It is truly a cheering sight to see this sign of
a brighter day. When these boys return to their distant toldos to
tell "the news" to their dark-minded parents, the most wonderful of
all to relate is "Liklamo ithnik nata abwathwuk enthlit God;
hingyahamok hiknata apkyapasa apkyitka abwanthlabanko.
Aptakmilkischik sat ankuk appaiwa ingyitsipe sata netin thlamokthloho
abyiam." [Footnote: John 3:16]
Well might the wondering mother of "Dark Cloud" call her next-born
"Samai" (The Dawn of Day).
The Indian counts by his hands and feet. Five would be one hand, two
hands ten, two hands and a foot fifteen, and a specially clever
savage could even count "my two hands and my two feet." Now Mr. Hunt
is changing that: five is thalmemik, ten sohok-emek, fifteen
sohokthlama-eminik, and twenty sohok-emankuk.
When a boy in school desires to say eighteen, he must first of all
take a good deep breath, for sohok-emek-wakthla-mok-eminick-
antanthlama is no short word. This literally means: "finished my
hands - pass to my other foot three."
At the school I saw the skin of a water-snake twenty-six feet nine
inches long, but a book of pictures I had interested the boys far
more.
The mission workers have each a name given to them by the Indians,
and some of them are more than strange. Apkilwankakme (The Man Who
Forgot His Face) used to be called Nason when he moved in high
English circles; now he is ragged and torn-looking; but the old Book
my mother used to read says: "He that loseth his life for My sake
shall find it." Some of us have yet to learn that if we would
remember His face it is necessary for us to forget our own. If the
unbeliever in mission work were to go to Waik-thlatemialwa, he would
come away a converted man. The former witch-doctor, who for long made
"havoc," but has since been born again, would tell him that during a
recent famine he talked to the Unseen Spirit, and said: "Give us
food, God!" and that, when only away a very short while, his arrows
killed three ostriches and a deer. He would see Mrs. Mopilinkilana
walking about, clothed and in her right mind. Who is she? The
murderess of her four children - the woman who could see the skull of
her own boy kicking about the toldo for days, and watch it finally
cracked up and eaten by the dogs. Can such as she be changed? The
Scripture says: "Every one that believeth."
The Lengua language contains no word for God, worship, praise,
sacrifice, sin, holiness, reward, punishment or duty, but their
meanings are now being made clear.
