62 
MISSIONARY LIFE IN ASHANTEE. 
The people around us in Abankoro would not, or per- 
haps could not, give us any idea of the fate intended for 
us. The few words we sometimes caught of what they 
said, only misled us, and they would answer no questions. 
Our food was so insufficient, that we were glad to cook 
wild cabbage, and eat it without salt. We could some- 
times pluck a little fruit in addition. 
It was now December, in the middle of which month 
a wind called the Harmattan began to blow. Had we 
been at home we should have welcomed the agreeable 
temperature thus produced, but with only a thin cotton 
sheet as a covering, we suffered so severely from cold, 
that we were repeatedly attacked with high fever. 
We had complained to the king of the lamentable state 
of our clothes, and that our boots were just a few tatters 
of leather. Oh, the sadness which filled our hearts, as in 
this piteous plight, we saw the glorious festival of Christ- 
mas approaching! The natives, who keep an annual 
celebration at this time, had already held it ; and during 
their wild festivities, a death occurred. A coffin was 
brought through our village, followed by the victims led 
in chains, who were to be sacrificed in honour of the de- 
parted. With feelings of deep grief, we sat under the 
shade of the trees, thinking of the blessed time our friends 
at home, and our brethren at the mission station, were en- 
joying. Had we in those dreary days only possessed a 
copy of God's Word, how we should have hailed it as an 
ever present friend. As it was, we solaced ourselves by re- 
peating verses from the Psalms and the Prophets, and yet 
we often felt so poor — so lonely ! 
But after all, we too were to have our Christmas gift. 
On the evening of December the 24th, a procession from 
a neighbouring village approached, bringing us a large 
suppty of yams, bananas, bread, etc., a most welcome and 
grateful surprise. Nor were we forgotten at the New 
