ABYSSIN AN ENDURANCE.

Otago Witness, Issue 2516, 4 June 1902, Page 50

ABYSSI N AN ENDURANCE.

Monsieur Hughes Le Roux, writing of " New Trails in Abyssinia," in the April "Century," says: — I have had occasion to observe the great power of resignation and patience under suffering common to these primitive men. One night a soldier who had retired with a loaded gun by his side made a sudden movement which gent off the gun. It was a Winchester of big calibre, charged with Dumdum bullets used in'hunting large game. The moment the report eounded, the whole_ camp was on the lookout. Presumably it was caused by~a raid of thieves or the sudden appearance of a lion. In the semi-obscurity I put out my hand, and felt the man lying on the ground "bathed in his own blood. The bullet had 6hot off hie left thumb, and had fractured his right arm at the biceps. I wag obliged to amputate, on the spot, this pulp. I had never seen an arm cut off nor a bone sawed away. Nevertheless, the binding of the arteries and the operation were performed in the dim lantern-light as best I knew how. Not only did the man not complain, but he seemed perfectly insensible to the pain. He recovered.

Another time I fook care of a gold-miner whom negroes had attacked in the swamps. They had cut hie brother to pieces, and the man himself they had left foi dead, pierced through and through with lance-wounds. In this condition the poor wretch dragged himself along without food for two nights and a day over terrible mountain roads. When at last he fell supplicatmgly at my feet, he was a mere mass of mud, blood, and flies; vet he, even he, did not utter a murmur. He wanted life, and he lived.

Ethel R. p enjamin, Barrister and Solicitor, Albert B-iildmgs, Princes street, "Dunedsa (01 rcsite C.P.0.), has tru°t owners to lend uft

Each Government department is a law tmto itself in spelling names of places. Thus the Statistical Department insists on Tolago Bay, the Post Offica prefers Tolaga, tod the Lands and Survey sniffs at any %Mlliuc otktt tiro Tolosa,

A correspondent writes to the Auckland Star : " I am very feuccessful in catching I rats with pumpkin seed for bait. I stick three or four seeds together, and hang in a wire cage trap. Bats seem ima-hla to raiat ifeil bait* - ,