` Welcome , then , O lama from Tibet . Here be the images , and I am here ' -- he glanced at the lama 's face -- ` to gather knowledge . Come to my office awhile . ' The old man was trembling with excitement . The office was but a little wooden cubicle partitioned off from the sculpture-lined gallery . Kim laid himself down , his ear against a crack in the heat-split cedar door , and , following his instinct , stretched out to listen and watch . Most of the talk was altogether above his head . The lama , haltingly at first , spoke to the Curator of his own lamassery , the Such-zen , opposite the Painted Rocks , four months ' march away . The Curator brought out a huge book of photos and showed him that very place , perched on its crag , overlooking the gigantic valley of many-hued strata . ` Ay , ay ! ' The lama mounted a pair of horn-rimmed spectacles of Chinese work . ` Here is the little door through which we bring wood before winter . And thou -- the English know of these things ? He who is now Abbot of Lung-Cho told me , but I did not believe . The Lord -- the Excellent One -- He has honour here too ? And His life is known ? ' ` It is all carven upon the stones . Come and see , if thou art rested . ' Out shuffled the lama to the main hall , and , the Curator beside him , went through the collection with the reverence of a devotee and the appreciative instinct of a craftsman . Incident by incident in the beautiful story he identified on the blurred stone , puzzled here and there by the unfamiliar Greek convention , but delighted as a child at each new trove .
Where the sequence failed , as in the Annunciation , the XXXXX supplied it from his mound of books -- French and German , with photographs and reproductions .
Ay Chinese Curator English Such-zen cubicle devotee first lamassery trove