John G. Paton, missionary to the New Hebrides, volume 1 (of 3) : $b An autobiography edited by his brotherPaton, John Gibson
Religion
John G. Paton, missionary to the New Hebrides, volume 1 (of 3) : $b An autobiography edited by his brother
Paton, John Gibson
Missionaries -- Vanuatu -- Biography; Paton, John Gibson, 1824-1907
On one occasion, when a Chief had died, the Harbour people were all
being assembled to strangle his widow. One of my Aneityumese Teachers,
hearing of it, hastened to tell me. I ran to the village, and with much
persuasion, saved her life. A few weeks thereafter she gave birth to a
young chieftain, who prospered well. If our Harbour people told the
truth, the widows of all who fell in war were saved by our pleading.
Immediately after the foregoing incident, a Sacred Man was dying, and a
crowd of people were assembled awaiting the event in order to strangle
his three wives. I spoke to them of the horrid wickedness of such
conduct. I further reasoned with them, that God had made us male and
female, the sexes so balanced, that for every man that had three or a
dozen wives, as many men generally had none, and that this caused great
jealousy and quarrelling. I showed them further, that these widows being
spared would make happy and useful wives for other kind and loving
husbands. After the Worship, I appealed to the Chief and he replied,—
“Missi, it was a practice introduced to Tanna from the island of
Aneityum. It was not the custom of our fathers here to strangle widows.
And, as the Aneityumese have given it up since they became worshippers
of Jehovah, it is good that we now should give it up on Tanna too.”
Thus these three widows were saved; and we had great hope in Christ that
the ghastly practice would soon disappear from Tanna.
An incident of this time created great wonder amongst the Natives;
namely, the Sinking of a Well. We had, heretofore, a boiling spring to
drink from, the water of which literally required in that climate days
to cool down; we had also a stagnant pool at the lower end of a swamp in
which the Natives habitually bathed, the only available fresh water
bath! Beyond that, no drinking water could be had for six or seven
miles. I managed to sink a well, near the Mission House, and got about
twelve feet deep a good supply of excellent fresh water, though, strange
to say, the surface of the well rose and fell regularly with every tide!
This became the universal supply for us and for the Natives all round
the Harbour and for miles inland. Hundreds of Natives from all parts of
Tanna flocked to examine this greatest wonder they had ever seen—rain
rising up out of the earth. I built it round with a kind of stone
brought in my boat from the other side of the bay; and for many years it
was the only fresh water supply for the Natives all around. Some years
later a native Chief sank a well about a mile nearer the entrance to the
Harbour at his own village, and built it round with the bricks that I
had purchased for house-building; these he grabbed and thus
appropriated! Many a vessel, calling at the Harbour, was glad to get her
casks refilled at my well, and all were apparently more friendly because
of it; but the Sinking of this Well produced no such revolution as on
Aniwa,—to be hereafter related.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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