292 WITH KITCHENEK IN THE SOUDAN “Lady/ I said, ‘I pray you to speak very quietly, and in few words. It is most important that he should not be excited in any way, but should be kept perfectly quiet for the next two or three days.’

“ ' I will do so,’ she said. ' May I touch him ?

’ ‘ You may take his hand in yours, but do not let him move. I will leave you with him for a few minutes. Please remember that everything depends upon his not being agitated.’

“I went out and joined the hakims.

Truly, Mudil, Allah has given you strange gifts,’ one of them said. ‘ Wonderful is it that you should have remembered so well what you saw, and more wonderful still is it that you should have the firmness to cut and saw fiesh and bone as if they were those of a dead sheep, with the Emir standing by to look at you !

’ “ ‘ I knew that his life, and perhaps mine, depended upon it. The Emir would have kept his oath I doubt not, but when it became known in the town that Abu, who is known to all for his bravery and goodness, died in my hands, it would not have been safe for me to leave this house.’

‘‘I then explained the reason for each step that I took. They listened most attentively, and asked several questions, showing that they were intensely interested, and most anxious to be able to perform so wonderful an operation themselves. They were greatly surprised at the fact that so little blood flowed.

‘ It seems,’ I said, from what I heard the white hakim say, that the blood flowed through those little white tubes. * By twisting the tourniquet very tight that flow of blood is stopped. The great thing is to find those little tubes, and tie them up. As you would notice, the large ones in the inside of the arm could be seen quite plainly. When they cannot be seen, the screw is unloosed so as to allow a small quantity of blood to flow, which shows you where the tubes j are. You will remember that I took hold of each with the