Kim quotes

but what she had heard of magic she distrusted. Kim, too, held views of his own. As he reached the years of indiscretion, he learned to avoid missionaries and white men of serious aspect who asked who he was, and what he did.

For Kim did nothing with an immense success.

True, he knew the wonderful walled city of Lahore from the Delhi Gate to the outer Fort Ditch; was hand in glove with men who led lives stranger than anything Haroun al Raschid dreamed of;

“Let me up!” shrilled little Chota Lal in his gilt-embroidered cap.

His father was worth perhaps half a million sterling, but India is the only democratic land in the world.

“The Hindus fell off Zam-Zammah too. The Mussalmans pushed them off. Thy father was a pastrycook—”

“I beg. I remember now it is long since I have eaten or drunk. What is the custom of charity in this town? In silence, as we do of Tibet, or speaking aloud?”

“Those who beg in silence starve in silence,”

said Kim, quoting a native proverb. The lama tried to rise, but sank back again, sighing for his disciple, dead in faraway Kulu. Kim watched head to one side, considering and interested.

And when I was faint with hunger he begged for me, as would a chela for his teacher.

Suddenly was he sent. Suddenly has he gone away.

It was in my mind to have taught him the Law upon the road to Benares.”

When Mahbub woke, the Flower talked to him severely on the sin of drunkenness.

Asiatics do not wink when they have outmanoeuvred an enemy, but as Mahbub Ali cleared his throat, tightened his belt, and staggered forth under the early morning stars, he came very near to it.

“What a colt’s trick!” said he to himself. “As if every girl in Peshawur did not use it! But ’twas prettily done. Now God He knows how many more there be upon the Road who have orders to test me—perhaps with the knife.

The lamps were paling in the dawn when the half-caste guard came round.

Ticket-collecting is a slow business in the East, where people secrete their tickets in all sorts of curious places.

Kim produced his and was told to get out.

He began in Urdu the tale of the Lord Buddha, but, borne by his own thoughts, slid into Tibetan and long-droned texts from a Chinese book of the Buddha’s life. The gentle, tolerant folk looked on reverently.

All India is full of holy men stammering gospels in strange tongues; shaken and consumed in the fires of their own zeal; dreamers, babblers, and visionaries: as it has been from the beginning and will continue to the end.

“Um!” said the soldier of the Ludhiana Sikhs. “There was a Mohammedan regiment lay next to us at the Pirzai Kotal, and a priest of theirs—he was, as I remember, a naik—when the fit was on him, spake prophecies.

“

Give a woman an old wife’s tale and a weaverbird a leaf and a thread, they will weave wonderful things,

” said the Sikh. “All holy men dream dreams, and by following holy men their disciples attain that power.”

“

Low-caste I did not say, for how can that be which is not?

Afterwards he amended his discourtesy, and I forgot the offence. Moreover, he is as we are, bound upon the Wheel of Things; but he does not tread the way of deliverance.” He halted at a little runlet among the fields, and considered the hoof-pitted bank.

“I hate all snakes,” said Kim.

No native training can quench the white man’s horror of the Serpent.

“Let him live out his life.” The coiled thing hissed and half opened its hood. “May thy release come soon, brother!” the lama continued placidly. “Hast thou knowledge, by chance, of my River?”

“Be it so—be it so.” The old man nodded his head. “

This is a great and terrible world. I never knew there were so many men alive in it.

”

“Let the Gods order it.

I have never pestered Them with prayers. I do not think They will pester me.

Look you, I have noticed in my long life that those who eternally break in upon Those Above with complaints and reports and bellowings and weepings are presently sent for in haste, as our Colonel used to send for slack-jawed down-country men who talked too …

“Hear him!” said the soldier to Kim. “He is ashamed for that he has made a child happy. There was a very good householder lost in thee, my brother. Hai, child!” He threw it a pice. “

Sweetmeats are always sweet.

” And as the little figure capered away into the sunshine: “They grow up and become men. Holy One, I grieve that I slept in the midst of thy preaching. Forgive me.”

“

I am like an old tortoise, look you, who puts his head out from the bank and draws it in again.

