The office was but a little wooden cubicle partitioned off from the sculpture-lined gallery . Kim laid himself down , his ear against a crack in the heat-split cedar door , and , following his instinct , stretched out to listen and watch . Most of the talk was altogether above his head . The lama , haltingly at first , spoke to the Curator of his own lamassery , the Such-zen , opposite the Painted Rocks , four months ' march away . The Curator brought out a huge book of photos and showed him that very place , perched on its crag , overlooking the gigantic valley of many-hued strata . ` Ay , ay ! ' The lama mounted a pair of horn-rimmed spectacles of Chinese work . ` Here is the little door through which we bring wood before winter . And thou -- the English know of these things ? He who is now Abbot of Lung-Cho told me , but I did not believe . The Lord -- the Excellent One -- He has honour here too ? And His life is known ? ' ` It is all carven upon the stones . Come and see , if thou art rested . ' Out shuffled the lama to the main hall , and , the Curator beside him , went through the collection with the reverence of a devotee and the appreciative instinct of a craftsman . Incident by incident in the beautiful story he identified on the blurred stone , puzzled here and there by the unfamiliar Greek convention , but delighted as a child at each new trove . Where the sequence failed , as in the Annunciation , the Curator supplied it from his mound of books -- French and German , with photographs and reproductions . Here was the devout Asita , the pendant of Simeon in the Christian story , holding the Holy Child on his knee while mother and father listened ; and here were incidents in the legend of the cousin Devadatta . Here was the wicked woman who accused the Master of impurity , all confounded ; here was the teaching in the Deer-park ; the miracle that stunned the fire-worshippers ; here was the Bodhisat in royal state as a prince ; the miraculous birth ; the death at Kusinagara , where the weak disciple fainted ; while there were almost countless repetitions of the meditation under the Bodhi tree ; and the adoration of the alms-bowl was everywhere . In a few minutes the Curator saw that his guest was no mere bead-telling mendicant , but a scholar of parts .
And they XXXXX at it all over again , the lama taking snuff , wiping his spectacles , and talking at railway speed in a bewildering mixture of Urdu and Tibetan .
accused believe blurred following listened puzzled showed spoke stunned went