Pioneering in West Africa — People Eager for the Message — An Old Fetish Tree
By T. M. FRENCH
IN harmony with an earnest invitation to visit Poh Lokkah and speak to the Temne people, a boat was waiting Sunday morning at the Waterloo wharf to take Mrs. French and me down the river.
Already the watchman bird was whistling loudly that the tide was turning, and we were soon winding our way down the river, hastened a bit by the lazy oars of the natives. The mangrove swamps that crowd down to the river on both sides shut out the view of the country, but now and then a monkey or an alligator added interest to the journey.
THE NATIVE INTEREST
We were met at Poh Lokkah by Mr. and Mrs. Brown, who had located among the Temne villagers, and were doing what they could to teach them the gospel. After visiting their home, we were taken to a grove of trees, where about fifty natives had gathered.
Fetish tree at Poh Lokkah, Sierra Leone, West Africa, where human sacrifices used to be offered. Elder French is shown in the picture.
I spoke to these people for nearly an hour on the glorious return of our blessed Saviour; and although I had to speak through an interpreter, I could see by their earnest faces, and their hearty hand-shakes after the service, that their hearts were touched by the Spirit of God. They insisted that they be visited again and again.
AN OLD FETISH TREE
We were deeply impressed, by a visit to an old fetish tree, with the condition in which these poor people had been engrossed. This tree seemed to be a freak of the palm-tree, having eight trunks instead of one. This is doubtless why it was regarded with such reverence. Fetish medicine bottles were strewed all about its roots; and here, in the deep jungle, human sacrifices had formerly been offered to it.
The gospel has broken and is still breaking the fetters of African heathenism. May the recipients of its many blessings in Christian lands give it ample support, and pray for its speedy triumph in dark Africa.
