Strange peoples & customs

Front matter

STRANGE PEOPLES £# CUSTOMS

BY

Adelaide Bee Evans

Preface

This little book was written with two American boys, Eobert and Irwdn, in mind, to whom it is dedicated. But bej^ond these boys, the author saw other Roberts and Irwins of other names, and Ruths and Dorothys and Marys ; boys and girls by ones and twos and threes and larger groups, scattered throughout the civilized lands of the world; girls and boys growing up into splendid womanhood and manhood, who, it is hoped, will be missionaries for God in the homeland, and perhaps in the regions beyond the sea.

The larger field of the book lies among strange peoples with strange habits and ways and dress, among the boys and girls with strange studies and work and oftentimes strange plays. From the time Mrs. Evans leaves the sunny shores of California till she bids us farewell, she is in lands strange to American people ; and we are sure our boys and girls will go with her in her interesting trips through the wonderful Hawaiian Islands, "the Sunrise Empire," "the Land of the Wliite Elephant," "where the railway trains rest at night," to the great city of Singapore, "the Tiger Town," into the ancient and now distressed "Land of the Morning Calm," among the Philippine Islands, and to far-away, little known ' ' Beautiful Borneo. ' '

"We may be sure the journeys were not always pleasant ; but the story is beautifully, pleasantly told, and the reader will enjoy it all the way. But that which many will enjoy most is the fact that among those

12 PREFACE

darker skinned children of earth, the blessed good tidings of Jesus is going, telling of the wondrous love to all, of His power to save, of the better home He is preparing, and that He is soon coming again to take all His children home, and that many are accepting the gospel. That the little book may be a blessing is the prayer of —

The Publishers.

Contents

I. Our Great Round World - . 17

II. Travel a Century Ago 25

III. Missionaries 41

Chapter I Our Great Round Worud

OUR train is westward bound from New York City, on schedule time. Sometimes, in these busy, rushing days, when clocks and watches and chronometers and astronomical observatories are everywhere around us, I wonder if we do not forget how people measured time before timepieces were invented. But they did measure it by their great timekeeper, the sun.

It seems strange to most boys and girls now that people in general ever believed that the earth was flat. But they did.

The Chinese said it was like a big plate, with China in the center, in the very heart of its good land.

Chinese Water Clock

Others thought it was like a great tray, or a mammoth boat, floating on the water.

Some said the earth rested on huge pillars, while still others believed that it was like an immense lily leaf with long roots reaching far down in the water and holding it fast.

(18)\

OUR GREAT ROUND WORLD 19

There were still others who believed that it was like half of a great ball, resting upon four great elephants, and the elephants stood upon a mammoth turtle, and the turtle on a pile of rocks. When asked what the rocks rested on, they said it was rocks all the way down. But on one thing the most of them, who had never traveled, thought as did the Chinese, that their own country was in the middle of the earth, the very best place. They knew the sun went over the earth, but thought it was much smaller. Where it went at night, they did not know, and so they made up fanciful stories to explain it. But most of these stories were so foolish that the people did not long believe them.

Men, more and more, began to study about the earth and the sun and the moon and the stars. In different ways, they came to the conclusion that the world was round like a ball, and did not rest upon anything. They might have learned from the Bible that it was held up in space by the power of God. Nearly three thousand years ago the Lord's servant Job said of God, "He hangeth the earth upon nothing." ^

One of these men was Christopher Columbus, who declared that if he had ships, he could sail around the earth.

About the same time, a boy named Nicholas Copernicus was growing to manhood in

An

Ancient Astronomer

Poland. He studied earnestly and took great interest in astronomy, the study of the heavens. He finally came to believe that instead of the sun and the stars moving around the earth, the earth itself moved. This was a new idea, and a true idea. Copernicus concluded that the earth turned around every day, at the same time that it passed in a great circular path in the heavens around the sun. And he began to teach this.

Later, in Italy, w^as a man named Galileo, who began to teach the same thing. He built a telescope, the first that was ever used to look at the stars. It was not much like our present finished telescopes, but it was a good beginning. It was like a key opening a door into a wonderful and beautiful room that men had only seen through dim windows before the telescope was made.

OUR GREAT ROUND WORLD 21

But when Galileo began to talk about some of the strange and wonderful things that he saw through the telescope, the people would not look through it. They said he was very wicked, and he said they were very foolish. He laughed at them, and they hated him.

