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diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6833f05 --- /dev/null +++ b/.gitattributes @@ -0,0 +1,3 @@ +* text=auto +*.txt text +*.md text diff --git a/35997-0.txt b/35997-0.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..e0e447f --- /dev/null +++ b/35997-0.txt @@ -0,0 +1,6199 @@ +The Project Gutenberg eBook of The Jungle Book, by Rudyard Kipling + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States and +most other parts of the world at no cost and with almost no restrictions +whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms +of the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online at +www.gutenberg.org. If you are not located in the United States, you +will have to check the laws of the country where you are located before +using this eBook. + +Title: The Jungle Book + +Author: Rudyard Kipling + +Release Date: April 30, 2011 [eBook #35997] +[Most recently updated: May 1, 2023] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: UTF-8 + +Produced by: Suzanne Shell, Ernest Schaal, and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team + +*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE JUNGLE BOOK *** + + + + + THE JUNGLE BOOK + + + + + [Illustration: Rudyard Kipling] + + + + +[Illustration: "LITTLE TOOMAI LAID HIMSELF DOWN CLOSE TO THE GREAT NECK +LEST A SWINGING BOUGH SHOULD SWEEP HIM TO THE GROUND." (SEE PAGE 246.)] + + + + + THE + JUNGLE BOOK + + + BY + RUDYARD KIPLING + + + [Illustration] + + + NEW YORK + THE CENTURY CO. + 1910 + + + + + Copyright 1893, 1894, by + RUDYARD KIPLING + Copyright, 1894, by + HARPER and BROTHERS + Copyright 1893, 1894, by + THE CENTURY CO. + + + + + CONTENTS + + + PAGE + + MOWGLI’S BROTHERS 1 + + HUNTING-SONG OF THE SEEONEE PACK 42 + + KAA’S HUNTING 47 + + ROAD-SONG OF THE BANDAR-LOG 89 + + “TIGER! TIGER!” 93 + + MOWGLI’S SONG 131 + + THE WHITE SEAL 137 + + LUKANNON 170 + + “RIKKI-TIKKI-TAVI” 175 + + DARZEE’S CHAUNT 212 + + TOOMAI OF THE ELEPHANTS 217 + + SHIV AND THE GRASSHOPPER 261 + + HER MAJESTY’S SERVANTS 265 + + PARADE-SONG OF THE CAMP ANIMALS 300 + + + + +LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS + + + PAGE + + "LITTLE TOOMAI LAID HIMSELF DOWN CLOSE TO THE + GREAT NECK, LEST A SWINGING BOUGH SHOULD + SWEEP HIM TO THE GROUND" FRONTISPIECE + + "'GOOD LUCK GO WITH YOU, O CHIEF OF THE + WOLVES'" 5 + + "THE TIGER'S ROAR FILLED THE CAVE WITH THUNDER" 11 + + THE MEETING AT THE COUNCIL ROCK 17 + + "BAGHEERA WOULD LIE OUT ON A BRANCH AND CALL, + 'COME ALONG, LITTLE BROTHER'" 23 + + "'WAKE, LITTLE BROTHER; I BRING NEWS'" 99 + + "'ARE ALL THESE TALES SUCH COBWEBS AND MOON-TALK?' + SAID MOWGLI" 105 + + "BULDEO LAY AS STILL, AS STILL, EXPECTING EVERY MINUTE + TO SEE MOWGLI TURN INTO A TIGER, TOO" 121 + + "WHEN THE MOON ROSE OVER THE PLAIN THE VILLAGERS + SAW MOWGLI TROTTING ACROSS, WITH TWO + WOLVES AT HIS HEELS" 126 + + "THEY CLAMBERED UP ON THE COUNCIL ROCK TOGETHER, + AND MOWGLI SPREAD THE SKIN OUT ON + THE FLAT STONE" 129 + + "TEN FATHOMS DEEP" 146 + + "THEY WERE ALL AWAKE AND STARING IN EVERY DIRECTION + BUT THE RIGHT ONE" 154 + + "HE HAD FOUND SEA COW AT LAST" 162 + + "RIKKI-TIKKI LOOKED DOWN BETWEEN THE BOY'S COLLAR + AND NECK" 177 + + "HE PUT HIS NOSE INTO THE INK" 178 + + "RIKKI-TIKKI WAS AWAKE ON THE PILLOW" 179 + + "HE CAME TO BREAKFAST RIDING ON TEDDY'S SHOULDER" 180 + + "'WE ARE VERY MISERABLE,' SAID DARZEE" 181 + + "'I AM NAG,' SAID THE COBRA: 'LOOK, AND BE AFRAID.' + BUT AT THE BOTTOM OF HIS COLD HEART _HE_ WAS + AFRAID" 183 + + "HE JUMPED UP IN THE AIR, AND JUST UNDER HIM + WHIZZED BY THE HEAD OF NAGAINA" 187 + + "IN THE DARK HE RAN UP AGAINST CHUCHUNDRA, + THE MUSKRAT" 192 + + "THEN RIKKI-TIKKI WAS BATTERED TO AND FRO AS + A RAT IS SHAKEN BY A DOG" 197 + + DARZEE'S WIFE PRETENDS TO HAVE A BROKEN WING 201 + + "NAGAINA FLEW DOWN THE PATH WITH RIKKI-TIKKI + BEHIND HER" 207 + + "IT IS ALL OVER" 210 + + "KALA NAG WAS THE BEST-LOVED ELEPHANT IN THE + SERVICE" 219 + + "'HE IS AFRAID OF ME,' SAID LITTLE TOOMAI, AND + HE MADE KALA NAG LIFT UP HIS FEET ONE + AFTER THE OTHER" 223 + + "HE WOULD GET HIS TORCH AND WAVE IT, AND YELL + WITH THE BEST" 229 + + "'NOT GREEN CORN, PROTECTOR OF THE POOR,--MELONS,' + SAID LITTLE TOOMAI" 235 + + "LITTLE TOOMAI LOOKED DOWN UPON SCORES AND + SCORES OF BROAD BACKS" 251 + + "'TO TOOMAI OF THE ELEPHANTS. BARRAO!'" 259 + + "A CAMEL HAD BLUNDERED INTO MY TENT" 267 + + "'ANYBODY CAN BE FORGIVEN FOR BEING SCARED IN THE + NIGHT,' SAID THE TROOP-HORSE" 275 + + "'THE MAN WAS LYING ON THE GROUND, AND I + STRETCHED MYSELF NOT TO TREAD ON HIM, AND + HE SLASHED UP AT ME'" 279 + + "THEN I HEARD AN OLD, GRIZZLED, LONG-HAIRED CENTRAL + ASIAN CHIEF ASKING QUESTIONS OF A NATIVE + OFFICER" 297 + + + + + THE JUNGLE BOOK + + + Now Rann, the Kite, brings home the night + That Mang, the Bat, sets free-- + The herds are shut in byre and hut, + For loosed till dawn are we. + This is the hour of pride and power, + Talon and tush and claw. + Oh, hear the call!--Good hunting all + That keep the Jungle Law! + + _Night-Song in the Jungle._ + + + + + [Illustration] + + MOWGLI'S BROTHERS + + +IT was seven o'clock of a very warm evening in the Seeonee hills when +Father Wolf woke up from his day's rest, scratched himself, yawned, and +spread out his paws one after the other to get rid of the sleepy feeling +in the tips. Mother Wolf lay with her big gray nose dropped across her +four tumbling, squealing cubs, and the moon shone into the mouth of the +cave where they all lived. "Augrh!" said Father Wolf, "it is time to +hunt again"; and he was going to spring downhill when a little shadow +with a bushy tail crossed the threshold and whined: "Good luck go with +you, O Chief of the Wolves; and good luck and strong white teeth go with +the noble children, that they may never forget the hungry in this +world." + + [Illustration: "'GOOD LUCK GO WITH YOU, O CHIEF OF THE WOLVES.'"] + +It was the jackal--Tabaqui, the Dish-licker--and the wolves of India +despise Tabaqui because he runs about making mischief, and telling +tales, and eating rags and pieces of leather from the village +rubbish-heaps. They are afraid of him too, because Tabaqui, more than +any one else in the jungle, is apt to go mad, and then he forgets that +he was ever afraid of any one, and runs through the forest biting +everything in his way. Even the tiger hides when little Tabaqui goes +mad, for madness is the most disgraceful thing that can overtake a wild +creature. We call it hydrophobia, but they call it _dewanee_--the +madness--and run. + +"Enter, then, and look," said Father Wolf, stiffly; "but there is no +food here." + +"For a wolf, no," said Tabaqui; "but for so mean a person as myself a +dry bone is a good feast. Who are we, the Gidur-log [the Jackal People], +to pick and choose?" He scuttled to the back of the cave, where he found +the bone of a buck with some meat on it, and sat cracking the end +merrily. + +"All thanks for this good meal," he said, licking his lips. "How +beautiful are the noble children! How large are their eyes! And so +young too! Indeed, indeed, I might have remembered that the children of +kings are men from the beginning." + +Now, Tabaqui knew as well as any one else that there is nothing so +unlucky as to compliment children to their faces; and it pleased him to +see Mother and Father Wolf look uncomfortable. + +Tabaqui sat still, rejoicing in the mischief that he had made, and then +he said spitefully: + +"Shere Khan, the Big One, has shifted his hunting-grounds. He will hunt +among these hills during the next moon, so he has told me." + +Shere Khan was the tiger who lived near the Waingunga River, twenty +miles away. + +"He has no right!" Father Wolf began angrily. "By the Law of the Jungle +he has no right to change his quarters without fair warning. He will +frighten every head of game within ten miles; and I--I have to kill for +two, these days." + +"His mother did not call him Lungri [the Lame One] for nothing," said +Mother Wolf, quietly. "He has been lame in one foot from his birth. That +is why he has only killed cattle. Now the villagers of the Waingunga are +angry with him, and he has come here to make _our_ villagers angry. +They will scour the jungle for him when he is far away, and we and our +children must run when the grass is set alight. Indeed, we are very +grateful to Shere Khan!" + +"Shall I tell him of your gratitude?" said Tabaqui. + +"Out!" snapped Father Wolf. "Out, and hunt with thy master. Thou hast +done harm enough for one night." + +"I go," said Tabaqui, quietly. "Ye can hear Shere Khan below in the +thickets. I might have saved myself the message." + +Father Wolf listened, and in the dark valley that ran down to a little +river, he heard the dry, angry, snarly, singsong whine of a tiger who +has caught nothing and does not care if all the jungle knows it. + +"The fool!" said Father Wolf. "To begin a night's work with that noise! +Does he think that our buck are like his fat Waingunga bullocks?" + +"H'sh! It is neither bullock nor buck that he hunts to-night," said +Mother Wolf; "it is Man." The whine had changed to a sort of humming +purr that seemed to roll from every quarter of the compass. It was the +noise that bewilders wood-cutters, and gipsies sleeping in the open, +and makes them run sometimes into the very mouth of the tiger. + +"Man!" said Father Wolf, showing all his white teeth. "Faugh! Are there +not enough beetles and frogs in the tanks that he must eat Man--and on +our ground too!" + +The Law of the Jungle, which never orders anything without a reason, +forbids every beast to eat Man except when he is killing to show his +children how to kill, and then he must hunt outside the hunting-grounds +of his pack or tribe. The real reason for this is that man-killing +means, sooner or later, the arrival of white men on elephants, with +guns, and hundreds of brown men with gongs and rockets and torches. Then +everybody in the jungle suffers. The reason the beasts give among +themselves is that Man is the weakest and most defenseless of all living +things, and it is unsportsmanlike to touch him. They say too--and it is +true--that man-eaters become mangy, and lose their teeth. + +The purr grew louder, and ended in the full-throated "Aaarh!" of the +tiger's charge. + +Then there was a howl--an untigerish howl--from Shere Khan. "He has +missed," said Mother Wolf. "What is it?" + +Father Wolf ran out a few paces and heard Shere Khan muttering and +mumbling savagely, as he tumbled about in the scrub. + +"The fool has had no more sense than to jump at a wood-cutters' +camp-fire, so he has burned his feet," said Father Wolf, with a grunt. +"Tabaqui is with him." + +"Something is coming uphill," said Mother Wolf, twitching one ear. "Get +ready." + +The bushes rustled a little in the thicket, and Father Wolf dropped with +his haunches under him, ready for his leap. Then, if you had been +watching, you would have seen the most wonderful thing in the world--the +wolf checked in mid-spring. He made his bound before he saw what it was +he was jumping at, and then he tried to stop himself. The result was +that he shot up straight into the air for four or five feet, landing +almost where he left ground. + +"Man!" he snapped. "A man's cub. Look!" + +Directly in front of him, holding on by a low branch, stood a naked +brown baby who could just walk--as soft and as dimpled a little thing as +ever came to a wolf's cave at night. He looked up into Father Wolf's +face and laughed. + +"Is that a man's cub?" said Mother Wolf. "I have never seen one. Bring +it here." + +A wolf accustomed to moving his own cubs can, if necessary, mouth an +egg without breaking it, and though Father Wolf's jaws closed right on +the child's back not a tooth even scratched the skin, as he laid it down +among the cubs. + +"How little! How naked, and--how bold!" said Mother Wolf, softly. The +baby was pushing his way between the cubs to get close to the warm hide. +"Ahai! He is taking his meal with the others. And so this is a man's +cub. Now, was there ever a wolf that could boast of a man's cub among +her children?" + +"I have heard now and again of such a thing, but never in our pack or in +my time," said Father Wolf. "He is altogether without hair, and I could +kill him with a touch of my foot. But see, he looks up and is not +afraid." + +The moonlight was blocked out of the mouth of the cave, for Shere Khan's +great square head and shoulders were thrust into the entrance. Tabaqui, +behind him, was squeaking: "My Lord, my Lord, it went in here!" + +"Shere Khan does us great honor," said Father Wolf, but his eyes were +very angry. "What does Shere Khan need?" + +"My quarry. A man's cub went this way," said Shere Khan. "Its parents +have run off. Give it to me." + +Shere Khan had jumped at a wood-cutter's camp-fire, as Father Wolf had +said, and was furious from the pain of his burned feet. But Father Wolf +knew that the mouth of the cave was too narrow for a tiger to come in +by. Even where he was, Shere Khan's shoulders and fore paws were cramped +for want of room, as a man's would be if he tried to fight in a barrel. + +"The Wolves are a free people," said Father Wolf. "They take orders from +the Head of the Pack, and not from any striped cattle-killer. The man's +cub is ours--to kill if we choose." + +"Ye choose and ye do not choose! What talk is this of choosing? By the +Bull that I killed, am I to stand nosing into your dog's den for my fair +dues? It is I, Shere Khan, who speak!" + +The tiger's roar filled the cave with thunder. Mother Wolf shook herself +clear of the cubs and sprang forward, her eyes, like two green moons in +the darkness, facing the blazing eyes of Shere Khan. + + [Illustration: "THE TIGER'S ROAR FILLED THE CAVE WITH THUNDER."] + +"And it is I, Raksha [the Demon], who answer. The man's cub is mine, +Lungri--mine to me! He shall not be killed. He shall live to run with +the Pack and to hunt with the Pack; and in the end, look you, hunter of +little naked cubs--frog-eater--fish-killer, he shall hunt _thee_! Now +get hence, or by the Sambhur that I killed (_I_ eat no starved cattle), +back thou goest to thy mother, burned beast of the jungle, lamer than +ever thou camest into the world! Go!" + +Father Wolf looked on amazed. He had almost forgotten the days when he +won Mother Wolf in fair fight from five other wolves, when she ran in +the Pack and was not called the Demon for compliment's sake. Shere Khan +might have faced Father Wolf, but he could not stand up against Mother +Wolf, for he knew that where he was she had all the advantage of the +ground, and would fight to the death. So he backed out of the cave-mouth +growling, and when he was clear he shouted: + +"Each dog barks in his own yard! We will see what the Pack will say to +this fostering of man-cubs. The cub is mine, and to my teeth he will +come in the end, O bush-tailed thieves!" + +Mother Wolf threw herself down panting among the cubs, and Father Wolf +said to her gravely: + +"Shere Khan speaks this much truth. The cub must be shown to the Pack. +Wilt thou still keep him, Mother?" + +"Keep him!" she gasped. "He came naked, by night, alone and very hungry; +yet he was not afraid! Look, he has pushed one of my babes to one side +already. And that lame butcher would have killed him, and would have run +off to the Waingunga while the villagers here hunted through all our +lairs in revenge! Keep him? Assuredly I will keep him. Lie still, little +frog. O thou Mowgli,--for Mowgli, the Frog, I will call thee,--the time +will come when thou wilt hunt Shere Khan as he has hunted thee!" + +"But what will our Pack say?" said Father Wolf. + +The Law of the Jungle lays down very clearly that any wolf may, when he +marries, withdraw from the Pack he belongs to; but as soon as his cubs +are old enough to stand on their feet he must bring them to the Pack +Council, which is generally held once a month at full moon, in order +that the other wolves may identify them. After that inspection the cubs +are free to run where they please, and until they have killed their +first buck no excuse is accepted if a grown wolf of the Pack kills one +of them. The punishment is death where the murderer can be found; and if +you think for a minute you will see that this must be so. + +Father Wolf waited till his cubs could run a little, and then on the +night of the Pack Meeting took them and Mowgli and Mother Wolf to the +Council Rock--a hilltop covered with stones and boulders where a hundred +wolves could hide. Akela, the great gray Lone Wolf, who led all the Pack +by strength and cunning, lay out at full length on his rock, and below +him sat forty or more wolves of every size and color, from +badger-colored veterans who could handle a buck alone, to young black +three-year-olds who thought they could. The Lone Wolf had led them for a +year now. He had fallen twice into a wolf-trap in his youth, and once he +had been beaten and left for dead; so he knew the manners and customs of +men. + + [Illustration: THE MEETING AT THE COUNCIL ROCK.] + +There was very little talking at the Rock. The cubs tumbled over one +another in the center of the circle where their mothers and fathers sat, +and now and again a senior wolf would go quietly up to a cub, look at +him carefully, and return to his place on noiseless feet. Sometimes a +mother would push her cub far out into the moonlight, to be sure that he +had not been overlooked. Akela from his rock would cry: "Ye know the +Law--ye know the Law! Look well, O Wolves!" And the anxious mothers +would take up the call: "Look--look well, O Wolves!" + +At last--and Mother Wolf's neck-bristles lifted as the time came--Father +Wolf pushed "Mowgli, the Frog," as they called him, into the center, +where he sat laughing and playing with some pebbles that glistened in +the moonlight. + +Akela never raised his head from his paws, but went on with the +monotonous cry, "Look well!" A muffled roar came up from behind the +rocks--the voice of Shere Khan crying, "The cub is mine; give him to me. +What have the Free People to do with a man's cub?" + +Akela never even twitched his ears. All he said was, "Look well, O +Wolves! What have the Free People to do with the orders of any save the +Free People? Look well!" + +There was a chorus of deep growls, and a young wolf in his fourth year +flung back Shere Khan's question to Akela: "What have the Free People to +do with a man's cub?" + +Now the Law of the Jungle lays down that if there is any dispute as to +the right of a cub to be accepted by the Pack, he must be spoken for by +at least two members of the Pack who are not his father and mother. + +"Who speaks for this cub?" said Akela. "Among the Free People, who +speaks?" There was no answer, and Mother Wolf got ready for what she +knew would be her last fight, if things came to fighting. + +Then the only other creature who is allowed at the Pack Council--Baloo, +the sleepy brown bear who teaches the wolf cubs the Law of the Jungle; +old Baloo, who can come and go where he pleases because he eats only +nuts and roots and honey--rose up on his hind quarters and grunted. + +"The man's cub--the man's cub?" he said. "_I_ speak for the man's cub. +There is no harm in a man's cub. I have no gift of words, but I speak +the truth. Let him run with the Pack, and be entered with the others. I +myself will teach him." + +"We need yet another," said Akela. "Baloo has spoken, and he is our +teacher for the young cubs. Who speaks besides Baloo?" + +A black shadow dropped down into the circle. It was Bagheera, the Black +Panther, inky black all over, but with the panther markings showing up +in certain lights like the pattern of watered silk. Everybody knew +Bagheera, and nobody cared to cross his path; for he was as cunning as +Tabaqui, as bold as the wild buffalo, and as reckless as the wounded +elephant. But he had a voice as soft as wild honey dripping from a tree, +and a skin softer than down. + +"O Akela, and ye, the Free People," he purred, "I have no right in your +assembly; but the Law of the Jungle says that if there is a doubt which +is not a killing matter in regard to a new cub, the life of that cub may +be bought at a price. And the Law does not say who may or may not pay +that price. Am I right?" + +"Good! good!" said the young wolves, who are always hungry. "Listen to +Bagheera. The cub can be bought for a price. It is the Law." + +"Knowing that I have no right to speak here, I ask your leave." + +"Speak then," cried twenty voices. + +"To kill a naked cub is shame. Besides, he may make better sport for you +when he is grown. Baloo has spoken in his behalf. Now to Baloo's word I +will add one bull, and a fat one, newly killed, not half a mile from +here, if ye will accept the man's cub according to the Law. Is it +difficult?" + +There was a clamor of scores of voices, saying: "What matter? He will +die in the winter rains. He will scorch in the sun. What harm can a +naked frog do us? Let him run with the Pack. Where is the bull, +Bagheera? Let him be accepted." And then came Akela's deep bay, crying: +"Look well--look well, O Wolves!" + +Mowgli was still playing with the pebbles, and he did not notice when +the wolves came and looked at him one by one. At last they all went +down the hill for the dead bull, and only Akela, Bagheera, Baloo, and +Mowgli's own wolves were left. Shere Khan roared still in the night, for +he was very angry that Mowgli had not been handed over to him. + +"Ay, roar well," said Bagheera, under his whiskers; "for the time comes +when this naked thing will make thee roar to another tune, or I know +nothing of Man." + +"It was well done," said Akela. "Men and their cubs are very wise. He +may be a help in time." + +"Truly, a help in time of need; for none can hope to lead the Pack +forever," said Bagheera. + +Akela said nothing. He was thinking of the time that comes to every +leader of every pack when his strength goes from him and he gets feebler +and feebler, till at last he is killed by the wolves and a new leader +comes up--to be killed in his turn. + +"Take him away," he said to Father Wolf, "and train him as befits one of +the Free People." + +And that is how Mowgli was entered into the Seeonee wolf-pack for the +price of a bull and on Baloo's good word. + +Now you must be content to skip ten or eleven whole years, and only +guess at all the wonderful life that Mowgli led among the wolves, +because if it were written out it would fill ever so many books. He grew +up with the cubs, though they of course were grown wolves almost before +he was a child, and Father Wolf taught him his business, and the meaning +of things in the jungle, till every rustle in the grass, every breath of +the warm night air, every note of the owls above his head, every scratch +of a bat's claws as it roosted for a while in a tree, and every splash +of every little fish jumping in a pool, meant just as much to him as the +work of his office means to a business man. When he was not learning he +sat out in the sun and slept, and ate, and went to sleep again; when he +felt dirty or hot he swam in the forest pools; and when he wanted honey +(Baloo told him that honey and nuts were just as pleasant to eat as raw +meat) he climbed up for it, and that Bagheera showed him how to do. + +Bagheera would lie out on a branch and call, "Come along, Little +Brother," and at first Mowgli would cling like the sloth, but afterward +he would fling himself through the branches almost as boldly as the gray +ape. He took his place at the Council Rock, too, when the Pack met, +and there he discovered that if he stared hard at any wolf, the wolf +would be forced to drop his eyes, and so he used to stare for fun. + + [Illustration: "BAGHEERA WOULD LIE OUT ON A BRANCH AND CALL, 'COME + ALONG, LITTLE BROTHER.'"] + +At other times he would pick the long thorns out of the pads of his +friends, for wolves suffer terribly from thorns and burs in their coats. +He would go down the hillside into the cultivated lands by night, and +look very curiously at the villagers in their huts, but he had a +mistrust of men because Bagheera showed him a square box with a +drop-gate so cunningly hidden in the jungle that he nearly walked into +it, and told him it was a trap. + +He loved better than anything else to go with Bagheera into the dark +warm heart of the forest, to sleep all through the drowsy day, and at +night see how Bagheera did his killing. Bagheera killed right and left +as he felt hungry, and so did Mowgli--with one exception. As soon as he +was old enough to understand things, Bagheera told him that he must +never touch cattle because he had been bought into the Pack at the price +of a bull's life. "All the jungle is thine," said Bagheera, "and thou +canst kill everything that thou art strong enough to kill; but for the +sake of the bull that bought thee thou must never kill or eat any +cattle young or old. That is the Law of the Jungle." Mowgli obeyed +faithfully. + +And he grew and grew strong as a boy must grow who does not know that he +is learning any lessons, and who has nothing in the world to think of +except things to eat. + +Mother Wolf told him once or twice that Shere Khan was not a creature to +be trusted, and that some day he must kill Shere Khan; but though a +young wolf would have remembered that advice every hour, Mowgli forgot +it because he was only a boy--though he would have called himself a wolf +if he had been able to speak in any human tongue. + +Shere Khan was always crossing his path in the jungle, for as Akela grew +older and feebler the lame tiger had come to be great friends with the +younger wolves of the Pack, who followed him for scraps, a thing Akela +would never have allowed if he had dared to push his authority to the +proper bounds. Then Shere Khan would flatter them and wonder that such +fine young hunters were content to be led by a dying wolf and a man's +cub. "They tell me," Shere Khan would say, "that at Council ye dare not +look him between the eyes"; and the young wolves would growl and +bristle. + +Bagheera, who had eyes and ears everywhere, knew something of this, and +once or twice he told Mowgli in so many words that Shere Khan would kill +him some day; and Mowgli would laugh and answer: "I have the Pack and I +have thee; and Baloo, though he is so lazy, might strike a blow or two +for my sake. Why should I be afraid?" + +It was one very warm day that a new notion came to Bagheera--born of +something that he had heard. Perhaps Ikki, the Porcupine, had told him; +but he said to Mowgli when they were deep in the jungle, as the boy lay +with his head on Bagheera's beautiful black skin: "Little Brother, how +often have I told thee that Shere Khan is thy enemy?" + +"As many times as there are nuts on that palm," said Mowgli, who, +naturally, could not count. "What of it? I am sleepy, Bagheera, and +Shere Khan is all long tail and loud talk, like Mao, the Peacock." + +"But this is no time for sleeping. Baloo knows it, I know it, the Pack +know it, and even the foolish, foolish deer know. Tabaqui has told thee +too." + +"Ho! ho!" said Mowgli. "Tabaqui came to me not long ago with some rude +talk that I was a naked man's cub, and not fit to dig pig-nuts; but I +caught Tabaqui by the tail and swung him twice against a palm-tree to +teach him better manners." + +"That was foolishness; for though Tabaqui is a mischief-maker, he would +have told thee of something that concerned thee closely. Open those +eyes, Little Brother! Shere Khan dares not kill thee in the jungle for +fear of those that love thee; but remember, Akela is very old, and soon +the day comes when he cannot kill his buck, and then he will be leader +no more. Many of the wolves that looked thee over when thou wast brought +to the Council first are old too, and the young wolves believe, as Shere +Khan has taught them, that a man-cub has no place with the Pack. In a +little time thou wilt be a man." + +"And what is a man that he should not run with his brothers?" said +Mowgli. "I was born in the jungle; I have obeyed the Law of the Jungle; +and there is no wolf of ours from whose paws I have not pulled a thorn. +Surely they are my brothers!" + +Bagheera stretched himself at full length and half shut his eyes. +"Little Brother," said he, "feel under my jaw." + +Mowgli put up his strong brown hand, and just under Bagheera's silky +chin, where the giant rolling muscles were all hid by the glossy hair, +he came upon a little bald spot. + +"There is no one in the jungle that knows that I, Bagheera, carry that +mark--the mark of the collar; and yet, Little Brother, I was born among +men, and it was among men that my mother died--in the cages of the +King's Palace at Oodeypore. It was because of this that I paid the price +for thee at the Council when thou wast a little naked cub. Yes, I too +was born among men. I had never seen the jungle. They fed me behind bars +from an iron pan till one night I felt that I was Bagheera, the Panther, +and no man's plaything, and I broke the silly lock with one blow of my +paw, and came away; and because I had learned the ways of men, I became +more terrible in the jungle than Shere Khan. Is it not so?" + +"Yes," said Mowgli; "all the jungle fear Bagheera--all except Mowgli." + +"Oh, _thou_ art a man's cub," said the Black Panther, very tenderly; +"and even as I returned to my jungle, so thou must go back to men at +last,--to the men who are thy brothers,--if thou art not killed in the +Council." + +"But why--but why should any wish to kill me?" said Mowgli. + +"Look at me," said Bagheera; and Mowgli looked at him steadily between +the eyes. The big panther turned his head away in half a minute. + +"_That_ is why," he said, shifting his paw on the leaves. "Not even I +can look thee between the eyes, and I was born among men, and I love +thee, Little Brother. The others they hate thee because their eyes +cannot meet thine; because thou art wise; because thou hast pulled out +thorns from their feet--because thou art a man." + +"I did not know these things," said Mowgli, sullenly; and he frowned +under his heavy black eyebrows. + +"What is the Law of the Jungle? Strike first and then give tongue. By +thy very carelessness they know that thou art a man. But be wise. It is +in my heart that when Akela misses his next kill,--and at each hunt it +costs him more to pin the buck,--the Pack will turn against him and +against thee. They will hold a jungle Council at the Rock, and then--and +then ... I have it!" said Bagheera, leaping up. "Go thou down quickly to +the men's huts in the valley, and take some of the Red Flower which they +grow there, so that when the time comes thou mayest have even a +stronger friend than I or Baloo or those of the Pack that love thee. Get +the Red Flower." + +By Red Flower Bagheera meant fire, only no creature in the jungle will +call fire by its proper name. Every beast lives in deadly fear of it, +and invents a hundred ways of describing it. + +"The Red Flower?" said Mowgli. "That grows outside their huts in the +twilight. I will get some." + +"There speaks the man's cub," said Bagheera, proudly. "Remember that it +grows in little pots. Get one swiftly, and keep it by thee for time of +need." + +"Good!" said Mowgli. "I go. But art thou sure, O my Bagheera"--he +slipped his arm round the splendid neck, and looked deep into the big +eyes--"art thou sure that all this is Shere Khan's doing?" + +"By the Broken Lock that freed me, I am sure, Little Brother." + +"Then, by the Bull that bought me, I will pay Shere Khan full tale for +this, and it may be a little over," said Mowgli; and he bounded away. + +"That is a man. That is all a man," said Bagheera to himself, lying down +again. "Oh, Shere Khan, never was a blacker hunting than that frog-hunt +of thine ten years ago!" + +Mowgli was far and far through the forest, running hard, and his heart +was hot in him. He came to the cave as the evening mist rose, and drew +breath, and looked down the valley. The cubs were out, but Mother Wolf, +at the back of the cave, knew by his breathing that something was +troubling her frog. + +"What is it, Son?" she said. + +"Some bat's chatter of Shere Khan," he called back. "I hunt among the +plowed fields to-night"; and he plunged downward through the bushes, to +the stream at the bottom of the valley. There he checked, for he heard +the yell of the Pack hunting, heard the bellow of a hunted Sambhur, and +the snort as the buck turned at bay. Then there were wicked, bitter +howls from the young wolves: "Akela! Akela! Let the Lone Wolf show his +strength. Room for the leader of our Pack! Spring, Akela!" + +The Lone Wolf must have sprung and missed his hold, for Mowgli heard the +snap of his teeth and then a yelp as the Sambhur knocked him over with +his fore foot. + +He did not wait for anything more, but dashed on; and the yells grew +fainter behind him as he ran into the crop-lands where the villagers +lived. + +"Bagheera spoke truth," he panted, as he nestled down in some +cattle-fodder by the window of a hut. "To-morrow is one day for Akela +and for me." + +Then he pressed his face close to the window and watched the fire on the +hearth. He saw the husbandman's wife get up and feed it in the night +with black lumps; and when the morning came and the mists were all white +and cold, he saw the man's child pick up a wicker pot plastered inside +with earth, fill it with lumps of red-hot charcoal, put it under his +blanket, and go out to tend the cows in the byre. + +"Is that all?" said Mowgli. "If a cub can do it, there is nothing to +fear"; so he strode around the corner and met the boy, took the pot from +his hand, and disappeared into the mist while the boy howled with fear. + +"They are very like me," said Mowgli, blowing into the pot, as he had +seen the woman do. "This thing will die if I do not give it things to +eat"; and he dropped twigs and dried bark on the red stuff. Half-way up +the hill he met Bagheera with the morning dew shining like moonstones on +his coat. + +"Akela has missed," said the panther. "They would have killed him last +night, but they needed thee also. They were looking for thee on the +hill." + +"I was among the plowed lands. I am ready. Look!" Mowgli held up the +fire-pot. + +"Good! Now, I have seen men thrust a dry branch into that stuff, and +presently the Red Flower blossomed at the end of it. Art thou not +afraid?" + +"No. Why should I fear? I remember now--if it is not a dream--how, +before I was a wolf, I lay beside the Red Flower, and it was warm and +pleasant." + +All that day Mowgli sat in the cave tending his fire-pot and dipping dry +branches into it to see how they looked. He found a branch that +satisfied him, and in the evening when Tabaqui came to the cave and told +him, rudely enough, that he was wanted at the Council Rock, he laughed +till Tabaqui ran away. Then Mowgli went to the Council, still laughing. + +Akela the Lone Wolf lay by the side of his rock as a sign that the +leadership of the Pack was open, and Shere Khan with his following of +scrap-fed wolves walked to and fro openly, being flattered. Bagheera lay +close to Mowgli, and the fire-pot was between Mowgli's knees. When they +were all gathered together, Shere Khan began to speak--a thing he would +never have dared to do when Akela was in his prime. + +"He has no right," whispered Bagheera. "Say so. He is a dog's son. He +will be frightened." + +Mowgli sprang to his feet. "Free People," he cried, "does Shere Khan +lead the Pack? What has a tiger to do with our leadership?" + +"Seeing that the leadership is yet open, and being asked to speak--" +Shere Khan began. + +"By whom?" said Mowgli. "Are we _all_ jackals, to fawn on this +cattle-butcher? The leadership of the Pack is with the Pack alone." + +There were yells of "Silence, thou man's cub!" "Let him speak; he has +kept our law!" And at last the seniors of the Pack thundered: "Let the +Dead Wolf speak!" + +When a leader of the Pack has missed his kill, he is called the Dead +Wolf as long as he lives, which is not long, as a rule. + +Akela raised his old head wearily: + +"Free People, and ye too, jackals of Shere Khan, for twelve seasons I +have led ye to and from the kill, and in all that time not one has been +trapped or maimed. Now I have missed my kill. Ye know how that plot was +made. Ye know how ye brought me up to an untried buck to make my +weakness known. It was cleverly done. Your right is to kill me here on +the Council Rock now. Therefore I ask, 'Who comes to make an end of the +Lone Wolf?' For it is my right, by the Law of the Jungle, that ye come +one by one." + +There was a long hush, for no single wolf cared to fight Akela to the +death. Then Shere Khan roared: "Bah! What have we to do with this +toothless fool? He is doomed to die! It is the man-cub who has lived too +long. Free People, he was my meat from the first. Give him to me. I am +weary of this man-wolf folly. He has troubled the jungle for ten +seasons. Give me the man-cub, or I will hunt here always, and not give +you one bone! He is a man--a man's child, and from the marrow of my +bones I hate him!" + +Then more than half the Pack yelled: "A man--a man! What has a man to do +with us? Let him go to his own place." + +"And turn all the people of the villages against us?" snarled Shere +Khan. "No; give him to me. He is a man, and none of us can look him +between the eyes." + +Akela lifted his head again, and said: "He has eaten our food; he has +slept with us; he has driven game for us; he has broken no word of the +Law of the Jungle." + +"Also, I paid for him with a bull when he was accepted. The worth of a +bull is little, but Bagheera's honor is something that he will perhaps +fight for," said Bagheera in his gentlest voice. + +"A bull paid ten years ago!" the Pack snarled. "What do we care for +bones ten years old?" + +"Or for a pledge?" said Bagheera, his white teeth bared under his lip. +"Well are ye called the Free People!" + +"No man's cub can run with the people of the jungle!" roared Shere Khan. +"Give him to me." + +"He is our brother in all but blood," Akela went on; "and ye would kill +him here. In truth, I have lived too long. Some of ye are eaters of +cattle, and of others I have heard that, under Shere Khan's teaching, ye +go by dark night and snatch children from the villager's doorstep. +Therefore I know ye to be cowards, and it is to cowards I speak. It is +certain that I must die, and my life is of no worth, or I would offer +that in the man-cub's place. But for the sake of the Honor of the +Pack,--a little matter that, by being without a leader, ye have +forgotten,--I promise that if ye let the man-cub go to his own place, I +will not, when my time comes to die, bare one tooth against ye. I will +die without fighting. That will at least save the Pack three lives. More +I cannot do; but, if ye will, I can save ye the shame that comes of +killing a brother against whom there is no fault--a brother spoken for +and bought into the Pack according to the Law of the Jungle." + +"He is a man--a man--a man!" snarled the Pack; and most of the wolves +began to gather round Shere Khan, whose tail was beginning to switch. + +"Now the business is in thy hands," said Bagheera to Mowgli. "_We_ can +do no more except fight." + +Mowgli stood upright--the fire-pot in his hands. Then he stretched out +his arms, and yawned in the face of the Council; but he was furious with +rage and sorrow, for, wolf-like, the wolves had never told him how they +hated him. + +"Listen, you!" he cried. "There is no need for this dog's jabber. Ye +have told me so often to-night that I am a man (though indeed I would +have been a wolf with you to my life's end) that I feel your words are +true. So I do not call ye my brothers any more, but _sag_ [dogs], as a +man should. What ye will do, and what ye will not do, is not yours to +say. That matter is with _me_; and that we may see the matter more +plainly, I, the man, have brought here a little of the Red Flower which +ye, dogs, fear." + +He flung the fire-pot on the ground, and some of the red coals lit a +tuft of dried moss that flared up as all the Council drew back in terror +before the leaping flames. + +Mowgli thrust his dead branch into the fire till the twigs lit and +crackled, and whirled it above his head among the cowering wolves. + +"Thou art the master," said Bagheera, in an undertone. "Save Akela from +the death. He was ever thy friend." + +Akela, the grim old wolf who had never asked for mercy in his life, gave +one piteous look at Mowgli as the boy stood all naked, his long black +hair tossing over his shoulders in the light of the blazing branch that +made the shadows jump and quiver. + +"Good!" said Mowgli, staring around slowly, and thrusting out his lower +lip. "I see that ye are dogs. I go from you to my own people--if they be +my own people. The jungle is shut to me, and I must forget your talk and +your companionship; but I will be more merciful than ye are. Because I +was all but your brother in blood, I promise that when I am a man among +men I will not betray ye to men as ye have betrayed me." He kicked the +fire with his foot, and the sparks flew up. "There shall be no war +between any of us and the Pack. But here is a debt to pay before I go." +He strode forward to where Shere Khan sat blinking stupidly at the +flames, and caught him by the tuft on his chin. Bagheera followed close, +in case of accidents. "Up, dog!" Mowgli cried. "Up, when a man speaks, +or I will set that coat ablaze!" + +Shere Khan's ears lay flat back on his head, and he shut his eyes, for +the blazing branch was very near. + +"This cattle-killer said he would kill me in the Council because he had +not killed me when I was a cub. Thus and thus, then, do we beat dogs +when we are men! Stir a whisker, Lungri, and I ram the Red Flower down +thy gullet!" He beat Shere Khan over the head with the branch, and the +tiger whimpered and whined in an agony of fear. + +"Pah! Singed jungle-cat--go now! But remember when next I come to the +Council Rock, as a man should come, it will be with Shere Khan's hide on +my head. For the rest, Akela goes free to live as he pleases. Ye will +_not_ kill him, because that is not my will. Nor do I think that ye will +sit here any longer, lolling out your tongues as though ye were +somebodies, instead of dogs whom I drive out--thus! Go!" + +The fire was burning furiously at the end of the branch, and Mowgli +struck right and left round the circle, and the wolves ran howling with +the sparks burning their fur. At last there were only Akela, Bagheera, +and perhaps ten wolves that had taken Mowgli's part. Then something +began to hurt Mowgli inside him, as he had never been hurt in his life +before, and he caught his breath and sobbed, and the tears ran down his +face. + +"What is it? What is it?" he said. "I do not wish to leave the jungle, +and I do not know what this is. Am I dying, Bagheera?" + +"No, Little Brother. Those are only tears such as men use," said +Bagheera. "Now I know thou art a man, and a man's cub no longer. The +jungle is shut indeed to thee henceforward. Let them fall, Mowgli; they +are only tears." So Mowgli sat and cried as though his heart would +break; and he had never cried in all his life before. + +"Now," he said, "I will go to men. But first I must say farewell to my +mother"; and he went to the cave where she lived with Father Wolf, and +he cried on her coat, while the four cubs howled miserably. + +"Ye will not forget me?" said Mowgli. + +"Never while we can follow a trail," said the cubs. "Come to the foot of +the hill when thou art a man, and we will talk to thee; and we will come +into the crop-lands to play with thee by night." + +"Come soon!" said Father Wolf. "Oh, wise little Frog, come again soon; +for we be old, thy mother and I." + +"Come soon," said Mother Wolf, "little naked son of mine; for, listen, +child of man, I loved thee more than ever I loved my cubs." + +"I will surely come," said Mowgli; "and when I come it will be to lay +out Shere Khan's hide upon the Council Rock. Do not forget me! Tell them +in the jungle never to forget me!" + +The dawn was beginning to break when Mowgli went down the hillside alone +to the crops to meet those mysterious things that are called men. + + + HUNTING-SONG OF THE SEEONEE PACK + + As the dawn was breaking the Sambhur belled + Once, twice, and again! + And a doe leaped up--and a doe leaped up + From the pond in the wood where the wild deer sup. + This I, scouting alone, beheld, + Once, twice, and again! + + As the dawn was breaking the Sambhur belled + Once, twice, and again! + And a wolf stole back--and a wolf stole back + To carry the word to the waiting Pack; + And we sought and we found and we bayed on his track + Once, twice, and again! + + As the dawn was breaking the Wolf-pack yelled + Once, twice, and again! + Feet in the jungle that leave no mark! + Eyes that can see in the dark--the dark! + Tongue--give tongue to it! Hark! O Hark! + Once, twice, and again! + + + + + KAA'S HUNTING + + + His spots are the joy of the Leopard: his horns are the + Buffalo's pride-- + Be clean, for the strength of the hunter is known by the gloss + of his hide. + + If ye find that the Bullock can toss you, or the heavy-browed + Sambhur can gore; + Ye need not stop work to inform us: we knew it ten seasons + before. + + Oppress not the cubs of the stranger, but hail them as Sister + and Brother, + For though they are little and fubsy, it may be the Bear is + their mother. + + "There is none like to me!" says the Cub in the pride of his + earliest kill; + But the Jungle is large and the Cub he is small. Let him think + and be still. + + _Maxims of Baloo._ + + + [Illustration] + + KAA'S HUNTING + + +ALL that is told here happened some time before Mowgli was turned out of +the Seeonee wolf-pack. It was in the days when Baloo was teaching him +the Law of the Jungle. The big, serious, old brown bear was delighted to +have so quick a pupil, for the young wolves will only learn as much of +the Law of the Jungle as applies to their own pack and tribe, and run +away as soon as they can repeat the Hunting Verse: "Feet that make no +noise; eyes that can see in the dark; ears that can hear the winds in +their lairs, and sharp white teeth--all these things are the marks of +our brothers except Tabaqui and the Hyena, whom we hate." But Mowgli, as +a man-cub, had to learn a great deal more than this. Sometimes Bagheera, +the Black Panther, would come lounging through the jungle to see how his +pet was getting on, and would purr with his head against a tree while +Mowgli recited the day's lesson to Baloo. The boy could climb almost as +well as he could swim, and swim almost as well as he could run; so +Baloo, the Teacher of the Law, taught him the Wood and Water laws: how +to tell a rotten branch from a sound one; how to speak politely to the +wild bees when he came upon a hive of them fifty feet aboveground; what +to say to Mang, the Bat, when he disturbed him in the branches at +midday; and how to warn the water-snakes in the pools before he splashed +down among them. None of the Jungle People like being disturbed, and all +are very ready to fly at an intruder. Then, too, Mowgli was taught the +Strangers' Hunting Call, which must be repeated aloud till it is +answered, whenever one of the Jungle People hunts outside his own +grounds. It means, translated: "Give me leave to hunt here because I am +hungry"; and the answer is: "Hunt, then, for food, but not for +pleasure." + +All this will show you how much Mowgli had to learn by heart, and he +grew very tired of repeating the same thing a hundred times; but, as +Baloo said to Bagheera one day when Mowgli had been cuffed and had run +off in a temper: "A man's cub is a man's cub, and he must learn _all_ +the Law of the Jungle." + +"But think how small he is," said the Black Panther, who would have +spoiled Mowgli if he had had his own way. "How can his little head carry +all thy long talk?" + +"Is there anything in the jungle too little to be killed? No. That is +why I teach him these things, and that is why I hit him, very softly, +when he forgets." + +"Softly! What dost thou know of softness, old Iron-feet?" Bagheera +grunted. "His face is all bruised to-day by thy--softness. Ugh!" + +"Better he should be bruised from head to foot by me who love him than +that he should come to harm through ignorance," Baloo answered, very +earnestly. "I am now teaching him the Master Words of the Jungle that +shall protect him with the Birds and the Snake People, and all that hunt +on four feet, except his own pack. He can now claim protection, if he +will only remember the Words, from all in the jungle. Is not that worth +a little beating?" + +"Well, look to it then that thou dost not kill the man-cub. He is no +tree-trunk to sharpen thy blunt claws upon. But what are those Master +Words? I am more likely to give help than to ask it"--Bagheera stretched +out one paw and admired the steel-blue ripping-chisel talons at the end +of it--"Still I should like to know." + +"I will call Mowgli and he shall say them--if he will. Come, Little +Brother!" + +"My head is ringing like a bee-tree," said a sullen voice over their +heads, and Mowgli slid down a tree-trunk, very angry and indignant, +adding, as he reached the ground: "I come for Bagheera and not for +_thee_, fat old Baloo!" + +"That is all one to me," said Baloo, though he was hurt and grieved. +"Tell Bagheera, then, the Master Words of the Jungle that I have taught +thee this day." + +"Master Words for which people?" said Mowgli, delighted to show off. +"The jungle has many tongues. _I_ know them all." + +"A little thou knowest, but not much. See, O Bagheera, they never thank +their teacher! Not one small wolfling has come back to thank old Baloo +for his teachings. Say the Word for the Hunting People, then,--great +scholar!" + +"We be of one blood, ye and I," said Mowgli, giving the words the Bear +accent which all the Hunting People of the Jungle use. + +"Good! Now for the Birds." + +Mowgli repeated, with the Kite's whistle at the end of the sentence. + +"Now for the Snake People," said Bagheera. + +The answer was a perfectly indescribable hiss, and Mowgli kicked up his +feet behind, clapped his hands together to applaud himself, and jumped +on Bagheera's back, where he sat sideways, drumming with his heels on +the glossy skin and making the worst faces that he could think of at +Baloo. + +"There--there! That was worth a little bruise," said the Brown Bear, +tenderly. "Some day thou wilt remember me." Then he turned aside to tell +Bagheera how he had begged the Master Words from Hathi, the Wild +Elephant, who knows all about these things, and how Hathi had taken +Mowgli down to a pool to get the Snake Word from a water-snake, because +Baloo could not pronounce it, and how Mowgli was now reasonably safe +against all accidents in the jungle, because neither snake, bird, nor +beast would hurt him. + +"No one then is to be feared," Baloo wound up, patting his big furry +stomach with pride. + +"Except his own tribe," said Bagheera, under his breath; and then aloud +to Mowgli: "Have a care for my ribs, Little Brother! What is all this +dancing up and down?" + +Mowgli had been trying to make himself heard by pulling at Bagheera's +shoulder-fur and kicking hard. When the two listened to him he was +shouting at the top of his voice: "And _so_ I shall have a tribe of my +own, and lead them through the branches all day long." + +"What is this new folly, little dreamer of dreams?" said Bagheera. + +"Yes, and throw branches and dirt at old Baloo," Mowgli went on. "They +have promised me this, ah!" + +"Whoof!" Baloo's big paw scooped Mowgli off Bagheera's back, and as the +boy lay between the big fore paws he could see the bear was angry. + +"Mowgli," said Baloo, "thou hast been talking with the Bandar-log--the +Monkey People." + +Mowgli looked at Bagheera to see if the panther was angry too, and +Bagheera's eyes were as hard as jade-stones. + +"Thou hast been with the Monkey People--the gray apes--the people +without a Law--the eaters of everything. That is great shame." + +"When Baloo hurt my head," said Mowgli (he was still down on his back), +"I went away, and the gray apes came down from the trees and had pity on +me. No one else cared." He snuffled a little. + +"The pity of the Monkey People!" Baloo snorted. + +"The stillness of the mountain stream! The cool of the summer sun! And +then, man-cub?" + +"And then--and then they gave me nuts and pleasant things to eat, and +they--they carried me in their arms up to the top of the trees and said +I was their blood-brother, except that I had no tail, and should be +their leader some day." + +"They have _no_ leader," said Bagheera. "They lie. They have always +lied." + +"They were very kind, and bade me come again. Why have I never been +taken among the Monkey People? They stand on their feet as I do. They do +not hit me with hard paws. They play all day. Let me get up! Bad Baloo, +let me up! I will go play with them again." + +"Listen, man-cub," said the bear, and his voice rumbled like thunder on +a hot night. "I have taught thee all the Law of the Jungle for all the +Peoples of the Jungle--except the Monkey Folk who live in the trees. +They have no Law. They are outcastes. They have no speech of their own, +but use the stolen words which they overhear when they listen and peep +and wait up above in the branches. Their way is not our way. They are +without leaders. They have no remembrance. They boast and chatter and +pretend that they are a great people about to do great affairs in the +jungle, but the falling of a nut turns their minds to laughter, and all +is forgotten. We of the jungle have no dealings with them. We do not +drink where the monkeys drink; we do not go where the monkeys go; we do +not hunt where they hunt; we do not die where they die. Hast thou ever +heard me speak of the Bandar-log till to-day?" + +"No," said Mowgli in a whisper, for the forest was very still now that +Baloo had finished. + +"The Jungle People put them out of their mouths and out of their minds. +They are very many, evil, dirty, shameless, and they desire, if they +have any fixed desire, to be noticed by the Jungle People. But we do +_not_ notice them even when they throw nuts and filth on our heads." + +He had hardly spoken when a shower of nuts and twigs spattered down +through the branches; and they could hear coughings and howlings and +angry jumpings high up in the air among the thin branches. + +"The Monkey People are forbidden," said Baloo, "forbidden to the Jungle +People. Remember." + +"Forbidden," said Bagheera; "but I still think Baloo should have warned +thee against them." + +"I--I? How was I to guess he would play with such dirt. The Monkey +People! Faugh!" + +A fresh shower came down on their heads, and the two trotted away, +taking Mowgli with them. What Baloo had said about the monkeys was +perfectly true. They belonged to the tree-tops, and as beasts very +seldom look up, there was no occasion for the monkeys and the Jungle +People to cross one another's path. But whenever they found a sick wolf, +or a wounded tiger or bear, the monkeys would torment him, and would +throw sticks and nuts at any beast for fun and in the hope of being +noticed. Then they would howl and shriek senseless songs, and invite the +Jungle People to climb up their trees and fight them, or would start +furious battles over nothing among themselves, and leave the dead +monkeys where the Jungle People could see them. + +They were always just going to have a leader and laws and customs of +their own, but they never did, because their memories would not hold +over from day to day, and so they settled things by making up a saying: +"What the Bandar-log think now the Jungle will think later"; and that +comforted them a great deal. None of the beasts could reach them, but on +the other hand none of the beasts would notice them, and that was why +they were so pleased when Mowgli came to play with them, and when they +heard how angry Baloo was. + +They never meant to do any more,--the Bandar-log never mean anything at +all,--but one of them invented what seemed to him a brilliant idea, and +he told all the others that Mowgli would be a useful person to keep in +the tribe, because he could weave sticks together for protection from +the wind; so, if they caught him, they could make him teach them. Of +course Mowgli, as a wood-cutter's child, inherited all sorts of +instincts, and used to make little play-huts of fallen branches without +thinking how he came to do it. The Monkey People, watching in the trees, +considered these huts most wonderful. This time, they said, they were +really going to have a leader and become the wisest people in the +jungle--so wise that every one else would notice and envy them. +Therefore they followed Baloo and Bagheera and Mowgli through the jungle +very quietly till it was time for the midday nap, and Mowgli, who was +very much ashamed of himself, slept between the panther and the bear, +resolving to have no more to do with the Monkey People. + +The next thing he remembered was feeling hands on his legs and +arms,--hard, strong little hands,--and then a swash of branches in his +face; and then he was staring down through the swaying boughs as Baloo +woke the jungle with his deep cries and Bagheera bounded up the trunk +with every tooth bared. The Bandar-log howled with triumph, and scuffled +away to the upper branches where Bagheera dared not follow, shouting: +"He has noticed us! Bagheera has noticed us! All the Jungle People +admire us for our skill and our cunning!" Then they began their flight; +and the flight of the Monkey People through tree-land is one of the +things nobody can describe. They have their regular roads and +cross-roads, uphills and downhills, all laid out from fifty to seventy +or a hundred feet aboveground, and by these they can travel even at +night if necessary. + +Two of the strongest monkeys caught Mowgli under the arms and swung off +with him through the tree-tops, twenty feet at a bound. Had they been +alone they could have gone twice as fast, but the boy's weight held them +back. Sick and giddy as Mowgli was he could not help enjoying the wild +rush, though the glimpses of earth far down below frightened him, and +the terrible check and jerk at the end of the swing over nothing but +empty air brought his heart between his teeth. + +His escort would rush him up a tree till he felt the weak topmost +branches crackle and bend under them, and, then, with a cough and a +whoop, would fling themselves into the air outward and downward, and +bring up hanging by their hands or their feet to the lower limbs of the +next tree. Sometimes he could see for miles and miles over the still +green jungle, as a man on the top of a mast can see for miles across the +sea, and then the branches and leaves would lash him across the face, +and he and his two guards would be almost down to earth again. + +So bounding and crashing and whooping and yelling, the whole tribe of +Bandar-log swept along the tree-roads with Mowgli their prisoner. + +For a time he was afraid of being dropped; then he grew angry, but he +knew better than to struggle; and then he began to think. The first +thing was to send back word to Baloo and Bagheera, for, at the pace the +monkeys were going, he knew his friends would be left far behind. It +was useless to look down, for he could see only the top sides of the +branches, so he stared upward and saw, far away in the blue, Rann, the +Kite, balancing and wheeling as he kept watch over the jungle waiting +for things to die. Rann noticed that the monkeys were carrying +something, and dropped a few hundred yards to find out whether their +load was good to eat. He whistled with surprise when he saw Mowgli being +dragged up to a tree-top, and heard him give the Kite call for "We be of +one blood, thou and I." The waves of the branches closed over the boy, +but Rann balanced away to the next tree in time to see the little brown +face come up again. "Mark my trail!" Mowgli shouted. "Tell Baloo of the +Seeonee Pack, and Bagheera of the Council Rock." + +"In whose name, Brother?" Rann had never seen Mowgli before, though of +course he had heard of him. + +"Mowgli, the Frog. Man-cub they call me! Mark my tra--il!" + +The last words were shrieked as he was being swung through the air, but +Rann nodded, and rose up till he looked no bigger than a speck of dust, +and there he hung, watching with his telescope eyes the swaying of the +tree-tops as Mowgli's escort whirled along. + +"They never go far," he said, with a chuckle. "They never do what they +set out to do. Always pecking at new things are the Bandar-log. This +time, if I have any eyesight, they have pecked down trouble for +themselves, for Baloo is no fledgling and Bagheera can, as I know, kill +more than goats." + +Then he rocked on his wings, his feet gathered up under him, and waited. + +Meanwhile, Baloo and Bagheera were furious with rage and grief. Bagheera +climbed as he had never climbed before, but the branches broke beneath +his weight, and he slipped down, his claws full of bark. + +"Why didst thou not warn the man-cub!" he roared to poor Baloo, who had +set off at a clumsy trot in the hope of overtaking the monkeys. "What +was the use of half slaying him with blows if thou didst not warn him?" + +"Haste! O haste! We--we may catch them yet!" Baloo panted. + +"At that speed! It would not tire a wounded cow. Teacher of the Law, +cub-beater--a mile of that rolling to and fro would burst thee open. Sit +still and think! Make a plan. This is no time for chasing. They may drop +him if we follow too close." + +"_Arrula! Whoo!_ They may have dropped him already, being tired of +carrying him. Who can trust the Bandar-log? Put dead bats on my head! +Give me black bones to eat! Roll me into the hives of the wild bees that +I may be stung to death, and bury me with the hyena; for I am the most +miserable of bears! _Arulala! Wahooa!_ O Mowgli, Mowgli! Why did I not +warn thee against the Monkey Folk instead of breaking thy head? Now +perhaps I may have knocked the day's lesson out of his mind, and he will +be alone in the jungle without the Master Words!" + +Baloo clasped his paws over his ears and rolled to and fro, moaning. + +"At least he gave me all the Words correctly a little time ago," said +Bagheera, impatiently. "Baloo, thou hast neither memory nor respect. +What would the jungle think if I, the Black Panther, curled myself up +like Ikki, the Porcupine, and howled?" + +"What do I care what the jungle thinks? He may be dead by now." + +"Unless and until they drop him from the branches in sport, or kill him +out of idleness, I have no fear for the man-cub. He is wise and +well-taught, and, above all, he has the eyes that make the Jungle People +afraid. But (and it is a great evil) he is in the power of the +Bandar-log, and they, because they live in trees, have no fear of any of +our people." Bagheera licked his one fore paw thoughtfully. + +"Fool that I am! Oh fat, brown, root-digging fool that I am!" said +Baloo, uncoiling himself with a jerk. "It is true what Hathi, the Wild +Elephant, says: '_To each his own fear_'; and they, the Bandar-log, fear +Kaa, the Rock Snake. He can climb as well as they can. He steals the +young monkeys in the night. The mere whisper of his name makes their +wicked tails cold. Let us go to Kaa." + +"What will he do for us? He is not of our tribe, being footless and with +most evil eyes," said Bagheera. + +"He is very old and very cunning. Above all, he is always hungry," said +Baloo, hopefully. "Promise him many goats." + +"He sleeps for a full month after he has once eaten. He may be asleep +now, and even were he awake, what if he would rather kill his own +goats?" Bagheera, who did not know much about Kaa, was naturally +suspicious. + +"Then in that case, thou and I together, old hunter, may make him see +reason." Here Baloo rubbed his faded brown shoulder against the +panther, and they went off to look for Kaa, the Rock Python. + +They found him stretched out on a warm ledge in the afternoon sun, +admiring his beautiful new coat, for he had been in retirement for the +last ten days changing his skin, and now he was very splendid--darting +his big blunt-nosed head along the ground, and twisting the thirty feet +of his body into fantastic knots and curves, and licking his lips as he +thought of his dinner to come. + +"He has not eaten," said Baloo, with a grunt of relief, as soon as he +saw the beautifully mottled brown and yellow jacket. "Be careful, +Bagheera! He is always a little blind after he has changed his skin, and +very quick to strike." + +Kaa was not a poison snake--in fact he rather despised the Poison Snakes +for cowards; but his strength lay in his hug, and when he had once +lapped his huge coils round anybody there was no more to be said. "Good +hunting!" cried Baloo, sitting up on his haunches. Like all snakes of +his breed Kaa was rather deaf, and did not hear the call at first. Then +he curled up ready for any accident, his head lowered. + +"Good hunting for us all," he answered. "Oho, Baloo, what dost thou do +here? Good hunting, Bagheera. One of us at least needs food. Is there +any news of game afoot? A doe now, or even a young buck? I am as empty +as a dried well." + +"We are hunting," said Baloo, carelessly. He knew that you must not +hurry Kaa. He is too big. + +"Give me permission to come with you," said Kaa. "A blow more or less is +nothing to thee, Bagheera or Baloo, but I--I have to wait and wait for +days in a wood path and climb half a night on the mere chance of a young +ape. _Pss naw!_ The branches are not what they were when I was young. +Rotten twigs and dry boughs are they all." + +"Maybe thy great weight has something to do with the matter," said +Baloo. + +"I am a fair length--a fair length," said Kaa, with a little pride. "But +for all that, it is the fault of this new-grown timber. I came very near +to falling on my last hunt,--very near indeed,--and the noise of my +slipping, for my tail was not tight wrapped round the tree, waked the +Bandar-log, and they called me most evil names." + +"'Footless, yellow earthworm,'" said Bagheera under his whiskers, as +though he were trying to remember something. + +"_Sssss!_ Have they ever called me _that_?" said Kaa. + +"Something of that kind it was that they shouted to us last moon, but we +never noticed them. They will say anything--even that thou hast lost all +thy teeth, and dare not face anything bigger than a kid, because (they +are indeed shameless, these Bandar-log)--because thou art afraid of the +he-goats' horns," Bagheera went on sweetly. + +Now a snake, especially a wary old python like Kaa, very seldom shows +that he is angry; but Baloo and Bagheera could see the big swallowing +muscles on either side of Kaa's throat ripple and bulge. + +"The Bandar-log have shifted their grounds," he said, quietly. "When I +came up into the sun to-day I heard them whooping among the tree-tops." + +"It--it is the Bandar-log that we follow now," said Baloo; but the words +stuck in his throat, for this was the first time in his memory that one +of the Jungle People had owned to being interested in the doings of the +monkeys. + +"Beyond doubt, then, it is no small thing that takes two such +hunters--leaders in their own jungle, I am certain--on the trail of the +Bandar-log," Kaa replied, courteously, as he swelled with curiosity. + +"Indeed," Baloo began, "I am no more than the old, and sometimes very +foolish, Teacher of the Law to the Seeonee wolf-cubs, and Bagheera +here--" + +"Is Bagheera," said the Black Panther, and his jaws shut with a snap, +for he did not believe in being humble. "The trouble is this, Kaa. Those +nut-stealers and pickers of palm-leaves have stolen away our man-cub, of +whom thou hast perhaps heard." + +"I heard some news from Ikki (his quills make him presumptuous) of a +man-thing that was entered into a wolf-pack, but I did not believe. Ikki +is full of stories half heard and very badly told." + +"But it is true. He is such a man-cub as never was," said Baloo. "The +best and wisest and boldest of man-cubs. My own pupil, who shall make +the name of Baloo famous through all the jungles; and besides, +I--we--love him, Kaa." + +"_Ts! Ts!_" said Kaa, shaking his head to and fro. "I also have known +what love is. There are tales I could tell that--" + +"That need a clear night when we are all well fed to praise properly," +said Bagheera, quickly. "Our man-cub is in the hands of the Bandar-log +now, and we know that of all the Jungle People they fear Kaa alone." + +"They fear me alone. They have good reason," said Kaa. "Chattering, +foolish, vain--vain, foolish, and chattering--are the monkeys. But a +man-thing in their hands is in no good luck. They grow tired of the nuts +they pick, and throw them down. They carry a branch half a day, meaning +to do great things with it, and then they snap it in two. That manling +is not to be envied. They called me also--'yellow fish,' was it not?" + +"Worm--worm--earthworm," said Bagheera; "as well as other things which I +cannot now say for shame." + +"We must remind them to speak well of their master. _Aaa-sssh!_ We must +help their wandering memories. Now, whither went they with thy cub?" + +"The jungle alone knows. Toward the sunset, I believe," said Baloo. "We +had thought that thou wouldst know, Kaa." + +"I? How? I take them when they come in my way, but I do not hunt the +Bandar-log--or frogs--or green scum on a water-hole, for that matter." + +"Up, up! Up, up! _Hillo! Illo! Illo!_ Look up, Baloo of the Seeonee Wolf +Pack!" + +Baloo looked up to see where the voice came from, and there was Rann, +the Kite, sweeping down with the sun shining on the upturned flanges of +his wings. It was near Rann's bedtime, but he had ranged all over the +jungle looking for the bear, and missed him in the thick foliage. + +"What is it?" said Baloo. + +"I have seen Mowgli among the Bandar-log. He bade me tell you. I +watched. The Bandar-log have taken him beyond the river to the Monkey +City--to the Cold Lairs. They may stay there for a night, or ten nights, +or an hour. I have told the bats to watch through the dark time. That is +my message. Good hunting, all you below!" + +"Full gorge and a deep sleep to you, Rann!" cried Bagheera. "I will +remember thee in my next kill, and put aside the head for thee alone, O +best of kites!" + +"It is nothing. It is nothing. The boy held the Master Word. I could +have done no less," and Rann circled up again to his roost. + +"He has not forgotten to use his tongue," said Baloo, with a chuckle of +pride. "To think of one so young remembering the Master Word for the +birds while he was being pulled across trees!" + +"It was most firmly driven into him," said Bagheera. "But I am proud of +him, and now we must go to the Cold Lairs." + +They all knew where that place was, but few of the Jungle People ever +went there, because what they called the Cold Lairs was an old deserted +city, lost and buried in the jungle, and beasts seldom use a place that +men have once used. The wild boar will, but the hunting-tribes do not. +Besides, the monkeys lived there as much as they could be said to live +anywhere, and no self-respecting animal would come within eye-shot of it +except in times of drouth, when the half-ruined tanks and reservoirs +held a little water. + +"It is half a night's journey--at full speed," said Bagheera. Baloo +looked very serious. "I will go as fast as I can," he said, anxiously. + +"We dare not wait for thee. Follow, Baloo. We must go on the +quick-foot--Kaa and I." + +"Feet or no feet, I can keep abreast of all thy four," said Kaa, +shortly. + +Baloo made one effort to hurry, but had to sit down panting, and so they +left him to come on later, while Bagheera hurried forward, at the +rocking panther-canter. Kaa said nothing, but, strive as Bagheera might, +the huge Rock Python held level with him. When they came to a +hill-stream, Bagheera gained, because he bounded across while Kaa swam, +his head and two feet of his neck clearing the water, but on level +ground Kaa made up the distance. + +"By the Broken Lock that freed me," said Bagheera, when twilight had +fallen, "thou art no slow-goer." + +"I am hungry," said Kaa. "Besides, they called me speckled frog." + +"Worm--earthworm, and yellow to boot." + +"All one. Let us go on," and Kaa seemed to pour himself along the +ground, finding the shortest road with his steady eyes, and keeping to +it. + +In the Cold Lairs the Monkey People were not thinking of Mowgli's +friends at all. They had brought the boy to the Lost City, and were very +pleased with themselves for the time. Mowgli had never seen an Indian +city before, and though this was almost a heap of ruins it seemed very +wonderful and splendid. Some king had built it long ago on a little +hill. You could still trace the stone causeways that led up to the +ruined gates where the last splinters of wood hung to the worn, rusted +hinges. Trees had grown into and out of the walls; the battlements were +tumbled down and decayed, and wild creepers hung out of the windows of +the towers on the walls in bushy hanging clumps. + +A great roofless palace crowned the hill, and the marble of the +courtyards and the fountains was split and stained with red and green, +and the very cobblestones in the courtyard where the king's elephants +used to live had been thrust up and apart by grasses and young trees. +From the palace you could see the rows and rows of roofless houses that +made up the city, looking like empty honeycombs filled with blackness; +the shapeless block of stone that had been an idol in the square where +four roads met; the pits and dimples at street corners where the public +wells once stood, and the shattered domes of temples with wild figs +sprouting on their sides. + +The monkeys called the place their city, and pretended to despise the +Jungle People because they lived in the forest. And yet they never knew +what the buildings were made for nor how to use them. They would sit in +circles on the hall of the king's council-chamber, and scratch for fleas +and pretend to be men; or they would run in and out of the roofless +houses and collect pieces of plaster and old bricks in a corner, and +forget where they had hidden them, and fight and cry in scuffling +crowds, and then break off to play up and down the terraces of the +king's garden, where they would shake the rose-trees and the oranges in +sport to see the fruit and flowers fall. They explored all the passages +and dark tunnels in the palace and the hundreds of little dark rooms; +but they never remembered what they had seen and what they had not, and +so drifted about in ones and twos or crowds, telling one another that +they were doing as men did. They drank at the tanks and made the water +all muddy, and then they fought over it, and then they would all rush +together in mobs and shout: "There are none in the jungle so wise and +good and clever and strong and gentle as the Bandar-log." Then all would +begin again till they grew tired of the city and went back to the +tree-tops, hoping the Jungle People would notice them. + +Mowgli, who had been trained under the Law of the Jungle, did not like +or understand this kind of life. The monkeys dragged him into the Cold +Lairs late in the afternoon, and instead of going to sleep, as Mowgli +would have done after a long journey, they joined hands and danced about +and sang their foolish songs. + +One of the monkeys made a speech, and told his companions that Mowgli's +capture marked a new thing in the history of the Bandar-log, for Mowgli +was going to show them how to weave sticks and canes together as a +protection against rain and cold. Mowgli picked up some creepers and +began to work them in and out, and the monkeys tried to imitate; but in +a very few minutes they lost interest and began to pull their friends' +tails or jump up and down on all fours, coughing. + +"I want to eat," said Mowgli. "I am a stranger in this part of the +jungle. Bring me food, or give me leave to hunt here." + +Twenty or thirty monkeys bounded away to bring him nuts and wild +pawpaws; but they fell to fighting on the road, and it was too much +trouble to go back with what was left of the fruit. Mowgli was sore and +angry as well as hungry, and he roamed through the empty city giving the +Strangers' Hunting Call from time to time, but no one answered him, and +Mowgli felt that he had reached a very bad place indeed. + +"All that Baloo has said about the Bandar-log is true," he thought to +himself. "They have no Law, no Hunting Call, and no leaders--nothing but +foolish words and little picking, thievish hands. So if I am starved or +killed here, it will be all my own fault. But I must try to return to my +own jungle. Baloo will surely beat me, but that is better than chasing +silly rose-leaves with the Bandar-log." + +But no sooner had he walked to the city wall than the monkeys pulled him +back, telling him that he did not know how happy he was, and pinching +him to make him grateful. He set his teeth and said nothing, but went +with the shouting monkeys to a terrace above the red sandstone +reservoirs that were half full of rain-water. There was a ruined +summer-house of white marble in the center of the terrace, built for +queens dead a hundred years ago. The domed roof had half fallen in and +blocked up the underground passage from the palace by which the queens +used to enter; but the walls were made of screens of marble +tracery--beautiful, milk-white fretwork, set with agates and cornelians +and jasper and lapis lazuli, and as the moon came up behind the hill it +shone through the openwork, casting shadows on the ground like +black-velvet embroidery. + +Sore, sleepy, and hungry as he was, Mowgli could not help laughing when +the Bandar-log began, twenty at a time, to tell him how great and wise +and strong and gentle they were, and how foolish he was to wish to leave +them. "We are great. We are free. We are wonderful. We are the most +wonderful people in all the jungle! We all say so, and so it must be +true," they shouted. "Now as you are a new listener and can carry our +words back to the Jungle People so that they may notice us in future, we +will tell you all about our most excellent selves." + +Mowgli made no objection, and the monkeys gathered by hundreds and +hundreds on the terrace to listen to their own speakers singing the +praises of the Bandar-log, and whenever a speaker stopped for want of +breath they would all shout together: "This is true; we all say so." + +Mowgli nodded and blinked, and said "Yes" when they asked him a +question, and his head spun with the noise. "Tabaqui, the Jackal, must +have bitten all these people," he said to himself, "and now they have +the madness. Certainly this is _dewanee_--the madness. Do they never go +to sleep? Now there is a cloud coming to cover that moon. If it were +only a big enough cloud I might try to run away in the darkness. But I +am tired." + +That same cloud was being watched by two good friends in the ruined +ditch below the city wall, for Bagheera and Kaa, knowing well how +dangerous the Monkey People were in large numbers, did not wish to run +any risks. The monkeys never fight unless they are a hundred to one, and +few in the jungle care for those odds. + +"I will go to the west wall," Kaa whispered, "and come down swiftly with +the slope of the ground in my favor. They will not throw themselves upon +_my_ back in their hundreds, but--" + +"I know it," said Bagheera. "Would that Baloo were here; but we must do +what we can. When that cloud covers the moon I shall go to the terrace. +They hold some sort of council there over the boy." + +"Good hunting," said Kaa, grimly, and glided away to the west wall. That +happened to be the least ruined of any, and the big snake was delayed a +while before he could find a way up the stones. + +The cloud hid the moon, and as Mowgli wondered what would come next he +heard Bagheera's light feet on the terrace. The Black Panther had raced +up the slope almost without a sound, and was striking--he knew better +than to waste time in biting--right and left among the monkeys, who were +seated round Mowgli in circles fifty and sixty deep. There was a howl of +fright and rage, and then as Bagheera tripped on the rolling, kicking +bodies beneath him, a monkey shouted: "There is only one here! Kill him! +Kill!" A scuffling mass of monkeys, biting, scratching, tearing, and +pulling, closed over Bagheera, while five or six laid hold of Mowgli, +dragged him up the wall of the summer-house, and pushed him through the +hole of the broken dome. A man-trained boy would have been badly +bruised, for the fall was a good ten feet, but Mowgli fell as Baloo had +taught him to fall, and landed light. + +"Stay there," shouted the monkeys, "till we have killed thy friend. +Later we will play with thee, if the Poison People leave thee alive." + +"We be of one blood, ye and I," said Mowgli, quickly giving the Snake's +Call. He could hear rustling and hissing in the rubbish all round him, +and gave the Call a second time to make sure. + +"Down hoods all," said half a dozen low voices. Every old ruin in India +becomes sooner or later a dwelling-place of snakes, and the old +summer-house was alive with cobras. "Stand still, Little Brother, lest +thy feet do us harm." + +Mowgli stood as quietly as he could, peering through the openwork and +listening to the furious din of the fight round the Black Panther--the +yells and chatterings and scufflings, and Bagheera's deep, hoarse cough +as he backed and bucked and twisted and plunged under the heaps of his +enemies. For the first time since he was born, Bagheera was fighting for +his life. + +"Baloo must be at hand; Bagheera would not have come alone," Mowgli +thought; and then he called aloud: "To the tank, Bagheera! Roll to the +water-tanks! Roll and plunge! Get to the water!" + +Bagheera heard, and the cry that told him Mowgli was safe gave him new +courage. He worked his way desperately, inch by inch, straight for the +reservoirs, hitting in silence. + +Then from the ruined wall nearest the jungle rose up the rumbling +war-shout of Baloo. The old bear had done his best, but he could not +come before. "Bagheera," he shouted, "I am here! I climb! I haste! +_Ahuwora!_ The stones slip under my feet! Wait my coming, O most +infamous Bandar log!" + +He panted up the terrace only to disappear to the head in a wave of +monkeys, but he threw himself squarely on his haunches, and spreading +out his fore paws, hugged as many as he could hold, and then began to +hit with a regular _bat-bat-bat_, like the flipping strokes of a +paddle-wheel. + +A crash and a splash told Mowgli that Bagheera had fought his way to the +tank, where the monkeys could not follow. The panther lay gasping for +breath, his head just out of water, while the monkeys stood three deep +on the red stone steps, dancing up and down with rage, ready to spring +upon him from all sides if he came out to help Baloo. It was then that +Bagheera lifted up his dripping chin, and in despair gave the Snake's +Call for protection,--"We be of one blood, ye and I,"--for he believed +that Kaa had turned tail at the last minute. Even Baloo, half smothered +under the monkeys on the edge of the terrace, could not help chuckling +as he heard the big Black Panther asking for help. + +Kaa had only just worked his way over the west wall, landing with a +wrench that dislodged a coping-stone into the ditch. He had no intention +of losing any advantage of the ground, and coiled and uncoiled himself +once or twice, to be sure that every foot of his long body was in +working order. + +All that while the fight with Baloo went on, and the monkeys yelled in +the tank round Bagheera, and Mang, the Bat, flying to and fro, carried +the news of the great battle over the jungle, till even Hathi, the Wild +Elephant, trumpeted, and, far away, scattered bands of the Monkey Folk +woke and came leaping along the tree-roads to help their comrades in the +Cold Lairs, and the noise of the fight roused all the day-birds for +miles round. + +Then Kaa came straight, quickly, and anxious to kill. The fighting +strength of a python is in the driving blow of his head, backed by all +the strength and weight of his body. If you can imagine a lance, or a +battering-ram, or a hammer, weighing nearly half a ton driven by a cool, +quiet mind living in the handle of it, you can imagine roughly what Kaa +was like when he fought. A python four or five feet long can knock a man +down if he hits him fairly in the chest, and Kaa was thirty feet long, +as you know. His first stroke was delivered into the heart of the crowd +round Baloo--was sent home with shut mouth in silence, and there was no +need of a second. The monkeys scattered with cries of "Kaa! It is Kaa! +Run! Run!" + +Generations of monkeys had been scared into good behavior by the stories +their elders told them of Kaa, the night-thief, who could slip along the +branches as quietly as moss grows, and steal away the strongest monkey +that ever lived; of old Kaa, who could make himself look so like a dead +branch or a rotten stump that the wisest were deceived till the branch +caught them, and then-- + +Kaa was everything that the monkeys feared in the jungle, for none of +them knew the limits of his power, none of them could look him in the +face, and none had ever come alive out of his hug. And so they ran, +stammering with terror, to the walls and the roofs of the houses, and +Baloo drew a deep breath of relief. His fur was much thicker than +Bagheera's, but he had suffered sorely in the fight. Then Kaa opened his +mouth for the first time and spoke one long hissing word, and the +far-away monkeys, hurrying to the defense of the Cold Lairs, stayed +where they were, cowering, till the loaded branches bent and crackled +under them. The monkeys on the walls and the empty houses stopped their +cries, and in the stillness that fell upon the city Mowgli heard +Bagheera shaking his wet sides as he came up from the tank. + +Then the clamor broke out again. The monkeys leaped higher up the walls; +they clung round the necks of the big stone idols and shrieked as they +skipped along the battlements; while Mowgli, dancing in the +summer-house, put his eye to the screenwork and hooted owl-fashion +between his front teeth, to show his derision and contempt. + +"Get the man-cub out of that trap; I can do no more," Bagheera gasped. +"Let us take the man-cub and go. They may attack again." + +"They will not move till I order them. Stay you sssso!" Kaa hissed, and +the city was silent once more. "I could not come before, Brother, but I +_think_ I heard thee call"--this was to Bagheera. + +"I--I may have cried out in the battle," Bagheera answered. "Baloo, art +thou hurt?" + +"I am not sure that they have not pulled me into a hundred little +bearlings," said Baloo, gravely shaking one leg after the other. "Wow! I +am sore. Kaa, we owe thee, I think, our lives--Bagheera and I." + +"No matter. Where is the manling?" + +"Here, in a trap. I cannot climb out," cried Mowgli. The curve of the +broken dome was above his head. + +"Take him away. He dances like Mao, the Peacock. He will crush our +young," said the cobras inside. + +"Hah!" said Kaa, with a chuckle, "he has friends everywhere, this +manling. Stand back, Manling; and hide you, O Poison People. I break +down the wall." + +Kaa looked carefully till he found a discolored crack in the marble +tracery showing a weak spot, made two or three light taps with his head +to get the distance, and then lifting up six feet of his body clear of +the ground, sent home half a dozen full-power, smashing blows, +nose-first. The screenwork broke and fell away in a cloud of dust and +rubbish, and Mowgli leaped through the opening and flung himself between +Baloo and Bagheera--an arm round each big neck. + +"Art thou hurt?" said Baloo, hugging him softly. + +"I am sore, hungry, and not a little bruised; but, oh, they have handled +ye grievously, my Brothers! Ye bleed." + +"Others also," said Bagheera, licking his lips and looking at the +monkey-dead on the terrace and round the tank. + +"It is nothing, it is nothing if thou art safe, O my pride of all little +frogs!" whimpered Baloo. + +"Of that we shall judge later," said Bagheera, in a dry voice that +Mowgli did not at all like. "But here is Kaa, to whom we owe the battle +and thou owest thy life. Thank him according to our customs, Mowgli." + +Mowgli turned and saw the great python's head swaying a foot above his +own. + +"So this is the manling," said Kaa. "Very soft is his skin, and he is +not so unlike the Bandar-log. Have a care, Manling, that I do not +mistake thee for a monkey some twilight when I have newly changed my +coat." + +"We be of one blood, thou and I," Mowgli answered. "I take my life from +thee, to-night. My kill shall be thy kill if ever thou art hungry, O +Kaa." + +"All thanks, Little Brother," said Kaa, though his eyes twinkled. "And +what may so bold a hunter kill? I ask that I may follow when next he +goes abroad." + +"I kill nothing,--I am too little,--but I drive goats toward such as can +use them. When thou art empty come to me and see if I speak the truth. I +have some skill in these [he held out his hands], and if ever thou art +in a trap, I may pay the debt which I owe to thee, to Bagheera, and to +Baloo, here. Good hunting to ye all, my masters." + +"Well said," growled Baloo, for Mowgli had returned thanks very +prettily. The python dropped his head lightly for a minute on Mowgli's +shoulder. "A brave heart and a courteous tongue," said he. "They shall +carry thee far through the jungle, Manling. But now go hence quickly +with thy friends. Go and sleep, for the moon sets, and what follows it +is not well that thou shouldst see." + +The moon was sinking behind the hills and the lines of trembling monkeys +huddled together on the walls and battlements looked like ragged, shaky +fringes of things. Baloo went down to the tank for a drink, and Bagheera +began to put his fur in order, as Kaa glided out into the center of the +terrace and brought his jaws together with a ringing snap that drew all +the monkeys' eyes upon him. + +"The moon sets," he said. "Is there yet light to see?" + +From the walls came a moan like the wind in the tree-tops: "We see, O +Kaa!" + +"Good! Begins now the Dance--the Dance of the Hunger of Kaa. Sit still +and watch." + +He turned twice or thrice in a big circle, weaving his head from right +to left. Then he began making loops and figures of eight with his body, +and soft, oozy triangles that melted into squares and five-sided +figures, and coiled mounds, never resting, never hurrying, and never +stopping his low, humming song. It grew darker and darker, till at last +the dragging, shifting coils disappeared, but they could hear the rustle +of the scales. + +Baloo and Bagheera stood still as stone, growling in their throats, +their neck-hair bristling, and Mowgli watched and wondered. + +"Bandar-log," said the voice of Kaa at last, "can ye stir foot or hand +without my order? Speak!" + +"Without thy order we cannot stir foot or hand, O Kaa!" + +"Good! Come all one pace nearer to me." + +The lines of the monkeys swayed forward helplessly, and Baloo and +Bagheera took one stiff step forward with them. + +"Nearer!" hissed Kaa, and they all moved again. + +Mowgli laid his hands on Baloo and Bagheera to get them away, and the +two great beasts started as though they had been waked from a dream. + +"Keep thy hand on my shoulder," Bagheera whispered. "Keep it there, or I +must go back--must go back to Kaa. _Aah!_" + +"It is only old Kaa making circles on the dust," said Mowgli; "let us +go"; and the three slipped off through a gap in the walls to the jungle. + +"_Whoof!_" said Baloo, when he stood under the still trees again. "Never +more will I make an ally of Kaa," and he shook himself all over. + +"He knows more than we," said Bagheera, trembling. "In a little time, +had I stayed, I should have walked down his throat." + +"Many will walk that road before the moon rises again," said Baloo. "He +will have good hunting--after his own fashion." + +"But what was the meaning of it all?" said Mowgli, who did not know +anything of a python's powers of fascination. "I saw no more than a big +snake making foolish circles till the dark came. And his nose was all +sore. Ho! Ho!" + +"Mowgli," said Bagheera, angrily, "his nose was sore on _thy_ account; +as my ears and sides and paws, and Baloo's neck and shoulders are bitten +on _thy_ account. Neither Baloo nor Bagheera will be able to hunt with +pleasure for many days." + +"It is nothing," said Baloo; "we have the man-cub again." + +"True; but he has cost us most heavily in time which might have been +spent in good hunting, in wounds, in hair,--I am half plucked along my +back,--and last of all, in honor. For, remember, Mowgli, I, who am the +Black Panther, was forced to call upon Kaa for protection, and Baloo and +I were both made stupid as little birds by the Hunger-Dance. All this, +Man-cub, came of thy playing with the Bandar-log." + +"True; it is true," said Mowgli, sorrowfully. "I am an evil man-cub, and +my stomach is sad in me." + +"_Mf!_ What says the Law of the Jungle, Baloo?" + +Baloo did not wish to bring Mowgli into any more trouble, but he could +not tamper with the Law, so he mumbled, "Sorrow never stays punishment. +But remember, Bagheera, he is very little." + +"I will remember; but he has done mischief; and blows must be dealt now. +Mowgli, hast thou anything to say?" + +"Nothing. I did wrong. Baloo and thou art wounded. It is just." + +Bagheera gave him half a dozen love-taps; from a panther's point of view +they would hardly have waked one of his own cubs, but for a seven +year-old boy they amounted to as severe a beating as you could wish to +avoid. When it was all over Mowgli sneezed, and picked himself up +without a word. + +"Now," said Bagheera, "jump on my back, Little Brother, and we will go +home." + +One of the beauties of Jungle Law is that punishment settles all scores. +There is no nagging afterward. + +Mowgli laid his head down on Bagheera's back and slept so deeply that he +never waked when he was put down by Mother Wolf's side in the +home-cave. + + + ROAD-SONG OF THE BANDAR-LOG + + Here we go in a flung festoon, + Half-way up to the jealous moon! + Don't you envy our pranceful bands? + Don't you wish you had extra hands? + Wouldn't you like if your tails were--_so_-- + Curved in the shape of a Cupid's bow? + Now you're angry, but--never mind, + _Brother, thy tail hangs down behind_! + + Here we sit in a branchy row, + Thinking of beautiful things we know; + Dreaming of deeds that we mean to do, + All complete, in a minute or two-- + Something noble and grand and good, + Won by merely wishing we could. + Now we're going to--never mind, + _Brother, thy tail hangs down behind_! + + All the talk we ever have heard + Uttered by bat or beast or bird-- + Hide or fin or scale or feather-- + Jabber it quickly and all together! + Excellent! Wonderful! Once again! + Now we are talking just like men. + Let's pretend we are ... never mind, + _Brother, thy tail hangs down behind_! + This is the way of the Monkey-kind. + + _Then join our leaping lines that scumfish through + the pines, + That rocket by where, light and high, the wild-grape + swings. + By the rubbish in our wake, and the noble noise we + make, + Be sure, be sure, we're going to do some splendid + things!_ + + + + + "TIGER! TIGER!" + + + What of the hunting, hunter bold? + _Brother, the watch was long and cold._ + What of the quarry ye went to kill? + _Brother, he crops in the jungle still._ + Where is the power that made your pride? + _Brother, it ebbs from my flank and side._ + Where is the haste that ye hurry by? + _Brother, I go to my lair--to die._ + + + [Illustration] + + "TIGER! TIGER!" + + +NOW we must go back to the last tale but one. When Mowgli left the +wolf's cave after the fight with the Pack at the Council Rock, he went +down to the plowed lands where the villagers lived, but he would not +stop there because it was too near to the jungle, and he knew that he +had made at least one bad enemy at the Council. So he hurried on, +keeping to the rough road that ran down the valley, and followed it at a +steady jog-trot for nearly twenty miles, till he came to a country that +he did not know. The valley opened out into a great plain dotted over +with rocks and cut up by ravines. At one end stood a little village, and +at the other the thick jungle came down in a sweep to the +grazing-grounds, and stopped there as though it had been cut off with a +hoe. All over the plain, cattle and buffaloes were grazing, and when the +little boys in charge of the herds saw Mowgli they shouted and ran away, +and the yellow pariah dogs that hang about every Indian village barked. +Mowgli walked on, for he was feeling hungry, and when he came to the +village gate he saw the big thorn-bush that was drawn up before the gate +at twilight, pushed to one side. + +"Umph!" he said, for he had come across more than one such barricade in +his night rambles after things to eat. "So men are afraid of the People +of the Jungle here also." He sat down by the gate, and when a man came +out he stood up, opened his mouth, and pointed down it to show that he +wanted food. The man stared, and ran back up the one street of the +village shouting for the priest, who was a big, fat man dressed in +white, with a red and yellow mark on his forehead. The priest came to +the gate, and with him at least a hundred people, who stared and talked +and shouted and pointed at Mowgli. + +"They have no manners, these Men Folk," said Mowgli to himself. "Only +the gray ape would behave as they do." So he threw back his long hair +and frowned at the crowd. + +"What is there to be afraid of?" said the priest. "Look at the marks on +his arms and legs. They are the bites of wolves. He is but a wolf-child +run away from the jungle." + +Of course, in playing together, the cubs had often nipped Mowgli harder +than they intended, and there were white scars all over his arms and +legs. But he would have been the last person in the world to call these +bites; for he knew what real biting meant. + +"_Arré! Arré!_" said two or three women together. "To be bitten by +wolves, poor child! He is a handsome boy. He has eyes like red fire. By +my honor, Messua, he is not unlike thy boy that was taken by the tiger." + +"Let me look," said a woman with heavy copper rings on her wrists and +ankles, and she peered at Mowgli under the palm of her hand. "Indeed he +is not. He is thinner, but he has the very look of my boy." + +The priest was a clever man, and he knew that Messua was wife to the +richest villager in the place. So he looked up at the sky for a minute, +and said solemnly: "What the jungle has taken the jungle has restored. +Take the boy into thy house, my sister, and forget not to honor the +priest who sees so far into the lives of men." + +"By the Bull that bought me," said Mowgli to himself, "but all this +talking is like another looking-over by the Pack! Well, if I am a man, a +man I must become." + +The crowd parted as the woman beckoned Mowgli to her hut, where there +was a red lacquered bedstead, a great earthen grain-chest with curious +raised patterns on it, half a dozen copper cooking-pots, an image of a +Hindu god in a little alcove, and on the wall a real looking-glass, such +as they sell at the country fairs. + +She gave him a long drink of milk and some bread, and then she laid her +hand on his head and looked into his eyes; for she thought perhaps that +he might be her real son come back from the jungle where the tiger had +taken him. So she said: "Nathoo, O Nathoo!" Mowgli did not show that he +knew the name. "Dost thou not remember the day when I gave thee thy new +shoes?" She touched his foot, and it was almost as hard as horn. "No," +she said, sorrowfully; "those feet have never worn shoes, but thou art +very like my Nathoo, and thou shalt be my son." + +Mowgli was uneasy, because he had never been under a roof before; but +as he looked at the thatch, he saw that he could tear it out any time if +he wanted to get away, and that the window had no fastenings. "What is +the good of a man," he said to himself at last, "if he does not +understand man's talk? Now I am as silly and dumb as a man would be with +us in the jungle. I must learn their talk." + +It was not for fun that he had learned while he was with the wolves to +imitate the challenge of bucks in the jungle and the grunt of the little +wild pig. So as soon as Messua pronounced a word Mowgli would imitate it +almost perfectly, and before dark he had learned the names of many +things in the hut. + +There was a difficulty at bedtime, because Mowgli would not sleep under +anything that looked so like a panther-trap as that hut, and when they +shut the door he went through the window. "Give him his will," said +Messua's husband. "Remember he can never till now have slept on a bed. +If he is indeed sent in the place of our son he will not run away." + +So Mowgli stretched himself in some long, clean grass at the edge of the +field, but before he had closed his eyes a soft gray nose poked him +under the chin. + +"Phew!" said Gray Brother (he was the eldest of Mother Wolf's cubs). +"This is a poor reward for following thee twenty miles. Thou smellest of +wood-smoke and cattle--altogether like a man already. Wake, Little +Brother; I bring news." + + [Illustration: "'WAKE, LITTLE BROTHER; I BRING NEWS.'"] + +"Are all well in the jungle?" said Mowgli, hugging him. + +"All except the wolves that were burned with the Red Flower. Now, +listen. Shere Khan has gone away to hunt far off till his coat grows +again, for he is badly singed. When he returns he swears that he will +lay thy bones in the Waingunga." + +"There are two words to that. I also have made a little promise. But +news is always good. I am tired to-night,--very tired with new things, +Gray Brother,--but bring me the news always." + +"Thou wilt not forget that thou art a wolf? Men will not make thee +forget?" said Gray Brother, anxiously. + +"Never. I will always remember that I love thee and all in our cave; but +also I will always remember that I have been cast out of the Pack." + +"And that thou mayest be cast out of another pack. Men are only men, +Little Brother, and their talk is like the talk of frogs in a pond. +When I come down here again, I will wait for thee in the bamboos at the +edge of the grazing-ground." + +For three months after that night Mowgli hardly ever left the village +gate, he was so busy learning the ways and customs of men. First he had +to wear a cloth round him, which annoyed him horribly; and then he had +to learn about money, which he did not in the least understand, and +about plowing, of which he did not see the use. Then the little children +in the village made him very angry. Luckily, the Law of the Jungle had +taught him to keep his temper, for in the jungle, life and food depend +on keeping your temper; but when they made fun of him because he would +not play games or fly kites, or because he mispronounced some word, only +the knowledge that it was unsportsmanlike to kill little naked cubs kept +him from picking them up and breaking them in two. + +He did not know his own strength in the least. In the jungle he knew he +was weak compared with the beasts, but in the village, people said he +was as strong as a bull. + +And Mowgli had not the faintest idea of the difference that caste makes +between man and man. When the potter's donkey slipped in the clay-pit, +Mowgli hauled it out by the tail, and helped to stack the pots for their +journey to the market at Khanhiwara. That was very shocking, too, for +the potter is a low-caste man, and his donkey is worse. When the priest +scolded him, Mowgli threatened to put him on the donkey, too, and the +priest told Messua's husband that Mowgli had better be set to work as +soon as possible; and the village head-man told Mowgli that he would +have to go out with the buffaloes next day, and herd them while they +grazed. No one was more pleased than Mowgli; and that night, because he +had been appointed a servant of the village, as it were, he went off to +a circle that met every evening on a masonry platform under a great +fig-tree. It was the village club, and the head-man and the watchman and +the barber (who knew all the gossip of the village), and old Buldeo, the +village hunter, who had a Tower musket, met and smoked. The monkeys sat +and talked in the upper branches, and there was a hole under the +platform where a cobra lived, and he had his little platter of milk +every night because he was sacred; and the old men sat around the tree +and talked, and pulled at the big _huqas_ (the water-pipes) till far +into the night. They told wonderful tales of gods and men and ghosts; +and Buldeo told even more wonderful ones of the ways of beasts in the +jungle, till the eyes of the children sitting outside the circle bulged +out of their heads. Most of the tales were about animals, for the jungle +was always at their door. The deer and the wild pig grubbed up their +crops, and now and again the tiger carried off a man at twilight, within +sight of the village gates. + +Mowgli, who naturally knew something about what they were talking of, +had to cover his face not to show that he was laughing, while Buldeo, +the Tower musket across his knees, climbed on from one wonderful story +to another, and Mowgli's shoulders shook. + +Buldeo was explaining how the tiger that had carried away Messua's son +was a ghost-tiger, and his body was inhabited by the ghost of a wicked +old money-lender, who had died some years ago. "And I know that this is +true," he said, "because Purun Dass always limped from the blow that he +got in a riot when his account-books were burned, and the tiger that I +speak of _he_ limps, too, for the tracks of his pads are unequal." + +"True, true; that must be the truth," said the graybeards, nodding +together. + +"Are all these tales such cobwebs and moon-talk?" said Mowgli. "That +tiger limps because he was born lame, as every one knows. To talk of the +soul of a money-lender in a beast that never had the courage of a jackal +is child's talk." + + [Illustration: "'ARE ALL THESE TALES SUCH COBWEBS AND MOONTALK?' SAID + MOWGLI."] + +Buldeo was speechless with surprise for a moment, and the head-man +stared. + +"Oho! It is the jungle brat, is it?" said Buldeo. "If thou art so wise, +better bring his hide to Khanhiwara, for the Government has set a +hundred rupees [$30] on his life. Better still, do not talk when thy +elders speak." + +Mowgli rose to go. "All the evening I have lain here listening," he +called back over his shoulder, "and, except once or twice, Buldeo has +not said one word of truth concerning the jungle, which is at his very +doors. How, then, shall I believe the tales of ghosts and gods and +goblins which he says he has seen?" + +"It is full time that boy went to herding," said the head-man, while +Buldeo puffed and snorted at Mowgli's impertinence. + +The custom of most Indian villages is for a few boys to take the cattle +and buffaloes out to graze in the early morning, and bring them back at +night; and the very cattle that would trample a white man to death allow +themselves to be banged and bullied and shouted at by children that +hardly come up to their noses. So long as the boys keep with the herds +they are safe, for not even the tiger will charge a mob of cattle. But +if they straggle to pick flowers or hunt lizards, they are sometimes +carried off. Mowgli went through the village street in the dawn, sitting +on the back of Rama, the great herd bull; and the slaty-blue buffaloes, +with their long, backward-sweeping horns and savage eyes, rose out of +their byres, one by one, and followed him, and Mowgli made it very clear +to the children with him that he was the master. He beat the buffaloes +with a long, polished bamboo, and told Kamya, one of the boys, to graze +the cattle by themselves, while he went on with the buffaloes, and to be +very careful not to stray away from the herd. + +An Indian grazing-ground is all rocks and scrub and tussocks and little +ravines, among which the herds scatter and disappear. The buffaloes +generally keep to the pools and muddy places, where they lie wallowing +or basking in the warm mud for hours. Mowgli drove them on to the edge +of the plain where the Waingunga River came out of the jungle; then he +dropped from Rama's neck, trotted off to a bamboo clump, and found Gray +Brother. "Ah," said Gray Brother, "I have waited here very many days. +What is the meaning of this cattle-herding work?" + +"It is an order," said Mowgli. "I am a village herd for a while. What +news of Shere Khan?" + +"He has come back to this country, and has waited here a long time for +thee. Now he has gone off again, for the game is scarce. But he means to +kill thee." + +"Very good," said Mowgli. "So long as he is away do thou or one of the +brothers sit on that rock, so that I can see thee as I come out of the +village. When he comes back wait for me in the ravine by the _dhâk_-tree +in the center of the plain. We need not walk into Shere Khan's mouth." + +Then Mowgli picked out a shady place, and lay down and slept while the +buffaloes grazed round him. Herding in India is one of the laziest +things in the world. The cattle move and crunch, and lie down, and move +on again, and they do not even low. They only grunt, and the buffaloes +very seldom say anything, but get down into the muddy pools one after +another, and work their way into the mud till only their noses and +staring china-blue eyes show above the surface, and there they lie like +logs. The sun makes the rocks dance in the heat, and the herd-children +hear one kite (never any more) whistling almost out of sight overhead, +and they know that if they died, or a cow died, that kite would sweep +down, and the next kite miles away would see him drop and follow, and +the next, and the next, and almost before they were dead there would be +a score of hungry kites come out of nowhere. Then they sleep and wake +and sleep again, and weave little baskets of dried grass and put +grasshoppers in them; or catch two praying-mantises and make them fight; +or string a necklace of red and black jungle-nuts; or watch a lizard +basking on a rock, or a snake hunting a frog near the wallows. Then they +sing long, long songs with odd native quavers at the end of them, and +the day seems longer than most people's whole lives, and perhaps they +make a mud castle with mud figures of men and horses and buffaloes, and +put reeds into the men's hands, and pretend that they are kings and the +figures are their armies, or that they are gods to be worshiped. Then +evening comes, and the children call, and the buffaloes lumber up out of +the sticky mud with noises like gunshots going off one after the other, +and they all string across the gray plain back to the twinkling village +lights. + +Day after day Mowgli would lead the buffaloes out to their wallows, and +day after day he would see Gray Brother's back a mile and a half away +across the plain (so he knew that Shere Khan had not come back), and day +after day he would lie on the grass listening to the noise round him, +and dreaming of old days in the jungle. If Shere Khan had made a false +step with his lame paw up in the jungles by the Waingunga, Mowgli would +have heard him in those long still mornings. + +[Illustration] + +At last a day came when he did not see Gray Brother at the signal +place, and he laughed and headed the buffaloes for the ravine by the +_dhâk_-tree, which was all covered with golden-red flowers. There sat +Gray Brother, every bristle on his back lifted. + +"He has hidden for a month to throw thee off thy guard. He crossed the +ranges last night with Tabaqui, hot-foot on thy trail," said the wolf, +panting. + +Mowgli frowned. "I am not afraid of Shere Khan, but Tabaqui is very +cunning." + +"Have no fear," said Gray Brother, licking his lips a little. "I met +Tabaqui in the dawn. Now he is telling all his wisdom to the kites, but +he told _me_ everything before I broke his back. Shere Khan's plan is to +wait for thee at the village gate this evening--for thee and for no one +else. He is lying up now in the big dry ravine of the Waingunga." + +"Has he eaten to-day, or does he hunt empty?" said Mowgli, for the +answer meant life or death to him. + +"He killed at dawn,--a pig,--and he has drunk too. Remember, Shere Khan +could never fast even for the sake of revenge." + +"Oh! Fool, fool! What a cub's cub it is! Eaten and drunk too, and he +thinks that I shall wait till he has slept! Now, where does he lie up? +If there were but ten of us we might pull him down as he lies. These +buffaloes will not charge unless they wind him, and I cannot speak their +language. Can we get behind his track so that they may smell it?" + +"He swam far down the Waingunga to cut that off," said Gray Brother. + +"Tabaqui told him that, I know. He would never have thought of it +alone." Mowgli stood with his finger in his mouth, thinking. "The big +ravine of the Waingunga. That opens out on the plain not half a mile +from here. I can take the herd round through the jungle to the head of +the ravine and then sweep down--but he would slink out at the foot. We +must block that end. Gray Brother, canst thou cut the herd in two for +me?" + +"Not I, perhaps--but I have brought a wise helper." Gray Brother trotted +off and dropped into a hole. Then there lifted up a huge gray head that +Mowgli knew well, and the hot air was filled with the most desolate cry +of all the jungle--the hunting-howl of a wolf at midday. + +"Akela! Akela!" said Mowgli, clapping his hands. "I might have known +that thou wouldst not forget me. We have a big work in hand. Cut the +herd in two, Akela. Keep the cows and calves together, and the bulls +and the plow-buffaloes by themselves." + +The two wolves ran, ladies'-chain fashion, in and out of the herd, which +snorted and threw up its head, and separated into two clumps. In one the +cow-buffaloes stood, with their calves in the center, and glared and +pawed, ready, if a wolf would only stay still, to charge down and +trample the life out of him. In the other the bulls and the young bulls +snorted and stamped; but, though they looked more imposing, they were +much less dangerous, for they had no calves to protect. No six men could +have divided the herd so neatly. + +"What orders!" panted Akela. "They are trying to join again." + +Mowgli slipped on to Rama's back. "Drive the bulls away to the left, +Akela. Gray Brother, when we are gone hold the cows together, and drive +them into the foot of the ravine." + +"How far?" said Gray Brother, panting and snapping. + +"Till the sides are higher than Shere Khan can jump," shouted Mowgli. +"Keep them there till we come down." The bulls swept off as Akela bayed, +and Gray Brother stopped in front of the cows. They charged down on him, +and he ran just before them to the foot of the ravine, as Akela drove +the bulls far to the left. + +"Well done! Another charge and they are fairly started. Careful, +now--careful, Akela. A snap too much, and the bulls will charge. +_Hujah!_ This is wilder work than driving black-buck. Didst thou think +these creatures could move so swiftly?" Mowgli called. + +"I have--have hunted these too in my time," gasped Akela in the dust. +"Shall I turn them into the jungle?" + +"Ay, turn! Swiftly turn them. Rama is mad with rage. Oh, if I could only +tell him what I need of him to-day!" + +The bulls were turned to the right this time, and crashed into the +standing thicket. The other herd-children, watching with the cattle half +a mile away, hurried to the village as fast as their legs could carry +them, crying that the buffaloes had gone mad and run away. + +But Mowgli's plan was simple enough. All he wanted to do was to make a +big circle uphill and get at the head of the ravine, and then take the +bulls down it and catch Shere Khan between the bulls and the cows, for +he knew that after a meal and a full drink Shere Khan would not be in +any condition to fight or to clamber up the sides of the ravine. He was +soothing the buffaloes now by voice, and Akela had dropped far to the +rear, only whimpering once or twice to hurry the rear-guard. It was a +long, long circle, for they did not wish to get too near the ravine and +give Shere Khan warning. At last Mowgli rounded up the bewildered herd +at the head of the ravine on a grassy patch that sloped steeply down to +the ravine itself. From that height you could see across the tops of the +trees down to the plain below; but what Mowgli looked at was the sides +of the ravine, and he saw with a great deal of satisfaction that they +ran nearly straight up and down, and the vines and creepers that hung +over them would give no foothold to a tiger who wanted to get out. + +"Let them breathe, Akela," he said, holding up his hand. "They have not +winded him yet. Let them breathe. I must tell Shere Khan who comes. We +have him in the trap." + +He put his hands to his mouth and shouted down the ravine,--it was +almost like shouting down a tunnel,--and the echoes jumped from rock to +rock. + +After a long time there came back the drawling, sleepy snarl of a +full-fed tiger just awakened. + +"Who calls?" said Shere Khan, and a splendid peacock fluttered up out of +the ravine, screeching. + +"I, Mowgli. Cattle-thief, it is time to come to the Council Rock! +Down--hurry them down, Akela. Down, Rama, down!" + +The herd paused for an instant at the edge of the slope, but Akela gave +tongue in the full hunting-yell, and they pitched over one after the +other just as steamers shoot rapids, the sand and stones spurting up +round them. Once started, there was no chance of stopping, and before +they were fairly in the bed of the ravine Rama winded Shere Khan and +bellowed. + +"Ha! Ha!" said Mowgli, on his back. "Now thou knowest!" and the torrent +of black horns, foaming muzzles, and staring eyes whirled down the +ravine like boulders in flood-time; the weaker buffaloes being +shouldered out to the sides of the ravine where they tore through the +creepers. They knew what the business was before them--the terrible +charge of the buffalo-herd, against which no tiger can hope to stand. +Shere Khan heard the thunder of their hoofs, picked himself up, and +lumbered down the ravine, looking from side to side for some way of +escape, but the walls of the ravine were straight, and he had to keep +on, heavy with his dinner and his drink, willing to do anything rather +than fight. The herd splashed through the pool he had just left, +bellowing till the narrow cut rang. Mowgli heard an answering bellow +from the foot of the ravine, saw Shere Khan turn (the tiger knew if the +worst came to the worst it was better to meet the bulls than the cows +with their calves), and then Rama tripped, stumbled, and went on again +over something soft, and, with the bulls at his heels, crashed full into +the other herd, while the weaker buffaloes were lifted clean off their +feet by the shock of the meeting. That charge carried both herds out +into the plain, goring and stamping and snorting. Mowgli watched his +time, and slipped off Rama's neck, laying about him right and left with +his stick. + +"Quick, Akela! Break them up. Scatter them, or they will be fighting one +another. Drive them away, Akela. _Hai_, Rama! _Hai! hai! hai!_ my +children. Softly now, softly! It is all over." + +Akela and Gray Brother ran to and fro nipping the buffaloes' legs, and +though the herd wheeled once to charge up the ravine again, Mowgli +managed to turn Rama, and the others followed him to the wallows. + +Shere Khan needed no more trampling. He was dead, and the kites were +coming for him already. + +"Brothers, that was a dog's death," said Mowgli, feeling for the knife +he always carried in a sheath round his neck now that he lived with men. +"But he would never have shown fight. His hide will look well on the +Council Rock. We must get to work swiftly." + +A boy trained among men would never have dreamed of skinning a ten-foot +tiger alone, but Mowgli knew better than any one else how an animal's +skin is fitted on, and how it can be taken off. But it was hard work, +and Mowgli slashed and tore and grunted for an hour, while the wolves +lolled out their tongues, or came forward and tugged as he ordered them. + +Presently a hand fell on his shoulder, and looking up he saw Buldeo with +the Tower musket. The children had told the village about the buffalo +stampede, and Buldeo went out angrily, only too anxious to correct +Mowgli for not taking better care of the herd. The wolves dropped out of +sight as soon as they saw the man coming. + +"What is this folly?" said Buldeo, angrily. "To think that thou canst +skin a tiger! Where did the buffaloes kill him? It is the Lame Tiger, +too, and there is a hundred rupees on his head. Well, well, we will +overlook thy letting the herd run off, and perhaps I will give thee one +of the rupees of the reward when I have taken the skin to Khanhiwara." +He fumbled in his waist-cloth for flint and steel, and stooped down to +singe Shere Khan's whiskers. Most native hunters singe a tiger's +whiskers to prevent his ghost haunting them. + +"Hum!" said Mowgli, half to himself as he ripped back the skin of a fore +paw. "So thou wilt take the hide to Khanhiwara for the reward, and +perhaps give me one rupee? Now it is in my mind that I need the skin for +my own use. Heh! old man, take away that fire!" + +"What talk is this to the chief hunter of the village? Thy luck and the +stupidity of thy buffaloes have helped thee to this kill. The tiger has +just fed, or he would have gone twenty miles by this time. Thou canst +not even skin him properly, little beggar-brat, and forsooth I, Buldeo, +must be told not to singe his whiskers. Mowgli, I will not give thee one +anna of the reward, but only a very big beating. Leave the carcass!" + +"By the Bull that bought me," said Mowgli, who was trying to get at the +shoulder, "must I stay babbling to an old ape all noon? Here, Akela, +this man plagues me." + +Buldeo, who was still stooping over Shere Khan's head, found himself +sprawling on the grass, with a gray wolf standing over him, while Mowgli +went on skinning as though he were alone in all India. + +"Ye-es," he said, between his teeth. "Thou art altogether right, Buldeo. +Thou wilt never give me one anna of the reward. There is an old war +between this lame tiger and myself--a very old war, and--I have won." + +To do Buldeo justice, if he had been ten years younger he would have +taken his chance with Akela had he met the wolf in the woods, but a wolf +who obeyed the orders of this boy who had private wars with man-eating +tigers was not a common animal. It was sorcery, magic of the worst kind, +thought Buldeo, and he wondered whether the amulet round his neck would +protect him. He lay as still as still, expecting every minute to see +Mowgli turn into a tiger, too. + +[Illustration: "BULDEO LAY AS STILL AS STILL, EXPECTING EVERY MINUTE TO + SEE MOWGLI TURN INTO A TIGER, TOO."] + +"Maharaj! Great King," he said at last, in a husky whisper. + +"Yes," said Mowgli, without turning his head, chuckling a little. + +"I am an old man. I did not know that thou wast anything more than a +herd-boy. May I rise up and go away, or will thy servant tear me to +pieces?" + +"Go, and peace go with thee. Only, another time do not meddle with my +game. Let him go, Akela." + +Buldeo hobbled away to the village as fast as he could, looking back +over his shoulder in case Mowgli should change into something terrible. +When he got to the village he told a tale of magic and enchantment and +sorcery that made the priest look very grave. + +Mowgli went on with his work, but it was nearly twilight before he and +the wolves had drawn the great gay skin clear of the body. + +"Now we must hide this and take the buffaloes home! Help me to herd +them, Akela." + +The herd rounded up in the misty twilight, and when they got near the +village Mowgli saw lights, and heard the conches and bells in the temple +blowing and banging. Half the village seemed to be waiting for him by +the gate. "That is because I have killed Shere Khan," he said to +himself; but a shower of stones whistled about his ears, and the +villagers shouted: "Sorcerer! Wolf's brat! Jungle-demon! Go away! Get +hence quickly, or the priest will turn thee into a wolf again. Shoot, +Buldeo, shoot!" + +The old Tower musket went off with a bang, and a young buffalo bellowed +in pain. + +"More sorcery!" shouted the villagers. "He can turn bullets. Buldeo, +that was _thy_ buffalo." + +"Now what is this?" said Mowgli, bewildered, as the stones flew thicker. + +"They are not unlike the Pack, these brothers of thine," said Akela, +sitting down composedly. "It is in my head that, if bullets mean +anything, they would cast thee out." + +"Wolf! Wolf's cub! Go away!" shouted the priest, waving a sprig of the +sacred _tulsi_ plant. + +"Again? Last time it was because I was a man. This time it is because I +am a wolf. Let us go, Akela." + +A woman--it was Messua--ran across to the herd, and cried: "Oh, my son, +my son! They say thou art a sorcerer who can turn himself into a beast +at will. I do not believe, but go away or they will kill thee. Buldeo +says thou art a wizard, but I know thou hast avenged Nathoo's death." + +"Come back, Messua!" shouted the crowd. "Come back, or we will stone +thee." + +Mowgli laughed a little short ugly laugh, for a stone had hit him in the +mouth. "Run back, Messua. This is one of the foolish tales they tell +under the big tree at dusk. I have at least paid for thy son's life. +Farewell; and run quickly, for I shall send the herd in more swiftly +than their brickbats. I am no wizard, Messua. Farewell! + +"Now, once more, Akela," he cried. "Bring the herd in." + +The buffaloes were anxious enough to get to the village. They hardly +needed Akela's yell, but charged through the gate like a whirlwind, +scattering the crowd right and left. + +"Keep count!" shouted Mowgli, scornfully. "It may be that I have stolen +one of them. Keep count, for I will do your herding no more. Fare you +well, children of men, and thank Messua that I do not come in with my +wolves and hunt you up and down your street." + +He turned on his heel and walked away with the Lone Wolf; and as he +looked up at the stars he felt happy. "No more sleeping in traps for me, +Akela. Let us get Shere Khan's skin and go away. No; we will not hurt +the village, for Messua was kind to me." + +When the moon rose over the plain, making it look all milky, the +horrified villagers saw Mowgli, with two wolves at his heels and a +bundle on his head, trotting across at the steady wolf's trot that eats +up the long miles like fire. Then they banged the temple bells and blew +the conches louder than ever; and Messua cried, and Buldeo embroidered +the story of his adventures in the jungle, till he ended by saying that +Akela stood up on his hind legs and talked like a man. + + [Illustration: "WHEN THE MOON ROSE OVER THE PLAIN THE VILLAGERS SAW + MOWGLI TROTTING ACROSS, WITH TWO WOLVES AT HIS HEELS."] + +The moon was just going down when Mowgli and the two wolves came to the +hill of the Council Rock, and they stopped at Mother Wolf's cave. + +"They have cast me out from the Man Pack, Mother," shouted Mowgli, "but +I come with the hide of Shere Khan to keep my word." Mother Wolf walked +stiffly from the cave with the cubs behind her, and her eyes glowed as +she saw the skin. + +"I told him on that day, when he crammed his head and shoulders into +this cave, hunting for thy life, Little Frog--I told him that the hunter +would be the hunted. It is well done." + +"Little Brother, it is well done," said a deep voice in the thicket. "We +were lonely in the jungle without thee," and Bagheera came running to +Mowgli's bare feet. They clambered up the Council Rock together, and +Mowgli spread the skin out on the flat stone where Akela used to sit, +and pegged it down with four slivers of bamboo, and Akela lay down upon +it, and called the old call to the Council, "Look--look well, O Wolves!" +exactly as he had called when Mowgli was first brought there. + + [Illustration: "THEY CLAMBERED UP ON THE COUNCIL ROCK TOGETHER, AND + MOWGLI SPREAD THE SKIN OUT ON THE FLAT STONE."] + +Ever since Akela had been deposed, the Pack had been without a leader, +hunting and fighting at their own pleasure. But they answered the call +from habit, and some of them were lame from the traps they had fallen +into, and some limped from shot-wounds, and some were mangy from eating +bad food, and many were missing; but they came to the Council Rock, all +that were left of them, and saw Shere Khan's striped hide on the rock, +and the huge claws dangling at the end of the empty, dangling feet. It +was then that Mowgli made up a song without any rhymes, a song that came +up into his throat all by itself, and he shouted it aloud, leaping up +and down on the rattling skin, and beating time with his heels till he +had no more breath left, while Gray Brother and Akela howled between the +verses. + +"Look well, O Wolves. Have I kept my word?" said Mowgli when he had +finished; and the wolves bayed "Yes," and one tattered wolf howled: + +"Lead us again, O Akela. Lead us again, O Man-cub, for we be sick of +this lawlessness, and we would be the Free People once more." + +"Nay," purred Bagheera, "that may not be. When ye are full-fed, the +madness may come upon ye again. Not for nothing are ye called the Free +People. Ye fought for freedom, and it is yours. Eat it, O Wolves." + +"Man Pack and Wolf Pack have cast me out," said Mowgli. "Now I will hunt +alone in the jungle." + +"And we will hunt with thee," said the four cubs. + +So Mowgli went away and hunted with the four cubs in the jungle from +that day on. But he was not always alone, because years afterward he +became a man and married. + +But that is a story for grown-ups. + + + MOWGLI'S SONG + + THAT HE SANG AT THE COUNCIL ROCK WHEN HE + DANCED ON SHERE KHAN'S HIDE + + The Song of Mowgli--I, Mowgli, am singing. Let + the jungle listen to the things I have done. + Shere Khan said he would kill--would kill! At the + gates in the twilight he would kill Mowgli, + the Frog! + He ate and he drank. Drink deep, Shere Khan, for + when wilt thou drink again? Sleep and dream + of the kill. + I am alone on the grazing-grounds. Gray Brother, + come to me! Come to me, Lone Wolf, for there + is big game afoot. + Bring up the great bull-buffaloes, the blue-skinned + herd-bulls with the angry eyes. Drive them + to and fro as I order. + Sleepest thou still, Shere Khan? Wake, O wake! + Here come I, and the bulls are behind. + + Rama, the King of the Buffaloes, stamped with + his foot. Waters of the Waingunga, whither went + Shere Khan? + He is not Ikki to dig holes, nor Mao, the Peacock, + that he should fly. He is not Mang, the Bat, to + hang in the branches. Little bamboos that creak + together, tell me where he ran? + _Ow!