Ay, this is the Road of Hindustan. All men come by this way …”

“

For the sick cow a crow; for the sick man a Brahmin.

” Kim breathed the proverb impersonally to the shadow-tops of the trees overhead.

He was nearly asleep when the lama suddenly quoted a proverb: “

The husbands of the talkative have a great reward hereafter.

” Then Kim heard him snuff thrice, and dozed off, still laughing.

“

Never make friends with the Devil, a Monkey, or a Boy. No man knows what they will do next,

” said his fellow.

“But I considered the countenance of that priest and I think he is learned. Is it likely that he will understand our talk? I would talk to him of my Search.”

“Never speak to a white man till he is fed,”

said Kim, quoting a well-known proverb. “They will eat now, and—and I do not think they are good to beg from. Let us go back to the resting-place. After we have eaten we will come again. It certainly was a Red Bull—my Red Bull.”

“

Well, I believe in miracles, so it comes to the same thing.

Powers of Darkness! Kimball O’Hara! And his son! But then he’s a native, and I saw Kimball married myself to Annie Shott. How long have you had these things, boy?”

If he doesn’t, ye’ll go to the Military Orphanage at the Regiment’s expense. I’ll allow him three days’ grace, though I don’t believe it at all. Even then, if he fails in his payments later on … but it’s beyond me.

We can only walk one step at a time in this world, praise God!

An’ they sent Bennett to the Front an’ left me behind. Bennett can’t expect everything.”

Creighton heard Kim say bitterly: “

Trust a Brahmin before a snake, and a snake before an harlot, and an harlot before an Afghan, Mahbub Ali.

”

“That is all one.” The great red beard wagged solemnly. “

Children should not see a carpet on the loom till the pattern is made plain.

Believe me, Friend of all the World, I do thee great service. They will not make a soldier of thee.”

“At any rate, the old man has sent the money. Gobind Sahai’s notes of hand are good from here to China,” said the Colonel. “

The more one knows about natives the less can one say what they will or won’t do.

”

“Hai mai! I go from one place to another as it might be a kickball. It is my Kismet. No man can escape his Kismet. But I am to pray to Bibi Miriam, and I am a Sahib.”—he looked at his boots ruefully. “

No; I am Kim. This is the great world, and I am only Kim. Who is Kim?

” He considered his own identity, a thing he had never done before, till his head swam. He was one insignificant person in all this roaring whirl of India, going southward to he knew not what fate.

Kim shook his head resolutely. “If I said how I would earn them, another man might hear and forestall me.

It is not good to sell knowledge for nothing.

”

Therefore, do not at any time be led to contemn the black men. I have known boys newly entered into the service of the Government who feigned not to understand the talk or the customs of black men. Their pay was cut for ignorance.

There is no sin so great as ignorance. Remember this.

”

“

Much is gained by forgetting, little brother,

” said the Colonel, with a look that pierced through Kim’s shoulder-blades as he scuttled into the carriage.

“

Oh, love makes nought of these things.

And how old is she?”

As the occupants of the carriage changed, he varied this tale, or adorned it with all the shoots of a budding fancy, the more rampant for being held off native speech so long.

In all India that night was no human being so joyful as Kim.

At Umballa he got out and headed eastward, plashing over the sodden fields to the village where the old soldier lived.

“Oh, that is nothing,” said the horse-dealer. “

Men are like horses. At certain times they need salt, and if that salt is not in the mangers they will lick it up from the earth.

He has gone back to the Road again for a while. The madrissah wearied him. I knew it would. Another time, I will take him upon the Road myself. Do not be troubled, Creighton Sahib.

“Fever might kill him. I do not fear for the boy otherwise.

A monkey does not fall among trees.

”

When he comes to the Great Game he must go alone—alone, and at peril of his head. Then, if he spits, or sneezes, or sits down other than as the people do whom he watches, he may be slain. Why hinder him now?

Remember how the Persians say: The jackal that lives in the wilds of Mazanderan can only be caught by the hounds of Mazanderan.

