thing which 
 came to his hand in an honest way. Most of the people were 
 delighted, backed me up, and the land and sea-gods had to yield 
 and set the people at liberty. 
 
 "And now I set to chapel building, but this was very slow 
 work. Then came the missionary ship, and I was visited by Mr. 
 Pratt. There were only six people to propose for Church member- 
 ship : the people did not seem to care for God's Word. But the 
 English missionaries at last came to live on our island, and the 
 kingdom of Jesus advanced like a fire in a thick forest. How 
 wonderful is the power of our God in changing for good those 
 who were so bad ! " 
 
 "Grannie" of Port Moresby 
 
 The Rev. \V. G. Lawes has given us the following sketch of a 
 New Guinea woman. Her real name is Kena, but some one gave 
 her the name of " Grannie," and everybody here knows who 
 " Grannie " is. She is a widow, and though her husband has been 
 dead at least ten years, she always carries about little relics of 
 him, and nothing could induce her to part with them. He was 
 a very good husband, as New Guinea husbands go, but he used 
 to beat his wife, and Grannie has a good many scars which she 
 will carry to the grave, all of which are memorials of her married 
 life. 
 
 When the first teachers for New Guinea were landed at Manu-
 
 122 GLEANINGS FROM MANY FIELDS 
 
 manu, thirty-five miles from Port Moresby, one of their first visitors 
 was Kena. She told them of Port Moresby, and advised them to go 
 there, as being much more healthy than Manumanu. To this day 
 she takes to herself the credit of bringing the teachers there. It 
 was, however, sickness and death which did it. When they came 
 Grannie was among the first to welcome them, and when, a year 
 later, we arrived, one of the first natives we knew was the ener- 
 getic widow, Kena. If we wanted firewood or water, she was 
 always ready to fetch it, but she needed constant watching. She 
 expected to be paid for everything she did, which was right 
 enough; but in addition she used to help herself to whatever she 
 could lay her hands on. I remember losing a bunch of keys, 
 which was a great bother, for my desk, as well as other small 
 things, was locked, and the keys gone. Presently Grannie ap- 
 peared with something in a native basin for sale. It was my 
 bunch of keys which she had stolen, but for which she could find 
 no use, and so she brought them to me for sale ! However, not- 
 withstanding her thievish tricks, she stuck well to us, and was 
 very proud, when the John Williams came, to go on board with a 
 huge card hung round her neck: "This is Mrs. Lawes' servant." 
 She went all round the deck, shook hands with all on board, and 
 collected as many presents as she could. Kena is a great 
 traveller, and can carry heavy burdens. When I went for my 
 first inland journey, Kena went with us, and was the most useful 
 member of the party. We had some natives to carry our things 
 and several white men. As one after another of the latter caved 
 in because their swags were so heavy, Grannie took their extra 
 stuff and marched on until her bag was three times the size it 
 was at starting. The native women in New Guinea always carry 
 their burdens in a netted bag, called a klapa, suspended by a 
 broad band across the forehead and hanging down the back. 
 These kiapas are very elastic, and it is scarcely possible to fill 
 them. Grannie's grew bigger and bigger every mile, but still she 
 tramped on as fresh as ever. Mr. Chalmers soon found out the
 
 A NEW GUINEA VILLAGE. 
 123
 
 GLEANINGS FROM MANY FIELDS 
 
 advantage of having Grannie with him on his long and frequent 
 journeys. She is not only strong to carry and clever to cook, but 
 she is good to talk. There is no better interpreter in New 
 Guinea. 
 
 A good many old superstitions still cling to her, but I believe 
 she is now a true disciple of Jesus Christ. Grannie tries to learn 
 to read, but her attempts in that direction are not very success- 
 ful. I am afraid she does not know when the book is upside 
 down. She is great, though, on figures ; and when the children at 
 the school are puzzled by some ugly question in the multiplication 
 table, Grannie often comes to the rescue. 
 
 Grannie is a very general favourite. All the animals know 
 her. I do not think I ever knew any one more kind to all dumb 
 animals. She would share her last morsel with a pig, or a fowl, 
 or a pet kangaroo. Pigs, fowls, dogs, cockatoos, kangaroos, all 
 know her, for she is sure to feed them. If one is away when the 
 others are fed, she will keep his portion and give it him when he 
 comes back. She would have been called a "New Guinea Savage" 
 .a few years ago, but she was kind to dumb animals, helpful to 
 strangers, and industrious. Let such " savages " receive the Gos- 
 pel and the grace of God, and what fine men and women they 
 will make. There will be many such in New Guinea. 
 
 A South Sea Yarn 
 
 Captain Turpie, who for so many years commanded the John 
 Williams missionary ship, tells the following story. There 
 was one island of the Gilbert Group which was utterly in 
 heathen darkness. I think we were the first white men that 
 the natives had ever seen. We were two hours landing amongst 
 them, and when we did so we had to stand another hour to be 
 put through heathenish rites to propitiate the gods, lest we should 
 bring disease into the island. When we asked the old king to 
 allow Christianity to be introduced into the island, he said: "No;
 
 ISLES OF THE SOUTHERN OCEAN" 
 
 the go.ls of Nanumanga are my gods; we know of no other, and 
 do not want you or your message." They were herding together 
 at that time like beasts, and that is a mild way of putting it. In 
 that island now, under the care of a young Samoan teacher, 
 named John, the people have learned to read and write and to 
 worship our God. 
 
 To go on to the Loyalty Group, I myself was in a boat landing 
 goods for the missionaries, when the people came down fully 
 armed with clubs and spears, whitewashed on one side and their 
 natural colour on the other; but to-day you may walk the length 
 and breadth of Mare and find the people clothed and in their 
 right mind, with schools in every village. And if you want to 
 buy a hundredweight of yams, or a pig, or fowls, or whatever it 
 may be, and ask the native what you owe him, he will take out 
 a pencil and paper, or a slate, and work it out in plain arithmetic 
 and say: "There is the bill." 
 
 When I arrived at New Guinea, I found Mr. Chalmers there 
 before me, and he had made himself felt, of course, in the village 
 where he was living. He came off to me in a boat with a 
 number of natives. I said : " Mr. Chalmers, what about this place ? 
 What are the people like, and what am I to expect?" 
 
 " Well, Turpie," he said, " I do not think the people of our 
 village will interfere with you or annoy you, but I will not say 
 so much for any other village within sight." Gathering the few 
 people who came off with him on the deck, he translated to them, 
 as well as he could, the following speech: "We have come to you 
 as your friends. We are not a fighting ship, and we never have 
 fought, therefore let us have no fighting." They said: "Good, 
 good." "Now," I said, "don't steal from this ship"; and they 
 laughed in my face, and said : " No, they would not think of steal- 
 ing from such a ship." Mr. Chalmers said to me : " In the 
 morning you will be surrounded by war canoes ; there is no doubt 
 about that." 
 
 And we were surrounded by war canoes. Although, as com-
 
 126 
 
 GLEANINGS FROM MANY FIELDS 
 
 pared with our modern ironclads, we may laugh at them,' as war 
 canoes belonging to New Guinea natives, with their cruel-looking 
 spears and clubs, they are not to be trifled with. They came near 
 to us, and when they saw the large ship it struck me they were 
 as much afraid of us as we were of them. I beckoned to them to 
 
 A SOUTH-SEA ISLANDER IN HIS CANOE. 
 
 come alongside, and picked out one who was crfief for especial 
 marks of my favour. He came on board, and the first thing I did 
 was to buy his spear. He readily took hoop-iron for it, and we 
 were friends so far. I took him down into the ship's saloon, 
 where there was a mirror. This man was perfectly naked, and 
 when he saw a true picture of himself he did not seem pleased.
 
 ISLES OF THE SOUTHERN OCEAN 12J 
 
 I took him through the ship, and made him presents of glass 
 beads, with which he was highly delighted. 
 
 The rest of the natives came on board, and as they reached 
 the deck I bought all their spears and took them down into the 
 cabin until it was chock-full. 
 
 In a short time a canoe-load of ladies wished to come on board. 
 I was sorry to refuse them, but we gave them some presents of 
 beads and gay ribbons, and they seemed content. The men were 
 pleased because we were kind to their women, and the women 
 more pleased for their own sakes. When they left the ship they 
 cried, " Good, good," and I felt that we had made friends at once. It 
 was a day well spent. The day after that we began building, and 
 landed a printing press and many other things, besides the 
 luggage of some forty or fifty of the missionaries and native 
 teachers. 
 
 While doing our work there, an old chief came up to me with 
 a note from Chalmers, which said : " Be kind to this old chap ; he 
 has been kind to us." I took him into my cabin, and gave him a 
 lady's collarette and several pieces of hoop-iron, and told him that 
 it was in return for his kindness to our people. We gave him a 
 looking-glass, and as soon as he got the looking-glass he made up 
 his mind that he wanted to go ashore, and we sent him ashore 
 with as much care, perhaps, as we would have sent one of the 
 Directors of the Society. 
 
 Paiao, the Blind Boy 
 
 A few years ago a blind boy might have been seen hanging 
 about the fence of the teacher's house in Port Moresby. Dirty, 
 hungry, neglected, Paiao was glad to pick up any scraps of food 
 that were to be had. The teacher's wife pitied the little fellow, 
 and brought him to live with their family. He is an orphan, and 
 with no brother or sister. He lost his eyesight when he was quite 
 a small boy, with an attack of smallpox. He soon proved to be
 
 128 GLEANINGS FROM MANY FIELDS 
 
 no drone in the teacher's hive, and certainly has not eaten the 
 bread of idleness. He is really a very clever boy. We could 
 scarcely believe at first that he was totally blind. He digs the 
 garden, pulls up the weeds, and makes the fences as well as those 
 who can see. All the Mission premises are fenced in, and there 
 are many roads, fences, and narrow gateways. But Paiao walks 
 as straight to the gate as if he saw the road, and very rarely 
 misses it. It is amusing to see him in the cook-house. He is 
 very fond of being there, and can cook as well as any one. He 
 boils the kettle, cooks fish, and is more handy in the kitchen than 
 many. The girls are fond of teasing him, but he can hear the 
 faintest whisper, and before they are aware, he will pick up a 
 stone, throw it at them, and almost always hit one of them. 
 
 When Mr. Chalmers came here, Paiao used to come and sleep 
 near the house, "to protect him." Paiao has more light in his 
 mind than in his eyes. He has learnt to pray, and, I believe, is 
 a disciple of Christ. He went with a number of natives, a few 
 months ago, on a trading expedition. He said he was " going to 
 see Elema." The teacher's wife gave him a bullock-bell before he 
 left. While at Elema they had services every Sunday, and then 
 the bullock-bell came out. Paiao rang his bell for every service, 
 and lots of Elema men came and, for the first time, heard of God 
 and heaven and Jesus Christ. He himself took part in the ser- 
 vice, and often conducted family prayer on weekdays. Paiao lives 
 on the Mission premises, and is a great favourite with everybody. 
 
 A Terrible Voyage 
 
 One day a native Christian, named Elekana, in the island of 
 Manihiki, wanted some Avood to build a new house. So he and a 
 party of friends set out in a large canoe to a distant island where 
 they knew they could get wood. 
 
 But somehow or other they failed to find the island, and being 
 unable to return they drifted on and on, not knowing where they
 
 ISLES OF THE SOUTHERN OCEAN 129 
 
 were going. They had taken a large supply of cocoanuts; but as 
 week after week passed without sighting land, the store got very 
 low, and in the seventh week only six cocoanuts remained. 
 During those weary weeks of voyaging Elekana and his friends 
 never neglected morning and evening prayers, and as each Sunday 
 rolled round they still had their worship. Their trust was strong 
 
 A NEW GUINEA LATAKOI. 
 
 in the great Captain of their salvation that their cries for help 
 would be heard. 
 
 On the evening of the ninth Sunday, and after drifting twelve 
 hundred miles on the wide ocean, they sighted land. It was 
 Nukulaelae. At midnight they got near the reef. Then they 
 prayed. The surf lifted their frail craft on to the reef. Four of 
 their number, worn out with hunger and thirst, expired here two 
 
 K
 
 130 GLEANINGS FROM MANY FIELDS 
 
 men, one woman, and a child. The remaining five crawled on to 
 the shore, where another soon after died too. The four friends 
 sat on the beach till noon, when a man suddenly came up to 
 them. When he saw their distress, he cried over the dead body 
 of their comrade and covered it with a cloth. He sav/ they too 
 were ready to perish, and made a fire and baked a cocoanut for 
 them. He then went to the wrecked canoe, and bundling up all 
 the clothes he found in it, he took them for himself and off he 
 went. 
 
 Towards evening the man came again, and Elekana asked him 
 if the people of that island would kill them during the night. He 
 said there was no fear of that. By-and-by they heard the shout- 
 ing of men coming, and as they landed from four canoes and 
 were all dressed as if for war, the poor weary castaways did not 
 know if it were life or death for them. 
 
 But these natives of Nukulaelae lifted the four weak men and 
 carried them very carefully to the house of the king. The house 
 was crowded with people who had come to see them. The king 
 was on a raised seat. He was very kind to them, and" ordered 
 food to be given them. The king and people then held a meeting, 
 in order to consider what should be done with the strangers. It 
 was agreed that the king's bodyguard should feed those who were 
 alive, and that the dead body of the man should be buried in 
 front of the king's house. 
 
 Elekana had three books with him a New Testament, Notes 
 on Matthew, and a hymn-book. After a time he got well, and 
 began to hold little services, and at the end of three months he 
 started a day-school. The people tried to learn with all their 
 might, and at last coaxed Elekana to give them a leaf each of his 
 New Testament. So he tore it up and distributed it among them, 
 and his book on Matthew shared the same fate. He refused to 
 give away his hymn-book, as he wished to keep it, in order to be 
 able to sing himself and also to teach them. 
 
 Teaching school on Nukulaelae proved a very difficult task,
 
 ISLES OF THE SOUTHERN OCEAN 131 
 
 each scholar having a different lesson and a different leaf. Some- 
 times after poor Elekana had taught from early morning till dark, 
 only taking time to eat his food, some of the natives would get 
 angry with him because they had not got a new lesson. 
 
 At length Elekana asked the king to let him try and get a 
 passage in a vessel bound for Samoa, in order to let the mission- 
 aries on that group know that they wanted teachers and books 
 sent to them. The king begged that he would stay with them a 
 year longer, to teach his people. 
 
 But Elekana was very anxious to go, and at last the captain 
 of a vessel promised to take him. But instead of landing him at 
 Samoa, he left him at another island, where he was kept eight 
 months and treated unkindly by the natives. 
 
 But when another vessel bound for Samoa called there our 
 hero was allowed to go in her. 
 
 At length Elekana reached Samoa, and went to see the British 
 Consul, who passed him over to the missionaries. He told his 
 interesting story to them, and they sent off a Samoan pastor to 
 live and work in Nukulaelae, where, owing to that terrible voyage, 
 Elekana had been able to tell for the first time the good tidings 
 of great joy.
 
 CHAPTER XI 
 RESCUING THE NEGROES OF THE WEST INDIES 
 
 In Demerara 
 
 BEFORE missionaries went to British Guiana the poor black 
 people living there had no one to tell them about their Father 
 in Heaven. These negroes did not belong to that country, but 
 had been snatched away from their own African homeland and 
 friends many years before. They were carried off in those dread- 
 ful slave-ships to work in the sugar-plantations of the West 
 Indies. And what a life was theirs ! Their masters looked upon 
 them as beasts of burden, and not as men and women. They 
 made them work all day long with but little food to eat, and then 
 they flogged them if the right amount of work was not done at 
 the right time. Perhaps some of you have read (( Uncle Tom's 
 Cabin," that wonderful book which tells us so much about the life 
 of the negro slaves in America. The slaves were despised and 
 hated, and they were not allowed to be taught to read by the law 
 of British Guiana. If they tried to hear about God, and went 
 to a church, they were driven away, as we should drive out a 
 donkey if he came to our service. Upon some of the church doors 
 this notice was hung up: "Dogs and negroes not admitted." 
 Poor black people! how could they ever learn about the loving 
 Master who longed to set them free ? 
 
 It was said in those days that you could as easily find a slave 
 knowing about religion as find one wearing shoes and stock- 
 
 132
 
 RESCUING THE NEGROES OF THE WEST INDIES 133 
 
 ings. This will show you that the white people living in British 
 Guiana thought it quite impossible for any of the blacks to be- 
 come Christians. 
 
 As long ago as 1738 two Moravian missionaries tried to get 
 leave to preach the Gospel to the slaves there, but this was not 
 allowed. Then again, in 1805, a good Wesleyan missionary 
 landed and went to see the Governor, who asked him who he was 
 and what he had come to do. The missionary told him. " Oh," 
 he replied, "if that be what you are come to do you must go 
 'back at once. I cannot let you stay here." And the missionary 
 was obliged to leave. 
 
 Two years after this, God put it into the heart of a Dutch 
 gentleman, who had a large plantation in Demerara, to write to 
 the London Missionary Society and ask for a missionary to come 
 and work among his own slaves. So the Rev. John Wray went 
 out and lived and worked among his poor black friends for thirty 
 years. He was the right man in the right place. He found the 
 negroes in a most terrible state. They knew nothing at all 
 except how to work in the sugar-plantations. But Mr. Wray 
 began to teach them all sorts of simple little things, and even from 
 the pulpit he would tell the women how to wash and dress their 
 children and how to comb their hair. Just think of their not 
 knowing such things ! But the white people in Demerara were 
 very angry at this work amongst the slaves, and they did all 
 they could to hinder it. One day a kind man was found to have 
 been teaching some of them. He was brought before the magis- 
 trates. " Is it true that you have been teaching these people to 
 read?" they asked him. "Yes." "Without getting any pay- 
 ment?" "Oh, yes!" he said. "Then we will pay you;" and 
 they ordered him to be strapped down and whipped. 
 
