By creed , of course , they were all on their priest 's side , but the lama was the guest and the novelty . His gentle kindliness , and his impressive Chinese quotations , that sounded like spells , delighted them hugely ; and in this sympathetic , simple air , he expanded like the Bodhisat 's own lotus , speaking of his life in the great hills of Such-zen , before , as he said , ' I rose up to seek enlightenment . ' Then it came out that in those worldly days he had been a master-hand at casting horoscopes and nativities ; and the family priest led him on to describe his methods ; each giving the planets names that the other could not understand , and pointing upwards as the big stars sailed across the dark . The children of the house tugged unrebuked at his rosary ; and he clean forgot the Rule which forbids looking at women as he talked of enduring snows , landslips , blocked passes , the remote cliffs where men find sapphires and turquoise , and that wonderful upland road that leads at last into Great China itself . ` How thinkest thou of this one ? ' said the cultivator aside to the priest . ' A holy man -- a holy man indeed . His Gods are not the Gods , but his feet are upon the Way , ' was the answer . ` And his methods of nativities , though that is beyond thee , are wise and sure . ' ` Tell me , ' said Kim lazily , ` whether I find my Red Bull on a green field , as was promised me . ' ` What knowledge hast thou of thy birth-hour ? ' the priest asked , swelling with importance . ` Between first and second cockcrow of the first night in May . ' ` Of what year ? ' ' I do not know ; but upon the hour that I cried first fell the great earthquake in Srinagar which is in Kashmir . ' This Kim had from the woman who took care of him , and she again from Kimball O'Hara . The earthquake had been felt in India , and for long stood a leading date in the Punjab . ` Ai ! ' said a woman excitedly . This seemed to make Kim 's supernatural origin more certain .
` Was not such an one 's daughter born then -- ' ` And her mother bore her husband four sons in four years all likely boys , ' cried the XXXXX 's wife , sitting outside the circle in the shadow .
Bodhisat O'Hara birth-hour cultivator earthquake first landslips nativities rosary year