people by assuaging their pain. The gift
had been given to him soon after he attained
manhood. That, with one exception, and
that was in the case of a Keranee—a half-
caste no patient had ever fallen asleep, or
had become beehosh (unconscious), under his
gaze. "The case of the half-caste," he went
on to say, "alarmed me. He fell asleep and
slept for twelve hours, snoring like a man in
a state of intoxication." I was not the first
European he had operated upon, he said;
that in Bareilly, where he formerly lived, he
had afforded relief to many officers and to
several ladies. Some had tooth-ache, some
tic-doloreux, some other pains. "But," he
exclaimed energetically, "the most
extraordinary case I ever had, was that of a sahib
who had gone mad—' drink delirious.' His
wife would not suffer him to be strapped
down, and he was so violent that it took four
or five other sahibs to hold him. I was sent
for, and, at first, had great difficulty with
him and much trembling. At last, however,
I locked his eyes up, as soon as I got him to
look at me, and kept him for several hours
as quiet as a mouse, during which time he
had no brandy, no wine, no beer; and, though
he did not sleep, he had a good long rest. I
stayed with him for two days, and whatever
I told him to do he did immediately. He
had great sorrow on his mind, poor man.
Three of his children had died of fever
within one short week, and he had lost much
money by the failure of an agency-house in
Calcutta. There was a cattle Serjeant,
too, an European, whom I also cured of
that drinking madness by locking up his
eyes."

"What do you mean by locking up his
eyes?"

"Well, what I did with you; I locked up
your eyes. When I got his eyes fixed on
mine, he could not take them away—could
not move."

"But can you lock up any one's eyes in
the way that you locked up mine?"

"No; not everybody's. There was an
artillery captain once who defied me to lock
up his eyes. I tried very hard; but, instead
of locking up his, he locked up mine, and I
could not move till he permitted me. And
there was a lady, the wife of a judge, who
had pains in the head, which I could not cure,
because she locked up my eyes. With her I
trembled much, by straining every nerve, but
it was of no use."

"Do you know any other native who has
the same power that you possess?"

"Only three; but, I dare say, there may
be hundreds in these provinces who have it,
and who use it. And now, sahib," said the
native doctor, taking from his kummerbund
(the cloth that encircles the waist) a bundle
of papers, "I desire to show you some of my
certificates, at the same time to beg of you to
pardon my apparent want of respect in
appearing in your presence in this skull-cap
instead of a turban; but the fact is, that
when I heard you were in such great pain, I
did not think it humane to delay until I had
adorned myself."

I proceeded to examine very carefully
every one of his many certificates; not that
I was in any way interested in them, but
because I knew it would afford him great
pleasure. In all, they were quite as numerous
as those which English charlatans publish in
testimony of their skill in extracting corns.
They were more elaborate, however; for it
is by the length of a certificate that a native
judges of its value—just in the same way
that Partridge, when Tom Jones took him to
see Hamlet, admired the character of the
King, because he spoke louder than any of
the company, "anybody could see that he
was a king." As for myself, I sat down and
covered a whole sheet of foolscap in
acknowledgment of my gratitude to Mustapha Khan
Bahadoor, for having delivered me from
unendurable torments. To my certificate I
pinned a cheque on the North-West Bank for
one hundred rupees (ten pounds), and, presenting
both documents to the doctor, permitted
him to take his leave. Some months afterwards,
on discovering that this cheque had
not been presented for payment, I wrote to
the assistant-magistrate, and asked him, as
a favour, to send for the native doctor, and
obtain some information on the subject. In
reply, I was informed that the doctor
preferred keeping the cheque appended to my
certificate as an imperishable memorial of
the extraordinary value in which his services
had been held by an European gentleman,
and that he would not part with it for ten
times the amount in gold or silver. Such a
strange people are the natives of India!
Their cupidity is enormous, certainly, but
their vanity (I am speaking of the better
class) is even greater. One hundred rupees
was equal to half a year's earnings of the
native doctor, and yet he preferred holding
the useless autograph of an insignificant
sahib like myself for the amount rather than
realise it. The native doctor evidently
reasoned thus:—"I might spend the one
hundred rupees, might not be believed if I
made the assertion that I had received it;
but here is the voucher." Some may imagine
that he kept it as a sort of decoy-duck; but
this I am perfectly satisfied was not the
case.

I was now about to leave Bijnore, and, as
time was of no object to me, I made up my
mind to travel no more by palkee, or horse
dâk, but in the most independent and
comfortable manner. I therefore provided myself
with two small tents, and two camels to
carry them, two bullocks to carry the tent
furniture, my baggage, and stores; a pony
for my own riding, and a similar animal for
a boy khitmutghur, who was also my
personal servant or bearer.

I engaged also a cook and a sweeper, or