 In a few years Mr. Wray was joined by other missionaries, 
 and a great work went on. Meeting-houses (as they were called) 
 were built in various parts of the colony, and Sunday after Sun- 
 day, although the slaves were often punished for attending the
 
 134 GLEANINGS FROM MANY FIELDS 
 
 House of God, the meeting-houses were crowded with negroes. 
 They did not care for the whip, nor for the stocks, nor for the 
 black-hole, if they could but hear the " old, old story," which never 
 tires. Soon hundreds knew and loved the Master. 
 
 There are other things that the Gospel of Jesus Christ has 
 done for the negroes. It really gave them their freedom. Yes, 
 it did away with that cruel, wicked slavery. There were many 
 persons in England who thought slavery a bad thing ; but if 
 missionaries had not lived in the midst of it, and then told the 
 people in this country what it really was, it might not have been 
 stopped. And the negroes felt they owed their freedom to mis- 
 sionaries. They would often say to one and another of these 
 friends: "Oh, massa ! if Gospel no come, free no come." "It was 
 God's Word that broke our chains." When the negroes became 
 free men and women, they could send their children to day- 
 schools, and they themselves, instead of being lazy, became indus- 
 trious and active. This brought them in money, for now they 
 worked for wages, and soon they began to buy little bits of land 
 and build cottages. So, instead of being the most despised and 
 miserable of all people, without prosperity, with scarcely any 
 clothes or food, they became well-to-do, educated, happy men and 
 women. 
 
 The Martyr of Demerara 
 
 In the early years of this century, when our first mission- 
 aries went out to British Guiana and the West Indies, so little 
 was known of these places that the devoted pioneers were warned 
 by their friends that to go meant certain death either from can- 
 nibals, wild beasts, or fever. 
 
 But nothing daunted these brave hearts, and, as told above, John 
 Wray and his clever wife settled down in Demerara in 1809, to 
 rescue and help their negro brothers and sisters. 
 
 They began a little school, and held services for these slaves; 
 but the cruel slave-owners at first flogged them if they attended.
 
 136 GLEANINGS FROM MANY FIELDS 
 
 Indeed, the cart-whip was used for most things. If the coffee 
 trees were not so full of berries as usual, and the baskets got less 
 well filled, the wretched slaves were well whipped, and sometimes 
 larger baskets than they could possibly fill were given to them to 
 be ready by a certain time; and, of course, the manager, finding 
 them not full, would give the poor coffee-pickers the lash. John 
 Wray did all he could to comfort and help these people, whose 
 yoke seemed harder than they could bear. When saying to one 
 poor creature that he feared her sorrows would end with death, 
 she said : " Yes, massa ; der be no flogging in Heaven." 
 
 Mrs. Wray was once looking out of her window, and saw 
 some white men seize a negro, stretch him all naked on the 
 ground, and tie his hands and feet to some stakes. After seventy 
 lashes had been given by the cart-whips of the drivers, Mrs. 
 Wray called to the men for God's sake to have mercy on the 
 sufferer ; but they went on until the poor fellow had received one 
 hundred. She found, on inquiry, that this punishment was inflicted 
 for a little bit of rudeness to a slaveholder who had wronged the 
 negro. 
 
 Of course the white people in the country who were slave- 
 owners hated the work which the English missionary was doing. 
 
 Sometimes the white young men would attend the services in 
 large numbers, on purpose to annoy Mr. Wray. They would 
 repeat all that was read or spoken from the pulpit, and make a 
 great disturbance, smoking cigars all the time. On one occasion 
 four young men, the sons of planters, edged their way to the 
 corners of the pulpit, and tried to push it about and raise it from 
 the floor, in order to tease and provoke the preacher. Mr. Wray 
 knew well the secret of his safety, of his power, and of the way 
 to victory. He thought if they could -keep at it so could he ; and 
 as for the negroes, they could sit it out at meeting with any man. 
 He laid hold of each side of the bookboard to steady himself, and 
 spun out his sermon t6 such a length that it seemed as if he 
 would never stop. The hearers, sitting still, listened with untiring
 
 RESCUING THE NEGROES OF THE WEST INDIES 137 
 
 patience. The gay young fellows pushed and lifted ; but they 
 wearied at last, and slunk away outside, utterly defeated. 
 
 After a time Mr. Wray was sent to begin work in Berbice, 
 and the Rev. John Smith and his young wife took his place in 
 Demerara. 
 
 After working some time, there was a rising among the slaves 
 against their cruel taskmasters. Mr. Smith heard of the intended 
 rising, and he did what he could to stop it, saying it was con- 
 trary to the religion of Jesus Christ. But it was all in vain ; a 
 fight took place, and about two hundred negroes were killed, 
 though not a single white soldier lost his life. A great many 
 blacks, too, were taken prisoners, and most cruelly treated ; some 
 received a thousand lashes, and were sentenced to work in chains ; 
 forty-seven were executed, and their heads stuck on poles. Well, 
 false reports and lying statements were soon afloat that the good 
 missionary, Mr. Smith, had helped the negroes to revolt. This 
 was a grand opportunity for the enemies of Jesus Christ to rise 
 against His servant. Mr. Smith was sitting in his house one day 
 busy writing to the secretary of the London Missionary Society, 
 telling him about the real causes of the sad affair amongst his 
 negro friends. In the middle of his letter he was disturbed by a 
 party of soldiers arriving at his door. They seized him and all 
 his papers, and hurried him and Mrs. Smith off to prison. They 
 were confined in a small room near the roof, exposed to the burn- 
 ing rays of a tropical sun, with door open day and night, and 
 challenged every two hours by a sentry. For seven long weeks 
 they were kept there, denied pen, ink, the sight of any face 
 except that of some prison official, or permission to write to the 
 London Missionary Society directors. 
 
 Meanwhile his enemies were hard at work, and after they had 
 made full arrangements the trial began. Mr. Smith had to con- 
 duct his own defence, which he did very well. The trial occupied 
 twenty-eight days, .and at the end of it the poor man was pro- 
 nounced guilty of treason, and sentenced " to be hanged by the
 
 138 GLEANINGS FROM MANY FIELDS 
 
 neck until dead," but recommended to mercy. The prisoner was 
 now removed to the common gaol, put in a room on the ground 
 floor having stagnant water underneath, with holes in the floor. 
 Here he was kept seven weeks, although the prison doctor made 
 loud complaints to the authorities that their prisoner was being 
 killed. He became so ill that, though he was moved to a more 
 healthy part of the prison, poor John Smith sank gradually away, 
 and died in great peace. 
 
 A carpenter and bricklayer, negroes and members of Mr. 
 Smith's congregation, began to fence and brick over the grave 
 where their dear missionary friend was laid. But their work was 
 stopped by the authorities, who ordered the bricks to be taken up 
 and the railing to be torn down. And so just a piece of board 
 with the letters "J. S." painted on it marks the last resting-place 
 of him who has been so truly called "the Martyr of Demerara." 
 
 Something to Do 
 
 Peter Parson was a negro with a very ugly, cross face ; he 
 looked as if he were ready to quarrel with everybody, and to 
 fight any one who was willing to fight him. Nobody liked him or 
 thought him good for anything; even the dogs kept away from 
 him, as if in fear of a kick or two. You would think a man with 
 such a name should be very different. But God's grace is very 
 powerful, and it was just wonderful what it did for Peter Parson. 
 Everybody was astonished at the change in that negro ; it seemed 
 almost like a miracle. 
 
 It was always expected in the mission field that those who be- 
 came Christians should also become workers ; but poor old Peter 
 could not read, nor indeed could he very well tell to others what 
 he knew or what he felt, and he was much troubled to see so 
 many at work and he doing nothing. So he came to the mission- 
 ary one morning, looking as if he ha'd something very important 
 to say, and after a good deal of hesitation said, " I feel too sorry
 
 RESCUING THE NEGROES OF THE WEST INDIES 139 
 
 when I see everybody working and me doing nothing; I have 
 bjen thinking that I might ring the bell." 
 
 "I am very glad," said the missionary, "to see you wish to 
 do something, and you shall ring the b^ll." 
 
 Peter went away, looking a very happy man. The Sunday 
 morning service in that hot country began at seven o'clock, and 
 the bell was rung at six. But long before that hour Peter might 
 be seen anxiously looking up to the window of the mission house 
 for a sign that it was time to ring. And he always went about 
 it with the greatest cheerfulness, and seemed to be right glad that 
 he had got something to do for his Master.
 
 CHAPTER XII 
 FAITHFUL UNTO DEATH 
 
 A Hero of Central Africa 
 
 TUST about fourteen years ago a brave hero died far away in 
 J the heart of tropical Africa. Dr. Southon for that was his 
 name was a kind-hearted, unselfish man, glowing with love for 
 his Master and for those heathen souls who knew nothing about the 
 glad news of salvation. Before he offered himself for training as 
 a medical missionary, he had travelled in various countries, and 
 had been army surgeon in the war in Texas. But his longing 
 desire was to be a missionary, and to be able to use his know- 
 ledge of medicine and surgery in heathen lands. At last the way 
 opened, and Dr. Southon was sent out to Central Africa by the 
 L.M.S. with Dr. Mullens. He had to help to nurse and then bury 
 that honoured Foreign Secretary of our Society, who while visit- 
 ing our mission stations fell ill and died. Dr. Southon settled 
 down at Mirambo, and opened a dispensary and a school, winning 
 many of those hard African hearts by his loving sympathy and 
 help. The great warrior chief, King Mirambo, became his great 
 friend, for he felt that this white medicine-man was indeed good 
 and true. So he gave him ground for a dwelling-house and for a 
 hospital, and was willing to help him in any way. 
 
 Dr. Southon worked away, aided by Mr. Williams ; but at last 
 the latter died from the deadly climate, and Dr. Southon was left 
 alone. But he never felt lonely, for his dear Master was with him.
 
 FAITHFUL UNTO DEATH 
 
 141 
 
 At last, feeling rather tired and ill, he thought he would go out 
 for a day or two by the river and have a little picnic, and perhaps 
 shoot some game and get a change of food. He took his two 
 much-loved and trusted native lads and his servant, to carry his 
 
 CARRYING LETTERS IN CENTRAL AFRICA. 
 
 tent, bed and food. He went forth in peace and gladness, little 
 thinking how he was going to suffering and death. So true it is 
 that we never know what a day may bring forth! Well, they 
 reached the river, and after breakfast Dr. Southon fished and
 
 142 
 
 shot a duck and guinea-fowl. Towards evening he was walking, 
 nearly a mile from the tent, when he suddenly felt a sharp pain 
 in his left arm, and heard the report of a gun. Looking round, 
 for he did not know for the moment that he was shot, he saw his 
 dear boy Uledi running towards him, in great grief, crying out : 
 "Oh, master! I did not mean to do it." 
 
 Then he saw that his left arm was dreadfully shattered and 
 wounded, and the blood was pouring down over his hand. He 
 bound it up as best he could, for fear he should bleed to death, 
 and with help he managed to reach the tent, where he fainted. 
 When he recovered consciousness, he told his weeping, trembling 
 lads how to make a litter, and putting his mattress in it, they 
 carried him home. There he soon saw that if his life was to be 
 saved he must lose his arm. The chief Mirambo came, full of 
 sorrow, begging his kind doctor friend not to die, for they could not 
 spare him. They sent for a missionary at a station some miles 
 away, and when Mr. Copplestone came Dr. Southon asked him to 
 cut off his arm just above the elbow. Mr. Copplestone, not being 
 a doctor, thought he could net do such a thing, and felt sick and 
 faint at the idea. But seeing it was a matter of life or death, he 
 prayed very earnestly for God's help, and receiving very careful 
 directions as to how to do the operation, he did his best. Dr. 
 Southon was still in great pain, and it was soon seen that more 
 would have to be done or he would die. 
 
 They sent a messenger off to a Dr. Bohn at Uganda, and about 
 a fortnight later he arrived, and said another operation was neces- 
 sary, and this was performed. 
 
 Dr. Southon wrote his last letter just before this was done 
 a wonderful and beautiful letter. 
 
 "Since I have been lying here, I've had ample time for reflec- 
 tion, and find this comfort. God has ever led me and trained me 
 in this work. I came into it with all my heart and soul and body, 
 and I determined to make it a success. I bless God; my trust in 
 Him is as strong as ever, and if He allows me to live I will do
 
 FAITHFUL UNTO DEATH 143 
 
 Him good service yet. But oh ! if He calls me to help Mullens 
 and Thomson and others gone on before, how gladly will I respond, 
 and joyfully ' knock off work ' here ! . . . 
 
 "I feel as if I can't last much longer. My sufferings during 
 the past five weeks have been simply awful, and nothing short 
 of Divine grace and a good constitution could have pulled me 
 through till now. I cannot tell you how gladly I should welcome 
 death ; but oh ! I must confess I do most earnestly pray for it. 
 My morphia is nearly finished ; I have about two doses left, which 
 I am reserving for extreme agony. As long as I could get a 
 dose every three hours I was moderately easy, but for days I have 
 only had an occasional dose. Mr. Copplestone has promised to do 
 an operation to-day, which, if successful, will ease my sufferings 
 and enable me to get well quickly; but I am of opinion that, if 
 not successful, it will cause my death. Tell everybody, if I die, 
 that my most earnest wish was to die at my post, and nothing 
 short of death could make me leave it. ... Don't grieve for 
 me. I would you could be glad, yes, positively glad, and rejoice 
 most unmistakably about the event. I expressly desire no one to 
 go into mourning on my account, but get your most beautiful gar- 
 ments out and have a feast, inviting all kindred souls. I shall be 
 with father and mother and dear Steve ere you get this, and how 
 we shall rejoice you can't think. . . . 
 
 " Oh ! Sam, I could not have believed any person could stand the 
 sufferings I have gone through, and live. And I myself feel sure 
 that there is some great and grand purpose to be accomplished by 
 it, but at present I can't see it. 'Perfected through suffering,' 
 perhaps; but anyhow, I only ask that it may soon end in the way 
 He desires it. My faith in Him is strong and reliant, and I feel 
 perfectly at peace with all. I leave no regret behind, except as to 
 the unfinished way I leave my work to my successors; but even 
 that is swept off by knowing that He will have it so. Good-bye, 
 and good-bye, all true friends. Let your efforts be to carry on the 
 work by prayer and money, if none can give themselves."
 
 144 GLEANINGS FROM MANY FIELDS 
 
 But God wanted His dear servant, and at the early age of 
 thirty-one He called him to the higher service of heaven. 
 
 In Death not Parted 
 
 About twenty-two years after John Williams and Mr. Harris 
 had been killed and eaten by the cannibals of Erromanga, two 
 more brave missionaries set out for that island, to take the Gospel 
 of Jesus Christ to the poor savages. 
 
 Two Samoan native teachers had before this been able to settle 
 there, and so open the way for Mr. and Mrs. Gordon, who now 
 volunteered to go on with the work. They must have wondered, as 
 they went, what their reception would be, but how little they thought 
 the martyr's crown would await them a few years later ! 
 
 They found the two Samoan teachers both alive and well, but 
 with a fearful tale of suffering and danger to tell. They had been 
 left to starve by the Erromangans, who refused to give them any 
 food. But God helped them out of their trouble, and put it into 
 the heart of one savage, Vorevore, to be kind to the strangers. 
 For about five months he used to steal down day by day to their 
 little hut, and hand in food for their daily supply. And though 
 the teachers must have been greatly cheered at the sight of the 
 Scotch missionary and his wife, yet it was sad to have to tell them 
 that the door of hope that had been opened for Erromanga was 
 shut again, that the little light that had begun to glimmer upon 
 its gloomy shore was extinguished, and that the dark night of 
 heathenism had again set in. 
 
 For about five years Mr. and Mrs. Gordon lived on the island. 
 Hardships, dangers and trials were plentiful. But they stuck to 
 their work, feeling sure that the Master was with them ; and in 
 time they began a little school, and printed one or two small 
 books. Mr. Gordon made a tour of the island, preaching wherever 
 he went, and was generally well received by the savages. A small 
 chapel was built, and a little bell, echoing from hill to hill, would
 
 FAITHFUL UNTO DEATH 
 
 145 
 
 call sometimes as many as one hundred and fifty people together. 
 Oh! how happy and encouraged the missionary would feel as he 
 saw that God was blessing the work! 
 
 But a dreadful change took place. A hurricane swept over the 
 island, destroying plantations and crops, and causing great scarcity 
 in food. Then measles, which was a new illness to the natives, 
 
 A COCOANUT GROVE. 
 
 came like a scourge, and cut off hundreds of people. Both storm 
 and disease were said to be due to the foreigners' religion, and 
 now the lives of the missionaries were in great danger. Mr. and 
 Mrs. Gordon did their utmost to nurse and to cure the sufferers; 
 but as they would not obey any rules or take any care, the loss 
 was very heavy. 
 
 L
 
 146 GLEANINGS FROM MANY FIELDS 
 
 < The savages at last were determined that the white people must 
 die, and talked about it openly. 
 
