` Come . He does no hurt . ' Kim hesitated for a moment . The lama backed his order by some droned Chinese quotation which Kim took for a charm . He obeyed and bounded across the rivulet , and the snake , indeed , made no sign . ` Never have I seen such a man . ' Kim wiped the sweat from his forehead . ` And now , whither go we ? ' ` That is for thee to say . I am old , and a stranger -- far from my own place . But that the rail-carriage fills my head with noises of devil-drums I would go in it to Benares now ... Yet by so going we may miss the River . Let us find another river . ' Where the hard-worked soil gives three and even four crops a year through patches of sugar-cane , tobacco , long white radishes , and nol-kol , all that day they strolled on , turning aside to every glimpse of water ; rousing village dogs and sleeping villages at noonday ; the lama replying to the volleyed questions with an unswerving simplicity . They sought a River : a River of miraculous healing . Had any one knowledge of such a stream ? Sometimes men laughed , but more often heard the story out to the end and offered them a place in the shade , a drink of milk , and a meal . The women were always kind , and the little children as children are the world over , alternately shy and venturesome . Evening found them at rest under the village tree of a mud-walled , mud-roofed hamlet , talking to the headman as the cattle came in from the grazing-grounds and the women prepared the day 's last meal . They had passed beyond the belt of market-gardens round hungry Umballa , and were among the mile-wide green of the staple crops . He was a white-bearded and affable elder , used to entertaining strangers .
He dragged out a string bedstead for the XXXXX , set warm cooked food before him , prepared him a pipe , and , the evening ceremonies being finished in the village temple , sent for the village priest .
Benares Evening headman lama market-gardens nol-kol noonday rivulet tobacco whither