”

… and removed to the west of Bengal founders—nor is even a Balkh stallion (and there are no better horses than those of Balkh, were they not so heavy in the shoulder) of any account in the great Northern deserts beside the snow-camels I have seen.

Therefore I say in my heart the Faiths are like the horses. Each has merit in its own country.

”

“And his to thine, I hear.

Hearts are like horses. They come and they go against bit or spur.

Shout Gul Sher Khan yonder to drive in that bay stallion’s pickets more firmly. We do not want a horse-fight at every resting-stage, and the dun and the black will be locked in a little … Now hear me.

“Then he would have been frightened, and he would have told his master. Then we should miss, perhaps, a great number of new rifles which seek their way up from Quetta to the North.

The Game is so large that one sees but a little at a time.

”

“Food and water allowance only. Twenty rupees a month.”

One advantage of the Secret Service is that it has no worrying audit.

That Service is ludicrously starved, of course, but the funds are administered by a few men who do not call for vouchers or present itemized accounts. Mahbub’s eyes lighted with almost a Sikh’s love of money. Even Lurgan’s impassive face changed.

begging-gourd, rosary, and ghost-dagger (Mr. Lurgan had forgotten nothing) were all to hand, with medicine, paintbox, and compass, and in a worn old purse-belt embroidered with porcupine-quill patterns lay a month’s pay.

Kings could be no richer.

He bought sweetmeats in a leaf-cup from a Hindu trader, and ate them with glad rapture till a policeman ordered him off the steps.

“Go in hope, little brother,” he said. “

It is a long road to the feet of the One; but thither do we all travel.

”

“The thing was done. A Cause was put out into the world, and, old or young, sick or sound, knowing or unknowing, who can rein in the effect of that Cause? Does the Wheel hang still if a child spin it—or a drunkard?

Chela, this is a great and a terrible world.

”

“

We of the Game are beyond protection. If we die, we die. Our names are blotted from the book. That is all.

At Bandakui, where lives one of us, I thought to slip the scent by changing my face, and so made me a Mahratta. Then I came to Agra, and would have turned back to Chitor to recover the letter.

“It is more, chela.

Thou hast loosed an Act upon the world, and as a stone thrown into a pool so spread the consequences thou canst not tell how far.

”

“Where is this new haste born from?

Wise men do not run about like chickens in the sun.

We have come hundreds upon hundreds of kos already, and, till now, I have scarcely been alone with thee an instant. How canst thou receive instruction all jostled of crowds? How can I, whelmed by a flux of talk, meditate upon the Way?”

“Not he. He is wearied, and I forgot, being a grandmother. (

None but a grandmother should ever oversee a child. Mothers are only fit for bearing.

) Tomorrow, when he sees how my daughter’s son is grown, he will write the charm. Then, too, he can judge of the new hakim’s drugs.”

“

A rat found a piece of turmeric. Said he: ‘I will open a grocer’s shop,’

” Kim retorted.

“

When everyone is dead the Great Game is finished. Not before.

Listen to me till the end. There were Five Kings who prepared a sudden war three years ago, when thou wast given the stallion’s pedigree by Mahbub Ali. Upon them, because of that news, and ere they were ready, fell our Army.”

“What a woman is the Sahiba!” said the white-bearded Oorya, when a tumult rose by the kitchen quarters. “

She has never forgotten a friend: she has never forgotten an enemy in all her years.

And her cookery—wah!” He rubbed his slim stomach.

“

And will she forget how to make stews with saffron upon that road?

”

“

Who goes to the Hills goes to his mother.

”

Kim looked out across the jungle of peaks. “This is not my country, hakim.

Easier, I think, to find one louse in a bearskin.

”

“

Decidedly this fellow is an original,

” said the taller of the two foreigners. “He is like the nightmare of a Viennese courier.”

“

He has lost his own country and has not acquired any other.

But he has a most complete hatred of his conquerors. Listen. He confides to me last night,” etc.

“

There are more ways of getting to a sweetheart than butting down a wall.

”

“

It is well to be brave when one does not live in Rampur,

” said one whose hut lay within a few miles of the Rajah’s rickety palace. “If we get a bad name among the Sahibs, none will employ us as shikarris any more.”

