The Lutheran Pioneer St. Louis — 1931, Page 126

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126

THE LUTHERAN PIONEER

ceived a cut on his arm.” The young man was
indeed very ill from infection from the wound. He
had received a deep cut from the elbow to the wrist.
The bleeding had been stopped with boiling hot
butter, then the wound washed with water from
the water-skin, a lamb a day old had been killed
and its skin, with the inside next the wound,
wrapped around the arm. If they had not used
the water, no doubt the wound would have healed
without giving trouble.

We took off the skin, and the odor was fearful;
the arm was in a very bad condition. We dressed
the arm with clean dressings and gave him some
medicine, and he was taken in his bed and put on
a mule. “May God’s blessings be on you!” said
the sheik. “Will you go with us to Hums? We
start in an hour; we travel by moonlight; but if
you wish to go east, you will find a camp of Bede-
wins over yon hill. JI advise you to ride hard so
as to get within the tent-pegs, for the men are away
with their flocks, and the women may fight; but
once at the tent-door, you are safe.”

With directions for the care of the young man
and salaams to sheik and all, we rode away. From
the summit of the hill we saw fifteen tents, a num-
ber of women, children, and dogs. We put our
horses to a run and made for the first tent. Soon
a pack of children and dogs were at our heels,
screaming and barking. We drove up to the door,
dismounted, and tied our horses to a tent-peg.
A very Jael of a woman, with a huge wooden ham-
mer in her hand, came from within the tent. She
screamed, “What do you mean, you dogs, by com-
ing here in this way? Do you not know the men
are all away? Out of this, or I will crack your
skulls with this!” She made for us, lifting the
hammer as if to strike. “Stand your ground!”
“Now, my sister,” said the doctor with a smile, “we
are here only for a day or so and are willing to pay
for all we get, and we will treat any that are sick
for nothing.” The woman gave the hammer a fling
to the ground and said, “This is not the house of
the sheik; go there,” pointing with her hand to
a large tent in the center of the encampment.

By this time the excitement was over, and we
were made most welcome to a seat on the floor of
the sheik’s tent.

There is an Arab proverb, “What is sweeter
than honey? Vinegar —if we get it for nothing.”
So a medical missionary is never at a loss for
patients. He is willing to be imposed upon at
times, so he gets the people to come to him and
thus have an audience to preach to.

Not a person in that encampment but must be
treated for some real or imaginary ill.

The Bedewins are a strange people, and were it
not for the wide and boundless desert, they would,
like the American Indian, soon lose their relation
with the past ages. They are very simple in their
thoughts and listen to the Bible with eager atten-
tion; it is, as it were, a history of their tribe; the
Arabic idioms are their own. The narrative of
Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob excites the greatest
interest and never fails to impress them with its
truth. I am very much in love with the work
among them. — Dr. I. H.

ooo

A Hainan, China, Convert.

There is a tract written by the veteran mis-
sionary Dr. Griffith John of Hankow which has
been widely circulated in China. It is entitled
Leading the Family to the Truth and describes
a man named Lee who was converted and, after
striving against many prejudices, succeeded in
leading all his family to the Savior.

There is in Hainan the very counterpart of the
man Lee of the tract. His name is also Lee, and
he was by profession a fortune-teller. He came to
Kachek last year at the time of a heathen festival
and was brought under the instruction of a native
preacher. He accepted the truth at once, and the
preacher said that he seemed to be led by the Spirit.
After procuring a New Testament, he went home,
but soon afterward returned to Kachek in great
excitement, declaring that all his former life had
been wrong and that he was now going to live to
the glory of God.

About this time he persuaded his mother, who
is over sixty years old, to allow him to destroy the
idols that they had worshiped in his home; and he
himself burned the books that he had used in his
profession.

On his next visit to Kachek he was much dis-
appointed because he was not baptized. It was.
withheld because there was a report among the:
people that his head had been turned, and it was
felt best that he should prove his sanity before he:
was received as a member of the church. This he
proceeded to do by hunting up the men whom
he had taught the art of fortune-telling. He told
them that he had taught them the wrong way and
that he now wished to teach them the truth.

The fortune-tellers in China advise the people-