supposition probably that the complaint had deprived the leg
of all sensation, began to pinch and hammer it in such a manner that I
absolutely roared with pain. Thinking that I was as capable of making
an application of thumps and pinches to the part as any one else, I
endeavoured to resist this species of medical treatment. But it was
not so easy a matter to get out of the clutches of the old wizard; he
fastened on the unfortunate limb as if it were something for which he
had been long seeking, and muttering some kind of incantation continued
his discipline, pounding it after a fashion that set me well nigh crazy;
while Mehevi, upon the same principle which prompts an affectionate
mother to hold a struggling child in a dentist's chair, restrained me
in his powerful grasp, and actually encouraged the wretch in this
infliction of torture.

Almost frantic with rage and pain, I yelled like a bedlamite; while
Toby, throwing himself into all the attitudes of a posture-master,
vainly endeavoured to expostulate with the natives by signs and
gestures. To have looked at my companion, as, sympathizing with my
sufferings, he strove to put an end to them, one would have thought
that he was the deaf and dumb alphabet incarnated. Whether my tormentor
yielded to Toby's entreaties, or paused from sheer exhaustion, I do not
know; but all at once he ceased his operations, and at the same time the
chief relinquishing his hold upon me, I fell back, faint and breathless
with the agony I had endured.

My unfortunate limb was now left much in the same condition as a
rump-steak after undergoing the castigating process which precedes
cooking. My physician, having recovered from the fatigues of his
exertions, as if anxious to make amends for the pain to which he had
subjected me, now took some herbs out of a little wallet that was
suspended from his waist, and moistening them in water, applied them
to the inflamed part, stooping over it at the same time, and either
whispering a spell, or having a little confidential chat with some
imaginary demon located in the calf of my leg. My limb was now swathed
in leafy bandages, and grateful to Providence for the cessation of
hostilities, I was suffered to rest.

Mehevi shortly after rose to depart; but before he went he spoke
authoritatively to one of the natives whom he addressed as Kory-Kory;
and from the little I could understand of what took place, pointed
him out to me as a man whose peculiar bu