 Some of the native Christians went and warned the mission- 
 aries, but, strange to say, they would not believe the report. They 
 could not think it possible that the people whose friends they had 
 been for five years would do them harm. So they went on with 
 their work as usual. But one day a party of natives came to the 
 house and asked where Mr. Gordon was. Mrs. Gordon told them 
 that he was at the new house, and offered them food. They took 
 some cocoa-nuts and fish-hooks and went away, saying they wanted 
 some cloth from Mr. Gordon to cover themselves, as they wished 
 to come to chapel the next Sunday. They went to the place 
 where the missionary was, and Nahobili, with a hatchet in his 
 hand, went in to speak to him, and asked him to come and see a 
 man who was ill. 
 
 On the way the savage struck Mr. Gordon, who set off running 
 at once. But he tripped on some loose stones, and the savage, who 
 was following him, struck a deadly blow at the poor man, killing 
 him instantly. 
 
 Another savage rushed on towards the house to complete the 
 dreadful tragedy. Mrs. Gordon, having heard a noise, went out- 
 side to see what it was, and was struck with the hatchet of the 
 man, who came stealthily behind her. She, too, died almost at 
 once, and without knowing that her dear one had been killed also. 
 The little servant girl saw the murder of her mistress, and, terror- 
 stricken, rushed to some friendly natives, who came back with her 
 as quickly as possible, lest the bodies should be carried off to the 
 oven. They buried all that remained of the two, who were " lovely 
 and pleasant in their lives, and in their death were not divided." 
 
 A Child Heroine 
 
 It was the ist of August, 1895, and the almost tropical sun 
 was already hot and glaring, although he had hardly been up an
 
 FAITHFUL UNTO DEATH 147 
 
 hour, when three happy children Mildred, Kathleen, and Herbert 
 started out from their home to gather flowers on the hillside 
 near. It was Herbert's birthday, and they wished to decorate 
 the breakfast-table with flowers, in honour of the six years of 
 the little birthday-king. He was proud of his six years, and his 
 sisters, who were several years older, were proud of him. Their 
 father and mother were missionaries working with the Church 
 Missionary Society, and giving their life and love and all their 
 energies to bring to the Chinese the knowledge of Jesus Christ, 
 the Saviour of men. The place where they lived was in Ku- 
 Cheng, near Foochow, and they were very happy in their work 
 there. 
 
 As they were flower-hunting that morning, the children heard 
 the sound of horns and drums, and saw a party of Chinese 
 marching out with flags from the city of Ku-Cheng close by. 
 They had no fear of the Chinese they had spent the most of 
 their young lives among them, and they were quite familiar and 
 happy with them. So they ran and stood to watch the coming 
 procession. Suddenly, as it came near, one of the foremost of the 
 party caught Kathleen by the hair; and then, first seized by a 
 sudden fear, the children turned and ran screaming towards home. 
 Kathleen, wrenching herself free, ran also, but their pursuers 
 were close upon their heels not one or two, but the whole pro- 
 cession, yelling and shouting. They entered the house with the 
 children, who were fleeing to the refuge of all true children 
 their parents' arms but fierce men rushed into their parents' 
 room before them. They were thrust at with swords and spears, 
 separated, and hustled this way and that by the yelling crov. T d. 
 Kathleen crept under a bed, and Mildred cowered under a quilt 
 on the top. They knew nothing, only that the men in the house 
 were like wild beasts let loose wild and ferocious, and thirsting 
 for human blood and they feared everything. The house was 
 full of cries and pleading voices and shrieks and the yells of 
 savage cruelty and triumph. Then, again, they heard no more
 
 148 GLEANINGS FROM MANY FIELDS 
 
 the sound of voices that they loved or knew nothing but Chinese 
 shouts ; and one man rushed past them crying : " We have killed 
 all the foreign devils ! " 
 
 By degrees the sounds grew fainter until they died away into 
 distance, and then, trembling and sick with fear, and with a 
 bursting grief, Kathleen crept out from her hiding-place. An 
 awful silence was over everything a silence such as she had 
 never known before the silence of death. There was no sign of 
 life anywhere, no sound, only a faint moaning from Mildred on 
 the bed. Then a hissing, crackling noise came rushing by, and 
 the truth flashed upon her mind that, to complete their work of 
 destruction and desolation, these evil men had fired the house ! 
 She did not think of herself; Kathleen's one thought was that 
 her sister, lying faint and bleeding from a great sword-cut 
 through her knee and many other dreadful wounds, must be got 
 out of the burning house. She was herself hurt and bruised, and 
 the younger of the two, but the brave spirit gave strength to the 
 young arms, and she carried her wounded sister out and placed 
 her at a distance outside. As soon as Mildred was in safety, 
 Kathleen dashed again into the burning house, for her ears had 
 taught a faint sobbing, and she knew the voice. Her parents 
 were lying there, pale and still, covered with wounds and blood, 
 and she knew, only too well, that they would never speak to 
 her again. Her heart was breaking with the horror and anguish 
 of that hour, but she hardly seemed to feel she could only do. 
 She must find the sobbing child at all costs. And she did, and 
 swiftly a little three-year-old brother was borne out, sick and 
 bruised, and placed by poor fainting Mildred. A second journey 
 into the burning house, so full of that awful sorrow, too great for 
 words, was made by this brave maiden of only eleven summers, 
 for the mother-heart was strong within her it did not fail or 
 falter. This time it was the little birthday-king but two short 
 hours before so happy, now wounded to death with cruel, horrid 
 wounds that the strong, pitiful sister's arms rescued from the
 
 FAITHFUL UNTO DEATH 149 
 
 flames. Then a third time the devoted child went back, and 
 from under the dead body of the nurse she dragged the baby 
 the pet white and moaning. The spears of those wicked men 
 had not even spared the baby ! 
 
 Then she could do no more ; there were no more to bring out , 
 the flames must do their work; they were less cruel than evil 
 men. 
 
 But not yet was Kathleen's work accomplished. The sun was 
 hot and fierce, and the wounded brothers and sister must be got 
 into shelter, or they would faint and die. They were faint and 
 dying even then. There was another house not far off, but no* 
 sign of any one to help. That morning could it bi3 only that 
 morning? as they went out so gaily, the voices of lady mis- 
 sionaries had greeted them, and wished them " many happy 
 returns of the day." Kathleen sickened at the thought ; now there 
 was only silence, awful silence. But nothing could daunt the 
 brave, faithful heart, and one by one she carried her little dying 
 brother, the younger one, and the baby, to the silent house. Then 
 she found a Chinese Christian going by, and persuaded him to 
 help her with poor tortured Mildred. Before long one lady re- 
 turned who had escaped without much harm, and they found a 
 second lady severely injured the only two left out of eight who- 
 had been there that morning. 
 
 Later in the day help came to them, and a doctor for the 
 wounded; but the little birthday-boy was going fast, and went 
 before another sunset to join his father and mother in that home 
 where there is neither sorrow nor suffering, " nor any more 
 pain." The baby has since gone too, and Mildred was for a long 
 time very ill. Dear little martyr children! May God forgive 
 their cruel murderers! Dear, brave little Kathleen! May God 
 give her a noble and a beautiful womanhood, for her bright, happy 
 childhood is gone for ever, and her young life cruelly robbed of 
 its sweetest joys and hopes. Let us think of her in our happy 
 homes, and pray the "God of the fatherless" to be with her and
 
 150 GLEANINGS FROM MANY FIELDS 
 
 with the others. And let us remember all suffering ones, and all 
 the boys and girls whose parents are missionaries, and who miss 
 so much that children hold most dear, and sometimes suller so 
 much for the cause of Christ. 
 
 From the Coral Reef to Heaven 
 
 Moanakino and two friends went fishing on the coral reef. 
 It was a lovely day. They had been fishing some time with good 
 success, and were just saying to each other that they would 
 return home, when two of the little party found that their fish- 
 hooks were caught in the coral in rather deep water. Now the 
 poor natives in some of the South Sea Islands set much value 
 on their fish-hooks they cannot obtain new ones very easily. As 
 the sea was smooth, they dived for them, as was the custom of 
 the fishermen of those parts. But, alas ! they had scarcely left 
 the reef when suddenly a breeze sprang up and the sea became 
 very rough. They tried to return to the reef, but could not, for 
 the surf was running very high, and dashing with great force 
 against the sharp coral. Their friend ashore on the reef could do 
 but little for them. He held out his long fishing rod for them to 
 catch hold of, but it was too short. There was no canoe near, 
 but he ran off for one. An hour went before the canoe arrived. 
 In the meantime one of the poor fellows in the sea complained 
 that he was getting weak and very cold. His friend tried to hold 
 him up by his arm. After a time poor Moanakino, fearing his 
 friend's strength might also fail, said : " Let us pray together to 
 God for help; but if He should see fit to take us to Himself, we 
 will say : ' Thy will be done.' " 
 
 When their little prayer was ended, poor Moanakino said, " I 
 know I shall be drowned I have no feeling left in any of my 
 limbs ; now leave your hold of me, for fear you also should sink. 
 Good-bye ; I am going to Jesus and to heaven."
 
 FAITHFUL UNTO DEATH 
 
 151 
 
 His friend continued holding on to his hair as long as he 
 could, and for some time after he was dead. When the canoe 
 arrived, several men dived for poor Moanakino's body, and got it 
 after difficulty. They ran for the missionary, who did all he 
 could to restore life, but to no purpose. The poor young wife of 
 Moanakino was standing on the reef tearing her hair when her 
 husband's lifeless body was brought to shore. 
 
 A CORAL REEF.
 
 CHAPTER XIII 
 NATIVE WORKERS FOR CHRIST 
 
 Mr. Wang 
 
 MR. WANG was a Chinaman, and a great worker for Jesus 
 Christ in Chung-King, who was called home to heaven not 
 very long ago, when quite a young man. He had heard the 
 Gospel for the first time about seventeen years before he died, and 
 was baptized by Dr. Griffith John in Hankow. Mr. Wang was no 
 ordinary believer ; he accepted the Gospel with his whole heart, and 
 the one idea that possessed him was to serve God with all his mind 
 and strength. Everything he did came second to his work for 
 Jesus Christ. It mattered nothing to him who the person might be 
 with whom he was talking, he always took care to lead the talk 
 to Christ and His power to save men. On a board in his room he 
 had written : " Visitors must be willing to talk of the ' doctrine ' , if 
 they have no wish to talk about it, they must read a book." The 
 grand point about Mr. Wang was that he lived out all the things 
 that he preached about to others. A Chinaman, who was not a 
 professed Christian, once said of him: "There is no difference 
 between him and the Book." For many years Mr. Wang was a 
 colporteur, selling Bibles for the American Bible Society; but he 
 afterwards joined our own Mission in Chung-King, as a native 
 evangelist. He was never very strong, but becoming still more 
 feeble, he was sent to his native place for a rest and change. 
 But he got no better, and his friends soon saw that God wanted 
 him for heaven. During the last year of his life he seemed to 
 
 152
 
 NATIVE WORKERS FOR CHRIST 153 
 
 live constantly with his Saviour. He was so sweet, gentle and 
 thoughtful, and always thought so very little about himself. A 
 favourite text of his, one which he got a friend to write out in big 
 letters to hang on his wall, was, " Sinners, of whom I am chief." 
 Just before he died, Mr. Wang gave a parting word to all his 
 friends who were gathered round him. He said : " My time has 
 come. I am going home first. You will follow, but see that you 
 bring many with you to glory. Be filled with the Spirit." 
 
 To the missionary's wife he said : " You will get a reward for 
 loving the Chinese." He sent, too, a message to his old pastor, Dr. 
 John : " Tell him that his crown of glory awaits him." 
 
 When a friend said to him : " You will soon be with Jesus," 
 Mr. Wang replied, "Oh! I am always with Him." And in this 
 way the Chinaman went to see Him whom he had so loved. 
 
 His missionary in Chung-King says of him, that his character 
 was indeed beautiful ; alt his life, his strength, his possessions, 
 everything was daily given to the Lord. He was truly a brother 
 greatly beloved. 
 
 Nritya Kali 
 
 Here is the story, in her own words, of Nritya Kali, a Brahman 
 widow, who has been for some years one of our most useful native 
 helpers in Calcutta. 
 
 "I was born in the house of my grandfather, a high-caste 
 Brahman, and am about thirty-four years of age. My marriage 
 took place when I was fourteen years old; my husband had been 
 married before, and had one son. After my marriage, my husband 
 gave over the charge of this boy into my hands, and I came to 
 look upon him as my own child, and brought him up with great 
 care. We went to live in Berhampur, and my son attended the 
 Mission school there. 
 
 " My husband was very kind to me, and I was very happy, and 
 persuaded myself that I should always be as happy as I was then. 
 But, alas ! my husband took fever, and after three months' illness
 
 154 GLEANINGS FROM MANY FIELDS 
 
 he died. My only hope in life was thus taken away. I was torn 
 with anguish. In my agony I tried to embrace my husband's dead 
 body, but my friends removed the body to the burning ghat. I 
 tore off my ornaments, the gifts of my husband's love, and remov- 
 ing my handsome clothes, put on common ones. In my sorrow I 
 saw nothing but darkness on all sides ; life became unbearable. I 
 cared for nothing, and cried d.iy and night. I became very weak, 
 and I made up my mind to commit suicide rather than endure a 
 widow's life. My tender, loving heavenly Father delivered me 
 from this sinful desire. I know now that God spared my life that 
 I might glorify Him. 
 
 " I had read in the Hindu books that a widow who does certain 
 things will be re-united with her husband after death. In this 
 blind hope I began to do all sorts of hard and painful things. I 
 gave up reading novels and dramas, ate common food, wore coarse 
 clothes, afflicted my body in various ways, but found no peace. 
 
 " Then I went to live with my uncle at Sadipur. While there, 
 I got a letter from Kali, my step-son, to say he had been baptized 
 by one of the missionaries in Calcutta. I was almost mad on 
 hearing this news, and rushed off to Calcutta with two relatives, 
 in the hope of finding my son. I heard he was living in a mis- 
 sionary's house in Bhowanipur. I wrote to Kali, who replied 
 that he had been a Christian for five years, but that his love for 
 me had kept him silent. My heart was full of grief, but I could 
 not give up my son. When I met him, I embraced him warmly. 
 He tried to comfort me. I told him unless he would renounce 
 the Christian religion I did not wish to hear anything he might 
 say. Whenever I met him I always tried to coax him to become 
 a Hindu again. I angrily abused the Christian religion, and also 
 the missionary who had baptized him. 
 
 " Kali begged me to read the Bible. I replied : ' I have resolved 
 never to read the Scriptures.' 
 
 "Six months passed. I was staying with some relatives, and 
 one day I saw some books put into the sun to dry. Among them
 
 A HINDU LADY IN HER JEWELS. 
 166
 
 156 GLEANINGS FROM MANY FIELDS 
 
 I saw one called 'The True Teacher.' I read it, and was very 
 much pleased with it. From that time I wished to read the Bible, 
 but my pride would not let me borrow it from Kali. But I did so 
 at last. After a year's study of the Bible, I was sure that Jesus 
 Christ is the only Teacher and Saviour, but I dared not confess 
 my faith. 
 
 " At last I went to live with my son, and about two years after 
 I first read the Bible I was baptized. I determined that the rest 
 of my life should be spent in God's service. 
 
 " My heart from that time has been full of peace and joy. I 
 am a teacher in the mission. I go about from place to place, 
 preaching the Gospel, singing hymns, reading the Bible. God has 
 graciously blessed my work. I am always kindly received, and 
 some of those whom I have taught have begun to love Jesus. Thou, 
 Lord, art my only hope and refuge." 
 
 The Idol Vemana 
 
 In March, 1894, the Nallacheruvu festival was held in the 
 Telugu country, South India. Venkataswami went to the temple 
 of the idol Vemana, and declared that he was no god at all, but 
 that Jesus Christ was the true Saviour. Upon this, the priest and 
 many others said : " Well ! if there's no truth in Vemana, you 
 hold up this umbrella (probably a heavy thing used in the pro- 
 cessions), and we'll see!" He agreed, saying: "If I hold it up, 
 what will you give me?" They replied: "If Vemana doesn't 
 cause you to swoon, we will give you a hundred rupees ; but if 
 you do swoon, you must give us ten rupees We'll give you an 
 hour that's a wager ! " Venkataswami accepted the terms, and 
 lifted up the umbrella. The priest and others then prayed to the 
 idol, shouting out : " O Vemana ! thou art here ! This man says 
 thou art no god; knock him down! " They also took large swords, 
 with the flat sides of which they beat themselves, offering incense, 
 and jnaking a frightful uproar. The young man kept on praying :
 
 157
 
 158 GLEANINGS FROM MANY FIELDS 
 
 " O Lord Jesus ! Thou who treadest down the power of Satan ! 
 give me strength!" The people every now and then asked: 
 "Now is not Vemana God?" to which he loudly replied: "No, 
 he is not ! " This continued for one or two hours, after which 
 they began to be ashamed and to say : " After all, Vemana is 
 nothing; he is but an image." However, they refused to pay the 
 rupees. 
 
