QUOTATIONS
FEAST DAY, ARABIA
What Christmas Day, with its toys and sweets and merry-making, is to the Christian child, the Moslem Feast Day, at the close of the Ramadhan Fast, is to the little men and women of Arabia. At that time every child must have a new gown of some bright color. On that gay day, in the bazaar, are sold delicious sweetmeats made only on this one occasion in the whole year. Every one is happy, for the weary month of fasting is at an end. Friend meets friend with the greeting, “May your feast be blessed,” and is answered, “May your day be happy.”
Out on the edge of the town, where the houses end and the desert begins, some enterprising Arab, who has “seen Bombay,” has constructed the crudest and most dangerous of Ferris Wheels, and a merry-go-round to match. Here the youthful inhabitants congregate, with their precious coppers, eager for a ride on these wonderful machines. There are big boys and little boys and middle-sized boys. There are little girls with their faces uncovered, and a few older ones with their faces veiled, but most of the larger girls must stay at home, as it would be a shame for them to appear in public. There are the proud sons of the rich Arab merchants, and the children of the wild Bedouins. What better opportunity could one have to study the rising generation?
If a Westerner, wearing a hat, passes through the crowd, he is immediately followed by a mob of impudent, mischievous boys, calling out in Arabic:
“The English, the English!
They don’t pray!
Even the chickens
Are better than they!”
The Moslems say that the chickens are praying when they raise their heads before swallowing water. (Letter from E. T. Calverley.)
The Merry-go-round at an Arab Fair
PLAY, AMONG THE LAO
We have 110 girls in school this term, over half of them boarders, and they are so gentle and tractable it is a pleasure to work with them. It is pitiful to see how little they know about playing. Their greatest pleasure is watching us play tennis. A few evenings ago I heard an unusual noise under my window, and, looking out, saw a towel tied across the walk between the hedges. On either side of this stood a girl with a flat stick in her hand, and they were knocking across the towel a bundle of rags which they had tied up in some semblance of a ball. Later we took them out, and let each one have a few minute’s real play with real racquets and balls, and, when I put the racquet in a girl’s hand, she would gasp, as if to say, “Can this be really true, or am I dreaming?” (Miss Lucy Starling in Foreign Post, May, 1910.)
DOLLS, CENTRAL AFRICA
The first two dolls that arrived in Toro met with a very mixed welcome; the children howled and fled in terror, but their mothers showed a most profound admiration for them. At first they held the doll very gingerly, but finding that nothing happened to either one or the other, and the doll still smiled at them like the Cheshire cat, they became great friends, and begged that they might borrow it for a few days to play with.
Whether it was the large circulation that those two dolls got, or the gradually increasing confidence of the Toro children in the white ladies, the fact remains that in a few months all childish prejudice had disappeared, and often a little voice was heard asking for “a child that causes play.” When this was known in England, over one hundred dolls were sent to me from two working parties. I never saw such a wonderful doll show as they made. They were all displayed on our verandah, and the house was literally besieged with men, women, and children for some days.
A bride, beautifully dressed in white satin and kid shoes, who even in her wedding attire cried “mamma” and “papa,” was sent to little Princess Ruth, but the report reached me that King Kasagama had constituted himself guardian, and kept it locked up in his study for slack moments!
Apolo, our faithful native deacon—confirmed bachelor—asked me in secret if men ever played with dolls, and beamed with satisfaction as he most triumphantly carried one off, peacefully sleeping.
The others were given out to the little girls who had been most regular at the school, and were noted for having come with clean faces and bodies.
When the boys saw that the dolls were only given to girls, some borrowed their sisters’ garments to try and appear eligible! I did not know till then they were versed in such cunning! It was so pretty to watch the joy and even playfulness that those dolls brought into the lives of so many little ones who had scarcely known what this meant till then. Christianity has completely revolutionized child-life in Toro.
SAVING A BOY, CHINA
Rev. F. E. Lund, of Wuhu, tells this incident in connection with a visit to the out-station at Nanking:
“On going back to the school about ten o’clock at night I found in a dark corner on the street a poor boy, half frozen to death. His piteous groaning attracted my attention. His legs were already numbed and his feet swollen and covered with chilblains which made him quite unable to move. He told me he had been driven out from his home a few days ago, as his father and younger brother were on the point of starvation. His mother died last year in the famine. I knew that it was up to me to save him. There was no one else to do it. The cold night would have finished him. So I had him carried to our school, where we gave him a warm bath and put him into new wadded clothes. During the night he was in great pain and delirious, but in the morning he seemed hale and hearty, and proved to be a most straightforward and clever little man. He is ten years old, but very small for his age. It was most interesting to see how heartily our Chinese neighbors endorsed this little bit of charity. One gave me $2.00 to help pay for the clothes. Another brought two pairs of socks. Some one sent a hat, and an innkeeper sent bedding. If we only had a trade school to put such boys in, we could do a little work along this line and it would certainly meet with the approval of the best class, who would be sure to give substantial help. At any rate, it would be a work that the best Chinese would appreciate and understand.” (Spirit of Missions, April, 1913.)