Awake!, January 8, 1956

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UNVEILING THE MYSTERIOUS SOUL

Is it mind, spirit or man himself?

^Triumphant Kingdom” Assemblies in Europe

Unexcelled series of Christian gatherings

How Dangerous Is the Octopus?

Shy, timid and delicious!

Why Mixed Marriages Are Inadvisable

THE MISSION OF THIS JOURNAL

News sources that are able to keep you awake to the vital issues of our times must be unfettered by censorship and selfish interests. "Awake!” has no fetters. It recognizes facts, faces facts, is free to publish facts. It is not bound by political ambitions or obligations; It is unhampered by advertisers whose toes must not be trodden on; it is unprejudiced by traditional creeds. This journal keeps itself free that it may speak freely to you. But it does not abuse its freedom. It maintains integrity to truth.

"Awake !’* uses the regular news channels, but is not dependent on them. Its own correspondents are on all continents, in scores of nations. From the four corners of the earth their uncensored, on-the-scenes reports come to you through these columns. This journal’s viewpoint is not narrow, but is international. It is read in many nations, in many languages, by persons of all ages. Through its pages many fields of knowledge pass in review—government, commerce,'religion, history, geography, science, social conditions, natural wonders—why, its coverage is as broad as the earth and as high as the heavens.

“Awake I” pledges itself to righteous principles, to exposing hidden foes and subtle dangers, to championing freedom for all, to comforting mourners and strengthening those disheartened by the failures of a delinquent world, reflecting sure hope for the establishment of a righteous New World.

Get acquainted with “Awake!” Keep awake by reading “Awake!”

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CONTENTS

For Women Only?

Inflammation—an Amazing Defense

Time to Change Names

Mechanism

Unveiling the Mysterious Soul

Would It Make Any Difference?

What Is the Human Soul?

The Cycle Completed

How Dangerous Is the Octopus?

“Your Word Is Truth”

“Triumphant Kingdom” Assemblies

Why Mixed Marriages Are Inadvisable

In Europe

Jehovah’s Witnesses Preach in All

The Monkey That Refused to Smoke

the Earth—The Netherlands

The Bushmen of Africa

Do You Know?

Appetites Courageous

Watching the World

For Women Only?

JUST leave religion up to my wife,” 1 the husky laborer said to the young witness of Jehovah who had called at his door on a pleasant Sunday morning. “Come back when she ishome.” The man’s objection was a common one, but the witness of Jehovah knew why so many men are not particularly concerned about religion.

“That’s a common view,” he said. “A lot of us men leave religion up to the womenfolks. We men are concerned with the daily struggle to bring home the bacon and often aren’t particularly interested in religion. But, you know, the Bible has a great deal more to say about the things we’re interested in than many men think.

“Just look here,” he urged, as he opened his Bible to Second Timothy, chapter three. “The apostle Paul wrote this nearly two thousand years ago, yet it tells about the very day in which we are living. It says: ’But know this, that in the last days critical times hard to deal with will be here.’

“Isn’t that true of our day?”

The householder agreed that it is.

“Then look at what else it says: ‘For men will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, self-assuming, haughty, blasphemers, disobedient to parents’—you see, it even mentions juvenile delinquency—‘without gratitude, with no loving-kindness, having no natural affection, not open to any agreement, slanderers, without selfcontrol, fierce, without love of goodness, betrayers, headstrong, puffed up with selfesteem, lovers of pleasures rather than lovers of God, having a form of godly devotion but proving false to its power?

“Tell me,” the witness asked, “Do you think these conditions exist today?” And again the householder agreed that they do. “Well, it even says in verse seven that in these ‘last days’ men would be ‘always learning and yet never able to come to an accurate knowledge of truth.’ ”* And it was dear to the householder that there is greater knowledge today, that even the preachers are better trained, but that, with it all, man still has not learned the apparently simple Bible truth about why man cannot get along with his neighbor and live in peace with the world.

It was pointed out that more men would be interested in what the Bible says if they really knew how thoroughly it applies to our day. And this householder decided that there might be something to that, for this Was the first minister he had listened to in a long while.

The minister continued: “A knowledge of God’s Word really is important. In Hosea 4:6 we are told that God’s people can be destroyed for lack of it. And in John 17:3 we are told that knowledge of Jehovah God and his Son Christ Jesus really

♦ Quoted from 2 Timothy 3; 1-5, 7, Neu? World Tran*.

does lead to everlasting life. Further, the Bible shows the reason earth is In its present mess and the outcome and surely everyone would like to know that!”

What is the outcome? That was explained from Matthew 24, where Jesus' disciples asked him what would be the sign of his second presence and of the end of the present wicked system of things (often called "world” in the Bible). In answer Jesus said that there would be many false reports about his second presence and, further, that the “wars and reports of wars” throughout the centuries would not mark the accomplished end. Something different must occur to mark the sign that Jesus was talking about.

Sure enough, the next two verses say: "For nation will rise against nation and kingdom against kingdom, and there will be food shortages and earthquakes in one place after another. AH these things are a beginning of pangs of distress/'—Matthew 24:7, 8, New World Trans.

When did such a thing as that occur? The beginning of total mobilization, the first time nation rose against nation and kingdom against kingdom so that the world was at war was just over forty-one years ago, in 1914. Man thought that that war would make the world "safe for democracy/ but Jesus had pointed out that this would be only "a beginning of pangs of distress/’ And how true that prediction proved to be, for, just the opposite of providing safety for democracy, World War I was followed by World War II, and now by the fear of a hydrogen-powered World War HI!

Not only did Jesus foretell these things, but Matthew 24 continues to describe the very occurrences of the forty-one years since 1914. ‘The most Important thing aoout that?* the witness explained, "Is that one yener&tton would see these things both begin and fetid, for verse thirty-four tells us that Jesus said: ‘Truly I say to you that this generation will by no means pass away until all these things occur/ ” Thus, the end of this present wicked system of things will come within the lifetime of some people who are more than forty-one years old today!

These are important facts. They mean that the prayer that God's kingdom would come and his will be done ‘in earth as it is in heaven' is about to be fulfilled. Jesus would not have taught us to pray that prayer if God did not have the power to fulfill it. He can and will do it! The only question is; When? And the Bible definitely answers: Soon!