 Shortly after this, Dr. Campbell and Mr. Ure, our missionaries 
 from Cuddapah, visited the village, and found it still greatly dis- 
 turbed over the incident. They saw the young man, and encour- 
 aged him to stand fast in his faith in Jesus. " Venkataswami was 
 quite alone, for I was absent at the time," the native preacher told 
 them, in evident admiration, "yet the lad did such a thing as this! 
 Nor is this all; for he will go to the stone idols, and declare before 
 all that they are no gods. Krishnaji also (a recent convert) is full 
 of joy over the affair. Thus does God stir up His people ! " 
 
 Perhaps one cannot highly commend the wisdom of this boy's 
 action; still, his faith in Jesus and zeal for Him are evident and 
 pleasing. Many are the villages in South India now where scenes 
 similar to this are witnessed, forming in truth modern chapters 
 of the Acts of the Apostles. 
 
 A Betsileo Slave 
 
 There is a young Betsileo slave at Fianarantsoa, who was con- 
 verted a little time ago. He is remarkable for the simplicity of 
 his faith, and therefore receives gifts from the Spirit denied to 
 the wise and prudent. For instance, he can read only very slowly 
 and with difficulty, but he says that, when preaching or reading 
 in the pulpit, he has no difficulty whatever, but can read quickly. 
 He seems possessed with the redeeming love of Christ, and can 
 talk of nothing else ; that love constrains him to preach the Gospel 
 to every creature. Passing by the Norwegian leper settlement, 
 he saw a little leper girl with a basket before her. He had just
 
 NATIVE WORKERS FOR CHRIST 159 
 
 come from market, where he had gained twopence ; he sat down 
 by the child, gave her the money, and preached to her about Jesus. 
 "Some," he said to me, "are afraid of leprosy, but I was not at 
 all afraid, because I knew that I ought to speak to her about her 
 soul." He begs to be a preacher to the lepers at the new settle- 
 ment. 
 
 Only a Poor Cripple. 
 
 Limoti was a native of Samoa. He was one of the very first 
 Samoans to come out on the side of Jesus Christ, which shows 
 us that Lim6ti lived some years ago. He was sadly deformed, 
 quite a hunch-back, and yet he was very active, and could do as 
 much as most people. When he was a young man he was very 
 wild and wicked even for a heathen. He was first in all the 
 mischief which was going on, and in everything that was bad. 
 He was even clever in war, although one would think in those 
 times, when guns were not used by the Samoans and when men 
 had to fight near to each other with clubs, that Limtfti's poor little 
 deformed body could not do much in that line. 
 
 When he was about thirty years old, John Williams took the 
 Gospel to Samoa, and Limtfti was one of the first to be interested 
 in the strange story which the wonderful white man had come to 
 tell them. And when a school was opened, he became a scholar 
 and learned to read. Then his heart was touched with God's love, 
 he became a changed man, and a member of the first little Samoan 
 church. Of course, when the missionaries first went to that island, 
 its language was not written, and there were no books. But they 
 as soon as possible began to prepare some school books and to 
 translate the Bible, and Limtfti was employed in the printing of 
 them. He lived with the missionary, and spent almost the rest 
 of his life in the printing office, taking charge of the building. 
 Owing to his deformity, he was unable to do any of the harder 
 work ; but such lighter duties as folding the printed sheets, arrang- 
 ing and sewing them into volumes, suited him well.
 
 160 GLEANINGS FROM MANY FIELDS 
 
 His chief value, however, was in keeping the lads and young 
 men employed in the office in order. Lini(5ti did his work out of 
 love for his Master Christ. To him the printing of the Bible and 
 the preparation of the copies, so that the people of Samoa might 
 read God's Word for themselves, was a great delight. He never 
 got much in the shape of wages. His food he obtained from his 
 own bit of land, and from the mission he received a few cotton 
 clothes, but no money. His reward was the joy he felt in doing 
 good. He was not fitted to become a real preacher of the Gospel ; 
 but he did what he could with all his heart. 
 
 The "Vilest Sinner" 
 
 Dr. Griffith John was one day preaching as usual in one of 
 the Hankow chapels, about Christ's power to save from sin. At 
 the close of the service a man went up to him and said: "Pastor 
 John, I have just heard you say that your Jesus Christ can save 
 men from their sins; is that true? and if so, can He save me?" 
 Dr. John asked him what were his special sins, telling him that 
 Christ could forgive and save the worst of sinners. 
 
 Lin-kin-Shan replied that he committed every sin that could be 
 imagined : that he was an opium-smoker, a gambler, a drunkard, a 
 bad son, and loved to do everything that was evil. Dr. John had 
 no difficulty in believing him, for he looked it all. They prayed 
 together, and it would seem that there and then God's Spirit came 
 to him, for ever after that the change in him was very marked. 
 He not only attended the services and joined the Church, but be- 
 came a very active worker. His one aim seemed to be to bring 
 his old friends and comrades to know Christ too, and to help the 
 victims of opium out of their bondage. He went about saying to 
 them all : " Jesus Christ came to save sinners ; He has saved me 
 the vilest of all and He can save you." 
 
 When the missionaries in Hankow resolved to make special 
 efforts in the hospital to cure opium-smokers, they felt they needed
 
 DR. GRIFFITH JOHN. 
 
 161 
 
 M
 
 162 GLEANINGS FROM MANY FIELDS 
 
 the services of a man full of real sympathy and courage to take 
 charge of these poor creatures. Lin was fixed upon as the man 
 for the post, and he entered into the work with his whole might 
 and heart. Owing to some of the wards in the hospital being 
 flooded with water part of one summer, Lin got leave to go and 
 visit his native village, for he burned with a desire to tell his 
 clansmen there about the wonderful Gospel. 
 
 On his return he informed the missionaries that many in his 
 village had listened to his story, and that some of them had lost 
 faith in idolatry, and had thrown their idols into the flood. This 
 was welcome news, and Dr. John felt it to be his duty to visit the 
 place without delay. When he reached the village, he found matters 
 just as Lin had described them. He asked them what it was that 
 had led them to think well of the Christian religion. Their reply 
 was that it \vas seeing the great change in Lin-kin-Shan. 
 
 He had been one of the very wickedest men in all the country 
 side, and now here he was as a new man, and they really thought 
 that the religion that could effect so much in a man must be true 
 and heaven-born. Dr. John learnt many things about the past 
 history of Lin which he did not know before. His first twenty-five 
 years were spent at home, where he was looked upon as the wildest 
 and worst of men. He then joined the army, and roved over the 
 country as a soldier. He had many a fight with the rebels, and 
 slew about thirty of them with his own hand. When he got tired 
 of the army, he set up as a sawyer in Hankow, where, till the 
 time he found Christ, most of his time was spent in riot and 
 wickedness. For eight years he never paid his home a single 
 visit, and during a period of twenty years he was seen in his 
 native village only three times. Such was the man as they had 
 known him. Now he appears among them as a kind husband, a 
 loving father, and a good neighbour. No wonder was it that his 
 old village friends should stand amazed at the change, and feel 
 wishful themselves to know something of the religion that had 
 done all this.
 
 NATIVE WORKERS FOR CHRIST 163 
 
 The Story of Aunt Luck as told by herself 1 
 
 I was born at Koi Tau, a village in Po Leng. My father was 
 a store-keeper, and I was the youngest of seven children. When I 
 was seven years old, I was betrothed for two pounds to a man at 
 Nam Leng, a village a mile from my home. I had never seen the 
 man, nor any of his family. I took nothing from home with me 
 but the tunic and pair of trousers which I wore. My mother and 
 the two go-betweens who had acted as agents in my betrothal led 
 me to his house and left me there. I jumped up and down and 
 screamed to go back with my mother. My husband's mother told 
 me not to cry, for my home was to be with her henceforth, and 
 my husband's grandmother carried me on her back to please and 
 quiet me ; but I kept crying more or less for years. Indeed, I never 
 really stopped crying till I had children of my own. In the family 
 there was my husband's grandfather, grandmother, father, mother, 
 uncles, aunts, five brothers, and four sisters-in-law. I was told 
 which man was to be my husband, and though he was handsome, 
 I immediate!}- disliked him, because he seemed so old to me, being 
 nine years older than I. I did not see my own mother again for 
 three years, for she was afraid I would cry and be discontented if 
 I saw her. I always slept with my mother-in-law, and during the 
 day I spooled the yarn which the elder ones spun and wove into 
 cloth. At this I worked from da}*light until dark, only stopping 
 to eat. I had plenty to eat, and was whipped only when I nodded 
 over my spools. Once a year one of my brothers came to see if 
 I was well. He stayed but a few minutes when he came, because 
 it might make me homesick if he talked much with me. All this 
 time I never spoke to my betrothed husband, and he only spoke to 
 me to tell me to do something. At fourteen, when his mother told 
 me to do so, I became his wife. I cooked rice, fed the pigs, and 
 did other work for the family. 
 
 My husband never called me by any name whatever. When 
 
 1 See " Pagoda Shadows."
 
 164 GLEANINGS FROM MANY FIELDS 
 
 he wanted me to do anything", he said: "Here, you"; and of course 
 I knew he meant me. When I was sixteen I had a little girl, 
 and then another and another. The third I strangled when it was 
 born, for I was frightened, and knew I should be hated for having 
 so many girls. Then I had three boys and another girl, and by 
 the time I was forty I had nine children. My husband was a 
 good-natured man, and he was not very hard toward me. In all 
 the forty years I lived with him he beat me only four or five 
 times. These were occasions when I moved too slowly in serving 
 him, and then answered back when he scolded me. There are not 
 ten men in a thousand in China who do not beat their wives at 
 all. 
 
 I never believed much in the gods in the temples, and we 
 seldom went to worship there. Once, twice, sometimes three times 
 in a month, I and my husband and children, with many others, 
 used to go on fixed days to the tops of the mountains and worship 
 the heavens and the earth. Sometimes it was the moon we went 
 to worship, sometimes the sun, sometimes the thunder-god. Some- 
 times we went to one peak, sometimes to another, and in the 
 course of years we went to nearly all the high peaks in and 
 around our district. We spent from ten shillings to two pounds 
 each time on our offerings. Sometimes my husband sold products 
 of the farm, and sometimes I sold one of my fat pigs to get the 
 money. We took rice, pork, tea, cakes, fruit, sugar, pies, every- 
 thing that is nice to eat, and spread it out invitingly on the rocks, 
 and burned incense and mock money. 
 
 One by one the elders of our family, and all but three of my 
 children, died. When I was fifty-four my husband died also. After 
 that I spent more time than ever worshipping upon the mountains, 
 but I got sick and had no strength. My nephew, Leng, who had 
 heard the True Doctrine, used to come often to see me, and tell 
 me that there was only one God, and He was everywhere that 
 He made the sun to rise, the moon to change, the wind to blow,, 
 the rain to fall, and all that is. Little by little I believed what
 
 NATIVE WORKERS EOR CHRIST 
 
 165 
 
 he said. As soon as I believed, I destroyed the censers we used 
 in worshipping false gods. My sons saw me taking them out of 
 the house, and asked me if I was not afraid to do it ; but I told 
 
 CHINESE BRIDE AND BRIDEGROOM. 
 
 them that what I had myself set up I could myself take down, and 
 they said no more. Then I prayed earnestly that I might have 
 strength given me to come and be baptized. And when the next
 
 1 66 GLEANINGS FROM MANY FIELDS 
 
 communion season came I told Leng I was coming with him to 
 Swatow. At that time Leng was the only Christian in Po Leng, 
 and his mother and wife beat him for worshipping God, and their 
 neighbours praised them for so doing. 
 
 Leng said I was too weak, and must not think of coming to 
 Swatow. But I got up off my bed and walked very slowly the 
 whole forty miles, and when I got there the people said a dead 
 woman had come. 
 
 Since then I have been in all the Po Leng villages speaking 
 the Gospel, and can walk fifteen or twenty miles a dayv 
 
 Nobody dares molest me when I speak of God, and those who 
 do not believe keep silent and listen. 
 
 The Hindu Priest becomes a Christian Teacher. 
 
 The very first native preacher that our London Missionary 
 Society ever had in Bengal was a high-caste Brahman, called 
 Narapot Singh. He was a Hindu priest, and he performed service 
 in one of the chief temples in the sacred city Benares. He was 
 thought so holy by the people that crowds would wait by the 
 roadside till he passed, and then would cast themselves upon the 
 ground, that he might honour them by placing his foot upon their 
 heads. They even went so far as to beg the water in which he 
 had bathed his feet, that they might drink it, for they thought 
 that in this way they might get some of his holiness. Narapot 
 was very rich, and lived in luxury. He was also very clever and 
 learned in all the books of the Hindus, and his opinion about these 
 was thought much of by the other Brahmans. So he was puffed 
 up with pride, and thought himself to be little less than a god. 
 
 Now it happened he had to go to Calcutta, which was 500 
 miles away from Benares. He hired a beautiful boat and sailed 
 down the Ganges. With him were two great friends who were 
 Brahmans, and a large number of servants. Several idols also 
 were taken on board, to which prayers were offered twice a day.
 
 167
 
 1 68 GLEANINGS FROM MANY FIELDS 
 
 In Calcutta he went about to all the amusements of the place. 
 On the evening before he began his voyage back home, he passed 
 a building which was lighted up with oil lamps and filled with 
 a crowd of natives. Supposing it to be a hall of amusement, 
 he and his friends went in ; but great was their surprise at finding, 
 instead of dancing girls or jugglers, a white man talking about 
 religion to the people in their own language. It was one of our 
 missionaries telling the " sweet story of old." This subject was 
 quite new to the proud Brahman priest, and with surprise he 
 listened to the tale. In God's own wonderful way he was made 
 to feel it must be all true, and that his gods were mere senseless 
 blocks. His friends saw that he was distressed about himself, and 
 tried all they could to drive what he had heard from his thoughts. 
 
 But it was of no use, and when he went to the vessel, which 
 was to sail next morning, he was filled with concern about the 
 salvation of his soul. As soon as he came on board, one of the 
 Brahmans began, as was the usual custom, to ring a small bell 
 before the idols, and to commence the evening worship. But Nara- 
 pot commanded him to stop, and for the first time the worship of 
 the idols was given up. Early next morning he found out the 
 missionary's house, and had a long talk with him. Then, receiving 
 a New Testament and some little books, he began his voyage 
 home. This lasted two months, and during that time he studied 
 the Testament every day, and by the time he reached home he 
 had begun to see Jesus Christ as his Saviour and Friend. 
 
 He was now no longer a Hindu at heart, and although he still 
 wore the poita, or sacred thread, the sign of the Brahman caste, 
 he was a sincere though secret believer in Jesus. What he 
 should do now was his one great thought. If he publicly con- 
 fessed his faith in Christ, he knew that he would lose his caste, 
 which is the most precious thing a Hindu can lose. He knew, 
 too, that he would be driven from his home and friends and lose 
 all he had, even his life, perhaps. 
 
 But at length he was able to come out on the side of Jesus
 
 NATIVE WORKERS FOR CHRIST 169 
 
 Christ. As he expected, the natives were filled with rage against 
 him. A mob came round his house, and declared they would have 
 his blood. They said he was worse than a pariah, and unfit to 
 live, but that if he wished to save his wretched life he must 
 quietly give up all his property to them, and leave the city and 
 never come back. This he did. Packing up a small bundle of 
 clothes, he left his house at midnight. For the love he bore to 
 Christ, this great and rich man cheerfully gave up his honours 
 and property, worth more than thirty thousand pounds, and be- 
 came an outcast and wanderer upon the face of the earth. 
 
 But God was with his dear servant, and after a time he led 
 him to our missionaries in Calcutta, and he became a native 
 catechist with them. Until his death, Narapot was a most earnest, 
 loving worker. Knowing so much about the clever books of the 
 Hindus he was able to expose their false ideas, and was never 
 weary of telling the glad tidings to everybody. He would stand 
 by the banks of the Ganges, where the people flocked to bathe 
 in the sacred river, and would tell them of the fountain of living 
 water. In the public fairs held at the holy places, where thou- 
 sands of pilgrims met together, he would speak boldly against 
 their idols and preach Christ to them. He lived and worked for 
 many years, and saw hundreds of his fellows turn to the only 
 true God. 
 
 Lim Cheng Hoe 
 
 The Rev. J. Sadler tells us how a heathen boy became a 
 widely-honoured minister of Christ. He was early taken into the 
 Mission School in Amoy, and was thus saved from the roughness 
 of a heathen home and treated tenderly. He early learned the 
 difference between good and evil. He was saved from the fear of 
 ghosts, which haunts the Chinese so much that when they hear 
 the doors creak in the evening they are terrified with the idea that 
 a hungry ghost is come seeking food, and will bring trouble if not 
 attended to. Instead of being taught to burn incense to idols and
 
 IJO GLEANINGS FROM MANY FIELDS 
 
 spirits, this boy was taught to pray to our Father in heaven. He 
 was saved from idol feasts, processions, and plays, and brought to 
 know and love the service of God. 
 
 Lim was one of the quickest boys in school, and worked hard 
 at his lessons, and even studied the English language. Mathe- 
 matics was a favourite study, but he liked to learn all he could 
 about every subject. When he made up his mind to be a native 
 minister, he was able to pass the examination with honour. Lim 
 is a very successful pastor. All his people respect, love, look up 
 to, and provide for him, just in the way that a good minister is 
 treated in this country. He has had many dreadful temptations, 
 but has stood firm through them all, by just depending on the 
 Spirit of Jesus Christ. Lim is a man of prayer. His manner 
 impresses you. He lives in thinking about and trusting God. At 
 his ordination, now many years ago, he seemed full of the Holy 
 Ghost so bright and cheerful, yet quiet and solemn, as in the 
 presence of God. And though, like all of us, he has had his 
 times of sadness, and for Christ's sake lives in poverty, while his 
 old companions have made fortunes, yet the same blessed Spirit 
 of God has been his comforter all along. So he has been such 
 a comfort to others that he has even been sought after in the 
 dead of night an unusual thing in China, because the Chinese 
 are afraid of the darkness.
 
