intense. Every one, head down
to the ground, prayed fervently. The doctor waved the ignited wood three
or four times in the air and then applied the flames to the paper tips of
the combustible cones. Apparently saltpetre and sulphur had been mixed in
the preparation of these. They burned fast, making a noise like the fuse
of a rocket.

At this juncture the animation of the onlookers was not to be compared
with the agitation of the patient, who began to feel the effects of this
primitive remedy. The fire spluttered on his bare skin. The cure was
doing its work. The wretched man's mouth foamed, and his eyes bulged out
of their sockets. He moaned and groaned, making desperate efforts to
unloose the bonds that kept his hands fast behind his back. Two stalwart
men sprang forward and held him, while the medicine-man and all the women
present, leaning over the prostrate form, blew with all their might upon
what remained of the three smoking cones frizzling away into the flesh of
the wretched victim.

The pain of which the man complained seemed to encircle his waist,
wherefore the strange physician, having untied his patient's arms from
behind, and retied them in front, began his measurements again, this time
from the spinal column.

[Illustration: A MEDICINE-MAN]

"_Chik, ni, sum!_" ("One, two, three!") he exclaimed, as he marked the
three spots in the same fashion as before, smeared them over with butter,
and affixed the cones. Here ensued a repetition of the previous
excitement; prayers, agony, and distortions, but the patient was not
thoroughly cured, and more cones were subsequently ignited on both his
sides, in spite of his protests and my appeals on his behalf. The poor
fellow soon had a regular circle of severe burns round his body.

Needless to say, when, two hours later, the operation was over, the sick
man had become a dying man. With a view to obtaining a few hints on
Tibetan medicine from this eminent physician--the Tibetans held him in
great esteem--I sent him a small present and requested him to visit me.
He was flattered and showed no desire to keep his methods a secret, but
even pressed me to try some of his unique remedies.

According to him, fire would cure most illnesses; what fire could not
cure, water would. He had, nevertheless, some small packets of variously
coloured powders, for which he claimed extraordinary powers.

"I am afraid your patient will die," I remarked.

"He may," was the reply, "