Still Galileo kept on using the telescope, and studying the stars. One night he was looking at the bright planet Jupiter. This planet Galileo said had four moons traveling around it. Better telescopes have found four other members of the family, so Jupiter has at least eight moons. We cannot see all these moons, even on clear nights, when the stars, as we say, are shining brightly. But sometimes one can be seen. Looking through a telescope, four of them can be seen plainly. When Galileo saw the four moons moving around this bright planet, he was very happy. "This is the way the earth moves around the sun," he said.

Galileo wrote a book telling how the earth moves around the sun, and by and by his enemies shut him up in prison. Then they called a number of learned men together to say what he must do. After they had talked about it four months, they told him that he must either "recant" (take back what he had said) or be punished.

So the poor old man — he was seventy years old then, and feeble with age and illness — fell down on his knees, and bowed his head, and said that he "abjured and detested" the "error and heresy" in his book, and would not teach it any more.

Every one who loves the truth is sorry that poor old Galileo said these words, for he was saying what he did not really believe. We are told that when he got up from his knees, he whispered to a friend, "It does move." And so it does. Brave men sailed around the world and home again. A great man}^ travelers since those days have started at one place, and kept going on and on in the same direction, till finally they were at home again, and going in through their own front doors.

ON THE PACIFIC OCEAN

We are still westward bound, on a large ship now, on the broad Pacific Ocean. It is a big, blue ocean, the largest in the world, as we all know. We shall sail on it for eighteen or nineteen days, from San Francisco to Japan. We shall make one stop, at some lovely green islands in the sea, of which T will tell you more later.

If we kept right on going and going, traveling over the land where there is land, and oveithe water where there is water, by and by we should be in New York again. All the way, there would be water to sail on, or land where

OUR GREAT ROUND WORLD people live and build houses, and work and play. We should see all sorts of children —

Slant-eyed children in Japan,

Smiling, bowing, gay; Sober children in Chosen,

Old before their day; Yellow children, sweet and shy,

China's hope and pride; Black, and brown, and white like you.

In this world so wide.

All these children would have homes of some kind, though not like yours; and they would have clothes, at least where it is cold, but these would be different too.

But there is one thing that is not different. They have hearts like yours. They like kindness and smiles, and they cry when they are hurt. They love to play, and they like bright-colored flowers, and fruits, and candy. They know what it is to be hungry and cold and tired, and to feel pain. The Bible tells us that God, who made the earth and everything that is in it, "hath made of one blood all nations of men."

When the Lord made this "great big beautiful world," He made it for people to live on. He made the trees and the grass and the flowers, the fishes that swim in the sea, the birds that fly in the air, and the animals that live in the forests and on the great plains. When the earth was finished, and Adam and Eve had been created, "God saw everything that He had made, and, behold, it was very good."

24 STRANGE TEOPLES AND CUSTOMS

It was God's plan that all men and women who should live on the earth should be pure and good. But Adam and Eve disobeyed God. Envy and hate and murder and death spoiled the beautiful world. Men and women went deeper and deeper into sin, till by and by many of them forgot all about God, and some who knew about Him did not even try to serve Him.

Still, most people in the world wish to worsliip something. When they do not worship the true God, who made the earth and the sun and all the stars, they often make an image of stone or wood or clay, and bow down before it, and worship it.

We call such people heathen. In the lands to which my husband and I are going, there are many heathen. These should hear the gospel, the good news that Jesus died to save sinners. All who believe on Him, and confess their sins, will some day live with Him.

Many people in these heathen lands are happy to hear the gospel. When they learn about Jesus, their faces shine with joy. They are more kind and gentle, and love one another better than they did before. I know many boys and girls in these lands who love the Lord Jesus, and pray to Him every day, and try to keep His commandments.

Chapter II Travel A Century Ago

IT is generally enjoyable for boys and girls to ride on railway trains. It is fun to pick out the things that you will carry, with the lunch that you will eat at night. It is fun, too, to watch the smiling porter make up the beds — and, for once, it is fun to go to bed! But it is still more pleasant to get up in the morning, and, fresh and clean, go into the diner, and eat oatmeal and cream while the train rushes along through villages and cities and tunnels and woods and green fields.

Nearly all over the world, there are miles and miles of shining railway tracks, and noisy, puffing engines, and long trains where the people may ride. Everywhere the children love to ride on the cars. White children, like you, and brown children, and black children with smiling faces, and solemn-eyed little yellow children — they all like to go, though they may have different ways of showing it.

