Life at Ribe. 
147 
knowledge of the language you find it altogether in- 
adequate to the expression of certain thoughts. The 
very vocabulary is wanting. Terms in which to convey 
abstract ideas do not exist. Were it not for the extreme 
simplicity of the gospel message I know not w^hat we 
should do. How wonderfully God has condescended 
to the limited intelligence of His creatures, and to the 
great deficiencies of human speech ! Surely the mar- 
vellous simplicity of the gospel, capable as it is of 
being expressed in the most meagre and uncultivated 
tongue, and of being thus brought home to the minds 
and hearts of the most unenlightened peoples, is one 
of the greatest proofs of its divinity. 
On the other hand the gospel narrative is one of 
the most wonderful known to any people, and its 
very wonderfulness we find to be a barrier to its 
being received by such an ignorant race as the 
Wanika. It must be borne in mind that the 
Wanika are mere children, and like all oriental 
peoples, are fond of the marvellous, though they 
do not believe in it. They have after all a great deal 
of common sense, and are a very matter-of-fact race. 
Having a great deal of time on their hands they 
employ much of it in " masumariro " (story-telling). 
On moonlight nights they often sit outside their huts 
relating to each other all the extraordinary legends, 
fables, myths, etc., they have ever heard, always 
claiming the privilege of enlargement and embellish- 
ment to any extent their ungoverned imaginations 
may lead them. The more extravagant the story 
the better, of course, it is relished. If it only be 
huge, monstrous, prodigious enough, their attention is 
sure to be secured. Now, in telling the gospel story 
