Rudyard Kipling's Kim (wierd section)

[Sir_Prize]

I reading Kim, which I highly recomend, but I have come to a passage in chapter 9 that I’m having a hard time figuring out. Does anyone have any insight into what is being described here?

NOTE TO MODERATOR: Kim is out of copywrite so please forgive the long quote.

He moved to the end of the veranda to refill the heavy, porous clay water-jug from the filter.

‘Do you want drink?’

Kim nodded. Lurgan Sahib, fifteen feet off, laid one hand on the jar. Next instant, it stood at Kim’s elbow, full to within half an inch of the brim - the white cloth only showing, by a small wrinkle, where it had slid into place.

‘Wah!’ said Kim in most utter amazement. ‘That is magic.’ Lurgan Sahib’s smile showed that the compliment had gone home.

‘Throw it back.’

‘It will break.’

‘I say, throw it back.’

Kim pitched it at random. It fell short and crashed into fifty pieces, while the water dripped through the rough veranda boarding.

‘I said it would break.’

‘All one. Look at it. Look at the largest piece.’

That lay with a sparkle of water in its curve, as it were a star on the floor. Kim looked intently. Lurgan Sahib laid one hand gently on the nape of his neck, stroked it twice or thrice, and whispered: ‘Look! It shall come to life again, piece by piece. First the big piece shall join itself to two others on the right and the left - on the right and the left. Look!’

To save his life, Kim could not have turned his head. The light touch held him as in a vice, and his blood tingled pleasantly through him. There was one large piece of the jar where there had been three, and above them the shadowy outline of the entire vessel. He could see the veranda through it, but it was thickening and darkening with each beat of his pulse. Yet the jar - how slowly the thoughts came! - the jar had been smashed before his eyes. Another wave of prickling fire raced down his neck, as Lurgan Sahib moved his hand.

‘Look! It is coming into shape,’ said Lurgan Sahib.

So far Kim had been thinking in Hindi, but a tremor came on him, and with an effort like that of a swimmer before sharks, who hurls himself half out of the water, his mind leaped up from a darkness that was swallowing it and took refuge in - the multiplication- table in English!

‘Look! It is coming into shape,’ whispered Lurgan Sahib.

The jar had been smashed - yess, smashed - not the native word, he would not think of that - but smashed - into fifty pieces, and twice three was six, and thrice three was nine, and four times three was twelve. He clung desperately to the repetition. The shadow-outline of the jar cleared like a mist after rubbing eyes. There were the broken shards; there was the spilt water drying in the sun, and through the cracks of the veranda showed, all ribbed, the white house-wall below - and thrice twelve was thirty-six!

‘Look! Is it coming into shape?’ asked Lurgan Sahib.

‘But it is smashed - smashed,’ he gasped - Lurgan Sahib had been muttering softly for the last half-minute. Kim wrenched his head aside. ‘Look! Dekho! It is there as it was there.’

‘It is there as it was there,’ said Lurgan, watching Kim closely while the boy rubbed his neck. ‘But you are the first of many who has ever seen it so.’ He wiped his broad forehead.

‘Was that more magic?’ Kim asked suspiciously. The tingle had gone from his veins; he felt unusually wide awake.

‘No, that was not magic. It was only to see if there was - a flaw in a jewel. Sometimes very fine jewels will fly all to pieces if a man holds them in his hand, and knows the proper way. That is why one must be careful before one sets them. Tell me, did you see the shape of the pot?’

‘For a little time. It began to grow like a flower from the ground.’

‘And then what did you do? I mean, how did you think?’

‘Oah! I knew it was broken, and so, I think, that was what I thought - and it was broken.’

[Bosda_Di_Chi_of_Tricor]

I haven’t read Kim, but it sounds like a fever dream to me.
Is Kim ill in that chapter?

[Sir_Prize]

No. He’s healthy. Lurgan is doing some kind of magic-seeming stunt that I assume Kipliing had seen in real life and incorporated into the story.

[Eve]

Godammit, all I can picture is Lurgan and Kim as Weebl and Bob . . .

“Do you want drink?”
“Throw it back.”
“It will break.”

[Etherial]

I havn’t read the book at all, but here’s my take on it.

Lurgan is hypnotizing Kim, his voice seems to be written in a sort of hypnotizing form, the way he repeats himself, tells Kim to focus, and is rubbing a sensative part of him to provoke a physical reaction. He’s trying to get into Kim’s mind and make Kim think that the glass (jar?) is whole, when it is broken.

Consider this passage: “It was only to see if there was - a flaw in a jewel. Sometimes very fine jewels will fly all to pieces if a man holds them in his hand, and knows the proper way. That is why one must be careful before one sets them.”

It seems to me that Lurgan was testing Kim, seeing how weak his mind was, how susceptible to hypnotism, before trusting him.

No idea what came before or after, but that’s my interpretation of the passage.

[Sir_Prize]

That could be it Etherial. He is definitely testing Kim to see if he has what it takes to play in the great game. Being able to resist hypnotism would be important. Especially if hypnotism work as involuntarily as in this passage.

[John_Carter_of_Mars]

I took it to be as has been stated here: Another test to see if Kim had what it takes to understand and play the great game. The ability to see clearly through all the deception would be critical.

Hope you enjoy Kim as much as I did.