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2 no avail, and for a whole fortnight I was unable to sleep night
3 or day, and was without food of any kind; for on my attempting
4 to take the slightest nourishment, even pure water, the stomach
5 rejected it again immediately ; and from the circumstance of an
6 acrid fluid sometimes rising to my mouth, and an unnatural
7 feeling of heaviness in the stomach, I was led to conclude
8 that there was an ulceration there. Erratic swellings in the
9 joints, accompanied by dysentery, followed ; and I was so
10 weakened, that on the morning of the day when my brother
11 arrived, I was in a piteous state of blindness and exhaustion.
12 On that day I commenced using that simple remedy which
13 contributed to my restoration from the very dangerous illness
14 at Kheirpore, on the Indus (as the reader may remember), viz.,
15 masticating some of those large raisins, called there monaka,
16 which I found to act as a balm to the stomach, or rather,
17 perhaps, to the ulceration there. From that moment I grew
18 visibly better, my appetite and strength gradually increased, and
19 I was at length restored to health.
20 As regards my brother, it soon became evident, that in the
21 altered state of political affairs in the Punjab, there could be no
22 probability of his obtaining any engagement which would justify
23 him in remaining; he therefore returned again to Europe,
24 accompanied by Colonel Steinbach.
25 As an instance of the fanaticism of the Nahungs (the robber-
26 pack I have before mentioned), I may relate an occurrence
27 which took place at Umritsir, in which a German friend of
28 mine, Herr August Schofft, was near losing his life by their
29 fury. This gentleman is an artist of some celebrity (at this
30 time in St. Petersburg), and he, accompanied by his lady, visited
31 the East Indian Presidencies shortly before my severe illness;
32 and having met with great success in consequence of his skill
33 in oil painting, he came to visit me at Lahore. At this time the
34 court happened to be at Umritsir, and I received an order from
35 Sheer Sing to present myself at that place with my guest. On
36 our arrival, it happened that one of the principal Sikh priests,
37 named Baii Goormuck Sing, was present, and the maharajah