His interest having been stirred, the man of the house accepted Bible literature, like the magazine you are now reading, and a return visit was arranged to help him to learn more about the information that the Bible really does have for our day.

The Bible does deal with our time and with things that are of vital concern to us. Jt provides reliable information and its message is urgent. It is not just for women, children and old people. It is provided by the most manly and powerful of all gods, the Supreme One, Jehovah. Dig into it. Gain a knowledge of what it contains and act upon that knowledge, for, while your day’s work may bring home the bacon or buy the beans, the value of what you learn and teach your family from this book, the Bible, can be with you for all eternity.

TIME TO CHANGE NAMES

In Johannesburg a man named Johnny Gallon was fined £2 for drunkenness. To the prisoner at the bar the magistrate said: “I suggest you change your name to Tint,1 which may remind you not to drink so much in the future."

11 UNVEILING THE

and you could put a million of them in a

about it. Wise men have nutshell,” An eminent Bible scholar called

es have thought, or exterior, without body, shape, or parts, dreamed and written

S<jm« claim if fa be the mind oiman. Others say it is the spirit of man. Stilt others will honestly admit that they do not know what if is. Do you know? What light stow the Bible ; and secular history short on this simple some, thing called soul?The truth will surprise you. ■,

Throughout the ages poets and prophets, saints and sag-

speculated upon it, physicians have dissected and delved deep into the mysteries of living and inert matter to discover it, philosophers have expressed opinions regarding it, chemists have demonstrated it and naturalists have cultivated’ it. Yet none venture to say specifically what it is. All their reports are shrouded in mystery and supposition. Their theories are a bedlam of generalities and uncertainties, clothed in ambiguity and mysticism. After thousands of years of speculation the average man still inquires: “What is this mysterious thing called the soul?”

According to a concise Cyclopedia of Religious Knowledge, by Elias B. Sanford, “The Epicureans thought the soul was a subtle air, composed of primitive atoms; the stoics thought it wa£ a flame,portion : of heavenly light; while the Cartesians made thinking the essence of the soul. ...

Both Pythagoras and Plato held the brain to be the central dwelling-place of the soul.” The materialist “holds the soul to i be a product or property of the bodily organization, and in no sense independent of it.” As the body is not immortal, “so nei-i ther can the soul be.”

Augustine taught the soul to be simple, immaterial and spiritual, devoid of quantity and spatial extension. He argued its immortality, claiming that it is the repository of imperishable truth. A Methodist bishop defined the soul as “without interior the bishop’s definition “absurd,” stating: "Really, the bishop gave an excellent definition of nothing; and all will agree that a hundred millions of nothings could be put into the smallest kind of a nutshell and have room to spare.”

Philosopher William Crawshaw conjectured the soul to be “a diaphanous body, a sort of impalpable ghost with the shadowy outline of human features.” Sir Oliver Lodge assumed the soul might be “a sort of ethereal body as opposed to our obvious material body . . . but more permanent” Lamarck considered it to be a manifestation of cosmic mind, presumably electrical in nature. The author of Science Finds “The Human Soul” writes: “Somewhere, somehow, a human being dwells apart from his own brain, even from his own thoughts. And this consciousness above consciousness . . . appears to be the ‘human soul.’” However, not one of these authorities will clearly and definitely say what the soul is. They will frankly admit they do not know.

Belief in Soul Universal

Nevertheless, belief in the soul's immortality, say sociologists, is more widespread even than belief in a God or gods, Ralph Waldo Emerson wrote: “I have heard that wherever the name of man is spoken, the doctrine of immortality is announced; it cleaves to his constitution,” And again he said: “We are much better believers in immortality than we can give grounds for. The real evidence is too subtle, or is higher than we can write down in propositions.” Robert J, McCracken asserted that man-Jdnd’s “hope of immortality is intuitive and inbred. The intellect, the heart, the conscience demand it. There is an undis-courageable, inextinguishable assurance in man, rooted in something which he feels is of the very essence of his being, that death cannot be the end.” All these authorities agree with.the heathen poet who said: “Non omnis inoriar” “Not all of me will die.”

In Egyptian mythology immortality of the soul is all-important. The day of death is called “the moment of initiation into celestial life,” The ancient Greeks placed a coin in the mouth of the deceased as fare for the ferryman who guided the soul to the other side. So convinced were early Britishers of an afterlife that they even lent money to be repaid in another existence. And on the Fiji Islands there remains till this day a ridge, some forty feet long, that was to serve as a runway for departing souls.

Where the Doctrine Originated

How did the world come to believe that there was an immortal spiritual essence that thinks and consciously survives the body at death? The recognized authority Blackbume declares: “The separate existence of the soul was one of those doctrines which the Papacy borrowed from Paganism. Anaxagoras was the first among the Greeks who conceived of mind as detached from matter.” Bunsen in his work Egypt in Universal History, Vol. 4, p, 639, says: “The Egyptians were the first who taught the doctrine of the immortality of the soul, —a fact mentioned by all Greek writers from Herodotus to Aristotle, and confirmed by the monuments.” The doctrine as taught in Christendom, states Bayle’s Dictionary, is “mixed with Egyptian and Greek conceptions.”

And where did the Egyptians get it? Not from the Bible, because they were not believers in God's Word. They worshiped demon gods. And it was by “the ruler of the demons,” Satan the Devil, that they came to teach this doctrine. It was he and not God who said to Eve, “You positively will not die,” Jehovah had instructed the very opposite: “In the day you eat from it you will positively die.” But ever since Eve’s time earth’s majority has preferred to believe the lie of immortality to God’s statement of truth.—Mark 3:22; Genesis 3:4; 2:17; John 8:44, New World Trans,

The Bible does not teach immortality of the soul. Note how authorities unite to discredit the doctrine as a pagan falsehood. Olshausen in his Commentary says: “The doctrine of the immortality of the soul and the name are alike unknown to the entire Bible.” Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments states in regard to First Corinthians 15:53, that “nowhere is the immortality of the soul, distinct from the body, taught; a notion which may erroneously have been derived from heathen philosophers. Scripture does not contemplate the anomalous state brought about by death as the consummation to be earnestly looked for (2 Cor. 5:4), but the resurrection.” Hastings’ Bible Dictionary declares: “Soul is throughout a great part of the Bible simply the equivalent of ‘life* embodied in living creatures. In the earlier usage in the

Old Testament it has no reference to the later philosophical meaning—the animating principle, still less to the idea of an ‘immaterial nature' which will survive the body.”

