The old man was used to the order of his monastery , and though he slept on the ground , as the Rule decrees , preferred a decency in these things . ` We shall get good lodging at the Kashmir Serai , ' said Kim , laughing at his perplexity . ' I have a friend there . Come ! ' The hot and crowded bazars blazed with light as they made their way through the press of all the races in Upper India , and the lama mooned through it like a man in a dream . It was his first experience of a large manufacturing city , and the crowded tram-car with its continually squealing brakes frightened him . Half pushed , half towed , he arrived at the high gate of the Kashmir Serai : that huge open square over against the railway station , surrounded with arched cloisters , where the camel and horse caravans put up on their return from Central Asia . Here were all manner of Northern folk , tending tethered ponies and kneeling camels ; loading and unloading bales and bundles ; drawing water for the evening meal at the creaking well-windlasses ; piling grass before the shrieking , wild-eyed stallions ; cuffing the surly caravan dogs ; paying off camel-drivers ; taking on new grooms ; swearing , shouting , arguing , and chaffering in the packed square . The cloisters , reached by three or four masonry steps , made a haven of refuge around this turbulent sea . Most of them were rented to traders , as we rent the arches of a viaduct ; the space between pillar and pillar being bricked or boarded off into rooms , which were guarded by heavy wooden doors and cumbrous native padlocks . Locked doors showed that the owner was away , and a few rude -- sometimes very rude -- chalk or paint scratches told where he had gone . Thus : ` Lutuf Ullah is gone to Kurdistan . ' Below , in coarse verse : ' O Allah , who sufferest lice to live on the coat of a Kabuli , why hast thou allowed this louse Lutuf to live so long ? ' Kim , fending the lama between excited men and excited beasts , sidled along the cloisters to the far end , nearest therailway station , where Mahbub Ali , the horse-trader , lived when he came in from that mysterious land beyond the Passes of the North . Kim had had many dealings with Mahbub in his little life , especially between his tenth and his thirteenth year -- and the big burly Afghan , his beard dyed scarlet with lime -LRB- for he was elderly and did not wish his grey hairs to show -RRB- , knew the boy 's value as a gossip . Sometimes he would tell Kim to watch a man who had nothing whatever to do with horses : to follow him for one whole day and report every soul with whom he talked . Kim would deliver himself of his tale at evening , and Mahbub would listen without a word or gesture . It was intrigue of some kind , Kim knew ; but its worth lay in saying nothing whatever to anyone except Mahbub , who gave him beautiful meals all hot from the cookshop at the head of the serai , and once as much as eight annas in money . ` He is here , ' said Kim , hitting a bad-tempered camel on the nose . ` Ohe .
Mahbub XXXXX ! '
Ali Asia India Kabuli Serai chaffering horse-trader lama viaduct well-windlasses