In this chapter, which must be the last, I want to let you see as well as possible a little mission work in the various departments you read about in the preceding chapter. Let me begin with the evangelistic. In a missionary magazine I have come across a description which will suit the purpose very well. Here it is, a visit to a village preaching.
“Our machila carriers are impatient to be off. They are not always so anxious about an early start, but to-day we can sympathise with their impatience, for the hot weather is upon us, and travelling during the heat of the day is anything but comfortable. A start is made at last, and we are now as eager as our ‘boys’ to see the end of the seven or eight-mile journey. It will take us almost two hours to do this short distance—two hours of as unpleasant travelling as one could wish to be saved from, for machila travelling is at the best but a mild form of being tossed in a blanket.
“The carriers keep up an incessant chatter all the way, varied at times with a break into the chorus of one of their machila songs.
‘Gurr-r-r, Mwana wa mkango, Ine
Child of a lion, I am fierce
Fierce am I, child of a lion.
Gurr-r-r, Gurr-r-r.’
Such is the complaint of one of the carriers as he sweats at the machila pole. He imitates, with wonderful skill, the deep growl of the lion, and fondly compares himself for strength to the king of beasts. The other boys with lusty chorus give him every support in his contention, and even we agree, judging from his deep growls, that he must really be what he says he is, and soon the chorus ends.
“But here we are at Chentambo’s village. Our machila men promptly retire under the shade of the nearest tree and stretch themselves out to rest.
“The service has already begun, and, if we want to be in time next Sunday, we must leave very early. Che Bernard is giving an address, the gist of which is the contrast between the old heathen life of superstition and darkness and the new way of the cross, of truth and light and life eternal, of the love of God for fallen mankind, and the great sacrifice of Christ Jesus, our Saviour.