This country is full of good folk . Besides ' he sunk his voice beneath a whisper -- ` we have money . ' The crowd thickened as they neared the resting-place which marked the end of their day 's journey . A line of stalls selling very simple food and tobacco , a stack of firewood , a police-station , a well , a horse-trough , a few trees , and , under them , some trampled ground dotted with the black ashes of old fires , are all that mark a parao on the Grand Trunk ; if you except the beggars and the crows -- both hungry . By this time the sun was driving broad golden spokes through the lower branches of the mango-trees ; the parakeets and doves were coming home in their hundreds ; the chattering , grey-backed Seven Sisters , talking over the day 's adventures , walked back and forth in twos and threes almost under the feet of the travellers ; and shufflings and scufflings in the branches showed that the bats were ready to go out on the night-picket . Swiftly the light gathered itself together , painted for an instant the faces and the cartwheels and the bullocks ' horns as red as blood . Then the night fell , changing the touch of the air , drawing a low , even haze , like a gossamer veil of blue , across the face of the country , and bringing out , keen and distinct , the smell of wood-smoke and cattle and the good scent of wheaten cakes cooked on ashes . The evening patrol hurried out of the police-station with important coughings and reiterated orders ; and a live charcoal ball in the cup of a wayside carter 's hookah glowed red while Kim 's eye mechanically watched the last flicker of the sun on the brass tweezers . The life of the parao was very like that of the Kashmir Serai on a small scale . Kim dived into the happy Asiatic disorder which , if you only allow time , will bring you everything that a simple man needs . His wants were few , because , since the lama had no caste scruples , cooked food from the nearest stall would serve ; but , for luxury 's sake , Kim bought a handful of dung-cakes to build a fire . All about , coming and going round the little flames , men cried for oil , or grain , or sweetmeats , or tobacco , jostling one another while they waited their turn at the well ; and under the men 's voices you heard from halted , shuttered carts the high squeals and giggles of women whose faces should not be seen in public . Nowadays , well-educated natives are of opinion that when their womenfolk travel -- and they visit a good deal -- it is better to take them quickly by rail in a properly screened compartment ; and that custom is spreading . But there are always those of the old rock who hold by the use of their forefathers ; and , above all , there are always the old women -- more conservative than the men -- who toward the end of their days go on a pilgrimage . They , being withered and undesirable , do not , under certain circumstances , object to unveiling . After their long seclusion , during which they have always been in business touch with a thousand outside interests , they love the bustle and stir of the open road , the gatherings at the shrines , and the infinite possibilities of gossip with like-minded dowagers . Very often it suits a longsuffering family that a strong-tongued , iron-willed old lady should disport herself about India in this fashion ; for certainly pilgrimage is grateful to the Gods . So all about India , in the most remote places , as in the most public , you find some knot of grizzled servitors in nominal charge of an old lady who is more or less curtained and hid away in a bullock-cart . Such men are staid and discreet , and when a European or a high-caste native is near will net their charge with most elaborate precautions ; but in the ordinary haphazard chances of pilgrimage the precautions are not taken . The old lady is , after all , intensely human , and lives to look upon life .
XXXXX marked down a gaily ornamented ruth or family bullock-cart , with a broidered canopy of two domes , like a double-humped camel , which had just been drawn into the par .
European Kim Serai Trunk day dung-cakes evening lama scruples tobacco