Through Five Republics on Horseback, Being an Account of Many Wanderings in South AmericaRay, George Whitfield
Religion
Through Five Republics on Horseback, Being an Account of Many Wanderings in South America
Ray, George Whitfield
Ray, George Whitfield, 1868- -- Travel -- South America; South America -- Description and travel
About twenty boys attend the school established at Waikthlatemialwa,
and strange names some of them bear; let Haikuk (Little Dead One) serve
as an example. It is truly a cheering sight to see this sign of a
brighter day. When these boys return to their distant _toldos_ to tell
"the news" to their dark-minded parents, the most wonderful of all to
relate is "Liklamo ithnik ñata abwathwuk enthlit God; hingyahamok
hikñata apkyapasa apkyitka abwanthlabanko. Aptakmilkischik sat ankuk
appaiwa ingyitsipe sata netin thlamokthloho abyiam." [Footnote: John
3:16]
Well might the wondering mother of "Dark Cloud" call her next-born
"Samai" (The Dawn of Day).
The Indian counts by his hands and feet. Five would be one hand, two
hands ten, two hands and a foot fifteen, and a specially clever savage
could even count "my two hands and my two feet." Now Mr. Hunt is
changing that: five is _thalmemik_, ten _sohok-emek_, fifteen
_sohokthlama-eminik_, and twenty _sohok-emankuk_.
When a boy in school desires to say eighteen, he must first of all take
a good deep breath, for _sohok-emek-wakthla-mok-eminick-antanthlama_ is
no short word. This literally means: "finished my hands--pass to my
other foot three."
At the school I saw the skin of a water-snake twenty-six feet nine
inches long, but a book of pictures I had interested the boys far more.
The mission workers have each a name given to them by the Indians, and
some of them are more than strange. Apkilwankakme (The Man Who Forgot
His Face) used to be called Nason when he moved in high English
circles; now he is ragged and torn-looking; but the old Book my mother
used to read says: "He that loseth his life for My sake shall find it."
Some of us have yet to learn that if we would remember _His face_ it is
necessary for us to forget our own. If the unbeliever in mission work
were to go to Waik-thlatemialwa, he would come away a converted man.
The former witch-doctor, who for long made "havoc," but has since been
born again, would tell him that during a recent famine he talked to the
Unseen Spirit, and said: "Give us food, God!" and that, when only away
a very short while, his arrows killed three ostriches and a deer. He
would see Mrs. Mopilinkilana walking about, clothed and in her right
mind. Who is she? The murderess of her four children--the woman who
could see the skull of her own boy kicking about the _toldo_ for days,
and watch it finally cracked up and eaten by the dogs. Can such as she
be changed? The Scripture says: "Every one that believeth."
The Lengua language contains no word for God, worship, praise,
sacrifice, sin, holiness, reward, punishment or duty, but their
meanings are now being made clear.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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