became too dark to do anything. What now? Return to the road and come back in the morning? No; so as to be able to start work again at daybreak we decided to stay and to sleep with the Danakil. While the coolies and the policeman were grumbling about its not being safe, our fears were now passing. Had we not shown the Danakil friendliness and were they not showing themselves friendly? They certainly were.

Being dead tired and wanting to get some sleep myself, I decided to make my berth right in the midst of the Danakil. After all, if they wanted to harm me they could do so regardless of where I slept. This gesture of trust aroused some of them and caused them to make comments to one another, one even handing me a leopard skin and motioning for me to lie down on it, which I gladly did. Noticing one of the Danakil looking in an empty gourd for water, I got up, filled the gourd with the water we had brought along in the pig skins, and handed it to him. He smiled and drank and then passed it on to others. Soon all of us were snoozing away. But after a few hours my traveling companions awoke me to let me know that they had a place for me to sleep in the plane, and so all of us slept in it for the remaining hours of the night. At five we rose and set the coolies to work on the take-off strip.

Because of fear they had not gone to sleep at all and so were only too glad to busy themselves with their picks and shovels. By about eleven o’clock the runway was ready, and, after unloading all the baggage, the plane started out with just one man aboard, it having been decided to have the plane as light as possible for the take-off, the two of us going back in the jeep with the baggage. The plane got in the air before reaching the end of the take-off strip and, after circling a few times, it rose and soon faded out of sight beyond the distant hills.

We went over to the Danakil—there were forty-five of them on hand now—and shook hands. Each one kissed my hand after I had shaken his and then put his hand up to my mouth for me to kiss, which I did. After loading picks, shovels and baggage in the jeep we started back. Upon reaching the place where we had to leave the truck we waited for the coolies, who came followed by some of the Danakil. As we got ready to leave, the Danakil came over to say good-by again and invited me to return sometime.

You may wonder what I did about preaching to the Danakil. I did try to tell them about God’s kingdom, Armageddon and the new world. They showed no expression nor did they have any questions. To what extent my remarks had any effect I cannot say, world conditions meaning nothing to them, but at least some of the Danakil heard about God’s kingdom and Armageddon.

I certainly am grateful to Jehovah that I came out of the Dankali country unharmed and so still able to serve him.

In Behalf of Religious Liberty

● A United Press dispatch for May 22, 1954, reported the following: “The Unitarian Ministers Association has gone on record against a proposal to include the words ‘under God’ in the pledge of allegiance. The association—at its 129th annual meeting in Boston—also protested against a proposed constitutional amendment which would say the United States ‘recognizes the authority and law of Jesus Christ.’ The association says the ‘under God’ phrase in the pledge of allegiance violates religious liberty . . . while the constitutional amendment would ‘imply a theological test for citizenship.’”