Kim (38 page)

‘Beyond, where the hills lie thickest, lies De-ch’en’ (he meant Han-lé), ‘the great Monastery. s’Tag-stan-ras-ch’en built it, and of him there runs this tale.’ Whereupon he told it: a fantastic piled narrative of bewitchment and miracles that set Shamlegh a-gasping. Turning west a little, he steered for the green hills of Kulu, and sought Kailung under the glaciers. ‘For thither came I in the old, old days. From Leh I came, over the Baralachi.’

‘Yes, yes; we know it,’ said the far-faring people of Shamlegh.

‘And I slept two nights with the priests of Kailung. These are the Hills of my delight! Shadows blessed above all other shadows! There my eyes opened on this world; there my eyes were opened to this world; there I found Enlightenment; and there I girt my loins for my Search. Out of the Hills I came—the high Hills and the strong winds. Oh, just is the Wheel!’ He blessed them in detail—the great glaciers, the naked rocks, the piled moraines and tumbled shale; dry upland, hidden salt-lake, age-old timber and fruitful water-shot valley one after the other, as a dying man blesses his folk; and Kim marvelled at his passion.

‘Yes—yes. There is no place like our Hills,’ said the people of Shamlegh. And they fell to wondering how a man could live in the hot terrible Plains where the cattle run as big as elephants, unfit to plough on a hillside; where village touches village, they had heard, for a hundred miles; where folk went about stealing in gangs, and what the robbers spared the Police carried utterly away.

So the still forenoon wore through, and at the end of it Kim’s messenger dropped from the steep pasture as unbreathed as when she had set out.

‘I sent a word to the
hakim
,’ Kim explained, while she made reverence.

‘He joined himself to the idolaters? Nay, I remember he did a healing upon one of them. He has acquired merit, though the healed employed his strength for evil. Just is the Wheel! What of the
hakim
?’

‘I feared that thou hadst been bruised and—and I knew he was wise.’ Kim took the waxed walnut-shell and read in English on the back of his note:
Your favour received. Cannot get away from present company at present, but shall take them into Simla. After which, hope to rejoin you. Inexpedient to follow angry gentlemen. Return by same road you came, and will overtake. Highly gratified about correspondence due to my forethought.
‘He says, Holy One, that he will escape from the idolaters, and will return to us. Shall we wait awhile at Shamlegh, then?’

The lama looked long and lovingly upon the hills and shook his head.

‘That may not be,
chela
. From my bones outward I do desire it, but it is forbidden. I have seen the Cause of Things.’

‘Why? When the Hills give thee back thy strength day by day? Remember we were weak and fainting down below there in the Doon.’

‘I became strong to do evil and to forget. A brawler and a swashbuckler upon the hillsides was I.’ Kim bit back a smile. ‘Just and perfect is the Wheel, swerving not a hair. When I was a man—a long time ago—I did pilgrimage to Guru Ch’wan among the poplars’ (he pointed Bhotanwards), ‘where they keep the Sacred Horse.’

‘Quiet, be quiet!’ said Shamlegh, all arow. ‘He speaks of Jam-lin-nin-k’or, the Horse That Can Go Round The World In a Day.’

‘I speak to my
chela
only,’ said the lama, in gentle reproof, and they scattered like frost on south eaves of a morning. ‘I did not seek truth in those days, but the talk of doctrine. All illusion! I drank the beer and ate the bread of Guru Ch’wan. Next day one said: “We go out to fight Sangor Gutok down the valley to discover” (mark again how Lust is tied to Anger!) “which Abbot shall bear rule in the valley and take the profit of the prayers they print at Sangor Gutok.” I went, and we fought a day.’

‘But how, Holy One?’

‘With our long pencases as I could have shown. . . . I say, we fought under the poplars, both Abbots and all the monks, and one laid open my forehead to the bone. See!’ He tilted back his cap and showed a puckered silvery scar. ‘Just and perfect is the Wheel! Yesterday the scar itched, and after fifty years I recalled how it was dealt and the face of him who dealt it; dwelling a little in illusion. Followed that which thou didst see—strife and stupidity. Just is the Wheel! The idolater’s blow fell upon the scar. Then I was shaken in my soul: my soul was darkened, and the boat of my soul rocked upon the waters of illusion. Not till I came to Shamlegh could I meditate upon the Cause of Things, or trace the running grass-roots of Evil. I strove all the long night.’

