獅駝國 A City Called Lion Camel
小鑽風道：「我大大王與二大王久住在獅駝嶺獅駝洞。三大王不在這裡住，他原住處離此西下有四百里遠近。那廂有座城，喚做獅駝國。小钻风道：「我大大王与二大王久住在狮驼岭狮驼洞。三大王不在这里住，他原住处离此西下有四百里远近。那厢有座城，唤做狮驼国。
逐句解 Line by line
The Little Borer of the Wind said, "Our great king and the second king have long lived here at the Lion Camel Cave on the Lion Camel Ridge.
久住在 — long resident. The first two are local; the third, as the next line establishes, is not, and that distinction turns out to matter.
The third king does not live here. His own place is some four hundred lǐ west of this.
遠近 is a distance given as an approximation — literally far-near, the pair standing for the measurement itself, exactly as long-short did for the staff. Four hundred lǐ is something over two hundred kilometres.
Over there is a city, and it is called the Kingdom of Lion Camel."
那廂 is over that way. And the name lands with a small shock: not a cave, not a mountain, a 國 — a kingdom, with a city in it.
The geography turns out to be the real intelligence. Two kings on this ridge, and a third somewhere else entirely, four hundred lǐ west — which means the alliance is recent and the third king came here on purpose.
And the word at the end changes the scale of the whole story. Everything so far has been a mountain with a cave in it. There is a kingdom involved.
The pilgrims set out this morning to find whether a road was passable. They have found a state.