They nodded to me when they saw I was
conscious, and brought water in a large leaf, and poured it into
my mouth. Then one went away for some time, and came back with some
leaves and bark. These they chewed and put on my wounds, bound them
up with strips of my shirt, and then again knotted the ends of the
cloth, and lifting me up, went on as before.
"I was sure that we were much lower down the Ghaut than we had been
when I was watching for the bears, and we were now going still lower.
However, I knew very little Hindustani, nothing of the language
the women spoke. I was too weak to stand, too weak even to think
much; and I dozed and woke, and dozed again until, after what seemed
to me many hours of travel, we stopped again, this time before
a tent. Two or three old women and four or five men came out, and
there was great talking between them and the young women--for they
were young--who had carried me down. Some of the party appeared
angry; but at last things quieted down, and I was carried into
the tent. I had fever, and was, I suppose, delirious for days.
I afterwards found that for fully a fortnight I had lost all
consciousness; but a good constitution and the nursing of the women
pulled me round. When once the fever had gone, I began to mend
rapidly.
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