The prayers are generally very simple requests like the following one for safety, “Watch over me, my forefather, who died long ago, and tell the great spirit at the head of my race from whom came my mother.” Here is a short account of a sacrifice for rain. “The chief goes to the spirit hut to offer sacrifice for rain and the people stand round about having brought the meat for the sacrifice. Then the chief begins to complain to the spirits saying, ‘Give us rain and do not harden your heart against us.’ With many other prayers he continues to implore, while the people round about clap their hands, and some of the women sing:-- ‘Kokwe Kolole, Kokwe Kolole Mbvula ya kuno sikudza Kokwe Kolole.’ which means:-- ‘May there come rain, sweeping rain, The rain here has not come; May there come rain, sweeping rain.’” When the rain does come the people believe that it came because they appeased the anger of the great, great one with their sacrifice. But wherever the Gospel of Jesus is preached the people are learning that there has been offered up for them by God Himself one great sacrifice which has redeemed the fallen sons of men--the sacrifice of His only Son on Calvary’s Cross. CHAPTER XIII THE AFRICAN IN SICKNESS When the children of Africa are well and strong, their lives are carelessly happy, so long as they are not hungry. When they are ill, all the happiness departs, and they become very miserable. You may have thought that because black children can eat almost anything that they are never ill. But that is not so. They suffer, I believe, a good deal more than white children do. For simple troubles they get no treatment at all. They are just ill, they say, and lie on their mats near the fire or sit huddled up over it until they are better. These little complaints are mostly all of the stomachache kind, caused by reckless eating of anything the children can pick up. I have seen black children eat fruit that was quite green and hard--such as would kill little whites--and still live. And when you try to explain that these things can hurt they just smile to themselves and go on swallowing them, for they don’t believe you. Headaches are treated by binding the head round the temples tightly with a piece of string. Sometimes, if the headache is very painful, the sufferer is bled. Little cuts are made on the throbbing temples with a sharp knife and the blood allowed to flow. It is the mothers who are the doctors and nurses of the children. Very often the sick child is attended by his grandmother. These old ladies are supposed to know a great deal about medicine; and they do know many plants and roots that are useful in simple illnesses. For mumps, which many black children call “masigwidi,” no medicine is given. The mothers tell the children to go to the mortar, put their heads in and call “Mooo!” I don’t know whether this simple remedy is a certain cure or not.