The Englishman was hunting for the statue of a horse, a great horse
hight Hunja, who was a steed of Irak, and a King’s gift to Rao Omeda,
one time monarch of Boondi. He found it in the city square as Tod had
said; and it was an unlovely statue, carven after the dropsical fashion
of later Hindu art. No one seemed to know anything about it. A little
further on, one cried from a bye-way in rusty English:--“Come and see my
Dispensary.” There are only two men in Boondi who speak English. One is
the head, and the other the assistant, teacher of the English side of
Boondi Free School. This third was, some twenty years ago, a pupil of
the Lahore Medical College when that institution was young; and he only
remembered a word here and there. He was head of the Charitable
Dispensary; and insisted upon, then and there, organising a small
durbar, and pulling out all his books for inspection. Escape was
hopeless: nothing less than a formal inspection and introduction to all
the native Baids would serve. There were sixteen beds in and about the
courtyard, and between twenty and thirty out-patients stood in
attendance. Making allowances for untouched Orientalism, the Dispensary
is a good one, and must relieve a certain amount of human misery. There
is no other in all Boondi. The operation-book, kept in English, showed
the principal complaints of the country. They were:--“Asthama,”
“Numonia,” “Skin-diseas,” “Dabalaty,” and “Loin-bite.” This last item
occurred again and again--three and four cases per week--and it was not
until the Doctor said--“_Sher se mara_” that the Englishman read it
aright. It was “lion-bite,” or tiger, if you insist upon zoological
accuracy. There was one incorrigible idiot, a handsome young man, naked
as the day, who sat in the sunshine, shivering and pressing his hands to
his head. “I have given him blisters and setons--have tried native and
English treatment for two years, but it is no use. He is always as you
see him, and now he stays here by the favour of the Durbar, which is a
very good and pitiful Durbar,” said the Doctor. There were many such
pensioners of the Durbar--men afflicted with chronic “asthama” who
stayed “by favour,” and were kindly treated. They were resting in the
sunshine, their hands on their knees, sure that their daily dole of
grain and tobacco and opium would be forthcoming. “All folk, even little
children, eat opium here,” said the Doctor, and the diet-book proved it.
After laborious investigation of everything, down to the last indent to
Bombay for Europe medicines, the Englishman was suffered to depart.
“Sir, I thank....” began the Native Doctor, but the rest of the sentence
stuck. Sixteen years in Boondi does not increase knowledge of English;
and he went back to his patients, gravely conning over the name of the
Principal of the Lahore Medical School--a College now--who had taught
him all he knew, and to whom he intended to write. There was something
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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