Martin Luther was bitterly assailed for not believing the pagan immortality of the soul doctrine. Cardinal Due Perren says: “Luther denied the immortality of the soul, whence he drew an argument against praying to saints, showing that the saints hear not our prayers. . . . Luther reckons this among the impieties of the Roman [Catholic] Church, that she believes in the immortality of the soul.” Luther himself wrote: “All that is said concerning the immortality of the soul is nothing but an invention of antichrist to make his pot boil.”—Bayle’s Historical and Critical Dictionary, Vol 3, p. 2617,

What Is the Human Soul?

Luther came to his conclusion about the soul on an incontrovertible basis, that of the Bible itself. We can do the samp. The Bible is very explicit in defining the soul. It says: “Then Jehovah God proceeded to form the man out of dust from the ground and to blow into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man came to be a living soul.” Yes, the “man, came to be a living soul.” There is nothing mysterious about this text, is there? Of course not. It is very plain and simple to understand. It tells us very directly that the living, moving, breathing creature, man, is a soul. The expression “living soul” here means nothing more nor less than a sentient creature, that is to say, a creature capable of sensation, perception and thought. Therefore, The Imperial Bible Dictionaryt by P. Fairbairn, says: The soul “is the very man himself, and accordingly we find the word translated by the English words person, self, creature, and any”—Genesis 2:7, New World Trans.

What might surprise you more is that the Bible teaches that anhpals are souls. Yes, every horse, every cow, every bird and every fish is a soul—all are living, moving, breathing creatures. The Heorew word for “soul” is applied to the lower animals many times in the Bible. However, poor Bible translations have obscured this important fact from the people. The Authorized Version reveals this truth in only one place, which reads: “Levy a tribute unto the Lord of the men of war which went out to battle: one soul of five hundred, both of the persons, and of the beeves, and of the asses, and of*the sheep.” Here the word “soul” is used respecting the lower creatures as well as in respect to man. In the New World Translation of the Hebrew Scriptures, also in The Emphasised Old Testament, by J. B. Rotherham, one will see numerous instances where the lower animals as well as men are referred to as souls.—See Genesis 1:20, 21, 24, 30; 2:19; 9:10, 12, 15, 16; Numbers 31:28.

Does the Soul Die?

Dr. Gustaf Stromberg, astronomer, said: “Seemingly a soul can never be annihilated.” Dr. Joseph B. Rhine, Duke psychologist, declared: “There is something about human personality that could survive,” but he does not elaborate or give proof. Linus M. Riordan, Ph,D., wrote: “Man’s soul is immortal, that is, immune from death.” But what proof do they give? Not any. Does the Bible agree with these men? Olshausen, Jamieson, Fausset, Brown and Hastings quoted earlier say no.

Note in what clear and simple language the Bible refutes the pagan doctrine: “The soul that sinneth, it shall die.” (Ezekiel 18:4, 20) If the soul dies, then it is not immortal, but mortal. Are these the only texts that say that? No, there are many. About Jesus it was prophesied that he would pour “out his soul unto death.” He

made “his soul an offering for sin.” Peter, speaking of Jesus, said: “Indeed, any soul that does not listen to that Prophet will be completely destroyed from among the people/’ John the apostle wrote: “Every living soul died, yes, the things in the sea/’ David said: “None can keep alive his own soul.” “He spared not their soul from death.” —Isaiah 53:10, 12; Acts 3:23; Revelation 16:3, New World Trans.; Psalm 22:29; 78:50.

Are we going to disbelieve God who says emphatically that a soul dies, and accept instead the doctrine of soul immortality based on Satan’s lie to Eve and pagan mythology? Sincere Christians will look into God’s Word before they decide.

Who Is Immortal?

Paul wrote that, aside from Jehovah God, Christ Jesus was “the one alone having immortality.” We are mortals. “This which is mortal puts on immortality,” says Paul. Immortality is a prize to be sought by footstep followers of Christ Jesus, and only 144,001 will gain this glorious reward. All others will remain mortal, with their continued existence dependent on the Lifegiver, Jehovah. Paul says: “Everlasting life [will be rendered by God] to those who are seeking glory and honor and incorruptibleness by endurance in work that is good.” If immortality were inherent, there would be no need to seek it. The fact that it is something to be sought proves that man does not possess it inherently.—1 Timothy 6:16; 1 Corinthians 15:54; Romans 2:6, 7, New World Trans.

Understanding the soul to be the living creature, we can understand why Peter says some 3,000 souls were baptized in one • day at Pentecost. He was not speaking of some ethereal shades but of living Christian converts. We can understand why the Bible says souls eat, hear, wash their clothes, do work. The fact that the Bible says the soul has blood and can do these various services does away with the popular theory that it is the mind or personality of man. Mind and personality are qualities and have no need for blood and do not exist apart from living organism. And, too, “the word ‘spirit’ is often used as if it were identical with the word 'soul/ ” says Fairbairn. “There is a distinction between them, which is carefully marked through the whole of Scripture.” Actually, there is not one scripture in the entire Bible that says man has an immortal soul. Certainly that alone is damaging evidence against its existence. Its adherents must cling solely to pagan mythology for their support. —Acts 2:41; Leviticus 4:2; 5:1-17; 7:18-21; 17:10-16, New World Trans.; Jeremiah 2:34.

Does not the natural aspiring of man to immortality prove that man has an immortal soul? No. It merely proves that he wants to live and not die. This feeling is inherent in man, because God created the first man to live, not to die. Had Adam not disobeyed God, he would never have died. He would be living today. But Adam disobeyed, sinned. And “the wages sin pays is death, but the gift God gives is everlasting life by Christ Jesus our Lord.” By accepting God’s gift, Adam’s offspring can gain back what Adam lost. They can live everlastingly, and thus have this inherent desire satisfied. Those who have died will gain life through a resurrection, and not through some ethereal soul.—Romans 6:23; John 5:28, 29, New World Trans.

