IFAFA, IN SOUTH AFRICA.

This is the home of Mr. Rood among the Zulus. The mission premises, as you will see by the plate, are delightfully situated. The house on the left, among the trees, is Mr. Rood's dwelling-house. The one standing near it, within the inclosure, is the school-house. That without the fence, on the right, is occupied by native boys, who live at the mission station. In the distance you see a native hut. The trees about the buildings not only make the place more beautiful, but add to its comfort, as they shelter the missionaries from the stormy winds and from the fierce heat of the sun. In front of the premises is a pleasant view of the Ifafa river, and of the ocean, neither of which can be seen in the engraving.

You will notice the large wagon of Mr. Rood in the foreground. All the missionaries in South Africa feel obliged to have such wagons. This is their only way of traveling; and when they stop for the night, they sleep in the wagon, because there is often no other place in the wilderness secure from wild beasts. Sometimes a whole missionary family live in their wagon for weeks together. It is drawn by oxen.

Mr. Rood has been in Ifafa about two years. He finds encouragement in his labor of love, and some of the boys with him express a desire to forsake their idol gods, and come to the Lord Jesus Christ for salvation.

66

[For the Youth's Dayspring.]

A LITTLE BOY'S QUESTION.

A little boy of six or seven years of age, the son of a Presbyterian minister in one of our Western villages, said one day, Mother, what makes father stay here and preach, when the people know so much now? They might have reading meetings, or go to the Methodist church. I should think he would go and preach to the heathen. When I am a man, I shan't stay here and preach; I shall go to Asia or Africa."

Mr. Caleb Wright, whose "Lectures on India" should be read by all our young friends, thus describes the individuals represented in the engraving:

The one on the left is the portrait of a religious mendicant. The number of mendicants in India amounts to many hundreds of thousands. As a religious duty, they forsake their families and friends, renounce every useful occupation, and wander from place to place, begging their food. They are literally clothed with filth and rags; the latter, in many instances, being less in quantity than the former. Some of them are decorated with large quantities of false hair, strings of human bones, and artificial snakes. Others carry a human skull containing a most filthy mixture. If no money or food be given them by those persons of whom they solicit alms, they profess to eat the filth out of the skull, as an act of revenge. One sect of them, professing to be extremely anxious

to avoid destroying animal life, carry a broom, composed of soft cotton threads, gently to sweep the insects from their path. They also erect hospitals for the reception of aged, sick, and lame animals. There is an institution of this kind in the vicinity of Bombay, which, in 1840, contained from fifty to one hundred horses, one hundred and seventy-five oxen and cows, and two hundred dogs, beside cats, monkeys, and reptiles. It has been said that paganism never erected a hospital; but this is not quite true. I believe, however, that these are the only hospitals that have been erected by the worshipers of idols.

There is another sect of mendicants, who are worshipers of Krishna. Though men, they put on the dress and ornaments, and assume the manners, of milkmaids. This is supposed to be very pleasing to the object of their worship; for, when he was on earth, he is said to have been very partial to the milkmaids, and to have married no fewer than sixteen thousand of them.

The figure on the right of the engraving is a portrait of Puri-Suttema, an individual with whom I was well acquainted. For seven years he had been a religious mendicant. At length he read a Christian tract entitled "A Precept to the Inhabitants of this Part of the World, by the Missionaries." "By studying it," said he, "I found there was a great difference between the notions I had imbibed and the virtuous precepts contained in that book; plainly saw that my former way was all deception, and that this book pointed out a betHe embraced that better way, and is now a preacher of the gospel.

ter."

[For the Youth's Dayspring.]

THE NESTORIAN GIRL AND HER MOTHER. Will the readers of the Dayspring permit me to tell them a short story? During the recent revival at Oroomiah, a vacation occurred in our Female Seminary, during which many of the pious members were very indefatigable in their prayers and efforts for the salvation of their friends. One of them, Hâny, a very lovely Nestorian girl, about fifteen years of age, who had, for some time, spent hours in a day in praying for the conversion of her widowed mother, a hardened, wicked woman, could hardly cease entreating that

mother, with strong crying and tears, to be reconciled to God, when she personally witnessed her worldliness and impenitence at home. The mother, at length wearied with warnings, entreaties and prayers, one day rudely rebuked her weeping daughter, in the following terms:-" Enough, enough. Stop your praying and weeping for me. You will cry yourself blind." The dutiful daughter, in unutterable. anguish of spirit, meekly replied, "O mother, it seems to me that I would gladly become blind, if thereby you might be brought to Christ!”

I suppose that some of the youthful readers of the Dayspring, who are hopefully pious, have parents who are still the enemies of God. Are those youth and children as earnest, in their prayers and efforts for the salvation of their parents, as this pious Nestorian girl?

Truly yours,

LETTER FROM AINTAB.

J. PERKINS

The readers of the Dayspring will remember what was said last month about Aintab, and the interesting circumstances under which Mr. and Mrs. Schneider went there. They will be glad to read a letter from Mrs. Schneider, containing some account of their labors among the people.

Aintab, Northern Syria.

My dear young Friends,—I should like to give you some idea of the number and variety of meetings held among this people from week to week. I do not anticipate being able, however, to convey on paper exactly the impression that personal observation would give.

In the first place, on Sabbath morning a prayer-meeting is held at an early hour at the usual place of worship, attended by natives alone. At a still later hour, Bible classes are held in different sections throughout the congregation; the lesson being prepared by one of us previously. The neighbors around