Far Off; Or, Asia and Australia Described: With Anecdotes and IllustrationsMortimer, Favell Lee
Religion
Far Off; Or, Asia and Australia Described: With Anecdotes and Illustrations
Mortimer, Favell Lee
Asia -- Description and travel; Australia -- Description and travel
But many of the Malays have no home but a boat, hardly large enough to
lie down in. There they gain a living by catching fish, and collecting
shells, and coral, to exchange for sago, which is their food. These men
are called "Ourang-lout," which means "Man of the water." Does not this
name remind you of the apes called "Ourang-outang," which means "Man of
the woods?" There are Ourang-outangs in the forests of Malacca, and they
are more like men, and are more easily tamed than any other ape. Yet
still how different is the _tamest_ ape from the _wildest_ man; for the
one has an immortal soul, and the other has none.
The Malay language is said to be the easiest in the world, even as the
Chinese is the most difficult. The Malay language has no cases or
genders, or conjugations, which puzzle little boys so much in their Latin
Grammars. It is easy for missionaries to learn the Malay language. When
they know it, they can talk to the Chinese in Malacca in this language.
I will tell you of a school that an English lady has opened at Singapore
for poor Chinese girls.
THE CHRISTIAN SCHOOL-GIRLS.
The two elder girls were sisters, and were called Chun and Han. Both of
them, when they heard about Jesus, believed in him, and loved him. Yet
their characters were very different, Chun being of a joyful
disposition, and Han of a mournful and timid temper. They had no father,
and their mother was employed in the school to take care of the little
children, and to teach them needle-work; but she was a heathen.
When Chun and Han had been three years in the school, their mother wanted
them to leave, and to come with her to her home. The girls were grieved
at the thought of leaving their Christian teacher, and of living in a
heathen home; yet they felt it was their duty to do as their mother
wished. But they were anxious to be baptized before they went, if they
could obtain their mother's consent. Their kind teacher, Miss Grant,
thought it would be of no use to ask leave _long_ before the time, lest
the mother should carry her girls away, and lock them up. So she waited
till the very evening fixed for the baptism. Miss Grant had been praying
all day for help from God, and the two sisters had been praying together;
and now the bell began to ring for evening service. Now the time was come
when the mother must be asked.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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