MISSIONARY ENTERPRISE 273 



There is no gainsaying the value of missionary enter- 

 prise, directed as it is now by all creeds. The country 

 being divided into districts, there is no squabbling. 

 The channels the work follows is to teach the children 

 trades, such as carpentering at Wau, iron working at 

 Tonj, &c., the teacher telling them religious stories and 

 singing hymns. It is now recognised as impossible 

 to really convert the fetish-impregnated adult. It is 

 hoped that the children of those now under instruction 

 may be Christians. How keen all the padres were. 

 Most have joined the great majority. Blackwater 

 fever may not be played with. Their conditions of 

 life, which often included short commons and want 

 of medicine, played havoc with them. 



Whenever Sultan Kiango fell out with them, as he 

 would at their continued refusals to supply him with 

 drink, he would send in some complaint. One was 

 that they stopped his people dancing. On inquiry the 

 Sultan told me that he had invented this charge as 

 being a likely one. I have beside me the quaintly 

 worded explanations of the Superior. The Sultan in- 

 vited me into his harem to drink coffee, and inci- 

 dentally to entertain his wives with my gramophone. 

 The " Laughing Friar" and bird imitations were great 

 favourites with all natives ; for whenever any Sultan 

 or sheikh came to Wau we would turn it on for him. 

 A superb record of Madame Patti was called the 

 " screaming mad woman whom her husband is beat- 

 ing," and a very deep bass song had also a descriptive 

 name. Strange to say they never allowed their curi- 

 osity to show. One of the missionaries had a glass 



