s 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 are. You
will remember that I took hold of each, with the 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 off 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
firm 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