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The Lutheran Pioneer St. Louis — 1928, Page 41

Concordia Seminary Library, St. Louis (scholar.csl.edu/lutheran_pioneer/50)

Transcription machine transcription, uncorrected

THE LUTHERAN PIONEER. 41
back. Again God had saved His messengers by a “Let us go and see,” was Keysser’s reply.
deed of kindness they had done in His name. Zake finally agreed to go with him. But when

Do we realize the dangers in which the mission-
aries often are, and do we pray the more earnestly

for them? Tr. for Lutheran Missionary.

A Haunted Hog-Hole.

About twenty years ago the Papuans near Som-
balabu spoke a great deal of the haunted hog-hole
They said the hole, or cave,

close to their village.

the trip was to be made, he had all kinds of objec-
tions. What would the other Papuans say? Would
the people of Sombalabu let them go? What if the
ghost hogs did break out? 7

But the missionary started out, and Zake went
with him. When the two came to Sombalabu, the
men tried to stop them. The women cried and
begged them not to go. They trembled from head
to foot. But Rev. Keysser spoke to them and offered

A Papuan Village.

was haunted by the ghosts of giant hogs. The
worst of the ghosts was called Bugelong. No man
dare come near the cave, they said, or the ghost
hogs would break forth and tear him to shreds.
It would be terrible. The raving beasts would rush
to the surrounding fields and villages, bringing
terror and destruction to them. All the hogs, even
the pigs, would get wild and bite.

When Missionary Keysser heard about all this,
he said, “That is just another one of your big lies.”

But a Papuan named Zake answered, “O no;
it is not a lie. You do not know. You have not
been here long enough. ‘The people that live near
the cave know all about it.”

to give them pearls and iron until one of the men
agreed to show the way to the haunted cave.
Slowly the men walked toward the dreaded place.
Before long they had to use their hatchets to cut
a path through the brush. At last they reached the
haunted den. Zake trembled for fear. He could
already hear awful hog-ghost grunts. But— there
was nothing to be seen. There was no cave. There
were no hogs. There was not even a hog track.
Only a few rocks jutted out of the ground. The
missionary could not help making fun of his com-
panions. Soon Zake grew brave. He called the
ghosts by name. He shouted and raved. He took
a club and beat the roots of a near-by tree until the