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Aurelia was a freshly widowed young woman. Sickness had taken the great love of her life away from her. She remembered their joy together when they got married. How her husband loved and adored her! She could never forget that loving look that seemed to linger in his eyes whenever he looked at her. She for her part loved him dearly and treated him like a king. They were a match made in heaven. Both of them had planned to become missionaries in the interior of Africa or Asia to take the gospel and civilization to them. A few weeks after their marriage her dear husband had come down with a strange illness. He lasted a few months before he expired. With his dying breath he had told his wife to go on with the missionary work like they both had planned. Caspian was lying on the bed and Aurelia was holding his hand tenderly in hers and the tears was rolling down her cheeks.
After the burial she had sworn to honor the dying wish of her husband. That was when she read of the island inhabited by a cannibalistic tribe in the paper. It seemed like the perfect opportunity to fufil her husband's dying wishes.
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Aurelia had been among the savage tribe of cannibals for about a year or so. She had arrived the island by boat one fine winter morning. A cool breeze was rustling the coconut trees. The ship, Rendezvous had dropped her a few miles from the island and given her a boat. The captain of Rendezvous didn't want to reach the island because of the savage natives who often burned humans whole at the stake and devoured their flesh. Many a white men had gone there either to convert the tribe or introduce them to civilization but none had made it back alive. It reached a point that no one wanted to go there. As Aurelia landed the island that fateful morning, she was greeted by several high-pitched whistles. It was the way the natives of the island communicated to themselves that a stranger had landed on the island. Aurelia was not terrified. She allowed herself to be taken prisoner by the savage band and brought to their king. The king whom they called, Umwamì, was a 6 foot 7 giant of a man clothed in a richly dyed attire. His crown was made of human skulls. He bared his teeth in a smile when he saw a white woman being brought to him.
For the time being Aurelia communicated with the savage tribe through signs. She'd taken a class in sign language and also knew some bit of medicine.
Presently the King made a sign to her. Aurelia understood the sign as:
“Come closer.”
Aurelia approached the crude throne.
The king made another sign.
“Who are you and what have you come to do on our island?”
Aurelia replied:
“I am a white woman who has come to better the lives of you and your people. I have brought you a lot of good things.”
“Good things like what?”
“Medicine, food and useful tools.”
“Show me.”
Aurelia paused and looked round. All the members of the tribe were gazing inquisitively at her.
She turned to the king and made a sign.
“Do you have anyone sick with you?"
“Yes. My little daughter.”
The king waved his hand and the drums started beating. A little girl was brought in a crudely made stretcher. She was shivering and red spots covered her fragile body. She occasionally shrieked and screamed.
The king turned to Aurelia and signed to her:
“She fell ill a few weeks ago. The same disease took her mother my queen. I would be grateful if you can help.”
The first thought that occurred to Aurelia was that the disease wasn't communicable otherwise all the members of the tribe would suffering it. She approached the little shivering girl on the stretcher. She laid a hand on her forehead. It was almost as hot as an oven. All the while the girl was shivering.
Aurelia recognized the disease. It was called the Red Spot. It was the same disease that had taken her dear husband. She had suffered the sickness but only cured herself with the roots and leaves of particular shrub when all medication had failed.
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She made a sign to the king about her discoveries. The king sent some of his tribe members to go with her to search for the shrub. They only found it on the second day of the search and by then the little girl, the daughter of the king of the tribe, was almost gone.
Aurelia prepared the leaves and roots and made them into medicine and administered it to the girl. After three days of the treatment the king's daughter was able to sit up, speak and eat.
The king was overjoyed that his only daughter had survived. He took Aurelia in and she was treated like royalty by members of the tribe. She introduced more wonders of civilization to the tribe. The tribe came to like the powdered coffee she gave them very well. They called it Ibiryo which means food meant for kings and they consumed it with great eagerness.
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Aurelia also taught the tribe many important things. She told them some of the sicknesses they suffered came from bad hygienic habits. She taught them how to make soap from a certain plant for bathing. She allowed them to view the wonders of the sky with her telescope. She taught them heavenly signs and she taught them a method of counting which was more effective than their numerical system.
Then she introduced the gospel about the Man That Was Nailed To A Stake. The natives didn't believe her nor accept her gospel but she persisted. Still the natives didn't want to drop their gods and accept hers. They said they would only accept when something really miraculous happened.
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Whenever Aurelia went in to her quarters for the night she would open her bible and pray to her Lord for a sign that would convince the disbelieving natives. She always prayed with her fingers on the gold necklace her dear late husband, Caspian had given her after their marriage. She believed his spirit would always be with her as she laboured on the island.
One night she had a vision where the natives converted to Christianity after she commanded the day to be turned into night. The natives had screamed the name of her God aloud. Then Caspian had come to her in that vision and told her not to give up hope that she would succeed. Aurelia began to complain to him how the natives seemed to become more skeptical of the Christian faith the more she preached to them. Caspian told her again to persist and then varnished in that vision. Aurelia woke, her body bathed in sweat and her heart beating irregularly.
The next day she was moved to pray for an eclipse to convert the natives. She knew an eclipse wasn't due in almost 2 years, and she wasn't sure if it would be visible from the island. Still he prayed hard and long for days. She believed the good Lord would hear her. Later she told the tribe that her God would darken the skies the first day of the new year.
“That's impossible.”
Several voices among the tribe chorused at once.
It was night and Aurelia was sitting with the tribe round a fire and preaching the gospel to them. They had just finished supper. A mighty breeze was blowing and one could clearly hear the leaves of the palm and coconut trees as they rubbed together in the darkness. Occasionally an owl hooted loudly and insects chirpped uninterruptedly.
“But my God would do it.”
Aurelia seemed resolute.
By now she had leanerd the language of the natives and communicated fluently with them.
“You do not understand, Arimū,”one of the natives said to Aurelia. Arimu meant teacher and healer “Our god lives in the sun if the sun darkens on the first day of the year then his reign would end.”
The first day of the year was special to the tribe. It was the day they celebrated their god whom they said lived in the sun.
The day Aurelia had given the tribe arrived. The natives looked up to the skies with breathless anticipation though they still doubted Aurelia. At midday the blazing yellow of the sun was gradually turning red. The natives gazed on in wonder. Then a shadow started creeping from the West to meet the sun. In about an hour's time the sun had sunk and the whole island was thrown into darkness.
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Just as the red orb that was the sun sank, many of the natives had sunk to their knees and shouted Yezu Kirisitu!! which means He That Was Nailed to a Tree. This meant they had accepted Aurelia's God because the natives never mentioned the name of any other God apart from the own. To them it would be a great sacrilege and anyone that did so was tied to a tree and left to the jackals in the thick forest. But now many of them shouted the name of Aurelia's God. Even their king rose from his throne in wonder, his muscular palm grasping his scepter and had shaken his closed fist at the sun as it sank and shouted Yezu Kirisitu!!!
Aurelia had closed her eyes and wept. It seemed to her she had seen an image of her dear husband in the sun as it sank smiling down at her. Then the image was replaced by that of the Lord smiling at her too. She had finally fufilled Caspian's dying wish. She had accomplished what both of them planned to accomplish before his untimely death.
