Summary of "Kim" by Rudyard Kipling / Riassunto di "Kim" di Rudyard Kipling

Lucknow and asks him to come to him.

The letter writer tells Kim that Colonel Creighton is a foolish Sahib who is always buying horses

which he cannot ride and asking riddles about the work of God. But Kim doesn’t think him foolish,

because he knows he was the one to whom he had given the letter and who ordered the war.

Mahbub Ali probably spied for the Colonel mush as Kim had spied for Mahbub. The Colonel

evidently respected people who did not show themselves to be too clever.

In the three days that follow Father Victor tries to teach him a bit of Christian religion, notably

of a goddess called Mary, who, he gathered, was one with Bibi Miriam of Mahbub Ali. Then Father

Victor leaves him on the train to Lucknow.

'They'll make a man o' you, O'Hara, at St Xavier's—a white man, an', I hope, a good man. They

know all about your comin', an' the Colonel will see that ye're not lost or mislaid anywhere on

the road. I've given you a notion of religious matters,—at least I hope so,—and you'll remember,

when they ask you your religion, that you're a Cath'lic. Better say Roman Cath'lic, tho' I'm not

fond of the word.'

This solitary passage (in second-class) was very different from that joyful down-journey in the

third-class with the lama.

'Hai mai! I go from one place to another as it might be a kickball. But I am to pray to Bibi Miriam,

and I am a Sahib.' He looked at his boots ruefully. 'No; I am Kim. This is the great world, and I

am only Kim. Who is Kim?' He considered his own identity, a thing he had never done before,

till his head swam. He was one insignificant person in all this roaring whirl of India, going

southward to he knew not what fate.

The Colonel sent for him, and talked for a long time. So far as Kim could gather, he was to be

diligent and enter the Survey of India as a chain-man (=a surveyor).

'Yes, and thou must learn how to make pictures of roads and mountains and rivers, to carry

these pictures in thine eye till a suitable time comes to set them upon paper.’4

'There is a good spirit in thee. Do not let it be blunted at St Xavier's. There are many boys there

who despise the black men.'

'We be all on one lead-rope, then,' said Kim at last, 'the Colonel, Mahbub Ali, and I—when I

become a chain-man. He will use me as Mahbub Ali employed me, I think.'

They arrive and the colonel leaves him to take a carriage to the school. The coachman says that

it is full of “young sahibs, all devils. But I have never seen one that had in him the making of a

more perfect devil than you.” The coachman drives him up and down the city for a couple of

hours and then Kim sees the lama and stops.

'I have waited here a day and a half,' the lama's level voice began. 'Nay, I had a disciple with

me. He that was my friend at the Temple of the Tirthankars gave me a guide for this journey. I

came from Benares in the te-rain, when thy letter was given me. Yes, I am well fed. I need

nothing.'

'But why didst thou not stay with the Kulu woman, O Holy One? In what way didst thou get to

Benares?'

'The woman wearied me by constant flux of talk and requiring charms for children. I separated

myself from that company, permitting her to acquire merit by gifts. Then, perceiving myself

alone in this great and terrible world, I bethought me of the te-rain to Benares, where I knew

one abode in the Tirthankars' Temple who was a Seeker, even as I. A day and a half have I

waited, not because I was led by any affection towards thee—that is no part of the Way—but

because, money having been paid for learning, it was right that I should oversee the end of the

matter. I had a fear that, perhaps, I came because I wished to see thee—misguided by the Red

Mist of affection. It is not so.'

'But surely, Holy One, thou hast not forgotten the Road and all that befell on it. Surely it was a

little to see me that thou didst come?'

'I must go back to Benares. From time to time, now that I know the customs of letter-writers

in this land, I will send thee a letter, and from time to time I will come and see thee.'

Kim goes to St Xavier and Kipling does not give a detailed description of his time here: he talks

about the other boys and the adventures they had lived in India.

St Xavier's looks down on boys who 'go native all-together.' One must never forget that one is

a Sahib, and that some day, when examinations are passed, one will command natives. Kim

made a note of this, for he began to understand where examinations led.

The time of the holidays has come (August-October), Kim has learnt to write, he has never heard

of the lama in several months. He decides to take the road, goes to a house where some

prostitutes live to get some dyestuff and some cloths not to appear as a Sahib. He says it is for

a girl that he is doing it. He had now the likeness of a low-caste Hindu boy, perfect in every

detail. He took the train to Umballa.

The Colonel was advised of his disappearance and Mahbub Ali says he will have gone back to

the road for a while, as he had expected.

"The Friend of all the World takes leave to go to his own places. He will come back upon the

appointed day.”

Mahbub Ali often compares Kim with a little pony who has to learn the game on his own.

A month later Kim reaches out for Mahbub Ali and, after having travelled, he is ready to go back

to the madrissah (=school).

