The Lutheran Pioneer St. Louis — 1931, Page 169

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THE LUTHERAN PIONEER.

169

ee Oaoaooa9S)0—,

How true! And yet how many fathers and
mothers do not realize this all-important fact! May
God awaken all fathers and mothers who read these
lines to see the important and promising oppor-
tunity to do mission-work which God has given them
in their children and use this opportunity to lead
them to the Savior! F. J. 1.

African Exploration Notes.

We reached Metet about ten o’clock in the morn-
ing and found the whole community gathered in
Mbale Zanena’s village. There were perhaps nearly
a thousand people there, but not to greet us; it was
reported that old Mbale was very sick, going to die
in fact, and they were talking the palaver to fix
responsibility.

His second son, a man of perhaps thirty-five or
forty years, a tall, strong, fine-looking fellow, was
talking in his own defense when we arrived. He was
running up and down the street for thirty or forty
yards, while the sweat boiled out of him as though
he were taking a Turkish bath. Sometimes he talked
as he ran, sometimes stopping in front of a group of
men, calling on them to assent to the truth of what
he was saying, and always bringing up in front of
Mbita nga Mbale, a leading head man and cousin of
his father’s who was acting as judge in the palaver.

Mbita is a fat, jovial old fellow, who has a large
village about two miles from Metet. The people
claim for him 150 women and 80 sons, and he keeps
a good-sized flock of sheep and goats and a horse.
He said to me that, if I would give him my dog and
donkey, he would give me two women, which, with
the one I had, would give me a start in the world.

The sons asked me to go and see their father.
He occupied a small house back from the main line
of houses. The house was crowded with people, and
the sick man was supported by as many women as
could get round him. He opened his eyes and re-
plied faintly when spoken to, but his pulse did not
seem to indicate that his sickness was very serious.

I went to Mbita nga Mbale and asked him what
the trouble was, and he said that the sons had taken
three of Mbale’s women and that he was going to die
if they were not returned. The women were returned,
and Mbale was able to be out the next day.

A few evenings later I found these three women
in chains in Mbale’s house. On advising him to take
the chains off, he inquired if I could get the women
back if they ran away. I could not take the respon-
sibility, but told him that a man was going to Lolo-

dorf in the morning, and I would report his trouble
to the government if he wished. He at once called
for his keys and unlocked the chains.

From Metet we moved to Nkolemekae, ten miles
northeast on the Nlong River. The next day I called
at the factory at Nkolnlong, on the north side of the
river, but did not find the agent at home. The fac-
tory is built close to the river and on low ground.
The boys about the factory said there were plenty
of mosquitoes there.

~ From the river it is about three miles to Mbita
Monge’s. He had died about a month before we
arrived. The town presented quite a deserted ap-
pearance. The women were covered with mud, and
none were allowed to be present at the meeting. The
old man had become a slave to drink, even to the
extent of trading his women for rum. The number
of his women had been on the decrease for some
time, until at the time of his death there were but
fifty-seven left.

His grave beside the drum-stand was outlined
with rum bottles. The people said that 200 cloths
(800 yards) had been placed in the grave, and there
was certainly no lack of cloth, clothing, household
and cooking utensils, placed about the grave. The
fence around the grave was covered with cloth, while
on a pole within the enclosure hung his shirts, coat,
hat, and two lanterns. In the drum-shed stood two
broken flint-lock guns, while close by the grave were
his bed and chair and broken pipe. In another
enclosure near by were various kinds of food, piled
four or five feet high. On remarking that there
were no bottles of rum in sight, they said the rum
had been poured out within the food enclosure and
only the broken bottles placed with the food.

The country between Ejom and Mbalajap is pop-
ulous, and we spent several days in that vicinity
doing evangelistic work. We stopped in a small
village with few people and plenty of shade, hoping
for a little rest and quiet, as being on exhibition so
constantly was getting tiresome. But not only did
the headman have his bed placed in front of our
tent and have his meals served there and apologize
when he had to be absent a few hours at a funeral
in his brother’s town; but the neighborhood was
full of by-paths and villages, and there was scarcely
a time during the day that there would not be from
twenty to one hundred people gathered about the
tent. The requests to be told about God became so
numerous that we had the boys take turns in staying _
by the tent to hold meetings as requested.

African Missionary.