_ He is there. _Ahoo!_ He is there. + Under the feet of Rama lies the Lame One! Up, + Shere Khan! Up and kill! Here is meat; break the + necks of the bulls! + _Hsh!_ He is asleep. We will not wake him, for + his strength is very great. The kites have come + down to see it. The black ants have come up to + know it. There is a great assembly in his honor. + _Alala!_ I have no cloth to wrap me. The kites + will see that I am naked. I am ashamed to meet + all these people. + Lend me thy coat, Shere Khan. Lend me thy gay + striped coat that I may go to the Council Rock. + By the Bull that bought me I have made a promise--a + little promise. Only thy coat is lacking before + I keep my word. + With the knife--with the knife that men use--with + the knife of the hunter, the man, I will stoop + down for my gift. + Waters of the Waingunga, bear witness that Shere + Khan gives me his coat for the love that he + bears me. Pull, Gray Brother! Pull, Akela! + Heavy is the hide of Shere Khan. + The Man Pack are angry. They throw stones and talk + child's talk. My mouth is bleeding. Let us run + away. + Through the night, through the hot night, run + swiftly with me, my brothers. We will leave the + lights of the village and go to the low moon. + Waters of the Waingunga, the Man Pack have cast me + out. I did them no harm, but they were afraid of + me. Why? + Wolf Pack, ye have cast me out too. The jungle is + shut to me and the village gates are shut. Why? + As Mang flies between the beasts and the birds so + fly I between the village and the jungle. Why? + I dance on the hide of Shere Khan, but my heart is + very heavy. My mouth is cut and wounded with the + stones from the village, but my heart is very + light because I have come back to the jungle. + Why? + These two things fight together in me as the snakes + fight in the spring. The water comes out of my + eyes; yet I laugh while it falls. Why? + I am two Mowglis, but the hide of Shere Khan is + under my feet. + All the jungle knows that I have killed Shere Khan. + Look--look well, O Wolves! + _Ahae!_ My heart is heavy with the things that + I do not understand. + + + + + THE WHITE SEAL + + + Oh! hush thee, my baby, the night is behind us, + And black are the waters that sparkled so green. + The moon, o'er the combers, looks downward to find us + At rest in the hollows that rustle between. + Where billow meets billow, there soft be thy pillow; + Ah, weary wee flipperling, curl at thy ease! + The storm shall not wake thee, nor shark overtake thee, + Asleep in the arms of the slow-swinging seas. + + _Seal Lullaby._ + + + [Illustration] + + THE WHITE SEAL + + +ALL these things happened several years ago at a place called +Novastoshnah, or North East Point, on the Island of St. Paul, away and +away in the Bering Sea. Limmershin, the Winter Wren, told me the tale +when he was blown on to the rigging of a steamer going to Japan, and I +took him down into my cabin and warmed and fed him for a couple of days +till he was fit to fly back to St. Paul's again. Limmershin is a very +odd little bird, but he knows how to tell the truth. + +Nobody comes to Novastoshnah except on business, and the only people who +have regular business there are the seals. They come in the summer +months by hundreds and hundreds of thousands out of the cold gray sea; +for Novastoshnah Beach has the finest accommodation for seals of any +place in all the world. + +Sea Catch knew that, and every spring would swim from whatever place he +happened to be in--would swim like a torpedo-boat straight for +Novastoshnah, and spend a month fighting with his companions for a good +place on the rocks as close to the sea as possible. Sea Catch was +fifteen years old, a huge gray fur-seal with almost a mane on his +shoulders, and long, wicked dogteeth. When he heaved himself up on his +front flippers he stood more than four feet clear of the ground, and his +weight, if any one had been bold enough to weigh him, was nearly seven +hundred pounds. He was scarred all over with the marks of savage fights, +but he was always ready for just one fight more. He would put his head +on one side, as though he were afraid to look his enemy in the face; +then he would shoot it out like lightning, and when the big teeth were +firmly fixed on the other seal's neck, the other seal might get away if +he could, but Sea Catch would not help him. + +Yet Sea Catch never chased a beaten seal, for that was against the Rules +of the Beach. He only wanted room by the sea for his nursery; but as +there were forty or fifty thousand other seals hunting for the same +thing each spring, the whistling, bellowing, roaring, and blowing on the +beach was something frightful. + +From a little hill called Hutchinson's Hill you could look over three +and a half miles of ground covered with fighting seals; and the surf was +dotted all over with the heads of seals hurrying to land and begin their +share of the fighting. They fought in the breakers, they fought in the +sand, and they fought on the smooth-worn basalt rocks of the nurseries; +for they were just as stupid and unaccommodating as men. Their wives +never came to the island until late in May or early in June, for they +did not care to be torn to pieces; and the young two-, three-, and +four-year-old seals who had not begun housekeeping went inland about +half a mile through the ranks of the fighters and played about on the +sand-dunes in droves and legions, and rubbed off every single green +thing that grew. They were called the holluschickie,--the +bachelors,--and there were perhaps two or three hundred thousand of them +at Novastoshnah alone. + +Sea Catch had just finished his forty-fifth fight one spring when +Matkah, his soft, sleek, gentle-eyed wife came up out of the sea, and +he caught her by the scruff of the neck and dumped her down on his +reservation, saying gruffly: "Late, as usual. Where _have_ you been?" + +It was not the fashion for Sea Catch to eat anything during the four +months he stayed on the beaches, and so his temper was generally bad. +Matkah knew better than to answer back. She looked around and cooed: +"How thoughtful of you. You've taken the old place again." + +"I should think I had," said Sea Catch. "Look at me!" + +He was scratched and bleeding in twenty places; one eye was almost +blind, and his sides were torn to ribbons. + +"Oh, you men, you men!" Matkah said, fanning herself with her hind +flipper. "Why can't you be sensible and settle your places quietly? You +look as though you had been fighting with the Killer Whale." + +"I haven't been doing anything _but_ fight since the middle of May. The +beach is disgracefully crowded this season. I've met at least a hundred +seals from Lukannon Beach, house-hunting. Why can't people stay where +they belong?" + +"I've often thought we should be much happier if we hauled out at Otter +Island instead of this crowded place," said Matkah. + +"Bah! Only the holluschickie go to Otter Island. If we went there they +would say we were afraid. We must preserve appearances, my dear." + +Sea Catch sunk his head proudly between his fat shoulders and pretended +to go to sleep for a few minutes, but all the time he was keeping a +sharp lookout for a fight. Now that all the seals and their wives were +on the land you could hear their clamor miles out to sea above the +loudest gales. At the lowest counting there were over a million seals on +the beach,--old seals, mother seals, tiny babies, and holluschickie, +fighting, scuffling, bleating, crawling, and playing together,--going +down to the sea and coming up from it in gangs and regiments, lying over +every foot of ground as far as the eye could reach, and skirmishing +about in brigades through the fog. It is nearly always foggy at +Novastoshnah, except when the sun comes out and makes everything look +all pearly and rainbow-colored for a little while. + +Kotick, Matkah's baby, was born in the middle of that confusion, and he +was all head and shoulders, with pale, watery blue eyes, as tiny seals +must be; but there was something about his coat that made his mother +look at him very closely. + +"Sea Catch," she said, at last, "our baby's going to be white!" + +"Empty clam-shells and dry seaweed!" snorted Sea Catch. "There never has +been such a thing in the world as a white seal." + +"I can't help that," said Matkah; "there's going to be now"; and she +sang the low, crooning seal-song that all the mother seals sing to their +babies: + + You mustn't swim till you're six weeks old, + Or your head will be sunk by your heels; + And summer gales and Killer Whales + Are bad for baby seals. + + Are bad for baby seals, dear rat, + As bad as bad can be; + But splash and grow strong, + And you can't be wrong, + Child of the Open Sea! + +Of course the little fellow did not understand the words at first. He +paddled and scrambled about by his mother's side, and learned to scuffle +out of the way when his father was fighting with another seal, and the +two rolled and roared up and down the slippery rocks. Matkah used to go +to sea to get things to eat, and the baby was fed only once in two days; +but then he ate all he could, and throve upon it. + +The first thing he did was to crawl inland, and there he met tens of +thousands of babies of his own age, and they played together like +puppies, went to sleep on the clean sand, and played again. The old +people in the nurseries took no notice of them, and the holluschickie +kept to their own grounds, so the babies had a beautiful playtime. + +When Matkah came back from her deep-sea fishing she would go straight to +their playground and call as a sheep calls for a lamb, and wait until +she heard Kotick bleat. Then she would take the straightest of straight +lines in his direction, striking out with her fore flippers and knocking +the youngsters head over heels right and left. There were always a few +hundred mothers hunting for their children through the playgrounds, and +the babies were kept lively; but, as Matkah told Kotick, "So long as you +don't lie in muddy water and get mange; or rub the hard sand into a cut +or scratch; and so long as you never go swimming when there is a heavy +sea, nothing will hurt you here." + +Little seals can no more swim than little children, but they are unhappy +till they learn. The first time that Kotick went down to the sea a wave +carried him out beyond his depth, and his big head sank and his little +hind flippers flew up exactly as his mother had told him in the song, +and if the next wave had not thrown him back again he would have +drowned. + +After that he learned to lie in a beach-pool and let the wash of the +waves just cover him and lift him up while he paddled, but he always +kept his eye open for big waves that might hurt. He was two weeks +learning to use his flippers; and all that while he floundered in and +out of the water, and coughed and grunted and crawled up the beach and +took cat-naps on the sand, and went back again, until at last he found +that he truly belonged to the water. + +Then you can imagine the times that he had with his companions, ducking +under the rollers; or coming in on top of a comber and landing with a +swash and a splutter as the big wave went whirling far up the beach; or +standing up on his tail and scratching his head as the old people did; +or playing "I'm the King of the Castle" on slippery, weedy rocks that +just stuck out of the wash. Now and then he would see a thin fin, like a +big shark's fin, drifting along close to shore, and he knew that that +was the Killer Whale, the Grampus, who eats young seals when he can get +them; and Kotick would head for the beach like an arrow, and the fin +would jig off slowly, as if it were looking for nothing at all. + +Late in October the seals began to leave St. Paul's for the deep sea, by +families and tribes, and there was no more fighting over the nurseries, +and the holluschickie played anywhere they liked. "Next year," said +Matkah to Kotick, "you will be a holluschickie; but this year you must +learn how to catch fish." + +They set out together across the Pacific, and Matkah showed Kotick how +to sleep on his back with his flippers tucked down by his side and his +little nose just out of the water. No cradle is so comfortable as the +long, rocking swell of the Pacific. When Kotick felt his skin tingle all +over, Matkah told him he was learning the "feel of the water," and that +tingly, prickly feelings meant bad weather coming, and he must swim hard +and get away. + +"In a little time," she said, "you'll know where to swim to, but just +now we'll follow Sea Pig, the Porpoise, for he is very wise." A school +of porpoises were ducking and tearing through the water, and little +Kotick followed them as fast as he could. "How do you know where to go +to?" he panted. The leader of the school rolled his white eyes, and +ducked under. "My tail tingles, youngster," he said. "That means +there's a gale behind me. Come along! When you're south of the Sticky +Water [he meant the Equator], and your tail tingles, that means there's +a gale in front of you and you must head north. Come along! The water +feels bad here." + +This was one of very many things that Kotick learned, and he was always +learning. Matkah taught him how to follow the cod and the halibut along +the under-sea banks, and wrench the rockling out of his hole among the +weeds; how to skirt the wrecks lying a hundred fathoms below water, and +dart like a rifle-bullet in at one porthole and out at another as the +fishes ran; how to dance on the top of the waves when the lightning was +racing all over the sky, and wave his flipper politely to the +Stumpy-tailed Albatross and the Man-of-war Hawk as they went down the +wind; how to jump three or four feet clear of the water, like a dolphin, +flippers close to the side and tail curved; to leave the flying-fish +alone because they are all bony; to take the shoulder-piece out of a cod +at full speed ten fathoms deep; and never to stop and look at a boat or +a ship, but particularly a row boat. At the end of six months, what +Kotick did not know about deep-sea fishing was not worth the knowing, +and all that time he never set flipper on dry ground. + + [Illustration: "TEN FATHOMS DEEP."] + +One day, however, as he was lying half asleep in the warm water +somewhere off the Island of Juan Fernandez, he felt faint and lazy all +over, just as human people do when the spring is in their legs, and he +remembered the good firm beaches of Novastoshnah seven thousand miles +away; the games his companions played, the smell of the seaweed, the +seal-roar, and the fighting. That very minute he turned north, swimming +steadily, and as he went on he met scores of his mates, all bound for +the same place, and they said: "Greeting, Kotick! This year we are all +holluschickie, and we can dance the Fire-dance in the breakers off +Lukannon and play on the new grass. But where did you get that coat?" + +Kotick's fur was almost pure white now, and though he felt very proud of +it, he only said: "Swim quickly! My bones are aching for the land." And +so they all came to the beaches where they had been born and heard the +old seals, their fathers, fighting in the rolling mist. + +That night Kotick danced the Fire-dance with the yearling seals. The sea +is full of fire on summer nights all the way down from Novastoshnah to +Lukannon, and each seal leaves a wake like burning oil behind him, and a +flaming flash when he jumps, and the waves break in great phosphorescent +streaks and swirls. Then they went inland to the holluschickie grounds, +and rolled up and down in the new wild wheat, and told stories of what +they had done while they had been at sea. They talked about the Pacific +as boys would talk about a wood that they had been nutting in, and if +any one had understood them, he could have gone away and made such a +chart of that ocean as never was. The three- and four-year-old +holluschickie romped down from Hutchinson's Hill, crying: "Out of the +way, youngsters! The sea is deep, and you don't know all that's in it +yet. Wait till you've rounded the Horn. Hi, you yearling, where did you +get that white coat?" + +"I didn't get it," said Kotick; "it grew." And just as he was going to +roll the speaker over, a couple of black-haired men with flat red faces +came from behind a sand-dune, and Kotick, who had never seen a man +before, coughed and lowered his head. The holluschickie just bundled off +a few yards and sat staring stupidly. The men were no less than Kerick +Booterin, the chief of the seal-hunters on the island, and Patalamon, +his son. They came from the little village not half a mile from the seal +nurseries, and they were deciding what seals they would drive up to the +killing-pens (for the seals were driven just like sheep), to be turned +into sealskin jackets later on. + +"Ho!" said Patalamon. "Look! There's a white seal!" + +Kerick Booterin turned nearly white under his oil and smoke, for he was +an Aleut, and Aleuts are not clean people. Then he began to mutter a +prayer. "Don't touch him, Patalamon. There has never been a white seal +since--since I was born. Perhaps it is old Zaharrof's ghost. He was lost +last year in the big gale." + +"I'm not going near him," said Patalamon. "He's unlucky. Do you really +think he is old Zaharrof come back? I owe him for some gulls' eggs." + +"Don't look at him," said Kerick. "Head off that drove of +four-year-olds. The men ought to skin two hundred to-day, but it's the +beginning of the season, and they are new to the work. A hundred will +do. Quick!" + +Patalamon rattled a pair of seal's shoulder-bones in front of a herd of +holluschickie and they stopped dead, puffing and blowing. Then he +stepped near, and the seals began to move, and Kerick headed them +inland, and they never tried to get back to their companions. Hundreds +and hundreds of thousands of seals watched them being driven, but they +went on playing just the same. Kotick was the only one who asked +questions, and none of his companions could tell him anything, except +that the men always drove seals in that way for six weeks or two months +of every year. + +"I am going to follow," he said, and his eyes nearly popped out of his +head as he shuffled along in the wake of the herd. + +"The white seal is coming after us," cried Patalamon. "That's the first +time a seal has ever come to the killing-grounds alone." + +"Hsh! Don't look behind you," said Kerick. "It _is_ Zaharrof's ghost! I +must speak to the priest about this." + +The distance to the killing-grounds was only half a mile, but it took an +hour to cover, because if the seals went too fast Kerick knew that they +would get heated and then their fur would come off in patches when they +were skinned. So they went on very slowly, past Sea-Lion's Neck, past +Webster House, till they came to the Salt House just beyond the sight of +the seals on the beach. Kotick followed, panting and wondering. He +thought that he was at the world's end, but the roar of the seal +nurseries behind him sounded as loud as the roar of a train in a tunnel. +Then Kerick sat down on the moss and pulled out a heavy pewter watch and +let the drove cool off for thirty minutes, and Kotick could hear the +fog-dew dripping from the brim of his cap. Then ten or twelve men, each +with an iron-bound club three or four feet long, came up, and Kerick +pointed out one or two of the drove that were bitten by their companions +or were too hot, and the men kicked those aside with their heavy boots +made of the skin of a walrus's throat, and then Kerick said: "Let go!" +and then the men clubbed the seals on the head as fast as they could. + +Ten minutes later little Kotick did not recognize his friends any more, +for their skins were ripped off from the nose to the hind +flippers--whipped off and thrown down on the ground in a pile. + +That was enough for Kotick. He turned and galloped (a seal can gallop +very swiftly for a short time) back to the sea, his little new mustache +bristling with horror. At Sea-Lion's Neck, where the great sea-lions sit +on the edge of the surf, he flung himself flipper over-head into the +cool water, and rocked there, gasping miserably. "What's here?" said a +sea-lion, gruffly; for as a rule the sea-lions keep themselves to +themselves. + +"_Scoochnie! Ochen scoochnie!_" ("I'm lonesome, very lonesome!"), said +Kotick. "They're killing _all_ the holluschickie on _all_ the beaches!" + +The sea-lion turned his head inshore. "Nonsense," he said; "your friends +are making as much noise as ever. You must have seen old Kerick +polishing off a drove. He's done that for thirty years." + +"It's horrible," said Kotick, backing water as a wave went over him, and +steadying himself with a screw-stroke of his flippers that brought him +up all standing within three inches of a jagged edge of rock. + +"Well done for a yearling!" said the sea-lion, who could appreciate good +swimming. "I suppose it _is_ rather awful from your way of looking at +it; but if you seals will come here year after year, of course the men +get to know of it, and unless you can find an island where no men ever +come, you will always be driven." + +"Isn't there any such island?" began Kotick. + +"I've followed the _poltoos_ [the halibut] for twenty years, and I can't +say I've found it yet. But look here--you seem to have a fondness for +talking to your betters; suppose you go to Walrus Islet and talk to Sea +Vitch. He may know something. Don't flounce off like that. It's a +six-mile swim, and if I were you I should haul out and take a nap first, +little one." + +Kotick thought that that was good advice, so he swam round to his own +beach, hauled out, and slept for half an hour, twitching all over, as +seals will. Then he headed straight for Walrus Islet, a little low sheet +of rocky island almost due northeast from Novastoshnah, all ledges of +rock and gulls' nests, where the walrus herded by themselves. + +He landed close to old Sea Vitch--the big, ugly, bloated, pimpled, +fat-necked, long-tusked walrus of the North Pacific, who has no manners +except when he is asleep--as he was then, with his hind flippers half in +and half out of the surf. + +"Wake up!" barked Kotick, for the gulls were making a great noise. + +"Hah! Ho! Hmph! What's that?" said Sea Vitch, and he struck the next +walrus a blow with his tusks and waked him up, and the next struck the +next, and so on till they were all awake and staring in every direction +but the right one. + + [Illustration: "THEY WERE ALL AWAKE AND STARING IN EVERY DIRECTION BUT + THE RIGHT ONE."] + +"Hi! It's me," said Kotick, bobbing in the surf and looking like a +little white slug. + +"Well! May I be----skinned!" said Sea Vitch, and they all looked at +Kotick as you can fancy a club full of drowsy old gentlemen would look +at a little boy. Kotick did not care to hear any more about skinning +just then; he had seen enough of it; so he called out: "Isn't there any +place for seals to go where men don't ever come?" + +"Go and find out," said Sea Vitch, shutting his eyes. "Run away. We're +busy here." + +Kotick made his dolphin-jump in the air and shouted as loud as he could: +"Clam-eater! Clam-eater!" He knew that Sea Vitch never caught a fish in +his life, but always rooted for clams and seaweeds; though he pretended +to be a very terrible person. Naturally the Chickies and the +Gooverooskies and the Epatkas, the Burgomaster Gulls and the Kittiwakes +and the Puffins, who are always looking for a chance to be rude, took up +the cry, and--so Limmershin told me--for nearly five minutes you could +not have heard a gun fired on Walrus Islet. All the population was +yelling and screaming: "Clam-eater! _Stareek_ [old man]!" while Sea +Vitch rolled from side to side grunting and coughing. + +"_Now_ will you tell?" said Kotick, all out of breath. + +"Go and ask Sea Cow," said Sea Vitch. "If he is living still, he'll be +able to tell you." + +"How shall I know Sea Cow when I meet him?" said Kotick, sheering off. + +"He's the only thing in the sea uglier than Sea Vitch," screamed a +burgomaster gull, wheeling under Sea Vitch's nose. "Uglier, and with +worse manners! _Stareek!_" + +Kotick swam back to Novastoshnah, leaving the gulls to scream. There he +found that no one sympathized with him in his little attempts to +discover a quiet place for the seals. They told him that men had always +driven the holluschickie--it was part of the day's work--and that if he +did not like to see ugly things he should not have gone to the +killing-grounds. But none of the other seals had seen the killing, and +that made the difference between him and his friends. Besides, Kotick +was a white seal. + +"What you must do," said old Sea Catch, after he had heard his son's +adventures, "is to grow up and be a big seal like your father, and have +a nursery on the beach, and then they will leave you alone. In another +five years you ought to be able to fight for yourself." Even gentle +Matkah, his mother, said: "You will never be able to stop the killing. +Go and play in the sea, Kotick." And Kotick went off and danced the +Fire-dance with a very heavy little heart. + +That autumn he left the beach as soon as he could, and set off alone +because of a notion in his bullet-head. He was going to find Sea Cow, if +there was such a person in the sea, and he was going to find a quiet +island with good firm beaches for seals to live on, where men could not +get at them. So he explored and explored by himself from the North to +the South Pacific, swimming as much as three hundred miles in a day and +a night. He met with more adventures than can be told, and narrowly +escaped being caught by the Basking Shark, and the Spotted Shark, and +the Hammerhead, and he met all the untrustworthy ruffians that loaf up +and down the high seas, and the heavy polite fish, and the +scarlet-spotted scallops that are moored in one place for hundreds of +years, and grow very proud of it; but he never met Sea Cow, and he never +found an island that he could fancy. + +If the beach was good and hard, with a slope behind it for seals to play +on, there was always the smoke of a whaler on the horizon, boiling down +blubber, and Kotick knew what _that_ meant. Or else he could see that +seals had once visited the island and been killed off, and Kotick knew +that where men had come once they would come again. + +He picked up with an old stumpy-tailed albatross, who told him that +Kerguelen Island was the very place for peace and quiet, and when Kotick +went down there he was all but smashed to pieces against some wicked +black cliffs in a heavy sleet-storm with lightning and thunder. Yet as +he pulled out against the gale he could see that even there had once +been a seal nursery. And it was so in all the other islands that he +visited. + +Limmershin gave a long list of them, for he said that Kotick spent five +seasons exploring, with a four months' rest each year at Novastoshnah, +where the holluschickie used to make fun of him and his imaginary +islands. He went to the Gallapagos, a horrid dry place on the Equator, +where he was nearly baked to death; he went to the Georgia Islands, the +Orkneys, Emerald Island, Little Nightingale Island, Gough's Island, +Bouvet's Island, the Crossets, and even to a little speck of an island +south of the Cape of Good Hope. But everywhere the People of the Sea +told him the same things. Seals had come to those islands once upon a +time, but men had killed them all off. Even when he swam thousands of +miles out of the Pacific, and got to a place called Cape Corientes (that +was when he was coming back from Gough's Island), he found a few +hundred mangy seals on a rock, and they told him that men came there +too. + +That nearly broke his heart, and he headed round the Horn back to his +own beaches; and on his way north he hauled out on an island full of +green trees, where he found an old, old seal who was dying, and Kotick +caught fish for him and told him all his sorrows. "Now," said Kotick, "I +am going back to Novastoshnah, and if I am driven to the killing-pens +with the holluschickie I shall not care." + +The old seal said: "Try once more. I am the last of the Lost Rookery of +Masafuera, and in the days when men killed us by the hundred thousand +there was a story on the beaches that some day a white seal would come +out of the north and lead the seal people to a quiet place. I am old and +I shall never live to see that day, but others will. Try once more." + +And Kotick curled up his mustache (it was a beauty), and said: "I am the +only white seal that has ever been born on the beaches, and I am the +only seal, black or white, who ever thought of looking for new islands." + +That cheered him immensely; and when he came back to Novastoshnah that +summer, Matkah, his mother, begged him to marry and settle down, for he +was no longer a holluschick, but a full-grown sea-catch, with a curly +white mane on his shoulders, as heavy, as big, and as fierce as his +father. "Give me another season," he said. "Remember, Mother, it is +always the seventh wave that goes farthest up the beach." + +Curiously enough, there was another seal who thought that she would put +off marrying till the next year, and Kotick danced the Fire-dance with +her all down Lukannon Beach the night before he set off on his last +exploration. + +This time he went westward, because he had fallen on the trail of a +great shoal of halibut, and he needed at least one hundred pounds of +fish a day to keep him in good condition. He chased them till he was +tired, and then he curled himself up and went to sleep on the hollows of +the ground-swell that sets in to Copper Island. He knew the coast +perfectly well, so about midnight, when he felt himself gently bumped on +a weed bed, he said: "Hm, tide 's running strong to-night," and turning +over under water opened his eyes slowly and stretched. Then he jumped +like a cat, for he saw huge things nosing about in the shoal water and +browsing on the heavy fringes of the weeds. + +"By the Great Combers of Magellan!" he said, beneath his mustache. "Who +in the Deep Sea are these people?" + +They were like no walrus, sea-lion, seal, bear, whale, shark, fish, +squid, or scallop that Kotick had ever seen before. They were between +twenty and thirty feet long, and they had no hind flippers, but a +shovel-like tail that looked as if it had been whittled out of wet +leather. Their heads were the most foolish-looking things you ever saw, +and they balanced on the ends of their tails in deep water when they +weren't grazing, bowing solemnly to one another and waving their front +flippers as a fat man waves his arm. + +"Ahem!" said Kotick. "Good sport, gentlemen?" The big things answered by +bowing and waving their flippers like the Frog-Footman. When they began +feeding again Kotick saw that their upper lip was split into two pieces, +that they could twitch apart about a foot and bring together again with +a whole bushel of seaweed between the splits. They tucked the stuff into +their mouths and chumped solemnly. + +"Messy style of feeding that," said Kotick. They bowed again, and Kotick +began to lose his temper. "Very good," he said. "If you do happen to +have an extra joint in your front flipper you needn't show off so. I +see you bow gracefully, but I should like to know your names." The split +lips moved and twitched, and the glassy green eyes stared; but they did +not speak. + +"Well!" said Kotick, "you're the only people I've ever met uglier than +Sea Vitch--and with worse manners." + +Then he remembered in a flash what the Burgomaster Gull had screamed to +him when he was a little yearling at Walrus Islet, and he tumbled +backward in the water, for he knew that he had found Sea Cow at last. + + [Illustration: "HE HAD FOUND SEA COW AT LAST."] + +The sea cows went on schlooping and grazing, and chumping in the weed, +and Kotick asked them questions in every language that he had picked up +in his travels; and the Sea People talk nearly as many languages as +human beings. But the Sea Cow did not answer, because Sea Cow cannot +talk. He has only six bones in his neck where he ought to have seven, +and they say under the sea that that prevents him from speaking even to +his companions; but, as you know, he has an extra joint in his fore +flipper, and by waving it up and down and about he makes what answers to +a sort of clumsy telegraphic code. + +By daylight Kotick's mane was standing on end and his temper was gone +where the dead crabs go. Then the Sea Cow began to travel northward very +slowly, stopping to hold absurd bowing councils from time to time, and +Kotick followed them, saying to himself: "People who are such idiots as +these are would have been killed long ago if they hadn't found out some +safe island; and what is good enough for the Sea Cow is good enough for +the Sea Catch. All the same, I wish they'd hurry." + +It was weary work for Kotick. The herd never went more than forty or +fifty miles a day, and stopped to feed at night, and kept close to the +shore all the time; while Kotick swam round them, and over them, and +under them, but he could not hurry them up one half-mile. As they went +farther north they held a bowing council every few hours, and Kotick +nearly bit off his mustache with impatience till he saw that they were +following up a warm current of water, and then he respected them more. + +One night they sank through the shiny water--sank like stones--and, for +the first time since he had known them, began to swim quickly. Kotick +followed, and the pace astonished him, for he never dreamed that Sea Cow +was anything of a swimmer. They headed for a cliff by the shore, a cliff +that ran down into deep water, and plunged into a dark hole at the foot +of it, twenty fathoms under the sea. It was a long, long swim, and +Kotick badly wanted fresh air before he was out of the dark tunnel they +led him through. + +"My wig!" he said, when he rose, gasping and puffing, into open water at +the farther end. "It was a long dive, but it was worth it." + +The sea cows had separated, and were browsing lazily along the edges of +the finest beaches that Kotick had ever seen. There were long stretches +of smooth worn rock running for miles, exactly fitted to make seal +nurseries, and there were playgrounds of hard sand, sloping inland +behind them, and there were rollers for seals to dance in, and long +grass to roll in, and sand-dunes to climb up and down, and best of all, +Kotick knew by the feel of the water, which never deceives a true Sea +Catch, that no men had ever come there. + +The first thing he did was to assure himself that the fishing was good, +and then he swam along the beaches and counted up the delightful low +sandy islands half hidden in the beautiful rolling fog. Away to the +northward out to sea ran a line of bars and shoals and rocks that would +never let a ship come within six miles of the beach; and between the +islands and the mainland was a stretch of deep water that ran up to the +perpendicular cliffs, and somewhere below the cliffs was the mouth of +the tunnel. + +"It's Novastoshnah over again, but ten times better," said Kotick. "Sea +Cow must be wiser than I thought. Men can't come down the cliffs, even +if there were any men; and the shoals to seaward would knock a ship to +splinters. If any place in the sea is safe, this is it." + +He began to think of the seal he had left behind him, but though he was +in a hurry to go back to Novastoshnah, he thoroughly explored the new +country, so that he would be able to answer all questions. + +Then he dived and made sure of the mouth of the tunnel, and raced +through to the southward. No one but a sea cow or a seal would have +dreamed of there being such a place, and when he looked back at the +cliffs even Kotick could hardly believe that he had been under them. + +He was six days going home, though he was not swimming slowly; and when +he hauled out just above Sea-Lion's Neck the first person he met was the +seal who had been waiting for him, and she saw by the look in his eyes +that he had found his island at last. + +But the holluschickie and Sea Catch, his father, and all the other +seals, laughed at him when he told them what he had discovered, and a +young seal about his own age said: "This is all very well, Kotick, but +you can't come from no one knows where and order us off like this. +Remember we've been fighting for our nurseries, and that's a thing you +never did. You preferred prowling about in the sea." + +The other seals laughed at this, and the young seal began twisting his +head from side to side. He had just married that year, and was making a +great fuss about it. + +"I've no nursery to fight for," said Kotick. "I want only to show you +all a place where you will be safe. What's the use of fighting?" + +"Oh, if you're trying to back out, of course I've no more to say," said +the young seal, with an ugly chuckle. + +"Will you come with me if I win?" said Kotick; and a green light came +into his eyes, for he was very angry at having to fight at all. + +"Very good," said the young seal, carelessly. "_If_ you win, I'll come." + +He had no time to change his mind, for Kotick's head darted out and his +teeth sunk in the blubber of the young seal's neck. Then he threw +himself back on his haunches and hauled his enemy down the beach, shook +him, and knocked him over. Then Kotick roared to the seals: "I've done +my best for you these five seasons past. I've found you the island where +you'll be safe, but unless your heads are dragged off your silly necks +you won't believe. I'm going to teach you now. Look out for yourselves!" + +Limmershin told me that never in his life--and Limmershin sees ten +thousand big seals fighting every year--never in all his little life did +he see anything like Kotick's charge into the nurseries. He flung +himself at the biggest sea-catch he could find, caught him by the +throat, choked him and bumped him and banged him till he grunted for +mercy, and then threw him aside and attacked the next. You see, Kotick +had never fasted for four months as the big seals did every year, and +his deep-sea swimming-trips kept him in perfect condition, and, best of +all, he had never fought before. His curly white mane stood up with +rage, and his eyes flamed, and his big dogteeth glistened, and he was +splendid to look at. + +Old Sea Catch, his father, saw him tearing past, hauling the grizzled +old seals about as though they had been halibut, and upsetting the young +bachelors in all directions; and Sea Catch gave one roar and shouted: +"He may be a fool, but he is the best fighter on the Beaches. Don't +tackle your father, my son! He's with you!" + +Kotick roared in answer, and old Sea Catch waddled in, his mustache on +end, blowing like a locomotive, while Matkah and the seal that was going +to marry Kotick cowered down and admired their men-folk. It was a +gorgeous fight, for the two fought as long as there was a seal that +dared lift up his head, and then they paraded grandly up and down the +beach side by side, bellowing. + +At night, just as the Northern Lights were winking and flashing through +the fog, Kotick climbed a bare rock and looked down on the scattered +nurseries and the torn and bleeding seals. "Now," he said, "I've taught +you your lesson." + +"My wig!" said old Sea Catch, boosting himself up stiffly, for he was +fearfully mauled. "The Killer Whale himself could not have cut them up +worse. Son, I'm proud of you, and what's more, _I'll_ come with you to +your island--if there is such a place." + +"Hear you, fat pigs of the sea! Who comes with me to the Sea Cow's +tunnel? Answer, or I shall teach you again," roared Kotick. + +There was a murmur like the ripple of the tide all up and down the +beaches. "We will come," said thousands of tired voices. "We will follow +Kotick, the White Seal." + +Then Kotick dropped his head between his shoulders and shut his eyes +proudly. He was not a white seal any more, but red from head to tail. +All the same he would have scorned to look at or touch one of his +wounds. + +A week later he and his army (nearly ten thousand holluschickie and old +seals) went away north to the Sea Cow's tunnel, Kotick leading them, and +the seals that stayed at Novastoshnah called them idiots. But next +spring when they all met off the fishing-banks of the Pacific, Kotick's +seals told such tales of the new beaches beyond Sea Cow's tunnel that +more and more seals left Novastoshnah. + +Of course it was not all done at once, for the seals need a long time to +turn things over in their minds, but year by year more seals went away +from Novastoshnah, and Lukannon, and the other nurseries, to the quiet, +sheltered beaches where Kotick sits all the summer through, getting +bigger and fatter and stronger each year, while the holluschickie play +round him, in that sea where no man comes. + + + LUKANNON + +This is the great deep-sea song that all the St. Paul seals sing when +they are heading back to their beaches in the summer. It is a sort of +very sad seal National Anthem. + + I met my mates in the morning (and oh, but I am old!) + Where roaring on the ledges the summer ground-swell + rolled; + I heard them lift the chorus that dropped the + breakers' song-- + The beaches of Lukannon--two million voices strong! + + _The song of pleasant stations beside the salt + lagoons, + The song of blowing squadrons that shuffled down the + dunes, + The song of midnight dances that churned the sea to + flame-- + The beaches of Lukannon--before the sealers came!_ + + I met my mates in the morning (I'll never meet them + more!); + They came and went in legions that darkened all the + shore. + And through the foam-flecked offing as far as voice + could reach + We hailed the landing-parties and we sang them up + the beach. + + _The beaches of Lukannon--the winter-wheat so + tall-- + The dripping, crinkled lichens, and the sea-fog + drenching all! + The platforms of our playground, all shining smooth + and worn! + The beaches of Lukannon--the home where we were + born!_ + + I meet my mates in the morning, a broken, scattered + band. + Men shoot us in the water and club us on the land; + Men drive us to the Salt House like silly sheep and + tame, + And still we sing Lukannon--before the sealers came. + + _Wheel down, wheel down to southward; oh, + Gooverooska go! + And tell the Deep-Sea Viceroys the story of our woe; + Ere, empty as the shark's egg the tempest flings + ashore, + The beaches of Lukannon shall know their sons no + more!_ + + + + + "RIKKI-TIKKI-TAVI" + + + At the hole where he went in + Red-Eye called to Wrinkle-Skin. + Hear what little Red-Eye saith: + "Nag, come up and dance with death!" + + Eye to eye and head to head, + (_Keep the measure, Nag._) + This shall end when one is dead; + (_At thy pleasure, Nag._) + Turn for turn and twist for twist-- + (_Run and hide thee, Nag._) + Hah! The hooded Death has missed! + (_Woe betide thee, Nag!_) + + + [Illustration] + + "RIKKI-TIKKI-TAVI" + + +THIS is the story of the great war that Rikki-tikki-tavi fought +single-handed, through the bath-rooms of the big bungalow in Segowlee +cantonment. Darzee, the tailor-bird, helped him, and Chuchundra, the +muskrat, who never comes out into the middle of the floor, but always +creeps round by the wall, gave him advice; but Rikki-tikki did the real +fighting. + +He was a mongoose, rather like a little cat in his fur and his tail, but +quite like a weasel in his head and his habits. His eyes and the end of +his restless nose were pink; he could scratch himself anywhere he +pleased, with any leg, front or back, that he chose to use; he could +fluff up his tail till it looked like a bottle-brush, and his war-cry +as he scuttled through the long grass, was: +"_Rikk-tikk-tikki-tikki-tchk!_" + +One day, a high summer flood washed him out of the burrow where he lived +with his father and mother, and carried him, kicking and clucking, down +a roadside ditch. He found a little wisp of grass floating there, and +clung to it till he lost his senses. When he revived, he was lying in +the hot sun on the middle of a garden path, very draggled indeed, and a +small boy was saying: "Here's a dead mongoose. Let's have a funeral." + +"No," said his mother; "let's take him in and dry him. Perhaps he isn't +really dead." + +They took him into the house, and a big man picked him up between his +finger and thumb and said he was not dead but half choked; so they +wrapped him in cotton-wool, and warmed him, and he opened his eyes and +sneezed. + +"Now," said the big man (he was an Englishman who had just moved into +the bungalow); "don't frighten him, and we'll see what he'll do." + +It is the hardest thing in the world to frighten a mongoose, because he +is eaten up from nose to tail with curiosity. The motto of all the +mongoose family is, "Run and find out"; and Rikki-tikki was a true +mongoose. He looked at the cotton-wool, decided that it was not good to +eat, ran all round the table, sat up and put his fur in order, scratched +himself, and jumped on the small boy's shoulder. + +"Don't be frightened, Teddy," said his father. "That's his way of making +friends." + +"Ouch! He's tickling under my chin," said Teddy. + + [Illustration: "RIKKI-TIKKI LOOKED DOWN BETWEEN THE BOY'S COLLAR AND + NECK."] + +Rikki-tikki looked down between the boy's collar and neck, snuffed at +his ear, and climbed down to the floor, where he sat rubbing his nose. + +"Good gracious," said Teddy's mother, "and that's a wild creature! I +suppose he's so tame because we've been kind to him." + +"All mongooses are like that," said her husband. "If Teddy doesn't pick +him up by the tail, or try to put him in a cage, he'll run in and out of +the house all day long. Let's give him something to eat." + +They gave him a little piece of raw meat. Rikki-tikki liked it +immensely, and when it was finished he went out into the veranda and sat +in the sunshine and fluffed up his fur to make it dry to the roots. Then +he felt better. + +"There are more things to find out about in this house," he said to +himself, "than all my family could find out in all their lives. I shall +certainly stay and find out." + + [Illustration: "HE PUT HIS NOSE INTO THE INK."] + +He spent all that day roaming over the house. He nearly drowned himself +in the bath-tubs, put his nose into the ink on a writing-table, and +burned it on the end of the big man's cigar, for he climbed up in the +big man's lap to see how writing was done. At nightfall he ran into +Teddy's nursery to watch how kerosene lamps were lighted, and when Teddy +went to bed Rikki-tikki climbed up too; but he was a restless companion, +because he had to get up and attend to every noise all through the +night, and find out what made it. Teddy's mother and father came in, the +last thing, to look at their boy, and Rikki-tikki was awake on the +pillow. "I don't like that," said Teddy's mother; "he may bite the +child." "He'll do no such thing," said the father. "Teddy's safer with +that little beast than if he had a bloodhound to watch him. If a snake +came into the nursery now--" + + [Illustration: "RIKKI-TIKKI WAS AWAKE ON THE PILLOW."] + +But Teddy's mother wouldn't think of anything so awful. + +Early in the morning Rikki-tikki came to early breakfast in the veranda +riding on Teddy's shoulder, and they gave him banana and some boiled +egg; and he sat on all their laps one after the other, because every +well-brought-up mongoose always hopes to be a house-mongoose some day +and have rooms to run about in, and Rikki-tikki's mother (she used to +live in the General's house at Segowlee) had carefully told Rikki what +to do if ever he came across white men. + + [Illustration: "HE CAME TO BREAKFAST RIDING ON TEDDY'S SHOULDER."] + +Then Rikki-tikki went out into the garden to see what was to be seen. It +was a large garden, only half cultivated, with bushes as big as +summer-houses of Marshal Niel roses, lime and orange trees, clumps of +bamboos, and thickets of high grass. Rikki-tikki licked his lips. "This +is a splendid hunting-ground," he said, and his tail grew bottle-brushy +at the thought of it, and he scuttled up and down the garden, snuffing +here and there till he heard very sorrowful voices in a thorn-bush. + +It was Darzee, the tailor-bird, and his wife. They had made a beautiful +nest by pulling two big leaves together and stitching them up the edges +with fibers, and had filled the hollow with cotton and downy fluff. The +nest swayed to and fro, as they sat on the rim and cried. + +"What is the matter?" asked Rikki-tikki. + + [Illustration: "'WE ARE VERY MISERABLE,' SAID DARZEE."] + +"We are very miserable," said Darzee. "One of our babies fell out of the +nest yesterday and Nag ate him." + +"H'm!" said Rikki-tikki, "that is very sad--but I am a stranger here. +Who is Nag?" + +Darzee and his wife only cowered down in the nest without answering, for +from the thick grass at the foot of the bush there came a low hiss--a +horrid cold sound that made Rikki-tikki jump back two clear feet. Then +inch by inch out of the grass rose up the head and spread hood of Nag, +the big black cobra, and he was five feet long from tongue to tail. When +he had lifted one-third of himself clear of the ground, he stayed +balancing to and fro exactly as a dandelion-tuft balances in the wind, +and he looked at Rikki-tikki with the wicked snake's eyes that never +change their expression, whatever the snake may be thinking of. + +"Who is Nag?" he said, "_I_ am Nag. The great god Brahm put his mark +upon all our people when the first cobra spread his hood to keep the sun +off Brahm as he slept. Look, and be afraid!" + + [Illustration: "'I AM NAG,' SAID THE COBRA: 'LOOK, AND BE AFRAID!' BUT + AT THE BOTTOM OF HIS COLD HEART HE WAS AFRAID."] + +He spread out his hood more than ever, and Rikki-tikki saw the +spectacle-mark on the back of it that looks exactly like the eye part of +a hook-and-eye fastening. He was afraid for the minute; but it is +impossible for a mongoose to stay frightened for any length of time, and +though Rikki-tikki had never met a live cobra before, his mother had fed +him on dead ones, and he knew that all a grown mongoose's business in +life was to fight and eat snakes. Nag knew that too, and at the bottom +of his cold heart he was afraid. + +"Well," said Rikki-tikki, and his tail began to fluff up again, "marks +or no marks, do you think it is right for you to eat fledglings out of a +nest?" + +Nag was thinking to himself, and watching the least little movement in +the grass behind Rikki-tikki. He knew that mongooses in the garden meant +death sooner or later for him and his family; but he wanted to get +Rikki-tikki off his guard. So he dropped his head a little, and put it +on one side. + +"Let us talk," he said. "You eat eggs. Why should not I eat birds?" + +"Behind you! Look behind you!" sang Darzee. + +Rikki-tikki knew better than to waste time in staring. He jumped up in +the air as high as he could go, and just under him whizzed by the head +of Nagaina, Nag's wicked wife. She had crept up behind him as he was +talking, to make an end of him; and he heard her savage hiss as the +stroke missed. He came down almost across her back, and if he had been +an old mongoose he would have known that then was the time to break her +back with one bite; but he was afraid of the terrible lashing +return-stroke of the cobra. He bit, indeed, but did not bite long +enough, and he jumped clear of the whisking tail, leaving Nagaina torn +and angry. + + [Illustration: "HE JUMPED UP IN THE AIR, AND JUST UNDER HIM WHIZZED BY + THE HEAD OF NAGAINA."] + +"Wicked, wicked Darzee!" said Nag, lashing up as high as he could reach +toward the nest in the thorn-bush; but Darzee had built it out of reach +of snakes, and it only swayed to and fro. + +Rikki-tikki felt his eyes growing red and hot (when a mongoose's eyes +grow red, he is angry), and he sat back on his tail and hind legs like a +little kangaroo, and looked all around him, and chattered with rage. But +Nag and Nagaina had disappeared into the grass. When a snake misses its +stroke, it never says anything or gives any sign of what it means to do +next. Rikki-tikki did not care to follow them, for he did not feel sure +that he could manage two snakes at once. So he trotted off to the +gravel path near the house, and sat down to think. It was a serious +matter for him. + +If you read the old books of natural history, you will find they say +that when the mongoose fights the snake and happens to get bitten, he +runs off and eats some herb that cures him. That is not true. The +victory is only a matter of quickness of eye and quickness of +foot,--snake's blow against mongoose's jump,--and as no eye can follow +the motion of a snake's head when it strikes, that makes things much +more wonderful than any magic herb. Rikki-tikki knew he was a young +mongoose, and it made him all the more pleased to think that he had +managed to escape a blow from behind. It gave him confidence in himself, +and when Teddy came running down the path, Rikki-tikki was ready to be +petted. + +But just as Teddy was stooping, something flinched a little in the dust, +and a tiny voice said: "Be careful. I am death!" It was Karait, the +dusty brown snakeling that lies for choice on the dusty earth; and his +bite is as dangerous as the cobra's. But he is so small that nobody +thinks of him, and so he does the more harm to people. + +Rikki-tikki's eyes grew red again, and he danced up to Karait with the +peculiar rocking, swaying motion that he had inherited from his family. +It looks very funny, but it is so perfectly balanced a gait that you can +fly off from it at any angle you please; and in dealing with snakes this +is an advantage. If Rikki-tikki had only known, he was doing a much more +dangerous thing than fighting Nag, for Karait is so small, and can turn +so quickly, that unless Rikki bit him close to the back of the head, he +would get the return-stroke in his eye or lip. But Rikki did not know: +his eyes were all red, and he rocked back and forth, looking for a good +place to hold. Karait struck out. Rikki jumped sideways and tried to run +in, but the wicked little dusty gray head lashed within a fraction of +his shoulder, and he had to jump over the body, and the head followed +his heels close. + +Teddy shouted to the house: "Oh, look here! Our mongoose is killing a +snake"; and Rikki-tikki heard a scream from Teddy's mother. His father +ran out with a stick, but by the time he came up, Karait had lunged out +once too far, and Rikki-tikki had sprung, jumped on the snake's back, +dropped his head far between his fore legs, bitten as high up the back +as he could get hold, and rolled away. That bite paralyzed Karait, and +Rikki-tikki was just going to eat him up from the tail, after the custom +of his family at dinner, when he remembered that a full meal makes a +slow mongoose, and if he wanted all his strength and quickness ready, he +must keep himself thin. + +He went away for a dust-bath under the castor-oil bushes, while Teddy's +father beat the dead Karait. "What is the use of that?" thought +Rikki-tikki. "I have settled it all"; and then Teddy's mother picked him +up from the dust and hugged him, crying that he had saved Teddy from +death, and Teddy's father said that he was a providence, and Teddy +looked on with big scared eyes. Rikki-Tikki was rather amused at all the +fuss, which, of course, he did not understand. Teddy's mother might just +as well have petted Teddy for playing in the dust. Rikki was thoroughly +enjoying himself. + +That night, at dinner, walking to and fro among the wine-glasses on the +table, he could have stuffed himself three times over with nice things; +but he remembered Nag and Nagaina, and though it was very pleasant to be +patted and petted by Teddy's mother, and to sit on Teddy's shoulder, +his eyes would get red from time to time, and he would go off into his +long war-cry of "_Rikk-tikk-tikki-tikki-tchk!_" + +Teddy carried him off to bed, and insisted on Rikki-tikki sleeping under +his chin. Rikki-tikki was too well bred to bite or scratch, but as soon +as Teddy was asleep he went off for his nightly walk round the house, +and in the dark he ran up against Chuchundra, the muskrat, creeping +round by the wall. Chuchundra is a broken-hearted little beast. He +whimpers and cheeps all the night, trying to make up his mind to run +into the middle of the room, but he never gets there. + +[Illustration: "IN THE DARK HE RAN UP AGAINST CHUCHUNDRA, THE MUSKRAT."] + +"Don't kill me," said Chuchundra, almost weeping. "Rikki-tikki, don't +kill me." + +"Do you think a snake-killer kills muskrats?" said Rikki-tikki +scornfully. + +"Those who kill snakes get killed by snakes," said Chuchundra, more +sorrowfully than ever. "And how am I to be sure that Nag won't mistake +me for you some dark night?" + +"There's not the least danger," said Rikki-tikki; "but Nag is in the +garden, and I know you don't go there." + +"My cousin Chua, the rat, told me--" said Chuchundra, and then he +stopped. + +"Told you what?" + +"H'sh! Nag is everywhere, Rikki-tikki. You should have talked to Chua in +the garden." + +"I didn't--so you must tell me. Quick, Chuchundra, or I'll bite you!" + +Chuchundra sat down and cried till the tears rolled off his whiskers. "I +am a very poor man," he sobbed. "I never had spirit enough to run out +into the middle of the room. H'sh! I mustn't tell you anything. Can't +you _hear_, Rikki-tikki?" + +Rikki-tikki listened. The house was as still as still, but he thought he +could just catch the faintest _scratch-scratch_ in the world,--a noise +as faint as that of a wasp walking on a window-pane,--the dry scratch of +a snake's scales on brickwork. + +"That's Nag or Nagaina," he said to himself; "and he is crawling into +the bath-room sluice. You're right, Chuchundra; I should have talked to +Chua." + +He stole off to Teddy's bath-room, but there was nothing there, and then +to Teddy's mother's bath-room. At the bottom of the smooth plaster wall +there was a brick pulled out to make a sluice for the bath-water, and as +Rikki-tikki stole in by the masonry curb where the bath is put, he heard +Nag and Nagaina whispering together outside in the moonlight. + +"When the house is emptied of people," said Nagaina to her husband, +"_he_ will have to go away, and then the garden will be our own again. +Go in quietly, and remember that the big man who killed Karait is the +first one to bite. Then come out and tell me, and we will hunt for +Rikki-tikki together." + +"But are you sure that there is anything to be gained by killing the +people?" said Nag. + +"Everything. When there were no people in the bungalow, did we have any +mongoose in the garden? So long as the bungalow is empty, we are king +and queen of the garden; and remember that as soon as our eggs in the +melon-bed hatch (as they may to-morrow), our children will need room and +quiet." + +"I had not thought of that," said Nag. "I will go, but there is no need +that we should hunt for Rikki-tikki afterward. I will kill the big man +and his wife, and the child if I can, and come away quietly. Then the +bungalow will be empty, and Rikki-tikki will go." + +Rikki-tikki tingled all over with rage and hatred at this, and then +Nag's head came through the sluice, and his five feet of cold body +followed it. Angry as he was, Rikki-tikki was very frightened as he saw +the size of the big cobra. Nag coiled himself up, raised his head, and +looked into the bath-room in the dark, and Rikki could see his eyes +glitter. + +"Now, if I kill him here, Nagaina will know; and if I fight him on the +open floor, the odds are in his favor. What am I to do?" said +Rikki-tikki-tavi. + +Nag waved to and fro, and then Rikki-tikki heard him drinking from the +biggest water-jar that was used to fill the bath. "That is good," said +the snake. "Now, when Karait was killed, the big man had a stick. He may +have that stick still, but when he comes in to bathe in the morning he +will not have a stick. I shall wait here till he comes. Nagaina--do you +hear me?--I shall wait here in the cool till daytime." + +There was no answer from outside, so Rikki-tikki knew Nagaina had gone +away. Nag coiled himself down, coil by coil, round the bulge at the +bottom of the water-jar, and Rikki-tikki stayed still as death. After an +hour he began to move, muscle by muscle, toward the jar. Nag was asleep, +and Rikki-tikki looked at his big back, wondering which would be the +best place for a good hold. "If I don't break his back at the first +jump," said Rikki, "he can still fight; and if he fights--O Rikki!" He +looked at the thickness of the neck below the hood, but that was too +much for him; and a bite near the tail would only make Nag savage. + +"It must be the head," he said at last: "the head above the hood; and, +when I am once there, I must not let go." + +Then he jumped. The head was lying a little clear of the water-jar, +under the curve of it; and, as his teeth met, Rikki braced his back +against the bulge of the red earthenware to hold down the head. This +gave him just one second's purchase, and he made the most of it. Then he +was battered to and fro as a rat is shaken by a dog--to and fro on the +floor, up and down, and round in great circles; but his eyes were red, +and he held on as the body cartwhipped over the floor, upsetting the tin +dipper and the soap-dish and the flesh-brush, and banged against the tin +side of the bath. As he held he closed his jaws tighter and tighter, +for he made sure he would be banged to death, and, for the honor of his +family, he preferred to be found with his teeth locked. He was dizzy, +aching, and felt shaken to pieces when something went off like a +thunderclap just behind him; a hot wind knocked him senseless and red +fire singed his fur. The big man had been wakened by the noise, and had +fired both barrels of a shot-gun into Nag just behind the hood. + + [Illustration: "THEN RIKKI-TIKKI WAS BATTERED TO AND FRO AS A RAT IS + SHAKEN BY A DOG."] + +Rikki-tikki held on with his eyes shut, for now he was quite sure he was +dead; but the head did not move, and the big man picked him up and said: +"It's the mongoose again, Alice; the little chap has saved _our_ lives +now." Then Teddy's mother came in with a very white face, and saw what +was left of Nag, and Rikki-tikki dragged himself to Teddy's bedroom and +spent half the rest of the night shaking himself tenderly to find out +whether he really was broken into forty pieces, as he fancied. + +When morning came he was very stiff, but well pleased with his doings. +"Now I have Nagaina to settle with, and she will be worse than five +Nags, and there's no knowing when the eggs she spoke of will hatch. +Goodness! I must go and see Darzee," he said. + +Without waiting for breakfast, Rikki-tikki ran to the thorn-bush where +Darzee was singing a song of triumph at the top of his voice. The news +of Nag's death was all over the garden, for the sweeper had thrown the +body on the rubbish-heap. + +"Oh, you stupid tuft of feathers!" said Rikki-tikki, angrily. "Is this +the time to sing?" + +"Nag is dead--is dead--is dead!" sang Darzee. "The valiant Rikki-tikki +caught him by the head and held fast. The big man brought the bang-stick +and Nag fell in two pieces! He will never eat my babies again." + +"All that's true enough; but where's Nagaina?" said Rikki-tikki, looking +carefully round him. + +"Nagaina came to the bath-room sluice and called for Nag," Darzee went +on; "and Nag came out on the end of a stick--the sweeper picked him up +on the end of a stick and threw him upon the rubbish-heap. Let us sing +about the great, the red-eyed Rikki-tikki!" and Darzee filled his throat +and sang. + +"If I could get up to your nest, I'd roll all your babies out!" said +Rikki-tikki. "You don't know when to do the right thing at the right +time. You're safe enough in your nest there, but it's war for me down +here. Stop singing a minute, Darzee." + +"For the great, the beautiful Rikki-tikki's sake I will stop," said +Darzee. "What is it, O Killer of the terrible Nag!" + +"Where is Nagaina, for the third time?" + +"On the rubbish-heap by the stables, mourning for Nag. Great is +Rikki-tikki with the white teeth." + +"Bother my white teeth! Have you ever heard where she keeps her eggs?" + +"In the melon-bed, on the end nearest the wall, where the sun strikes +nearly all day. She had them there weeks ago." + +"And you never thought it worth while to tell me? The end nearest the +wall, you said?" + +"Rikki-tikki, you are not going to eat her eggs?" + +"Not eat exactly; no. Darzee, if you have a grain of sense you will fly +off to the stables and pretend that your wing is broken, and let Nagaina +chase you away to this bush? I must get to the melon-bed, and if I went +there now she'd see me." + +Darzee was a feather-brained little fellow who could never hold more +than one idea at a time in his head; and just because he knew that +Nagaina's children were born in eggs like his own, he didn't think at +first that it was fair to kill them. But his wife was a sensible bird, +and she knew that cobra's eggs meant young cobras later on; so she +flew off from the nest, and left Darzee to keep the babies warm, and +continue his song about the death of Nag. Darzee was very like a man in +some ways. + +She fluttered in front of Nagaina by the rubbish-heap, and cried out, +"Oh, my wing is broken! The boy in the house threw a stone at me and +broke it." Then she fluttered more desperately than ever. + + [Illustration: DARZEE'S WIFE PRETENDS TO HAVE BROKEN A WING.] + +Nagaina lifted up her head and hissed, "You warned Rikki-tikki when I +would have killed him. Indeed and truly, you've chosen a bad place to be +lame in." And she moved toward Darzee's wife, slipping along over the +dust. + +"The boy broke it with a stone!" shrieked Darzee's wife. + +"Well! It may be some consolation to you when you're dead to know that I +shall settle accounts with the boy. My husband lies on the rubbish-heap +this morning, but before night the boy in the house will lie very still. +What is the use of running away? I am sure to catch you. Little fool, +look at me!" + +Darzee's wife knew better than to do _that_, for a bird who looks at a +snake's eyes gets so frightened that she cannot move. Darzee's wife +fluttered on, piping sorrowfully, and never leaving the ground, and +Nagaina quickened her pace. + +Rikki-tikki heard them going up the path from the stables, and he raced +for the end of the melon-patch near the wall. There, in the warm litter +about the melons, very cunningly hidden, he found twenty-five eggs, +about the size of a bantam's eggs, but with whitish skin instead of +shell. + +"I was not a day too soon," he said; for he could see the baby cobras +curled up inside the skin, and he knew that the minute they were hatched +they could each kill a man or a mongoose. He bit off the tops of the +eggs as fast as he could, taking care to crush the young cobras, and +turned over the litter from time to time to see whether he had missed +any. At last there were only three eggs left, and Rikki-tikki began to +chuckle to himself, when he heard Darzee's wife screaming: + +"Rikki-tikki, I led Nagaina toward the house, and she has gone into the +veranda, and--oh, come quickly--she means killing!" + +Rikki-tikki smashed two eggs, and tumbled backward down the melon-bed +with the third egg in his mouth, and scuttled to the veranda as hard as +he could put foot to the ground. Teddy and his mother and father were +there at early breakfast; but Rikki-tikki saw that they were not eating +anything. They sat stone-still, and their faces were white. Nagaina was +coiled up on the matting by Teddy's chair, within easy striking distance +of Teddy's bare leg, and she was swaying to and fro singing a song of +triumph. + +"Son of the big man that killed Nag," she hissed, "stay still. I am not +ready yet. Wait a little. Keep very still, all you three. If you move I +strike, and if you do not move I strike. Oh, foolish people, who killed +my Nag!" + +Teddy's eyes were fixed on his father, and all his father could do was +to whisper, "Sit still, Teddy. You mustn't move. Teddy, keep still." + +Then Rikki-tikki came up and cried: "Turn round, Nagaina; turn and +fight!" + +"All in good time," said she, without moving her eyes. "I will settle my +account with _you_ presently. Look at your friends, Rikki-tikki. They +are still and white; they are afraid. They dare not move, and if you +come a step nearer I strike." + +"Look at your eggs," said Rikki-tikki, "in the melon-bed near the wall. +Go and look, Nagaina." + +The big snake turned half round, and saw the egg on the veranda. "Ah-h! +Give it to me," she said. + +Rikki-tikki put his paws one on each side of the egg, and his eyes were +blood-red. "What price for a snake's egg? For a young cobra? For a +young king-cobra? For the last--the very last of the brood? The ants are +eating all the others down by the melon-bed." + +Nagaina spun clear round, forgetting everything for the sake of the one +egg; and Rikki-tikki saw Teddy's father shoot out a big hand, catch +Teddy by the shoulder, and drag him across the little table with the +tea-cups, safe and out of reach of Nagaina. + +"Tricked! Tricked! Tricked! _Rikk-tck-tck!_" chuckled Rikki-tikki. "The +boy is safe, and it was I--I--I that caught Nag by the hood last night +in the bath-room." Then he began to jump up and down, all four feet +together, his head close to the floor. "He threw me to and fro, but he +could not shake me off. He was dead before the big man blew him in two. +I did it. _Rikki-tikki-tck-tck!_ Come then, Nagaina. Come and fight with +me. You shall not be a widow long." + +Nagaina saw that she had lost her chance of killing Teddy, and the egg +lay between Rikki-tikki's paws. "Give me the egg, Rikki-tikki. Give me +the last of my eggs, and I will go away and never come back," she said, +lowering her hood. + +"Yes, you will go away, and you will never come back; for you will go to +the rubbish-heap with Nag. Fight, widow! The big man has gone for his +gun! Fight!" + +Rikki-tikki was bounding all round Nagaina, keeping just out of reach of +her stroke, his little eyes like hot coals. Nagaina gathered herself +together, and flung out at him. Rikki-tikki jumped up and backward. +Again and again and again she struck, and each time her head came with a +whack on the matting of the veranda and she gathered herself together +like a watch-spring. Then Rikki-tikki danced in a circle to get behind +her, and Nagaina spun round to keep her head to his head, so that the +rustle of her tail on the matting sounded like dry leaves blown along by +the wind. + +He had forgotten the egg. It still lay on the veranda, and Nagaina came +nearer and nearer to it, till at last, while Rikki-tikki was drawing +breath, she caught it in her mouth, turned to the veranda steps, and +flew like an arrow down the path, with Rikki-tikki behind her. When the +cobra runs for her life, she goes like a whiplash flicked across a +horse's neck. + +[Illustration: "NAGAINA FLEW DOWN THE PATH, WITH RIKKI-TIKKI BEHIND + HER."] + +Rikki-tikki knew that he must catch her, or all the trouble would begin +again. She headed straight for the long grass by the thorn-bush, and as +he was running Rikki-tikki heard Darzee still singing his foolish little +song of triumph. But Darzee's wife was wiser. She flew off her nest as +Nagaina came along, and flapped her wings about Nagaina's head. If +Darzee had helped they might have turned her; but Nagaina only lowered +her hood and went on. Still, the instant's delay brought Rikki-tikki up +to her, and as she plunged into the rat-hole where she and Nag used to +live, his little white teeth were clenched on her tail, and he went down +with her--and very few mongooses, however wise and old they may be, +care to follow a cobra into its hole. It was dark in the hole; and +Rikki-tikki never knew when it might open out and give Nagaina room to +turn and strike at him. He held on savagely, and struck out his feet to +act as brakes on the dark slope of the hot, moist earth. + +Then the grass by the mouth of the hole stopped waving, and Darzee said: +"It is all over with Rikki-tikki! We must sing his death-song. Valiant +Rikki-tikki is dead! For Nagaina will surely kill him underground." + +So he sang a very mournful song that he made up all on the spur of the +minute, and just as he got to the most touching part the grass quivered +again, and Rikki-tikki, covered with dirt, dragged himself out of the +hole leg by leg, licking his whiskers. Darzee stopped with a little +shout. Rikki-tikki shook some of the dust out of his fur and sneezed. +"It is all over," he said. "The widow will never come out again." And +the red ants that live between the grass stems heard him, and began to +troop down one after another to see if he had spoken the truth. + + [Illustration: "IT IS ALL OVER."] + +Rikki-tikki curled himself up in the grass and slept where he was--slept +and slept till it was late in the afternoon, for he had done a hard +day's work. + +"Now," he said, when he awoke, "I will go back to the house. Tell the +Coppersmith, Darzee, and he will tell the garden that Nagaina is dead." + +The Coppersmith is a bird who makes a noise exactly like the beating of +a little hammer on a copper pot; and the reason he is always making it +is because he is the town-crier to every Indian garden, and tells all +the news to everybody who cares to listen. As Rikki-tikki went up the +path, he heard his "attention" notes like a tiny dinner-gong; and then +the steady "_Ding-dong-tock!_ Nag is dead--_dong!_ Nagaina is dead! +_Ding-dong-tock!_" That set all the birds in the garden singing, and the +frogs croaking; for Nag and Nagaina used to eat frogs as well as little +birds. + +When Rikki got to the house, Teddy and Teddy's mother (she looked very +white still, for she had been fainting) and Teddy's father came out and +almost cried over him; and that night he ate all that was given him till +he could eat no more, and went to bed on Teddy's shoulder, where Teddy's +mother saw him when she came to look late at night. + +"He saved our lives and Teddy's life," she said to her husband. "Just +think, he saved all our lives." + +Rikki-tikki woke up with a jump, for all the mongooses are light +sleepers. + +"Oh, it's you," said he. "What are you bothering for? All the cobras are +dead; and if they weren't, I'm here." + +Rikki-tikki had a right to be proud of himself; but he did not grow too +proud, and he kept that garden as a mongoose should keep it, with tooth +and jump and spring and bite, till never a cobra dared show its head +inside the walls. + + + DARZEE'S CHAUNT + + (SUNG IN HONOR OF RIKKI-TIKKI-TAVI) + + Singer and tailor am I-- + Doubled the joys that I know-- + Proud of my lilt through the sky, + Proud of the house that I sew-- + Over and under, so weave I my music--so weave I + the house that I sew. + + Sing to your fledglings again, + Mother, oh lift up your head! + Evil that plagued us is slain, + Death in the garden lies dead. + Terror that hid in the roses is impotent--flung + on the dung-hill and dead! + + Who hath delivered us, who? + Tell me his nest and his name. + Rikki, the valiant, the true, + Tikki, with eyeballs of flame. + Rik-tikki-tikki, the ivory-fanged, the hunter with + eyeballs of flame. + + Give him the Thanks of the Birds, + Bowing with tail-feathers spread! + Praise him with nightingale words-- + Nay, I will praise him instead. + Hear! I will sing you the praise of the bottle-tailed + Rikki, with eyeballs of red! + +(_Here Rikki-tikki interrupted, and the rest of the song is lost._) + + + + + TOOMAI OF THE ELEPHANTS + + + I will remember what I was, I am sick of rope and chain-- + I will remember my old strength and all my forest affairs. + I will not sell my back to man for a bundle of sugar-cane, + I will go out to my own kind, and the wood-folk in their lairs. + + I will go out until the day, until the morning break, + Out to the winds' untainted kiss, the waters' clean caress: + I will forget my ankle-ring and snap my picket-stake. + I will revisit my lost loves, and playmates masterless! + + + [Illustration] + + TOOMAI OF THE ELEPHANTS + + +KALA NAG, which means Black Snake, had served the Indian Government in +every way that an elephant could serve it for forty-seven years, and as +he was fully twenty years old when he was caught, that makes him nearly +seventy--a ripe age for an elephant. He remembered pushing, with a big +leather pad on his forehead, at a gun stuck in deep mud, and that was +before the Afghan war of 1842, and he had not then come to his full +strength. His mother, Radha Pyari,--Radha the darling,--who had been +caught in the same drive with Kala Nag, told him, before his little milk +tusks had dropped out, that elephants who were afraid always got hurt: +and Kala Nag knew that that advice was good, for the first time that he +saw a shell burst he backed, screaming, into a stand of piled rifles, +and the bayonets pricked him in all his softest places. So, before he +was twenty-five, he gave up being afraid, and so he was the best-loved +and the best-looked-after elephant in the service of the Government of +India. He had carried tents, twelve hundred pounds' weight of tents, on +the march in Upper India: he had been hoisted into a ship at the end of +a steam-crane and taken for days across the water, and made to carry a +mortar on his back in a strange and rocky country very far from India, +and had seen the Emperor Theodore lying dead in Magdala, and had come +back again in the steamer entitled, so the soldiers said, to the +Abyssinian war medal. He had seen his fellow-elephants die of cold and +epilepsy and starvation and sunstroke up at a place called Ali Musjid, +ten years later; and afterward he had been sent down thousands of miles +south to haul and pile big baulks of teak in the timber-yards at +Moulmein. There he had half killed an insubordinate young elephant who +was shirking his fair share of the work. + + [Illustration: "KALA NAG WAS THE BEST-LOVED ELEPHANT IN THE SERVICE."] + +After that he was taken off timber-hauling, and employed, with a few +score other elephants who were trained to the business, in helping to +catch wild elephants among the Garo hills. Elephants are very strictly +preserved by the Indian Government. There is one whole department which +does nothing else but hunt them, and catch them, and break them in, and +send them up and down the country as they are needed for work. + +Kala Nag stood ten fair feet at the shoulders, and his tusks had been +cut off short at five feet, and bound round the ends, to prevent them +splitting, with bands of copper; but he could do more with those stumps +than any untrained elephant could do with the real sharpened ones. + +When, after weeks and weeks of cautious driving of scattered elephants +across the hills, the forty or fifty wild monsters were driven into the +last stockade, and the big drop-gate, made of tree-trunks lashed +together, jarred down behind them, Kala Nag, at the word of command, +would go into that flaring, trumpeting pandemonium (generally at night, +when the flicker of the torches made it difficult to judge distances), +and, picking out the biggest and wildest tusker of the mob, would hammer +him and hustle him into quiet while the men on the backs of the other +elephants roped and tied the smaller ones. + +There was nothing in the way of fighting that Kala Nag, the old wise +Black Snake, did not know, for he had stood up more than once in his +time to the charge of the wounded tiger, and, curling up his soft trunk +to be out of harm's way, had knocked the springing brute sideways in +mid-air with a quick sickle-cut of his head, that he had invented all by +himself; had knocked him over, and kneeled upon him with his huge knees +till the life went out with a gasp and a howl, and there was only a +fluffy striped thing on the ground for Kala Nag to pull by the tail. + +"Yes," said Big Toomai, his driver, the son of Black Toomai who had +taken him to Abyssinia, and grandson of Toomai of the Elephants who had +seen him caught, "there is nothing that the Black Snake fears except me. +He has seen three generations of us feed him and groom him, and he will +live to see four." + +"He is afraid of _me_ also," said Little Toomai, standing up to his full +height of four feet, with only one rag upon him. He was ten years old, +the eldest son of Big Toomai, and, according to custom, he would take +his father's place on Kala Nag's neck when he grew up, and would handle +the heavy iron _ankus_, the elephant-goad that had been worn smooth +by his father, and his grandfather, and his great-grandfather. He knew +what he was talking of; for he had been born under Kala Nag's shadow, +had played with the end of his trunk before he could walk, had taken him +down to water as soon as he could walk, and Kala Nag would no more have +dreamed of disobeying his shrill little orders than he would have +dreamed of killing him on that day when Big Toomai carried the little +brown baby under Kala Nag's tusks, and told him to salute his master +that was to be. + + [Illustration: "'HE IS AFRAID OF ME,' SAID LITTLE TOOMAI, AND HE MADE + KALA NAG LIFT UP HIS FEET ONE AFTER THE OTHER."] + +"Yes," said Little Toomai, "he is afraid of _me_," and he took long +strides up to Kala Nag, called him a fat old pig, and made him lift up +his feet one after the other. + +"Wah!" said Little Toomai, "thou art a big elephant," and he wagged his +fluffy head, quoting his father. "The Government may pay for elephants, +but they belong to us mahouts. When thou art old, Kala Nag, there will +come some rich Rajah, and he will buy thee from the Government, on +account of thy size and thy manners, and then thou wilt have nothing to +do but to carry gold earrings in thy ears, and a gold howdah on thy +back, and a red cloth covered with gold on thy sides, and walk at the +head of the processions of the King. Then I shall sit on thy neck, O +Kala Nag, with a silver _ankus_, and men will run before us with golden +sticks, crying, 'Room for the King's elephant!' That will be good, Kala +Nag, but not so good as this hunting in the jungles." + +"Umph!" said Big Toomai. "Thou art a boy, and as wild as a buffalo-calf. +This running up and down among the hills is not the best Government +service. I am getting old, and I do not love wild elephants, Give me +brick elephant-lines, one stall to each elephant, and big stumps to tie +them to safely, and flat, broad roads to exercise upon, instead of this +come-and-go camping. Aha, the Cawnpore barracks were good. There was a +bazaar close by, and only three hours' work a day." + +Little Toomai remembered the Cawnpore elephant-lines and said nothing. +He very much preferred the camp life, and hated those broad, flat roads, +with the daily grubbing for grass in the forage-reserve, and the long +hours when there was nothing to do except to watch Kala Nag fidgeting in +his pickets. + +What Little Toomai liked was to scramble up bridle-paths that only an +elephant could take; the dip into the valley below; the glimpses of the +wild elephants browsing miles away; the rush of the frightened pig and +peacock under Kala Nag's feet; the blinding warm rains, when all the +hills and valleys smoked; the beautiful misty mornings when nobody knew +where they would camp that night; the steady, cautious drive of the wild +elephants, and the mad rush and blaze and hullaballoo of the last +night's drive, when the elephants poured into the stockade like boulders +in a landslide, found that they could not get out, and flung themselves +at the heavy posts only to be driven back by yells and flaring torches +and volleys of blank cartridge. + + [Illustration: "HE WOULD GET HIS TORCH AND WAVE IT, AND YELL WITH THE + BEST."] + +Even a little boy could be of use there, and Toomai was as useful as +three boys. He would get his torch and wave it, and yell with the best. +But the really good time came when the driving out began, and the +Keddah, that is, the stockade, looked like a picture of the end of the +world, and men had to make signs to one another, because they could not +hear themselves speak. Then Little Toomai would climb up to the top of +one of the quivering stockade-posts, his sun-bleached brown hair flying +loose all over his shoulders, and he looking like a goblin in the +torch-light; and as soon as there was a lull you could hear his +high-pitched yells of encouragement to Kala Nag, above the trumpeting +and crashing, and snapping of ropes, and groans of the tethered +elephants. "_Maîl, maîl, Kala Nag!_ (Go on, go on, Black Snake!) _Dant +do!_ (Give him the tusk!) _Somalo! Somalo!_ (Careful, careful!) _Maro! +Mar!_ (Hit him, hit him!) Mind the post! _Arre! Arre! Hai! Yai! +Kya-a-ah!_" he would shout, and the big fight between Kala Nag and the +wild elephant would sway to and fro across the Keddah, and the old +elephant-catchers would wipe the sweat out of their eyes, and find time +to nod to Little Toomai wriggling with joy on the top of the posts. + +He did more than wriggle. One night he slid down from the post and +slipped in between the elephants, and threw up the loose end of a rope, +which had dropped, to a driver who was trying to get a purchase on the +leg of a kicking young calf (calves always give more trouble than +full-grown animals). Kala Nag saw him, caught him in his trunk, and +handed him up to Big Toomai, who slapped him then and there, and put him +back on the post. + +Next morning he gave him a scolding, and said: "Are not good brick +elephant-lines and a little tent-carrying enough, that thou must needs +go elephant-catching on thy own account, little worthless? Now those +foolish hunters, whose pay is less than my pay, have spoken to Petersen +Sahib of the matter." Little Toomai was frightened. He did not know much +of white men, but Petersen Sahib was the greatest white man in the world +to him. He was the head of all the Keddah operations--the man who caught +all the elephants for the Government of India, and who knew more about +the ways of elephants than any living man. + +"What--what will happen?" said Little Toomai. + +"Happen! the worst that can happen. Petersen Sahib is a madman. Else why +should he go hunting these wild devils? He may even require thee to be +an elephant-catcher, to sleep anywhere in these fever-filled jungles, +and at last to be trampled to death in the Keddah. It is well that this +nonsense ends safely. Next week the catching is over, and we of the +plains are sent back to our stations. Then we will march on smooth +roads, and forget all this hunting. But, son, I am angry that thou +shouldst meddle in the business that belongs to these dirty Assamese +jungle-folk. Kala Nag will obey none but me, so I must go with him into +the Keddah, but he is only a fighting elephant, and he does not help to +rope them. So I sit at my ease, as befits a mahout,--not a mere +hunter,--a mahout, I say, and a man who gets a pension at the end of his +service. Is the family of Toomai of the Elephants to be trodden +underfoot in the dirt of a Keddah? Bad one! Wicked one! Worthless son! +Go and wash Kala Nag and attend to his ears, and see that there are no +thorns in his feet; or else Petersen Sahib will surely catch thee and +make thee a wild hunter--a follower of elephant's foot-tracks, a +jungle-bear. Bah! Shame! Go!" + +Little Toomai went off without saying a word, but he told Kala Nag all +his grievances while he was examining his feet. "No matter," said Little +Toomai, turning up the fringe of Kala Nag's huge right ear. "They have +said my name to Petersen Sahib, and perhaps--and perhaps--and +perhaps--who knows? Hai! That is a big thorn that I have pulled out!" + +The next few days were spent in getting the elephants together, in +walking the newly caught wild elephants up and down between a couple of +tame ones, to prevent them from giving too much trouble on the downward +march to the plains, and in taking stock of the blankets and ropes and +things that had been worn out or lost in the forest. + +Petersen Sahib came in on his clever she-elephant Pudmini; he had been +paying off other camps among the hills, for the season was coming to an +end, and there was a native clerk sitting at a table under a tree, to +pay the drivers their wages. As each man was paid he went back to his +elephant, and joined the line that stood ready to start. The catchers, +and hunters, and beaters, the men of the regular Keddah, who stayed in +the jungle year in and year out, sat on the backs of the elephants that +belonged to Petersen Sahib's permanent force, or leaned against the +trees with their guns across their arms, and made fun of the drivers who +were going away, and laughed when the newly caught elephants broke the +line and ran about. + +Big Toomai went up to the clerk with Little Toomai behind him, and +Machua Appa, the head-tracker, said in an undertone to a friend of his, +"There goes one piece of good elephant-stuff at least. 'T is a pity to +send that young jungle-cock to moult in the plains." + +Now Petersen Sahib had ears all over him, as a man must have who listens +to the most silent of all living things--the wild elephant. He turned +where he was lying all along on Pudmini's back, and said, "What is that? +I did not know of a man among the plain-drivers who had wit enough to +rope even a dead elephant." + +"This is not a man, but a boy. He went into the Keddah at the last +drive, and threw Barmao there the rope, when we were trying to get that +young calf with the blotch on his shoulder away from his mother." + +Machua Appa pointed at Little Toomai, and Petersen Sahib looked, and +Little Toomai bowed to the earth. + +"He throw a rope? He is smaller than a picket-pin. Little one, what is +thy name?" said Petersen Sahib. + +Little Toomai was too frightened to speak, but Kala Nag was behind him, +and Toomai made a sign with his hand, and the elephant caught him up in +his trunk and held him level with Pudmini's forehead, in front of the +great Petersen Sahib. Then Little Toomai covered his face with his +hands, for he was only a child, and except where elephants were +concerned, he was just as bashful as a child could be. + +"Oho!" said Petersen Sahib, smiling underneath his mustache, "and why +didst thou teach thy elephant _that_ trick? Was it to help thee steal +green corn from the roofs of the houses when the ears are put out to +dry?" + + [Illustration: "'NOT GREEN CORN, PROTECTOR OF THE POOR,--MELONS,' SAID + LITTLE TOOMAI."] + +"Not green corn, Protector of the Poor,--melons," said Little Toomai, +and all the men sitting about broke into a roar of laughter. Most of +them had taught their elephants that trick when they were boys. Little +Toomai was hanging eight feet up in the air, and he wished very much +that he were eight feet underground. + +"He is Toomai, my son, Sahib," said Big Toomai, scowling. "He is a very +bad boy, and he will end in a jail, Sahib." + +"Of that I have my doubts," said Petersen Sahib. "A boy who can face a +full Keddah at his age does not end in jails. See, little one, here are +four annas to spend in sweetmeats because thou hast a little head under +that great thatch of hair. In time thou mayest become a hunter too." Big +Toomai scowled more than ever. "Remember, though, that Keddahs are not +good for children to play in," Petersen Sahib went on. + +"Must I never go there, Sahib?" asked Little Toomai, with a big gasp. + +"Yes." Petersen Sahib smiled again. "When thou hast seen the elephants +dance. That is the proper time. Come to me when thou hast seen the +elephants dance, and then I will let thee go into all the Keddahs." + +There was another roar of laughter, for that is an old joke among +elephant-catchers, and it means just never. There are great cleared flat +places hidden away in the forests that are called elephants' ballrooms, +but even these are found only by accident, and no man has ever seen the +elephants dance. When a driver boasts of his skill and bravery the other +drivers say, "And when didst _thou_ see the elephants dance?" + +Kala Nag put Little Toomai down, and he bowed to the earth again and +went away with his father, and gave the silver four-anna piece to his +mother, who was nursing his baby-brother, and they all were put up on +Kala Nag's back, and the line of grunting, squealing elephants rolled +down the hill-path to the plains. It was a very lively march on account +of the new elephants, who gave trouble at every ford, and who needed +coaxing or beating every other minute. + +Big Toomai prodded Kala Nag spitefully, for he was very angry, but +Little Toomai was too happy to speak. Petersen Sahib had noticed him, +and given him money, so he felt as a private soldier would feel if he +had been called out of the ranks and praised by his commander-in-chief. + +"What did Petersen Sahib mean by the elephant-dance?" he said, at last, +softly to his mother. + +Big Toomai heard him and grunted. "That thou shouldst never be one of +these hill-buffaloes of trackers. _That_ was what he meant. Oh you in +front, what is blocking the way?" + +An Assamese driver, two or three elephants ahead, turned round angrily, +crying: "Bring up Kala Nag, and knock this youngster of mine into good +behavior. Why should Petersen Sahib have chosen _me_ to go down with you +donkeys of the rice-fields? Lay your beast alongside, Toomai, and let +him prod with his tusks. By all the Gods of the Hills, these new +elephants are possessed, or else they can smell their companions in the +jungle." + +Kala Nag hit the new elephant in the ribs and knocked the wind out of +him, as Big Toomai said, "We have swept the hills of wild elephants at +the last catch. It is only your carelessness in driving. Must I keep +order along the whole line?" + +"Hear him!" said the other driver. "_We_ have swept the hills! Ho! ho! +You are very wise, you plains-people. Any one but a mudhead who never +saw the jungle would know that _they_ know that the drives are ended for +the season. Therefore all the wild elephants to-night will--but why +should I waste wisdom on a river-turtle?" + +"What will they do?" Little Toomai called out. + +"_Ohé_, little one. Art thou there? Well, I will tell thee, for thou +hast a cool head. They will dance, and it behooves thy father, who has +swept _all_ the hills of _all_ the elephants, to double-chain his +pickets to-night." + +"What talk is this?" said Big Toomai. "For forty years, father and son, +we have tended elephants, and we have never heard such moonshine about +dances." + +"Yes; but a plains-man who lives in a hut knows only the four walls of +his hut. Well, leave thy elephants unshackled to-night and see what +comes; as for their dancing, I have seen the place where--_Bapree-Bap!_ +how many windings has the Dihang River? Here is another ford, and we +must swim the calves. Stop still, you behind there." + +And in this way, talking and wrangling and splashing through the rivers, +they made their first march to a sort of receiving-camp for the new +elephants; but they lost their tempers long before they got there. + +Then the elephants were chained by their hind legs to their big stumps +of pickets, and extra ropes were fitted to the new elephants, and the +fodder was piled before them, and the hill-drivers went back to Petersen +Sahib through the afternoon light, telling the plains-drivers to be +extra careful that night, and laughing when the plains-drivers asked the +reason. + +Little Toomai attended to Kala Nag's supper, and as evening fell, +wandered through the camp, unspeakably happy, in search of a tom-tom. +When an Indian child's heart is full, he does not run about and make a +noise in an irregular fashion. He sits down to a sort of revel all by +himself. And Little Toomai had been spoken to by Petersen Sahib! If he +had not found what he wanted I believe he would have burst. But the +sweatmeat-seller in the camp lent him a little tom-tom--a drum beaten +with the flat of the hand--and he sat down, cross-legged, before Kala +Nag as the stars began to come out, the tom-tom in his lap, and he +thumped and he thumped and he thumped, and the more he thought of the +great honor that had been done to him, the more he thumped, all alone +among the elephant-fodder. There was no tune and no words, but the +thumping made him happy. + +The new elephants strained at their ropes, and squealed and trumpeted +from time to time, and he could hear his mother in the camp hut putting +his small brother to sleep with an old, old song about the great God +Shiv, who once told all the animals what they should eat. It is a very +soothing lullaby, and the first verse says: + + Shiv, who poured the harvest and made the winds to blow, + Sitting at the doorways of a day of long ago, + Gave to each his portion, food and toil and fate, + From the King upon the _guddee_ to the Beggar at the gate. + All things made he--Shiva the Preserver. + Mahadeo! Mahadeo! he made all,-- + Thorn for the camel, fodder for the kine, + And mother's heart for sleepy head, O little son of mine! + +Little Toomai came in with a joyous _tunk-a-tunk_ at the end of each +verse, till he felt sleepy and stretched himself on the fodder at Kala +Nag's side. + +At last the elephants began to lie down one after another as is their +custom, till only Kala Nag at the right of the line was left standing +up; and he rocked slowly from side to side, his ears put forward to +listen to the night wind as it blew very slowly across the hills. The +air was full of all the night noises that, taken together, make one big +silence--the click of one bamboo-stem against the other, the rustle of +something alive in the undergrowth, the scratch and squawk of a +half-waked bird (birds are awake in the night much more often than we +imagine), and the fall of water ever so far away. Little Toomai slept +for some time, and when he waked it was brilliant moonlight, and Kala +Nag was still standing up with his ears cocked. Little Toomai turned, +rustling in the fodder, and watched the curve of his big back against +half the stars in heaven, and while he watched he heard, so far away +that it sounded no more than a pinhole of noise pricked through the +stillness, the "hoot-toot" of a wild elephant. + +All the elephants in the lines jumped up as if they had been shot, and +their grunts at last waked the sleeping mahouts, and they came out and +drove in the picket-pegs with big mallets, and tightened this rope and +knotted that till all was quiet. One new elephant had nearly grubbed up +his picket, and Big Toomai took off Kala Nag's leg-chain and shackled +that elephant fore foot to hind foot, but slipped a loop of grass-string +round Kala Nag's leg, and told him to remember that he was tied fast. He +knew that he and his father and his grandfather had done the very same +thing hundreds of times before. Kala Nag did not answer to the order by +gurgling, as he usually did. He stood still, looking out across the +moonlight, his head a little raised and his ears spread like fans, up +to the great folds of the Garo hills. + +"Look to him if he grows restless in the night," said Big Toomai to +Little Toomai, and he went into the hut and slept. Little Toomai was +just going to sleep, too, when he heard the coir string snap with a +little "tang," and Kala Nag rolled out of his pickets as slowly and as +silently as a cloud rolls out of the mouth of a valley. Little Toomai +pattered after him, bare-footed, down the road in the moonlight, calling +under his breath, "Kala Nag! Kala Nag! Take me with you, O Kala Nag!" +The elephant turned without a sound, took three strides back to the boy +in the moonlight, put down his trunk, swung him up to his neck, and +almost before Little Toomai had settled his knees, slipped into the +forest. + +There was one blast of furious trumpeting from the lines, and then the +silence shut down on everything, and Kala Nag began to move. Sometimes a +tuft of high grass washed along his sides as a wave washes along the +sides of a ship, and sometimes a cluster of wild-pepper vines would +scrape along his back, or a bamboo would creak where his shoulder +touched it; but between those times he moved absolutely without any +sound, drifting through the thick Garo forest as though it had been +smoke. He was going uphill, but though Little Toomai watched the stars +in the rifts of the trees, he could not tell in what direction. + +Then Kala Nag reached the crest of the ascent and stopped for a minute, +and Little Toomai could see the tops of the trees lying all speckled and +furry under the moonlight for miles and miles, and the blue-white mist +over the river in the hollow. Toomai leaned forward and looked, and he +felt that the forest was awake below him--awake and alive and crowded. A +big brown fruit-eating bat brushed past his ear; a porcupine's quills +rattled in the thicket, and in the darkness between the tree-stems he +heard a hog-bear digging hard in the moist warm earth, and snuffing as +it digged. + +Then the branches closed over his head again, and Kala Nag began to go +down into the valley--not quietly this time, but as a runaway gun goes +down a steep bank--in one rush. The huge limbs moved as steadily as +pistons, eight feet to each stride, and the wrinkled skin of the +elbow-points rustled. The undergrowth on either side of him ripped with +a noise like torn canvas, and the saplings that he heaved away right +and left with his shoulders sprang back again, and banged him on the +flank, and great trails of creepers, all matted together, hung from his +tusks as he threw his head from side to side and plowed out his pathway. +Then Little Toomai laid himself down close to the great neck, lest a +swinging bough should sweep him to the ground, and he wished that he +were back in the lines again. + +The grass began to get squashy, and Kala Nag's feet sucked and squelched +as he put them down, and the night mist at the bottom of the valley +chilled Little Toomai. There was a splash and a trample, and the rush of +running water, and Kala Nag strode through the bed of a river, feeling +his way at each step. Above the noise of the water, as it swirled round +the elephant's legs, Little Toomai could hear more splashing and some +trumpeting both up-stream and down--great grunts and angry snortings, +and all the mist about him seemed to be full of rolling wavy shadows. + +"_Ai!_" he said, half aloud, his teeth chattering. "The elephant-folk +are out to-night. It _is_ the dance, then." + +Kala Nag swashed out of the water, blew his trunk clear, and began +another climb; but this time he was not alone, and he had not to make +his path. That was made already, six feet wide, in front of him, where +the bent jungle-grass was trying to recover itself and stand up. Many +elephants must have gone that way only a few minutes before. Little +Toomai looked back, and behind him a great wild tusker with his little +pig's eyes glowing like hot coals, was just lifting himself out of the +misty river. Then the trees closed up again, and they went on and up, +with trumpetings and crashings, and the sound of breaking branches on +every side of them. + +At last Kala Nag stood still between two tree-trunks at the very top of +the hill. They were part of a circle of trees that grew round an +irregular space of some three or four acres, and in all that space, as +Little Toomai could see, the ground had been trampled down as hard as a +brick floor. Some trees grew in the center of the clearing, but their +bark was rubbed away, and the white wood beneath showed all shiny and +polished in the patches of moonlight. There were creepers hanging from +the upper branches, and the bells of the flowers of the creepers, great +waxy white things like convolvuluses, hung down fast asleep; but within +the limits of the clearing there was not a single blade of +green--nothing but the trampled earth. + +The moonlight showed it all iron-gray, except where some elephants stood +upon it, and their shadows were inky black. Little Toomai looked, +holding his breath, with his eyes starting out of his head, and as he +looked, more and more and more elephants swung out into the open from +between the tree-trunks. Little Toomai could count only up to ten, and +he counted again and again on his fingers till he lost count of the +tens, and his head began to swim. Outside the clearing he could hear +them crashing in the undergrowth as they worked their way up the +hillside; but as soon as they were within the circle of the tree-trunks +they moved like ghosts. + +There were white-tusked wild males, with fallen leaves and nuts and +twigs lying in the wrinkles of their necks and the folds of their ears; +fat slow-footed she-elephants, with restless, little pinky-black calves +only three or four feet high running under their stomachs; young +elephants with their tusks just beginning to show, and very proud of +them; lanky, scraggy old-maid elephants, with their hollow anxious +faces, and trunks like rough bark; savage old bull-elephants, scarred +from shoulder to flank with great weals and cuts of bygone fights, and +the caked dirt of their solitary mud-baths dropping from their +shoulders; and there was one with a broken tusk and the marks of the +full-stroke, the terrible drawing scrape, of a tiger's claws on his +side. + +They were standing head to head, or walking to and fro across the ground +in couples, or rocking and swaying all by themselves--scores and scores +of elephants. + +Toomai knew that so long as he lay still on Kala Nag's neck nothing +would happen to him; for even in the rush and scramble of a Keddah-drive +a wild elephant does not reach up with his trunk and drag a man off the +neck of a tame elephant; and these elephants were not thinking of men +that night. Once they started and put their ears forward when they heard +the chinking of a leg-iron in the forest, but it was Pudmini, Petersen +Sahib's pet elephant, her chain snapped short off, grunting, snuffling +up the hillside. She must have broken her pickets, and come straight +from Petersen Sahib's camp; and Little Toomai saw another elephant, one +that he did not know, with deep rope-galls on his back and breast. He, +too, must have run away from some camp in the hills about. + +At last there was no sound of any more elephants moving in the forest, +and Kala Nag rolled out from his station between the trees and went +into the middle of the crowd, clucking and gurgling, and all the +elephants began to talk in their own tongue, and to move about. + + [Illustration: "LITTLE TOOMAI LOOKED DOWN UPON SCORES AND SCORES OF + BROAD BACKS."] + +Still lying down, Little Toomai looked down upon scores and scores of +broad backs, and wagging ears, and tossing trunks, and little rolling +eyes. He heard the click of tusks as they crossed other tusks by +accident, and the dry rustle of trunks twined together, and the chafing +of enormous sides and shoulders in the crowd, and the incessant flick +and _hissh_ of the great tails. Then a cloud came over the moon, and he +sat in black darkness; but the quiet, steady hustling and pushing and +gurgling went on just the same. He knew that there were elephants all +round Kala Nag, and that there was no chance of backing him out of the +assembly; so he set his teeth and shivered. In a Keddah at least there +was torch-light and shouting, but here he was all alone in the dark, and +once a trunk came up and touched him on the knee. + +Then an elephant trumpeted, and they all took it up for five or ten +terrible seconds. The dew from the trees above spattered down like rain +on the unseen backs, and a dull booming noise began, not very loud at +first, and Little Toomai could not tell what it was; but it grew and +grew, and Kala Nag lifted up one fore foot and then the other, and +brought them down on the ground--one-two, one-two, as steadily as +trip-hammers. The elephants were stamping altogether now, and it sounded +like a war-drum beaten at the mouth of a cave. The dew fell from the +trees till there was no more left to fall, and the booming went on, and +the ground rocked and shivered, and Little Toomai put his hands up to +his ears to shut out the sound. But it was all one gigantic jar that ran +through him--this stamp of hundreds of heavy feet on the raw earth. Once +or twice he could feel Kala Nag and all the others surge forward a few +strides, and the thumping would change to the crushing sound of juicy +green things being bruised, but in a minute or two the boom of feet on +hard earth began again. A tree was creaking and groaning somewhere near +him. He put out his arm and felt the bark, but Kala Nag moved forward, +still tramping, and he could not tell where he was in the clearing. +There was no sound from the elephants, except once, when two or three +little calves squeaked together. Then he heard a thump and a shuffle, +and the booming went on. It must have lasted fully two hours, and Little +Toomai ached in every nerve; but he knew by the smell of the night air +that the dawn was coming. + +The morning broke in one sheet of pale yellow behind the green hills, +and the booming stopped with the first ray, as though the light had been +an order. Before Little Toomai had got the ringing out of his head, +before even he had shifted his position, there was not an elephant in +sight except Kala Nag, Pudmini, and the elephant with the rope-galls, +and there was neither sign nor rustle nor whisper down the hillsides to +show where the others had gone. + +Little Toomai stared again and again. The clearing, as he remembered it, +had grown in the night. More trees stood in the middle of it, but the +undergrowth and the jungle-grass at the sides had been rolled back. +Little Toomai stared once more. Now he understood the trampling. The +elephants had stamped out more room--had stamped the thick grass and +juicy cane to trash, the trash into slivers, the slivers into tiny +fibers, and the fibers into hard earth. + +"Wah!" said Little Toomai, and his eyes were very heavy. "Kala Nag, my +lord, let us keep by Pudmini and go to Peterson Sahib's camp, or I shall +drop from thy neck." + +The third elephant watched the two go away, snorted, wheeled round, and +took his own path. He may have belonged to some little native king's +establishment, fifty or sixty or a hundred miles away. + +Two hours later, as Petersen Sahib was eating early breakfast, his +elephants, who had been double-chained that night, began to trumpet, and +Pudmini, mired to the shoulders, with Kala Nag, very foot-sore, shambled +into the camp. + +Little Toomai's face was gray and pinched, and his hair was full of +leaves and drenched with dew; but he tried to salute Petersen Sahib, and +cried faintly: "The dance--the elephant-dance! I have seen it, and--I +die!" As Kala Nag sat down, he slid off his neck in a dead faint. + +But, since native children have no nerves worth speaking of, in two +hours he was lying very contentedly in Petersen Sahib's hammock with +Petersen Sahib's shooting-coat under his head, and a glass of warm milk, +a little brandy, with a dash of quinine inside of him, and while the old +hairy, scarred hunters of the jungles sat three-deep before him, looking +at him as though he were a spirit, he told his tale in short words, as a +child will, and wound up with: + +"Now, if I lie in one word, send men to see, and they will find that the +elephant-folk have trampled down more room in their dance-room, and they +will find ten and ten, and many times ten, tracks leading to that +dance-room. They made more room with their feet. I have seen it. Kala +Nag took me, and I saw. Also Kala Nag is very leg-weary!" + +Little Toomai lay back and slept all through the long afternoon and into +the twilight, and while he slept Petersen Sahib and Machua Appa followed +the track of the two elephants for fifteen miles across the hills. +Petersen Sahib had spent eighteen years in catching elephants, and he +had only once before found such a dance-place. Machua Appa had no need +to look twice at the clearing to see what had been done there, or to +scratch with his toe in the packed, rammed earth. + +"The child speaks truth," said he. "All this was done last night, and I +have counted seventy tracks crossing the river. See, Sahib, where +Pudmini's leg-iron cut the bark of that tree! Yes; she was there too." + +They looked at each other, and up and down, and they wondered; for the +ways of elephants are beyond the wit of any man, black or white, to +fathom. + +"Forty years and five," said Machua Appa, "have I followed my lord, the +elephant, but never have I heard that any child of man had seen what +this child has seen. By all the Gods of the Hills, it is--what can we +say?" and he shook his head. + +When they got back to camp it was time for the evening meal. Peterson +Sahib ate alone in his tent, but he gave orders that the camp should +have two sheep and some fowls, as well as a double-ration of flour and +rice and salt, for he knew that there would be a feast. + +Big Toomai had come up hot-foot from the camp in the plains to search +for his son and his elephant, and now that he had found them he looked +at them as though he were afraid of them both. And there was a feast by +the blazing campfires in front of the lines of picketed elephants, and +Little Toomai was the hero of it all; and the big brown +elephant-catchers, the trackers and drivers and ropers, and the men who +know all the secrets of breaking the wildest elephants, passed him from +one to the other, and they marked his forehead with blood from the +breast of a newly killed jungle-cock, to show that he was a forester, +initiated and free of all the jungles. + +And at last, when the flames died down, and the red light of the logs +made the elephants look as though they had been dipped in blood too, +Machua Appa, the head of all the drivers of all the Keddahs--Machua +Appa, Petersen Sahib's other self, who had never seen a made road in +forty years: Machua Appa, who was so great that he had no other name +than Machua Appa--leaped to his feet, with Little Toomai held high in +the air above his head, and shouted: "Listen, my brothers. Listen, too, +you my lords in the lines there, for I, Machua Appa, am speaking! This +little one shall no more be called Little Toomai, but Toomai of the +Elephants, as his great-grandfather was called before him. What never +man has seen he has seen through the long night, and the favor of the +elephant-folk and of the Gods of the Jungles is with him. He shall +become a great tracker; he shall become greater than I, even I, Machua +Appa! He shall follow the new trail, and the stale trail, and the mixed +trail, with a clear eye! He shall take no harm in the Keddah when he +runs under their bellies to rope the wild tuskers; and if he slips +before the feet of the charging bull-elephant that bull-elephant shall +know who he is and shall not crush him. _Aihai!_ my lords in the +chains,"--he whirled up the line of pickets,--"here is the little one +that has seen your dances in your hidden places--the sight that never +man saw! Give him honor, my lords! _Salaam karo_, my children. Make your +salute to Toomai of the Elephants! Gunga Pershad, ahaa! Hira Guj, +Birchi Guj, Kuttar Guj, ahaa! Pudmini,--thou hast seen him at the dance, +and thou too, Kala Nag, my pearl among elephants!--ahaa! Together! To +Toomai of the Elephants. _Barrao!_" + + [Illustration: "'TO TOOMAI OF THE ELEPHANTS. BARRAO!'"] + +And at that last wild yell the whole line flung up their trunks till the +tips touched their foreheads, and broke out into the full salute--the +crashing trumpet-peal that only the Viceroy of India hears, the Salaamut +of the Keddah. + +But it was all for the sake of Little Toomai, who had seen what never +man had seen before--the dance of the elephants at night and alone in +the heart of the Garo hills! + + + SHIV AND THE GRASSHOPPER + + (THE SONG THAT TOOMAI'S MOTHER SANG TO + THE BABY) + + Shiv, who poured the harvest and made the winds to blow, + Sitting at the doorways of a day of long ago, + Gave to each his portion, food and toil and fate, + From the King upon the _guddee_ to the Beggar at the gate. + _All things made he--Shiva the Preserver, + Mahadeo! Mahadeo! he made all,-- + Thorn for the camel, fodder for the kine, + And mother's heart for sleepy head, O little son of mine!_ + + Wheat he gave to rich folk, millet to the poor, + Broken scraps for holy men that beg from door to door; + Cattle to the tiger, carrion to the kite, + And rags and bones to wicked wolves without the wall at night. + Naught he found too lofty, none he saw too low-- + Parbati beside him watched them come and go; + Thought to cheat her husband, turning Shiv to jest-- + Stole the little grasshopper and hid it in her breast. + _So she tricked him, Shiva the Preserver. + Mahadeo! Mahadeo! turn and see. + Tall are the camels, heavy are the kine, + But this was least of little things, O little son of mine!_ + + When the dole was ended, laughingly she said, + "Master, of a million mouths is not one unfed?" + Laughing, Shiv made answer, "All have had their part, + Even he, the little one, hidden 'neath thy heart." + From her breast she plucked it, Parbati the thief, + Saw the Least of Little Things gnawed a new-grown leaf! + Saw and feared and wondered, making prayer to Shiv, + Who hath surely given meat to all that live. + _All things made he--Shiva the Preserver. + Mahadeo! Mahadeo! he made all,-- + Thorn for the camel, fodder for the kine, + And mother's heart for sleepy head, O little son of mine!_ + + + + + HER MAJESTY'S SERVANTS + + + You can work it out by Fractions or by simple Rule of Three, + But the way of Tweedle-dum is not the way of Tweedle-dee. + You can twist it, you can turn it, you can plait it till you drop + But the way of Pilly-Winky's not the way of Winkie-Pop! + + + [Illustration] + + HER MAJESTY'S SERVANTS + + +IT had been raining heavily for one whole month--raining on a camp of +thirty thousand men, thousands of camels, elephants, horses, bullocks, +and mules, all gathered together at a place called Rawal Pindi, to be +reviewed by the Viceroy of India. He was receiving a visit from the Amir +of Afghanistan--a wild king of a very wild country; and the Amir had +brought with him for a bodyguard eight hundred men and horses who had +never seen a camp or a locomotive before in their lives--savage men and +savage horses from somewhere at the back of Central Asia. Every night a +mob of these horses would be sure to break their heel-ropes, and +stampede up and down the camp through the mud in the dark, or the +camels would break loose and run about and fall over the ropes of the +tents, and you can imagine how pleasant that was for men trying to go to +sleep. My tent lay far away from the camel lines, and I thought it was +safe; but one night a man popped his head in and shouted, "Get out, +quick! They're coming! My tent's gone!" + +I knew who "they" were; so I put on my boots and waterproof and scuttled +out into the slush. Little Vixen, my fox-terrier, went out through the +other side; and then there was a roaring and a grunting and bubbling, +and I saw the tent cave in, as the pole snapped, and begin to dance +about like a mad ghost. A camel had blundered into it, and wet and angry +as I was, I could not help laughing. Then I ran on, because I did not +know how many camels might have got loose, and before long I was out of +sight of the camp, plowing my way through the mud. + + [Illustration: "A CAMEL HAD BLUNDERED INTO MY TENT."] + +At last I fell over the tail-end of a gun, and by that knew I was +somewhere near the Artillery lines where the cannon were stacked at +night. As I did not want to plowter about any more in the drizzle and +the dark, I put my waterproof over the muzzle of one gun, and made a +sort of wigwam with two or three rammers that I found, and lay along +the tail of another gun, wondering where Vixen had got to, and where I +might be. + +Just as I was getting ready to sleep I heard a jingle of harness and a +grunt, and a mule passed me shaking his wet ears. He belonged to a +screw-gun battery, for I could hear the rattle of the straps and rings +and chains and things on his saddle-pad. The screw-guns are tidy little +cannon made in two pieces, that are screwed together when the time comes +to use them. They are taken up mountains, anywhere that a mule can find +a road, and they are very useful for fighting in rocky country. + +Behind the mule there was a camel, with his big soft feet squelching and +slipping in the mud, and his neck bobbing to and fro like a strayed +hen's. Luckily, I knew enough of beast language--not wild-beast +language, but camp-beast language, of course--from the natives to know +what he was saying. + +He must have been the one that flopped into my tent, for he called to +the mule, "What shall I do? Where shall I go? I have fought with a white +thing that waved, and it took a stick and hit me on the neck." (That was +my broken tentpole, and I was very glad to know it.) "Shall we run on?" + +"Oh, it was you," said the mule, "you and your friends, that have been +disturbing the camp? All right. You'll be beaten for this in the +morning; but I may as well give you something on account now." + +I heard the harness jingle as the mule backed and caught the camel two +kicks in the ribs that rang like a drum. "Another time," he said, +"you'll know better than to run through a mule-battery at night, +shouting 'Thieves and fire!' Sit down, and keep your silly neck quiet." + +The camel doubled up camel-fashion, like a two-foot rule, and sat down +whimpering. There was a regular beat of hoofs in the darkness, and a big +troop-horse cantered up as steadily as though he were on parade, jumped +a gun-tail, and landed close to the mule. + +"It's disgraceful," he said, blowing out his nostrils. "Those camels +have racketed through our lines again--the third time this week. How's a +horse to keep his condition if he isn't allowed to sleep? Who's here?" + +"I'm the breech-piece mule of number two gun of the First Screw +Battery," said the mule, "and the other's one of your friends. He's +waked me up too. Who are you?" + +"Number Fifteen, E troop, Ninth Lancers--Dick Cunliffe's horse. Stand +over a little, there." + +"Oh, beg your pardon," said the mule. "It's too dark to see much. Aren't +these camels too sickening for anything? I walked out of my lines to get +a little peace and quiet here." + +"My lords," said the camel humbly, "we dreamed bad dreams in the night, +and we were very much afraid. I am only a baggage-camel of the 39th +Native Infantry, and I am not so brave as you are, my lords." + +"Then why the pickets didn't you stay and carry baggage for the 39th +Native Infantry, instead of running all round the camp?" said the mule. + +"They were such very bad dreams," said the camel. "I am sorry. Listen! +What is that? Shall we run on again?" + +"Sit down," said the mule, "or you'll snap your long legs between the +guns." He cocked one ear and listened. "Bullocks!" he said; +"gun-bullocks. On my word, you and your friends have waked the camp very +thoroughly. It takes a good deal of prodding to put up a gun-bullock." + +I heard a chain dragging along the ground, and a yoke of the great sulky +white bullocks that drag the heavy siege-guns when the elephants won't +go any nearer to the firing, came shouldering along together; and almost +stepping on the chain was another battery-mule, calling wildly for +"Billy." + +"That's one of our recruits," said the old mule to the troop-horse. +"He's calling for me. Here, youngster, stop squealing; the dark never +hurt anybody yet." + +The gun-bullocks lay down together and began chewing the cud, but the +young mule huddled close to Billy. + +"Things!" he said; "fearful and horrible things, Billy! They came into +our lines while we were asleep. D'you think they'll kill us?" + +"I've a very great mind to give you a number one kicking," said Billy. +"The idea of a fourteen-hand mule with your training disgracing the +battery before this gentleman!" + +"Gently, gently!" said the troop-horse. "Remember they are always like +this to begin with. The first time I ever saw a man (it was in Australia +when I was a three-year-old) I ran for half a day, and if I'd seen a +camel I should have been running still." + +Nearly all our horses for the English cavalry are brought to India from +Australia, and are broken in by the troopers themselves. + +"True enough," said Billy. "Stop shaking, youngster. The first time they +put the full harness with all its chains on my back, I stood on my fore +legs and kicked every bit of it off. I hadn't learned the real science +of kicking then, but the battery said they had never seen anything like +it." + +"But this wasn't harness or anything that jingled," said the young mule. +"You know I don't mind that now, Billy. It was Things like trees, and +they fell up and down the lines and bubbled; and my head-rope broke, and +I couldn't find my driver, and I couldn't find you, Billy, so I ran off +with--with these gentlemen." + +"H'm!" said Billy. "As soon as I heard the camels were loose I came away +on my own account, quietly. When a battery--a screw-gun mule calls +gun-bullocks gentlemen, he must be very badly shaken up. Who are you +fellows on the ground there?" + +The gun-bullocks rolled their cuds, and answered both together: "The +seventh yoke of the first gun of the Big Gun Battery. We were asleep +when the camels came, but when we were trampled on we got up and walked +away. It is better to lie quiet in the mud than to be disturbed on good +bedding. We told your friend here that there was nothing to be afraid +of, but he knew so much that he thought otherwise. Wah!" + +They went on chewing. + +"That comes of being afraid," said Billy. "You get laughed at by +gun-bullocks. I hope you like it, young 'un." + +The young mule's teeth snapped, and I heard him say something about not +being afraid of any beefy old bullock in the world; but the bullocks +only clicked their horns together and went on chewing. + +"Now, don't be angry _after_ you've been afraid. That's the worst kind +of cowardice," said the troop-horse. "Anybody can be forgiven for being +scared in the night, _I_ think, if they see things they don't +understand. We've broken out of our pickets, again and again, four +hundred and fifty of us, just because a new recruit got to telling tales +of whip-snakes at home in Australia till we were scared to death of the +loose ends of our head-ropes." + +[Illustration: "'ANYBODY CAN BE FORGIVEN FOR BEING SCARED IN THE NIGHT,' + SAID THE TROOP-HORSE."] + +"That's all very well in camp," said Billy; "I'm not above stampeding +myself, for the fun of the thing, when I haven't been out for a day or +two; but what do you do on active service?" + +"Oh, that's quite another set of new shoes," said the troop-horse. "Dick +Cunliffe's on my back then, and drives his knees into me, and all I +have to do is to watch where I am putting my feet, and to keep my hind +legs well under me, and be bridle-wise." + +"What's bridle-wise?" said the young mule. + +"By the Blue Gums of the Back Blocks," snorted the troop-horse, "do you +mean to say that you aren't taught to be bridle-wise in your business? +How can you do anything, unless you can spin round at once when the rein +is pressed on your neck? It means life or death to your man, and of +course that's life or death to you. Get round with your hind legs under +you the instant you feel the rein on your neck. If you haven't room to +swing round, rear up a little and come round on your hind legs. That's +being bridle-wise." + +"We aren't taught that way," said Billy the mule stiffly. "We're taught +to obey the man at our head: step off when he says so, and step in when +he says so. I suppose it comes to the same thing. Now, with all this +fine fancy business and rearing, which must be very bad for your hocks, +what do you _do_?" + +"That depends," said the troop-horse. "Generally I have to go in among a +lot of yelling, hairy men with knives,--long shiny knives, worse than +the farrier's knives,--and I have to take care that Dick's boot is just +touching the next man's boot without crushing it. I can see Dick's lance +to the right of my right eye, and I know I'm safe. I shouldn't care to +be the man or horse that stood up to Dick and me when we're in a hurry." + +"Don't the knives hurt?" said the young mule. + +"Well, I got one cut across the chest once, but that wasn't Dick's +fault--" + +"A lot I should have cared whose fault it was, if it hurt!" said the +young mule. + +"You must," said the troop-horse. "If you don't trust your man, you may +as well run away at once. That's what some of our horses do, and I don't +blame them. As I was saying, it wasn't Dick's fault. The man was lying +on the ground, and I stretched myself not to tread on him, and he +slashed up at me. Next time I have to go over a man lying down I shall +step on him--hard." + +[Illustration: "'THE MAN WAS LYING ON THE GROUND, AND I STRETCHED MYSELF + NOT TO TREAD ON HIM, AND HE SLASHED UP AT ME.'"] + +"H'm!" said Billy; "it sounds very foolish. Knives are dirty things at +any time. The proper thing to do is to climb up a mountain with a +well-balanced saddle, hang on by all four feet and your ears too, and +creep and crawl and wriggle along, till you come out hundreds of feet +above any one else, on a ledge where there's just room enough for your +hoofs. Then you stand still and keep quiet,--never ask a man to hold +your head, young 'un,--keep quiet while the guns are being put together, +and then you watch the little poppy shells drop down into the tree-tops +ever so far below." + +"Don't you ever trip?" said the troop-horse. + +"They say that when a mule trips you can split a hen's ear," said Billy. +"Now and again _per-haps_ a badly packed saddle will upset a mule, but +it's very seldom. I wish I could show you our business. It's beautiful. +Why, it took me three years to find out what the men were driving at. +The science of the thing is never to show up against the sky-line, +because, if you do, you may get fired at. Remember that, young 'un. +Always keep hidden as much as possible, even if you have to go a mile +out of your way. I lead the battery when it comes to that sort of +climbing." + +"Fired at without the chance of running into the people who are firing!" +said the troop-horse, thinking hard. "I couldn't stand that. I should +want to charge, with Dick." + +"Oh no, you wouldn't; you know that as soon as the guns are in position +_they'll_ do all the charging. That's scientific and neat; but +knives--pah!" + +The baggage-camel had been bobbing his head to and fro for some time +past, anxious to get a word in edgeways. Then I heard him say, as he +cleared his throat, nervously: + +"I--I--I have fought a little, but not in that climbing way or that +running way." + +"No. Now you mention it," said Billy, "you don't look as though you were +made for climbing or running--much. Well, how was it, old Hay-bales?" + +"The proper way," said the camel. "We all sat down--" + +"Oh, my crupper and breastplate!" said the troop-horse under his breath. +"Sat down?" + +"We sat down--a hundred of us," the camel went on, "in a big square, and +the men piled our packs and saddles outside the square, and they fired +over our backs, the men did, on all sides of the square." + +"What sort of men? Any men that came along?" said the troop-horse. "They +teach us in riding-school to lie down and let our masters fire across +us, but Dick Cunliffe is the only man I'd trust to do that. It tickles +my girths, and, besides, I can't see with my head on the ground." + +"What does it matter who fires across you?" said the camel. "There are +plenty of men and plenty of other camels close by, and a great many +clouds of smoke. I am not frightened then. I sit still and wait." + +"And yet," said Billy, "you dream bad dreams and upset the camp at +night. Well! well! Before I'd lie down, not to speak of sitting down, +and let a man fire across me, my heels and his head would have something +to say to each other. Did you ever hear anything so awful as that?" + +There was a long silence, and then one of the gun-bullocks lifted up his +big head and said, "This is very foolish indeed. There is only one way +of fighting." + +"Oh, go on," said Billy. "_Please_ don't mind me. I suppose you fellows +fight standing on your tails?" + +"Only one way," said the two together. (They must have been twins.) +"This is that way. To put all twenty yoke of us to the big gun as soon +as Two Tails trumpets." ("Two Tails" is camp slang for the elephant.) + +"What does Two Tails trumpet for?" said the young mule. + +"To show that he is not going any nearer to the smoke on the other side. +Two Tails is a great coward. Then we tug the big gun all +together--_Heya_--_Hullah! Heeyah! Hullah!