There are boats, both large and small, on the ocean, for people to ride in, and boats almost as large on the great navigable rivers, as we know. Then there are smaller boats, which get along quite well where the big boats could never go. So you see that any one who lives in one part of the world may go easily and quickly to places far away.

To the PUBLIC.

THE FLYING MACHINE, kept by John Mercereau, at the NewBlasing-Star-Ferfy, near New- York, fets off from Powles-Hook every Menday, Wediiffday, and Friday Mornings, for Philadelphia, and performs the Journey in a Day and a Half, for the Summer Seafon, (ill the iftof November; from that Time go twice a Week (ill the fiiA of May, when they three Times a Week. When the Stages again perforn

go only twice a Week, they fet off Mondays and ThiTrf- The Waggons in Philadelphia fet out from the Sign ol (he George, in Second- flreet, the fame Morning. The Paffengers are defired to crofs the Ferry the Evening before, as the Stages muft fet off early the next Morning. The Price for each PafTenger it Ti«/</;ry Ji/ViV^j, Proc. and Goods as ufuaL Paffengers going Far( of the. Way to pay in Proportion.

As the Proprietor has Tna<3e fueh Im'proyemenls upon the Machines, one of which is in Imitation of aCoach, he hopes to m«(it the Favour of the Publick.

JOHN MERCEREAU.

In 1771 John Mercereau started a stage line between New York and Philadelphia, and upon attaining a record of making the journey in a day and a half felt justified in naming his coach the "Plying Machine," and so advertised it.

The De Witt

Clinton

Train

TRAVEL A CENTURY AGO 27

A hundred years ago it was very different. There were no railwa}^ trains, no automobiles, no bicycles even. People traveled slowly in those days, riding on horseback, or in big, clumsy "coaches," or in lumbering carts drawn by oxen. If they wished to go a long way, they made a canvas roof for the farm wagon, and packed their clothes and beds and dishes inside. Then they climbed in, and with the children on low seats where they could see, away they rattled.

The roads were very rough, when there w^ere any roads at all. Often there was only a bumpy "trail" through the woods or across the prairie. Sometimes, in swampy places, there would be a road of logs, called a corduroy road. Then the wagon would go humpity-bumpity, which, if there was not too much of it, was great fun for the children. In America, such a thing as a smooth paved road in the country was seldom seen in those days.

It took a long time to make a journey — a whole month to go as far as you can go in one day now, in a good train. The fathers and mothers were very tired sometimes: but the children were happy, with so many new things to see every day.

There were no steamships, either, only sailing vessels. And while those boats went to countries near and far away, they were propelled only by the wind, and went very slowly

Statue of Columbus

TRAVEL A CENTURY AGO 29

at times. Often a boat sailing away from New York to the other side of the world would be gone three years. The captain would hardly know his boys and girls when he came home again.

A BRAVE SAILOR

I am sure you have heard the story of Christopher Columbus. When he was a little boy, he used to play by the seashore, and watch the ships. "I will be a sailor, and sail on a ship, when I am a man," he said.

His father wanted Christopher to be a weaver, like himself; but when he saw that the boy would surely go to sea when he was old enough, he sent him to school to learn all about ships, and maps, and charts, — all about navigation, which all sailors must know if they are ever to be captains. And that is what the young Christopher wished to be.

It is a long story. I cannot tell it all here. I will only tell you that by and by the happy day came when the man Christopher Columbus sailed away from Palos, a seaport in Spain, sure that he could find a new and shorter way to India. He sailed west on the great Atlantic Ocean, determined to go farther than any one had gone before. He had only three boats. They were very small, too. No one would think of starting off across a big ocean with them now; but they were the best he could get, and he was not afraid.

This was in 1492. How long ago was that? In those daj^s, no one had ever crossed the great Atlantic Ocean, and come back to tell what was on the other side. Columbus was going to lind out, if he could; and he was very sure he could.

But the rough sailors who went with Columbus did not share his brave spirit. Week after week went by — and still there was no land. What would become of them? Their food would soon be used up; and if they did not find land, they would starve to death. Every day, they would come to their brave captain, and say:

"O sir! May we turn the boat about, and sail toward home?"

