Matandane, Nyasaland by S. M. KONIGMACHER

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · May 8, 1913

Matandane, Nyasaland

By S. M. KONIGMACHER

Every-Day Incidents

WE have had some very bad floods lately. Our rustic bridge was washed away, so to-day I was unable to cross the stream, for the water is above the rocks I put in to make a drift.

We have started a native store. It is the custom of the country here to give a little present to those who buy, so we are giving our customers a piece of cloth, hemming the raw edges. On pay-days it has kept us at the sewing-machine several times for nearly three hours without stopping.

The only real annoyance of the missionary is the fever and his isolation. Week in and week out nature is seen in its different moods. Grass, grass, grass in the rainy season, and parched brown grass in the dry season. I had a little diversion last week by catching my fifth leopard and a native dog.

Christmas week we were in the garden gathering African holly, and as Mrs. Konigmacher put out her hand to pluck a bunch of berries, a snake the color of the tree, moved along a limb. As it was passing into another tree, I killed it. Thus God protects us.

The mail disappeared a few weeks ago. The mail-boy ran off, and we do not know whether the mail was stolen or lost.

Recently I called a boy and asked him why he was stealing corn out of the gardens. “We do not consider it stealing when one is hungry,” he replied. “But you have as much strength to hoe your garden as we have.” “Yes, and I did hoe in the lowlands, but the floods took away all the corn.”

I have just killed a large snake over six feet long in our back yard, and a crocodile has been seen on the bank near the river.

We have all had a touch of fever, but are quite well now. These are a few little incidents of every-day life out here in the interior of Africa.

S. M. KONIGMACHER.