 CHAPTER XIV 
 SCHOOLS AND SCHOLARS 
 
 New Guinea Specimens 
 
 I MADE up my mind, says the Rev. C. W. Abel, soon after I 
 came to New Guinea and saw things for myself that I would 
 in all my future work go straight for the youngsters. Whether 
 in school or out of school, it is seldom now that I have not some 
 of them about me. I do not call that time wasted which I spend 
 at one end of a skipping-rope, or in teaching boys to play marbles 
 without "fudging." Unless you are really interested in them, 
 these New Guinea boys and girls are not easily caught. When 
 I see my schoolroom so full sometimes that many have to write 
 upon the floor, and the heat is very oppressive, and I can hear 
 the other boys and girls playing in the village, and, looking out 
 of the window, can see some of them paddling about in the sea 
 on small canoes, or having sham fights with little blunt-ended 
 spears, I am surprised and delighted that so many are willing to 
 leave their games, and every morning and every afternoon are 
 being taught to read and write. We teach them to read from 
 the Gospels written in their own language, and in this way, even 
 while they are children, they become familiar with the incidents 
 of our Lord's life and death. I must admit I am very proud of 
 my schools, and I am very fond of my children. They read ex- 
 ceedingly well, and they hardly ever make a mistake in spelling. 
 
 I do not teach them to spell, for this reason. Any boy or girl 
 
 171
 
 172 GLEANINGS FROM MANY FIELDS 
 
 who can read at all can spell any word in the four Gospels cor- 
 rectly, provided it is well pronounced. 
 
 Many of these children could read and write well before I 
 came to Hanuabada (Hanooabahda), but there are others who came 
 to me straight from the village, and for whom I set their first lesson 
 in strokes and pothooks. You will like to know how I have man- 
 aged to keep these children regular in their attendance. They do 
 not come to school, I think, from any great thirst for knowledge. 
 I find they are no more enraptured with the multiplication tables 
 than I was once. They would any day prefer in this hot climate 
 to be splashing about in the sea to being confined in a room 
 learning to write. I have been told that I bribe them into school. 
 Well, suppose I do. You are not bribed to go to school because, 
 in the majority of cases, you are compelled to go. But you are 
 "bribed" when you get there to do your best to get on by being 
 offered a prize if you succeed. Only in this way can it be said 
 that I "bribe" my children into coming to school. You must 
 know that nearly all the people here wear next to no dress. 
 The village men and boys wear nothing at all. When my boys 
 have attended, say, thirty classes, I present them with what we 
 call a rami (rah-me). This is simply a piece of blue or red print 
 a yard and a half long, which they tie round their waists. They 
 have some idea of their own importance when they strut about 
 among their naked companions in these fine feathers. 
 
 The girls and women here wear a short grass petticoat which, 
 tied round the waist, falls down to their knees. This is, to my 
 mind, a most admirable dress for them. When my girls have at- 
 tended, say, from thirty to forty classes, I present each of them 
 with one of their native dresses, also called ramis (rah-me). Don't 
 let English girls think they are the only people in the world 
 fond of finery. I have often smiled when I have noticed how 
 closely these little Papuans (Papooans) resemble their English 
 sisters in this respect. Dear me! how hard it is sometimes to 
 satisfy the tastes of these particular young ladies ! Ramis are not
 
 SCHOOLS AND SCHOLARS 173 
 
 made here at Hanuabada, where I am living. They are made 
 in different parts of the country, and then given to these people 
 in exchange for some of the ornaments which are made here. At 
 Kabadi (Kahbahde) and Manumanu (Manoomanoo) and Aroma 
 (Aromah) hundreds are made by the natives and distributed in 
 the way I have mentioned. They all differ in the material 
 used, therefore a good deal also in appearance. The Kabadi 
 rami is the general favourite here. It is made of fine grass, 
 and many of them are highly coloured and very showy. The 
 Manumanu rami is of plain, coarse, bleached grass. I dare not 
 offer one of these to my girls. Those which are made at 
 Aroma are, to my mind, the most superior looking, but in this 
 respect my . taste is not appreciated, for nothing but a Kabadi 
 rami will do for my girls. So, as you may suppose, I am always 
 open to buy Kabadi ramis from any one at a reasonable figure. 
 
 The walls of my room (which I use as a study and office and 
 dispensary combined) are at times simply covered with Kabadi 
 ramis, of different colours and sizes. No canoe ever goes to Ka- 
 badi from here, if I know it, but the natives are told by me to 
 bring back all the gayest ramis they can procure. Now I do not 
 simply give the girls a Kabadi rami. I cut strips of white calico 
 and Turkey red the length of the petticoat and about two and a 
 half inches wide, and sew six of these streamers, alternating the 
 colours, on to the waist-band. To see my girls walk off with 
 their new ramis on with these bright colours flashing in the sun- 
 shine is a sight almost worth travelling all the way to New 
 Guinea to behold. Is not this a very harmless way of " bribing " 
 children to come to school ? And, besides, see what a grand ad- 
 vertisement it is in the village, where everybody sees them, and I 
 am sure none can see without being filled with admiration. 
 
 If ever you visit Hanuabada and you come across some de- 
 lightful little girls very gaily attired, with a good deal of red and 
 white about them, you will know at once whom they belong to, 
 where they go to school, and, moreover, that they have been regu-
 
 . 174 GLEANINGS FROM MANY FIELDS 
 
 lar in their attendance. I have told you that we have no means 
 of compelling the children to come to school. All we can do is to 
 entice them in some such way as I have adopted. 
 
 The boys have very little to do besides play ; but the girls 
 have sometimes to work very hard in their gardens. Often, when 
 I ask where a certain girl is who does not answer to her name 
 when the attendance roll is called over in the morning, I am told 
 she has gone inland to her garden to get food to keep her lazy 
 brother and father from starving. They account for being late 
 sometimes by saying they had to be up before the sun and hasten 
 to their gardens and hurry through their work in order to get 
 back again in time to be at school. I am sorry to have to admit 
 that the men and boys are lazy, and that nearly all the hard 
 work which in civilized countries is done by the men falls here 
 almost entirely upon the shoulders of the women and girls. A 
 native once applied to one of our teachers for assistance. He said 
 he was starving. He was an able-bodied fellow, and there was 
 no lack of food in the village at the time. "Have you no food in 
 your garden?" asked the. teacher. "Garden?" replied the native, 
 as if he was sure the teacher must deeply pity him, " I've no gar- 
 den I haven't got a wife ! " 
 
 There are a few boys and girls here over whom we have 
 much more influence. We keep quite a number of them about the 
 house. In one sense they are our servants. That is to say, they 
 clean our knives, sweep our rooms, make our beds, cook our food, 
 and, in fact, do the hundred little things there are to be done in a 
 large establishment like this. In this sense they are our servants, 
 but, indeed, they are more like our own children. There are so 
 many of them that each has very little to do, and in all their 
 spare time they are much happier living about our English house 
 than they would be if they were like the other children, living in 
 their natural state in the village. Now over these we have much 
 more control. They are obliged to attend school regularly, and, in 
 consequence of this and of the extra attention they receive at odd
 
 SCHOOLS AND SCHOLARS 175 
 
 times, they turn out our best scholars. Many of the boys thus 
 trained grow up to be students, and after a few years' training 
 they are sent out themselves to settle in small villages all over 
 the country to teach their own countrymen. 
 
 One of the brightest of our boys is a little fellow named Noho. 
 He is one of my private boys, and is supposed to look after me in 
 some sort of way ; but I assure you it often takes -me all my time 
 to look after him. However, he is a dear little boy, and I have 
 the very "best of characters to give him. There are not a few 
 boys in England of his age who will read this description of him 
 who would have all their work cut out to beat Noho at reading, 
 writing, geography, and arithmetic. 
 
 My other boy is a little fellow named Lebasi (Lebasee). He 
 accompanies me when I am travelling about the country. He is 
 always very willing to attend to my wants, and has the advan- 
 tage of being able to cook a little. I have only to give him a tin 
 of meat and a match, and after a short absence he returns with 
 as good a hot dinner as any one could make out of such materials. 
 Lebasi does not belong to Hanuabada. His home is nearly three 
 hundred miles away, at a place called Suau. It was at Suau I 
 first picked him up last Christmas, and since then he has journeyed 
 with me a good many miles. We have travelled together in a 
 lugger, in a whale boat, on foot, and for nearly a week once in 
 a native canoe. 
 
 Some of our house boys and girls are orphans, and would have 
 no home at all if they were not with us. There is one little girl 
 who was brought here some time ago in a most distressing state 
 of destitution. She belonged to a village some distance from here. 
 After her parents died, her friends if that is the right word to 
 use about such people turned her out of the village to shift for 
 herself as bast she could. She was only a child, and perhaps they 
 thought she might after a short absence return to them again. 
 In order to prevent this, they burnt her body with hot wood cin- 
 ders before driving her into the forest. The poor child, suffering
 
 1 76 GLEANINGS FROM MANY FIELDS 
 
 terribly from her wounds, lived for some time wandering about 
 
 like a wild animal, and finding nothing to eat but berries and 
 roots. At length she came to a small native house not far from
 
 SCHOOLS AND SCHOLARS 177 
 
 here. She was caught in an attempt to steal some food, and was 
 brought to the Mission House. Fortunately at that time there was 
 an English lady living here, and if you knew Mrs. Lawes as I 
 do, it would not be necessary for me to tell you how soon Meaka's 
 (May-ah-kah) sores were healed, and how kind a mother and com- 
 fortable a home she found here amongst the other children. 
 
 Then there is a very tiny little boy with us who is a great 
 favourite with everybody, named Nou (No-oo). Nou is not an 
 orphan. I think he wishes he was. He too comes from a village 
 some distance from here, but belonging to the same tribe. His 
 parents are very anxious to get him home, and on two or three 
 occasions during the last few months they have made unsuccessful 
 attempts to get him away from us. His father or his brother will 
 come in unexpectedly and carry him away to Pari. Somehow or 
 other Nou always turns up again within a few days, having cried 
 so much during his visit to Pari that his friends are all willing 
 for a time to get rid of him again. Nou is quite an important 
 little fellow here ; he is our bell-ringer. Three or four times a 
 day, either before church or school, he toddles down the hill to 
 the bell-tower, and pulls away at the rope to let the natives 
 know it is time for service or lessons. Nou is a very good 
 reader for a child so young as he is, and every evening at family 
 worship he takes his turn and reads his verse from the Bible 
 with the rest. 
 
 Chinese School Girls 
 
 Miss Edith Benham thus describes some she knew: There are 
 as many millions of people in China as there are days in the 
 year ! You cannot imagine that, can you ? Neither can I, but I 
 know that it means nearly ten times as many boys and girls and 
 men and women as there are in this dear old England of ours, 
 and yet there are at least sixty times as many ministers here 
 to preach God's Truth as there are over there ! That sounds all 
 crooked, does it not? You and I must work away in our little 
 
 N
 
 1 78 
 
 GLEANINGS FROM MANY FIELDS 
 
 corners and help send more missionaries to great, dark China. 
 At six of the London Missionary Society stations in China there 
 are girls' boarding schools, and there are also several large day- 
 schools in Hong Kong, besides small ones in other cities alto- 
 gether hundreds of girls, big and little, to be taught and taken 
 care of. Their funny, half-shaven heads, and black pigtails, their 
 
 A CHINESE MAIDEN. 
 
 bright-coloured jackets and trousers, their ear-rings and bangles, 
 all make them look very different from English girls; yet, do 
 you know, in their hearts and their ways they seem very much 
 like the girls with whom I went to school many years ago. Now 
 come and see our girls. School is just over, and they are all 
 crowding round to say a last word to Kor-niu (my Chinese name), 
 who is just going home. One little woman, whose turn it Avas
 
 SCHOOLS AND SCHOLARS 179 
 
 to help cook, comes running forward with a bowl of hot rice 
 water; this has just been poured off the rice the girls will have 
 for dinner, and it is a very pleasant drink after a busy morning. 
 Now we go towards the gate, and one little round-faced girl keeps 
 her hand tight in Kor-niu's ; she came to school when we last 
 had a long country trip. Two little dirty, ragged girls were put 
 in our charge, and were very funny, riding together in a big 
 bamboo Sedan chair, or trotting merrily by the roadside, or at 
 night sleeping cosily on the floor in the corner of my bedroom in 
 the little village chapel. The boat journey was not such fun, for 
 it was rough, and they were sea-sick; but morning found us safe 
 in harbour, and as it was raining I wrapped them up in shiny, 
 3'ellow oiled paper and sent them to school like two big parcels! 
 Little Sa-mui always felt she belonged to me after that ; she 
 was a good little woman, though not very clever. I must tell 
 you about one bigger girl who was clever, but, alas ! not good. 
 Holidays had nearly come, and we were going to have a written 
 examination for the first time. It was Bible history, and all the 
 first-class girls had been working well; but when they wanted to 
 work up a little at the end, the books were nowhere to be found. 
 Oh, how they hunted ! One girl had a book and was reading 
 hard, and would not help search ! At last they turned out every 
 desk, and there they were hidden in the desk of this girl ! The 
 time was then nearly gone, but when they had finished writing 
 the teacher told me this, and I would not look at the paper of the 
 culprit at all. Oh! how sad we all felt, and how ashamed she 
 was! You see, we have all sorts of girls at school, just as you 
 have in your schools, and you must pray for them as for your- 
 selves and each other that God will keep them from all that is 
 mean and unkind, and teach them to love and serve Him. I 
 cannot tell you how many millions of girls and women in China 
 are never taught anything beyond cooking and needlework. Pray 
 that every one who goes to school may be a bright, shining light 
 in her own home afterwards.
 
 ISO GLEANINGS FROM MANY FIELDS 
 
 Learning God's Word in the Jungle 
 
 When Mr. Hawker, our missionary in Coimbatoor, was visiting: 
 his out-stations a few years ago, he was told by a catechist in 
 Kanjicovil that there was a youth in the next village who 
 seemed anxious to become a Christian. There had been an Indian 
 car-festival a few days before in Kanjicovil, and this youth with 
 his relatives had come to take part in it. But that day he had 
 met and talked with the catechist, and then he refused to worship 
 the heathen gods when his relatives did so. Two years before 
 this, a Bible which had been given to his uncle by a former 
 missionary had become his, and, filled with a great longing tt> 
 know what it was all about, he had coaxed another boy who had 
 been to a Mission School to teach him the Tamil letters. Then 
 all alone this brave fellow learned to read in a village in the 
 jungle, miles away from any school or even from any high road. 
 Day after day, while sitting out in the fields watching the flocks, 
 and herds, did he pore over his Bible, until he could read well 
 and master its meaning. One evening Mr. Hawker and the 
 catechist walked out to the village where he lived, but they found 
 he was in the fields. So into the fields they went, and there met 
 the father, uncle, and brother-in-law of the lad Periyannan, whom 
 they were told had gone into the jungle to meet the missionary,, 
 having heard that he was coming. So Mr. Hawker sat down 
 under a straw-stack by some palm trees, and the others squatted on 
 their heels, with their chins on their knees, in that strange way 
 which only a Hindu can pack himself into, and talked. 
 
 They quite agreed that the Christian religion was a very good 
 thing and that all the missionary said was true, but that just as there 
 were different countries, so there were different gods. Mr. Hawker 
 was white and they were black, they said; therefore it was quite 
 plain that they ought to worship different gods. While they were 
 talking this way, Periyannan came up, with his Bible carefully
 
 SCHOOLS AND SCHOLARS iSl 
 
 wrapped up under his arm. He was a fine, tall, manly young 
 fellow, with a handsome face and open expression. Mr. Hawker 
 asked him how much he had read of the Bible, and he said that 
 he had read all through the Old Testament once and as far as 
 the fiftieth Psalm the second time, and that he had read the 
 New Testament through three times, and had nearly finished the 
 gospels the fourth time. Anxious to know how much he had 
 grasped of what he had read, Mr. Hawker began to question him. 
 His knowledge of the history parts was simply amazing. He 
 almost always answered the questions in the words of the Bible, 
 too. When asked who was David, he replied very touchingly : 
 " He was once a poor shepherd boy like me ; but God protected 
 him and made him a king. Why will not God also take me and 
 protect me?" Periyannan could not write. He had sometimes 
 tried to trace the letters on the sand, but all his time was given 
 to mastering the Bible. Mr. Hawker sent him a slate and a book, 
 and he promised to try and write a letter in a month. Periyan- 
 nan was very anxious to go to school, and did not mind the idea 
 of sitting down with tiny boys. He just said : " What can I do ? 
 I must learn." His friends call it " madness," and they think 
 learning will make Periyannan good for nothing. Those of us 
 who are sometimes tempted to be a bit lazy over our lessons and 
 work must think of that poor heathen lad, who in a dark, ignorant 
 village, overcame all the difficulties and learned to read and under- 
 stand the Bible unaided and alone. 
 
