The Lutheran Pioneer St. Louis — 1929, Page 124

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124

THE LUTHERAN PIONEER.

this means now live in the open country and have
flower and vegetable gardens, playgrounds for the
children, domestic animals, birds, rabbits, squirrels,
and other wild animals about them as well as all the
educational and social necessities of family life.
All these changes would be perplexing enough
even in a homogeneous population, but the problem
becomes increasingly interesting and difficult when
these changes occur in a population made up of
many different nationalities, coming from almost
every country in the world. To leave these new
suburban communities to themselves, busy with
home-building, which has mortgaged the normal
growth of family income for years and years, with-
out suggesting the building of churches and assist-
ing in their erection, is to sit idly by while paganized
suburbs grow their baneful harvests. Surely, such
unchurched suburbs are as dangerous as are the
festering slums of our cities, and it would be most
short-sighted on our part to neglect the opportuni-
ties they offer-us to save them for Christ and His
kingdom. F.J.L.

How Missionaries Learn a New
Language.

The first thing a missionary must do, when he
comes to a new country, is to learn the language.
How can he tell the people of the Savior if he does
not know their language and they do not understand
his? The young men that now go to New Guinea
live with experienced missionaries a year or more
and learn from them. They also have grammars
and dictionaries, prepared by the pioneers. But the
men that began the work had great difficulties. Even
now it is not an easy task to learn the language,
especially when a new territory is opened.

Missionary Kunze tells us that the curiosity of
the Papuans was a great help to him in learning the
language. He gives us an example. -

A large box is being unloaded. The natives never
saw a box before. They look at this one from all
sides: One looks at the other. The missionary
notices their curiosity and knows that it is getting
the best of them. He listens very closely to catch
their words. And then some one asks: “Atau mell
aegin ?” -

Quickly the missionary jots the words down in
his notebook. Now what do they mean? ‘They
must mean: “What is that?” or “What thing that?”
He writes down this meaning. But he adds a large
- question mark, because he is not certain that it is

correct. How shall he make sure that he has guessed
correctly? He sees a Papuan with an ornament of
two dog teeth on his breast. Pointing at the decora-
tion, he asks: “Atau mell aegin?”

“Pramad,” quickly replies the Papuan. He had
understood the question. Evidently the missionary
had reasoned correctly. But which of the three
words is which? “Atau” must be “what”; “mell”
must be “thing”; “aegin” must be “that.” At the
same time he heard the word “pramad.” No doubt
it means “tooth.” He writes that down. He had
already learned that “tamol” is “man.” Can he say
“tamol pramad” for “tooth of a man”? If he does,
the Papuans will laugh at him. Those words would
mean “man with dog tooth.” Thus you see that the
missionary must be very careful.

He has now learned. to know the words “atau
mell aegin?” and he hears them often. But some-
times the people say only “atau mell?” And again
they say “atau awang?” Why do they say “atau
mell?” one time and “atau awang?” another? The
missionary concludes that “mell” and “awang” both
mean “thing.” But why use one one time and the
other another time? After much listening and
thinking the difference becomes clear — such things
as knives, supplies, and splinters the Papuan calls
“mell,”? but the sun, stars, dawn, trees, and stones
he calls “awang.” “Mell,” then, is everything made
by hand, while “awang” is everything that is wonder-
ful and strange; thus, a watch, a steamship, and
a picture are called “awang” because they are mys-
terious to the Papuan.

Thus you see that the-missionary must listen
closely and study carefully in order to learn a lan-
guage and to keep from talking foolishness. But it
is worth while, because, when he has learned to speak
to the people, he can bring them the best news
there is, the news that Jesus came to earth to save

sinners. From Kunze, “Aus dem Leben der Papua,”
by W. A. F., in the Initheran Missionary.

Lutheran Missions in India.

Lutheranism was first planted on Indian soil
early in the eighteenth century (1706) by the Ger-
man missionaries Ziegenbalg and Pluetschau, sent
out by the Danish king. Since then practically
every Christian country of the West has sent
Lutheran missionaries to that land. In the ravages
of time much of the work of the earliest missionaries,
Ziegenbalg, Schwartz, and others, was lost, and con-
siderable portions of it went over to other bodies,