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. 
