One Generation From Cannibalism by E. C. Silsbee

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Jun 11, 1914

One Generation From Cannibalism

By E. C. Silsbee

E. C. SILSBEE

FOR many decades Satan had almost complete control over Basutoland and its people, leading them to the deepest depths of barbarous heathenism, and even now they are but one full generation removed from cannibalism.

We are now beginning a third series of meetings among the villages. We have a magic lantern, and as the people all like to "see the pictures," we always have an audience. They all come, even the chiefs.

We have just returned from a visit to our mission in north Basutoland. There are no railroads, so we drove the entire distance with horses and buggy, arriving home after three weeks' absence. The white people of South Africa usually drive about in a two-wheeled cart with a top, and so our American buggy was quite a curiosity.

We found the entire country very dry, as this is the second year Basutoland has had a dearth of rain. The natives plant little patches of Kafir corn and wheat. These are practically all destroyed this year, and will no doubt result in a scarcity of food verging on a famine. In times past when there was a scarcity of food, the people would go out and kill an enemy or a friend, and eat him; but it is quite different now. There is one old woman, a member of our Kolo church, who remembers the days of cannibalism.