To believe the pagan doctrine of immortality of the soul is to disbelieve the Bible and what God says about the soul. It means one denies the ransom of Christ Jesus, the doctrine of resurrection, the hope of a new world promised. It means we prefer pagan falsehood to Bible truth. And what you believe about the soul determines to what extent you believe in God.

mow DANGEROUS

SiVTOU enter into ■ F"*

I the beast” So | | "pj p

wrote Victor Hugo in

Toilers o/ the Sea as he began to describe an octopus devouring a human: “He draws

you to him, into him; and, boun less, you feel yourself emptied i frightful sac, which is a monste eaten alive is more than terrible; but to be drunk alive is inexpressible.”

Is the octopus this kind of terrible ster, lurking in sea caves, waiting to dart out and seize a diver with its eight arms and to drink him? Or is it a shy, timid creature, changing color in fright or hiding behind an inky smoke screen? Marine zoologists who have studied these odd animals hold to the second opinion. And aqualung divers who recently have had numerous experiences with octopuses have the same opinion. These authorities say in effect that the phrase “drunk alive” in the above-mentioned passage more likely referred to the condition of the novelist when he penned it than to the situation of a human meeting an octopus.

Why is it, then, that of all the inhabitants of the oceans probably none excite

more d

spawn more stories than ason is that novelists, such as Victor Hugo, have writ-n things about se eight-armed atures that t are not true, o many chil-n’s books have ribed the oc-usesinafright-anner, creat-a bias against e animals in

e

pus appears in a movie he is about to

inds of on is that

ourj^J. Another big almost every time an octodevour some hapless diver. Then, too, the comparatively few accounts of actual attacks by giant octopuses on deep-sea divers have often been greatly exaggerated. An obvious reason why the octopus is dreaded, of course, is the animal’s weird appearance, which, by human standards, hardly makes it eligible for the finals of a beauty contest. And it must be admitted that an examination of the octopus’ equipment does nothing to inspire confidence.

In a way there is not much to an octopus; he has not a bone in his body and is chiefly head and arms, eight of them, eigh arms or tenta-c 1 e s! Well equipped these tentacl are stud with two r of suction c Thus the o pus has six radiating li of power suckers t finally me around its mouth in a maze of suction cups. Obviously, prey forced into this pit of adhesiveness is held fast in the very jaws of destruction. For within its mouth is a parrotlike beak with which the octopus tears its food or its enemies to pieces. Then there are the octopus’ eyes—a pair of lidless, staring eyes, sometimes as large as saucers. Nor is that all. This creature is a living jet motor; he can shoot himself backward like a rocket almost faster than the eye caa follow.

arms— ike

No Malice Toward Man

A monstrous octopus is without doubt a formidable creature. Giant octopuses of the Pacific sometimes span more than thirty feet across from tip to tip of opposite arms. An octopus of this size can be dangerous. From time to time accounts of narrow escapes by divers crop up. Is this a display of octopus malice toward man? Zoological authorities think not. Since the attacks are comparatively few, it may be that the octopus is defending himself, or, what is more likely, protecting its family. For it is known that a mother octopus, like a mother bear protecting its cubs, will fight ferociously if she thinks her eggs are threatened. But whatever the reason for octopus’ attacks on divers, this certainly is significant: it is generally-conceded that no authentic cases of death from octopus attack are in existence.

Throwing more light on the real nature of these strange creatures are the experiences of aqualung divers. To the divers’ surprise they found that octopuses are shy, timid and retiring. Instead of attacking the divers, the octopuses tried to make fast getaways. Finding octopuses to be odd creatures, the divers got a great deal of enjoyment from them. They played with them and even waltzed with them. The book The Silent World tells about aqualung divers Frederic Dumas and Captain J. Cousteau. These men played with octopuses of virtually all sizes except the giants, which they never met. Said Captain Cousteau:

“Soon we were handling any size of cephalopod [octopus] we found. Dumas became a sort of dancing instructor. . .-.He would select an unwilling pupil, hold it firmly and gently and gyrate around, inducing the creature to follow. The octopod used every trick to escape. The bashful animal usually refused to fasten its suction cups to flesh. . . . The ink pf the octopus has been liberally diluted with journalistic fantasy.”

Just how wrong popular opinion is concerning octopuses is evident from this fact: most people believe octopuses to be giants or at least that small ones grow into giants; but in reality the vast majority, even when mature, are small creatures, less than a foot or two in diameter from tip of one arm to tip of opposite arm.

Everyday Life in Octopusdom

Spineless creature that he is, the octopus nonetheless has the respect of other sea creatures that are equipped with heavy armor. For the octopus is one of the most successful animals in the sea when it comes to winning a living. This probably comes as no surprise to anyone who has seen its eight arms in action. Woe to the plodding clam! Woe to the wayfaring crab! Woe to the incautious lobster! But octopuses live on sea food—not humans.

What of the octopus’ ink? It is not really frightful; in fact, it is most practical. It is often thought of as a smoke screen to help frightened octopuses escape enemies. The . ink may not be as simple as one might suppose. In recent years authorities have come to suggest that the ink is used to produce a mock-octopus shape to divert weak-eyed pursuers, since the size and shape of the puff roughly resemble a swimming octopus. The aqualung divers, as reported in The Silent World, said: "We found that the emission was not a smoke screen to hide the creature from pursuers. The pigment did not dissipate; it hung in the water as a fairly firm blob with a tail, too small to conceal the octopus.” It may be, then, that the ink is intended to be a mock octopus so that the enemy mistakes it for a real octopus, which, by executing one of his remarkable color changes, becomes more or less invisible as he darts off in a different direction.

Octopuses are remarkable, one authority says, “in that they exhibit more vivid, complicated and rapid color changes than do any other members of the animal kingdom.” They turn to any color to match their background—pink, red, purple, blue. Divers have even seen flashes of rainbow hues. Girl octopuses must arouse the emotions in boy octopuses by their beauty; at any rate when a boy octopus courts a girl, his emotions are powerful enough to overrule his natural impulse to assume a color that simulates his background, and he may glow red and pale white, with a whole gamut of intermediate shades and variations. If the octopus is blushing when he asks his girl for her hand in marriage, it may be that he is more bashful than even the aqualung divers supposed! Or could it be that he does not know which hand to ask for?

Eight-armed Delicacy of the Sea

If anyone is entitled to present a bill of complaint on account of a tendency to seize and devour, it would be more appropriate for octopuses to prefer such charges against humans. In many countries, and since very ancient times, the octopus has been considered one of the very choicest of morsels. The Greeks and Romans considered it the finest food furnished by the sea. Pliny tells us that the gourmets of Rome ate every variety °f octopus known in the Mediterranean.

