4 I came. STORY OF THELE, A BASSUTO GIRL. No one asked me who I was, or whence soon noticed that she never for a moment lost sight of me, but always took me about with her. 'There are some wicked men here,' she said; 'I do not like to leave you alone.' She gave no further explanation. As I was very fond of sleep, I used to think it very disagreeable to be obliged, every morning, before sunrise, to follow my new mother, either to the fountain or the fields. Some times The evening was drawing on, when an old man, ridiculing me, said to some young boys, 'Do you see that skinny little girl? No doubt, she is a captive escaped from the hands of the Zulus. No one in the town seems inclined to receive her. Come now, suppose one of you takes charge of her.' These words caused a loud laugh. The boys soon began to insult me; then arming themselves she yielded to my entreaties, and let with sticks, they drove me away. I me stay sleeping in the hut, having took refuge in a valley below the made me promise that I would not village, and laid myself down near a stir out of it. fountain. I hoped that I might be allowed to pass the night there, but a woman came up and ordered me to make haste and begone, for fear I should die there, and my corpse pollute the water. “One day, when this favour had been granted, I heard some one secretly enter. I was frightened, and, looking through a hole of the skin with which I was covered, I saw a a man, whose fierce looks increased my fears. He looked at me, as if he was noticing my exact size, and then began to search for something in the corners of the hut. He soon went out in haste. The thought occurred to me that he had gone to fetch a cord to bind me. I instantly rushed out, passed through the village, and went and hid myself in a deep hole "I continued to wander for several days, having nothing to satisfy my hunger but what I could pick up in the fields. At last, I again found myself near some houses. A woman, who had known my father and mother, noticed my face, asked me my name, and took me home to her house. She was a widow and had two children, one of whom, a boy twelve or thirteen that I had seen not far off. I waited years old, was already able to help till night, before coming out from my her in cultivating the ground. I hiding-place. It was only then that found myself very comfortable at the I dared return to my kind friend's house of this good woman, who treated house, and tell her what had happened me as if I were her own child. to me. 'My child,' she said, 'I have I AFRICAN NOTIONS OF WHITE MEN. not yet told you that the chief man of this place is a cannibal. I am his mother, and on this account he has respect for me; but he only spares his own family.' On the morrow a messenger came from this man, and said to my second mother, 'Give me the young stranger that I have seen at your house.' 'Tell him,' she said, 'that the little child is very ill, and that he must wait a little longer before she is good to eat.' "The next day, before dawn, she gave me some food, and said to me, 'Go away; my son will lead you out of the village.' I refused at first, with tears, but was obliged to go. When my young guide left me, despair seized me and I ran after him. He did all in his power to persuade me to go away quietly, so as to save my life; but he failed, and was then compelled to drive me away with strokes of his stick. I thus began again my wandering life. 5 at his house. I was taught to wash linen, to stitch, to weave, to cook; but no one said a word about my soul, and I was a slave without knowing it. Another white man of the neighbourhood, finding that I had never been bought, explained to me my position, and informed a magistrate of it, who at once gave me freedom. "While I lived among the colonists I had heard of the Missionaries. I went to the station of the Kat river, and from there to Bethelsdorp, where I found salvation, and was baptized." As we said at the beginning, Thele is now a member of the church at Thaba-Bossiou. God, who was always watching over her, has brought her back to the country of her fathers. She has married a Christian husband, who belongs to that very tribe of Zulus from whom she suffered so much in her childhood. She reads the Bible readily, and often sheds tears of gratitude over its blessed In more senses than one, the "God, of whom I still knew nothing, pages. led me, without my knowledge, to the weary wanderer has now found her borders of Cape Colony. There a home. farmer received me, and I grew up AFRICAN NOTIONS OF WHITE MEN. WHEN Dr Livingstone was travelling notions of England and its people. through Africa, he found that some of the native tribes, who had never seen a white man before, had the strangest They had often been visited by a tribe of slave-traders, called Mambari, who came from the west coast, and 6 AFRICAN NOTIONS OF WHITE MEN. it was from these men they had ob- "Just see his hair!" And another tained their knowledge, such as it would say, "Is that hair? I thought was. When the Mambari brought it was a wig." Sometimes his own their choicest printed cotton from men would come to him saying, Manchester, nothing could exceed" These people want to see your their astonishment. These prints hair." looked so wonderful, that they could In other parts, the white man is not believe them to be the work of looked upon with