NUM BER TH REE 
 
 Missionary Episodes 
 Issued as Occasion may Require by the 
 
 American Baptist Foreign Mission Society 
 Ford Building Boston, Massachusetts 
 
 A Night in a Jungle Village 
 
 T was my second night on a re- 
 | cent tour towards the center of 
 
 the Garo Hills of Assam. I 
 had taken the wrong path a short 
 distance and my coolies had also 
 lost the trail and were delayed. 
 God wanted me that night in Dil- 
 magiri, a nearer village than the one 
 we had planned to reach. It was a 
 typical heathen village in the jungle. 
 No Christian work had ever been 
 done there, except through the occa- 
 sional stop of an evangelist or the - 
 very rare visit of a passing mission- 
 ary. I did not know the place nor 
 did I know that I had had dealings 
 with any one there. So I was sur- 
 prised to be greeted on arrival by 
 a former patient, the head-man of 
 
 [1] 
 
the village, who was also a govern- 
 ment officer known as a luskar—a 
 man in charge of a group of villages. 
 It was nearing sunset as I arrived. 
 The men of the village were erecting 
 a house for the son of the luskar. 
 Most of them were half drunk. I 
 saw that there was no chance for a 
 regular meeting there that night. 
 I then learned that in that section 
 of the hills they continue building 
 day and night as long as the liquor 
 lasts or until the house is finished. 
 If the liquor is finished first, the 
 work must stop until more rice-beer 
 is provided. The people pointed out 
 to me in the next village a house 
 that required three days and nights 
 continuous building and drinking. 
 While awaiting the coming of my 
 coolies I went into the house and 
 joined the men in the work of build- 
 ing. Their incredulity soon changed 
 to admiration and I heard behind 
 me the remark, ‘‘ Why, he does know 
 how, doesn’t he? ” and again, “‘ Why, 
 he is just like one of us!” Christ 
 took his place among common men 
 as one of us and sends us to live like 
 [2] 
 
 him. I was glad, however, when my 
 coolies arrived, for my thumb was 
 soon blistered tying the split bamboo. 
 
 After dinner the luskar and one 
 of his assistants came to pay their 
 respects. We chatted a while and 
 then the assistant wanted to ask 
 questions. He said he could not 
 understand how a soul could be re- 
 born over and over again, sometimes 
 in &@ man, again in a woman, or an 
 animal or a worm for ages eternal. 
 I explained to them the biology and 
 the theology of the human life. 
 Deeply impressed, they bade me a 
 hearty good night, and I again went 
 to the building. 
 
 Three camp fires were blazing, 
 while several scores of half-drunken 
 men were working and chattering 
 about the fires. At each fire in turn 
 I sat and talked of the deep things 
 of life until the drunken babble 
 changed to thoughtful silence. 
 
 One of the leading men of the 
 village was constructing the wall 
 and doorway of the inner private 
 room of the house. A circle of men 
 now grown quiet sat round the fire 
 
 [3] 
 
 with me. Suddenly we heard the 
 squawking of a rooster in the dis- 
 tance. Some one shouted not to bring 
 it yet, but the priest evidently did 
 not hear. Passing to the side of the 
 fire opposite me, the priest brought 
 the fowl to the leading builder, who 
 with his large knife cut off the 
 rooster’s head. The priest smeared 
 the spurting blood upon the doorpost 
 and on the cornerpost of the room, 
 and then plucked a few feathers 
 from the quivering body and stuck 
 them on the blood. I asked the 
 purpose of the ceremony and they 
 told me that it was to protect the 
 people who were to live in that room 
 from the power of evil spirits. At 
 that midnight hour I saw before me 
 the Garo memorial of the Passover in 
 Egypt 3,500 years ago. During all 
 these centuries they have waited for 
 some one to explain to them the true 
 meaning of their own customs. 
 
 At four in the morning I went again 
 to the camp fires and once more was 
 most cordially welcomed. I told 
 them the story of Jesus, the all- 
 sufficient sacrifice for sin and the 
 
 4] 
 
preserver of life, the Man of Galilee 
 whose beautiful life brought joy to 
 men and whose death makes un- 
 necessary the countless sacrifices of 
 these friendly hill-men. For many 
 centuries they have been offering 
 human and animal sacrifice as vi- 
 carious atonement for the sins of 
 their loved ones. Garos quickly be- 
 lieve that the sacrifice of God’s only 
 Son is sufficient and they delight in 
 such love revealed. 
 
 After a hasty breakfast and dental 
 operations for members of the luskar’s 
 family, I rode out of that valley as 
 the golden glow of the morning sun 
 made radiant the eastern sky. A 
 prayer surged through my heart that 
 the Sun of Righteousness might arise 
 and shine into that dark valley. 
 
 Six months later the government 
 started a school in that village; the 
 teacher was one of our Christian 
 youngmen. Again six months passed 
 and the luskar and one of his men 
 told me in my own home that they 
 and all the men of the village had 
 made up their minds to be Christians. 
 I questioned the all. The man with 
 
 [5] 
 
 the luskar answered, ‘‘ Well, I do and 
 there are a lot of others that do.” 
 
 In a neighboring village seventeen 
 were baptized before the end of the 
 first year’s work of a Christian school 
 teacher; in another, twenty-six; in 
 another, eighteen during the second 
 year. The government started a 
 school in what was supposed to be 
 the hardest and most conservative of 
 all heathen Garo villages and where, 
 it was feared, any teacher beginning 
 Christian work would be murdered. 
 The teacher was one of our Christian 
 young men. Before the close of the 
 first year twelve were baptized. ‘This 
 indicates the splendid work being 
 done in frontier heathen villages by 
 some of our Garo young men but re- 
 cently out of heathenism and on a sal- 
 ary of only $4 a month, an excellent 
 type of evangelistic educational work. 
 
 Tura, Garo Hitts, G. G. Crozier, M.D. 
 AssaM, INDIA. 
 
 OR additional literature or other infor- 
 mation regarding the work of the Ameri- 
 can Baptist Foreign Mission Society, write 
 to any of the following: 
 1. The nearest District Secretary. 
 2. Department of Missionary Education, 23 East 
 26th Street, New York City. 
 3. Literature Department, Box 41, Boston, Mass. 
 
 23 2d Ed.-15M-8-29-1916 [6]