Australian Search PartyEden, Charles H. (Charles Henry)
History
Australian Search Party
Eden, Charles H. (Charles Henry)
Australia -- Discovery and exploration
fate of their injured companion. Paddy walked into the nearest
township, had his wounds dressed, and felt no inconvenience from the
venom. Under the soubriquet of "Three-fingered Tim," this individual
may frequently be met with at Sydney, and, for a glass of grog, will be
delighted to recount the whole affair, with the richest of Milesian
brogues. The second case was that of a woman. She was going from the
hut to the fireplace, when she trod on a snake, which bit her just
below the joint of the little toe; for, like Coleridge's Christabel--
"Her blue-veined feet unsandall'd were."
She was in a terrible position; her husband, and the other man for whom
she acted as hut-keeper, had both gone out with their flocks some hours
previously, and there was nobody about but a poor half-witted lad, who
hung about the place doing odd jobs. She was a resolute woman, and
made up her mind how to act, in far less time than it takes me to set
it down on paper. Coo-ehing for the lad, she went into the hut, and
came out again with a sharp tomahawk and an axe.
"Take this," she said, handing the latter to the boy, "and strike hard
on the back of it when I tell you."
Thus speaking, she placed her foot on a log of wood, adjusted the keen
edge of the tomahawk so that when struck it would sever the toe and the
portion of the foot containing the bite, and, holding the handle of the
tomahawk steady as a rock, with firm determination gave the words--
"Now, Jim, strike!"
It needed three blows from the back of the axe to complete the
operation, for the poor lad grew frightened at the sight of the blood;
but the undaunted woman encouraged him, nerved him to a fresh trial,
and guided the tomahawk as coolly as if she were cutting up a piece of
beef, until the shocking task was completed. With Jim's assistance,
she then bound up the foot to arrest the bleeding, and, accompanied by
him, rode ten miles into the township, and, need I say, in due course
recovered.
In these instances the reader will see that the measures taken were
both prompt, and such as would require more nerve than is possessed by
the ordinary run of mortals. In the above cases, also, the bitten part
was capable of being removed; but for a bite on the wrist, had such an
extreme measure as immediate dismemberment been performed, the cure
would have been as fatal as the disease.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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