Today? Yes, octopuses are widely eaten, both small and large, both body and'tentacles. They are boiled, broiled, fried and pickled. Many Pacific and Mediterranean people relish octopus. Vendors in Mondello, near Palermo, set up booths along the water front each Sunday to sell boiled octopus for eating on the spot. Octopus meat is firm, pure white and of a mild, delicate flavor. Small ones are truly a delight to the palate of the most discriminating gourmet. Small ones are usually preferred.

North Americans generally shy away from octopus. The big difficulty may be that many have grown up since childhood loathing octopuses, thinking that they are man-eating monsters. Actually--the opposite is true: man eats the octopus. One American zoologist who was pursuaded to try a piece of a larger-size octopus, after having been assured by a Filipino cook that octopuses were very good, said: “So they were—or rather, I should say, it was —for I chewed a single tentacle during the great part of the following forenoon and relinquished it only, and that with regret, when my jaws, aching from overexertion, refused to operate any longer.”

Aside from their value as food, many nature-loving people are coming to find octopuses interesting, intriguing, funny creatures, even beautiful and marvelous in their own peculiar way. Small ones are harmless and even those of a six- or eight-foot arm spread can hardly be inclined to Use it on anything so big as a human bather or diver. But the giant thirty-foot octopus of the Australian coast is something else again. If you meet up with one of these mammoth animals, which is most unlikely, it would be well to stay clear of him.

He probably would be tough eating, anyway.

^TJROBABLY the biggest mass move-

_[ ment of Americans through Europe since the Allied invasion during World War H.” Thus the August 5 European edition of the United States army paper, The Stars and Stripes, published at Darmstadt, Germany, described the influx of Jehovah's witnesses to Europe to attend their “Triumphant Kingdom” assemblies held there in the summer of 1955.

Yes, the witnesses came by the thousands. By means of forty-two chartered planes and two chartered ships 4,500 came from United States and Canada alone. And they also came from Central and South America, from Asia, Africa and Australia. Incidentally, although it took those chartered ships eight days to cross the Atlantic, the time was by no means wasted, for those boats were floating convention halls with their daily programs of Bible instruction.

The European “Triumphant Kingdom" assemblies were held at eight cities: London, Paris, Rome, Nuremberg, Berlin, Stockholm, The Hague and Helsinki. Every

one of the assemblies was truly international, Nuremberg taking the lead with delegates present from sixty-one different countries..Even Berlin, though accessible only by air, had witnesses attending from eleven foreign countries.

Sites and Opposition

The hatred that Jesus said would be the lot of his followers

was apparent in the clergy opposition to the witnesses’ making use of certain convention sites, of particular interest being those that were used at London, Rome and Nuremberg. The assembly at London was centered at what one English paper termed “the decorous turf of the Rugby Union football ground at Twickenham/* Owned by a group of wealthy Englishmen, it was the first time they rented their grounds to anyone, and their doing so was a genuine compliment to the reputation Jehovah’s witnesses have for orderliness.

The fact that the witnesses had obtained this stadium caused many an eyebrow to be raised—“The witnesses get the use of the Rugby Union football grounds?”—and filled certain of the clergy with such chagrin that they tried to pressure the owners to cancel their agreement with the witnesses, but in vain. The owners stood by their contract. The place was just the right size for this assembly, had a goodly portion of the seats protected from sun and rain, and its playing field was covered with as beautiful a carpet of green as one could wish to see. On the adjoining grounds tents were erected for the cafeteria.

Equally well did the Palazzo dei Congress!, the “Palace of Conventions/* of the very extensive “Universal Exposition of Rome” grounds, which are located southeast of Vatican City on the other side of

the Tiber River, serve the assembly at Rome. Begun by Mussolini and only recently completed at a cost of $2 million, the Palazzo, with its massive pillars and paved ascending approach, is a very impressive-looking structure. And the Palazzo’s convention auditorium, with its tiers of balconies, its lavish use of green and white Italian marble and its glass roof, is truly a thing of beauty.

In view of the ill feeling that certain religious interests in Rome cherish toward the witnesses, it was not at all surprising that efforts were made to deny them the use of this beautiful convention palace after they had once contracted for it. These efforts, however, succeeded only temporarily, when, at a meeting of the cabinet of the national government, the use of the Palazzo by the witnesses was approved. Members of Protestant sects in Rome were dumfounded when they heard that Jehovah’s witnesses, of all people, had the use of the beautiful Palazzo!

At Nuremberg, Germany, the assembly was held on the immense Zeppelinwiese. (Zeppelinwiese literally means “Dirigible Meadow,” dirigibles in Germany being named after their inventor Count Zeppelin.) For the third time since World Wfcr II the witnesses were making use of it. Hitler had built it for holding his week-long rallies and making displays of Nazi might and solidarity. The railroad station that had been built nearby to serve these rallies served the assembly very well as it permitted the fifty-six special trains of German witnesses to unload at the assembly’s doorstep, nearly all the German brothers sleeping on the assembly grounds.

At the front of the Meadow is the pompous-looking “Stone Tribune,” 984 feet long, consisting of a series of stone steps that lead to the full-length platform upon which rest 144 gigantic pillars. In the center was the stone pulpit-like structure for the speaker, to the rear of which had been erected two gigantic symbols of the Kingdom, a crown and a scepter. The Meadow itself has terraced sides to which stairs from the outside lead at regular intervals and immediately surrounding it were the tents used by the various assembly departments as well as the long community tents where some 40,000 German witnesses, segregated according to sex, slept on sacks of straw. Off to one side lay two camps where 4,500 personal tents of all sizes were erected, and on the other side lay ■ Grosser Dutzend-inpond,” so named was divided into a

The clergy of Nuremberg and especially the Catholic Hierarchy of Munich tried to prevent the assembly’s being held on the Zeppelinwiese.

Aro>« Kulm leaves Quebec City with 795 < onventionerx »board However, their

efforts to dictate were soundly rebuffed by the dty fathers as well as outspokenly condemned by newspaper editors.