_ _We_ do not climb like cats +nor run like calves. We go across the level plain, twenty yoke of us, +till we are unyoked again, and we graze while the big guns talk across +the plain to some town with mud walls, and pieces of the wall fall out, +and the dust goes up as though many cattle were coming home." + +"Oh! And you choose that time for grazing do you?" said the young mule. + +"That time or any other. Eating is always good. We eat till we are yoked +up again and tug the gun back to where Two Tails is waiting for it. +Sometimes there are big guns in the city that speak back, and some of us +are killed, and then there is all the more grazing for those that are +left. This is Fate--nothing but Fate. None the less, Two Tails is a +great coward. That is the proper way to fight. We are brothers from +Hapur. Our father was a sacred bull of Shiva. We have spoken." + +"Well, I've certainly learned something to-night," said the troop-horse. +"Do you gentlemen of the screw-gun battery feel inclined to eat when you +are being fired at with big guns, and Two Tails is behind you?" + +"About as much as we feel inclined to sit down and let men sprawl all +over us, or run into people with knives. I never heard such stuff. A +mountain ledge, a well-balanced load, a driver you can trust to let you +pick your own way, and I'm your mule; but the other things--no!" said +Billy, with a stamp of his foot. + +"Of course," said the troop-horse, "every one is not made in the same +way, and I can quite see that your family, on your father's side, would +fail to understand a great many things." + +"Never you mind my family on my father's side," said Billy angrily; for +every mule hates to be reminded that his father was a donkey. "My father +was a Southern gentleman, and he could pull down and bite and kick into +rags every horse he came across. Remember that, you big brown Brumby!" + +Brumby means wild horse without any breeding. Imagine the feelings of +Sunol if a car-horse called her a "skate," and you can imagine how the +Australian horse felt. I saw the white of his eye glitter in the dark. + +"See here, you son of an imported Malaga jackass," he said between his +teeth, "I'd have you know that I'm related on my mother's side to +Carbine, winner of the Melbourne Cup, and where _I_ come from we aren't +accustomed to being ridden over roughshod by any parrot-mouthed, +pig-headed mule in a pop-gun peashooter battery. Are you ready?" + +"On your hind legs!" squealed Billy. They both reared up facing each +other, and I was expecting a furious fight, when a gurgly, rumbly voice +called out of the darkness to the right--"Children, what are you +fighting about there? Be quiet." + +Both beasts dropped down with a snort of disgust, for neither horse nor +mule can bear to listen to an elephant's voice. + +"It's Two Tails!" said the troop-horse. "I can't stand him. A tail at +each end isn't fair!" + +"My feelings exactly," said Billy, crowding into the troop-horse for +company. "We're very alike in some things." + +"I suppose we've inherited them from our mothers," said the troop-horse. +"It's not worth quarreling about. Hi! Two Tails, are you tied up?" + +"Yes," said Two Tails, with a laugh all up his trunk. "I'm picketed for +the night. I've heard what you fellows have been saying. But don't be +afraid. I'm not coming over." + +The bullocks and the camel said, half aloud: "Afraid of Two Tails--what +nonsense!" And the bullocks went on: "We are sorry that you heard, but +it is true. Two Tails, why are you afraid of the guns when they fire?" + +"Well," said Two Tails, rubbing one hind leg against the other, exactly +like a little boy saying a piece, "I don't quite know whether you'd +understand." + +"We don't, but we have to pull the guns," said the bullocks. + +"I know it, and I know you are a good deal braver than you think you +are. But it's different with me. My battery captain called me a +Pachydermatous Anachronism the other day." + +"That's another way of fighting, I suppose?" said Billy, who was +recovering his spirits. + +"_You_ don't know what that means, of course, but I do. It means betwixt +and between, and that is just where I am. I can see inside my head what +will happen when a shell bursts; and you bullocks can't." + +"I can," said the troop-horse. "At least a little bit. I try not to +think about it." + +"I can see more than you, and I _do_ think about it. I know there's a +great deal of me to take care of, and I know that nobody knows how to +cure me when I'm sick. All they can do is to stop my driver's pay till +I get well, and I can't trust my driver." + +"Ah!" said the troop-horse. "That explains it. I can trust Dick." + +"You could put a whole regiment of Dicks on my back without making me +feel any better. I know just enough to be uncomfortable, and not enough +to go on in spite of it." + +"We do not understand," said the bullocks. + +"I know you don't. I'm not talking to you. You don't know what blood +is." + +"We do," said the bullocks. "It is red stuff that soaks into the ground +and smells." + +The troop-horse gave a kick and a bound and a snort. + +"Don't talk of it," he said. "I can smell it now, just thinking of it. +It makes me want to run--when I haven't Dick on my back." + +"But it is not here," said the camel and the bullocks. "Why are you so +stupid?" + +"It's vile stuff," said Billy. "I don't want to run, but I don't want to +talk about it." + +"There you are!" said Two Tails, waving his tail to explain. + +"Surely. Yes, we have been here all night," said the bullocks. + +Two Tails stamped his foot till the iron ring on it jingled. "Oh, I'm +not talking to _you_. You can't see inside your heads." + +"No. We see out of our four eyes," said the bullocks. "We see straight +in front of us." + +"If I could do that and nothing else you wouldn't be needed to pull the +big guns at all. If I was like my captain--he can see things inside his +head before the firing begins, and he shakes all over, but he knows too +much to run away--if I was like him I could pull the guns. But if I were +as wise as all that I should never be here. I should be a king in the +forest, as I used to be, sleeping half the day and bathing when I liked. +I haven't had a good bath for a month." + +"That's all very fine," said Billy; "but giving a thing a long name +doesn't make it any better." + +"H'sh!" said the troop-horse. "I think I understand what Two Tails +means." + +"You'll understand better in a minute," said Two Tails angrily. "Now, +just you explain to me why you don't like _this_!" + +He began trumpeting furiously at the top of his trumpet. + +"Stop that!" said Billy and the troop-horse together, and I could hear +them stamp and shiver. An elephant's trumpeting is always nasty, +especially on a dark night. + +"I sha'n't stop," said Two Tails. "Won't you explain that, please? +_Hhrrmph! Rrrt! Rrrmph! Rrrhha!_" Then he stopped suddenly, and I heard +a little whimper in the dark, and knew that Vixen had found me at last. +She knew as well as I did that if there is one thing in the world the +elephant is more afraid of than another it is a little barking dog; so +she stopped to bully Two Tails in his pickets, and yapped round his big +feet. Two Tails shuffled and squeaked. "Go away, little dog!" he said. +"Don't snuff at my ankles, or I 'll kick at you. Good little dog--nice +little doggie, then! Go home, you yelping little beast! Oh, why doesn't +some one take her away? She'll bite me in a minute." + +"Seems to me," said Billy to the troop-horse, "that our friend Two Tails +is afraid of most things. Now, if I had a full meal for every dog I've +kicked across the parade-ground, I should be as fat as Two Tails +nearly." + +I whistled, and Vixen ran up to me, muddy all over, and licked my nose, +and told me a long tale about hunting for me all through the camp. I +never let her know that I understood beast talk, or she would have taken +all sorts of liberties. So I buttoned her into the breast of my +overcoat, and Two Tails shuffled and stamped and growled to himself. + +"Extraordinary! Most extraordinary!" he said. "It runs in our family. +Now, where has that nasty little beast gone to?" + +I heard him feeling about with his trunk. + +"We all seem to be affected in various ways," he went on, blowing his +nose. "Now, you gentlemen were alarmed, I believe, when I trumpeted." + +"Not alarmed, exactly," said the troop-horse, "but it made me feel as +though I had hornets where my saddle ought to be. Don't begin again." + +"I'm frightened of a little dog, and the camel here is frightened by bad +dreams in the night." + +"It is very lucky for us that we haven't all got to fight in the same +way," said the troop-horse. + +"What I want to know," said the young mule, who had been quiet for a +long time--"what _I_ want to know is, why we have to fight at all." + +"Because we are told to," said the troop-horse, with a snort of +contempt. + +"Orders," said Billy the mule; and his teeth snapped. + +"_Hukm hai!_" (It is an order), said the camel with a gurgle; and Two +Tails and the bullocks repeated, "_Hukm hai!_" + +"Yes, but who gives the orders?" said the recruit-mule. + +"The man who walks at your head--Or sits on your back--Or holds the +nose-rope--Or twists your tail," said Billy and the troop-horse and the +camel and the bullocks one after the other. + +"But who gives them the orders?" + +"Now you want to know too much, young un," said Billy, "and that is one +way of getting kicked. All you have to do is to obey the man at your +head and ask no questions." + +"He's quite right," said Two Tails. "I can't always obey, because I'm +betwixt and between; but Billy's right. Obey the man next to you who +gives the order, or you'll stop all the battery, besides getting a +thrashing." + +The gun-bullocks got up to go. "Morning is coming," they said. "We will +go back to our lines. It is true that we see only out of our eyes, and +we are not very clever; but still, we are the only people to-night who +have not been afraid. Good night, you brave people." + +Nobody answered, and the troop-horse said, to change the conversation, +"Where's that little dog? A dog means a man somewhere near." + +"Here I am," yapped Vixen, "under the gun-tail with my man. You big, +blundering beast of a camel you, you upset our tent. My man's very +angry." + +"Phew!" said the bullocks. "He must be white?" + +"Of course he is," said Vixen. "Do you suppose I'm looked after by a +black bullock-driver?" + +"_Huah! Ouach! Ugh!_" said the bullocks. "Let us get away quickly." + +They plunged forward in the mud, and managed somehow to run their yoke +on the pole of an ammunition-wagon, where it jammed. + +"Now you _have_ done it," said Billy calmly. "Don't struggle. You're +hung up till daylight. What on earth's the matter?" + +The bullocks went off into the long hissing snorts that Indian cattle +give, and pushed and crowded and slued and stamped and slipped and +nearly fell down in the mud, grunting savagely. + +"You'll break your necks in a minute," said the troop-horse. "What's the +matter with white men? I live with 'em." + +"They--eat--us! Pull!" said the near bullock: the yoke snapped with a +twang, and they lumbered off together. + +I never knew before what made Indian cattle so afraid of Englishmen. We +eat beef--a thing that no cattle-driver touches--and of course the +cattle do not like it. + +"May I be flogged with my own pad-chains! Who'd have thought of two big +lumps like those losing their heads?" said Billy. + +"Never mind. I'm going to look at this man. Most of the white men, I +know, have things in their pockets," said the troop-horse. + +"I'll leave you, then. I can't say I'm overfond of 'em myself. Besides, +white men who haven't a place to sleep in are more than likely to be +thieves, and I've a good deal of Government property on my back. Come +along, young 'un, and we'll go back to our lines. Good-night, Australia! +See you on parade to-morrow, I suppose. Good-night, old Hay-bale!--try +to control your feelings, won't you? Good-night, Two Tails! If you pass +us on the ground to-morrow, don't trumpet. It spoils our formation." + +Billy the mule stumped off with the swaggering limp of an old +campaigner, as the troop-horse's head came nuzzling into my breast, and +I gave him biscuits; while Vixen, who is a most conceited little dog, +told him fibs about the scores of horses that she and I kept. + +"I'm coming to the parade to-morrow in my dog-cart," she said. "Where +will you be?" + +"On the left hand of the second squadron. I set the time for all my +troop, little lady," he said politely. "Now I must go back to Dick. My +tail's all muddy, and he'll have two hours' hard work dressing me for +the parade." + +The big parade of all the thirty thousand men was held that afternoon, +and Vixen and I had a good place close to the Viceroy and the Amir of +Afghanistan, with his high big black hat of astrakhan wool and the great +diamond star in the center. The first part of the review was all +sunshine, and the regiments went by in wave upon wave of legs all moving +together, and guns all in a line, till our eyes grew dizzy. Then the +cavalry came up, to the beautiful cavalry canter of "Bonnie Dundee," and +Vixen cocked her ear where she sat on the dog-cart. The second squadron +of the lancers shot by, and there was the troop-horse, with his tail +like spun silk, his head pulled into his breast, one ear forward and one +back, setting the time for all his squadron, his legs going as smoothly +as waltz-music. Then the big guns came by, and I saw Two Tails and two +other elephants harnessed in line to a forty-pounder siege-gun while +twenty yoke of oxen walked behind. The seventh pair had a new yoke, and +they looked rather stiff and tired. Last came the screw-guns, and Billy +the mule carried himself as though he commanded all the troops, and his +harness was oiled and polished till it winked. I gave a cheer all by +myself for Billy the mule, but he never looked right or left. + +The rain began to fall again, and for a while it was too misty to see +what the troops were doing. They had made a big half-circle across the +plain, and were spreading out into a line. That line grew and grew and +grew till it was three-quarters of a mile long from wing to wing--one +solid wall of men, horses, and guns. Then it came on straight toward the +Viceroy and the Amir, and as it got nearer the ground began to shake, +like the deck of a steamer when the engines are going fast. + +Unless you have been there you cannot imagine what a frightening effect +this steady come-down of troops has on the spectators, even when they +know it is only a review. I looked at the Amir. Up till then he had not +shown the shadow of a sign of astonishment or anything else; but now his +eyes began to get bigger and bigger, and he picked up the reins on his +horse's neck and looked behind him. For a minute it seemed as though he +were going to draw his sword and slash his way out through the +English men and women in the carriages at the back. Then the advance +stopped dead, the ground stood still, the whole line saluted, and thirty +bands began to play all together. That was the end of the review, and +the regiments went off to their camps in the rain; and an infantry band +struck up with-- + + The animals went in two by two, + Hurrah! + The animals went in two by two, + The elephant and the battery mu- + l', and they all got into the Ark, + For to get out of the rain! + +Then I heard an old, grizzled, long-haired Central Asian chief, who had +come down with the Amir, asking questions of a native officer. + +[Illustration: "THEN I HEARD AN OLD, GRIZZLED, LONG-HAIRED, CENTRAL + ASIAN CHIEF ASKING QUESTIONS OF A NATIVE OFFICER."] + +"Now," said he, "in what manner was this wonderful thing done?" + +And the officer answered, "There was an order, and they obeyed." + +"But are the beasts as wise as the men?" said the chief. + +"They obey, as the men do. Mule, horse, elephant, or bullock, he obeys +his driver, and the driver his sergeant, and the sergeant his +lieutenant, and the lieutenant his captain, and the captain his major, +and the major his colonel, and the colonel his brigadier commanding +three regiments, and the brigadier his general, who obeys the Viceroy, +who is the servant of the Empress. Thus it is done." + +"Would it were so in Afghanistan!" said the chief; "for there we obey +only our own wills." + +"And for that reason," said the native officer, twirling his mustache, +"your Amir whom you do not obey must come here and take orders from our +Viceroy." + + + PARADE-SONG OF THE CAMP ANIMALS + + ELEPHANTS OF THE GUN-TEAM + + We lent to Alexander the strength of Hercules, + The wisdom of our foreheads, the cunning of our knees; + We bowed our necks to service; they ne'er were loosed again,-- + Make way there, way for the ten-foot teams + Of the Forty-Pounder train! + + + GUN-BULLOCKS + + Those heroes in their harnesses avoid a cannon-ball, + And what they know of powder upsets them one and all; + Then _we_ come into action and tug the guns again,-- + Make way there, way for the twenty yoke + Of the Forty-Pounder train! + + + CAVALRY HORSES + + By the brand on my withers, the finest of tunes + Is played by the Lancers, Hussars, and Dragoons, + And it's sweeter than "Stables" or "Water" to me, + The Cavalry Canter of "Bonnie Dundee"! + + Then feed us and break us and handle and groom, + And give us good riders and plenty of room, + And launch us in column of squadrons and see + The way of the war-horse to "Bonnie Dundee"! + + + SCREW-GUN MULES + + As me and my companions were scrambling up a hill, + The path was lost in rolling stones, but we went + forward still; + For we can wriggle and climb, my lads, and turn up + everywhere, + And it's our delight on a mountain height, with + a leg or two to spare! + + Good luck to every sergeant, then, that lets us + pick our road; + Bad luck to all the driver-men that cannot pack + a load: + For we can wriggle and climb, my lads, and turn + up everywhere, + And it's our delight on a mountain height with + a leg or two to spare! + + + COMMISSARIAT CAMELS + + We haven't a camelty tune of our own + To help us trollop along, + But every neck is a hairy trombone + (_Rtt-ta-ta-ta!_ is a hairy trombone!) + And this is our marching song: + _Can't! Don't! Sha'n't! Won't!_ + Pass it along the line! + Somebody's pack has slid from his back, + Wish it were only mine! + Somebody's load has tipped off in the road-- + Cheer for a halt and a row! + _Urrr! Yarrh! Grr! Arrh!_ + Somebody's catching it now! + + + ALL THE BEASTS TOGETHER + + Children of the Camp are we, + Serving each in his degree; + Children of the yoke and goad, + Pack and harness, pad and load. + See our line across the plain, + Like a heel-rope bent again. + Reaching, writhing, rolling far, + Sweeping all away to war! + While the men that walk beside, + Dusty, silent, heavy-eyed, + Cannot tell why we or they + March and suffer day by day. + _Children of the Camp are we,_ + _Serving each in his degree;_ + _Children of the yoke and goad,_ + _Pack and harness, pad and load._ + + + + + Transcriber's Notes: + +Passages in italics were indicated by _underscores_. + +Small caps were replaced with ALL CAPS. + +Throughout the dialogues, there were words used to mimic accents of +the speakers. Those words were retained as-is. + +The illustrations have been moved so that they do not break up +paragraphs and so that they are next the text they illustrate. Thus the +page number of the illustration might not match the page number in the +List of Illustrations, and the order of illustrations may not be the +same in the List of Illustrations and in the book. + +On page 78, "Bandar log" was replaced with "Bandar-log". + +On page 80, a period was added after "leave to hunt here". + +On page 156, "Novastoshna" was replaced with "Novastoshnah". + +On page 171, "floam-flecked" was replaced with "foam-flecked". + +On page 299, there is a hyphen at the end of a line of poetry. 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You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms +of the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online +at <a href="https://www.gutenberg.org">www.gutenberg.org</a>. If you +are not located in the United States, you will have to check the laws of the +country where you are located before using this eBook. +</div> +<div style='display:block; margin-top:1em; margin-bottom:1em; margin-left:2em; text-indent:-2em'>Title: The Jungle Book</div> +<div style='display:block; margin-top:1em; margin-bottom:1em; margin-left:2em; text-indent:-2em'>Author: Rudyard Kipling</div> +<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'>Release Date: April 30, 2011 [eBook #35997]<br /> +[Most recently updated: May 1, 2023]</div> +<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'>Language: English</div> +<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'>Character set encoding: UTF-8</div> +<div style='display:block; margin-left:2em; text-indent:-2em'>Produced by: Suzanne Shell, Ernest Schaal, and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team</div> +<div style='margin-top:2em; margin-bottom:4em'>*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE JUNGLE BOOK ***</div> + +<table summary="" style="margin-right: auto; margin-left: auto" cellpadding="4" border="3"> +<tr> +<td> +THERE IS ANOTHER EDITION OF THIS TITLE WITH ADDITIONAL ILLUSTRATIONS WHICH MAY VIEWED AT EBOOK <big><b><a href="https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/236"> +[# 236 ]</a></b></big> +</td> +</tr> +</table> + +<div class="figcenter"> +<img class="border" src="images/cover.jpg" width="400" height="613" alt="Book Cover" title="Book Cover" /> +</div> + +<hr class="hr2" /> + +<h1>THE JUNGLE BOOK</h1> + +<hr class="hr2" /> + +<div class="figcenter"> +<img src="images/sig.png" alt="Rudyard Kipling" title="Rudyard Kipling" /> +</div> + +<hr class="hr2" /> + +<div class="figcenter"> +<a name="gs01.png" id="gs01.png"></a> +<img class="border" src="images/gs01.png" +alt="" title="" /><br /> +<span class="caption">"LITTLE TOOMAI LAID HIMSELF DOWN CLOSE TO THE GREAT NECK<br /> +LEST A SWINGING BOUGH SHOULD SWEEP HIM TO<br /> +THE GROUND." (SEE PAGE 246.)</span> +</div> + +<hr class="hr2" /> + +<div class="figcenter"> +<img class="border" src="images/tp.png" alt="THE JUNGLE BOOK + +BY +RUDYARD KIPLING + +NEW YORK +THE CENTURY CO. +1910" +title="THE +JUNGLE BOOK + +BY +RUDYARD KIPLING + +NEW YORK +THE CENTURY CO. +1910" /> +</div> + +<hr class="hr2" /> + +<p class="cnobmargin">Copyright 1893, 1894, by</p> +<p class="cnomargins"><span class="smcap">Rudyard Kipling</span></p> +<p class="cnomargins">Copyright, 1894, by</p> +<p class="cnomargins"><span class="smcap">Harper</span> and <span class="smcap">Brothers</span></p> +<p class="cnomargins">Copyright 1893, 1894, by</p> +<p class="cnotmargin"><span class="smcap">The Century Co.</span></p> + +<hr class="hr2" /> + +<h2>CONTENTS</h2> + +<p class="right">PAGE</p> + +<p class="scnormal">Mowgli’s Brothers <span class="ralign"><a href="#ch01.png">1</a></span></p> + +<p class="scindent">Hunting-Song of the Seeonee Pack <span class="ralign"><a href="#song1">42</a></span></p> + +<p class="scnormal">Kaa’s Hunting <span class="ralign"><a href="#ch02.png">47</a></span></p> + +<p class="scindent">Road-Song of the Bandar-log <span class="ralign"><a href="#song2">89</a></span></p> + +<p class="scnormal">“Tiger! Tiger!” <span class="ralign"><a href="#ch03.png">93</a></span></p> + +<p class="scindent">Mowgli’s Song <span class="ralign"><a href="#song3">131</a></span></p> + +<p class="scnormal">The White Seal <span class="ralign"><a href="#ch04.png">137</a></span></p> + +<p class="scindent">Lukannon <span class="ralign"><a href="#song4">170</a></span></p> + +<p class="scnormal">“Rikki-tikki-tavi” <span class="ralign"><a href="#ch05.png">175</a></span></p> + +<p class="scindent">Darzee’s Chaunt <span class="ralign"><a href="#song5">212</a></span></p> + +<p class="scnormal">Toomai of the Elephants <span class="ralign"><a href="#ch06.png">217</a></span></p> + +<p class="scindent">Shiv and the Grasshopper <span class="ralign"><a href="#song6">261</a></span></p> + +<p class="scnormal">Her Majesty’s Servants <span class="ralign"><a href="#ch07.png">265</a></span></p> + +<p class="scindent">Parade-Song of the Camp Animals <span class="ralign"><a href="#song7">300</a></span></p> + +<hr class="hr2" /> + +<h2>LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS</h2> + +<p class="right">PAGE</p> + +<p>"Little Toomai laid himself down close to the<br /> +great Neck, lest a swinging Bough should<br /> +sweep him to the Ground" <span class="ralign"><a href="#gs01.png">Frontispiece</a></span></p> + +<p>"'Good Luck go with you, O Chief of the<br /> +Wolves'" <span class="ralign"><a href="#gs02.png">5</a></span></p> + +<p>"The Tiger's Roar filled the Cave with Thunder" <span class="ralign"><a href="#gs03.png">11</a></span></p> + +<p>The Meeting at the Council Rock <span class="ralign"><a href="#gs04.png">17</a></span></p> + +<p>"Bagheera would lie out on a Branch and call,<br /> +'Come along, Little Brother'" <span class="ralign"><a href="#gs05.png">23</a></span></p> + +<p>"'Wake, Little Brother; I bring News'" <span class="ralign"><a href="#gs06.png">99</a></span></p> + +<p>"'Are all these Tales such Cobwebs and Moon-Talk?'<br /> +said Mowgli" <span class="ralign"><a href="#gs07.png">105</a></span></p> + +<p>"Buldeo lay as still, as still, expecting every Minute<br /> +to see Mowgli turn into a Tiger, too" <span class="ralign"><a href="#gs09.png">121</a></span></p> + +<p>"When the Moon rose over the Plain the Villagers<br /> +saw Mowgli trotting across, with two<br /> +Wolves at his Heels" <span class="ralign"><a href="#gs10.png">126</a></span></p> + +<p>"They clambered up on the Council Rock together,<br /> +and Mowgli spread the Skin out on<br /> +the flat Stone" <span class="ralign"><a href="#gs11.png">129</a></span></p> + +<p>"Ten Fathoms Deep" <span class="ralign"><a href="#gs12.png">146</a></span></p> + +<p>"They were all awake and staring in every Direction<br /> +but the right one" <span class="ralign"><a href="#gs13.png">154</a></span></p> + +<p>"He had found Sea Cow at last" <span class="ralign"><a href="#gs14.png">162</a></span></p> + +<p>"Rikki-tikki looked down between the Boy's Collar<br /> +and Neck" <span class="ralign"><a href="#gs15.png">177</a></span></p> + +<p>"He put his Nose into the Ink" <span class="ralign"><a href="#gs16.png">178</a></span></p> + +<p>"Rikki-tikki was awake on the Pillow" <span class="ralign"><a href="#gs17.png">179</a></span></p> + +<p>"He came to Breakfast riding on Teddy's Shoulder" <span class="ralign"><a href="#gs18.png">180</a></span></p> + +<p>"'We are very miserable,' said Darzee" <span class="ralign"><a href="#gs19.png">181</a></span></p> + +<p>"'I am Nag,' said the Cobra: 'Look, and be afraid.'<br /> +But at the Bottom of his cold Heart <i>HE</i> was<br /> +afraid" <span class="ralign"><a href="#gs20.png">183</a></span></p> + +<p>"He jumped up in the Air, and just under him<br /> +whizzed by the Head of Nagaina" <span class="ralign"><a href="#gs21.png">187</a></span></p> + +<p>"In the Dark he ran up against Chuchundra,<br /> +the Muskrat" <span class="ralign"><a href="#gs22.png">192</a></span></p> + +<p>"Then Rikki-tikki was battered to and fro as<br /> +a Rat is shaken by a Dog" <span class="ralign"><a href="#gs23.png">197</a></span></p> + +<p>Darzee's Wife pretends to have a broken Wing <span class="ralign"><a href="#gs24.png">201</a></span></p> + +<p>"Nagaina flew down the Path with Rikki-tikki<br /> +behind her" <span class="ralign"><a href="#gs25.png">207</a></span></p> + +<p>"It is all over" <span class="ralign"><a href="#gs26.png">210</a></span></p> + +<p>"Kala Nag was the best-loved Elephant in the<br /> +Service" <span class="ralign"><a href="#gs27.png">219</a></span></p> + +<p>"'He is afraid of me,' said Little Toomai, and<br /> +he made Kala Nag lift up his Feet one<br /> +after the other" <span class="ralign"><a href="#gs28.png">223</a></span></p> + +<p>"He would get his Torch and wave it, and yell<br /> +with the Best" <span class="ralign"><a href="#gs29.png">229</a></span></p> + +<p>"'Not green Corn, Protector of the Poor,—Melons,'<br /> +said Little Toomai" <span class="ralign"><a href="#gs30.png">235</a></span></p> + +<p>"Little Toomai looked down upon Scores and<br /> +Scores of broad Backs" <span class="ralign"><a href="#gs31.png">251</a></span></p> + +<p>"'To Toomai of the Elephants. Barrao!'" <span class="ralign"><a href="#gs32.png">259</a></span></p> + +<p>"A Camel had blundered into my Tent" <span class="ralign"><a href="#gs33.png">267</a></span></p> + +<p>"'Anybody can be forgiven for being scared in the<br /> +Night,' said the Troop-horse" <span class="ralign"><a href="#gs34.png">275</a></span></p> + +<p>"'The Man was lying on the Ground, and I<br /> +stretched myself not to tread on him, and<br /> +he slashed up at me'" <span class="ralign"><a href="#gs35.png">279</a></span></p> + +<p>"Then I heard an old, grizzled, long-haired Central<br /> +Asian Chief asking Questions of a native<br /> +Officer" <span class="ralign"><a href="#gs36.png">297</a></span></p> + +<hr class="hr2" /> + +<h2>THE JUNGLE BOOK</h2> + +<hr class="hr2" /> + +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Now Rann, the Kite, brings home the night</span><br /> +<span class="i2">That Mang, the Bat, sets free—</span><br /> +<span class="i0">The herds are shut in byre and hut,</span><br /> +<span class="i2">For loosed till dawn are we.</span><br /> +<span class="i0">This is the hour of pride and power,</span><br /> +<span class="i2">Talon and tush and claw.</span><br /> +<span class="i0">Oh, hear the call!—Good hunting all</span><br /> +<span class="i2">That keep the Jungle Law!</span><br /> +<span class="i4"><i>Night-Song in the Jungle.</i></span> +</div> +</div> + +<hr class="hr2" /> + +<div class="figcenter"> +<a name="ch01.png" id="ch01.png"></a> +<img class="border" src="images/ch01.png" alt="" title="" /> +</div> + +<h2>MOWGLI'S BROTHERS</h2> + +<p class="cap">IT was seven o'clock of a very warm evening in +the Seeonee hills when Father Wolf woke up +from his day's rest, scratched himself, yawned, +and spread out his paws one after the other to +get rid of the sleepy feeling in the tips. Mother +Wolf lay with her big gray nose dropped across +her four tumbling, squealing cubs, and the moon +shone into the mouth of the cave where they all +lived. "Augrh!" said Father Wolf, "it is time to +hunt again"; and he was going to spring downhill +when a little shadow with a bushy tail crossed +the threshold and whined: "Good luck go with +you, O Chief of the Wolves; and good luck and +strong white teeth go with the noble children, +that they may never forget the hungry in this +world."</p> + +<div class="figcenter"> +<a name="gs02.png" id="gs02.png"></a> +<img class="border" src="images/gs02.png" +alt=""'GOOD LUCK GO WITH YOU, O CHIEF OF THE WOLVES.'"" +title="GOOD LUCK GO WITH YOU, O CHIEF OF THE WOLVES.'"" /> +<br /> +<span class="caption">"'GOOD LUCK GO WITH YOU, O CHIEF OF THE WOLVES.'"</span> +</div> + +<p class="indent">It was the jackal—Tabaqui, the Dish-licker—and +the wolves of India despise Tabaqui because +he runs about making mischief, and telling tales, +and eating rags and pieces of leather from the +village rubbish-heaps. They are afraid of him +too, because Tabaqui, more than any one else in +the jungle, is apt to go mad, and then he forgets +that he was ever afraid of any one, and runs +through the forest biting everything in his way. +Even the tiger hides when little Tabaqui goes +mad, for madness is the most disgraceful thing +that can overtake a wild creature. We call it +hydrophobia, but they call it <i>dewanee</i>—the +madness—and run.</p> + +<p class="indent">"Enter, then, and look," said Father Wolf, +stiffly; "but there is no food here."</p> + +<p class="indent">"For a wolf, no," said Tabaqui; "but for so +mean a person as myself a dry bone is a good +feast. Who are we, the Gidur-log [the Jackal +People], to pick and choose?" He scuttled to +the back of the cave, where he found the bone of +a buck with some meat on it, and sat cracking +the end merrily.</p> + +<p class="indent">"All thanks for this good meal," he said, licking +his lips. "How beautiful are the noble children! +How large are their eyes! And so young +too! Indeed, indeed, I might have remembered +that the children of kings are men from the +beginning."</p> + +<p class="indent">Now, Tabaqui knew as well as any one else +that there is nothing so unlucky as to compliment +children to their faces; and it pleased +him to see Mother and Father Wolf look uncomfortable.</p> + +<p class="indent">Tabaqui sat still, rejoicing in the mischief that +he had made, and then he said spitefully:</p> + +<p class="indent">"Shere Khan, the Big One, has shifted his +hunting-grounds. He will hunt among these +hills during the next moon, so he has told me."</p> + +<p class="indent">Shere Khan was the tiger who lived near the +Waingunga River, twenty miles away.</p> + +<p class="indent">"He has no right!" Father Wolf began +angrily. "By the Law of the Jungle he has no +right to change his quarters without fair warning. +He will frighten every head of game within ten +miles; and I—I have to kill for two, these days."</p> + +<p class="indent">"His mother did not call him Lungri [the Lame +One] for nothing," said Mother Wolf, quietly. +"He has been lame in one foot from his birth. +That is why he has only killed cattle. Now the +villagers of the Waingunga are angry with him, +and he has come here to make <i>our</i> villagers +angry. They will scour the jungle for him when +he is far away, and we and our children must run +when the grass is set alight. Indeed, we are +very grateful to Shere Khan!"</p> + +<p class="indent">"Shall I tell him of your gratitude?" said +Tabaqui.</p> + +<p class="indent">"Out!" snapped Father Wolf. "Out, and +hunt with thy master. Thou hast done harm +enough for one night."</p> + +<p class="indent">"I go," said Tabaqui, quietly. "Ye can hear +Shere Khan below in the thickets. I might have +saved myself the message."</p> + +<p class="indent">Father Wolf listened, and in the dark valley +that ran down to a little river, he heard the dry, +angry, snarly, singsong whine of a tiger who has +caught nothing and does not care if all the jungle +knows it.</p> + +<p class="indent">"The fool!" said Father Wolf. "To begin a +night's work with that noise! Does he think +that our buck are like his fat Waingunga bullocks?"</p> + +<p class="indent">"H'sh! It is neither bullock nor buck that he +hunts to-night," said Mother Wolf; "it is Man." +The whine had changed to a sort of humming +purr that seemed to roll from every quarter of +the compass. It was the noise that bewilders +wood-cutters, and gipsies sleeping in the open, +and makes them run sometimes into the very +mouth of the tiger.</p> + +<p class="indent">"Man!" said Father Wolf, showing all his +white teeth. "Faugh! Are there not enough +beetles and frogs in the tanks that he must eat +Man—and on our ground too!"</p> + +<p class="indent">The Law of the Jungle, which never orders +anything without a reason, forbids every beast to +eat Man except when he is killing to show his +children how to kill, and then he must hunt outside +the hunting-grounds of his pack or tribe. +The real reason for this is that man-killing +means, sooner or later, the arrival of white men +on elephants, with guns, and hundreds of brown +men with gongs and rockets and torches. Then +everybody in the jungle suffers. The reason the +beasts give among themselves is that Man is the +weakest and most defenseless of all living things, +and it is unsportsmanlike to touch him. They +say too—and it is true—that man-eaters become +mangy, and lose their teeth.</p> + +<p class="indent">The purr grew louder, and ended in the full-throated +"Aaarh!" of the tiger's charge.</p> + +<p class="indent">Then there was a howl—an untigerish howl—from +Shere Khan. "He has missed," said +Mother Wolf. "What is it?"</p> + +<p class="indent">Father Wolf ran out a few paces and heard +Shere Khan muttering and mumbling savagely, +as he tumbled about in the scrub.</p> + +<p class="indent">"The fool has had no more sense than to +jump at a wood-cutters' camp-fire, so he has +burned his feet," said Father Wolf, with a grunt. +"Tabaqui is with him."</p> + +<p class="indent">"Something is coming uphill," said Mother +Wolf, twitching one ear. "Get ready."</p> + +<p class="indent">The bushes rustled a little in the thicket, and +Father Wolf dropped with his haunches under +him, ready for his leap. Then, if you had been +watching, you would have seen the most wonderful +thing in the world—the wolf checked in mid-spring. +He made his bound before he saw what +it was he was jumping at, and then he tried to +stop himself. The result was that he shot up +straight into the air for four or five feet, landing +almost where he left ground.</p> + +<p class="indent">"Man!" he snapped. "A man's cub. Look!"</p> + +<p class="indent">Directly in front of him, holding on by a low +branch, stood a naked brown baby who could just +walk—as soft and as dimpled a little thing as +ever came to a wolf's cave at night. He looked +up into Father Wolf's face and laughed.</p> + +<p class="indent">"Is that a man's cub?" said Mother Wolf. "I +have never seen one. Bring it here."</p> + +<p class="indent">A wolf accustomed to moving his own cubs +can, if necessary, mouth an egg without breaking +it, and though Father Wolf's jaws closed right +on the child's back not a tooth even scratched +the skin, as he laid it down among the cubs.</p> + +<p class="indent">"How little! How naked, and—how bold!" +said Mother Wolf, softly. The baby was pushing +his way between the cubs to get close to the +warm hide. "Ahai! He is taking his meal with +the others. And so this is a man's cub. Now, +was there ever a wolf that could boast of a man's +cub among her children?"</p> + +<p class="indent">"I have heard now and again of such a thing, +but never in our pack or in my time," said Father +Wolf. "He is altogether without hair, and +I could kill him with a touch of my foot. But +see, he looks up and is not afraid."</p> + +<p class="indent">The moonlight was blocked out of the mouth +of the cave, for Shere Khan's great square head +and shoulders were thrust into the entrance. +Tabaqui, behind him, was squeaking: "My Lord, +my Lord, it went in here!"</p> + +<p class="indent">"Shere Khan does us great honor," said +Father Wolf, but his eyes were very angry. +"What does Shere Khan need?"</p> + +<p class="indent">"My quarry. A man's cub went this way," +said Shere Khan. "Its parents have run off. +Give it to me."</p> + +<p class="indent">Shere Khan had jumped at a wood-cutter's +camp-fire, as Father Wolf had said, and was furious +from the pain of his burned feet. But Father +Wolf knew that the mouth of the cave was too +narrow for a tiger to come in by. Even where he +was, Shere Khan's shoulders and fore paws were +cramped for want of room, as a man's would be +if he tried to fight in a barrel.</p> + +<p class="indent">"The Wolves are a free people," said Father +Wolf. "They take orders from the Head of the +Pack, and not from any striped cattle-killer. The +man's cub is ours—to kill if we choose."</p> + +<p class="indent">"Ye choose and ye do not choose! What talk +is this of choosing? By the Bull that I killed, am +I to stand nosing into your dog's den for my fair +dues? It is I, Shere Khan, who speak!"</p> + +<p class="indent">The tiger's roar filled the cave with thunder. +Mother Wolf shook herself clear of the cubs and +sprang forward, her eyes, like two green moons +in the darkness, facing the blazing eyes of Shere +Khan.</p> + +<div class="figcenter"> +<a name="gs03.png" id="gs03.png"></a> +<img class="border" src="images/gs03.png" alt=""THE TIGER'S ROAR FILLED THE CAVE WITH THUNDER."" title=""THE TIGER'S ROAR FILLED THE CAVE WITH THUNDER."" /> +<br /> +<span class="caption">"THE TIGER'S ROAR FILLED THE CAVE WITH THUNDER."</span> +</div> + +<p class="indent">"And it is I, Raksha [the Demon], who +answer. The man's cub is mine, Lungri—mine +to me! He shall not be killed. He shall live to +run with the Pack and to hunt with the Pack; +and in the end, look you, hunter of little naked +cubs—frog-eater—fish-killer, he shall hunt +<i>thee</i>! Now get hence, or by the Sambhur that I +killed (<i>I</i> eat no starved cattle), back thou goest +to thy mother, burned beast of the jungle, lamer +than ever thou camest into the world! Go!"</p> + +<p class="indent">Father Wolf looked on amazed. He had almost +forgotten the days when he won Mother +Wolf in fair fight from five other wolves, when +she ran in the Pack and was not called the +Demon for compliment's sake. Shere Khan +might have faced Father Wolf, but he could not +stand up against Mother Wolf, for he knew that +where he was she had all the advantage of the +ground, and would fight to the death. So he +backed out of the cave-mouth growling, and +when he was clear he shouted:</p> + +<p class="indent">"Each dog barks in his own yard! We will +see what the Pack will say to this fostering of +man-cubs. The cub is mine, and to my teeth he +will come in the end, O bush-tailed thieves!"</p> + +<p class="indent">Mother Wolf threw herself down panting +among the cubs, and Father Wolf said to her +gravely:</p> + +<p class="indent">"Shere Khan speaks this much truth. The +cub must be shown to the Pack. Wilt thou +still keep him, Mother?"</p> + +<p class="indent">"Keep him!" she gasped. "He came naked, +by night, alone and very hungry; yet he was +not afraid! Look, he has pushed one of my +babes to one side already. And that lame butcher +would have killed him, and would have run +off to the Waingunga while the villagers here +hunted through all our lairs in revenge! Keep +him? Assuredly I will keep him. Lie still, little +frog. O thou Mowgli,—for Mowgli, the Frog, +I will call thee,—the time will come when thou +wilt hunt Shere Khan as he has hunted thee!"</p> + +<p class="indent">"But what will our Pack say?" said Father +Wolf.</p> + +<p class="indent">The Law of the Jungle lays down very clearly +that any wolf may, when he marries, withdraw +from the Pack he belongs to; but as soon as his +cubs are old enough to stand on their feet he +must bring them to the Pack Council, which is +generally held once a month at full moon, in order +that the other wolves may identify them. +After that inspection the cubs are free to run +where they please, and until they have killed their +first buck no excuse is accepted if a grown wolf +of the Pack kills one of them. The punishment +is death where the murderer can be found; and +if you think for a minute you will see that this +must be so.</p> + +<p class="indent">Father Wolf waited till his cubs could run a +little, and then on the night of the Pack Meeting +took them and Mowgli and Mother Wolf to the +Council Rock—a hilltop covered with stones and +boulders where a hundred wolves could hide. +Akela, the great gray Lone Wolf, who led all +the Pack by strength and cunning, lay out at full +length on his rock, and below him sat forty or +more wolves of every size and color, from badger-colored +veterans who could handle a buck alone, +to young black three-year-olds who thought they +could. The Lone Wolf had led them for a year +now. He had fallen twice into a wolf-trap in his +youth, and once he had been beaten and left for +dead; so he knew the manners and customs of men.</p> + +<div class="figcenter"> +<a name="gs04.png" id="gs04.png"></a> +<img class="border" src="images/gs04.png" alt="THE MEETING AT THE COUNCIL ROCK." title="THE MEETING AT THE COUNCIL ROCK." /> +<br /> +<span class="caption">THE MEETING AT THE COUNCIL ROCK.</span> +</div> + +<p class="indent">There was very little talking at the Rock. The +cubs tumbled over one another in the center of the +circle where their mothers and fathers sat, and +now and again a senior wolf would go quietly up +to a cub, look at him carefully, and return to his +place on noiseless feet. Sometimes a mother +would push her cub far out into the moonlight, +to be sure that he had not been overlooked. +Akela from his rock would cry: "Ye know +the Law—ye know the Law! Look well, O +Wolves!" And the anxious mothers would take +up the call: "Look—look well, O Wolves!"</p> + +<p class="indent">At last—and Mother Wolf's neck-bristles +lifted as the time came—Father Wolf pushed +"Mowgli, the Frog," as they called him, into the +center, where he sat laughing and playing with +some pebbles that glistened in the moonlight.</p> + +<p class="indent">Akela never raised his head from his paws, +but went on with the monotonous cry, "Look +well!" A muffled roar came up from behind the +rocks—the voice of Shere Khan crying, "The +cub is mine; give him to me. What have the +Free People to do with a man's cub?"</p> + +<p class="indent">Akela never even twitched his ears. All he +said was, "Look well, O Wolves! What have +the Free People to do with the orders of any +save the Free People? Look well!"</p> + +<p class="indent">There was a chorus of deep growls, and a +young wolf in his fourth year flung back Shere +Khan's question to Akela: "What have the Free +People to do with a man's cub?"</p> + +<p class="indent">Now the Law of the Jungle lays down that if +there is any dispute as to the right of a cub to be +accepted by the Pack, he must be spoken for by +at least two members of the Pack who are not his +father and mother.</p> + +<p class="indent">"Who speaks for this cub?" said Akela. +"Among the Free People, who speaks?" There +was no answer, and Mother Wolf got ready for +what she knew would be her last fight, if things +came to fighting. +</p> + +<p class="indent">Then the only other creature who is allowed at +the Pack Council—Baloo, the sleepy brown bear +who teaches the wolf cubs the Law of the Jungle; +old Baloo, who can come and go where he +pleases because he eats only nuts and roots and +honey—rose up on his hind quarters and +grunted.</p> + +<p class="indent">"The man's cub—the man's cub?" he said. +"<i>I</i> speak for the man's cub. There is no harm in +a man's cub. I have no gift of words, but I speak +the truth. Let him run with the Pack, and be entered +with the others. I myself will teach him."</p> + +<p class="indent">"We need yet another," said Akela. "Baloo +has spoken, and he is our teacher for the young +cubs. Who speaks besides Baloo?"</p> + +<p class="indent">A black shadow dropped down into the circle. +It was Bagheera, the Black Panther, inky black +all over, but with the panther markings showing +up in certain lights like the pattern of watered +silk. Everybody knew Bagheera, and nobody +cared to cross his path; for he was as cunning +as Tabaqui, as bold as the wild buffalo, and as +reckless as the wounded elephant. But he had +a voice as soft as wild honey dripping from a +tree, and a skin softer than down.</p> + +<p class="indent">"O Akela, and ye, the Free People," he +purred, "I have no right in your assembly; but +the Law of the Jungle says that if there is a +doubt which is not a killing matter in regard to +a new cub, the life of that cub may be bought +at a price. And the Law does not say who may +or may not pay that price. Am I right?"</p> + +<p class="indent">"Good! good!" said the young wolves, who +are always hungry. "Listen to Bagheera. The +cub can be bought for a price. It is the Law."</p> + +<p class="indent">"Knowing that I have no right to speak here, +I ask your leave."</p> + +<p class="indent">"Speak then," cried twenty voices.</p> + +<p class="indent">"To kill a naked cub is shame. Besides, he +may make better sport for you when he is grown. +Baloo has spoken in his behalf. Now to Baloo's +word I will add one bull, and a fat one, newly +killed, not half a mile from here, if ye will accept +the man's cub according to the Law. Is it +difficult?"</p> + +<p class="indent">There was a clamor of scores of voices, saying: +"What matter? He will die in the winter rains. +He will scorch in the sun. What harm can a +naked frog do us? Let him run with the Pack. +Where is the bull, Bagheera? Let him be accepted." +And then came Akela's deep bay, crying: +"Look well—look well, O Wolves!"</p> + +<p class="indent">Mowgli was still playing with the pebbles, and +he did not notice when the wolves came and +looked at him one by one. At last they all went +down the hill for the dead bull, and only Akela, +Bagheera, Baloo, and Mowgli's own wolves were +left. Shere Khan roared still in the night, for he +was very angry that Mowgli had not been handed +over to him.</p> + +<p class="indent">"Ay, roar well," said Bagheera, under his +whiskers; "for the time comes when this naked +thing will make thee roar to another tune, or I +know nothing of Man."</p> + +<p class="indent">"It was well done," said Akela. "Men and their +cubs are very wise. He may be a help in time."</p> + +<p class="indent">"Truly, a help in time of need; for none can +hope to lead the Pack forever," said Bagheera.</p> + +<p class="indent">Akela said nothing. He was thinking of the +time that comes to every leader of every pack +when his strength goes from him and he gets +feebler and feebler, till at last he is killed by the +wolves and a new leader comes up—to be killed +in his turn.</p> + +<p class="indent">"Take him away," he said to Father Wolf, +"and train him as befits one of the Free +People."</p> + +<p class="indent">And that is how Mowgli was entered into the +Seeonee wolf-pack for the price of a bull and on +Baloo's good word.</p> + +<p class="indent">Now you must be content to skip ten or +eleven whole years, and only guess at all the +wonderful life that Mowgli led among the +wolves, because if it were written out it would +fill ever so many books. He grew up with the +cubs, though they of course were grown wolves +almost before he was a child, and Father Wolf +taught him his business, and the meaning of +things in the jungle, till every rustle in the grass, +every breath of the warm night air, every note +of the owls above his head, every scratch of a +bat's claws as it roosted for a while in a tree, and +every splash of every little fish jumping in a pool, +meant just as much to him as the work of his +office means to a business man. When he was +not learning he sat out in the sun and slept, and +ate, and went to sleep again; when he felt dirty +or hot he swam in the forest pools; and when he +wanted honey (Baloo told him that honey and +nuts were just as pleasant to eat as raw meat) he +climbed up for it, and that Bagheera showed +him how to do.</p> + +<p class="indent">Bagheera would lie out on a branch and call, +"Come along, Little Brother," and at first Mowgli +would cling like the sloth, but afterward he +would fling himself through the branches almost +as boldly as the gray ape. He took his +place at the Council Rock, too, when the Pack +met, and there he discovered that if he stared +hard at any wolf, the wolf would be forced to +drop his eyes, and so he used to stare for fun.</p> + +<div class="figcenter"> +<a name="gs05.png" id="gs05.png"></a> +<img class="border" src="images/gs05.png" alt=""BAGHEERA WOULD LIE OUT ON A BRANCH AND CALL, +'COME ALONG, LITTLE BROTHER.'"" title=""BAGHEERA WOULD LIE OUT ON A BRANCH AND CALL, +'COME ALONG, LITTLE BROTHER.'"" /> +<br /> +<span class="caption">"BAGHEERA WOULD LIE OUT ON A BRANCH AND CALL,<br /> +'COME ALONG, LITTLE BROTHER.'"</span> +</div> + +<p class="indent">At other times he would pick the long thorns +out of the pads of his friends, for wolves suffer +terribly from thorns and burs in their coats. He +would go down the hillside into the cultivated +lands by night, and look very curiously at the +villagers in their huts, but he had a mistrust of +men because Bagheera showed him a square box +with a drop-gate so cunningly hidden in the jungle +that he nearly walked into it, and told him it +was a trap.</p> + +<p class="indent">He loved better than anything else to go with +Bagheera into the dark warm heart of the forest, +to sleep all through the drowsy day, and at night +see how Bagheera did his killing. Bagheera +killed right and left as he felt hungry, and so did +Mowgli—with one exception. As soon as he +was old enough to understand things, Bagheera +told him that he must never touch cattle because +he had been bought into the Pack at the price of +a bull's life. "All the jungle is thine," said Bagheera, +"and thou canst kill everything that thou +art strong enough to kill; but for the sake of the +bull that bought thee thou must never kill or eat +any cattle young or old. That is the Law of the +Jungle." Mowgli obeyed faithfully.</p> + +<p class="indent">And he grew and grew strong as a boy must +grow who does not know that he is learning any +lessons, and who has nothing in the world to +think of except things to eat.</p> + +<p class="indent">Mother Wolf told him once or twice that Shere +Khan was not a creature to be trusted, and that +some day he must kill Shere Khan; but though a +young wolf would have remembered that advice +every hour, Mowgli forgot it because he was only +a boy—though he would have called himself a +wolf if he had been able to speak in any human +tongue.</p> + +<p class="indent">Shere Khan was always crossing his path in +the jungle, for as Akela grew older and feebler +the lame tiger had come to be great friends with +the younger wolves of the Pack, who followed +him for scraps, a thing Akela would never have +allowed if he had dared to push his authority to +the proper bounds. Then Shere Khan would +flatter them and wonder that such fine young +hunters were content to be led by a dying wolf +and a man's cub. "They tell me," Shere Khan +would say, "that at Council ye dare not look him +between the eyes"; and the young wolves would +growl and bristle.</p> + +<p class="indent">Bagheera, who had eyes and ears everywhere, +knew something of this, and once or twice he +told Mowgli in so many words that Shere Khan +would kill him some day; and Mowgli would +laugh and answer: "I have the Pack and I have +thee; and Baloo, though he is so lazy, might +strike a blow or two for my sake. Why should +I be afraid?"</p> + +<p class="indent">It was one very warm day that a new notion +came to Bagheera—born of something that he +had heard. Perhaps Ikki, the Porcupine, had told +him; but he said to Mowgli when they were +deep in the jungle, as the boy lay with his head +on Bagheera's beautiful black skin: "Little +Brother, how often have I told thee that Shere +Khan is thy enemy?"</p> + +<p class="indent">"As many times as there are nuts on that +palm," said Mowgli, who, naturally, could not +count. "What of it? I am sleepy, Bagheera, +and Shere Khan is all long tail and loud talk, +like Mao, the Peacock."</p> + +<p class="indent">"But this is no time for sleeping. Baloo +knows it, I know it, the Pack know it, and even +the foolish, foolish deer know. Tabaqui has told +thee too."</p> + +<p class="indent">"Ho! ho!" said Mowgli. "Tabaqui came to +me not long ago with some rude talk that I was +a naked man's cub, and not fit to dig pig-nuts; but +I caught Tabaqui by the tail and swung him twice +against a palm-tree to teach him better manners."</p> + +<p class="indent">"That was foolishness; for though Tabaqui is +a mischief-maker, he would have told thee of +something that concerned thee closely. Open +those eyes, Little Brother! Shere Khan dares +not kill thee in the jungle for fear of those that +love thee; but remember, Akela is very old, and +soon the day comes when he cannot kill his buck, +and then he will be leader no more. Many of +the wolves that looked thee over when thou wast +brought to the Council first are old too, and the +young wolves believe, as Shere Khan has taught +them, that a man-cub has no place with the Pack. +In a little time thou wilt be a man."</p> + +<p class="indent">"And what is a man that he should not run +with his brothers?" said Mowgli. "I was born +in the jungle; I have obeyed the Law of the +Jungle; and there is no wolf of ours from whose +paws I have not pulled a thorn. Surely they are +my brothers!"</p> + +<p class="indent">Bagheera stretched himself at full length and +half shut his eyes. "Little Brother," said he, +"feel under my jaw."</p> + +<p class="indent">Mowgli put up his strong brown hand, and +just under Bagheera's silky chin, where the giant +rolling muscles were all hid by the glossy hair, +he came upon a little bald spot.</p> + +<p class="indent">"There is no one in the jungle that knows +that I, Bagheera, carry that mark—the mark of +the collar; and yet, Little Brother, I was born +among men, and it was among men that my +mother died—in the cages of the King's Palace +at Oodeypore. It was because of this that I paid +the price for thee at the Council when thou wast +a little naked cub. Yes, I too was born among +men. I had never seen the jungle. They fed +me behind bars from an iron pan till one night I +felt that I was Bagheera, the Panther, and no +man's plaything, and I broke the silly lock with +one blow of my paw, and came away; and because +I had learned the ways of men, I became +more terrible in the jungle than Shere Khan. Is +it not so?"</p> + +<p class="indent">"Yes," said Mowgli; "all the jungle fear Bagheera—all +except Mowgli."</p> + +<p class="indent">"Oh, <i>thou</i> art a man's cub," said the Black +Panther, very tenderly; "and even as I returned +to my jungle, so thou must go back to men at +last,—to the men who are thy brothers,—if thou +art not killed in the Council."</p> + +<p class="indent">"But why—but why should any wish to kill +me?" said Mowgli.</p> + +<p class="indent">"Look at me," said Bagheera; and Mowgli +looked at him steadily between the eyes. The +big panther turned his head away in half a +minute.</p> + +<p class="indent">"<i>That</i> is why," he said, shifting his paw on +the leaves. "Not even I can look thee between +the eyes, and I was born among men, and I love +thee, Little Brother. The others they hate thee +because their eyes cannot meet thine; because +thou art wise; because thou hast pulled out +thorns from their feet—because thou art a +man."</p> + +<p class="indent">"I did not know these things," said Mowgli, +sullenly; and he frowned under his heavy black +eyebrows.</p> + +<p class="indent">"What is the Law of the Jungle? Strike first +and then give tongue. By thy very carelessness +they know that thou art a man. But be wise. It +is in my heart that when Akela misses his next +kill,—and at each hunt it costs him more to pin +the buck,—the Pack will turn against him and +against thee. They will hold a jungle Council at +the Rock, and then—and then ... I have it!" +said Bagheera, leaping up. "Go thou down quickly +to the men's huts in the valley, and take some of +the Red Flower which they grow there, so that +when the time comes thou mayest have even a +stronger friend than I or Baloo or those of the +Pack that love thee. Get the Red Flower."</p> + +<p class="indent">By Red Flower Bagheera meant fire, only no +creature in the jungle will call fire by its proper +name. Every beast lives in deadly fear of it, and +invents a hundred ways of describing it.</p> + +<p class="indent">"The Red Flower?" said Mowgli. "That +grows outside their huts in the twilight. I will +get some."</p> + +<p class="indent">"There speaks the man's cub," said Bagheera, +proudly. "Remember that it grows in +little pots. Get one swiftly, and keep it by +thee for time of need."</p> + +<p class="indent">"Good!" said Mowgli. "I go. But art thou +sure, O my Bagheera"—he slipped his arm round +the splendid neck, and looked deep into the big +eyes—"art thou sure that all this is Shere +Khan's doing?"</p> + +<p class="indent">"By the Broken Lock that freed me, I am +sure, Little Brother."</p> + +<p class="indent">"Then, by the Bull that bought me, I will pay +Shere Khan full tale for this, and it may be a little +over," said Mowgli; and he bounded away.</p> + +<p class="indent">"That is a man. That is all a man," said +Bagheera to himself, lying down again. "Oh, +Shere Khan, never was a blacker hunting than +that frog-hunt of thine ten years ago!"</p> + +<p class="indent">Mowgli was far and far through the forest, +running hard, and his heart was hot in him. He +came to the cave as the evening mist rose, and +drew breath, and looked down the valley. The +cubs were out, but Mother Wolf, at the back of +the cave, knew by his breathing that something +was troubling her frog.</p> + +<p class="indent">"What is it, Son?" she said.</p> + +<p class="indent">"Some bat's chatter of Shere Khan," he called +back. "I hunt among the plowed fields to-night"; +and he plunged downward through the +bushes, to the stream at the bottom of the valley. +There he checked, for he heard the yell of the +Pack hunting, heard the bellow of a hunted +Sambhur, and the snort as the buck turned at +bay. Then there were wicked, bitter howls from +the young wolves: "Akela! Akela! Let the +Lone Wolf show his strength. Room for the +leader of our Pack! Spring, Akela!"</p> + +<p class="indent">The Lone Wolf must have sprung and missed +his hold, for Mowgli heard the snap of his teeth +and then a yelp as the Sambhur knocked him +over with his fore foot.</p> + +<p class="indent">He did not wait for anything more, but dashed +on; and the yells grew fainter behind him as he +ran into the crop-lands where the villagers lived.</p> + +<p class="indent">"Bagheera spoke truth," he panted, as he +nestled down in some cattle-fodder by the +window of a hut. "To-morrow is one day for +Akela and for me."</p> + +<p class="indent">Then he pressed his face close to the window +and watched the fire on the hearth. He saw the +husbandman's wife get up and feed it in the +night with black lumps; and when the morning +came and the mists were all white and cold, he +saw the man's child pick up a wicker pot +plastered inside with earth, fill it with lumps of +red-hot charcoal, put it under his blanket, and +go out to tend the cows in the byre.</p> + +<p class="indent">"Is that all?" said Mowgli. "If a cub can do +it, there is nothing to fear"; so he strode around +the corner and met the boy, took the pot from his +hand, and disappeared into the mist while the +boy howled with fear.</p> + +<p class="indent">"They are very like me," said Mowgli, blowing +into the pot, as he had seen the woman do. +"This thing will die if I do not give it things to +eat"; and he dropped twigs and dried bark on +the red stuff. Half-way up the hill he met Bagheera +with the morning dew shining like moonstones +on his coat.</p> + +<p class="indent">"Akela has missed," said the panther. "They +would have killed him last night, but they needed +thee also. They were looking for thee on the hill."</p> + +<p class="indent">"I was among the plowed lands. I am ready. +Look!" Mowgli held up the fire-pot.</p> + +<p class="indent">"Good! Now, I have seen men thrust a dry +branch into that stuff, and presently the Red +Flower blossomed at the end of it. Art thou +not afraid?"</p> + +<p class="indent">"No. Why should I fear? I remember now—if +it is not a dream—how, before I was a wolf, +I lay beside the Red Flower, and it was warm +and pleasant."</p> + +<p class="indent">All that day Mowgli sat in the cave tending +his fire-pot and dipping dry branches into it to see +how they looked. He found a branch that satisfied +him, and in the evening when Tabaqui +came to the cave and told him, rudely enough, +that he was wanted at the Council Rock, he +laughed till Tabaqui ran away. Then Mowgli +went to the Council, still laughing.</p> + +<p class="indent">Akela the Lone Wolf lay by the side of his +rock as a sign that the leadership of the Pack +was open, and Shere Khan with his following of +scrap-fed wolves walked to and fro openly, being +flattered. Bagheera lay close to Mowgli, and +the fire-pot was between Mowgli's knees. When +they were all gathered together, Shere Khan began +to speak—a thing he would never have dared +to do when Akela was in his prime.</p> + +<p class="indent">"He has no right," whispered Bagheera. "Say +so. He is a dog's son. He will be frightened."</p> + +<p class="indent">Mowgli sprang to his feet. "Free People," +he cried, "does Shere Khan lead the Pack? +What has a tiger to do with our leadership?"</p> + +<p class="indent">"Seeing that the leadership is yet open, and +being asked to speak—" Shere Khan began.</p> + +<p class="indent">"By whom?" said Mowgli. "Are we <i>all</i> +jackals, to fawn on this cattle-butcher? The +leadership of the Pack is with the Pack alone."</p> + +<p class="indent">There were yells of "Silence, thou man's +cub!" "Let him speak; he has kept our law!" +And at last the seniors of the Pack thundered: +"Let the Dead Wolf speak!"</p> + +<p class="indent">When a leader of the Pack has missed his kill, +he is called the Dead Wolf as long as he lives, +which is not long, as a rule.</p> + +<p class="indent">Akela raised his old head wearily:</p> + +<p class="indent">"Free People, and ye too, jackals of Shere +Khan, for twelve seasons I have led ye to and +from the kill, and in all that time not one has +been trapped or maimed. Now I have missed +my kill. Ye know how that plot was made. Ye +know how ye brought me up to an untried buck +to make my weakness known. It was cleverly +done. Your right is to kill me here on the +Council Rock now. Therefore I ask, 'Who +comes to make an end of the Lone Wolf?' For +it is my right, by the Law of the Jungle, that ye +come one by one."</p> + +<p class="indent">There was a long hush, for no single wolf +cared to fight Akela to the death. Then Shere +Khan roared: "Bah! What have we to do with +this toothless fool? He is doomed to die! It +is the man-cub who has lived too long. Free +People, he was my meat from the first. Give +him to me. I am weary of this man-wolf folly. +He has troubled the jungle for ten seasons. Give +me the man-cub, or I will hunt here always, and not +give you one bone! He is a man—a man's child, +and from the marrow of my bones I hate him!"</p> + +<p class="indent">Then more than half the Pack yelled: "A +man—a man! What has a man to do with us? +Let him go to his own place."</p> + +<p class="indent">"And turn all the people of the villages +against us?" snarled Shere Khan. "No; give +him to me. He is a man, and none of us can +look him between the eyes."</p> + +<p class="indent">Akela lifted his head again, and said: "He +has eaten our food; he has slept with us; he has +driven game for us; he has broken no word of +the Law of the Jungle."</p> + +<p class="indent">"Also, I paid for him with a bull when he was +accepted. The worth of a bull is little, but Bagheera's +honor is something that he will perhaps +fight for," said Bagheera in his gentlest voice.</p> + +<p class="indent">"A bull paid ten years ago!" the Pack snarled. +"What do we care for bones ten years old?"</p> + +<p class="indent">"Or for a pledge?" said Bagheera, his white +teeth bared under his lip. "Well are ye called +the Free People!"</p> + +<p class="indent">"No man's cub can run with the people of the +jungle!" roared Shere Khan. "Give him to me."</p> + +<p class="indent">"He is our brother in all but blood," Akela +went on; "and ye would kill him here. In +truth, I have lived too long. Some of ye are +eaters of cattle, and of others I have heard that, +under Shere Khan's teaching, ye go by dark +night and snatch children from the villager's +doorstep. Therefore I know ye to be cowards, +and it is to cowards I speak. It is certain that +I must die, and my life is of no worth, or I would +offer that in the man-cub's place. But for the +sake of the Honor of the Pack,—a little matter +that, by being without a leader, ye have forgotten,—I +promise that if ye let the man-cub +go to his own place, I will not, when my time +comes to die, bare one tooth against ye. I will +die without fighting. That will at least save the +Pack three lives. More I cannot do; but, if ye +will, I can save ye the shame that comes of killing +a brother against whom there is no fault—a +brother spoken for and bought into the Pack +according to the Law of the Jungle."</p> + +<p class="indent">"He is a man—a man—a man!" snarled the +Pack; and most of the wolves began to gather +round Shere Khan, whose tail was beginning to +switch.</p> + +<p class="indent">"Now the business is in thy hands," said +Bagheera to Mowgli. "<i>We</i> can do no more +except fight."</p> + +<p class="indent">Mowgli stood upright—the fire-pot in his +hands. Then he stretched out his arms, and +yawned in the face of the Council; but he was +furious with rage and sorrow, for, wolf-like, the +wolves had never told him how they hated +him.</p> + +<p class="indent">"Listen, you!" he cried. "There is no need +for this dog's jabber. Ye have told me so often +to-night that I am a man (though indeed I would +have been a wolf with you to my life's end) that +I feel your words are true. So I do not call ye +my brothers any more, but <i>sag</i> [dogs], as a man +should. What ye will do, and what ye will not +do, is not yours to say. That matter is with <i>me</i>; +and that we may see the matter more plainly, I, +the man, have brought here a little of the Red +Flower which ye, dogs, fear."</p> + +<p class="indent">He flung the fire-pot on the ground, and some +of the red coals lit a tuft of dried moss that flared +up as all the Council drew back in terror before +the leaping flames.</p> + +<p class="indent">Mowgli thrust his dead branch into the fire till +the twigs lit and crackled, and whirled it above +his head among the cowering wolves.</p> + +<p class="indent">"Thou art the master," said Bagheera, in an +undertone. "Save Akela from the death. He +was ever thy friend."</p> + +<p class="indent">Akela, the grim old wolf who had never asked +for mercy in his life, gave one piteous look at +Mowgli as the boy stood all naked, his long black +hair tossing over his shoulders in the light of the +blazing branch that made the shadows jump and +quiver.</p> + +<p class="indent">"Good!" said Mowgli, staring around slowly, +and thrusting out his lower lip. "I see that ye +are dogs. I go from you to my own people—if +they be my own people. The jungle is shut to +me, and I must forget your talk and your companionship; +but I will be more merciful than ye +are. Because I was all but your brother in blood, +I promise that when I am a man among men I +will not betray ye to men as ye have betrayed +me." He kicked the fire with his foot, and the +sparks flew up. "There shall be no war between +any of us and the Pack. But here is a +debt to pay before I go." He strode forward to +where Shere Khan sat blinking stupidly at the +flames, and caught him by the tuft on his chin. +Bagheera followed close, in case of accidents. +"Up, dog!" Mowgli cried. "Up, when a man +speaks, or I will set that coat ablaze!"</p> + +<p class="indent">Shere Khan's ears lay flat back on his head, +and he shut his eyes, for the blazing branch was +very near.</p> + +<p class="indent">"This cattle-killer said he would kill me in the +Council because he had not killed me when I was +a cub. Thus and thus, then, do we beat dogs +when we are men! Stir a whisker, Lungri, and +I ram the Red Flower down thy gullet!" He +beat Shere Khan over the head with the branch, +and the tiger whimpered and whined in an agony +of fear.</p> + +<p class="indent">"Pah! Singed jungle-cat—go now! But +remember when next I come to the Council +Rock, as a man should come, it will be with +Shere Khan's hide on my head. For the rest, +Akela goes free to live as he pleases. Ye will +<i>not</i> kill him, because that is not my will. Nor +do I think that ye will sit here any longer, lolling +out your tongues as though ye were somebodies, +instead of dogs whom I drive out—thus! Go!"</p> + +<p class="indent">The fire was burning furiously at the end of +the branch, and Mowgli struck right and left +round the circle, and the wolves ran howling with +the sparks burning their fur. At last there were +only Akela, Bagheera, and perhaps ten wolves +that had taken Mowgli's part. Then something +began to hurt Mowgli inside him, as he had +never been hurt in his life before, and he caught +his breath and sobbed, and the tears ran down +his face.</p> + +<p class="indent">"What is it? What is it?" he said. "I do +not wish to leave the jungle, and I do not know +what this is. Am I dying, Bagheera?"</p> + +<p class="indent">"No, Little Brother. Those are only tears +such as men use," said Bagheera. "Now I know +thou art a man, and a man's cub no longer. +The jungle is shut indeed to thee henceforward. +Let them fall, Mowgli; they are only +tears." So Mowgli sat and cried as though +his heart would break; and he had never cried +in all his life before.</p> + +<p class="indent">"Now," he said, "I will go to men. But first +I must say farewell to my mother"; and he went +to the cave where she lived with Father Wolf, +and he cried on her coat, while the four cubs +howled miserably.</p> + +<p class="indent">"Ye will not forget me?" said Mowgli.</p> + +<p class="indent">"Never while we can follow a trail," said the +cubs. "Come to the foot of the hill when thou +art a man, and we will talk to thee; and we will +come into the crop-lands to play with thee by +night."</p> + +<p class="indent">"Come soon!" said Father Wolf. "Oh, wise +little Frog, come again soon; for we be old, thy +mother and I."</p> + +<p class="indent">"Come soon," said Mother Wolf, "little naked +son of mine; for, listen, child of man, I loved +thee more than ever I loved my cubs."</p> + +<p class="indent">"I will surely come," said Mowgli; "and +when I come it will be to lay out Shere Khan's +hide upon the Council Rock. Do not forget me! +Tell them in the jungle never to forget me!"</p> + +<p class="indent">The dawn was beginning to break when +Mowgli went down the hillside alone to the crops +to meet those mysterious things that are called +men.</p> + +<hr /> + +<p class="center"><a name="song1" id="song1"></a> +HUNTING-SONG OF THE SEEONEE PACK</p> + +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">As the dawn was breaking the Sambhur belled</span><br /> +<span class="i2">Once, twice, and again!</span><br /> +<span class="i0">And a doe leaped up—and a doe leaped up</span><br /> +<span class="i0">From the pond in the wood where the wild deer sup.</span><br /> +<span class="i0">This I, scouting alone, beheld,</span><br /> +<span class="i2">Once, twice, and again!</span> +</div> + +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">As the dawn was breaking the Sambhur belled</span><br /> +<span class="i2">Once, twice, and again!</span><br /> +<span class="i0">And a wolf stole back—and a wolf stole back</span><br /> +<span class="i0">To carry the word to the waiting Pack;</span><br /> +<span class="i0">And we sought and we found and we bayed on his track</span><br /> +<span class="i2">Once, twice, and again!</span> +</div> + +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">As the dawn was breaking the Wolf-pack yelled</span><br /> +<span class="i2">Once, twice, and again!</span><br /> +<span class="i0">Feet in the jungle that leave no mark!</span><br /> +<span class="i0">Eyes that can see in the dark—the dark!</span><br /> +<span class="i0">Tongue—give tongue to it! Hark! O Hark!</span><br /> +<span class="i2">Once, twice, and again!</span> +</div> +</div> + +<hr class="hr2" /> + +<h2><a name="ch02.png" id="ch02.png"></a> +KAA'S HUNTING</h2> + +<hr class="hr2" /> + +<div class="poem"> +<p class="thangindent">His spots are the joy of the Leopard: his horns are the Buffalo's pride—</p> +<p class="bhangindent">Be clean, for the strength of the hunter is known by the gloss of his hide.</p> + +<p class="thangindent">If ye find that the Bullock can toss you, or the heavy-browed Sambhur can gore;</p> +<p class="bhangindent">Ye need not stop work to inform us: we knew it ten seasons +before.</p> + +<p class="thangindent">Oppress not the cubs of the stranger, but hail them as Sister and Brother,</p> +<p class="bhangindent">For though they are little and fubsy, it may be the Bear is their mother.</p> + +<p class="thangindent">"There is none like to me!" says the Cub in the pride of his earliest kill;</p> +<p class="bhangindent">But the Jungle is large and the Cub he is small. Let him think and be still.</p> + +<p class="right"><i>Maxims of Baloo.</i></p> +</div> + +<hr class="hr2" /> + +<div class="figcenter"> +<img class="border" src="images/ch02.png" alt="" title="" /> +</div> + +<p class="h2">KAA'S HUNTING</p> + +<p class="cap">ALL that is told here happened some time +before Mowgli was turned out of the Seeonee +wolf-pack. It was in the days when Baloo +was teaching him the Law of the Jungle. The +big, serious, old brown bear was delighted to +have so quick a pupil, for the young wolves will +only learn as much of the Law of the Jungle as +applies to their own pack and tribe, and run away +as soon as they can repeat the Hunting Verse: +"Feet that make no noise; eyes that can see in +the dark; ears that can hear the winds in their +lairs, and sharp white teeth—all these things are +the marks of our brothers except Tabaqui and +the Hyena, whom we hate." But Mowgli, as a +man-cub, had to learn a great deal more than +this. Sometimes Bagheera, the Black Panther, +would come lounging through the jungle to see +how his pet was getting on, and would purr with +his head against a tree while Mowgli recited the +day's lesson to Baloo. The boy could climb +almost as well as he could swim, and swim +almost as well as he could run; so Baloo, the +Teacher of the Law, taught him the Wood and +Water laws: how to tell a rotten branch from a +sound one; how to speak politely to the wild +bees when he came upon a hive of them fifty +feet aboveground; what to say to Mang, the +Bat, when he disturbed him in the branches at +midday; and how to warn the water-snakes in +the pools before he splashed down among them. +None of the Jungle People like being disturbed, +and all are very ready to fly at an intruder. +Then, too, Mowgli was taught the Strangers' +Hunting Call, which must be repeated aloud till +it is answered, whenever one of the Jungle People +hunts outside his own grounds. It means, translated: +"Give me leave to hunt here because I +am hungry"; and the answer is: "Hunt, then, +for food, but not for pleasure."</p> + +<p class="indent">All this will show you how much Mowgli had to +learn by heart, and he grew very tired of repeating +the same thing a hundred times; but, as Baloo said +to Bagheera one day when Mowgli had been cuffed +and had run off in a temper: "A man's cub is a man's +cub, and he must learn <i>all</i> the Law of the Jungle."</p> + +<p class="indent">"But think how small he is," said the Black +Panther, who would have spoiled Mowgli if he +had had his own way. "How can his little head +carry all thy long talk?"</p> + +<p class="indent">"Is there anything in the jungle too little to +be killed? No. That is why I teach him these +things, and that is why I hit him, very softly, +when he forgets."</p> + +<p class="indent">"Softly! What dost thou know of softness, +old Iron-feet?" Bagheera grunted. "His face is +all bruised to-day by thy—softness. Ugh!"</p> + +<p class="indent">"Better he should be bruised from head to +foot by me who love him than that he should +come to harm through ignorance," Baloo answered, +very earnestly. "I am now teaching +him the Master Words of the Jungle that shall +protect him with the Birds and the Snake People, +and all that hunt on four feet, except his own +pack. He can now claim protection, if he will +only remember the Words, from all in the jungle. +Is not that worth a little beating?"</p> + +<p class="indent">"Well, look to it then that thou dost not kill +the man-cub. He is no tree-trunk to sharpen +thy blunt claws upon. But what are those Master +Words? I am more likely to give help than +to ask it"—Bagheera stretched out one paw and +admired the steel-blue ripping-chisel talons at the +end of it—"Still I should like to know."</p> + +<p class="indent">"I will call Mowgli and he shall say them—if +he will. Come, Little Brother!"</p> + +<p class="indent">"My head is ringing like a bee-tree," said a +sullen voice over their heads, and Mowgli slid +down a tree-trunk, very angry and indignant, +adding, as he reached the ground: "I come for +Bagheera and not for <i>thee</i>, fat old Baloo!"</p> + +<p class="indent">"That is all one to me," said Baloo, though he +was hurt and grieved. "Tell Bagheera, then, the +Master Words of the Jungle that I have taught +thee this day."</p> + +<p class="indent">"Master Words for which people?" said Mowgli, +delighted to show off. "The jungle has many +tongues. <i>I</i> know them all."</p> + +<p class="indent">"A little thou knowest, but not much. See, O +Bagheera, they never thank their teacher! Not +one small wolfling has come back to thank old +Baloo for his teachings. Say the Word for the +Hunting People, then,—great scholar!"</p> + +<p class="indent">"We be of one blood, ye and I," said Mowgli, +giving the words the Bear accent which all the +Hunting People of the Jungle use.</p> + +<p class="indent">"Good! Now for the Birds."</p> + +<p class="indent">Mowgli repeated, with the Kite's whistle at +the end of the sentence.</p> + +<p class="indent">"Now for the Snake People," said Bagheera.</p> + +<p class="indent">The answer was a perfectly indescribable hiss, +and Mowgli kicked up his feet behind, clapped +his hands together to applaud himself, and jumped +on Bagheera's back, where he sat sideways, +drumming with his heels on the glossy skin and +making the worst faces that he could think of at +Baloo.</p> + +<p class="indent">"There—there! That was worth a little +bruise," said the Brown Bear, tenderly. "Some +day thou wilt remember me." Then he turned +aside to tell Bagheera how he had begged the +Master Words from Hathi, the Wild Elephant, +who knows all about these things, and how Hathi +had taken Mowgli down to a pool to get the +Snake Word from a water-snake, because Baloo +could not pronounce it, and how Mowgli was +now reasonably safe against all accidents in the +jungle, because neither snake, bird, nor beast +would hurt him.</p> + +<p class="indent">"No one then is to be feared," Baloo wound up, +patting his big furry stomach with pride.</p> + +<p class="indent">"Except his own tribe," said Bagheera, under +his breath; and then aloud to Mowgli: "Have a +care for my ribs, Little Brother! What is all this +dancing up and down?"</p> + +<p class="indent">Mowgli had been trying to make himself heard +by pulling at Bagheera's shoulder-fur and kicking +hard. When the two listened to him he +was shouting at the top of his voice: "And <i>so</i> I +shall have a tribe of my own, and lead them +through the branches all day long."</p> + +<p class="indent">"What is this new folly, little dreamer of +dreams?" said Bagheera.</p> + +<p class="indent">"Yes, and throw branches and dirt at old Baloo," +Mowgli went on. "They have promised +me this, ah!"</p> + +<p class="indent">"Whoof!" Baloo's big paw scooped Mowgli +off Bagheera's back, and as the boy lay between +the big fore paws he could see the bear was +angry.</p> + +<p class="indent">"Mowgli," said Baloo, "thou hast been talking +with the Bandar-log—the Monkey People."</p> + +<p class="indent">Mowgli looked at Bagheera to see if the panther +was angry too, and Bagheera's eyes were as +hard as jade-stones.</p> + +<p class="indent">"Thou hast been with the Monkey People—the +gray apes—the people without a Law—the +eaters of everything. That is great shame."</p> + +<p class="indent">"When Baloo hurt my head," said Mowgli (he +was still down on his back), "I went away, and +the gray apes came down from the trees and had +pity on me. No one else cared." He snuffled a +little.</p> + +<p class="indent">"The pity of the Monkey People!" Baloo +snorted.</p> + +<p class="indent">"The stillness of the mountain stream! The +cool of the summer sun! And then, man-cub?"</p> + +<p class="indent">"And then—and then they gave me nuts and +pleasant things to eat, and they—they carried +me in their arms up to the top of the trees and +said I was their blood-brother, except that I had +no tail, and should be their leader some day."</p> + +<p class="indent">"They have <i>no</i> leader," said Bagheera. "They +lie. They have always lied."</p> + +<p class="indent">"They were very kind, and bade me come +again. Why have I never been taken among +the Monkey People? They stand on their feet +as I do. They do not hit me with hard paws. +They play all day. Let me get up! Bad Baloo, +let me up! I will go play with them again."</p> + +<p class="indent">"Listen, man-cub," said the bear, and his voice +rumbled like thunder on a hot night. "I have +taught thee all the Law of the Jungle for all the +Peoples of the Jungle—except the Monkey Folk +who live in the trees. They have no Law. They +are outcastes. They have no speech of their own, +but use the stolen words which they overhear +when they listen and peep and wait up above in +the branches. Their way is not our way. They +are without leaders. They have no remembrance. +They boast and chatter and pretend +that they are a great people about to do great +affairs in the jungle, but the falling of a nut +turns their minds to laughter, and all is forgotten. +We of the jungle have no dealings with them. +We do not drink where the monkeys drink; +we do not go where the monkeys go; we do not +hunt where they hunt; we do not die where they +die. Hast thou ever heard me speak of the +Bandar-log till to-day?"</p> + +<p class="indent">"No," said Mowgli in a whisper, for the forest +was very still now that Baloo had finished.</p> + +<p class="indent">"The Jungle People put them out of their +mouths and out of their minds. They are very +many, evil, dirty, shameless, and they desire, if +they have any fixed desire, to be noticed by the +Jungle People. But we do <i>not</i> notice them even +when they throw nuts and filth on our heads."</p> + +<p class="indent">He had hardly spoken when a shower of nuts +and twigs spattered down through the branches; +and they could hear coughings and howlings and +angry jumpings high up in the air among the thin +branches.</p> + +<p class="indent">"The Monkey People are forbidden," said +Baloo, "forbidden to the Jungle People. Remember."</p> + +<p class="indent">"Forbidden," said Bagheera; "but I still think +Baloo should have warned thee against them."</p> + +<p class="indent">"I—I? How was I to guess he would play +with such dirt. The Monkey People! Faugh!"</p> + +<p class="indent">A fresh shower came down on their heads, and +the two trotted away, taking Mowgli with them. +What Baloo had said about the monkeys was +perfectly true. They belonged to the tree-tops, +and as beasts very seldom look up, there was no +occasion for the monkeys and the Jungle People +to cross one another's path. But whenever they +found a sick wolf, or a wounded tiger or bear, +the monkeys would torment him, and would throw +sticks and nuts at any beast for fun and in the +hope of being noticed. Then they would howl +and shriek senseless songs, and invite the Jungle +People to climb up their trees and fight them, or +would start furious battles over nothing among +themselves, and leave the dead monkeys where +the Jungle People could see them.</p> + +<p class="indent">They were always just going to have a leader +and laws and customs of their own, but they never +did, because their memories would not hold over +from day to day, and so they settled things by +making up a saying: "What the Bandar-log think +now the Jungle will think later"; and that comforted +them a great deal. None of the beasts +could reach them, but on the other hand none +of the beasts would notice them, and that was +why they were so pleased when Mowgli came +to play with them, and when they heard how +angry Baloo was.</p> + +<p class="indent">They never meant to do any more,—the Bandar-log +never mean anything at all,—but one +of them invented what seemed to him a brilliant +idea, and he told all the others that Mowgli +would be a useful person to keep in the tribe, because +he could weave sticks together for protection +from the wind; so, if they caught him, they +could make him teach them. Of course Mowgli, +as a wood-cutter's child, inherited all sorts of instincts, +and used to make little play-huts of fallen +branches without thinking how he came to do it. +The Monkey People, watching in the trees, considered +these huts most wonderful. This time, +they said, they were really going to have a leader +and become the wisest people in the jungle—so +wise that every one else would notice and envy +them. Therefore they followed Baloo and Bagheera +and Mowgli through the jungle very +quietly till it was time for the midday nap, and +Mowgli, who was very much ashamed of himself, +slept between the panther and the bear, resolving +to have no more to do with the Monkey +People.</p> + +<p class="indent">The next thing he remembered was feeling +hands on his legs and arms,—hard, strong little +hands,—and then a swash of branches in his +face; and then he was staring down through the +swaying boughs as Baloo woke the jungle with +his deep cries and Bagheera bounded up the +trunk with every tooth bared. The Bandar-log +howled with triumph, and scuffled away to the +upper branches where Bagheera dared not follow, +shouting: "He has noticed us! Bagheera +has noticed us! All the Jungle People +admire us for our skill and our cunning!" Then +they began their flight; and the flight of the +Monkey People through tree-land is one of the +things nobody can describe. They have their +regular roads and cross-roads, uphills and downhills, +all laid out from fifty to seventy or a hundred +feet aboveground, and by these they can +travel even at night if necessary.</p> + +<p class="indent">Two of the strongest monkeys caught Mowgli +under the arms and swung off with him through +the tree-tops, twenty feet at a bound. Had they +been alone they could have gone twice as fast, +but the boy's weight held them back. Sick +and giddy as Mowgli was he could not help +enjoying the wild rush, though the glimpses of +earth far down below frightened him, and the +terrible check and jerk at the end of the swing +over nothing but empty air brought his heart +between his teeth.</p> + +<p class="indent">His escort would rush him up a tree till he felt +the weak topmost branches crackle and bend +under them, and, then, with a cough and a +whoop, would fling themselves into the air outward +and downward, and bring up hanging by +their hands or their feet to the lower limbs of the +next tree. Sometimes he could see for miles and +miles over the still green jungle, as a man on the +top of a mast can see for miles across the sea, and +then the branches and leaves would lash him +across the face, and he and his two guards would +be almost down to earth again.</p> + +<p class="indent">So bounding and crashing and whooping and +yelling, the whole tribe of Bandar-log swept +along the tree-roads with Mowgli their prisoner.</p> + +<p class="indent">For a time he was afraid of being dropped; +then he grew angry, but he knew better than to +struggle; and then he began to think. The first +thing was to send back word to Baloo and Bagheera, +for, at the pace the monkeys were going, +he knew his friends would be left far behind. It +was useless to look down, for he could see only +the top sides of the branches, so he stared upward +and saw, far away in the blue, Rann, the +Kite, balancing and wheeling as he kept watch +over the jungle waiting for things to die. Rann +noticed that the monkeys were carrying something, +and dropped a few hundred yards to find +out whether their load was good to eat. He +whistled with surprise when he saw Mowgli being +dragged up to a tree-top, and heard him give the +Kite call for "We be of one blood, thou and I." +The waves of the branches closed over the boy, +but Rann balanced away to the next tree in time +to see the little brown face come up again. "Mark +my trail!" Mowgli shouted. "Tell Baloo of the +Seeonee Pack, and Bagheera of the Council Rock."</p> + +<p class="indent">"In whose name, Brother?" Rann had never +seen Mowgli before, though of course he had +heard of him.</p> + +<p class="indent">"Mowgli, the Frog. Man-cub they call me! +Mark my tra—il!"</p> + +<p class="indent">The last words were shrieked as he was being +swung through the air, but Rann nodded, and +rose up till he looked no bigger than a speck +of dust, and there he hung, watching with his +telescope eyes the swaying of the tree-tops as +Mowgli's escort whirled along.</p> + +<p class="indent">"They never go far," he said, with a chuckle. +"They never do what they set out to do. Always +pecking at new things are the Bandar-log. +This time, if I have any eyesight, they have +pecked down trouble for themselves, for Baloo is +no fledgling and Bagheera can, as I know, kill +more than goats."</p> + +<p class="indent">Then he rocked on his wings, his feet gathered +up under him, and waited.</p> + +<p class="indent">Meanwhile, Baloo and Bagheera were furious +with rage and grief. Bagheera climbed as he had +never climbed before, but the branches broke beneath +his weight, and he slipped down, his claws +full of bark.</p> + +<p class="indent">"Why didst thou not warn the man-cub!" he +roared to poor Baloo, who had set off at a clumsy +trot in the hope of overtaking the monkeys. +"What was the use of half slaying him with +blows if thou didst not warn him?"</p> + +<p class="indent">"Haste! O haste! We—we may catch them +yet!" Baloo panted.</p> + +<p class="indent">"At that speed! It would not tire a wounded +cow. Teacher of the Law, cub-beater—a mile +of that rolling to and fro would burst thee open. +Sit still and think! Make a plan. This is no +time for chasing. They may drop him if we +follow too close."</p> + +<p class="indent">"<i>Arrula! Whoo!</i> They may have dropped him +already, being tired of carrying him. Who can +trust the Bandar-log? Put dead bats on my head! +Give me black bones to eat! Roll me into the +hives of the wild bees that I may be stung to +death, and bury me with the hyena; for I am +the most miserable of bears! <i>Arulala! Wahooa!</i> +O Mowgli, Mowgli! Why did I not warn thee +against the Monkey Folk instead of breaking thy +head? Now perhaps I may have knocked the +day's lesson out of his mind, and he will be alone +in the jungle without the Master Words!"</p> + +<p class="indent">Baloo clasped his paws over his ears and +rolled to and fro, moaning.</p> + +<p class="indent">"At least he gave me all the Words correctly +a little time ago," said Bagheera, impatiently. +"Baloo, thou hast neither memory nor respect. +What would the jungle think if I, the Black +Panther, curled myself up like Ikki, the Porcupine, +and howled?"</p> + +<p class="indent">"What do I care what the jungle thinks? He +may be dead by now."</p> + +<p class="indent">"Unless and until they drop him from the +branches in sport, or kill him out of idleness, I +have no fear for the man-cub. He is wise and +well-taught, and, above all, he has the eyes that +make the Jungle People afraid. But (and it is a +great evil) he is in the power of the Bandar-log, +and they, because they live in trees, have no fear +of any of our people." Bagheera licked his one +fore paw thoughtfully.</p> + +<p class="indent">"Fool that I am! Oh fat, brown, root-digging +fool that I am!" said Baloo, uncoiling himself +with a jerk. "It is true what Hathi, the Wild +Elephant, says: '<i>To each his own fear</i>'; and +they, the Bandar-log, fear Kaa, the Rock Snake. +He can climb as well as they can. He steals +the young monkeys in the night. The mere +whisper of his name makes their wicked tails +cold. Let us go to Kaa."</p> + +<p class="indent">"What will he do for us? He is not of our +tribe, being footless and with most evil eyes," +said Bagheera.</p> + +<p class="indent">"He is very old and very cunning. Above all, +he is always hungry," said Baloo, hopefully. +"Promise him many goats."</p> + +<p class="indent">"He sleeps for a full month after he has once +eaten. He may be asleep now, and even were +he awake, what if he would rather kill his own +goats?" Bagheera, who did not know much +about Kaa, was naturally suspicious.</p> + +<p class="indent">"Then in that case, thou and I together, old +hunter, may make him see reason." Here Baloo +rubbed his faded brown shoulder against the +panther, and they went off to look for Kaa, the +Rock Python.</p> + +<p class="indent">They found him stretched out on a warm +ledge in the afternoon sun, admiring his beautiful +new coat, for he had been in retirement for the +last ten days changing his skin, and now he was +very splendid—darting his big blunt-nosed head +along the ground, and twisting the thirty feet of +his body into fantastic knots and curves, and licking +his lips as he thought of his dinner to come.</p> + +<p class="indent">"He has not eaten," said Baloo, with a grunt +of relief, as soon as he saw the beautifully mottled +brown and yellow jacket. "Be careful, Bagheera! +He is always a little blind after he has +changed his skin, and very quick to strike."</p> + +<p class="indent">Kaa was not a poison snake—in fact he +rather despised the Poison Snakes for cowards; +but his strength lay in his hug, and when he had +once lapped his huge coils round anybody there +was no more to be said. "Good hunting!" cried +Baloo, sitting up on his haunches. Like all +snakes of his breed Kaa was rather deaf, and +did not hear the call at first. Then he curled up +ready for any accident, his head lowered.</p> + +<p class="indent">"Good hunting for us all," he answered. +"Oho, Baloo, what dost thou do here? Good +hunting, Bagheera. One of us at least needs +food. Is there any news of game afoot? A doe +now, or even a young buck? I am as empty as +a dried well."</p> + +<p class="indent">"We are hunting," said Baloo, carelessly. He +knew that you must not hurry Kaa. He is too +big.</p> + +<p class="indent">"Give me permission to come with you," said +Kaa. "A blow more or less is nothing to thee, +Bagheera or Baloo, but I—I have to wait and +wait for days in a wood path and climb half a night +on the mere chance of a young ape. <i>Pss naw!</i> +The branches are not what they were when I was +young. Rotten twigs and dry boughs are they all."</p> + +<p class="indent">"Maybe thy great weight has something to +do with the matter," said Baloo.</p> + +<p class="indent">"I am a fair length—a fair length," said Kaa, +with a little pride. "But for all that, it is the +fault of this new-grown timber. I came very near +to falling on my last hunt,—very near indeed,—and +the noise of my slipping, for my tail was not +tight wrapped round the tree, waked the Bandar-log, +and they called me most evil names."</p> + +<p class="indent">"'Footless, yellow earthworm,'" said Bagheera +under his whiskers, as though he were trying to +remember something.</p> + +<p class="indent">"<i>Sssss!</i> Have they ever called me <i>that</i>?" said +Kaa.</p> + +<p class="indent">"Something of that kind it was that they +shouted to us last moon, but we never noticed +them. They will say anything—even that thou +hast lost all thy teeth, and dare not face anything +bigger than a kid, because (they are indeed shameless, +these Bandar-log)—because thou art afraid +of the he-goats' horns," Bagheera went on sweetly.</p> + +<p class="indent">Now a snake, especially a wary old python like +Kaa, very seldom shows that he is angry; but +Baloo and Bagheera could see the big swallowing +muscles on either side of Kaa's throat ripple +and bulge.</p> + +<p class="indent">"The Bandar-log have shifted their grounds," he +said, quietly. "When I came up into the sun to-day +I heard them whooping among the tree-tops."</p> + +<p class="indent">"It—it is the Bandar-log that we follow now," +said Baloo; but the words stuck in his throat, for +this was the first time in his memory that one of +the Jungle People had owned to being interested +in the doings of the monkeys.</p> + +<p class="indent">"Beyond doubt, then, it is no small thing that +takes two such hunters—leaders in their own +jungle, I am certain—on the trail of the Bandar-log," +Kaa replied, courteously, as he swelled with +curiosity.</p> + +<p class="indent">"Indeed," Baloo began, "I am no more than +the old, and sometimes very foolish, Teacher of +the Law to the Seeonee wolf-cubs, and Bagheera +here—"</p> + +<p class="indent">"Is Bagheera," said the Black Panther, and his +jaws shut with a snap, for he did not believe in +being humble. "The trouble is this, Kaa. Those +nut-stealers and pickers of palm-leaves have +stolen away our man-cub, of whom thou hast +perhaps heard."</p> + +<p class="indent">"I heard some news from Ikki (his quills make +him presumptuous) of a man-thing that was entered +into a wolf-pack, but I did not believe. Ikki +is full of stories half heard and very badly told."</p> + +<p class="indent">"But it is true. He is such a man-cub as never +was," said Baloo. "The best and wisest and boldest +of man-cubs. My own pupil, who shall make +the name of Baloo famous through all the jungles; +and besides, I—we—love him, Kaa."</p> + +<p class="indent">"<i>Ts! Ts!</i>" said Kaa, shaking his head to and +fro. "I also have known what love is. There +are tales I could tell that—"</p> + +<p class="indent">"That need a clear night when we are all well +fed to praise properly," said Bagheera, quickly. +"Our man-cub is in the hands of the Bandar-log +now, and we know that of all the Jungle People +they fear Kaa alone."</p> + +<p class="indent">"They fear me alone. They have good reason," +said Kaa. "Chattering, foolish, vain—vain, +foolish, and chattering—are the monkeys. +But a man-thing in their hands is in no good +luck. They grow tired of the nuts they pick, +and throw them down. They carry a branch +half a day, meaning to do great things with it, +and then they snap it in two. That manling is +not to be envied. They called me also—'yellow +fish,' was it not?"</p> + +<p class="indent">"Worm—worm—earthworm," said Bagheera; +"as well as other things which I cannot now say +for shame."</p> + +<p class="indent">"We must remind them to speak well of their +master. <i>Aaa-sssh!</i> We must help their wandering +memories. Now, whither went they with thy +cub?"</p> + +<p class="indent">"The jungle alone knows. Toward the sunset, +I believe," said Baloo. "We had thought +that thou wouldst know, Kaa."</p> + +<p class="indent">"I? How? I take them when they come in +my way, but I do not hunt the Bandar-log—or +frogs—or green scum on a water-hole, for that +matter."</p> + +<p class="indent">"Up, up! Up, up! <i>Hillo! Illo! Illo!</i> Look +up, Baloo of the Seeonee Wolf Pack!"</p> + +<p class="indent">Baloo looked up to see where the voice came +from, and there was Rann, the Kite, sweeping +down with the sun shining on the upturned +flanges of his wings. It was near Rann's bedtime, +but he had ranged all over the jungle looking +for the bear, and missed him in the thick +foliage.</p> + +<p class="indent">"What is it?" said Baloo.</p> + +<p class="indent">"I have seen Mowgli among the Bandar-log. +He bade me tell you. I watched. The Bandar-log +have taken him beyond the river to the Monkey +City—to the Cold Lairs. They may stay +there for a night, or ten nights, or an hour. I +have told the bats to watch through the dark +time. That is my message. Good hunting, all +you below!"</p> + +<p class="indent">"Full gorge and a deep sleep to you, Rann!" +cried Bagheera. "I will remember thee in my +next kill, and put aside the head for thee alone, +O best of kites!"</p> + +<p class="indent">"It is nothing. It is nothing. The boy held +the Master Word. I could have done no less," +and Rann circled up again to his roost.</p> + +<p class="indent">"He has not forgotten to use his tongue," said +Baloo, with a chuckle of pride. "To think of +one so young remembering the Master Word for +the birds while he was being pulled across trees!"</p> + +<p class="indent">"It was most firmly driven into him," said +Bagheera. "But I am proud of him, and now +we must go to the Cold Lairs."</p> + +<p class="indent">They all knew where that place was, but few +of the Jungle People ever went there, because +what they called the Cold Lairs was an old +deserted city, lost and buried in the jungle, and +beasts seldom use a place that men have once +used. The wild boar will, but the hunting-tribes +do not. Besides, the monkeys lived there as +much as they could be said to live anywhere, +and no self-respecting animal would come within +eye-shot of it except in times of drouth, when +the half-ruined tanks and reservoirs held a little +water.</p> + +<p class="indent">"It is half a night's journey—at full speed," +said Bagheera. Baloo looked very serious. +"I will go as fast as I can," he said, anxiously.</p> + +<p class="indent">"We dare not wait for thee. Follow, Baloo. +We must go on the quick-foot—Kaa and I."</p> + +<p class="indent">"Feet or no feet, I can keep abreast of all thy +four," said Kaa, shortly.</p> + +<p class="indent">Baloo made one effort to hurry, but had to sit +down panting, and so they left him to come on +later, while Bagheera hurried forward, at the rocking +panther-canter. Kaa said nothing, but, strive +as Bagheera might, the huge Rock Python held +level with him. When they came to a hill-stream, +Bagheera gained, because he bounded across +while Kaa swam, his head and two feet of his +neck clearing the water, but on level ground Kaa +made up the distance.</p> + +<p class="indent">"By the Broken Lock that freed me," said +Bagheera, when twilight had fallen, "thou art no +slow-goer."</p> + +<p class="indent">"I am hungry," said Kaa. "Besides, they +called me speckled frog."</p> + +<p class="indent">"Worm—earthworm, and yellow to boot."</p> + +<p class="indent">"All one. Let us go on," and Kaa seemed +to pour himself along the ground, finding the +shortest road with his steady eyes, and keeping +to it.</p> + +<p class="indent">In the Cold Lairs the Monkey People were +not thinking of Mowgli's friends at all. They had +brought the boy to the Lost City, and were very +pleased with themselves for the time. Mowgli +had never seen an Indian city before, and though +this was almost a heap of ruins it seemed very +wonderful and splendid. Some king had built it +long ago on a little hill. You could still trace +the stone causeways that led up to the ruined +gates where the last splinters of wood hung to the +worn, rusted hinges. Trees had grown into and +out of the walls; the battlements were tumbled +down and decayed, and wild creepers hung out of +the windows of the towers on the walls in bushy +hanging clumps.</p> + +<p class="indent">A great roofless palace crowned the hill, and +the marble of the courtyards and the fountains +was split and stained with red and green, and the +very cobblestones in the courtyard where the +king's elephants used to live had been thrust up +and apart by grasses and young trees. From the +palace you could see the rows and rows of roofless +houses that made up the city, looking like empty +honeycombs filled with blackness; the shapeless +block of stone that had been an idol in the +square where four roads met; the pits and dimples +at street corners where the public wells once +stood, and the shattered domes of temples with +wild figs sprouting on their sides.</p> + +<p class="indent">The monkeys called the place their city, and +pretended to despise the Jungle People because +they lived in the forest. And yet they never +knew what the buildings were made for nor how +to use them. They would sit in circles on the +hall of the king's council-chamber, and scratch +for fleas and pretend to be men; or they would +run in and out of the roofless houses and collect +pieces of plaster and old bricks in a corner, and +forget where they had hidden them, and fight +and cry in scuffling crowds, and then break off to +play up and down the terraces of the king's garden, +where they would shake the rose-trees and +the oranges in sport to see the fruit and flowers +fall. They explored all the passages and dark +tunnels in the palace and the hundreds of little +dark rooms; but they never remembered what +they had seen and what they had not, and so +drifted about in ones and twos or crowds, telling +one another that they were doing as men did. +They drank at the tanks and made the water all +muddy, and then they fought over it, and then +they would all rush together in mobs and shout: +"There are none in the jungle so wise and good +and clever and strong and gentle as the Bandar-log." +Then all would begin again till they grew +tired of the city and went back to the tree-tops, +hoping the Jungle People would notice them.</p> + +<p class="indent">Mowgli, who had been trained under the Law +of the Jungle, did not like or understand this +kind of life. The monkeys dragged him into the +Cold Lairs late in the afternoon, and instead of +going to sleep, as Mowgli would have done after +a long journey, they joined hands and danced +about and sang their foolish songs.</p> + +<p class="indent">One of the monkeys made a speech, and told +his companions that Mowgli's capture marked a +new thing in the history of the Bandar-log, for +Mowgli was going to show them how to weave +sticks and canes together as a protection against +rain and cold. Mowgli picked up some creepers +and began to work them in and out, and the +monkeys tried to imitate; but in a very few minutes +they lost interest and began to pull their +friends' tails or jump up and down on all fours, +coughing.</p> + +<p class="indent">"I want to eat," said Mowgli. "I am a +stranger in this part of the jungle. Bring me +food, or give me leave to hunt here."</p> + +<p class="indent">Twenty or thirty monkeys bounded away to +bring him nuts and wild pawpaws; but they fell +to fighting on the road, and it was too much +trouble to go back with what was left of the fruit. +Mowgli was sore and angry as well as hungry, +and he roamed through the empty city giving the +Strangers' Hunting Call from time to time, but +no one answered him, and Mowgli felt that he +had reached a very bad place indeed.</p> + +<p class="indent">"All that Baloo has said about the Bandar-log +is true," he thought to himself. "They have +no Law, no Hunting Call, and no leaders—nothing +but foolish words and little picking, +thievish hands. So if I am starved or killed +here, it will be all my own fault. But I must try +to return to my own jungle. Baloo will surely +beat me, but that is better than chasing silly +rose-leaves with the Bandar-log."</p> + +<p class="indent">But no sooner had he walked to the city wall +than the monkeys pulled him back, telling him +that he did not know how happy he was, and +pinching him to make him grateful. He set his +teeth and said nothing, but went with the shouting +monkeys to a terrace above the red sandstone +reservoirs that were half full of rain-water. +There was a ruined summer-house of white +marble in the center of the terrace, built for +queens dead a hundred years ago. The domed +roof had half fallen in and blocked up the underground +passage from the palace by which the +queens used to enter; but the walls were made +of screens of marble tracery—beautiful, milk-white +fretwork, set with agates and cornelians +and jasper and lapis lazuli, and as the moon +came up behind the hill it shone through the +openwork, casting shadows on the ground like +black-velvet embroidery.</p> + +<p class="indent">Sore, sleepy, and hungry as he was, Mowgli +could not help laughing when the Bandar-log +began, twenty at a time, to tell him how great +and wise and strong and gentle they were, and +how foolish he was to wish to leave them. "We +are great. We are free. We are wonderful. We +are the most wonderful people in all the jungle! +We all say so, and so it must be true," they +shouted. "Now as you are a new listener and +can carry our words back to the Jungle People +so that they may notice us in future, we will tell +you all about our most excellent selves."</p> + +<p class="indent">Mowgli made no objection, and the monkeys +gathered by hundreds and hundreds on the terrace +to listen to their own speakers singing the +praises of the Bandar-log, and whenever a speaker +stopped for want of breath they would all shout +together: "This is true; we all say so."</p> + +<p class="indent">Mowgli nodded and blinked, and said "Yes" +when they asked him a question, and his head +spun with the noise. "Tabaqui, the Jackal, must +have bitten all these people," he said to himself, +"and now they have the madness. Certainly +this is <i>dewanee</i>—the madness. Do they never +go to sleep? Now there is a cloud coming to +cover that moon. If it were only a big enough +cloud I might try to run away in the darkness. +But I am tired."</p> + +<p class="indent">That same cloud was being watched by two +good friends in the ruined ditch below the city +wall, for Bagheera and Kaa, knowing well how +dangerous the Monkey People were in large +numbers, did not wish to run any risks. The +monkeys never fight unless they are a hundred +to one, and few in the jungle care for those odds.</p> + +<p class="indent"> +"I will go to the west wall," Kaa whispered, +"and come down swiftly with the slope of the +ground in my favor. They will not throw themselves +upon <i>my</i> back in their hundreds, but—"</p> + +<p class="indent">"I know it," said Bagheera. "Would that +Baloo were here; but we must do what we can. +When that cloud covers the moon I shall go to +the terrace. They hold some sort of council +there over the boy."</p> + +<p class="indent">"Good hunting," said Kaa, grimly, and glided +away to the west wall. That happened to be the +least ruined of any, and the big snake was delayed +a while before he could find a way up the +stones.</p> + +<p class="indent">The cloud hid the moon, and as Mowgli wondered +what would come next he heard Bagheera's +light feet on the terrace. The Black Panther had +raced up the slope almost without a sound, and +was striking—he knew better than to waste time +in biting—right and left among the monkeys, +who were seated round Mowgli in circles fifty and +sixty deep. There was a howl of fright and rage, +and then as Bagheera tripped on the rolling, +kicking bodies beneath him, a monkey shouted: +"There is only one here! Kill him! Kill!" A +scuffling mass of monkeys, biting, scratching, +tearing, and pulling, closed over Bagheera, while +five or six laid hold of Mowgli, dragged him up +the wall of the summer-house, and pushed him +through the hole of the broken dome. A man-trained +boy would have been badly bruised, for +the fall was a good ten feet, but Mowgli fell as +Baloo had taught him to fall, and landed light.</p> + +<p class="indent">"Stay there," shouted the monkeys, "till we +have killed thy friend. Later we will play with +thee, if the Poison People leave thee alive."</p> + +<p class="indent">"We be of one blood, ye and I," said Mowgli, +quickly giving the Snake's Call. He could hear +rustling and hissing in the rubbish all round him, +and gave the Call a second time to make sure.</p> + +<p class="indent">"Down hoods all," said half a dozen low +voices. Every old ruin in India becomes sooner +or later a dwelling-place of snakes, and the old +summer-house was alive with cobras. "Stand +still, Little Brother, lest thy feet do us harm."</p> + +<p class="indent">Mowgli stood as quietly as he could, peering +through the openwork and listening to the furious +din of the fight round the Black Panther—the +yells and chatterings and scufflings, and Bagheera's +deep, hoarse cough as he backed and +bucked and twisted and plunged under the heaps +of his enemies. For the first time since he was +born, Bagheera was fighting for his life.</p> + +<p class="indent">"Baloo must be at hand; Bagheera would not +have come alone," Mowgli thought; and then he +called aloud: "To the tank, Bagheera! Roll to +the water-tanks! Roll and plunge! Get to the +water!"</p> + +<p class="indent">Bagheera heard, and the cry that told him +Mowgli was safe gave him new courage. He +worked his way desperately, inch by inch, +straight for the reservoirs, hitting in silence.</p> + +<p class="indent">Then from the ruined wall nearest the jungle +rose up the rumbling war-shout of Baloo. The +old bear had done his best, but he could not +come before. "Bagheera," he shouted, "I am +here! I climb! I haste! <i>Ahuwora!</i> The +stones slip under my feet! Wait my coming, O +most infamous Bandar log!"</p> + +<p class="indent">He panted up the terrace only to disappear to +the head in a wave of monkeys, but he threw +himself squarely on his haunches, and spreading +out his fore paws, hugged as many as he could +hold, and then began to hit with a regular <i>bat-bat-bat</i>, +like the flipping strokes of a paddle-wheel.</p> + +<p class="indent">A crash and a splash told Mowgli that Bagheera +had fought his way to the tank, where +the monkeys could not follow. The panther lay +gasping for breath, his head just out of water, +while the monkeys stood three deep on the red +stone steps, dancing up and down with rage, +ready to spring upon him from all sides if he came +out to help Baloo. It was then that Bagheera +lifted up his dripping chin, and in despair gave +the Snake's Call for protection,—"We be of one +blood, ye and I,"—for he believed that Kaa had +turned tail at the last minute. Even Baloo, half +smothered under the monkeys on the edge of the +terrace, could not help chuckling as he heard the +big Black Panther asking for help.</p> + +<p class="indent">Kaa had only just worked his way over the +west wall, landing with a wrench that dislodged +a coping-stone into the ditch. He had no intention +of losing any advantage of the ground, and +coiled and uncoiled himself once or twice, to be +sure that every foot of his long body was in +working order.</p> + +<p class="indent">All that while the fight with Baloo went on, +and the monkeys yelled in the tank round Bagheera, +and Mang, the Bat, flying to and fro, carried +the news of the great battle over the jungle, +till even Hathi, the Wild Elephant, trumpeted, +and, far away, scattered bands of the Monkey +Folk woke and came leaping along the tree-roads +to help their comrades in the Cold Lairs, and +the noise of the fight roused all the day-birds +for miles round.</p> + +<p class="indent">Then Kaa came straight, quickly, and anxious +to kill. The fighting strength of a python is in +the driving blow of his head, backed by all the +strength and weight of his body. If you can imagine +a lance, or a battering-ram, or a hammer, +weighing nearly half a ton driven by a cool, +quiet mind living in the handle of it, you can +imagine roughly what Kaa was like when he +fought. A python four or five feet long can +knock a man down if he hits him fairly in the +chest, and Kaa was thirty feet long, as you +know. His first stroke was delivered into the +heart of the crowd round Baloo—was sent home +with shut mouth in silence, and there was no +need of a second. The monkeys scattered with +cries of "Kaa! It is Kaa! Run! Run!"</p> + +<p class="indent">Generations of monkeys had been scared into +good behavior by the stories their elders told +them of Kaa, the night-thief, who could slip +along the branches as quietly as moss grows, and +steal away the strongest monkey that ever lived; +of old Kaa, who could make himself look so like +a dead branch or a rotten stump that the wisest +were deceived till the branch caught them, and +then—</p> + +<p class="indent">Kaa was everything that the monkeys feared +in the jungle, for none of them knew the limits +of his power, none of them could look him in +the face, and none had ever come alive out +of his hug. And so they ran, stammering +with terror, to the walls and the roofs of the +houses, and Baloo drew a deep breath of relief. +His fur was much thicker than Bagheera's, but +he had suffered sorely in the fight. Then Kaa +opened his mouth for the first time and spoke +one long hissing word, and the far-away +monkeys, hurrying to the defense of the Cold +Lairs, stayed where they were, cowering, till the +loaded branches bent and crackled under them. +The monkeys on the walls and the empty houses +stopped their cries, and in the stillness that fell +upon the city Mowgli heard Bagheera shaking +his wet sides as he came up from the tank.</p> + +<p class="indent">Then the clamor broke out again. The +monkeys leaped higher up the walls; they clung +round the necks of the big stone idols and +shrieked as they skipped along the battlements; +while Mowgli, dancing in the summer-house, +put his eye to the screenwork and hooted owl-fashion +between his front teeth, to show his +derision and contempt.</p> + +<p class="indent">"Get the man-cub out of that trap; I can do +no more," Bagheera gasped. "Let us take the +man-cub and go. They may attack again."</p> + +<p class="indent">"They will not move till I order them. Stay +you sssso!" Kaa hissed, and the city was silent +once more. "I could not come before, Brother, but +I <i>think</i> I heard thee call"—this was to Bagheera.</p> + +<p class="indent">"I—I may have cried out in the battle," Bagheera +answered. "Baloo, art thou hurt?"</p> + +<p class="indent">"I am not sure that they have not pulled me +into a hundred little bearlings," said Baloo, +gravely shaking one leg after the other. "Wow! +I am sore. Kaa, we owe thee, I think, our lives—Bagheera +and I."</p> + +<p class="indent">"No matter. Where is the manling?"</p> + +<p class="indent">"Here, in a trap. I cannot climb out," cried +Mowgli. The curve of the broken dome was +above his head.</p> + +<p class="indent">"Take him away. He dances like Mao, the +Peacock. He will crush our young," said the +cobras inside.</p> + +<p class="indent">"Hah!" said Kaa, with a chuckle, "he has +friends everywhere, this manling. Stand back, +Manling; and hide you, O Poison People. I +break down the wall."</p> + +<p class="indent">Kaa looked carefully till he found a discolored +crack in the marble tracery showing a weak spot, +made two or three light taps with his head to get +the distance, and then lifting up six feet of his +body clear of the ground, sent home half a dozen +full-power, smashing blows, nose-first. The +screenwork broke and fell away in a cloud of dust +and rubbish, and Mowgli leaped through the +opening and flung himself between Baloo and +Bagheera—an arm round each big neck.</p> + +<p class="indent">"Art thou hurt?" said Baloo, hugging him +softly.</p> + +<p class="indent">"I am sore, hungry, and not a little bruised; +but, oh, they have handled ye grievously, my +Brothers! Ye bleed."</p> + +<p class="indent">"Others also," said Bagheera, licking his lips +and looking at the monkey-dead on the terrace +and round the tank.</p> + +<p class="indent">"It is nothing, it is nothing if thou art safe, O +my pride of all little frogs!" whimpered Baloo.</p> + +<p class="indent">"Of that we shall judge later," said Bagheera, +in a dry voice that Mowgli did not at all like. +"But here is Kaa, to whom we owe the battle +and thou owest thy life. Thank him according +to our customs, Mowgli."</p> + +<p class="indent">Mowgli turned and saw the great python's +head swaying a foot above his own.</p> + +<p class="indent">"So this is the manling," said Kaa. "Very +soft is his skin, and he is not so unlike the +Bandar-log. Have a care, Manling, that I do +not mistake thee for a monkey some twilight +when I have newly changed my coat."</p> + +<p class="indent">"We be of one blood, thou and I," Mowgli +answered. "I take my life from thee, to-night. +My kill shall be thy kill if ever thou art hungry, +O Kaa."</p> + +<p class="indent">"All thanks, Little Brother," said Kaa, though +his eyes twinkled. "And what may so bold a +hunter kill? I ask that I may follow when next +he goes abroad."</p> + +<p class="indent">"I kill nothing,—I am too little,—but I drive +goats toward such as can use them. When thou +art empty come to me and see if I speak the +truth. I have some skill in these [he held out +his hands], and if ever thou art in a trap, I may +pay the debt which I owe to thee, to Bagheera, +and to Baloo, here. Good hunting to ye all, +my masters."</p> + +<p class="indent">"Well said," growled Baloo, for Mowgli had +returned thanks very prettily. The python +dropped his head lightly for a minute on Mowgli's +shoulder. "A brave heart and a courteous +tongue," said he. "They shall carry thee far +through the jungle, Manling. But now go hence +quickly with thy friends. Go and sleep, for the +moon sets, and what follows it is not well that +thou shouldst see."</p> + +<p class="indent">The moon was sinking behind the hills and +the lines of trembling monkeys huddled together +on the walls and battlements looked like ragged, +shaky fringes of things. Baloo went down to +the tank for a drink, and Bagheera began to +put his fur in order, as Kaa glided out into the +center of the terrace and brought his jaws together +with a ringing snap that drew all the +monkeys' eyes upon him.</p> + +<p class="indent">"The moon sets," he said. "Is there yet light +to see?"</p> + +<p class="indent">From the walls came a moan like the wind in +the tree-tops: "We see, O Kaa!"</p> + +<p class="indent">"Good! Begins now the Dance—the Dance +of the Hunger of Kaa. Sit still and watch."</p> + +<p class="indent">He turned twice or thrice in a big circle, weaving +his head from right to left. Then he began +making loops and figures of eight with his body, +and soft, oozy triangles that melted into squares +and five-sided figures, and coiled mounds, never +resting, never hurrying, and never stopping his +low, humming song. It grew darker and darker, +till at last the dragging, shifting coils disappeared, +but they could hear the rustle of the +scales.</p> + +<p class="indent">Baloo and Bagheera stood still as stone, +growling in their throats, their neck-hair bristling, +and Mowgli watched and wondered.</p> + +<p class="indent">"Bandar-log," said the voice of Kaa at last, +"can ye stir foot or hand without my order? +Speak!"</p> + +<p class="indent">"Without thy order we cannot stir foot or +hand, O Kaa!"</p> + +<p class="indent">"Good! Come all one pace nearer to me."</p> + +<p class="indent">The lines of the monkeys swayed forward +helplessly, and Baloo and Bagheera took one +stiff step forward with them.</p> + +<p class="indent">"Nearer!" hissed Kaa, and they all moved +again.</p> + +<p class="indent">Mowgli laid his hands on Baloo and Bagheera +to get them away, and the two great beasts +started as though they had been waked from a +dream.</p> + +<p class="indent">"Keep thy hand on my shoulder," Bagheera +whispered. "Keep it there, or I must go back—must +go back to Kaa. <i>Aah!</i>"</p> + +<p class="indent">"It is only old Kaa making circles on the +dust," said Mowgli; "let us go"; and the three +slipped off through a gap in the walls to the +jungle.</p> + +<p class="indent">"<i>Whoof!</i>" said Baloo, when he stood under +the still trees again. "Never more will I make +an ally of Kaa," and he shook himself all over.</p> + +<p class="indent">"He knows more than we," said Bagheera, +trembling. "In a little time, had I stayed, I +should have walked down his throat."</p> + +<p class="indent">"Many will walk that road before the moon +rises again," said Baloo. "He will have good +hunting—after his own fashion."</p> + +<p class="indent">"But what was the meaning of it all?" said +Mowgli, who did not know anything of a python's +powers of fascination. "I saw no more +than a big snake making foolish circles till the +dark came. And his nose was all sore. Ho! Ho!"</p> + +<p class="indent">"Mowgli," said Bagheera, angrily, "his nose +was sore on <i>thy</i> account; as my ears and sides and +paws, and Baloo's neck and shoulders are bitten +on <i>thy</i> account. Neither Baloo nor Bagheera will +be able to hunt with pleasure for many days."</p> + +<p class="indent">"It is nothing," said Baloo; "we have the +man-cub again."</p> + +<p class="indent">"True; but he has cost us most heavily in +time which might have been spent in good hunting, +in wounds, in hair,—I am half plucked along +my back,—and last of all, in honor. For, remember, +Mowgli, I, who am the Black Panther, was +forced to call upon Kaa for protection, and Baloo +and I were both made stupid as little birds by +the Hunger-Dance. All this, Man-cub, came of +thy playing with the Bandar-log."</p> + +<p class="indent">"True; it is true," said Mowgli, sorrowfully. +"I am an evil man-cub, and my stomach is +sad in me."</p> + +<p class="indent">"<i>Mf!</i> What says the Law of the Jungle, +Baloo?"</p> + +<p class="indent">Baloo did not wish to bring Mowgli into any +more trouble, but he could not tamper with the +Law, so he mumbled, "Sorrow never stays punishment. +But remember, Bagheera, he is very little."