Kim (Barnes & Noble Classics Series) - Rudyard Kipling [142]
‘Huh! What can old eyes see except a full begging-bowl?’
‘—turns from this village to the Plains again.’
‘Bid him stay.’
Kim shook his head. ‘I know my Holy One, and his rage if he be crossed,’ he replied impressively. ‘His curses shake the Hills.’
‘Pity they did not save him from a broken head! I heard that thou wast the tiger-hearted one who smote the Sahib. Let him dream a little longer. Stay!’
‘Hillwoman,’ said Kim, with austerity that could not harden the outlines of his young oval face, ‘these matters are too high for thee.’
‘The Gods be good to us! Since when have men and women been other than men and women?’
‘A priest is a priest. He says he will go upon this hour. I am his chela, and I go with him. We need food for the Road. He is an honoured guest in all the villages, but’—he broke into a pure boy’s grin—‘the food here is good. Give me some.’
‘What if I do not give it thee? I am the woman of this village.’
‘Then I curse thee—a little—not greatly, but enough to remember.’ He could not help smiling.
‘Thou hast cursed me already by the down-dropped eyelash and the uplifted chin. Curses? What should I care for mere words?’ She clenched her hands upon her bosom.... ‘But I would not have thee to go in anger, thinking hardly of me—a gatherer of cow-dung and grass at Shamlegh, but still a woman of substance.’
‘I think nothing,’ said Kim, ‘but that I am grieved to go, for I am very weary; and that we need food. Here is the bag.’
The woman snatched it angrily. ‘I was foolish,’ said she. ‘Who is thy woman in the Plains? Fair or black? I was fair once. Laughest thou? Once, long ago, if thou canst believe, a Sahib looked on me with favour. Once, long ago, I wore European clothes at the Mission-house yonder.’ She pointed towards Kotgarh. ‘Once, long ago, I was Ker-lis-ti-an350 and spoke English—as the Sahibs speak it. Yes. My Sahib said he would return and wed me—yes, wed me. He went away—I had nursed him when he was sick—but he never returned. Then I saw that the Gods of the Kerlistians lied, and I went back to my own people ... I have never set eyes on a Sahib since. (Do not laugh at me. The fit is past, little priestling.) Thy face and thy walk and thy fashion of speech put me in mind of my Sahib, though thou art only a wandering mendicant to whom I give a dole. Curse me? Thou canst neither curse nor bless!’ She set her hands on her hips and laughed bitterly. ‘Thy Gods are lies; thy works are lies; thy words are lies. There are no Gods under all the Heavens. I know it.... But for awhile I thought it was my Sahib come back, and he was my God. Yes, once I made music on a pianno in the Mission-house at Kotgarh. Now I give alms to priests who are heatthen.’ She wound up with the English word, and tied the mouth of the brimming bag.
‘I wait for thee, chela,’ said the lama, leaning against the door-post.
The woman swept the tall figure with her eyes. ‘He walk! He cannot cover half a mile. Whither would old bones go?’
At this Kim, already perplexed by the lama’s collapse and fore-seeing the weight of the bag, fairly lost his temper.
‘What is it to thee, woman of ill-omen, where he goes?’
‘Nothing—but something to thee, priest with a Sahib’s face. Wilt thou carry him on thy shoulders?’
‘I go to the Plains. None must hinder my return. I have wrestled with my soul till I am strengthless. The stupid body is spent and we are far from the Plains.’
‘Behold!’ she said simply, and drew aside to let Kim see his own utter helplessness. ‘Curse me. Maybe it will give him strength. Make a charm! Call on thy great God. Thou art a priest.’ She turned away.
The lama had squatted limply, still holding by the door-post. One cannot strike down an old man that he recovers again like a boy in a night. Weakness bowed him to the earth, but his eyes that hung on Kim were alive and imploring.
‘It is all well,’ said Kim. ‘It is the thin air that weakens thee. In a little while we go! It is the mountain-sickness. I too am a little sick at stomach,’ ... and he knelt and comforted with such poor words as came first to