A life for Africa : RevAdolphus Clemens Good, , American missionary in equatorial West Africa . tion in the district of Ebolowoe, sixty-eight miles east by south from Efulen. Thesite was on a low hill, at an elevation oftwenty-four hundred feet above the sea. Thetown proper had only about eight hundredinhabitants, but six roads led out in as manydirections to other towns, from a twentyminutes walk distant to an hour, and onemight continue on for a whole day, or daystogether, through a succession of villages anda large aggregate population. To a novice inAfrica the people would seem wild e
A life for Africa : RevAdolphus Clemens Good, , American missionary in equatorial West Africa . tion in the district of Ebolowoe, sixty-eight miles east by south from Efulen. Thesite was on a low hill, at an elevation oftwenty-four hundred feet above the sea. Thetown proper had only about eight hundredinhabitants, but six roads led out in as manydirections to other towns, from a twentyminutes walk distant to an hour, and onemight continue on for a whole day, or daystogether, through a succession of villages anda large aggregate population. To a novice inAfrica the people would seem wild enough:powerfully built, almost naked, smearing thewhole body with red powder, their hair deco-rated with buttons, beads, shells, and feathers;they were always at war; they held human lifeat a discount; nearly every girl was sold for awife before five years old. Fifty or a hundredof them at a time, each armed with gun, knife,or spear, they surrounded the missionarygroup, prying curiously into all their few pos-sessions. This was heathenism. But the tigertooth around the neck, the charmed antelope. THE CROIVNING YEAR 265 horn over the shoulder, their medicine forguns, their grotesque ngee and organized rob-ber band, especially their speech, to those whounderstood it, were a revelation of deeperdarkness. The whole Bulu world lay underthe paralyzing power of the fetish. Our missionaries longed to give this landto Jesus Christ for his possession; and, asthey traveled back towards Efulen, theytalked of what the mail from America mightbring. How soon would the new men becoming! When could they begin to buildupon the new-bought property? How longbefore they might proclaim liberty to thecaptive there? At present not a Bulu from Efulen daredto carry up their loads. One year from thattime the people of Ebolowoe intrusted ^yqboys to the mission school at Efulen. Thename eventually given to the second station,Elat, intimates a compact of friendship. The mail came from America and brought—
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