said the lama , shifting the rosary to his hand . ` Hear : for I speak of Him now ! O people of Hind , listen ! ' He began in Urdu the tale of the Lord Buddha , but , borne by his own thoughts , slid into Tibetan and long-droned texts from a Chinese book of the Buddha 's life . The gentle , tolerant folk looked on reverently . All India is full of holy men stammering gospels in strange tongues ; shaken and consumed in the fires of their own zeal ; dreamers , babblers , and visionaries : as it has been from the beginning and will continue to the end . ` Um ! ' said the soldier of the Ludhiana Sikhs . ` There was a Mohammedan regiment lay next to us at the Pirzai Kotal , and a priest of theirs -- he was , as I remember , a naik -- when the fit was on him , spake prophecies . But the mad all are in God 's keeping . His officers overlooked much in that man . ' The lama fell back on Urdu , remembering that he was in a strange land . ` Hear the tale of the Arrow which our Lord loosed from the bow , ' he said . This was much more to their taste , and they listened curiously while he told it . ` Now , O people of Hind , I go to seek that River . Know ye aught that may guide me , for we be all men and women in evil case . ' ` There is Gunga -- and Gunga alone -- who washes away sin . ' ran the murmur round the carriage . ` Though past question we have good Gods Jullundur-way , ' said the cultivator 's wife , looking out of the window . ` See how they have blessed the crops . '
` To search every river in the Punjab is no small matter , ' XXXXX her husband .
Hear consumed guide lay listened looking remember said shaken spake