1 49
2 they were defeated, and forced to depart, and from the town
3 also, to Umritsir. The individual just alluded to as deserving
4 the gallows, had cut off the arm of a sentinel, for having pre-
5 vented him from entering the tent of the king by a private
6 entrance. The Nahung had a servant with him, who underwent
7 no punishment, because he did not behave in an aggressive
8 manner ; but the offender, by the order of Runjeet Singh, lost
9 his ears, nose, and hands, by the same sabre with which he had
10 so skilfully cut off the arm of the soldier on royal duty. After
11 the sad execution, he ran to drown himself in a well, but was
12 prevented by the people who were accidentally present. When
13 the king was informed of the fact, the culprit was sent to me,
14 and put under my care and medical attendance, with strict orders
15 to watch him, to prevent his committing suicide, and to present
16 him, when cured, to the king. According to his own statement,
17 he was drunk with bhang (hemp) when he committed the crime,
18 and his only intention for intruding on the king had been to ask
19 a gapa (gift). These robbers do not like to enter military ser-
20 vice ; they prefer begging, and living by pillage.
21 Rajah Heera Sing, son to the minister Dhyan Sing, who was
22 a favourite of Runjeet Sing’s, was afflicted with diabetes, and
23 we (I and the five native physicians) were consulted, at the palace
24 garden of Hazooree Bagh, in the presence of Runjeet Sing, and
25 on that occasion I made mention of milk-sugar. As neither
26 the Maharajah nor his physicians had ever heard of any sugar
27 prepared from the milk of cows, they were curious to see a
28 specimen of it, and I was ordered to prepare some in the gulab-
29 haneh (rose-water house), in the presence of the fakir, Noor-oo-
30 Deen; but they had scarcely patience to wait for its preparation.
31 I produced some white and fine crystallized milk-sugar, which I
32 presented in a box to Runjeet Sing, of which he gave a few
33 pieces to a boy to taste, but he did not find it so sweet as cane-
34 sugar, so no one spoke any more about it, and the milk scene
35 was thus at its end. The gulab-haneh, where the rose-waters
36 and the bedemusk {aqua flor. salicis Babylon ), which they
37 use as cooling beverages in the hot season, were distilled,