 A Peep into an Orphanage 
 
 In a wonderful manner, step by step, God has opened up the 
 way for beginning Mrs. Fry's children's home in Neyoor. The 
 picture shows us some of the first inmates six boys and twelve 
 girls. They were a merry lot, and in play hours they made the 
 compound ring with their happy laughter. Some of them did not 
 know in the least what would happen to them when they were
 
 1 82 GLEANINGS FROM MANY FIELDS 
 
 told to sit down and look at the camera. The matron is sitting at 
 one end in the front row with her baby in her lap. By the bye, 
 that baby was in a fair way of being spoilt, for she was the pet 
 of the Home, and some of the elder girls quarrelled as to who 
 should have the honour of carrying her when they went for their 
 walks. The five children sitting in front next the matron were 
 the healthy children of some lepers, and were kept away from 
 their parents, so that they might have every chance of escaping 
 from the dread disease. Sattiai, the little girl next the matron, 
 and Samuel, the third from her, were the best-behaved children 
 in the Home, and they gained the good-conduct prizes that year. 
 Sattiai :ot a big doll, and Samuel was made the happy owner of 
 a gay handkerchief. The little girl on Mrs. Fry's lap she called 
 " her bairn," as she gave her food and clothes till she could find 
 some friend to support her. All the other children were " hospital 
 children." Their parents or friends came to the hospital so ill that 
 nothing could be done for them; they only came to die, and their 
 poor children were left homeless and friendless, and the mission- 
 aries could not turn them adrift. They all had a sad history. 
 Behind the matron we see three girls standing. The middle one is 
 Pakkiain, and her little sister, Guanapoo, is standing by Mrs. Fry's 
 knee. Their mother came to the hospital very sick, but getting 
 somewhat better, she returned home, but soon got worse, and being 
 unable to come back, she died, leaving her two girls without a 
 friend in the world. They were so thin and starved-looking when 
 they came to the Home, and their clothes were in rags. Mrs. 
 Hacker gave them some nice new clothes, and a few weeks of 
 good feeding and mixing with their companions in the Home soon 
 made them more like other children ; but they did not quite lose 
 their solemn, frightened looks. The tallest girl in the group is 
 Arulaie. Poor girl ! she had led a wild, reckless life, and was very 
 troublesome, disobedient, and unruly. But kindness and firmness 
 worked wonders in her, and she ended by trying to be good and 
 obedient. She felt that she was getting a big girl, and must make
 
 183
 
 1 84 GLEANINGS FROM MANY FIELDS 
 
 the bast use she could of her life in the Home. Then there are 
 Amy and her brother Devasagam. Their father, who was suffer- 
 ing from an incurable disease, died in the hospital, and his last 
 request was that his boy and girl might always stay with the 
 missionaries and learn to love Jesus. The tallest in the group of 
 boys is Devadasen, and his sister, Kirubey, is sitting close to Mrs. 
 Fry's right. She was not very strong. She had fits sometimes, 
 and was rather deaf, which was a trial to her. Her brother was 
 a bright, clever lad, and they were both trying to serve Jesus. 
 They were patients in the hospital at one time, and were both 
 heathen. When they were well enough to go home to their aunt, 
 they said : " No ; we will stay here, for we are Christians." The 
 aunt was very angry, and after trying several times to get them 
 home, she left them. They were both baptized some years ago, 
 and show by their changed lives that they are indeed walking in 
 the light. Masillamoni, the boy in the middle, is the son of one 
 of the hospital servants, who died very suddenly. The widow 
 barely earned enough to keep herself, so they took the laddie into 
 the Home. Anuntham (the last girl in front) used to attend one of 
 the heathen schools. One day Mrs. Fry saw her covered with a 
 dreadful eruption, which made the other girls shun her. She told 
 'her to come to the hospital. Her mother brought her, and they 
 stayed three months, as the disease was very tiresome to get rid 
 of. But they would not go home again. Why? Because while 
 there they had learned about Jesus' love for them, and resolved 
 to become Christians. When their heathen friends heard of this 
 they were furious, and tried all means to make them change their 
 minds. But it was of no use, and they were baptized. The mother 
 joined the Church, and began learning to fit herself for Bible- 
 woman's work. Her daughter was bright and quick at her lessons, 
 and promised to be a clever girl. The last girl is Guanavadivu. 
 Her father was a helpless cripple, and beat and illtreated his girl 
 when she was at home. She was for months in the hospital with 
 a terrible sore on her chest. She, too, was a wild, careless girl,
 
 SCHOOLS AND SCHOLARS 185 
 
 having led a wandering beggar's life. At first she was very 
 naughty, and would not submit to rules, but the mere threat of 
 sending her home to her father if she did not behave had the 
 desired effect, and she really tried to do better, though it was a 
 hard struggle. 
 
 Bible Teaching in Hindu Day-schools 
 
 Some time ago, a lady, high in the social world in Madras, 
 visited Chulai School, and remarked in rather a discouraging way 
 that she wondered what became of all the Bible teaching given in 
 Mission schools, and what effect it had on the lives of the girls; 
 one heard so little about it afterwards. I must confess, says Miss 
 Brown, who relates the incident, that what she said, as well as 
 her manner of saying it, troubled me, for I began immediately 
 to question in my own mind what was the result of all the Bible 
 teaching, and to feel sad that I knew so little of the after results. 
 Just then, as if in answer to my questioning, an old friend Mrs. 
 Saltrianadhan, of the Church Missionary Society said to me : "I 
 have been wishing to see you for some time past to tell you that 
 one of your old pupils in Chulai School wishes to be baptized. She 
 says she has long believed in Jesus, and traces her impressions to 
 the Bible lessons she used to receive when in your school. I know 
 you will be glad to hear of it" And I was glad. It seems that 
 Alammalamma's family had removed from Chulai to Chindratapetta, 
 and in this way Alammalamma had become a Zenana pupil of 
 Mrs. Saltrianadhan' s. Her elder sister, now married, and once a 
 pupil also in Chulai School, had encouraged her throughout in her 
 wish to become a Christian, and helped her by sympathy and in 
 every way she could. Alammalamma came to see me, and I asked 
 her about her fellow-pupils in the class, if they had also been im- 
 pressed by the Bible lessons. She said: "Yes; we used often to 
 talk together, but what could we do? we were only girls." A 
 few weeks after, I was present by invitation at Zion Chapel, and
 
 186 GLEANINGS FROM MANY FIELDS 
 
 had the happiness of seeing Alammalamma baptized. How true is 
 the saying: "One soweth, and another reapeth," and true also 
 "that both rejoice together," as Mrs. Saltrianadhan and I did that 
 morning in Zion Chapel. Alammalamma is now married to a 
 Christian schoolmaster belonging to the Church Missionary Society, 
 and both are engaged in teaching in a village school. 
 
 Some years ago a little girl was reading in one of our London 
 Missionary Society schools. In her lesson-book there was a 
 chapter about idols and the folly and the uselessness of worship- 
 ping them. This lesson had such an effect on the girl's mind that 
 she resolved she never more would worship an idol, and she kept 
 her resolution; for, soon after becoming a child- widow, she was 
 strictly looked after, and she worshipped the Lord Jesus only. 
 By-and-by a Zenana teacher visited the house, and taught Ruk- 
 manny, with the result that she left her home, came and joined 
 herself to God's people, was baptized, and is now a Zenana 
 teacher. 
 
 Another Hindu girl attended a Mission school, and became very 
 interested in the Bible lessons, so much so that she daily told her 
 mother at home what she heard in the school. The mother also 
 became interested, and after a time both mother and daughter re- 
 solved to accept Jesus as their Saviour. The husband and father 
 had left them some time before, and had become an ascetic, 
 wandering through the country from shrine to shrine seeking 
 peace of mind and salvation ; but at last he returned home as 
 weary and unsatisfied in heart as when he left them. They told 
 him the glad news about Jesus, what He had done and suffered 
 for men, and how they had come to believe in Him, with the 
 result that the man also became a believer, and now the three 
 form a united Christian family. 
 
 And still the leaven works. Not long ago several of the girls 
 in Chulai School were observed to retire daily into a little room 
 built on the verandah. The head-mistress, becoming curious, went 
 one day to see what they were about, when she found them on
 
 SCHOOLS AND SCHOLARS 187 
 
 their knees praying. On being asked about it, the girls said that 
 their teacher had told them that if they wished to understand the 
 Bible lessons, and to learn them well, they must ask Jesus to help 
 them, and they were doing so. These were heathen girls, re- 
 member. 
 
 Two sisters were kept from school lately, and on inquiring the 
 cause, we found that their uncle had become enraged because they 
 had in their home lifted up their little voices against idol worship. 
 He said if that was what they learned in school, he would keep 
 them away from it. 
 
 These are only a few incidents to show the results of Bible 
 teaching in our girls' day-schools. They could be multiplied a 
 hundred-fold.
 
 CHAPTER XV 
 AMONG THE SICK AND SUFFERING 
 
 In our Hong: Kong Hospital 
 
 patient was the wife of a Chinese doctor. She was 
 brought in to our hospital at Hong Kong too late, alas! to 
 be cured of her dreadful disease. But during the twenty-four 
 hours which passed between her arrival and her death she heard, 
 for the first time, of the one true God, and learnt to love and 
 trust Him. On the evening of the day that she came to the 
 hospital, Mrs. Wong, one of the nurses, sat by her bedside telling 
 her the "old, old story," and explaining the " Jesus doctrine." 
 
 "Where is He, that I may pray to Him?" the patient asked. 
 
 "He is here everywhere in our hearts when we love Him," 
 was the answer; and the nurse went back to her room to rest 
 awhile. But through the open door she could hear the voice of 
 the woman earnestly praying for the forgiveness of her sins, all 
 that she had ever committed in her lifetime. And all through the 
 night until the early morning she was heard crying out : " Lord 
 Jesus, save me, forgive my sins, and save my soul." Very early 
 in the morning Mrs. Wong called to a Biblewoman, who lived 
 next door, and who had once been a patient herself: "I wish you 
 would come here a minute and talk to this poor woman," she said. 
 " Tell her about yourself, and perhaps it may help and comfort 
 her." So the Biblewoman came and told her how she herself, two 
 years before, had come to the hospital, and how ill she was ; and 
 how she had heard about Jesus Christ, and had trusted Him and 
 
 188
 
 AMONG THE SICK AND SUFFERING 189 
 
 found Him mighty to save and to keep ; and she begged the poor 
 sick woman to do the same. When she had done, the woman 
 said: " Ah, I do not doubt any more; I do trust in the Lord Jesus. 
 Lord Jesus, have mercy on me and forgive my sins." 
 
 All through the hours which followed she still kept on repeat- 
 ing the Name which is above every name, and her faith in Him,, 
 and begging Him not to leave her. She had no idea that her end 
 was so near ; but no fear of death, as it drew near, seemed to dim 
 the brightness of her hope. And when she was taken, it was " to- 
 be with Christ, which is far better." 
 
 Into this same hospital came one day a poor girl very ill with 
 fever. She was a very naughty girl, and had lived a very bad 
 life. But while lying on her little hospital bed she heard about 
 Jesus Christ, and how He died for us. Ah Ngau found Him, and 
 before she left hospital she was baptized. Oh! how angry her 
 friends were when they heard this ! They persecuted her, and were 
 most unkind. Her missionary friends heard of this -and sent her 
 to school, and they say she is now doing so much good in telling 
 other people about the dear Friend she has found. 
 
 Then there was little Sau Wan, who had never walked, though 
 she was six years old when she was brought to the hospital. She 
 had double club-feet, poor little girl, and she had to undergo an 
 operation. She belonged to a heathen family one which hated the 
 very mention of the " foreign devils' " religion. But Sau Wan soon 
 heard a great deal about Jesus, and she learnt to love Him and to- 
 pray to Him. And the missionary doctor hoped that when she 
 was cured she might herself become a little missionary to her 
 friends still in darkness, and that they would learn, too, to love that 
 great Physician who had made their little girl walk. 
 
 Some of the Little Sufferers 
 
 Mrs. Stevens, the kind and devoted matron, shall tell us all 
 about them. The little girl sitting on the bed, she says, with her 
 leg in a splint, has been with us since last year. She has disease
 
 IQO GLEANINGS FROM MANY FIELDS 
 
 of the ankle-joint, and has been under operation several times. 
 She is wonderfully better, very fat, and, in spite of the pain, very 
 happy. 
 
 The little boy next to her, who is peeping out from under his 
 blanket, is suffering from hip-joint disease. He has been with us 
 for four months ; but I grieve to say he seems just fading away. 
 He is such a sweet, lovable child, with large, soft eyes and a 
 beautiful smile. When he came to us first he was like a little shy 
 bird, but he soon felt at home. He has never been able even to 
 sit up in bed all those months ; but he suffers very little pain, and 
 never complains. His name is Ayau. 
 
 The little girl next in order is called Chan T'o. She is my own 
 child, and I am sure to have more to say about her in future. She 
 came to us very early in the year in a most miserable condition 
 head, body, and limbs one mass of dreadful abscesses ; the whole 
 of one side of the face and head one large black bruise; the bones 
 absolutely bare, except for the yellow, shrivelled skin; and such 
 an old, weary-looking face. I thought I had never seen such a 
 miserable living creature, and longed that God would take her 
 away out of all her pain and misery. Every day, while her 
 wounds were being dressed, I held her in my arms, and her cries 
 were agonizing. One of our visiting doctors did everything in his 
 power for her poor little body, nor did his kindness stop there ; he 
 found out the cruel people whose little slave she was, and handed 
 them over to the authorities, who took the child under their pro- 
 tection, and, at Dr. Hartigan's request, gave her to me, and now 
 she is my very own child to provide for and educate. By slow 
 degrees, and after being long, long on the very brink of the grave, 
 she began to show signs of returning to life. The little body be- 
 came more human in appearance, the limbs resumed their office 
 and by-and-by, oh, joy ! she became able to walk. Now she is a 
 jolly, round little woman, full of life and pretty ways, a little lame 
 at present, but Dr. Thomson hopes to cure her of that ; and then I 
 shall send her to Miss Davies' boarding school to be educated, and
 
 191
 
 Ip2 GLEANINGS FROM MANY FIELDS 
 
 hope, with God's blessing-, that she may grow up to be a good, 
 happy, and useful woman. 
 
 The child, Yuk Kwai (precious pearl), lying under the red 
 blanket in the middle of the picture, died the day after the picture 
 vras taken. She was the daughter of the photographer, and had 
 been with us almost from the first opening of the Nethersole Hos- 
 pital. Last year, during the plague, while our hospitals were 
 closed, she was taken home, but brought back afterwards. She 
 was most gentle and lovable, but a great, great sufferer, and I am 
 sure one of our dear Lord's own little ones. 
 
 The girl with closed eyes Avas, as you can see, almost blind, 
 but she has gone out quite cured. 
 
 The girl at the extreme left came to us several months ago, 
 dreadfully injured by a lamp explosion, her body and limbs being 
 seriously burned. 
 
 The little one with her arm in a sling has disease of the elbow- 
 joint. I fear she will always have a stiff elbow. 
 
 As the children get better and go out, their places are filled up 
 by others ; and to all the afflicted little folk the toys sent by the 
 kind ladies and children from far-away England are great treasures. 
 I think almost the first thing the. tiniest creature takes an interest 
 in is a piece of thread and a few beads. These give endless occu- 
 pation. And who can imagine the delight of possessing, for the 
 first time, a doll or a little looking-glass not to speak of balls, 
 marbles, etc.? 
 
 For a long time the interior of my toy cupboard made a brave 
 show, and the missionary children loved to peep inside. Little 
 Connie Pearce, when ill in bed, had some lent to her. Little Ruby 
 Thompson, being told that all were for the Chinese children, asked 
 very wistfully : "If I were sick and English, would you give me 
 some ? " But, alas ! day by day the shelves become more empt}% 
 and I fear some day soon history will repeat itself, and it will be 
 too true that, " When she got there, the cupboard was bare " ; but 
 not for long, I hope.
 
 AMONG THE SICK AND SUFFERING 193 
 
 Mr. Lin, the Mandarin 
 
 Mr. Lin had a post on the Viceroy's staff, and was a mandarin 
 of good family and education. He had something wrong with the 
 left elbow-joint, which made the arm quite useless. He came to 
 our hospital in Tientsin as an in-patient, and got quite well in 
 time. While there he read the Scriptures and other books, and 
 took a pleasure in talking about the new doctrine. He had less 
 pride than most men of his rank, and was altogether a very lovable 
 man. When he left the hospital he was undecided, like so many 
 more, and the missionary doctors could only leave him to God, not 
 knowing what the result would be. However, he went on attend- 
 ing the Sunday services, and after a time was baptized. His friends 
 proved his greatest hindrance, and for a time kept him back. Some 
 of them belonged to the order called in China, "Chin jou peng 
 yu," which really means, "wine and meat friends." One wonders if 
 that is anything like what we call "cupboard love"? In China 
 such men are like leeches, and Mr. Lin found it no easy task to 
 shake them off. The first thing in the morning he would find 
 them in his guest-room, and whenever he went out of doors they 
 would be sure to turn up to go also. Before his baptism, Mr. Lin 
 several times started to service, but with these friends dogging his 
 steps he was ashamed to go. Then they began to . say that he 
 was going over to the " foreign devil." To become a Christian 
 is, with the wealthy Chinese, to become what they are pleased to 
 call " a devil's slave." 
 
