FRONTIER HEROES.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LIV, Issue 282, 25 May 1912, Page 2 (Supplement)

FRONTIER HEROES.

1 —» KATE OF TWO MISSIONARIES. Dr. d'ennell juul Dr. Bennett, two medical, missionaries stationed ut lUnu, in the Indian North-west Frontier province, liave died there of blood-poisoning. The name of Dr. IVnnell wa» one to conjure with, even among the wildest and most . fanatical of frontier tribesmen. Xo further details are to hand, but it is possible that both doctors contracted blood-poisoning while actively engaged in their duties. Dr. Pennell, who is a medical missionary of the Church of England, received the gold medal of the Order of the Kaisar-i-llind in 1!)10. The perils and hardships of a missionary's life were described by Dr. Pennell in his book, "Among the Wild Tribes of the Afghan Frontier," to which Lord Roberts wrote I a. sympathetic introduction. Missionaries have often to add the work of a schoolr master to their ordinary duties. Once Dr. Pennell was asked to take a young ' Afghan of noble descent into his hostel. . He consented; but the hoy did not ap- . pear, and later he heard'that hope of , educating the young Afghan ha'd been | abandoned, as he had just murdered his younger brother. '•'Once," Dr. Pennell wrote, "I came to a village across the border rather late at night. There were numerous outlaws in the village, but the chief, under whose protection I placed myself, took the precaution of putting my head in the centre of six of his retainers, fully armed, one or two of whom were to keep watch in turns. I had had a hard dav's work, and was soon sound asleep, and" this was my safety, because T was told' in the morning that some of the more fanatical , spirits had wanted to kill me in the j night, but the others said, 'See, Tie has j trusted himself entirely to our protection, and because he trusts us he is .sleeping so soundly; therefore no harm must he done to him in our village." The religious zeal of Afghans is sometimes as dangerous to co-religionists as to Christian missionaries. "It is related of a certain section of the Afridis J that, having been taunted by another tribe for aot possessing a shrine of any holy man, they enticed a certain renowned Seyyid to visit their country, and at once despatched and buried him, and I boast to this day of their assiduity in worshipping at their sepulchre." The cases treated at mission hospitals are often of a peculiar nature. In Afghanistan many cases, more womei than men, are treated in which the sufferer has <had the nose cut off.. This is a very old form of mutilation in India. "In a case where I procured a false nose for a man the shop in England sent out a pale, flesh-colored nose, while his , skin was dark olive! Obviously this liad to be remedied, so I procured so,me walnut stain and gave him something not very different from the color of the rest of his face. Unfortunately he started oft' home before it was dry and :was' caught in a rainstorm. He was annoyed to find himself the centre of merriment on his arrival at his village, and came back to me to complain. The j nose was all streaky!"