A HAKIM 293 bent point of a small wire or a pair of these nippers, and, while you held it, tied the thread tightly round it. When that is done, one is ready to cut the bone. You saw me push the flesh back so as to cut the bone as high up as possible; that is because the white doctor said the flesh would shrink up and the bone would project. I cut the flesh straight on one side, and on the other with a flap that will, when it is stitched, cover over the bone and the rest of the flesh, and make what the hakim called a pad. He said all cutting-ofl of limbs was done in this way, but of course the tubes would not lie in the same place, and the cutting would have to be made differently; but it was all the same system. He called these simple operations, and said that anyone with a Arm hand and a knowledge of where these tubes lie ought to be able to do it after seeing it done once or twice. He said, of course, it would not be so neatly done as by men who had been trained to it, but that in cases of extreme necessity anyone who had seen it done once or twice, and had sufficient nerve, could do it, especially if they had ready at hand this stuff that makes the wounded man sleep and feel no pain.

I listened very attentively, because all seemed to me almost like magic, but I certainly did not think that I should ever have to do such a thing myself.’

“ But what would be done if they had not that sleepmedicine ?

’ The hakim said that in that case the wounded man would have to be fastened down by bandages to the bed and held hy six strong men, so that he could not move in the slightest. However, there is enough of that stuff to last a hundred times or more, for, as you see, only a good-sized spoonful was used.’

The Emir, who had passed through the harem rooms, now opened the door.

Come in,’ he said. ‘ My son is quiet, and has not moved. He has spoken to his mother, and seems quite sensible. Is there, anything more for you to do to him ?

’