A dish of curried fish in the fashion traditional in Kerala, the old Travancore in southwestern India. Lahore, where the action in this extract takes place, now lies in Pakistan far to the north.
Part 1 of 2
“I AM tired of new priests! They settle on our wares like flies. Is the father of my son a well of charity to give to all who ask?’
‘No,’ said Kim. ‘Thy man is rather yagi [bad-tempered] than yogi [a holy man]. But this priest is new. The Sahib in the Wonder House has talked to him like a brother.* O my mother, fill me this bowl. He waits.’
‘That bowl indeed! That cow-bellied basket! Thou hast as much grace as the holy bull of Shiv.* He has taken the best of a basket of onions already, this morn; and forsooth, I must fill thy bowl. He comes here again.’
The huge, mouse-coloured Brahminee bull of the ward was shouldering his way through the many-coloured crowd, a stolen plantain hanging out of his mouth. He headed straight for the shop, well knowing his privileges as a sacred beast, lowered his head, and puffed heavily along the line of baskets ere making his choice.
Up flew Kim’s hard little heel and caught him on his moist blue nose.
The ‘Wonder House’ is Lahore Museum, founded in 1865 and designed by local architect Sir Ganga Ram. Kipling’s father John Lockwood Kipling was curator from 1875 to 1893. Kipling emphasises that the curator in his tale regarded the Tibetan as a fellow-scholar, and eagerly disregarded any other considerations or social distinctions. He even gives him his glasses.
Shiv or Shiva, one of the principal deities of Hinduism. In Hindu mythology, the bull-figure Nandi is the gate-guardian deity of Kailasa, the abode of Lord Shiva, and he is also Shiva’s chief mount.
Précis
After meeting a Tibetan monk at Lahore Museum, Kim O’Hara determined to beg a decent meal for him. He went to a grocer’s store, but the storekeeper’s wife was discouraging, weary of mendicant priests and also of the town’s sacred bull, which was helping itself to her wares. Kim, however, did not scruple to give the animal a sharp kick. (60 / 60 words)
Part Two
A sacred ox inspects with amiable curiosity the religious and secular ornaments on display at Gangasagar Fair in Calcutta (Kolkata), West Bengal. The Fair is part of a Hindu pilgrimage and celebration, Gangasagar Mela, held every January on the river island of Sagar, where the Ganges empties into the Bay of Bengal.
HE snorted indignantly, and walked away across the tram rails, his hump quivering with rage.
‘See! I have saved more than the bowl will cost thrice over. Now, mother, a little rice and some dried fish atop — yes, and some vegetable curry.’
A growl came out of the back of the shop, where a man lay. ‘He drove away the bull,’ said the woman in an undertone. ‘It is good to give to the poor.’ She took the bowl and returned it full of hot rice.
‘But my yogi is not a cow,’ said Kim gravely, making a hole with his fingers in the top of the mound. ‘A little curry is good, and a fried cake, and a morsel of conserve would please him, I think.’
‘It is a hole as big as thy head,’ said the woman fretfully. But she filled it, none the less, with good, steaming vegetable curry, clapped a dried cake atop, and a morsel of clarified butter on the cake, dabbed a lump of sour tamarind conserve at the side.
Précis
Now the bull was gone, and driven off by Kim too, the storekeeper’s wife overruled her husband and handed Kim a bowl of rice for his monk. But Kim was not satisfied, and held out for additional curry and condiments, which despite her protestations the lady gave him readily enough. (50 / 60 words)