</p> + +<p class="indent">"I will remember; but he has done mischief; +and blows must be dealt now. Mowgli, hast thou +anything to say?"</p> + +<p class="indent">"Nothing. I did wrong. Baloo and thou +art wounded. It is just."</p> + +<p class="indent">Bagheera gave him half a dozen love-taps; +from a panther's point of view they would hardly +have waked one of his own cubs, but for a seven +year-old boy they amounted to as severe a beating +as you could wish to avoid. When it was all +over Mowgli sneezed, and picked himself up +without a word.</p> + +<p class="indent">"Now," said Bagheera, "jump on my back, +Little Brother, and we will go home."</p> + +<p class="indent">One of the beauties of Jungle Law is that +punishment settles all scores. There is no nagging +afterward.</p> + +<p class="indent">Mowgli laid his head down on Bagheera's back +and slept so deeply that he never waked when +he was put down by Mother Wolf's side in the +home-cave. +</p> + +<hr /> + +<p class="center"><a name="song2" id="song2"></a> +ROAD-SONG OF THE BANDAR-LOG</p> + +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Here we go in a flung festoon,</span><br /> +<span class="i0">Half-way up to the jealous moon!</span><br /> +<span class="i0">Don't you envy our pranceful bands?</span><br /> +<span class="i0">Don't you wish you had extra hands?</span><br /> +<span class="i0">Wouldn't you like if your tails were—<i>so</i>—</span><br /> +<span class="i0">Curved in the shape of a Cupid's bow?</span><br /> +<span class="i2">Now you're angry, but—never mind,</span><br /> +<span class="i2"><i>Brother, thy tail hangs down behind</i>!</span> +</div> + +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Here we sit in a branchy row,</span><br /> +<span class="i0">Thinking of beautiful things we know;</span><br /> +<span class="i0">Dreaming of deeds that we mean to do,</span><br /> +<span class="i0">All complete, in a minute or two—</span><br /> +<span class="i0">Something noble and grand and good,</span><br /> +<span class="i0">Won by merely wishing we could.</span><br /> +<span class="i2">Now we're going to—never mind,</span><br /> +<span class="i2"><i>Brother, thy tail hangs down behind</i>!</span> +</div> + +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">All the talk we ever have heard</span><br /> +<span class="i0">Uttered by bat or beast or bird—</span><br /> +<span class="i0">Hide or fin or scale or feather—</span><br /> +<span class="i0">Jabber it quickly and all together!</span><br /> +<span class="i0">Excellent! Wonderful! Once again!</span><br /> +<span class="0">Now we are talking just like men.</span><br /> +<span class="i2">Let's pretend we are ... never mind,</span><br /> +<span class="i2"><i>Brother, thy tail hangs down behind</i>!</span><br /> +<span class="i2">This is the way of the Monkey-kind.</span> +</div> +</div> + +<p class="thangindent"><i>Then join our leaping lines that scumfish through the pines,</i></p> +<p class="mhangindent"><i>That rocket by where, light and high, the wild-grape swings.</i></p> +<p class="mhangindent"><i>By the rubbish in our wake, and the noble noise we make,</i></p> +<p class="bhangindent"><i>Be sure, be sure, we're going to do some splendid things!</i></p> + +<hr class="hr2" /> + +<h2><a name="ch03.png" id="ch03.png"></a> +"TIGER! TIGER!"</h2> + +<hr class="hr2" /> + +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">What of the hunting, hunter bold?</span><br /> +<span class="i2"><i>Brother, the watch was long and cold.</i></span><br /> +<span class="i0">What of the quarry ye went to kill?</span><br /> +<span class="i2"><i>Brother, he crops in the jungle still.</i></span><br /> +<span class="i0">Where is the power that made your pride?</span><br /> +<span class="i2"><i>Brother, it ebbs from my flank and side.</i></span><br /> +<span class="i0">Where is the haste that ye hurry by?</span><br /> +<span class="i2"><i>Brother, I go to my lair—to die.</i></span> +</div> +</div> + +<hr class="hr2" /> + +<div class="figcenter"> +<img class="border" src="images/ch03.png" alt="" title="" /> +</div> + +<p class="h2">"TIGER! TIGER!"</p> + +<p class="cap">NOW we must go back to the last tale but +one. When Mowgli left the wolf's cave +after the fight with the Pack at the Council +Rock, he went down to the plowed lands where +the villagers lived, but he would not stop there +because it was too near to the jungle, and he +knew that he had made at least one bad enemy +at the Council. So he hurried on, keeping to the +rough road that ran down the valley, and followed +it at a steady jog-trot for nearly twenty miles, +till he came to a country that he did not know. +The valley opened out into a great plain dotted +over with rocks and cut up by ravines. At one +end stood a little village, and at the other the +thick jungle came down in a sweep to the grazing-grounds, +and stopped there as though it had +been cut off with a hoe. All over the plain, cattle +and buffaloes were grazing, and when the little +boys in charge of the herds saw Mowgli they +shouted and ran away, and the yellow pariah +dogs that hang about every Indian village barked. +Mowgli walked on, for he was feeling hungry, +and when he came to the village gate he saw the +big thorn-bush that was drawn up before the gate +at twilight, pushed to one side.</p> + +<p class="indent">"Umph!" he said, for he had come across +more than one such barricade in his night rambles +after things to eat. "So men are afraid of +the People of the Jungle here also." He sat +down by the gate, and when a man came out he +stood up, opened his mouth, and pointed down it +to show that he wanted food. The man stared, +and ran back up the one street of the village +shouting for the priest, who was a big, fat man +dressed in white, with a red and yellow mark on +his forehead. The priest came to the gate, and +with him at least a hundred people, who stared +and talked and shouted and pointed at Mowgli.</p> + +<p class="indent">"They have no manners, these Men Folk," +said Mowgli to himself. "Only the gray ape +would behave as they do." So he threw back +his long hair and frowned at the crowd.</p> + +<p class="indent">"What is there to be afraid of?" said the +priest. "Look at the marks on his arms and +legs. They are the bites of wolves. He is but +a wolf-child run away from the jungle."</p> + +<p class="indent">Of course, in playing together, the cubs had +often nipped Mowgli harder than they intended, +and there were white scars all over his arms and +legs. But he would have been the last person in +the world to call these bites; for he knew what +real biting meant.</p> + +<p class="indent">"<i>Arré! Arré!</i>" said two or three women +together. "To be bitten by wolves, poor child! +He is a handsome boy. He has eyes like red +fire. By my honor, Messua, he is not unlike +thy boy that was taken by the tiger."</p> + +<p class="indent">"Let me look," said a woman with heavy +copper rings on her wrists and ankles, and she +peered at Mowgli under the palm of her hand. +"Indeed he is not. He is thinner, but he has +the very look of my boy."</p> + +<p class="indent">The priest was a clever man, and he knew that +Messua was wife to the richest villager in the +place. So he looked up at the sky for a minute, +and said solemnly: "What the jungle has taken +the jungle has restored. Take the boy into thy +house, my sister, and forget not to honor the +priest who sees so far into the lives of men."</p> + +<p class="indent">"By the Bull that bought me," said Mowgli to +himself, "but all this talking is like another looking-over +by the Pack! Well, if I am a man, a +man I must become."</p> + +<p class="indent">The crowd parted as the woman beckoned +Mowgli to her hut, where there was a red lacquered +bedstead, a great earthen grain-chest with +curious raised patterns on it, half a dozen copper +cooking-pots, an image of a Hindu god in a little +alcove, and on the wall a real looking-glass, such +as they sell at the country fairs.</p> + +<p class="indent">She gave him a long drink of milk and some +bread, and then she laid her hand on his head +and looked into his eyes; for she thought perhaps +that he might be her real son come back +from the jungle where the tiger had taken him. +So she said: "Nathoo, O Nathoo!" Mowgli did +not show that he knew the name. "Dost thou not +remember the day when I gave thee thy new +shoes?" She touched his foot, and it was almost +as hard as horn. "No," she said, sorrowfully; +"those feet have never worn shoes, but thou art +very like my Nathoo, and thou shalt be my son."</p> + +<p class="indent">Mowgli was uneasy, because he had never +been under a roof before; but as he looked at +the thatch, he saw that he could tear it out any +time if he wanted to get away, and that the +window had no fastenings. "What is the good +of a man," he said to himself at last, "if he does +not understand man's talk? Now I am as silly +and dumb as a man would be with us in the +jungle. I must learn their talk."</p> + +<p class="indent">It was not for fun that he had learned while +he was with the wolves to imitate the challenge +of bucks in the jungle and the grunt of the little +wild pig. So as soon as Messua pronounced a +word Mowgli would imitate it almost perfectly, +and before dark he had learned the names of +many things in the hut.</p> + +<p class="indent">There was a difficulty at bedtime, because +Mowgli would not sleep under anything that +looked so like a panther-trap as that hut, and +when they shut the door he went through the +window. "Give him his will," said Messua's +husband. "Remember he can never till now +have slept on a bed. If he is indeed sent in +the place of our son he will not run away."</p> + +<p class="indent">So Mowgli stretched himself in some long, +clean grass at the edge of the field, but before +he had closed his eyes a soft gray nose poked +him under the chin.</p> + +<p class="indent">"Phew!" said Gray Brother (he was the +eldest of Mother Wolf's cubs). "This is a poor +reward for following thee twenty miles. Thou +smellest of wood-smoke and cattle—altogether +like a man already. Wake, Little Brother; I +bring news."</p> + +<div class="figcenter"> +<a name="gs06.png" id="gs06.png"></a> +<img class="border" src="images/gs06.png" alt=""'WAKE, LITTLE BROTHER; I BRING NEWS.'"" title=""'WAKE, LITTLE BROTHER; I BRING NEWS.'"" /> +<br /> +<span class="caption">"'WAKE, LITTLE BROTHER; I BRING NEWS.'"</span> +</div> + +<p class="indent">"Are all well in the jungle?" said Mowgli, +hugging him.</p> + +<p class="indent">"All except the wolves that were burned with +the Red Flower. Now, listen. Shere Khan has +gone away to hunt far off till his coat grows +again, for he is badly singed. When he returns +he swears that he will lay thy bones in the +Waingunga."</p> + +<p class="indent">"There are two words to that. I also have +made a little promise. But news is always good. +I am tired to-night,—very tired with new things, +Gray Brother,—but bring me the news always."</p> + +<p class="indent">"Thou wilt not forget that thou art a wolf? +Men will not make thee forget?" said Gray +Brother, anxiously.</p> + +<p class="indent">"Never. I will always remember that I love +thee and all in our cave; but also I will always +remember that I have been cast out of the +Pack."</p> + +<p class="indent">"And that thou mayest be cast out of another +pack. Men are only men, Little Brother, and +their talk is like the talk of frogs in a pond. +When I come down here again, I will wait for +thee in the bamboos at the edge of the grazing-ground."</p> + +<p class="indent">For three months after that night Mowgli +hardly ever left the village gate, he was so busy +learning the ways and customs of men. First he +had to wear a cloth round him, which annoyed +him horribly; and then he had to learn about +money, which he did not in the least understand, +and about plowing, of which he did not see the +use. Then the little children in the village made +him very angry. Luckily, the Law of the Jungle +had taught him to keep his temper, for in the +jungle, life and food depend on keeping your +temper; but when they made fun of him because +he would not play games or fly kites, or because +he mispronounced some word, only the knowledge +that it was unsportsmanlike to kill little +naked cubs kept him from picking them up and +breaking them in two.</p> + +<p class="indent">He did not know his own strength in the +least. In the jungle he knew he was weak compared +with the beasts, but in the village, people +said he was as strong as a bull.</p> + +<p class="indent">And Mowgli had not the faintest idea of the +difference that caste makes between man and +man. When the potter's donkey slipped in the +clay-pit, Mowgli hauled it out by the tail, and +helped to stack the pots for their journey to the +market at Khanhiwara. That was very shocking, +too, for the potter is a low-caste man, and +his donkey is worse. When the priest scolded +him, Mowgli threatened to put him on the donkey, +too, and the priest told Messua's husband +that Mowgli had better be set to work as soon +as possible; and the village head-man told Mowgli +that he would have to go out with the buffaloes +next day, and herd them while they grazed. +No one was more pleased than Mowgli; and +that night, because he had been appointed a +servant of the village, as it were, he went off to +a circle that met every evening on a masonry +platform under a great fig-tree. It was the village +club, and the head-man and the watchman +and the barber (who knew all the gossip of the +village), and old Buldeo, the village hunter, who +had a Tower musket, met and smoked. The +monkeys sat and talked in the upper branches, +and there was a hole under the platform where a +cobra lived, and he had his little platter of milk +every night because he was sacred; and the old +men sat around the tree and talked, and pulled +at the big <i>huqas</i> (the water-pipes) till far into the +night. They told wonderful tales of gods and +men and ghosts; and Buldeo told even more +wonderful ones of the ways of beasts in the +jungle, till the eyes of the children sitting outside +the circle bulged out of their heads. Most of the +tales were about animals, for the jungle was always +at their door. The deer and the wild pig +grubbed up their crops, and now and again the +tiger carried off a man at twilight, within sight +of the village gates.</p> + +<p class="indent">Mowgli, who naturally knew something about +what they were talking of, had to cover his face +not to show that he was laughing, while Buldeo, +the Tower musket across his knees, climbed on +from one wonderful story to another, and Mowgli's +shoulders shook.</p> + +<p class="indent">Buldeo was explaining how the tiger that had +carried away Messua's son was a ghost-tiger, and +his body was inhabited by the ghost of a wicked +old money-lender, who had died some years ago. +"And I know that this is true," he said, "because +Purun Dass always limped from the blow that +he got in a riot when his account-books were +burned, and the tiger that I speak of <i>he</i> limps, +too, for the tracks of his pads are unequal."</p> + +<p class="indent">"True, true; that must be the truth," said the +graybeards, nodding together.</p> + +<p class="indent">"Are all these tales such cobwebs and moon-talk?" +said Mowgli. "That tiger limps because +he was born lame, as every one knows. To talk +of the soul of a money-lender in a beast that +never had the courage of a jackal is child's talk."</p> + +<div class="figcenter"> +<a name="gs07.png" id="gs07.png"></a> +<img class="border" src="images/gs07.png" alt=""'ARE ALL THESE TALES SUCH COBWEBS AND MOONTALK?' SAID MOWGLI."" title=""'ARE ALL THESE TALES SUCH COBWEBS AND MOONTALK?' SAID MOWGLI."" /> +<br /> +<span class="caption">"'ARE ALL THESE TALES SUCH COBWEBS AND MOONTALK?' SAID MOWGLI."</span> +</div> + +<p class="indent">Buldeo was speechless with surprise for a moment, +and the head-man stared.</p> + +<p class="indent">"Oho! It is the jungle brat, is it?" said Buldeo. +"If thou art so wise, better bring his hide +to Khanhiwara, for the Government has set a +hundred rupees [$30] on his life. Better still, do +not talk when thy elders speak."</p> + +<p class="indent">Mowgli rose to go. "All the evening I have +lain here listening," he called back over his shoulder, +"and, except once or twice, Buldeo has not +said one word of truth concerning the jungle, +which is at his very doors. How, then, shall I +believe the tales of ghosts and gods and goblins +which he says he has seen?"</p> + +<p class="indent">"It is full time that boy went to herding," +said the head-man, while Buldeo puffed and +snorted at Mowgli's impertinence.</p> + +<p class="indent">The custom of most Indian villages is for a few +boys to take the cattle and buffaloes out to graze +in the early morning, and bring them back at +night; and the very cattle that would trample a +white man to death allow themselves to be banged +and bullied and shouted at by children that hardly +come up to their noses. So long as the boys +keep with the herds they are safe, for not even +the tiger will charge a mob of cattle. But if they +straggle to pick flowers or hunt lizards, they are +sometimes carried off. Mowgli went through the +village street in the dawn, sitting on the back of +Rama, the great herd bull; and the slaty-blue +buffaloes, with their long, backward-sweeping +horns and savage eyes, rose out of their byres, +one by one, and followed him, and Mowgli made +it very clear to the children with him that he was +the master. He beat the buffaloes with a long, +polished bamboo, and told Kamya, one of the +boys, to graze the cattle by themselves, while he +went on with the buffaloes, and to be very careful +not to stray away from the herd.</p> + +<p class="indent">An Indian grazing-ground is all rocks and +scrub and tussocks and little ravines, among +which the herds scatter and disappear. The +buffaloes generally keep to the pools and muddy +places, where they lie wallowing or basking in the +warm mud for hours. Mowgli drove them on to +the edge of the plain where the Waingunga River +came out of the jungle; then he dropped from +Rama's neck, trotted off to a bamboo clump, and +found Gray Brother. "Ah," said Gray Brother, +"I have waited here very many days. What is +the meaning of this cattle-herding work?"</p> + +<p class="indent">"It is an order," said Mowgli. "I am a +village herd for a while. What news of Shere +Khan?"</p> + +<p class="indent">"He has come back to this country, and has +waited here a long time for thee. Now he has +gone off again, for the game is scarce. But he +means to kill thee."</p> + +<p class="indent">"Very good," said Mowgli. "So long as he +is away do thou or one of the brothers sit on +that rock, so that I can see thee as I come +out of the village. When he comes back wait for +me in the ravine by the <i>dhâk</i>-tree in the center +of the plain. We need not walk into Shere +Khan's mouth."</p> + +<p class="indent">Then Mowgli picked out a shady place, and +lay down and slept while the buffaloes grazed +round him. Herding in India is one of the laziest things +in the world. The cattle move and +crunch, and lie down, and move on again, and they +do not even low. They only grunt, and the buffaloes +very seldom say anything, but get down into +the muddy pools one after another, and work their +way into the mud till only their noses and staring +china-blue eyes show above the surface, and there +they lie like logs. The sun makes the rocks +dance in the heat, and the herd-children hear one +kite (never any more) whistling almost out of +sight overhead, and they know that if they died, +or a cow died, that kite would sweep down, and +the next kite miles away would see him drop and +follow, and the next, and the next, and almost +before they were dead there would be a score of +hungry kites come out of nowhere. Then they +sleep and wake and sleep again, and weave little +baskets of dried grass and put grasshoppers in +them; or catch two praying-mantises and make +them fight; or string a necklace of red and black +jungle-nuts; or watch a lizard basking on a rock, +or a snake hunting a frog near the wallows. +Then they sing long, long songs with odd native +quavers at the end of them, and the day seems +longer than most people's whole lives, and perhaps +they make a mud castle with mud figures of +men and horses and buffaloes, and put reeds into +the men's hands, and pretend that they are kings +and the figures are their armies, or that they are +gods to be worshiped. Then evening comes, +and the children call, and the buffaloes lumber +up out of the sticky mud with noises like gunshots +going off one after the other, and they all +string across the gray plain back to the twinkling +village lights.</p> + +<p class="indent">Day after day Mowgli would lead the buffaloes +out to their wallows, and day after day he would +see Gray Brother's back a mile and a half away +across the plain (so he knew that Shere Khan +had not come back), and day after day he would +lie on the grass listening to the noise round him, +and dreaming of old days in the jungle. If Shere +Khan had made a false step with his lame paw up +in the jungles by the Waingunga, Mowgli would +have heard him in those long still mornings.</p> + +<div class="figcenter"> +<img src="images/gs08.png" alt="" title="" /> +</div> + +<p class="indent">At last a day came when he did not see Gray +Brother at the signal place, and he laughed and +headed the buffaloes for the ravine by the <i>dhâk</i>-tree, +which was all covered with golden-red +flowers. There sat Gray Brother, every bristle +on his back lifted.</p> + +<p class="indent">"He has hidden for a month to throw thee +off thy guard. He crossed the ranges last night +with Tabaqui, hot-foot on thy trail," said the +wolf, panting.</p> + +<p class="indent">Mowgli frowned. "I am not afraid of Shere +Khan, but Tabaqui is very cunning."</p> + +<p class="indent">"Have no fear," said Gray Brother, licking his +lips a little. "I met Tabaqui in the dawn. Now +he is telling all his wisdom to the kites, but he +told <i>me</i> everything before I broke his back. +Shere Khan's plan is to wait for thee at the +village gate this evening—for thee and for no +one else. He is lying up now in the big dry +ravine of the Waingunga."</p> + +<p class="indent">"Has he eaten to-day, or does he hunt +empty?" said Mowgli, for the answer meant +life or death to him.</p> + +<p class="indent">"He killed at dawn,—a pig,—and he has +drunk too. Remember, Shere Khan could never +fast even for the sake of revenge."</p> + +<p class="indent">"Oh! Fool, fool! What a cub's cub it is! +Eaten and drunk too, and he thinks that I shall +wait till he has slept! Now, where does he lie +up? If there were but ten of us we might pull +him down as he lies. These buffaloes will not +charge unless they wind him, and I cannot speak +their language. Can we get behind his track so +that they may smell it?"</p> + +<p class="indent">"He swam far down the Waingunga to cut +that off," said Gray Brother.</p> + +<p class="indent">"Tabaqui told him that, I know. He would +never have thought of it alone." Mowgli stood +with his finger in his mouth, thinking. "The big +ravine of the Waingunga. That opens out on the +plain not half a mile from here. I can take the +herd round through the jungle to the head of the +ravine and then sweep down—but he would slink +out at the foot. We must block that end. Gray +Brother, canst thou cut the herd in two for me?"</p> + +<p class="indent">"Not I, perhaps—but I have brought a wise +helper." Gray Brother trotted off and dropped +into a hole. Then there lifted up a huge gray +head that Mowgli knew well, and the hot air was +filled with the most desolate cry of all the jungle—the +hunting-howl of a wolf at midday.</p> + +<p class="indent">"Akela! Akela!" said Mowgli, clapping his +hands. "I might have known that thou wouldst +not forget me. We have a big work in hand. +Cut the herd in two, Akela. Keep the cows and +calves together, and the bulls and the plow-buffaloes +by themselves."</p> + +<p class="indent">The two wolves ran, ladies'-chain fashion, in +and out of the herd, which snorted and threw up +its head, and separated into two clumps. In one +the cow-buffaloes stood, with their calves in the +center, and glared and pawed, ready, if a wolf +would only stay still, to charge down and trample +the life out of him. In the other the bulls and +the young bulls snorted and stamped; but, +though they looked more imposing, they were +much less dangerous, for they had no calves to +protect. No six men could have divided the +herd so neatly.</p> + +<p class="indent">"What orders!" panted Akela. "They are +trying to join again."</p> + +<p class="indent">Mowgli slipped on to Rama's back. "Drive +the bulls away to the left, Akela. Gray Brother, +when we are gone hold the cows together, and +drive them into the foot of the ravine."</p> + +<p class="indent">"How far?" said Gray Brother, panting and +snapping.</p> + +<p class="indent">"Till the sides are higher than Shere Khan +can jump," shouted Mowgli. "Keep them there +till we come down." The bulls swept off as +Akela bayed, and Gray Brother stopped in front +of the cows. They charged down on him, and +he ran just before them to the foot of the ravine, +as Akela drove the bulls far to the left.</p> + +<p class="indent">"Well done! Another charge and they are +fairly started. Careful, now—careful, Akela. +A snap too much, and the bulls will charge. +<i>Hujah!</i> This is wilder work than driving black-buck. +Didst thou think these creatures could +move so swiftly?" Mowgli called.</p> + +<p class="indent">"I have—have hunted these too in my time," +gasped Akela in the dust. "Shall I turn them +into the jungle?"</p> + +<p class="indent">"Ay, turn! Swiftly turn them. Rama is +mad with rage. Oh, if I could only tell him +what I need of him to-day!"</p> + +<p class="indent">The bulls were turned to the right this time, +and crashed into the standing thicket. The +other herd-children, watching with the cattle half +a mile away, hurried to the village as fast as their +legs could carry them, crying that the buffaloes +had gone mad and run away.</p> + +<p class="indent">But Mowgli's plan was simple enough. All +he wanted to do was to make a big circle uphill +and get at the head of the ravine, and then take +the bulls down it and catch Shere Khan between +the bulls and the cows, for he knew that after a +meal and a full drink Shere Khan would not be +in any condition to fight or to clamber up the +sides of the ravine. He was soothing the buffaloes +now by voice, and Akela had dropped far +to the rear, only whimpering once or twice to +hurry the rear-guard. It was a long, long circle, +for they did not wish to get too near the ravine +and give Shere Khan warning. At last Mowgli +rounded up the bewildered herd at the head of +the ravine on a grassy patch that sloped steeply +down to the ravine itself. From that height you +could see across the tops of the trees down to the +plain below; but what Mowgli looked at was the +sides of the ravine, and he saw with a great deal +of satisfaction that they ran nearly straight up +and down, and the vines and creepers that hung +over them would give no foothold to a tiger who +wanted to get out.</p> + +<p class="indent">"Let them breathe, Akela," he said, holding +up his hand. "They have not winded him yet. +Let them breathe. I must tell Shere Khan who +comes. We have him in the trap."</p> + +<p class="indent">He put his hands to his mouth and shouted +down the ravine,—it was almost like shouting +down a tunnel,—and the echoes jumped from +rock to rock.</p> + +<p class="indent">After a long time there came back the drawling, +sleepy snarl of a full-fed tiger just awakened.</p> + +<p class="indent">"Who calls?" said Shere Khan, and a splendid +peacock fluttered up out of the ravine, +screeching.</p> + +<p class="indent">"I, Mowgli. Cattle-thief, it is time to come +to the Council Rock! Down—hurry them down, +Akela. Down, Rama, down!"</p> + +<p class="indent">The herd paused for an instant at the edge of +the slope, but Akela gave tongue in the full +hunting-yell, and they pitched over one after the +other just as steamers shoot rapids, the sand +and stones spurting up round them. Once +started, there was no chance of stopping, and before +they were fairly in the bed of the ravine +Rama winded Shere Khan and bellowed.</p> + +<p class="indent">"Ha! Ha!" said Mowgli, on his back. "Now +thou knowest!" and the torrent of black horns, +foaming muzzles, and staring eyes whirled down +the ravine like boulders in flood-time; the weaker +buffaloes being shouldered out to the sides of the +ravine where they tore through the creepers. +They knew what the business was before them—the +terrible charge of the buffalo-herd, against +which no tiger can hope to stand. Shere Khan +heard the thunder of their hoofs, picked himself +up, and lumbered down the ravine, looking +from side to side for some way of escape, but the +walls of the ravine were straight, and he had to +keep on, heavy with his dinner and his drink, +willing to do anything rather than fight. The +herd splashed through the pool he had just left, +bellowing till the narrow cut rang. Mowgli +heard an answering bellow from the foot of the ravine, +saw Shere Khan turn (the tiger knew if the +worst came to the worst it was better to meet the +bulls than the cows with their calves), and then +Rama tripped, stumbled, and went on again over +something soft, and, with the bulls at his heels, +crashed full into the other herd, while the weaker +buffaloes were lifted clean off their feet by the +shock of the meeting. That charge carried both +herds out into the plain, goring and stamping and +snorting. Mowgli watched his time, and slipped +off Rama's neck, laying about him right and left +with his stick.</p> + +<p class="indent">"Quick, Akela! Break them up. Scatter +them, or they will be fighting one another. Drive +them away, Akela. <i>Hai</i>, Rama! <i>Hai! hai! +hai!</i> my children. Softly now, softly! It is all +over."</p> + +<p class="indent">Akela and Gray Brother ran to and fro nipping +the buffaloes' legs, and though the herd wheeled +once to charge up the ravine again, Mowgli managed +to turn Rama, and the others followed him +to the wallows.</p> + +<p class="indent">Shere Khan needed no more trampling. He +was dead, and the kites were coming for him +already.</p> + +<p class="indent">"Brothers, that was a dog's death," said +Mowgli, feeling for the knife he always carried +in a sheath round his neck now that he lived +with men. "But he would never have shown +fight. His hide will look well on the Council +Rock. We must get to work swiftly."</p> + +<p class="indent">A boy trained among men would never have +dreamed of skinning a ten-foot tiger alone, but +Mowgli knew better than any one else how an +animal's skin is fitted on, and how it can be taken +off. But it was hard work, and Mowgli slashed +and tore and grunted for an hour, while the +wolves lolled out their tongues, or came forward +and tugged as he ordered them.</p> + +<p class="indent">Presently a hand fell on his shoulder, and looking +up he saw Buldeo with the Tower musket. +The children had told the village about the buffalo +stampede, and Buldeo went out angrily, only +too anxious to correct Mowgli for not taking +better care of the herd. The wolves dropped out +of sight as soon as they saw the man coming.</p> + +<p class="indent">"What is this folly?" said Buldeo, angrily. +"To think that thou canst skin a tiger! Where +did the buffaloes kill him? It is the Lame Tiger, +too, and there is a hundred rupees on his head. +Well, well, we will overlook thy letting the herd +run off, and perhaps I will give thee one of the +rupees of the reward when I have taken the skin +to Khanhiwara." He fumbled in his waist-cloth +for flint and steel, and stooped down to singe +Shere Khan's whiskers. Most native hunters +singe a tiger's whiskers to prevent his ghost +haunting them.</p> + +<p class="indent">"Hum!" said Mowgli, half to himself as he +ripped back the skin of a fore paw. "So thou +wilt take the hide to Khanhiwara for the reward, +and perhaps give me one rupee? Now it is in +my mind that I need the skin for my own use. +Heh! old man, take away that fire!"</p> + +<p class="indent">"What talk is this to the chief hunter of the +village? Thy luck and the stupidity of thy buffaloes +have helped thee to this kill. The tiger +has just fed, or he would have gone twenty miles +by this time. Thou canst not even skin him +properly, little beggar-brat, and forsooth I, +Buldeo, must be told not to singe his whiskers. +Mowgli, I will not give thee one anna of the +reward, but only a very big beating. Leave the +carcass!"</p> + +<p class="indent">"By the Bull that bought me," said Mowgli, +who was trying to get at the shoulder, "must I +stay babbling to an old ape all noon? Here, +Akela, this man plagues me."</p> + +<p class="indent">Buldeo, who was still stooping over Shere +Khan's head, found himself sprawling on the +grass, with a gray wolf standing over him, while +Mowgli went on skinning as though he were +alone in all India.</p> + +<p class="indent">"Ye-es," he said, between his teeth. "Thou +art altogether right, Buldeo. Thou wilt never +give me one anna of the reward. There is an +old war between this lame tiger and myself—a +very old war, and—I have won."</p> + +<p class="indent">To do Buldeo justice, if he had been ten years +younger he would have taken his chance with +Akela had he met the wolf in the woods, but a +wolf who obeyed the orders of this boy who had +private wars with man-eating tigers was not a +common animal. It was sorcery, magic of the +worst kind, thought Buldeo, and he wondered +whether the amulet round his neck would protect +him. He lay as still as still, expecting every +minute to see Mowgli turn into a tiger, too.</p> + +<div class="figcenter"> +<a name="gs09.png" id="gs09.png"></a> +<img class="border" src="images/gs09.png" alt=""BULDEO LAY AS STILL AS STILL, EXPECTING EVERY MINUTE TO SEE MOWGLI TURN INTO A TIGER, TOO."" title=""BULDEO LAY AS STILL AS STILL, EXPECTING EVERY MINUTE TO SEE MOWGLI TURN INTO A TIGER, TOO."" /> +<br /> +<span class="caption">"BULDEO LAY AS STILL AS STILL, EXPECTING EVERY MINUTE TO SEE MOWGLI TURN INTO A TIGER, TOO."</span> +</div> + +<p class="indent">"Maharaj! Great King," he said at last, in a +husky whisper.</p> + +<p class="indent">"Yes," said Mowgli, without turning his head, +chuckling a little. +</p> + +<p class="indent">"I am an old man. I did not know that thou +wast anything more than a herd-boy. May I +rise up and go away, or will thy servant tear me +to pieces?"</p> + +<p class="indent">"Go, and peace go with thee. Only, another +time do not meddle with my game. Let him go, +Akela."</p> + +<p class="indent">Buldeo hobbled away to the village as fast as +he could, looking back over his shoulder in case +Mowgli should change into something terrible. +When he got to the village he told a tale of +magic and enchantment and sorcery that made +the priest look very grave.</p> + +<p class="indent">Mowgli went on with his work, but it was +nearly twilight before he and the wolves had +drawn the great gay skin clear of the body.</p> + +<p class="indent">"Now we must hide this and take the buffaloes +home! Help me to herd them, Akela."</p> + +<p class="indent">The herd rounded up in the misty twilight, +and when they got near the village Mowgli saw +lights, and heard the conches and bells in the +temple blowing and banging. Half the village +seemed to be waiting for him by the gate. "That +is because I have killed Shere Khan," he said to +himself; but a shower of stones whistled about +his ears, and the villagers shouted: "Sorcerer! +Wolf's brat! Jungle-demon! Go away! Get +hence quickly, or the priest will turn thee into +a wolf again. Shoot, Buldeo, shoot!"</p> + +<p class="indent">The old Tower musket went off with a bang, +and a young buffalo bellowed in pain.</p> + +<p class="indent">"More sorcery!" shouted the villagers. "He +can turn bullets. Buldeo, that was <i>thy</i> buffalo."</p> + +<p class="indent">"Now what is this?" said Mowgli, bewildered, +as the stones flew thicker.</p> + +<p class="indent">"They are not unlike the Pack, these brothers +of thine," said Akela, sitting down composedly. +"It is in my head that, if bullets mean anything, +they would cast thee out."</p> + +<p class="indent">"Wolf! Wolf's cub! Go away!" shouted the +priest, waving a sprig of the sacred <i>tulsi</i> plant.</p> + +<p class="indent">"Again? Last time it was because I was a +man. This time it is because I am a wolf. Let +us go, Akela."</p> + +<p class="indent">A woman—it was Messua—ran across to the +herd, and cried: "Oh, my son, my son! They +say thou art a sorcerer who can turn himself into +a beast at will. I do not believe, but go away +or they will kill thee. Buldeo says thou art a +wizard, but I know thou hast avenged Nathoo's +death."</p> + +<p class="indent">"Come back, Messua!" shouted the crowd. +"Come back, or we will stone thee."</p> + +<p class="indent">Mowgli laughed a little short ugly laugh, for a +stone had hit him in the mouth. "Run back, +Messua. This is one of the foolish tales they tell +under the big tree at dusk. I have at least paid +for thy son's life. Farewell; and run quickly, +for I shall send the herd in more swiftly than their +brickbats. I am no wizard, Messua. Farewell!</p> + +<p class="indent">"Now, once more, Akela," he cried. "Bring +the herd in."</p> + +<p class="indent">The buffaloes were anxious enough to get to +the village. They hardly needed Akela's yell, but +charged through the gate like a whirlwind, scattering +the crowd right and left.</p> + +<p class="indent">"Keep count!" shouted Mowgli, scornfully. +"It may be that I have stolen one of them. +Keep count, for I will do your herding no more. +Fare you well, children of men, and thank Messua +that I do not come in with my wolves and +hunt you up and down your street."</p> + +<p class="indent">He turned on his heel and walked away with +the Lone Wolf; and as he looked up at the stars +he felt happy. "No more sleeping in traps for +me, Akela. Let us get Shere Khan's skin and +go away. No; we will not hurt the village, for +Messua was kind to me."</p> + +<p class="indent">When the moon rose over the plain, making it +look all milky, the horrified villagers saw Mowgli, +with two wolves at his heels and a bundle on +his head, trotting across at the steady wolf's trot +that eats up the long miles like fire. Then they +banged the temple bells and blew the conches +louder than ever; and Messua cried, and Buldeo +embroidered the story of his adventures in the +jungle, till he ended by saying that Akela stood +up on his hind legs and talked like a man.</p> + +<div class="figcenter"> +<a name="gs10.png" id="gs10.png"></a> +<img class="border" src="images/gs10.png" alt=""WHEN THE MOON ROSE OVER THE PLAIN THE VILLAGERS SAW +MOWGLI TROTTING ACROSS, WITH TWO WOLVES AT HIS HEELS."" title=""WHEN THE MOON ROSE OVER THE PLAIN THE VILLAGERS SAW +MOWGLI TROTTING ACROSS, WITH TWO WOLVES AT HIS HEELS."" /> +<br /> +<span class="caption">"WHEN THE MOON ROSE OVER THE PLAIN THE VILLAGERS SAW<br /> +MOWGLI TROTTING ACROSS, WITH TWO WOLVES AT HIS HEELS."</span> +</div> + +<p class="indent">The moon was just going down when Mowgli +and the two wolves came to the hill of the Council +Rock, and they stopped at Mother Wolf's cave.</p> + +<p class="indent">"They have cast me out from the Man Pack, +Mother," shouted Mowgli, "but I come with the +hide of Shere Khan to keep my word." Mother +Wolf walked stiffly from the cave with the cubs +behind her, and her eyes glowed as she saw the +skin.</p> + +<p class="indent">"I told him on that day, when he crammed his +head and shoulders into this cave, hunting for thy +life, Little Frog—I told him that the hunter +would be the hunted. It is well done."</p> + +<p class="indent">"Little Brother, it is well done," said a deep +voice in the thicket. "We were lonely in the +jungle without thee," and Bagheera came running +to Mowgli's bare feet. They clambered up the +Council Rock together, and Mowgli spread the +skin out on the flat stone where Akela used to +sit, and pegged it down with four slivers of bamboo, +and Akela lay down upon it, and called the +old call to the Council, "Look—look well, O +Wolves!" exactly as he had called when Mowgli +was first brought there.</p> + +<div class="figcenter"> +<a name="gs11.png" id="gs11.png"></a> +<img class="border" src="images/gs11.png" alt=""THEY CLAMBERED UP ON THE COUNCIL ROCK TOGETHER, AND MOWGLI SPREAD THE SKIN OUT ON THE FLAT STONE."" title=""THEY CLAMBERED UP ON THE COUNCIL ROCK TOGET" /> +<br /> +<span class="caption">"THEY CLAMBERED UP ON THE COUNCIL ROCK<br /> TOGETHER, AND MOWGLI SPREAD THE SKIN OUT ON THE FLAT STONE."</span> +</div> + +<p class="indent">Ever since Akela had been deposed, the Pack +had been without a leader, hunting and fighting at +their own pleasure. But they answered the call +from habit, and some of them were lame from the +traps they had fallen into, and some limped from +shot-wounds, and some were mangy from eating +bad food, and many were missing; but they +came to the Council Rock, all that were left of +them, and saw Shere Khan's striped hide on the +rock, and the huge claws dangling at the end +of the empty, dangling feet. It was then that +Mowgli made up a song without any rhymes, a +song that came up into his throat all by itself, +and he shouted it aloud, leaping up and down +on the rattling skin, and beating time with his +heels till he had no more breath left, while +Gray Brother and Akela howled between the +verses.</p> + +<p class="indent">"Look well, O Wolves. Have I kept my +word?" said Mowgli when he had finished; and +the wolves bayed "Yes," and one tattered wolf +howled:</p> + +<p class="indent">"Lead us again, O Akela. Lead us again, O +Man-cub, for we be sick of this lawlessness, and +we would be the Free People once more."</p> + +<p class="indent">"Nay," purred Bagheera, "that may not be. +When ye are full-fed, the madness may come +upon ye again. Not for nothing are ye called +the Free People. Ye fought for freedom, and it +is yours. Eat it, O Wolves."</p> + +<p class="indent">"Man Pack and Wolf Pack have cast me +out," said Mowgli. "Now I will hunt alone in +the jungle."</p> + +<p class="indent">"And we will hunt with thee," said the four +cubs. +</p> + +<p class="indent">So Mowgli went away and hunted with the +four cubs in the jungle from that day on. But +he was not always alone, because years afterward +he became a man and married.</p> + +<p class="indent">But that is a story for grown-ups.</p> + +<hr /> + +<p class="center"><a name="song3" id="song3"></a>MOWGLI'S SONG</p> + +<p class="center">THAT HE SANG AT THE COUNCIL ROCK WHEN HE +DANCED ON SHERE KHAN'S HIDE</p> + +<div class="poem"> +<p class="thangindent">The Song of Mowgli—I, Mowgli, am singing. Let +the jungle listen to the things I have done.</p> +<p class="mhangindent">Shere Khan said he would kill—would kill! At the +gates in the twilight he would kill Mowgli, +the Frog!</p> +<p class="mhangindent">He ate and he drank. Drink deep, Shere Khan, for +when wilt thou drink again? Sleep and dream +of the kill.</p> +<p class="mhangindent">I am alone on the grazing-grounds. Gray Brother, +come to me! Come to me, Lone Wolf, for there +is big game afoot.</p> +<p class="mhangindent">Bring up the great bull-buffaloes, the blue-skinned +herd-bulls with the angry eyes. Drive them +to and fro as I order.</p> +<p class="mhangindent">Sleepest thou still, Shere Khan? Wake, O wake! +Here come I, and the bulls are behind.</p> +<p class="mhangindent"><br /> +Rama, the King of the Buffaloes, stamped with +his foot. Waters of the Waingunga, whither went +Shere Khan?</p> +<p class="mhangindent">He is not Ikki to dig holes, nor Mao, the Peacock, +that he should fly. He is not Mang, the Bat, to +hang in the branches. Little bamboos that creak +together, tell me where he ran?</p> +<p class="mhangindent"><i>Ow!</i> He is there. <i>Ahoo!</i> He is there. +Under the feet of Rama lies the Lame One! Up, +Shere Khan! Up and kill! Here is meat; break the +necks of the bulls!</p> +<p class="mhangindent"><i>Hsh!</i> He is asleep. We will not wake him, for +his strength is very great. The kites have come +down to see it. The black ants have come up to +know it. There is a great assembly in his honor.</p> +<p class="mhangindent"><i>Alala!</i> I have no cloth to wrap me. The kites +will see that I am naked. I am ashamed to meet +all these people.</p> +<p class="mhangindent">Lend me thy coat, Shere Khan. Lend me thy gay +striped coat that I may go to the Council Rock.</p> +<p class="mhangindent">By the Bull that bought me I have made a promise—a +little promise. Only thy coat is lacking before +I keep my word.</p> +<p class="mhangindent">With the knife—with the knife that men use—with +the knife of the hunter, the man, I will stoop +down for my gift.</p> +<p class="mhangindent">Waters of the Waingunga, bear witness that Shere +Khan gives me his coat for the love that he +bears me. Pull, Gray Brother! Pull, Akela! +Heavy is the hide of Shere Khan.</p> +<p class="mhangindent">The Man Pack are angry. They throw stones and talk +child's talk. My mouth is bleeding. Let us run +away.</p> +<p class="mhangindent">Through the night, through the hot night, run +swiftly with me, my brothers. We will leave the +lights of the village and go to the low moon.</p> +<p class="mhangindent">Waters of the Waingunga, the Man Pack have cast me +out. I did them no harm, but they were afraid of +me. Why?</p> +<p class="mhangindent">Wolf Pack, ye have cast me out too. The jungle is +shut to me and the village gates are shut. Why?</p> +<p class="mhangindent">As Mang flies between the beasts and the birds so +fly I between the village and the jungle. Why?</p> +<p class="mhangindent">I dance on the hide of Shere Khan, but my heart is +very heavy. My mouth is cut and wounded with the +stones from the village, but my heart is very +light because I have come back to the jungle. +Why?</p> +<p class="mhangindent">These two things fight together in me as the snakes +fight in the spring. The water comes out of my +eyes; yet I laugh while it falls. Why?</p> +<p class="mhangindent">I am two Mowglis, but the hide of Shere Khan is +under my feet.</p> +<p class="mhangindent">All the jungle knows that I have killed Shere Khan. +Look—look well, O Wolves!</p> +<p class="bhangindent"><i>Ahae!</i> My heart is heavy with the things that +I do not understand.</p> +</div> + +<hr class="hr2" /> + +<h2><a name="ch04.png" id="ch04.png"></a> +THE WHITE SEAL</h2> + +<hr class="hr2" /> + +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Oh! hush thee, my baby, the night is behind us,</span><br /> +<span class="i2">And black are the waters that sparkled so green.</span><br /> +<span class="i0">The moon, o'er the combers, looks downward to find us</span><br /> +<span class="i2">At rest in the hollows that rustle between.</span><br /> +<span class="i0">Where billow meets billow, there soft be thy pillow;</span><br /> +<span class="i2">Ah, weary wee flipperling, curl at thy ease!</span><br /> +<span class="i0">The storm shall not wake thee, nor shark overtake thee,</span><br /> +<span class="i2">Asleep in the arms of the slow-swinging seas.</span><br /> +<span class="ralign"><i>Seal Lullaby.</i></span> +</div> +</div> + +<hr class="hr2" /> + +<div class="figcenter"> +<img class="border" src="images/ch04.png" alt="" title="" /> +</div> + +<p class="h2">THE WHITE SEAL</p> + +<p class="cap">ALL these things happened several years ago +at a place called Novastoshnah, or North +East Point, on the Island of St. Paul, away and +away in the Bering Sea. Limmershin, the Winter +Wren, told me the tale when he was blown on +to the rigging of a steamer going to Japan, and I +took him down into my cabin and warmed and fed +him for a couple of days till he was fit to fly back +to St. Paul's again. Limmershin is a very odd +little bird, but he knows how to tell the truth.</p> + +<p class="indent">Nobody comes to Novastoshnah except on +business, and the only people who have regular +business there are the seals. They come in the +summer months by hundreds and hundreds of +thousands out of the cold gray sea; for Novastoshnah +Beach has the finest accommodation for +seals of any place in all the world.</p> + +<p class="indent">Sea Catch knew that, and every spring would +swim from whatever place he happened to be in—would +swim like a torpedo-boat straight for +Novastoshnah, and spend a month fighting with +his companions for a good place on the rocks as +close to the sea as possible. Sea Catch was fifteen +years old, a huge gray fur-seal with almost +a mane on his shoulders, and long, wicked dogteeth. +When he heaved himself up on his front +flippers he stood more than four feet clear of the +ground, and his weight, if any one had been bold +enough to weigh him, was nearly seven hundred +pounds. He was scarred all over with the marks +of savage fights, but he was always ready for just +one fight more. He would put his head on one +side, as though he were afraid to look his enemy +in the face; then he would shoot it out like lightning, +and when the big teeth were firmly fixed on +the other seal's neck, the other seal might get away +if he could, but Sea Catch would not help him.</p> + +<p class="indent">Yet Sea Catch never chased a beaten seal, for +that was against the Rules of the Beach. He +only wanted room by the sea for his nursery; +but as there were forty or fifty thousand other +seals hunting for the same thing each spring, the +whistling, bellowing, roaring, and blowing on the +beach was something frightful.</p> + +<p class="indent">From a little hill called Hutchinson's Hill you +could look over three and a half miles of ground +covered with fighting seals; and the surf was +dotted all over with the heads of seals hurrying +to land and begin their share of the fighting. +They fought in the breakers, they fought in the +sand, and they fought on the smooth-worn basalt +rocks of the nurseries; for they were just as stupid +and unaccommodating as men. Their wives +never came to the island until late in May or +early in June, for they did not care to be torn to +pieces; and the young two-, three-, and four-year-old +seals who had not begun housekeeping +went inland about half a mile through the ranks +of the fighters and played about on the sand-dunes +in droves and legions, and rubbed off every single +green thing that grew. They were called the +holluschickie,—the bachelors,—and there were +perhaps two or three hundred thousand of them +at Novastoshnah alone.</p> + +<p class="indent">Sea Catch had just finished his forty-fifth fight +one spring when Matkah, his soft, sleek, gentle-eyed +wife came up out of the sea, and he caught +her by the scruff of the neck and dumped her +down on his reservation, saying gruffly: "Late, +as usual. Where <i>have</i> you been?"</p> + +<p class="indent">It was not the fashion for Sea Catch to eat +anything during the four months he stayed on +the beaches, and so his temper was generally +bad. Matkah knew better than to answer back. +She looked around and cooed: "How thoughtful +of you. You've taken the old place again."</p> + +<p class="indent">"I should think I had," said Sea Catch. "Look +at me!"</p> + +<p class="indent">He was scratched and bleeding in twenty +places; one eye was almost blind, and his sides +were torn to ribbons.</p> + +<p class="indent">"Oh, you men, you men!" Matkah said, fanning +herself with her hind flipper. "Why can't +you be sensible and settle your places quietly? +You look as though you had been fighting with +the Killer Whale."</p> + +<p class="indent">"I haven't been doing anything <i>but</i> fight since +the middle of May. The beach is disgracefully +crowded this season. I've met at least a hundred +seals from Lukannon Beach, house-hunting. +Why can't people stay where they belong?"</p> + +<p class="indent">"I've often thought we should be much happier +if we hauled out at Otter Island instead of +this crowded place," said Matkah.</p> + +<p class="indent">"Bah! Only the holluschickie go to Otter +Island. If we went there they would say we +were afraid. We must preserve appearances, my +dear."</p> + +<p class="indent">Sea Catch sunk his head proudly between his +fat shoulders and pretended to go to sleep for a +few minutes, but all the time he was keeping a +sharp lookout for a fight. Now that all the seals +and their wives were on the land you could hear +their clamor miles out to sea above the loudest +gales. At the lowest counting there were over a +million seals on the beach,—old seals, mother +seals, tiny babies, and holluschickie, fighting, scuffling, +bleating, crawling, and playing together,—going +down to the sea and coming up from it in +gangs and regiments, lying over every foot of +ground as far as the eye could reach, and skirmishing +about in brigades through the fog. It is +nearly always foggy at Novastoshnah, except +when the sun comes out and makes everything +look all pearly and rainbow-colored for a little +while.</p> + +<p class="indent">Kotick, Matkah's baby, was born in the middle +of that confusion, and he was all head and +shoulders, with pale, watery blue eyes, as tiny +seals must be; but there was something about +his coat that made his mother look at him very +closely.</p> + +<p class="indent">"Sea Catch," she said, at last, "our baby's +going to be white!"</p> + +<p class="indent">"Empty clam-shells and dry seaweed!" snorted +Sea Catch. "There never has been such a thing +in the world as a white seal."</p> + +<p class="indent">"I can't help that," said Matkah; "there's going +to be now"; and she sang the low, crooning +seal-song that all the mother seals sing to their +babies:</p> + +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">You mustn't swim till you're six weeks old,</span><br /> +<span class="i2">Or your head will be sunk by your heels;</span><br /> +<span class="i0">And summer gales and Killer Whales</span><br /> +<span class="i2">Are bad for baby seals.</span> +</div> + +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Are bad for baby seals, dear rat,</span><br /> +<span class="i2">As bad as bad can be;</span><br /> +<span class="i0">But splash and grow strong,</span><br /> +<span class="i0">And you can't be wrong,</span><br /> +<span class="i2">Child of the Open Sea!</span> +</div> +</div> + +<p class="indent">Of course the little fellow did not understand +the words at first. He paddled and scrambled +about by his mother's side, and learned to scuffle +out of the way when his father was fighting with +another seal, and the two rolled and roared up +and down the slippery rocks. Matkah used to +go to sea to get things to eat, and the baby was +fed only once in two days; but then he ate all he +could, and throve upon it.</p> + +<p class="indent">The first thing he did was to crawl inland, and +there he met tens of thousands of babies of his +own age, and they played together like puppies, +went to sleep on the clean sand, and played +again. The old people in the nurseries took +no notice of them, and the holluschickie kept to +their own grounds, so the babies had a beautiful +playtime.</p> + +<p class="indent">When Matkah came back from her deep-sea +fishing she would go straight to their playground +and call as a sheep calls for a lamb, and wait until +she heard Kotick bleat. Then she would take +the straightest of straight lines in his direction, +striking out with her fore flippers and knocking +the youngsters head over heels right and left. +There were always a few hundred mothers hunting +for their children through the playgrounds, +and the babies were kept lively; but, as Matkah +told Kotick, "So long as you don't lie in muddy +water and get mange; or rub the hard sand into +a cut or scratch; and so long as you never go +swimming when there is a heavy sea, nothing +will hurt you here."</p> + +<p class="indent">Little seals can no more swim than little children, +but they are unhappy till they learn. The +first time that Kotick went down to the sea a +wave carried him out beyond his depth, and his +big head sank and his little hind flippers flew up +exactly as his mother had told him in the song, +and if the next wave had not thrown him back +again he would have drowned.</p> + +<p class="indent">After that he learned to lie in a beach-pool and +let the wash of the waves just cover him and lift +him up while he paddled, but he always kept his +eye open for big waves that might hurt. He was +two weeks learning to use his flippers; and all +that while he floundered in and out of the water, +and coughed and grunted and crawled up the +beach and took cat-naps on the sand, and went +back again, until at last he found that he truly +belonged to the water.</p> + +<p class="indent">Then you can imagine the times that he had +with his companions, ducking under the rollers; +or coming in on top of a comber and landing with +a swash and a splutter as the big wave went +whirling far up the beach; or standing up on his +tail and scratching his head as the old people did; +or playing "I'm the King of the Castle" on +slippery, weedy rocks that just stuck out of the +wash. Now and then he would see a thin fin, +like a big shark's fin, drifting along close to shore, +and he knew that that was the Killer Whale, the +Grampus, who eats young seals when he can get +them; and Kotick would head for the beach like an +arrow, and the fin would jig off slowly, as if it +were looking for nothing at all.</p> + +<p class="indent">Late in October the seals began to leave St. +Paul's for the deep sea, by families and tribes, and +there was no more fighting over the nurseries, +and the holluschickie played anywhere they liked. +"Next year," said Matkah to Kotick, "you will +be a holluschickie; but this year you must learn +how to catch fish."</p> + +<p class="indent">They set out together across the Pacific, and +Matkah showed Kotick how to sleep on his back +with his flippers tucked down by his side and his +little nose just out of the water. No cradle is +so comfortable as the long, rocking swell of the +Pacific. When Kotick felt his skin tingle all +over, Matkah told him he was learning the "feel +of the water," and that tingly, prickly feelings +meant bad weather coming, and he must swim +hard and get away.</p> + +<p class="indent">"In a little time," she said, "you'll know +where to swim to, but just now we'll follow Sea +Pig, the Porpoise, for he is very wise." A school +of porpoises were ducking and tearing through +the water, and little Kotick followed them as fast +as he could. "How do you know where to go +to?" he panted. The leader of the school rolled +his white eyes, and ducked under. "My tail +tingles, youngster," he +said. "That means +there's a gale behind +me. Come along! When +you're south of the Sticky +Water [he meant the +Equator], and your tail +tingles, that means there's +a gale in front of you +and you must head north. +Come along! The water +feels bad here."</p> + +<p class="indent">This was one of very +many things that Kotick +learned, and he was always +learning. Matkah +taught him how to follow +the cod and the halibut +along the under-sea +banks, and wrench the +rockling out of his hole +among the weeds; how +to skirt the wrecks lying +a hundred fathoms below +water, and dart like a +rifle-bullet in at one porthole +and out at another +as the fishes ran; how to dance on the top of the +waves when the lightning was racing all over +the sky, and wave his flipper politely to the +Stumpy-tailed Albatross and the Man-of-war +Hawk as they went down the wind; how to +jump three or four feet clear of the water, like a +dolphin, flippers close to the side and tail curved; +to leave the flying-fish alone because they are +all bony; to take the shoulder-piece out of a cod +at full speed ten fathoms deep; and never to +stop and look at a boat or a ship, but particularly +a row boat. At the end of six months, what +Kotick did not know about deep-sea fishing was +not worth the knowing, and all that time he never +set flipper on dry ground.</p> + +<div class="figleft"> +<a name="gs12.png" id="gs12.png"></a> +<img class="border" src="images/gs12.png" alt=""TEN FATHOMS DEEP."" title=""TEN FATHOMS DEEP."" /> +<br /> +<span class="caption">"TEN FATHOMS DEEP."</span> +</div> + +<p class="indent">One day, however, as he was lying half asleep +in the warm water somewhere off the Island of +Juan Fernandez, he felt faint and lazy all over, +just as human people do when the spring is in +their legs, and he remembered the good firm +beaches of Novastoshnah seven thousand miles +away; the games his companions played, the +smell of the seaweed, the seal-roar, and the +fighting. That very minute he turned north, +swimming steadily, and as he went on he met +scores of his mates, all bound for the same place, +and they said: "Greeting, Kotick! This year +we are all holluschickie, and we can dance the +Fire-dance in the breakers off Lukannon and +play on the new grass. But where did you get +that coat?"</p> + +<p class="indent">Kotick's fur was almost pure white now, and +though he felt very proud of it, he only said: +"Swim quickly! My bones are aching for the +land." And so they all came to the beaches +where they had been born and heard the old +seals, their fathers, fighting in the rolling mist.</p> + +<p class="indent">That night Kotick danced the Fire-dance with +the yearling seals. The sea is full of fire on +summer nights all the way down from Novastoshnah +to Lukannon, and each seal leaves a wake +like burning oil behind him, and a flaming flash +when he jumps, and the waves break in great +phosphorescent streaks and swirls. Then they +went inland to the holluschickie grounds, and +rolled up and down in the new wild wheat, and +told stories of what they had done while they had +been at sea. They talked about the Pacific as +boys would talk about a wood that they had +been nutting in, and if any one had understood +them, he could have gone away and made such +a chart of that ocean as never was. The three- and +four-year-old holluschickie romped down +from Hutchinson's Hill, crying: "Out of the way, +youngsters! The sea is deep, and you don't +know all that's in it yet. Wait till you've +rounded the Horn. Hi, you yearling, where +did you get that white coat?"</p> + +<p class="indent">"I didn't get it," said Kotick; "it grew." +And just as he was going to roll the speaker +over, a couple of black-haired men with flat red +faces came from behind a sand-dune, and Kotick, +who had never seen a man before, coughed and +lowered his head. The holluschickie just bundled +off a few yards and sat staring stupidly. The +men were no less than Kerick Booterin, the chief +of the seal-hunters on the island, and Patalamon, +his son. They came from the little village not +half a mile from the seal nurseries, and they +were deciding what seals they would drive up to +the killing-pens (for the seals were driven just like +sheep), to be turned into sealskin jackets later on.</p> + +<p class="indent">"Ho!" said Patalamon. "Look! There's a +white seal!"</p> + +<p class="indent">Kerick Booterin turned nearly white under his +oil and smoke, for he was an Aleut, and Aleuts +are not clean people. Then he began to mutter +a prayer. "Don't touch him, Patalamon. There +has never been a white seal since—since I was +born. Perhaps it is old Zaharrof's ghost. He +was lost last year in the big gale."</p> + +<p class="indent">"I'm not going near him," said Patalamon. +"He's unlucky. Do you really think he is old +Zaharrof come back? I owe him for some gulls' +eggs."</p> + +<p class="indent">"Don't look at him," said Kerick. "Head off +that drove of four-year-olds. The men ought +to skin two hundred to-day, but it's the beginning +of the season, and they are new to the +work. A hundred will do. Quick!"</p> + +<p class="indent">Patalamon rattled a pair of seal's shoulder-bones +in front of a herd of holluschickie and they +stopped dead, puffing and blowing. Then he +stepped near, and the seals began to move, and +Kerick headed them inland, and they never tried +to get back to their companions. Hundreds and +hundreds of thousands of seals watched them +being driven, but they went on playing just the +same. Kotick was the only one who asked questions, +and none of his companions could tell him +anything, except that the men always drove seals in +that way for six weeks or two months of every year.</p> + +<p class="indent">"I am going to follow," he said, and his eyes +nearly popped out of his head as he shuffled along +in the wake of the herd.</p> + +<p class="indent">"The white seal is coming after us," cried +Patalamon. "That's the first time a seal has +ever come to the killing-grounds alone."</p> + +<p class="indent">"Hsh! Don't look behind you," said Kerick. +"It <i>is</i> Zaharrof's ghost! I must speak to the +priest about this."</p> + +<p class="indent">The distance to the killing-grounds was only +half a mile, but it took an hour to cover, because +if the seals went too fast Kerick knew that they +would get heated and then their fur would come +off in patches when they were skinned. So they +went on very slowly, past Sea-Lion's Neck, past +Webster House, till they came to the Salt House +just beyond the sight of the seals on the beach. +Kotick followed, panting and wondering. He +thought that he was at the world's end, but the +roar of the seal nurseries behind him sounded as +loud as the roar of a train in a tunnel. Then +Kerick sat down on the moss and pulled out a +heavy pewter watch and let the drove cool off for +thirty minutes, and Kotick could hear the fog-dew +dripping from the brim of his cap. Then +ten or twelve men, each with an iron-bound club +three or four feet long, came up, and Kerick +pointed out one or two of the drove that were +bitten by their companions or were too hot, and +the men kicked those aside with their heavy boots +made of the skin of a walrus's throat, and then +Kerick said: "Let go!" and then the men clubbed +the seals on the head as fast as they could.</p> + +<p class="indent">Ten minutes later little Kotick did not recognize +his friends any more, for their skins were +ripped off from the nose to the hind flippers—whipped +off and thrown down on the ground in +a pile.</p> + +<p class="indent">That was enough for Kotick. He turned and +galloped (a seal can gallop very swiftly for a +short time) back to the sea, his little new mustache +bristling with horror. At Sea-Lion's Neck, +where the great sea-lions sit on the edge of the +surf, he flung himself flipper over-head into the +cool water, and rocked there, gasping miserably. +"What's here?" said a sea-lion, gruffly; for as a +rule the sea-lions keep themselves to themselves.</p> + +<p class="indent">"<i>Scoochnie! Ochen scoochnie!</i>" ("I'm lonesome, +very lonesome!"), said Kotick. "They're +killing <i>all</i> the holluschickie on <i>all</i> the beaches!"</p> + +<p class="indent">The sea-lion turned his head inshore. "Nonsense," +he said; "your friends are making as much +noise as ever. You must have seen old Kerick +polishing off a drove. He's done that for thirty +years."</p> + +<p class="indent">"It's horrible," said Kotick, backing water as a +wave went over him, and steadying himself with +a screw-stroke of his flippers that brought him +up all standing within three inches of a jagged +edge of rock.</p> + +<p class="indent">"Well done for a yearling!" said the sea-lion, +who could appreciate good swimming. "I suppose +it <i>is</i> rather awful from your way of looking +at it; but if you seals will come here year after +year, of course the men get to know of it, and +unless you can find an island where no men ever +come, you will always be driven."</p> + +<p class="indent">"Isn't there any such island?" began Kotick.</p> + +<p class="indent">"I've followed the <i>poltoos</i> [the halibut] for +twenty years, and I can't say I've found it yet. +But look here—you seem to have a fondness for +talking to your betters; suppose you go to Walrus +Islet and talk to Sea Vitch. He may know +something. Don't flounce off like that. It's a +six-mile swim, and if I were you I should haul +out and take a nap first, little one."</p> + +<p class="indent">Kotick thought that that was good advice, so +he swam round to his own beach, hauled out, and +slept for half an hour, twitching all over, as seals +will. Then he headed straight for Walrus Islet, +a little low sheet of rocky island almost due +northeast from Novastoshnah, all ledges of rock +and gulls' nests, where the walrus herded by +themselves.</p> + +<p class="indent">He landed close to old Sea Vitch—the big, +ugly, bloated, pimpled, fat-necked, long-tusked +walrus of the North Pacific, who has no manners +except when he is asleep—as he was then, with +his hind flippers half in and half out of the surf.</p> + +<p class="indent">"Wake up!" barked Kotick, for the gulls +were making a great noise.</p> + +<p class="indent">"Hah! Ho! Hmph! What's that?" said Sea +Vitch, and he struck the next walrus a blow with +his tusks and waked him up, and the next struck +the next, and so on till they were all awake and +staring in every direction but the right one.</p> + +<div class="figcenter"> +<a name="gs13.png" id="gs13.png"></a> +<img class="border" src="images/gs13.png" alt=""THEY WERE ALL AWAKE AND STARING IN EVERY +DIRECTION BUT THE RIGHT ONE."" title=""THEY WERE ALL AWAKE AND STARING IN EVERY +DIRECTION BUT THE RIGHT ONE."" /> +<br /> +<span class="caption">"THEY WERE ALL AWAKE AND STARING IN EVERY<br /> +DIRECTION BUT THE RIGHT ONE."</span> +</div> + +<p class="indent">"Hi! It's me," said Kotick, bobbing in the +surf and looking like a little white slug.</p> + +<p class="indent">"Well! May I be——skinned!" said Sea +Vitch, and they all looked at Kotick as you can +fancy a club full of drowsy old gentlemen would +look at a little boy. Kotick did not care to hear +any more about skinning just then; he had seen +enough of it; so he called out: "Isn't there any +place for seals to go where men don't ever come?"</p> + +<p class="indent">"Go and find out," said Sea Vitch, shutting +his eyes. "Run away. We're busy here."</p> + +<p class="indent">Kotick made his dolphin-jump in the air and +shouted as loud as he could: "Clam-eater! +Clam-eater!" He knew that Sea Vitch never +caught a fish in his life, but always rooted for +clams and seaweeds; though he pretended to +be a very terrible person. Naturally the Chickies +and the Gooverooskies and the Epatkas, +the Burgomaster Gulls and the Kittiwakes and +the Puffins, who are always looking for a chance +to be rude, took up the cry, and—so Limmershin +told me—for nearly five minutes you could +not have heard a gun fired on Walrus Islet. All +the population was yelling and screaming: "Clam-eater! +<i>Stareek</i> [old man]!" while Sea Vitch +rolled from side to side grunting and coughing.</p> + +<p class="indent">"<i>Now</i> will you tell?" said Kotick, all out of +breath.</p> + +<p class="indent">"Go and ask Sea Cow," said Sea Vitch. "If +he is living still, he'll be able to tell you."</p> + +<p class="indent">"How shall I know Sea Cow when I meet +him?" said Kotick, sheering off.</p> + +<p class="indent">"He's the only thing in the sea uglier than +Sea Vitch," screamed a burgomaster gull, wheeling +under Sea Vitch's nose. "Uglier, and with +worse manners! <i>Stareek!</i>"</p> + +<p class="indent">Kotick swam back to Novastoshnah, leaving the +gulls to scream. There he found that no one +sympathized with him in his little attempts to +discover a quiet place for the seals. They told +him that men had always driven the holluschickie—it +was part of the day's work—and that if he +did not like to see ugly things he should not +have gone to the killing-grounds. But none of +the other seals had seen the killing, and that +made the difference between him and his friends. +Besides, Kotick was a white seal.</p> + +<p class="indent">"What you must do," said old Sea Catch, after +he had heard his son's adventures, "is to grow +up and be a big seal like your father, and have a +nursery on the beach, and then they will leave +you alone. In another five years you ought +to be able to fight for yourself." Even gentle +Matkah, his mother, said: "You will never be +able to stop the killing. Go and play in the sea, +Kotick." And Kotick went off and danced the +Fire-dance with a very heavy little heart.</p> + +<p class="indent">That autumn he left the beach as soon as he +could, and set off alone because of a notion in his +bullet-head. He was going to find Sea Cow, if +there was such a person in the sea, and he was +going to find a quiet island with good firm +beaches for seals to live on, where men could +not get at them. So he explored and explored +by himself from the North to the South Pacific, +swimming as much as three hundred miles in a +day and a night. He met with more adventures +than can be told, and narrowly escaped being +caught by the Basking Shark, and the Spotted +Shark, and the Hammerhead, and he met all the +untrustworthy ruffians that loaf up and down the +high seas, and the heavy polite fish, and the +scarlet-spotted scallops that are moored in one +place for hundreds of years, and grow very +proud of it; but he never met Sea Cow, and he +never found an island that he could fancy.</p> + +<p class="indent">If the beach was good and hard, with a slope +behind it for seals to play on, there was always +the smoke of a whaler on the horizon, boiling +down blubber, and Kotick knew what <i>that</i> meant. +Or else he could see that seals had once visited +the island and been killed off, and Kotick knew +that where men had come once they would come +again.</p> + +<p class="indent">He picked up with an old stumpy-tailed albatross, +who told him that Kerguelen Island was +the very place for peace and quiet, and when +Kotick went down there he was all but smashed +to pieces against some wicked black cliffs in a +heavy sleet-storm with lightning and thunder. +Yet as he pulled out against the gale he could +see that even there had once been a seal nursery. +And it was so in all the other islands that he +visited.</p> + +<p class="indent">Limmershin gave a long list of them, for he +said that Kotick spent five seasons exploring, +with a four months' rest each year at Novastoshnah, +where the holluschickie used to make fun of +him and his imaginary islands. He went to the +Gallapagos, a horrid dry place on the Equator, +where he was nearly baked to death; he went +to the Georgia Islands, the Orkneys, Emerald +Island, Little Nightingale Island, Gough's Island, +Bouvet's Island, the Crossets, and even to a little +speck of an island south of the Cape of Good +Hope. But everywhere the People of the Sea +told him the same things. Seals had come to +those islands once upon a time, but men had +killed them all off. Even when he swam thousands +of miles out of the Pacific, and got to a +place called Cape Corientes (that was when he +was coming back from Gough's Island), he found +a few hundred mangy seals on a rock, and they +told him that men came there too.</p> + +<p class="indent">That nearly broke his heart, and he headed +round the Horn back to his own beaches; and on +his way north he hauled out on an island full of +green trees, where he found an old, old seal who +was dying, and Kotick caught fish for him and +told him all his sorrows. "Now," said Kotick, "I +am going back to Novastoshnah, and if I am +driven to the killing-pens with the holluschickie +I shall not care."</p> + +<p class="indent">The old seal said: "Try once more. I am +the last of the Lost Rookery of Masafuera, and +in the days when men killed us by the hundred +thousand there was a story on the beaches that +some day a white seal would come out of the +north and lead the seal people to a quiet place. +I am old and I shall never live to see that day, +but others will. Try once more."</p> + +<p class="indent">And Kotick curled up his mustache (it was a +beauty), and said: "I am the only white seal that +has ever been born on the beaches, and I am the +only seal, black or white, who ever thought of +looking for new islands."</p> + +<p class="indent">That cheered him immensely; and when he +came back to Novastoshnah that summer, Matkah, +his mother, begged him to marry and settle +down, for he was no longer a holluschick, but a +full-grown sea-catch, with a curly white mane on +his shoulders, as heavy, as big, and as fierce as +his father. "Give me another season," he said. +"Remember, Mother, it is always the seventh +wave that goes farthest up the beach."</p> + +<p class="indent">Curiously enough, there was another seal who +thought that she would put off marrying till +the next year, and Kotick danced the Fire-dance +with her all down Lukannon Beach the night before +he set off on his last exploration.</p> + +<p class="indent">This time he went westward, because he had +fallen on the trail of a great shoal of halibut, and +he needed at least one hundred pounds of fish a +day to keep him in good condition. He chased +them till he was tired, and then he curled himself +up and went to sleep on the hollows of the +ground-swell that sets in to Copper Island. He +knew the coast perfectly well, so about midnight, +when he felt himself gently bumped on a weed +bed, he said: "Hm, tide 's running strong to-night," +and turning over under water opened his +eyes slowly and stretched. Then he jumped like +a cat, for he saw huge things nosing about in the +shoal water and browsing on the heavy fringes +of the weeds.</p> + +<p class="indent">"By the Great Combers of Magellan!" he said, +beneath his mustache. "Who in the Deep Sea +are these people?"</p> + +<p class="indent">They were like no walrus, sea-lion, seal, bear, +whale, shark, fish, squid, or scallop that Kotick +had ever seen before. They were between +twenty and thirty feet long, and they had no +hind flippers, but a shovel-like tail that looked as +if it had been whittled out of wet leather. Their +heads were the most foolish-looking things you +ever saw, and they balanced on the ends of their +tails in deep water when they weren't grazing, +bowing solemnly to one another and waving their +front flippers as a fat man waves his arm.</p> + +<p class="indent">"Ahem!" said Kotick. "Good sport, gentlemen?" +The big things answered by bowing and +waving their flippers like the Frog-Footman. +When they began feeding again Kotick saw that +their upper lip was split into two pieces, that +they could twitch apart about a foot and bring +together again with a whole bushel of seaweed +between the splits. They tucked the stuff into +their mouths and chumped solemnly.</p> + +<p class="indent">"Messy style of feeding that," said Kotick. +They bowed again, and Kotick began to lose his +temper. "Very good," he said. "If you do happen +to have an extra joint in your front flipper +you needn't show off so. I see you bow gracefully, +but I should like to know your names." +The split lips moved and twitched, and the +glassy green eyes stared; but they did not speak.</p> + +<p class="indent">"Well!" said Kotick, "you're the only people +I've ever met uglier than Sea Vitch—and with +worse manners."</p> + +<p class="indent">Then he remembered in a flash what the Burgomaster +Gull had screamed to him when he was +a little yearling at Walrus Islet, and he tumbled +backward in the water, for he knew that he had +found Sea Cow at last.</p> + +<div class="figcenter"> +<a name="gs14.png" id="gs14.png"></a> +<img class="border" src="images/gs14.png" alt=""HE HAD FOUND SEA COW AT LAST."" title=""HE HAD FOUND SEA COW AT LAST."" /> +<br /> +<span class="caption">"HE HAD FOUND SEA COW AT LAST."</span> +</div> + +<p class="indent">The sea cows went on schlooping and grazing, +and chumping in the weed, and Kotick asked +them questions in every language that he had +picked up in his travels; and the Sea People talk +nearly as many languages as human beings. +But the Sea Cow did not answer, because Sea +Cow cannot talk. He has only six bones in his +neck where he ought to have seven, and they +say under the sea that that prevents him from +speaking even to his companions; but, as you +know, he has an extra joint in his fore flipper, +and by waving it up and down and about he +makes what answers to a sort of clumsy telegraphic +code.</p> + +<p class="indent">By daylight Kotick's mane was standing on +end and his temper was gone where the dead +crabs go. Then the Sea Cow began to travel +northward very slowly, stopping to hold absurd +bowing councils from time to time, and Kotick +followed them, saying to himself: "People who +are such idiots as these are would have been +killed long ago if they hadn't found out some +safe island; and what is good enough for the +Sea Cow is good enough for the Sea Catch. All +the same, I wish they'd hurry."</p> + +<p class="indent">It was weary work for Kotick. The herd +never went more than forty or fifty miles a day, +and stopped to feed at night, and kept close to +the shore all the time; while Kotick swam round +them, and over them, and under them, but he +could not hurry them up one half-mile. As they +went farther north they held a bowing council +every few hours, and Kotick nearly bit off his +mustache with impatience till he saw that they +were following up a warm current of water, and +then he respected them more.</p> + +<p class="indent">One night they sank through the shiny water—sank +like stones—and, for the first time since +he had known them, began to swim quickly. +Kotick followed, and the pace astonished him, +for he never dreamed that Sea Cow was anything +of a swimmer. They headed for a cliff by +the shore, a cliff that ran down into deep water, and +plunged into a dark hole at the foot of it, twenty +fathoms under the sea. It was a long, long swim, +and Kotick badly wanted fresh air before he was +out of the dark tunnel they led him through.</p> + +<p class="indent">"My wig!" he said, when he rose, gasping +and puffing, into open water at the farther end. +"It was a long dive, but it was worth it."</p> + +<p class="indent">The sea cows had separated, and were browsing +lazily along the edges of the finest beaches +that Kotick had ever seen. There were long +stretches of smooth worn rock running for miles, +exactly fitted to make seal nurseries, and there +were playgrounds of hard sand, sloping inland +behind them, and there were rollers for seals to +dance in, and long grass to roll in, and sand-dunes +to climb up and down, and best of all, +Kotick knew by the feel of the water, which +never deceives a true Sea Catch, that no men +had ever come there.</p> + +<p class="indent">The first thing he did was to assure himself +that the fishing was good, and then he swam +along the beaches and counted up the delightful +low sandy islands half hidden in the beautiful +rolling fog. Away to the northward out to sea +ran a line of bars and shoals and rocks that would +never let a ship come within six miles of the +beach; and between the islands and the mainland +was a stretch of deep water that ran up to +the perpendicular cliffs, and somewhere below the +cliffs was the mouth of the tunnel.</p> + +<p class="indent">"It's Novastoshnah over again, but ten times +better," said Kotick. "Sea Cow must be wiser +than I thought. Men can't come down the cliffs, +even if there were any men; and the shoals to +seaward would knock a ship to splinters. If any +place in the sea is safe, this is it."</p> + +<p class="indent">He began to think of the seal he had left behind +him, but though he was in a hurry to go +back to Novastoshnah, he thoroughly explored +the new country, so that he would be able to +answer all questions.</p> + +<p class="indent">Then he dived and made sure of the mouth of +the tunnel, and raced through to the southward. +No one but a sea cow or a seal would have +dreamed of there being such a place, and when +he looked back at the cliffs even Kotick could +hardly believe that he had been under them.</p> + +<p class="indent">He was six days going home, though he was +not swimming slowly; and when he hauled out +just above Sea-Lion's Neck the first person he +met was the seal who had been waiting for him, +and she saw by the look in his eyes that he had +found his island at last.</p> + +<p class="indent">But the holluschickie and Sea Catch, his father, +and all the other seals, laughed at him when he +told them what he had discovered, and a young +seal about his own age said: "This is all very +well, Kotick, but you can't come from no one +knows where and order us off like this. Remember +we've been fighting for our nurseries, and +that's a thing you never did. You preferred +prowling about in the sea."</p> + +<p class="indent">The other seals laughed at this, and the young +seal began twisting his head from side to side. +He had just married that year, and was making +a great fuss about it.</p> + +<p class="indent">"I've no nursery to fight for," said Kotick. +"I want only to show you all a place where you +will be safe. What's the use of fighting?"</p> + +<p class="indent">"Oh, if you're trying to back out, of course +I've no more to say," said the young seal, with +an ugly chuckle.</p> + +<p class="indent">"Will you come with me if I win?" said Kotick; +and a green light came into his eyes, for he +was very angry at having to fight at all.</p> + +<p class="indent">"Very good," said the young seal, carelessly. +"<i>If</i> you win, I'll come."</p> + +<p class="indent">He had no time to change his mind, for Kotick's +head darted out and his teeth sunk in the +blubber of the young seal's neck. Then he threw +himself back on his haunches and hauled his +enemy down the beach, shook him, and knocked +him over. Then Kotick roared to the seals: +"I've done my best for you these five seasons +past. I've found you the island where you'll be +safe, but unless your heads are dragged off your +silly necks you won't believe. I'm going to +teach you now. Look out for yourselves!"</p> + +<p class="indent">Limmershin told me that never in his life—and +Limmershin sees ten thousand big seals +fighting every year—never in all his little life +did he see anything like Kotick's charge into the +nurseries. He flung himself at the biggest sea-catch +he could find, caught him by the throat, +choked him and bumped him and banged him till +he grunted for mercy, and then threw him aside +and attacked the next. You see, Kotick had +never fasted for four months as the big seals did +every year, and his deep-sea swimming-trips kept +him in perfect condition, and, best of all, he had +never fought before. His curly white mane stood +up with rage, and his eyes flamed, and his big dogteeth +glistened, and he was splendid to look at.</p> + +<p class="indent">Old Sea Catch, his father, saw him tearing +past, hauling the grizzled old seals about as +though they had been halibut, and upsetting the +young bachelors in all directions; and Sea Catch +gave one roar and shouted: "He may be a fool, +but he is the best fighter on the Beaches. Don't +tackle your father, my son! He's with you!"</p> + +<p class="indent">Kotick roared in answer, and old Sea Catch +waddled in, his mustache on end, blowing like a +locomotive, while Matkah and the seal that was +going to marry Kotick cowered down and admired +their men-folk. It was a gorgeous fight, +for the two fought as long as there was a seal +that dared lift up his head, and then they paraded +grandly up and down the beach side by side, +bellowing.</p> + +<p class="indent">At night, just as the Northern Lights were +winking and flashing through the fog, Kotick +climbed a bare rock and looked down on the scattered +nurseries and the torn and bleeding seals. +"Now," he said, "I've taught you your lesson."</p> + +<p class="indent">"My wig!" said old Sea Catch, boosting himself +up stiffly, for he was fearfully mauled. "The +Killer Whale himself could not have cut them +up worse. Son, I'm proud of you, and what's +more, <i>I'll</i> come with you to your island—if there +is such a place."</p> + +<p class="indent">"Hear you, fat pigs of the sea! Who comes +with me to the Sea Cow's tunnel? Answer, or I +shall teach you again," roared Kotick.</p> + +<p class="indent">There was a murmur like the ripple of the tide +all up and down the beaches. "We will come," +said thousands of tired voices. "We will follow +Kotick, the White Seal."</p> + +<p class="indent">Then Kotick dropped his head between his +shoulders and shut his eyes proudly. He was +not a white seal any more, but red from head to +tail. All the same he would have scorned to look +at or touch one of his wounds.</p> + +<p class="indent">A week later he and his army (nearly ten +thousand holluschickie and old seals) went away +north to the Sea Cow's tunnel, Kotick leading +them, and the seals that stayed at Novastoshnah +called them idiots. But next spring when they +all met off the fishing-banks of the Pacific, Kotick's +seals told such tales of the new beaches +beyond Sea Cow's tunnel that more and more +seals left Novastoshnah.</p> + +<p class="indent">Of course it was not all done at once, for the +seals need a long time to turn things over in +their minds, but year by year more seals went +away from Novastoshnah, and Lukannon, and the +other nurseries, to the quiet, sheltered beaches +where Kotick sits all the summer through, getting +bigger and fatter and stronger each year, while +the holluschickie play round him, in that sea +where no man comes.</p> + +<hr /> + +<p class="center"><a name="song4" id="song4"></a>LUKANNON</p> + +<div class="poem"> +<p class="indent">This is the great deep-sea song that all the St. Paul +seals sing when they are heading back to their beaches +in the summer. It is a sort of very sad seal National +Anthem.</p> + +<div class="stanza"> +<p class="thangindent">I met my mates in the morning (and oh, but I am old!)</p> +<p class="mhangindent">Where roaring on the ledges the summer ground-swell rolled;</p> +<p class="mhangindent">I heard them lift the chorus that dropped the breakers' song—</p> +<p class="bhangindent">The beaches of Lukannon—two million voices strong!</p> +</div> + +<div class="stanza"> +<p class="thangindent"><i>The song of pleasant stations beside the salt lagoons,</i></p> +<p class="mhangindent"><i>The song of blowing squadrons that shuffled down the dunes,</i></p> +<p class="mhangindent"><i>The song of midnight dances that churned the sea to flame—</i></p> +<p class="bhangindent"><i>The beaches of Lukannon—before the sealers came!</i></p> +</div> + +<div class="stanza"> +<p class="thangindent">I met my mates in the morning (I'll never meet them more!);</p> +<p class="mhangindent">They came and went in legions that darkened all the shore.</p> +<p class="mhangindent">And through the foam-flecked offing as far as voice could reach</p> +<p class="bhangindent">We hailed the landing-parties and we sang them up the beach.</p> +</div> + +<div class="stanza"> +<p class="thangindent"><i>The beaches of Lukannon—the winter-wheat so tall—</i></p> +<p class="mhangindent"><i>The dripping, crinkled lichens, and the sea-fog drenching all!</i></p> +<p class="mhangindent"><i>The platforms of our playground, all shining smooth and worn!</i></p> +<p class="bhangindent"><i>The beaches of Lukannon—the home where we were born!</i></p> +</div> + +<div class="stanza"> +<p class="thangindent">I meet my mates in the morning, a broken, scattered band.</p> +<p class="mhangindent">Men shoot us in the water and club us on the land;</p> +<p class="mhangindent">Men drive us to the Salt House like silly sheep and tame,</p> +<p class="bhangindent">And still we sing Lukannon—before the sealers came.</p> +</div> + +<div class="stanza"> +<p class="thangindent"><i>Wheel down, wheel down to southward; oh, Gooverooska go!</i></p> +<p class="mhangindent"><i>And tell the Deep-Sea Viceroys the story of our woe;</i></p> +<p class="mhangindent"><i>Ere, empty as the shark's egg the tempest flings ashore,</i></p> +<p class="bhangindent"><i>The beaches of Lukannon shall know their sons no more!</i></p> +</div> +</div> + +<hr class="hr2" /> + +<h2><a name="ch05.png" id="ch05.png"></a> +"RIKKI-TIKKI-TAVI"</h2> + +<hr class="hr2" /> + +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">At the hole where he went in</span><br /> +<span class="i0">Red-Eye called to Wrinkle-Skin.</span><br /> +<span class="i0">Hear what little Red-Eye saith:</span><br /> +<span class="i0">"Nag, come up and dance with death!"</span><br /> +</div +> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Eye to eye and head to head,</span><br /> +<span class="i2">(<i>Keep the measure, Nag.</i>)</span><br /> +<span class="i0">This shall end when one is dead;</span><br /> +<span class="i2">(<i>At thy pleasure, Nag.</i>)</span><br /> +<span class="i0">Turn for turn and twist for twist—</span><br /> +<span class="i2">(<i>Run and hide thee, Nag.</i>)</span><br /> +<span class="i0">Hah! The hooded Death has missed!</span><br /> +<span class="i2">(<i>Woe betide thee, Nag!</i>)</span> +</div> +</div> + +<hr class="hr2" /> + +<div class="figcenter"> +<img class="border" src="images/ch05.png" alt="" title="" /> +</div> + +<h2>"RIKKI-TIKKI-TAVI"</h2> + +<p class="cap">THIS is the story of the great war that Rikki-tikki-tavi +fought single-handed, through the +bath-rooms of the big bungalow in Segowlee +cantonment. Darzee, the tailor-bird, helped him, +and Chuchundra, the muskrat, who never comes +out into the middle of the floor, but always creeps +round by the wall, gave him advice; but Rikki-tikki +did the real fighting.</p> + +<p class="indent">He was a mongoose, rather like a little cat in +his fur and his tail, but quite like a weasel in his +head and his habits. His eyes and the end of +his restless nose were pink; he could scratch +himself anywhere he pleased, with any leg, front +or back, that he chose to use; he could fluff up +his tail till it looked like a bottle-brush, and his +war-cry as he scuttled through the long grass, +was: "<i>Rikk-tikk-tikki-tikki-tchk!</i>"</p> + +<p class="indent">One day, a high summer flood washed him out +of the burrow where he lived with his father and +mother, and carried him, kicking and clucking, +down a roadside ditch. He found a little wisp +of grass floating there, and clung to it till he +lost his senses. When he revived, he was lying +in the hot sun on the middle of a garden path, +very draggled indeed, and a small boy was saying: +"Here's a dead mongoose. Let's have a +funeral."</p> + +<p class="indent">"No," said his mother; "let's take him in and +dry him. Perhaps he isn't really dead."</p> + +<p class="indent">They took him into the house, and a big man +picked him up between his finger and thumb and +said he was not dead but half choked; so they +wrapped him in cotton-wool, and warmed him, +and he opened his eyes and sneezed.</p> + +<p class="indent">"Now," said the big man (he was an Englishman +who had just moved into the bungalow); +"don't frighten him, and we'll see what he'll do."</p> + +<p class="indent">It is the hardest thing in the world to frighten +a mongoose, because he is eaten up from nose to +tail with curiosity. The motto of all the mongoose +family is, "Run and find out"; and Rikki-tikki +was a true mongoose. He looked at the +cotton-wool, decided that it was not good to eat, +ran all round the table, sat up and put his fur +in order, scratched +himself, and jumped +on the small boy's +shoulder.</p> + +<p class="indent">"Don't be frightened, +Teddy," said +his father. "That's +his way of making +friends."</p> + +<p class="indent">"Ouch! He's +tickling under my +chin," said Teddy.</p> + +<div class="figright"> +<a name="gs15.png" id="gs15.png"></a> +<img class="border" src="images/gs15.png" alt=""RIKKI-TIKKI LOOKED DOWN BETWEEN +THE BOY'S COLLAR AND NECK."" title=""RIKKI-TIKKI LOOKED DOWN BETWEEN +THE BOY'S COLLAR AND NECK."" /> +<br /> +<span class="caption">"RIKKI-TIKKI LOOKED DOWN BETWEEN<br /> +THE BOY'S COLLAR AND NECK."</span> +</div> + +<p class="indent">Rikki-tikki looked +down between the +boy's collar and neck, +snuffed at his ear, +and climbed down to the floor, where he sat +rubbing his nose.</p> + +<p class="indent">"Good gracious," said Teddy's mother, "and +that's a wild creature! I suppose he's so tame +because we've been kind to him."</p> + +<p class="indent">"All mongooses are like that," said her husband. +"If Teddy doesn't pick him up by the tail, or try to +put him in a cage, he'll run in and out of the house +all day long. Let's give him something to eat."</p> + +<p class="indent">They gave him a little piece of raw meat. +Rikki-tikki liked it immensely, and when it was +finished he went out into the veranda and sat in +the sunshine and fluffed up his fur to make it dry +to the roots. Then he felt better.</p> + +<p class="indent">"There are more things to find out about in +this house," he said to himself, "than all my family +could find out in all their lives. I shall certainly +stay and find out."</p> + +<div class="figleft"> +<a name="gs16.png" id="gs16.png"></a> +<img class="border" src="images/gs16.png" alt=""HE PUT HIS NOSE INTO THE INK."" title=""HE PUT HIS NOSE INTO THE INK."" /> +<br /> +<span class="caption">"HE PUT HIS NOSE INTO THE INK."</span> +</div> + +<p class="indent">He spent all that day roaming over the house. +He nearly drowned himself in the bath-tubs, +put his nose into the ink on a writing-table, and +burned it on the end of the big man's cigar, for +he climbed up in the big man's lap to see how +writing was done. At nightfall he ran into +Teddy's nursery to watch how kerosene lamps +were lighted, and when Teddy went to bed +Rikki-tikki climbed up too; but he was a restless +companion, because he had to get up and +attend to every noise all through the night, and +find out what made it. Teddy's mother and +father came in, the last thing, to look at their +boy, and Rikki-tikki was awake on the pillow. +"I don't like that," said Teddy's mother; "he +may bite the child." "He'll do no such thing," +said the father. "Teddy's safer with that little +beast than if he had a bloodhound to watch him. +If a snake came into the nursery now—"</p> + +<div class="figcenter"> +<a name="gs17.png" id="gs17.png"></a> +<img class="border" src="images/gs17.png" alt=""RIKKI-TIKKI WAS AWAKE ON THE PILLOW."" title=""RIKKI-TIKKI WAS AWAKE ON THE PILLOW."" /> +<br /> +<span class="caption">"RIKKI-TIKKI WAS AWAKE ON THE PILLOW."</span> +</div> + +<p class="indent">But Teddy's mother wouldn't think of anything +so awful.</p> + +<p class="indent">Early in the morning Rikki-tikki came to +early breakfast in the veranda riding on Teddy's +shoulder, and they gave him banana and some +boiled egg; and he sat +on all their laps one +after the other, because +every well-brought-up +mongoose always hopes +to be a house-mongoose +some day and have +rooms to run about in, +and Rikki-tikki's mother +(she used to live in the +General's house at Segowlee) +had carefully +told Rikki what to do +if ever he came across +white men.</p> + +<div class="figleft"> +<a name="gs18.png" id="gs18.png"></a> +<img class="border" src="images/gs18.png" alt=""HE CAME TO BREAKFAST +RIDING ON TEDDY'S SHOULDER."" title=""HE CAME TO BREAKFAST +RIDING ON TEDDY'S SHOULDER."" /> +<br /> +<span class="caption">"HE CAME TO BREAKFAST<br /> +RIDING ON TEDDY'S SHOULDER."</span> +</div> + +<p class="indent">Then Rikki-tikki went +out into the garden to +see what was to be seen. It was a large garden, +only half cultivated, with bushes as big as summer-houses +of Marshal Niel roses, lime and +orange trees, clumps of bamboos, and thickets of +high grass. Rikki-tikki licked his lips. "This +is a splendid hunting-ground," he said, and his +tail grew bottle-brushy at the thought of it, and +he scuttled up and down the garden, snuffing +here and there till he heard very sorrowful voices +in a thorn-bush.</p> + +<p class="indent">It was Darzee, the tailor-bird, and his wife. +They had made a beautiful nest by pulling two +big leaves together and stitching them up the +edges with fibers, and had filled the hollow with +cotton and downy fluff. The nest swayed to and +fro, as they sat on the rim and cried.</p> + +<p class="indent">"What is the matter?" asked Rikki-tikki.</p> + +<div class="figright"> +<a name="gs19.png" id="gs19.png"></a> +<img class="border" src="images/gs19.png" alt=""'WE ARE VERY MISERABLE,' SAID DARZEE."" title=""'WE ARE VERY MISERABLE,' SAID DARZEE."" /> +<br /> +<span class="caption">"'WE ARE VERY MISERABLE,' SAID DARZEE."</span> +</div> + +<p class="indent">"We are very miserable," said Darzee. "One +of our babies fell out of the nest yesterday and +Nag ate him."</p> + +<p class="indent">"H'm!" said Rikki-tikki, "that is very sad—but +I am a stranger here. Who is Nag?"</p> + +<p class="indent">Darzee and his wife only cowered down in the +nest without answering, for from the thick grass +at the foot of the bush there came a low hiss—a +horrid cold sound that made Rikki-tikki jump +back two clear feet. Then inch by inch out of +the grass rose up the head and spread hood of +Nag, the big black cobra, and he was five feet +long from tongue to tail. When he had lifted +one-third of himself clear of the ground, he stayed +balancing to and fro exactly as a dandelion-tuft +balances in the wind, and he looked at Rikki-tikki +with the wicked snake's eyes that never +change their expression, whatever the snake may +be thinking of.</p> + +<p class="indent">"Who is Nag?" he said, "<i>I</i> am Nag. The +great god Brahm put his mark upon all our +people when the first cobra spread his hood to +keep the sun off Brahm as he slept. Look, and +be afraid!" +</p> + +<div class="figcenter"> +<a name="gs20.png" id="gs20.png"></a> +<img class="border" src="images/gs20.png" alt=""'I AM NAG,' SAID THE COBRA: 'LOOK, AND BE AFRAID!' BUT AT THE BOTTOM +OF HIS COLD HEART HE WAS AFRAID."" title=""'I AM NAG,' SAID THE COBRA: 'LOOK, AND BE AFRAID!' BUT AT THE BOTTOM +OF HIS COLD HEART HE WAS AFRAID."" /> +<br /> +<span class="caption">"'I AM NAG,' SAID THE COBRA: 'LOOK, AND BE AFRAID!' BUT AT THE BOTTOM<br /> +OF HIS COLD HEART HE WAS AFRAID."</span> +</div> + +<p class="indent">He spread out his hood more than ever, and +Rikki-tikki saw the spectacle-mark on the back +of it that looks exactly like the eye part of a +hook-and-eye fastening. He was afraid for the +minute; but it is impossible for a mongoose to +stay frightened for any length of time, and though +Rikki-tikki had never met a live cobra before, his +mother had fed him on dead ones, and he knew +that all a grown mongoose's business in life was +to fight and eat snakes. Nag knew that too, and +at the bottom of his cold heart he was afraid.</p> + +<p class="indent">"Well," said Rikki-tikki, and his tail began +to fluff up again, "marks or no marks, do you +think it is right for you to eat fledglings out +of a nest?"</p> + +<p class="indent">Nag was thinking to himself, and watching the +least little movement in the grass behind Rikki-tikki. +He knew that mongooses in the garden +meant death sooner or later for him and his +family; but he wanted to get Rikki-tikki off his +guard. So he dropped his head a little, and put +it on one side.</p> + +<p class="indent">"Let us talk," he said. "You eat eggs. Why +should not I eat birds?"</p> + +<p class="indent">"Behind you! Look behind you!" sang +Darzee.</p> + +<p class="indent">Rikki-tikki knew better than to waste time in +staring. He jumped up in the air as high as he +could go, and just under him whizzed by the head +of Nagaina, Nag's wicked wife. She had crept +up behind him as he was talking, to make an +end of him; and he heard her savage hiss as the +stroke missed. He came down almost across her +back, and if he had been an old mongoose he +would have known that then was the time to +break her back with one bite; but he was afraid +of the terrible lashing return-stroke of the cobra. +He bit, indeed, but did not bite long enough, and +he jumped clear of the whisking tail, leaving +Nagaina torn and angry.</p> + +<div class="figcenter"> +<a name="gs21.png" id="gs21.png"></a> +<img class="border" src="images/gs21.png" alt=""HE JUMPED UP IN THE AIR, AND JUST UNDER HIM WHIZZED BY THE HEAD OF NAGAINA."" title=""HE JUMPED UP IN THE AIR, AND JUST UNDER HIM WHIZZED BY THE HEAD OF NAGAINA."" /> +<br /> +<span class="caption">"HE JUMPED UP IN THE AIR, AND JUST UNDER HIM WHIZZED BY THE HEAD OF NAGAINA."</span> +</div> + +<p class="indent">"Wicked, wicked Darzee!" said Nag, lashing +up as high as he could reach toward the nest in +the thorn-bush; but Darzee had built it out of +reach of snakes, and it only swayed to and fro.</p> + +<p class="indent">Rikki-tikki felt his eyes growing red and hot +(when a mongoose's eyes grow red, he is angry), +and he sat back on his tail and hind legs like a +little kangaroo, and looked all around him, and +chattered with rage. But Nag and Nagaina +had disappeared into the grass. When a snake +misses its stroke, it never says anything or gives +any sign of what it means to do next. Rikki-tikki +did not care to follow them, for he did not +feel sure that he could manage two snakes at +once. So he trotted off to the gravel path near +the house, and sat down to think. It was a serious +matter for him.</p> + +<p class="indent">If you read the old books of natural history, +you will find they say that when the mongoose +fights the snake and happens to get bitten, he +runs off and eats some herb that cures him. That +is not true. The victory is only a matter of quickness +of eye and quickness of foot,—snake's blow +against mongoose's jump,—and as no eye can +follow the motion of a snake's head when it +strikes, that makes things much more wonderful +than any magic herb. Rikki-tikki knew +he was a young mongoose, and it made him all +the more pleased to think that he had managed +to escape a blow from behind. It gave him +confidence in himself, and when Teddy came +running down the path, Rikki-tikki was ready +to be petted.</p> + +<p class="indent">But just as Teddy was stooping, something +flinched a little in the dust, and a tiny voice said: +"Be careful. I am death!" It was Karait, the +dusty brown snakeling that lies for choice on the +dusty earth; and his bite is as dangerous as the +cobra's. But he is so small that nobody thinks +of him, and so he does the more harm to people.</p> + +<p class="indent">Rikki-tikki's eyes grew red again, and he +danced up to Karait with the peculiar rocking, +swaying motion that he had inherited from his +family. It looks very funny, but it is so perfectly +balanced a gait that you can fly off from it at any +angle you please; and in dealing with snakes +this is an advantage. If Rikki-tikki had only +known, he was doing a much more dangerous +thing than fighting Nag, for Karait is so small, +and can turn so quickly, that unless Rikki bit +him close to the back of the head, he would get +the return-stroke in his eye or lip. But Rikki +did not know: his eyes were all red, and he +rocked back and forth, looking for a good place +to hold. Karait struck out. Rikki jumped sideways +and tried to run in, but the wicked little +dusty gray head lashed within a fraction of his +shoulder, and he had to jump over the body, and +the head followed his heels close.</p> + +<p class="indent">Teddy shouted to the house: "Oh, look +here! Our mongoose is killing a snake"; and +Rikki-tikki heard a scream from Teddy's mother. +His father ran out with a stick, but by the time +he came up, Karait had lunged out once too far, +and Rikki-tikki had sprung, jumped on the +snake's back, dropped his head far between his +fore legs, bitten as high up the back as he could +get hold, and rolled away. That bite paralyzed +Karait, and Rikki-tikki was just going to eat him +up from the tail, after the custom of his family at +dinner, when he remembered that a full meal +makes a slow mongoose, and if he wanted all +his strength and quickness ready, he must keep +himself thin.</p> + +<p class="indent">He went away for a dust-bath under the +castor-oil bushes, while Teddy's father beat the +dead Karait. "What is the use of that?" +thought Rikki-tikki. "I have settled it all"; and +then Teddy's mother picked him up from the +dust and hugged him, crying that he had saved +Teddy from death, and Teddy's father said that +he was a providence, and Teddy looked on with +big scared eyes. Rikki-Tikki was rather amused +at all the fuss, which, of course, he did not understand. +Teddy's mother might just as well have +petted Teddy for playing in the dust. Rikki was +thoroughly enjoying himself.</p> + +<p class="indent">That night, at dinner, walking to and fro +among the wine-glasses on the table, he could +have stuffed himself three times over with nice +things; but he remembered Nag and Nagaina, +and though it was very pleasant to be patted +and petted by Teddy's mother, and to sit on +Teddy's shoulder, his eyes would get red from +time to time, and he would go off into his long +war-cry of "<i>Rikk-tikk-tikki-tikki-tchk!</i>"</p> + +<p class="indent">Teddy carried him off to bed, and insisted on +Rikki-tikki sleeping under his chin. Rikki-tikki +was too well bred to bite or scratch, but as soon +as Teddy was asleep he went off for his nightly +walk round the house, and in the dark he ran +up against Chuchundra, the muskrat, creeping +round by the wall. Chuchundra is a broken-hearted +little beast. He whimpers and cheeps +all the night, trying to make up his mind to run +into the middle of the room, but he never gets +there.</p> + +<div class="figcenter"> +<a name="gs22.png" id="gs22.png"></a> +<img class="border" src="images/gs22.png" alt=""IN THE DARK HE RAN UP AGAINST CHUCHUNDRA, THE MUSKRAT."" title=""IN THE DARK HE RAN UP AGAINST CHUCHUNDRA, THE MUSKRAT."" /> +<br /> +<span class="caption">"IN THE DARK HE RAN UP AGAINST CHUCHUNDRA, THE MUSKRAT."</span> +</div> + +<p class="indent">"Don't kill me," said Chuchundra, almost +weeping. "Rikki-tikki, don't kill me."</p> + +<p class="indent">"Do you think a snake-killer kills muskrats?" +said Rikki-tikki scornfully.</p> + +<p class="indent">"Those who kill snakes get killed by snakes," +said Chuchundra, more sorrowfully than ever. +"And how am I to be sure that Nag won't mistake +me for you some dark night?"</p> + +<p class="indent">"There's not the least danger," said Rikki-tikki; +"but Nag is in the garden, and I know +you don't go there."</p> + +<p class="indent">"My cousin Chua, the rat, told me—" said +Chuchundra, and then he stopped.</p> + +<p class="indent">"Told you what?"</p> + +<p class="indent">"H'sh! Nag is everywhere, Rikki-tikki. You +should have talked to Chua in the garden."</p> + +<p class="indent">"I didn't—so you must tell me. Quick, Chuchundra, +or I'll bite you!"</p> + +<p class="indent">Chuchundra sat down and cried till the tears +rolled off his whiskers. "I am a very poor +man," he sobbed. "I never had spirit enough +to run out into the middle of the room. H'sh! +I mustn't tell you anything. Can't you <i>hear</i>, +Rikki-tikki?"</p> + +<p class="indent">Rikki-tikki listened. The house was as still as +still, but he thought he could just catch the faintest +<i>scratch-scratch</i> in the world,—a noise as faint as +that of a wasp walking on a window-pane,—the +dry scratch of a snake's scales on brickwork.</p> + +<p class="indent">"That's Nag or Nagaina," he said to himself; +"and he is crawling into the bath-room sluice. +You're right, Chuchundra; I should have talked +to Chua."</p> + +<p class="indent">He stole off to Teddy's bath-room, but there +was nothing there, and then to Teddy's mother's +bath-room. At the bottom of the smooth plaster +wall there was a brick pulled out to make a sluice +for the bath-water, and as Rikki-tikki stole in by +the masonry curb where the bath is put, he heard +Nag and Nagaina whispering together outside in +the moonlight.</p> + +<p class="indent">"When the house is emptied of people," said +Nagaina to her husband, "<i>he</i> will have to go +away, and then the garden will be our own again. +Go in quietly, and remember that the big man +who killed Karait is the first one to bite. Then +come out and tell me, and we will hunt for Rikki-tikki +together."</p> + +<p class="indent">"But are you sure that there is anything to be +gained by killing the people?" said Nag.</p> + +<p class="indent">"Everything. When there were no people in +the bungalow, did we have any mongoose in the +garden? So long as the bungalow is empty, we +are king and queen of the garden; and remember +that as soon as our eggs in the melon-bed +hatch (as they may to-morrow), our children will +need room and quiet."</p> + +<p class="indent">"I had not thought of that," said Nag. "I +will go, but there is no need that we should hunt +for Rikki-tikki afterward. I will kill the big man +and his wife, and the child if I can, and come +away quietly. Then the bungalow will be empty, +and Rikki-tikki will go."</p> + +<p class="indent">Rikki-tikki tingled all over with rage and hatred +at this, and then Nag's head came through +the sluice, and his five feet of cold body followed +it. Angry as he was, Rikki-tikki was very frightened +as he saw the size of the big cobra. Nag +coiled himself up, raised his head, and looked +into the bath-room in the dark, and Rikki could +see his eyes glitter.</p> + +<p class="indent">"Now, if I kill him here, Nagaina will know; +and if I fight him on the open floor, the odds are +in his favor. What am I to do?" said Rikki-tikki-tavi.</p> + +<p class="indent">Nag waved to and fro, and then Rikki-tikki +heard him drinking from the biggest water-jar +that was used to fill the bath. "That is good," +said the snake. "Now, when Karait was killed, +the big man had a stick. He may have that +stick still, but when he comes in to bathe in the +morning he will not have a stick. I shall wait +here till he comes. Nagaina—do you hear me?—I +shall wait here in the cool till daytime."</p> + +<p class="indent">There was no answer from outside, so Rikki-tikki +knew Nagaina had gone away. Nag coiled +himself down, coil by coil, round the bulge at the +bottom of the water-jar, and Rikki-tikki stayed +still as death. After an hour he began to move, +muscle by muscle, toward the jar. Nag was +asleep, and Rikki-tikki looked at his big back, +wondering which would be the best place for a +good hold. "If I don't break his back at the +first jump," said Rikki, "he can still fight; and +if he fights—O Rikki!" He looked at the thickness +of the neck below the hood, but that was too +much for him; and a bite near the tail would only +make Nag savage.</p> + +<p class="indent">"It must be the head," he said at last: "the +head above the hood; and, when I am once there, +I must not let go."</p> + +<p class="indent">Then he jumped. The head was lying a little +clear of the water-jar, under the curve of it; and, +as his teeth met, Rikki braced his back against +the bulge of the red earthenware to hold down +the head. This gave him just one second's purchase, +and he made the most of it. Then he was +battered to and fro as a rat is shaken by a dog—to +and fro on the floor, up and down, and round +in great circles; but his eyes were red, and he held +on as the body cartwhipped over the floor, upsetting +the tin dipper and the soap-dish and the +flesh-brush, and banged against the tin side of +the bath. As he held he closed his jaws tighter +and tighter, for he made sure he would be banged +to death, and, for the honor of his family, he preferred +to be found with his teeth locked. He +was dizzy, aching, and felt shaken to pieces when +something went off like a thunderclap just behind +him; a hot wind knocked him senseless and red +fire singed his fur. The big man had been +wakened by the noise, and had fired both barrels +of a shot-gun into Nag just behind the hood.</p> + +<div class="figcenter"> +<a name="gs23.png" id="gs23.png"></a> +<img class="border" src="images/gs23.png" alt=""THEN RIKKI-TIKKI WAS BATTERED TO AND FRO AS A RAT +IS SHAKEN BY A DOG."" title=""THEN RIKKI-TIKKI WAS BATTERED TO AND FRO AS A RAT +IS SHAKEN BY A DOG."" /> +<br /> +<span class="caption">"THEN RIKKI-TIKKI WAS BATTERED TO AND FRO AS A RAT<br /> +IS SHAKEN BY A DOG."</span> +</div> + +<p class="indent">Rikki-tikki held on with his eyes shut, for now +he was quite sure he was dead; but the head did +not move, and the big man picked him up and +said: "It's the mongoose again, Alice; the little +chap has saved <i>our</i> lives now." Then Teddy's +mother came in with a very white face, and saw +what was left of Nag, and Rikki-tikki dragged +himself to Teddy's bedroom and spent half the +rest of the night shaking himself tenderly to find +out whether he really was broken into forty +pieces, as he fancied.</p> + +<p class="indent">When morning came he was very stiff, but well +pleased with his doings. "Now I have Nagaina +to settle with, and she will be worse than five +Nags, and there's no knowing when the eggs +she spoke of will hatch. Goodness! I must go +and see Darzee," he said.</p> + +<p class="indent">Without waiting for breakfast, Rikki-tikki ran +to the thorn-bush where Darzee was singing a +song of triumph at the top of his voice. The +news of Nag's death was all over the garden, +for the sweeper had thrown the body on the +rubbish-heap.</p> + +<p class="indent">"Oh, you stupid tuft of feathers!" said Rikki-tikki, +angrily. "Is this the time to sing?"</p> + +<p class="indent">"Nag is dead—is dead—is dead!" sang Darzee. +"The valiant Rikki-tikki caught him by +the head and held fast. The big man brought +the bang-stick and Nag fell in two pieces! He +will never eat my babies again."</p> + +<p class="indent">"All that's true enough; but where's Nagaina?" +said Rikki-tikki, looking carefully round +him.</p> + +<p class="indent">"Nagaina came to the bath-room sluice and +called for Nag," Darzee went on; "and Nag +came out on the end of a stick—the sweeper +picked him up on the end of a stick and threw +him upon the rubbish-heap. Let us sing about +the great, the red-eyed Rikki-tikki!" and Darzee +filled his throat and sang.</p> + +<p class="indent">"If I could get up to your nest, I'd roll all +your babies out!" said Rikki-tikki. "You don't +know when to do the right thing at the right +time. You're safe enough in your nest there, +but it's war for me down here. Stop singing a +minute, Darzee."</p> + +<p class="indent">"For the great, the beautiful Rikki-tikki's +sake I will stop," said Darzee. "What is it, +O Killer of the terrible Nag!"</p> + +<p class="indent">"Where is Nagaina, for the third time?"</p> + +<p class="indent">"On the rubbish-heap by the stables, mourning +for Nag. Great is Rikki-tikki with the +white teeth."</p> + +<p class="indent">"Bother my white teeth! Have you ever +heard where she keeps her eggs?"</p> + +<p class="indent">"In the melon-bed, on the end nearest the +wall, where the sun strikes nearly all day. She +had them there weeks ago."</p> + +<p class="indent">"And you never thought it worth while to tell +me? The end nearest the wall, you said?"</p> + +<p class="indent">"Rikki-tikki, you are not going to eat her +eggs?"</p> + +<p class="indent">"Not eat exactly; no. Darzee, if you have a +grain of sense you will fly off to the stables and +pretend that your wing is broken, and let Nagaina +chase you away to this bush? I must get +to the melon-bed, and if I went there now she'd +see me."</p> + +<p class="indent">Darzee was a feather-brained little fellow who +could never hold more than one idea at a time in +his head; and just because he knew that Nagaina's +children were born in eggs like his own, +he didn't think at first that it was fair to kill +them. But his wife was a sensible bird, and she +knew that cobra's eggs meant young cobras +later on; so she flew off from the nest, and left +Darzee to keep the babies warm, and continue +his song about the death of Nag. Darzee was +very like a man in some ways.</p> + +<p class="indent">She fluttered in front of Nagaina by the rubbish-heap, +and cried out, "Oh, my wing is broken! +The boy in the house threw a stone at me and +broke it." Then she fluttered more desperately +than ever.</p> + +<div class="figcenter"> +<a name="gs24.png" id="gs24.png"></a> +<img class="border" src="images/gs24.png" alt="DARZEE'S WIFE PRETENDS TO HAVE BROKEN A WING." title="DARZEE'S WIFE PRETENDS TO HAVE BROKEN A WING." /> +<br /> +<span class="caption">DARZEE'S WIFE PRETENDS TO HAVE BROKEN A WING.</span> +</div> + +<p class="indent">Nagaina lifted up her head and hissed, "You +warned Rikki-tikki when I would have killed +him. Indeed and truly, you've chosen a bad +place to be lame in." And she moved toward +Darzee's wife, slipping along over the dust.</p> + +<p class="indent">"The boy broke it with a stone!" shrieked +Darzee's wife.</p> + +<p class="indent">"Well! It may be some consolation to you +when you're dead to know that I shall settle +accounts with the boy. My husband lies on the +rubbish-heap this morning, but before night the +boy in the house will lie very still. What is +the use of running away? I am sure to catch +you. Little fool, look at me!"</p> + +<p class="indent">Darzee's wife knew better than to do <i>that</i>, for +a bird who looks at a snake's eyes gets so frightened +that she cannot move. Darzee's wife fluttered +on, piping sorrowfully, and never leaving +the ground, and Nagaina quickened her pace.</p> + +<p class="indent">Rikki-tikki heard them going up the path from the +stables, and he raced for the end of the +melon-patch near the wall. There, in the warm +litter about the melons, very cunningly hidden, +he found twenty-five eggs, about the size of a bantam's +eggs, but with whitish skin instead of shell.</p> + +<p class="indent">"I was not a day too soon," he said; for he +could see the baby cobras curled up inside the +skin, and he knew that the minute they were +hatched they could each kill a man or a mongoose. +He bit off the tops of the eggs as fast as +he could, taking care to crush the young cobras, +and turned over the litter from time to time to +see whether he had missed any. At last there +were only three eggs left, and Rikki-tikki began +to chuckle to himself, when he heard Darzee's +wife screaming:</p> + +<p class="indent">"Rikki-tikki, I led Nagaina toward the house, +and she has gone into the veranda, and—oh, +come quickly—she means killing!"</p> + +<p class="indent">Rikki-tikki smashed two eggs, and tumbled +backward down the melon-bed with the third egg +in his mouth, and scuttled to the veranda as hard +as he could put foot to the ground. Teddy and +his mother and father were there at early breakfast; +but Rikki-tikki saw that they were not eating +anything. They sat stone-still, and their +faces were white. Nagaina was coiled up on the +matting by Teddy's chair, within easy striking +distance of Teddy's bare leg, and she was swaying +to and fro singing a song of triumph.</p> + +<p class="indent">"Son of the big man that killed Nag," she +hissed, "stay still. I am not ready yet. Wait +a little. Keep very still, all you three. If you +move I strike, and if you do not move I strike. +Oh, foolish people, who killed my Nag!"</p> + +<p class="indent">Teddy's eyes were fixed on his father, and all +his father could do was to whisper, "Sit still, +Teddy. You mustn't move. Teddy, keep still."</p> + +<p class="indent">Then Rikki-tikki came up and cried: "Turn +round, Nagaina; turn and fight!"</p> + +<p class="indent">"All in good time," said she, without moving +her eyes. "I will settle my account with <i>you</i> +presently. Look at your friends, Rikki-tikki. +They are still and white; they are afraid. They +dare not move, and if you come a step nearer I +strike."</p> + +<p class="indent">"Look at your eggs," said Rikki-tikki, "in the +melon-bed near the wall. Go and look, Nagaina."</p> + +<p class="indent">The big snake turned half round, and saw the +egg on the veranda. "Ah-h! Give it to me," +she said.</p> + +<p class="indent">Rikki-tikki put his paws one on each side of +the egg, and his eyes were blood-red. "What +price for a snake's egg? For a young cobra? +For a young king-cobra? For the last—the +very last of the brood? The ants are eating all +the others down by the melon-bed."</p> + +<p class="indent">Nagaina spun clear round, forgetting everything +for the sake of the one egg; and Rikki-tikki +saw Teddy's father shoot out a big hand, +catch Teddy by the shoulder, and drag him across +the little table with the tea-cups, safe and out of +reach of Nagaina.</p> + +<p class="indent">"Tricked! Tricked! Tricked! <i>Rikk-tck-tck!</i>" +chuckled Rikki-tikki. "The boy is safe, +and it was I—I—I that caught Nag by the +hood last night in the bath-room." Then he +began to jump up and down, all four feet together, +his head close to the floor. "He threw +me to and fro, but he could not shake me off. +He was dead before the big man blew him in +two. I did it. <i>Rikki-tikki-tck-tck!</i> Come then, +Nagaina. Come and fight with me. You shall +not be a widow long."</p> + +<p class="indent">Nagaina saw that she had lost her chance of +killing Teddy, and the egg lay between Rikki-tikki's +paws. "Give me the egg, Rikki-tikki. +Give me the last of my eggs, and I will go away +and never come back," she said, lowering her +hood.</p> + +<p class="indent">"Yes, you will go away, and you will never +come back; for you will go to the rubbish-heap +with Nag. Fight, +widow! The big man +has gone for his gun! +Fight!"</p> + +<p class="indent">Rikki-tikki was +bounding all round +Nagaina, +keeping just +out of reach of her +stroke, his little eyes +like hot coals. Nagaina +gathered herself together, and +flung out at him. Rikki-tikki +jumped up and backward. Again +and again and again she struck, and +each time her head came with a whack +on the matting of the veranda and +she gathered herself together like a watch-spring. +Then Rikki-tikki danced in a circle to get behind +her, and Nagaina spun round to keep her head to +his head, so that the rustle of her tail on the matting +sounded like dry leaves blown along by the +wind.</p> + +<p class="indent">He had forgotten the egg. It still lay on the +veranda, and Nagaina came nearer and nearer +to it, till at last, while Rikki-tikki was drawing +breath, she caught it in her mouth, turned to +the veranda steps, and flew like an arrow down +the path, with Rikki-tikki behind her. When +the cobra runs for her life, she goes like a whiplash +flicked across a horse's neck.</p> + +<div class="figcenter"> +<a name="gs25.png" id="gs25.png"></a> +<img class="border" src="images/gs25.png" alt=""NAGAINA FLEW +DOWN THE PATH, +WITH RIKKI-TIKKI +BEHIND HER."" title=""NAGAINA FLEW +DOWN THE PATH, +WITH RIKKI-TIKKI +BEHIND HER."" /> +<br /> +<span class="caption">"NAGAINA FLEW +DOWN THE PATH,<br /> +WITH RIKKI-TIKKI +BEHIND HER."</span> +</div> + +<p class="indent">Rikki-tikki knew that he must catch her, or +all the trouble would begin again. She headed +straight for the long grass by the thorn-bush, +and as he was running Rikki-tikki heard Darzee +still singing his foolish little song of triumph. +But Darzee's wife was wiser. She flew off her +nest as Nagaina came along, and flapped her +wings about Nagaina's head. If Darzee had +helped they might have turned her; but Nagaina +only lowered her hood and went on. Still, the +instant's delay brought Rikki-tikki up to her, +and as she plunged into the rat-hole where she +and Nag used to live, his little white teeth were +clenched on her tail, and he went down with her—and +very few mongooses, however wise and +old they may be, care to follow a cobra into its +hole. It was dark in the hole; and Rikki-tikki +never knew when it might open out and give +Nagaina room to turn and strike at him. He held +on savagely, and struck out his feet to act as +brakes on the dark slope of the hot, moist earth.</p> + +<p class="indent">Then the grass by the mouth of the hole +stopped waving, and Darzee said: "It is all +over with Rikki-tikki! We must sing his death-song. +Valiant Rikki-tikki is dead! For Nagaina +will surely kill him underground."</p> + +<p class="indent">So he sang a very mournful song that he +made up all on the spur of the minute, and just +as he got to the most touching part the grass +quivered again, and Rikki-tikki, covered with +dirt, dragged himself out of the hole leg by leg, +licking his whiskers. Darzee stopped with a +little shout. Rikki-tikki shook some of the dust +out of his fur and sneezed. "It is all over," he +said. "The widow will never come out again." +And the red ants that live between the grass +stems heard him, and began to troop down one +after another to see if he had spoken the truth.</p> + +<div class="figcenter"> +<a name="gs26.png" id="gs26.png"></a> +<img class="border" src="images/gs26.png" alt=""IT IS ALL OVER."" title=""IT IS ALL OVER."" /> +<br /> +<span class="caption">"IT IS ALL OVER."</span> +</div> + +<p class="indent">Rikki-tikki curled himself up in the grass and +slept where he was—slept and slept till it was +late in the afternoon, for he had done a hard +day's work.</p> + +<p class="indent">"Now," he said, when he awoke, "I will go +back to the house. Tell the Coppersmith, Darzee, +and he will tell the garden that Nagaina is +dead."</p> + +<p class="indent">The Coppersmith is a bird who makes a noise +exactly like the beating of a little hammer on a +copper pot; and the reason he is always making +it is because he is the town-crier to every Indian +garden, and tells all the news to everybody who +cares to listen. As Rikki-tikki went up the path, +he heard his "attention" notes like a tiny dinner-gong; +and then the steady "<i>Ding-dong-tock!</i> +Nag is dead—<i>dong!</i> Nagaina is dead! <i>Ding-dong-tock!</i>" +That set all the birds in the garden +singing, and the frogs croaking; for Nag +and Nagaina used to eat frogs as well as little +birds.</p> + +<p class="indent">When Rikki got to the house, Teddy and +Teddy's mother (she looked very white still, for +she had been fainting) and Teddy's father came +out and almost cried over him; and that night he +ate all that was given him till he could eat no +more, and went to bed on Teddy's shoulder, +where Teddy's mother saw him when she came +to look late at night.</p> + +<p class="indent">"He saved our lives and Teddy's life," she +said to her husband. "Just think, he saved all +our lives."</p> + +<p class="indent">Rikki-tikki woke up with a jump, for all the +mongooses are light sleepers.</p> + +<p class="indent">"Oh, it's you," said he. "What are you +bothering for? All the cobras are dead; and +if they weren't, I'm here."</p> + +<p class="indent">Rikki-tikki had a right to be proud of himself; +but he did not grow too proud, and he kept that +garden as a mongoose should keep it, with tooth +and jump and spring and bite, till never a cobra +dared show its head inside the walls.