406 VISITS TO MADAGASCAR. chap. xv. 



the prince and princess would visit me on Monday. The 

 evening was occupied with a succession of visitors, who gene- 

 rally came in companies of from nine to twelve persons, fre- 

 quently accompanied by their children. Many of the women 

 wept when they took leave of me ; and very late it was before 

 I found myself alone. 



At midnight I had been called out of bed to give medicine 

 to an aide-de-camp of the prince ; and early in the morning 

 an officer of the palace came to request me to visit an 

 aide-de-camp of the commander-in-chief. I went with the 

 officer, who was saluted with great respect as we passed 

 along, and on reaching the house, a respectable building, we 

 passed a female slave spinning cotton as she watched at the 

 foot of the stairs, and ascended to the sick man's chamber. 

 The young man was lying on a nice clean bed near an open 

 window, a friend supporting his raised-up head, and his young 

 wife wiping the perspiration from his temples ; while his 

 mother and a number of friends sat around. The young man 

 was suffering great pain from rheumatic fever and from the 

 effects of some very powerful native medicine which he had 

 taken. After talking with him some time, through a kind and 

 sympathising interpreter, a truly good man, we received a 

 visit from the chief whose maladies I had been for some time 

 dressing and bandaging at intervals. I told the young man I 

 would send him some medicine, and then went with one of 

 the chief officers of the palace to visit his wife, who had 

 been much better after taking the medicine I had given. I 

 then went to another part of the capital to see the mother 

 of two young officers of the palace, and to show the attend- 

 ants how to dress a blister which I had applied on the 

 previous day. The family seemed rejoiced as they told me 

 their mother felt greatly relieved. I returned to breakfast, 

 which I had scarcely finished when the son of one of the 

 chief judges came to ask me to go and see his mother. I 



