OlSr THE SELAIS^GORE SEA-COAST. 311 



whicli lay all about Jerom. One was caught during my stay there, 

 but the stupid Chinaman ruined it as a specimen by cutting off the 

 skin of the back, which he brought to me instead of the whole fish 

 I had called for. It was a veiy large specimen, measuring 2 feet 9 

 inches across the back, and I exceedingly regretted its destruction. 



A collector of insects could have made quite a collection in the 

 house which (partially) sheltered us. On putting on my clothes 

 one morning, I found a fine healthy centipede in my trousers- 

 pocket, along with my knife and keys, I took this warning rather 

 carelessly, and paid for it the very next day by putting on my shirt 

 with a four-inch centipede in the shoulder. Feeling something 

 crawUng vigorously on my flesh, I reached up and made a grab for 

 it, but unfortunately seized it in such a way that the head was left 

 free, and it instantly bit me. Before I could catch its head it bit 

 again, but it never bit any more. When Francis had helped me 

 out of my shirt, and I loosened my grip on the insect, it looked as if 

 it had been through a clothes wringer. After all, its bite was not 

 so terrible as I had been taught to expect. The sensation was 

 similar to what I would have felt had three or four hot needles 

 been thrust into my shoulder a quarter of an inch or so. I bathed 

 the bite directly with tincture of arnica, my favorite remedy for all 

 such ills, and, after several applications, the pain ceased entirely at 

 the end of about two hours. 



Just before I left Jerom one of the Malay fishermen Hving there 

 was badly hurt by a sting-ray. While reaching down in the water 

 to pull up one of his fishing stakes, he disturbed a large ray, who 

 instantly struck at him and drove the ragged, bony spine on his 

 tail completely tlirough the poor fellow's hand, making a dread- 

 fully ragged and painful wound. Datu Pudeh came for me to 

 doctor him, saying that he was about to die. Catching up my 

 little tin box of medicines I went to the injured man, and found 

 him lying limp and helpless in the arms of his friends, sun'ounded 

 by a sympathizing crowd, not one of whom knew what to do for 

 him. "Will he die, tuan?" was the universal question. "Cer- 

 tainly not," I replied, with assurance that would have astonished an 

 Abernethy, I dare say. I dreaded lock-jaw, but he had no symp- 

 toms of it then. Calling for cold water I kept a stream running 

 on the man's hand for fifteen minutes, and then steadily bathed the 

 wound with arnica for half an hovr. After that I saturated 

 cotton with the same divine stuff, and bound it upon the wound, 

 with the repeated assurance to the patient that he would not die. 



