Later Years
The work at Macha continued to develop slowly but steadily. There are many daily duties which always fall to the lot of the missionary and which might be classed under the head of drudgery, which do not seem to count, and yet they are as necessary for the advancement of the work as the more noticeable ones, and the year 1912 was no exception to this rule.
During the rainy season there was also a very anxious time, as Baby Ruth became very sick with infantile remittent fever. For over a month she was very ill and we were afraid that we might lose her. Day after day she lay with her face almost as white as the pillow, except for a bright spot on either cheek. The nearest doctor was one hundred and fifty miles away, and the station through which two trains weekly ran was thirty-six miles distant, so that medical aid seemed impossible, save that given by her parents, who anxiously and tenderly ministered unto her; but many prayers ascended in her behalf and the Lord had compassion on us and restored her to health. This climate is treacherous for grown people, but especially so for children.
Macha Mission, 1913.
We have as yet mentioned nothing in reference to the medical part of the work. This was not a prominent feature, yet from the first all who came for help received attention and many were cured or permanently helped. All kinds of diseases are to be met with in this climate, in addition to fever. Skin diseases seem especially prevalent in many forms, some of them the most loathsome imaginable; and nearly every village also has its quota of from two to four lepers. These lepers freely mingle with the rest of the people, no effort whatever being made to segregate them. The native will affirm that leprosy is not contagious, it is hereditary, and there is reason for this view of the case. It makes the heart ache to see women without toes and sometimes without fingers, and full of sores, nursing beautiful, innocent babies, when we think what a life is before these little ones.
These people also have their own remedies. When one is suffering with pain in any part of the body, a very common remedy is to resort to cupping. For this purpose they use the horns of animals, usually of goats. I once watched one woman cupping another. With a knife or piece of sharp tin, she made two incisions in the flesh where the pain was. She then placed the large end of the horn on this, and with her mouth on the small end she removed all the air from the horn, which soon became filled, or nearly so, with blood. Leaving this horn on the place, she in a similar manner applied another horn, until three or four had been applied at various places. She then carefully removed them, one at a time. Since the object had been to extract the blood, it had certainly been successful, and in some respects the natives are only half a century behind—that is all.
In some diseases they very readily come to us, and sometimes fifteen or twenty are present at once, awaiting their turn. At other times we are called to the villages to minister to them. Once some natives came from the nearest village to say that a woman was dying. Her husband at the time was one of the carriers for the brethren on their trip north. We hastened over and found her in a little dark hut, where we could see nothing, so they were told to carry her out into the light, that we might see her. The livid spots, spongy gums, and extreme debility all helped to indicate a bad case of scurvy. She was seemingly in the last stages, and we were fearful that the call for help had come too late. It was a year of great scarcity of food among the natives, and from the report she must have been living chiefly on a sort of greens, with no salt even to season it. It was now about dark, and they said that if something was not done at once she could scarcely live until morning. We looked to the Lord for direction and then hastened home to procure the needed food, which in this instance was quite simple, salt water, and boiled-down grape juice, with a little vinegar. These were used carefully during the night, and in the morning she had improved sufficiently to eat other food. In a few days she was able to be up, and her husband, on the way home, was informed that she had been raised from the dead.
As the work advanced, we arranged to use one of the huts for a hospital, where those who desired might remain and be treated, and a number availed themselves of the opportunity. Both Mr. and Mrs. Taylor were quite successful in medical work, and some difficult cases came for treatment. In this year Brother Taylor treated some very severe wounds, ulcers, cancer, a boy with his hands blown to pieces by gunpowder, a native badly lacerated by a leopard, and an European who had accidentally shot himself, in addition to other cases. We have also had opportunity at other times of ministering to white people.