The Lutheran Pioneer St. Louis — 1928, Page 157

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THE LUTHERAN PIONEER.

157

and whose tongue they have more or less adopted.
At nightfall they come and lay at the entrance of
the village the trophies of their hunting or fishing.
They are well aware that on the next night and at
the same place they will find such goods as they
cannot obtain on account of their nomadic life —
manioc, small raphia, pieces of cotton, chickens,
and so on.

“An old man of the tribe is generally intrusted
with depositing their produce and taking the ob-
jects left in exchange, under the guard of a group
of hunters.

“They haye hardly been touched by the fetishism
of the surrounding inhabitants. If they happen to
possess a few amulets, it is because they think those
charms will bring them good luck in their hunting
expeditions.

“They do not, generally speaking, take wives
outside their own tribes, and monogamy is the rule
among them. Tach clan has its chief elected by
the community.

“The dances among those whom I was able to
observe closely are not marked by the lewd char-
acter of those of certain African tribes. They are
quiet, almost austere, with very short songs, always
in minor dirges of unutterable sadness, which are
never forgotten when once heard.

“Those rites of separation, of reinstating, etc.,
that are so numerous in other tribes are unknown
to the Negrilloes. Thus it is that women among
them are free from the strictness of the seclusion
cabin which many African women have to undergo
at certain periods of their lives.

“Neither birth nor death gives rise to any
special ceremony. Yet when a death occurs in the
camp, they repair to the grave of a Negrillo who
has died in the country and take a handful of earth
to cast on the tomb of the newly deceased.

“Are we to interpret this custom as a rite
tending to link the memory of the dead man to
that of his ancestors, thus denoting the perpetuity
of the right of ownership of the soil?

“Whenever a child dies in infancy, its body,
which has been wrapped up in leaves, is laid in
the pit by the mother herself. If the child is a few
years older, the father fulfils the task of grave-
digger. The body is buried in a squatting position
and, in certain regions, standing.

“They observe tabus on food and also sexual
tabus, as primitive people usually do. In spite of
a few crossings that were unavoidable in the course
of a.contact that probably lasted several centuries,

they are looked upon with a superstitious awe. The
natives of Likouala in the Middle Congo consider
them as the discoverers of fire; those of Fernan-
Vaz, in the Gabon, believe the Negrilloes first
learned how to manufacture iron. In other places
those whose ‘clients’ they are and who, as a matter
of fact, accept their help, will never enter the straw-
or leaf-built Negrillo huts. If they did so, they
imagine they would be sure to catch some incurable
disease. They would likewise energetically refuse
the use of a fire lighted by Negrilloes.”

Have these Pygmies any fixed belief? For
many years even missionaries were unwilling to
admit that they believed in a supreme being. But
a more thorough study has compelled students and
missionaries to acknowledge the fact that these
most primitive people are not without some knowl-
edge of a supreme being. However, it seems as if
they do not worship him. The few attempts at
doing missionary work among them have met with
very poor success. They are found to be “very
slow to comprehend or act upon Christian prin-
ciples.” Yet it is admitted that “they have souls
with light enough in them to see the way to their
spiritual improvement and redemption.” One mis-
sionary among them relates that stories telling of
the love of God and the death of Christ interest
them very much. They were especially interested
in the story of Zacchaeus climbing a tree to see
Jesus. Their own small bodies and their marvelous
agility in running up trees seem to have been
thought of as parallels. The love of Jesus to the
diminutive publican was appreciated by them and
struck a responsive chord in their hearts. And,
incidentally, we have in this incident another proof
of the universality of the Bible.

One of the prayers offered to their supreme
“Yer” is full of touching, though rude, pathos:
“Yea, why dost thou let us be slain? We ask thee
not for food, for we live only on snakes, ants, and
mice. Thou hast made us; why dost thou let us
be trodden down?” F. J. L.

Examples of Christian Treatment.

Volumes might be written on the atrocities and
absurdities of wizards, quack doctors, and the hide-
ous usages of native midwifery in India. :

A woman still young, though mother of seven
living children, is carried into the maternity ward
of a woman’s hospital. At-the hands of the ignorant
midwife she has suffered maltreatment the details