‘But, Holy One, thou art innocent of all evil. May I be thy sacrifice!’

Kim was genuinely distressed at the old man’s sorrow, and Mahbub Ali’s phrase slipped out unawares.

‘In the dawn,’ the lama went on more gravely, ready rosary clicking between the slow sentences, ‘came enlightenment. It is here. . . . I am an old man . . . hill-bred, hill-fed, never to sit down among my Hills. Three years I travelled through Hind, but—can earth be stronger than Mother Earth? My stupid body yearned to the Hills and the snows of the Hills, from below there. I said, and it is true, my Search is sure. So, at the Kulu woman’s house I turned hillward, over-persuaded by myself. There is no blame to the
hakim
. He—following Desire—foretold that the Hills would make me strong. They strengthened me to do evil, to forget my Search. I delighted in life and the lust of life. I desired strong slopes to climb. I cast about to find them. I measured the strength of my body, which is evil, against the high Hills, I made a mock of thee when thy breath came short under Jamnotri. I jested when thou wouldst not face the snow of the pass.’

‘But what harm? I
was
afraid. It was just. I am not a hillman; and I loved thee for thy new strength.’

‘More than once I remember’—he rested his cheek dolefully on his hand—‘I sought thy praise and the
hakim
’s for the mere strength of my legs. Thus evil followed evil till the cup was full. Just is the Wheel! All Hind for three years did me all honour. From the Fountain of Wisdom in the Wonder House to’—he smiled—‘a little child playing by a big gun—the world prepared my road. And why?’

‘Because we loved thee. It is only the fever of the blow. I myself am still sick and shaken.’

‘No! It was because I was upon the Way—tuned as are
si-nen
(cymbals) to the purpose of the Law. I departed from that ordinance. The tune was broken: followed the punishment. In my own Hills, on the edge of my own country, in the very place of my evil desire, comes the buffet—here!’ (He touched his brow.) ‘As a novice is beaten when he misplaces the cups, so am I beaten, who was Abbot of Such-zen. No word, look you, but a blow,
chela
.’

‘But the Sahibs did not know thee, Holy One?’

‘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.” ’

‘Would we had never met that cursed Russian!’

‘Our Lord Himself cannot make the Wheel swing backward. And for my merit that I had acquired I gain yet another sign.’ He put his hand in his bosom, and drew forth the Wheel of Life. ‘Look! I considered this after I had meditated. There remains untorn by the idolater no more than the breadth of my fingernail.’

‘I see.’

‘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
?’

Kim stared at the brutally disfigured chart. From left to right diagonally the rent ran—from the Eleventh House where Desire gives birth to the Child (as it is drawn by Tibetans)—across the human and animal worlds, to the Fifth House—the empty House of the Senses. The logic was unanswerable.

‘Before our Lord won Enlightenment’—the lama folded all away with reverence—‘He was tempted. I too have been tempted, but it is finished. The Arrow fell in the Plains—not in the Hills. Therefore, what make we here?’

‘Shall we at least wait for the
hakim
?’

‘I know how long I shall live in this body. What can a
hakim
do?’

‘But thou art all sick and shaken. Thou canst not walk.’

‘How can I be sick if I see Freedom?’ He rose unsteadily to his feet.

‘Then I must get food from the village. Oh, the weary Road!’ Kim felt that he too needed rest.

‘That is lawful. Let us eat and go. The Arrow fell in the Plains . . . but I yielded to Desire. Make ready,
chela
.’

Kim turned to the woman with the turquoise headgear who had been idly pitching pebbles over the cliff. She smiled very kindly.

‘I found him like a strayed buffalo in a cornfield—the Babu; snorting and sneezing with cold. He was so hungry that he forgot his dignity and gave me sweet words. The Sahibs have nothing.’ She flung out an empty palm. ‘One is very sick about the stomach. Thy work?’

