CHAPTER XIX 



IV6HITR6SA 



OUR Sunday at Ivohitrosa was such a novel and inter- 

 esting one that I shall depart for once from my rule 

 of omitting in these chapters mention of our religious 

 work. It was a wet morning, so that it was after eleven o'clock 

 before the rain ceased and we could call the people together. 

 A good many had come up from the country round on the pre- 

 vious day to see us, and we collected them on a long and pretty 

 level piece of rock which forms one side of the little square 

 around which the houses are built. When all had assembled, 

 there must have been nearly three hundred present, including 

 our own men, who grouped themselves near us. It was cer- 

 tainly the strangest congregation we had ever addressed, for 

 the men had their weapons, while the women looked very 

 heathenish. Some few had put some slight covering over the 

 upper part of their bodies, but most were just as they ordinarily 

 appeared, some with hair and necks dripping with castor oil, and 

 with their conspicuous bead ornaments on head, neck, and arms. 

 One could not but feel deeply moved to see these poor ignorant 

 folks, the great majority of them joining for the first time in 

 Christian worship, and hearing for the first time the news of 

 salvation. And remembering our own ignorance of much of 

 their language, the utter strangeness of the message we 

 brought, and the darkness of their minds, we could not but 

 feel how little we could in one brief service do to quicken 

 their apprehension of things spiritual and eternal. We had 

 some of our most hearty lively hymns and tunes, our men 

 assisting us well in the singing; after Mr Street had spoken 

 to the people from a part of the Sermon on the Mount, I 

 also addressed them, trying in as simple a manner as was 

 possible to tell them what we had come for, what that " glad 

 tidings" was which we taught them. On account of the 

 rain, work in the afternoon had to be confined to what could 



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