I have been reminded of these incidents lately by way of contrast, because of the earnest requests that have come to me, during the past few months, to go to the same place, and the earnest and apparently hearty thanks which have come from the same persons and the same camp for the same work.
About eight years ago an Indian was wandering around during Sabbath-school time, and was asked why he was not inside the church. His reply was, that the services were so much in English that they were dry to him. Only when the time came for singing the Chinook song was he interested. There was only one song, then, but the necessity for them seemed to grow until there were enough to make our little book, in 1878, “Hymns in the Chinook Jargon Language.” Indians living away from the Reservation have learned to sing them who have learned but little else about the Gospel, because they could not sing them without learning them. They have carried and sung them down the straits to Cape Flattery and across the straits to British Columbia, to Indians I probably never shall see, and some Gospel truths have gone with them. The Indians of both tribes, however, Twanas and Clallams, felt that another important step had been taken when last spring they could sing in their own native language.
In our Sabbath-school we have always followed the plan of having the scholars commit five or six verses a week to memory, and most of those who have done the best in this respect have come into the church. Eight out of ten of the highest on the list for 1878 are now members, and the same proportion holds good for some other years. In all, twenty-seven have come in on profession of faith from the Sabbath-school.
INDIANS WATCHING A TRAIN.