Chap. VI. TRANSLATION OF THE BIBLE. 115 



that lie could in his own tongue have expressed it without study- 

 all over again in three or four different ways. The interpreter 

 could scarcely have done as much in English. 



This language both rich and poor speak correctly ; there is no 

 vulgar style ; but children have a patois of their own, using many 

 words in their play which men would scorn to repeat. The 

 Baniapela have adopted a click into their dialect, and a large 

 infusion of the ringing n, which seems to have been for the pur- 

 pose of preventing others from understanding them. • 



The fact of the complete translation of the Bible at a station 

 seven hundred miles inland from the Cape naturally suggests the 

 question, whether it is likely to be permanently useful, and 

 whether Christianity, as planted by modern missions, is likely to 

 retain its vitality without constant supplies of foreign teaching? 

 It would certainly be no cause for congratulation if the Beehuana 

 Bible seemed at all likely to meet the fate of Elliot's Choctaw 

 version, a specimen of which may be seen in the library of one 

 of the American colleges — as God's word in a language which no 

 living tongue can articulate, nor living mortal understand ; but 

 a better destiny seems in store for this, for the Sichuana lan- 

 guage has been introduced into the new country beyond Lake 

 Ngami. There it is the court language, and will take a stranger 

 anywhere through a district larger than France. The Bechuanas, 

 moreover, in all probability possess that imperishability which 

 forms so remarkable a feature in the entire African race. 



When converts are made from heathenism by modern mission- 

 aries, it becomes an interesting question whether their faith 

 possesses the elements of permanence, or is only an exotic too 

 tender for self-propagation when the fostering care of the foreign 

 cultivators is withdrawn. If neither habits of self-reliance are 

 cultivated, nor opportunities given for the exercise of that virtue, 

 the most promising converts are apt to become like spoiled 

 children. In Madagascar a few Christians were left with nothing 

 but the Bible in their hands ; and though exposed to persecution, 

 and even death itself, as the penalty of adherence to their profes- 

 sion, they increased tenfold in numbers, and are, if possible, more 

 decided believers now than they were when, by an edict of the 

 queen of that island, the missionaries ceased their teaching. 



In South Africa such an experiment could not be made, for 



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