And everv day, Columbus would answer: ''Xo! Sail onr

Joaquin jNIiller, whom we call "the poet of the Sierras," wrote a stirring poem about this question and answer. Learn it by heart, and think about it often, so that its brave spirit may help you when you come to hard places, and feel like turning around and runningback where it is easy and pleasant:

Sail

On!

Behind him lay the gray Azores,

Behind, the Gates of Hercules; Before him not the ghost of shores,

Before him only shoreless seas. The good mate said: "Now we must pray,

For, lo, the very stars are gone. Brave admiral, speak! What shall I say?" "Why, say: 'Sail on! sail on! and on!' "

"My men grow mutinous day by day;

My men grow ghastly, wan, and weak." The stout mate thought of home; a spray

Of salt wave washed his swarthy cheek. "What shall I say, brave admiral, say,

If we sight naught but seas at dawn ? " "Why, you shall say, at break of day:

'Sail on! sail on! sail on! and on!' "

They sailed. They sailed. Then spake the mate:

"This mad sea shows his teeth to-night. He curls his lip, he lies in wait.

He lifts his teeth as if to bite! Brave admiral, say but one good word:

What shall we do when hope is gone?" The words leaped like a leaping sword : "Sail on! sail on! sail on! and on!"

Then pale and worn he paced his deck.

And peered through darkness. Ah, that night Of all dark nights ! And then a speck —

A light! A light! At last a light! It grew, a starlit flag unfurled!

It grew to be Time's burst of dawn. He gained a world. He gave that world

Its grandest lesson: "On! sail on!"

After seventy days, — a long time to be going, and not know where, — Columbus and his men came in sight of land. The New World was discovered. And there was great rejoicing on shipboard then, you may be sure.

In these days, large ships go back and forth across the wide Atlantic very swiftly and safely. If Columbus were alive to-day, and wished to see the New World that he sailed so bravely to discover, he could go from Palos, in Spain, to the West Indies in a week on what we would call a "slow boat."

There was great excitement when Columbus came home to Spain. Soon many men sailed away to see what they could find, and some of them came hoihe again with wonderful tales. Boys playing by the seashore heard these marvels; and some of them wished to sail to distant lands too, when they were old enough.

LONG JOURNEYS IN OLDEN DAYS

Fernando Magellan lived in Portugal. He had heard about Columbus, and other men who followed him across the Atlantic; and he dreamed of a time when he should go still farther than any one had gone yet. Every one was talking of wonderful islands in the unknown seas, where one could get all the gold he could bring away, and tons of spices and other precious things.

TRAVEL A CENTURY AGO 33

Magellan wished to find these islands, and make himself rich and great, and add riches to his king too. But the king of Portugal only laughed at him, and would not help him carry out his plans. So Magellan went to the king of Spain, who gave him five ships.

This was not really a great gift. The boats were old and poor, and their timbers were rotten. "Their ribs are soft as butter," some one wrote to the king of Portugal, who, though he would not help Magellan, still wished to know what he was doing.

But in spite of all, Magellan thought the ships would do, and he sailed away with a high heart. Perhaps courage is better than stout ships — if you cannot have both.

From the first, there was plenty of trouble. There was a dreadful storm, and one of the poor little ships was wrecked. Some of the men were sick, the food supply got low, and they were all discouraged. The sailors so much wished to go home, that by and by they made a plan to kill Magellan. If they could get rid of him, they thought, they could turn around and sail back to Spain. But Magellan told his officers, when they asked him what to do, that he was not afraid of these sailors. "I will do my appointed work," he said. And the men knew well that he meant what he said.

After a long time, Magellan and his sailors came to the very southern point of the great o

&4 pj

4) till 4A

TRxVYEL A CEXTURY AGO 35

continent of South America, and guided their ships into a long, narrow body of water, or strait. Magellan had believed that he could find a passage beyond the land known as America, and he was very proud and happy when he found it. To this day, these straits are called the Straits of Magellan, in his honor.

Five long weeks Magellan's little ships sailed in and out among the many islands of these straits, all the time keeping a general westward course. By and by the day came when they left land behind once more, and sailed out into the greatest body of water on earth — the Pacific Ocean. Magellan was very happy then — so happy that he shed tears of joy; for he knew that he had done what no man had ever done before — he had sailed from the Atlantic Ocean into the Pacific.

But his troubles were not all over. One of the four ships now left to him stole away, so then there were only three. But these three sailed out on the great sea to the west. On, and on, and on, and on! There was no more food, and very little water. The men ate bits of leather, and sawdust, and even rats. Those were days to test the stoutest heart.

