Show ij q life lafle in in africa For former Geri german flan Terr territory itou overrun ruif with lions Mis missionaries slon clash london all Is not joy in the life of british officials la in tanganyika ter citory formerly german east africa lions lion leopards leop ardt und elephants menace tho the population V missionary jealousy bewilders the pagan natives and witchcraft practiced by the wild wa pare of tho the mashl district causes many helpless infants ta to ho be put to death annually aspects of life in this now brittell territory ore are described in the 1022 1922 report of the country big game multiplied rapidly in tanganyika during the war lions frequently satisfy their taste for human flesh at the expense of life their boldness Is incredible and whole villages have been terrorized by their presence in the first holf of the year rewards were paid for the destruction of lions and leopards in tabora district alone 07 people were killed by lions natives are helpless elephants do great damage to crops often ruining a whole plantation in a single night or entering the villages they strip the roofs of af grain stores and scatter or consume the con consents lents the native too often assumes a fatalistic attitude in tho the presence of disaster and beck becomes imes unwilling or unable to help himself in tanganyika witchcraft haa bag as fatal effects on infants as wild beasts have oti on adult natives to the influence of the medicine men says the report may bo be attributed the alie barbarous practice of infanticide wh which pre valls among the gapare in the mashl district children born bom with some abnormality or the offspring of parents who have failed to undergo initiation into certain tribal ceremonies are done to deith death by dellb erato starvation and beg teci or by exposure exposure to tb tile the unhealthy cail climate ute of the low country often parents would not of ibe their irown own accord abandon such children and in many cases have baye preferred to give them away to strangers among missionaries when the elders of the tribe were ad addressed dresse d on this matter there was a decided tendency to recognize its evils and to adopt more enlightened id ideas 0 as but a few were against the abolition ol 01 of the custom on the ground that the destruction of the tribes certainly would follow according to these theao stages life Is altogether too precarious and the number of acts or omissions which they can cite as being fatal Is 19 amazing even to plant it a tree was pronounced to bo be equivalent to dooming ones self to death another difficulty confronting british administrators in the territory Is a that of rivalry among missionaries it Is greatly to be regretted tellata that a spirit of jealous rivalry has manifested itself in cottain certain districts between christian missions of different denominations the report declares it arises from a very natural and sincere belief in the superiority of that branch of tile the con common faith which it Is their pride and their duty to preach to the heathen y but it has often resulted in an undignified competition to extend the scope of file mission beyond limits which in a proper degree degneo of influence and cantrill con control trill would demand and in attempts jo io sot set up schools in juxtaposition of those of another denomination this open display to tho the pagan of religious differences feren cea ces cannot but react to the damage of the christian faith bewildered christian missionaries by offering ono one doctrine here arf another oiher close by and still another a few miles away must achieve little more than the complete bewilderment of the pagan native and it would be well if christian societies would reco recognize nize that the principle of spheres of influence la in I 1 ultimately to tho the clear advantage of christianity as a whole no less than to that of pagan populations |