RHINOCEROS-SHOOTING 245 



yards or less I sank on to the ground overpowered by the pain 

 in my wounded foot. 



The rhinos fortunately galloped off without having seen us. 

 I wore long, heavy leather shooting-boots reaching up to my 

 knees. With some difficulty I got the boot and the blood- 

 soaked sock off. The ballet had not smashed up the parts, but 

 drilled a clean hole where the great toe joins the foot. The toe 

 itself was cold, blue, and apparently dead. I tore off a long 

 strip of cloth to serve as a tourniquet and bandage, and twisted it 

 tightly over the injured part to staunch the flow of blood. My 

 two men returned to me, with sincere regrets at not having 

 noticed, in their panic, my accident. The sorrow and univer- 

 sal sympathy of my black servants and caravan porters was 

 touching and gratifying, as I am in favour of upholding strict 

 discipline in a caravan. I am certain, natives appreciate a white 

 man's rule the more, if he is firm but at same time scrupulously 

 just in his dealings with them. 



My hammock now proved very welcome ; and in it I was 

 carried back to Fort Smith. What worried me on the way, 

 was not so much the pain as the thought that, if the great toe 

 was really done for, I should have to amputate my own toe, 

 not a very pleasing prospect, or, as an alternative, something 

 even more disagreeable to contemplate, I should have to ask 

 one of the officials at the fort to cut the toe off, and not one 

 of them had the necessary surgical knowledge. This brought 

 vividly to my mind a scene once witnessed by my father in 

 an Indian village. A blacksmith happened to be the accredited 

 village surgeon. A man appeared at the forge with an injured 

 great toe. The blacksmith requested him to put his foot on 

 the anvil, and before either patient or onlookers had time to 

 reaHse what was about to happen, with a stroke of his chisel 

 and hammer the blacksmith had clean chopped off the toe. 



The three-hours' return journey to the fort allowed time 

 for the collateral circulation to establish itself in my injured 

 foot, and when I dressed the wound at the fort, I was de- 

 lighted to find that amputation was not necessary. Within a 

 month, applying ordinary antiseptic treatment, the wound had 

 thoroughly healed, leaving a linear scar on the dorsal surface 

 and a round scar on the sole of the foot where the bullet had 

 made its exit. Also the long tendon, upon which depends so 

 much of the movement of the great toe, became reunited. 