</p> + +<p class="center"><a name="song5" id="song5"></a>DARZEE'S CHAUNT</p> + +<p class="center">(SUNG IN HONOR OF RIKKI-TIKKI-TAVI)</p> + +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i2">Singer and tailor am I—</span><br /> +<span class="i4">Doubled the joys that I know—</span><br /> +<span class="i2">Proud of my lilt through the sky,</span><br /> +<span class="i4">Proud of the house that I sew—</span><br /> +<p class="bhangindent">Over and under, so weave I my music—so weave I the house that I sew.</p> +</div> + +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i2">Sing to your fledglings again,</span><br /> +<span class="i4">Mother, oh lift up your head!</span><br /> +<span class="i2">Evil that plagued us is slain,</span><br /> +<span class="i4">Death in the garden lies dead.</span><br /> +<p class="bhangindent">Terror that hid in the roses is impotent—flung on the dung-hill and dead!</p> +</div> + +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i2">Who hath delivered us, who?</span><br /> +<span class="i4">Tell me his nest and his name.</span><br /> +<span class="i2">Rikki, the valiant, the true,</span><br /> +<span class="i4">Tikki, with eyeballs of flame.</span><br /> +<p class="bhangindent">Rik-tikki-tikki, the ivory-fanged, the hunter with eyeballs of flame.</p> +</div> + +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i2">Give him the Thanks of the Birds,</span><br /> +<span class="i4">Bowing with tail-feathers spread!</span><br /> +<span class="i2">Praise him with nightingale words—</span><br /> +<span class="i4">Nay, I will praise him instead.</span><br /> +<p class="bhangindent">Hear! I will sing you the praise of the bottle-tailed Rikki, with eyeballs of red!</p> +</div> + +<p class="hangindent">(<i>Here Rikki-tikki interrupted, and the rest of the song is lost.</i>)</p> +</div> + +<hr class="hr2" /> + +<h2><a name="ch06.png" id="ch06.png"></a> +TOOMAI OF THE ELEPHANTS</h2> + +<hr class="hr2" /> + +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">I will remember what I was, I am sick of rope and chain—</span><br /> +<span class="i2">I will remember my old strength and all my forest affairs.</span><br /> +<span class="i0">I will not sell my back to man for a bundle of sugar-cane,</span><br /> +<span class="i2">I will go out to my own kind, and the wood-folk in their lairs.</span> +</div> + +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">I will go out until the day, until the morning break,</span><br /> +<span class="i2">Out to the winds' untainted kiss, the waters' clean caress:</span><br /> +<span class="i0">I will forget my ankle-ring and snap my picket-stake.</span><br /> +<span class="i2">I will revisit my lost loves, and playmates masterless!</span> +</div> +</div> + +<hr class="hr2" /> + +<div class="figcenter"> +<img class="border" src="images/ch06.png" alt="" title="" /> +</div> + +<h2>TOOMAI OF THE ELEPHANTS</h2> + +<p class="cap">KALA NAG, which means Black Snake, had +served the Indian Government in every +way that an elephant could serve it for forty-seven +years, and as he was fully twenty years old +when he was caught, that makes him nearly +seventy—a ripe age for an elephant. He remembered +pushing, with a big leather pad on his +forehead, at a gun stuck in deep mud, and that +was before the Afghan war of 1842, and he had +not then come to his full strength. His mother, +Radha Pyari,—Radha the darling,—who had +been caught in the same drive with Kala Nag, +told him, before his little milk tusks had dropped +out, that elephants who were afraid always got +hurt: and Kala Nag knew that that advice was +good, for the first time that he saw a shell burst +he backed, screaming, into a stand of piled rifles, +and the bayonets pricked him in all his softest +places. So, before he was twenty-five, he gave +up being afraid, and so he was the best-loved and +the best-looked-after elephant in the service of +the Government of India. He had carried tents, +twelve hundred pounds' weight of tents, on the +march in Upper India: he had been hoisted into +a ship at the end of a steam-crane and taken for +days across the water, and made to carry a mortar +on his back in a strange and rocky country +very far from India, and had seen the Emperor +Theodore lying dead in Magdala, and had come +back again in the steamer entitled, so the soldiers +said, to the Abyssinian war medal. He had seen +his fellow-elephants die of cold and epilepsy and +starvation and sunstroke up at a place called Ali +Musjid, ten years later; and afterward he had +been sent down thousands of miles south to haul +and pile big baulks of teak in the timber-yards at +Moulmein. There he had half killed an insubordinate +young elephant who was shirking his +fair share of the work.</p> + +<div class="figcenter"> +<a name="gs27.png" id="gs27.png"></a> +<img class="border" src="images/gs27.png" alt=""KALA NAG WAS THE BEST-LOVED ELEPHANT IN THE SERVICE."" title=""KALA NAG WAS THE BEST-LOVED ELEPHANT IN THE SERVICE."" /> +<br /> +<span class="caption">"KALA NAG WAS THE BEST-LOVED ELEPHANT IN THE SERVICE."</span> +</div> + +<p class="indent">After that he was taken off timber-hauling, +and employed, with a few score other elephants +who were trained to the business, in helping to +catch wild elephants among the Garo hills. Elephants +are very strictly preserved by the Indian +Government. There is one whole department +which does nothing else but hunt them, and +catch them, and break them in, and send them +up and down the country as they are needed +for work.</p> + +<p class="indent">Kala Nag stood ten fair feet at the shoulders, +and his tusks had been cut off short at five feet, +and bound round the ends, to prevent them splitting, +with bands of copper; but he could do +more with those stumps than any untrained elephant +could do with the real sharpened ones.</p> + +<p class="indent">When, after weeks and weeks of cautious driving +of scattered elephants across the hills, the +forty or fifty wild monsters were driven into the +last stockade, and the big drop-gate, made of +tree-trunks lashed together, jarred down behind +them, Kala Nag, at the word of command, would +go into that flaring, trumpeting pandemonium +(generally at night, when the flicker of the +torches made it difficult to judge distances), and, +picking out the biggest and wildest tusker of the +mob, would hammer him and hustle him into +quiet while the men on the backs of the other +elephants roped and tied the smaller ones.</p> + +<p class="indent">There was nothing in the way of fighting that +Kala Nag, the old wise Black Snake, did not +know, for he had stood up more than once in +his time to the charge of the wounded tiger, +and, curling up his soft trunk to be out of +harm's way, had knocked the springing brute +sideways in mid-air with a quick sickle-cut of +his head, that he had invented all by himself; +had knocked him over, and kneeled upon him +with his huge knees till the life went out with +a gasp and a howl, and there was only a fluffy +striped thing on the ground for Kala Nag to pull +by the tail.</p> + +<p class="indent">"Yes," said Big Toomai, his driver, the son of +Black Toomai who had taken him to Abyssinia, +and grandson of Toomai of the Elephants who +had seen him caught, "there is nothing that +the Black Snake fears except me. He has seen +three generations of us feed him and groom him, +and he will live to see four."</p> + +<p class="indent">"He is afraid of <i>me</i> also," said Little Toomai, +standing up to his full height of four feet, with +only one rag upon him. He was ten years old, +the eldest son of Big Toomai, and, according to +custom, he would take his father's place on Kala +Nag's neck when he grew up, and would handle +the heavy iron <i>ankus</i>, the elephant-goad that had +been worn smooth by his father, and his grandfather, +and his great-grandfather. He knew what +he was talking of; for he had been born under +Kala Nag's shadow, had played with the end of +his trunk before he could walk, had taken him +down to water as soon as he could walk, and +Kala Nag would no more have dreamed of +disobeying his shrill little orders than he would +have dreamed of killing him on that day when +Big Toomai carried the little brown baby under +Kala Nag's tusks, and told him to salute his +master that was to be.</p> + +<div class="figcenter"> +<a name="gs28.png" id="gs28.png"></a> +<img class="border" src="images/gs28.png" alt=""'HE IS AFRAID OF ME,' SAID LITTLE TOOMAI, AND HE MADE KALA NAG LIFT UP +HIS FEET ONE AFTER THE OTHER."" title=""'HE IS AFRAID OF ME,' SAID LITTLE TOOMAI, AND HE MADE KALA NAG LIFT UP +HIS FEET ONE AFTER THE OTHER."" /> +<br /> +<span class="caption">"'HE IS AFRAID OF ME,' SAID LITTLE TOOMAI, AND HE MADE KALA NAG LIFT UP<br /> +HIS FEET ONE AFTER THE OTHER."</span> +</div> + +<p class="indent">"Yes," said Little Toomai, "he is afraid of +<i>me</i>," and he took long strides up to Kala Nag, +called him a fat old pig, and made him lift up his +feet one after the other.</p> + +<p class="indent">"Wah!" said Little Toomai, "thou art a big +elephant," and he wagged his fluffy head, quoting +his father. "The Government may pay for elephants, +but they belong to us mahouts. When +thou art old, Kala Nag, there will come some rich +Rajah, and he will buy thee from the Government, +on account of thy size and thy manners, +and then thou wilt have nothing to do but to carry +gold earrings in thy ears, and a gold howdah on +thy back, and a red cloth covered with gold on +thy sides, and walk at the head of the processions +of the King. Then I shall sit on thy neck, O +Kala Nag, with a silver <i>ankus</i>, and men will run +before us with golden sticks, crying, 'Room for +the King's elephant!' That will be good, Kala +Nag, but not so good as this hunting in the +jungles."</p> + +<p class="indent">"Umph!" said Big Toomai. "Thou art a +boy, and as wild as a buffalo-calf. This running +up and down among the hills is not the best +Government service. I am getting old, and I do +not love wild elephants, Give me brick elephant-lines, +one stall to each elephant, and big stumps +to tie them to safely, and flat, broad roads to +exercise upon, instead of this come-and-go camping. +Aha, the Cawnpore barracks were good. +There was a bazaar close by, and only three +hours' work a day."</p> + +<p class="indent">Little Toomai remembered the Cawnpore elephant-lines +and said nothing. He very much +preferred the camp life, and hated those broad, +flat roads, with the daily grubbing for grass in +the forage-reserve, and the long hours when +there was nothing to do except to watch Kala +Nag fidgeting in his pickets.</p> + +<p class="indent">What Little Toomai liked was to scramble up +bridle-paths that only an elephant could take; +the dip into the valley below; the glimpses of +the wild elephants browsing miles away; the +rush of the frightened pig and peacock under +Kala Nag's feet; the blinding warm rains, when +all the hills and valleys smoked; the beautiful +misty mornings when nobody knew where they +would camp that night; the steady, cautious +drive of the wild elephants, and the mad rush and +blaze and hullaballoo of the last night's drive, +when the elephants poured into the stockade like +boulders in a landslide, found that they could not +get out, and flung themselves at the heavy posts +only to be driven back by yells and flaring torches +and volleys of blank cartridge.</p> + +<div class="figcenter"> +<a name="gs29.png" id="gs29.png"></a> +<img class="border" src="images/gs29.png" alt=""HE WOULD GET HIS TORCH AND WAVE IT, AND YELL WITH THE BEST."" title=""HE WOULD GET HIS TORCH AND WAVE IT, AND YELL WITH THE BEST."" /> +<br /> +<span class="caption">"HE WOULD GET HIS TORCH AND WAVE IT, AND YELL WITH THE BEST."</span> +</div> + +<p class="indent">Even a little boy could be of use there, and +Toomai was as useful as three boys. He would +get his torch and wave it, and yell with the best. +But the really good time came when the driving +out began, and the Keddah, that is, the stockade, +looked like a picture of the end of the world, and +men had to make signs to one another, because +they could not hear themselves speak. Then +Little Toomai would climb up to the top of one +of the quivering stockade-posts, his sun-bleached +brown hair flying loose all over his shoulders, and +he looking like a goblin in the torch-light; and +as soon as there was a lull you could hear his +high-pitched yells of encouragement to Kala +Nag, above the trumpeting and crashing, and +snapping of ropes, and groans of the tethered +elephants. "<i>Maîl, maîl, Kala Nag!</i> (Go on, +go on, Black Snake!) <i>Dant do!</i> (Give him the +tusk!) <i>Somalo! Somalo!</i> (Careful, careful!) +<i>Maro! Mar!</i> (Hit him, hit him!) Mind the +post! <i>Arre! Arre! Hai! Yai! Kya-a-ah!</i>" +he would shout, and the big fight between Kala +Nag and the wild elephant would sway to and fro +across the Keddah, and the old elephant-catchers +would wipe the sweat out of their eyes, and find +time to nod to Little Toomai wriggling with joy +on the top of the posts.</p> + +<p class="indent">He did more than wriggle. One night he slid +down from the post and slipped in between the +elephants, and threw up the loose end of a rope, +which had dropped, to a driver who was trying to +get a purchase on the leg of a kicking young +calf (calves always give more trouble than full-grown +animals). Kala Nag saw him, caught +him in his trunk, and handed him up to Big +Toomai, who slapped him then and there, and +put him back on the post.</p> + +<p class="indent">Next morning he gave him a scolding, and +said: "Are not good brick elephant-lines and a +little tent-carrying enough, that thou must needs +go elephant-catching on thy own account, little +worthless? Now those foolish hunters, whose +pay is less than my pay, have spoken to Petersen +Sahib of the matter." Little Toomai was frightened. +He did not know much of white men, but +Petersen Sahib was the greatest white man in +the world to him. He was the head of all the +Keddah operations—the man who caught all the +elephants for the Government of India, and who +knew more about the ways of elephants than any +living man.</p> + +<p class="indent">"What—what will happen?" said Little +Toomai.</p> + +<p class="indent">"Happen! the worst that can happen. Petersen +Sahib is a madman. Else why should he go +hunting these wild devils? He may even require +thee to be an elephant-catcher, to sleep anywhere +in these fever-filled jungles, and at last to be +trampled to death in the Keddah. It is well that +this nonsense ends safely. Next week the catching +is over, and we of the plains are sent back to +our stations. Then we will march on smooth +roads, and forget all this hunting. But, son, I +am angry that thou shouldst meddle in the business +that belongs to these dirty Assamese jungle-folk. +Kala Nag will obey none but me, so I +must go with him into the Keddah, but he is +only a fighting elephant, and he does not help to +rope them. So I sit at my ease, as befits a +mahout,—not a mere hunter,—a mahout, I say, +and a man who gets a pension at the end of his +service. Is the family of Toomai of the Elephants +to be trodden underfoot in the dirt of a +Keddah? Bad one! Wicked one! Worthless +son! Go and wash Kala Nag and attend to his +ears, and see that there are no thorns in his feet; +or else Petersen Sahib will surely catch thee and +make thee a wild hunter—a follower of elephant's +foot-tracks, a jungle-bear. Bah! Shame! Go!"</p> + +<p class="indent">Little Toomai went off without saying a word, +but he told Kala Nag all his grievances while +he was examining his feet. "No matter," said +Little Toomai, turning up the fringe of Kala +Nag's huge right ear. "They have said my +name to Petersen Sahib, and perhaps—and +perhaps—and perhaps—who knows? Hai! +That is a big thorn that I have pulled out!"</p> + +<p class="indent">The next few days were spent in getting +the elephants together, in walking the newly +caught wild elephants up and down between a +couple of tame ones, to prevent them from giving +too much trouble on the downward march +to the plains, and in taking stock of the blankets +and ropes and things that had been worn out or +lost in the forest.</p> + +<p class="indent">Petersen Sahib came in on his clever she-elephant +Pudmini; he had been paying off other +camps among the hills, for the season was coming +to an end, and there was a native clerk +sitting at a table under a tree, to pay the drivers +their wages. As each man was paid he went +back to his elephant, and joined the line that +stood ready to start. The catchers, and hunters, +and beaters, the men of the regular Keddah, who +stayed in the jungle year in and year out, sat +on the backs of the elephants that belonged +to Petersen Sahib's permanent force, or leaned +against the trees with their guns across their +arms, and made fun of the drivers who were +going away, and laughed when the newly caught +elephants broke the line and ran about.</p> + +<p class="indent">Big Toomai went up to the clerk with Little +Toomai behind him, and Machua Appa, the head-tracker, +said in an undertone to a friend of +his, "There goes one piece of good elephant-stuff +at least. 'T is a pity to send that young +jungle-cock to moult in the plains."</p> + +<p class="indent">Now Petersen Sahib had ears all over him, as a +man must have who listens to the most silent +of all living things—the wild elephant. He +turned where he was lying all along on Pudmini's +back, and said, "What is that? I did not +know of a man among the plain-drivers who had +wit enough to rope even a dead elephant."</p> + +<p class="indent">"This is not a man, but a boy. He went +into the Keddah at the last drive, and threw +Barmao there the rope, when we were trying +to get that young calf with the blotch on his +shoulder away from his mother."</p> + +<p class="indent">Machua Appa pointed at Little Toomai, and +Petersen Sahib looked, and Little Toomai bowed +to the earth.</p> + +<p class="indent">"He throw a rope? He is smaller than a +picket-pin. Little one, what is thy name?" said +Petersen Sahib.</p> + +<p class="indent">Little Toomai was too frightened to speak, +but Kala Nag was behind him, and Toomai +made a sign with his hand, and the elephant +caught him up in his trunk and held him level +with Pudmini's forehead, in front of the great +Petersen Sahib. Then Little Toomai covered +his face with his hands, for he was only a child, +and except where elephants were concerned, he +was just as bashful as a child could be.</p> + +<p class="indent">"Oho!" said Petersen Sahib, smiling underneath +his mustache, "and why didst thou teach +thy elephant <i>that</i> trick? Was it to help thee +steal green corn from the roofs of the houses +when the ears are put out to dry?" +</p> + +<div class="figcenter"> +<a name="gs30.png" id="gs30.png"></a> +<img class="border" src="images/gs30.png" alt=""'NOT GREEN CORN, PROTECTOR OF THE POOR,—MELONS,' +SAID LITTLE TOOMAI."" title=""'NOT GREEN CORN, PROTECTOR OF THE POOR,—MELONS,' +SAID LITTLE TOOMAI."" /> +<br /> +<span class="caption">"'NOT GREEN CORN, PROTECTOR OF THE POOR,—MELONS,'<br /> +SAID LITTLE TOOMAI."</span> +</div> + +<p class="indent">"Not green corn, Protector of the Poor,—melons," +said Little Toomai, and all the men +sitting about broke into a roar of laughter. +Most of them had taught their elephants that +trick when they were boys. Little Toomai was +hanging eight feet up in the air, and he wished +very much that he were eight feet underground.</p> + +<p class="indent">"He is Toomai, my son, Sahib," said Big +Toomai, scowling. "He is a very bad boy, and +he will end in a jail, Sahib."</p> + +<p class="indent">"Of that I have my doubts," said Petersen +Sahib. "A boy who can face a full Keddah at +his age does not end in jails. See, little one, +here are four annas to spend in sweetmeats because +thou hast a little head under that great +thatch of hair. In time thou mayest become a +hunter too." Big Toomai scowled more than +ever. "Remember, though, that Keddahs are +not good for children to play in," Petersen Sahib +went on.</p> + +<p class="indent">"Must I never go there, Sahib?" asked Little +Toomai, with a big gasp.</p> + +<p class="indent">"Yes." Petersen Sahib smiled again. "When +thou hast seen the elephants dance. That is the +proper time. Come to me when thou hast seen +the elephants dance, and then I will let thee go +into all the Keddahs."</p> + +<p class="indent">There was another roar of laughter, for that +is an old joke among elephant-catchers, and it +means just never. There are great cleared flat +places hidden away in the forests that are called +elephants' ballrooms, but even these are found +only by accident, and no man has ever seen the +elephants dance. When a driver boasts of his +skill and bravery the other drivers say, "And +when didst <i>thou</i> see the elephants dance?"</p> + +<p class="indent">Kala Nag put Little Toomai down, and he +bowed to the earth again and went away with his +father, and gave the silver four-anna piece to his +mother, who was nursing his baby-brother, and +they all were put up on Kala Nag's back, and the +line of grunting, squealing elephants rolled down +the hill-path to the plains. It was a very lively +march on account of the new elephants, who gave +trouble at every ford, and who needed coaxing or +beating every other minute.</p> + +<p class="indent">Big Toomai prodded Kala Nag spitefully, for +he was very angry, but Little Toomai was too +happy to speak. Petersen Sahib had noticed +him, and given him money, so he felt as a private +soldier would feel if he had been called out of the +ranks and praised by his commander-in-chief.</p> + +<p class="indent">"What did Petersen Sahib mean by the elephant-dance?" +he said, at last, softly to his +mother.</p> + +<p class="indent">Big Toomai heard him and grunted. "That +thou shouldst never be one of these hill-buffaloes +of trackers. <i>That</i> was what he meant. Oh you +in front, what is blocking the way?"</p> + +<p class="indent">An Assamese driver, two or three elephants +ahead, turned round angrily, crying: "Bring up +Kala Nag, and knock this youngster of mine into +good behavior. Why should Petersen Sahib have +chosen <i>me</i> to go down with you donkeys of the +rice-fields? Lay your beast alongside, Toomai, +and let him prod with his tusks. By all the +Gods of the Hills, these new elephants are possessed, +or else they can smell their companions in +the jungle."</p> + +<p class="indent">Kala Nag hit the new elephant in the ribs and +knocked the wind out of him, as Big Toomai +said, "We have swept the hills of wild elephants +at the last catch. It is only your +carelessness in driving. Must I keep order along +the whole line?"</p> + +<p class="indent">"Hear him!" said the other driver. "<i>We</i> +have swept the hills! Ho! ho! You are very +wise, you plains-people. Any one but a mudhead +who never saw the jungle would know +that <i>they</i> know that the drives are ended for the +season. Therefore all the wild elephants to-night +will—but why should I waste wisdom on +a river-turtle?"</p> + +<p class="indent">"What will they do?" Little Toomai called +out.</p> + +<p class="indent">"<i>Ohé</i>, little one. Art thou there? Well, I will +tell thee, for thou hast a cool head. They will +dance, and it behooves thy father, who has swept +<i>all</i> the hills of <i>all</i> the elephants, to double-chain +his pickets to-night."</p> + +<p class="indent">"What talk is this?" said Big Toomai. "For +forty years, father and son, we have tended +elephants, and we have never heard such moonshine +about dances."</p> + +<p class="indent">"Yes; but a plains-man who lives in a hut +knows only the four walls of his hut. Well, +leave thy elephants unshackled to-night and see +what comes; as for their dancing, I have seen +the place where—<i>Bapree-Bap!</i> how many windings +has the Dihang River? Here is another +ford, and we must swim the calves. Stop still, +you behind there."</p> + +<p class="indent">And in this way, talking and wrangling and +splashing through the rivers, they made their +first march to a sort of receiving-camp for the +new elephants; but they lost their tempers long +before they got there.</p> + +<p class="indent">Then the elephants were chained by their hind +legs to their big stumps of pickets, and extra +ropes were fitted to the new elephants, and the +fodder was piled before them, and the hill-drivers +went back to Petersen Sahib through the afternoon +light, telling the plains-drivers to be extra +careful that night, and laughing when the plains-drivers +asked the reason.</p> + +<p class="indent">Little Toomai attended to Kala Nag's supper, +and as evening fell, wandered through the camp, +unspeakably happy, in search of a tom-tom. +When an Indian child's heart is full, he does not +run about and make a noise in an irregular +fashion. He sits down to a sort of revel all by +himself. And Little Toomai had been spoken to +by Petersen Sahib! If he had not found what he +wanted I believe he would have burst. But the +sweatmeat-seller in the camp lent him a little +tom-tom—a drum beaten with the flat of the +hand—and he sat down, cross-legged, before Kala +Nag as the stars began to come out, the tom-tom +in his lap, and he thumped and he thumped +and he thumped, and the more he thought of the +great honor that had been done to him, the more +he thumped, all alone among the elephant-fodder. +There was no tune and no words, but the thumping +made him happy.</p> + +<p class="indent">The new elephants strained at their ropes, and +squealed and trumpeted from time to time, and +he could hear his mother in the camp hut putting +his small brother to sleep with an old, old song +about the great God Shiv, who once told all the +animals what they should eat. It is a very soothing +lullaby, and the first verse says:</p> + +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0"> +Shiv, who poured the harvest and made the winds to blow,</span><br /> +<span class="i0"> +Sitting at the doorways of a day of long ago,</span><br /> +<span class="i0"> +Gave to each his portion, food and toil and fate,</span><br /> +<span class="i0"> +From the King upon the <i>guddee</i> to the Beggar at the gate.</span><br /> +<span class="i2">All things made he—Shiva the Preserver.</span><br /> +<span class="i2">Mahadeo! Mahadeo! he made all,—</span><br /> +<span class="i2">Thorn for the camel, fodder for the kine,</span><br /> +<span class="i2">And mother's heart for sleepy head, O little son of mine!</span> +</div> +</div> + +<p class="indent">Little Toomai came in with a joyous <i>tunk-a-tunk</i> +at the end of each verse, till he felt sleepy and +stretched himself on the fodder at Kala Nag's +side.</p> + +<p class="indent">At last the elephants began to lie down one +after another as is their custom, till only Kala +Nag at the right of the line was left standing up; +and he rocked slowly from side to side, his ears +put forward to listen to the night wind as it blew +very slowly across the hills. The air was full of +all the night noises that, taken together, make +one big silence—the click of one bamboo-stem +against the other, the rustle of something alive +in the undergrowth, the scratch and squawk of a +half-waked bird (birds are awake in the night +much more often than we imagine), and the fall +of water ever so far away. Little Toomai slept +for some time, and when he waked it was brilliant +moonlight, and Kala Nag was still standing up +with his ears cocked. Little Toomai turned, +rustling in the fodder, and watched the curve of +his big back against half the stars in heaven, and +while he watched he heard, so far away that it +sounded no more than a pinhole of noise pricked +through the stillness, the "hoot-toot" of a wild +elephant.</p> + +<p class="indent">All the elephants in the lines jumped up as if +they had been shot, and their grunts at last +waked the sleeping mahouts, and they came out +and drove in the picket-pegs with big mallets, +and tightened this rope and knotted that till +all was quiet. One new elephant had nearly +grubbed up his picket, and Big Toomai took off +Kala Nag's leg-chain and shackled that elephant +fore foot to hind foot, but slipped a loop of grass-string +round Kala Nag's leg, and told him to +remember that he was tied fast. He knew that +he and his father and his grandfather had done +the very same thing hundreds of times before. +Kala Nag did not answer to the order by gurgling, +as he usually did. He stood still, looking +out across the moonlight, his head a little raised +and his ears spread like fans, up to the great +folds of the Garo hills.</p> + +<p class="indent">"Look to him if he grows restless in the +night," said Big Toomai to Little Toomai, and +he went into the hut and slept. Little Toomai +was just going to sleep, too, when he heard the +coir string snap with a little "tang," and Kala +Nag rolled out of his pickets as slowly and as +silently as a cloud rolls out of the mouth of a +valley. Little Toomai pattered after him, bare-footed, +down the road in the moonlight, calling +under his breath, "Kala Nag! Kala Nag! Take +me with you, O Kala Nag!" The elephant +turned without a sound, took three strides back +to the boy in the moonlight, put down his trunk, +swung him up to his neck, and almost before +Little Toomai had settled his knees, slipped into +the forest.</p> + +<p class="indent">There was one blast of furious trumpeting from +the lines, and then the silence shut down on +everything, and Kala Nag began to move. +Sometimes a tuft of high grass washed along +his sides as a wave washes along the sides of a +ship, and sometimes a cluster of wild-pepper +vines would scrape along his back, or a bamboo +would creak where his shoulder touched it; but +between those times he moved absolutely without +any sound, drifting through the thick Garo forest +as though it had been smoke. He was going uphill, +but though Little Toomai watched the stars +in the rifts of the trees, he could not tell in what +direction.</p> + +<p class="indent">Then Kala Nag reached the crest of the ascent +and stopped for a minute, and Little Toomai +could see the tops of the trees lying all speckled +and furry under the moonlight for miles and +miles, and the blue-white mist over the river in +the hollow. Toomai leaned forward and looked, +and he felt that the forest was awake below him—awake +and alive and crowded. A big brown +fruit-eating bat brushed past his ear; a porcupine's +quills rattled in the thicket, and in the +darkness between the tree-stems he heard a hog-bear +digging hard in the moist warm earth, and +snuffing as it digged.</p> + +<p class="indent">Then the branches closed over his head again, +and Kala Nag began to go down into the valley—not +quietly this time, but as a runaway gun +goes down a steep bank—in one rush. The +huge limbs moved as steadily as pistons, eight +feet to each stride, and the wrinkled skin of the +elbow-points rustled. The undergrowth on either +side of him ripped with a noise like torn canvas, +and the saplings that he heaved away right and +left with his shoulders sprang back again, and +banged him on the flank, and great trails of +creepers, all matted together, hung from his +tusks as he threw his head from side to side +and plowed out his pathway. Then Little +Toomai laid himself down close to the great +neck, lest a swinging bough should sweep him +to the ground, and he wished that he were back +in the lines again.</p> + +<p class="indent">The grass began to get squashy, and Kala +Nag's feet sucked and squelched as he put them +down, and the night mist at the bottom of the +valley chilled Little Toomai. There was a splash +and a trample, and the rush of running water, +and Kala Nag strode through the bed of a river, +feeling his way at each step. Above the noise of +the water, as it swirled round the elephant's legs, +Little Toomai could hear more splashing and some +trumpeting both up-stream and down—great +grunts and angry snortings, and all the mist about +him seemed to be full of rolling wavy shadows.</p> + +<p class="indent">"<i>Ai!</i>" he said, half aloud, his teeth chattering. +"The elephant-folk are out to-night. It <i>is</i> the +dance, then."</p> + +<p class="indent">Kala Nag swashed out of the water, blew his +trunk clear, and began another climb; but this +time he was not alone, and he had not to make his +path. That was made already, six feet wide, in +front of him, where the bent jungle-grass was +trying to recover itself and stand up. Many elephants +must have gone that way only a few +minutes before. Little Toomai looked back, and +behind him a great wild tusker with his little +pig's eyes glowing like hot coals, was just lifting +himself out of the misty river. Then the trees +closed up again, and they went on and up, with +trumpetings and crashings, and the sound of +breaking branches on every side of them.</p> + +<p class="indent">At last Kala Nag stood still between two tree-trunks +at the very top of the hill. They were +part of a circle of trees that grew round an irregular +space of some three or four acres, and in +all that space, as Little Toomai could see, the +ground had been trampled down as hard as a +brick floor. Some trees grew in the center of +the clearing, but their bark was rubbed away, +and the white wood beneath showed all shiny +and polished in the patches of moonlight. There +were creepers hanging from the upper branches, +and the bells of the flowers of the creepers, great +waxy white things like convolvuluses, hung down +fast asleep; but within the limits of the clearing +there was not a single blade of green—nothing +but the trampled earth.</p> + +<p class="indent">The moonlight showed it all iron-gray, except +where some elephants stood upon it, and their +shadows were inky black. Little Toomai looked, +holding his breath, with his eyes starting out of +his head, and as he looked, more and more and +more elephants swung out into the open from +between the tree-trunks. Little Toomai could +count only up to ten, and he counted again and +again on his fingers till he lost count of the tens, +and his head began to swim. Outside the clearing +he could hear them crashing in the undergrowth +as they worked their way up the hillside; +but as soon as they were within the circle of the +tree-trunks they moved like ghosts.</p> + +<p class="indent">There were white-tusked wild males, with +fallen leaves and nuts and twigs lying in the +wrinkles of their necks and the folds of their +ears; fat slow-footed she-elephants, with restless, +little pinky-black calves only three or four feet +high running under their stomachs; young elephants +with their tusks just beginning to show, +and very proud of them; lanky, scraggy old-maid +elephants, with their hollow anxious faces, +and trunks like rough bark; savage old bull-elephants, +scarred from shoulder to flank with great +weals and cuts of bygone fights, and the caked +dirt of their solitary mud-baths dropping from +their shoulders; and there was one with a broken +tusk and the marks of the full-stroke, the terrible +drawing scrape, of a tiger's claws on his side.</p> + +<p class="indent">They were standing head to head, or walking +to and fro across the ground in couples, or rocking +and swaying all by themselves—scores and +scores of elephants.</p> + +<p class="indent">Toomai knew that so long as he lay still on +Kala Nag's neck nothing would happen to him; +for even in the rush and scramble of a Keddah-drive +a wild elephant does not reach up with his +trunk and drag a man off the neck of a tame +elephant; and these elephants were not thinking +of men that night. Once they started and put +their ears forward when they heard the chinking +of a leg-iron in the forest, but it was Pudmini, +Petersen Sahib's pet elephant, her chain +snapped short off, grunting, snuffling up the hillside. +She must have broken her pickets, and +come straight from Petersen Sahib's camp; and +Little Toomai saw another elephant, one that he +did not know, with deep rope-galls on his back +and breast. He, too, must have run away from +some camp in the hills about.</p> + +<p class="indent">At last there was no sound of any more elephants +moving in the forest, and Kala Nag rolled +out from his station between the trees and went +into the middle of the crowd, clucking and gurgling, +and all the elephants began to talk in their +own tongue, and to move about.</p> + +<div class="figcenter"> +<a name="gs31.png" id="gs31.png"></a> +<img class="border" src="images/gs31.png" alt=""LITTLE TOOMAI LOOKED DOWN UPON SCORES AND SCORES +OF BROAD BACKS."" title=""LITTLE TOOMAI LOOKED DOWN UPON SCORES AND SCORES +OF BROAD BACKS."" /> +<br /> +<span class="caption">"LITTLE TOOMAI LOOKED DOWN UPON SCORES AND SCORES<br /> +OF BROAD BACKS."</span> +</div> + +<p class="indent">Still lying down, Little Toomai looked down +upon scores and scores of broad backs, and wagging +ears, and tossing trunks, and little rolling +eyes. He heard the click of tusks as they +crossed other tusks by accident, and the dry +rustle of trunks twined together, and the chafing +of enormous sides and shoulders in the crowd, +and the incessant flick and <i>hissh</i> of the great +tails. Then a cloud came over the moon, and he +sat in black darkness; but the quiet, steady hustling +and pushing and gurgling went on just the +same. He knew that there were elephants all +round Kala Nag, and that there was no chance +of backing him out of the assembly; so he set his +teeth and shivered. In a Keddah at least there +was torch-light and shouting, but here he was all +alone in the dark, and once a trunk came up +and touched him on the knee.</p> + +<p class="indent">Then an elephant trumpeted, and they all took +it up for five or ten terrible seconds. The dew +from the trees above spattered down like rain +on the unseen backs, and a dull booming noise +began, not very loud at first, and Little Toomai +could not tell what it was; but it grew and grew, +and Kala Nag lifted up one fore foot and then +the other, and brought them down on the ground—one-two, +one-two, as steadily as trip-hammers. +The elephants were stamping altogether now, +and it sounded like a war-drum beaten at the +mouth of a cave. The dew fell from the trees till +there was no more left to fall, and the booming +went on, and the ground rocked and shivered, and +Little Toomai put his hands up to his ears to shut +out the sound. But it was all one gigantic jar +that ran through him—this stamp of hundreds +of heavy feet on the raw earth. Once or twice +he could feel Kala Nag and all the others surge +forward a few strides, and the thumping would +change to the crushing sound of juicy green +things being bruised, but in a minute or two the +boom of feet on hard earth began again. A +tree was creaking and groaning somewhere near +him. He put out his arm and felt the bark, but +Kala Nag moved forward, still tramping, and he +could not tell where he was in the clearing. +There was no sound from the elephants, except +once, when two or three little calves squeaked together. +Then he heard a thump and a shuffle, +and the booming went on. It must have lasted +fully two hours, and Little Toomai ached in every +nerve; but he knew by the smell of the night air +that the dawn was coming.</p> + +<p class="indent">The morning broke in one sheet of pale yellow +behind the green hills, and the booming stopped +with the first ray, as though the light had been an +order. Before Little Toomai had got the ringing +out of his head, before even he had shifted his +position, there was not an elephant in sight except +Kala Nag, Pudmini, and the elephant with +the rope-galls, and there was neither sign nor +rustle nor whisper down the hillsides to show +where the others had gone.</p> + +<p class="indent">Little Toomai stared again and again. The +clearing, as he remembered it, had grown in the +night. More trees stood in the middle of it, but +the undergrowth and the jungle-grass at the sides +had been rolled back. Little Toomai stared once +more. Now he understood the trampling. The +elephants had stamped out more room—had +stamped the thick grass and juicy cane to trash, +the trash into slivers, the slivers into tiny fibers, +and the fibers into hard earth.</p> + +<p class="indent">"Wah!" said Little Toomai, and his eyes were +very heavy. "Kala Nag, my lord, let us keep by +Pudmini and go to Peterson Sahib's camp, or I +shall drop from thy neck."</p> + +<p class="indent">The third elephant watched the two go away, +snorted, wheeled round, and took his own path. +He may have belonged to some little native +king's establishment, fifty or sixty or a hundred +miles away.</p> + +<p class="indent">Two hours later, as Petersen Sahib was eating +early breakfast, his elephants, who had been +double-chained that night, began to trumpet, and +Pudmini, mired to the shoulders, with Kala Nag, +very foot-sore, shambled into the camp.</p> + +<p class="indent">Little Toomai's face was gray and pinched, and +his hair was full of leaves and drenched with +dew; but he tried to salute Petersen Sahib, and +cried faintly: "The dance—the elephant-dance! +I have seen it, and—I die!" As Kala Nag +sat down, he slid off his neck in a dead faint.</p> + +<p class="indent">But, since native children have no nerves worth +speaking of, in two hours he was lying very contentedly +in Petersen Sahib's hammock with Petersen +Sahib's shooting-coat under his head, and a +glass of warm milk, a little brandy, with a dash of +quinine inside of him, and while the old hairy, +scarred hunters of the jungles sat three-deep before +him, looking at him as though he were a +spirit, he told his tale in short words, as a child +will, and wound up with:</p> + +<p class="indent">"Now, if I lie in one word, send men to see, +and they will find that the elephant-folk have +trampled down more room in their dance-room, +and they will find ten and ten, and many times +ten, tracks leading to that dance-room. They +made more room with their feet. I have seen it. +Kala Nag took me, and I saw. Also Kala Nag +is very leg-weary!"</p> + +<p class="indent">Little Toomai lay back and slept all through the +long afternoon and into the twilight, and while he +slept Petersen Sahib and Machua Appa followed +the track of the two elephants for fifteen miles +across the hills. Petersen Sahib had spent eighteen +years in catching elephants, and he had only +once before found such a dance-place. Machua +Appa had no need to look twice at the clearing +to see what had been done there, or to scratch +with his toe in the packed, rammed earth.</p> + +<p class="indent">"The child speaks truth," said he. "All this +was done last night, and I have counted seventy +tracks crossing the river. See, Sahib, where +Pudmini's leg-iron cut the bark of that tree! +Yes; she was there too."</p> + +<p class="indent">They looked at each other, and up and down, +and they wondered; for the ways of elephants +are beyond the wit of any man, black or white, to +fathom.</p> + +<p class="indent">"Forty years and five," said Machua Appa, +"have I followed my lord, the elephant, but never +have I heard that any child of man had seen +what this child has seen. By all the Gods +of the Hills, it is—what can we say?" and he +shook his head.</p> + +<p class="indent">When they got back to camp it was time for the +evening meal. Peterson Sahib ate alone in his +tent, but he gave orders that the camp should +have two sheep and some fowls, as well as a +double-ration of flour and rice and salt, for he +knew that there would be a feast.</p> + +<p class="indent">Big Toomai had come up hot-foot from the +camp in the plains to search for his son and his +elephant, and now that he had found them he +looked at them as though he were afraid of them +both. And there was a feast by the blazing campfires +in front of the lines of picketed elephants, +and Little Toomai was the hero of it all; and +the big brown elephant-catchers, the trackers and +drivers and ropers, and the men who know all the +secrets of breaking the wildest elephants, passed +him from one to the other, and they marked +his forehead with blood from the breast of a +newly killed jungle-cock, to show that he was a +forester, initiated and free of all the jungles.</p> + +<p class="indent">And at last, when the flames died down, and +the red light of the logs made the elephants look +as though they had been dipped in blood too, +Machua Appa, the head of all the drivers of all +the Keddahs—Machua Appa, Petersen Sahib's +other self, who had never seen a made road in +forty years: Machua Appa, who was so great +that he had no other name than Machua Appa—leaped +to his feet, with Little Toomai held +high in the air above his head, and shouted: +"Listen, my brothers. Listen, too, you my lords +in the lines there, for I, Machua Appa, am speaking! +This little one shall no more be called +Little Toomai, but Toomai of the Elephants, +as his great-grandfather was called before him. +What never man has seen he has seen through +the long night, and the favor of the elephant-folk +and of the Gods of the Jungles is with him. He +shall become a great tracker; he shall become +greater than I, even I, Machua Appa! He shall +follow the new trail, and the stale trail, and the +mixed trail, with a clear eye! He shall take no +harm in the Keddah when he runs under their +bellies to rope the wild tuskers; and if he slips +before the feet of the charging bull-elephant that +bull-elephant shall know who he is and shall not +crush him. <i>Aihai!</i> my lords in the chains,"—he +whirled up the line of pickets,—"here is the +little one that has seen your dances in your hidden +places—the sight that never man saw! Give +him honor, my lords! <i>Salaam karo</i>, my children. +Make your salute to Toomai of the Elephants! +Gunga Pershad, ahaa! Hira Guj, Birchi Guj, +Kuttar Guj, ahaa! Pudmini,—thou hast seen +him at the dance, and thou too, Kala Nag, my +pearl among elephants!—ahaa! Together! To +Toomai of the Elephants. <i>Barrao!</i>"</p> + +<div class="figcenter"> +<a name="gs32.png" id="gs32.png"></a> +<img class="border" src="images/gs32.png" alt=""'TO TOOMAI OF THE ELEPHANTS. BARRAO!'"" title=""'TO TOOMAI OF THE ELEPHANTS. BARRAO!'"" /> +<br /> +<span class="caption">"'TO TOOMAI OF THE ELEPHANTS. BARRAO!'"</span> +</div> + +<p class="indent">And at that last wild yell the whole line flung +up their trunks till the tips touched their foreheads, +and broke out into the full salute—the +crashing trumpet-peal that only the Viceroy of +India hears, the Salaamut of the Keddah.</p> + +<p class="indent">But it was all for the sake of Little Toomai, +who had seen what never man had seen before—the +dance of the elephants at night and alone in +the heart of the Garo hills!</p> + +<p class="center"><a name="song6" id="song6"></a>SHIV AND THE GRASSHOPPER</p> + +<p class="center">(THE SONG THAT TOOMAI'S MOTHER SANG TO +THE BABY)</p> + +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Shiv, who poured the harvest and made the winds to blow,</span><br /> +<span class="i0">Sitting at the doorways of a day of long ago,</span><br /> +<span class="i0">Gave to each his portion, food and toil and fate,</span><br /> +<span class="i0">From the King upon the <i>guddee</i> to the Beggar at the gate.</span><br /> +<span class="i2"><i>All things made he—Shiva the Preserver,</i></span><br /> +<span class="i2"><i>Mahadeo! Mahadeo! he made all,—</i></span><br /> +<span class="i2"><i>Thorn for the camel, fodder for the kine,</i></span><br /> +<span class="i2"><i>And mother's heart for sleepy head, O little son of mine!</i></span> +</div> + +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Wheat he gave to rich folk, millet to the poor,</span><br /> +<span class="i0">Broken scraps for holy men that beg from door to door;</span><br /> +<span class="i0">Cattle to the tiger, carrion to the kite,</span><br /> +<span class="i0">And rags and bones to wicked wolves without the wall at night.</span><br /> +<span class="i0">Naught he found too lofty, none he saw too low—</span><br /> +<span class="i0">Parbati beside him watched them come and go;</span><br /> +<span class="i0">Thought to cheat her husband, turning Shiv to jest—</span><br /> +<span class="i0">Stole the little grasshopper and hid it in her breast.</span><br /> +<span class="i2"><i>So she tricked him, Shiva the Preserver.</i></span><br /> +<span class="i2"><i>Mahadeo! Mahadeo! turn and see.</i></span><br /> +<span class="i2"><i>Tall are the camels, heavy are the kine,</i></span><br /> +<span class="i2"><i>But this was least of little things, O little son of mine!</i></span> +</div> + +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">When the dole was ended, laughingly she said,</span><br /> +<span class="i0">"Master, of a million mouths is not one unfed?"</span><br /> +<span class="i0">Laughing, Shiv made answer, "All have had their part,</span><br /> +<span class="i0">Even he, the little one, hidden 'neath thy heart."</span><br /> +<span class="i0">From her breast she plucked it, Parbati the thief,</span><br /> +<span class="i0">Saw the Least of Little Things gnawed a new-grown leaf!</span><br /> +<span class="i0">Saw and feared and wondered, making prayer to Shiv,</span><br /> +<span class="i0">Who hath surely given meat to all that live.</span><br /> +<span class="i2"><i>All things made he—Shiva the Preserver.</i></span><br /> +<span class="i2"><i>Mahadeo! Mahadeo! he made all,—</i></span><br /> +<span class="i2"><i>Thorn for the camel, fodder for the kine,</i></span><br /> +<span class="i2"><i>And mother's heart for sleepy head, O little son of mine!</i></span> +</div> +</div> + +<hr class="hr2" /> + +<h2><a name="ch07.png" id="ch07.png"></a> +HER MAJESTY'S SERVANTS</h2> + +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">You can work it out by Fractions or by simple Rule of Three,</span><br /> +<span class="i0">But the way of Tweedle-dum is not the way of Tweedle-dee.</span><br /> +<span class="i0">You can twist it, you can turn it, you can plait it till you drop<br /></span><br /> +<span class="i0">But the way of Pilly-Winky's not the way of Winkie-Pop!</span> +</div> +</div> + +<hr class="hr2" /> + +<div class="figcenter"> +<img class="border" src="images/ch07.png" alt="" title="" /> +</div> + +<p class="h2">HER MAJESTY'S SERVANTS</p> + +<p class="cap">IT had been raining heavily for one whole month—raining +on a camp of thirty thousand men, +thousands of camels, elephants, horses, bullocks, +and mules, all gathered together at a place called +Rawal Pindi, to be reviewed by the Viceroy of +India. He was receiving a visit from the Amir +of Afghanistan—a wild king of a very wild country; +and the Amir had brought with him for a +bodyguard eight hundred men and horses who +had never seen a camp or a locomotive before in +their lives—savage men and savage horses from +somewhere at the back of Central Asia. Every +night a mob of these horses would be sure to +break their heel-ropes, and stampede up and +down the camp through the mud in the dark, or +the camels would break loose and run about +and fall over the ropes of the tents, and you +can imagine how pleasant that was for men +trying to go to sleep. My tent lay far away +from the camel lines, and I thought it was safe; +but one night a man popped his head in and +shouted, "Get out, quick! They're coming! +My tent's gone!"</p> + +<p class="indent">I knew who "they" were; so I put on my +boots and waterproof and scuttled out into the +slush. Little Vixen, my fox-terrier, went out +through the other side; and then there was a +roaring and a grunting and bubbling, and I saw +the tent cave in, as the pole snapped, and begin +to dance about like a mad ghost. A camel had +blundered into it, and wet and angry as I was, I +could not help laughing. Then I ran on, because +I did not know how many camels might have got +loose, and before long I was out of sight of the +camp, plowing my way through the mud.</p> + +<div class="figcenter"> +<a name="gs33.png" id="gs33.png"></a> +<img class="border" src="images/gs33.png" alt=""A CAMEL HAD BLUNDERED INTO MY TENT."" title=""A CAMEL HAD BLUNDERED INTO MY TENT."" /> +<br /> +<span class="caption">"A CAMEL HAD BLUNDERED INTO MY TENT."</span> +</div> + +<p class="indent">At last I fell over the tail-end of a gun, and by +that knew I was somewhere near the Artillery +lines where the cannon were stacked at night. As +I did not want to plowter about any more in the +drizzle and the dark, I put my waterproof over +the muzzle of one gun, and made a sort of wigwam +with two or three rammers that I found, and +lay along the tail of another gun, wondering where +Vixen had got to, and where I might be.</p> + +<p class="indent">Just as I was getting ready to sleep I heard a +jingle of harness and a grunt, and a mule passed +me shaking his wet ears. He belonged to a +screw-gun battery, for I could hear the rattle +of the straps and rings and chains and things on +his saddle-pad. The screw-guns are tidy little +cannon made in two pieces, that are screwed together +when the time comes to use them. They +are taken up mountains, anywhere that a mule +can find a road, and they are very useful for +fighting in rocky country.</p> + +<p class="indent">Behind the mule there was a camel, with his +big soft feet squelching and slipping in the mud, +and his neck bobbing to and fro like a strayed +hen's. Luckily, I knew enough of beast language—not +wild-beast language, but camp-beast language, +of course—from the natives to know what +he was saying.</p> + +<p class="indent">He must have been the one that flopped into +my tent, for he called to the mule, "What shall I +do? Where shall I go? I have fought with a +white thing that waved, and it took a stick and +hit me on the neck." (That was my broken tentpole, +and I was very glad to know it.) "Shall +we run on?"</p> + +<p class="indent">"Oh, it was you," said the mule, "you and +your friends, that have been disturbing the camp? +All right. You'll be beaten for this in the morning; +but I may as well give you something on +account now."</p> + +<p class="indent">I heard the harness jingle as the mule backed +and caught the camel two kicks in the ribs that +rang like a drum. "Another time," he said, +"you'll know better than to run through a mule-battery +at night, shouting 'Thieves and fire!' +Sit down, and keep your silly neck quiet."</p> + +<p class="indent">The camel doubled up camel-fashion, like a +two-foot rule, and sat down whimpering. There +was a regular beat of hoofs in the darkness, and +a big troop-horse cantered up as steadily as +though he were on parade, jumped a gun-tail, +and landed close to the mule.</p> + +<p class="indent">"It's disgraceful," he said, blowing out his nostrils. +"Those camels have racketed through our +lines again—the third time this week. How's a +horse to keep his condition if he isn't allowed to +sleep? Who's here?"</p> + +<p class="indent">"I'm the breech-piece mule of number two +gun of the First Screw Battery," said the mule, +"and the other's one of your friends. He's +waked me up too. Who are you?"</p> + +<p class="indent">"Number Fifteen, E troop, Ninth Lancers—Dick +Cunliffe's horse. Stand over a little, +there."</p> + +<p class="indent">"Oh, beg your pardon," said the mule. "It's +too dark to see much. Aren't these camels too +sickening for anything? I walked out of my +lines to get a little peace and quiet here."</p> + +<p class="indent">"My lords," said the camel humbly, "we +dreamed bad dreams in the night, and we were +very much afraid. I am only a baggage-camel +of the 39th Native Infantry, and I am not so +brave as you are, my lords."</p> + +<p class="indent">"Then why the pickets didn't you stay and +carry baggage for the 39th Native Infantry, instead +of running all round the camp?" said the +mule.</p> + +<p class="indent">"They were such very bad dreams," said the +camel. "I am sorry. Listen! What is that? +Shall we run on again?"</p> + +<p class="indent">"Sit down," said the mule, "or you'll snap +your long legs between the guns." He cocked +one ear and listened. "Bullocks!" he said; +"gun-bullocks. On my word, you and your +friends have waked the camp very thoroughly. +It takes a good deal of prodding to put up a +gun-bullock."</p> + +<p class="indent">I heard a chain dragging along the ground, and +a yoke of the great sulky white bullocks that drag +the heavy siege-guns when the elephants won't go +any nearer to the firing, came shouldering along +together; and almost stepping on the chain was +another battery-mule, calling wildly for "Billy."</p> + +<p class="indent">"That's one of our recruits," said the old mule +to the troop-horse. "He's calling for me. Here, +youngster, stop squealing; the dark never hurt +anybody yet."</p> + +<p class="indent">The gun-bullocks lay down together and began +chewing the cud, but the young mule huddled +close to Billy.</p> + +<p class="indent">"Things!" he said; "fearful and horrible +things, Billy! They came into our lines while +we were asleep. D'you think they'll kill us?"</p> + +<p class="indent">"I've a very great mind to give you a number +one kicking," said Billy. "The idea of a fourteen-hand +mule with your training disgracing +the battery before this gentleman!"</p> + +<p class="indent">"Gently, gently!" said the troop-horse. "Remember +they are always like this to begin with. +The first time I ever saw a man (it was in Australia +when I was a three-year-old) I ran for +half a day, and if I'd seen a camel I should have +been running still."</p> + +<p class="indent">Nearly all our horses for the English cavalry +are brought to India from Australia, and +are broken in by the troopers themselves.</p> + +<p class="indent">"True enough," said Billy. "Stop shaking, +youngster. The first time they put the full +harness with all its chains on my back, I stood +on my fore legs and kicked every bit of it off. +I hadn't learned the real science of kicking then, +but the battery said they had never seen anything +like it."</p> + +<p class="indent">"But this wasn't harness or anything that +jingled," said the young mule. "You know I +don't mind that now, Billy. It was Things like +trees, and they fell up and down the lines and +bubbled; and my head-rope broke, and I couldn't +find my driver, and I couldn't find you, Billy, +so I ran off with—with these gentlemen."</p> + +<p class="indent">"H'm!" said Billy. "As soon as I heard the +camels were loose I came away on my own account, +quietly. When a battery—a screw-gun +mule calls gun-bullocks gentlemen, he must be +very badly shaken up. Who are you fellows on +the ground there?"</p> + +<p class="indent">The gun-bullocks rolled their cuds, and answered +both together: "The seventh yoke of the +first gun of the Big Gun Battery. We were +asleep when the camels came, but when we were +trampled on we got up and walked away. It is +better to lie quiet in the mud than to be disturbed +on good bedding. We told your friend +here that there was nothing to be afraid of, but he +knew so much that he thought otherwise. Wah!"</p> + +<p class="indent">They went on chewing.</p> + +<p class="indent">"That comes of being afraid," said Billy. +"You get laughed at by gun-bullocks. I hope +you like it, young 'un."</p> + +<p class="indent">The young mule's teeth snapped, and I heard +him say something about not being afraid of +any beefy old bullock in the world; but the bullocks +only clicked their horns together and went +on chewing.</p> + +<p class="indent">"Now, don't be angry <i>after</i> you've been +afraid. That's the worst kind of cowardice," said +the troop-horse. "Anybody can be forgiven for +being scared in the night, <i>I</i> think, if they see +things they don't understand. We've broken +out of our pickets, again and again, four hundred +and fifty of us, just because a new recruit got to +telling tales of whip-snakes at home in Australia +till we were scared to death of the loose ends of +our head-ropes."</p> + +<div class="figcenter"> +<a name="gs34.png" id="gs34.png"></a> +<img class="border" src="images/gs34.png" alt=""'ANYBODY CAN BE FORGIVEN FOR BEING SCARED IN THE NIGHT,' +SAID THE TROOP-HORSE."" title=""'ANYBODY CAN BE FORGIVEN FOR BEING SCARED IN THE NIGHT,' +SAID THE TROOP-HORSE."" /> +<br /> +<span class="caption">"'ANYBODY CAN BE FORGIVEN FOR BEING SCARED IN THE NIGHT,'<br /> +SAID THE TROOP-HORSE."</span> +</div> + +<p class="indent">"That's all very well in camp," said Billy; +"I'm not above stampeding myself, for the fun +of the thing, when I haven't been out for a day +or two; but what do you do on active service?"</p> + +<p class="indent">"Oh, that's quite another set of new shoes," +said the troop-horse. "Dick Cunliffe's on my +back then, and drives his knees into me, and all +I have to do is to watch where I am putting my +feet, and to keep my hind legs well under me, and +be bridle-wise."</p> + +<p class="indent">"What's bridle-wise?" said the young mule.</p> + +<p class="indent">"By the Blue Gums of the Back Blocks," +snorted the troop-horse, "do you mean to say +that you aren't taught to be bridle-wise in your +business? How can you do anything, unless you +can spin round at once when the rein is pressed +on your neck? It means life or death to your +man, and of course that's life or death to you. +Get round with your hind legs under you the instant +you feel the rein on your neck. If you +haven't room to swing round, rear up a little and +come round on your hind legs. That's being +bridle-wise."</p> + +<p class="indent">"We aren't taught that way," said Billy the +mule stiffly. "We're taught to obey the man +at our head: step off when he says so, and step +in when he says so. I suppose it comes to the +same thing. Now, with all this fine fancy business +and rearing, which must be very bad for +your hocks, what do you <i>do</i>?"</p> + +<p class="indent">"That depends," said the troop-horse. "Generally +I have to go in among a lot of yelling, hairy +men with knives,—long shiny knives, worse than +the farrier's knives,—and I have to take care that +Dick's boot is just touching the next man's boot +without crushing it. I can see Dick's lance to the +right of my right eye, and I know I'm safe. I +shouldn't care to be the man or horse that stood +up to Dick and me when we're in a hurry."</p> + +<p class="indent">"Don't the knives hurt?" said the young +mule.</p> + +<p class="indent">"Well, I got one cut across the chest once, +but that wasn't Dick's fault—"</p> + +<p class="indent">"A lot I should have cared whose fault it was, +if it hurt!" said the young mule.</p> + +<p class="indent">"You must," said the troop-horse. "If you +don't trust your man, you may as well run away +at once. That's what some of our horses do, +and I don't blame them. As I was saying, it +wasn't Dick's fault. The man was lying on the +ground, and I stretched myself not to tread on +him, and he slashed up at me. Next time I +have to go over a man lying down I shall step +on him—hard."</p> + +<div class="figcenter"> +<a name="gs35.png" id="gs35.png"></a> +<img class="border" src="images/gs35.png" alt=""'THE MAN WAS LYING ON THE GROUND, AND I STRETCHED +MYSELF NOT TO TREAD ON HIM, AND HE SLASHED UP AT ME.'"" title=""'THE MAN WAS LYING ON THE GROUND, AND I STRETCHED +MYSELF NOT TO TREAD ON HIM, AND HE SLASHED UP AT ME.'"" /> +<br /> +<span class="caption">"'THE MAN WAS LYING ON THE GROUND, AND I STRETCHED<br /> +MYSELF NOT TO TREAD ON HIM, AND HE SLASHED UP AT ME.'"</span> +</div> + +<p class="indent">"H'm!" said Billy; "it sounds very foolish. +Knives are dirty things at any time. The +proper thing to do is to climb up a mountain +with a well-balanced saddle, hang on by all four +feet and your ears too, and creep and crawl and +wriggle along, till you come out hundreds of feet +above any one else, on a ledge where there's +just room enough for your hoofs. Then you +stand still and keep quiet,—never ask a man to +hold your head, young 'un,—keep quiet while the +guns are being put together, and then you watch +the little poppy shells drop down into the tree-tops +ever so far below."</p> + +<p class="indent">"Don't you ever trip?" said the troop-horse.</p> + +<p class="indent">"They say that when a mule trips you can +split a hen's ear," said Billy. "Now and again +<i>per-haps</i> a badly packed saddle will upset a +mule, but it's very seldom. I wish I could show +you our business. It's beautiful. Why, it took +me three years to find out what the men were +driving at. The science of the thing is never to +show up against the sky-line, because, if you do, +you may get fired at. Remember that, young +'un. Always keep hidden as much as possible, +even if you have to go a mile out of your way. +I lead the battery when it comes to that sort of +climbing."</p> + +<p class="indent">"Fired at without the chance of running into +the people who are firing!" said the troop-horse, +thinking hard. "I couldn't stand that. I should +want to charge, with Dick."</p> + +<p class="indent">"Oh no, you wouldn't; you know that as +soon as the guns are in position <i>they'll</i> do all +the charging. That's scientific and neat; but +knives—pah!"</p> + +<p class="indent">The baggage-camel had been bobbing his +head to and fro for some time past, anxious to +get a word in edgeways. Then I heard him +say, as he cleared his throat, nervously:</p> + +<p class="indent">"I—I—I have fought a little, but not in that +climbing way or that running way."</p> + +<p class="indent">"No. Now you mention it," said Billy, "you +don't look as though you were made for climbing +or running—much. Well, how was it, old +Hay-bales?"</p> + +<p class="indent">"The proper way," said the camel. "We all +sat down—"</p> + +<p class="indent">"Oh, my crupper and breastplate!" said the +troop-horse under his breath. "Sat down?"</p> + +<p class="indent">"We sat down—a hundred of us," the camel +went on, "in a big square, and the men piled our +packs and saddles outside the square, and they +fired over our backs, the men did, on all sides of +the square."</p> + +<p class="indent">"What sort of men? Any men that came +along?" said the troop-horse. "They teach us in +riding-school to lie down and let our masters fire +across us, but Dick Cunliffe is the only man I'd +trust to do that. It tickles my girths, and, besides, +I can't see with my head on the ground."</p> + +<p class="indent">"What does it matter who fires across you?" +said the camel. "There are plenty of men and +plenty of other camels close by, and a great +many clouds of smoke. I am not frightened +then. I sit still and wait."</p> + +<p class="indent">"And yet," said Billy, "you dream bad dreams +and upset the camp at night. Well! well! Before +I'd lie down, not to speak of sitting down, +and let a man fire across me, my heels and his +head would have something to say to each other. +Did you ever hear anything so awful as that?"</p> + +<p class="indent">There was a long silence, and then one of the +gun-bullocks lifted up his big head and said, +"This is very foolish indeed. There is only one +way of fighting."</p> + +<p class="indent">"Oh, go on," said Billy. "<i>Please</i> don't mind +me. I suppose you fellows fight standing on +your tails?"</p> + +<p class="indent">"Only one way," said the two together. (They +must have been twins.) "This is that way. To +put all twenty yoke of us to the big gun as soon +as Two Tails trumpets." ("Two Tails" is camp +slang for the elephant.)</p> + +<p class="indent">"What does Two Tails trumpet for?" said the +young mule.</p> + +<p class="indent">"To show that he is not going any nearer to +the smoke on the other side. Two Tails is a +great coward. Then we tug the big gun all together—<i>Heya</i>—<i>Hullah! +Heeyah! Hullah!</i> +<i>We</i> do not climb like cats nor run like calves. +We go across the level plain, twenty yoke of us, +till we are unyoked again, and we graze while +the big guns talk across the plain to some town +with mud walls, and pieces of the wall fall out, +and the dust goes up as though many cattle were +coming home."</p> + +<p class="indent">"Oh! And you choose that time for grazing +do you?" said the young mule.</p> + +<p class="indent">"That time or any other. Eating is always +good. We eat till we are yoked up again and +tug the gun back to where Two Tails is waiting +for it. Sometimes there are big guns in the city +that speak back, and some of us are killed, and +then there is all the more grazing for those that +are left. This is Fate—nothing but Fate. None +the less, Two Tails is a great coward. That is +the proper way to fight. We are brothers from +Hapur. Our father was a sacred bull of Shiva. +We have spoken."</p> + +<p class="indent">"Well, I've certainly learned something to-night," +said the troop-horse. "Do you gentlemen +of the screw-gun battery feel inclined to eat +when you are being fired at with big guns, and +Two Tails is behind you?"</p> + +<p class="indent">"About as much as we feel inclined to sit +down and let men sprawl all over us, or run into +people with knives. I never heard such stuff. +A mountain ledge, a well-balanced load, a driver +you can trust to let you pick your own way, and +I'm your mule; but the other things—no!" +said Billy, with a stamp of his foot.</p> + +<p class="indent">"Of course," said the troop-horse, "every one +is not made in the same way, and I can quite see +that your family, on your father's side, would fail +to understand a great many things."</p> + +<p class="indent">"Never you mind my family on my father's +side," said Billy angrily; for every mule hates to +be reminded that his father was a donkey. "My +father was a Southern gentleman, and he could +pull down and bite and kick into rags every horse +he came across. Remember that, you big brown +Brumby!"</p> + +<p class="indent">Brumby means wild horse without any breeding. +Imagine the feelings of Sunol if a car-horse +called her a "skate," and you can imagine +how the Australian horse felt. I saw the white +of his eye glitter in the dark.</p> + +<p class="indent">"See here, you son of an imported Malaga +jackass," he said between his teeth, "I'd have +you know that I'm related on my mother's side +to Carbine, winner of the Melbourne Cup, and +where <i>I</i> come from we aren't accustomed to +being ridden over roughshod by any parrot-mouthed, +pig-headed mule in a pop-gun peashooter +battery. Are you ready?"</p> + +<p class="indent">"On your hind legs!" squealed Billy. They +both reared up facing each other, and I was expecting +a furious fight, when a gurgly, rumbly +voice called out of the darkness to the right—"Children, +what are you fighting about there? +Be quiet."</p> + +<p class="indent">Both beasts dropped down with a snort of disgust, +for neither horse nor mule can bear to listen +to an elephant's voice.</p> + +<p class="indent">"It's Two Tails!" said the troop-horse. "I +can't stand him. A tail at each end isn't fair!"</p> + +<p class="indent">"My feelings exactly," said Billy, crowding +into the troop-horse for company. "We're very +alike in some things."</p> + +<p class="indent">"I suppose we've inherited them from our +mothers," said the troop-horse. "It's not worth +quarreling about. Hi! Two Tails, are you tied +up?"</p> + +<p class="indent">"Yes," said Two Tails, with a laugh all up his +trunk. "I'm picketed for the night. I've heard +what you fellows have been saying. But don't +be afraid. I'm not coming over."</p> + +<p class="indent">The bullocks and the camel said, half aloud: +"Afraid of Two Tails—what nonsense!" And +the bullocks went on: "We are sorry that you +heard, but it is true. Two Tails, why are you +afraid of the guns when they fire?"</p> + +<p class="indent">"Well," said Two Tails, rubbing one hind leg +against the other, exactly like a little boy saying +a piece, "I don't quite know whether you'd +understand."</p> + +<p class="indent">"We don't, but we have to pull the guns," +said the bullocks.</p> + +<p class="indent">"I know it, and I know you are a good deal +braver than you think you are. But it's different +with me. My battery captain called me a +Pachydermatous Anachronism the other day."</p> + +<p class="indent">"That's another way of fighting, I suppose?" +said Billy, who was recovering his spirits.</p> + +<p class="indent">"<i>You</i> don't know what that means, of course, +but I do. It means betwixt and between, and +that is just where I am. I can see inside my +head what will happen when a shell bursts; +and you bullocks can't."</p> + +<p class="indent">"I can," said the troop-horse. "At least a +little bit. I try not to think about it."</p> + +<p class="indent">"I can see more than you, and I <i>do</i> think +about it. I know there's a great deal of me to +take care of, and I know that nobody knows how +to cure me when I'm sick. All they can do is to +stop my driver's pay till I get well, and I can't +trust my driver."</p> + +<p class="indent">"Ah!" said the troop-horse. "That explains +it. I can trust Dick."</p> + +<p class="indent">"You could put a whole regiment of Dicks on +my back without making me feel any better. I +know just enough to be uncomfortable, and not +enough to go on in spite of it."</p> + +<p class="indent">"We do not understand," said the bullocks.</p> + +<p class="indent">"I know you don't. I'm not talking to you. +You don't know what blood is."</p> + +<p class="indent">"We do," said the bullocks. "It is red stuff +that soaks into the ground and smells."</p> + +<p class="indent">The troop-horse gave a kick and a bound and +a snort.</p> + +<p class="indent">"Don't talk of it," he said. "I can smell it +now, just thinking of it. It makes me want to +run—when I haven't Dick on my back."</p> + +<p class="indent">"But it is not here," said the camel and the +bullocks. "Why are you so stupid?"</p> + +<p class="indent">"It's vile stuff," said Billy. "I don't want to +run, but I don't want to talk about it."</p> + +<p class="indent">"There you are!" said Two Tails, waving his +tail to explain.</p> + +<p class="indent">"Surely. Yes, we have been here all night," +said the bullocks.</p> + +<p class="indent">Two Tails stamped his foot till the iron ring +on it jingled. "Oh, I'm not talking to <i>you</i>. +You can't see inside your heads."</p> + +<p class="indent">"No. We see out of our four eyes," said the +bullocks. "We see straight in front of us."</p> + +<p class="indent">"If I could do that and nothing else you +wouldn't be needed to pull the big guns at all. +If I was like my captain—he can see things +inside his head before the firing begins, and he +shakes all over, but he knows too much to run +away—if I was like him I could pull the guns. +But if I were as wise as all that I should never be +here. I should be a king in the forest, as I used +to be, sleeping half the day and bathing when I +liked. I haven't had a good bath for a month."</p> + +<p class="indent">"That's all very fine," said Billy; "but giving +a thing a long name doesn't make it any better."</p> + +<p class="indent">"H'sh!" said the troop-horse. "I think I understand +what Two Tails means."</p> + +<p class="indent">"You'll understand better in a minute," said +Two Tails angrily. "Now, just you explain to +me why you don't like <i>this</i>!"</p> + +<p class="indent">He began trumpeting furiously at the top of +his trumpet.</p> + +<p class="indent">"Stop that!" said Billy and the troop-horse +together, and I could hear them stamp and +shiver. An elephant's trumpeting is always +nasty, especially on a dark night.</p> + +<p class="indent">"I sha'n't stop," said Two Tails. "Won't +you explain that, please? <i>Hhrrmph! Rrrt! +Rrrmph! Rrrhha!</i>" Then he stopped suddenly, +and I heard a little whimper in the dark, +and knew that Vixen had found me at last. She +knew as well as I did that if there is one thing +in the world the elephant is more afraid of than +another it is a little barking dog; so she stopped +to bully Two Tails in his pickets, and yapped +round his big feet. Two Tails shuffled and +squeaked. "Go away, little dog!" he said. +"Don't snuff at my ankles, or I 'll kick at you. +Good little dog—nice little doggie, then! Go +home, you yelping little beast! Oh, why +doesn't some one take her away? She'll bite +me in a minute."</p> + +<p class="indent">"Seems to me," said Billy to the troop-horse, +"that our friend Two Tails is afraid of most +things. Now, if I had a full meal for every dog +I've kicked across the parade-ground, I should +be as fat as Two Tails nearly."</p> + +<p class="indent">I whistled, and Vixen ran up to me, muddy all +over, and licked my nose, and told me a long +tale about hunting for me all through the camp. +I never let her know that I understood beast +talk, or she would have taken all sorts of liberties. +So I buttoned her into the breast of my +overcoat, and Two Tails shuffled and stamped +and growled to himself.</p> + +<p class="indent">"Extraordinary! Most extraordinary!" he +said. "It runs in our family. Now, where has +that nasty little beast gone to?"</p> + +<p class="indent">I heard him feeling about with his trunk.</p> + +<p class="indent">"We all seem to be affected in various ways," he +went on, blowing his nose. "Now, you gentlemen +were alarmed, I believe, when I trumpeted."</p> + +<p class="indent">"Not alarmed, exactly," said the troop-horse, +"but it made me feel as though I had hornets +where my saddle ought to be. Don't begin +again."</p> + +<p class="indent">"I'm frightened of a little dog, and the camel +here is frightened by bad dreams in the night."</p> + +<p class="indent">"It is very lucky for us that we haven't all got +to fight in the same way," said the troop-horse.</p> + +<p class="indent">"What I want to know," said the young mule, +who had been quiet for a long time—"what <i>I</i> +want to know is, why we have to fight at all."</p> + +<p class="indent">"Because we are told to," said the troop-horse, +with a snort of contempt.</p> + +<p class="indent">"Orders," said Billy the mule; and his teeth +snapped.</p> + +<p class="indent">"<i>Hukm hai!</i>" (It is an order), said the camel +with a gurgle; and Two Tails and the bullocks +repeated, "<i>Hukm hai!</i>"</p> + +<p class="indent">"Yes, but who gives the orders?" said the recruit-mule.</p> + +<p class="indent">"The man who walks at your head—Or sits on +your back—Or holds the nose-rope—Or twists +your tail," said Billy and the troop-horse and the +camel and the bullocks one after the other.</p> + +<p class="indent">"But who gives them the orders?"</p> + +<p class="indent">"Now you want to know too much, young +un," said Billy, "and that is one way of getting +kicked. All you have to do is to obey the man +at your head and ask no questions."</p> + +<p class="indent">"He's quite right," said Two Tails. "I can't +always obey, because I'm betwixt and between; +but Billy's right. Obey the man next to you +who gives the order, or you'll stop all the battery, +besides getting a thrashing."</p> + +<p class="indent">The gun-bullocks got up to go. "Morning is +coming," they said. "We will go back to our +lines. It is true that we see only out of our eyes, +and we are not very clever; but still, we are the +only people to-night who have not been afraid. +Good night, you brave people."</p> + +<p class="indent">Nobody answered, and the troop-horse said, +to change the conversation, "Where's that little +dog? A dog means a man somewhere near."</p> + +<p class="indent">"Here I am," yapped Vixen, "under the gun-tail +with my man. You big, blundering beast +of a camel you, you upset our tent. My man's +very angry."</p> + +<p class="indent">"Phew!" said the bullocks. "He must be +white?"</p> + +<p class="indent">"Of course he is," said Vixen. "Do you +suppose I'm looked after by a black bullock-driver?"</p> + +<p class="indent">"<i>Huah! Ouach! Ugh!</i>" said the bullocks. +"Let us get away quickly."</p> + +<p class="indent">They plunged forward in the mud, and managed +somehow to run their yoke on the pole of +an ammunition-wagon, where it jammed.</p> + +<p class="indent">"Now you <i>have</i> done it," said Billy calmly. +"Don't struggle. You're hung up till daylight. +What on earth's the matter?"</p> + +<p class="indent">The bullocks went off into the long hissing +snorts that Indian cattle give, and pushed and +crowded and slued and stamped and slipped and +nearly fell down in the mud, grunting savagely.</p> + +<p class="indent">"You'll break your necks in a minute," said +the troop-horse. "What's the matter with white +men? I live with 'em."</p> + +<p class="indent">"They—eat—us! Pull!" said the near bullock: +the yoke snapped with a twang, and they +lumbered off together.</p> + +<p class="indent">I never knew before what made Indian cattle +so afraid of Englishmen. We eat beef—a thing +that no cattle-driver touches—and of course the +cattle do not like it.</p> + +<p class="indent">"May I be flogged with my own pad-chains! +Who'd have thought of two big lumps like those +losing their heads?" said Billy.</p> + +<p class="indent">"Never mind. I'm going to look at this man. +Most of the white men, I know, have things in +their pockets," said the troop-horse.</p> + +<p class="indent">"I'll leave you, then. I can't say I'm overfond +of 'em myself. Besides, white men who +haven't a place to sleep in are more than likely +to be thieves, and I've a good deal of Government +property on my back. Come along, young +'un, and we'll go back to our lines. Good-night, +Australia! See you on parade to-morrow, I suppose. +Good-night, old Hay-bale!—try to control +your feelings, won't you? Good-night, Two +Tails! If you pass us on the ground to-morrow, +don't trumpet. It spoils our formation."</p> + +<p class="indent">Billy the mule stumped off with the swaggering +limp of an old campaigner, as the troop-horse's +head came nuzzling into my breast, and +I gave him biscuits; while Vixen, who is a most +conceited little dog, told him fibs about the scores +of horses that she and I kept.</p> + +<p class="indent">"I'm coming to the parade to-morrow in my +dog-cart," she said. "Where will you be?"</p> + +<p class="indent">"On the left hand of the second squadron. I +set the time for all my troop, little lady," he said +politely. "Now I must go back to Dick. My +tail's all muddy, and he'll have two hours' hard +work dressing me for the parade."</p> + +<p class="indent">The big parade of all the thirty thousand men +was held that afternoon, and Vixen and I had a +good place close to the Viceroy and the Amir of +Afghanistan, with his high big black hat of astrakhan +wool and the great diamond star in the +center. The first part of the review was all sunshine, +and the regiments went by in wave upon +wave of legs all moving together, and guns all +in a line, till our eyes grew dizzy. Then the +cavalry came up, to the beautiful cavalry canter +of "Bonnie Dundee," and Vixen cocked her ear +where she sat on the dog-cart. The second +squadron of the lancers shot by, and there was +the troop-horse, with his tail like spun silk, his +head pulled into his breast, one ear forward and +one back, setting the time for all his squadron, +his legs going as smoothly as waltz-music. Then +the big guns came by, and I saw Two Tails and +two other elephants harnessed in line to a forty-pounder +siege-gun while twenty yoke of oxen +walked behind. The seventh pair had a new +yoke, and they looked rather stiff and tired. +Last came the screw-guns, and Billy the mule +carried himself as though he commanded all the +troops, and his harness was oiled and polished +till it winked. I gave a cheer all by myself for +Billy the mule, but he never looked right or left.</p> + +<p class="indent">The rain began to fall again, and for a while it +was too misty to see what the troops were doing. +They had made a big half-circle across the plain, +and were spreading out into a line. That line +grew and grew and grew till it was three-quarters +of a mile long from wing to wing—one solid +wall of men, horses, and guns. Then it came on +straight toward the Viceroy and the Amir, and +as it got nearer the ground began to shake, +like the deck of a steamer when the engines +are going fast.</p> + +<p class="indent">Unless you have been there you cannot +imagine what a frightening effect this steady +come-down of troops has on the spectators, even +when they know it is only a review. I looked +at the Amir. Up till then he had not shown the +shadow of a sign of astonishment or anything +else; but now his eyes began to get bigger and +bigger, and he picked up the reins on his horse's +neck and looked behind him. For a minute it +seemed as though he were going to draw his +sword and slash his way out through the English +men and women in the carriages at the back. +Then the advance stopped dead, the ground +stood still, the whole line saluted, and thirty +bands began to play all together. That was the +end of the review, and the regiments went off to +their camps in the rain; and an infantry band +struck up with—</p> + +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">The animals went in two by two,</span><br /> +<span class="i4">Hurrah!</span><br /> +<span class="i0">The animals went in two by two,</span><br /> +<span class="i0">The elephant and the battery mu-</span><br /> +<span class="i0">l', and they all got into the Ark,</span><br /> +<span class="i2">For to get out of the rain!</span> +</div> +</div> + +<p class="indent">Then I heard an old, grizzled, long-haired +Central Asian chief, who had come down with +the Amir, asking questions of a native officer.</p> + +<div class="figcenter"> +<a name="gs36.png" id="gs36.png"></a> +<img class="border" src="images/gs36.png" alt=""THEN I HEARD AN OLD, GRIZZLED, LONG-HAIRED, CENTRAL ASIAN +CHIEF ASKING QUESTIONS OF A NATIVE OFFICER."" title=""THEN I HEARD AN OLD, GRIZZLED, LONG-HAIRED, CENTRAL ASIAN +CHIEF ASKING QUESTIONS OF A NATIVE OFFICER."" /> +<br /> +<span class="caption">"THEN I HEARD AN OLD, GRIZZLED, LONG-HAIRED, CENTRAL ASIAN<br /> +CHIEF ASKING QUESTIONS OF A NATIVE OFFICER."</span> +</div> + +<p class="indent">"Now," said he, "in what manner was this +wonderful thing done?"</p> + +<p class="indent">And the officer answered, "There was an order, +and they obeyed."</p> + +<p class="indent">"But are the beasts as wise as the men?" +said the chief.</p> + +<p class="indent">"They obey, as the men do. Mule, horse, +elephant, or bullock, he obeys his driver, and the +driver his sergeant, and the sergeant his lieutenant, +and the lieutenant his captain, and the captain +his major, and the major his colonel, and the +colonel his brigadier commanding three regiments, +and the brigadier his general, who obeys +the Viceroy, who is the servant of the Empress. +Thus it is done."</p> + +<p class="indent">"Would it were so in Afghanistan!" said the +chief; "for there we obey only our own wills."</p> + +<p class="indent">"And for that reason," said the native officer, +twirling his mustache, "your Amir whom you do +not obey must come here and take orders from +our Viceroy."</p> + +<p class="center"><a name="song7" id="song7"></a>PARADE-SONG OF THE CAMP ANIMALS</p> + +<p class="center">ELEPHANTS OF THE GUN-TEAM</p> + +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">We lent to Alexander the strength of Hercules,</span><br /> +<span class="i0">The wisdom of our foreheads, the cunning of our knees;</span><br /> +<span class="i0">We bowed our necks to service; they ne'er were loosed again,—</span><br /> +<span class="i0">Make way there, way for the ten-foot teams</span><br /> +<span class="i4">Of the Forty-Pounder train!</span> +</div> + +<p class="center">GUN-BULLOCKS</p> + +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Those heroes in their harnesses avoid a cannon-ball,</span><br /> +<span class="i0">And what they know of powder upsets them one and all;</span><br /> +<span class="i0">Then <i>we</i> come into action and tug the guns again,—</span><br /> +<span class="i0">Make way there, way for the twenty yoke</span><br /> +<span class="i4">Of the Forty-Pounder train!</span> +</div> + +<p class="center">CAVALRY HORSES</p> + +<p class="thangindent">By the brand on my withers, the finest of tunes</p> +<p class="mhangindent">Is played by the Lancers, Hussars, and Dragoons,</p> +<p class="mhangindent">And it's sweeter than "Stables" or "Water" to me,</p> +<p class="bhangindent">The Cavalry Canter of "Bonnie Dundee"!</p> + +<p class="thangindent">Then feed us and break us and handle and groom,</p> +<p class="mhangindent">And give us good riders and plenty of room,</p> +<p class="mhangindent">And launch us in column of squadrons and see</p> +<p class="bhangindent">The way of the war-horse to "Bonnie Dundee"!</p> +</div> + +<p class="center">SCREW-GUN MULES</p> + +<p class="thangindent">As me and my companions were scrambling up a hill,</p> +<p class="mhangindent">The path was lost in rolling stones, but we went forward still;</p> +<p class="mhangindent">For we can wriggle and climb, my lads, and turn up everywhere,</p> +<p class="bhangindent">And it's our delight on a mountain height, with a leg or two to spare!</p> + +<p class="thangindent">Good luck to every sergeant, then, that lets us pick our road;</p> +<p class="mhangindent">Bad luck to all the driver-men that cannot pack a load:</p> +<p class="mhangindent">For we can wriggle and climb, my lads, and turn up everywhere,</p> +<p class="bhangindent">And it's our delight on a mountain height with a leg or two to spare!</p> + +<div class="poem"> +<p class="center">COMMISSARIAT CAMELS</p> + +<p class="thangindent">We haven't a camelty tune of our own</p> +<p class="mhangindent">To help us trollop along,</p> +<p class="mhangindent">But every neck is a hairy trombone</p> +<p class="mhangindent">(<i>Rtt-ta-ta-ta!</i> is a hairy trombone!)</p> +<p class="mhangindent">And this is our marching song:</p> +<p class="mhangindent"><i>Can't! Don't! Sha'n't! Won't!</i></p> +<p class="mhangindent">Pass it along the line!</p> +<p class="mhangindent">Somebody's pack has slid from his back,</p> +<p class="mhangindent">Wish it were only mine!</p> +<p class="mhangindent">Somebody's load has tipped off in the road—</p> +<p class="mhangindent">Cheer for a halt and a row!</p> +<p class="mhangindent"><i>Urrr! Yarrh! Grr! Arrh!</i></p> +<p class="bhangindent">Somebody's catching it now!<br /></p> + +<p class="center">ALL THE BEASTS TOGETHER</p> + +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i2">Children of the Camp are we,</span><br /> +<span class="i2">Serving each in his degree;</span><br /> +<span class="i2">Children of the yoke and goad,</span><br /> +<span class="i2">Pack and harness, pad and load.</span><br /> +<span class="i2">See our line across the plain,</span><br /> +<span class="i2">Like a heel-rope bent again.</span><br /> +<span class="i2">Reaching, writhing, rolling far,</span><br /> +<span class="i2">Sweeping all away to war!</span><br /> +<span class="i2">While the men that walk beside,</span><br /> +<span class="i2">Dusty, silent, heavy-eyed,</span><br /> +<span class="i2">Cannot tell why we or they</span><br /> +<span class="i2">March and suffer day by day.</span><br /> +<span class="i4"><i>Children of the Camp are we,</i></span><br /> +<span class="i4"><i>Serving each in his degree;</i></span><br /> +<span class="i4"><i>Children of the yoke and goad,</i></span><br /> +<span class="i4"><i>Pack and harness, pad and load.</i></span> +</div> +</div> + +<hr class="hr2" /> + +<div class="figcenter"> +<img class="border" src="images/cover02.png" alt="Back Cover" title="Back Cover" /> +</div> + +<hr class="hr2" /> + +<div class="tnote"> + +<p class="h2a">Transcriber's Notes:</p> + +<p class="indent">The illustrations have been moved so that they do not break up +paragraphs and so that they are next the text they illustrate. Thus the +page number of the illustration might not match the page number in the +List of Illustrations, and the order of illustrations may not be the +same in the List of Illustrations and in the book.</p> + +<p class="indent">On page 78, "Bandar log" was replaced with "Bandar-log".</p> + +<p class="indent">On page 80, a period was added after "leave to hunt here".</p> + +<p class="indent">On page 156, "Novastoshna" was replaced with "Novastoshnah".</p> + +<p class="indent">On page 171, "floam-flecked" was replaced with "foam-flecked".</p> + +<p class="indent">On page 299, there is a hyphen at the end of a line of poetry. 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STATES. + +Procedures for determining public domain status are described in +the "Copyright How-To" at https://www.gutenberg.org. + +No investigation has been made concerning possible copyrights in +jurisdictions other than the United States. Anyone seeking to utilize +this eBook outside of the United States should confirm copyright +status under the laws that apply to them. diff --git a/README.md b/README.md new file mode 100644 index 0000000..cfe5b63 --- /dev/null +++ b/README.md @@ -0,0 +1,2 @@ +Project Gutenberg (https://www.gutenberg.org) public repository for +eBook #35997 (https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/35997) diff --git a/old/35997-8.txt b/old/35997-8.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6698758 --- /dev/null +++ b/old/35997-8.txt @@ -0,0 +1,6226 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of The jungle book, by Rudyard Kipling + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: The Jungle Book + +Author: Rudyard Kipling + +Release Date: April 30, 2011 [EBook #35997] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE JUNGLE BOOK *** + + + + +Produced by Suzanne Shell, Ernest Schaal, and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This +file was produced from images generously made available +by The Internet Archive/American Libraries.) + + + + + + + + + + THE JUNGLE BOOK + + + + + [Illustration: Rudyard Kipling] + + + + +[Illustration: "LITTLE TOOMAI LAID HIMSELF DOWN CLOSE TO THE GREAT NECK +LEST A SWINGING BOUGH SHOULD SWEEP HIM TO THE GROUND." (SEE PAGE 246.)] + + + + + THE + JUNGLE BOOK + + + BY + RUDYARD KIPLING + + + [Illustration] + + + NEW YORK + THE CENTURY CO. + 1910 + + + + + Copyright 1893, 1894, by + RUDYARD KIPLING + Copyright, 1894, by + HARPER and BROTHERS + Copyright 1893, 1894, by + THE CENTURY CO. + + + + + CONTENTS + + + PAGE + + MOWGLI'S BROTHERS 1 + + HUNTING-SONG OF THE SEEONEE PACK 42 + + KAA'S HUNTING 47 + + ROAD-SONG OF THE BANDAR-LOG 89 + + "TIGER! TIGER!" 93 + + MOWGLI'S SONG 131 + + THE WHITE SEAL 137 + + LUKANNON 170 + + "RIKKI-TIKKI-TAVI" 175 + + DARZEE'S CHAUNT 212 + + TOOMAI OF THE ELEPHANTS 217 + + SHIV AND THE GRASSHOPPER 261 + + HER MAJESTY'S SERVANTS 265 + + PARADE-SONG OF THE CAMP ANIMALS 300 + + + + +LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS + + + PAGE + + "LITTLE TOOMAI LAID HIMSELF DOWN CLOSE TO THE + GREAT NECK, LEST A SWINGING BOUGH SHOULD + SWEEP HIM TO THE GROUND" FRONTISPIECE + + "'GOOD LUCK GO WITH YOU, O CHIEF OF THE + WOLVES'" 5 + + "THE TIGER'S ROAR FILLED THE CAVE WITH THUNDER" 11 + + THE MEETING AT THE COUNCIL ROCK 17 + + "BAGHEERA WOULD LIE OUT ON A BRANCH AND CALL, + 'COME ALONG, LITTLE BROTHER'" 23 + + "'WAKE, LITTLE BROTHER; I BRING NEWS'" 99 + + "'ARE ALL THESE TALES SUCH COBWEBS AND MOON-TALK?' + SAID MOWGLI" 105 + + "BULDEO LAY AS STILL, AS STILL, EXPECTING EVERY MINUTE + TO SEE MOWGLI TURN INTO A TIGER, TOO" 121 + + "WHEN THE MOON ROSE OVER THE PLAIN THE VILLAGERS + SAW MOWGLI TROTTING ACROSS, WITH TWO + WOLVES AT HIS HEELS" 126 + + "THEY CLAMBERED UP ON THE COUNCIL ROCK TOGETHER, + AND MOWGLI SPREAD THE SKIN OUT ON + THE FLAT STONE" 129 + + "TEN FATHOMS DEEP" 146 + + "THEY WERE ALL AWAKE AND STARING IN EVERY DIRECTION + BUT THE RIGHT ONE" 154 + + "HE HAD FOUND SEA COW AT LAST" 162 + + "RIKKI-TIKKI LOOKED DOWN BETWEEN THE BOY'S COLLAR + AND NECK" 177 + + "HE PUT HIS NOSE INTO THE INK" 178 + + "RIKKI-TIKKI WAS AWAKE ON THE PILLOW" 179 + + "HE CAME TO BREAKFAST RIDING ON TEDDY'S SHOULDER" 180 + + "'WE ARE VERY MISERABLE,' SAID DARZEE" 181 + + "'I AM NAG,' SAID THE COBRA: 'LOOK, AND BE AFRAID.' + BUT AT THE BOTTOM OF HIS COLD HEART _HE_ WAS + AFRAID" 183 + + "HE JUMPED UP IN THE AIR, AND JUST UNDER HIM + WHIZZED BY THE HEAD OF NAGAINA" 187 + + "IN THE DARK HE RAN UP AGAINST CHUCHUNDRA, + THE MUSKRAT" 192 + + "THEN RIKKI-TIKKI WAS BATTERED TO AND FRO AS + A RAT IS SHAKEN BY A DOG" 197 + + DARZEE'S WIFE PRETENDS TO HAVE A BROKEN WING 201 + + "NAGAINA FLEW DOWN THE PATH WITH RIKKI-TIKKI + BEHIND HER" 207 + + "IT IS ALL OVER" 210 + + "KALA NAG WAS THE BEST-LOVED ELEPHANT IN THE + SERVICE" 219 + + "'HE IS AFRAID OF ME,' SAID LITTLE TOOMAI, AND + HE MADE KALA NAG LIFT UP HIS FEET ONE + AFTER THE OTHER" 223 + + "HE WOULD GET HIS TORCH AND WAVE IT, AND YELL + WITH THE BEST" 229 + + "'NOT GREEN CORN, PROTECTOR OF THE POOR,--MELONS,' + SAID LITTLE TOOMAI" 235 + + "LITTLE TOOMAI LOOKED DOWN UPON SCORES AND + SCORES OF BROAD BACKS" 251 + + "'TO TOOMAI OF THE ELEPHANTS. BARRAO!'" 259 + + "A CAMEL HAD BLUNDERED INTO MY TENT" 267 + + "'ANYBODY CAN BE FORGIVEN FOR BEING SCARED IN THE + NIGHT,' SAID THE TROOP-HORSE" 275 + + "'THE MAN WAS LYING ON THE GROUND, AND I + STRETCHED MYSELF NOT TO TREAD ON HIM, AND + HE SLASHED UP AT ME'" 279 + + "THEN I HEARD AN OLD, GRIZZLED, LONG-HAIRED CENTRAL + ASIAN CHIEF ASKING QUESTIONS OF A NATIVE + OFFICER" 297 + + + + + THE JUNGLE BOOK + + + Now Rann, the Kite, brings home the night + That Mang, the Bat, sets free-- + The herds are shut in byre and hut, + For loosed till dawn are we. + This is the hour of pride and power, + Talon and tush and claw. + Oh, hear the call!--Good hunting all + That keep the Jungle Law! + + _Night-Song in the Jungle._ + + + + + [Illustration] + + MOWGLI'S BROTHERS + + +IT was seven o'clock of a very warm evening in the Seeonee hills when +Father Wolf woke up from his day's rest, scratched himself, yawned, and +spread out his paws one after the other to get rid of the sleepy feeling +in the tips. Mother Wolf lay with her big gray nose dropped across her +four tumbling, squealing cubs, and the moon shone into the mouth of the +cave where they all lived. "Augrh!" said Father Wolf, "it is time to +hunt again"; and he was going to spring downhill when a little shadow +with a bushy tail crossed the threshold and whined: "Good luck go with +you, O Chief of the Wolves; and good luck and strong white teeth go with +the noble children, that they may never forget the hungry in this +world." + + [Illustration: "'GOOD LUCK GO WITH YOU, O CHIEF OF THE WOLVES.'"] + +It was the jackal--Tabaqui, the Dish-licker--and the wolves of India +despise Tabaqui because he runs about making mischief, and telling +tales, and eating rags and pieces of leather from the village +rubbish-heaps. They are afraid of him too, because Tabaqui, more than +any one else in the jungle, is apt to go mad, and then he forgets that +he was ever afraid of any one, and runs through the forest biting +everything in his way. Even the tiger hides when little Tabaqui goes +mad, for madness is the most disgraceful thing that can overtake a wild +creature. We call it hydrophobia, but they call it _dewanee_--the +madness--and run. + +"Enter, then, and look," said Father Wolf, stiffly; "but there is no +food here." + +"For a wolf, no," said Tabaqui; "but for so mean a person as myself a +dry bone is a good feast. Who are we, the Gidur-log [the Jackal People], +to pick and choose?" He scuttled to the back of the cave, where he found +the bone of a buck with some meat on it, and sat cracking the end +merrily. + +"All thanks for this good meal," he said, licking his lips. "How +beautiful are the noble children! How large are their eyes! And so +young too! Indeed, indeed, I might have remembered that the children of +kings are men from the beginning." + +Now, Tabaqui knew as well as any one else that there is nothing so +unlucky as to compliment children to their faces; and it pleased him to +see Mother and Father Wolf look uncomfortable. + +Tabaqui sat still, rejoicing in the mischief that he had made, and then +he said spitefully: + +"Shere Khan, the Big One, has shifted his hunting-grounds. He will hunt +among these hills during the next moon, so he has told me." + +Shere Khan was the tiger who lived near the Waingunga River, twenty +miles away. + +"He has no right!" Father Wolf began angrily. "By the Law of the Jungle +he has no right to change his quarters without fair warning. He will +frighten every head of game within ten miles; and I--I have to kill for +two, these days." + +"His mother did not call him Lungri [the Lame One] for nothing," said +Mother Wolf, quietly. "He has been lame in one foot from his birth. That +is why he has only killed cattle. Now the villagers of the Waingunga are +angry with him, and he has come here to make _our_ villagers angry. +They will scour the jungle for him when he is far away, and we and our +children must run when the grass is set alight. Indeed, we are very +grateful to Shere Khan!" + +"Shall I tell him of your gratitude?" said Tabaqui. + +"Out!" snapped Father Wolf. "Out, and hunt with thy master. Thou hast +done harm enough for one night." + +"I go," said Tabaqui, quietly. "Ye can hear Shere Khan below in the +thickets. I might have saved myself the message." + +Father Wolf listened, and in the dark valley that ran down to a little +river, he heard the dry, angry, snarly, singsong whine of a tiger who +has caught nothing and does not care if all the jungle knows it. + +"The fool!" said Father Wolf. "To begin a night's work with that noise! +Does he think that our buck are like his fat Waingunga bullocks?" + +"H'sh! It is neither bullock nor buck that he hunts to-night," said +Mother Wolf; "it is Man." The whine had changed to a sort of humming +purr that seemed to roll from every quarter of the compass. It was the +noise that bewilders wood-cutters, and gipsies sleeping in the open, +and makes them run sometimes into the very mouth of the tiger. + +"Man!" said Father Wolf, showing all his white teeth. "Faugh! Are there +not enough beetles and frogs in the tanks that he must eat Man--and on +our ground too!" + +The Law of the Jungle, which never orders anything without a reason, +forbids every beast to eat Man except when he is killing to show his +children how to kill, and then he must hunt outside the hunting-grounds +of his pack or tribe. The real reason for this is that man-killing +means, sooner or later, the arrival of white men on elephants, with +guns, and hundreds of brown men with gongs and rockets and torches. Then +everybody in the jungle suffers. The reason the beasts give among +themselves is that Man is the weakest and most defenseless of all living +things, and it is unsportsmanlike to touch him. They say too--and it is +true--that man-eaters become mangy, and lose their teeth. + +The purr grew louder, and ended in the full-throated "Aaarh!" of the +tiger's charge. + +Then there was a howl--an untigerish howl--from Shere Khan. "He has +missed," said Mother Wolf. "What is it?" + +Father Wolf ran out a few paces and heard Shere Khan muttering and +mumbling savagely, as he tumbled about in the scrub. + +"The fool has had no more sense than to jump at a wood-cutters' +camp-fire, so he has burned his feet," said Father Wolf, with a grunt. +"Tabaqui is with him." + +"Something is coming uphill," said Mother Wolf, twitching one ear. "Get +ready." + +The bushes rustled a little in the thicket, and Father Wolf dropped with +his haunches under him, ready for his leap. Then, if you had been +watching, you would have seen the most wonderful thing in the world--the +wolf checked in mid-spring. He made his bound before he saw what it was +he was jumping at, and then he tried to stop himself. The result was +that he shot up straight into the air for four or five feet, landing +almost where he left ground. + +"Man!" he snapped. "A man's cub. Look!" + +Directly in front of him, holding on by a low branch, stood a naked +brown baby who could just walk--as soft and as dimpled a little thing as +ever came to a wolf's cave at night. He looked up into Father Wolf's +face and laughed. + +"Is that a man's cub?" said Mother Wolf. "I have never seen one. Bring +it here." + +A wolf accustomed to moving his own cubs can, if necessary, mouth an +egg without breaking it, and though Father Wolf's jaws closed right on +the child's back not a tooth even scratched the skin, as he laid it down +among the cubs. + +"How little! How naked, and--how bold!" said Mother Wolf, softly. The +baby was pushing his way between the cubs to get close to the warm hide. +"Ahai! He is taking his meal with the others. And so this is a man's +cub. Now, was there ever a wolf that could boast of a man's cub among +her children?" + +"I have heard now and again of such a thing, but never in our pack or in +my time," said Father Wolf. "He is altogether without hair, and I could +kill him with a touch of my foot. But see, he looks up and is not +afraid." + +The moonlight was blocked out of the mouth of the cave, for Shere Khan's +great square head and shoulders were thrust into the entrance. Tabaqui, +behind him, was squeaking: "My Lord, my Lord, it went in here!" + +"Shere Khan does us great honor," said Father Wolf, but his eyes were +very angry. "What does Shere Khan need?" + +"My quarry. A man's cub went this way," said Shere Khan. "Its parents +have run off. Give it to me." + +Shere Khan had jumped at a wood-cutter's camp-fire, as Father Wolf had +said, and was furious from the pain of his burned feet. But Father Wolf +knew that the mouth of the cave was too narrow for a tiger to come in +by. Even where he was, Shere Khan's shoulders and fore paws were cramped +for want of room, as a man's would be if he tried to fight in a barrel. + +"The Wolves are a free people," said Father Wolf. "They take orders from +the Head of the Pack, and not from any striped cattle-killer. The man's +cub is ours--to kill if we choose." + +"Ye choose and ye do not choose! What talk is this of choosing? By the +Bull that I killed, am I to stand nosing into your dog's den for my fair +dues? It is I, Shere Khan, who speak!" + +The tiger's roar filled the cave with thunder. Mother Wolf shook herself +clear of the cubs and sprang forward, her eyes, like two green moons in +the darkness, facing the blazing eyes of Shere Khan. + + [Illustration: "THE TIGER'S ROAR FILLED THE CAVE WITH THUNDER."] + +"And it is I, Raksha [the Demon], who answer. The man's cub is mine, +Lungri--mine to me! He shall not be killed. He shall live to run with +the Pack and to hunt with the Pack; and in the end, look you, hunter of +little naked cubs--frog-eater--fish-killer, he shall hunt _thee_! Now +get hence, or by the Sambhur that I killed (_I_ eat no starved cattle), +back thou goest to thy mother, burned beast of the jungle, lamer than +ever thou camest into the world! Go!" + +Father Wolf looked on amazed. He had almost forgotten the days when he +won Mother Wolf in fair fight from five other wolves, when she ran in +the Pack and was not called the Demon for compliment's sake. Shere Khan +might have faced Father Wolf, but he could not stand up against Mother +Wolf, for he knew that where he was she had all the advantage of the +ground, and would fight to the death. So he backed out of the cave-mouth +growling, and when he was clear he shouted: + +"Each dog barks in his own yard! We will see what the Pack will say to +this fostering of man-cubs. The cub is mine, and to my teeth he will +come in the end, O bush-tailed thieves!" + +Mother Wolf threw herself down panting among the cubs, and Father Wolf +said to her gravely: + +"Shere Khan speaks this much truth. The cub must be shown to the Pack. +Wilt thou still keep him, Mother?" + +"Keep him!" she gasped. "He came naked, by night, alone and very hungry; +yet he was not afraid! Look, he has pushed one of my babes to one side +already. And that lame butcher would have killed him, and would have run +off to the Waingunga while the villagers here hunted through all our +lairs in revenge! Keep him? Assuredly I will keep him. Lie still, little +frog. O thou Mowgli,--for Mowgli, the Frog, I will call thee,--the time +will come when thou wilt hunt Shere Khan as he has hunted thee!" + +"But what will our Pack say?" said Father Wolf. + +The Law of the Jungle lays down very clearly that any wolf may, when he +marries, withdraw from the Pack he belongs to; but as soon as his cubs +are old enough to stand on their feet he must bring them to the Pack +Council, which is generally held once a month at full moon, in order +that the other wolves may identify them. After that inspection the cubs +are free to run where they please, and until they have killed their +first buck no excuse is accepted if a grown wolf of the Pack kills one +of them. The punishment is death where the murderer can be found; and if +you think for a minute you will see that this must be so. + +Father Wolf waited till his cubs could run a little, and then on the +night of the Pack Meeting took them and Mowgli and Mother Wolf to the +Council Rock--a hilltop covered with stones and boulders where a hundred +wolves could hide. Akela, the great gray Lone Wolf, who led all the Pack +by strength and cunning, lay out at full length on his rock, and below +him sat forty or more wolves of every size and color, from +badger-colored veterans who could handle a buck alone, to young black +three-year-olds who thought they could. The Lone Wolf had led them for a +year now. He had fallen twice into a wolf-trap in his youth, and once he +had been beaten and left for dead; so he knew the manners and customs of +men. + + [Illustration: THE MEETING AT THE COUNCIL ROCK.] + +There was very little talking at the Rock. The cubs tumbled over one +another in the center of the circle where their mothers and fathers sat, +and now and again a senior wolf would go quietly up to a cub, look at +him carefully, and return to his place on noiseless feet. Sometimes a +mother would push her cub far out into the moonlight, to be sure that he +had not been overlooked. Akela from his rock would cry: "Ye know the +Law--ye know the Law! Look well, O Wolves!" And the anxious mothers +would take up the call: "Look--look well, O Wolves!" + +At last--and Mother Wolf's neck-bristles lifted as the time came--Father +Wolf pushed "Mowgli, the Frog," as they called him, into the center, +where he sat laughing and playing with some pebbles that glistened in +the moonlight. + +Akela never raised his head from his paws, but went on with the +monotonous cry, "Look well!" A muffled roar came up from behind the +rocks--the voice of Shere Khan crying, "The cub is mine; give him to me. +What have the Free People to do with a man's cub?" + +Akela never even twitched his ears. All he said was, "Look well, O +Wolves! What have the Free People to do with the orders of any save the +Free People? Look well!" + +There was a chorus of deep growls, and a young wolf in his fourth year +flung back Shere Khan's question to Akela: "What have the Free People to +do with a man's cub?" + +Now the Law of the Jungle lays down that if there is any dispute as to +the right of a cub to be accepted by the Pack, he must be spoken for by +at least two members of the Pack who are not his father and mother. + +"Who speaks for this cub?" said Akela. "Among the Free People, who +speaks?" There was no answer, and Mother Wolf got ready for what she +knew would be her last fight, if things came to fighting. + +Then the only other creature who is allowed at the Pack Council--Baloo, +the sleepy brown bear who teaches the wolf cubs the Law of the Jungle; +old Baloo, who can come and go where he pleases because he eats only +nuts and roots and honey--rose up on his hind quarters and grunted. + +"The man's cub--the man's cub?" he said. "_I_ speak for the man's cub. +There is no harm in a man's cub. I have no gift of words, but I speak +the truth. Let him run with the Pack, and be entered with the others. I +myself will teach him." + +"We need yet another," said Akela. "Baloo has spoken, and he is our +teacher for the young cubs. Who speaks besides Baloo?" + +A black shadow dropped down into the circle. It was Bagheera, the Black +Panther, inky black all over, but with the panther markings showing up +in certain lights like the pattern of watered silk. Everybody knew +Bagheera, and nobody cared to cross his path; for he was as cunning as +Tabaqui, as bold as the wild buffalo, and as reckless as the wounded +elephant. But he had a voice as soft as wild honey dripping from a tree, +and a skin softer than down. + +"O Akela, and ye, the Free People," he purred, "I have no right in your +assembly; but the Law of the Jungle says that if there is a doubt which +is not a killing matter in regard to a new cub, the life of that cub may +be bought at a price. And the Law does not say who may or may not pay +that price. Am I right?" + +"Good! good!" said the young wolves, who are always hungry. "Listen to +Bagheera. The cub can be bought for a price. It is the Law." + +"Knowing that I have no right to speak here, I ask your leave." + +"Speak then," cried twenty voices. + +"To kill a naked cub is shame. Besides, he may make better sport for you +when he is grown. Baloo has spoken in his behalf. Now to Baloo's word I +will add one bull, and a fat one, newly killed, not half a mile from +here, if ye will accept the man's cub according to the Law. Is it +difficult?" + +There was a clamor of scores of voices, saying: "What matter? He will +die in the winter rains. He will scorch in the sun. What harm can a +naked frog do us? Let him run with the Pack. Where is the bull, +Bagheera? Let him be accepted." And then came Akela's deep bay, crying: +"Look well--look well, O Wolves!" + +Mowgli was still playing with the pebbles, and he did not notice when +the wolves came and looked at him one by one. At last they all went +down the hill for the dead bull, and only Akela, Bagheera, Baloo, and +Mowgli's own wolves were left. Shere Khan roared still in the night, for +he was very angry that Mowgli had not been handed over to him. + +"Ay, roar well," said Bagheera, under his whiskers; "for the time comes +when this naked thing will make thee roar to another tune, or I know +nothing of Man." + +"It was well done," said Akela. "Men and their cubs are very wise. He +may be a help in time." + +"Truly, a help in time of need; for none can hope to lead the Pack +forever," said Bagheera. + +Akela said nothing. He was thinking of the time that comes to every +leader of every pack when his strength goes from him and he gets feebler +and feebler, till at last he is killed by the wolves and a new leader +comes up--to be killed in his turn. + +"Take him away," he said to Father Wolf, "and train him as befits one of +the Free People." + +And that is how Mowgli was entered into the Seeonee wolf-pack for the +price of a bull and on Baloo's good word. + +Now you must be content to skip ten or eleven whole years, and only +guess at all the wonderful life that Mowgli led among the wolves, +because if it were written out it would fill ever so many books. He grew +up with the cubs, though they of course were grown wolves almost before +he was a child, and Father Wolf taught him his business, and the meaning +of things in the jungle, till every rustle in the grass, every breath of +the warm night air, every note of the owls above his head, every scratch +of a bat's claws as it roosted for a while in a tree, and every splash +of every little fish jumping in a pool, meant just as much to him as the +work of his office means to a business man. When he was not learning he +sat out in the sun and slept, and ate, and went to sleep again; when he +felt dirty or hot he swam in the forest pools; and when he wanted honey +(Baloo told him that honey and nuts were just as pleasant to eat as raw +meat) he climbed up for it, and that Bagheera showed him how to do. + +Bagheera would lie out on a branch and call, "Come along, Little +Brother," and at first Mowgli would cling like the sloth, but afterward +he would fling himself through the branches almost as boldly as the gray +ape. He took his place at the Council Rock, too, when the Pack met, +and there he discovered that if he stared hard at any wolf, the wolf +would be forced to drop his eyes, and so he used to stare for fun. + + [Illustration: "BAGHEERA WOULD LIE OUT ON A BRANCH AND CALL, 'COME + ALONG, LITTLE BROTHER.'"] + +At other times he would pick the long thorns out of the pads of his +friends, for wolves suffer terribly from thorns and burs in their coats. +He would go down the hillside into the cultivated lands by night, and +look very curiously at the villagers in their huts, but he had a +mistrust of men because Bagheera showed him a square box with a +drop-gate so cunningly hidden in the jungle that he nearly walked into +it, and told him it was a trap. + +He loved better than anything else to go with Bagheera into the dark +warm heart of the forest, to sleep all through the drowsy day, and at +night see how Bagheera did his killing. Bagheera killed right and left +as he felt hungry, and so did Mowgli--with one exception. As soon as he +was old enough to understand things, Bagheera told him that he must +never touch cattle because he had been bought into the Pack at the price +of a bull's life. "All the jungle is thine," said Bagheera, "and thou +canst kill everything that thou art strong enough to kill; but for the +sake of the bull that bought thee thou must never kill or eat any +cattle young or old. That is the Law of the Jungle." Mowgli obeyed +faithfully. + +And he grew and grew strong as a boy must grow who does not know that he +is learning any lessons, and who has nothing in the world to think of +except things to eat. + +Mother Wolf told him once or twice that Shere Khan was not a creature to +be trusted, and that some day he must kill Shere Khan; but though a +young wolf would have remembered that advice every hour, Mowgli forgot +it because he was only a boy--though he would have called himself a wolf +if he had been able to speak in any human tongue. + +Shere Khan was always crossing his path in the jungle, for as Akela grew +older and feebler the lame tiger had come to be great friends with the +younger wolves of the Pack, who followed him for scraps, a thing Akela +would never have allowed if he had dared to push his authority to the +proper bounds. Then Shere Khan would flatter them and wonder that such +fine young hunters were content to be led by a dying wolf and a man's +cub. "They tell me," Shere Khan would say, "that at Council ye dare not +look him between the eyes"; and the young wolves would growl and +bristle. + +Bagheera, who had eyes and ears everywhere, knew something of this, and +once or twice he told Mowgli in so many words that Shere Khan would kill +him some day; and Mowgli would laugh and answer: "I have the Pack and I +have thee; and Baloo, though he is so lazy, might strike a blow or two +for my sake. Why should I be afraid?" + +It was one very warm day that a new notion came to Bagheera--born of +something that he had heard. Perhaps Ikki, the Porcupine, had told him; +but he said to Mowgli when they were deep in the jungle, as the boy lay +with his head on Bagheera's beautiful black skin: "Little Brother, how +often have I told thee that Shere Khan is thy enemy?" + +"As many times as there are nuts on that palm," said Mowgli, who, +naturally, could not count. "What of it? I am sleepy, Bagheera, and +Shere Khan is all long tail and loud talk, like Mao, the Peacock." + +"But this is no time for sleeping. Baloo knows it, I know it, the Pack +know it, and even the foolish, foolish deer know. Tabaqui has told thee +too." + +"Ho! ho!" said Mowgli. "Tabaqui came to me not long ago with some rude +talk that I was a naked man's cub, and not fit to dig pig-nuts; but I +caught Tabaqui by the tail and swung him twice against a palm-tree to +teach him better manners." + +"That was foolishness; for though Tabaqui is a mischief-maker, he would +have told thee of something that concerned thee closely. Open those +eyes, Little Brother! Shere Khan dares not kill thee in the jungle for +fear of those that love thee; but remember, Akela is very old, and soon +the day comes when he cannot kill his buck, and then he will be leader +no more. Many of the wolves that looked thee over when thou wast brought +to the Council first are old too, and the young wolves believe, as Shere +Khan has taught them, that a man-cub has no place with the Pack. In a +little time thou wilt be a man." + +"And what is a man that he should not run with his brothers?" said +Mowgli. "I was born in the jungle; I have obeyed the Law of the Jungle; +and there is no wolf of ours from whose paws I have not pulled a thorn. +Surely they are my brothers!" + +Bagheera stretched himself at full length and half shut his eyes. +"Little Brother," said he, "feel under my jaw." + +Mowgli put up his strong brown hand, and just under Bagheera's silky +chin, where the giant rolling muscles were all hid by the glossy hair, +he came upon a little bald spot. + +"There is no one in the jungle that knows that I, Bagheera, carry that +mark--the mark of the collar; and yet, Little Brother, I was born among +men, and it was among men that my mother died--in the cages of the +King's Palace at Oodeypore. It was because of this that I paid the price +for thee at the Council when thou wast a little naked cub. Yes, I too +was born among men. I had never seen the jungle. They fed me behind bars +from an iron pan till one night I felt that I was Bagheera, the Panther, +and no man's plaything, and I broke the silly lock with one blow of my +paw, and came away; and because I had learned the ways of men, I became +more terrible in the jungle than Shere Khan. Is it not so?" + +"Yes," said Mowgli; "all the jungle fear Bagheera--all except Mowgli." + +"Oh, _thou_ art a man's cub," said the Black Panther, very tenderly; +"and even as I returned to my jungle, so thou must go back to men at +last,--to the men who are thy brothers,--if thou art not killed in the +Council." + +"But why--but why should any wish to kill me?" said Mowgli. + +"Look at me," said Bagheera; and Mowgli looked at him steadily between +the eyes. The big panther turned his head away in half a minute. + +"_That_ is why," he said, shifting his paw on the leaves. "Not even I +can look thee between the eyes, and I was born among men, and I love +thee, Little Brother. The others they hate thee because their eyes +cannot meet thine; because thou art wise; because thou hast pulled out +thorns from their feet--because thou art a man." + +"I did not know these things," said Mowgli, sullenly; and he frowned +under his heavy black eyebrows. + +"What is the Law of the Jungle? Strike first and then give tongue. By +thy very carelessness they know that thou art a man. But be wise. It is +in my heart that when Akela misses his next kill,--and at each hunt it +costs him more to pin the buck,--the Pack will turn against him and +against thee. They will hold a jungle Council at the Rock, and then--and +then ... I have it!" said Bagheera, leaping up. "Go thou down quickly to +the men's huts in the valley, and take some of the Red Flower which they +grow there, so that when the time comes thou mayest have even a +stronger friend than I or Baloo or those of the Pack that love thee. Get +the Red Flower." + +By Red Flower Bagheera meant fire, only no creature in the jungle will +call fire by its proper name. Every beast lives in deadly fear of it, +and invents a hundred ways of describing it. + +"The Red Flower?" said Mowgli. "That grows outside their huts in the +twilight. I will get some." + +"There speaks the man's cub," said Bagheera, proudly. "Remember that it +grows in little pots. Get one swiftly, and keep it by thee for time of +need." + +"Good!" said Mowgli. "I go. But art thou sure, O my Bagheera"--he +slipped his arm round the splendid neck, and looked deep into the big +eyes--"art thou sure that all this is Shere Khan's doing?" + +"By the Broken Lock that freed me, I am sure, Little Brother." + +"Then, by the Bull that bought me, I will pay Shere Khan full tale for +this, and it may be a little over," said Mowgli; and he bounded away. + +"That is a man. That is all a man," said Bagheera to himself, lying down +again. "Oh, Shere Khan, never was a blacker hunting than that frog-hunt +of thine ten years ago!" + +Mowgli was far and far through the forest, running hard, and his heart +was hot in him. He came to the cave as the evening mist rose, and drew +breath, and looked down the valley. The cubs were out, but Mother Wolf, +at the back of the cave, knew by his breathing that something was +troubling her frog. + +"What is it, Son?" she said. + +"Some bat's chatter of Shere Khan," he called back. "I hunt among the +plowed fields to-night"; and he plunged downward through the bushes, to +the stream at the bottom of the valley. There he checked, for he heard +the yell of the Pack hunting, heard the bellow of a hunted Sambhur, and +the snort as the buck turned at bay. Then there were wicked, bitter +howls from the young wolves: "Akela! Akela! Let the Lone Wolf show his +strength. Room for the leader of our Pack! Spring, Akela!" + +The Lone Wolf must have sprung and missed his hold, for Mowgli heard the +snap of his teeth and then a yelp as the Sambhur knocked him over with +his fore foot. + +He did not wait for anything more, but dashed on; and the yells grew +fainter behind him as he ran into the crop-lands where the villagers +lived. + +"Bagheera spoke truth," he panted, as he nestled down in some +cattle-fodder by the window of a hut. "To-morrow is one day for Akela +and for me." + +Then he pressed his face close to the window and watched the fire on the +hearth. He saw the husbandman's wife get up and feed it in the night +with black lumps; and when the morning came and the mists were all white +and cold, he saw the man's child pick up a wicker pot plastered inside +with earth, fill it with lumps of red-hot charcoal, put it under his +blanket, and go out to tend the cows in the byre. + +"Is that all?" said Mowgli. "If a cub can do it, there is nothing to +fear"; so he strode around the corner and met the boy, took the pot from +his hand, and disappeared into the mist while the boy howled with fear. + +"They are very like me," said Mowgli, blowing into the pot, as he had +seen the woman do. "This thing will die if I do not give it things to +eat"; and he dropped twigs and dried bark on the red stuff. Half-way up +the hill he met Bagheera with the morning dew shining like moonstones on +his coat. + +"Akela has missed," said the panther. "They would have killed him last +night, but they needed thee also. They were looking for thee on the +hill." + +"I was among the plowed lands. I am ready. Look!" Mowgli held up the +fire-pot. + +"Good! Now, I have seen men thrust a dry branch into that stuff, and +presently the Red Flower blossomed at the end of it. Art thou not +afraid?" + +"No. Why should I fear? I remember now--if it is not a dream--how, +before I was a wolf, I lay beside the Red Flower, and it was warm and +pleasant." + +All that day Mowgli sat in the cave tending his fire-pot and dipping dry +branches into it to see how they looked. He found a branch that +satisfied him, and in the evening when Tabaqui came to the cave and told +him, rudely enough, that he was wanted at the Council Rock, he laughed +till Tabaqui ran away. Then Mowgli went to the Council, still laughing. + +Akela the Lone Wolf lay by the side of his rock as a sign that the +leadership of the Pack was open, and Shere Khan with his following of +scrap-fed wolves walked to and fro openly, being flattered. Bagheera lay +close to Mowgli, and the fire-pot was between Mowgli's knees. When they +were all gathered together, Shere Khan began to speak--a thing he would +never have dared to do when Akela was in his prime. + +"He has no right," whispered Bagheera. "Say so. He is a dog's son. He +will be frightened." + +Mowgli sprang to his feet. "Free People," he cried, "does Shere Khan +lead the Pack? What has a tiger to do with our leadership?" + +"Seeing that the leadership is yet open, and being asked to speak--" +Shere Khan began. + +"By whom?" said Mowgli. "Are we _all_ jackals, to fawn on this +cattle-butcher? The leadership of the Pack is with the Pack alone." + +There were yells of "Silence, thou man's cub!" "Let him speak; he has +kept our law!" And at last the seniors of the Pack thundered: "Let the +Dead Wolf speak!" + +When a leader of the Pack has missed his kill, he is called the Dead +Wolf as long as he lives, which is not long, as a rule. + +Akela raised his old head wearily: + +"Free People, and ye too, jackals of Shere Khan, for twelve seasons I +have led ye to and from the kill, and in all that time not one has been +trapped or maimed. Now I have missed my kill. Ye know how that plot was +made. Ye know how ye brought me up to an untried buck to make my +weakness known. It was cleverly done. Your right is to kill me here on +the Council Rock now. Therefore I ask, 'Who comes to make an end of the +Lone Wolf?' For it is my right, by the Law of the Jungle, that ye come +one by one." + +There was a long hush, for no single wolf cared to fight Akela to the +death. Then Shere Khan roared: "Bah! What have we to do with this +toothless fool? He is doomed to die! It is the man-cub who has lived too +long. Free People, he was my meat from the first. Give him to me. I am +weary of this man-wolf folly. He has troubled the jungle for ten +seasons. Give me the man-cub, or I will hunt here always, and not give +you one bone! He is a man--a man's child, and from the marrow of my +bones I hate him!" + +Then more than half the Pack yelled: "A man--a man! What has a man to do +with us? Let him go to his own place." + +"And turn all the people of the villages against us?" snarled Shere +Khan. "No; give him to me. He is a man, and none of us can look him +between the eyes." + +Akela lifted his head again, and said: "He has eaten our food; he has +slept with us; he has driven game for us; he has broken no word of the +Law of the Jungle." + +"Also, I paid for him with a bull when he was accepted. The worth of a +bull is little, but Bagheera's honor is something that he will perhaps +fight for," said Bagheera in his gentlest voice. + +"A bull paid ten years ago!" the Pack snarled. "What do we care for +bones ten years old?" + +"Or for a pledge?" said Bagheera, his white teeth bared under his lip. +"Well are ye called the Free People!" + +"No man's cub can run with the people of the jungle!" roared Shere Khan. +"Give him to me." + +"He is our brother in all but blood," Akela went on; "and ye would kill +him here. In truth, I have lived too long. Some of ye are eaters of +cattle, and of others I have heard that, under Shere Khan's teaching, ye +go by dark night and snatch children from the villager's doorstep. +Therefore I know ye to be cowards, and it is to cowards I speak. It is +certain that I must die, and my life is of no worth, or I would offer +that in the man-cub's place. But for the sake of the Honor of the +Pack,--a little matter that, by being without a leader, ye have +forgotten,--I promise that if ye let the man-cub go to his own place, I +will not, when my time comes to die, bare one tooth against ye. I will +die without fighting. That will at least save the Pack three lives. More +I cannot do; but, if ye will, I