allow me
I will act as your assistant, as I know that there are many wounded
here. If you will tell me what to do, I will follow your instructions
carefully.'

"The two hakims looked more satisfied, at finding that I was not a
dangerous rival. One said:

"'Among the things that have been brought in here is a box. Those who
brought it did not know what it contained, and it was too strong for
them to open, though of course they were able to hammer it, and break
it open. It contained nothing but many shining instruments, but the
only one that we knew the purport of was a saw. There were two boxes of
the same shape, and the other contained a number of little bottles of
drugs; and we thought that maybe, as the boxes were alike, these
shining instruments were used by the white hakim.'

"'I can tell you that, if I see them,' I said, and went with 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