and I
suspect regretted that he had not been of our party. Of course he was
very much concerned at finding how serious was the injury I received,
though, when we arrived in safety at the village, he could not help
saying in his usual facetious manner--

"Well, Marsden, I hope that you are satisfied with the specimen you have
had of the delights of elephant-shooting, and I only trust that you may
never meet a greater rogue than you did to-day."

CHAPTER FOURTEEN.

A WOUNDED VEDDAH--HOW A CHRISTIAN CAN DIE--ATTACKED BY BLACK ANT--
ABUNDANCE OF GAME--CATCH A CROCODILE ASLEEP--FIGHT WITH A BEAR--CHASE A
DEER--LOSE MY WAY--CLIMB UP A TREE--WHAT I SAW WHEN THERE.

I lay on a sofa for the remainder of the day and during all the night,
suffering great pain. There was no surgeon within some hundred miles of
us, and the surgical knowledge of the natives was of a very limited
description. Mr Fordyce and Nowell did their best for me, and kept
continually fomenting the limb with cold applications of vinegar and
water, by which the swelling was somewhat abated. The skin, however,
was much broken, and soon became of a bright purple hue. I felt
somewhat alarmed, but Dango begged that I would allow him to apply a
balsam composed of what I was told was margosse oil. The odour was as
disagreeable as that of asafoetida, but not only did it keep all flies
away, but it had a most healing and cooling effect, so that after the
rest of another day I was able to mount my horse and proceed on our
journey. Nowell passed the time by going out and shooting pea-fowl,
partridges, and small deer, which added considerably to our bill of fare
at dinner time.

During three days after this, we travelled through the dense forest
country I have before described. Though nothing could be more sombre or
gloomy compared to the bright and open plain we had sometimes traversed,
I was thankful for the shade and coolness we obtained, as the heat might
again have inflamed my injured leg, I felt at first as if I had had a
lump of lead hanging on one side of my horse, but by walking a little
every day, that sensation gradually wore off, and in less than a week I
was as well as ever.

"You did well in destroying the elephants who were committing
depredations on our friends' fields, but I cannot allow you to
undertake, as knight-errants, to attack the rogues infesting all the
villages we pass through," observed Mr Fordyce. "You will certainly
get exp