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
The natives are so fond of wakes that when deaths do not occur with
great frequency, the bones of "grandma" are dug up, and she is prayed
and smoked over once more. The digging up of the dead is often a simple
matter, for the corpse is frequently just carried into the bush, and
there covered with prickly branches.
THE SNAKE'S HISTORY.
I met with a snake, of a whitish color, that appeared to have two
heads. Never being able to closely examine this strange reptile, I
cannot positively affirm that it possesses the two heads, but the
natives repeatedly affirmed to me that it does, and certainly both ends
are, or seem to be, exactly alike. In the Book of Genesis the serpent
is described as "a beast," but for its temptation of Eve it was
condemned to crawl on its belly and become a reptile. A strange belief
obtains among the people that all serpents must not only be killed, but
_put into a fire_. If there is none lit, they will kindle one on
purpose, for it must be burned. As the outer skin comes off, it is
declared, the four legs, now under it, can be distinctly seen.
A GIRL'S NEW BIRTH AND TRANSLATION.
At Rincon I held a series of meetings in a mud hut. Men and women, with
numerous children, used to gather on horseback an hour before the time
for opening. A little girl always brought her three-legged stool and
squatted in front of me. The rest appropriated tree-trunks and
bullocks' skulls. The girl referred to listened to the Gospel story as
though her life depended upon it, as indeed it did! When at Rincon only
a short time, the child desired me to teach her how to pray, and she
clasped her hands reverently. "Would Jesus save _me_?" she asked. "Did
He die for me--_me_? Will He save me now?" The girl _believed_, and
entered at once into the family of God.
One day a man on horseback, tears streaming down his cheeks, galloped
up to my hut. It was her father. His girl was dead. She had gone into
the forest, and, feeling hungry, had eaten some berries; they were
poisonous, and she had come home to die. Would I bury her? Shortly
afterwards I rode over to the hovel where she had lived. Awaiting me
were the broken-hearted parents. A grocery box had been secured, and
this rude coffin was covered with pink cotton. Four horses were yoked
in a two-wheeled cart, the parents sat on the casket, and I followed on
horseback to the nearest cemetery, sixteen miles away. There, in a
little enclosure, we lowered the girl into her last earthly
resting-place, in the sure and certain hope of a glorious resurrection.
She had lived in a house where a cow's hide served for a door, but she
had now entered the "pearly gates." The floor of her late home was
mother earth; what a change to be walking the "streets of gold!" Some
day, "after life's fitful fever," I shall meet her again, not a poor,
ragged half-breed girl, but glorified, and clothed in His righteousness.
HOW I DID NOT LOSE MY EYES.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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