KURUKWAHI 207 



some dressing. He said the treatment I had given 

 was quite right, but the holes were deep; two long 

 teeth had met and made a tunnel through. Those 

 were easy to deal with, but the other two were long 

 and deep and separate, and would take some time 

 to heal, so he strongly advised that I should come in 

 next day to his hospital, and he would go back and 

 get a room ready for me. 



I had such uncomfortable sheets that night, while 

 my own [were being washed : two very stiffly 

 starched and thick table-cloths, borrowed from a 

 rest house. 



It was an easy journey in the next evening, in a 

 bullock cart, on a nice bed of straw, and the doctor 

 had his biggest room cleared out ; a square high place 

 with thick walls, and nice and cool. My camp 

 things were put in and I was very comfortable 

 there, thanks to Rattan Lai, who was most careful 

 and attentive. He came in each day to do dressings, 

 and brought his books of anatomy, with illustrations 

 of arteries and sinews and muscle, to show what an 

 excellent spot the bear had chosen, to do me the 

 least possible damage. If he had bitten me on the 

 knee I should have been lame for life ; or an artery, 

 I should have bled to death, and so on. It was all 

 very interesting. 



Govind did his best ; he used to come in and put 

 everything I wanted where I could not reach it, and 

 the things I did not want close round the bed, and 

 he meant so well. Abdulla, who was one of nature's 

 gentlemen, was always on the spot when I called; 

 and the lazy chaprassi brought me a present of a 



