CHAPTER XXXII

Summary

The country had been blessed with such plentiful rains that fields and gardens teemed with plenty, such as had not been experienced for several years. The ancient ramparts of superstition had been broken through by our converts, and many others, who could see no reason why the productions of their field and garden labour should be confined to the varieties of their native grain (Holcus sorghum) pumpkins, kidney beans, and water melons, the only vegetables cultivated by their forefathers. Instead of purchasing a very inferior tobacco from the Bahurutsi, who were no longer able to supply the market, having imitated our example of leading out water, they began to plant it themselves, and it soon became a profitable article of traffic, as it had formerly been to those who lived in a better watered country. They also thankfully accepted the seeds and plants of grain and vegetables we had introduced, of maize, wheat, barley, peas, potatoes, carrots, onions, and they also planted fruit trees.

As the course of our water ditch along the side of a hill appeared as if the stream ascended, several of the natives set to work in good earnest, and cut courses leading directly up hill, hoping the water would one day follow. Ploughs, harrows, spades, and mattocks were no longer viewed as the implements of a certain caste, but as the indispensable auxiliaries to existence and comfort.