There was no means of communicating with the boy, but he could be trusted. For the rest, Hurree could so stage-manage the journey through the hills that Hilás, Bunár, and four hundred miles of hill-roads should tell the tale for a generation.

Men who cannot control their own coolies are little respected in the Hills, and the hillman has a very keen sense of humour.

“If I had done it myself,” thought Hurree, “it would not have been better; and, by Jove, now I think of it, of course I arranged it myself. How quick I have been! Just when I ran downhill I thought it!

“

Yes; if he has a chela to prepare tea for him, and to fold a blanket for his head, and to chase out calving cows.

”

Thirty miles away, as the eagle flies, lay the next range, seamed and channelled and pitted with little patches of brush—forests, each a day’s dark march. Behind the village, Shamlegh hill itself cut off all view to southward.

It was like sitting in a swallow’s nest under the eaves of the roof of the world.

From time to time the lama stretched out his hand, and with a little low-voiced prompting would point out the road to Spiti and north across the Parungla.

“We were well matched. Ignorance and Lust met Ignorance and Lust upon the road, and they begat Anger. The blow was a sign to me, who am no better than a strayed yak, that my place is not here.

Who can read the Cause of an act is halfway to Freedom!

‘Back to the path,’ says the Blow. ‘The Hills are not for thee. Thou canst not choose Freedom and go in bondage to the delight of life.’ ”

“So much, then, is the span of my life in this body.

I have served the Wheel all my days. Now the Wheel serves me.

But for the merit I have acquired in guiding thee upon the Way, there would have been added to me yet another life ere I had found my River. Is it plain, chela?”

“

Was never a Bengali yet had one bigger than a dried walnut.

But it is no matter … Now as to walnuts. After service comes reward. I have said the village is thine.”

“

The Gods be good to us! Since when have men and women been other than men and women?

”

Curse me? Thou canst neither curse nor bless!” She set her hands on her hips and laughed bitterly. “

Thy Gods are lies; thy works are lies; thy words are lies. There are no Gods under all the Heavens.

I know it … But for awhile I thought it was my Sahib come back, and he was my God. Yes, once I made music on a pianno in the Mission-house at Kotgarh. Now I give alms to priests who are heatthen.”

“How if I guess, though?” said Kim, and putting his arm round her waist, he kissed her on the cheek, adding in English: “Thank you verree much, my dear.”

Kissing is practically unknown among Asiatics, which may have been the reason that she leaned back with wide-open eyes and a face of panic.

“Next time,” Kim went on, “you must not be so sure of your heatthen priests. Now I say goodbye.” He held out his hand English-fashion. She took it mechanically. “Goodbye, my dear.”

“What a to-do is here!” said the old man gently. “Thou hast never stepped a hair’s breadth from the Way of Obedience. Neglect me?

Child, I have lived on thy strength as an old tree lives on the lime of a new wall.

Day by day, since Shamlegh down, I have stolen strength from thee. Therefore, not through any sin of thine, art thou weakened. It is the Body—the silly, stupid Body—that speaks now. Not the assured Soul. Be comforted! Know at least the devils that thou fightest.

Sit up and listen, child of my soul! My tale was told. Said he to me, ‘Chela, know this.

There are many lies in the world, and not a few liars, but there are no liars like our bodies, except it be the sensations of our bodies.

’ Considering this I was comforted, and of his great favour he suffered me to drink tea in his presence. Suffer me now to drink tea, for I am thirsty.”

“I know—I know. Who but I?” she cackled. “We who go down to the burning-ghats clutch at the hands of those coming up from the River of Life with full water-jars—yes, brimming water-jars. I did the boy wrong. He lent thee his strength?

It is true that the old eat the young daily.

Stands now we must restore him.”

“I know—I know. Who but I?” she cackled. “

We who go down to the burning-ghats clutch at the hands of those coming up from the River of Life with full water-jars

—yes, brimming water-jars. I did the boy wrong. He lent thee his strength? It is true that the old eat the young daily. Stands now we must restore him.”