NATIONAL FEASTS AND PROCESSIONS IN CHINA. 219 had arrived, so we were just in time. They all wore their handsomest robes, embroidered with the dragon and the white stork. On the arrival of the chief officer, the mud ox, which plays a prominent part in the ceremonies of the day, was borne out of this temple, and carried to the Taouist monastery near to the north gate of the city. I noticed that the ox was chiefly black and white, while the usual colours are yellow and red. A bystander told me that the yellow and the red would betoken that there had been full crops and much sun during the past harvest, while the white and the black showed that there had this year been an unusual quantity of rain and wind. Whether the black is the emblem of the wind, and the white of the rain, the people are not agreed: the teachers say that the water (rain) is properly black from the clouds, and the appearance of the water in the canals, &c., is dark, but that the people have now made a mistake, and look upon the white as denoting water. The god of the year-that is, of this year of the cycle of sixty-a clay figure, painted and gilded, was in a side compartment of the temple; and after tea and pipes, the officers, six in number, went and made their prostrations before the clay, of which their own bodies were made, defiling their souls, and dishonouring their Creator in their ignorant and debased worship. A miserable spectacle it certainly is, to see men of talent and of rank so demeaning themselves as to cast a reproach upon our common humanity. This was all the morning's ceremony. In the afternoon, about three o'clock, the beating to pieces of the mud ox took place. The officers assembled at the Taouist monastery, whither it had been carried, and again went through their abominable idolatries; and then the ox was placed in the court, and they made. several circuits of it, walking round it, and striking it with small wands given them for that purpose. Then they left it, and instantly all the people rushed pell-mell upon it, tearing it and stamping it to pieces, and carrying away handfuls of the dirt, or bits of stick, of which it was composed. I asked the use of this, and they said it was to put in the rice jar, that the rice might swell out more in boiling, and so go further. Captain Hall was telling me to-day of a custom in North India which my account of the beating to pieces of this mud ox brought to his mind. He says that there they have a human sacrifice, whose bones are first broken by the priest or chief minister of the religion, and that directly he leaves him all the people rush in and tear the victim to pieces, each trying to secure some small portion for himself as a charm.* How completely sin has put out the eyes of the human understanding, and rendered man blind as to every thing of a spiritual nature! and how justly the heathen are described by the inspired Apostle, when he speaks of them as "having the understanding darkened, being alienated from the life of God through the ignorance that is in them, because of the blindness of their heart!" Mr. Cobbold also mentions the feast of lanterns, the most magnificent, perhaps, of all the national festivities of the Chinese. It takes place at the time of the new-year's holydays, when, for the * This seems to refer to the human sacrifices among the Khunds, of which an engraving and description were given in our “Quarterly Paper" for Lady-day 1839. 220 period of forty days, all labour is suspended. The literary Mandarin, the merchant, and the agriculturist, all alike, rich and poor, observe a general cessation from their usual employments, and engage in visiting and feasting, occasionally making offerings at the temples of those deities whose peculiar aid they wish to implore. Amongst other festivities of the season, the feast of lanterns is celebrated, when two hundred millions of lanterns, of every variety of form, and of various materials, are said to be lighted up throughout the empire. They are hung on every elevated point-house-tops, mast-heads, the many-storied pagodas, and the twisted roofs of temples. They are borne along on the tops of poles, and illuminated forms of fishes, dragons, beasts, &c., are carried about in different directions to the temples. JOHN, ONE OF THE KILLED AT ABBEOKUTA. Alas! poor China is in midnight darkness, and needs the kindling of a better light. May the Lord hasten the time when "the day-spring from on high" shall visit these deluded millions, "to give light to them that sit in darkness and in the shadow of death, to guide their feet into the way of peace!" when the Lord shall give the word, and great shall be "the company of the preachers," and many native evangelists, raised up from the midst of them, "hold forth the Word of Life!" Our readers will rejoice to hear that our Missionaries at Ningpo were enabled, on Easter Sunday last, to baptize two Natives, whom they believe to be taught of God. This fact, the particulars of which we hope to give in a future Number, has much encouraged and strengthened them in their work. JOHN, ONE of the killED AT ABBEOKUTA.* ABBEOKUTA and its people have been indeed rescued from very imminent danger, the late attack of the Dahomians having been of a much more formidable character than we had supposed. The Rev. Samuel Crowther, who has recently arrived in England, has made us acquainted with some remarkable circumstances in which we may clearly see the protecting providence of God. When the Missionaries were first made aware that the King of Dahomey intended to attack the city, they requested that a meeting of the Chiefs might be convened, and the opportunity afforded them of communicating the important intelligence they had received. Some of the Chiefs were disposed to make light of the danger; but others felt it to be serious, and that defensive measures ought to be immediately adopted; especially the repair of the city walls, which were in a very imperfect state. Accordingly, on a day appointed, Sagbua appeared on the wall with basket and working implements in his hands; and the head Chief setting such an example soon brought numbers to the spot, so that a considerable portion of the wall was put in good repair. The wall is of mud: the base on which it rests is broad, and from thence it gradually slopes upwards, so as to form * See our Number for August last. JOHN, ONE OF THE KILLED AT ABBEOKUTA. 