{"id":"01KG8AKYQBA40KJHRTXKE1EDDN","cid":"bafkreialzagw6avgdaj3j62ip6jkwroytoie43yvmbob7ledc6fu4qqirq","type":"chunk","properties":{"end_line":2770,"extracted_at":"2026-01-30T20:48:18.535Z","extracted_by":"structure-extraction-lambda","label":"Chunk 1","source_file":"01KG89J1HYC04JWXEK48P07WPK","start_line":2719,"text":"CHAPTER XXIV.\r\nDedicated To The College Of Physicians And Surgeons\r\n\r\n\r\nBy this time Samoa’s wounded arm was in such a state, that amputation\r\nbecame necessary. Among savages, severe personal injuries are, for the\r\nmost part, accounted but trifles. When a European would be taking to\r\nhis couch in despair, the savage would disdain to recline.\r\n\r\nMore yet. In Polynesia, every man is his own barber and surgeon,\r\ncutting off his beard or arm, as occasion demands. No unusual thing,\r\nfor the warriors of Varvoo to saw off their own limbs, desperately\r\nwounded in battle. But owing to the clumsiness of the instrument\r\nemployed—a flinty, serrated shell—the operation has been known to last\r\nseveral days. Nor will they suffer any friend to help them;\r\nmaintaining, that a matter so nearly concerning a warrior is far better\r\nattended to by himself. Hence it may be said, that they amputate\r\nthemselves at their leisure, and hang up their tools when tired. But,\r\nthough thus beholden to no one for aught connected with the practice of\r\nsurgery, they never cut off their own heads, that ever I heard; a\r\nspecies of amputation to which, metaphorically speaking, many would-be\r\nindependent sort of people in civilized lands are addicted.\r\n\r\nSamoa’s operation was very summary. A fire was kindled in the little\r\ncaboose, or cook-house, and so made as to produce much smoke. He then\r\nplaced his arm upon one of the windlass bitts (a short upright timber,\r\nbreast-high), and seizing the blunt cook’s ax would have struck the\r\nblow; but for some reason distrusting the precision of his aim, Annatoo\r\nwas assigned to the task. Three strokes, and the limb, from just above\r\nthe elbow, was no longer Samoa’s; and he saw his own bones; which many\r\na centenarian can not say. The very clumsiness of the operation was\r\nsafety to the subject. The weight and bluntness of the instrument both\r\ndeadened the pain and lessened the hemorrhage. The wound was then\r\nscorched, and held over the smoke of the fire, till all signs of blood\r\nvanished. From that day forward it healed, and troubled Samoa but\r\nlittle.\r\n\r\nBut shall the sequel be told? How that, superstitiously averse to\r\nburying in the sea the dead limb of a body yet living; since in that\r\ncase Samoa held, that he must very soon drown and follow it; and how,\r\nthat equally dreading to keep the thing near him, he at last hung it\r\naloft from the topmast-stay; where yet it was suspended, bandaged over\r\nand over in cerements. The hand that must have locked many others in\r\nfriendly clasp, or smote a foe, was no food, thought Samoa, for fowls\r\nof the air nor fishes of the sea.\r\n\r\nNow, which was Samoa? The dead arm swinging high as Haman? Or the\r\nliving trunk below? Was the arm severed from the body, or the body from\r\nthe arm? The residual part of Samoa was alive, and therefore we say it\r\nwas he. But which of the writhing sections of a ten times severed worm,\r\nis the worm proper?\r\n\r","title":"Chunk 1"},"relationships":[{"peer":"01KG8AJQXPK3YBAH7C43X97DKR","peer_type":"chapter","predicate":"in"},{"peer":"01KG89J1HYC04JWXEK48P07WPK","peer_type":"file","predicate":"extractedFrom"},{"peer":"01KG89HMDZKNY753EZE1CJ8HZW","peer_type":"collection","predicate":"collection"},{"peer":"01KG8AKYQHD5K80PNQQC5101FD","peer_type":"chunk","predicate":"next"}],"ver":2,"created_at":"2026-01-30T20:48:21.227Z","ts":"2026-01-30T20:48:27.874Z","edited_by":{"method":"manual","user_id":"01KFF0H3YRP9ZSM033AM0QJ47H"}}