London, Paris and Rome

For the five-day assembly at Twickenham, July 27-31, Wednesday through Sunday, a beautiful floral setting was planted around the speaker’s platform, letters on the grass spelled out “ Triumphant Kingdom’ Assembly of Jehovah’s Witnesses,” and a large sign bearing the yeartext, Psalm 112:7 (Am. Stan. Ver.), “He shall not be afraid of evil tidings: his heart is fixed, trusting in Jehovah,” was suspended from the balcony in the rear. Incidentally, these three characteristics, floral display, name of assembly and yeartext, served to decorate each assembly place.

The program here was identical with those held in America both as regards discourses and releases, details of which were given in the previous issue of Awake! On Friday 1,183 were immersed in the municipal swimming poo] nearby, and the marked enthusiasm of the assembly reached a climax at the Sunday public talk, "World Conquest Soon—by God’s Kingdom,” which was given a powerful delivery by Nathan H. Knorr, president of the Watchtower Society, and was heard by 41,790.

Sunday night and Monday morning some 4,000 witnesses in eight special trains moved on to Paris where the assembly began August 3 at the Sports Palace. Here those talks given by speakers from overseas were translated into French and the assembly had certain releases of its own, which was also true of the other assemblies held on the Continent. However, at all assemblies one of the releases was the booklet containing the. public lecture, "World Conquest Soon—by God's Kingdom,” in the native tongue. At the Sports Palace meetings were also held in Polish, for the benefit of the 1,200 Polish witnesses that

had come from northern France. At an indoor pool some mites from the assembly 785 were immersed.

On Friday of the same week that this assembly was being held a "Triumphant Kingdom” assembly began at the Palazzo in Rome. N. H. Knorr flew down from the Paris assembly to give several of the main talks at the Palazzo, Friday evening and Saturday forenoon. On Saturday also 378 were quietly baptized at an inconspicuous site. The public lecture, given Sunday morning by the Watch Tower Society’s vice-president, Fred W, Franz, was heard by 4,351.

The enthusiasm at the Palazzo ran especially high. Continually the Italian witnesses applauded, many clapping their hands above their heads; and how their faces beamed! Among the new releases for them was Awake! in Italian, it now being printed in fourteen languages. No question about it, Jehovah’s witnesses in Italy are a joyful band, spiritually very rich even though many of them are very poor as regards material things. Few could afford to bring their children along; many brought their food for the three days instead of clothing in their grips, and seventy slept under the stars.

On to Nuremberg and Berlin

From Rome and Paris special trains took the witnesses to Nuremberg by way of Switzerland. All of them were very thankful that their route and time allowed them to spend a day or two to view the majestically grand and breath-takingly beautiful handiwork of the Creator that lies in Switzerland. At Nuremberg the assembly began Wednesday forenoon, August 10, when already 63,332 were present, and attendance steadily mounted to a peak of 107,423 at the public lecture given by Knorr. On Friday in a pool nearby 4,333 were immersed, more than the combined

total for the five assemblies held in the United States and Canada.

Sunday after the public talk heavy rain began to fall, which, however, stopped during Knorr’s concluding remarks at which time a large, beautiful rainbow appeared. The sight of this token in the sky of God’s faithfulness, to which Knorr made fitting reference, the singing of “Auf Wieder-sehn,” at the conclusion of his remarks, the surging of the German brothers to the speaker’s stand, and the sea of waving handkerchiefs, all combined to make the close of the assembly at Nuremberg an experience long to be remembered.

Four thousand witnesses of the Eastern Zone risked the crossing of the Grune Grenze, the “Green Border,” that is, came underground, to attend the assembly at Nuremberg. However, because of the great risk as well as the distance involved, it was deemed advisable to hold an assembly in Berlin. There the matter of crossing from the Russian—termed by them the “Democratic”(!)—sector, by means of the subway or the city’s “S” railroad is comparatively simple, provided one reaches Berlin! The assembly site was the Wald-' biihne, “Foreststage," in the British sector. Rising some ninety feet at a sharp angle, it has a capacity of more than 20,000. If the Palazzo was the most beautiful indoor auditorium used by the witnesses at their European assemblies, this amphitheater was certainly the most beautiful outdoor assembly place, nestled as it was in a valley and surrounded by evergreens.

With all its beauty, however, this assembly had a sobering atmosphere. Many of these witnesses from the Eastern Zone either had been in Communist prisons or at present have a close relative, a husband or a son in one. To see their earnest yet glowing faces, to hear their experiences and note their appreciation of the issue and how they carry on their work, to observe their keen interest in what waxbeing said from the platform (contact between speaker and audience was especially good at the Waldbiihne) was an experience as heartwarming and joyful as it was sobering and maturing to the brothers from overseas who had flown in from Nuremberg’s assembly in two chartered planes to associate with these intrepid fighters from the East Zone for a day or two.

Because of the danger of Communist spies very few identifying badges were seen and those that were had no provision for names of wearer and his congregation. For this reason also no one wanted pictures taken of himself. “Cautious as serpents” was the watchword here; and how these witnesses appreciated the timely information in the discourse “Cautious as Serpents Among Wolves”! Also greatly appreciated by them was the film "The New World Society in Action.” Because so many of them had never seen it Knorr had it shown at the close of his remarks on Saturday night.

Otherwise, the program here was practically identical with that given at Rome. It also was three days in length with talks’ every forenoon so that practically all the meat of the five-day feasts could be served in the three days. Knorr also made a flying trip here, from Nuremberg, to give several of the main talks and again Franz gave the public lecture, which was heard by 17,729, and made the concluding remarks. And as with all other “Triumphant Kingdom” assemblies there was also a mass baptism, 870 being immersed here.

After the assembly at Nuremberg the witnesses divided into three general groups; those who had to return by boat or plane; those who went on to The Hague in the Netherlands, and those who went on to Stockholm, Sweden, Most of the latter had time for a stopover at Copenhagen, a very beautiful city known as the “Parte of Scandinavia,” of particular interest being its high-class, colorful Arabian-nightslike park, the Tivoli.

The “Triumphant Kingdom” assembly at Stockholm, August 17-21, held at a popular municipal sports stadium, had by far the greatest number of ^foreign delegates in attendance, 5,000 coming from Denmark alone, 2,400 from Norway, 1,000 from Finland and 2,000 from overseas. This was a trilingual assembly, and by segregating the witnesses, English delegates in the center, Swedish on one side and the Danish and Norwegian on the other it was possible to give Swedish and Danish talks, or Swedish and Danish translations of English talks, at one time without any confusion resulting. Some 21,700 came to hear the public talk given by Knorr, and 854 indicated that they had taken their stand for Jehovah by being baptized. The prosperous and sophisticated Swedes, who for long had viewed the witnesses of Jehovah with disdain, had to revise their estimate of them as they noted this invasion of delegates from the four comers of the globe.

