A NATIVE PRACTITIONER. 273 



tion of the meat until late in the afternoon, when we packed 

 up and started for the tents below. 



As we were descending in the gloaming, some hinds, fol- 

 lowed by a stag with longish prongs, moved past us across a 

 glade. Several rounds of ammunition were expended, only 

 one apparently with effect, and that probably slight. Any- 

 way, we failed to find the beast when we returned next 

 morning to search for him. My spleen at losing him, which 

 was considerably augmented by my having bad toothache, 

 was vented on an unfortunate flying squirrel, whose abode in 

 a dead pine-tree we chanced to come across as we were re- 

 turning, and out of which we " scraped " him. 



The camp was again shifted to a fresh locality farther up 

 the glen. The fine weather we had hitherto enjoyed was now 

 exchanged for wet and cold, which so increased my toothache 

 that I could get no rest. Eamzan suggested that he should 

 fetch a barber of his acquaintance, who, he said, had fre- 

 quently operated on him under similar circumstances. This 

 village practitioner was accordingly called in and consulted. 

 Smiling blandly, he produced a barbarous implement about a 

 foot long, and not unlike a very rusty old pair of carpenter's 

 pincers, with a hook at the end of one of its handles to prevent 

 the operator's hand from slipping. Even the sight of this 

 terrible instrument failed to have the usual temporary effect 

 of allaying the distracting pain ; so I was forced to place my 

 jawbone at the mercy of the hair-dresser, who, with the most 

 cold-blooded indifference for my feelings, began deliberately 

 washing his diabolical-looking forceps in a stream directly in 

 front of my tent door, thereby hinting that he was quite ready 

 to operate forthwith. After putting me to a protracted 

 amount of torture, during which old Eamzan was praying 

 audibly and devoutly behind me as he insisted on holding my 

 head, the operator at length, to my infinite relief, both of 

 body and mind, succeeded in extracting the proper tooth 

 without fracturing my jaw. This, however, was not the end 



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