Life at Ribe. 131 
produced an impression upon that gentleman's mind 
that they would become an easy trophy of evangeli- 
cal and civilizing influences. The doctor therefore 
pitched his tent among them ; and so it has happened 
that we have this chapter to write. 
The spot selected for the mission station is on 
the side of a steep hill, commanding a fine prospect 
of the surrounding country, and in the midst of some 
of the most beautiful hill-scenery we ever saw. But 
the place is said to have been haunted. The natives, 
up to the time of our taking up the position, never 
ventured to approach it ; they would rather go the 
most roundabout way than do so. It would have 
been wilderness, and the abode of ghouls and ghosts 
for ever, if we had not made our residence there. 
Now the natives admit that the evil spirits have 
taken their flight, having been driven from their 
own chosen home by the magic of the white man's 
presence. 
The life we have to describe is that of a mission- 
ary ; as it is generally understood, I admit, a prosy 
and almost repulsive subject. The missionary is sup- 
posed to be a man — indeed, it has been said that he 
is a man — who wears black clothes, raises a white 
choker, eats succulent dinners, and marries several 
wives. But it is not intimated, we believe, that he 
marries more than one wife at a time. He is repre- 
sented as a man who, while looking after number one, 
presents himself before hungry and naked savages 
with a bundle of tracts under his arm, an open Bible 
in his hands, and, ignoring their temporal necessities, 
professes only a supreme anxiety to clothe them with 
the garments of righteousness," and to " feed them 
