1 said to me one clay, jesting, “ 11 i» very did!cult to get an appoint¬
2 ment litre, but still more so to get. one’s dismissal, when once in
3 office.’' He himself, feeling an excessive longing to revisit his
4 dear native land, after an absence of so many years, petitioned
5 for a short leave of absence, which the sly Runjeet Sing repeatedly
6 promised, but a. long time elapsed before he obtained it.
7 On the third day after our starting for the mountains, we
8 arrived at Suchetghur, at the foot of the hills, not far from
9 Samba. We made our journey partly on horses, and partly on
10 elephants. At that place, the rajah had his stables and cannon-
11 foundrv, and several new east, cannons and mortars were tried in
12 his presence. One of the former burst, and a gulendas (Indian
13 artilleryman) was stunned. The rajah requested me to ex¬
14 amine the man, who complained of a violent pain on his right
15 side, accompanied by severs shivering; but, to the great astonish¬
16 ment of all the spectators, there was not the least trace of any
17 external violence, whereupon the rajah himself, considering the
18 case insignificant, opposed my wish to bleed him, and sent him
19 some of his own rnumai . But at ten o'clock at night, about
20 five hours after the accident had taken place, a messenger was
21 a . n t by the rajah requesting me to attend the man, and bleed
22 |,in). 1 instantly complied, and found that he had been, according
23 to the custom of the Hindoos, taken out of his charpai (bed) and
24 laid on the lloor, where he expired in agony before I could give him
25 anv assistance. I do not know whether his liver was injured or not,
26 Ji iMbl-inortan examination not being allowed to be wade; but
27 it certainly was an extraordinary case, such as has never occurred
28 during my imxlical practice of thirty years. His death must
29 have been owing to a shock from the piece of hot metal,
30 which, in passing near him, hud injured some important organ
31 necessary to the support of life, ns flight alone could not have
32 caused such violent, pains and so sudden a death.
33 From Suchetghur, we Were conveyed in palanquins in two-days,
34 in the mountains, to Ramnuggur, where, the rajah had, besides Ins
35 castle, a fortress, in which his treasures were concealed. 1 We passed
36 the raiby season on the hills; and in the autumn wc descended,
37 in order to witness the Dll i.ire-fensl at l. nnitsir. I hence, we