Page:Thirty-five years in the East.djvu/82

42 of introduction already mentioned, and the first favour I asked was, a quiet retreat, that I might have rest, and recover myself. The people, seeing the difficulty with which I dragged myself along, called in a Hakim ( a Persian physician) who lived in their house, and he offered me his assistance. I thanked him very heartily, and requested some leeches. " We have not any," was his reply; upon which, as my only resource, I applied a blister ; after which I became senseless, and lemained in that state until the evening of the following day. On my revival, my tongue was still so parched, that 1 was unable even to ask for water to moisten it, and I only obtained it by making signs, My feet were excessively cold, and besides the above- mentioned internal pains, I also felt the effects of the blister, although it had risen but very slightly. I examined my pulse, but the pulsation was imperceptible, from which I concluded that my last moments were near at hand. My servant told me that, during my stupor, I had had some discharges of blood ; I ordered him to fetch the Mirza ( scribe ) of the establishment, that he might make my will ; and he came with his paper and kalemdan ( writing stand ), and placed himself at a respectable distance, the hakim having told him that my disease was dangerous and contagious. I felt so weak and debilitated, that I was scarcely able to siga my name. I told my servant that I had but little hopes of living over the night, and desired him, should it be the will of God that I must die on the banks of the Indus, to bury me and convey my effects to Lahore, and deliver them, with my papers, to the Generals, Court and Avitabile, to whom there was a letter of introduction, sent by Mr. Swoboda. For the services he himself had rendered me, I gave him a liberal remuneration, that I might secure his executing my wishes, upon which he wept and promised obedience. In this deplorable state, considering myself at death's door, like many other medical men, I began to think that, in spite of the numerous remedies, there was no chance of my recovering from the effects of the poison I had taken, and that the medical art was but a fallacious one, I began