XIV

But they considered the lama’s presence a perfect safeguard against all consequences, and impenitently brought Kim of their best⁠—even to a drink of chang ⁠—the barley-beer that comes from Ladakh-way. Then they thawed out in the sun, and sat with their legs hanging over infinite abysses, chattering, laughing, and smoking. They judged India and its Government solely from their experience of wandering Sahibs who had employed them or their friends as shikarris . Kim heard tales of shots missed upon ibex, serow, or markhor, by Sahibs twenty years in their graves⁠—every detail lighted from behind like twigs on treetops seen against lightning. They told him of their little diseases, and, more important, the diseases of their tiny, surefooted cattle; of trips as far as Kotgarh, where the strange missionaries live, and beyond even to marvellous Simla, where the streets are paved with silver, and anyone, look you, can get service with the Sahibs, who ride about in two-wheeled carts and spend money with a spade. Presently, grave and aloof, walking very heavily, the lama joined himself to the chatter under the eaves, and they gave him