The Hand of Friendship must in some way have averted the Whip of Calamity , for six weeks later Kim seems to have passed an examination in elementary surveying ` with great credit ' , his age being fifteen years and eight months . From this date the record is silent . His name does not appear in the year 's batch of those who entered for the subordinate Survey of India , but against it stand the words ` removed on appointment . ' Several times in those three years , cast up at the Temple of the Tirthankars in Benares the lama , a little thinner and a shade yellower , if that were possible , but gentle and untainted as ever . Sometimes it was from the South that he came -- from south of Tuticorin , whence the wonderful fire-boats go to Ceylon where are priests who know Pali ; sometimes it was from the wet green West and the thousand cotton-factory chimneys that ring Bombay ; and once from the North , where he had doubled back eight hundred miles to talk for a day with the Keeper of the Images in the Wonder House . He would stride to his cell in the cool , cut marble -- the priests of the Temple were good to the old man , -- wash off the dust of travel , make prayer , and depart for Lucknow , well accustomed now to the way of the rail , in a third-class carriage . Returning , it was noticeable , as his friend the Seeker pointed out to the head-priest , that he ceased for a while to mourn the loss of his River , or to draw wondrous pictures of the Wheel of Life , but preferred to talk of the beauty and wisdom of a certain mysterious chela whom no man of the Temple had ever seen . Yes , he had followed the traces of the Blessed Feet throughout all India . -LRB- The Curator has still in his possession a most marvellous account of his wanderings and meditations . -RRB- There remained nothing more in life but to find the River of the Arrow . Yet it was shown to him in dreams that it was a matter not to be undertaken with any hope of success unless that seeker had with him the one chela appointed to bring the event to a happy issue , and versed in great wisdom -- such wisdom as white-haired Keepers of Images possess . For example -LRB- here came out the snuff-gourd , and the kindly Jain priests made haste to be silent -RRB- : ` Long and long ago , when Devadatta was King of Benares -- let all listen to the Tataka ! -- an elephant was captured for a time by the king 's hunters and ere he broke free , beringed with a grievous legiron . This he strove to remove with hate and frenzy in his heart , and hurrying up and down the forests , besought his brother-elephants to wrench it asunder . One by one , with their strong trunks , they tried and failed . At the last they gave it as their opinion that the ring was not to be broken by any bestial power . And in a thicket , new-born , wet with moisture of birth , lay a day-old calf of the herd whose mother had died . The fettered elephant , forgetting his own agony , said : `` If I do not help this suckling it will perish under our feet . '' So he stood above the young thing , making his legs buttresses against the uneasily moving herd ; and he begged milk of a virtuous cow , and the calf throve , and the ringed elephant was the calf 's guide and defence . Now the days of an elephant -- let all listen to the Tataka !
-- are thirty-five XXXXX to his full strength , and through thirty-five Rains the ringed elephant befriended the younger , and all the while the fetter ate into the flesh .
Curator India Kim chela days legiron months snuff-gourd wrench years