The First C.M.S. Mission in Egyft. tt sheep or goat. The throat of the animal is cut, and the priest drinks the blood. Prayer is then made to Deng-dit that the spirit of the ox which has gone into heaven may plead for them and atone for their sins. This is done on three special occasions: when rain is wanted, or some calamity threatens, or when the chief is seriously ill. Often the clay model of a cow is placed in front of the cow-kraal to protect the animals, and ritual dances are performed round it. As regards a future life, there is a blank agnosticism. Some on being asked say, ‘Akwoi’ (‘We don’t know’), others with a cheerful optimism say all (except their enemies) will go to heaven, and others that the spirit perishes in the earth with the body. There is a vague idea that the very bad are tormented by a spirit called Main-dit in pin-tar (literally, the roots of the earth). They live in terror of the many subsidiary spirits or jork, which are believed to inhabit the trees, wilderness, houses, etc., and usually to have a malign influence on mankind.

CHAPTER II.

THE FIRST C.M.S. MISSION IN EGYPT.

The C.M.S. and the Oriental Churches, Tue attention of the C.M.S. was directed to the Oriental Christians very early in its history, for in 1802 a Bristol friend wrote suggesting that an attempt should be made to revive ‘Spiritual and Evangelical Religion in the Greek Church,’ and in the next Annual Report this proposal was mentioned. Nine years later a letter was received from Dr. Cleardo Nandi, a Roman Catholic who was living at Malta, in which he urged that the new Missionary Society of the Church of England should enter upon the labour of ‘propagating the Christian Faith among Infidels (Turks) and of confirming it among the Ignorant (members of the Oriental Churches)’ in the Levant. The Committee responded warmly, and in 1815 the Rev. W. Jowett, who had been Twelfth Wrangler and was a Fellow of St. John’s, Cambridge, was appointed to commence a Mission in the Mediterranean.

The instructions of the Committee to Mr. Jowett, delivered by Josiah Pratt, are full of interest. A great part of his work