221 on the inside a parapet, over which the defenders can fire, but on the outside presenting to the enemy a defence of some eight or ten feet high. Having done so much of the wall, and the danger not being imminent, the work ceased, the defences in other directions being left in the same unfinished state as they had been before. The Dahomian army which moved to the attack was 16,000 strong, well disciplined and organized. Arms and ammunition had been abundantly supplied by the slave-dealers, at whose instigation Gezo had decided to attack the city. In fact, it was a grand effort on the part of all who were engaged in the slave-trade to destroy Abbeokuta, whose Chiefs and people prefer legitimate trade to slave-traffic, and desire earnestly the removal of the slave-dealers from the coast, that they may have full opportunity of carrying on lawful trade. In Abbeokuta there is no regular army, and of fighting men, who in time of danger might be expected to assemble under the Chiefs of their respective districts, there were not more than 8000. But the Dahomians lost the advantage of superior numbers by directing their attack against that very portion of the wall which had been repaired. They fought desperately, especially the amazons. At one particular spot, where the defences had been comparatively weak, and the conflict more severe, eighty dead bodies were counted, of which only three were the bodies of men. It also appears that no orders had been issued by Gezo to spare the White Men, much less the Native Missionaries and converts, and that, had the enemy succeeded in forcing their way in, all would have been involved in one indiscriminate massacre. The Chiefs and people ascribe their deliverance to the God of the Christians. Indeed, it was manifest that neither the Mahommedan nor heathen priests, nor their respective superstitions, were in any way concerned in it. The attack on the Monday morning was so sudden, that there was no time to consult the babbalawos. A Mahommedan priest, indeed, had buried a charm outside the city wall, which, he said, would suffice for its protection, as the enemy would be unable to pass over it. It was exactly over that spot that the ranks of the Dahomians marched; and after the excitement was over, and the danger repelled, this man found himself exposed to the taunts of the people. The Christians had united in prayer the previous evening on behalf of the city, committing themselves and their townspeople to the Divine protection; but on the Monday morning, the sudden appearance of the Dahomian army prevented the possibility of their doing so again, as they had to join, without delay, the district parties to which they respectively belonged. It had been arranged that the Christians of each district should keep together in a little body, and this they endeavoured to do. One of the converts fell in defence of the town. The only particulars we have of him are contained in the following extract from Mr. Crowther's Journal. Before we introduce it, however, to the attention of our readers, we would remark that this man's death may be productive of good, by 222 JOHN, ONE OF THE KILLED AT ABBEOKUTA. convincing the Chiefs and people that the converts are not the less good citizens, or less interested than before in the welfare of their country, because they have become Christians. We now give the extract. March 23, 1851: Lord's-day-I administered the Sacrament of the Lord's Supper to fifty-five Communicants. It was to us a season of heartfelt gratitude to our heavenly Father for the spiritual and temporal mercies we have received from Him since the last persecution, which separated us for a time; as well as for the late deliverance from destruction through the hand of violence, by which John, one of our number, was removed from us. These afflictions and mercies were calculated to impress upon each and all our minds the vanity of earthly things, and the necessity of following the Lord fully, because of the uncertainty of time, as evidenced in the case of our dear friend John. We had heard nothing of him since the day of the battle at noon, when the Egbas were driven back from the river, and compelled to retreat within the walls. We had searched for him on the day after, but in vain. In the afternoon of the next day, the 5th instant, his brother, who would not give up, found his body in a bush, at a place remote from any other, where, it appeared, he had attempted to screen himself when he was separated from his friends, and there was killed, and his head taken away. He was one of those who were early impressed by the preaching of the Gospel. He soon enlisted himself as a Candidate for Baptism, and one of his two wives followed his example. After two years' trial and instruction, he chose his fellow Candidate for his wife, and dismissed the other, amidst much trouble and family trial, and was at last baptized into the Church, choosing for himself the name of John Baptist, because he was so much taken with the character and life of that holy man of God. John being a son of a late Chief, he was particularly singled out in the persecution of 1849, and was cruelly treated because he would not follow the example of his late father, neither showed any inclination to fill his office. He was heavily fined, and forced to become a member of the Ogboni; but nothing could shake off the faith of John in Christ as his Saviour, nor would he exchange his Christian profession for another. When the Converts could not openly come to Church nor to my house, I cannot now tell how many tearful nights he spent at my house, when I endeavoured to comfort them under their trying circumstances. John was the first who pushed his way to Church on Christmas-day 1849, and made way for his fellow converts. As he was better circumstanced than others, he was liberal, and was a succour to many in time of distress. From him we had much of our correct information of the state of the slave-trade at Lagos. As he was an active trader in it in time past, so he became averse to it after his conversion, and hoped and longed for its abolition He was not bright in acquiring the art of reading, but he had a remarkably retentive memory, and many a time, at our Saturday Meeting of Communicants, very accurately related the sermon preached on the preceding Sunday. The history of Christ's sufferings soon melted him, when he thought how far man had fallen-that Jesus, who came into our miserable world to save us from death, should be thus treated by us sinners whom He came to save! We trust he is now resting with his Saviour in heaven, whom we believe he faithfully served on earth. THE OUTCAST FROM CHINA BROUGHT SAFELY HOME. 223 What a cause of thankfulness and encouragement when they who have gone before us have left such memorials behind them! Enoch's epitaph, "He walked with God," is the happiest remembrance. Is it so with you who are now perusing these words? Can it with truth be said of you now, and remembered of you hereafter? THE OUTCAST FROM CHINA BROUGHT SAFELY HOME. BELOW is the portrait of a Chinese youth, John Dennis Blonde, who died at Ashcroft, near Wentworth in Yorkshire, in the beginning of last year. He is one of the few from amongst that numerous people, who, so far as our knowledge extends, having received the Truth in the love of it, have gone to sleep "in sure and certain hope of the resurrection to eternal life, through our Lord Jesus Christ." His history is very affecting and interesting, manifesting as it does the tender mercy of God towards this poor youth, and affording a beautiful illustration of the Psalmist's saying, "When my father and my mother forsake me, then the Lord will take me up." Of this |