The Richmond Virginian. (Richmond, Va.) 1910-1920, 1916-02-02
WEIRD PILGRIMAGE Of
WILD kR0O PEOPLE

Walter b and Maude Williams, mis-
sionaries of the Methodist Board at
Nanan Kroo Liberia, tell this inter-
esting story of the strange, weird pill
grimage of the men OF kroo land and
of the other wise kroo man who
found the light:
1T was a long road and a strange
one that the Wise Men of the East
traversed, but it led them to Light and
Truth and Life.
In Kroo land a score of unwiss
men have been traversing long road
and a strange one, and it has led them
to denser darkness and lies and ultt-
mate death. AS early as August the
pilgrimage began. They passed tho
mission, "a long line of men, heavily
laden with brass kettles, cloth. anu
such like 'kroQ money, their obJec-S
tive being a big devil-doctor in thu
far. far bush. so far that 1t took them
two months to reach his place ana
two months to return.
During part of this time the heavy
rains-deterred by nothing in their
season--have fallen. These raina
come with rush and a roar in =
minute. blotting out the landscape,
turning roads into rivers, and rivers
into floods. Through two months OF
such rain these unwise men have gone
on their pilgrimage. solemnly pledged
to sleep in the bush. or In brokers'
down, abandoned houses. No salt-sea~
soned food has been eaten. And 70
a kroo man salt means everythin8s
Homes, farms, wives, children. have
been left behind. deprivations wlilinE-8
ly undergone, an exhausting journey
undertaken-all for the sake of buy
ing a strange devil-doctor's advice
concerning native wars which their
own devil-doctors have started ana
cannot stop.
The Wise Men, led by the star.
found the Christ. These unwite men
found the Devil. The former returns
ed to their homes another way" This
latter came back ny @"taie same old.
dark, fearsome road. hedged in BY
witchcraft on the one hand and BY
violence and death on the other
-. Yetl-rememher- Df-NaH Dykesa-
Other Wise Man who did not reach
the Christ Child in the Bethlehem
manger. but to whom Christ himself
later came In this Kroo pilgrimage,
one man who was chosen by his tribe
would not go, because that very night
Christ came TO him. He saw no Vi
sion. but he said to us. God told my
spirit that the thing We were to DO
was not good. SO I saw not Mt to do
it, His family pleaded with him, his
people threatened him. his town rose
up against him, and the other tribes
firm. His wife and child left him, the
town people ate the rice from his
farm. broke open his boxes. divided
among themselves his clothes ana
other belongings. and drove him orr
of the town. penniiess and homeless
In this condition he came straight 81
our mission,
THANK God that his church In the
United States has put this city oe
refuge in the center of the Kroo coast.
Here. II he wishes, he can sleep ana
eat and attend school with our boys.
or II his wife comes back to him. he
can use a weil-built house In this
Christian town and make small farm
within the mission fence safe from
all outside interference. He had mAde
a good stand and has suffered the loss
OF all material things for God. Pray
with US that he may go on IN the
Lords way and not be drawn back
into heather practices"