Kim was careful not to irritate that man ; for the Akali 's temper is short and his arm quick . Here and there they met or were overtaken by the gaily dressed crowds of whole villages turning out to some local fair ; the women , with their babes on their hips , walking behind the men , the older boys prancing on sticks of sugar-cane , dragging rude brass models of locomotives such as they sell for a halfpenny , or flashing the sun into the eyes of their betters from cheap toy mirrors . One could see at a glance what each had bought ; and if there were any doubt it needed only to watch the wives comparing , brown arm against brown arm , the newly purchased dull glass bracelets that come from the North-West . These merry-makers stepped slowly , calling one to the other and stopping to haggle with sweetmeat-sellers , or to make a prayer before one of the wayside shrines -- sometimes Hindu , sometimes Mussalman -- which the low-caste of both creeds share with beautiful impartiality . A solid line of blue , rising and falling like the back of a caterpillar in haste , would swing up through the quivering dust and trot past to a chorus of quick cackling . That was a gang of changars -- the women who have taken all the embankments of all the Northern railways under their charge -- a flat-footed , big-bosomed , strong-limbed , blue-petticoated clan of earth-carriers , hurrying north on news of a job , and wasting no time by the road . They belong to the caste whose men do not count , and they walked with squared elbows , swinging hips , and heads on high , as suits women who carry heavy weights . A little later a marriage procession would strike into the Grand Trunk with music and shoutings , and a smell of marigold and jasmine stronger even than the reek of the dust . One could see the bride 's litter , a blur of red and tinsel , staggering through the haze , while the bridegroom 's bewreathed pony turned aside to snatch a mouthful from a passing fodder-cart . Then Kim would join the Kentish-fire of good wishes and bad jokes , wishing the couple a hundred sons and no daughters , as the saying is . Still more interesting and more to be shouted over it was when a strolling juggler with some half-trained monkeys , or a panting , feeble bear , or a woman who tied goats ' horns to her feet , and with these danced on a slack-rope , set the horses to shying and the women to shrill , long-drawn quavers of amazement . The lama never raised his eyes . He did not note the money-lender on his goose-rumped pony , hastening along to collect the cruel interest ; or the long-shouting , deep-voiced little mob -- still in military formation -- of native soldiers on leave , rejoicing to be rid of their breeches and puttees , and saying the most outrageous things to the most respectable women in sight . Even the seller of Ganges-water he did not see , and Kim expected that he would at least buy a bottle of that precious stuff . He looked steadily at the ground , and strode as steadily hour after hour , his soul busied elsewhere . But Kim was in the seventh heaven of joy . The Grand Trunk at this point was built on an embankment to guard against winter floods from the foothills , so that one walked , as it were , a little above the country , along a stately corridor , seeing all India spread out to left and right . It was beautiful to behold the many-yoked grain and cotton wagons crawling over the country roads : one could hear their axles , complaining a mile away , coming nearer , till with shouts and yells and bad words they climbed up the steep incline and plunged on to the hard main road , carter reviling carter . It was equally beautiful to watch the people , little clumps of red and blue and pink and white and saffron , turning aside to go to their own villages , dispersing and growing small by twos and threes across the level plain . Kim felt these things , though he could not give tongue to his feelings , and so contented himself with buying peeled sugar-cane and spitting the pith generously about his path .
From time to time the lama took snuff , and at last XXXXX could endure the silence no longer .
Akali Kim Mussalman Trunk cackling changars fodder-cart goats puttees shoutings