ing Mary Sargent’s accordion, so we had the experience of watching these Indians as tfiey heard music for the first time. We saw many interesting things during *our stay with this group, including the construction and painting of the most beautiful bows and arrows we have ever seen, the making of pot tery, spinning of cotton thread, forming rope for bow strings, shooting fish with bow and arrows, building canoes from huge logs, and other regular occupa tions of these dwellers of the jungles that are very ordinary to them. The chief brought Dr. Talbot a bit to eat in the form of the head, shoulder, and one arm of the largest monkey we have ever seen, all smoked till it was black. Dr. Talbot and Mary Sargent each had to take a polite nibble, and of course I was so sorry that I had to take pic tures of it so could not take part in the feast! When we learned later that these Indians are strongly suspected of being cannibalistic, and then remembered the size of that head and arm, we could not but wonder! In the afternoon we had the joy of witnessing a service with the whole group gathered as Olive Shell spoke to them with the aid of a flannel- graph, and told the story of Christ’s coming into this world in their own Cashibo language. This is real mission ary work. These two girls dwell among this tribe, living in a little thatch roofed hut, and working constantly to learn more of this difficult language, all the time seeking to win these Indians to Christ by the witness of their lives and by telling them of Christ. It was with a new appreciation of this pio neer type of work that we left them in the late afternoon, boarded the “ SMU 51” and flew back to base. It had cleared, so we could climb right up to four thousand feet and look down on the windings of the river that we had followed so eagerly in the morning, and fly in a straight line for the hundred miles home. It took us a little over an hour, and again we realized the wonder ful value of planes to missions as we recalled that it would take weeks to fol low the windings of the river in a canoe. Thursday, May S, 1951: . We spent the morning photographing Biola graduates and former students at their jobs around the jungle base. We saw Dr. J. Kenneth Altig, ’32, at work in the dispensary, aided by Lois Cam- eron-Schneider, special medical student ’42; Titus Nickel in charge of building operations at this ever-expanding base; Florence Nickel (’44) in charge of the kitchen; Mrs. Altig teaching in the school for Missionaries children; and Bill and Marjory Nyman, who had come in on the Catalina, and were en route back to Mexico and the Summer Insti tute of Linguistics at Norman, Okla homa this coming summer. In the after noon we had a really thrilling cere mony down on the ramp at the edge of
the lake as Dr. Talbot presented the keys of the Aeronca, “ SMU 51,” to Bob Schneider of the Wycliffe group, and a ceremony of dedication was held for this plane which had been presented by the Student Missionary Union of 1951 of Biola. Fitting words of presentation and appreciation were spoken, and then an Indian chief, all dressed up in his finest tribal costume, spoke a few words of appreciation. Then he poured water over the nose of the plane in an old Indian ceremony in which water is poured from an Indian bowl as a sign that the object' of the ceremony in which water is poured is being adopted into the tribe as a blood brother. In this way the Indian Chief showed his appreciation that this plane had been given to aid in the work among his people. It was fitting that Marjory Ny man, as the first woman graduate to receive a degree from Biola, should be there to formally christen the plane the “ SMU 51” . After a prayer of dedica tion, the service was over, and this plane is now being used daily in the work of taking the gospel to the Indians of the jungles of Peru. Friday, May U, 1951: Another drive over the jungle road to Pucallpa, this time to get our plane tickets for the flight into Lima tomor row, and also to do the usual necessary buying and other items of business for the jungle camp. We started back by jeep about noon, only to find that a lumber truck had gone into the jungle, loaded up with trees to be hauled out and cut into lumber, then had bogged down hopelessly in the mudholes of the road. We had about a three-hour wait until they finally got it dug out and we could go on our way. That evening we had our final gathering with the Wycliffe group at the jungle base, and each of us tried to express something of our gratitude for the wonderful co-oper ation and help we had received from each of them during our most interest ing and enlightening stay at the jungle base. Saturday, May 5, 1951: Our last, fastest, and roughest drive over the jungle road, enabled us to reach the Pucallpa airstrip just as the DC-3 of the Fawcett Air Lines landed from Lima. After a quick farewell to our many friends from the Wycliffe group, we boarded the plane for a flight right over the top of the Andes mountains into Lima. The American pilot of the plane told us before we took off that he had almost frozen coming over, and we had not been in the plane very long before we knew what he meant. As we climbed higher and higher, the damp warm jungle air in the plane condensed on the inside of the windows until they were running with water, and then that (Continued on Page 23) T H E K I N G ’ S B U S I N E S S
Painted Chama Indian Woman
a great deal of rain most of the day, we could not get pictures anyway, so we spent the day at the base learning more of the way this group works in reducing the languages of the various tribes to writing. Because of more ideal circumstances for study at the base, “ Informants” are brought in from each of the tribes being studied, to work with the translators assigned to that tribe. These informants can also work at the base without the distractions of their own village life, so it is very bene ficial to all concerned to complete the early stages of the work in each lan guage at the base. We had an oppor tunity of seeing these trained linguists at work at the base and marveled at the patient way in which they sought for words to give these Indian tribes the Bible in their own language. Wednesday, May 2, 1951: Another visit to an Indian village today, this one to the Cashibo Indians on the Shamboyacu River. Last Sunday we saw Mary Sargent ’49 and Olive Shell off to their work in this group, so we are to visit them today. We left early in the Aeronca, SMU 51, flew up the Ucayali River to where the Aguatia River branches off from it, then followed the Aguatia to where the little Sham boyacu River branches off from it, and there we soon spotted the village from the air. It was a most interesting way to fly, with all of us straining our eyes to find the next turn of the river through the mist, or to try to spot it ahead somewhere so we could hop up over a ridge of hills and reach the river on the other side without having to follow its winding all the way between. We spent a most enjoyable day visiting this Indian group and the two girls who are so faithfully working among them to reduce their language to writing and to give them the Word of God in their own language. We were able to bring a few things in the plane that the girls had to leave behind on Sunday, includ- Page Fourteen
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