CHAP. vru.1   WE ARE ORDERED TO RETURN.   137

was not a successful artificer. I had occasion to make inquiries for a professional gentleman, a dentist, as one of my teeth had ached so horribly that I could hardly endure it. He was employed at a distance; but I subsequently witnessed, though I did not myself undergo, the exercise of his skill. He brought a piece of the back sinew of a sheep which forms a kind of catgut, and tied this round the unhappy tooth, the spare end of the catgut was wound round a stout piece of stick, and this he rolled up tight to the tooth, and then prized with all his force against the jaw till something gave way. I saw the wretched patient sitting for the rest of the day with his head between his knees, and his hands against his temples.

The practice of surgery is rather rude among the Ovampo. Timboo had run a thorn very deeply into his hand; it did not remain in, but the prick caused a painful abscess, which pointed and partly broke. He applied to the Ovampo doctor, whose measures were simple: he squatted down, resting Timboo's hand upon his knee, and then grasped a tough stick with both hands, with which he energetically kneaded down the swelling. Timboo endured the operation without a cry ; but a black can bear anything.

There are no diseases in these parts except slight fever, frequent ophthalmia, and stomach complaints. I kept a bottle full of eyewater for the sufferers from ophthalmia, and stuck a feather into the bottom of its cork, with which I could paint the eyes of a whole row of patients one after the other.

CHAPTER VIII.

We are ordered to return-Hesitation-The Slave Dealings here-Future of Ovampoland-A Field for Missionaries-Best Way of getting thereSlavery and Servitude-Giving Men away-Arrange my Packs-Start Homeward-Leave Ondonga-The Oxen suffer severely-Reach Okamabuti-The Waggons are Safe-Start for Omaramba-OkavareElephants visit us-Ice every Night-Pass Omagunde-Reach Barmen.

Ox one occasion Nangoro told me that he would send Chik back with me to my country. I promised to take him as far as that of the

Hottentots, where he could see some of my countrymen ; but that my country was so far off, that if he went to it, he would never find his way