206 MEDICAL PRACTICE. 



acted as beadle, were often from five to seven hundred. The serv- 

 ice consisted of reading a small portion of the Bible and giving an 

 explanatory address, usually short enough to prevent weariness 

 or want of attention. So long as we continue to hold services 

 in the kotla, the associations of the place are unfavorable to so- 

 lemnity ; hence it is always desirable to have a place of worship 

 as soon as possible ; and it is of importance, too, to treat such 

 place with reverence, as an aid to secure that serious attention 

 which religious subjects demand. This will appear more evident 

 when it is recollected that, in the very spot where we had been 

 engaged in acts of devotion, half an hour after a dance would 

 be got up ; and these habits can not be at first opposed without 

 the appearance of assuming too much authority over them. It is 

 always unwise to hurt their feelings of independence. Much 

 greater influence will be gained by studying how you may induce 

 them to act aright, with the impression that they are doing it of 

 their own free will. Oar services having necessarily been all in 

 the open air, where it is most difficult to address large bodies of 

 people, prevented my recovering so entirely from the effects of 

 clergyman's sore throat as I expected, when my uvula was excised 

 at the Cape. 



To give an idea of the routine followed for months together, on 

 other days as well as on Sundays, I may advert to my habit of 

 treating the sick for complaints which seemed to surmount the 

 skill of their own doctors. I refrained from going to any one un- 

 less his own doctor wished it, or had given up the case. This led 

 to my having a selection of the severer cases only, and prevented 

 the doctors being offended at my taking their practice out of their 

 hands. When attacked by fever myself, and wishing to ascertain 

 what their practices were, I could safely intrust myself in their 

 hands on account of their well-known friendly feelings. 



The plan of showing kindness to the natives in their bodily ail- 

 ments secures their friendship ; this is not the case to the same 

 degree in old missions, where the people have learned to look upon 

 relief as a right — a state of things which sometimes happens among 

 ourselves at home. Medical aid is therefore most valuable in 

 young missions, though at all stages it is an extremely valuable 

 adjunct to other operations. 



I proposed to teach the Makololo to read, but, for the reasons 