Ninety-eight days they sailed. Then they came to some small islands, where they found a little fresh food. Not long afterward, at another and larger group of islands (we know them as the Philippines in these days, and now many Americans live there), the brave Magellan was killed. The men who were with him got into two of the ships, and sailed away as quickly as they could.

After a while these two ships, the "Victoria" and the "Trinidad," reached the Spice Islands, which Magellan had been so sure he could find. The sailors loaded the ships with spices ; but when they started to go home, they found that the "Trinidad" was so old and poor that it would never do to take her out on the ocean again till she was repaired. So only one of the five ships that had left Spain started out for the last part of the long voyage. This was the "Victoria."

You would have thought the men on this little ship had had troubles enough, but there were more ahead. Many of the sixty men who left the Spice Islands on the "Victoria" died on the way to Spain; and when the boat finally reached home again, there were only eighteen men, weak and sad and ill, to tell the thrilling story of the long voyage, of the wonderful discoveries they had made, and of the sad death of the brave Fernando Magellan.

® THE PILGRIMS

More than a hundred years after Columbus sailed away frorp Spain and discovered the

TRAVEL A CENTURY AQO 37

New World, a little company of men and women decided to leave Europe, their former home, and go to America to build themselves new homes. They sailed from Plymouth, in England, to Leyden, in Holland, and from there to America, and landed at a place they called Plymouth, in Massachusetts. The boat that they had sailed on was the "Mayflower" — ^a very pretty name for a boat, I think. But it was a sad, hard journey, and the little company were nine long weeks on the way.

Though it was more than a hundred years since Columbus had crossed the Atlantic, people had not learned to travel much faster. It took Columbus and his three little boats seventy days to reach land; and the Pilgrim Fathers, as the men who came on the "Mayflower" were called, spent sixty- three days on the way to Massachusetts. They were very tired of the "Mayflower" by that time, you may be sure, and glad enough to step out on the solid earth again.

But if they were to make the journey now, they could cross the ocean in a large, roomy boat, with a pleasant deck to walk on in the daytime, and comfortable rooms to sleep in at night. If it were hot, a busy little fan would do its best to keep them cool ; and if it were cold, there would be heat to make them cozy. All the way, there would be fresh, pure water to drink, plenty of good food to eat.

TEAVEL A CENTURY AGO 39

and a doctor to take care of them if they were sick. And the whole journey would take only a week, or even less time on a fast boat.

A BETTER W ORLD TO COME

Do you wonder why it is that in the last hundred years, people have learned so many more ways of going fast from one place to another than they found out in all the thousands of years before?

I will tell you one reason. The world as it now is will not last always. By and by it will be burned up, and a new and glorious earth will be made in its place. But before that happens, Jesus will come and take all the people who love Him to be with Him in His own beautiful home.

Many people w^ould like to live in the new earth, when it is made as beautiful as it was in the beginning; so before Jesus comes, all the people everywhere must be told that He is coming. Those who give their hearts to Him, and love Him, will be very happy when He comes, and will be ready to go with Him to His heavenly home, and to live in the new earth when it is ready.

But the world is so big, you say, and there are so many people ! How can they all hear the good news? Oh, there are men and women who will gladly go to them, and tell them. The fast trains will carry them, the swift ships will take them safely over the great oceans, and then other trains and smaller boats will help them to go wherever they wish.

The good news that Jesus loves men, women, and children, that He died to save them, and that He is coming soon to take them to His own beautiful home, is called "the gospel of the kingdom"; for the word "gospel" means "good news." Jesus said:

"This gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in all the world; . . . and then shall the end come."

The men and women who carry the good news to people who have never heard it are called missionaries. In our next chapter, we will learn about some Bible missionaries.

Chapter III

A MISSIONARY is One-Who-Does- Good-to-Others. Not all missionaries can go across the ocean; some of them stay right at home. They are "home missionaries," — and very good missionaries they are, too. I have known boys and girls, younger and older, who were so sweet-tempered and pleasant and happy, so unselfish and thoughtful, at home, that just to see them helped others all day long.

Jeanne lived in the country. And because pink was her favorite color (all girls have a favorite color, you know) , and sometimes her cheeks were as pink as the roses on the vine at the end of the porch, her father called her Miss Pink.