Kim nodded, with a bright eye.

‘I spoke to the Bengali first—and to the people of a near-by village after. The Sahibs will be given food as they need it—nor will the people ask money. The plunder is already distributed. The Babu makes lying speeches to the Sahibs. Why does he not leave them?’

‘Out of the greatness of his heart.’

‘ ’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.’

‘It is my loss,’ Kim began. ‘Even now I had planned desirable things in my heart which’—there is no need to go through the compliments proper to these occasions. He sighed deeply . . . ‘But my master, led by a vision——’

‘Huh! What can old eyes see except a full begging-bowl?’

‘——turns from this village to the Plains again.’

‘Bid him stay.’

Kim shook his head. ‘I know my Holy One, and his rage if he be crossed,’ he replied impressively. ‘His curses shake the Hills.’

‘Pity they did not save him from a broken head! I heard that thou wast the tiger-hearted one who smote the Sahib. Let him dream a little longer. Stay!’

‘Hillwoman,’ said Kim, with austerity that could not harden the outlines of his young oval face, ‘these matters are too high for thee.’

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

‘A priest is a priest. He says he will go upon this hour. I am his
chela
, and I go with him. We need food for the Road. He is an honoured guest in all the villages, but’—he broke into a pure boy’s grin—‘the food here is good. Give me some.’

‘What if I do not give it thee? I am the woman of this village.’

‘Then I curse thee—a little—not greatly, but enough to remember.’ He could not help smiling.

‘Thou hast cursed me already by the down-dropped eyelash and the uplifted chin. Curses? What should I care for mere words?’ She clenched her hands upon her bosom. . . . ‘But I would not have thee to go in anger, thinking hardly of me—a gatherer of cow-dung and grass at Shamlegh, but still a woman of substance.’

‘I think nothing,’ said Kim, ‘but that I am grieved to go, for I am very weary; and that we need food. Here is the bag.’

The woman snatched it angrily. ‘I was foolish,’ said she. ‘Who is thy woman in the Plains? Fair or black? I was fair once. Laughest thou? Once, long ago, if thou canst believe, a Sahib looked on me with favour. Once, long ago, I wore European clothes at the Mission-house yonder.’ She pointed towards Kotgarh. ‘Once, long ago. I was
Ker-lis-ti-an
and spoke English—as the Sahibs speak it. Yes. My Sahib said he would return and wed me—yes, wed me. He went away—I had nursed him when he was sick—but he never returned. Then I saw that the Gods of the Kerlistians lied, and I went back to my own people. . . . I have never set eyes on a Sahib since. (Do not laugh at me. The fit is past, little priestling.) Thy face and thy walk and thy fashion of speech put me in mind of my Sahib, though thou art only a wandering mendicant to whom I give a dole. 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
.’ She wound up with the English word, and tied the mouth of the brimming bag.

‘I wait for thee,
chela
,’ said the lama, leaning against the door-post.

The woman swept the tall figure with her eyes. ‘He walk! He cannot cover half a mile. Whither would old bones go?’

At this Kim, already perplexed by the lama’s collapse and foreseeing the weight of the bag, fairly lost his temper.

‘What is it to thee, woman of ill-omen, where he goes?’

‘Nothing—but something to thee, priest with a Sahib’s face. Wilt thou carry him on thy shoulders?’

‘I go to the Plains. None must hinder my return. I have wrestled with my soul till I am strengthless. The stupid body is spent, and we are far from the Plains.’

‘Behold!’ she said simply, and drew aside to let Kim see his own utter helplessness. ‘Curse me. Maybe it will give him strength. Make a charm! Call on thy great God. Thou art a priest.’ She turned away.

The lama had squatted limply, still holding by the door-post. One cannot strike down an old man that he recovers again like a boy in the night. Weakness bowed him to the earth, but his eyes that hung on Kim were alive and imploring.

‘It is all well,’ said Kim. ‘It is the thin air that weakens thee. In a little while we go! It is the mountain-sickness. I too am a little sick at stomach,’ . . . and he knelt and comforted with such poor words as came first to his lips. Then the woman returned, more erect than ever.