A WOUNDED PRINCE. 205 



expelling the evil spirits wherewith the 

 Sindhis believe the circumambient air of a 

 sick-bed to be filled. The gash in the poor 

 youth's abdomen, for the abscess had been 

 opened by one of the barber surgeons, was 

 fully six inches in length, and in one place 

 rather deep. This the Hujams plugged up 

 with pledgets of rag, steeped in a kind of 

 balsam ; then laid thereon a quantity of 

 boiled murgosa leaves, placing over all a 

 large lump of clay, kneaded with cow-dung 

 and oil, and a compress with bandages. The 

 patient grinned a little when they were 

 poking the pledgets into the wound ; but on 

 the whole bore himself manfully, considering 

 that he was only a youth of fifteen, and a 

 prince too. The treatment adopted in refer- 

 ence to this case did not impress me with 

 a high opinion of the vulnerary skill of the 

 Sindhian barbers, and I protested against it 

 both verbally and in writing to the Meer 

 himself, at whose request I attended the 

 opening of the dressings morning and evening. 

 I recommended poulticing, but that they 

 laughed at, until the wound assumed so 

 threatening an appearance that His Higli- 



