All round it the tiny terraced fields lay out like aprons of patchwork on the knees of the mountain , and cows no bigger than beetles grazed between the smooth stone circles of the threshing-floors . Looking across the valley , the eye was deceived by the size of things , and could not at first realise that what seemed to be low scrub , on the opposite mountain-flank , was in truth a forest of hundred-foot pines . Purun Bhagat saw an eagle swoop across the gigantic hollow , but the great bird dwindled to a dot ere it was half-way over . A few bands of scattered clouds strung up and down the valley , catching on a shoulder of the hills , or rising up and dying out when they were level with the head of the pass . And `` Here shall I find peace , '' said Purun Bhagat . Now , a Hill-man makes nothing of a few hundred feet up or down , and as soon as the villagers saw the smoke in the deserted shrine , the village priest climbed up the terraced hillside to welcome the stranger . When he met Purun Bhagat 's eyes -- the eyes of a man used to control thousands -- he bowed to the earth , took the begging-bowl without a word , and returned to the village , saying , `` We have at last a holy man . Never have I seen such a man . He is of the Plains -- but pale-coloured -- a Brahmin of the Brahmins . '' Then all the housewives of the village said , `` Think you he will stay with us ? '' and each did her best to cook the most savoury meal for the Bhagat . Hill-food is very simple , but with buckwheat and Indian corn , and rice and red pepper , and little fish out of the stream in the valley , and honey from the flue-like hives built in the stone walls , and dried apricots , and turmeric , and wild ginger , and bannocks of flour , a devout woman can make good things , and it was a full bowl that the priest carried to the Bhagat . Was he going to stay ? asked the priest . Would he need a chela -- a disciple -- to beg for him ? Had he a blanket against the cold weather ? Was the food good ? Purun Bhagat ate , and thanked the giver . It was in his mind to stay . That was sufficient , said the priest .
Let the XXXXX be placed outside the shrine , in the hollow made by those two twisted roots , and daily should the Bhagat be fed ; for the village felt honoured that such a man -- he looked timidly into the Bhagat 's face -- should tarry among them .
Brahmin Hill-food Hill-man Indian bannocks begging-bowl chela first hives turmeric