The Bottle Palm.
Later it was my privilege to again visit him, together with Mankunku. We had made a trip to a village beyond, where we remained for the night, and stopped with Semani, both going and returning. He was much weaker at this time and it was evident the end was near, and his friends had gathered and were ready for the wailing. We found him, although in great pain and with great difficulty in breathing, yet rejoicing and happy in the thought that he was soon going home. He could not lie down, but was supported in the arms of his mother, who was doing all in her power to help him bear his suffering. He was, however, able to take a little of the nourishment which we brought him. On our return the day following, he was still weaker. In the night his friends thought he was dying, when he suddenly roused and sang "Jesu udi tu fwine" ("Jesus loves me"). These heathen friends in speaking to one another the next day said, "His heart is white toward God, and that is the reason he can sing when dying."
Before we departed he requested Christian burial, so we left word for them to inform us at once of his death. Word came that same evening. Brother Taylor was at home by this time, and he and David, together with a number of the schoolboys, went at once to the burial, although it was night. They found the body prepared for burial and the people digging the grave. Brother Taylor said everything was carried on most quietly until services were over and the body had been buried; then the heathen part of the wailing began in earnest. His brother, while wailing, continued to cry out, "Semani, where has he gone? He has gone to the light. Oh! where has he gone?" It was the wail of gross darkness seeing a faint glimmer of light, but knowing not how to reach it.
The deathbed of our friends, surrounded with all the comforts this life can afford—soft beds, willing, low-voiced nurses, dainty food, helpful and spiritual ministrations—is often trying enough; here, however, was one deprived of all these comforts, with the exception of the occasional visits of his missionaries, lying or sitting on the hard floor, with only a mat for a bed, without even the ordinary decencies of life, much less its comforts, in a village and home wholly pagan; and yet he goes, rejoicing in his Savior's love, carried out of this dark hovel to behold things "Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man the things which God hath prepared," but He had already revealed them unto him by His Spirit.