64 NOTES OF A BOTANIST CHAP. 



anything human, and the hand was most like a 

 turtle's fin. 



Whilst this was going on, the relatives of the 

 poor man kept up a continual wailing, as though he 

 had been already dead ; and he himself, although 

 he submitted patiently to our efforts to procure him 

 relief, had lost all hope of living. He indicated the 

 spot where he wished to be buried, and gave what 

 he considered his last directions to his wife about 

 his children and property. He also sent off a 

 messenger to his mother and brothers at Tabalosos, 

 telling them that he was dying, and offering them 

 his last adieux. 



Towards evening, although the pain was still 

 intense, the beating of the heart had become fuller 

 and more regular, so that I felt sure the progress 

 of the poison had been arrested, and I was now 

 only afraid of mortification supervening in the c.rm. 

 I therefore set Chumbi's wife and daughter to grind 

 a quantity of rice, and enveloped the hand and 

 wrist in a thick poultice, and had the rest of the 

 arm fomented with an infusion of aromatic herbs at 

 short intervals throughout the night. When the 

 poultice was taken off in the morning, it was satur- 

 ated with blood and putrid matter from the wounds, 

 which had become much enlarged. The swelling 

 was sensibly diminished, and the arm had become 

 covered with pustules containing bloody serum, 

 which we evacuated by puncturing them. A ready- 

 made rice-poultice replaced the one taken off, and 

 we kept up the fomentation and the poulticing 

 until, at the end of forty-eight hours, the swelling 

 had entirely subsided. The blood, besides break- 

 ing out at the skin, had also got mixed with the 



