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Description
"One year and four months after the hospital was opened, Dr. Arthur asked a lad Njoroge, who had been with him as a houseboy, if he wouldn't come on as an Hospital boy. The work was fully explained, it's arduous character, and it's not infrequent disagreeableness. The boy consented, and was quickly tested as no Kikuyu ever was before him he had to do the disagreeable work of the Hospital, to help in the dressing of foul-smelling sores, to nurse in the wards sometimes until death, and after death in the face of all custom and up-bringing, to help to dig a grave, and bury a dead body. Consider how a Kikuyu man will never touch a dead body, lest he become unclean, and infected by the evil spirit, and this was the crowning triumph of this boys surrender. Only the grace of God could have made a boy such as he do what he has done. To-day he is a baptised lad, rejoicing in the name of Samsoni, a triumph of Missionary work. Since then, others have followed in his tracks, and are sharing his difficulties and his joys." Portrait of Samsoni. ❧ "This Lecture was prepared by Dr J.W. Arthur in October 1911 on his voyage to Mombasa. The set of slides is the gift to the Kikuyu Mission of the Young Peoples Meeting at the Burgh Hall, Hillhead, of which he was for many years a member." A green folder marked 'Kikuyu' and containing lecture notes and relevant photographs to accompany lantern slides.
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