At first, cases among the soldiers were reported to me, and I attempted isolation: but soon this was utterly impossible, for the men fell in numbers that increased alarmingly day by day. In the town the disease, as is usual with cholera, was most erratic in its onslaughts. I endeavoured to institute the reporting of cases to me as soon as they arose, but it was a useless attempt, and scores died before I even heard of them. Two days after the commencement, namely, on April 17th, it was reported, that between six a.m. and six p.m. there were a hundred and eighty-five corpses carried out of Kabul for burial. The number of deaths was, I heard, reported daily to His Highness, though to me this was of less importance than the daily number of fresh cases. The sick soon ceased calling for Hakims, and their friends came in increasing crowds to my house for European medicines.
I gave them pills containing opium and acetate of lead, to be taken at certain intervals, to the number of three. No food nor drink was to be taken; but to allay the intense thirst the patient might suck ice. For the severe abdominal pain mustard poultices, and for the agonizing cramps in the limbs massage, were to be employed. This was the general treatment, varied of course for special cases and complications.
The Dread.
Day by day the great shadow deepened over the city. A sickening dread was in the heart of each; for who might not be the next victim? Men gathered together and cheered themselves with forced gaiety, and bhang, or sat with terror-stricken faces waiting for death. Wailing was in every house, and one could not ride ten yards without meeting parties of mourners carrying out fresh victims to the graveyard.
“The cholera is in the air,” they said.
The Amîr ordered processions to march to the Mosques with banners and music and pray for deliverance. Can one believe it! but such was the paralysing effect of “Kismet,” or of terror, in the town, that the men were driven to the Mosques with sticks by the soldiers ere they would move.
With the fatalism of their nature it was not to be hoped that they would take the precautions to avoid infection—ordinary and simple though they were—that I had pointed out.
The bodies of the dead were washed in the Kabul river, from which most of the drinking water of the town was obtained! They were carried through the gorge by the river-side and buried near the road at the foot of the Asmai Mountain.