At the Houtrusthallen (“Woodland Rest Halls”), a low, covered spacious auditorium on the outskirts of The Hague, an assembly was held at the same time one was held at Stockholm. Here also Knorr flew in, from Stockholm, for a series of talks and Franz gave the concluding remarks as well as the public lecture, which Was heard by 15,360. At the mass baptism in the North Sea, 451 were immersed, to the singing of Kingdom songs. If of all the witnesses at the various European assemblies the emotional Latins at the Palazzo were the most responsive, and the stoical' Teutons on the Zeppelinwiese the least so, then the phlegmatic Dutch in the Hout-rusthallen were perhaps the most objective. Though unmoved by mere enthusiastic delivery, they invariably registered appreciation when some telling point of logic or new information was presented.

After the assemblies at Stockholm and The Hague, most of the yet remaining witnesses directed their steps homeward. However, there was one more assembly, at Helsinki, Finland, August 25-28. A large exhibition hall served its purpose very well and 6,490 came on Sunday to hear the public talk by Knorr. At this assembly 186 symbolized their dedication to Jehovah by water immersion.

Without doubt Jehovah’s blessing was upon these assemblies. They served to make known his name and kingdom and brought much joy to Jehovah’s witnesses and other men of good will. More regarding them will appear in subsequent issues of Awake/ Their record of number attending public meetings and of those baptized is herewith briefly recapitulated:

The monkey That Refused tn Smoke

*

City Public Attendance

Baptized

London, England

41,970

1,183

Paris, France

16,500

Rome, Italy

4,351

Nuremberg, W. Germany

107,423

4,333

Berlin, Germany

17,729

Stockholm, Sweden

21,708

The Hague, Netherlands

15,360

Helsinki, Finland

6,940

Totals

231,981

9,040

United States and Canada

171,701

3,976

Grand Total

403,682

13,016

ing under rocks

or

THE BUSHMEN OF AFRICA hunters and artists' extraordinary

BY "AWAKEl'i CORRESPONDENT IN SOUTH

EVEN if they had not become first-_■ rate hunters and artists, the Bushmen would be intriguing enough. Not only is their culture a quaint one and their language a queer one, but their physical features are just as unusual. Small in stature, the Bushman male is less than five feet tall and the female about four feet four inches. The Bushmen’s skin, yellowish brown in hue, seems to wrinkle at a comparatively early age. Their cheek bones are large and prominent, their noses small and depressed, their lips thick, their eyes deeply set with a cunning expression, their chins receding, their backs inclined to be hollowed and their hair small woolly tufts with fair spaces in between. A large accumulation of fat on the buttocks, especially among the women, is a conspic-

uous feature common to these strange little people of Africa.

Not influenced by modem fashions, the Bushmen’s mode of living requires no expensive outlay for a wardrobe. They dress scantily with a skin mantle or slight covering around the loins. No keeping up with the neighbors for the Bushmen! And no going into debt for ten or more years to pay off a mortgage on a house! For the Bushmen live very close to nature. Having no permanent abode, they live in the open veldt among the bushes. They wander from place to place, sleep-

AFRICA

in the shelter of trees and bushes, with a rough lean-to of brushwood and living from hand to mouth.

The Bushmen’s language? An odd one. It is one of clicks made by peculiar movements of the tongue inside the mouth. Each click has a certain meaning. There are also nasal snappings, hissings and grunting sounds. Some of the Bushmen languages are complex, others comparatively simple. Of the principal tribes only the Ai Bushmen can count beyond “three.” The word for “three” in most of the Bushmen tongues is oaya, which means “many.”

The Bushmen once occupied all South Africa from the Cape to the Zambezi. By the close of the nineteenth century these strange people almost became extinct. Up to that time they were considered as vermin and often shot as such. Driven before other and more powerful tribes, the Bushmen made their final stand near and in the area of the Kalahari Desert, the plateau and part desert region of Bechuanaland and west central South Africa. No usual desert is the Kalahari, for here are small trees, bushes and big game. In this area the Bushmen race has

rebuilt itself so that today they number about 20,000.

Hunting Skill Unsurpassed

Writers of natural history books could undoubtedly acquire a wealth of unpublished and revealing facts about wildlife if they could only have an interview with a Bushman huntsman. The Bushmen’s knowledge of the habits of animals, just any kind of animal living where they do, is probably unsurpassed. This is because the Bushmen start intense training at an early age. Through the medium of games the youngsters learn to imitate the adults; they even play hunting games with animals modeled from day. Footprints of various kinds of animals are impressed in the sand, and it is up to the youthful hunter-to-be to show his skill as a Bushman Sherlock Holmes by quickly detecting exactly what kind of animal each track represents-Upon graduation from the Bushmen’s hunting school, a youth is virtually a full-fledged huntsman, thoroughly acquainted with the movements and habits of every kind of game.

Everything going on about him the Bushman seems to notice. He even seems to know exactly what an animal is going to do. Without binoculars or bifocals a Bushman will watch a flight of bees high up in the skies, where it would be practically invisible to any white man, even one who had his eyeglasses on! Yet the Bushman will follow the bees until they reach the tree where the bees have their combs. Thus they find their honey. So highly developed is the Bushmen’s sense of direction that hunters can find their way about on the darkest of nights. The bow, with arrows dipped in poison obtained from plants or reptiles, still remains their most modem weapon, a weapon they use with incredible accuracy.

Disguising himself as an animal, the Bushman stalks his prey. With his keen eyesight he quickly spies his prey; his poisoned arrow whizzes to its target. It may take a while for the poison to work-So now the Bushmen’s powers of endurance come into use, powers that seem to equal those of wild beasts; for they will run down a wounded deer even on the hottest day, keeping their quarry constantly on the move and allowing it no rest until it drops. A party of Bushmen once pursued a wounded giraffe for a distance of more than forty miles; then, when they had killed it, they went back the same distance to bring up their families to indulge in the feast

In his day, before his numbers were decimated by races from the outside, these little people were more brushmen than they were Bushmen. Many paintings and carvings on the walls of caves attest to the extraordinary artistic ability of the Bushmen. But now, driven to the desert, where there are no rocks to paint, the Bushman is like some outcast child who has lost its only toy.

