xxx A FEW THRILLS AT BANGALLA RIVER 269 



probably in search of warmth, had crept between 

 the blankets, and Malingum, in turning over, had 

 unwittingly rolled on his unwelcome bed-fellow, 

 and promptly been bitten in the thigh. As the 

 bite of a puff adder is most venomous, and often 

 results in a painful death, it was an occasion for 

 a desperate remedy. Unfortunately, I had neither 

 permanganate of potash with which to counteract 

 the poison, nor caustic to cauterize the wound, so 

 whipping out my knife, I immediately cut the 

 punctured flesh to induce a copious flow of blood, 

 and placing some gunpowder on the incision, put 

 a match to the explosive. Then, pouring out a 

 tumblerful of neat whisky, I bade Malingum 

 swallow it an order which he obeyed with 

 alacrity and in half an hour supplemented this 

 genial physic with strong coffee. After the lapse 

 of another thirty minutes, I repeated the dose of 

 whisky, and again alternated it with coffee, and 

 thus staved off the lethal drowsiness that invariably 

 follows snake-bite. Next morning, Malingum, 

 though suffering much pain from a badly swollen 

 leg and thigh, was well out of danger, and, as it 

 was quite impossible for him to accompany us 

 further in the chase, I sent him back in a maschilla 

 made out of his own blankets to camp. In about 

 a week, he had thoroughly recovered from the 

 effects of his painful experience. 



