'Journal of a Journey from Persia to India through Herat and Candahar. Also Report of a Journey to the Wahebee Capital of Riyadh in Central Arabia' [‎47v] (94/268)

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laid hold of his beard, and told him that so long as that was white
nothing could cure his eyes. This argument satisfied my visitor,
and relieved me of having to give him an experimental doze.
I may here mention that my knowledge of medicine being limited, I
am often somewhat puzzled in administering to the various patients
who seek advice and medicine by the way-side. However, as the
Physician of the Legation at Teheran kindly provided me wuth a
small assortment of common remedies, I usually administer these
to the best of my ability, and trust to a benevolent Providence to
bless the means.
Some of the pill-boxes and powders are docketed, “Only for
Persians or Afghans with strong constitutionsso these I ad
minister with extra care. I rarely give the dose indeed, until I am
on the point of starting, and then I strictly enjoin 24 hours’ fast
ing as a preparatory. I calculate that by this regimen the pa
tient receives the full benefit of the medicine, and I the full benefit
of 24 hours’ start. I regret to find that the laudanum bottle is
broken, and that its contents have soaked into the pills and
powders.
The Noorzye Chief expatiated to me on the merits of his tribe ;
and said that with a whistle he could call together 1,000 horse
men ; this was of course a falsehood. But I dare say he might
have called some 200. He then begged me to accept of a fat
goat, which I did, paying him a sum tw^o-fold its value. But
just as the goat made its appearance one of the horses fell down
in spasms of cholera. So the poor goat’s throat was instantly
cut and applied to the horse’s mouth. The horse drained the
goat dry of blood, and then the sowars finished the meat ; the
goat-skin being tied, hair outwards, over the sick horse’s head.
In this position the poor horse was compelled to walk blind-fold
ed up and down the yard of the post-house, cutting the most lu
dicrous figure, and every now and then, trying to lie down from
sheer agony. However, with one man tugging in front and a
second whipping him from behind, to lie down was, of course, a
hopeless attempt.
I omitted to notice that a preparatory remedy was to bleed
the horse in the mouth and near the eye. Whatever may have