Chapter 8

Mahbub hired a room over against the railway station and talks to Kim: 'I said it was the pony

breaking out to play polo. The fruit is ripe already—except that he must learn his distances and

his pacings, and his rods and his compasses.'

'It was my holiday, Hajji. I was a slave for many weeks. Why should I not run away when the

school was shut?’

Kim tells Mahbub that the night during which he and the lama slept at Mahbub’s house, a

stranger came and looked around. He says he waited at the Colonel’s house to see what they

did with the message and then used this information along the way for his benefit.

Kim says: “I am not a Sahib. I will stay in the madrissah till I am ripe. I will learn their teaching

upon a condition: that my time is given to me without question when the madrissah is shut. Ask

that for me of the Colonel. To the madrissah I will go. At the madrissah I will learn. In the

madrissah I will be a Sahib. But when the madrissah is shut, then must I be free and go among

my people. Otherwise I die! My people is this great an beautiful land. I will see the lama again.”

While Mahbub stays there, Kim goes to sleep with his men and while he is sleeping he hears two

men whispering their plan to kill Mahbub Ali. So he goes to meet him on his road there and tells

him about that plan. Mahbub goes to the railway station and tells two officers about two faquirs

which they believe are thieves. The policemen fight the faquirs and they go to jail for a while.

Kim, who sees this happen, recognises one of the two men as the one who had searched

Mahbub’s home.

While Kim is falling asleep he thinks:

'I am very old,' he thought sleepily. 'Every month I become a year more old. I was very young,

and a fool to boot, when I took Mahbub's message to Umballa. Even when I was with that white

Regiment I was very young and small and had no wisdom. But now I learn every day, and in

three years the Colonel will take me out of the madrissah and let me go upon the Road with

Mahbub hunting for horses' pedigrees, or maybe I shall go by myself; or maybe I shall find the

lama and go with him. Yes; that is best. To walk again as a chela with my lama when he comes

back to Benares.'

Also:

‘Among Sahibs, never forgetting thou art a Sahib; among the folk of Hind, always remembering

thou art—' He paused, with a puzzled smile.

'What am I? Mussalman, Hindu, Jain, or Buddhist? That is a hard knot.'

'Thou art beyond question an unbeliever, and therefore thou wilt be damned. So says my Law—

or I think it does. But thou art also my Little Friend of all the World, and I love thee. So says my

heart. The faiths are like the horses. Each has merit in its own country.’

The next day they continue travelling towards Simla: Kim will remember till he dies that long,

lazy journey from Umballa through Kalka and the Pinjore Gardens near by, up to Simla. All these

things (which he saw during the journey) lifted Kim’s heart to song within him.

In the lower Simla bazar are discusses by courtesans the things which are supposed to be

profoundest secrets of the India Council; and here gather all the sub-sub-agents of half the

native States.

Kim will stay with Lurgan Sahib (an English shop-keeper) until it is time to go to Lucknow.

Mahbub Ali tells him not to speak of him or of his connection with the Colonel, and to listen to

Lurgan Sahib. “He is one to be obeyed to the last wink of his eyelashes. Men say he does magic,

but that should not touch thee. Here begins the Great Game.”

Chapter 9

Kim flung himself whole-heartedly upon the next turn of the wheel. He would be a Sahib again

for a while. Kim arrives at Lurgan Sahib’s house and he is taken to a black room where he should

sleep. There is also a Hindu child there.

The next morning, he finds Mr Lurgan and he talks to him like an equal, a Sahib. The shop has

toys and some of them made noises during the night. Kim finds them fascinating. He really

thinks Mr Lurgan has magical powers.

For ten days Kim is there and plays with the Sahib and the Hindu boy, exercising his memory

(by remembering jewels after observation) and his understanding of people of all castes.

Kim also meets a Babu, a writer of tales for a certain Colonel. His honour is great only in Simla,

and it is noticeable that he has no name, but only a number and a letter—that is a custom among

us (so says the Lurgan Sahib).

Lurgan Sahib had spoken most explicitly of the reward that would follow obedience, and Kim

was content. If only, like the Babu, he could enjoy the dignity of a letter and a number—and a

price upon his head! Some day he would be all that and more. Some day he might be almost as

great as Mahbub Ali!

When the times come, Kim is sent to school with Babu who talks to him of the good opportunities

which can come from education.

During the three years in which Kim is at St Xavier’s, the lama stays in the Temple of the

Tirthankers in Benares. He is waiting for his chela to get an education and travel with him to find

the River.

Chapter 10

Lurgan Sahib made Kim learn whole chapters of the Koran by heart, told him the names and

properties of many native drugs.

As Kim is going to Bikaneer with Mahbub Ali, the Colonel ordered him to make a map of that

wild, walled city. Mahbub Ali gives him a gun: “God knows we need men more and more in the

Game:”

Creighton, Mahbub Ali and Lurg