It was by no means lovely, but as the man gathered up his reins he
called it a Moon of Paradise, a Disturber of Integrity, and a few
other fantastic epithets which doubled her up with mirth.

'That is a nut-cut [rogue],' she said. 'All police-constables are
nut-cuts; but the police-wallahs are the worst. Hai, my son, thou
hast never learned all that since thou camest from Belait [Europe].
Who suckled thee?'

'A pahareen - a hillwoman of Dalhousie, my mother. Keep thy beauty
under a shade - O Dispenser of Delights,' and he was gone.

'These be the sort' - she took a fine judicial tone, and stuffed
her mouth with pan - 'These be the sort to oversee justice. They
know the land and the customs of the land. The others, all new from
Europe, suckled by white women and learning our tongues from books,
are worse than the pestilence. They do harm to Kings.' Then she
told a long, long tale to the world at large, of an ignorant young
policeman who had disturbed some small Hill Rajah, a ninth cousin
of her own, in the matter of a trivial land-case, winding up with a
quotation from a work by no means devotional.

Then her mood changed, and she bade one of the escort ask whether
the lama would walk alongside and discuss matters of religion. So
Kim dropped back into the dust and returned to his sugar-cane. For
an hour or more the lama's tam-o'shanter showed like a moon through
the haze; and, from all he heard, Kim gathered that the old woman
wept. One of the Ooryas half apologized for his rudeness overnight,
saying that he had never known his mistress of so bland a temper,