The Digging Up Of The Dead Is Often A
Simple Matter, For The Corpse Is Frequently Just Carried Into The
Bush, And There Covered With Prickly Branches.
THE SNAKE'S HISTORY.
I met with a snake, of a whitish color, that appeared to have two
heads. Never being able to closely examine this strange reptile, I
cannot positively affirm that it possesses the two heads, but the
natives repeatedly affirmed to me that it does, and certainly both
ends are, or seem to be, exactly alike. In the Book of Genesis the
serpent is described as "a beast," but for its temptation of Eve it
was condemned to crawl on its belly and become a reptile. A strange
belief obtains among the people that all serpents must not only be
killed, but put into a fire. If there is none lit, they will kindle
one on purpose, for it must be burned. As the outer skin comes off,
it is declared, the four legs, now under it, can be distinctly seen.
A GIRL'S NEW BIRTH AND TRANSLATION.
At Rincon I held a series of meetings in a mud hut. Men and women,
with numerous children, used to gather on horseback an hour before
the time for opening. A little girl always brought her three-legged
stool and squatted in front of me. The rest appropriated tree-trunks
and bullocks' skulls. The girl referred to listened to the Gospel
story as though her life depended upon it, as indeed it did! When at
Rincon only a short time, the child desired me to teach her how to
pray, and she clasped her hands reverently. "Would Jesus save me?"
she asked. "Did He die for me - me? Will He save me now?" The girl
believed, and entered at once into the family of God.
One day a man on horseback, tears streaming down his cheeks, galloped
up to my hut. It was her father. His girl was dead. She had gone into
the forest, and, feeling hungry, had eaten some berries; they were
poisonous, and she had come home to die. Would I bury her? Shortly
afterwards I rode over to the hovel where she had lived. Awaiting me
were the broken-hearted parents. A grocery box had been secured, and
this rude coffin was covered with pink cotton. Four horses were yoked
in a two-wheeled cart, the parents sat on the casket, and I followed
on horseback to the nearest cemetery, sixteen miles away. There, in a
little enclosure, we lowered the girl into her last earthly resting-
place, in the sure and certain hope of a glorious resurrection. She
had lived in a house where a cow's hide served for a door, but she
had now entered the "pearly gates." The floor of her late home was
mother earth; what a change to be walking the "streets of gold!" Some
day, "after life's fitful fever," I shall meet her again, not a poor,
ragged half-breed girl, but glorified, and clothed in His
righteousness.
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