1 46
2 said to me one day, jesting, “ It is very difficult to get an appoint-
3 ment here, but still more so to get one’s dismissal, when once in
4 office.11 He himself, feeling an excessive longing to revisit his
5 dear native land, after an absence of so many years, petitioned
6 for a short leave of absence, which the sly Runjeet Sing repeatedly
7 promised, but a long time elapsed before he obtained it.
8 On the third day after our starting for the mountains, we
9 arrived at Suchetghur, at the foot of the hills, not far from
10 Samba. We made our journey partly on horses, and partly on
11 elephants. At that place, the rajah had his stables and cannon-
12 foundry, and several new-cast cannons and mortars were tried in
13 his presence. One of the former burst, and a gulendas (Indian
14 artilleryman) was stunned. The rajah requested me to ex-
15 amine the man, who complained of a violent pain on his right
16 side, accompanied by severe shivering ; but, to the great astonish-
17 ment of all the spectators, there was not the least trace of any
18 external violence, whereupon the rajah himself, considering the
19 case insignificant, opposed my wish to bleed him, and sent him
20 some of his own mumiai. But at ten o’clock at night, about
21 five hours after the accident had taken place, a messenger was
22 sent by the rajah requesting me to attend the man, and bleed
23 him. I instantly complied, and found that he had been, according
24 to the custom of the Hindoos, taken out of his charpai (bed) and
25 laid on the floor, where he expired in agony before I could give him
26 any assistance. I do not know whether his liver was injured or not,
27 a post-mortem examination not being allowed to be made; but
28 it certainly was an extraordinary case, such as has never occurred
29 during my medical practice of thirty years. His death must
30 have been owing to a shock from the piece of hot metal,
31 which, in passing near him, had injured some important organ
32 necessary to the support of life, as fright alone could not have
33 caused such violent pains and so sudden a death.
34 From Suchetghur, we were conveyed in palanquins in two days,
35 in the mountains, to Ramnuggur, where the rajah had, besides his
36 castle, a fortress, in which his treasures were concealed. We passed
37 the rainy season on the hills; and in the autumn we descended,
38 in order to witness the Duseire-feast at Umritsir. Thence, we