20 HOW I KILLED THE TIGER. 



apparatus over the bed is a punkah. There is a 

 rope attached to it, and it is pulled by what is 

 termed a punkah-wallah, and creates a splendid 

 current of air, without which we could not exist 

 in the hot weather. 



Shortly after this the doctor returned from 

 Darjeeling. I took upon myself to tell him that 

 he must lance the abscess, no matter what the 

 result might be, as I could not bear the pain 

 any longer. The three doctors then had a con- 

 sultation, and the next morning I was put under 

 chloroform, and the operation performed. When 

 I recovered consciousness, the hole was plugged 

 up, and I was told they had drawn off three-and- 

 a-half soup plates of matter. The next morning 

 the doctor was round to see me early, he fully 

 expected to find that I had slipped my moorings 

 in the night. He was peering at me over the 

 head of the bed when he was electrified by hear- 

 ing me call out Choto Hazaree lao. (In India it 

 is customary to take tea and toast when we get 

 up, which is called Choto Hazaree, early or small 

 breakfast.) For three weeks a soup plate of 

 matter was drawn off night and morning from 

 the abscess. The discharge then turned into an 

 oily stuff, and it was only then that I was con- 

 sidered out of danger, so that up to that time my 

 life hung by a thread. 



