Kim assisted at two or three with grave advice , meant to darken counsel and to show off his wisdom before the lama and the admiring Kamboh . But at Somna Road the Fates sent him a matter to think upon . There tumbled into the compartment , as the train was moving off , a mean , lean little person -- a Mahratta , so far as Kim could judge by the cock of the tight turban . His face was cut , his muslin upper-garment was badly torn , and one leg was bandaged . He told them that a country-cart had upset and nearly slain him : he was going to Delhi , where his son lived . Kim watched him closely . If , as he asserted , he had been rolled over and over on the earth , there should have been signs of gravel-rash on the skin . But all his injuries seemed clean cuts , and a mere fall from a cart could not cast a man into such extremity of terror . As , with shaking fingers , he knotted up the torn cloth about his neck he laid bare an amulet of the kind called a keeper-up of the heart . Now , amulets are common enough , but they are not generally strung on square-plaited copper wire , and still fewer amulets bear black enamel on silver . There were none except the Kamboh and the lama in the compartment , which , luckily , was of an old type with solid ends . Kim made as to scratch in his bosom , and thereby lifted his own amulet . The Mahratta 's face changed altogether at the sight , and he disposed the amulet fairly on his breast . ` Yes , ' he went on to the Kamboh , ' I was in haste , and the cart , driven by a bastard , bound its wheel in a water-cut , and besides the harm done to me there was lost a full dish of tarkeean . I was not a Son of the Charm -LSB- a lucky man -RSB- that day . ' ` That was a great loss , ' said the Kamboh , withdrawing interest . His experience of Benares had made him suspicious . ` Who cooked it ? ' said Kim . ' A woman . '
The XXXXX raised his eyes .
Benares Delhi Kim Mahratta country-cart day lama tarkeean upper-garment water-cut