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 lama , 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 . Kim told the older children tales of the size and beauty of Lahore , of railway travel , and such-like city things , while the men talked , slowly as their cattle chew the cud . ' I can not fathom it , ' said the headman at last to the priest . ` How readest thou this talk ? ' The lama , his tale told , was silently telling his beads . ` He is a Seeker . ' the priest answered . ` The land is full of such . Remember him who came only last , month -- the fakir with the tortoise ? ' ` Ay , but that man had right and reason , for Krishna Himself appeared in a vision promising him Paradise without the burning-pyre if he journeyed to Prayag . This man seeks no God who is within my knowledge . ' ` Peace , he is old : he comes from far off , and he is mad , ' the smooth-shaven priest replied . ` Hear me . ' He turned to the lama . ` Three koss -LSB- six miles -RSB- to the westward runs the great road to Calcutta . ' ` But I would go to Benares -- to Benares . '
` And to XXXXX also .
Ay Benares Lahore Prayag burning-pyre evening grazing-grounds headman month right