Page:Mongolia, the Tangut country, and the solitudes of northern Tibet vol 2 (1876).djvu/186

164 return for the service we had done him; for robbers had been deterred from molesting his banner by apprehensions lest they should steal something belonging to the Russians!

Endless were the absurd stories circulated about us. Thus it was generally believed that though we were but four in number, yet at my bidding a thousand men would rise up and do battle in our behalf; it was asserted that I had power over the elements, and could infect cattle or even men with diseases, &c. And I am firmly convinced that ere many years have elapsed, the story of our journey in those countries will have passed into a legend, adorned with all sorts of imaginative flights.

I had to play not only the saint but the doctor also. The latter title was given me in the early months of the expedition owing to my plant-gathering habits, and to the successful cures which I afterwards performed on some fever patients with doses of quinine; quite enough to convince the Mongols firmly of my powers of healing. My fame spread far and wide throughout Mongolia, Kan-su, Koko-nor, and Tsaidam. In the two latter countries numbers of sick persons, especially women, came to consult me upon their maladies. Being entirely ignorant of medicine, and having only a small supply of drugs, and without either time or inclination for such work, I usually had recourse to one of the most impudent quackeries that ever appeared in the medical world, viz. Baumsteitismus, a system which professes to cure every ill that flesh is heir to by punctuating the skin of the affected