152 DAYS AND NIGHTS OF SHIKAR 



surgeon, when the forest ranger came in and said 

 that living near was a very clever (and drunken) 

 old rascal, who was a doctor, and who had cured his 

 pony's dislocated hip ! He belonged to the Lomani 

 tribe ; should he send for him ? 



I thought it would be better than jolting the poor 

 dog along all those miles, so the Lomani came. He 

 made a paste of small black seeds pounded up and 

 mixed with a couple of eggs. This paste was laid 

 on the bad leg and the leg tied in a sort of cradle 

 of bamboos that he had cut into lengths and split 

 down; outside the bamboos, to hold everything 

 together, he bound oiled cotton rags. The Lomani 

 came daily at first, to do the dressing, and then left 

 it on permanently, but said on no account must the 

 dog get it wet. 



Bumps could get up and walk about on three legs, 

 but was not able to lie down unassisted. When he 

 got up to change his position at night he used to 

 grunt for me to come and help him. I put my arms 

 round him and pushed him into them with my chin, 

 when he would let himself down very gently into the 

 position he wanted. Soon he learnt to lie back 

 against my arms without the chin drill, and then he 

 got to throw himself into them almost before I 

 was ready. After a few weeks he could use the leg 

 a little and went off by himself to have a swim in a 

 pond. At night I noticed there was a most horrible 

 smell in my room, and it, of course, was the once 

 hard plaster of the now rotten soft eggs : the plaster 

 that Bumps was warned never to let get wet. I 

 took the whole thing off, which was a very nasty 



