CURIOSITY. 
27 
our walk and could find nowhere the boy who had 
been left in charge. At last I looked in at the 
dormitory downstairs, and sure enough, behind 
the door, was the object of our search. On the floor 
he had our one and only clock in pieces, and 
when asked what he was about, replied : ** Master, 
I take them clock to pieces to find where its tick 
comes from.'* Rather hard lines for the mission- 
ary, don't you think, seeing that the nearest shop 
where another could be got was from twenty to 
thirty miles away ? In his very interesting book, 
A Missionary Pathfinder in South Central 
Africa,'' the Rev. W. Chapman tells how after 
much labour, hard thinking, and contriving, he at 
last managed to fix up a small sawmill, so that the 
trees felled in the forest could be quickly and more 
easily cut into the proper lengths for building pur- 
poses. When it got to work, the fame of it spread 
for miles around. From far and near people came 
to see it. One native took a long journey to prove 
the truth of what he had heard, and, when he saw 
it, he just burned with curiosity to know how the 
circular blade cut the hard wood so easily. To 
find out, he put his finger by it whilst in motion, 
and before he could say Oh, dear! " his finger 
end had fallen into the saw-pit. So' astonished, 
indeed afraid, was he that he ran and ran until he 
was out of sight, and much further even than that, 
for he never came back again. But, alas! the 
curiosity of the African does not always show itself 
in such harmless ways. Do you know that the 
African believes that his countryman is murdered 
unless he dies of old age ? And when death occurs 
otherwise, they use many queer and dreadful 
c 