terror. Dr Livingmen. The Mambari told them that stone says, "The sight of a white man English manufactures came out of the always infuses a terror into their dark sea, and that beads were gathered on bosoms, and in every case of the kind its shore. The simple people believed they appeared immensely relieved this story; they thought, too, that when I had fairly passed without Englishmen lived in the sea, for the having sprung upon them. In the Mambari told them so. When some villages, the dogs run away with their of the natives proposed to go to tails between their legs, as if they had the West coast themselves, to sell seen a lion. The women peer from their ivory, instead of selling it to the behind the walls till he comes near Mambari; these cunning traders, who them, and then hastily dash into the Idid not wish the natives to find out house. When a little child, unconthe real value of their ivory, replied, scious of danger, meets you in the "How can you Makalolo trade with streets, he sets up a scream at the these Mermen? Can you enter into apparition, and conveys the impresthe sea, and tell them to come sion that he is not far from ashore ?" going into fits. Among the Bechuanas, I have been obliged to reprove the women for making a hobgoblin of the white man, and telling their children that they would send for him to bite them!" Dr Livingstone explained to them again and again, that white men came over the sea, and not from the bottom of it; but he could not drive the notion out of their heads. His white skin, and straight hair, so different It is more pleasant, however, to from their own wool, made them look find that the English are known by upon him as a wonderful being. the Africans as the nation that loves People would say, as he walked along, the black man." LET YOUR LIGHT SO SHINE." "LET YOUR LIGHT SO SHINE." 7 In a pretty village in England, a Branch little dying child, the clergyman of Bible Society was established about two years ago, and many of the schoolchildren paid their weekly pence or half-pence towards obtaining a Bible for themselves. One of these children, a little girl, about ten years old, began to subscribe for a large print Bible, and continued to do so at intervals, as she could, until within a month of the present time, when she was taken ill, and it appeared more than probable that she would never again rise from her bed. The dear child seems to have been quite aware of her danger, and to have given hopeful evidence to friends around that she was one of those little ones whom Jesus loves, not only by her words on her death-bed, but by her obedient and amiable conduct in the days of her health. the parish immediately supplied to her the partly purchased book, and her delight in presenting it to her mother seems to have been as a bright ray over her passage through the Valley of the Shadow of Death. Can we refrain from putting up an earnest prayer that the Bible thus received by a heart-broken mother, and perhaps read at first for the sake of the dying child who gave it, may be as good seed cast into ground softened by the waters of affliction, and may yet bring forth much fruit in that sorrowing family! Near the cottage of these poor people lived an old man, almost helpless, and little cared for by those who ought to have watched over his declining years. The child had been accustomed to go in to see him, and after her death it was known that One thing, however, troubled her her almost daily visits were paid in in the approach of death-she had order to read the word of God to her not paid for her large print Bible. aged neighbour. The old man did She feared her family cared too little not survive her many days; but who for the Word of God to take pains to can tell what lessons God may have obtain it. "And, oh!" she said, "I sent home to his heart through those wanted to give it to my dear mother, Bible readings? At any rate, this and now I am afraid she will never little girl's care for the souls of those have it." around her "yet speaketh "" to all On learning the one grief of the who love the Word of God; and the man; who then inquired what ex- AN Englishman, going to reside at successful in the recovery of the sick Kingston, in Jamaica, was reduced from a state of affluence to such distress, that in the time of sickness he was destitute of home, money, medicine, food, and friends. In this time of need, an old Negro Christian offered his assistance, which was gladly ac- make that out?" said the restored cepted; and this "neighbour to him man. “Why, Massa, me neber able bought medicine, and administered to pay you; because you taught me it himself; furnished nourishment, to read de Word of God!" This reply sat up three nights, and, in short, so affected the man, that he resolved acted the part of doctor, nurse, and from that time to seek the Lord.host. Through the blessing of God, Early Days. the old Negro's efforts were rendered Poetry. THE REVIEW. A NEW YEAR'S HYMN, BY THE REV. DR. COPE. Home! what home? to heaven or hell? Or the bliss of Heaven to share? Say, art thou by grace renew'd, Is thy love of sin subdued? Art thou wash'd in Jesus blood? Thus the time that never stays, Price 6d. per doz. or 3s. 6d. per 100; 20 copies sent free by post for 10d., paid in advance. Published by GALL & INGLIS, 6 George Street, Edinburgh. HOULSTON & WRIGHT, London. |