284 WITH KITCHENER IN THE SOUDAN them. In a house where booty of all sorts was stored I saw the chests which I knew were those carried by Hicks’s medical officer. The one contained drugs, the other a variety of surgical instruments—probes, forceps, amputating knives, and many other instruments of whose use I was ignorant.

I picked out three or four probes and forceps of different shapes.

“ ‘ These are the instruments,’ I said, with which they take out bullets. With one of these thin instruments they search the wound until they find the ball. Sometimes they cannot find it, and even when they have found it they sometimes cannot get hold of it with any of these tools, which, as you see, open and shut.’

“ What are the knives for ?

’ They use the knives for cutting off limbs. Twice have I seen this done, for I was travelling with a learned hakim who was searching the tombs for relics. In one case a great stone fell on a man’s foot and smashed it, and the hakim took it off at the ankle. In another case a man had been badly wounded by a bullet in the arm. He was not one of our party, but hearing of the hakim’s skill he had made a journey of three days to him. The wound was very bad, and they said it was too late to save the arm, so they cut it off above the elbow.’

“ And they lived ?

’ Yes, they both lived.’

Could you do that ?

’ I shook my head. /It requires much skill,’ I said. ‘I saw how it was done, but to do it one’s self is very different. If there was a man who must die if an arm or a leg were not taken off, I would try to save his life, but I would not try unless it was clear that the man must die if it were not done. But you are learned men, hakims, and if you will take me as your assistant I will show you how the white doctors take out balls, and, if there is no other way, cut off limbs, and when I have once shown you you will do it far better than I.’