Upon seeing Johannes the patient displayed an angry countenance and reproached him with ingratitude.
“I pardon you,” he said, “for Dohong’s sake, but they have [[253]]taught you this ingratitude in Bandjermasin. What have I done to you to be treated so badly?”
“Only a mistake, my friend,” Johannes answered. “I was tipsy last night when the fever seized me. I had taken too much toeak and I intended to send the fever to the Commander of Kwala Kapoeas. It seems that I have made a serious blunder and mentioned your name instead. But you will see that I have the power of removing the fever as well as of sending it.”
And taking a handful of rice from a cocoanut shell which he had brought with him he strewed the grains around the bed of the patient, chanting in a loud voice: “O strewn grains, enter the house of the Sangiangs together; enter noiselessly, ye golden grains, into the home of the Sangiangs!”
Then passing his hand over the forehead of the patient and gesticulating as if casting away something, he said:
“At last it is over. One hour hence the Commander of Kwala Kapoeas will have the fever as badly as you have had it. Remain quiet now, drink the obat—medicine—which Dohong will give you. In about half an hour’s time you will experience some singing in the ears but don’t feel alarmed, it will be the sign of the disappearance of fever for Kwala Kapoeas.”
With solemn steps he quitted the apartment. Wienersdorf now produced a bottle containing a solution of sulphate of quinine and gave it to the Poenan to drink.
Without moving a muscle the latter swallowed the bitter draught, wiped his lips with the back of his hand, but assured his doctor that he had greater confidence in the magical performance of Johannes than in all the bitter drugs in creation. [[254]]
A quarter of an hour afterwards he had fallen into a deep slumber.
Previous to his departure from Kwala Kapoeas, Johannes with his accustomed foresight had requisitioned some quinine from the doctor’s medicine chest and this drug was now rendering him good service. Dalim, however, warned him against making similar experiments upon the natives.