ABYSSINIAN WOMEN.

Auckland Star, Volume LXVI, Issue 269, 13 November 1935, Page 12

ABYSSINIAN WOMEN.

TALK TO BUSINESS GIRLS. "Women do all the work in Abyssinia and tlieir chief business in life is not to bring up children, but to bury them; the death rate is so enormous," said Mrs. Charles Barton, a missionary 011 furlough from Abyssinia, when she addressed the fortnightly luncheon talk for business girls, which was held in -Milne and Clioyce's reception room yesterday. Mrs. Barton added that she knew of one mother wno. out of a family of 13, had three living children. Mrs. Barton graphically described the difficulties which had to be faced by the missionaries in their work among the women of Abyssinia. In the first place the women were extremely shy and elusive, and regarded the European woman as a strange sort of creature. In their pathetic ignorance they wondered whether the stranger were really that colour, or whether it were just a covering; whether she slept in her shoes, and what the real colour of the hair was. "But women seem to be the same the world over," said Mrs. Barton, "and one avenue of approach was to ask the names of the children. This interest made them more friendly." In penetrating the mysteries of the women's natures, continued Mrs. Barton, a lot of objectionable material was revealed. You found that the girls of that country had grown up from an unwanted babyhood into dissolute womanhood; they knew literally nothing of any sort of purity of mind and body. A civilised mind did not know what it meant to live all the time in an atmosphere of evil. To the Abyssinian woman truth had not the slightest meaning. Incurable diseases ran riot, and in one leper hospital in the capital city there were 100 permanent inmates. Gradually the women were responding to kindness —a tiling which they had to be almost trained to do. A number of examples of what the missionaries were doing to help the lives of the natives were given. Prior to tlie address Mrs. Barton donned the native dress, which consisted of a voluminous garment of cotton material, squarely cut and gathered round the waist with a cord. A part of the costume was the "jewellery," which consisted of an ear-pick, a box to contain a charm, and a cross which showed that the wearer was a member of the Coptic Church. The attendance at the luncheon was large, proving that these gatherings are being appreciated by the business girls and women of the city. Mr. Robert Milne presided and introduced the speaker to the gathering. I