The night was far advanced when we separated, after having decided upon the line of conduct we were to pursue on the morrow.
CHAPTER IX.
About an hour after sunrise Doctor Delange commenced his round of visits. The wounded had, indeed, every need of his skilful ministrations. De Morin and I went with him, as medical students or hospital orderlies. Less presumptuous than on the previous day, I had resigned my position as assistant-surgeon.
"I do not intend," said Delange, as we walked along, "to depart from my Parisian habits. When I was a surgeon at Lariboisière, I always began my rounds with the hospital, leaving my rich patients to wait until I had finished there. So I am going to begin with the prisoners, and shall attend to those who were wounded yesterday before I do anything to the royal thigh. Does that suit you?"
"Perfectly," I replied. "We shall, in all probability, have a long conversation with Munza, and the other invalids might grow impatient."
The prisoners had been turned into a large enclosure, surrounded by a palisade; quite naked, and huddled together like a flock of sheep brought to the shambles, they awaited, with resignation, the arrival of the butchers. Thanks to the precautions we had taken, no harm had come to any of them.
Delange dressed their wounds, set a few dislocated limbs, and very skilfully extracted such arrow-heads as had been thoughtless enough to remain embedded in the flesh. Did his patients appreciate these attentions? Did they take him for a surgeon or a cook? To reply to these questions, the doctor betook himself to the study of a few heads. Alas! after examination made, he confessed that the gorilla and the chimpanzee appeared to him superior to the Domondoos, from an intellectual point of view. Nevertheless, as regards the structure of the body, we have come to the conclusion that the nearer we approach to the equator, the more perfect becomes the human form. The Niam-Niam have the advantage of the Bongos, and are in turn surpassed by the Monbuttoos, whilst the Domondoos are in advance of both.
"We are evidently drawing near," said Delange, "to that famous tribe of which we have heard so much. At last we shall see the dusky Venus of my dreams."
Munza appeared very grateful to the doctor for the visit. His ordinary attendants would never have succeeded in extracting the arrow-head which had wounded him, and, without Delange, he would have suffered horribly, even if he had not died from the poison. He submitted, therefore, with the best possible grace to a fresh dressing, which made him lend a willing ear to what we had to say.
Nassar recounted to him the incident of the previous evening, and gave him a resumé of M. de Guéran's letter. One point, which seemed to us of but little importance, struck him at once.