Almost all the wounded came to me; and for twelve hours I was busy
bandaging and dressing their wounds. In several cases, where I knew
that recovery was impossible, I informed the relations of the fact;
as otherwise their death would have been laid to me, a rather serious
matter in our critical position. Those thus warned always sought
native advice, but they found out very soon that charms and amulets
were of no avail, and that my prognostic had been but too true. I
remember one case: a chief who had often been on guard at night
over our prison had his left leg completely smashed by a stone;
without entering into professional details, suffice it to say that
I at once pronounced amputation as the only possible remedy; but
to please the chiefs, who took a great interest in him, I agreed
to dress his wound for a week, and after that time, should I be
still of the same opinion to inform them of it. He had a small godjo
built in our inclosure, and remained there until I gave for the
second time as my opinion that nothing could save his life but
immediate amputation. He was on that taken to his house and made
over to a Shoa doctor, who promised not only to save his life but
also the limb. The poor man was tortured by that ignorant quack for
a week or ten days, until death put an end to his misery.
Two days after, on a female spy reporting that in the ravine where
the Amharas had been slaughtered, she had seen two wounded men
hidden among the bushes, and still alive; an old chief, also a Galla
renegade, with a few hundred men, was ordered to proceed to the
spot, and endeavour to bring them back and bury the dead; they were
on no account to engage in any action with the Gallas, but to retreat
at once should he meet with resistance.
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