G.A. Henty - With Kitchener in the Soudan - a story of Atbara and Omdurman

"'Now, Saleh,' I said, 'I am going to try if this will do. If I had one of the tools I have seen the white hakims use, I am sure I could get the ball out easily enough, but I think I can succeed with this. If I cannot, I must make another Kite it, so as to put one down each side of the bullet. You soe, this curve makes a sort of hook; the difficulty is to get it under the bullet.'

" I understand,' he said.Do not mind hurting me. I have seen men die of bullets even after the wound seemed to heal. I know it is better to try and get it out.'

"It was a difficult job. Pressing back the flesh with my finger, I succeeded at last in getting the hook under the bullet; this I held firmly against it, and to my delight felt as I raised finger and hook together that the bullet was coming. A few seconds later I held it triumphantly between my fingers.

"There, Saleh, there is your enemy. I think, now, that if there is no inflammation it will not be long before you are well and strong again.'

"Truly, it is wonderful!' the man said gratefully. 'I have heard of hakims who are able to draw bullets from wounds, but I have never seen it done before.'

"If Saleh had been a white man I should still have felt doubtful as to his recovery, but I was perfectly confident that a wound of that sort would heal well in an Arab, especially as it would be kept cool and clean. Hard exercise, life in the open air, entire absence of stimulating liquors, and only very occasionally, if ever, meat diet, render them almost insensible to wounds that would paralyse a white. Our surgeons had been astonished at the rapidity with which the wounded prisoners recovered. Saleh's wife had stood by as if carved in stone while I performed the operation, but when I produced the bullet she burst into tears and poured blessings on my head.

"I am writing this on the following morning. Saleh has slept quietly all night; his hand is cool this morning, and I think I may fairly say that he is convalescent.

"Abdullah's wife came in yesterday evening and told the women here that her husband was asleep, but that he would come round in the morning. I warned her not to let him stir out-of-doors, and said I would come and see him.

"It has taken me five hours to write this, which seems a very long time to spend on details of things not worth recording; but the act of writing has taken my thoughts off myself, and I intend always to note down anything special. It will be interesting to me to read it if I ever get away; should I be unable to escape, I shall charge Saleh to carry it to Khartoum if he ever has the chance, and hand it over to the Governor there, to send down to Cairo.

"A week later. I am already losing count of days, but days matter nothing. I have been busy, so busy that I have not even had time to write. After I had finished my story so far, Saleh's slave woman took me to Abdullah's house. I found that he was in a state of high fever, but all I could do was to recommend that a wet rag should be applied, and freshly wetted every quarter of an hour; that his head should be kept similarly enveloped in wet bandages; and that his hands should be dipped in water very frequently. When I got back I found several women waiting outside Saleh's house. His wife had gossiped with a neighbour, and told them that I had got the bullet out of his wound. The news spread rapidly, and these women were all there to beg that I would see their husbands.

" This was awkward. I certainly could not calculate upon being successful in cases where a bullet had penetrated more deeply, and even if I could do so, I should at once excite the hostility of the native hakims, and draw very much more attention upon myself than I desired. In vain I protested that I was not a hakim, and had done only what I had seen a white hakim do. Finding that this did not avail, I said that I would not go to see any man except with one of the native doctors.

'"There are two here,' one of the women said; 'I will go and fetch them.'

" 'No,' I said; 'who am I that they should come to me? I will go and see them if you will show me where they live.'

"' Ah, here they come!' she said, as two Dervishes approached. I went up to them, and they said:We hear that you are a hakim who has done great things.'

'"I am no hakim,' I said; 'I was just coming to you to tell you so. The man I aided was a friend and was not deeply wounded. Having seen a white hakim take bullets from wounded men, I tried my best, and as the bullet was but a short way in I succeeded. If I had had the instruments I saw the infidel use it would have been easy, but I had to make an instrument, which sufficed for the purpose, although it would have been of no use had the bullet gone in deeper.'

" They came in and examined Saleh's wound, the bullet, and the tool I had made.

"'It is well,' they said; 'you have profited by what you saw. Whence do you come?'

" I told the same story that I had told Saleh.

"You have been some time at Khartoum?'

" Not very long,' I said; 'but I went down once to Cairo, and was there some years. It was there I came to know something of the ways of the infidels. I am a poor man and very ignorant, but if you will 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 Ave 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 the man must die if it were not done. But you are learned men, hakims, and if you will take me as your assistant I will show you how the white doctors take out balls, and, if there is no other way, cut off limbs, and when I have once shown you you will do it far better than I.'