"The Liveliest Art in the World”

Amazing is the word for Bushmen art. First, there is the marvelous permanence of their paint. Some of the cave paintings ■seem to be hundreds of years old, yet they still are clear. Even in many of the shallower rock shelters, little protected from wind and weather, there are still dear paintings. The Bushnien brushmen painted chiefly in shades of red, brown and maroon; in black, white and yellow—colors derived from mineral ores. They ground the minerals and mixed them with animal fat or bone marrow, which must have given the paintings when new an excellent brilliance and gloss. Modern-day artists have

so far failed to obtain the exact shade of color used by the Bushmen brushmen!

Generally using brushes made of feathers, the Bushmen made paintings that are truly remarkable, when we consider that these artists had no formal education but were using only natural ability. Animals were the Bushmen’s favorite subjects. They loved to paint kudus, elephants, giraffes, rhinoceroses, buffaloes, elands, sable antelopes, zebras, leopards, lions and almost every other known variety of animal in Africa. Their paintings are finished with an accuracy that we cannot surpass today. Their animal paintings have almost photographic fidelity!

But Bushmen also liked to paint people, people busy at their daily activities. Their paintings are amazingly lithe depictions of people running, dancing, fishing, hunting and jumping, all of them done with the same keen perception of the fundamental movement that marks the Bushmen’s paintings of animals. Human figures are impressionistic enough to satisfy almost any modernist! So unusual are their paintings that Henri Breuil, France’s noted archaeologist, said they are “a sort of moving picture film expressing throughout joie de vivre, the delight of being agile, fleet-footed, supple in sport and dance, deft in shooting arrows.”

One odd aspect of Bushmen paintings is that, though Bushmen are short in stature, they painted themselves as long, slender and graceful. Most of the human figures, however, have the conspicuously fat buttocks common to Bushmen. There is no haphazardness in the paintings; there seems to be forethought and a remarkable unity in the final design. Writes one keen student of Bushmen art: “Always the Bushman’s genius for balanced composition shines out and distinguishes his paintings. In his confident distribution of figures and animals on the rock-surface, he creates a style of great charm. Somehow the little Bushman achieves quite as much as we do without using shadows or diminishing perspective.’'

And what of today’s Bushman? Does he have the artistic ability of his ancestors? There is no doubt that some do. Recently, an officer of the National Parks Board, in the Kalahari Gemsbuck Reserve, came upon a Bushman, aged and ambidextrous, who was carving a remarkable likeness of a game warden on the head of a walking stick. Asked if he had ever tried rock engraving, the old Bushman said he would try. Working first with his left hand and then, with equal dexterity, with his right hand, he produced an engraving that told a story in sandstone. It was a story of a Bushman hunting an ostrich with bow and arrow and of a lion killing the ostrich to the consternation of the hunter. “I was astonished at the result,” said the officer; "it was a perfect example of modem Bushman art.”

And what of the Bushman's happiness today? In spite of the barren regions in which he now dwells, his spirit has not been crushed. No pessimist, the Bushman has a good-humored and merry nature, displaying that joie de vivre or joy in living reflected by his paintings. Living close to nature, the Bushman keeps his spirits up. Suicide, nervous breakdowns? Probably unheard of! One cannot help but wonder if the happiness of the nature-loving Bushman, in spite of his hand-to-mouth existence, is not in some sublime way superior to that ever-sought-after happiness of myriads of civilized people—those persons whose happiness depends so much on the latest “how-to-find-happiness” book or on secondhand entertainment or on alcoholic beverages. At least the happy spirits of the little Bushmen seem genuine.

^vApPetrtes v°urageou s.

Internal Lubrication

<L Four workers at the Sanford, Florida, naval air station buy their peanuts in bags now. They sampled some “peanuts” directly off a free at the air station and wound up in the hospital. What they ate, doctors explained, were "tung” nuts—used to make paints and varnishes. Each nut is equal to four big doses of castor oil.

Iron Stan Early in Life

<[. Some animals and some people eat indigestible fare, but a little boy in Japan has probably broken all records. Kunio Shitae of Tokyo, though only eight months old, failed to recover satisfactorily from an attack of bronchitis. His mother took him to a doctor. After that came the hospital where surgeons removed 230 nails, screws and fishhooks from his stomach.

Omnivorous

U The ostrich is not a fussy eater; it is likely to swallow practically any small or mediumsize object offered it. This is unfortunate because ostriches trust men too much. If a man offers an ice pick, a file or some other similar “delicacy,” the ostrich cannot be relied on to judge what it can digest successfully. Many zoological parks have thus lost valuable birds. Of course, the big birds can survive a reasonable amount of foreign substances and, like many other birds, actually require stones and pebbles for the proper functioning of the digestive system. It may be that zoo ostriches swallow harmful objects because they do not get enough pebbles or the proper food. It seems, though, that if wild ostriches ate as much indigestible "food” as some captive birds do, the ostrich clan would go the way of the dodo.

Attention All Mice!

i' News of one of the weirdest appetites on record comes from Eastman, Georgia. There the cat of Mrs. B. Hobbs eats every bar of soap it can get its paws on. Neighborhood mice are entertaining the cheerful hope that this kind of feline fodder will gain wider recognition in the cat world.

Animals That Quaff Liquid Lightning

It seems unlikely that wild animals, roaming across the wide plains of Africa, could ever get intoxicated. Obviously, a lion cannot thunder into a bar and roar for a shot of vodka or scotch. But some animals do manage to get tipsy. This is because of a taste they have for certain decayed fruits ripely fermented by the sun. When he has imbibed enough of this, even the lion is not too sure of his steps. Elephants like the fruit of the marula tree; when this fruit is in the proper condition it can make even the mighty pachyderm wobble. On Natal sugar plantations, when the cane spirit is being made, the lees, waste molasses and other refuse, very sweet to the taste,'are sometimes dumped in a big pit before being carried to the fields as fertilizer. As long as the rains hold off, this material remains unfermented. But the first rains change this innocuous pile into a powerful concoction. Then when the buck and other small veldt creatures come to feed on it, anything can happen. Many a thrilling combat has been lost and a contestant eaten —just because one of them was too tipsy to defend its life.

…