142 Wanderings in Eastern Africa. 
them out. In such a matter I could, of course, do 
nothing. Poor people ! they were so exceedingly 
disappointed that it was painful to witness it. 
Not unseldom we are called to the dying, as if by 
some supernatural power we could take the prey from 
the very jaws of death. The natives try their own 
methods first, and finding them of no avail come to 
us in the last extremity. When we shake our heads 
they attribute it rather to a want of will, than to the 
lack of ability to help them. What would not a 
modern missionary give for the power conferred upon 
the Apostles on the day of Pentecost, viz., the gift 
of tongues and the power to heal the physical diseases 
of the people ! 
An important part of duty, in connection with 
mission life at Ribe, is the work of teaching the 
young. You cannot bend the sturdy growth of many 
years to your will ; you must give your attention to 
the young and tender sapling. The old men tell 
you that they cannot change, and they look with 
extreme distaste upon any proposal to them to alter 
their mode of life. "No," say they, "go to the 
children ; we are wedded to our customs ; we will 
die as our fathers have died before us." We turn, 
therefore, to the children ; but it is not all easy work 
with them. Parents manifest a strong objection to have 
their children trained in a manner different to that 
in which they themselves were brought up. They are 
an affectionate people, and they fear that their children 
will be estranged from them by being educated in 
a different way, and they set their faces against such 
schemes. There is a lurking suspicion, too, that the 
white man is actuated by selfish motives ; that he has 
