The lama , under cover of the monologue , had faded out into the darkness towards the room prepared . ` Thou hast angered him , belike , ' said Kim . ` Not he . He is wearied , and I forgot , being a grandmother . -LRB- None but a grandmother should ever oversee a child . Mothers are only fit for bearing . -RRB- Tomorrow , when he sees how my daughter 's son is grown , he will write the charm . Then , too , he can judge of the new hakim 's drugs . ' ` Who is the hakim , Maharanee ? ' ' A wanderer , as thou art , but a most sober Bengali from Dacca -- a master of medicine . He relieved me of an oppression after meat by means of a small pill that wrought like a devil unchained . He travels about now , vending preparations of great value . He has even papers , printed in Angrezi , telling what things he has done for weak-backed men and slack women . He has been here four days ; but hearing ye were coming -LRB- hakims and priests are snake and tiger the world over -RRB- he has , as I take it , gone to cover . ' While she drew breath after this volley , the ancient servant , sitting unrebuked on the edge of the torchlight , muttered : ` This house is a cattle-pound , as it were , for all charlatans and -- priests . Let the boy stop eating mangoes ... but who can argue with a grandmother ? ' He raised his voice respectfully : ` Sahiba , the hakim sleeps after his meat . He is in the quarters behind the dovecote . ' Kim bristled like an expectant terrier . To outface and down-talk a Calcutta-taught Bengali , a voluble Dacca drug-vendor , would be a good game .
It was not seemly that the XXXXX , and incidentally himself , should be thrown aside for such an one .
Bengali Kim cattle-pound days dovecote drug-vendor drugs hakims lama torchlight