can save ye the shame that comes of +killing a brother against whom there is no fault--a brother spoken for +and bought into the Pack according to the Law of the Jungle." + +"He is a man--a man--a man!" snarled the Pack; and most of the wolves +began to gather round Shere Khan, whose tail was beginning to switch. + +"Now the business is in thy hands," said Bagheera to Mowgli. "_We_ can +do no more except fight." + +Mowgli stood upright--the fire-pot in his hands. Then he stretched out +his arms, and yawned in the face of the Council; but he was furious with +rage and sorrow, for, wolf-like, the wolves had never told him how they +hated him. + +"Listen, you!" he cried. "There is no need for this dog's jabber. Ye +have told me so often to-night that I am a man (though indeed I would +have been a wolf with you to my life's end) that I feel your words are +true. So I do not call ye my brothers any more, but _sag_ [dogs], as a +man should. What ye will do, and what ye will not do, is not yours to +say. That matter is with _me_; and that we may see the matter more +plainly, I, the man, have brought here a little of the Red Flower which +ye, dogs, fear." + +He flung the fire-pot on the ground, and some of the red coals lit a +tuft of dried moss that flared up as all the Council drew back in terror +before the leaping flames. + +Mowgli thrust his dead branch into the fire till the twigs lit and +crackled, and whirled it above his head among the cowering wolves. + +"Thou art the master," said Bagheera, in an undertone. "Save Akela from +the death. He was ever thy friend." + +Akela, the grim old wolf who had never asked for mercy in his life, gave +one piteous look at Mowgli as the boy stood all naked, his long black +hair tossing over his shoulders in the light of the blazing branch that +made the shadows jump and quiver. + +"Good!" said Mowgli, staring around slowly, and thrusting out his lower +lip. "I see that ye are dogs. I go from you to my own people--if they be +my own people. The jungle is shut to me, and I must forget your talk and +your companionship; but I will be more merciful than ye are. Because I +was all but your brother in blood, I promise that when I am a man among +men I will not betray ye to men as ye have betrayed me." He kicked the +fire with his foot, and the sparks flew up. "There shall be no war +between any of us and the Pack. But here is a debt to pay before I go." +He strode forward to where Shere Khan sat blinking stupidly at the +flames, and caught him by the tuft on his chin. Bagheera followed close, +in case of accidents. "Up, dog!" Mowgli cried. "Up, when a man speaks, +or I will set that coat ablaze!" + +Shere Khan's ears lay flat back on his head, and he shut his eyes, for +the blazing branch was very near. + +"This cattle-killer said he would kill me in the Council because he had +not killed me when I was a cub. Thus and thus, then, do we beat dogs +when we are men! Stir a whisker, Lungri, and I ram the Red Flower down +thy gullet!" He beat Shere Khan over the head with the branch, and the +tiger whimpered and whined in an agony of fear. + +"Pah! Singed jungle-cat--go now! But remember when next I come to the +Council Rock, as a man should come, it will be with Shere Khan's hide on +my head. For the rest, Akela goes free to live as he pleases. Ye will +_not_ kill him, because that is not my will. Nor do I think that ye will +sit here any longer, lolling out your tongues as though ye were +somebodies, instead of dogs whom I drive out--thus! Go!" + +The fire was burning furiously at the end of the branch, and Mowgli +struck right and left round the circle, and the wolves ran howling with +the sparks burning their fur. At last there were only Akela, Bagheera, +and perhaps ten wolves that had taken Mowgli's part. Then something +began to hurt Mowgli inside him, as he had never been hurt in his life +before, and he caught his breath and sobbed, and the tears ran down his +face. + +"What is it? What is it?" he said. "I do not wish to leave the jungle, +and I do not know what this is. Am I dying, Bagheera?" + +"No, Little Brother. Those are only tears such as men use," said +Bagheera. "Now I know thou art a man, and a man's cub no longer. The +jungle is shut indeed to thee henceforward. Let them fall, Mowgli; they +are only tears." So Mowgli sat and cried as though his heart would +break; and he had never cried in all his life before. + +"Now," he said, "I will go to men. But first I must say farewell to my +mother"; and he went to the cave where she lived with Father Wolf, and +he cried on her coat, while the four cubs howled miserably. + +"Ye will not forget me?" said Mowgli. + +"Never while we can follow a trail," said the cubs. "Come to the foot of +the hill when thou art a man, and we will talk to thee; and we will come +into the crop-lands to play with thee by night." + +"Come soon!" said Father Wolf. "Oh, wise little Frog, come again soon; +for we be old, thy mother and I." + +"Come soon," said Mother Wolf, "little naked son of mine; for, listen, +child of man, I loved thee more than ever I loved my cubs." + +"I will surely come," said Mowgli; "and when I come it will be to lay +out Shere Khan's hide upon the Council Rock. Do not forget me! Tell them +in the jungle never to forget me!" + +The dawn was beginning to break when Mowgli went down the hillside alone +to the crops to meet those mysterious things that are called men. + + + HUNTING-SONG OF THE SEEONEE PACK + + As the dawn was breaking the Sambhur belled + Once, twice, and again! + And a doe leaped up--and a doe leaped up + From the pond in the wood where the wild deer sup. + This I, scouting alone, beheld, + Once, twice, and again! + + As the dawn was breaking the Sambhur belled + Once, twice, and again! + And a wolf stole back--and a wolf stole back + To carry the word to the waiting Pack; + And we sought and we found and we bayed on his track + Once, twice, and again! + + As the dawn was breaking the Wolf-pack yelled + Once, twice, and again! + Feet in the jungle that leave no mark! + Eyes that can see in the dark--the dark! + Tongue--give tongue to it! Hark! O Hark! + Once, twice, and again! + + + + + KAA'S HUNTING + + + His spots are the joy of the Leopard: his horns are the + Buffalo's pride-- + Be clean, for the strength of the hunter is known by the gloss + of his hide. + + If ye find that the Bullock can toss you, or the heavy-browed + Sambhur can gore; + Ye need not stop work to inform us: we knew it ten seasons + before. + + Oppress not the cubs of the stranger, but hail them as Sister + and Brother, + For though they are little and fubsy, it may be the Bear is + their mother. + + "There is none like to me!" says the Cub in the pride of his + earliest kill; + But the Jungle is large and the Cub he is small. Let him think + and be still. + + _Maxims of Baloo._ + + + [Illustration] + + KAA'S HUNTING + + +ALL that is told here happened some time before Mowgli was turned out of +the Seeonee wolf-pack. It was in the days when Baloo was teaching him +the Law of the Jungle. The big, serious, old brown bear was delighted to +have so quick a pupil, for the young wolves will only learn as much of +the Law of the Jungle as applies to their own pack and tribe, and run +away as soon as they can repeat the Hunting Verse: "Feet that make no +noise; eyes that can see in the dark; ears that can hear the winds in +their lairs, and sharp white teeth--all these things are the marks of +our brothers except Tabaqui and the Hyena, whom we hate." But Mowgli, as +a man-cub, had to learn a great deal more than this. Sometimes Bagheera, +the Black Panther, would come lounging through the jungle to see how his +pet was getting on, and would purr with his head against a tree while +Mowgli recited the day's lesson to Baloo. The boy could climb almost as +well as he could swim, and swim almost as well as he could run; so +Baloo, the Teacher of the Law, taught him the Wood and Water laws: how +to tell a rotten branch from a sound one; how to speak politely to the +wild bees when he came upon a hive of them fifty feet aboveground; what +to say to Mang, the Bat, when he disturbed him in the branches at +midday; and how to warn the water-snakes in the pools before he splashed +down among them. None of the Jungle People like being disturbed, and all +are very ready to fly at an intruder. Then, too, Mowgli was taught the +Strangers' Hunting Call, which must be repeated aloud till it is +answered, whenever one of the Jungle People hunts outside his own +grounds. It means, translated: "Give me leave to hunt here because I am +hungry"; and the answer is: "Hunt, then, for food, but not for +pleasure." + +All this will show you how much Mowgli had to learn by heart, and he +grew very tired of repeating the same thing a hundred times; but, as +Baloo said to Bagheera one day when Mowgli had been cuffed and had run +off in a temper: "A man's cub is a man's cub, and he must learn _all_ +the Law of the Jungle." + +"But think how small he is," said the Black Panther, who would have +spoiled Mowgli if he had had his own way. "How can his little head carry +all thy long talk?" + +"Is there anything in the jungle too little to be killed? No. That is +why I teach him these things, and that is why I hit him, very softly, +when he forgets." + +"Softly! What dost thou know of softness, old Iron-feet?" Bagheera +grunted. "His face is all bruised to-day by thy--softness. Ugh!" + +"Better he should be bruised from head to foot by me who love him than +that he should come to harm through ignorance," Baloo answered, very +earnestly. "I am now teaching him the Master Words of the Jungle that +shall protect him with the Birds and the Snake People, and all that hunt +on four feet, except his own pack. He can now claim protection, if he +will only remember the Words, from all in the jungle. Is not that worth +a little beating?" + +"Well, look to it then that thou dost not kill the man-cub. He is no +tree-trunk to sharpen thy blunt claws upon. But what are those Master +Words? I am more likely to give help than to ask it"--Bagheera stretched +out one paw and admired the steel-blue ripping-chisel talons at the end +of it--"Still I should like to know." + +"I will call Mowgli and he shall say them--if he will. Come, Little +Brother!" + +"My head is ringing like a bee-tree," said a sullen voice over their +heads, and Mowgli slid down a tree-trunk, very angry and indignant, +adding, as he reached the ground: "I come for Bagheera and not for +_thee_, fat old Baloo!" + +"That is all one to me," said Baloo, though he was hurt and grieved. +"Tell Bagheera, then, the Master Words of the Jungle that I have taught +thee this day." + +"Master Words for which people?" said Mowgli, delighted to show off. +"The jungle has many tongues. _I_ know them all." + +"A little thou knowest, but not much. See, O Bagheera, they never thank +their teacher! Not one small wolfling has come back to thank old Baloo +for his teachings. Say the Word for the Hunting People, then,--great +scholar!" + +"We be of one blood, ye and I," said Mowgli, giving the words the Bear +accent which all the Hunting People of the Jungle use. + +"Good! Now for the Birds." + +Mowgli repeated, with the Kite's whistle at the end of the sentence. + +"Now for the Snake People," said Bagheera. + +The answer was a perfectly indescribable hiss, and Mowgli kicked up his +feet behind, clapped his hands together to applaud himself, and jumped +on Bagheera's back, where he sat sideways, drumming with his heels on +the glossy skin and making the worst faces that he could think of at +Baloo. + +"There--there! That was worth a little bruise," said the Brown Bear, +tenderly. "Some day thou wilt remember me." Then he turned aside to tell +Bagheera how he had begged the Master Words from Hathi, the Wild +Elephant, who knows all about these things, and how Hathi had taken +Mowgli down to a pool to get the Snake Word from a water-snake, because +Baloo could not pronounce it, and how Mowgli was now reasonably safe +against all accidents in the jungle, because neither snake, bird, nor +beast would hurt him. + +"No one then is to be feared," Baloo wound up, patting his big furry +stomach with pride. + +"Except his own tribe," said Bagheera, under his breath; and then aloud +to Mowgli: "Have a care for my ribs, Little Brother! What is all this +dancing up and down?" + +Mowgli had been trying to make himself heard by pulling at Bagheera's +shoulder-fur and kicking hard. When the two listened to him he was +shouting at the top of his voice: "And _so_ I shall have a tribe of my +own, and lead them through the branches all day long." + +"What is this new folly, little dreamer of dreams?" said Bagheera. + +"Yes, and throw branches and dirt at old Baloo," Mowgli went on. "They +have promised me this, ah!" + +"Whoof!" Baloo's big paw scooped Mowgli off Bagheera's back, and as the +boy lay between the big fore paws he could see the bear was angry. + +"Mowgli," said Baloo, "thou hast been talking with the Bandar-log--the +Monkey People." + +Mowgli looked at Bagheera to see if the panther was angry too, and +Bagheera's eyes were as hard as jade-stones. + +"Thou hast been with the Monkey People--the gray apes--the people +without a Law--the eaters of everything. That is great shame." + +"When Baloo hurt my head," said Mowgli (he was still down on his back), +"I went away, and the gray apes came down from the trees and had pity on +me. No one else cared." He snuffled a little. + +"The pity of the Monkey People!" Baloo snorted. + +"The stillness of the mountain stream! The cool of the summer sun! And +then, man-cub?" + +"And then--and then they gave me nuts and pleasant things to eat, and +they--they carried me in their arms up to the top of the trees and said +I was their blood-brother, except that I had no tail, and should be +their leader some day." + +"They have _no_ leader," said Bagheera. "They lie. They have always +lied." + +"They were very kind, and bade me come again. Why have I never been +taken among the Monkey People? They stand on their feet as I do. They do +not hit me with hard paws. They play all day. Let me get up! Bad Baloo, +let me up! I will go play with them again." + +"Listen, man-cub," said the bear, and his voice rumbled like thunder on +a hot night. "I have taught thee all the Law of the Jungle for all the +Peoples of the Jungle--except the Monkey Folk who live in the trees. +They have no Law. They are outcastes. They have no speech of their own, +but use the stolen words which they overhear when they listen and peep +and wait up above in the branches. Their way is not our way. They are +without leaders. They have no remembrance. They boast and chatter and +pretend that they are a great people about to do great affairs in the +jungle, but the falling of a nut turns their minds to laughter, and all +is forgotten. We of the jungle have no dealings with them. We do not +drink where the monkeys drink; we do not go where the monkeys go; we do +not hunt where they hunt; we do not die where they die. Hast thou ever +heard me speak of the Bandar-log till to-day?" + +"No," said Mowgli in a whisper, for the forest was very still now that +Baloo had finished. + +"The Jungle People put them out of their mouths and out of their minds. +They are very many, evil, dirty, shameless, and they desire, if they +have any fixed desire, to be noticed by the Jungle People. But we do +_not_ notice them even when they throw nuts and filth on our heads." + +He had hardly spoken when a shower of nuts and twigs spattered down +through the branches; and they could hear coughings and howlings and +angry jumpings high up in the air among the thin branches. + +"The Monkey People are forbidden," said Baloo, "forbidden to the Jungle +People. Remember." + +"Forbidden," said Bagheera; "but I still think Baloo should have warned +thee against them." + +"I--I? How was I to guess he would play with such dirt. The Monkey +People! Faugh!" + +A fresh shower came down on their heads, and the two trotted away, +taking Mowgli with them. What Baloo had said about the monkeys was +perfectly true. They belonged to the tree-tops, and as beasts very +seldom look up, there was no occasion for the monkeys and the Jungle +People to cross one another's path. But whenever they found a sick wolf, +or a wounded tiger or bear, the monkeys would torment him, and would +throw sticks and nuts at any beast for fun and in the hope of being +noticed. Then they would howl and shriek senseless songs, and invite the +Jungle People to climb up their trees and fight them, or would start +furious battles over nothing among themselves, and leave the dead +monkeys where the Jungle People could see them. + +They were always just going to have a leader and laws and customs of +their own, but they never did, because their memories would not hold +over from day to day, and so they settled things by making up a saying: +"What the Bandar-log think now the Jungle will think later"; and that +comforted them a great deal. None of the beasts could reach them, but on +the other hand none of the beasts would notice them, and that was why +they were so pleased when Mowgli came to play with them, and when they +heard how angry Baloo was. + +They never meant to do any more,--the Bandar-log never mean anything at +all,--but one of them invented what seemed to him a brilliant idea, and +he told all the others that Mowgli would be a useful person to keep in +the tribe, because he could weave sticks together for protection from +the wind; so, if they caught him, they could make him teach them. Of +course Mowgli, as a wood-cutter's child, inherited all sorts of +instincts, and used to make little play-huts of fallen branches without +thinking how he came to do it. The Monkey People, watching in the trees, +considered these huts most wonderful. This time, they said, they were +really going to have a leader and become the wisest people in the +jungle--so wise that every one else would notice and envy them. +Therefore they followed Baloo and Bagheera and Mowgli through the jungle +very quietly till it was time for the midday nap, and Mowgli, who was +very much ashamed of himself, slept between the panther and the bear, +resolving to have no more to do with the Monkey People. + +The next thing he remembered was feeling hands on his legs and +arms,--hard, strong little hands,--and then a swash of branches in his +face; and then he was staring down through the swaying boughs as Baloo +woke the jungle with his deep cries and Bagheera bounded up the trunk +with every tooth bared. The Bandar-log howled with triumph, and scuffled +away to the upper branches where Bagheera dared not follow, shouting: +"He has noticed us! Bagheera has noticed us! All the Jungle People +admire us for our skill and our cunning!" Then they began their flight; +and the flight of the Monkey People through tree-land is one of the +things nobody can describe. They have their regular roads and +cross-roads, uphills and downhills, all laid out from fifty to seventy +or a hundred feet aboveground, and by these they can travel even at +night if necessary. + +Two of the strongest monkeys caught Mowgli under the arms and swung off +with him through the tree-tops, twenty feet at a bound. Had they been +alone they could have gone twice as fast, but the boy's weight held them +back. Sick and giddy as Mowgli was he could not help enjoying the wild +rush, though the glimpses of earth far down below frightened him, and +the terrible check and jerk at the end of the swing over nothing but +empty air brought his heart between his teeth. + +His escort would rush him up a tree till he felt the weak topmost +branches crackle and bend under them, and, then, with a cough and a +whoop, would fling themselves into the air outward and downward, and +bring up hanging by their hands or their feet to the lower limbs of the +next tree. Sometimes he could see for miles and miles over the still +green jungle, as a man on the top of a mast can see for miles across the +sea, and then the branches and leaves would lash him across the face, +and he and his two guards would be almost down to earth again. + +So bounding and crashing and whooping and yelling, the whole tribe of +Bandar-log swept along the tree-roads with Mowgli their prisoner. + +For a time he was afraid of being dropped; then he grew angry, but he +knew better than to struggle; and then he began to think. The first +thing was to send back word to Baloo and Bagheera, for, at the pace the +monkeys were going, he knew his friends would be left far behind. It +was useless to look down, for he could see only the top sides of the +branches, so he stared upward and saw, far away in the blue, Rann, the +Kite, balancing and wheeling as he kept watch over the jungle waiting +for things to die. Rann noticed that the monkeys were carrying +something, and dropped a few hundred yards to find out whether their +load was good to eat. He whistled with surprise when he saw Mowgli being +dragged up to a tree-top, and heard him give the Kite call for "We be of +one blood, thou and I." The waves of the branches closed over the boy, +but Rann balanced away to the next tree in time to see the little brown +face come up again. "Mark my trail!" Mowgli shouted. "Tell Baloo of the +Seeonee Pack, and Bagheera of the Council Rock." + +"In whose name, Brother?" Rann had never seen Mowgli before, though of +course he had heard of him. + +"Mowgli, the Frog. Man-cub they call me! Mark my tra--il!" + +The last words were shrieked as he was being swung through the air, but +Rann nodded, and rose up till he looked no bigger than a speck of dust, +and there he hung, watching with his telescope eyes the swaying of the +tree-tops as Mowgli's escort whirled along. + +"They never go far," he said, with a chuckle. "They never do what they +set out to do. Always pecking at new things are the Bandar-log. This +time, if I have any eyesight, they have pecked down trouble for +themselves, for Baloo is no fledgling and Bagheera can, as I know, kill +more than goats." + +Then he rocked on his wings, his feet gathered up under him, and waited. + +Meanwhile, Baloo and Bagheera were furious with rage and grief. Bagheera +climbed as he had never climbed before, but the branches broke beneath +his weight, and he slipped down, his claws full of bark. + +"Why didst thou not warn the man-cub!" he roared to poor Baloo, who had +set off at a clumsy trot in the hope of overtaking the monkeys. "What +was the use of half slaying him with blows if thou didst not warn him?" + +"Haste! O haste! We--we may catch them yet!" Baloo panted. + +"At that speed! It would not tire a wounded cow. Teacher of the Law, +cub-beater--a mile of that rolling to and fro would burst thee open. Sit +still and think! Make a plan. This is no time for chasing. They may drop +him if we follow too close." + +"_Arrula! Whoo!_ They may have dropped him already, being tired of +carrying him. Who can trust the Bandar-log? Put dead bats on my head! +Give me black bones to eat! Roll me into the hives of the wild bees that +I may be stung to death, and bury me with the hyena; for I am the most +miserable of bears! _Arulala! Wahooa!_ O Mowgli, Mowgli! Why did I not +warn thee against the Monkey Folk instead of breaking thy head? Now +perhaps I may have knocked the day's lesson out of his mind, and he will +be alone in the jungle without the Master Words!" + +Baloo clasped his paws over his ears and rolled to and fro, moaning. + +"At least he gave me all the Words correctly a little time ago," said +Bagheera, impatiently. "Baloo, thou hast neither memory nor respect. +What would the jungle think if I, the Black Panther, curled myself up +like Ikki, the Porcupine, and howled?" + +"What do I care what the jungle thinks? He may be dead by now." + +"Unless and until they drop him from the branches in sport, or kill him +out of idleness, I have no fear for the man-cub. He is wise and +well-taught, and, above all, he has the eyes that make the Jungle People +afraid. But (and it is a great evil) he is in the power of the +Bandar-log, and they, because they live in trees, have no fear of any of +our people." Bagheera licked his one fore paw thoughtfully. + +"Fool that I am! Oh fat, brown, root-digging fool that I am!" said +Baloo, uncoiling himself with a jerk. "It is true what Hathi, the Wild +Elephant, says: '_To each his own fear_'; and they, the Bandar-log, fear +Kaa, the Rock Snake. He can climb as well as they can. He steals the +young monkeys in the night. The mere whisper of his name makes their +wicked tails cold. Let us go to Kaa." + +"What will he do for us? He is not of our tribe, being footless and with +most evil eyes," said Bagheera. + +"He is very old and very cunning. Above all, he is always hungry," said +Baloo, hopefully. "Promise him many goats." + +"He sleeps for a full month after he has once eaten. He may be asleep +now, and even were he awake, what if he would rather kill his own +goats?" Bagheera, who did not know much about Kaa, was naturally +suspicious. + +"Then in that case, thou and I together, old hunter, may make him see +reason." Here Baloo rubbed his faded brown shoulder against the +panther, and they went off to look for Kaa, the Rock Python. + +They found him stretched out on a warm ledge in the afternoon sun, +admiring his beautiful new coat, for he had been in retirement for the +last ten days changing his skin, and now he was very splendid--darting +his big blunt-nosed head along the ground, and twisting the thirty feet +of his body into fantastic knots and curves, and licking his lips as he +thought of his dinner to come. + +"He has not eaten," said Baloo, with a grunt of relief, as soon as he +saw the beautifully mottled brown and yellow jacket. "Be careful, +Bagheera! He is always a little blind after he has changed his skin, and +very quick to strike." + +Kaa was not a poison snake--in fact he rather despised the Poison Snakes +for cowards; but his strength lay in his hug, and when he had once +lapped his huge coils round anybody there was no more to be said. "Good +hunting!" cried Baloo, sitting up on his haunches. Like all snakes of +his breed Kaa was rather deaf, and did not hear the call at first. Then +he curled up ready for any accident, his head lowered. + +"Good hunting for us all," he answered. "Oho, Baloo, what dost thou do +here? Good hunting, Bagheera. One of us at least needs food. Is there +any news of game afoot? A doe now, or even a young buck? I am as empty +as a dried well." + +"We are hunting," said Baloo, carelessly. He knew that you must not +hurry Kaa. He is too big. + +"Give me permission to come with you," said Kaa. "A blow more or less is +nothing to thee, Bagheera or Baloo, but I--I have to wait and wait for +days in a wood path and climb half a night on the mere chance of a young +ape. _Pss naw!_ The branches are not what they were when I was young. +Rotten twigs and dry boughs are they all." + +"Maybe thy great weight has something to do with the matter," said +Baloo. + +"I am a fair length--a fair length," said Kaa, with a little pride. "But +for all that, it is the fault of this new-grown timber. I came very near +to falling on my last hunt,--very near indeed,--and the noise of my +slipping, for my tail was not tight wrapped round the tree, waked the +Bandar-log, and they called me most evil names." + +"'Footless, yellow earthworm,'" said Bagheera under his whiskers, as +though he were trying to remember something. + +"_Sssss!_ Have they ever called me _that_?" said Kaa. + +"Something of that kind it was that they shouted to us last moon, but we +never noticed them. They will say anything--even that thou hast lost all +thy teeth, and dare not face anything bigger than a kid, because (they +are indeed shameless, these Bandar-log)--because thou art afraid of the +he-goats' horns," Bagheera went on sweetly. + +Now a snake, especially a wary old python like Kaa, very seldom shows +that he is angry; but Baloo and Bagheera could see the big swallowing +muscles on either side of Kaa's throat ripple and bulge. + +"The Bandar-log have shifted their grounds," he said, quietly. "When I +came up into the sun today I heard them whooping among the tree-tops." + +"It--it is the Bandar-log that we follow now," said Baloo; but the words +stuck in his throat, for this was the first time in his memory that one +of the Jungle People had owned to being interested in the doings of the +monkeys. + +"Beyond doubt, then, it is no small thing that takes two such +hunters--leaders in their own jungle, I am certain--on the trail of the +Bandar-log," Kaa replied, courteously, as he swelled with curiosity. + +"Indeed," Baloo began, "I am no more than the old, and sometimes very +foolish, Teacher of the Law to the Seeonee wolf-cubs, and Bagheera +here--" + +"Is Bagheera," said the Black Panther, and his jaws shut with a snap, +for he did not believe in being humble. "The trouble is this, Kaa. Those +nut-stealers and pickers of palm-leaves have stolen away our man-cub, of +whom thou hast perhaps heard." + +"I heard some news from Ikki (his quills make him presumptuous) of a +man-thing that was entered into a wolf-pack, but I did not believe. Ikki +is full of stories half heard and very badly told." + +"But it is true. He is such a man-cub as never was," said Baloo. "The +best and wisest and boldest of man-cubs. My own pupil, who shall make +the name of Baloo famous through all the jungles; and besides, +I--we--love him, Kaa." + +"_Ts! Ts!_" said Kaa, shaking his head to and fro. "I also have known +what love is. There are tales I could tell that--" + +"That need a clear night when we are all well fed to praise properly," +said Bagheera, quickly. "Our man-cub is in the hands of the Bandar-log +now, and we know that of all the Jungle People they fear Kaa alone." + +"They fear me alone. They have good reason," said Kaa. "Chattering, +foolish, vain--vain, foolish, and chattering--are the monkeys. But a +man-thing in their hands is in no good luck. They grow tired of the nuts +they pick, and throw them down. They carry a branch half a day, meaning +to do great things with it, and then they snap it in two. That manling +is not to be envied. They called me also--'yellow fish,' was it not?" + +"Worm--worm--earthworm," said Bagheera; "as well as other things which I +cannot now say for shame." + +"We must remind them to speak well of their master. _Aaa-sssh!_ We must +help their wandering memories. Now, whither went they with thy cub?" + +"The jungle alone knows. Toward the sunset, I believe," said Baloo. "We +had thought that thou wouldst know, Kaa." + +"I? How? I take them when they come in my way, but I do not hunt the +Bandar-log--or frogs--or green scum on a water-hole, for that matter." + +"Up, up! Up, up! _Hillo! Illo! Illo!_ Look up, Baloo of the Seeonee Wolf +Pack!" + +Baloo looked up to see where the voice came from, and there was Rann, +the Kite, sweeping down with the sun shining on the upturned flanges of +his wings. It was near Rann's bedtime, but he had ranged all over the +jungle looking for the bear, and missed him in the thick foliage. + +"What is it?" said Baloo. + +"I have seen Mowgli among the Bandar-log. He bade me tell you. I +watched. The Bandar-log have taken him beyond the river to the Monkey +City--to the Cold Lairs. They may stay there for a night, or ten nights, +or an hour. I have told the bats to watch through the dark time. That is +my message. Good hunting, all you below!" + +"Full gorge and a deep sleep to you, Rann!" cried Bagheera. "I will +remember thee in my next kill, and put aside the head for thee alone, O +best of kites!" + +"It is nothing. It is nothing. The boy held the Master Word. I could +have done no less," and Rann circled up again to his roost. + +"He has not forgotten to use his tongue," said Baloo, with a chuckle of +pride. "To think of one so young remembering the Master Word for the +birds while he was being pulled across trees!" + +"It was most firmly driven into him," said Bagheera. "But I am proud of +him, and now we must go to the Cold Lairs." + +They all knew where that place was, but few of the Jungle People ever +went there, because what they called the Cold Lairs was an old deserted +city, lost and buried in the jungle, and beasts seldom use a place that +men have once used. The wild boar will, but the hunting-tribes do not. +Besides, the monkeys lived there as much as they could be said to live +anywhere, and no self-respecting animal would come within eye-shot of it +except in times of drouth, when the half-ruined tanks and reservoirs +held a little water. + +"It is half a night's journey--at full speed," said Bagheera. Baloo +looked very serious. "I will go as fast as I can," he said, anxiously. + +"We dare not wait for thee. Follow, Baloo. We must go on the +quick-foot--Kaa and I." + +"Feet or no feet, I can keep abreast of all thy four," said Kaa, +shortly. + +Baloo made one effort to hurry, but had to sit down panting, and so they +left him to come on later, while Bagheera hurried forward, at the +rocking panther-canter. Kaa said nothing, but, strive as Bagheera might, +the huge Rock Python held level with him. When they came to a +hill-stream, Bagheera gained, because he bounded across while Kaa swam, +his head and two feet of his neck clearing the water, but on level +ground Kaa made up the distance. + +"By the Broken Lock that freed me," said Bagheera, when twilight had +fallen, "thou art no slow-goer." + +"I am hungry," said Kaa. "Besides, they called me speckled frog." + +"Worm--earthworm, and yellow to boot." + +"All one. Let us go on," and Kaa seemed to pour himself along the +ground, finding the shortest road with his steady eyes, and keeping to +it. + +In the Cold Lairs the Monkey People were not thinking of Mowgli's +friends at all. They had brought the boy to the Lost City, and were very +pleased with themselves for the time. Mowgli had never seen an Indian +city before, and though this was almost a heap of ruins it seemed very +wonderful and splendid. Some king had built it long ago on a little +hill. You could still trace the stone causeways that led up to the +ruined gates where the last splinters of wood hung to the worn, rusted +hinges. Trees had grown into and out of the walls; the battlements were +tumbled down and decayed, and wild creepers hung out of the windows of +the towers on the walls in bushy hanging clumps. + +A great roofless palace crowned the hill, and the marble of the +courtyards and the fountains was split and stained with red and green, +and the very cobblestones in the courtyard where the king's elephants +used to live had been thrust up and apart by grasses and young trees. +From the palace you could see the rows and rows of roofless houses that +made up the city, looking like empty honeycombs filled with blackness; +the shapeless block of stone that had been an idol in the square where +four roads met; the pits and dimples at street corners where the public +wells once stood, and the shattered domes of temples with wild figs +sprouting on their sides. + +The monkeys called the place their city, and pretended to despise the +Jungle People because they lived in the forest. And yet they never knew +what the buildings were made for nor how to use them. They would sit in +circles on the hall of the king's council-chamber, and scratch for fleas +and pretend to be men; or they would run in and out of the roofless +houses and collect pieces of plaster and old bricks in a corner, and +forget where they had hidden them, and fight and cry in scuffling +crowds, and then break off to play up and down the terraces of the +king's garden, where they would shake the rose-trees and the oranges in +sport to see the fruit and flowers fall. They explored all the passages +and dark tunnels in the palace and the hundreds of little dark rooms; +but they never remembered what they had seen and what they had not, and +so drifted about in ones and twos or crowds, telling one another that +they were doing as men did. They drank at the tanks and made the water +all muddy, and then they fought over it, and then they would all rush +together in mobs and shout: "There are none in the jungle so wise and +good and clever and strong and gentle as the Bandar-log." Then all would +begin again till they grew tired of the city and went back to the +tree-tops, hoping the Jungle People would notice them. + +Mowgli, who had been trained under the Law of the Jungle, did not like +or understand this kind of life. The monkeys dragged him into the Cold +Lairs late in the afternoon, and instead of going to sleep, as Mowgli +would have done after a long journey, they joined hands and danced about +and sang their foolish songs. + +One of the monkeys made a speech, and told his companions that Mowgli's +capture marked a new thing in the history of the Bandar-log, for Mowgli +was going to show them how to weave sticks and canes together as a +protection against rain and cold. Mowgli picked up some creepers and +began to work them in and out, and the monkeys tried to imitate; but in +a very few minutes they lost interest and began to pull their friends' +tails or jump up and down on all fours, coughing. + +"I want to eat," said Mowgli. "I am a stranger in this part of the +jungle. Bring me food, or give me leave to hunt here." + +Twenty or thirty monkeys bounded away to bring him nuts and wild +pawpaws; but they fell to fighting on the road, and it was too much +trouble to go back with what was left of the fruit. Mowgli was sore and +angry as well as hungry, and he roamed through the empty city giving the +Strangers' Hunting Call from time to time, but no one answered him, and +Mowgli felt that he had reached a very bad place indeed. + +"All that Baloo has said about the Bandar-log is true," he thought to +himself. "They have no Law, no Hunting Call, and no leaders--nothing but +foolish words and little picking, thievish hands. So if I am starved or +killed here, it will be all my own fault. But I must try to return to my +own jungle. Baloo will surely beat me, but that is better than chasing +silly rose-leaves with the Bandar-log." + +But no sooner had he walked to the city wall than the monkeys pulled him +back, telling him that he did not know how happy he was, and pinching +him to make him grateful. He set his teeth and said nothing, but went +with the shouting monkeys to a terrace above the red sandstone +reservoirs that were half full of rain-water. There was a ruined +summer-house of white marble in the center of the terrace, built for +queens dead a hundred years ago. The domed roof had half fallen in and +blocked up the underground passage from the palace by which the queens +used to enter; but the walls were made of screens of marble +tracery--beautiful, milk-white fretwork, set with agates and cornelians +and jasper and lapis lazuli, and as the moon came up behind the hill it +shone through the openwork, casting shadows on the ground like +black-velvet embroidery. + +Sore, sleepy, and hungry as he was, Mowgli could not help laughing when +the Bandar-log began, twenty at a time, to tell him how great and wise +and strong and gentle they were, and how foolish he was to wish to leave +them. "We are great. We are free. We are wonderful. We are the most +wonderful people in all the jungle! We all say so, and so it must be +true," they shouted. "Now as you are a new listener and can carry our +words back to the Jungle People so that they may notice us in future, we +will tell you all about our most excellent selves." + +Mowgli made no objection, and the monkeys gathered by hundreds and +hundreds on the terrace to listen to their own speakers singing the +praises of the Bandar-log, and whenever a speaker stopped for want of +breath they would all shout together: "This is true; we all say so." + +Mowgli nodded and blinked, and said "Yes" when they asked him a +question, and his head spun with the noise. "Tabaqui, the Jackal, must +have bitten all these people," he said to himself, "and now they have +the madness. Certainly this is _dewance_--the madness. Do they never go +to sleep? Now there is a cloud coming to cover that moon. If it were +only a big enough cloud I might try to run away in the darkness. But I +am tired." + +That same cloud was being watched by two good friends in the ruined +ditch below the city wall, for Bagheera and Kaa, knowing well how +dangerous the Monkey People were in large numbers, did not wish to run +any risks. The monkeys never fight unless they are a hundred to one, and +few in the jungle care for those odds. + +"I will go to the west wall," Kaa whispered, "and come down swiftly with +the slope of the ground in my favor. They will not throw themselves upon +_my_ back in their hundreds, but--" + +"I know it," said Bagheera. "Would that Baloo were here; but we must do +what we can. When that cloud covers the moon I shall go to the terrace. +They hold some sort of council there over the boy." + +"Good hunting," said Kaa, grimly, and glided away to the west wall. That +happened to be the least ruined of any, and the big snake was delayed a +while before he could find a way up the stones. + +The cloud hid the moon, and as Mowgli wondered what would come next he +heard Bagheera's light feet on the terrace. The Black Panther had raced +up the slope almost without a sound, and was striking--he knew better +than to waste time in biting--right and left among the monkeys, who were +seated round Mowgli in circles fifty and sixty deep. There was a howl of +fright and rage, and then as Bagheera tripped on the rolling, kicking +bodies beneath him, a monkey shouted: "There is only one here! Kill him! +Kill!" A scuffling mass of monkeys, biting, scratching, tearing, and +pulling, closed over Bagheera, while five or six laid hold of Mowgli, +dragged him up the wall of the summer-house, and pushed him through the +hole of the broken dome. A man-trained boy would have been badly +bruised, for the fall was a good ten feet, but Mowgli fell as Baloo had +taught him to fall, and landed light. + +"Stay there," shouted the monkeys, "till we have killed thy friend. +Later we will play with thee, if the Poison People leave thee alive." + +"We be of one blood, ye and I," said Mowgli, quickly giving the Snake's +Call. He could hear rustling and hissing in the rubbish all round him, +and gave the Call a second time to make sure. + +"Down hoods all," said half a dozen low voices. Every old ruin in India +becomes sooner or later a dwelling-place of snakes, and the old +summer-house was alive with cobras. "Stand still, Little Brother, lest +thy feet do us harm." + +Mowgli stood as quietly as he could, peering through the openwork and +listening to the furious din of the fight round the Black Panther--the +yells and chatterings and scufflings, and Bagheera's deep, hoarse cough +as he backed and bucked and twisted and plunged under the heaps of his +enemies. For the first time since he was born, Bagheera was fighting for +his life. + +"Baloo must be at hand; Bagheera would not have come alone," Mowgli +thought; and then he called aloud: "To the tank, Bagheera! Roll to the +water-tanks! Roll and plunge! Get to the water!" + +Bagheera heard, and the cry that told him Mowgli was safe gave him new +courage. He worked his way desperately, inch by inch, straight for the +reservoirs, hitting in silence. + +Then from the ruined wall nearest the jungle rose up the rumbling +war-shout of Baloo. The old bear had done his best, but he could not +come before. "Bagheera," he shouted, "I am here! I climb! I haste! +_Ahuwora!_ The stones slip under my feet! Wait my coming, O most +infamous Bandar log!" + +He panted up the terrace only to disappear to the head in a wave of +monkeys, but he threw himself squarely on his haunches, and spreading +out his fore paws, hugged as many as he could hold, and then began to +hit with a regular _bat-bat-bat_, like the flipping strokes of a +paddle-wheel. + +A crash and a splash told Mowgli that Bagheera had fought his way to the +tank, where the monkeys could not follow. The panther lay gasping for +breath, his head just out of water, while the monkeys stood three deep +on the red stone steps, dancing up and down with rage, ready to spring +upon him from all sides if he came out to help Baloo. It was then that +Bagheera lifted up his dripping chin, and in despair gave the Snake's +Call for protection,--"We be of one blood, ye and I,"--for he believed +that Kaa had turned tail at the last minute. Even Baloo, half smothered +under the monkeys on the edge of the terrace, could not help chuckling +as he heard the big Black Panther asking for help. + +Kaa had only just worked his way over the west wall, landing with a +wrench that dislodged a coping-stone into the ditch. He had no intention +of losing any advantage of the ground, and coiled and uncoiled himself +once or twice, to be sure that every foot of his long body was in +working order. + +All that while the fight with Baloo went on, and the monkeys yelled in +the tank round Bagheera, and Mang, the Bat, flying to and fro, carried +the news of the great battle over the jungle, till even Hathi, the Wild +Elephant, trumpeted, and, far away, scattered bands of the Monkey Folk +woke and came leaping along the tree-roads to help their comrades in the +Cold Lairs, and the noise of the fight roused all the day-birds for +miles round. + +Then Kaa came straight, quickly, and anxious to kill. The fighting +strength of a python is in the driving blow of his head, backed by all +the strength and weight of his body. If you can imagine a lance, or a +battering-ram, or a hammer, weighing nearly half a ton driven by a cool, +quiet mind living in the handle of it, you can imagine roughly what Kaa +was like when he fought. A python four or five feet long can knock a man +down if he hits him fairly in the chest, and Kaa was thirty feet long, +as you know. His first stroke was delivered into the heart of the crowd +round Baloo--was sent home with shut mouth in silence, and there was no +need of a second. The monkeys scattered with cries of "Kaa! It is Kaa! +Run! Run!" + +Generations of monkeys had been scared into good behavior by the stories +their elders told them of Kaa, the night-thief, who could slip along the +branches as quietly as moss grows, and steal away the strongest monkey +that ever lived; of old Kaa, who could make himself look so like a dead +branch or a rotten stump that the wisest were deceived till the branch +caught them, and then-- + +Kaa was everything that the monkeys feared in the jungle, for none of +them knew the limits of his power, none of them could look him in the +face, and none had ever come alive out of his hug. And so they ran, +stammering with terror, to the walls and the roofs of the houses, and +Baloo drew a deep breath of relief. His fur was much thicker than +Bagheera's, but he had suffered sorely in the fight. Then Kaa opened his +mouth for the first time and spoke one long hissing word, and the +far-away monkeys, hurrying to the defense of the Cold Lairs, stayed +where they were, cowering, till the loaded branches bent and crackled +under them. The monkeys on the walls and the empty houses stopped their +cries, and in the stillness that fell upon the city Mowgli heard +Bagheera shaking his wet sides as he came up from the tank. + +Then the clamor broke out again. The monkeys leaped higher up the walls; +they clung round the necks of the big stone idols and shrieked as they +skipped along the battlements; while Mowgli, dancing in the +summer-house, put his eye to the screenwork and hooted owl-fashion +between his front teeth, to show his derision and contempt. + +"Get the man-cub out of that trap; I can do no more," Bagheera gasped. +"Let us take the man-cub and go. They may attack again." + +"They will not move till I order them. Stay you sssso!" Kaa hissed, and +the city was silent once more. "I could not come before, Brother, but I +_think_ I heard thee call"--this was to Bagheera. + +"I--I may have cried out in the battle," Bagheera answered. "Baloo, art +thou hurt?" + +"I am not sure that they have not pulled me into a hundred little +bearlings," said Baloo, gravely shaking one leg after the other. "Wow! I +am sore. Kaa, we owe thee, I think, our lives--Bagheera and I." + +"No matter. Where is the manling?" + +"Here, in a trap. I cannot climb out," cried Mowgli. The curve of the +broken dome was above his head. + +"Take him away. He dances like Mao, the Peacock. He will crush our +young," said the cobras inside. + +"Hah!" said Kaa, with a chuckle, "he has friends everywhere, this +manling. Stand back, Manling; and hide you, O Poison People. I break +down the wall." + +Kaa looked carefully till he found a discolored crack in the marble +tracery showing a weak spot, made two or three light taps with his head +to get the distance, and then lifting up six feet of his body clear of +the ground, sent home half a dozen full-power, smashing blows, +nose-first. The screenwork broke and fell away in a cloud of dust and +rubbish, and Mowgli leaped through the opening and flung himself between +Baloo and Bagheera--an arm round each big neck. + +"Art thou hurt?" said Baloo, hugging him softly. + +"I am sore, hungry, and not a little bruised; but, oh, they have handled +ye grievously, my Brothers! Ye bleed." + +"Others also," said Bagheera, licking his lips and looking at the +monkey-dead on the terrace and round the tank. + +"It is nothing, it is nothing if thou art safe, O my pride of all little +frogs!" whimpered Baloo. + +"Of that we shall judge later," said Bagheera, in a dry voice that +Mowgli did not at all like. "But here is Kaa, to whom we owe the battle +and thou owest thy life. Thank him according to our customs, Mowgli." + +Mowgli turned and saw the great python's head swaying a foot above his +own. + +"So this is the manling," said Kaa. "Very soft is his skin, and he is +not so unlike the Bandar-log. Have a care, Manling, that I do not +mistake thee for a monkey some twilight when I have newly changed my +coat." + +"We be of one blood, thou and I," Mowgli answered. "I take my life from +thee, to-night. My kill shall be thy kill if ever thou art hungry, O +Kaa." + +"All thanks, Little Brother," said Kaa, though his eyes twinkled. "And +what may so bold a hunter kill? I ask that I may follow when next he +goes abroad." + +"I kill nothing,--I am too little,--but I drive goats toward such as can +use them. When thou art empty come to me and see if I speak the truth. I +have some skill in these [he held out his hands], and if ever thou art +in a trap, I may pay the debt which I owe to thee, to Bagheera, and to +Baloo, here. Good hunting to ye all, my masters." + +"Well said," growled Baloo, for Mowgli had returned thanks very +prettily. The python dropped his head lightly for a minute on Mowgli's +shoulder. "A brave heart and a courteous tongue," said he. "They shall +carry thee far through the jungle, Manling. But now go hence quickly +with thy friends. Go and sleep, for the moon sets, and what follows it +is not well that thou shouldst see." + +The moon was sinking behind the hills and the lines of trembling monkeys +huddled together on the walls and battlements looked like ragged, shaky +fringes of things. Baloo went down to the tank for a drink, and Bagheera +began to put his fur in order, as Kaa glided out into the center of the +terrace and brought his jaws together with a ringing snap that drew all +the monkeys' eyes upon him. + +"The moon sets," he said. "Is there yet light to see?" + +From the walls came a moan like the wind in the tree-tops: "We see, O +Kaa!" + +"Good! Begins now the Dance--the Dance of the Hunger of Kaa. Sit still +and watch." + +He turned twice or thrice in a big circle, weaving his head from right +to left. Then he began making loops and figures of eight with his body, +and soft, oozy triangles that melted into squares and five-sided +figures, and coiled mounds, never resting, never hurrying, and never +stopping his low, humming song. It grew darker and darker, till at last +the dragging, shifting coils disappeared, but they could hear the rustle +of the scales. + +Baloo and Bagheera stood still as stone, growling in their throats, +their neck-hair bristling, and Mowgli watched and wondered. + +"Bandar-log," said the voice of Kaa at last, "can ye stir foot or hand +without my order? Speak!" + +"Without thy order we cannot stir foot or hand, O Kaa!" + +"Good! Come all one pace nearer to me." + +The lines of the monkeys swayed forward helplessly, and Baloo and +Bagheera took one stiff step forward with them. + +"Nearer!" hissed Kaa, and they all moved again. + +Mowgli laid his hands on Baloo and Bagheera to get them away, and the +two great beasts started as though they had been waked from a dream. + +"Keep thy hand on my shoulder," Bagheera whispered. "Keep it there, or I +must go back--must go back to Kaa. _Aah!_" + +"It is only old Kaa making circles on the dust," said Mowgli; "let us +go"; and the three slipped off through a gap in the walls to the jungle. + +"_Whoof!_" said Baloo, when he stood under the still trees again. "Never +more will I make an ally of Kaa," and he shook himself all over. + +"He knows more than we," said Bagheera, trembling. "In a little time, +had I stayed, I should have walked down his throat." + +"Many will walk that road before the moon rises again," said Baloo. "He +will have good hunting--after his own fashion." + +"But what was the meaning of it all?" said Mowgli, who did not know +anything of a python's powers of fascination. "I saw no more than a big +snake making foolish circles till the dark came. And his nose was all +sore. Ho! Ho!" + +"Mowgli," said Bagheera, angrily, "his nose was sore on _thy_ account; +as my ears and sides and paws, and Baloo's neck and shoulders are bitten +on _thy_ account. Neither Baloo nor Bagheera will be able to hunt with +pleasure for many days." + +"It is nothing," said Baloo; "we have the man-cub again." + +"True; but he has cost us most heavily in time which might have been +spent in good hunting, in wounds, in hair,--I am half plucked along my +back,--and last of all, in honor. For, remember, Mowgli, I, who am the +Black Panther, was forced to call upon Kaa for protection, and Baloo and +I were both made stupid as little birds by the Hunger-Dance. All this, +Man-cub, came of thy playing with the Bandar-log." + +"True; it is true," said Mowgli, sorrowfully. "I am an evil man-cub, and +my stomach is sad in me." + +"_Mf!_ What says the Law of the Jungle, Baloo?" + +Baloo did not wish to bring Mowgli into any more trouble, but he could +not tamper with the Law, so he mumbled, "Sorrow never stays punishment. +But remember, Bagheera, he is very little." + +"I will remember; but he has done mischief; and blows must be dealt now. +Mowgli, hast thou anything to say?" + +"Nothing. I did wrong. Baloo and thou art wounded. It is just." + +Bagheera gave him half a dozen love-taps; from a panther's point of view +they would hardly have waked one of his own cubs, but for a seven +year-old boy they amounted to as severe a beating as you could wish to +avoid. When it was all over Mowgli sneezed, and picked himself up +without a word. + +"Now," said Bagheera, "jump on my back, Little Brother, and we will go +home." + +One of the beauties of Jungle Law is that punishment settles all scores. +There is no nagging afterward. + +Mowgli laid his head down on Bagheera's back and slept so deeply that he +never waked when he was put down by Mother Wolf's side in the +home-cave. + + + ROAD-SONG OF THE BANDAR-LOG + + Here we go in a flung festoon, + Half-way up to the jealous moon! + Don't you envy our pranceful bands? + Don't you wish you had extra hands? + Wouldn't you like if your tails were--_so_-- + Curved in the shape of a Cupid's bow? + Now you're angry, but--never mind, + _Brother, thy tail hangs down behind_! + + Here we sit in a branchy row, + Thinking of beautiful things we know; + Dreaming of deeds that we mean to do, + All complete, in a minute or two-- + Something noble and grand and good, + Won by merely wishing we could. + Now we're going to--never mind, + _Brother, thy tail hangs down behind_! + + All the talk we ever have heard + Uttered by bat or beast or bird-- + Hide or fin or scale or feather-- + Jabber it quickly and all together! + Excellent! Wonderful! Once again! + Now we are talking just like men. + Let's pretend we are ... never mind, + _Brother, thy tail hangs down behind_! + This is the way of the Monkey-kind. + + _Then join our leaping lines that scumfish through + the pines, + That rocket by where, light and high, the wild-grape + swings. + By the rubbish in our wake, and the noble noise we + make, + Be sure, be sure, we're going to do some splendid + things!_ + + + + + "TIGER! TIGER!" + + + What of the hunting, hunter bold? + _Brother, the watch was long and cold._ + What of the quarry ye went to kill? + _Brother, he crops in the jungle still._ + Where is the power that made your pride? + _Brother, it ebbs from my flank and side._ + Where is the haste that ye hurry by? + _Brother, I go to my lair--to die._ + + + [Illustration] + + "TIGER! TIGER!" + + +NOW we must go back to the last tale but one. When Mowgli left the +wolf's cave after the fight with the Pack at the Council Rock, he went +down to the plowed lands where the villagers lived, but he would not +stop there because it was too near to the jungle, and he knew that he +had made at least one bad enemy at the Council. So he hurried on, +keeping to the rough road that ran down the valley, and followed it at a +steady jog-trot for nearly twenty miles, till he came to a country that +he did not know. The valley opened out into a great plain dotted over +with rocks and cut up by ravines. At one end stood a little village, and +at the other the thick jungle came down in a sweep to the +grazing-grounds, and stopped there as though it had been cut off with a +hoe. All over the plain, cattle and buffaloes were grazing, and when the +little boys in charge of the herds saw Mowgli they shouted and ran away, +and the yellow pariah dogs that hang about every Indian village barked. +Mowgli walked on, for he was feeling hungry, and when he came to the +village gate he saw the big thorn-bush that was drawn up before the gate +at twilight, pushed to one side. + +"Umph!" he said, for he had come across more than one such barricade in +his night rambles after things to eat. "So men are afraid of the People +of the Jungle here also." He sat down by the gate, and when a man came +out he stood up, opened his mouth, and pointed down it to show that he +wanted food. The man stared, and ran back up the one street of the +village shouting for the priest, who was a big, fat man dressed in +white, with a red and yellow mark on his forehead. The priest came to +the gate, and with him at least a hundred people, who stared and talked +and shouted and pointed at Mowgli. + +"They have no manners, these Men Folk," said Mowgli to himself. "Only +the gray ape would behave as they do." So he threw back his long hair +and frowned at the crowd. + +"What is there to be afraid of?" said the priest. "Look at the marks on +his arms and legs. They are the bites of wolves. He is but a wolf-child +run away from the jungle." + +Of course, in playing together, the cubs had often nipped Mowgli harder +than they intended, and there were white scars all over his arms and +legs. But he would have been the last person in the world to call these +bites; for he knew what real biting meant. + +"_Arr! Arr!_" said two or three women together. "To be bitten by +wolves, poor child! He is a handsome boy. He has eyes like red fire. By +my honor, Messua, he is not unlike thy boy that was taken by the tiger." + +"Let me look," said a woman with heavy copper rings on her wrists and +ankles, and she peered at Mowgli under the palm of her hand. "Indeed he +is not. He is thinner, but he has the very look of my boy." + +The priest was a clever man, and he knew that Messua was wife to the +richest villager in the place. So he looked up at the sky for a minute, +and said solemnly: "What the jungle has taken the jungle has restored. +Take the boy into thy house, my sister, and forget not to honor the +priest who sees so far into the lives of men." + +"By the Bull that bought me," said Mowgli to himself, "but all this +talking is like another looking-over by the Pack! Well, if I am a man, a +man I must become." + +The crowd parted as the woman beckoned Mowgli to her hut, where there +was a red lacquered bedstead, a great earthen grain-chest with curious +raised patterns on it, half a dozen copper cooking-pots, an image of a +Hindu god in a little alcove, and on the wall a real looking-glass, such +as they sell at the country fairs. + +She gave him a long drink of milk and some bread, and then she laid her +hand on his head and looked into his eyes; for she thought perhaps that +he might be her real son come back from the jungle where the tiger had +taken him. So she said: "Nathoo, O Nathoo!" Mowgli did not show that he +knew the name. "Dost thou not remember the day when I gave thee thy new +shoes?" She touched his foot, and it was almost as hard as horn. "No," +she said, sorrowfully; "those feet have never worn shoes, but thou art +very like my Nathoo, and thou shalt be my son." + +Mowgli was uneasy, because he had never been under a roof before; but +as he looked at the thatch, he saw that he could tear it out any time if +he wanted to get away, and that the window had no fastenings. "What is +the good of a man," he said to himself at last, "if he does not +understand man's talk? Now I am as silly and dumb as a man would be with +us in the jungle. I must learn their talk." + +It was not for fun that he had learned while he was with the wolves to +imitate the challenge of bucks in the jungle and the grunt of the little +wild pig. So as soon as Messua pronounced a word Mowgli would imitate it +almost perfectly, and before dark he had learned the names of many +things in the hut. + +There was a difficulty at bedtime, because Mowgli would not sleep under +anything that looked so like a panther-trap as that hut, and when they +shut the door he went through the window. "Give him his will," said +Messua's husband. "Remember he can never till now have slept on a bed. +If he is indeed sent in the place of our son he will not run away." + +So Mowgli stretched himself in some long, clean grass at the edge of the +field, but before he had closed his eyes a soft gray nose poked him +under the chin. + +"Phew!" said Gray Brother (he was the eldest of Mother Wolf's cubs). +"This is a poor reward for following thee twenty miles. Thou smellest of +wood-smoke and cattle--altogether like a man already. Wake, Little +Brother; I bring news." + + [Illustration: "'WAKE, LITTLE BROTHER; I BRING NEWS.'"] + +"Are all well in the jungle?" said Mowgli, hugging him. + +"All except the wolves that were burned with the Red Flower. Now, +listen. Shere Khan has gone away to hunt far off till his coat grows +again, for he is badly singed. When he returns he swears that he will +lay thy bones in the Waingunga." + +"There are two words to that. I also have made a little promise. But +news is always good. I am tired to-night,--very tired with new things, +Gray Brother,--but bring me the news always." + +"Thou wilt not forget that thou art a wolf? Men will not make thee +forget?" said Gray Brother, anxiously. + +"Never. I will always remember that I love thee and all in our cave; but +also I will always remember that I have been cast out of the Pack." + +"And that thou mayest be cast out of another pack. Men are only men, +Little Brother, and their talk is like the talk of frogs in a pond. +When I come down here again, I will wait for thee in the bamboos at the +edge of the grazing-ground." + +For three months after that night Mowgli hardly ever left the village +gate, he was so busy learning the ways and customs of men. First he had +to wear a cloth round him, which annoyed him horribly; and then he had +to learn about money, which he did not in the least understand, and +about plowing, of which he did not see the use. Then the little children +in the village made him very angry. Luckily, the Law of the Jungle had +taught him to keep his temper, for in the jungle, life and food depend +on keeping your temper; but when they made fun of him because he would +not play games or fly kites, or because he mispronounced some word, only +the knowledge that it was unsportsmanlike to kill little naked cubs kept +him from picking them up and breaking them in two. + +He did not know his own strength in the least. In the jungle he knew he +was weak compared with the beasts, but in the village, people said he +was as strong as a bull. + +And Mowgli had not the faintest idea of the difference that caste makes +between man and man. When the potter's donkey slipped in the clay-pit, +Mowgli hauled it out by the tail, and helped to stack the pots for their +journey to the market at Khanhiwara. That was very shocking, too, for +the potter is a low-caste man, and his donkey is worse. When the priest +scolded him, Mowgli threatened to put him on the donkey, too, and the +priest told Messua's husband that Mowgli had better be set to work as +soon as possible; and the village head-man told Mowgli that he would +have to go out with the buffaloes next day, and herd them while they +grazed. No one was more pleased than Mowgli; and that night, because he +had been appointed a servant of the village, as it were, he went off to +a circle that met every evening on a masonry platform under a great +fig-tree. It was the village club, and the head-man and the watchman and +the barber (who knew all the gossip of the village), and old Buldeo, the +village hunter, who had a Tower musket, met and smoked. The monkeys sat +and talked in the upper branches, and there was a hole under the +platform where a cobra lived, and he had his little platter of milk +every night because he was sacred; and the old men sat around the tree +and talked, and pulled at the big _huqas_ (the water-pipes) till far +into the night. They told wonderful tales of gods and men and ghosts; +and Buldeo told even more wonderful ones of the ways of beasts in the +jungle, till the eyes of the children sitting outside the circle bulged +out of their heads. Most of the tales were about animals, for the jungle +was always at their door. The deer and the wild pig grubbed up their +crops, and now and again the tiger carried off a man at twilight, within +sight of the village gates. + +Mowgli, who naturally knew something about what they were talking of, +had to cover his face not to show that he was laughing, while Buldeo, +the Tower musket across his knees, climbed on from one wonderful story +to another, and Mowgli's shoulders shook. + +Buldeo was explaining how the tiger that had carried away Messua's son +was a ghost-tiger, and his body was inhabited by the ghost of a wicked +old money-lender, who had died some years ago. "And I know that this is +true," he said, "because Purun Dass always limped from the blow that he +got in a riot when his account-books were burned, and the tiger that I +speak of _he_ limps, too, for the tracks of his pads are unequal." + +"True, true; that must be the truth," said the graybeards, nodding +together. + +"Are all these tales such cobwebs and moon-talk?" said Mowgli. "That +tiger limps because he was born lame, as every one knows. To talk of the +soul of a money-lender in a beast that never had the courage of a jackal +is child's talk." + + [Illustration: "'ARE ALL THESE TALES SUCH COBWEBS AND MOONTALK?' SAID + MOWGLI."] + +Buldeo was speechless with surprise for a moment, and the head-man +stared. + +"Oho! It is the jungle brat, is it?" said Buldeo. "If thou art so wise, +better bring his hide to Khanhiwara, for the Government has set a +hundred rupees [$30] on his life. Better still, do not talk when thy +elders speak." + +Mowgli rose to go. "All the evening I have lain here listening," he +called back over his shoulder, "and, except once or twice, Buldeo has +not said one word of truth concerning the jungle, which is at his very +doors. How, then, shall I believe the tales of ghosts and gods and +goblins which he says he has seen?" + +"It is full time that boy went to herding," said the head-man, while +Buldeo puffed and snorted at Mowgli's impertinence. + +The custom of most Indian villages is for a few boys to take the cattle +and buffaloes out to graze in the early morning, and bring them back at +night; and the very cattle that would trample a white man to death allow +themselves to be banged and bullied and shouted at by children that +hardly come up to their noses. So long as the boys keep with the herds +they are safe, for not even the tiger will charge a mob of cattle. But +if they straggle to pick flowers or hunt lizards, they are sometimes +carried off. Mowgli went through the village street in the dawn, sitting +on the back of Rama, the great herd bull; and the slaty-blue buffaloes, +with their long, backward-sweeping horns and savage eyes, rose out of +their byres, one by one, and followed him, and Mowgli made it very clear +to the children with him that he was the master. He beat the buffaloes +with a long, polished bamboo, and told Kamya, one of the boys, to graze +the cattle by themselves, while he went on with the buffaloes, and to be +very careful not to stray away from the herd. + +An Indian grazing-ground is all rocks and scrub and tussocks and little +ravines, among which the herds scatter and disappear. The buffaloes +generally keep to the pools and muddy places, where they lie wallowing +or basking in the warm mud for hours. Mowgli drove them on to the edge +of the plain where the Waingunga River came out of the jungle; then he +dropped from Rama's neck, trotted off to a bamboo clump, and found Gray +Brother. "Ah," said Gray Brother, "I have waited here very many days. +What is the meaning of this cattle-herding work?" + +"It is an order," said Mowgli. "I am a village herd for a while. What +news of Shere Khan?" + +"He has come back to this country, and has waited here a long time for +thee. Now he has gone off again, for the game is scarce. But he means to +kill thee." + +"Very good," said Mowgli. "So long as he is away do thou or one of the +brothers sit on that rock, so that I can see thee as I come out of the +village. When he comes back wait for me in the ravine by the _dhk_-tree +in the center of the plain. We need not walk into Shere Khan's mouth." + +Then Mowgli picked out a shady place, and lay down and slept while the +buffaloes grazed round him. Herding in India is one of the laziest +things in the world. The cattle move and crunch, and lie down, and move +on again, and they do not even low. They only grunt, and the buffaloes +very seldom say anything, but get down into the muddy pools one after +another, and work their way into the mud till only their noses and +staring china-blue eyes show above the surface, and there they lie like +logs. The sun makes the rocks dance in the heat, and the herd-children +hear one kite (never any more) whistling almost out of sight overhead, +and they know that if they died, or a cow died, that kite would sweep +down, and the next kite miles away would see him drop and follow, and +the next, and the next, and almost before they were dead there would be +a score of hungry kites come out of nowhere. Then they sleep and wake +and sleep again, and weave little baskets of dried grass and put +grasshoppers in them; or catch two praying-mantises and make them fight; +or string a necklace of red and black jungle-nuts; or watch a lizard +basking on a rock, or a snake hunting a frog near the wallows. Then they +sing long, long songs with odd native quavers at the end of them, and +the day seems longer than most people's whole lives, and perhaps they +make a mud castle with mud figures of men and horses and buffaloes, and +put reeds into the men's hands, and pretend that they are kings and the +figures are their armies, or that they are gods to be worshiped. Then +evening comes, and the children call, and the buffaloes lumber up out of +the sticky mud with noises like gunshots going off one after the other, +and they all string across the gray plain back to the twinkling village +lights. + +Day after day Mowgli would lead the buffaloes out to their wallows, and +day after day he would see Gray Brother's back a mile and a half away +across the plain (so he knew that Shere Khan had not come back), and day +after day he would lie on the grass listening to the noise round him, +and dreaming of old days in the jungle. If Shere Khan had made a false +step with his lame paw up in the jungles by the Waingunga, Mowgli would +have heard him in those long still mornings. + +[Illustration] + +At last a day came when he did not see Gray Brother at the signal +place, and he laughed and headed the buffaloes for the ravine by the +_dhk_-tree, which was all covered with golden-red flowers. There sat +Gray Brother, every bristle on his back lifted. + +"He has hidden for a month to throw thee off thy guard. He crossed the +ranges last night with Tabaqui, hot-foot on thy trail," said the wolf, +panting. + +Mowgli frowned. "I am not afraid of Shere Khan, but Tabaqui is very +cunning." + +"Have no fear," said Gray Brother, licking his lips a little. "I met +Tabaqui in the dawn. Now he is telling all his wisdom to the kites, but +he told _me_ everything before I broke his back. Shere Khan's plan is to +wait for thee at the village gate this evening--for thee and for no one +else. He is lying up now in the big dry ravine of the Waingunga." + +"Has he eaten to-day, or does he hunt empty?" said Mowgli, for the +answer meant life or death to him. + +"He killed at dawn,--a pig,--and he has drunk too. Remember, Shere Khan +could never fast even for the sake of revenge." + +"Oh! Fool, fool! What a cub's cub it is! Eaten and drunk too, and he +thinks that I shall wait till he has slept! Now, where does he lie up? +If there were but ten of us we might pull him down as he lies. These +buffaloes will not charge unless they wind him, and I cannot speak their +language. Can we get behind his track so that they may smell it?" + +"He swam far down the Waingunga to cut that off," said Gray Brother. + +"Tabaqui told him that, I know. He would never have thought of it +alone." Mowgli stood with his finger in his mouth, thinking. "The big +ravine of the Waingunga. That opens out on the plain not half a mile +from here. I can take the herd round through the jungle to the head of +the ravine and then sweep down--but he would slink out at the foot. We +must block that end. Gray Brother, canst thou cut the herd in two for +me?" + +"Not I, perhaps--but I have brought a wise helper." Gray Brother trotted +off and dropped into a hole. Then there lifted up a huge gray head that +Mowgli knew well, and the hot air was filled with the most desolate cry +of all the jungle--the hunting-howl of a wolf at midday. + +"Akela! Akela!" said Mowgli, clapping his hands. "I might have known +that thou wouldst not forget me. We have a big work in hand. Cut the +herd in two, Akela. Keep the cows and calves together, and the bulls +and the plow-buffaloes by themselves." + +The two wolves ran, ladies'-chain fashion, in and out of the herd, which +snorted and threw up its head, and separated into two clumps. In one the +cow-buffaloes stood, with their calves in the center, and glared and +pawed, ready, if a wolf would only stay still, to charge down and +trample the life out of him. In the other the bulls and the young bulls +snorted and stamped; but, though they looked more imposing, they were +much less dangerous, for they had no calves to protect. No six men could +have divided the herd so neatly. + +"What orders!" panted Akela. "They are trying to join again." + +Mowgli slipped on to Rama's back. "Drive the bulls away to the left, +Akela. Gray Brother, when we are gone hold the cows together, and drive +them into the foot of the ravine." + +"How far?" said Gray Brother, panting and snapping. + +"Till the sides are higher than Shere Khan can jump," shouted Mowgli. +"Keep them there till we come down." The bulls swept off as Akela bayed, +and Gray Brother stopped in front of the cows. They charged down on him, +and he ran just before them to the foot of the ravine, as Akela drove +the bulls far to the left. + +"Well done! Another charge and they are fairly started. Careful, +now--careful, Akela. A snap too much, and the bulls will charge. +_Hujah!_ This is wilder work than driving black-buck. Didst thou think +these creatures could move so swiftly?" Mowgli called. + +"I have--have hunted these too in my time," gasped Akela in the dust. +"Shall I turn them into the jungle?" + +"Ay, turn! Swiftly turn them. Rama is mad with rage. Oh, if I could only +tell him what I need of him to-day!" + +The bulls were turned to the right this time, and crashed into the +standing thicket. The other herd-children, watching with the cattle half +a mile away, hurried to the village as fast as their legs could carry +them, crying that the buffaloes had gone mad and run away. + +But Mowgli's plan was simple enough. All he wanted to do was to make a +big circle uphill and get at the head of the ravine, and then take the +bulls down it and catch Shere Khan between the bulls and the cows, for +he knew that after a meal and a full drink Shere Khan would not be in +any condition to fight or to clamber up the sides of the ravine. He was +soothing the buffaloes now by voice, and Akela had dropped far to the +rear, only whimpering once or twice to hurry the rear-guard. It was a +long, long circle, for they did not wish to get too near the ravine and +give Shere Khan warning. At last Mowgli rounded up the bewildered herd +at the head of the ravine on a grassy patch that sloped steeply down to +the ravine itself. From that height you could see across the tops of the +trees down to the plain below; but what Mowgli looked at was the sides +of the ravine, and he saw with a great deal of satisfaction that they +ran nearly straight up and down, and the vines and creepers that hung +over them would give no foothold to a tiger who wanted to get out. + +"Let them breathe, Akela," he said, holding up his hand. "They have not +winded him yet. Let them breathe. I must tell Shere Khan who comes. We +have him in the trap." + +He put his hands to his mouth and shouted down the ravine,--it was +almost like shouting down a tunnel,--and the echoes jumped from rock to +rock. + +After a long time there came back the drawling, sleepy snarl of a +full-fed tiger just awakened. + +"Who calls?" said Shere Khan, and a splendid peacock fluttered up out of +the ravine, screeching. + +"I, Mowgli. Cattle-thief, it is time to come to the Council Rock! +Down--hurry them down, Akela. Down, Rama, down!" + +The herd paused for an instant at the edge of the slope, but Akela gave +tongue in the full hunting-yell, and they pitched over one after the +other just as steamers shoot rapids, the sand and stones spurting up +round them. Once started, there was no chance of stopping, and before +they were fairly in the bed of the ravine Rama winded Shere Khan and +bellowed. + +"Ha! Ha!" said Mowgli, on his back. "Now thou knowest!" and the torrent +of black horns, foaming muzzles, and staring eyes whirled down the +ravine like boulders in flood-time; the weaker buffaloes being +shouldered out to the sides of the ravine where they tore through the +creepers. They knew what the business was before them--the terrible +charge of the buffalo-herd, against which no tiger can hope to stand. +Shere Khan heard the thunder of their hoofs, picked himself up, and +lumbered down the ravine, looking from side to side for some way of +escape, but the walls of the ravine were straight, and he had to keep +on, heavy with his dinner and his drink, willing to do anything rather +than fight. The herd splashed through the pool he had just left, +bellowing till the narrow cut rang. Mowgli heard an answering bellow +from the foot of the ravine, saw Shere Khan turn (the tiger knew if the +worst came to the worst it was better to meet the bulls than the cows +with their calves), and then Rama tripped, stumbled, and went on again +over something soft, and, with the bulls at his heels, crashed full into +the other herd, while the weaker buffaloes were lifted clean off their +feet by the shock of the meeting. That charge carried both herds out +into the plain, goring and stamping and snorting. Mowgli watched his +time, and slipped off Rama's neck, laying about him right and left with +his stick. + +"Quick, Akela! Break them up. Scatter them, or they will be fighting one +another. Drive them away, Akela. _Hai_, Rama! _Hai! hai! hai!_ my +children. Softly now, softly! It is all over." + +Akela and Gray Brother ran to and fro nipping the buffaloes' legs, and +though the herd wheeled once to charge up the ravine again, Mowgli +managed to turn Rama, and the others followed him to the wallows. + +Shere Khan needed no more trampling. He was dead, and the kites were +coming for him already. + +"Brothers, that was a dog's death," said Mowgli, feeling for the knife +he always carried in a sheath round his neck now that he lived with men. +"But he would never have shown fight. His hide will look well on the +Council Rock. We must get to work swiftly." + +A boy trained among men would never have dreamed of skinning a ten-foot +tiger alone, but Mowgli knew better than any one else how an animal's +skin is fitted on, and how it can be taken off. But it was hard work, +and Mowgli slashed and tore and grunted for an hour, while the wolves +lolled out their tongues, or came forward and tugged as he ordered them. + +Presently a hand fell on his shoulder, and looking up he saw Buldeo with +the Tower musket. The children had told the village about the buffalo +stampede, and Buldeo went out angrily, only too anxious to correct +Mowgli for not taking better care of the herd. The wolves dropped out of +sight as soon as they saw the man coming. + +"What is this folly?" said Buldeo, angrily. "To think that thou canst +skin a tiger! Where did the buffaloes kill him? It is the Lame Tiger, +too, and there is a hundred rupees on his head. Well, well, we will +overlook thy letting the herd run off, and perhaps I will give thee one +of the rupees of the reward when I have taken the skin to Khanhiwara." +He fumbled in his waist-cloth for flint and steel, and stooped down to +singe Shere Khan's whiskers. Most native hunters singe a tiger's +whiskers to prevent his ghost haunting them. + +"Hum!" said Mowgli, half to himself as he ripped back the skin of a fore +paw. "So thou wilt take the hide to Khanhiwara for the reward, and +perhaps give me one rupee? Now it is in my mind that I need the skin for +my own use. Heh! old man, take away that fire!" + +"What talk is this to the chief hunter of the village? Thy luck and the +stupidity of thy buffaloes have helped thee to this kill. The tiger has +just fed, or he would have gone twenty miles by this time. Thou canst +not even skin him properly, little beggar-brat, and forsooth I, Buldeo, +must be told not to singe his whiskers. Mowgli, I will not give thee one +anna of the reward, but only a very big beating. Leave the carcass!" + +"By the Bull that bought me," said Mowgli, who was trying to get at the +shoulder, "must I stay babbling to an old ape all noon? Here, Akela, +this man plagues me." + +Buldeo, who was still stooping over Shere Khan's head, found himself +sprawling on the grass, with a gray wolf standing over him, while Mowgli +went on skinning as though he were alone in all India. + +"Ye-es," he said, between his teeth. "Thou art altogether right, Buldeo. +Thou wilt never give me one anna of the reward. There is an old war +between this lame tiger and myself--a very old war, and--I have won." + +To do Buldeo justice, if he had been ten years younger he would have +taken his chance with Akela had he met the wolf in the woods, but a wolf +who obeyed the orders of this boy who had private wars with man-eating +tigers was not a common animal. It was sorcery, magic of the worst kind, +thought Buldeo, and he wondered whether the amulet round his neck would +protect him. He lay as still as still, expecting every minute to see +Mowgli turn into a tiger, too. + +[Illustration: "BULDEO LAY AS STILL AS STILL, EXPECTING EVERY MINUTE TO + SEE MOWGLI TURN INTO A TIGER, TOO."] + +"Maharaj! Great King," he said at last, in a husky whisper. + +"Yes," said Mowgli, without turning his head, chuckling a little. + +"I am an old man. I did not know that thou wast anything more than a +herd-boy. May I rise up and go away, or will thy servant tear me to +pieces?" + +"Go, and peace go with thee. Only, another time do not meddle with my +game. Let him go, Akela." + +Buldeo hobbled away to the village as fast as he could, looking back +over his shoulder in case Mowgli should change into something terrible. +When he got to the village he told a tale of magic and enchantment and +sorcery that made the priest look very grave. + +Mowgli went on with his work, but it was nearly twilight before he and +the wolves had drawn the great gay skin clear of the body. + +"Now we must hide this and take the buffaloes home! Help me to herd +them, Akela." + +The herd rounded up in the misty twilight, and when they got near the +village Mowgli saw lights, and heard the conches and bells in the temple +blowing and banging. Half the village seemed to be waiting for him by +the gate. "That is because I have killed Shere Khan," he said to +himself; but a shower of stones whistled about his ears, and the +villagers shouted: "Sorcerer! Wolf's brat! Jungle-demon! Go away! Get +hence quickly, or the priest will turn thee into a wolf again. Shoot, +Buldeo, shoot!" + +The old Tower musket went off with a bang, and a young buffalo bellowed +in pain. + +"More sorcery!" shouted the villagers. "He can turn bullets. Buldeo, +that was _thy_ buffalo." + +"Now what is this?" said Mowgli, bewildered, as the stones flew thicker. + +"They are not unlike the Pack, these brothers of thine," said Akela, +sitting down composedly. "It is in my head that, if bullets mean +anything, they would cast thee out." + +"Wolf! Wolf's cub! Go away!" shouted the priest, waving a sprig of the +sacred _tulsi_ plant. + +"Again? Last time it was because I was a man. This time it is because I +am a wolf. Let us go, Akela." + +A woman--it was Messua--ran across to the herd, and cried: "Oh, my son, +my son! They say thou art a sorcerer who can turn himself into a beast +at will. I do not believe, but go away or they will kill thee. Buldeo +says thou art a wizard, but I know thou hast avenged Nathoo's death." + +"Come back, Messua!" shouted the crowd. "Come back, or we will stone +thee." + +Mowgli laughed a little short ugly laugh, for a stone had hit him in the +mouth. "Run back, Messua. This is one of the foolish tales they tell +under the big tree at dusk. I have at least paid for thy son's life. +Farewell; and run quickly, for I shall send the herd in more swiftly +than their brickbats. I am no wizard, Messua. Farewell! + +"Now, once more, Akela," he cried. "Bring the herd in." + +The buffaloes were anxious enough to get to the village. They hardly +needed Akela's yell, but charged through the gate like a whirlwind, +scattering the crowd right and left. + +"Keep count!" shouted Mowgli, scornfully. "It may be that I have stolen +one of them. Keep count, for I will do your herding no more. Fare you +well, children of men, and thank Messua that I do not come in with my +wolves and hunt you up and down your street." + +He turned on his heel and walked away with the Lone Wolf; and as he +looked up at the stars he felt happy. "No more sleeping in traps for me, +Akela. Let us get Shere Khan's skin and go away. No; we will not hurt +the village, for Messua was kind to me." + +When the moon rose over the plain, making it look all milky, the +horrified villagers saw Mowgli, with two wolves at his heels and a +bundle on his head, trotting across at the steady wolf's trot that eats +up the long miles like fire. Then they banged the temple bells and blew +the conches louder than ever; and Messua cried, and Buldeo embroidered +the story of his adventures in the jungle, till he ended by saying that +Akela stood up on his hind legs and talked like a man. + + [Illustration: "WHEN THE MOON ROSE OVER THE PLAIN THE VILLAGERS SAW + MOWGLI TROTTING ACROSS, WITH TWO WOLVES AT HIS HEELS."] + +The moon was just going down when Mowgli and the two wolves came to the +hill of the Council Rock, and they stopped at Mother Wolf's cave. + +"They have cast me out from the Man Pack, Mother," shouted Mowgli, "but +I come with the hide of Shere Khan to keep my word." Mother Wolf walked +stiffly from the cave with the cubs behind her, and her eyes glowed as +she saw the skin. + +"I told him on that day, when he crammed his head and shoulders into +this cave, hunting for thy life, Little Frog--I told him that the hunter +would be the hunted. It is well done." + +"Little Brother, it is well done," said a deep voice in the thicket. "We +were lonely in the jungle without thee," and Bagheera came running to +Mowgli's bare feet. They clambered up the Council Rock together, and +Mowgli spread the skin out on the flat stone where Akela used to sit, +and pegged it down with four slivers of bamboo, and Akela lay down upon +it, and called the old call to the Council, "Look--look well, O Wolves!" +exactly as he had called when Mowgli was first brought there. + + [Illustration: "THEY CLAMBERED UP ON THE COUNCIL ROCK TOGETHER, AND + MOWGLI SPREAD THE SKIN OUT ON THE FLAT STONE."] + +Ever since Akela had been deposed, the Pack had been without a leader, +hunting and fighting at their own pleasure. But they answered the call +from habit, and some of them were lame from the traps they had fallen +into, and some limped from shot-wounds, and some were mangy from eating +bad food, and many were missing; but they came to the Council Rock, all +that were left of them, and saw Shere Khan's striped hide on the rock, +and the huge claws dangling at the end of the empty, dangling feet. It +was then that Mowgli made up a song without any rhymes, a song that came +up into his throat all by itself, and he shouted it aloud, leaping up +and down on the rattling skin, and beating time with his heels till he +had no more breath left, while Gray Brother and Akela howled between the +verses. + +"Look well, O Wolves. Have I kept my word?" said Mowgli when he had +finished; and the wolves bayed "Yes," and one tattered wolf howled: + +"Lead us again, O Akela. Lead us again, O Man-cub, for we be sick of +this lawlessness, and we would be the Free People once more." + +"Nay," purred Bagheera, "that may not be. When ye are full-fed, the +madness may come upon ye again. Not for nothing are ye called the Free +People. Ye fought for freedom, and it is yours. Eat it, O Wolves." + +"Man Pack and Wolf Pack have cast me out," said Mowgli. "Now I will hunt +alone in the jungle." + +"And we will hunt with thee," said the four cubs. + +So Mowgli went away and hunted with the four cubs in the jungle from +that day on. But he was not always alone, because years afterward he +became a man and married. + +But that is a story for grown-ups. + + + MOWGLI'S SONG + + THAT HE SANG AT THE COUNCIL ROCK WHEN HE + DANCED ON SHERE KHAN'S HIDE + + The Song of Mowgli--I, Mowgli, am singing. Let + the jungle listen to the things I have done. + Shere Khan said he would kill--would kill! At the + gates in the twilight he would kill Mowgli, + the Frog! + He ate and he drank. Drink deep, Shere Khan, for + when wilt thou drink again? Sleep and dream + of the kill. + I am alone on the grazing-grounds. Gray Brother, + come to me! Come to me, Lone Wolf, for there + is big game afoot. + Bring up the great bull-buffaloes, the blue-skinned + herd-bulls with the angry eyes. Drive them + to and fro as I order. + Sleepest thou still, Shere Khan? Wake, O wake! + Here come I, and the bulls are behind. + + Rama, the King of the Buffaloes, stamped with + his foot. Waters of the Waingunga, whither went + Shere Khan? + He is not Ikki to dig holes, nor Mao, the Peacock, + that he should fly. He is not Mang, the Bat, to + hang in the branches. Little bamboos that creak + together, tell me where he ran? + _Ow!_ He is there. _Ahoo!_ He is there. + Under the feet of Rama lies the Lame One! Up, + Shere Khan! Up and kill! Here is meat; break the + necks of the bulls! + _Hsh!_ He is asleep. We will not wake him, for + his strength is very great. The kites have come + down to see it. The black ants have come up to + know it. There is a great assembly in his honor. + _Alala!_ I have no cloth to wrap me. The kites + will see that I am naked. I am ashamed to meet + all these people. + Lend me thy coat, Shere Khan. Lend me thy gay + striped coat that I may go to the Council Rock. + By the Bull that bought me I have made a promise--a + little promise. Only thy coat is lacking before + I keep my word. + With the knife--with the knife that men use--with + the knife of the hunter, the man, I will stoop + down for my gift. + Waters of the Waingunga, bear witness that Shere + Khan gives me his coat for the love that he + bears me. Pull, Gray Brother! Pull, Akela! + Heavy is the hide of Shere Khan. + The Man Pack are angry. They throw stones and talk + child's talk. My mouth is bleeding. Let us run + away. + Through the night, through the hot night, run + swiftly with me, my brothers. We will leave the + lights of the village and go to the low moon. + Waters of the Waingunga, the Man Pack have cast me + out. I did them no harm, but they were afraid of + me. Why? + Wolf Pack, ye have cast me out too. The jungle is + shut to me and the village gates are shut. Why? + As Mang flies between the beasts and the birds so + fly I between the village and the jungle. Why? + I dance on the hide of Shere Khan, but my heart is + very heavy. My mouth is cut and wounded with the + stones from the village, but my heart is very + light because I have come back to the jungle. + Why? + These two things fight together in me as the snakes + fight in the spring. The water comes out of my + eyes; yet I laugh while it falls. Why? + I am two Mowglis, but the hide of Shere Khan is + under my feet. + All the jungle knows that I have killed Shere Khan. + Look--look well, O Wolves! + _Ahae!_ My heart is heavy with the things that + I do not understand. + + + + + THE WHITE SEAL + + + Oh! hush thee, my baby, the night is behind us, + And black are the waters that sparkled so green. + The moon, o'er the combers, looks downward to find us + At rest in the hollows that rustle between. + Where billow meets billow, there soft be thy pillow; + Ah, weary wee flipperling, curl at thy ease! + The storm shall not wake thee, nor shark overtake thee, + Asleep in the arms of the slow-swinging seas. + + _Seal Lullaby._ + + + [Illustration] + + THE WHITE SEAL + + +ALL these things happened several years ago at a place called +Novastoshnah, or North East Point, on the Island of St. Paul, away and +away in the Bering Sea. Limmershin, the Winter Wren, told me the tale +when he was blown on to the rigging of a steamer going to Japan, and I +took him down into my cabin and warmed and fed him for a couple of days +till he was fit to fly back to St. Paul's again. Limmershin is a very +odd little bird, but he knows how to tell the truth. + +Nobody comes to Novastoshnah except on business, and the only people who +have regular business there are the seals. They come in the summer +months by hundreds and hundreds of thousands out of the cold gray sea; +for Novastoshnah Beach has the finest accommodation for seals of any +place in all the world. + +Sea Catch knew that, and every spring would swim from whatever place he +happened to be in--would swim like a torpedo-boat straight for +Novastoshnah, and spend a month fighting with his companions for a good +place on the rocks as close to the sea as possible. Sea Catch was +fifteen years old, a huge gray fur-seal with almost a mane on his +shoulders, and long, wicked dogteeth. When he heaved himself up on his +front flippers he stood more than four feet clear of the ground, and his +weight, if any one had been bold enough to weigh him, was nearly seven +hundred pounds. He was scarred all over with the marks of savage fights, +but he was always ready for just one fight more. He would put his head +on one side, as though he were afraid to look his enemy in the face; +then he would shoot it out like lightning, and when the big teeth were +firmly fixed on the other seal's neck, the other seal might get away if +he could, but Sea Catch would not help him. + +Yet Sea Catch never chased a beaten seal, for that was against the Rules +of the Beach. He only wanted room by the sea for his nursery; but as +there were forty or fifty thousand other seals hunting for the same +thing each spring, the whistling, bellowing, roaring, and blowing on the +beach was something frightful. + +From a little hill called Hutchinson's Hill you could look over three +and a half miles of ground covered with fighting seals; and the surf was +dotted all over with the heads of seals hurrying to land and begin their +share of the fighting. They fought in the breakers, they fought in the +sand, and they fought on the smooth-worn basalt rocks of the nurseries; +for they were just as stupid and unaccommodating as men. Their wives +never came to the island until late in May or early in June, for they +did not care to be torn to pieces; and the young two-, three-, and +four-year-old seals who had not begun housekeeping went inland about +half a mile through the ranks of the fighters and played about on the +sand-dunes in droves and legions, and rubbed off every single green +thing that grew. They were called the holluschickie,--the +bachelors,--and there were perhaps two or three hundred thousand of them +at Novastoshnah alone. + +Sea Catch had just finished his forty-fifth fight one spring when +Matkah, his soft, sleek, gentle-eyed wife came up out of the sea, and +he caught her by the scruff of the neck and dumped her down on his +reservation, saying gruffly: "Late, as usual. Where _have_ you been?" + +It was not the fashion for Sea Catch to eat anything during the four +months he stayed on the beaches, and so his temper was generally bad. +Matkah knew better than to answer back. She looked around and cooed: +"How thoughtful of you. You've taken the old place again." + +"I should think I had," said Sea Catch. "Look at me!" + +He was scratched and bleeding in twenty places; one eye was almost +blind, and his sides were torn to ribbons. + +"Oh, you men, you men!" Matkah said, fanning herself with her hind +flipper. "Why can't you be sensible and settle your places quietly? You +look as though you had been fighting with the Killer Whale." + +"I haven't been doing anything _but_ fight since the middle of May. The +beach is disgracefully crowded this season. I've met at least a hundred +seals from Lukannon Beach, house-hunting. Why can't people stay where +they belong?" + +"I've often thought we should be much happier if we hauled out at Otter +Island instead of this crowded place," said Matkah. + +"Bah! Only the holluschickie go to Otter Island. If we went there they +would say we were afraid. We must preserve appearances, my dear." + +Sea Catch sunk his head proudly between his fat shoulders and pretended +to go to sleep for a few minutes, but all the time he was keeping a +sharp lookout for a fight. Now that all the seals and their wives were +on the land you could hear their clamor miles out to sea above the +loudest gales. At the lowest counting there were over a million seals on +the beach,--old seals, mother seals, tiny babies, and holluschickie, +fighting, scuffling, bleating, crawling, and playing together,--going +down to the sea and coming up from it in gangs and regiments, lying over +every foot of ground as far as the eye could reach, and skirmishing +about in brigades through the fog. It is nearly always foggy at +Novastoshnah, except when the sun comes out and makes everything look +all pearly and rainbow-colored for a little while. + +Kotick, Matkah's baby, was born in the middle of that confusion, and he +was all head and shoulders, with pale, watery blue eyes, as tiny seals +must be; but there was something about his coat that made his mother +look at him very closely. + +"Sea Catch," she said, at last, "our baby's going to be white!" + +"Empty clam-shells and dry seaweed!" snorted Sea Catch. "There never has +been such a thing in the world as a white seal." + +"I can't help that," said Matkah; "there's going to be now"; and she +sang the low, crooning seal-song that all the mother seals sing to their +babies: + + You mustn't swim till you're six weeks old, + Or your head will be sunk by your heels; + And summer gales and Killer Whales + Are bad for baby seals. + + Are bad for baby seals, dear rat, + As bad as bad can be; + But splash and grow strong, + And you can't be wrong, + Child of the Open Sea! + +Of course the little fellow did not understand the words at first. He +paddled and scrambled about by his mother's side, and learned to scuffle +out of the way when his father was fighting with another seal, and the +two rolled and roared up and down the slippery rocks. Matkah used to go +to sea to get things to eat, and the baby was fed only once in two days; +but then he ate all he could, and throve upon it. + +The first thing he did was to crawl inland, and there he met tens of +thousands of babies of his own age, and they played together like +puppies, went to sleep on the clean sand, and played again. The old +people in the nurseries took no notice of them, and the holluschickie +kept to their own grounds, so the babies had a beautiful playtime. + +When Matkah came back from her deep-sea fishing she would go straight to +their playground and call as a sheep calls for a lamb, and wait until +she heard Kotick bleat. Then she would take the straightest of straight +lines in his direction, striking out with her fore flippers and knocking +the youngsters head over heels right and left. There were always a few +hundred mothers hunting for their children through the playgrounds, and +the babies were kept lively; but, as Matkah told Kotick, "So long as you +don't lie in muddy water and get mange; or rub the hard sand into a cut +or scratch; and so long as you never go swimming when there is a heavy +sea, nothing will hurt you here." + +Little seals can no more swim than little children, but they are unhappy +till they learn. The first time that Kotick went down to the sea a wave +carried him out beyond his depth, and his big head sank and his little +hind flippers flew up exactly as his mother had told him in the song, +and if the next wave had not thrown him back again he would have +drowned. + +After that he learned to lie in a beach-pool and let the wash of the +waves just cover him and lift him up while he paddled, but he always +kept his eye open for big waves that might hurt. He was two weeks +learning to use his flippers; and all that while he floundered in and +out of the water, and coughed and grunted and crawled up the beach and +took cat-naps on the sand, and went back again, until at last he found +that he truly belonged to the water. + +Then you can imagine the times that he had with his companions, ducking +under the rollers; or coming in on top of a comber and landing with a +swash and a splutter as the big wave went whirling far up the beach; or +standing up on his tail and scratching his head as the old people did; +or playing "I'm the King of the Castle" on slippery, weedy rocks that +just stuck out of the wash. Now and then he would see a thin fin, like a +big shark's fin, drifting along close to shore, and he knew that that +was the Killer Whale, the Grampus, who eats young seals when he can get +them; and Kotick would head for the beach like an arrow, and the fin +would jig off slowly, as if it were looking for nothing at all. + +Late in October the seals began to leave St. Paul's for the deep sea, by +families and tribes, and there was no more fighting over the nurseries, +and the holluschickie played anywhere they liked. "Next year," said +Matkah to Kotick, "you will be a holluschickie; but this year you must +learn how to catch fish." + +They set out together across the Pacific, and Matkah showed Kotick how +to sleep on his back with his flippers tucked down by his side and his +little nose just out of the water. No cradle is so comfortable as the +long, rocking swell of the Pacific. When Kotick felt his skin tingle all +over, Matkah told him he was learning the "feel of the water," and that +tingly, prickly feelings meant bad weather coming, and he must swim hard +and get away. + +"In a little time," she said, "you'll know where to swim to, but just +now we'll follow Sea Pig, the Porpoise, for he is very wise." A school +of porpoises were ducking and tearing through the water, and little +Kotick followed them as fast as he could. "How do you know where to go +to?" he panted. The leader of the school rolled his white eyes, and +ducked under. "My tail tingles, youngster," he said. "That means +there's a gale behind me. Come along! When you're south of the Sticky +Water [he meant the Equator], and your tail tingles, that means there's +a gale in front of you and you must head north. Come along! The water +feels bad here." + +This was one of very many things that Kotick learned, and he was always +learning. Matkah taught him how to follow the cod and the halibut along +the under-sea banks, and wrench the rockling out of his hole among the +weeds; how to skirt the wrecks lying a hundred fathoms below water, and +dart like a rifle-bullet in at one porthole and out at another as the +fishes ran; how to dance on the top of the waves when the lightning was +racing all over the sky, and wave his flipper politely to the +Stumpy-tailed Albatross and the Man-of-war Hawk as they went down the +wind; how to jump three or four feet clear of the water, like a dolphin, +flippers close to the side and tail curved; to leave the flying-fish +alone because they are all bony; to take the shoulder-piece out of a cod +at full speed ten fathoms deep; and never to stop and look at a boat or +a ship, but particularly a row boat. At the end of six months, what +Kotick did not know about deep-sea fishing was not worth the knowing, +and all that time he never set flipper on dry ground. + + [Illustration: "TEN FATHOMS DEEP."] + +One day, however, as he was lying half asleep in the warm water +somewhere off the Island of Juan Fernandez, he felt faint and lazy all +over, just as human people do when the spring is in their legs, and he +remembered the good firm beaches of Novastoshnah seven thousand miles +away; the games his companions played, the smell of the seaweed, the +seal-roar, and the fighting. That very minute he turned north, swimming +steadily, and as he went on he met scores of his mates, all bound for +the same place, and they said: "Greeting, Kotick! This year we are all +holluschickie, and we can dance the Fire-dance in the breakers off +Lukannon and play on the new grass. But where did you get that coat?" + +Kotick's fur was almost pure white now, and though he felt very proud of +it, he only said: "Swim quickly! My bones are aching for the land." And +so they all came to the beaches where they had been born and heard the +old seals, their fathers, fighting in the rolling mist. + +That night Kotick danced the Fire-dance with the yearling seals. The sea +is full of fire on summer nights all the way down from Novastoshnah to +Lukannon, and each seal leaves a wake like burning oil behind him, and a +flaming flash when he jumps, and the waves break in great phosphorescent +streaks and swirls. Then they went inland to the holluschickie grounds, +and rolled up and down in the new wild wheat, and told stories of what +they had done while they had been at sea. They talked about the Pacific +as boys would talk about a wood that they had been nutting in, and if +any one had understood them, he could have gone away and made such a +chart of that ocean as never was. The three- and four-year-old +holluschickie romped down from Hutchinson's Hill, crying: "Out of the +way, youngsters! The sea is deep, and you don't know all that's in it +yet. Wait till you've rounded the Horn. Hi, you yearling, where did you +get that white coat?" + +"I didn't get it," said Kotick; "it grew." And just as he was going to +roll the speaker over, a couple of black-haired men with flat red faces +came from behind a sand-dune, and Kotick, who had never seen a man +before, coughed and lowered his head. The holluschickie just bundled off +a few yards and sat staring stupidly. The men were no less than Kerick +Booterin, the chief of the seal-hunters on the island, and Patalamon, +his son. They came from the little village not half a mile from the seal +nurseries, and they were deciding what seals they would drive up to the +killing-pens (for the seals were driven just like sheep), to be turned +into sealskin jackets later on. + +"Ho!" said Patalamon. "Look! There's a white seal!" + +Kerick Booterin turned nearly white under his oil and smoke, for he was +an Aleut, and Aleuts are not clean people. Then he began to mutter a +prayer. "Don't touch him, Patalamon. There has never been a white seal +since--since I was born. Perhaps it is old Zaharrof's ghost. He was lost +last year in the big gale." + +"I'm not going near him," said Patalamon. "He's unlucky. Do you really +think he is old Zaharrof come back? I owe him for some gulls' eggs." + +"Don't look at him," said Kerick. "Head off that drove of +four-year-olds. The men ought to skin two hundred to-day, but it's the +beginning of the season, and they are new to the work. A hundred will +do. Quick!" + +Patalamon rattled a pair of seal's shoulder-bones in front of a herd of +holluschickie and they stopped dead, puffing and blowing. Then he +stepped near, and the seals began to move, and Kerick headed them +inland, and they never tried to get back to their companions. Hundreds +and hundreds of thousands of seals watched them being driven, but they +went on playing just the same. Kotick was the only one who asked +questions, and none of his companions could tell him anything, except +that the men always drove seals in that way for six weeks or two months +of every year. + +"I am going to follow," he said, and his eyes nearly popped out of his +head as he shuffled along in the wake of the herd. + +"The white seal is coming after us," cried Patalamon. "That's the first +time a seal has ever come to the killing-grounds alone." + +"Hsh! Don't look behind you," said Kerick. "It _is_ Zaharrof's ghost! I +must speak to the priest about this." + +The distance to the killing-grounds was only half a mile, but it took an +hour to cover, because if the seals went too fast Kerick knew that they +would get heated and then their fur would come off in patches when they +were skinned. So they went on very slowly, past Sea-Lion's Neck, past +Webster House, till they came to the Salt House just beyond the sight of +the seals on the beach. Kotick followed, panting and wondering. He +thought that he was at the world's end, but the roar of the seal +nurseries behind him sounded as loud as the roar of a train in a tunnel. +Then Kerick sat down on the moss and pulled out a heavy pewter watch and +let the drove cool off for thirty minutes, and Kotick could hear the +fog-dew dripping from the brim of his cap. Then ten or twelve men, each +with an iron-bound club three or four feet long, came up, and Kerick +pointed out one or two of the drove that were bitten by their companions +or were too hot, and the men kicked those aside with their heavy boots +made of the skin of a walrus's throat, and then Kerick said: "Let go!" +and then the men clubbed the seals on the head as fast as they could. + +Ten minutes later little Kotick did not recognize his friends any more, +for their skins were ripped off from the nose to the hind +flippers--whipped off and thrown down on the ground in a pile. + +That was enough for Kotick. He turned and galloped (a seal can gallop +very swiftly for a short time) back to the sea, his little new mustache +bristling with horror. At Sea-Lion's Neck, where the great sea-lions sit +on the edge of the surf, he flung himself flipper over-head into the +cool water, and rocked there, gasping miserably. "What's here?" said a +sea-lion, gruffly; for as a rule the sea-lions keep themselves to +themselves. + +"_Scoochnie! Ochen scoochnie!_" ("I'm lonesome, very lonesome!"), said +Kotick. "They're killing _all_ the holluschickie on _all_ the beaches!" + +The sea-lion turned his head inshore. "Nonsense," he said; "your friends +are making as much noise as ever. You must have seen old Kerick +polishing off a drove. He's done that for thirty years." + +"It's horrible," said Kotick, backing water as a wave went over him, and +steadying himself with a screw-stroke of his flippers that brought him +up all standing within three inches of a jagged edge of rock. + +"Well done for a yearling!" said the sea-lion, who could appreciate good +swimming. "I suppose it _is_ rather awful from your way of looking at +it; but if you seals will come here year after year, of course the men +get to know of it, and unless you can find an island where no men ever +come, you will always be driven." + +"Isn't there any such island?" began Kotick. + +"I've followed the _poltoos_ [the halibut] for twenty years, and I can't +say I've found it yet. But look here--you seem to have a fondness for +talking to your betters; suppose you go to Walrus Islet and talk to Sea +Vitch. He may know something. Don't flounce off like that. It's a +six-mile swim, and if I were you I should haul out and take a nap first, +little one." + +Kotick thought that that was good advice, so he swam round to his own +beach, hauled out, and slept for half an hour, twitching all over, as +seals will. Then he headed straight for Walrus Islet, a little low sheet +of rocky island almost due northeast from Novastoshnah, all ledges of +rock and gulls' nests, where the walrus herded by themselves. + +He landed close to old Sea Vitch--the big, ugly, bloated, pimpled, +fat-necked, long-tusked walrus of the North Pacific, who has no manners +except when he is asleep--as he was then, with his hind flippers half in +and half out of the surf. + +"Wake up!" barked Kotick, for the gulls were making a great noise. + +"Hah! Ho! Hmph! What's that?" said Sea Vitch, and he struck the next +walrus a blow with his tusks and waked him up, and the next struck the +next, and so on till they were all awake and staring in every direction +but the right one. + + [Illustration: "THEY WERE ALL AWAKE AND STARING IN EVERY DIRECTION BUT + THE RIGHT ONE."] + +"Hi! It's me," said Kotick, bobbing in the surf and looking like a +little white slug. + +"Well! May I be----skinned!" said Sea Vitch, and they all looked at +Kotick as you can fancy a club full of drowsy old gentlemen would look +at a little boy. Kotick did not care to hear any more about skinning +just then; he had seen enough of it; so he called out: "Isn't there any +place for seals to go where men don't ever come?" + +"Go and find out," said Sea Vitch, shutting his eyes. "Run away. We're +busy here." + +Kotick made his dolphin-jump in the air and shouted as loud as he could: +"Clam-eater! Clam-eater!" He knew that Sea Vitch never caught a fish in +his life, but always rooted for clams and seaweeds; though he pretended +to be a very terrible person. Naturally the Chickies and the +Gooverooskies and the Epatkas, the Burgomaster Gulls and the Kittiwakes +and the Puffins, who are always looking for a chance to be rude, took up +the cry, and--so Limmershin told me--for nearly five minutes you could +not have heard a gun fired on Walrus Islet. All the population was +yelling and screaming: "Clam-eater! _Stareek_ [old man]!" while Sea +Vitch rolled from side to side grunting and coughing. + +"_Now_ will you tell?" said Kotick, all out of breath. + +"Go and ask Sea Cow," said Sea Vitch. "If he is living still, he'll be +able to tell you." + +"How shall I know Sea Cow when I meet him?" said Kotick, sheering off. + +"He's the only thing in the sea uglier than Sea Vitch," screamed a +burgomaster gull, wheeling under Sea Vitch's nose. "Uglier, and with +worse manners! _Stareek!_" + +Kotick swam back to Novastoshnah, leaving the gulls to scream. There he +found that no one sympathized with him in his little attempts to +discover a quiet place for the seals. They told him that men had always +driven the holluschickie--it was part of the day's work--and that if he +did not like to see ugly things he should not have gone to the +killing-grounds. But none of the other seals had seen the killing, and +that made the difference between him and his friends. Besides, Kotick +was a white seal. + +"What you must do," said old Sea Catch, after he had heard his son's +adventures, "is to grow up and be a big seal like your father, and have +a nursery on the beach, and then they will leave you alone. In another +five years you ought to be able to fight for yourself." Even gentle +Matkah, his mother, said: "You will never be able to stop the killing. +Go and play in the sea, Kotick." And Kotick went off and danced the +Fire-dance with a very heavy little heart. + +That autumn he left the beach as soon as he could, and set off alone +because of a notion in his bullet-head. He was going to find Sea Cow, if +there was such a person in the sea, and he was going to find a quiet +island with good firm beaches for seals to live on, where men could not +get at them. So he explored and explored by himself from the North to +the South Pacific, swimming as much as three hundred miles in a day and +a night. He met with more adventures than can be told, and narrowly +escaped being caught by the Basking Shark, and the Spotted Shark, and +the Hammerhead, and he met all the untrustworthy ruffians that loaf up +and down the high seas, and the heavy polite fish, and the +scarlet-spotted scallops that are moored in one place for hundreds of +years, and grow very proud of it; but he never met Sea Cow, and he never +found an island that he could fancy. + +If the beach was good and hard, with a slope behind it for seals to play +on, there was always the smoke of a whaler on the horizon, boiling down +blubber, and Kotick knew what _that_ meant. Or else he could see that +seals had once visited the island and been killed off, and Kotick knew +that where men had come once they would come again. + +He picked up with an old stumpy-tailed albatross, who told him that +Kerguelen Island was the very place for peace and quiet, and when Kotick +went down there he was all but smashed to pieces against some wicked +black cliffs in a heavy sleet-storm with lightning and thunder. Yet as +he pulled out against the gale he could see that even there had once +been a seal nursery. And it was so in all the other islands that he +visited. + +Limmershin gave a long list of them, for he said that Kotick spent five +seasons exploring, with a four months' rest each year at Novastoshnah, +where the holluschickie used to make fun of him and his imaginary +islands. He went to the Gallapagos, a horrid dry place on the Equator, +where he was nearly baked to death; he went to the Georgia Islands, the +Orkneys, Emerald Island, Little Nightingale Island, Gough's Island, +Bouvet's Island, the Crossets, and even to a little speck of an island +south of the Cape of Good Hope. But everywhere the People of the Sea +told him the same things. Seals had come to those islands once upon a +time, but men had killed them all off. Even when he swam thousands of +miles out of the Pacific, and got to a place called Cape Corientes (that +was when he was coming back from Gough's Island), he found a few +hundred mangy seals on a rock, and they told him that men came there +too. + +That nearly broke his heart, and he headed round the Horn back to his +own beaches; and on his way north he hauled out on an island full of +green trees, where he found an old, old seal who was dying, and Kotick +caught fish for him and told him all his sorrows. "Now," said Kotick, "I +am going back to Novastoshnah, and if I am driven to the killing-pens +with the holluschickie I shall not care." + +The old seal said: "Try once more. I am the last of the Lost Rookery of +Masafuera, and in the days when men killed us by the hundred thousand +there was a story on the beaches that some day a white seal would come +out of the north and lead the seal people to a quiet place. I am old and +I shall never live to see that day, but others will. Try once more." + +And Kotick curled up his mustache (it was a beauty), and said: "I am the +only white seal that has ever been born on the beaches, and I am the +only seal, black or white, who ever thought of looking for new islands." + +That cheered him immensely; and when he came back to Novastoshnah that +summer, Matkah, his mother, begged him to marry and settle down, for he +was no longer a holluschick, but a full-grown sea-catch, with a curly +white mane on his shoulders, as heavy, as big, and as fierce as his +father. "Give me another season," he said. "Remember, Mother, it is +always the seventh wave that goes farthest up the beach." + +Curiously enough, there was another seal who thought that she would put +off marrying till the next year, and Kotick danced the Fire-dance with +her all down Lukannon Beach the night before he set off on his last +exploration. + +This time he went westward, because he had fallen on the trail of a +great shoal of halibut, and he needed at least one hundred pounds of +fish a day to keep him in good condition. He chased them till he was +tired, and then he curled himself up and went to sleep on the hollows of +the ground-swell that sets in to Copper Island. He knew the coast +perfectly well, so about midnight, when he felt himself gently bumped on +a weed bed, he said: "Hm, tide 's running strong to-night," and turning +over under water opened his eyes slowly and stretched. Then he jumped +like a cat, for he saw huge things nosing about in the shoal water and +browsing on the heavy fringes of the weeds. + +"By the Great Combers of Magellan!" he said, beneath his mustache. "Who +in the Deep Sea are these people?" + +They were like no walrus, sea-lion, seal, bear, whale, shark, fish, +squid, or scallop that Kotick had ever seen before. They were between +twenty and thirty feet long, and they had no hind flippers, but a +shovel-like tail that looked as if it had been whittled out of wet +leather. Their heads were the most foolish-looking things you ever saw, +and they balanced on the ends of their tails in deep water when they +weren't grazing, bowing solemnly to one another and waving their front +flippers as a fat man waves his arm. + +"Ahem!" said Kotick. "Good sport, gentlemen?" The big things answered by +bowing and waving their flippers like the Frog-Footman. When they began +feeding again Kotick saw that their upper lip was split into two pieces, +that they could twitch apart about a foot and bring together again with +a whole bushel of seaweed between the splits. They tucked the stuff into +their mouths and chumped solemnly. + +"Messy style of feeding that," said Kotick. They bowed again, and Kotick +began to lose his temper. "Very good," he said. "If you do happen to +have an extra joint in your front flipper you needn't show off so. I +see you bow gracefully, but I should like to know your names." The split +lips moved and twitched, and the glassy green eyes stared; but they did +not speak. + +"Well!" said Kotick, "you're the only people I've ever met uglier than +Sea Vitch--and with worse manners." + +Then he remembered in a flash what the Burgomaster Gull had screamed to +him when he was a little yearling at Walrus Islet, and he tumbled +backward in the water, for he knew that he had found Sea Cow at last. + + [Illustration: "HE HAD FOUND SEA COW AT LAST."] + +The sea cows went on schlooping and grazing, and chumping in the weed, +and Kotick asked them questions in every language that he had picked up +in his travels; and the Sea People talk nearly as many languages as +human beings. But the Sea Cow did not answer, because Sea Cow cannot +talk. He has only six bones in his neck where he ought to have seven, +and they say under the sea that that prevents him from speaking even to +his companions; but, as you know, he has an extra joint in his fore +flipper, and by waving it up and down and about he makes what answers to +a sort of clumsy telegraphic code. + +By daylight Kotick's mane was standing on end and his temper was gone +where the dead crabs go. Then the Sea Cow began to travel northward very +slowly, stopping to hold absurd bowing councils from time to time, and +Kotick followed them, saying to himself: "People who are such idiots as +these are would have been killed long ago if they hadn't found out some +safe island; and what is good enough for the Sea Cow is good enough for +the Sea Catch. All the same, I wish they'd hurry." + +It was weary work for Kotick. The herd never went more than forty or +fifty miles a day, and stopped to feed at night, and kept close to the +shore all the time; while Kotick swam round them, and over them, and +under them, but he could not hurry them up one half-mile. As they went +farther north they held a bowing council every few hours, and Kotick +nearly bit off his mustache with impatience till he saw that they were +following up a warm current of water, and then he respected them more. + +One night they sank through the shiny water--sank like stones--and, for +the first time since he had known them, began to swim quickly. Kotick +followed, and the pace astonished him, for he never dreamed that Sea Cow +was anything of a swimmer. They headed for a cliff by the shore, a cliff +that ran down into deep water, and plunged into a dark hole at the foot +of it, twenty fathoms under the sea. It was a long, long swim, and +Kotick badly wanted fresh air before he was out of the dark tunnel they +led him through. + +"My wig!" he said, when he rose, gasping and puffing, into open water at +the farther end. "It was a long dive, but it was worth it." + +The sea cows had separated, and were browsing lazily along the edges of +the finest beaches that Kotick had ever seen. There were long stretches +of smooth worn rock running for miles, exactly fitted to make seal +nurseries, and there were playgrounds of hard sand, sloping inland +behind them, and there were rollers for seals to dance in, and long +grass to roll in, and sand-dunes to climb up and down, and best of all, +Kotick knew by the feel of the water, which never deceives a true Sea +Catch, that no men had ever come there. + +The first thing he did was to assure himself that the fishing was good, +and then he swam along the beaches and counted up the delightful low +sandy islands half hidden in the beautiful rolling fog. Away to the +northward out to sea ran a line of bars and shoals and rocks that would +never let a ship come within six miles of the beach; and between the +islands and the mainland was a stretch of deep water that ran up to the +perpendicular cliffs, and somewhere below the cliffs was the mouth of +the tunnel. + +"It's Novastoshnah over again, but ten times better," said Kotick. "Sea +Cow must be wiser than I thought. Men can't come down the cliffs, even +if there were any men; and the shoals to seaward would knock a ship to +splinters. If any place in the sea is safe, this is it." + +He began to think of the seal he had left behind him, but though he was +in a hurry to go back to Novastoshnah, he thoroughly explored the new +country, so that he would be able to answer all questions. + +Then he dived and made sure of the mouth of the tunnel, and raced +through to the southward. No one but a sea cow or a seal would have +dreamed of there being such a place, and when he looked back at the +cliffs even Kotick could hardly believe that he had been under them. + +He was six days going home, though he was not swimming slowly; and when +he hauled out just above Sea-Lion's Neck the first person he met was the +seal who had been waiting for him, and she saw by the look in his eyes +that he had found his island at last. + +But the holluschickie and Sea Catch, his father, and all the other +seals, laughed at him when he told them what he had discovered, and a +young seal about his own age said: "This is all very well, Kotick, but +you can't come from no one knows where and order us off like this. +Remember we've been fighting for our nurseries, and that's a thing you +never did. You preferred prowling about in the sea." + +The other seals laughed at this, and the young seal began twisting his +head from side to side. He had just married that year, and was making a +great fuss about it. + +"I've no nursery to fight for," said Kotick. "I want only to show you +all a place where you will be safe. What's the use of fighting?" + +"Oh, if you're trying to back out, of course I've no more to say," said +the young seal, with an ugly chuckle. + +"Will you come with me if I win?" said Kotick; and a green light came +into his eyes, for he was very angry at having to fight at all. + +"Very good," said the young seal, carelessly. "_If_ you win, I'll come." + +He had no time to change his mind, for Kotick's head darted out and his +teeth sunk in the blubber of the young seal's neck. Then he threw +himself back on his haunches and hauled his enemy down the beach, shook +him, and knocked him over. Then Kotick roared to the seals: "I've done +my best for you these five seasons past. I've found you the island where +you'll be safe, but unless your heads are dragged off your silly necks +you won't believe. I'm going to teach you now. Look out for yourselves!" + +Limmershin told me that never in his life--and Limmershin sees ten +thousand big seals fighting every year--never in all his little life did +he see anything like Kotick's charge into the nurseries. He flung +himself at the biggest sea-catch he could find, caught him by the +throat, choked him and bumped him and banged him till he grunted for +mercy, and then threw him aside and attacked the next. You see, Kotick +had never fasted for four months as the big seals did every year, and +his deep-sea swimming-trips kept him in perfect condition, and, best of +all, he had never fought before. His curly white mane stood up with +rage, and his eyes flamed, and his big dogteeth glistened, and he was +splendid to look at. + +Old Sea Catch, his father, saw him tearing past, hauling the grizzled +old seals about as though they had been halibut, and upsetting the young +bachelors in all directions; and Sea Catch gave one roar and shouted: +"He may be a fool, but he is the best fighter on the Beaches. Don't +tackle your father, my son! He's with you!" + +Kotick roared in answer, and old Sea Catch waddled in, his mustache on +end, blowing like a locomotive, while Matkah and the seal that was going +to marry Kotick cowered down and admired their men-folk. It was a +gorgeous fight, for the two fought as long as there was a seal that +dared lift up his head, and then they paraded grandly up and down the +beach side by side, bellowing. + +At night, just as the Northern Lights were winking and flashing through +the fog, Kotick climbed a bare rock and looked down on the scattered +nurseries and the torn and bleeding seals. "Now," he said, "I've taught +you your lesson." + +"My wig!" said old Sea Catch, boosting himself up stiffly, for he was +fearfully mauled. "The Killer Whale himself could not have cut them up +worse. Son, I'm proud of you, and what's more, _I'll_ come with you to +your island--if there is such a place." + +"Hear you, fat pigs of the sea! Who comes with me to the Sea Cow's +tunnel? Answer, or I shall teach you again," roared Kotick. + +There was a murmur like the ripple of the tide all up and down the +beaches. "We will come," said thousands of tired voices. "We will follow +Kotick, the White Seal." + +Then Kotick dropped his head between his shoulders and shut his eyes +proudly. He was not a white seal any more, but red from head to tail. +All the same he would have scorned to look at or touch one of his +wounds. + +A week later he and his army (nearly ten thousand holluschickie and old +seals) went away north to the Sea Cow's tunnel, Kotick leading them, and +the seals that stayed at Novastoshnah called them idiots. But next +spring when they all met off the fishing-banks of the Pacific, Kotick's +seals told such tales of the new beaches beyond Sea Cow's tunnel that +more and more seals left Novastoshnah. + +Of course it was not all done at once, for the seals need a long time to +turn things over in their minds, but year by year more seals went away +from Novastoshnah, and Lukannon, and the other nurseries, to the quiet, +sheltered beaches where Kotick sits all the summer through, getting +bigger and fatter and stronger each year, while the holluschickie play +round him, in that sea where no man comes. + + + LUKANNON + +This is the great deep-sea song that all the St. Paul seals sing when +they are heading back to their beaches in the summer. It is a sort of +very sad seal National Anthem. + + I met my mates in the morning (and oh, but I am old!) + Where roaring on the ledges the summer ground-swell + rolled; + I heard them lift the chorus that dropped the + breakers' song-- + The beaches of Lukannon--two million voices strong! + + _The song of pleasant stations beside the salt + lagoons, + The song of blowing squadrons that shuffled down the + dunes, + The song of midnight dances that churned the sea to + flame-- + The beaches of Lukannon--before the sealers came!