Matabele Children by Elsie G. Gibson

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Washington, D. C.

FromReview and Herald, Harvest Ingathering Number

Matabele Children

By Elsie G. Gibson

Almost as soon as a baby is born, it is tied to its mother’s back with a large goatskin, and in this sort of hammock it sits, with its little feet sticking out on each side of the mother. As she walks, the baby’s head bobs about so that you wonder its little neck is not broken. When it cries, the mother knocks her elbows against it as if the little one were a sort of drum, and soon it goes to sleep again.

A HOME GROUP WHOSE PEDDIES GO TO MISSIONS.

For clothes, its soft black skin is rubbed with fat till it shines, and a string of beads is put around its waist, and often strings around its wrists and ankles. When the babies get old enough to run about, the little girls wear a tiny skirt tied around the waist, and the little boys a small apron made of skin. They romp and play just like all boys and girls.

By the time the boys are seven years old, they are sent to herd the cattle or goats. The natives have no garden fences, so the flocks must be watched to keep them out of the grain.

The girls are taught to carry small gourds full of water on their heads without holding them or spilling the water. Early in the morning you may see the little tots running along by their mothers to the spring, and returning with their gourds of water carefully balanced on their heads.

When they come to hear of Jesus, they sit and listen quietly to the story of the one who said, “Suffer little children to come unto me, and forbid them not.”

ELSIE G. GIBSON.

Glendale Mission, Rhodesia, Africa.