88 Bird Bunting on the White Nile. 



It was after climbing about this hill and searching 

 its crevices from top to bottom that Mahomet, my 

 stately gunbearer, said he felt very ill and must have 

 a doctor. We considered that he was malingering, but 

 when he told us that he was always accustomed to be 

 bled once a month and had not now had any blood 

 drawn for two whole months, we bowed to his decision 

 and waited eagerly for the doctor. The real doctor of 

 the village of some twenty huts at Gebel Auli was away 

 on a journey, but his locum tenens, who was a decidedly 

 inferior practitioner we were told, put in an appearance. 

 After a long harangue Mahomet decided to be operated 

 on % him. The doctor came unprovided with a lancet, 

 but he soon borrowed a razor from Salim, one of the 

 camel men. His only other instrument was a piece of 

 a cow's horn with the narrow end closed by a bit of 

 tin. Mahomet resignedly lay down in the shade, and 

 the operation, the various stages of which we somewhat 

 callously photographed, commenced. The patient's head 

 was shaved and then the cow's horn was placed on 

 the side of the neck. The doctor applied his lips to 

 this primitive " cup " and sucked vigorously until a 

 vacuum was formed, when he closed the opening with 

 the piece of tin. In a few minutes the horn was taken 

 off and revealed a large bump raised on the neck. A 