 It was his good old mother all honour to the old lady who 
 at last came to the rescue and gave the so-called " friends " a 
 thorough scolding, saying that her son was doing no disgraceful 
 thing in joining the foreign religion. From that moment Mr. Lin 
 took a firmer stand. He threw away his ancestral tablet, and 
 cleared away all trace of the idols from his house. His old mother, 
 over sixty years of age, who reads well, is much interested in the 
 Gospel, having studied the New Testament herself. And so mother 
 and son are learning together the wonderful truths of the Bible. 
 
 o
 
 194 GLEANINGS FROM MANY FIELDS 
 
 For Jesus' Birthday 
 
 Sometimes " doctor " missionaries are cheered by little acts of 
 love and gratitude from their hospital patients. A Chinese 
 woman, who had been in our Tientsin hospital for some weeks, 
 had learned something of the " doctrine." She left the hospital, 
 and after a time returned to give the missionary three strings of 
 " cash," which was about five shillings of our money, saying it 
 was for " Jesus' birthday." She had walked more than a hundred 
 miles, carrying the heavy "cash" on her back. Surely "she had 
 done what she could." 
 
 A Soldier for Christ 
 
 In this same hospital in Tientsin a young soldier named Chang- 
 te-Chun lay for more than two years. Here he heard for the first 
 time the wonderful story of the Gospel, and became much in- 
 terested in it. He got quite well, and before leaving the hospital 
 for camp he was baptized. But as often as he could he used to 
 pay little visits to the hospital, and always showed a warm love for 
 the Saviour, and a great desire to work for Him. Once he brought 
 some money for the hospital funds. On another visit he met in 
 the gateway a Bible colporteur, whom he invited to the soldiers' 
 camp at Lu-tai. The colporteur went, and the soldier gave him a 
 hearty welcome. He introduced him among his fellow - soldiers, 
 and in the public street urged the people to buy the Gospels and 
 turn to the Saviour. This action brought upon him so much 
 bitter persecution in the camp, where the men are often ruffians 
 and ne'er-do-wells, that, after receiving a severe beating from his 
 comrades, he left the army. It is very difficult in China for a 
 man to be a Christian and a soldier at the same time. Quite apart 
 from the character of his comrades, he has to face the observance 
 of idolatrous practices. Two or three times every year the cannon 
 are brought out for worship, offerings are presented, incense is 
 burnt, . and officers in turn prostrate themselves before the guns.
 
 AMONG THE SICK AND SUFFERING 195 
 
 Well, though Chang left the army he did not leave Lu-tai, but 
 having saved some money, he opened a shop, and prospered very 
 well. He was always a real witness for Jesus Christ, and has 
 been able to help many of his fellow-Chinamen. 
 
 Only a Little Drudge 
 
 A little Chinese girl about ten years old was for a long time 
 in the Mission hospital at Shanghai, with a sore head. She was a 
 funny, dark, wild-looking child, and so dirty! From time to time 
 she listened to the teaching given to others in the ward, and with 
 great quickness she seemed to grasp its meaning. The child grew 
 more gentle as the days passed, and she began to welcome the 
 missionary ladies, who visited the ward, in a very sweet way. 
 
 Poor little thing ! she was but one of the world's waifs, a little 
 household drudge, a slave one might almost say, in a family liv- 
 ing in Shanghai. She left the hospital, but came back one Sun- 
 day not long after to beg the missionary lady to go and see 
 her mistress. Her request was granted, and many were the visits 
 and talks that followed. More than this, Kwailing, as this little 
 friend was called, did not rest until she had coaxed her mistress to 
 send her own little girl to the Mission Day School, and one morn- 
 ing, in great glee, Kwailing brought the child. Dear little Kwail- 
 ing ! with all her dirt and ignorance she has certainly done her 
 best to spread the "good news." 
 
 Seeing Him with the Heart's Eye 
 
 In the boys' school in Hankow there was a little blind boy 
 who wished to join the Church. 
 
 Dr. Griffith John asked him : " Do you know where Jesus is? " 
 
 "He is here," replied the lad. 
 
 "You are blind; how do you know that Jesus is here?" asked 
 Dr. John. 
 
 "Because I can see Him with my heart's eye."
 
 196 GLEANINGS FROM MANY FIELDS 
 
 The Hopeless Patient Cured 
 
 Here is the story of a Chinese patient in the waiting-room of 
 a Mission hospital who draws near to the doctor to be prescribed 
 for. He is middle-aged, and though a countryman, has an air of 
 refinement, and a gentle face and voice. 
 
 Some years before he was very ill, so ill indeed that he had 
 given up all hope of ever being well again. He had applied to 
 the idols in his own neighbourhood for relief, but he went on 
 growing more and more seriously ill. In his despair, he joined the 
 sect of the Vegetarians, who are very strict idolaters in the way of 
 eating nothing which has ever had life in it. He had been promised 
 that the " Goddess of mercy," the chief idol of that sect, would 
 quickly cure him. But their promises were never fulfilled. He 
 grew worse and worse, till his life became a perfect misery. What 
 he was to do now he did not know. He had visited every idol far 
 and near, and for a man in his position he had spent a small for- 
 tune upon them, but relief seemed farther off than ever. One day 
 he had walked ten miles along a most rough and dreary road to 
 the county city, where there was a famous idol, to see whether it 
 could not heal his disease. The temple is a celebrated one, and 
 crowds with every kind of trouble and sorrow thronged it from 
 morn till night. The roof and walls of the building were black 
 with the smoke of the incense that countless worshippers had burnt, 
 and even the god itself, though frequently re-gilt, had become grimy 
 and tarnished, so that it looked as though it needed washing. 
 
 This man with anxious heart took his place amongst the wor- 
 shippers who were waiting their turn to make their offerings to 
 the idol, all the while wondering whether he had at last come to one 
 that could give him hope. He was told by those who were in the 
 secrets of the idol that his disease "would in time be cured by its 
 powerful influence. 
 
 Again he walked the dreary ten miles back to his home, but 
 there was now a spring in his step that had been put into it by
 
 197
 
 198 GLEANINGS FROM MANY FIELDS 
 
 the promise of the god, and which made the way home seem won- 
 derfully pleasant. 
 
 Time went by, and every day he looked anxiously for return- 
 ing health, but it did not come. He had been deceived again, and 
 this time his faith in the idols received a terrible shock. 
 
 One day he was told that at the Christian church near his 
 home medicines were given away to those who were in distress. 
 In the hope that there might be some that would suit his case, he 
 at once applied to the native pastor for some, who said that he 
 believed that he had just the very kind of medicine that was needed 
 for his case. "Before giving you the medicine," the pastor said, 
 "I want you to kneel down with me and ask God's blessing upon 
 it. He is the Great Healer, and without His power no disease can be 
 cured." But the man utterly refused to do this, and went away 
 without the medicine rather than kneel down and pray. 
 
 The pastor was much surprised, for the Chinese are willing to 
 worship any object in the world if they only believe they are 
 going to get some good by so doing. The fact of the matter was, 
 that this poor man had been to such a large number of gods for 
 relief that he had become suspicious. He imagined that the God he 
 was asked to kneel down and pray to was but another idol, and 
 that by performing this act of worship he would in some way or 
 other be bound to it, and that he would have to pay money to it, 
 which he could not afford to do. Better pain, and even death it- 
 self, than to be always deceived and cheated out of his money by 
 empty promises. Cast down and miserable, and with every hope 
 of life crushed out of his heart, he returned to his home. But 
 deliverance was coming, and that in a larger sense than he had 
 ever dreamed of. While he was in sorrow and despair about the 
 future, some one told him that there was a foreign hospital in 
 Amoy where wonderful cures were effected by the English doctor, 
 such as no Chinese doctor had ever been able to do. 
 
 Delighted with the news, and with his heart filled with new hope, 
 he hastened to Amoy, and became an in-patient in the hospital.
 
 AMONG THE SICK AND SUFFERING 199 
 
 His disease began to yield to the medicines used, and health slowly 
 came back to him. Having nothing to do all day, he became a 
 most regular attendant at the missionary's services. Slowly the 
 truth entered his mind, until at last he was able to trust in the 
 " Great Physician " for salvation. He returned to his home well 
 in body and happy in mind. He was received into the Church by 
 the pastor with whom he had refused to pray, and he became a 
 most earnest and true member of his flock. 
 
 A Lady Patient in Peking 
 
 One day, our missionary doctor in Peking saw among the usual 
 crowd of poor hospital patients waiting for him a very nicely 
 dressed little lady, attended by her maid. The maid gave him a 
 note from her master, a Chinese official, asking for treatment for 
 his wife. 
 
 The doctor found her to be very ill, and ordered her to go home, 
 giving her medicine. He asked a lady missionary to go and see 
 her, so as to save her the trouble of coming to the public dispensary. 
 Mr. Chang, the master of the house, received Miss Philip politely. 
 He was a stately old gentleman of sixty, while his wife, the patient, 
 was only twenty-six. He seemed to love his little wife, in his own 
 Chinese fashion, and spared no expense in trying to tempt her to 
 eat with luxuries and dainties, but she seemed to grow weaker. 
 Mrs. Chang and Miss Philip often saw each other, and got to be 
 great friends, and many were the talks they had about the " foreign 
 doctrine," and the life after death which poor little Mrs. Chang 
 must now soon begin. 
 
 One afternoon they were sitting together, talking of Christ's love 
 in coming to save us, when suddenly Mrs. Chang asked the very 
 question put to St. Paul so long ago: "What must I do to be 
 saved?" Oh! how glad Miss Philip was to be able to tell her 
 " little sister," as Mrs. Chang liked to be called, the Gospel message. 
 Mrs. Chang had only been able to attend one service in her life, 
 she could not even read the Gospel for herself; but if ever a soul
 
 200 GLEANINGS FROM MANY FIELDS 
 
 by simple faith took Christ as its Saviour and Friend, she did 
 that afternoon, and, from that time onward, her religion became 
 a very real thing to her. At last poor Mrs. Chang became too ill 
 to leave her bed, almost too weak to move, and she suffered great pain. 
 The missionary told the husband that he must soon lose his little 
 wife. She pinned up some bright Bible pictures inside the patient's 
 mosquito curtain, to try and comfort her. One of the favourites 
 was that of Christ receiving and blessing the children, for she 
 said the Saviour's face looked so very kind, as if He really loved 
 and pitied her. But in spite of the bad pain she had always to 
 bear, she was bright and calm, and was so glad if she could see 
 her dear Miss Philip every day. 
 
 The old husband, too, was most kind, and even accepted copies 
 of the Gospels at different times, for he was quite a scholar, and 
 seemed to enjoy reading the books that his little wife liked to 
 hear. 
 
 Miss Philip was hastily summoned early one day, and found 
 her friend just at the point of death. According to native cus- 
 tom, she had been dressed up in her richest clothes and jewellery. 
 She lay so still that all thought she must be dead. But as Miss 
 Philip's tears fell on her face, she opened her eyes once and looked 
 up into her dear friend's face with such a sweet, bright, restful 
 smile, and moved a hand feebly as if seeking hers. She just whis- 
 pered the words, Ping au (peace), and in a few minutes she gently 
 passed away to be with God. 
 
 How the Lepers Help One Another 
 
 High up on one of the lower spurs of the mighty Himalaya 
 Mountains stands the hill station of Almora. It contains a leper 
 asylum, where about one hundred and forty of these terribly 
 afflicted outcasts live and die. Many of the lepers have given 
 their hearts to Christ. They do not live long, but Christ makes 
 them happy, and they die peaceful deaths. 
 
 Some of these poor creatures had long wished for baptism, but
 
 201
 
 202 GLEANINGS FROM MANY FIELDS 
 
 had been kept back until they knew a little more about the 
 Gospel. But one day it was arranged that a baptism should be 
 held. Mangaluwa was such a helpless sufferer that he could not 
 get to the asylum chapel, but another Christian leper, who was 
 not quite so helpless, offered to carry him there, so that he might 
 be baptized with the others, and not all alone in his own barrack- 
 room. It was a most touching sight to see Bijna hobbling along 
 (for his own feet are toeless) with his friend Mangaluwa on his 
 back. Just behind them was another group of three, two of whom 
 were helping a third one between them, and taking him to the 
 house of prayer. Another poor creature was painfully crawling 
 along on all-fours, and obliged every few steps to halt in order to 
 get relief, for besides being terribly crippled, he was suffering 
 from asthma, a disease which often accompanies leprosy. Such 
 scenes as these lead onlookers to say : " See how these Christians 
 do love one another." 
 
 In various parts of Madagascar, too, this dreadful disease is 
 found. Our society has opened some " Homes " for the sufferers 
 nice little cottages, where they may pass the rest of their sad 
 lives in comfort, and die in peace among kind friends. 
 
 Sad to say, there is no doctor in the world clever enough to 
 cure leprosy, so all we can do is to try and ease the pain and 
 make the lepers happy in the thought of soon going to that 
 be'autiful land where there is "no more pain or sorrow." 
 
 Rabao was a Malagasy slave-boy, who served his master well 
 and faithfully for several years, but when his leprosy was so 
 advanced that he could not use a spade any longer, his unkind 
 master cast him off, or turned him out to die, one may say. 
 
 He dragged on in his miserable life for three years, when, 
 hearing about the Homes which the missionaries had opened, he 
 begged to be taken in. He was in a most wretched plight when 
 he entered, but was so grateful for all the kindness done to him. 
 He was made very happy . by finding a friend in Jesus Christ, 
 that loving, pitiful Friend of lepers. He became much worse, but
 
 AMONG THE SICK AND SUFFERING 203 
 
 was very patient in his sufferings, and just before he went to the 
 " home over there," he said, " I do not fear to die ; I am trusting 
 in the Saviour." 
 
 The Neyoor Hospital Cots 
 
 The Neyoor Hospital is rarely without children, and the cots 
 provided by the boys and girls in England are seldom empty. 
 
 Indian boys whose parents are poor are sent to work while 
 very young. One little fellow, who daily climbed the tall palmyra 
 palm-trees in order to get the juice, which is much used in India, 
 fell from a tree sixty feet high, and broke both his thigh bones. 
 He lay in hospital for a long time, and there learned about 
 Jesus, who loves children. He got well, and was soon again climb- 
 ing trees, but it is to be hoped he will not forget what he was 
 taught. 
 
 The children are generally very grateful for the kindness 
 shown to them, and many are the salaams sent by these little 
 sufferers to their English brothers and sisters who send out money 
 to support the cots, and so many beautiful toys and scrap-books 
 besides. How they do love these presents, to be sure ! Some of 
 the wee girls quite think it is worth while being ill, or having a 
 broken leg, to have a dolly given them for their very own. How 
 many an otherwise weary hour is spent in dressing and un- 
 dressing the wonderful baby which has come all the way from 
 England. And when the little mother takes her treasure back to 
 her own heathen home, what a source of interest it is to her 
 friends and neighbours ! Sometimes they crowd in to have a look 
 at it, and to see the curious English clothes, and the proud owner 
 tells them all she has seen and heard while in the little hospital 
 cot ; and so, in her own little way, she, with the aid of her dolly, 
 is sometimes a true missionary, and is able to lead her friends to 
 know the God of whom she has heard from the kind English friends
 
 CHAPTER XVI 
 WOMEN TO THE RESCUE 
 
 The Broken Jars 
 
 " '"T^EACHER, teacher, will you give me a penny for another 
 
 - jar?" cried a little Hindu girl between her sobs, to a 
 missionary lady one morning. It was in India. The lady was 
 just entering the yard in which stood the schoolhouse, a few 
 acacia trees, and some rose bushes in full bloom. Twenty brown- 
 faced, bright-eyed girls were playing there. But at sight of their 
 teacher all play ceased, and touching their foreheads with the 
 right hand as a sign of welcome, they ran before her into the low 
 building made of sunburnt bricks, which served as a schoolroom. 
 Here, seated upon the floor, they waited until school should open 
 with a lesson from the New Testament. The missionary lady 
 came slowly in, leading poor little Tara, crying bitterly. In the 
 corners of the bare, cheerless room stood black stone jars filled 
 with water. The pieces of a broken jar were scattered around, 
 which, when the little girl saw, she wept afresh. 
 
 "Tara," said the teacher, "is this your jar? Who has broken 
 it?" 
 
 " I smashed it myself," sobbed the child. 
 
 "You did it yourself on purpose, and yet you cry!" said the 
 lady with wonder. 
 
 "Shanti touched it with her hand and made it unclean, so I 
 did as our holy books tell us to do I broke it. Oh! teacher, will 
 you give me a penny to buy another?" said Tara, looking up 
 through her shining tears. 
 
 204
 
 WOMEN TO THE RESCUE 205 
 
 "Poor little one!" said the teacher, smoothing the long tangled 
 hair, " obedience to such commands does not bring happiness. My 
 child, does your 'book' tell who made the world and the people?" 
 
 "Yes," said Tara; "one god, whose name is Brahma, made the 
 world and all the people in it. He made the people from his own 
 body. From his head he made wise men, and from his arms and 
 shoulders he made strong men, like soldiers and kings. Merchants 
 and others he made from his loins, but poor men and servants 
 came from the feet of Brahma." 
 
 "And from which part were you, do you -suppose, Tara?" 
 
 " My father is high up, he is a merchant ; but Shanti's father 
 is a servant. So when she touched my jar .it was polluted my 
 nice new jar, and now it is broken. Oh dear!" 
 
 "Sit down, Tara," said the teacher, "and when you are quiet 
 we will talk about it." 
 
 In obedience she turned away, but, half-blinded with tears, she 
 fell over a rude bench that served as a table. It gave way, and 
 she was thrown to the floor, when, striving to disentangle herself 
 from the broken bench, without thinking, she caught hold of one 
 of the jars. 
 
