The daily star-mirror. (Moscow, Idaho) 1911-1939, 1919-01-02
MOSCOW MISSIONARY
WRITES FROM INDIA
DAUGHTER O FMOSCOW MINIST-
Err AND GRADUATE OF UNI
VERSITY IN ORIENT

Miss Annetta Nov, daughter of Re,
n and Mrs. A. |. Nov of Moscow,
I ten an intensely interesting letter t
e her parents in which She tells mucI
: about the people in that country. Mis-
: Now is a graduate of the University 0
{ Idaho, class of 1918 and has been il
India about a year. Her letter, writer
: September g., follows:
Now | want to tell you about the tril
, that we took yesterday. | mean Gold,
!; and I, and the Bible woman, "Sunder
bic" We left Dahanu on the noon trair
and went to the next station south
Here we got off of the train and walked
a little ways to the first village. | guess
you know that a village consists Of fouI
to a dozen grass huts, sometimes there
are more huts together, but many many
times there are only a half dozen in a
group. 1t seems very odd to me to
think of them as villages. Near this
station there are quite a lot of such
villages.
Guess | must describe one of these
huts, SO you can see it from the out
tside. Indeed | think they are real
pretty from the outside. just imagine
a low square grass hut whose roof has
four slopes. Many times the ewes of
the roo are not more than three feet
from the ground and so we have to-
stoop when we enter them. Not all of
the roofs are covered with grass, but
many of them have large leaves tied to-
gether and fastened on the roof. And
many of these huts have vines growing
up over the roofs, and that makes them
look SO pretty. Yesterday we saw a lot
that had large pumpkin vines on the
roof, and we saw the large pumpkins
and squash up there too. Some have
|gourds on the roof and others have vines
that have pretty purple and yellow
flowers. | Think you can imagine how
pretty a group of these vince-clad huts
must look from a distance. You notice
that say they are nice from a distance
or on the outside, | annot say the same
for the inside, as you will see later on.
Our Bible woman led the way and we
followed. We had to walk through a
muddy lane, but we stepped on the drier
spots and got through O. K. The first
hut we came to, a pack of children were
playing about THE door, and of course
they were dressed Indian STYLE" and
had mo clothes OFT except for a string
about the waist and a small cloth hung
over tire string. The people of the place
had just finished Iimping the front
veranda (Which was a little square
place in front of the door about three
by three feet). I have. described the
process of "limpiI1gT to you already. and
so you know that If we went in on that
floor that it would be like STEP
ping around i'll a barnyard. But then
t was dry enough that we could step
under the porch on leaves which were
cut on the floor to walk on, until the
floor would be dry. They carried a
in for Goldie and me to sit down
IN, and brought a little low stool for /;
ounderbie. We all sat down, and so {
lid our audience, after Sunderbie told '
hem to sit down. (Isn't that funny to
20 visiting and then. tell your hostess
sit down, but that's the way here). t
That was a strange looking audience. A t
# us and inside a tiny little room at one a
ide were some men and boys, and then T
n another room were some more women t
nd children. And just back of them S
we're three big oxen and a calf and a a
OOd vi SlJlNNSliS. ldl WdS III Liz .
nain room of the house, and of course 2
hat is where the animals have their S
ONE too. They ate their grass and h
aid down to chew their Ncud as uncon- S
erned as though we had o come to
funny? I guess [ had better not try S
, describe how the men and women S
rere dressed, or undressed rather. But h
= y 4 a. Az ,-o. .,,0r+ sc AZ 11o- xxxo1..~l l.
of this country dress and we get p
Sc to it and think very little about it. Y
When the women tuck up their sardees b
or work, their legs are bare until far tt
bove the knees, and their very short
ackets allow much of the stomach to o
e uncovered. But somehow the dark II
Kin of their bodies is such a covering I
} them, that it does not look anything :,
Ike it would in America. b
Well, Sunderbie selected a song, and O
ne. and Goldie sang it. Anyone who II
never heard one of these native O.
h~rfstian songs don't know how they S
ou1d, and | annot tell you. But they al
sem to go sliding around from major W
ito minor keys that | fear all the time st
they will run off the track. But tt
ley don't. After they had sung that W
ing then Sunderbie began to tell a OF
DRY, and although | could not under &C
and any of it because it was in Mar &C
hi, and not G Ujara, 7 knew that she h;
ave them a good lesson. After that it,
over she said we would go and we al
! left, after saying, "salaam,' to the til
ousehofd. D
Then we walked over to another hut, W
looked just like the first one from al
lie outside. This time we didn't go to
side, but just sat on the narrow plat TO
'rrn that runs around the hut just un- ne
# the caves. Again they sang a song re
i'd Sunderbie told a story. The aud CT
nee looked about the same. I did fe
We to listen to Sunderbie as she talked, di
# I could see that she was enjoying tn
II work and that the people listened
ell, and ever now and then some one W,
ould shake her or his head in assent OF
Again we went on TO the next hut, and or
re everyone WAS inside the he Use. tn