Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1930-03-02
MISSIONARY TELLS
OF WORK IN AT RIGA
Wins Confidence of Wild Kisii
Tribesmen by Help
ing Them.

Rev and Mrs. Eric A. Beavon, who
have lived among the wild Kisii tribe
Of the Kenya Colony in Africa since
1e22, and were the first white people
that the natives had ever seen, are now
visiting Washington at the some of Mrs.
Beavon's parents, Rev. and Mrs. M. N.
Campbell, asa Park avenue, Takoma
Park.
Going 10 Africa from England as the
GrSt Protestant missionary among the
KisiiS In 1920, where he braved two
warlike tribes along, and for 10 months
ate only pumpkins. sweet potatoes and
corn cooked by native women, Mr..
Beavon won the confidence of the pee
pie. January /, 1922, Miss Myrna A.
Campbell. who also went out from Eng
land, was married to him. The cere-
mony, which was performed by the
father OF the bride, who accompanied
her to Africa, was the first wedding
ever performed in that section of the
dark continent in which a white couple
participated. Three sons have been
born to them there.
The Kisii people occupy that section
known as the Victoria-Nyanza, which
Is directly on the Equator, and for a
long time after Rev. Reavon located
among the Kisiis, they would call to
him from their kraals in order ito get
q good look" at the first white man they
ever had seen.
Finding that they had no written
language, Mr.. Beavon bent himself to
the task, and in order to be sure of ar
ranging words and sentences in har-
n1ony with their rules of the spoken
language, he first wrote a primer. Then
ne translated 104 gospel hymns, and
later the Book of Matthew. since ac-
cepted by the British Bible Society.
and which is still the only part of the
Bible reduced to writing in the Kisii.
I reduced the Kisii to writing in order
that the women and girls might have a
language they could write, as they were
not acquainted with the Ki-swahili. the
language that the men use, and which
we use in our mission schools" he said
Mr.. Beavon also has mastered the XII
swahin
When I arrived among the Kisiis
there wasn't a convert to the gospel"
said Mr.. Beavon. They were warlike,
frequently engaging in bloody encour-
tiers with the Lumbwas and MaSais in
the adjoining reserve. Today the
Seventh-day AdventiSts, under whose
direction I have been working, have
seven organized churches. with an aver
age membership of more than so to
each church; there are 500 candidates
in the baptiSmal classes in preparation
for membership in the denomination,
and We are operating 90 out or bush
schools. with 124 native evangelistic
workers and teachers on our pay roll
The Kisiis are generally vegetarians
They called me for long time a pig
eater until ] told them differently, as
they had been told that all white men
are pig eaters. ! am known among
them as the only white man who ever
went among them without q gun.
The natives never knew what ice
cream was until We went IN among
them. My wife, having grown fond
ness for it while living in America in
her youth. took freezer with her, and
every time We had a hailstorm she
would gather enough ice to make the
cream. We fed it to the natives, but
most of them said they didn't like il.
IS 1t burned their tongues and
throats"