_ + + I met my mates in the morning (I'll never meet them + more!); + They came and went in legions that darkened all the + shore. + And through the foam-flecked offing as far as voice + could reach + We hailed the landing-parties and we sang them up + the beach. + + _The beaches of Lukannon--the winter-wheat so + tall-- + The dripping, crinkled lichens, and the sea-fog + drenching all! + The platforms of our playground, all shining smooth + and worn! + The beaches of Lukannon--the home where we were + born!_ + + I meet my mates in the morning, a broken, scattered + band. + Men shoot us in the water and club us on the land; + Men drive us to the Salt House like silly sheep and + tame, + And still we sing Lukannon--before the sealers came. + + _Wheel down, wheel down to southward; oh, + Gooverooska go! + And tell the Deep-Sea Viceroys the story of our woe; + Ere, empty as the shark's egg the tempest flings + ashore, + The beaches of Lukannon shall know their sons no + more!_ + + + + + "RIKKI-TIKKI-TAVI" + + + At the hole where he went in + Red-Eye called to Wrinkle-Skin. + Hear what little Red-Eye saith: + "Nag, come up and dance with death!" + + Eye to eye and head to head, + (_Keep the measure, Nag._) + This shall end when one is dead; + (_At thy pleasure, Nag._) + Turn for turn and twist for twist-- + (_Run and hide thee, Nag._) + Hah! The hooded Death has missed! + (_Woe betide thee, Nag!_) + + + [Illustration] + + "RIKKI-TIKKI-TAVI" + + +THIS is the story of the great war that Rikki-tikki-tavi fought +single-handed, through the bath-rooms of the big bungalow in Segowlee +cantonment. Darzee, the tailor-bird, helped him, and Chuchundra, the +muskrat, who never comes out into the middle of the floor, but always +creeps round by the wall, gave him advice; but Rikki-tikki did the real +fighting. + +He was a mongoose, rather like a little cat in his fur and his tail, but +quite like a weasel in his head and his habits. His eyes and the end of +his restless nose were pink; he could scratch himself anywhere he +pleased, with any leg, front or back, that he chose to use; he could +fluff up his tail till it looked like a bottle-brush, and his war-cry +as he scuttled through the long grass, was: +"_Rikk-tikk-tikki-tikki-tchk!_" + +One day, a high summer flood washed him out of the burrow where he lived +with his father and mother, and carried him, kicking and clucking, down +a roadside ditch. He found a little wisp of grass floating there, and +clung to it till he lost his senses. When he revived, he was lying in +the hot sun on the middle of a garden path, very draggled indeed, and a +small boy was saying: "Here's a dead mongoose. Let's have a funeral." + +"No," said his mother; "let's take him in and dry him. Perhaps he isn't +really dead." + +They took him into the house, and a big man picked him up between his +finger and thumb and said he was not dead but half choked; so they +wrapped him in cotton-wool, and warmed him, and he opened his eyes and +sneezed. + +"Now," said the big man (he was an Englishman who had just moved into +the bungalow); "don't frighten him, and we'll see what he'll do." + +It is the hardest thing in the world to frighten a mongoose, because he +is eaten up from nose to tail with curiosity. The motto of all the +mongoose family is, "Run and find out"; and Rikki-tikki was a true +mongoose. He looked at the cotton-wool, decided that it was not good to +eat, ran all round the table, sat up and put his fur in order, scratched +himself, and jumped on the small boy's shoulder. + +"Don't be frightened, Teddy," said his father. "That's his way of making +friends." + +"Ouch! He's tickling under my chin," said Teddy. + + [Illustration: "RIKKI-TIKKI LOOKED DOWN BETWEEN THE BOY'S COLLAR AND + NECK."] + +Rikki-tikki looked down between the boy's collar and neck, snuffed at +his ear, and climbed down to the floor, where he sat rubbing his nose. + +"Good gracious," said Teddy's mother, "and that's a wild creature! I +suppose he's so tame because we've been kind to him." + +"All mongooses are like that," said her husband. "If Teddy doesn't pick +him up by the tail, or try to put him in a cage, he'll run in and out of +the house all day long. Let's give him something to eat." + +They gave him a little piece of raw meat. Rikki-tikki liked it +immensely, and when it was finished he went out into the veranda and sat +in the sunshine and fluffed up his fur to make it dry to the roots. Then +he felt better. + +"There are more things to find out about in this house," he said to +himself, "than all my family could find out in all their lives. I shall +certainly stay and find out." + + [Illustration: "HE PUT HIS NOSE INTO THE INK."] + +He spent all that day roaming over the house. He nearly drowned himself +in the bath-tubs, put his nose into the ink on a writing-table, and +burned it on the end of the big man's cigar, for he climbed up in the +big man's lap to see how writing was done. At nightfall he ran into +Teddy's nursery to watch how kerosene lamps were lighted, and when Teddy +went to bed Rikki-tikki climbed up too; but he was a restless companion, +because he had to get up and attend to every noise all through the +night, and find out what made it. Teddy's mother and father came in, the +last thing, to look at their boy, and Rikki-tikki was awake on the +pillow. "I don't like that," said Teddy's mother; "he may bite the +child." "He'll do no such thing," said the father. "Teddy's safer with +that little beast than if he had a bloodhound to watch him. If a snake +came into the nursery now--" + + [Illustration: "RIKKI-TIKKI WAS AWAKE ON THE PILLOW."] + +But Teddy's mother wouldn't think of anything so awful. + +Early in the morning Rikki-tikki came to early breakfast in the veranda +riding on Teddy's shoulder, and they gave him banana and some boiled +egg; and he sat on all their laps one after the other, because every +well-brought-up mongoose always hopes to be a house-mongoose some day +and have rooms to run about in, and Rikki-tikki's mother (she used to +live in the General's house at Segowlee) had carefully told Rikki what +to do if ever he came across white men. + + [Illustration: "HE CAME TO BREAKFAST RIDING ON TEDDY'S SHOULDER."] + +Then Rikki-tikki went out into the garden to see what was to be seen. It +was a large garden, only half cultivated, with bushes as big as +summer-houses of Marshal Niel roses, lime and orange trees, clumps of +bamboos, and thickets of high grass. Rikki-tikki licked his lips. "This +is a splendid hunting-ground," he said, and his tail grew bottle-brushy +at the thought of it, and he scuttled up and down the garden, snuffing +here and there till he heard very sorrowful voices in a thorn-bush. + +It was Darzee, the tailor-bird, and his wife. They had made a beautiful +nest by pulling two big leaves together and stitching them up the edges +with fibers, and had filled the hollow with cotton and downy fluff. The +nest swayed to and fro, as they sat on the rim and cried. + +"What is the matter?" asked Rikki-tikki. + + [Illustration: "'WE ARE VERY MISERABLE,' SAID DARZEE."] + +"We are very miserable," said Darzee. "One of our babies fell out of the +nest yesterday and Nag ate him." + +"H'm!" said Rikki-tikki," that is very sad--but I am a stranger here. +Who is Nag?" + +Darzee and his wife only cowered down in the nest without answering, for +from the thick grass at the foot of the bush there came a low hiss--a +horrid cold sound that made Rikki-tikki jump back two clear feet. Then +inch by inch out of the grass rose up the head and spread hood of Nag, +the big black cobra, and he was five feet long from tongue to tail. When +he had lifted one-third of himself clear of the ground, he stayed +balancing to and fro exactly as a dandelion-tuft balances in the wind, +and he looked at Rikki-tikki with the wicked snake's eyes that never +change their expression, whatever the snake may be thinking of. + +"Who is Nag?" he said, "_I_ am Nag. The great god Brahm put his mark +upon all our people when the first cobra spread his hood to keep the sun +off Brahm as he slept. Look, and be afraid!" + + [Illustration: "'I AM NAG,' SAID THE COBRA: 'LOOK, AND BE AFRAID!' BUT + AT THE BOTTOM OF HIS COLD HEART HE WAS AFRAID."] + +He spread out his hood more than ever, and Rikki-tikki saw the +spectacle-mark on the back of it that looks exactly like the eye part of +a hook-and-eye fastening. He was afraid for the minute; but it is +impossible for a mongoose to stay frightened for any length of time, and +though Rikki-tikki had never met a live cobra before, his mother had fed +him on dead ones, and he knew that all a grown mongoose's business in +life was to fight and eat snakes. Nag knew that too, and at the bottom +of his cold heart he was afraid. + +"Well," said Rikki-tikki, and his tail began to fluff up again, "marks +or no marks, do you think it is right for you to eat fledglings out of a +nest?" + +Nag was thinking to himself, and watching the least little movement in +the grass behind Rikki-tikki. He knew that mongooses in the garden meant +death sooner or later for him and his family; but he wanted to get +Rikki-tikki off his guard. So he dropped his head a little, and put it +on one side. + +"Let us talk," he said. "You eat eggs. Why should not I eat birds?" + +"Behind you! Look behind you!" sang Darzee. + +Rikki-tikki knew better than to waste time in staring. He jumped up in +the air as high as he could go, and just under him whizzed by the head +of Nagaina, Nag's wicked wife. She had crept up behind him as he was +talking, to make an end of him; and he heard her savage hiss as the +stroke missed. He came down almost across her back, and if he had been +an old mongoose he would have known that then was the time to break her +back with one bite; but he was afraid of the terrible lashing +return-stroke of the cobra. He bit, indeed, but did not bite long +enough, and he jumped clear of the whisking tail, leaving Nagaina torn +and angry. + + [Illustration: "HE JUMPED UP IN THE AIR, AND JUST UNDER HIM WHIZZED BY + THE HEAD OF NAGAINA."] + +"Wicked, wicked Darzee!" said Nag, lashing up as high as he could reach +toward the nest in the thorn-bush; but Darzee had built it out of reach +of snakes, and it only swayed to and fro. + +Rikki-tikki felt his eyes growing red and hot (when a mongoose's eyes +grow red, he is angry), and he sat back on his tail and hind legs like a +little kangaroo, and looked all around him, and chattered with rage. But +Nag and Nagaina had disappeared into the grass. When a snake misses its +stroke, it never says anything or gives any sign of what it means to do +next. Rikki-tikki did not care to follow them, for he did not feel sure +that he could manage two snakes at once. So he trotted off to the +gravel path near the house, and sat down to think. It was a serious +matter for him. + +If you read the old books of natural history, you will find they say +that when the mongoose fights the snake and happens to get bitten, he +runs off and eats some herb that cures him. That is not true. The +victory is only a matter of quickness of eye and quickness of +foot,--snake's blow against mongoose's jump,--and as no eye can follow +the motion of a snake's head when it strikes, that makes things much +more wonderful than any magic herb. Rikki-tikki knew he was a young +mongoose, and it made him all the more pleased to think that he had +managed to escape a blow from behind. It gave him confidence in himself, +and when Teddy came running down the path, Rikki-tikki was ready to be +petted. + +But just as Teddy was stooping, something flinched a little in the dust, +and a tiny voice said: "Be careful. I am death!" It was Karait, the +dusty brown snakeling that lies for choice on the dusty earth; and his +bite is as dangerous as the cobra's. But he is so small that nobody +thinks of him, and so he does the more harm to people. + +Rikki-tikki's eyes grew red again, and he danced up to Karait with the +peculiar rocking, swaying motion that he had inherited from his family. +It looks very funny, but it is so perfectly balanced a gait that you can +fly off from it at any angle you please; and in dealing with snakes this +is an advantage. If Rikki-tikki had only known, he was doing a much more +dangerous thing than fighting Nag, for Karait is so small, and can turn +so quickly, that unless Rikki bit him close to the back of the head, he +would get the return-stroke in his eye or lip. But Rikki did not know: +his eyes were all red, and he rocked back and forth, looking for a good +place to hold. Karait struck out. Rikki jumped sideways and tried to run +in, but the wicked little dusty gray head lashed within a fraction of +his shoulder, and he had to jump over the body, and the head followed +his heels close. + +Teddy shouted to the house: "Oh, look here! Our mongoose is killing a +snake"; and Rikki-tikki heard a scream from Teddy's mother. His father +ran out with a stick, but by the time he came up, Karait had lunged out +once too far, and Rikki-tikki had sprung, jumped on the snake's back, +dropped his head far between his fore legs, bitten as high up the back +as he could get hold, and rolled away. That bite paralyzed Karait, and +Rikki-tikki was just going to eat him up from the tail, after the custom +of his family at dinner, when he remembered that a full meal makes a +slow mongoose, and if he wanted all his strength and quickness ready, he +must keep himself thin. + +He went away for a dust-bath under the castor-oil bushes, while Teddy's +father beat the dead Karait. "What is the use of that?" thought +Rikki-tikki. "I have settled it all"; and then Teddy's mother picked him +up from the dust and hugged him, crying that he had saved Teddy from +death, and Teddy's father said that he was a providence, and Teddy +looked on with big scared eyes. Rikki-Tikki was rather amused at all the +fuss, which, of course, he did not understand. Teddy's mother might just +as well have petted Teddy for playing in the dust. Rikki was thoroughly +enjoying himself. + +That night, at dinner, walking to and fro among the wine-glasses on the +table, he could have stuffed himself three times over with nice things; +but he remembered Nag and Nagaina, and though it was very pleasant to be +patted and petted by Teddy's mother, and to sit on Teddy's shoulder, +his eyes would get red from time to time, and he would go off into his +long war-cry of "_Rikk-tikk-tikki-tikki-tchk!_" + +Teddy carried him off to bed, and insisted on Rikki-tikki sleeping under +his chin. Rikki-tikki was too well bred to bite or scratch, but as soon +as Teddy was asleep he went off for his nightly walk round the house, +and in the dark he ran up against Chuchundra, the muskrat, creeping +round by the wall. Chuchundra is a broken-hearted little beast. He +whimpers and cheeps all the night, trying to make up his mind to run +into the middle of the room, but he never gets there. + +[Illustration: "IN THE DARK HE RAN UP AGAINST CHUCHUNDRA, THE MUSKRAT."] + +"Don't kill me," said Chuchundra, almost weeping. "Rikki-tikki, don't +kill me." + +"Do you think a snake-killer kills muskrats?" said Rikki-tikki +scornfully. + +"Those who kill snakes get killed by snakes," said Chuchundra, more +sorrowfully than ever. "And how am I to be sure that Nag won't mistake +me for you some dark night?" + +"There's not the least danger," said Rikki-tikki; "but Nag is in the +garden, and I know you don't go there." + +"My cousin Chua, the rat, told me--" said Chuchundra, and then he +stopped. + +"Told you what?" + +"H'sh! Nag is everywhere, Rikki-tikki. You should have talked to Chua in +the garden." + +"I didn't--so you must tell me. Quick, Chuchundra, or I'll bite you!" + +Chuchundra sat down and cried till the tears rolled off his whiskers. "I +am a very poor man," he sobbed. "I never had spirit enough to run out +into the middle of the room. H'sh! I mustn't tell you anything. Can't +you _hear_, Rikki-tikki?" + +Rikki-tikki listened. The house was as still as still, but he thought he +could just catch the faintest _scratch-scratch_ in the world,--a noise +as faint as that of a wasp walking on a window-pane,--the dry scratch of +a snake's scales on brickwork. + +"That's Nag or Nagaina," he said to himself; "and he is crawling into +the bath-room sluice. You're right, Chuchundra; I should have talked to +Chua." + +He stole off to Teddy's bath-room, but there was nothing there, and then +to Teddy's mother's bath-room. At the bottom of the smooth plaster wall +there was a brick pulled out to make a sluice for the bath-water, and as +Rikki-tikki stole in by the masonry curb where the bath is put, he heard +Nag and Nagaina whispering together outside in the moonlight. + +"When the house is emptied of people," said Nagaina to her husband, +"_he_ will have to go away, and then the garden will be our own again. +Go in quietly, and remember that the big man who killed Karait is the +first one to bite. Then come out and tell me, and we will hunt for +Rikki-tikki together." + +"But are you sure that there is anything to be gained by killing the +people?" said Nag. + +"Everything. When there were no people in the bungalow, did we have any +mongoose in the garden? So long as the bungalow is empty, we are king +and queen of the garden; and remember that as soon as our eggs in the +melon-bed hatch (as they may to-morrow), our children will need room and +quiet." + +"I had not thought of that," said Nag. "I will go, but there is no need +that we should hunt for Rikki-tikki afterward. I will kill the big man +and his wife, and the child if I can, and come away quietly. Then the +bungalow will be empty, and Rikki-tikki will go." + +Rikki-tikki tingled all over with rage and hatred at this, and then +Nag's head came through the sluice, and his five feet of cold body +followed it. Angry as he was, Rikki-tikki was very frightened as he saw +the size of the big cobra. Nag coiled himself up, raised his head, and +looked into the bath-room in the dark, and Rikki could see his eyes +glitter. + +"Now, if I kill him here, Nagaina will know; and if I fight him on the +open floor, the odds are in his favor. What am I to do?" said +Rikki-tikki-tavi. + +Nag waved to and fro, and then Rikki-tikki heard him drinking from the +biggest water-jar that was used to fill the bath. "That is good," said +the snake. "Now, when Karait was killed, the big man had a stick. He may +have that stick still, but when he comes in to bathe in the morning he +will not have a stick. I shall wait here till he comes. Nagaina--do you +hear me?--I shall wait here in the cool till daytime." + +There was no answer from outside, so Rikki-tikki knew Nagaina had gone +away. Nag coiled himself down, coil by coil, round the bulge at the +bottom of the water-jar, and Rikki-tikki stayed still as death. After an +hour he began to move, muscle by muscle, toward the jar. Nag was asleep, +and Rikki-tikki looked at his big back, wondering which would be the +best place for a good hold. "If I don't break his back at the first +jump," said Rikki, "he can still fight; and if he fights--O Rikki!" He +looked at the thickness of the neck below the hood, but that was too +much for him; and a bite near the tail would only make Nag savage. + +"It must be the head," he said at last: "the head above the hood; and, +when I am once there, I must not let go." + +Then he jumped. The head was lying a little clear of the water-jar, +under the curve of it; and, as his teeth met, Rikki braced his back +against the bulge of the red earthenware to hold down the head. This +gave him just one second's purchase, and he made the most of it. Then he +was battered to and fro as a rat is shaken by a dog--to and fro on the +floor, up and down, and round in great circles; but his eyes were red, +and he held on as the body cartwhipped over the floor, upsetting the tin +dipper and the soap-dish and the flesh-brush, and banged against the tin +side of the bath. As he held he closed his jaws tighter and tighter, +for he made sure he would be banged to death, and, for the honor of his +family, he preferred to be found with his teeth locked. He was dizzy, +aching, and felt shaken to pieces when something went off like a +thunderclap just behind him; a hot wind knocked him senseless and red +fire singed his fur. The big man had been wakened by the noise, and had +fired both barrels of a shot-gun into Nag just behind the hood. + + [Illustration: "THEN RIKKI-TIKKI WAS BATTERED TO AND FRO AS A RAT IS + SHAKEN BY A DOG."] + +Rikki-tikki held on with his eyes shut, for now he was quite sure he was +dead; but the head did not move, and the big man picked him up and said: +"It's the mongoose again, Alice; the little chap has saved _our_ lives +now." Then Teddy's mother came in with a very white face, and saw what +was left of Nag, and Rikki-tikki dragged himself to Teddy's bedroom and +spent half the rest of the night shaking himself tenderly to find out +whether he really was broken into forty pieces, as he fancied. + +When morning came he was very stiff, but well pleased with his doings. +"Now I have Nagaina to settle with, and she will be worse than five +Nags, and there's no knowing when the eggs she spoke of will hatch. +Goodness! I must go and see Darzee," he said. + +Without waiting for breakfast, Rikki-tikki ran to the thorn-bush where +Darzee was singing a song of triumph at the top of his voice. The news +of Nag's death was all over the garden, for the sweeper had thrown the +body on the rubbish-heap. + +"Oh, you stupid tuft of feathers!" said Rikki-tikki, angrily. "Is this +the time to sing?" + +"Nag is dead--is dead--is dead!" sang Darzee. "The valiant Rikki-tikki +caught him by the head and held fast. The big man brought the bang-stick +and Nag fell in two pieces! He will never eat my babies again." + +"All that's true enough; but where's Nagaina?" said Rikki-tikki, looking +carefully round him. + +"Nagaina came to the bath-room sluice and called for Nag," Darzee went +on; "and Nag came out on the end of a stick--the sweeper picked him up +on the end of a stick and threw him upon the rubbish-heap. Let us sing +about the great, the red-eyed Rikki-tikki!" and Darzee filled his throat +and sang. + +"If I could get up to your nest, I'd roll all your babies out!" said +Rikki-tikki. "You don't know when to do the right thing at the right +time. You're safe enough in your nest there, but it's war for me down +here. Stop singing a minute, Darzee." + +"For the great, the beautiful Rikki-tikki's sake I will stop," said +Darzee. "What is it, O Killer of the terrible Nag!" + +"Where is Nagaina, for the third time?" + +"On the rubbish-heap by the stables, mourning for Nag. Great is +Rikki-tikki with the white teeth." + +"Bother my white teeth! Have you ever heard where she keeps her eggs?" + +"In the melon-bed, on the end nearest the wall, where the sun strikes +nearly all day. She had them there weeks ago." + +"And you never thought it worth while to tell me? The end nearest the +wall, you said?" + +"Rikki-tikki, you are not going to eat her eggs?" + +"Not eat exactly; no. Darzee, if you have a grain of sense you will fly +off to the stables and pretend that your wing is broken, and let Nagaina +chase you away to this bush? I must get to the melon-bed, and if I went +there now she'd see me." + +Darzee was a feather-brained little fellow who could never hold more +than one idea at a time in his head; and just because he knew that +Nagaina's children were born in eggs like his own, he didn't think at +first that it was fair to kill them. But his wife was a sensible bird, +and she knew that cobra's eggs meant young cobras later on; so she +flew off from the nest, and left Darzee to keep the babies warm, and +continue his song about the death of Nag. Darzee was very like a man in +some ways. + +She fluttered in front of Nagaina by the rubbish-heap, and cried out, +"Oh, my wing is broken! The boy in the house threw a stone at me and +broke it." Then she fluttered more desperately than ever. + + [Illustration: DARZEE'S WIFE PRETENDS TO HAVE BROKEN A WING.] + +Nagaina lifted up her head and hissed, "You warned Rikki-tikki when I +would have killed him. Indeed and truly, you've chosen a bad place to be +lame in." And she moved toward Darzee's wife, slipping along over the +dust. + +"The boy broke it with a stone!" shrieked Darzee's wife. + +"Well! It may be some consolation to you when you're dead to know that I +shall settle accounts with the boy. My husband lies on the rubbish-heap +this morning, but before night the boy in the house will lie very still. +What is the use of running away? I am sure to catch you. Little fool, +look at me!" + +Darzee's wife knew better than to do _that_, for a bird who looks at a +snake's eyes gets so frightened that she cannot move. Darzee's wife +fluttered on, piping sorrowfully, and never leaving the ground, and +Nagaina quickened her pace. + +Rikki-tikki heard them going up the path from the stables, and he raced +for the end of the melon-patch near the wall. There, in the warm litter +about the melons, very cunningly hidden, he found twenty-five eggs, +about the size of a bantam's eggs, but with whitish skin instead of +shell. + +"I was not a day too soon," he said; for he could see the baby cobras +curled up inside the skin, and he knew that the minute they were hatched +they could each kill a man or a mongoose. He bit off the tops of the +eggs as fast as he could, taking care to crush the young cobras, and +turned over the litter from time to time to see whether he had missed +any. At last there were only three eggs left, and Rikki-tikki began to +chuckle to himself, when he heard Darzee's wife screaming: + +"Rikki-tikki, I led Nagaina toward the house, and she has gone into the +veranda, and--oh, come quickly--she means killing!" + +Rikki-tikki smashed two eggs, and tumbled backward down the melon-bed +with the third egg in his mouth, and scuttled to the veranda as hard as +he could put foot to the ground. Teddy and his mother and father were +there at early breakfast; but Rikki-tikki saw that they were not eating +anything. They sat stone-still, and their faces were white. Nagaina was +coiled up on the matting by Teddy's chair, within easy striking distance +of Teddy's bare leg, and she was swaying to and fro singing a song of +triumph. + +"Son of the big man that killed Nag," she hissed, "stay still. I am not +ready yet. Wait a little. Keep very still, all you three. If you move I +strike, and if you do not move I strike. Oh, foolish people, who killed +my Nag!" + +Teddy's eyes were fixed on his father, and all his father could do was +to whisper, "Sit still, Teddy. You mustn't move. Teddy, keep still." + +Then Rikki-tikki came up and cried: "Turn round, Nagaina; turn and +fight!" + +"All in good time," said she, without moving her eyes. "I will settle my +account with _you_ presently. Look at your friends, Rikki-tikki. They +are still and white; they are afraid. They dare not move, and if you +come a step nearer I strike." + +"Look at your eggs," said Rikki-tikki, "in the melon-bed near the wall. +Go and look, Nagaina." + +The big snake turned half round, and saw the egg on the veranda. "Ah-h! +Give it to me," she said. + +Rikki-tikki put his paws one on each side of the egg, and his eyes were +blood-red. "What price for a snake's egg? For a young cobra? For a +young king-cobra? For the last--the very last of the brood? The ants are +eating all the others down by the melon-bed." + +Nagaina spun clear round, forgetting everything for the sake of the one +egg; and Rikki-tikki saw Teddy's father shoot out a big hand, catch +Teddy by the shoulder, and drag him across the little table with the +tea-cups, safe and out of reach of Nagaina. + +"Tricked! Tricked! Tricked! _Rikk-tck-tck!_" chuckled Rikki-tikki. "The +boy is safe, and it was I--I--I that caught Nag by the hood last night +in the bath-room." Then he began to jump up and down, all four feet +together, his head close to the floor. "He threw me to and fro, but he +could not shake me off. He was dead before the big man blew him in two. +I did it. _Rikki-tikki-tck-tck!_ Come then, Nagaina. Come and fight with +me. You shall not be a widow long." + +Nagaina saw that she had lost her chance of killing Teddy, and the egg +lay between Rikki-tikki's paws. "Give me the egg, Rikki-tikki. Give me +the last of my eggs, and I will go away and never come back," she said, +lowering her hood. + +"Yes, you will go away, and you will never come back; for you will go to +the rubbish-heap with Nag. Fight, widow! The big man has gone for his +gun! Fight!" + +Rikki-tikki was bounding all round Nagaina, keeping just out of reach of +her stroke, his little eyes like hot coals. Nagaina gathered herself +together, and flung out at him. Rikki-tikki jumped up and backward. +Again and again and again she struck, and each time her head came with a +whack on the matting of the veranda and she gathered herself together +like a watch-spring. Then Rikki-tikki danced in a circle to get behind +her, and Nagaina spun round to keep her head to his head, so that the +rustle of her tail on the matting sounded like dry leaves blown along by +the wind. + +He had forgotten the egg. It still lay on the veranda, and Nagaina came +nearer and nearer to it, till at last, while Rikki-tikki was drawing +breath, she caught it in her mouth, turned to the veranda steps, and +flew like an arrow down the path, with Rikki-tikki behind her. When the +cobra runs for her life, she goes like a whiplash flicked across a +horse's neck. + +[Illustration: "NAGAINA FLEW DOWN THE PATH, WITH RIKKI-TIKKI BEHIND + HER."] + +Rikki-tikki knew that he must catch her, or all the trouble would begin +again. She headed straight for the long grass by the thorn-bush, and as +he was running Rikki-tikki heard Darzee still singing his foolish little +song of triumph. But Darzee's wife was wiser. She flew off her nest as +Nagaina came along, and flapped her wings about Nagaina's head. If +Darzee had helped they might have turned her; but Nagaina only lowered +her hood and went on. Still, the instant's delay brought Rikki-tikki up +to her, and as she plunged into the rat-hole where she and Nag used to +live, his little white teeth were clenched on her tail, and he went down +with her--and very few mongooses, however wise and old they may be, +care to follow a cobra into its hole. It was dark in the hole; and +Rikki-tikki never knew when it might open out and give Nagaina room to +turn and strike at him. He held on savagely, and struck out his feet to +act as brakes on the dark slope of the hot, moist earth. + +Then the grass by the mouth of the hole stopped waving, and Darzee said: +"It is all over with Rikki-tikki! We must sing his death-song. Valiant +Rikki-tikki is dead! For Nagaina will surely kill him underground." + +So he sang a very mournful song that he made up all on the spur of the +minute, and just as he got to the most touching part the grass quivered +again, and Rikki-tikki, covered with dirt, dragged himself out of the +hole leg by leg, licking his whiskers. Darzee stopped with a little +shout. Rikki-tikki shook some of the dust out of his fur and sneezed. +"It is all over," he said. "The widow will never come out again." And +the red ants that live between the grass stems heard him, and began to +troop down one after another to see if he had spoken the truth. + + [Illustration: "IT IS ALL OVER."] + +Rikki-tikki curled himself up in the grass and slept where he was--slept +and slept till it was late in the afternoon, for he had done a hard +day's work. + +"Now," he said, when he awoke, "I will go back to the house. Tell the +Coppersmith, Darzee, and he will tell the garden that Nagaina is dead." + +The Coppersmith is a bird who makes a noise exactly like the beating of +a little hammer on a copper pot; and the reason he is always making it +is because he is the town-crier to every Indian garden, and tells all +the news to everybody who cares to listen. As Rikki-tikki went up the +path, he heard his "attention" notes like a tiny dinner-gong; and then +the steady "_Ding-dong-tock!_ Nag is dead--_dong!_ Nagaina is dead! +_Ding-dong-tock!_" That set all the birds in the garden singing, and the +frogs croaking; for Nag and Nagaina used to eat frogs as well as little +birds. + +When Rikki got to the house, Teddy and Teddy's mother (she looked very +white still, for she had been fainting) and Teddy's father came out and +almost cried over him; and that night he ate all that was given him till +he could eat no more, and went to bed on Teddy's shoulder, where Teddy's +mother saw him when she came to look late at night. + +"He saved our lives and Teddy's life," she said to her husband. "Just +think, he saved all our lives." + +Rikki-tikki woke up with a jump, for all the mongooses are light +sleepers. + +"Oh, it's you," said he. "What are you bothering for? All the cobras are +dead; and if they weren't, I'm here." + +Rikki-tikki had a right to be proud of himself; but he did not grow too +proud, and he kept that garden as a mongoose should keep it, with tooth +and jump and spring and bite, till never a cobra dared show its head +inside the walls. + + + DARZEE'S CHAUNT + + (SUNG IN HONOR OF RIKKI-TIKKI-TAVI) + + Singer and tailor am I-- + Doubled the joys that I know-- + Proud of my lilt through the sky, + Proud of the house that I sew-- + Over and under, so weave I my music--so weave I + the house that I sew. + + Sing to your fledglings again, + Mother, oh lift up your head! + Evil that plagued us is slain, + Death in the garden lies dead. + Terror that hid in the roses is impotent--flung + on the dung-hill and dead! + + Who hath delivered us, who? + Tell me his nest and his name. + Rikki, the valiant, the true, + Tikki, with eyeballs of flame. + Rik-tikki-tikki, the ivory-fanged, the hunter with + eyeballs of flame. + + Give him the Thanks of the Birds, + Bowing with tail-feathers spread! + Praise him with nightingale words-- + Nay, I will praise him instead. + Hear! I will sing you the praise of the bottle-tailed + Rikki, with eyeballs of red! + +(_Here Rikki-tikki interrupted, and the rest of the song is lost._) + + + + + TOOMAI OF THE ELEPHANTS + + + I will remember what I was, I am sick of rope and chain-- + I will remember my old strength and all my forest affairs. + I will not sell my back to man for a bundle of sugar-cane, + I will go out to my own kind, and the wood-folk in their lairs. + + I will go out until the day, until the morning break, + Out to the winds' untainted kiss, the waters' clean caress: + I will forget my ankle-ring and snap my picket-stake. + I will revisit my lost loves, and playmates masterless! + + + [Illustration] + + TOOMAI OF THE ELEPHANTS + + +KALA NAG, which means Black Snake, had served the Indian Government in +every way that an elephant could serve it for forty-seven years, and as +he was fully twenty years old when he was caught, that makes him nearly +seventy--a ripe age for an elephant. He remembered pushing, with a big +leather pad on his forehead, at a gun stuck in deep mud, and that was +before the Afghan war of 1842, and he had not then come to his full +strength. His mother, Radha Pyari,--Radha the darling,--who had been +caught in the same drive with Kala Nag, told him, before his little milk +tusks had dropped out, that elephants who were afraid always got hurt: +and Kala Nag knew that that advice was good, for the first time that he +saw a shell burst he backed, screaming, into a stand of piled rifles, +and the bayonets pricked him in all his softest places. So, before he +was twenty-five, he gave up being afraid, and so he was the best-loved +and the best-looked-after elephant in the service of the Government of +India. He had carried tents, twelve hundred pounds' weight of tents, on +the march in Upper India: he had been hoisted into a ship at the end of +a steam-crane and taken for days across the water, and made to carry a +mortar on his back in a strange and rocky country very far from India, +and had seen the Emperor Theodore lying dead in Magdala, and had come +back again in the steamer entitled, so the soldiers said, to the +Abyssinian war medal. He had seen his fellow-elephants die of cold and +epilepsy and starvation and sunstroke up at a place called Ali Musjid, +ten years later; and afterward he had been sent down thousands of miles +south to haul and pile big baulks of teak in the timber-yards at +Moulmein. There he had half killed an insubordinate young elephant who +was shirking his fair share of the work. + + [Illustration: "KALA NAG WAS THE BEST-LOVED ELEPHANT IN THE SERVICE."] + +After that he was taken off timber-hauling, and employed, with a few +score other elephants who were trained to the business, in helping to +catch wild elephants among the Garo hills. Elephants are very strictly +preserved by the Indian Government. There is one whole department which +does nothing else but hunt them, and catch them, and break them in, and +send them up and down the country as they are needed for work. + +Kala Nag stood ten fair feet at the shoulders, and his tusks had been +cut off short at five feet, and bound round the ends, to prevent them +splitting, with bands of copper; but he could do more with those stumps +than any untrained elephant could do with the real sharpened ones. + +When, after weeks and weeks of cautious driving of scattered elephants +across the hills, the forty or fifty wild monsters were driven into the +last stockade, and the big drop-gate, made of tree-trunks lashed +together, jarred down behind them, Kala Nag, at the word of command, +would go into that flaring, trumpeting pandemonium (generally at night, +when the flicker of the torches made it difficult to judge distances), +and, picking out the biggest and wildest tusker of the mob, would hammer +him and hustle him into quiet while the men on the backs of the other +elephants roped and tied the smaller ones. + +There was nothing in the way of fighting that Kala Nag, the old wise +Black Snake, did not know, for he had stood up more than once in his +time to the charge of the wounded tiger, and, curling up his soft trunk +to be out of harm's way, had knocked the springing brute sideways in +mid-air with a quick sickle-cut of his head, that he had invented all by +himself; had knocked him over, and kneeled upon him with his huge knees +till the life went out with a gasp and a howl, and there was only a +fluffy striped thing on the ground for Kala Nag to pull by the tail. + +"Yes," said Big Toomai, his driver, the son of Black Toomai who had +taken him to Abyssinia, and grandson of Toomai of the Elephants who had +seen him caught, "there is nothing that the Black Snake fears except me. +He has seen three generations of us feed him and groom him, and he will +live to see four." + +"He is afraid of _me_ also," said Little Toomai, standing up to his full +height of four feet, with only one rag upon him. He was ten years old, +the eldest son of Big Toomai, and, according to custom, he would take +his father's place on Kala Nag's neck when he grew up, and would handle +the heavy iron _ankus_, the elephant-goad that had been worn smooth +by his father, and his grandfather, and his great-grandfather. He knew +what he was talking of; for he had been born under Kala Nag's shadow, +had played with the end of his trunk before he could walk, had taken him +down to water as soon as he could walk, and Kala Nag would no more have +dreamed of disobeying his shrill little orders than he would have +dreamed of killing him on that day when Big Toomai carried the little +brown baby under Kala Nag's tusks, and told him to salute his master +that was to be. + + [Illustration: "'HE IS AFRAID OF ME,' SAID LITTLE TOOMAI, AND HE MADE + KALA NAG LIFT UP HIS FEET ONE AFTER THE OTHER."] + +"Yes," said Little Toomai, "he is afraid of _me_," and he took long +strides up to Kala Nag, called him a fat old pig, and made him lift up +his feet one after the other. + +"Wah!" said Little Toomai, "thou art a big elephant," and he wagged his +fluffy head, quoting his father. "The Government may pay for elephants, +but they belong to us mahouts. When thou art old, Kala Nag, there will +come some rich Rajah, and he will buy thee from the Government, on +account of thy size and thy manners, and then thou wilt have nothing to +do but to carry gold earrings in thy ears, and a gold howdah on thy +back, and a red cloth covered with gold on thy sides, and walk at the +head of the processions of the King. Then I shall sit on thy neck, O +Kala Nag, with a silver _ankus_, and men will run before us with golden +sticks, crying, 'Room for the King's elephant!' That will be good, Kala +Nag, but not so good as this hunting in the jungles." + +"Umph!" said Big Toomai. "Thou art a boy, and as wild as a buffalo-calf. +This running up and down among the hills is not the best Government +service. I am getting old, and I do not love wild elephants, Give me +brick elephant-lines, one stall to each elephant, and big stumps to tie +them to safely, and flat, broad roads to exercise upon, instead of this +come-and-go camping. Aha, the Cawnpore barracks were good. There was a +bazaar close by, and only three hours' work a day." + +Little Toomai remembered the Cawnpore elephant-lines and said nothing. +He very much preferred the camp life, and hated those broad, flat roads, +with the daily grubbing for grass in the forage-reserve, and the long +hours when there was nothing to do except to watch Kala Nag fidgeting in +his pickets. + +What Little Toomai liked was to scramble up bridle-paths that only an +elephant could take; the dip into the valley below; the glimpses of the +wild elephants browsing miles away; the rush of the frightened pig and +peacock under Kala Nag's feet; the blinding warm rains, when all the +hills and valleys smoked; the beautiful misty mornings when nobody knew +where they would camp that night; the steady, cautious drive of the wild +elephants, and the mad rush and blaze and hullaballoo of the last +night's drive, when the elephants poured into the stockade like boulders +in a landslide, found that they could not get out, and flung themselves +at the heavy posts only to be driven back by yells and flaring torches +and volleys of blank cartridge. + + [Illustration: "HE WOULD GET HIS TORCH AND WAVE IT, AND YELL WITH THE + BEST."] + +Even a little boy could be of use there, and Toomai was as useful as +three boys. He would get his torch and wave it, and yell with the best. +But the really good time came when the driving out began, and the +Keddah, that is, the stockade, looked like a picture of the end of the +world, and men had to make signs to one another, because they could not +hear themselves speak. Then Little Toomai would climb up to the top of +one of the quivering stockade-posts, his sun-bleached brown hair flying +loose all over his shoulders, and he looking like a goblin in the +torch-light; and as soon as there was a lull you could hear his +high-pitched yells of encouragement to Kala Nag, above the trumpeting +and crashing, and snapping of ropes, and groans of the tethered +elephants. "_Mal, mal, Kala Nag!_ (Go on, go on, Black Snake!) _Dant +do!_ (Give him the tusk!) _Somalo! Somalo!_ (Careful, careful!) _Maro! +Mar!_ (Hit him, hit him!) Mind the post! _Arre! Arre! Hai! Yai! +Kya-a-ah!_" he would shout, and the big fight between Kala Nag and the +wild elephant would sway to and fro across the Keddah, and the old +elephant-catchers would wipe the sweat out of their eyes, and find time +to nod to Little Toomai wriggling with joy on the top of the posts. + +He did more than wriggle. One night he slid down from the post and +slipped in between the elephants, and threw up the loose end of a rope, +which had dropped, to a driver who was trying to get a purchase on the +leg of a kicking young calf (calves always give more trouble than +full-grown animals). Kala Nag saw him, caught him in his trunk, and +handed him up to Big Toomai, who slapped him then and there, and put him +back on the post. + +Next morning he gave him a scolding, and said: "Are not good brick +elephant-lines and a little tent-carrying enough, that thou must needs +go elephant-catching on thy own account, little worthless? Now those +foolish hunters, whose pay is less than my pay, have spoken to Petersen +Sahib of the matter." Little Toomai was frightened. He did not know much +of white men, but Petersen Sahib was the greatest white man in the world +to him. He was the head of all the Keddah operations--the man who caught +all the elephants for the Government of India, and who knew more about +the ways of elephants than any living man. + +"What--what will happen?" said Little Toomai. + +"Happen! the worst that can happen. Petersen Sahib is a madman. Else why +should he go hunting these wild devils? He may even require thee to be +an elephant-catcher, to sleep anywhere in these fever-filled jungles, +and at last to be trampled to death in the Keddah. It is well that this +nonsense ends safely. Next week the catching is over, and we of the +plains are sent back to our stations. Then we will march on smooth +roads, and forget all this hunting. But, son, I am angry that thou +shouldst meddle in the business that belongs to these dirty Assamese +jungle-folk. Kala Nag will obey none but me, so I must go with him into +the Keddah, but he is only a fighting elephant, and he does not help to +rope them. So I sit at my ease, as befits a mahout,--not a mere +hunter,--a mahout, I say, and a man who gets a pension at the end of his +service. Is the family of Toomai of the Elephants to be trodden +underfoot in the dirt of a Keddah? Bad one! Wicked one! Worthless son! +Go and wash Kala Nag and attend to his ears, and see that there are no +thorns in his feet; or else Petersen Sahib will surely catch thee and +make thee a wild hunter--a follower of elephant's foot-tracks, a +jungle-bear. Bah! Shame! Go!" + +Little Toomai went off without saying a word, but he told Kala Nag all +his grievances while he was examining his feet. "No matter," said Little +Toomai, turning up the fringe of Kala Nag's huge right ear. "They have +said my name to Petersen Sahib, and perhaps--and perhaps--and +perhaps--who knows? Hai! That is a big thorn that I have pulled out!" + +The next few days were spent in getting the elephants together, in +walking the newly caught wild elephants up and down between a couple of +tame ones, to prevent them from giving too much trouble on the downward +march to the plains, and in taking stock of the blankets and ropes and +things that had been worn out or lost in the forest. + +Petersen Sahib came in on his clever she-elephant Pudmini; he had been +paying off other camps among the hills, for the season was coming to an +end, and there was a native clerk sitting at a table under a tree, to +pay the drivers their wages. As each man was paid he went back to his +elephant, and joined the line that stood ready to start. The catchers, +and hunters, and beaters, the men of the regular Keddah, who stayed in +the jungle year in and year out, sat on the backs of the elephants that +belonged to Petersen Sahib's permanent force, or leaned against the +trees with their guns across their arms, and made fun of the drivers who +were going away, and laughed when the newly caught elephants broke the +line and ran about. + +Big Toomai went up to the clerk with Little Toomai behind him, and +Machua Appa, the head-tracker, said in an undertone to a friend of his, +"There goes one piece of good elephant-stuff at least. 'T is a pity to +send that young jungle-cock to moult in the plains." + +Now Petersen Sahib had ears all over him, as a man must have who listens +to the most silent of all living things--the wild elephant. He turned +where he was lying all along on Pudmini's back, and said, "What is that? +I did not know of a man among the plain-drivers who had wit enough to +rope even a dead elephant." + +"This is not a man, but a boy. He went into the Keddah at the last +drive, and threw Barmao there the rope, when we were trying to get that +young calf with the blotch on his shoulder away from his mother." + +Machua Appa pointed at Little Toomai, and Petersen Sahib looked, and +Little Toomai bowed to the earth. + +"He throw a rope? He is smaller than a picket-pin. Little one, what is +thy name?" said Petersen Sahib. + +Little Toomai was too frightened to speak, but Kala Nag was behind him, +and Toomai made a sign with his hand, and the elephant caught him up in +his trunk and held him level with Pudmini's forehead, in front of the +great Petersen Sahib. Then Little Toomai covered his face with his +hands, for he was only a child, and except where elephants were +concerned, he was just as bashful as a child could be. + +"Oho!" said Petersen Sahib, smiling underneath his mustache, "and why +didst thou teach thy elephant _that_ trick? Was it to help thee steal +green corn from the roofs of the houses when the ears are put out to +dry?" + + [Illustration: "'NOT GREEN CORN, PROTECTOR OF THE POOR,--MELONS,' SAID + LITTLE TOOMAI."] + +"Not green corn, Protector of the Poor,--melons," said Little Toomai, +and all the men sitting about broke into a roar of laughter. Most of +them had taught their elephants that trick when they were boys. Little +Toomai was hanging eight feet up in the air, and he wished very much +that he were eight feet underground. + +"He is Toomai, my son, Sahib," said Big Toomai, scowling. "He is a very +bad boy, and he will end in a jail, Sahib." + +"Of that I have my doubts," said Petersen Sahib. "A boy who can face a +full Keddah at his age does not end in jails. See, little one, here are +four annas to spend in sweetmeats because thou hast a little head under +that great thatch of hair. In time thou mayest become a hunter too." Big +Toomai scowled more than ever. "Remember, though, that Keddahs are not +good for children to play in," Petersen Sahib went on. + +"Must I never go there, Sahib?" asked Little Toomai, with a big gasp. + +"Yes." Petersen Sahib smiled again. "When thou hast seen the elephants +dance. That is the proper time. Come to me when thou hast seen the +elephants dance, and then I will let thee go into all the Keddahs." + +There was another roar of laughter, for that is an old joke among +elephant-catchers, and it means just never. There are great cleared flat +places hidden away in the forests that are called elephants' ballrooms, +but even these are found only by accident, and no man has ever seen the +elephants dance. When a driver boasts of his skill and bravery the other +drivers say, "And when didst _thou_ see the elephants dance?" + +Kala Nag put Little Toomai down, and he bowed to the earth again and +went away with his father, and gave the silver four-anna piece to his +mother, who was nursing his baby-brother, and they all were put up on +Kala Nag's back, and the line of grunting, squealing elephants rolled +down the hill-path to the plains. It was a very lively march on account +of the new elephants, who gave trouble at every ford, and who needed +coaxing or beating every other minute. + +Big Toomai prodded Kala Nag spitefully, for he was very angry, but +Little Toomai was too happy to speak. Petersen Sahib had noticed him, +and given him money, so he felt as a private soldier would feel if he +had been called out of the ranks and praised by his commander-in-chief. + +"What did Petersen Sahib mean by the elephant-dance?" he said, at last, +softly to his mother. + +Big Toomai heard him and grunted. "That thou shouldst never be one of +these hill-buffaloes of trackers. _That_ was what he meant. Oh you in +front, what is blocking the way?" + +An Assamese driver, two or three elephants ahead, turned round angrily, +crying: "Bring up Kala Nag, and knock this youngster of mine into good +behavior. Why should Petersen Sahib have chosen _me_ to go down with you +donkeys of the rice-fields? Lay your beast alongside, Toomai, and let +him prod with his tusks. By all the Gods of the Hills, these new +elephants are possessed, or else they can smell their companions in the +jungle." + +Kala Nag hit the new elephant in the ribs and knocked the wind out of +him, as Big Toomai said, "We have swept the hills of wild elephants at +the last catch. It is only your carelessness in driving. Must I keep +order along the whole line?" + +"Hear him!" said the other driver. "_We_ have swept the hills! Ho! ho! +You are very wise, you plains-people. Any one but a mudhead who never +saw the jungle would know that _they_ know that the drives are ended for +the season. Therefore all the wild elephants to-night will--but why +should I waste wisdom on a river-turtle?" + +"What will they do?" Little Toomai called out. + +"_Oh_, little one. Art thou there? Well, I will tell thee, for thou +hast a cool head. They will dance, and it behooves thy father, who has +swept _all_ the hills of _all_ the elephants, to double-chain his +pickets to-night." + +"What talk is this?" said Big Toomai. "For forty years, father and son, +we have tended elephants, and we have never heard such moonshine about +dances." + +"Yes; but a plains-man who lives in a hut knows only the four walls of +his hut. Well, leave thy elephants unshackled to-night and see what +comes; as for their dancing, I have seen the place where--_Bapree-Bap!_ +how many windings has the Dihang River? Here is another ford, and we +must swim the calves. Stop still, you behind there." + +And in this way, talking and wrangling and splashing through the rivers, +they made their first march to a sort of receiving-camp for the new +elephants; but they lost their tempers long before they got there. + +Then the elephants were chained by their hind legs to their big stumps +of pickets, and extra ropes were fitted to the new elephants, and the +fodder was piled before them, and the hill-drivers went back to Petersen +Sahib through the afternoon light, telling the plains-drivers to be +extra careful that night, and laughing when the plains-drivers asked the +reason. + +Little Toomai attended to Kala Nag's supper, and as evening fell, +wandered through the camp, unspeakably happy, in search of a tom-tom. +When an Indian child's heart is full, he does not run about and make a +noise in an irregular fashion. He sits down to a sort of revel all by +himself. And Little Toomai had been spoken to by Petersen Sahib! If he +had not found what he wanted I believe he would have burst. But the +sweatmeat-seller in the camp lent him a little tom-tom--a drum beaten +with the flat of the hand--and he sat down, cross-legged, before Kala +Nag as the stars began to come out, the tom-tom in his lap, and he +thumped and he thumped and he thumped, and the more he thought of the +great honor that had been done to him, the more he thumped, all alone +among the elephant-fodder. There was no tune and no words, but the +thumping made him happy. + +The new elephants strained at their ropes, and squealed and trumpeted +from time to time, and he could hear his mother in the camp hut putting +his small brother to sleep with an old, old song about the great God +Shiv, who once told all the animals what they should eat. It is a very +soothing lullaby, and the first verse says: + + Shiv, who poured the harvest and made the winds to blow, + Sitting at the doorways of a day of long ago, + Gave to each his portion, food and toil and fate, + From the King upon the _guddee_ to the Beggar at the gate. + All things made he--Shiva the Preserver. + Mahadeo! Mahadeo! he made all,-- + Thorn for the camel, fodder for the kine, + And mother's heart for sleepy head, O little son of mine! + +Little Toomai came in with a joyous _tunk-a-tunk_ at the end of each +verse, till he felt sleepy and stretched himself on the fodder at Kala +Nag's side. + +At last the elephants began to lie down one after another as is their +custom, till only Kala Nag at the right of the line was left standing +up; and he rocked slowly from side to side, his ears put forward to +listen to the night wind as it blew very slowly across the hills. The +air was full of all the night noises that, taken together, make one big +silence--the click of one bamboo-stem against the other, the rustle of +something alive in the undergrowth, the scratch and squawk of a +half-waked bird (birds are awake in the night much more often than we +imagine), and the fall of water ever so far away. Little Toomai slept +for some time, and when he waked it was brilliant moonlight, and Kala +Nag was still standing up with his ears cocked. Little Toomai turned, +rustling in the fodder, and watched the curve of his big back against +half the stars in heaven, and while he watched he heard, so far away +that it sounded no more than a pinhole of noise pricked through the +stillness, the "hoot-toot" of a wild elephant. + +All the elephants in the lines jumped up as if they had been shot, and +their grunts at last waked the sleeping mahouts, and they came out and +drove in the picket-pegs with big mallets, and tightened this rope and +knotted that till all was quiet. One new elephant had nearly grubbed up +his picket, and Big Toomai took off Kala Nag's leg-chain and shackled +that elephant fore foot to hind foot, but slipped a loop of grass-string +round Kala Nag's leg, and told him to remember that he was tied fast. He +knew that he and his father and his grandfather had done the very same +thing hundreds of times before. Kala Nag did not answer to the order by +gurgling, as he usually did. He stood still, looking out across the +moonlight, his head a little raised and his ears spread like fans, up +to the great folds of the Garo hills. + +"Look to him if he grows restless in the night," said Big Toomai to +Little Toomai, and he went into the hut and slept. Little Toomai was +just going to sleep, too, when he heard the coir string snap with a +little "tang," and Kala Nag rolled out of his pickets as slowly and as +silently as a cloud rolls out of the mouth of a valley. Little Toomai +pattered after him, bare-footed, down the road in the moonlight, calling +under his breath, "Kala Nag! Kala Nag! Take me with you, O Kala Nag!" +The elephant turned without a sound, took three strides back to the boy +in the moonlight, put down his trunk, swung him up to his neck, and +almost before Little Toomai had settled his knees, slipped into the +forest. + +There was one blast of furious trumpeting from the lines, and then the +silence shut down on everything, and Kala Nag began to move. Sometimes a +tuft of high grass washed along his sides as a wave washes along the +sides of a ship, and sometimes a cluster of wild-pepper vines would +scrape along his back, or a bamboo would creak where his shoulder +touched it; but between those times he moved absolutely without any +sound, drifting through the thick Garo forest as though it had been +smoke. He was going uphill, but though Little Toomai watched the stars +in the rifts of the trees, he could not tell in what direction. + +Then Kala Nag reached the crest of the ascent and stopped for a minute, +and Little Toomai could see the tops of the trees lying all speckled and +furry under the moonlight for miles and miles, and the blue-white mist +over the river in the hollow. Toomai leaned forward and looked, and he +felt that the forest was awake below him--awake and alive and crowded. A +big brown fruit-eating bat brushed past his ear; a porcupine's quills +rattled in the thicket, and in the darkness between the tree-stems he +heard a hog-bear digging hard in the moist warm earth, and snuffing as +it digged. + +Then the branches closed over his head again, and Kala Nag began to go +down into the valley--not quietly this time, but as a runaway gun goes +down a steep bank--in one rush. The huge limbs moved as steadily as +pistons, eight feet to each stride, and the wrinkled skin of the +elbow-points rustled. The undergrowth on either side of him ripped with +a noise like torn canvas, and the saplings that he heaved away right +and left with his shoulders sprang back again, and banged him on the +flank, and great trails of creepers, all matted together, hung from his +tusks as he threw his head from side to side and plowed out his pathway. +Then Little Toomai laid himself down close to the great neck, lest a +swinging bough should sweep him to the ground, and he wished that he +were back in the lines again. + +The grass began to get squashy, and Kala Nag's feet sucked and squelched +as he put them down, and the night mist at the bottom of the valley +chilled Little Toomai. There was a splash and a trample, and the rush of +running water, and Kala Nag strode through the bed of a river, feeling +his way at each step. Above the noise of the water, as it swirled round +the elephant's legs, Little Toomai could hear more splashing and some +trumpeting both up-stream and down--great grunts and angry snortings, +and all the mist about him seemed to be full of rolling wavy shadows. + +"_Ai!_" he said, half aloud, his teeth chattering. "The elephant-folk +are out to-night. It _is_ the dance, then." + +Kala Nag swashed out of the water, blew his trunk clear, and began +another climb; but this time he was not alone, and he had not to make +his path. That was made already, six feet wide, in front of him, where +the bent jungle-grass was trying to recover itself and stand up. Many +elephants must have gone that way only a few minutes before. Little +Toomai looked back, and behind him a great wild tusker with his little +pig's eyes glowing like hot coals, was just lifting himself out of the +misty river. Then the trees closed up again, and they went on and up, +with trumpetings and crashings, and the sound of breaking branches on +every side of them. + +At last Kala Nag stood still between two tree-trunks at the very top of +the hill. They were part of a circle of trees that grew round an +irregular space of some three or four acres, and in all that space, as +Little Toomai could see, the ground had been trampled down as hard as a +brick floor. Some trees grew in the center of the clearing, but their +bark was rubbed away, and the white wood beneath showed all shiny and +polished in the patches of moonlight. There were creepers hanging from +the upper branches, and the bells of the flowers of the creepers, great +waxy white things like convolvuluses, hung down fast asleep; but within +the limits of the clearing there was not a single blade of +green--nothing but the trampled earth. + +The moonlight showed it all iron-gray, except where some elephants stood +upon it, and their shadows were inky black. Little Toomai looked, +holding his breath, with his eyes starting out of his head, and as he +looked, more and more and more elephants swung out into the open from +between the tree-trunks. Little Toomai could count only up to ten, and +he counted again and again on his fingers till he lost count of the +tens, and his head began to swim. Outside the clearing he could hear +them crashing in the undergrowth as they worked their way up the +hillside; but as soon as they were within the circle of the tree-trunks +they moved like ghosts. + +There were white-tusked wild males, with fallen leaves and nuts and +twigs lying in the wrinkles of their necks and the folds of their ears; +fat slow-footed she-elephants, with restless, little pinky-black calves +only three or four feet high running under their stomachs; young +elephants with their tusks just beginning to show, and very proud of +them; lanky, scraggy old-maid elephants, with their hollow anxious +faces, and trunks like rough bark; savage old bull-elephants, scarred +from shoulder to flank with great weals and cuts of bygone fights, and +the caked dirt of their solitary mud-baths dropping from their +shoulders; and there was one with a broken tusk and the marks of the +full-stroke, the terrible drawing scrape, of a tiger's claws on his +side. + +They were standing head to head, or walking to and fro across the ground +in couples, or rocking and swaying all by themselves--scores and scores +of elephants. + +Toomai knew that so long as he lay still on Kala Nag's neck nothing +would happen to him; for even in the rush and scramble of a Keddah-drive +a wild elephant does not reach up with his trunk and drag a man off the +neck of a tame elephant; and these elephants were not thinking of men +that night. Once they started and put their ears forward when they heard +the chinking of a leg-iron in the forest, but it was Pudmini, Petersen +Sahib's pet elephant, her chain snapped short off, grunting, snuffling +up the hillside. She must have broken her pickets, and come straight +from Petersen Sahib's camp; and Little Toomai saw another elephant, one +that he did not know, with deep rope-galls on his back and breast. He, +too, must have run away from some camp in the hills about. + +At last there was no sound of any more elephants moving in the forest, +and Kala Nag rolled out from his station between the trees and went +into the middle of the crowd, clucking and gurgling, and all the +elephants began to talk in their own tongue, and to move about. + + [Illustration: "LITTLE TOOMAI LOOKED DOWN UPON SCORES AND SCORES OF + BROAD BACKS."] + +Still lying down, Little Toomai looked down upon scores and scores of +broad backs, and wagging ears, and tossing trunks, and little rolling +eyes. He heard the click of tusks as they crossed other tusks by +accident, and the dry rustle of trunks twined together, and the chafing +of enormous sides and shoulders in the crowd, and the incessant flick +and _hissh_ of the great tails. Then a cloud came over the moon, and he +sat in black darkness; but the quiet, steady hustling and pushing and +gurgling went on just the same. He knew that there were elephants all +round Kala Nag, and that there was no chance of backing him out of the +assembly; so he set his teeth and shivered. In a Keddah at least there +was torch-light and shouting, but here he was all alone in the dark, and +once a trunk came up and touched him on the knee. + +Then an elephant trumpeted, and they all took it up for five or ten +terrible seconds. The dew from the trees above spattered down like rain +on the unseen backs, and a dull booming noise began, not very loud at +first, and Little Toomai could not tell what it was; but it grew and +grew, and Kala Nag lifted up one fore foot and then the other, and +brought them down on the ground--one-two, one-two, as steadily as +trip-hammers. The elephants were stamping altogether now, and it sounded +like a war-drum beaten at the mouth of a cave. The dew fell from the +trees till there was no more left to fall, and the booming went on, and +the ground rocked and shivered, and Little Toomai put his hands up to +his ears to shut out the sound. But it was all one gigantic jar that ran +through him--this stamp of hundreds of heavy feet on the raw earth. Once +or twice he could feel Kala Nag and all the others surge forward a few +strides, and the thumping would change to the crushing sound of juicy +green things being bruised, but in a minute or two the boom of feet on +hard earth began again. A tree was creaking and groaning somewhere near +him. He put out his arm and felt the bark, but Kala Nag moved forward, +still tramping, and he could not tell where he was in the clearing. +There was no sound from the elephants, except once, when two or three +little calves squeaked together. Then he heard a thump and a shuffle, +and the booming went on. It must have lasted fully two hours, and Little +Toomai ached in every nerve; but he knew by the smell of the night air +that the dawn was coming. + +The morning broke in one sheet of pale yellow behind the green hills, +and the booming stopped with the first ray, as though the light had been +an order. Before Little Toomai had got the ringing out of his head, +before even he had shifted his position, there was not an elephant in +sight except Kala Nag, Pudmini, and the elephant with the rope-galls, +and there was neither sign nor rustle nor whisper down the hillsides to +show where the others had gone. + +Little Toomai stared again and again. The clearing, as he remembered it, +had grown in the night. More trees stood in the middle of it, but the +undergrowth and the jungle-grass at the sides had been rolled back. +Little Toomai stared once more. Now he understood the trampling. The +elephants had stamped out more room--had stamped the thick grass and +juicy cane to trash, the trash into slivers, the slivers into tiny +fibers, and the fibers into hard earth. + +"Wah!" said Little Toomai, and his eyes were very heavy. "Kala Nag, my +lord, let us keep by Pudmini and go to Peterson Sahib's camp, or I shall +drop from thy neck." + +The third elephant watched the two go away, snorted, wheeled round, and +took his own path. He may have belonged to some little native king's +establishment, fifty or sixty or a hundred miles away. + +Two hours later, as Petersen Sahib was eating early breakfast, his +elephants, who had been double-chained that night, began to trumpet, and +Pudmini, mired to the shoulders, with Kala Nag, very foot-sore, shambled +into the camp. + +Little Toomai's face was gray and pinched, and his hair was full of +leaves and drenched with dew; but he tried to salute Petersen Sahib, and +cried faintly: "The dance--the elephant-dance! I have seen it, and--I +die!" As Kala Nag sat down, he slid off his neck in a dead faint. + +But, since native children have no nerves worth speaking of, in two +hours he was lying very contentedly in Petersen Sahib's hammock with +Petersen Sahib's shooting-coat under his head, and a glass of warm milk, +a little brandy, with a dash of quinine inside of him, and while the old +hairy, scarred hunters of the jungles sat three-deep before him, looking +at him as though he were a spirit, he told his tale in short words, as a +child will, and wound up with: + +"Now, if I lie in one word, send men to see, and they will find that the +elephant-folk have trampled down more room in their dance-room, and they +will find ten and ten, and many times ten, tracks leading to that +dance-room. They made more room with their feet. I have seen it. Kala +Nag took me, and I saw. Also Kala Nag is very leg-weary!" + +Little Toomai lay back and slept all through the long afternoon and into +the twilight, and while he slept Petersen Sahib and Machua Appa followed +the track of the two elephants for fifteen miles across the hills. +Petersen Sahib had spent eighteen years in catching elephants, and he +had only once before found such a dance-place. Machua Appa had no need +to look twice at the clearing to see what had been done there, or to +scratch with his toe in the packed, rammed earth. + +"The child speaks truth," said he. "All this was done last night, and I +have counted seventy tracks crossing the river. See, Sahib, where +Pudmini's leg-iron cut the bark of that tree! Yes; she was there too." + +They looked at each other, and up and down, and they wondered; for the +ways of elephants are beyond the wit of any man, black or white, to +fathom. + +"Forty years and five," said Machua Appa, "have I followed my lord, the +elephant, but never have I heard that any child of man had seen what +this child has seen. By all the Gods of the Hills, it is--what can we +say?" and he shook his head. + +When they got back to camp it was time for the evening meal. Peterson +Sahib ate alone in his tent, but he gave orders that the camp should +have two sheep and some fowls, as well as a double-ration of flour and +rice and salt, for he knew that there would be a feast. + +Big Toomai had come up hot-foot from the camp in the plains to search +for his son and his elephant, and now that he had found them he looked +at them as though he were afraid of them both. And there was a feast by +the blazing campfires in front of the lines of picketed elephants, and +Little Toomai was the hero of it all; and the big brown +elephant-catchers, the trackers and drivers and ropers, and the men who +know all the secrets of breaking the wildest elephants, passed him from +one to the other, and they marked his forehead with blood from the +breast of a newly killed jungle-cock, to show that he was a forester, +initiated and free of all the jungles. + +And at last, when the flames died down, and the red light of the logs +made the elephants look as though they had been dipped in blood too, +Machua Appa, the head of all the drivers of all the Keddahs--Machua +Appa, Petersen Sahib's other self, who had never seen a made road in +forty years: Machua Appa, who was so great that he had no other name +than Machua Appa--leaped to his feet, with Little Toomai held high in +the air above his head, and shouted: "Listen, my brothers. Listen, too, +you my lords in the lines there, for I, Machua Appa, am speaking! This +little one shall no more be called Little Toomai, but Toomai of the +Elephants, as his great-grandfather was called before him. What never +man has seen he has seen through the long night, and the favor of the +elephant-folk and of the Gods of the Jungles is with him. He shall +become a great tracker; he shall become greater than I, even I, Machua +Appa! He shall follow the new trail, and the stale trail, and the mixed +trail, with a clear eye! He shall take no harm in the Keddah when he +runs under their bellies to rope the wild tuskers; and if he slips +before the feet of the charging bull-elephant that bull-elephant shall +know who he is and shall not crush him. _Aihai!_ my lords in the +chains,"--he whirled up the line of pickets,--"here is the little one +that has seen your dances in your hidden places--the sight that never +man saw! Give him honor, my lords! _Salaam karo_, my children. Make your +salute to Toomai of the Elephants! Gunga Pershad, ahaa! Hira Guj, +Birchi Guj, Kuttar Guj, ahaa! Pudmini,--thou hast seen him at the dance, +and thou too, Kala Nag, my pearl among elephants!--ahaa! Together! To +Toomai of the Elephants. _Barrao!_" + + [Illustration: "'TO TOOMAI OF THE ELEPHANTS. BARRAO!'"] + +And at that last wild yell the whole line flung up their trunks till the +tips touched their foreheads, and broke out into the full salute--the +crashing trumpet-peal that only the Viceroy of India hears, the Salaamut +of the Keddah. + +But it was all for the sake of Little Toomai, who had seen what never +man had seen before--the dance of the elephants at night and alone in +the heart of the Garo hills! + + + SHIV AND THE GRASSHOPPER + + (THE SONG THAT TOOMAI'S MOTHER SANG TO + THE BABY) + + Shiv, who poured the harvest and made the winds to blow, + Sitting at the doorways of a day of long ago, + Gave to each his portion, food and toil and fate, + From the King upon the _guddee_ to the Beggar at the gate. + _All things made he--Shiva the Preserver, + Mahadeo! Mahadeo! he made all,-- + Thorn for the camel, fodder for the kine, + And mother's heart for sleepy head, O little son of mine!_ + + Wheat he gave to rich folk, millet to the poor, + Broken scraps for holy men that beg from door to door; + Cattle to the tiger, carrion to the kite, + And rags and bones to wicked wolves without the wall at night. + Naught he found too lofty, none he saw too low-- + Parbati beside him watched them come and go; + Thought to cheat her husband, turning Shiv to jest-- + Stole the little grasshopper and hid it in her breast. + _So she tricked him, Shiva the Preserver. + Mahadeo! Mahadeo! turn and see. + Tall are the camels, heavy are the kine, + But this was least of little things, O little son of mine!_ + + When the dole was ended, laughingly she said, + "Master, of a million mouths is not one unfed?" + Laughing, Shiv made answer, "All have had their part, + Even he, the little one, hidden 'neath thy heart." + From her breast she plucked it, Parbati the thief, + Saw the Least of Little Things gnawed a new-grown leaf! + Saw and feared and wondered, making prayer to Shiv, + Who hath surely given meat to all that live. + _All things made he--Shiva the Preserver. + Mahadeo! Mahadeo! he made all,-- + Thorn for the camel, fodder for the kine, + And mother's heart for sleepy head, O little son of mine!_ + + + + + HER MAJESTY'S SERVANTS + + + You can work it out by Fractions or by simple Rule of Three, + But the way of Tweedle-dum is not the way of Tweedle-dee. + You can twist it, you can turn it, you can plait it till you drop + But the way of Pilly-Winky's not the way of Winkie-Pop! + + + [Illustration] + + HER MAJESTY'S SERVANTS + + +IT had been raining heavily for one whole month--raining on a camp of +thirty thousand men, thousands of camels, elephants, horses, bullocks, +and mules, all gathered together at a place called Rawal Pindi, to be +reviewed by the Viceroy of India. He was receiving a visit from the Amir +of Afghanistan--a wild king of a very wild country; and the Amir had +brought with him for a bodyguard eight hundred men and horses who had +never seen a camp or a locomotive before in their lives--savage men and +savage horses from somewhere at the back of Central Asia. Every night a +mob of these horses would be sure to break their heel-ropes, and +stampede up and down the camp through the mud in the dark, or the +camels would break loose and run about and fall over the ropes of the +tents, and you can imagine how pleasant that was for men trying to go to +sleep. My tent lay far away from the camel lines, and I thought it was +safe; but one night a man popped his head in and shouted, "Get out, +quick! They're coming! My tent's gone!" + +I knew who "they" were; so I put on my boots and waterproof and scuttled +out into the slush. Little Vixen, my fox-terrier, went out through the +other side; and then there was a roaring and a grunting and bubbling, +and I saw the tent cave in, as the pole snapped, and begin to dance +about like a mad ghost. A camel had blundered into it, and wet and angry +as I was, I could not help laughing. Then I ran on, because I did not +know how many camels might have got loose, and before long I was out of +sight of the camp, plowing my way through the mud. + + [Illustration: "A CAMEL HAD BLUNDERED INTO MY TENT."] + +At last I fell over the tail-end of a gun, and by that knew I was +somewhere near the Artillery lines where the cannon were stacked at +night. As I did not want to plowter about any more in the drizzle and +the dark, I put my waterproof over the muzzle of one gun, and made a +sort of wigwam with two or three rammers that I found, and lay along +the tail of another gun, wondering where Vixen had got to, and where I +might be. + +Just as I was getting ready to sleep I heard a jingle of harness and a +grunt, and a mule passed me shaking his wet ears. He belonged to a +screw-gun battery, for I could hear the rattle of the straps and rings +and chains and things on his saddle-pad. The screw-guns are tidy little +cannon made in two pieces, that are screwed together when the time comes +to use them. They are taken up mountains, anywhere that a mule can find +a road, and they are very useful for fighting in rocky country. + +Behind the mule there was a camel, with his big soft feet squelching and +slipping in the mud, and his neck bobbing to and fro like a strayed +hen's. Luckily, I knew enough of beast language--not wild-beast +language, but camp-beast language, of course--from the natives to know +what he was saying. + +He must have been the one that flopped into my tent, for he called to +the mule, "What shall I do? Where shall I go? I have fought with a white +thing that waved, and it took a stick and hit me on the neck." (That was +my broken tentpole, and I was very glad to know it.) "Shall we run on?" + +"Oh, it was you," said the mule, "you and your friends, that have been +disturbing the camp? All right. You'll be beaten for this in the +morning; but I may as well give you something on account now." + +I heard the harness jingle as the mule backed and caught the camel two +kicks in the ribs that rang like a drum. "Another time," he said, +"you'll know better than to run through a mule-battery at night, +shouting 'Thieves and fire!' Sit down, and keep your silly neck quiet." + +The camel doubled up camel-fashion, like a two-foot rule, and sat down +whimpering. There was a regular beat of hoofs in the darkness, and a big +troop-horse cantered up as steadily as though he were on parade, jumped +a gun-tail, and landed close to the mule. + +"It's disgraceful," he said, blowing out his nostrils. "Those camels +have racketed through our lines again--the third time this week. How's a +horse to keep his condition if he isn't allowed to sleep? Who's here?" + +"I'm the breech-piece mule of number two gun of the First Screw +Battery," said the mule, "and the other's one of your friends. He's +waked me up too. Who are you?" + +"Number Fifteen, E troop, Ninth Lancers--Dick Cunliffe's horse. Stand +over a little, there." + +"Oh, beg your pardon," said the mule. "It's too dark to see much. Aren't +these camels too sickening for anything? I walked out of my lines to get +a little peace and quiet here." + +"My lords," said the camel humbly, "we dreamed bad dreams in the night, +and we were very much afraid. I am only a baggage-camel of the 39th +Native Infantry, and I am not so brave as you are, my lords." + +"Then why the pickets didn't you stay and carry baggage for the 39th +Native Infantry, instead of running all round the camp?" said the mule. + +"They were such very bad dreams," said the camel. "I am sorry. Listen! +What is that? Shall we run on again?" + +"Sit down," said the mule, "or you'll snap your long legs between the +guns." He cocked one ear and listened. "Bullocks!" he said; +"gun-bullocks. On my word, you and your friends have waked the camp very +thoroughly. It takes a good deal of prodding to put up a gun-bullock." + +I heard a chain dragging along the ground, and a yoke of the great sulky +white bullocks that drag the heavy siege-guns when the elephants won't +go any nearer to the firing, came shouldering along together; and almost +stepping on the chain was another battery-mule, calling wildly for +"Billy." + +"That's one of our recruits," said the old mule to the troop-horse. +"He's calling for me. Here, youngster, stop squealing; the dark never +hurt anybody yet." + +The gun-bullocks lay down together and began chewing the cud, but the +young mule huddled close to Billy. + +"Things!" he said; "fearful and horrible things, Billy! They came into +our lines while we were asleep. D'you think they'll kill us?" + +"I've a very great mind to give you a number one kicking," said Billy. +"The idea of a fourteen-hand mule with your training disgracing the +battery before this gentleman!" + +"Gently, gently!" said the troop-horse. "Remember they are always like +this to begin with. The first time I ever saw a man (it was in Australia +when I was a three-year-old) I ran for half a day, and if I'd seen a +camel I should have been running still." + +Nearly all our horses for the English cavalry are brought to India from +Australia, and are broken in by the troopers themselves. + +"True enough," said Billy. "Stop shaking, youngster. The first time they +put the full harness with all its chains on my back, I stood on my fore +legs and kicked every bit of it off. I hadn't learned the real science +of kicking then, but the battery said they had never seen anything like +it." + +"But this wasn't harness or anything that jingled," said the young mule. +"You know I don't mind that now, Billy. It was Things like trees, and +they fell up and down the lines and bubbled; and my head-rope broke, and +I couldn't find my driver, and I couldn't find you, Billy, so I ran off +with--with these gentlemen." + +"H'm!" said Billy. "As soon as I heard the camels were loose I came away +on my own account, quietly. When a battery--a screw-gun mule calls +gun-bullocks gentlemen, he must be very badly shaken up. Who are you +fellows on the ground there?" + +The gun-bullocks rolled their cuds, and answered both together: "The +seventh yoke of the first gun of the Big Gun Battery. We were asleep +when the camels came, but when we were trampled on we got up and walked +away. It is better to lie quiet in the mud than to be disturbed on good +bedding. We told your friend here that there was nothing to be afraid +of, but he knew so much that he thought otherwise. Wah!" + +They went on chewing. + +"That comes of being afraid," said Billy. "You get laughed at by +gun-bullocks. I hope you like it, young 'un." + +The young mule's teeth snapped, and I heard him say something about not +being afraid of any beefy old bullock in the world; but the bullocks +only clicked their horns together and went on chewing. + +"Now, don't be angry _after_ you've been afraid. That's the worst kind +of cowardice," said the troop-horse. "Anybody can be forgiven for being +scared in the night, _I_ think, if they see things they don't +understand. We've broken out of our pickets, again and again, four +hundred and fifty of us, just because a new recruit got to telling tales +of whip-snakes at home in Australia till we were scared to death of the +loose ends of our head-ropes." + +[Illustration: "'ANYBODY CAN BE FORGIVEN FOR BEING SCARED IN THE NIGHT,' + SAID THE TROOP-HORSE."] + +"That's all very well in camp," said Billy; "I'm not above stampeding +myself, for the fun of the thing, when I haven't been out for a day or +two; but what do you do on active service?" + +"Oh, that's quite another set of new shoes," said the troop-horse. "Dick +Cunliffe's on my back then, and drives his knees into me, and all I +have to do is to watch where I am putting my feet, and to keep my hind +legs well under me, and be bridle-wise." + +"What's bridle-wise?" said the young mule. + +"By the Blue Gums of the Back Blocks," snorted the troop-horse, "do you +mean to say that you aren't taught to be bridle-wise in your business? +How can you do anything, unless you can spin round at once when the rein +is pressed on your neck? It means life or death to your man, and of +course that's life or death to you. Get round with your hind legs under +you the instant you feel the rein on your neck. If you haven't room to +swing round, rear up a little and come round on your hind legs. That's +being bridle-wise." + +"We aren't taught that way," said Billy the mule stiffly. "We're taught +to obey the man at our head: step off when he says so, and step in when +he says so. I suppose it comes to the same thing. Now, with all this +fine fancy business and rearing, which must be very bad for your hocks, +what do you _do_?" + +"That depends," said the troop-horse. "Generally I have to go in among a +lot of yelling, hairy men with knives,--long shiny knives, worse than +the farrier's knives,--and I have to take care that Dick's boot is just +touching the next man's boot without crushing it. I can see Dick's lance +to the right of my right eye, and I know I'm safe. I shouldn't care to +be the man or horse that stood up to Dick and me when we're in a hurry." + +"Don't the knives hurt?" said the young mule. + +"Well, I got one cut across the chest once, but that wasn't Dick's +fault--" + +"A lot I should have cared whose fault it was, if it hurt!" said the +young mule. + +"You must," said the troop-horse. "If you don't trust your man, you may +as well run away at once. That's what some of our horses do, and I don't +blame them. As I was saying, it wasn't Dick's fault. The man was lying +on the ground, and I stretched myself not to tread on him, and he +slashed up at me. Next time I have to go over a man lying down I shall +step on him--hard." + +[Illustration: "'THE MAN WAS LYING ON THE GROUND, AND I STRETCHED MYSELF + NOT TO TREAD ON HIM, AND HE SLASHED UP AT ME.'"] + +"H'm!" said Billy; "it sounds very foolish. Knives are dirty things at +any time. The proper thing to do is to climb up a mountain with a +well-balanced saddle, hang on by all four feet and your ears too, and +creep and crawl and wriggle along, till you come out hundreds of feet +above any one else, on a ledge where there's just room enough for your +hoofs. Then you stand still and keep quiet,--never ask a man to hold +your head, young 'un,--keep quiet while the guns are being put together, +and then you watch the little poppy shells drop down into the tree-tops +ever so far below." + +"Don't you ever trip?" said the troop-horse. + +"They say that when a mule trips you can split a hen's ear," said Billy. +"Now and again _per-haps_ a badly packed saddle will upset a mule, but +it's very seldom. I wish I could show you our business. It's beautiful. +Why, it took me three years to find out what the men were driving at. +The science of the thing is never to show up against the sky-line, +because, if you do, you may get fired at. Remember that, young 'un. +Always keep hidden as much as possible, even if you have to go a mile +out of your way. I lead the battery when it comes to that sort of +climbing." + +"Fired at without the chance of running into the people who are firing!" +said the troop-horse, thinking hard. "I couldn't stand that. I should +want to charge, with Dick." + +"Oh no, you wouldn't; you know that as soon as the guns are in position +_they'll_ do all the charging. That's scientific and neat; but +knives--pah!" + +The baggage-camel had been bobbing his head to and fro for some time +past, anxious to get a word in edgeways. Then I heard him say, as he +cleared his throat, nervously: + +"I--I--I have fought a little, but not in that climbing way or that +running way." + +"No. Now you mention it," said Billy, "you don't look as though you were +made for climbing or running--much. Well, how was it, old Hay-bales?" + +"The proper way," said the camel. "We all sat down--" + +"Oh, my crupper and breastplate!" said the troop-horse under his breath. +"Sat down?" + +"We sat down--a hundred of us," the camel went on, "in a big square, and +the men piled our packs and saddles outside the square, and they fired +over our backs, the men did, on all sides of the square." + +"What sort of men? Any men that came along?" said the troop-horse. "They +teach us in riding-school to lie down and let our masters fire across +us, but Dick Cunliffe is the only man I'd trust to do that. It tickles +my girths, and, besides, I can't see with my head on the ground." + +"What does it matter who fires across you?" said the camel. "There are +plenty of men and plenty of other camels close by, and a great many +clouds of smoke. I am not frightened then. I sit still and wait." + +"And yet," said Billy, "you dream bad dreams and upset the camp at +night. Well! well! Before I'd lie down, not to speak of sitting down, +and let a man fire across me, my heels and his head would have something +to say to each other. Did you ever hear anything so awful as that?" + +There was a long silence, and then one of the gun-bullocks lifted up his +big head and said, "This is very foolish indeed. There is only one way +of fighting." + +"Oh, go on," said Billy. "_Please_ don't mind me. I suppose you fellows +fight standing on your tails?" + +"Only one way," said the two together. (They must have been twins.) +"This is that way. To put all twenty yoke of us to the big gun as soon +as Two Tails trumpets." ("Two Tails" is camp slang for the elephant.) + +"What does Two Tails trumpet for?" said the young mule. + +"To show that he is not going any nearer to the smoke on the other side. +Two Tails is a great coward. Then we tug the big gun all +together--_Heya_--_Hullah! Heeyah! Hullah!_ _We_ do not climb like cats +nor run like calves. We go across the level plain, twenty yoke of us, +till we are unyoked again, and we graze while the big guns talk across +the plain to some town with mud walls, and pieces of the wall fall out, +and the dust goes up as though many cattle were coming home." + +"Oh! And you choose that time for grazing do you?" said the young mule. + +"That time or any other. Eating is always good. We eat till we are yoked +up again and tug the gun back to where Two Tails is waiting for it. +Sometimes there are big guns in the city that speak back, and some of us +are killed, and then there is all the more grazing for those that are +left. This is Fate--nothing but Fate. None the less, Two Tails is a +great coward. That is the proper way to fight. We are brothers from +Hapur. Our father was a sacred bull of Shiva. We have spoken." + +"Well, I've certainly learned something tonight," said the troop-horse. +"Do you gentlemen of the screw-gun battery feel inclined to eat when you +are being fired at with big guns, and Two Tails is behind you?" + +"About as much as we feel inclined to sit down and let men sprawl all +over us, or run into people with knives. I never heard such stuff. A +mountain ledge, a well-balanced load, a driver you can trust to let you +pick your own way, and I'm your mule; but the other things--no!" said +Billy, with a stamp of his foot. + +"Of course," said the troop-horse, "every one is not made in the same +way, and I can quite see that your family, on your father's side, would +fail to understand a great many things." + +"Never you mind my family on my father's side," said Billy angrily; for +every mule hates to be reminded that his father was a donkey. "My father +was a Southern gentleman, and he could pull down and bite and kick into +rags every horse he came across. Remember that, you big brown Brumby!" + +Brumby means wild horse without any breeding. Imagine the feelings of +Sunol if a car-horse called her a "skate," and you can imagine how the +Australian horse felt. I saw the white of his eye glitter in the dark. + +"See here, you son of an imported Malaga jackass," he said between his +teeth, "I'd have you know that I'm related on my mother's side to +Carbine, winner of the Melbourne Cup, and where _I_ come from we aren't +accustomed to being ridden over roughshod by any parrot-mouthed, +pig-headed mule in a pop-gun peashooter battery. Are you ready?" + +"On your hind legs!" squealed Billy. They both reared up facing each +other, and I was expecting a furious fight, when a gurgly, rumbly voice +called out of the darkness to the right--"Children, what are you +fighting about there? Be quiet." + +Both beasts dropped down with a snort of disgust, for neither horse nor +mule can bear to listen to an elephant's voice. + +"It's Two Tails!" said the troop-horse. "I can't stand him. A tail at +each end isn't fair!" + +"My feelings exactly," said Billy, crowding into the troop-horse for +company. "We're very alike in some things." + +"I suppose we've inherited them from our mothers," said the troop-horse. +"It's not worth quarreling about. Hi! Two Tails, are you tied up?" + +"Yes," said Two Tails, with a laugh all up his trunk. "I'm picketed for +the night. I've heard what you fellows have been saying. But don't be +afraid. I'm not coming over." + +The bullocks and the camel said, half aloud: "Afraid of Two Tails--what +nonsense!" And the bullocks went on: "We are sorry that you heard, but +it is true. Two Tails, why are you afraid of the guns when they fire?" + +"Well," said Two Tails, rubbing one hind leg against the other, exactly +like a little boy saying a piece, "I don't quite know whether you'd +understand." + +"We don't, but we have to pull the guns," said the bullocks. + +"I know it, and I know you are a good deal braver than you think you +are. But it's different with me. My battery captain called me a +Pachydermatous Anachronism the other day." + +"That's another way of fighting, I suppose?" said Billy, who was +recovering his spirits. + +"_You_ don't know what that means, of course, but I do. It means betwixt +and between, and that is just where I am. I can see inside my head what +will happen when a shell bursts; and you bullocks can't." + +"I can," said the troop-horse. "At least a little bit. I try not to +think about it." + +"I can see more than you, and I _do_ think about it. I know there's a +great deal of me to take care of, and I know that nobody knows how to +cure me when I'm sick. All they can do is to stop my driver's pay till +I get well, and I can't trust my driver." + +"Ah!" said the troop-horse. "That explains it. I can trust Dick." + +"You could put a whole regiment of Dicks on my back without making me +feel any better. I know just enough to be uncomfortable, and not enough +to go on in spite of it." + +"We do not understand," said the bullocks. + +"I know you don't. I'm not talking to you. You don't know what blood +is." + +"We do," said the bullocks. "It is red stuff that soaks into the ground +and smells." + +The troop-horse gave a kick and a bound and a snort. + +"Don't talk of it," he said. "I can smell it now, just thinking of it. +It makes me want to run--when I haven't Dick on my back." + +"But it is not here," said the camel and the bullocks. "Why are you so +stupid?" + +"It's vile stuff," said Billy. "I don't want to run, but I don't want to +talk about it." + +"There you are!" said Two Tails, waving his tail to explain. + +"Surely. Yes, we have been here all night," said the bullocks. + +Two Tails stamped his foot till the iron ring on it jingled. "Oh, I'm +not talking to _you_. You can't see inside your heads." + +"No. We see out of our four eyes," said the bullocks. "We see straight +in front of us." + +"If I could do that and nothing else you wouldn't be needed to pull the +big guns at all. If I was like my captain--he can see things inside his +head before the firing begins, and he shakes all over, but he knows too +much to run away--if I was like him I could pull the guns. But if I were +as wise as all that I should never be here. I should be a king in the +forest, as I used to be, sleeping half the day and bathing when I liked. +I haven't had a good bath for a month." + +"That's all very fine," said Billy; "but giving a thing a long name +doesn't make it any better." + +"H'sh!" said the troop-horse. "I think I understand what Two Tails +means." + +"You'll understand better in a minute," said Two Tails angrily. "Now, +just you explain to me why you don't like _this_!" + +He began trumpeting furiously at the top of his trumpet. + +"Stop that!" said Billy and the troop-horse together, and I could hear +them stamp and shiver. An elephant's trumpeting is always nasty, +especially on a dark night. + +"I sha'n't stop," said Two Tails. "Won't you explain that, please? +_Hhrrmh! Rrrt! Rrrmph! Rrrhha!_" Then he stopped suddenly, and I heard +a little whimper in the dark, and knew that Vixen had found me at last. +She knew as well as I did that if there is one thing in the world the +elephant is more afraid of than another it is a little barking dog; so +she stopped to bully Two Tails in his pickets, and yapped round his big +feet. Two Tails shuffled and squeaked. "Go away, little dog!" he said. +"Don't snuff at my ankles, or I 'll kick at you. Good little dog--nice +little doggie, then! Go home, you yelping little beast! Oh, why doesn't +some one take her away? She'll bite me in a minute." + +"Seems to me," said Billy to the troop-horse, "that our friend Two Tails +is afraid of most things. Now, if I had a full meal for every dog I've +kicked across the parade-ground, I should be as fat as Two Tails +nearly." + +I whistled, and Vixen ran up to me, muddy all over, and licked my nose, +and told me a long tale about hunting for me all through the camp. I +never let her know that I understood beast talk, or she would have taken +all sorts of liberties. So I buttoned her into the breast of my +overcoat, and Two Tails shuffled and stamped and growled to himself. + +"Extraordinary! Most extraordinary!" he said. "It runs in our family. +Now, where has that nasty little beast gone to?" + +I heard him feeling about with his trunk. + +"We all seem to be affected in various ways," he went on, blowing his +nose. "Now, you gentlemen were alarmed, I believe, when I trumpeted." + +"Not alarmed, exactly," said the troop-horse, "but it made me feel as +though I had hornets where my saddle ought to be. Don't begin again." + +"I'm frightened of a little dog, and the camel here is frightened by bad +dreams in the night." + +"It is very lucky for us that we haven't all got to fight in the same +way," said the troop-horse. + +"What I want to know," said the young mule, who had been quiet for a +long time--"what _I_ want to know is, why we have to fight at all." + +"Because we are told to," said the troop-horse, with a snort of +contempt. + +"Orders," said Billy the mule; and his teeth snapped. + +"_Hukm hai!_" (It is an order), said the camel with a gurgle; and Two +Tails and the bullocks repeated, "_Hukm hai!_" + +"Yes, but who gives the orders?" said the recruit-mule. + +"The man who walks at your head--Or sits on your back--Or holds the +nose-rope--Or twists your tail," said Billy and the troop-horse and the +camel and the bullocks one after the other. + +"But who gives them the orders?" + +"Now you want to know too much, young un," said Billy, "and that is one +way of getting kicked. All you have to do is to obey the man at your +head and ask no questions." + +"He's quite right," said Two Tails. "I can't always obey, because I'm +betwixt and between; but Billy's right. Obey the man next to you who +gives the order, or you'll stop all the battery, besides getting a +thrashing." + +The gun-bullocks got up to go. "Morning is coming," they said. "We will +go back to our lines. It is true that we see only out of our eyes, and +we are not very clever; but still, we are the only people to-night who +have not been afraid. Good night, you brave people." + +Nobody answered, and the troop-horse said, to change the conversation, +"Where's that little dog? A dog means a man somewhere near." + +"Here I am," yapped Vixen, "under the gun-tail with my man. You big, +blundering beast of a camel you, you upset our tent. My man's very +angry." + +"Phew!" said the bullocks. "He must be white?" + +"Of course he is," said Vixen. "Do you suppose I'm looked after by a +black bullock-driver?" + +"_Huah! Ouach! Ugh!_" said the bullocks. "Let us get away quickly." + +They plunged forward in the mud, and managed somehow to run their yoke +on the pole of an ammunition-wagon, where it jammed. + +"Now you _have_ done it," said Billy calmly. "Don't struggle. You're +hung up till daylight. What on earth's the matter?" + +The bullocks went off into the long hissing snorts that Indian cattle +give, and pushed and crowded and slued and stamped and slipped and +nearly fell down in the mud, grunting savagely. + +"You'll break your necks in a minute," said the troop-horse. "What's the +matter with white men? I live with 'em." + +"They--eat--us! Pull!" said the near bullock: the yoke snapped with a +twang, and they lumbered off together. + +I never knew before what made Indian cattle so afraid of Englishmen. We +eat beef--a thing that no cattle-driver touches--and of course the +cattle do not like it. + +"May I be flogged with my own pad-chains! Who'd have thought of two big +lumps like those losing their heads?" said Billy. + +"Never mind. I'm going to look at this man. Most of the white men, I +know, have things in their pockets," said the troop-horse. + +"I'll leave you, then. I can't say I'm overfond of 'em myself. Besides, +white men who haven't a place to sleep in are more than likely to be +thieves, and I've a good deal of Government property on my back. Come +along, young 'un, and we'll go back to our lines. Good-night, Australia! +See you on parade to-morrow, I suppose. Good-night, old Hay-bale!--try +to control your feelings, won't you? Good-night, Two Tails! If you pass +us on the ground to-morrow, don't trumpet. It spoils our formation." + +Billy the mule stumped off with the swaggering limp of an old +campaigner, as the troop-horse's head came nuzzling into my breast, and +I gave him biscuits; while Vixen, who is a most conceited little dog, +told him fibs about the scores of horses that she and I kept. + +"I'm coming to the parade to-morrow in my dog-cart," she said. "Where +will you be?" + +"On the left hand of the second squadron. I set the time for all my +troop, little lady," he said politely. "Now I must go back to Dick. My +tail's all muddy, and he'll have two hours' hard work dressing me for +the parade." + +The big parade of all the thirty thousand men was held that afternoon, +and Vixen and I had a good place close to the Viceroy and the Amir of +Afghanistan, with his high big black hat of astrakhan wool and the great +diamond star in the center. The first part of the review was all +sunshine, and the regiments went by in wave upon wave of legs all moving +together, and guns all in a line, till our eyes grew dizzy. Then the +cavalry came up, to the beautiful cavalry canter of "Bonnie Dundee," and +Vixen cocked her ear where she sat on the dog-cart. The second squadron +of the lancers shot by, and there was the troop-horse, with his tail +like spun silk, his head pulled into his breast, one ear forward and one +back, setting the time for all his squadron, his legs going as smoothly +as waltz-music. Then the big guns came by, and I saw Two Tails and two +other elephants harnessed in line to a forty-pounder siege-gun while +twenty yoke of oxen walked behind. The seventh pair had a new yoke, and +they looked rather stiff and tired. Last came the screw-guns, and Billy +the mule carried himself as though he commanded all the troops, and his +harness was oiled and polished till it winked. I gave a cheer all by +myself for Billy the mule, but he never looked right or left. + +The rain began to fall again, and for a while it was too misty to see +what the troops were doing. They had made a big half-circle across the +plain, and were spreading out into a line. That line grew and grew and +grew till it was three-quarters of a mile long from wing to wing--one +solid wall of men, horses, and guns. Then it came on straight toward the +Viceroy and the Amir, and as it got nearer the ground began to shake, +like the deck of a steamer when the engines are going fast. + +Unless you have been there you cannot imagine what a frightening effect +this steady come-down of troops has on the spectators, even when they +know it is only a review. I looked at the Amir. Up till then he had not +shown the shadow of a sign of astonishment or anything else; but now his +eyes began to get bigger and bigger, and he picked up the reins on his +horse's neck and looked behind him. For a minute it seemed as though he +were going to draw his sword and slash his way out through the +English men and women in the carriages at the back. Then the advance +stopped dead, the ground stood still, the whole line saluted, and thirty +bands began to play all together. That was the end of the review, and +the regiments went off to their camps in the rain; and an infantry band +struck up with-- + + The animals went in two by two, + Hurrah! + The animals went in two by two, + The elephant and the battery mu- + l', and they all got into the Ark, + For to get out of the rain! + +Then I heard an old, grizzled, long-haired Central Asian chief, who had +come down with the Amir, asking questions of a native officer. + +[Illustration: "THEN I HEARD AN OLD, GRIZZLED, LONG-HAIRED, CENTRAL + ASIAN CHIEF ASKING QUESTIONS OF A NATIVE OFFICER."] + +"Now," said he, "in what manner was this wonderful thing done?" + +And the officer answered, "There was an order, and they obeyed." + +"But are the beasts as wise as the men?" said the chief. + +"They obey, as the men do. Mule, horse, elephant, or bullock, he obeys +his driver, and the driver his sergeant, and the sergeant his +lieutenant, and the lieutenant his captain, and the captain his major, +and the major his colonel, and the colonel his brigadier commanding +three regiments, and the brigadier his general, who obeys the Viceroy, +who is the servant of the Empress. Thus it is done." + +"Would it were so in Afghanistan!" said the chief; "for there we obey +only our own wills." + +"And for that reason," said the native officer, twirling his mustache, +"your Amir whom you do not obey must come here and take orders from our +Viceroy." + + + PARADE-SONG OF THE CAMP ANIMALS + + ELEPHANTS OF THE GUN-TEAM + + We lent to Alexander the strength of Hercules, + The wisdom of our foreheads, the cunning of our knees; + We bowed our necks to service; they ne'er were loosed again,-- + Make way there, way for the ten-foot teams + Of the Forty-Pounder train! + + + GUN-BULLOCKS + + Those heroes in their harnesses avoid a cannon-ball, + And what they know of powder upsets them one and all; + Then _we_ come into action and tug the guns again,-- + Make way there, way for the twenty yoke + Of the Forty-Pounder train! + + + CAVALRY HORSES + + By the brand on my withers, the finest of tunes + Is played by the Lancers, Hussars, and Dragoons, + And it's sweeter than "Stables" or "Water" to me, + The Cavalry Canter of "Bonnie Dundee"! + + Then feed us and break us and handle and groom, + And give us good riders and plenty of room, + And launch us in column of squadrons and see + The way of the war-horse to "Bonnie Dundee"! + + + SCREW-GUN MULES + + As me and my companions were scrambling up a hill, + The path was lost in rolling stones, but we went + forward still; + For we can wriggle and climb, my lads, and turn up + everywhere, + And it's our delight on a mountain height, with + a leg or two to spare! + + Good luck to every sergeant, then, that lets us + pick our road; + Bad luck to all the driver-men that cannot pack + a load: + For we can wriggle and climb, my lads, and turn + up everywhere, + And it's our delight on a mountain height with + a leg or two to spare! + + + COMMISSARIAT CAMELS + + We haven't a camelty tune of our own + To help us trollop along, + But every neck is a hairy trombone + (_Rtt-ta-ta-ta!_ is a hairy trombone!) + And this is our marching song: + _Can't! Don't! Shan't! Won't!_ + Pass it along the line! + Somebody's pack has slid from his back, + Wish it were only mine! + Somebody's load has tipped off in the road-- + Cheer for a halt and a row! + _Urrr! Yarrh! Grr! Arrh!_ + Somebody's catching it now! + + + ALL THE BEASTS TOGETHER + + Children of the Camp are we, + Serving each in his degree; + Children of the yoke and goad, + Pack and harness, pad and load. + See our line across the plain, + Like a heel-rope bent again. + Reaching, writhing, rolling far, + Sweeping all away to war! + While the men that walk beside, + Dusty, silent, heavy-eyed, + Cannot tell why we or they + March and suffer day by day. + _Children of the Camp are we,_ + _Serving each in his degree;_ + _Children of the yoke and goad,_ + _Pack and harness, pad and load._ + + + + + Transcriber's Notes: + +Passages in italics were indicated by _underscores_. + +Small caps were replaced with ALL CAPS. + +Throughout the dialogues, there were words used to mimic accents of +the speakers. Those words were retained as-is. + +The illustrations have been moved so that they do not break up +paragraphs and so that they are next the text they illustrate. Thus the +page number of the illustration might not match the page number in the +List of Illustrations, and the order of illustrations may not be the +same in the List of Illustrations and in the book. + +On page 78, "Bandar log" was replaced with "Bandar-log". + +On page 80, a period was added after "leave to hunt here". + +On page 156, "Novastoshna" was replaced with "Novastoshnah". + +On page 171, "floam-flecked" was replaced with "foam-flecked". + +On page 299, there is a hyphen at the end of a line of poetry. That +hyphen seems to be deliberate, and was kept as-is. + + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The jungle book, by Rudyard Kipling + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE JUNGLE BOOK *** + +***** This file should be named 35997-8.txt or 35997-8.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/3/5/9/9/35997/ + +Produced by Suzanne Shell, Ernest Schaal, and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This +file was produced from images generously made available +by The Internet Archive/American Libraries.) + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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Thus, we do not necessarily +keep eBooks in compliance with any particular paper edition. + + +Most people start at our Web site which has the main PG search facility: + + http://www.gutenberg.org + +This Web site includes information about Project Gutenberg-tm, +including how to make donations to the Project Gutenberg Literary +Archive Foundation, how to help produce our new eBooks, and how to +subscribe to our email newsletter to hear about new eBooks. diff --git a/old/35997-8.zip b/old/35997-8.zip Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..974abe9 --- /dev/null +++ b/old/35997-8.zip diff --git a/old/35997.txt b/old/35997.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..b51612e --- /dev/null +++ b/old/35997.txt @@ -0,0 +1,6226 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of The jungle book, by Rudyard Kipling + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: The jungle book + +Author: Rudyard Kipling + +Release Date: April 30, 2011 [EBook #35997] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE JUNGLE BOOK *** + + + + +Produced by Suzanne Shell, Ernest Schaal, and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This +file was produced from images generously made available +by The Internet Archive/American Libraries.) + + + + + + + + + + THE JUNGLE BOOK + + + + + [Illustration: Rudyard Kipling] + + + + +[Illustration: "LITTLE TOOMAI LAID HIMSELF DOWN CLOSE TO THE GREAT NECK +LEST A SWINGING BOUGH SHOULD SWEEP HIM TO THE GROUND." (SEE PAGE 246.)] + + + + + THE + JUNGLE BOOK + + + BY + RUDYARD KIPLING + + + [Illustration] + + + NEW YORK + THE CENTURY CO. + 1910 + + + + + Copyright 1893, 1894, by + RUDYARD KIPLING + Copyright, 1894, by + HARPER and BROTHERS + Copyright 1893, 1894, by + THE CENTURY CO. + + + + + CONTENTS + + + PAGE + + MOWGLI'S BROTHERS 1 + + HUNTING-SONG OF THE SEEONEE PACK 42 + + KAA'S HUNTING 47 + + ROAD-SONG OF THE BANDAR-LOG 89 + + "TIGER! TIGER!" 93 + + MOWGLI'S SONG 131 + + THE WHITE SEAL 137 + + LUKANNON 170 + + "RIKKI-TIKKI-TAVI" 175 + + DARZEE'S CHAUNT 212 + + TOOMAI OF THE ELEPHANTS 217 + + SHIV AND THE GRASSHOPPER 261 + + HER MAJESTY'S SERVANTS 265 + + PARADE-SONG OF THE CAMP ANIMALS 300 + + + + +LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS + + + PAGE + + "LITTLE TOOMAI LAID HIMSELF DOWN CLOSE TO THE + GREAT NECK, LEST A SWINGING BOUGH SHOULD + SWEEP HIM TO THE GROUND" FRONTISPIECE + + "'GOOD LUCK GO WITH YOU, O CHIEF OF THE + WOLVES'" 5 + + "THE TIGER'S ROAR FILLED THE CAVE WITH THUNDER" 11 + + THE MEETING AT THE COUNCIL ROCK 17 + + "BAGHEERA WOULD LIE OUT ON A BRANCH AND CALL, + 'COME ALONG, LITTLE BROTHER'" 23 + + "'WAKE, LITTLE BROTHER; I BRING NEWS'" 99 + + "'ARE ALL THESE TALES SUCH COBWEBS AND MOON-TALK?' + SAID MOWGLI" 105 + + "BULDEO LAY AS STILL, AS STILL, EXPECTING EVERY MINUTE + TO SEE MOWGLI TURN INTO A TIGER, TOO" 121 + + "WHEN THE MOON ROSE OVER THE PLAIN THE VILLAGERS + SAW MOWGLI TROTTING ACROSS, WITH TWO + WOLVES AT HIS HEELS" 126 + + "THEY CLAMBERED UP ON THE COUNCIL ROCK TOGETHER, + AND MOWGLI SPREAD THE SKIN OUT ON + THE FLAT STONE" 129 + + "TEN FATHOMS DEEP" 146 + + "THEY WERE ALL AWAKE AND STARING IN EVERY DIRECTION + BUT THE RIGHT ONE" 154 + + "HE HAD FOUND SEA COW AT LAST" 162 + + "RIKKI-TIKKI LOOKED DOWN BETWEEN THE BOY'S COLLAR + AND NECK" 177 + + "HE PUT HIS NOSE INTO THE INK" 178 + + "RIKKI-TIKKI WAS AWAKE ON THE PILLOW" 179 + + "HE CAME TO BREAKFAST RIDING ON TEDDY'S SHOULDER" 180 + + "'WE ARE VERY MISERABLE,' SAID DARZEE" 181 + + "'I AM NAG,' SAID THE COBRA: 'LOOK, AND BE AFRAID.' + BUT AT THE BOTTOM OF HIS COLD HEART _HE_ WAS + AFRAID" 183 + + "HE JUMPED UP IN THE AIR, AND JUST UNDER HIM + WHIZZED BY THE HEAD OF NAGAINA" 187 + + "IN THE DARK HE RAN UP AGAINST CHUCHUNDRA, + THE MUSKRAT" 192 + + "THEN RIKKI-TIKKI WAS BATTERED TO AND FRO AS + A RAT IS SHAKEN BY A DOG" 197 + + DARZEE'S WIFE PRETENDS TO HAVE A BROKEN WING 201 + + "NAGAINA FLEW DOWN THE PATH WITH RIKKI-TIKKI + BEHIND HER" 207 + + "IT IS ALL OVER" 210 + + "KALA NAG WAS THE BEST-LOVED ELEPHANT IN THE + SERVICE" 219 + + "'HE IS AFRAID OF ME,' SAID LITTLE TOOMAI, AND + HE MADE KALA NAG LIFT UP HIS FEET ONE + AFTER THE OTHER" 223 + + "HE WOULD GET HIS TORCH AND WAVE IT, AND YELL + WITH THE BEST" 229 + + "'NOT GREEN CORN, PROTECTOR OF THE POOR,--MELONS,' + SAID LITTLE TOOMAI" 235 + + "LITTLE TOOMAI LOOKED DOWN UPON SCORES AND + SCORES OF BROAD BACKS" 251 + + "'TO TOOMAI OF THE ELEPHANTS. BARRAO!'" 259 + + "A CAMEL HAD BLUNDERED INTO MY TENT" 267 + + "'ANYBODY CAN BE FORGIVEN FOR BEING SCARED IN THE + NIGHT,' SAID THE TROOP-HORSE" 275 + + "'THE MAN WAS LYING ON THE GROUND, AND I + STRETCHED MYSELF NOT TO TREAD ON HIM, AND + HE SLASHED UP AT ME'" 279 + + "THEN I HEARD AN OLD, GRIZZLED, LONG-HAIRED CENTRAL + ASIAN CHIEF ASKING QUESTIONS OF A NATIVE + OFFICER" 297 + + + + + THE JUNGLE BOOK + + + Now Rann, the Kite, brings home the night + That Mang, the Bat, sets free-- + The herds are shut in byre and hut, + For loosed till dawn are we. + This is the hour of pride and power, + Talon and tush and claw. + Oh, hear the call!