32 III. FIRST IMPRESSIONS AND EXPERIENCES 
little windowless room, and the bad state of the roof 
made it necessary to wear my sun-helmet all day, but 
when the storm came on I did not have to move every- 
thing under cover. I felt proud the first time I heard 
the rain rattling on the roof, and it seemed incredible 
that I could go quietly on with my bandaging. 
At the same time I discovered an interpreter and 
assistant. Amongst my patients there turned up a_ 
very intelligent-looking native, who spoke French 
remarkably well, and said he was a cook by trade but 
had had to give up that kind of work as it disagreed 
with his health. I asked him to come to us tem- 
porarily, as we could not find a cook, and at the same 
time to help me as interpreter and surgical assistant. 
His name was Joseph, and he proved extremely handy. 
It was hardly surprising that, as he had acquired his 
knowledge of anatomy in the kitchen, he should, as a 
matter of habit, use kitchen terms in the surgery : 
“ This man’s right leg of mutton (gigot) hurts him.” 
” This woman has a pain in her upper left cutlet, and 
in her loin ! ” At the end of May N’Zeng arrived, the 
man whom I had written to engage beforehand, but as 
he did not seem to be very reliable, I kept Joseph on. 
Joseph is a Galoa, N’Zeng a Pahouin. 
Work was now fairly well started. My wife had 
charge of the instruments and made the necessary 
preparations for the surgical operations, at which she 
served as assistant, and she also looked after the 
bandages and the washing of the linen. Consultations 
begin about 8.30, the patients waiting in the shade of 
my house in front of the fowlhouse, which is my 
surgery, and every morning one of the assistants reads 
out — 