 Instantly a girl of twelve or fourteen years started up with 
 words of abuse falling thick and fast from her lips, and before 
 any one could prevent her, had dashed the jar into a hundred 
 fragments upon the ground. Slowly streamed the water over the 
 coarse mud floor, which drank it up as parched earth drinks the 
 rain; but the tears quickly flowed from the eyes of the excited 
 girl. 
 
 " Tara ! Tara ! " she screamed, " thou daughter of a merchant ! 
 why hast thou touched my jar ? " 
 
 Many bitter words would have been spoken by the two girls, 
 but the teacher bade them be silent. It was then explained that 
 the oldest girl was of "high caste," and none of her inferiors 
 might so much as lay hands upon much less drink from the 
 jar she called hers. As the low-caste Shanti had broken this
 
 206 GLEANINGS FROM MANY FIELDS 
 
 rule of caste in regard to Tara's jar, so in the same way had 
 Tara offended the high-caste Salusi. 
 
 It is too true that in India all the people are divided into 
 separate classes or castes, that never intermarry, never eat or 
 drink together, nor may they even touch the vessels belonging to 
 one another. 
 
 Three different castes were represented in this Mission school. 
 They were all Hindus, and strict in obeying the commands of 
 their so-called "holy book." The missionary could not forbid this, 
 for they would have left school had their idolatry been interfered 
 with. 
 
 So easily are these little creatures made to fear the breaking 
 of caste that Tara declared she " would rather die than drink 
 from Shanti's jar." 
 
 A few days before this little event the girls had asked for a 
 few pennies to buy water jars. Willingly the request was granted, 
 for in that hot country the little ones wish often for a cup of 
 cold water. There were no wells near. All the water was 
 brought from a river that flowed by at a distance from the school, 
 too far for little feet to travel in the burning sun; so it was well 
 that fresh water should be kept in the schoolroom, and this was 
 the first day of their use. 
 
 Half an hour before, three of the girls might have been seen 
 coming from the riverside, the jars poised easily on their heads, 
 while they sang the new hymn their teacher had taught them. 
 
 Now two of the jars were broken. The one belonging to the 
 lowest caste alone remained. No fear of any one polluting their 
 jars. 
 
 Here was the beginning of trouble to the new teacher. Caste, 
 that fatal hindrance to all good, to all progress in India, met her 
 on the threshold. What should she do? Knowing the power of 
 music, she said quietly to her troubled school : " Let us sing our 
 new hymn." 
 
 Clearly, sweetly, and in unison rose the words, "Let us love
 
 WOMEN TO THE RESCUE 2OJ 
 
 one another." Then she read how God made of one blood all 
 nations ; how Christ came, the Prince of peace and love. And 
 the noisy lips were still while in a few words she asked that 
 peace and love might be given to them. 
 
 Although none of the young hearts had given themselves to 
 Jesus Christ, yet there stole over them a sudden quiet, and when 
 asked: "Who shall have the remaining jar?" for it was still 
 unused the generous Tara said : " There is no one else like me ; 
 I will drink at home before I come." 
 
 And the angry high-caste, forgetting her pride, added : " And 
 there is no one like me; I am big, I will go to the river, let the 
 'outcastes' have it." And thus the last were first. The twenty 
 girls of lower caste each drank from one jar; and though the 
 caste of each scholar remained unbroken, the school became a 
 house of peace, for they loved one another, and soon forgot the 
 broken jars. 
 
 A Visit to a Zenana 
 
 A Zenana? What is that? Most who read this will know 
 that it is that part of a Hindu's house which is set apart entirely 
 for the use of the women of the family. It is generally at one 
 end of the building opening. upon a courtyard of its own,- and 
 all the view that the women shut up in it can see is that yard, 
 with a solitary tree perhaps. The Hindu Scriptures teach that a 
 woman must never stand at a door or look out of a window. 
 The ladies of India are not allowed to receive visitors as they like, 
 or to go about and see their friends, as we do in happy England. 
 They never leave the house unless they are obliged to, and then 
 they are closely veiled, so that they know very little of what goes 
 on outside their home. And indoors what a dull, idle life they lead, 
 to be sure ! Poor women ! they cannot read, and they are taught 
 to do nothing but attend to the wants of their families and go 
 through long prayers and ceremonies in the worship of their idols. 
 So their time is spent chiefly in eating, drinking, and sleeping.
 
 208 GLEANINGS FROM MANY FIELDS 
 
 and dressing themselves up in their jewels. Of course there is end- 
 less gossip, and often bitter quarrels arise among these poor sisters 
 of ours. When a girl reaches the age of thirteen or fourteen, 
 though she may have been married as a child of five or six, she 
 leaves her own home for that of her husband, who lives with his 
 parents, grandparents, and brothers and their wives. Her husband's 
 mother rules her daughters-in-law with a rod of iron. All have 
 to obey, and the new-comer, the poor little wife, is turned into a 
 perfect drudge, and has for some time a very sad and hard life. 
 
 Since lady missionaries have gone to India, and little by little 
 have got leave to visit these Zenanas, the lives of the poor women 
 are beginning to be better and happier. 
 
 At first the Hindus were horrified at the very idea of their 
 wives being taught anything. They treated them more as slaves 
 than companions, and thought them much too stupid to learn, and 
 therefore not worth the trouble of teaching. One man, who knew 
 a little English, on being asked why he did not have the ladies of 
 his house taught to read, replied : " They no learn ; they stupid. 
 You see my wife there? the beast! she riever learn." 
 
 The women welcome the missionaries with great- delight. Many 
 an hour that would have been spent in idleness and gossip now 
 is spent in listening to the wonderful things the kind English lady 
 tells them, or in learning to sew and read and write. Singing too 
 is a great help in the work, and many are the hymns that they 
 can sing. And many too are the hearts that have been won in 
 this way for Jesus Christ. 
 
 The Almora Orphanage 
 
 The girls in the Almora Orphanage have been collected in 
 various ways, chiefly from the leper asylum in connection with our 
 Mission. Leper parents come bringing with them a child whom 
 they cannot leave behind. The ladies coax them to give up this 
 child to them to care for and love, in the hope of saving it, if possible,
 
 AN INDIAN LADY WHO BECAME A CHRISTIAN. 
 209
 
 210 GLEANINGS FROM MANY FIELDS 
 
 from the dreadful disease that the parent is suffering from. The 
 children of lepers have proved the brightest, cleverest girls among 
 the whole number. Still it is a great cross these poor little Indian 
 sisters have to bear all their lives, for it is thought to be a sad 
 disgrace to have leper-parents, and men are not willing to marry 
 them, and they are generally looked down upon. But they don't 
 mind such things so much when they learn to really love Christ, 
 for they get His love and sympathy to comfort and help them. 
 
 Other children are sent to the orphanage through Government 
 officials, and these are very miserable little waifs and strays. 
 They are generally so dreadfully poor and ill that the missionaries 
 hardly think they will live. Some are more like little animals than 
 human beings, and so hungry that they will eat all day long, and 
 anything too that they can lay hands on. One poor wee boy who 
 had got all his teeth, so was not a baby, could not speak, and yet 
 had all his senses. He seemed to think everybody was his enemy, 
 and tried to bite them, and the only thing that seemed to touch the 
 soft side of his nature was a goat. He would put his arms round 
 it, and smile and coo over it, and look heart-broken when it had 
 to be taken away. But he soon learned to talk, and what is more, 
 to pray to the Friend of little children. He is now a most kind- 
 hearted, hard-working boy, and a great favourite. One thing they 
 have to teach these poor little unloved mites is to love, and it is 
 very beautiful to see the first dawn of love awakening in their 
 hearts and faces. 
 
 Sometimes orphans come to the orphanage of their own free 
 wills. I was walking down to school one morning early, says 
 Miss Budden, and on the road met a sad-looking girl, quite young. 
 I wondered what she could be doing alone so early, and some- 
 thing in her face struck me as being sad. So I stopped her and 
 asked her where she had come from, and where she was going ? 
 She said she was wandering about, and did not know where she 
 was going. She had no one belonging to her in the whole world ; 
 she was eighteen, and had been a widow for nine years. For
 
 WOMEN TO THE RESCUE 211 
 
 some time she had lived with her married brother, but he too had 
 died, poisoned by his wife, they said, and since then she had 
 lived as she could, doing work for her neighbours and having food 
 given in return. I asked her what her caste was. She instantly 
 drew herself up, saying: "A Brahmin of the Pant family," which 
 is the highest Brahmin caste in the hills, and then asked what my 
 caste was. I answered: "A Christian." Then I said: "If you 
 have no home and no friends, won't you come with me, and I 
 will give you a home and food and care and love?" 
 
 She said at once she would, and I took her down to the orphan- 
 age, and handed her over to the matron. On coming out of 
 school I more than half expected to find she had run off; but no, 
 there she was, and already smiling and looking happy, and said 
 she would like to stay. 
 
 So I arranged for her to cook her own food, and not break her 
 caste until she had learnt something about Christ Jesus, and did 
 it of her own will. She was very quick to learn, and the love of 
 Christ soon touched her heart, and after a while she was baptized. 
 
 Two Sad Little Pictures 
 
 They are drawn for us by Mrs. Du Bose in the following words : 
 One morning in the cold season, a missionary wandered into 
 a little village in India to try and do some work for the Master. 
 Through an open door she saw a woman sitting on the ground, 
 clasping her knees before a smouldering fire of dead leaves. 
 Entering, she said to the woman: "Salaam." But she did not 
 seem to take any notice, but continued to stare into the fire with 
 a sullen, intense gaze. The missionary asked a man standing 
 near: "What is the matter with this woman?" He sorrowful!}' 
 replied : " Oh ! Mem Sahib, yesterday the funeral pile of our only 
 child, a boy, was lighted, and since then she has neither spoken 
 nor eaten, and has refused to be comforted." 
 
 The poor creature's coarse, scanty garments were very filthy,
 
 212 GLEANINGS FROM MANY FIELDS 
 
 her hair Avas in the wildest disorder ; but as she sat there, with 
 that stony look in her sad eyes, the missionary's heart went out 
 to her in the tenderest sympathy, for only a fortnight before her 
 own and only child had been taken from her arms. She told the 
 wretched mother this, and instantly her attention was aroused, for 
 she said : " And you mourned ? " 
 
 " Yes, but with the hope of meeting her again." And in a few 
 simple words the missionary tried to make her poor Hindu sister 
 understand something of the beautiful hereafter through Jesus 
 Christ. 
 
 It must have been a wonderful idea to her, for she had been 
 always taught that the spirits of the dead at once entered into 
 some beast &r reptile or insect. 
 
 She seemed somewhat comforted, though sadly she said : "I 
 never, never expected to see my boy again! I thought he was 
 gone for ever." 
 
 It was a dark, dreary night ; not a star gleamed forth from the 
 gloomy sky ; even the wind seemed rushing by with a weird, 
 lonely sound. There was not a light to be seen anywhere ; not 
 one lamp sent out a friendly ray upon the cheerless street ; the 
 whole city seemed asleep, for the hour was midnight. Suddenly 
 a door opened, and a Chinese woman stepped out into the still 
 night air. In one hand she carried a lantern, while the basket 
 hanging upon her other arm was filled with paper money. She 
 walked slowly along till she came to the first corner. Here she 
 stopped, and taking out several handfuls of the paper from her 
 basket, she placed it on the ground and set fire to it, and as it 
 burned quickly up, she called out in a loud, shrill voice: "Ah! 
 Chao, come back ! Ah ! Chao, come back!" The fire having burned 
 out, she slowly passed to the next street corner, and went through 
 the same performance. Then to the next street and the next, and 
 so on and on she wandered. Her piercing cry seemed to tremble
 
 WOMEN TO THE RESCUE 213 
 
 with the deep, unspoken anguish of a hopeless and bursting heart, 
 and it grew fainter and fainter as she crept farther and farther 
 into the dark distance. Poor mother ! Ah ! Chao will never come 
 back to you again! 
 
 When she reached her home in the early dawn, she found only 
 the lifeless body of her loved one. His soul had gone into the un- 
 known future; she could not follow him. She was almost beside 
 herself in the blackness and darkness of her great grief. 
 
 This son was her only child ; for him she had lived and toiled 
 and saved. She had loved him with all her heart ; she had fed, 
 clothed, and educated him. Now that he was twelve years old 
 she had begun to form great plans for his future. She hoped that 
 he might worship and take care of her soul after her death. Now 
 all her hopes were blighted, and her life seemed a perfect blank. 
 Only four days ago he was quite well. He was standing with her 
 and many of the neighbours to watch the procession of the god 
 of the fields go by ; he had seemed afraid as the idol passed, and 
 by-and-by had fallen asleep. He waked up in terror, crying: 
 " Oh ! mother, the idol has hold of my hand, and is dragging me 
 to the temple to burn incense." 
 
 The mother, in great fear, ran out and bought two dollars' 
 worth of incense, candles, and paper-money, and went quickly with 
 them to the temple to worship. All the next day she knelt before 
 the idol, pleading for the life of her child, and all the third day 
 she knocked her head on the ground before him, making rows and 
 promises, but all was useless. 
 
 " Foreign teacher," she exclaimed, " don't tell me that these 
 idols have no power, for they have taken my boy." Yet she was 
 interested in and listened earnestly to the words spoken about the 
 "Great Physician, the sympathising Jesus," who says to every 
 mother-heart : " Suffer little children to come unto Me, and forbid 
 them not, for of such is the kingdom of heaven." 
 
 " Oh ! " she exclaimed, " if I had only known this before, so 
 that I could have told my boy!"
 
 214 GLEANINGS FROM MANY FIELDS 
 
 Saving Some 
 
 If the reader could go to Hankow and pay a visit to the Sunday 
 afternoon service, he would see a large number of women present 
 with their hymn-books and Testaments. In most of the chapels in 
 China about three-quarters of the building is set apart for the use 
 of the men, and just a little corner for the women. In explanation 
 it should be said that men and women in China never sit together 
 at service, nor do they eat or walk together in the street. 
 
 Teaching women to read, the missionaries tell us, is very slow 
 work. But they are gathered into small classes, and are taught 
 little by little, and w T hen they become Christians it is wonderful 
 how much more anxious they are to learn to read, so as to know 
 more about the " doctrine." 
 
 One of the women in Hankow came to her reading-class one 
 day bringing with her a sweet little girl about two years old, 
 The missionary lady asked the name of the child. "Picked up," 
 said the mother, with a smile. " Why is she called that ? " " Oh," 
 said the mother, smiling yet more broadly, " it was because when 
 she was born I wanted to droWn her; I had one girl already, so 
 I threw this one away, but her father picked her up, and said he 
 was a Christian, and she must not be drowned. I did not know 
 the doctrine then." 
 
 The missionary turned to another woman present, and asked 
 the name of her little one. " Rest and Happiness," was the reply. 
 " He was born on the day of rest, and it was Communion Sunday." 
 That mother is a bright, clever woman, reading her Bible easily, 
 though she, too, was not long ago an ignorant country-woman, and 
 but for the "Jesus religion" would be so still. 
 
 Sold to a Mandarin 
 
 The Chinese heathen women are often so densely ignorant, 
 with little thought or care beyond that of food and clothes for
 
 WOMEN TO THE RESCUE 215 
 
 daily needs, that our lady missionaries sometimes feel utterly help- 
 less to do anything for them. The women understand nothing of 
 their need of a Saviour, and take but little interest even in heathen 
 ceremonies. No wonder is it that Chinamen say : " A woman 
 cannot learn ; you might as well try to teach an ox or an ass." 
 
 But little by little the women are beginning to take an interest 
 in the classes which the " foreign ladies " hold for them. It is 
 such a new idea to find any one caring for them and wanting to 
 help them that it takes time to realize such a wonder. In the 
 women's class in Tientsin there was one bright girl of eighteen 
 who seemed very much interested in what she was learning. But 
 after a time she left off coming, and it was found that she had 
 been sold by her heathen mother for one hundred dollars to a 
 mandarin in the city. 
 
 Only a Blind Girl 
 
 Passing from day to day a house in the city, the missionary 
 heard always a low moaning sound, as of a child in pain or 
 sorrow. 
 
 Asking at last the cause of this, she was told that it was only 
 a little blind girl who was locked up by her mother while she 
 went out to work, as she had no one to take care of her. 
 
 The missionary went and saw the mother, and asked her to 
 let her have the care of the child. This was agreed to. At 
 first it was thought that the little thing must be an idiot, though 
 she had a pretty pale face and beautiful long hair. But her 
 lonely, sad life had given her such a stupid, hopeless look it was 
 painful to see her. The only thing to do was to be kind to the 
 poor little girl and try and amuse her, for it did not seem possible 
 for her to learn anything at all. But she used to sit in the 
 schoolroom with the girls, and, as the Chinese children always 
 study aloud, she began to pick up little things. She seemed to be 
 interested in their Bible lessons, and after some months could
 
 2l6 
 
 GLEANINGS FROM MANY FIELDS 
 
 repeat the Lord's Prayer and some texts. After a year she 
 showed so much quickness and intelligence that she began to do 
 regular lessons with the help of one of the older girls. She was 
 always so gentle and amiable that everybody loved her. In three 
 or four years' time she had learned by heart all the four Gospels 
 and some of the Epistles. She became a little follower of Jesus 
 Christ, and was baptized, and has ever since led a happy and 
 useful life, though only a blind Chinese girl. 
 
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