He snuffed from his gourd . ` It is well done , Holy One , ' Kim murmured , sinking at ease on the cushions , very happy and rather tired . ` And also , ' the old man chuckled , ' I write pictures of the Wheel of Life . Three days to a picture . I was busied on it -- or it may be I shut my eyes a little -- when they brought word of thee . It is good to have thee here : I will show thee my art -- not for pride 's sake , but because thou must learn . The Sahibs have not all this world 's wisdom . ' He drew from under the table a sheet of strangely scented yellow Chinese paper , the brushes , and slab of Indian ink . In cleanest , severest outline he had traced the Great Wheel with its six spokes , whose centre is the conjoined Hog , Snake , and Dove -LRB- Ignorance , Anger , and Lust -RRB- , and whose compartments are all the Heavens and Hells , and all the chances of human life . Men say that the Bodhisat Himself first drew it with grains of rice upon dust , to teach His disciples the cause of things . Many ages have crystallized it into a most wonderful convention crowded with hundreds of little figures whose every line carries a meaning . Few can translate the picture-parable ; there are not twenty in all the world who can draw it surely without a copy : of those who can both draw and expound are but three . ' I have a little learned to draw , ' said Kim . ` But this is a marvel beyond marvels . ' ' I have written it for many years , ' said the lama . ` Time was when I could write it all between one lamp-lighting and the next . I will teach thee the art -- after due preparation ; and I will show thee the meaning of the Wheel . ' ` We take the Road , then ? ' ` The Road and our Search . I was but waiting for thee .
It was made plain to me in a hundred dreams -- notably one that came upon the night of the day that the Gates of Learning XXXXX shut that without thee I should never find my River .
Bodhisat Chinese Hells Kim Road Sahibs centre first lamp-lighting years