succeeded in imparting to him on this subject was little
more than that we had seen six men-of-war lying in the hostile bay at the
time we had left it. When he received this intelligence, Mehevi, by the
aid of his fingers, went through a long numerical calculation, as if
estimating the number of Frenchmen the squadron might contain.

It was just after employing his faculties in this way that he happened to
notice the swelling in my limb. He immediately examined it with the utmost
attention, and after doing so, despatched a boy, who happened to be
standing by, with some message.

After the lapse of a few moments the stripling re-entered the house with
an aged islander, who might have been taken for old Hippocrates himself.
His head was as bald as the polished surface of a cocoa-nut shell, which
article it precisely resembled in smoothness and colour, while a long
silvery beard swept almost to his girdle of bark. Encircling his temples
was a bandeau of the twisted leaves of the Omoo tree, pressed closely over
the brows to shield his feeble vision from the glare of the sun. His
tottering steps were supported by a long slim staff, resembling the wand
with which a theatrical magician appears on the stage, and in one hand he
carried a freshly-plaited fan of the green leaflets of the cocoa-nut tree.
A flowing robe of tappa, knotted over the shoulder, hung loosely round his
stooping form, and heightened the venerableness of his aspect.

Mehevi, saluting this old gentleman, motioned him to a seat between us,
and then uncovering my limb, desired him to examine it. The leech gazed
intently from me to Toby, and then proceeded to business. After diligently
observing the ailing member, he commenced manipulating it; and on the
supposition probably that the complaint had deprived the leg of all
sensation, began to pinch and hammer it in such a manner that I absolutely
roared with the pain. Thinking that I was as capable of making an
application of thumps and pinches to the part as any one else, I
endeavoured to resist this species of medical treatment. But it was not so
easy a matter to get out of the clutches of the old wizard; he fastened on
the unfortunate limb as if it were something for which he had been long
seeking, and muttering some kind of incantation continued his discipline,
pounding it after a fashion that set me well-nigh crazy; while Mehevi,
upon the same principle which prompts an affectionate mother to hold a
struggl