CHAPTER XIX

Summary

In every heathen country the missionary finds, to his sorrow, some predominating barriers to his usefulness, which require to be overcome before he can expect to reach the judgments of the populace. Sorcerers or rain-makers, for both offices are generally assumed by one individual, are the principal with which he has to contend in the interior of Southern Africa. They are, as Mr. Kay rightly designates them, “our inveterate enemies, and uniformly oppose the introduction of Christianity amongst their countrymen to the utmost of their power. Like the angekoks of the Greenlanders, the pawaws of the Indians, and the greegrees of Western Africa, they constitute the very pillars of Satan's kingdom in all places where such impostors are found. By them is his throne supported and the people kept in bondage; when these, therefore, are confounded, and constrained to flee, we cannot but rejoice, for then indeed have we demonstrative evidence that “the kingdom of God is not in word, but in power.” The rain-maker is in the estimation of the people no mean personage, possessing an influence over the minds of the people superior even to that of their king, who is likewise compelled to yield to the dictates of this arch-official. The anomalies in the human character can alone account for reasonable, and often intelligent beings yielding a passive obedience to the absurd demands of this capricious individual.