Page:Thirty-five years in the East.djvu/84

44 was a rogue. I caused twelve of them to be applied around the blistered part, and requested the woman to return in the evening, when I ordered her again to apply the same number of leeches to the place where, a few years before, I had been afflicted with piles. The next morning I applied six leeches to my side, and in the evening, the same number behind, by which means I completed my cure without having had recourse to any other remedy. Keeping the blistered part in a state of suppuration, and treating the external inflammation with cold water, I made such an improvement in my health, that my restored appetite soon enabled me to digest solid food. At the expiration of five days I felt sufficiently strong to resume my journey to Lahore, to the astonishment of those who witnessed my departure, wondering whether I was really recovered, or in a state of delirium, as only three days had elapsed since I made my will, and their hakim had asserted that there was no chance of my recovery. At the commencement I made but very short journeys. I shortly afterwards had several abscesses where the leeches had been applied, one of them as large as a hen's egg, so that it was difficult for me to maintain a sitting posture, and, not- withstanding my good appetite, and the salubrious air I afterwards breathed in the mountains, the weakness, produced by only five days' illness, continued for a space of six months. What contributed greatly to my illness, may perhaps have been the circumstance that I had not been seasick, on our voyage to Bassora via Moscat to Bender-Karat-shi, as was the case with my servant Antun, who inhaled the same atmosphere, ate and drank the same kind of food and stinking water,&c., without suffering any inconvenience. At that period, the Sindians were not yet acquainted with the English, although they were their neighbours, and accordingly we passed villages, where the people were not inclined to furnish us with provisions, even for payment. Our camel-driver advised us to lodge in the mosques, in order to be taken for Mahomedans. By so doing, we were provided with food gratis, by the hospitable musselmans. I and my servant were dressed in the costume of the inhabitants of