He had learned what he wanted , and when the scullion turned he was gone . ` And all that trouble , ' said he to himself , thinking as usual in Hindustani , ` for a horse 's pedigree ! Mahbub Ali should have come to me to learn a little lying . Every time before that I have borne a message it concerned a woman . Now it is men . Better . The tall man said that they will loose a great army to punish someone -- somewhere -- the news goes to Pindi and Peshawur . There are also guns . Would I had crept nearer . It is big news ! ' He returned to find the cultivator 's cousin 's younger brother discussing the family law-suit in all its bearings with the cultivator and his wife and a few friends , while the lama dozed . After the evening meal some one passed him a water-pipe ; and Kim felt very much of a man as he pulled at the smooth coconut-shell , his legs spread abroad in the moonlight , his tongue clicking in remarks from time to time . His hosts were most polite ; for the cultivator 's wife had told them of his vision of the Red Bull , and of his probable descent from another world . Moreover , the lama was a great and venerable curiosity . The family priest , an old , tolerant Sarsut Brahmin , dropped in later , and naturally started a theological argument to impress the family . 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 XXXXX aside to the priest . '
Ali Bodhisat Hindustani Kim Pindi cultivator landslips law-suit sapphires water-pipe