It was inconceivable that anyone should be ignorant of Gunga . ` What -- what is thy God ? ' said the money-lender at last . ` Hear ! ' said the lama , shifting the rosary to his hand . ` Hear : for I speak of Him now ! O people of Hind , listen ! ' He began in Urdu the tale of the Lord Buddha , but , borne by his own thoughts , slid into Tibetan and long-droned texts from a Chinese book of the Buddha 's life . The gentle , tolerant folk looked on reverently . All India is full of holy men stammering gospels in strange tongues ; shaken and consumed in the fires of their own zeal ; dreamers , babblers , and visionaries : as it has been from the beginning and will continue to the end . ` Um ! ' said the soldier of the Ludhiana Sikhs . ` There was a Mohammedan regiment lay next to us at the Pirzai Kotal , and a priest of theirs -- he was , as I remember , a naik -- when the fit was on him , spake prophecies . But the mad all are in God 's keeping . His officers overlooked much in that man . ' The lama fell back on Urdu , remembering that he was in a strange land . ` Hear the tale of the Arrow which our Lord loosed from the bow , ' he said . This was much more to their taste , and they listened curiously while he told it . ` Now , O people of Hind , I go to seek that River . Know ye aught that may guide me , for we be all men and women in evil case . '
` There is XXXXX -- and Gunga alone -- who washes away sin . '
Chinese Gunga Kotal Mohammedan Sikhs Tibetan babblers dreamers money-lender visionaries