Fotewane 
Far away in the Solomon Islands, where still there are 
tribes of savages unreached by the gospel, and where the 
practice of head-hunting was universal but a few years ago, 
the following incident occurred. It illustrates well the way 
in which gospel influence makes itself felt even beyond 
the immediate environs of a mission station, and moves 
the most unpromising of the heathen toward its light and 
blessing. 
The story of Fotewane, the crippled heathen, is supplied 
by Miss Waterston, a missionary of long experience in that 
group: 
“Tt was about ten o’clock on a fine morning in Malu. 
School was over, and the usual line of little boys and girls 
had followed me up to the house. I was resting and taking 
some lunch, when a curious shuffling, bumping noise was 
heard on the veranda steps. The noise was followed by the 
appearance of one of the quaintest little men I have ever 
seen. His face was alive with interest and intelligence. 
Head, shoulders, and arms were well formed and normal, 
but from above the waist downward the poor body was 
dwarfed and twisted, and the legs were powerless to sup- 
port its weight. He shuffled and crawled along on hands 
and knees, and from long practice, could cover the ground 
very quickly. 
“Those who came with him told his story. Fotewane was 
his name, and he had been a cripple all his life. Yet he was 
by no means lazy. He dug his garden and grew vegetables, 
he helped to build houses, and he even climbed trees to get 
the precious ngali nuts so much prized as food. His village 
lay far back in the bush-covered hills, and he had never 
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