--Good hunting all + That keep the Jungle Law! + + _Night-Song in the Jungle._ + + + + + [Illustration] + + MOWGLI'S BROTHERS + + +IT was seven o'clock of a very warm evening in the Seeonee hills when +Father Wolf woke up from his day's rest, scratched himself, yawned, and +spread out his paws one after the other to get rid of the sleepy feeling +in the tips. Mother Wolf lay with her big gray nose dropped across her +four tumbling, squealing cubs, and the moon shone into the mouth of the +cave where they all lived. "Augrh!" said Father Wolf, "it is time to +hunt again"; and he was going to spring downhill when a little shadow +with a bushy tail crossed the threshold and whined: "Good luck go with +you, O Chief of the Wolves; and good luck and strong white teeth go with +the noble children, that they may never forget the hungry in this +world." + + [Illustration: "'GOOD LUCK GO WITH YOU, O CHIEF OF THE WOLVES.'"] + +It was the jackal--Tabaqui, the Dish-licker--and the wolves of India +despise Tabaqui because he runs about making mischief, and telling +tales, and eating rags and pieces of leather from the village +rubbish-heaps. They are afraid of him too, because Tabaqui, more than +any one else in the jungle, is apt to go mad, and then he forgets that +he was ever afraid of any one, and runs through the forest biting +everything in his way. Even the tiger hides when little Tabaqui goes +mad, for madness is the most disgraceful thing that can overtake a wild +creature. We call it hydrophobia, but they call it _dewanee_--the +madness--and run. + +"Enter, then, and look," said Father Wolf, stiffly; "but there is no +food here." + +"For a wolf, no," said Tabaqui; "but for so mean a person as myself a +dry bone is a good feast. Who are we, the Gidur-log [the Jackal People], +to pick and choose?" He scuttled to the back of the cave, where he found +the bone of a buck with some meat on it, and sat cracking the end +merrily. + +"All thanks for this good meal," he said, licking his lips. "How +beautiful are the noble children! How large are their eyes! And so +young too! Indeed, indeed, I might have remembered that the children of +kings are men from the beginning." + +Now, Tabaqui knew as well as any one else that there is nothing so +unlucky as to compliment children to their faces; and it pleased him to +see Mother and Father Wolf look uncomfortable. + +Tabaqui sat still, rejoicing in the mischief that he had made, and then +he said spitefully: + +"Shere Khan, the Big One, has shifted his hunting-grounds. He will hunt +among these hills during the next moon, so he has told me." + +Shere Khan was the tiger who lived near the Waingunga River, twenty +miles away. + +"He has no right!" Father Wolf began angrily. "By the Law of the Jungle +he has no right to change his quarters without fair warning. He will +frighten every head of game within ten miles; and I--I have to kill for +two, these days." + +"His mother did not call him Lungri [the Lame One] for nothing," said +Mother Wolf, quietly. "He has been lame in one foot from his birth. That +is why he has only killed cattle. Now the villagers of the Waingunga are +angry with him, and he has come here to make _our_ villagers angry. +They will scour the jungle for him when he is far away, and we and our +children must run when the grass is set alight. Indeed, we are very +grateful to Shere Khan!" + +"Shall I tell him of your gratitude?" said Tabaqui. + +"Out!" snapped Father Wolf. "Out, and hunt with thy master. Thou hast +done harm enough for one night." + +"I go," said Tabaqui, quietly. "Ye can hear Shere Khan below in the +thickets. I might have saved myself the message." + +Father Wolf listened, and in the dark valley that ran down to a little +river, he heard the dry, angry, snarly, singsong whine of a tiger who +has caught nothing and does not care if all the jungle knows it. + +"The fool!" said Father Wolf. "To begin a night's work with that noise! +Does he think that our buck are like his fat Waingunga bullocks?" + +"H'sh! It is neither bullock nor buck that he hunts to-night," said +Mother Wolf; "it is Man." The whine had changed to a sort of humming +purr that seemed to roll from every quarter of the compass. It was the +noise that bewilders wood-cutters, and gipsies sleeping in the open, +and makes them run sometimes into the very mouth of the tiger. + +"Man!" said Father Wolf, showing all his white teeth. "Faugh! Are there +not enough beetles and frogs in the tanks that he must eat Man--and on +our ground too!" + +The Law of the Jungle, which never orders anything without a reason, +forbids every beast to eat Man except when he is killing to show his +children how to kill, and then he must hunt outside the hunting-grounds +of his pack or tribe. The real reason for this is that man-killing +means, sooner or later, the arrival of white men on elephants, with +guns, and hundreds of brown men with gongs and rockets and torches. Then +everybody in the jungle suffers. The reason the beasts give among +themselves is that Man is the weakest and most defenseless of all living +things, and it is unsportsmanlike to touch him. They say too--and it is +true--that man-eaters become mangy, and lose their teeth. + +The purr grew louder, and ended in the full-throated "Aaarh!" of the +tiger's charge. + +Then there was a howl--an untigerish howl--from Shere Khan. "He has +missed," said Mother Wolf. "What is it?" + +Father Wolf ran out a few paces and heard Shere Khan muttering and +mumbling savagely, as he tumbled about in the scrub. + +"The fool has had no more sense than to jump at a wood-cutters' +camp-fire, so he has burned his feet," said Father Wolf, with a grunt. +"Tabaqui is with him." + +"Something is coming uphill," said Mother Wolf, twitching one ear. "Get +ready." + +The bushes rustled a little in the thicket, and Father Wolf dropped with +his haunches under him, ready for his leap. Then, if you had been +watching, you would have seen the most wonderful thing in the world--the +wolf checked in mid-spring. He made his bound before he saw what it was +he was jumping at, and then he tried to stop himself. The result was +that he shot up straight into the air for four or five feet, landing +almost where he left ground. + +"Man!" he snapped. "A man's cub. Look!" + +Directly in front of him, holding on by a low branch, stood a naked +brown baby who could just walk--as soft and as dimpled a little thing as +ever came to a wolf's cave at night. He looked up into Father Wolf's +face and laughed. + +"Is that a man's cub?" said Mother Wolf. "I have never seen one. Bring +it here." + +A wolf accustomed to moving his own cubs can, if necessary, mouth an +egg without breaking it, and though Father Wolf's jaws closed right on +the child's back not a tooth even scratched the skin, as he laid it down +among the cubs. + +"How little! How naked, and--how bold!" said Mother Wolf, softly. The +baby was pushing his way between the cubs to get close to the warm hide. +"Ahai! He is taking his meal with the others. And so this is a man's +cub. Now, was there ever a wolf that could boast of a man's cub among +her children?" + +"I have heard now and again of such a thing, but never in our pack or in +my time," said Father Wolf. "He is altogether without hair, and I could +kill him with a touch of my foot. But see, he looks up and is not +afraid." + +The moonlight was blocked out of the mouth of the cave, for Shere Khan's +great square head and shoulders were thrust into the entrance. Tabaqui, +behind him, was squeaking: "My Lord, my Lord, it went in here!" + +"Shere Khan does us great honor," said Father Wolf, but his eyes were +very angry. "What does Shere Khan need?" + +"My quarry. A man's cub went this way," said Shere Khan. "Its parents +have run off. Give it to me." + +Shere Khan had jumped at a wood-cutter's camp-fire, as Father Wolf had +said, and was furious from the pain of his burned feet. But Father Wolf +knew that the mouth of the cave was too narrow for a tiger to come in +by. Even where he was, Shere Khan's shoulders and fore paws were cramped +for want of room, as a man's would be if he tried to fight in a barrel. + +"The Wolves are a free people," said Father Wolf. "They take orders from +the Head of the Pack, and not from any striped cattle-killer. The man's +cub is ours--to kill if we choose." + +"Ye choose and ye do not choose! What talk is this of choosing? By the +Bull that I killed, am I to stand nosing into your dog's den for my fair +dues? It is I, Shere Khan, who speak!" + +The tiger's roar filled the cave with thunder. Mother Wolf shook herself +clear of the cubs and sprang forward, her eyes, like two green moons in +the darkness, facing the blazing eyes of Shere Khan. + + [Illustration: "THE TIGER'S ROAR FILLED THE CAVE WITH THUNDER."] + +"And it is I, Raksha [the Demon], who answer. The man's cub is mine, +Lungri--mine to me! He shall not be killed. He shall live to run with +the Pack and to hunt with the Pack; and in the end, look you, hunter of +little naked cubs--frog-eater--fish-killer, he shall hunt _thee_! Now +get hence, or by the Sambhur that I killed (_I_ eat no starved cattle), +back thou goest to thy mother, burned beast of the jungle, lamer than +ever thou camest into the world! Go!" + +Father Wolf looked on amazed. He had almost forgotten the days when he +won Mother Wolf in fair fight from five other wolves, when she ran in +the Pack and was not called the Demon for compliment's sake. Shere Khan +might have faced Father Wolf, but he could not stand up against Mother +Wolf, for he knew that where he was she had all the advantage of the +ground, and would fight to the death. So he backed out of the cave-mouth +growling, and when he was clear he shouted: + +"Each dog barks in his own yard! We will see what the Pack will say to +this fostering of man-cubs. The cub is mine, and to my teeth he will +come in the end, O bush-tailed thieves!" + +Mother Wolf threw herself down panting among the cubs, and Father Wolf +said to her gravely: + +"Shere Khan speaks this much truth. The cub must be shown to the Pack. +Wilt thou still keep him, Mother?" + +"Keep him!" she gasped. "He came naked, by night, alone and very hungry; +yet he was not afraid! Look, he has pushed one of my babes to one side +already. And that lame butcher would have killed him, and would have run +off to the Waingunga while the villagers here hunted through all our +lairs in revenge! Keep him? Assuredly I will keep him. Lie still, little +frog. O thou Mowgli,--for Mowgli, the Frog, I will call thee,--the time +will come when thou wilt hunt Shere Khan as he has hunted thee!" + +"But what will our Pack say?" said Father Wolf. + +The Law of the Jungle lays down very clearly that any wolf may, when he +marries, withdraw from the Pack he belongs to; but as soon as his cubs +are old enough to stand on their feet he must bring them to the Pack +Council, which is generally held once a month at full moon, in order +that the other wolves may identify them. After that inspection the cubs +are free to run where they please, and until they have killed their +first buck no excuse is accepted if a grown wolf of the Pack kills one +of them. The punishment is death where the murderer can be found; and if +you think for a minute you will see that this must be so. + +Father Wolf waited till his cubs could run a little, and then on the +night of the Pack Meeting took them and Mowgli and Mother Wolf to the +Council Rock--a hilltop covered with stones and boulders where a hundred +wolves could hide. Akela, the great gray Lone Wolf, who led all the Pack +by strength and cunning, lay out at full length on his rock, and below +him sat forty or more wolves of every size and color, from +badger-colored veterans who could handle a buck alone, to young black +three-year-olds who thought they could. The Lone Wolf had led them for a +year now. He had fallen twice into a wolf-trap in his youth, and once he +had been beaten and left for dead; so he knew the manners and customs of +men. + + [Illustration: THE MEETING AT THE COUNCIL ROCK.] + +There was very little talking at the Rock. The cubs tumbled over one +another in the center of the circle where their mothers and fathers sat, +and now and again a senior wolf would go quietly up to a cub, look at +him carefully, and return to his place on noiseless feet. Sometimes a +mother would push her cub far out into the moonlight, to be sure that he +had not been overlooked. Akela from his rock would cry: "Ye know the +Law--ye know the Law! Look well, O Wolves!" And the anxious mothers +would take up the call: "Look--look well, O Wolves!" + +At last--and Mother Wolf's neck-bristles lifted as the time came--Father +Wolf pushed "Mowgli, the Frog," as they called him, into the center, +where he sat laughing and playing with some pebbles that glistened in +the moonlight. + +Akela never raised his head from his paws, but went on with the +monotonous cry, "Look well!" A muffled roar came up from behind the +rocks--the voice of Shere Khan crying, "The cub is mine; give him to me. +What have the Free People to do with a man's cub?" + +Akela never even twitched his ears. All he said was, "Look well, O +Wolves! What have the Free People to do with the orders of any save the +Free People? Look well!" + +There was a chorus of deep growls, and a young wolf in his fourth year +flung back Shere Khan's question to Akela: "What have the Free People to +do with a man's cub?" + +Now the Law of the Jungle lays down that if there is any dispute as to +the right of a cub to be accepted by the Pack, he must be spoken for by +at least two members of the Pack who are not his father and mother. + +"Who speaks for this cub?" said Akela. "Among the Free People, who +speaks?" There was no answer, and Mother Wolf got ready for what she +knew would be her last fight, if things came to fighting. + +Then the only other creature who is allowed at the Pack Council--Baloo, +the sleepy brown bear who teaches the wolf cubs the Law of the Jungle; +old Baloo, who can come and go where he pleases because he eats only +nuts and roots and honey--rose up on his hind quarters and grunted. + +"The man's cub--the man's cub?" he said. "_I_ speak for the man's cub. +There is no harm in a man's cub. I have no gift of words, but I speak +the truth. Let him run with the Pack, and be entered with the others. I +myself will teach him." + +"We need yet another," said Akela. "Baloo has spoken, and he is our +teacher for the young cubs. Who speaks besides Baloo?" + +A black shadow dropped down into the circle. It was Bagheera, the Black +Panther, inky black all over, but with the panther markings showing up +in certain lights like the pattern of watered silk. Everybody knew +Bagheera, and nobody cared to cross his path; for he was as cunning as +Tabaqui, as bold as the wild buffalo, and as reckless as the wounded +elephant. But he had a voice as soft as wild honey dripping from a tree, +and a skin softer than down. + +"O Akela, and ye, the Free People," he purred, "I have no right in your +assembly; but the Law of the Jungle says that if there is a doubt which +is not a killing matter in regard to a new cub, the life of that cub may +be bought at a price. And the Law does not say who may or may not pay +that price. Am I right?" + +"Good! good!" said the young wolves, who are always hungry. "Listen to +Bagheera. The cub can be bought for a price. It is the Law." + +"Knowing that I have no right to speak here, I ask your leave." + +"Speak then," cried twenty voices. + +"To kill a naked cub is shame. Besides, he may make better sport for you +when he is grown. Baloo has spoken in his behalf. Now to Baloo's word I +will add one bull, and a fat one, newly killed, not half a mile from +here, if ye will accept the man's cub according to the Law. Is it +difficult?" + +There was a clamor of scores of voices, saying: "What matter? He will +die in the winter rains. He will scorch in the sun. What harm can a +naked frog do us? Let him run with the Pack. Where is the bull, +Bagheera? Let him be accepted." And then came Akela's deep bay, crying: +"Look well--look well, O Wolves!" + +Mowgli was still playing with the pebbles, and he did not notice when +the wolves came and looked at him one by one. At last they all went +down the hill for the dead bull, and only Akela, Bagheera, Baloo, and +Mowgli's own wolves were left. Shere Khan roared still in the night, for +he was very angry that Mowgli had not been handed over to him. + +"Ay, roar well," said Bagheera, under his whiskers; "for the time comes +when this naked thing will make thee roar to another tune, or I know +nothing of Man." + +"It was well done," said Akela. "Men and their cubs are very wise. He +may be a help in time." + +"Truly, a help in time of need; for none can hope to lead the Pack +forever," said Bagheera. + +Akela said nothing. He was thinking of the time that comes to every +leader of every pack when his strength goes from him and he gets feebler +and feebler, till at last he is killed by the wolves and a new leader +comes up--to be killed in his turn. + +"Take him away," he said to Father Wolf, "and train him as befits one of +the Free People." + +And that is how Mowgli was entered into the Seeonee wolf-pack for the +price of a bull and on Baloo's good word. + +Now you must be content to skip ten or eleven whole years, and only +guess at all the wonderful life that Mowgli led among the wolves, +because if it were written out it would fill ever so many books. He grew +up with the cubs, though they of course were grown wolves almost before +he was a child, and Father Wolf taught him his business, and the meaning +of things in the jungle, till every rustle in the grass, every breath of +the warm night air, every note of the owls above his head, every scratch +of a bat's claws as it roosted for a while in a tree, and every splash +of every little fish jumping in a pool, meant just as much to him as the +work of his office means to a business man. When he was not learning he +sat out in the sun and slept, and ate, and went to sleep again; when he +felt dirty or hot he swam in the forest pools; and when he wanted honey +(Baloo told him that honey and nuts were just as pleasant to eat as raw +meat) he climbed up for it, and that Bagheera showed him how to do. + +Bagheera would lie out on a branch and call, "Come along, Little +Brother," and at first Mowgli would cling like the sloth, but afterward +he would fling himself through the branches almost as boldly as the gray +ape. He took his place at the Council Rock, too, when the Pack met, +and there he discovered that if he stared hard at any wolf, the wolf +would be forced to drop his eyes, and so he used to stare for fun. + + [Illustration: "BAGHEERA WOULD LIE OUT ON A BRANCH AND CALL, 'COME + ALONG, LITTLE BROTHER.'"] + +At other times he would pick the long thorns out of the pads of his +friends, for wolves suffer terribly from thorns and burs in their coats. +He would go down the hillside into the cultivated lands by night, and +look very curiously at the villagers in their huts, but he had a +mistrust of men because Bagheera showed him a square box with a +drop-gate so cunningly hidden in the jungle that he nearly walked into +it, and told him it was a trap. + +He loved better than anything else to go with Bagheera into the dark +warm heart of the forest, to sleep all through the drowsy day, and at +night see how Bagheera did his killing. Bagheera killed right and left +as he felt hungry, and so did Mowgli--with one exception. As soon as he +was old enough to understand things, Bagheera told him that he must +never touch cattle because he had been bought into the Pack at the price +of a bull's life. "All the jungle is thine," said Bagheera, "and thou +canst kill everything that thou art strong enough to kill; but for the +sake of the bull that bought thee thou must never kill or eat any +cattle young or old. That is the Law of the Jungle." Mowgli obeyed +faithfully. + +And he grew and grew strong as a boy must grow who does not know that he +is learning any lessons, and who has nothing in the world to think of +except things to eat. + +Mother Wolf told him once or twice that Shere Khan was not a creature to +be trusted, and that some day he must kill Shere Khan; but though a +young wolf would have remembered that advice every hour, Mowgli forgot +it because he was only a boy--though he would have called himself a wolf +if he had been able to speak in any human tongue. + +Shere Khan was always crossing his path in the jungle, for as Akela grew +older and feebler the lame tiger had come to be great friends with the +younger wolves of the Pack, who followed him for scraps, a thing Akela +would never have allowed if he had dared to push his authority to the +proper bounds. Then Shere Khan would flatter them and wonder that such +fine young hunters were content to be led by a dying wolf and a man's +cub. "They tell me," Shere Khan would say, "that at Council ye dare not +look him between the eyes"; and the young wolves would growl and +bristle. + +Bagheera, who had eyes and ears everywhere, knew something of this, and +once or twice he told Mowgli in so many words that Shere Khan would kill +him some day; and Mowgli would laugh and answer: "I have the Pack and I +have thee; and Baloo, though he is so lazy, might strike a blow or two +for my sake. Why should I be afraid?" + +It was one very warm day that a new notion came to Bagheera--born of +something that he had heard. Perhaps Ikki, the Porcupine, had told him; +but he said to Mowgli when they were deep in the jungle, as the boy lay +with his head on Bagheera's beautiful black skin: "Little Brother, how +often have I told thee that Shere Khan is thy enemy?" + +"As many times as there are nuts on that palm," said Mowgli, who, +naturally, could not count. "What of it? I am sleepy, Bagheera, and +Shere Khan is all long tail and loud talk, like Mao, the Peacock." + +"But this is no time for sleeping. Baloo knows it, I know it, the Pack +know it, and even the foolish, foolish deer know. Tabaqui has told thee +too." + +"Ho! ho!" said Mowgli. "Tabaqui came to me not long ago with some rude +talk that I was a naked man's cub, and not fit to dig pig-nuts; but I +caught Tabaqui by the tail and swung him twice against a palm-tree to +teach him better manners." + +"That was foolishness; for though Tabaqui is a mischief-maker, he would +have told thee of something that concerned thee closely. Open those +eyes, Little Brother! Shere Khan dares not kill thee in the jungle for +fear of those that love thee; but remember, Akela is very old, and soon +the day comes when he cannot kill his buck, and then he will be leader +no more. Many of the wolves that looked thee over when thou wast brought +to the Council first are old too, and the young wolves believe, as Shere +Khan has taught them, that a man-cub has no place with the Pack. In a +little time thou wilt be a man." + +"And what is a man that he should not run with his brothers?" said +Mowgli. "I was born in the jungle; I have obeyed the Law of the Jungle; +and there is no wolf of ours from whose paws I have not pulled a thorn. +Surely they are my brothers!" + +Bagheera stretched himself at full length and half shut his eyes. +"Little Brother," said he, "feel under my jaw." + +Mowgli put up his strong brown hand, and just under Bagheera's silky +chin, where the giant rolling muscles were all hid by the glossy hair, +he came upon a little bald spot. + +"There is no one in the jungle that knows that I, Bagheera, carry that +mark--the mark of the collar; and yet, Little Brother, I was born among +men, and it was among men that my mother died--in the cages of the +King's Palace at Oodeypore. It was because of this that I paid the price +for thee at the Council when thou wast a little naked cub. Yes, I too +was born among men. I had never seen the jungle. They fed me behind bars +from an iron pan till one night I felt that I was Bagheera, the Panther, +and no man's plaything, and I broke the silly lock with one blow of my +paw, and came away; and because I had learned the ways of men, I became +more terrible in the jungle than Shere Khan. Is it not so?" + +"Yes," said Mowgli; "all the jungle fear Bagheera--all except Mowgli." + +"Oh, _thou_ art a man's cub," said the Black Panther, very tenderly; +"and even as I returned to my jungle, so thou must go back to men at +last,--to the men who are thy brothers,--if thou art not killed in the +Council." + +"But why--but why should any wish to kill me?" said Mowgli. + +"Look at me," said Bagheera; and Mowgli looked at him steadily between +the eyes. The big panther turned his head away in half a minute. + +"_That_ is why," he said, shifting his paw on the leaves. "Not even I +can look thee between the eyes, and I was born among men, and I love +thee, Little Brother. The others they hate thee because their eyes +cannot meet thine; because thou art wise; because thou hast pulled out +thorns from their feet--because thou art a man." + +"I did not know these things," said Mowgli, sullenly; and he frowned +under his heavy black eyebrows. + +"What is the Law of the Jungle? Strike first and then give tongue. By +thy very carelessness they know that thou art a man. But be wise. It is +in my heart that when Akela misses his next kill,--and at each hunt it +costs him more to pin the buck,--the Pack will turn against him and +against thee. They will hold a jungle Council at the Rock, and then--and +then ... I have it!" said Bagheera, leaping up. "Go thou down quickly to +the men's huts in the valley, and take some of the Red Flower which they +grow there, so that when the time comes thou mayest have even a +stronger friend than I or Baloo or those of the Pack that love thee. Get +the Red Flower." + +By Red Flower Bagheera meant fire, only no creature in the jungle will +call fire by its proper name. Every beast lives in deadly fear of it, +and invents a hundred ways of describing it. + +"The Red Flower?" said Mowgli. "That grows outside their huts in the +twilight. I will get some." + +"There speaks the man's cub," said Bagheera, proudly. "Remember that it +grows in little pots. Get one swiftly, and keep it by thee for time of +need." + +"Good!" said Mowgli. "I go. But art thou sure, O my Bagheera"--he +slipped his arm round the splendid neck, and looked deep into the big +eyes--"art thou sure that all this is Shere Khan's doing?" + +"By the Broken Lock that freed me, I am sure, Little Brother." + +"Then, by the Bull that bought me, I will pay Shere Khan full tale for +this, and it may be a little over," said Mowgli; and he bounded away. + +"That is a man. That is all a man," said Bagheera to himself, lying down +again. "Oh, Shere Khan, never was a blacker hunting than that frog-hunt +of thine ten years ago!" + +Mowgli was far and far through the forest, running hard, and his heart +was hot in him. He came to the cave as the evening mist rose, and drew +breath, and looked down the valley. The cubs were out, but Mother Wolf, +at the back of the cave, knew by his breathing that something was +troubling her frog. + +"What is it, Son?" she said. + +"Some bat's chatter of Shere Khan," he called back. "I hunt among the +plowed fields to-night"; and he plunged downward through the bushes, to +the stream at the bottom of the valley. There he checked, for he heard +the yell of the Pack hunting, heard the bellow of a hunted Sambhur, and +the snort as the buck turned at bay. Then there were wicked, bitter +howls from the young wolves: "Akela! Akela! Let the Lone Wolf show his +strength. Room for the leader of our Pack! Spring, Akela!" + +The Lone Wolf must have sprung and missed his hold, for Mowgli heard the +snap of his teeth and then a yelp as the Sambhur knocked him over with +his fore foot. + +He did not wait for anything more, but dashed on; and the yells grew +fainter behind him as he ran into the crop-lands where the villagers +lived. + +"Bagheera spoke truth," he panted, as he nestled down in some +cattle-fodder by the window of a hut. "To-morrow is one day for Akela +and for me." + +Then he pressed his face close to the window and watched the fire on the +hearth. He saw the husbandman's wife get up and feed it in the night +with black lumps; and when the morning came and the mists were all white +and cold, he saw the man's child pick up a wicker pot plastered inside +with earth, fill it with lumps of red-hot charcoal, put it under his +blanket, and go out to tend the cows in the byre. + +"Is that all?" said Mowgli. "If a cub can do it, there is nothing to +fear"; so he strode around the corner and met the boy, took the pot from +his hand, and disappeared into the mist while the boy howled with fear. + +"They are very like me," said Mowgli, blowing into the pot, as he had +seen the woman do. "This thing will die if I do not give it things to +eat"; and he dropped twigs and dried bark on the red stuff. Half-way up +the hill he met Bagheera with the morning dew shining like moonstones on +his coat. + +"Akela has missed," said the panther. "They would have killed him last +night, but they needed thee also. They were looking for thee on the +hill." + +"I was among the plowed lands. I am ready. Look!" Mowgli held up the +fire-pot. + +"Good! Now, I have seen men thrust a dry branch into that stuff, and +presently the Red Flower blossomed at the end of it. Art thou not +afraid?" + +"No. Why should I fear? I remember now--if it is not a dream--how, +before I was a wolf, I lay beside the Red Flower, and it was warm and +pleasant." + +All that day Mowgli sat in the cave tending his fire-pot and dipping dry +branches into it to see how they looked. He found a branch that +satisfied him, and in the evening when Tabaqui came to the cave and told +him, rudely enough, that he was wanted at the Council Rock, he laughed +till Tabaqui ran away. Then Mowgli went to the Council, still laughing. + +Akela the Lone Wolf lay by the side of his rock as a sign that the +leadership of the Pack was open, and Shere Khan with his following of +scrap-fed wolves walked to and fro openly, being flattered. Bagheera lay +close to Mowgli, and the fire-pot was between Mowgli's knees. When they +were all gathered together, Shere Khan began to speak--a thing he would +never have dared to do when Akela was in his prime. + +"He has no right," whispered Bagheera. "Say so. He is a dog's son. He +will be frightened." + +Mowgli sprang to his feet. "Free People," he cried, "does Shere Khan +lead the Pack? What has a tiger to do with our leadership?" + +"Seeing that the leadership is yet open, and being asked to speak--" +Shere Khan began. + +"By whom?" said Mowgli. "Are we _all_ jackals, to fawn on this +cattle-butcher? The leadership of the Pack is with the Pack alone." + +There were yells of "Silence, thou man's cub!" "Let him speak; he has +kept our law!" And at last the seniors of the Pack thundered: "Let the +Dead Wolf speak!" + +When a leader of the Pack has missed his kill, he is called the Dead +Wolf as long as he lives, which is not long, as a rule. + +Akela raised his old head wearily: + +"Free People, and ye too, jackals of Shere Khan, for twelve seasons I +have led ye to and from the kill, and in all that time not one has been +trapped or maimed. Now I have missed my kill. Ye know how that plot was +made. Ye know how ye brought me up to an untried buck to make my +weakness known. It was cleverly done. Your right is to kill me here on +the Council Rock now. Therefore I ask, 'Who comes to make an end of the +Lone Wolf?' For it is my right, by the Law of the Jungle, that ye come +one by one." + +There was a long hush, for no single wolf cared to fight Akela to the +death. Then Shere Khan roared: "Bah! What have we to do with this +toothless fool? He is doomed to die! It is the man-cub who has lived too +long. Free People, he was my meat from the first. Give him to me. I am +weary of this man-wolf folly. He has troubled the jungle for ten +seasons. Give me the man-cub, or I will hunt here always, and not give +you one bone! He is a man--a man's child, and from the marrow of my +bones I hate him!" + +Then more than half the Pack yelled: "A man--a man! What has a man to do +with us? Let him go to his own place." + +"And turn all the people of the villages against us?" snarled Shere +Khan. "No; give him to me. He is a man, and none of us can look him +between the eyes." + +Akela lifted his head again, and said: "He has eaten our food; he has +slept with us; he has driven game for us; he has broken no word of the +Law of the Jungle." + +"Also, I paid for him with a bull when he was accepted. The worth of a +bull is little, but Bagheera's honor is something that he will perhaps +fight for," said Bagheera in his gentlest voice. + +"A bull paid ten years ago!" the Pack snarled. "What do we care for +bones ten years old?" + +"Or for a pledge?" said Bagheera, his white teeth bared under his lip. +"Well are ye called the Free People!" + +"No man's cub can run with the people of the jungle!" roared Shere Khan. +"Give him to me." + +"He is our brother in all but blood," Akela went on; "and ye would kill +him here. In truth, I have lived too long. Some of ye are eaters of +cattle, and of others I have heard that, under Shere Khan's teaching, ye +go by dark night and snatch children from the villager's doorstep. +Therefore I know ye to be cowards, and it is to cowards I speak. It is +certain that I must die, and my life is of no worth, or I would offer +that in the man-cub's place. But for the sake of the Honor of the +Pack,--a little matter that, by being without a leader, ye have +forgotten,--I promise that if ye let the man-cub go to his own place, I +will not, when my time comes to die, bare one tooth against ye. I will +die without fighting. That will at least save the Pack three lives. More +I cannot do; but, if ye will, I can save ye the shame that comes of +killing a brother against whom there is no fault--a brother spoken for +and bought into the Pack according to the Law of the Jungle." + +"He is a man--a man--a man!" snarled the Pack; and most of the wolves +began to gather round Shere Khan, whose tail was beginning to switch. + +"Now the business is in thy hands," said Bagheera to Mowgli. "_We_ can +do no more except fight." + +Mowgli stood upright--the fire-pot in his hands. Then he stretched out +his arms, and yawned in the face of the Council; but he was furious with +rage and sorrow, for, wolf-like, the wolves had never told him how they +hated him. + +"Listen, you!" he cried. "There is no need for this dog's jabber. Ye +have told me so often to-night that I am a man (though indeed I would +have been a wolf with you to my life's end) that I feel your words are +true. So I do not call ye my brothers any more, but _sag_ [dogs], as a +man should. What ye will do, and what ye will not do, is not yours to +say. That matter is with _me_; and that we may see the matter more +plainly, I, the man, have brought here a little of the Red Flower which +ye, dogs, fear." + +He flung the fire-pot on the ground, and some of the red coals lit a +tuft of dried moss that flared up as all the Council drew back in terror +before the leaping flames. + +Mowgli thrust his dead branch into the fire till the twigs lit and +crackled, and whirled it above his head among the cowering wolves. + +"Thou art the master," said Bagheera, in an undertone. "Save Akela from +the death. He was ever thy friend." + +Akela, the grim old wolf who had never asked for mercy in his life, gave +one piteous look at Mowgli as the boy stood all naked, his long black +hair tossing over his shoulders in the light of the blazing branch that +made the shadows jump and quiver. + +"Good!" said Mowgli, staring around slowly, and thrusting out his lower +lip. "I see that ye are dogs. I go from you to my own people--if they be +my own people. The jungle is shut to me, and I must forget your talk and +your companionship; but I will be more merciful than ye are. Because I +was all but your brother in blood, I promise that when I am a man among +men I will not betray ye to men as ye have betrayed me." He kicked the +fire with his foot, and the sparks flew up. "There shall be no war +between any of us and the Pack. But here is a debt to pay before I go." +He strode forward to where Shere Khan sat blinking stupidly at the +flames, and caught him by the tuft on his chin. Bagheera followed close, +in case of accidents. "Up, dog!" Mowgli cried. "Up, when a man speaks, +or I will set that coat ablaze!" + +Shere Khan's ears lay flat back on his head, and he shut his eyes, for +the blazing branch was very near. + +"This cattle-killer said he would kill me in the Council because he had +not killed me when I was a cub. Thus and thus, then, do we beat dogs +when we are men! Stir a whisker, Lungri, and I ram the Red Flower down +thy gullet!" He beat Shere Khan over the head with the branch, and the +tiger whimpered and whined in an agony of fear. + +"Pah! Singed jungle-cat--go now! But remember when next I come to the +Council Rock, as a man should come, it will be with Shere Khan's hide on +my head. For the rest, Akela goes free to live as he pleases. Ye will +_not_ kill him, because that is not my will. Nor do I think that ye will +sit here any longer, lolling out your tongues as though ye were +somebodies, instead of dogs whom I drive out--thus! Go!" + +The fire was burning furiously at the end of the branch, and Mowgli +struck right and left round the circle, and the wolves ran howling with +the sparks burning their fur. At last there were only Akela, Bagheera, +and perhaps ten wolves that had taken Mowgli's part. Then something +began to hurt Mowgli inside him, as he had never been hurt in his life +before, and he caught his breath and sobbed, and the tears ran down his +face. + +"What is it? What is it?" he said. "I do not wish to leave the jungle, +and I do not know what this is. Am I dying, Bagheera?" + +"No, Little Brother. Those are only tears such as men use," said +Bagheera. "Now I know thou art a man, and a man's cub no longer. The +jungle is shut indeed to thee henceforward. Let them fall, Mowgli; they +are only tears." So Mowgli sat and cried as though his heart would +break; and he had never cried in all his life before. + +"Now," he said, "I will go to men. But first I must say farewell to my +mother"; and he went to the cave where she lived with Father Wolf, and +he cried on her coat, while the four cubs howled miserably. + +"Ye will not forget me?" said Mowgli. + +"Never while we can follow a trail," said the cubs. "Come to the foot of +the hill when thou art a man, and we will talk to thee; and we will come +into the crop-lands to play with thee by night." + +"Come soon!" said Father Wolf. "Oh, wise little Frog, come again soon; +for we be old, thy mother and I." + +"Come soon," said Mother Wolf, "little naked son of mine; for, listen, +child of man, I loved thee more than ever I loved my cubs." + +"I will surely come," said Mowgli; "and when I come it will be to lay +out Shere Khan's hide upon the Council Rock. Do not forget me! Tell them +in the jungle never to forget me!" + +The dawn was beginning to break when Mowgli went down the hillside alone +to the crops to meet those mysterious things that are called men. + + + HUNTING-SONG OF THE SEEONEE PACK + + As the dawn was breaking the Sambhur belled + Once, twice, and again! + And a doe leaped up--and a doe leaped up + From the pond in the wood where the wild deer sup. + This I, scouting alone, beheld, + Once, twice, and again! + + As the dawn was breaking the Sambhur belled + Once, twice, and again! + And a wolf stole back--and a wolf stole back + To carry the word to the waiting Pack; + And we sought and we found and we bayed on his track + Once, twice, and again! + + As the dawn was breaking the Wolf-pack yelled + Once, twice, and again! + Feet in the jungle that leave no mark! + Eyes that can see in the dark--the dark! + Tongue--give tongue to it! Hark! O Hark! + Once, twice, and again! + + + + + KAA'S HUNTING + + + His spots are the joy of the Leopard: his horns are the + Buffalo's pride-- + Be clean, for the strength of the hunter is known by the gloss + of his hide. + + If ye find that the Bullock can toss you, or the heavy-browed + Sambhur can gore; + Ye need not stop work to inform us: we knew it ten seasons + before. + + Oppress not the cubs of the stranger, but hail them as Sister + and Brother, + For though they are little and fubsy, it may be the Bear is + their mother. + + "There is none like to me!" says the Cub in the pride of his + earliest kill; + But the Jungle is large and the Cub he is small. Let him think + and be still. + + _Maxims of Baloo._ + + + [Illustration] + + KAA'S HUNTING + + +ALL that is told here happened some time before Mowgli was turned out of +the Seeonee wolf-pack. It was in the days when Baloo was teaching him +the Law of the Jungle. The big, serious, old brown bear was delighted to +have so quick a pupil, for the young wolves will only learn as much of +the Law of the Jungle as applies to their own pack and tribe, and run +away as soon as they can repeat the Hunting Verse: "Feet that make no +noise; eyes that can see in the dark; ears that can hear the winds in +their lairs, and sharp white teeth--all these things are the marks of +our brothers except Tabaqui and the Hyena, whom we hate." But Mowgli, as +a man-cub, had to learn a great deal more than this. Sometimes Bagheera, +the Black Panther, would come lounging through the jungle to see how his +pet was getting on, and would purr with his head against a tree while +Mowgli recited the day's lesson to Baloo. The boy could climb almost as +well as he could swim, and swim almost as well as he could run; so +Baloo, the Teacher of the Law, taught him the Wood and Water laws: how +to tell a rotten branch from a sound one; how to speak politely to the +wild bees when he came upon a hive of them fifty feet aboveground; what +to say to Mang, the Bat, when he disturbed him in the branches at +midday; and how to warn the water-snakes in the pools before he splashed +down among them. None of the Jungle People like being disturbed, and all +are very ready to fly at an intruder. Then, too, Mowgli was taught the +Strangers' Hunting Call, which must be repeated aloud till it is +answered, whenever one of the Jungle People hunts outside his own +grounds. It means, translated: "Give me leave to hunt here because I am +hungry"; and the answer is: "Hunt, then, for food, but not for +pleasure." + +All this will show you how much Mowgli had to learn by heart, and he +grew very tired of repeating the same thing a hundred times; but, as +Baloo said to Bagheera one day when Mowgli had been cuffed and had run +off in a temper: "A man's cub is a man's cub, and he must learn _all_ +the Law of the Jungle." + +"But think how small he is," said the Black Panther, who would have +spoiled Mowgli if he had had his own way. "How can his little head carry +all thy long talk?" + +"Is there anything in the jungle too little to be killed? No. That is +why I teach him these things, and that is why I hit him, very softly, +when he forgets." + +"Softly! What dost thou know of softness, old Iron-feet?" Bagheera +grunted. "His face is all bruised to-day by thy--softness. Ugh!" + +"Better he should be bruised from head to foot by me who love him than +that he should come to harm through ignorance," Baloo answered, very +earnestly. "I am now teaching him the Master Words of the Jungle that +shall protect him with the Birds and the Snake People, and all that hunt +on four feet, except his own pack. He can now claim protection, if he +will only remember the Words, from all in the jungle. Is not that worth +a little beating?" + +"Well, look to it then that thou dost not kill the man-cub. He is no +tree-trunk to sharpen thy blunt claws upon. But what are those Master +Words? I am more likely to give help than to ask it"--Bagheera stretched +out one paw and admired the steel-blue ripping-chisel talons at the end +of it--"Still I should like to know." + +"I will call Mowgli and he shall say them--if he will. Come, Little +Brother!" + +"My head is ringing like a bee-tree," said a sullen voice over their +heads, and Mowgli slid down a tree-trunk, very angry and indignant, +adding, as he reached the ground: "I come for Bagheera and not for +_thee_, fat old Baloo!" + +"That is all one to me," said Baloo, though he was hurt and grieved. +"Tell Bagheera, then, the Master Words of the Jungle that I have taught +thee this day." + +"Master Words for which people?" said Mowgli, delighted to show off. +"The jungle has many tongues. _I_ know them all." + +"A little thou knowest, but not much. See, O Bagheera, they never thank +their teacher! Not one small wolfling has come back to thank old Baloo +for his teachings. Say the Word for the Hunting People, then,--great +scholar!" + +"We be of one blood, ye and I," said Mowgli, giving the words the Bear +accent which all the Hunting People of the Jungle use. + +"Good! Now for the Birds." + +Mowgli repeated, with the Kite's whistle at the end of the sentence. + +"Now for the Snake People," said Bagheera. + +The answer was a perfectly indescribable hiss, and Mowgli kicked up his +feet behind, clapped his hands together to applaud himself, and jumped +on Bagheera's back, where he sat sideways, drumming with his heels on +the glossy skin and making the worst faces that he could think of at +Baloo. + +"There--there! That was worth a little bruise," said the Brown Bear, +tenderly. "Some day thou wilt remember me." Then he turned aside to tell +Bagheera how he had begged the Master Words from Hathi, the Wild +Elephant, who knows all about these things, and how Hathi had taken +Mowgli down to a pool to get the Snake Word from a water-snake, because +Baloo could not pronounce it, and how Mowgli was now reasonably safe +against all accidents in the jungle, because neither snake, bird, nor +beast would hurt him. + +"No one then is to be feared," Baloo wound up, patting his big furry +stomach with pride. + +"Except his own tribe," said Bagheera, under his breath; and then aloud +to Mowgli: "Have a care for my ribs, Little Brother! What is all this +dancing up and down?" + +Mowgli had been trying to make himself heard by pulling at Bagheera's +shoulder-fur and kicking hard. When the two listened to him he was +shouting at the top of his voice: "And _so_ I shall have a tribe of my +own, and lead them through the branches all day long." + +"What is this new folly, little dreamer of dreams?" said Bagheera. + +"Yes, and throw branches and dirt at old Baloo," Mowgli went on. "They +have promised me this, ah!" + +"Whoof!" Baloo's big paw scooped Mowgli off Bagheera's back, and as the +boy lay between the big fore paws he could see the bear was angry. + +"Mowgli," said Baloo, "thou hast been talking with the Bandar-log--the +Monkey People." + +Mowgli looked at Bagheera to see if the panther was angry too, and +Bagheera's eyes were as hard as jade-stones. + +"Thou hast been with the Monkey People--the gray apes--the people +without a Law--the eaters of everything. That is great shame." + +"When Baloo hurt my head," said Mowgli (he was still down on his back), +"I went away, and the gray apes came down from the trees and had pity on +me. No one else cared." He snuffled a little. + +"The pity of the Monkey People!" Baloo snorted. + +"The stillness of the mountain stream! The cool of the summer sun! And +then, man-cub?" + +"And then--and then they gave me nuts and pleasant things to eat, and +they--they carried me in their arms up to the top of the trees and said +I was their blood-brother, except that I had no tail, and should be +their leader some day." + +"They have _no_ leader," said Bagheera. "They lie. They have always +lied." + +"They were very kind, and bade me come again. Why have I never been +taken among the Monkey People? They stand on their feet as I do. They do +not hit me with hard paws. They play all day. Let me get up! Bad Baloo, +let me up! I will go play with them again." + +"Listen, man-cub," said the bear, and his voice rumbled like thunder on +a hot night. "I have taught thee all the Law of the Jungle for all the +Peoples of the Jungle--except the Monkey Folk who live in the trees. +They have no Law. They are outcastes. They have no speech of their own, +but use the stolen words which they overhear when they listen and peep +and wait up above in the branches. Their way is not our way. They are +without leaders. They have no remembrance. They boast and chatter and +pretend that they are a great people about to do great affairs in the +jungle, but the falling of a nut turns their minds to laughter, and all +is forgotten. We of the jungle have no dealings with them. We do not +drink where the monkeys drink; we do not go where the monkeys go; we do +not hunt where they hunt; we do not die where they die. Hast thou ever +heard me speak of the Bandar-log till to-day?" + +"No," said Mowgli in a whisper, for the forest was very still now that +Baloo had finished. + +"The Jungle People put them out of their mouths and out of their minds. +They are very many, evil, dirty, shameless, and they desire, if they +have any fixed desire, to be noticed by the Jungle People. But we do +_not_ notice them even when they throw nuts and filth on our heads." + +He had hardly spoken when a shower of nuts and twigs spattered down +through the branches; and they could hear coughings and howlings and +angry jumpings high up in the air among the thin branches. + +"The Monkey People are forbidden," said Baloo, "forbidden to the Jungle +People. Remember." + +"Forbidden," said Bagheera; "but I still think Baloo should have warned +thee against them." + +"I--I? How was I to guess he would play with such dirt. The Monkey +People! Faugh!" + +A fresh shower came down on their heads, and the two trotted away, +taking Mowgli with them. What Baloo had said about the monkeys was +perfectly true. They belonged to the tree-tops, and as beasts very +seldom look up, there was no occasion for the monkeys and the Jungle +People to cross one another's path. But whenever they found a sick wolf, +or a wounded tiger or bear, the monkeys would torment him, and would +throw sticks and nuts at any beast for fun and in the hope of being +noticed. Then they would howl and shriek senseless songs, and invite the +Jungle People to climb up their trees and fight them, or would start +furious battles over nothing among themselves, and leave the dead +monkeys where the Jungle People could see them. + +They were always just going to have a leader and laws and customs of +their own, but they never did, because their memories would not hold +over from day to day, and so they settled things by making up a saying: +"What the Bandar-log think now the Jungle will think later"; and that +comforted them a great deal. None of the beasts could reach them, but on +the other hand none of the beasts would notice them, and that was why +they were so pleased when Mowgli came to play with them, and when they +heard how angry Baloo was. + +They never meant to do any more,--the Bandar-log never mean anything at +all,--but one of them invented what seemed to him a brilliant idea, and +he told all the others that Mowgli would be a useful person to keep in +the tribe, because he could weave sticks together for protection from +the wind; so, if they caught him, they could make him teach them. Of +course Mowgli, as a wood-cutter's child, inherited all sorts of +instincts, and used to make little play-huts of fallen branches without +thinking how he came to do it. The Monkey People, watching in the trees, +considered these huts most wonderful. This time, they said, they were +really going to have a leader and become the wisest people in the +jungle--so wise that every one else would notice and envy them. +Therefore they followed Baloo and Bagheera and Mowgli through the jungle +very quietly till it was time for the midday nap, and Mowgli, who was +very much ashamed of himself, slept between the panther and the bear, +resolving to have no more to do with the Monkey People. + +The next thing he remembered was feeling hands on his legs and +arms,--hard, strong little hands,--and then a swash of branches in his +face; and then he was staring down through the swaying boughs as Baloo +woke the jungle with his deep cries and Bagheera bounded up the trunk +with every tooth bared. The Bandar-log howled with triumph, and scuffled +away to the upper branches where Bagheera dared not follow, shouting: +"He has noticed us! Bagheera has noticed us! All the Jungle People +admire us for our skill and our cunning!" Then they began their flight; +and the flight of the Monkey People through tree-land is one of the +things nobody can describe. They have their regular roads and +cross-roads, uphills and downhills, all laid out from fifty to seventy +or a hundred feet aboveground, and by these they can travel even at +night if necessary. + +Two of the strongest monkeys caught Mowgli under the arms and swung off +with him through the tree-tops, twenty feet at a bound. Had they been +alone they could have gone twice as fast, but the boy's weight held them +back. Sick and giddy as Mowgli was he could not help enjoying the wild +rush, though the glimpses of earth far down below frightened him, and +the terrible check and jerk at the end of the swing over nothing but +empty air brought his heart between his teeth. + +His escort would rush him up a tree till he felt the weak topmost +branches crackle and bend under them, and, then, with a cough and a +whoop, would fling themselves into the air outward and downward, and +bring up hanging by their hands or their feet to the lower limbs of the +next tree. Sometimes he could see for miles and miles over the still +green jungle, as a man on the top of a mast can see for miles across the +sea, and then the branches and leaves would lash him across the face, +and he and his two guards would be almost down to earth again. + +So bounding and crashing and whooping and yelling, the whole tribe of +Bandar-log swept along the tree-roads with Mowgli their prisoner. + +For a time he was afraid of being dropped; then he grew angry, but he +knew better than to struggle; and then he began to think. The first +thing was to send back word to Baloo and Bagheera, for, at the pace the +monkeys were going, he knew his friends would be left far behind. It +was useless to look down, for he could see only the top sides of the +branches, so he stared upward and saw, far away in the blue, Rann, the +Kite, balancing and wheeling as he kept watch over the jungle waiting +for things to die. Rann noticed that the monkeys were carrying +something, and dropped a few hundred yards to find out whether their +load was good to eat. He whistled with surprise when he saw Mowgli being +dragged up to a tree-top, and heard him give the Kite call for "We be of +one blood, thou and I." The waves of the branches closed over the boy, +but Rann balanced away to the next tree in time to see the little brown +face come up again. "Mark my trail!" Mowgli shouted. "Tell Baloo of the +Seeonee Pack, and Bagheera of the Council Rock." + +"In whose name, Brother?" Rann had never seen Mowgli before, though of +course he had heard of him. + +"Mowgli, the Frog. Man-cub they call me! Mark my tra--il!" + +The last words were shrieked as he was being swung through the air, but +Rann nodded, and rose up till he looked no bigger than a speck of dust, +and there he hung, watching with his telescope eyes the swaying of the +tree-tops as Mowgli's escort whirled along. + +"They never go far," he said, with a chuckle. "They never do what they +set out to do. Always pecking at new things are the Bandar-log. This +time, if I have any eyesight, they have pecked down trouble for +themselves, for Baloo is no fledgling and Bagheera can, as I know, kill +more than goats." + +Then he rocked on his wings, his feet gathered up under him, and waited. + +Meanwhile, Baloo and Bagheera were furious with rage and grief. Bagheera +climbed as he had never climbed before, but the branches broke beneath +his weight, and he slipped down, his claws full of bark. + +"Why didst thou not warn the man-cub!" he roared to poor Baloo, who had +set off at a clumsy trot in the hope of overtaking the monkeys. "What +was the use of half slaying him with blows if thou didst not warn him?" + +"Haste! O haste! We--we may catch them yet!" Baloo panted. + +"At that speed! It would not tire a wounded cow. Teacher of the Law, +cub-beater--a mile of that rolling to and fro would burst thee open. Sit +still and think! Make a plan. This is no time for chasing. They may drop +him if we follow too close." + +"_Arrula! Whoo!_ They may have dropped him already, being tired of +carrying him. Who can trust the Bandar-log? Put dead bats on my head! +Give me black bones to eat! Roll me into the hives of the wild bees that +I may be stung to death, and bury me with the hyena; for I am the most +miserable of bears! _Arulala! Wahooa!_ O Mowgli, Mowgli! Why did I not +warn thee against the Monkey Folk instead of breaking thy head? Now +perhaps I may have knocked the day's lesson out of his mind, and he will +be alone in the jungle without the Master Words!" + +Baloo clasped his paws over his ears and rolled to and fro, moaning. + +"At least he gave me all the Words correctly a little time ago," said +Bagheera, impatiently. "Baloo, thou hast neither memory nor respect. +What would the jungle think if I, the Black Panther, curled myself up +like Ikki, the Porcupine, and howled?" + +"What do I care what the jungle thinks? He may be dead by now." + +"Unless and until they drop him from the branches in sport, or kill him +out of idleness, I have no fear for the man-cub. He is wise and +well-taught, and, above all, he has the eyes that make the Jungle People +afraid. But (and it is a great evil) he is in the power of the +Bandar-log, and they, because they live in trees, have no fear of any of +our people." Bagheera licked his one fore paw thoughtfully. + +"Fool that I am! Oh fat, brown, root-digging fool that I am!" said +Baloo, uncoiling himself with a jerk. "It is true what Hathi, the Wild +Elephant, says: '_To each his own fear_'; and they, the Bandar-log, fear +Kaa, the Rock Snake. He can climb as well as they can. He steals the +young monkeys in the night. The mere whisper of his name makes their +wicked tails cold. Let us go to Kaa." + +"What will he do for us? He is not of our tribe, being footless and with +most evil eyes," said Bagheera. + +"He is very old and very cunning. Above all, he is always hungry," said +Baloo, hopefully. "Promise him many goats." + +"He sleeps for a full month after he has once eaten. He may be asleep +now, and even were he awake, what if he would rather kill his own +goats?" Bagheera, who did not know much about Kaa, was naturally +suspicious. + +"Then in that case, thou and I together, old hunter, may make him see +reason." Here Baloo rubbed his faded brown shoulder against the +panther, and they went off to look for Kaa, the Rock Python. + +They found him stretched out on a warm ledge in the afternoon sun, +admiring his beautiful new coat, for he had been in retirement for the +last ten days changing his skin, and now he was very splendid--darting +his big blunt-nosed head along the ground, and twisting the thirty feet +of his body into fantastic knots and curves, and licking his lips as he +thought of his dinner to come. + +"He has not eaten," said Baloo, with a grunt of relief, as soon as he +saw the beautifully mottled brown and yellow jacket. "Be careful, +Bagheera! He is always a little blind after he has changed his skin, and +very quick to strike." + +Kaa was not a poison snake--in fact he rather despised the Poison Snakes +for cowards; but his strength lay in his hug, and when he had once +lapped his huge coils round anybody there was no more to be said. "Good +hunting!" cried Baloo, sitting up on his haunches. Like all snakes of +his breed Kaa was rather deaf, and did not hear the call at first. Then +he curled up ready for any accident, his head lowered. + +"Good hunting for us all," he answered. "Oho, Baloo, what dost thou do +here? Good hunting, Bagheera. One of us at least needs food. Is there +any news of game afoot? A doe now, or even a young buck? I am as empty +as a dried well." + +"We are hunting," said Baloo, carelessly. He knew that you must not +hurry Kaa. He is too big. + +"Give me permission to come with you," said Kaa. "A blow more or less is +nothing to thee, Bagheera or Baloo, but I--I have to wait and wait for +days in a wood path and climb half a night on the mere chance of a young +ape. _Pss naw!_ The branches are not what they were when I was young. +Rotten twigs and dry boughs are they all." + +"Maybe thy great weight has something to do with the matter," said +Baloo. + +"I am a fair length--a fair length," said Kaa, with a little pride. "But +for all that, it is the fault of this new-grown timber. I came very near +to falling on my last hunt,--very near indeed,--and the noise of my +slipping, for my tail was not tight wrapped round the tree, waked the +Bandar-log, and they called me most evil names." + +"'Footless, yellow earthworm,'" said Bagheera under his whiskers, as +though he were trying to remember something. + +"_Sssss!_ Have they ever called me _that_?" said Kaa. + +"Something of that kind it was that they shouted to us last moon, but we +never noticed them. They will say anything--even that thou hast lost all +thy teeth, and dare not face anything bigger than a kid, because (they +are indeed shameless, these Bandar-log)--because thou art afraid of the +he-goats' horns," Bagheera went on sweetly. + +Now a snake, especially a wary old python like Kaa, very seldom shows +that he is angry; but Baloo and Bagheera could see the big swallowing +muscles on either side of Kaa's throat ripple and bulge. + +"The Bandar-log have shifted their grounds," he said, quietly. "When I +came up into the sun today I heard them whooping among the tree-tops." + +"It--it is the Bandar-log that we follow now," said Baloo; but the words +stuck in his throat, for this was the first time in his memory that one +of the Jungle People had owned to being interested in the doings of the +monkeys. + +"Beyond doubt, then, it is no small thing that takes two such +hunters--leaders in their own jungle, I am certain--on the trail of the +Bandar-log," Kaa replied, courteously, as he swelled with curiosity. + +"Indeed," Baloo began, "I am no more than the old, and sometimes very +foolish, Teacher of the Law to the Seeonee wolf-cubs, and Bagheera +here--" + +"Is Bagheera," said the Black Panther, and his jaws shut with a snap, +for he did not believe in being humble. "The trouble is this, Kaa. Those +nut-stealers and pickers of palm-leaves have stolen away our man-cub, of +whom thou hast perhaps heard." + +"I heard some news from Ikki (his quills make him presumptuous) of a +man-thing that was entered into a wolf-pack, but I did not believe. Ikki +is full of stories half heard and very badly told." + +"But it is true. He is such a man-cub as never was," said Baloo. "The +best and wisest and boldest of man-cubs. My own pupil, who shall make +the name of Baloo famous through all the jungles; and besides, +I--we--love him, Kaa." + +"_Ts! Ts!_" said Kaa, shaking his head to and fro. "I also have known +what love is. There are tales I could tell that--" + +"That need a clear night when we are all well fed to praise properly," +said Bagheera, quickly. "Our man-cub is in the hands of the Bandar-log +now, and we know that of all the Jungle People they fear Kaa alone." + +"They fear me alone. They have good reason," said Kaa. "Chattering, +foolish, vain--vain, foolish, and chattering--are the monkeys. But a +man-thing in their hands is in no good luck. They grow tired of the nuts +they pick, and throw them down. They carry a branch half a day, meaning +to do great things with it, and then they snap it in two. That manling +is not to be envied. They called me also--'yellow fish,' was it not?" + +"Worm--worm--earthworm," said Bagheera; "as well as other things which I +cannot now say for shame." + +"We must remind them to speak well of their master. _Aaa-sssh!_ We must +help their wandering memories. Now, whither went they with thy cub?" + +"The jungle alone knows. Toward the sunset, I believe," said Baloo. "We +had thought that thou wouldst know, Kaa." + +"I? How? I take them when they come in my way, but I do not hunt the +Bandar-log--or frogs--or green scum on a water-hole, for that matter." + +"Up, up! Up, up! _Hillo! Illo! Illo!_ Look up, Baloo of the Seeonee Wolf +Pack!" + +Baloo looked up to see where the voice came from, and there was Rann, +the Kite, sweeping down with the sun shining on the upturned flanges of +his wings. It was near Rann's bedtime, but he had ranged all over the +jungle looking for the bear, and missed him in the thick foliage. + +"What is it?" said Baloo. + +"I have seen Mowgli among the Bandar-log. He bade me tell you. I +watched. The Bandar-log have taken him beyond the river to the Monkey +City--to the Cold Lairs. They may stay there for a night, or ten nights, +or an hour. I have told the bats to watch through the dark time. That is +my message. Good hunting, all you below!" + +"Full gorge and a deep sleep to you, Rann!" cried Bagheera. "I will +remember thee in my next kill, and put aside the head for thee alone, O +best of kites!" + +"It is nothing. It is nothing. The boy held the Master Word. I could +have done no less," and Rann circled up again to his roost. + +"He has not forgotten to use his tongue," said Baloo, with a chuckle of +pride. "To think of one so young remembering the Master Word for the +birds while he was being pulled across trees!" + +"It was most firmly driven into him," said Bagheera. "But I am proud of +him, and now we must go to the Cold Lairs." + +They all knew where that place was, but few of the Jungle People ever +went there, because what they called the Cold Lairs was an old deserted +city, lost and buried in the jungle, and beasts seldom use a place that +men have once used. The wild boar will, but the hunting-tribes do not. +Besides, the monkeys lived there as much as they could be said to live +anywhere, and no self-respecting animal would come within eye-shot of it +except in times of drouth, when the half-ruined tanks and reservoirs +held a little water. + +"It is half a night's journey--at full speed," said Bagheera. Baloo +looked very serious. "I will go as fast as I can," he said, anxiously. + +"We dare not wait for thee. Follow, Baloo. We must go on the +quick-foot--Kaa and I." + +"Feet or no feet, I can keep abreast of all thy four," said Kaa, +shortly. + +Baloo made one effort to hurry, but had to sit down panting, and so they +left him to come on later, while Bagheera hurried forward, at the +rocking panther-canter. Kaa said nothing, but, strive as Bagheera might, +the huge Rock Python held level with him. When they came to a +hill-stream, Bagheera gained, because he bounded across while Kaa swam, +his head and two feet of his neck clearing the water, but on level +ground Kaa made up the distance. + +"By the Broken Lock that freed me," said Bagheera, when twilight had +fallen, "thou art no slow-goer." + +"I am hungry," said Kaa. "Besides, they called me speckled frog." + +"Worm--earthworm, and yellow to boot." + +"All one. Let us go on," and Kaa seemed to pour himself along the +ground, finding the shortest road with his steady eyes, and keeping to +it. + +In the Cold Lairs the Monkey People were not thinking of Mowgli's +friends at all. They had brought the boy to the Lost City, and were very +pleased with themselves for the time. Mowgli had never seen an Indian +city before, and though this was almost a heap of ruins it seemed very +wonderful and splendid. Some king had built it long ago on a little +hill. You could still trace the stone causeways that led up to the +ruined gates where the last splinters of wood hung to the worn, rusted +hinges. Trees had grown into and out of the walls; the battlements were +tumbled down and decayed, and wild creepers hung out of the windows of +the towers on the walls in bushy hanging clumps. + +A great roofless palace crowned the hill, and the marble of the +courtyards and the fountains was split and stained with red and green, +and the very cobblestones in the courtyard where the king's elephants +used to live had been thrust up and apart by grasses and young trees. +From the palace you could see the rows and rows of roofless houses that +made up the city, looking like empty honeycombs filled with blackness; +the shapeless block of stone that had been an idol in the square where +four roads met; the pits and dimples at street corners where the public +wells once stood, and the shattered domes of temples with wild figs +sprouting on their sides. + +The monkeys called the place their city, and pretended to despise the +Jungle People because they lived in the forest. And yet they never knew +what the buildings were made for nor how to use them. They would sit in +circles on the hall of the king's council-chamber, and scratch for fleas +and pretend to be men; or they would run in and out of the roofless +houses and collect pieces of plaster and old bricks in a corner, and +forget where they had hidden them, and fight and cry in scuffling +crowds, and then break off to play up and down the terraces of the +king's garden, where they would shake the rose-trees and the oranges in +sport to see the fruit and flowers fall. They explored all the passages +and dark tunnels in the palace and the hundreds of little dark rooms; +but they never remembered what they had seen and what they had not, and +so drifted about in ones and twos or crowds, telling one another that +they were doing as men did. They drank at the tanks and made the water +all muddy, and then they fought over it, and then they would all rush +together in mobs and shout: "There are none in the jungle so wise and +good and clever and strong and gentle as the Bandar-log." Then all would +begin again till they grew tired of the city and went back to the +tree-tops, hoping the Jungle People would notice them. + +Mowgli, who had been trained under the Law of the Jungle, did not like +or understand this kind of life. The monkeys dragged him into the Cold +Lairs late in the afternoon, and instead of going to sleep, as Mowgli +would have done after a long journey, they joined hands and danced about +and sang their foolish songs. + +One of the monkeys made a speech, and told his companions that Mowgli's +capture marked a new thing in the history of the Bandar-log, for Mowgli +was going to show them how to weave sticks and canes together as a +protection against rain and cold. Mowgli picked up some creepers and +began to work them in and out, and the monkeys tried to imitate; but in +a very few minutes they lost interest and began to pull their friends' +tails or jump up and down on all fours, coughing. + +"I want to eat," said Mowgli. "I am a stranger in this part of the +jungle. Bring me food, or give me leave to hunt here." + +Twenty or thirty monkeys bounded away to bring him nuts and wild +pawpaws; but they fell to fighting on the road, and it was too much +trouble to go back with what was left of the fruit. Mowgli was sore and +angry as well as hungry, and he roamed through the empty city giving the +Strangers' Hunting Call from time to time, but no one answered him, and +Mowgli felt that he had reached a very bad place indeed. + +"All that Baloo has said about the Bandar-log is true," he thought to +himself. "They have no Law, no Hunting Call, and no leaders--nothing but +foolish words and little picking, thievish hands. So if I am starved or +killed here, it will be all my own fault. But I must try to return to my +own jungle. Baloo will surely beat me, but that is better than chasing +silly rose-leaves with the Bandar-log." + +But no sooner had he walked to the city wall than the monkeys pulled him +back, telling him that he did not know how happy he was, and pinching +him to make him grateful. He set his teeth and said nothing, but went +with the shouting monkeys to a terrace above the red sandstone +reservoirs that were half full of rain-water. There was a ruined +summer-house of white marble in the center of the terrace, built for +queens dead a hundred years ago. The domed roof had half fallen in and +blocked up the underground passage from the palace by which the queens +used to enter; but the walls were made of screens of marble +tracery--beautiful, milk-white fretwork, set with agates and cornelians +and jasper and lapis lazuli, and as the moon came up behind the hill it +shone through the openwork, casting shadows on the ground like +black-velvet embroidery. + +Sore, sleepy, and hungry as he was, Mowgli could not help laughing when +the Bandar-log began, twenty at a time, to tell him how great and wise +and strong and gentle they were, and how foolish he was to wish to leave +them. "We are great. We are free. We are wonderful. We are the most +wonderful people in all the jungle! We all say so, and so it must be +true," they shouted. "Now as you are a new listener and can carry our +words back to the Jungle People so that they may notice us in future, we +will tell you all about our most excellent selves." + +Mowgli made no objection, and the monkeys gathered by hundreds and +hundreds on the terrace to listen to their own speakers singing the +praises of the Bandar-log, and whenever a speaker stopped for want of +breath they would all shout together: "This is true; we all say so." + +Mowgli nodded and blinked, and said "Yes" when they asked him a +question, and his head spun with the noise. "Tabaqui, the Jackal, must +have bitten all these people," he said to himself, "and now they have +the madness. Certainly this is _dewance_--the madness. Do they never go +to sleep? Now there is a cloud coming to cover that moon. If it were +only a big enough cloud I might try to run away in the darkness. But I +am tired." + +That same cloud was being watched by two good friends in the ruined +ditch below the city wall, for Bagheera and Kaa, knowing well how +dangerous the Monkey People were in large numbers, did not wish to run +any risks. The monkeys never fight unless they are a hundred to one, and +few in the jungle care for those odds. + +"I will go to the west wall," Kaa whispered, "and come down swiftly with +the slope of the ground in my favor. They will not throw themselves upon +_my_ back in their hundreds, but--" + +"I know it," said Bagheera. "Would that Baloo were here; but we must do +what we can. When that cloud covers the moon I shall go to the terrace. +They hold some sort of council there over the boy." + +"Good hunting," said Kaa, grimly, and glided away to the west wall. That +happened to be the least ruined of any, and the big snake was delayed a +while before he could find a way up the stones. + +The cloud hid the moon, and as Mowgli wondered what would come next he +heard Bagheera's light feet on the terrace. The Black Panther had raced +up the slope almost without a sound, and was striking--he knew better +than to waste time in biting--right and left among the monkeys, who were +seated round Mowgli in circles fifty and sixty deep. There was a howl of +fright and rage, and then as Bagheera tripped on the rolling, kicking +bodies beneath him, a monkey shouted: "There is only one here! Kill him! +Kill!" A scuffling mass of monkeys, biting, scratching, tearing, and +pulling, closed over Bagheera, while five or six laid hold of Mowgli, +dragged him up the wall of the summer-house, and pushed him through the +hole of the broken dome. A man-trained boy would have been badly +bruised, for the fall was a good ten feet, but Mowgli fell as Baloo had +taught him to fall, and landed light. + +"Stay there," shouted the monkeys, "till we have killed thy friend. +Later we will play with thee, if the Poison People leave thee alive." + +"We be of one blood, ye and I," said Mowgli, quickly giving the Snake's +Call. He could hear rustling and hissing in the rubbish all round him, +and gave the Call a second time to make sure. + +"Down hoods all," said half a dozen low voices. Every old ruin in India +becomes sooner or later a dwelling-place of snakes, and the old +summer-house was alive with cobras. "Stand still, Little Brother, lest +thy feet do us harm." + +Mowgli stood as quietly as he could, peering through the openwork and +listening to the furious din of the fight round the Black Panther--the +yells and chatterings and scufflings, and Bagheera's deep, hoarse cough +as he backed and bucked and twisted and plunged under the heaps of his +enemies. For the first time since he was born, Bagheera was fighting for +his life. + +"Baloo must be at hand; Bagheera would not have come alone," Mowgli +thought; and then he called aloud: "To the tank, Bagheera! Roll to the +water-tanks! Roll and plunge! Get to the water!" + +Bagheera heard, and the cry that told him Mowgli was safe gave him new +courage. He worked his way desperately, inch by inch, straight for the +reservoirs, hitting in silence. + +Then from the ruined wall nearest the jungle rose up the rumbling +war-shout of Baloo. The old bear had done his best, but he could not +come before. "Bagheera," he shouted, "I am here! I climb! I haste! +_Ahuwora!_ The stones slip under my feet! Wait my coming, O most +infamous Bandar log!" + +He panted up the terrace only to disappear to the head in a wave of +monkeys, but he threw himself squarely on his haunches, and spreading +out his fore paws, hugged as many as he could hold, and then began to +hit with a regular _bat-bat-bat_, like the flipping strokes of a +paddle-wheel. + +A crash and a splash told Mowgli that Bagheera had fought his way to the +tank, where the monkeys could not follow. The panther lay gasping for +breath, his head just out of water, while the monkeys stood three deep +on the red stone steps, dancing up and down with rage, ready to spring +upon him from all sides if he came out to help Baloo. It was then that +Bagheera lifted up his dripping chin, and in despair gave the Snake's +Call for protection,--"We be of one blood, ye and I,"--for he believed +that Kaa had turned tail at the last minute. Even Baloo, half smothered +under the monkeys on the edge of the terrace, could not help chuckling +as he heard the big Black Panther asking for help. + +Kaa had only just worked his way over the west wall, landing with a +wrench that dislodged a coping-stone into the ditch. He had no intention +of losing any advantage of the ground, and coiled and uncoiled himself +once or twice, to be sure that every foot of his long body was in +working order. + +All that while the fight with Baloo went on, and the monkeys yelled in +the tank round Bagheera, and Mang, the Bat, flying to and fro, carried +the news of the great battle over the jungle, till even Hathi, the Wild +Elephant, trumpeted, and, far away, scattered bands of the Monkey Folk +woke and came leaping along the tree-roads to help their comrades in the +Cold Lairs, and the noise of the fight roused all the day-birds for +miles round. + +Then Kaa came straight, quickly, and anxious to kill. The fighting +strength of a python is in the driving blow of his head, backed by all +the strength and weight of his body. If you can imagine a lance, or a +battering-ram, or a hammer, weighing nearly half a ton driven by a cool, +quiet mind living in the handle of it, you can imagine roughly what Kaa +was like when he fought. A python four or five feet long can knock a man +down if he hits him fairly in the chest, and Kaa was thirty feet long, +as you know. His first stroke was delivered into the heart of the crowd +round Baloo--was sent home with shut mouth in silence, and there was no +need of a second. The monkeys scattered with cries of "Kaa! It is Kaa! +Run! Run!" + +Generations of monkeys had been scared into good behavior by the stories +their elders told them of Kaa, the night-thief, who could slip along the +branches as quietly as moss grows, and steal away the strongest monkey +that ever lived; of old Kaa, who could make himself look so like a dead +branch or a rotten stump that the wisest were deceived till the branch +caught them, and then-- + +Kaa was everything that the monkeys feared in the jungle, for none of +them knew the limits of his power, none of them could look him in the +face, and none had ever come alive out of his hug. And so they ran, +stammering with terror, to the walls and the roofs of the houses, and +Baloo drew a deep breath of relief. His fur was much thicker than +Bagheera's, but he had suffered sorely in the fight. Then Kaa opened his +mouth for the first time and spoke one long hissing word, and the +far-away monkeys, hurrying to the defense of the Cold Lairs, stayed +where they were, cowering, till the loaded branches bent and crackled +under them. The monkeys on the walls and the empty houses stopped their +cries, and in the stillness that fell upon the city Mowgli heard +Bagheera shaking his wet sides as he came up from the tank. + +Then the clamor broke out again. The monkeys leaped higher up the walls; +they clung round the necks of the big stone idols and shrieked as they +skipped along the battlements; while Mowgli, dancing in the +summer-house, put his eye to the screenwork and hooted owl-fashion +between his front teeth, to show his derision and contempt. + +"Get the man-cub out of that trap; I can do no more," Bagheera gasped. +"Let us take the man-cub and go. They may attack again." + +"They will not move till I order them. Stay you sssso!" Kaa hissed, and +the city was silent once more. "I could not come before, Brother, but I +_think_ I heard thee call"--this was to Bagheera. + +"I--I may have cried out in the battle," Bagheera answered. "Baloo, art +thou hurt?" + +"I am not sure that they have not pulled me into a hundred little +bearlings," said Baloo, gravely shaking one leg after the other. "Wow! I +am sore. Kaa, we owe thee, I think, our lives--Bagheera and I." + +"No matter. Where is the manling?" + +"Here, in a trap. I cannot climb out," cried Mowgli. The curve of the +broken dome was above his head. + +"Take him away. He dances like Mao, the Peacock. He will crush our +young," said the cobras inside. + +"Hah!" said Kaa, with a chuckle, "he has friends everywhere, this +manling. Stand back, Manling; and hide you, O Poison People. I break +down the wall." + +Kaa looked carefully till he found a discolored crack in the marble +tracery showing a weak spot, made two or three light taps with his head +to get the distance, and then lifting up six feet of his body clear of +the ground, sent home half a dozen full-power, smashing blows, +nose-first. The screenwork broke and fell away in a cloud of dust and +rubbish, and Mowgli leaped through the opening and flung himself between +Baloo and Bagheera--an arm round each big neck. + +"Art thou hurt?" said Baloo, hugging him softly. + +"I am sore, hungry, and not a little bruised; but, oh, they have handled +ye grievously, my Brothers! Ye bleed." + +"Others also," said Bagheera, licking his lips and looking at the +monkey-dead on the terrace and round the tank. + +"It is nothing, it is nothing if thou art safe, O my pride of all little +frogs!" whimpered Baloo. + +"Of that we shall judge later," said Bagheera, in a dry voice that +Mowgli did not at all like. "But here is Kaa, to whom we owe the battle +and thou owest thy life. Thank him according to our customs, Mowgli." + +Mowgli turned and saw the great python's head swaying a foot above his +own. + +"So this is the manling," said Kaa. "Very soft is his skin, and he is +not so unlike the Bandar-log. Have a care, Manling, that I do not +mistake thee for a monkey some twilight when I have newly changed my +coat." + +"We be of one blood, thou and I," Mowgli answered. "I take my life from +thee, to-night. My kill shall be thy kill if ever thou art hungry, O +Kaa." + +"All thanks, Little Brother," said Kaa, though his eyes twinkled. "And +what may so bold a hunter kill? I ask that I may follow when next he +goes abroad." + +"I kill nothing,--I am too little,--but I drive goats toward such as can +use them. When thou art empty come to me and see if I speak the truth. I +have some skill in these [he held out his hands], and if ever thou art +in a trap, I may pay the debt which I owe to thee, to Bagheera, and to +Baloo, here. Good hunting to ye all, my masters." + +"Well said," growled Baloo, for Mowgli had returned thanks very +prettily. The python dropped his head lightly for a minute on Mowgli's +shoulder. "A brave heart and a courteous tongue," said he. "They shall +carry thee far through the jungle, Manling. But now go hence quickly +with thy friends. Go and sleep, for the moon sets, and what follows it +is not well that thou shouldst see." + +The moon was sinking behind the hills and the lines of trembling monkeys +huddled together on the walls and battlements looked like ragged, shaky +fringes of things. Baloo went down to the tank for a drink, and Bagheera +began to put his fur in order, as Kaa glided out into the center of the +terrace and brought his jaws together with a ringing snap that drew all +the monkeys' eyes upon him. + +"The moon sets," he said. "Is there yet light to see?" + +From the walls came a moan like the wind in the tree-tops: "We see, O +Kaa!" + +"Good! Begins now the Dance--the Dance of the Hunger of Kaa. Sit still +and watch." + +He turned twice or thrice in a big circle, weaving his head from right +to left. Then he began making loops and figures of eight with his body, +and soft, oozy triangles that melted into squares and five-sided +figures, and coiled mounds, never resting, never hurrying, and never +stopping his low, humming song. It grew darker and darker, till at last +the dragging, shifting coils disappeared, but they could hear the rustle +of the scales. + +Baloo and Bagheera stood still as stone, growling in their throats, +their neck-hair bristling, and Mowgli watched and wondered. + +"Bandar-log," said the voice of Kaa at last, "can ye stir foot or hand +without my order? Speak!" + +"Without thy order we cannot stir foot or hand, O Kaa!" + +"Good! Come all one pace nearer to me." + +The lines of the monkeys swayed forward helplessly, and Baloo and +Bagheera took one stiff step forward with them. + +"Nearer!" hissed Kaa, and they all moved again. + +Mowgli laid his hands on Baloo and Bagheera to get them away, and the +two great beasts started as though they had been waked from a dream. + +"Keep thy hand on my shoulder," Bagheera whispered. "Keep it there, or I +must go back--must go back to Kaa. _Aah!_" + +"It is only old Kaa making circles on the dust," said Mowgli; "let us +go"; and the three slipped off through a gap in the walls to the jungle. + +"_Whoof!_" said Baloo, when he stood under the still trees again. "Never +more will I make an ally of Kaa," and he shook himself all over. + +"He knows more than we," said Bagheera, trembling. "In a little time, +had I stayed, I should have walked down his throat." + +"Many will walk that road before the moon rises again," said Baloo. "He +will have good hunting--after his own fashion." + +"But what was the meaning of it all?" said Mowgli, who did not know +anything of a python's powers of fascination. "I saw no more than a big +snake making foolish circles till the dark came. And his nose was all +sore. Ho! Ho!" + +"Mowgli," said Bagheera, angrily, "his nose was sore on _thy_ account; +as my ears and sides and paws, and Baloo's neck and shoulders are bitten +on _thy_ account. Neither Baloo nor Bagheera will be able to hunt with +pleasure for many days." + +"It is nothing," said Baloo; "we have the man-cub again." + +"True; but he has cost us most heavily in time which might have been +spent in good hunting, in wounds, in hair,--I am half plucked along my +back,--and last of all, in honor. For, remember, Mowgli, I, who am the +Black Panther, was forced to call upon Kaa for protection, and Baloo and +I were both made stupid as little birds by the Hunger-Dance. All this, +Man-cub, came of thy playing with the Bandar-log." + +"True; it is true," said Mowgli, sorrowfully. "I am an evil man-cub, and +my stomach is sad in me." + +"_Mf!_ What says the Law of the Jungle, Baloo?" + +Baloo did not wish to bring Mowgli into any more trouble, but he could +not tamper with the Law, so he mumbled, "Sorrow never stays punishment. +But remember, Bagheera, he is very little." + +"I will remember; but he has done mischief; and blows must be dealt now. +Mowgli, hast thou anything to say?" + +"Nothing. I did wrong. Baloo and thou art wounded. It is just." + +Bagheera gave him half a dozen love-taps; from a panther's point of view +they would hardly have waked one of his own cubs, but for a seven +year-old boy they amounted to as severe a beating as you could wish to +avoid. When it was all over Mowgli sneezed, and picked himself up +without a word. + +"Now," said Bagheera, "jump on my back, Little Brother, and we will go +home." + +One of the beauties of Jungle Law is that punishment settles all scores. +There is no nagging afterward. + +Mowgli laid his head down on Bagheera's back and slept so deeply that he +never waked when he was put down by Mother Wolf's side in the +home-cave. + + + ROAD-SONG OF THE BANDAR-LOG + + Here we go in a flung festoon, + Half-way up to the jealous moon! + Don't you envy our pranceful bands? + Don't you wish you had extra hands? + Wouldn't you like if your tails were--_so_-- + Curved in the shape of a Cupid's bow? + Now you're angry, but--never mind, + _Brother, thy tail hangs down behind_! + + Here we sit in a branchy row, + Thinking of beautiful things we know; + Dreaming of deeds that we mean to do, + All complete, in a minute or two-- + Something noble and grand and good, + Won by merely wishing we could. + Now we're going to--never mind, + _Brother, thy tail hangs down behind_! + + All the talk we ever have heard + Uttered by bat or beast or bird-- + Hide or fin or scale or feather-- + Jabber it quickly and all together! + Excellent! Wonderful! Once again! + Now we are talking just like men. + Let's pretend we are ... never mind, + _Brother, thy tail hangs down behind_! + This is the way of the Monkey-kind. + + _Then join our leaping lines that scumfish through + the pines, + That rocket by where, light and high, the wild-grape + swings. + By the rubbish in our wake, and the noble noise we + make, + Be sure, be sure, we're going to do some splendid + things!_ + + + + + "TIGER! TIGER!" + + + What of the hunting, hunter bold? + _Brother, the watch was long and cold._ + What of the quarry ye went to kill? + _Brother, he crops in the jungle still._ + Where is the power that made your pride? + _Brother, it ebbs from my flank and side._ + Where is the haste that ye hurry by? + _Brother, I go to my lair--to die._ + + + [Illustration] + + "TIGER! TIGER!" + + +NOW we must go back to the last tale but one. When Mowgli left the +wolf's cave after the fight with the Pack at the Council Rock, he went +down to the plowed lands where the villagers lived, but he would not +stop there because it was too near to the jungle, and he knew that he +had made at least one bad enemy at the Council. So he hurried on, +keeping to the rough road that ran down the valley, and followed it at a +steady jog-trot for nearly twenty miles, till he came to a country that +he did not know. The valley opened out into a great plain dotted over +with rocks and cut up by ravines. At one end stood a little village, and +at the other the thick jungle came down in a sweep to the +grazing-grounds, and stopped there as though it had been cut off with a +hoe. All over the plain, cattle and buffaloes were grazing, and when the +little boys in charge of the herds saw Mowgli they shouted and ran away, +and the yellow pariah dogs that hang about every Indian village barked. +Mowgli walked on, for he was feeling hungry, and when he came to the +village gate he saw the big thorn-bush that was drawn up before the gate +at twilight, pushed to one side. + +"Umph!" he said, for he had come across more than one such barricade in +his night rambles after things to eat. "So men are afraid of the People +of the Jungle here also." He sat down by the gate, and when a man came +out he stood up, opened his mouth, and pointed down it to show that he +wanted food. The man stared, and ran back up the one street of the +village shouting for the priest, who was a big, fat man dressed in +white, with a red and yellow mark on his forehead. The priest came to +the gate, and with him at least a hundred people, who stared and talked +and shouted and pointed at Mowgli. + +"They have no manners, these Men Folk," said Mowgli to himself. "Only +the gray ape would behave as they do." So he threw back his long hair +and frowned at the crowd. + +"What is there to be afraid of?" said the priest. "Look at the marks on +his arms and legs. They are the bites of wolves. He is but a wolf-child +run away from the jungle." + +Of course, in playing together, the cubs had often nipped Mowgli harder +than they intended, and there were white scars all over his arms and +legs. But he would have been the last person in the world to call these +bites; for he knew what real biting meant. + +"_Arre! Arre!_" said two or three women together. "To be bitten by +wolves, poor child! He is a handsome boy. He has eyes like red fire. By +my honor, Messua, he is not unlike thy boy that was taken by the tiger." + +"Let me look," said a woman with heavy copper rings on her wrists and +ankles, and she peered at Mowgli under the palm of her hand. "Indeed he +is not. He is thinner, but he has the very look of my boy." + +The priest was a clever man, and he knew that Messua was wife to the +richest villager in the place. So he looked up at the sky for a minute, +and said solemnly: "What the jungle has taken the jungle has restored. +Take the boy into thy house, my sister, and forget not to honor the +priest who sees so far into the lives of men." + +"By the Bull that bought me," said Mowgli to himself, "but all this +talking is like another looking-over by the Pack! Well, if I am a man, a +man I must become." + +The crowd parted as the woman beckoned Mowgli to her hut, where there +was a red lacquered bedstead, a great earthen grain-chest with curious +raised patterns on it, half a dozen copper cooking-pots, an image of a +Hindu god in a little alcove, and on the wall a real looking-glass, such +as they sell at the country fairs. + +She gave him a long drink of milk and some bread, and then she laid her +hand on his head and looked into his eyes; for she thought perhaps that +he might be her real son come back from the jungle where the tiger had +taken him. So she said: "Nathoo, O Nathoo!" Mowgli did not show that he +knew the name. "Dost thou not remember the day when I gave thee thy new +shoes?" She touched his foot, and it was almost as hard as horn. "No," +she said, sorrowfully; "those feet have never worn shoes, but thou art +very like my Nathoo, and thou shalt be my son." + +Mowgli was uneasy, because he had never been under a roof before; but +as he looked at the thatch, he saw that he could tear it out any time if +he wanted to get away, and that the window had no fastenings. "What is +the good of a man," he said to himself at last, "if he does not +understand man's talk? Now I am as silly and dumb as a man would be with +us in the jungle. I must learn their talk." + +It was not for fun that he had learned while he was with the wolves to +imitate the challenge of bucks in the jungle and the grunt of the little +wild pig. So as soon as Messua pronounced a word Mowgli would imitate it +almost perfectly, and before dark he had learned the names of many +things in the hut. + +There was a difficulty at bedtime, because Mowgli would not sleep under +anything that looked so like a panther-trap as that hut, and when they +shut the door he went through the window. "Give him his will," said +Messua's husband. "Remember he can never till now have slept on a bed. +If he is indeed sent in the place of our son he will not run away." + +So Mowgli stretched himself in some long, clean grass at the edge of the +field, but before he had closed his eyes a soft gray nose poked him +under the chin. + +"Phew!" said Gray Brother (he was the eldest of Mother Wolf's cubs). +"This is a poor reward for following thee twenty miles. Thou smellest of +wood-smoke and cattle--altogether like a man already. Wake, Little +Brother; I bring news." + + [Illustration: "'WAKE, LITTLE BROTHER; I BRING NEWS.'"] + +"Are all well in the jungle?" said Mowgli, hugging him. + +"All except the wolves that were burned with the Red Flower. Now, +listen. Shere Khan has gone away to hunt far off till his coat grows +again, for he is badly singed. When he returns he swears that he will +lay thy bones in the Waingunga." + +"There are two words to that. I also have made a little promise. But +news is always good. I am tired to-night,--very tired with new things, +Gray Brother,--but bring me the news always." + +"Thou wilt not forget that thou art a wolf? Men will not make thee +forget?" said Gray Brother, anxiously. + +"Never. I will always remember that I love thee and all in our cave; but +also I will always remember that I have been cast out of the Pack." + +"And that thou mayest be cast out of another pack. Men are only men, +Little Brother, and their talk is like the talk of frogs in a pond. +When I come down here again, I will wait for thee in the bamboos at the +edge of the grazing-ground." + +For three months after that night Mowgli hardly ever left the village +gate, he was so busy learning the ways and customs of men. First he had +to wear a cloth round him, which annoyed him horribly; and then he had +to learn about money, which he did not in the least understand, and +about plowing, of which he did not see the use. Then the little children +in the village made him very angry. Luckily, the Law of the Jungle had +taught him to keep his temper, for in the jungle, life and food depend +on keeping your temper; but when they made fun of him because he would +not play games or fly kites, or because he mispronounced some word, only +the knowledge that it was unsportsmanlike to kill little naked cubs kept +him from picking them up and breaking them in two. + +He did not know his own strength in the least. In the jungle he knew he +was weak compared with the beasts, but in the village, people said he +was as strong as a bull. + +And Mowgli had not the faintest idea of the difference that caste makes +between man and man. When the potter's donkey slipped in the clay-pit, +Mowgli hauled it out by the tail, and helped to stack the pots for their +journey to the market at Khanhiwara. That was very shocking, too, for +the potter is a low-caste man, and his donkey is worse. When the priest +scolded him, Mowgli threatened to put him on the donkey, too, and the +priest told Messua's husband that Mowgli had better be set to work as +soon as possible; and the village head-man told Mowgli that he would +have to go out with the buffaloes next day, and herd them while they +grazed. No one was more pleased than Mowgli; and that night, because he +had been appointed a servant of the village, as it were, he went off to +a circle that met every evening on a masonry platform under a great +fig-tree. It was the village club, and the head-man and the watchman and +the barber (who knew all the gossip of the village), and old Buldeo, the +village hunter, who had a Tower musket, met and smoked. The monkeys sat +and talked in the upper branches, and there was a hole under the +platform where a cobra lived, and he had his little platter of milk +every night because he was sacred; and the old men sat around the tree +and talked, and pulled at the big _huqas_ (the water-pipes) till far +into the night. They told wonderful tales of gods and men and ghosts; +and Buldeo told even more wonderful ones of the ways of beasts in the +jungle, till the eyes of the children sitting outside the circle bulged +out of their heads. Most of the tales were about animals, for the jungle +was always at their door. The deer and the wild pig grubbed up their +crops, and now and again the tiger carried off a man at twilight, within +sight of the village gates. + +Mowgli, who naturally knew something about what they were talking of, +had to cover his face not to show that he was laughing, while Buldeo, +the Tower musket across his knees, climbed on from one wonderful story +to another, and Mowgli's shoulders shook. + +Buldeo was explaining how the tiger that had carried away Messua's son +was a ghost-tiger, and his body was inhabited by the ghost of a wicked +old money-lender, who had died some years ago. "And I know that this is +true," he said, "because Purun Dass always limped from the blow that he +got in a riot when his account-books were burned, and the tiger that I +speak of _he_ limps, too, for the tracks of his pads are unequal." + +"True, true; that must be the truth," said the graybeards, nodding +together. + +"Are all these tales such cobwebs and moon-talk?" said Mowgli. "That +tiger limps because he was born lame, as every one knows. To talk of the +soul of a money-lender in a beast that never had the courage of a jackal +is child's talk." + + [Illustration: "'ARE ALL THESE TALES SUCH COBWEBS AND MOONTALK?' SAID + MOWGLI."] + +Buldeo was speechless with surprise for a moment, and the head-man +stared. + +"Oho! It is the jungle brat, is it?" said Buldeo. "If thou art so wise, +better bring his hide to Khanhiwara, for the Government has set a +hundred rupees [$30] on his life. Better still, do not talk when thy +elders speak." + +Mowgli rose to go. "All the evening I have lain here listening," he +called back over his shoulder, "and, except once or twice, Buldeo has +not said one word of truth concerning the jungle, which is at his very +doors. How, then, shall I believe the tales of ghosts and gods and +goblins which he says he has seen?" + +"It is full time that boy went to herding," said the head-man, while +Buldeo puffed and snorted at Mowgli's impertinence. + +The custom of most Indian villages is for a few boys to take the cattle +and buffaloes out to graze in the early morning, and bring them back at +night; and the very cattle that would trample a white man to death allow +themselves to be banged and bullied and shouted at by children that +hardly come up to their noses. So long as the boys keep with the herds +they are safe, for not even the tiger will charge a mob of cattle. But +if they straggle to pick flowers or hunt lizards, they are sometimes +carried off. Mowgli went through the village street in the dawn, sitting +on the back of Rama, the great herd bull; and the slaty-blue buffaloes, +with their long, backward-sweeping horns and savage eyes, rose out of +their byres, one by one, and followed him, and Mowgli made it very clear +to the children with him that he was the master. He beat the buffaloes +with a long, polished bamboo, and told Kamya, one of the boys, to graze +the cattle by themselves, while he went on with the buffaloes, and to be +very careful not to stray away from the herd. + +An Indian grazing-ground is all rocks and scrub and tussocks and little +ravines, among which the herds scatter and disappear. The buffaloes +generally keep to the pools and muddy places, where they lie wallowing +or basking in the warm mud for hours. Mowgli drove them on to the edge +of the plain where the Waingunga River came out of the jungle; then he +dropped from Rama's neck, trotted off to a bamboo clump, and found Gray +Brother. "Ah," said Gray Brother, "I have waited here very many days. +What is the meaning of this cattle-herding work?" + +"It is an order," said Mowgli. "I am a village herd for a while. What +news of Shere Khan?" + +"He has come back to this country, and has waited here a long time for +thee. Now he has gone off again, for the game is scarce. But he means to +kill thee." + +"Very good," said Mowgli. "So long as he is away do thou or one of the +brothers sit on that rock, so that I can see thee as I come out of the +village. When he comes back wait for me in the ravine by the _dhak_-tree +in the center of the plain. We need not walk into Shere Khan's mouth." + +Then Mowgli picked out a shady place, and lay down and slept while the +buffaloes grazed round him. Herding in India is one of the laziest +things in the world. The cattle move and crunch, and lie down, and move +on again, and they do not even low. They only grunt, and the buffaloes +very seldom say anything, but get down into the muddy pools one after +another, and work their way into the mud till only their noses and +staring china-blue eyes show above the surface, and there they lie like +logs. The sun makes the rocks dance in the heat, and the herd-children +hear one kite (never any more) whistling almost out of sight overhead, +and they know that if they died, or a cow died, that kite would sweep +down, and the next kite miles away would see him drop and follow, and +the next, and the next, and almost before they were dead there would be +a score of hungry kites come out of nowhere. Then they sleep and wake +and sleep again, and weave little baskets of dried grass and put +grasshoppers in them; or catch two praying-mantises and make them fight; +or string a necklace of red and black jungle-nuts; or watch a lizard +basking on a rock, or a snake hunting a frog near the wallows. Then they +sing long, long songs with odd native quavers at the end of them, and +the day seems longer than most people's whole lives, and perhaps they +make a mud castle with mud figures of men and horses and buffaloes, and +put reeds into the men's hands, and pretend that they are kings and the +figures are their armies, or that they are gods to be worshiped. Then +evening comes, and the children call, and the buffaloes lumber up out of +the sticky mud with noises like gunshots going off one after the other, +and they all string across the gray plain back to the twinkling village +lights. + +Day after day Mowgli would lead the buffaloes out to their wallows, and +day after day he would see Gray Brother's back a mile and a half away +across the plain (so he knew that Shere Khan had not come back), and day +after day he would lie on the grass listening to the noise round him, +and dreaming of old days in the jungle. If Shere Khan had made a false +step with his lame paw up in the jungles by the Waingunga, Mowgli would +have heard him in those long still mornings. + +[Illustration] + +At last a day came when he did not see Gray Brother at the signal +place, and he laughed and headed the buffaloes for the ravine by the +_dhak_-tree, which was all covered with golden-red flowers. There sat +Gray Brother, every bristle on his back lifted. + +"He has hidden for a month to throw thee off thy guard. He crossed the +ranges last night with Tabaqui, hot-foot on thy trail," said the wolf, +panting. + +Mowgli frowned. "I am not afraid of Shere Khan, but Tabaqui is very +cunning." + +"Have no fear," said Gray Brother, licking his lips a little. "I met +Tabaqui in the dawn. Now he is telling all his wisdom to the kites, but +he told _me_ everything before I broke his back. Shere Khan's plan is to +wait for thee at the village gate this evening--for thee and for no one +else. He is lying up now in the big dry ravine of the Waingunga." + +"Has he eaten to-day, or does he hunt empty?" said Mowgli, for the +answer meant life or death to him. + +"He killed at dawn,--a pig,--and he has drunk too. Remember, Shere Khan +could never fast even for the sake of revenge." + +"Oh! Fool, fool! What a cub's cub it is! Eaten and drunk too, and he +thinks that I shall wait till he has slept! Now, where does he lie up? +If there were but ten of us we might pull him down as he lies. These +buffaloes will not charge unless they wind him, and I cannot speak their +language. Can we get behind his track so that they may smell it?" + +"He swam far down the Waingunga to cut that off," said Gray Brother. + +"Tabaqui told him that, I know. He would never have thought of it +alone." Mowgli stood with his finger in his mouth, thinking. "The big +ravine of the Waingunga. That opens out on the plain not half a mile +from here. I can take the herd round through the jungle to the head of +the ravine and then sweep down--but he would slink out at the foot. We +must block that end. Gray Brother, canst thou cut the herd in two for +me?" + +"Not I, perhaps--but I have brought a wise helper." Gray Brother trotted +off and dropped into a hole. Then there lifted up a huge gray head that +Mowgli knew well, and the hot air was filled with the most desolate cry +of all the jungle--the hunting-howl of a wolf at midday. + +"Akela! Akela!" said Mowgli, clapping his hands. "I might have known +that thou wouldst not forget me. We have a big work in hand. Cut the +herd in two, Akela. Keep the cows and calves together, and the bulls +and the plow-buffaloes by themselves." + +The two wolves ran, ladies'-chain fashion, in and out of the herd, which +snorted and threw up its head, and separated into two clumps. In one the +cow-buffaloes stood, with their calves in the center, and glared and +pawed, ready, if a wolf would only stay still, to charge down and +trample the life out of him. In the other the bulls and the young bulls +snorted and stamped; but, though they looked more imposing, they were +much less dangerous, for they had no calves to protect. No six men could +have divided the herd so neatly. + +"What orders!" panted Akela. "They are trying to join again." + +Mowgli slipped on to Rama's back. "Drive the bulls away to the left, +Akela. Gray Brother, when we are gone hold the cows together, and drive +them into the foot of the ravine." + +"How far?" said Gray Brother, panting and snapping. + +"Till the sides are higher than Shere Khan can jump," shouted Mowgli. +"Keep them there till we come down." The bulls swept off as Akela bayed, +and Gray Brother stopped in front of the cows. They charged down on him, +and he ran just before them to the foot of the ravine, as Akela drove +the bulls far to the left. + +"Well done! Another charge and they are fairly started. Careful, +now--careful, Akela. A snap too much, and the bulls will charge. +_Hujah!_ This is wilder work than driving black-buck. Didst thou think +these creatures could move so swiftly?" Mowgli called. + +"I have--have hunted these too in my time," gasped Akela in the dust. +"Shall I turn them into the jungle?" + +"Ay, turn! Swiftly turn them. Rama is mad with rage. Oh, if I could only +tell him what I need of him to-day!" + +The bulls were turned to the right this time, and crashed into the +standing thicket. The other herd-children, watching with the cattle half +a mile away, hurried to the village as fast as their legs could carry +them, crying that the buffaloes had gone mad and run away. + +But Mowgli's plan was simple enough. All he wanted to do was to make a +big circle uphill and get at the head of the ravine, and then take the +bulls down it and catch Shere Khan between the bulls and the cows, for +he knew that after a meal and a full drink Shere Khan would not be in +any condition to fight or to clamber up the sides of the ravine. He was +soothing the buffaloes now by voice, and Akela had dropped far to the +rear, only whimpering once or twice to hurry the rear-guard. It was a +long, long circle, for they did not wish to get too near the ravine and +give Shere Khan warning. At last Mowgli rounded up the bewildered herd +at the head of the ravine on a grassy patch that sloped steeply down to +the ravine itself. From that height you could see across the tops of the +trees down to the plain below; but what Mowgli looked at was the sides +of the ravine, and he saw with a great deal of satisfaction that they +ran nearly straight up and down, and the vines and creepers that hung +over them would give no foothold to a tiger who wanted to get out. + +"Let them breathe, Akela," he said, holding up his hand. "They have not +winded him yet. Let them breathe. I must tell Shere Khan who comes. We +have him in the trap." + +He put his hands to his mouth and shouted down the ravine,--it was +almost like shouting down a tunnel,--and the echoes jumped from rock to +rock. + +After a long time there came back the drawling, sleepy snarl of a +full-fed tiger just awakened. + +"Who calls?" said Shere Khan, and a splendid peacock fluttered up out of +the ravine, screeching. + +"I, Mowgli. Cattle-thief, it is time to come to the Council Rock! +Down--hurry them down, Akela. Down, Rama, down!" + +The herd paused for an instant at the edge of the slope, but Akela gave +tongue in the full hunting-yell, and they pitched over one after the +other just as steamers shoot rapids, the sand and stones spurting up +round them. Once started, there was no chance of stopping, and before +they were fairly in the bed of the ravine Rama winded Shere Khan and +bellowed. + +"Ha! Ha!" said Mowgli, on his back. "Now thou knowest!" and the torrent +of black horns, foaming muzzles, and staring eyes whirled down the +ravine like boulders in flood-time; the weaker buffaloes being +shouldered out to the sides of the ravine where they tore through the +creepers. They knew what the business was before them--the terrible +charge of the buffalo-herd, against which no tiger can hope to stand. +Shere Khan heard the thunder of their hoofs, picked himself up, and +lumbered down the ravine, looking from side to side for some way of +escape, but the walls of the ravine were straight, and he had to keep +on, heavy with his dinner and his drink, willing to do anything rather +than fight. The herd splashed through the pool he had just left, +bellowing till the narrow cut rang. Mowgli heard an answering bellow +from the foot of the ravine, saw Shere Khan turn (the tiger knew if the +worst came to the worst it was better to meet the bulls than the cows +with their calves), and then Rama tripped, stumbled, and went on again +over something soft, and, with the bulls at his heels, crashed full into +the other herd, while the weaker buffaloes were lifted clean off their +feet by the shock of the meeting. That charge carried both herds out +into the plain, goring and stamping and snorting. Mowgli watched his +time, and slipped off Rama's neck, laying about him right and left with +his stick. + +"Quick, Akela! Break them up. Scatter them, or they will be fighting one +another. Drive them away, Akela. _Hai_, Rama! _Hai! hai! hai!_ my +children. Softly now, softly! It is all over." + +Akela and Gray Brother ran to and fro nipping the buffaloes' legs, and +though the herd wheeled once to charge up the ravine again, Mowgli +managed to turn Rama, and the others followed him to the wallows. + +Shere Khan needed no more trampling. He was dead, and the kites were +coming for him already. + +"Brothers, that was a dog's death," said Mowgli, feeling for the knife +he always carried in a sheath round his neck now that he lived with men. +"But he would never have shown fight. His hide will look well on the +Council Rock. We must get to work swiftly." + +A boy trained among men would never have dreamed of skinning a ten-foot +tiger alone, but Mowgli knew better than any one else how an animal's +skin is fitted on, and how it can be taken off. But it was hard work, +and Mowgli slashed and tore and grunted for an hour, while the wolves +lolled out their tongues, or came forward and tugged as he ordered them. + +Presently a hand fell on his shoulder, and looking up he saw Buldeo with +the Tower musket. The children had told the village about the buffalo +stampede, and Buldeo went out angrily, only too anxious to correct +Mowgli for not taking better care of the herd. The wolves dropped out of +sight as soon as they saw the man coming. + +"What is this folly?" said Buldeo, angrily. "To think that thou canst +skin a tiger! Where did the buffaloes kill him? It is the Lame Tiger, +too, and there is a hundred rupees on his head. Well, well, we will +overlook thy letting the herd run off, and perhaps I will give thee one +of the rupees of the reward when I have taken the skin to Khanhiwara." +He fumbled in his waist-cloth for flint and steel, and stooped down to +singe Shere Khan's whiskers. Most native hunters singe a tiger's +whiskers to prevent his ghost haunting them. + +"Hum!" said Mowgli, half to himself as he ripped back the skin of a fore +paw. "So thou wilt take the hide to Khanhiwara for the reward, and +perhaps give me one rupee? Now it is in my mind that I need the skin for +my own use. Heh! old man, take away that fire!" + +"What talk is this to the chief hunter of the village? Thy luck and the +stupidity of thy buffaloes have helped thee to this kill. The tiger has +just fed, or he would have gone twenty miles by this time. Thou canst +not even skin him properly, little beggar-brat, and forsooth I, Buldeo, +must be told not to singe his whiskers. Mowgli, I will not give thee one +anna of the reward, but only a very big beating. Leave the carcass!" + +"By the Bull that bought me," said Mowgli, who was trying to get at the +shoulder, "must I stay babbling to an old ape all noon? Here, Akela, +this man plagues me." + +Buldeo, who was still stooping over Shere Khan's head, found himself +sprawling on the grass, with a gray wolf standing over him, while Mowgli +went on skinning as though he were alone in all India. + +"Ye-es," he said, between his teeth. "Thou art altogether right, Buldeo. +Thou wilt never give me one anna of the reward. There is an old war +between this lame tiger and myself--a very old war, and--I have won." + +To do Buldeo justice, if he had been ten years younger he would have +taken his chance with Akela had he met the wolf in the woods, but a wolf +who obeyed the orders of this boy who had private wars with man-eating +tigers was not a common animal. It was sorcery, magic of the worst kind, +thought Buldeo, and he wondered whether the amulet round his neck would +protect him. He lay as still as still, expecting every minute to see +Mowgli turn into a tiger, too. + +[Illustration: "BULDEO LAY AS STILL AS STILL, EXPECTING EVERY MINUTE TO + SEE MOWGLI TURN INTO A TIGER, TOO."] + +"Maharaj! Great King," he said at last, in a husky whisper. + +"Yes," said Mowgli, without turning his head, chuckling a little. + +"I am an old man. I did not know that thou wast anything more than a +herd-boy. May I rise up and go away, or will thy servant tear me to +pieces?" + +"Go, and peace go with thee. Only, another time do not meddle with my +game. Let him go, Akela." + +Buldeo hobbled away to the village as fast as he could, looking back +over his shoulder in case Mowgli should change into something terrible. +When he got to the village he told a tale of magic and enchantment and +sorcery that made the priest look very grave. + +Mowgli went on with his work, but it was nearly twilight before he and +the wolves had drawn the great gay skin clear of the body. + +"Now we must hide this and take the buffaloes home! Help me to herd +them, Akela." + +The herd rounded up in the misty twilight, and when they got near the +village Mowgli saw lights, and heard the conches and bells in the temple +blowing and banging. Half the village seemed to be waiting for him by +the gate. "That is because I have killed Shere Khan," he said to +himself; but a shower of stones whistled about his ears, and the +villagers shouted: "Sorcerer! Wolf's brat! Jungle-demon! Go away! Get +hence quickly, or the priest will turn thee into a wolf again. Shoot, +Buldeo, shoot!" + +The old Tower musket went off with a bang, and a young buffalo bellowed +in pain. + +"More sorcery!" shouted the villagers. "He can turn bullets. Buldeo, +that was _thy_ buffalo." + +"Now what is this?" said Mowgli, bewildered, as the stones flew thicker. + +"They are not unlike the Pack, these brothers of thine," said Akela, +sitting down composedly. "It is in my head that, if bullets mean +anything, they would cast thee out." + +"Wolf! Wolf's cub! Go away!" shouted the priest, waving a sprig of the +sacred _tulsi_ plant. + +"Again? Last time it was because I was a man. This time it is because I +am a wolf. Let us go, Akela." + +A woman--it was Messua--ran across to the herd, and cried: "Oh, my son, +my son! They say thou art a sorcerer who can turn himself into a beast +at will. I do not believe, but go away or they will kill thee. Buldeo +says thou art a wizard, but I know thou hast avenged Nathoo's death." + +"Come back, Messua!" shouted the crowd. "Come back, or we will stone +thee." + +Mowgli laughed a little short ugly laugh, for a stone had hit him in the +mouth. "Run back, Messua. This is one of the foolish tales they tell +under the big tree at dusk. I have at least paid for thy son's life. +Farewell; and run quickly, for I shall send the herd in more swiftly +than their brickbats. I am no wizard, Messua. Farewell! + +"Now, once more, Akela," he cried. "Bring the herd in." + +The buffaloes were anxious enough to get to the village. They hardly +needed Akela's yell, but charged through the gate like a whirlwind, +scattering the crowd right and left. + +"Keep count!" shouted Mowgli, scornfully. "It may be that I have stolen +one of them. Keep count, for I will do your herding no more. Fare you +well, children of men, and thank Messua that I do not come in with my +wolves and hunt you up and down your street." + +He turned on his heel and walked away with the Lone Wolf; and as he +looked up at the stars he felt happy. "No more sleeping in traps for me, +Akela. Let us get Shere Khan's skin and go away. No; we will not hurt +the village, for Messua was kind to me." + +When the moon rose over the plain, making it look all milky, the +horrified villagers saw Mowgli, with two wolves at his heels and a +bundle on his head, trotting across at the steady wolf's trot that eats +up the long miles like fire. Then they banged the temple bells and blew +the conches louder than ever; and Messua cried, and Buldeo embroidered +the story of his adventures in the jungle, till he ended by saying that +Akela stood up on his hind legs and talked like a man. + + [Illustration: "WHEN THE MOON ROSE OVER THE PLAIN THE VILLAGERS SAW + MOWGLI TROTTING ACROSS, WITH TWO WOLVES AT HIS HEELS."] + +The moon was just going down when Mowgli and the two wolves came to the +hill of the Council Rock, and they stopped at Mother Wolf's cave. + +"They have cast me out from the Man Pack, Mother," shouted Mowgli, "but +I come with the hide of Shere Khan to keep my word." Mother Wolf walked +stiffly from the cave with the cubs behind her, and her eyes glowed as +she saw the skin. + +"I told him on that day, when he crammed his head and shoulders into +this cave, hunting for thy life, Little Frog--I told him that the hunter +would be the hunted. It is well done." + +"Little Brother, it is well done," said a deep voice in the thicket. "We +were lonely in the jungle without thee," and Bagheera came running to +Mowgli's bare feet. They clambered up the Council Rock together, and +Mowgli spread the skin out on the flat stone where Akela used to sit, +and pegged it down with four slivers of bamboo, and Akela lay down upon +it, and called the old call to the Council, "Look--look well, O Wolves!" +exactly as he had called when Mowgli was first brought there. + + [Illustration: "THEY CLAMBERED UP ON THE COUNCIL ROCK TOGETHER, AND + MOWGLI SPREAD THE SKIN OUT ON THE FLAT STONE."] + +Ever since Akela had been deposed, the Pack had been without a leader, +hunting and fighting at their own pleasure. But they answered the call +from habit, and some of them were lame from the traps they had fallen +into, and some limped from shot-wounds, and some were mangy from eating +bad food, and many were missing; but they came to the Council Rock, all +that were left of them, and saw Shere Khan's striped hide on the rock, +and the huge claws dangling at the end of the empty, dangling feet. It +was then that Mowgli made up a song without any rhymes, a song that came +up into his throat all by itself, and he shouted it aloud, leaping up +and down on the rattling skin, and beating time with his heels till he +had no more breath left, while Gray Brother and Akela howled between the +verses. + +"Look well, O Wolves. Have I kept my word?" said Mowgli when he had +finished; and the wolves bayed "Yes," and one tattered wolf howled: + +"Lead us again, O Akela. Lead us again, O Man-cub, for we be sick of +this lawlessness, and we would be the Free People once more." + +"Nay," purred Bagheera, "that may not be. When ye are full-fed, the +madness may come upon ye again. Not for nothing are ye called the Free +People. Ye fought for freedom, and it is yours. Eat it, O Wolves." + +"Man Pack and Wolf Pack have cast me out," said Mowgli. "Now I will hunt +alone in the jungle." + +"And we will hunt with thee," said the four cubs. + +So Mowgli went away and hunted with the four cubs in the jungle from +that day on. But he was not always alone, because years afterward he +became a man and married. + +But that is a story for grown-ups. + + + MOWGLI'S SONG + + THAT HE SANG AT THE COUNCIL ROCK WHEN HE + DANCED ON SHERE KHAN'S HIDE + + The Song of Mowgli--I, Mowgli, am singing. Let + the jungle listen to the things I have done. + Shere Khan said he would kill--would kill! At the + gates in the twilight he would kill Mowgli, + the Frog! + He ate and he drank. Drink deep, Shere Khan, for + when wilt thou drink again? Sleep and dream + of the kill. + I am alone on the grazing-grounds. Gray Brother, + come to me! Come to me, Lone Wolf, for there + is big game afoot. + Bring up the great bull-buffaloes, the blue-skinned + herd-bulls with the angry eyes. Drive them + to and fro as I order. + Sleepest thou still, Shere Khan? Wake, O wake! + Here come I, and the bulls are behind. + + Rama, the King of the Buffaloes, stamped with + his foot. Waters of the Waingunga, whither went + Shere Khan? + He is not Ikki to dig holes, nor Mao, the Peacock, + that he should fly. He is not Mang, the Bat, to + hang in the branches. Little bamboos that creak + together, tell me where he ran? + _Ow!_ He is there. _Ahoo!_ He is there. + Under the feet of Rama lies the Lame One! Up, + Shere Khan! Up and kill! Here is meat; break the + necks of the bulls! + _Hsh!_ He is asleep. We will not wake him, for + his strength is very great. The kites have come + down to see it. The black ants have come up to + know it. There is a great assembly in his honor. + _Alala!_ I have no cloth to wrap me. The kites + will see that I am naked. I am ashamed to meet + all these people. + Lend me thy coat, Shere Khan. Lend me thy gay + striped coat that I may go to the Council Rock. + By the Bull that bought me I have made a promise--a + little promise. Only thy coat is lacking before + I keep my word. + With the knife--with the knife that men use--with + the knife of the hunter, the man, I will stoop + down for my gift. + Waters of the Waingunga, bear witness that Shere + Khan gives me his coat for the love that he + bears me. Pull, Gray Brother! Pull, Akela! + Heavy is the hide of Shere Khan. + The Man Pack are angry. They throw stones and talk + child's talk. My mouth is bleeding. Let us run + away. + Through the night, through the hot night, run + swiftly with me, my brothers. We will leave the + lights of the village and go to the low moon. + Waters of the Waingunga, the Man Pack have cast me + out. I did them no harm, but they were afraid of + me. Why? + Wolf Pack, ye have cast me out too. The jungle is + shut to me and the village gates are shut. Why? + As Mang flies between the beasts and the birds so + fly I between the village and the jungle. Why? + I dance on the hide of Shere Khan, but my heart is + very heavy. My mouth is cut and wounded with the + stones from the village, but my heart is very + light because I have come back to the jungle. + Why? + These two things fight together in me as the snakes + fight in the spring. The water comes out of my + eyes; yet I laugh while it falls. Why? + I am two Mowglis, but the hide of Shere Khan is + under my feet. + All the jungle knows that I have killed Shere Khan. + Look--look well, O Wolves! + _Ahae!_ My heart is heavy with the things that + I do not understand. + + + + + THE WHITE SEAL + + + Oh! hush thee, my baby, the night is behind us, + And black are the waters that sparkled so green. + The moon, o'er the combers, looks downward to find us + At rest in the hollows that rustle between. + Where billow meets billow, there soft be thy pillow; + Ah, weary wee flipperling, curl at thy ease! + The storm shall not wake thee, nor shark overtake thee, + Asleep in the arms of the slow-swinging seas. + + _Seal Lullaby._ + + + [Illustration] + + THE WHITE SEAL + + +ALL these things happened several years ago at a place called +Novastoshnah, or North East Point, on the Island of St. Paul, away and +away in the Bering Sea. Limmershin, the Winter Wren, told me the tale +when he was blown on to the rigging of a steamer going to Japan, and I +took him down into my cabin and warmed and fed him for a couple of days +till he was fit to fly back to St. Paul's again. Limmershin is a very +odd little bird, but he knows how to tell the truth. + +Nobody comes to Novastoshnah except on business, and the only people who +have regular business there are the seals. They come in the summer +months by hundreds and hundreds of thousands out of the cold gray sea; +for Novastoshnah Beach has the finest accommodation for seals of any +place in all the world. + +Sea Catch knew that, and every spring would swim from whatever place he +happened to be in--would swim like a torpedo-boat straight for +Novastoshnah, and spend a month fighting with his companions for a good +place on the rocks as close to the sea as possible. Sea Catch was +fifteen years old, a huge gray fur-seal with almost a mane on his +shoulders, and long, wicked dogteeth. When he heaved himself up on his +front flippers he stood more than four feet clear of the ground, and his +weight, if any one had been bold enough to weigh him, was nearly seven +hundred pounds. He was scarred all over with the marks of savage fights, +but he was always ready for just one fight more. He would put his head +on one side, as though he were afraid to look his enemy in the face; +then he would shoot it out like lightning, and when the big teeth were +firmly fixed on the other seal's neck, the other seal might get away if +he could, but Sea Catch would not help him. + +Yet Sea Catch never chased a beaten seal, for that was against the Rules +of the Beach. He only wanted room by the sea for his nursery; but as +there were forty or fifty thousand other seals hunting for the same +thing each spring, the whistling, bellowing, roaring, and blowing on the +beach was something frightful. + +From a little hill called Hutchinson's Hill you could look over three +and a half miles of ground covered with fighting seals; and the surf was +dotted all over with the heads of seals hurrying to land and begin their +share of the fighting. They fought in the breakers, they fought in the +sand, and they fought on the smooth-worn basalt rocks of the nurseries; +for they were just as stupid and unaccommodating as men. Their wives +never came to the island until late in May or early in June, for they +did not care to be torn to pieces; and the young two-, three-, and +four-year-old seals who had not begun housekeeping went inland about +half a mile through the ranks of the fighters and played about on the +sand-dunes in droves and legions, and rubbed off every single green +thing that grew. They were called the holluschickie,--the +bachelors,--and there were perhaps two or three hundred thousand of them +at Novastoshnah alone. + +Sea Catch had just finished his forty-fifth fight one spring when +Matkah, his soft, sleek, gentle-eyed wife came up out of the sea, and +he caught her by the scruff of the neck and dumped her down on his +reservation, saying gruffly: "Late, as usual. Where _have_ you been?" + +It was not the fashion for Sea Catch to eat anything during the four +months he stayed on the beaches, and so his temper was generally bad. +Matkah knew better than to answer back. She looked around and cooed: +"How thoughtful of you. You've taken the old place again." + +"I should think I had," said Sea Catch. "Look at me!" + +He was scratched and bleeding in twenty places; one eye was almost +blind, and his sides were torn to ribbons. + +"Oh, you men, you men!" Matkah said, fanning herself with her hind +flipper. "Why can't you be sensible and settle your places quietly? You +look as though you had been fighting with the Killer Whale." + +"I haven't been doing anything _but_ fight since the middle of May. The +beach is disgracefully crowded this season. I've met at least a hundred +seals from Lukannon Beach, house-hunting. Why can't people stay where +they belong?" + +"I've often thought we should be much happier if we hauled out at Otter +Island instead of this crowded place," said Matkah. + +"Bah! Only the holluschickie go to Otter Island. If we went there they +would say we were afraid. We must preserve appearances, my dear." + +Sea Catch sunk his head proudly between his fat shoulders and pretended +to go to sleep for a few minutes, but all the time he was keeping a +sharp lookout for a fight. Now that all the seals and their wives were +on the land you could hear their clamor miles out to sea above the +loudest gales. At the lowest counting there were over a million seals on +the beach,--old seals, mother seals, tiny babies, and holluschickie, +fighting, scuffling, bleating, crawling, and playing together,--going +down to the sea and coming up from it in gangs and regiments, lying over +every foot of ground as far as the eye could reach, and skirmishing +about in brigades through the fog. It is nearly always foggy at +Novastoshnah, except when the sun comes out and makes everything look +all pearly and rainbow-colored for a little while. + +Kotick, Matkah's baby, was born in the middle of that confusion, and he +was all head and shoulders, with pale, watery blue eyes, as tiny seals +must be; but there was something about his coat that made his mother +look at him very closely. + +"Sea Catch," she said, at last, "our baby's going to be white!" + +"Empty clam-shells and dry seaweed!" snorted Sea Catch. "There never has +been such a thing in the world as a white seal." + +"I can't help that," said Matkah; "there's going to be now"; and she +sang the low, crooning seal-song that all the mother seals sing to their +babies: + + You mustn't swim till you're six weeks old, + Or your head will be sunk by your heels; + And summer gales and Killer Whales + Are bad for baby seals. + + Are bad for baby seals, dear rat, + As bad as bad can be; + But splash and grow strong, + And you can't be wrong, + Child of the Open Sea! + +Of course the little fellow did not understand the words at first. He +paddled and scrambled about by his mother's side, and learned to scuffle +out of the way when his father was fighting with another seal, and the +two rolled and roared up and down the slippery rocks. Matkah used to go +to sea to get things to eat, and the baby was fed only once in two days; +but then he ate all he could, and throve upon it. + +The first thing he did was to crawl inland, and there he met tens of +thousands of babies of his own age, and they played together like +puppies, went to sleep on the clean sand, and played again. The old +people in the nurseries took no notice of them, and the holluschickie +kept to their own grounds, so the babies had a beautiful playtime. + +When Matkah came back from her deep-sea fishing she would go straight to +their playground and call as a sheep calls for a lamb, and wait until +she heard Kotick bleat. Then she would take the straightest of straight +lines in his direction, striking out with her fore flippers and knocking +the youngsters head over heels right and left. There were always a few +hundred mothers hunting for their children through the playgrounds, and +the babies were kept lively; but, as Matkah told Kotick, "So long as you +don't lie in muddy water and get mange; or rub the hard sand into a cut +or scratch; and so long as you never go swimming when there is a heavy +sea, nothing will hurt you here." + +Little seals can no more swim than little children, but they are unhappy +till they learn. The first time that Kotick went down to the sea a wave +carried him out beyond his depth, and his big head sank and his little +hind flippers flew up exactly as his mother had told him in the song, +and if the next wave had not thrown him back again he would have +drowned. + +After that he learned to lie in a beach-pool and let the wash of the +waves just cover him and lift him up while he paddled, but he always +kept his eye open for big waves that might hurt. He was two weeks +learning to use his flippers; and all that while he floundered in and +out of the water, and coughed and grunted and crawled up the beach and +took cat-naps on the sand, and went back again, until at last he found +that he truly belonged to the water. + +Then you can imagine the times that he had with his companions, ducking +under the rollers; or coming in on top of a comber and landing with a +swash and a splutter as the big wave went whirling far up the beach; or +standing up on his tail and scratching his head as the old people did; +or playing "I'm the King of the Castle" on slippery, weedy rocks that +just stuck out of the wash. Now and then he would see a thin fin, like a +big shark's fin, drifting along close to shore, and he knew that that +was the Killer Whale, the Grampus, who eats young seals when he can get +them; and Kotick would head for the beach like an arrow, and the fin +would jig off slowly, as if it were looking for nothing at all. + +Late in October the seals began to leave St. Paul's for the deep sea, by +families and tribes, and there was no more fighting over the nurseries, +and the holluschickie played anywhere they liked. "Next year," said +Matkah to Kotick, "you will be a holluschickie; but this year you must +learn how to catch fish." + +They set out together across the Pacific, and Matkah showed Kotick how +to sleep on his back with his flippers tucked down by his side and his +little nose just out of the water. No cradle is so comfortable as the +long, rocking swell of the Pacific. When Kotick felt his skin tingle all +over, Matkah told him he was learning the "feel of the water," and that +tingly, prickly feelings meant bad weather coming, and he must swim hard +and get away. + +"In a little time," she said, "you'll know where to swim to, but just +now we'll follow Sea Pig, the Porpoise, for he is very wise." A school +of porpoises were ducking and tearing through the water, and little +Kotick followed them as fast as he could. "How do you know where to go +to?" he panted. The leader of the school rolled his white eyes, and +ducked under. "My tail tingles, youngster," he said. "That means +there's a gale behind me. Come along! When you're south of the Sticky +Water [he meant the Equator], and your tail tingles, that means there's +a gale in front of you and you must head north. Come along! The water +feels bad here." + +This was one of very many things that Kotick learned, and he was always +learning. Matkah taught him how to follow the cod and the halibut along +the under-sea banks, and wrench the rockling out of his hole among the +weeds; how to skirt the wrecks lying a hundred fathoms below water, and +dart like a rifle-bullet in at one porthole and out at another as the +fishes ran; how to dance on the top of the waves when the lightning was +racing all over the sky, and wave his flipper politely to the +Stumpy-tailed Albatross and the Man-of-war Hawk as they went down the +wind; how to jump three or four feet clear of the water, like a dolphin, +flippers close to the side and tail curved; to leave the flying-fish +alone because they are all bony; to take the shoulder-piece out of a cod +at full speed ten fathoms deep; and never to stop and look at a boat or +a ship, but particularly a row boat. At the end of six months, what +Kotick did not know about deep-sea fishing was not worth the knowing, +and all that time he never set flipper on dry ground. + + [Illustration: "TEN FATHOMS DEEP."] + +One day, however, as he was lying half asleep in the warm water +somewhere off the Island of Juan Fernandez, he felt faint and lazy all +over, just as human people do when the spring is in their legs, and he +remembered the good firm beaches of Novastoshnah seven thousand miles +away; the games his companions played, the smell of the seaweed, the +seal-roar, and the fighting. That very minute he turned north, swimming +steadily, and as he went on he met scores of his mates, all bound for +the same place, and they said: "Greeting, Kotick! This year we are all +holluschickie, and we can dance the Fire-dance in the breakers off +Lukannon and play on the new grass. But where did you get that coat?" + +Kotick's fur was almost pure white now, and though he felt very proud of +it, he only said: "Swim quickly! My bones are aching for the land." And +so they all came to the beaches where they had been born and heard the +old seals, their fathers, fighting in the rolling mist. + +That night Kotick danced the Fire-dance with the yearling seals. The sea +is full of fire on summer nights all the way down from Novastoshnah to +Lukannon, and each seal leaves a wake like burning oil behind him, and a +flaming flash when he jumps, and the waves break in great phosphorescent +streaks and swirls. Then they went inland to the holluschickie grounds, +and rolled up and down in the new wild wheat, and told stories of what +they had done while they had been at sea. They talked about the Pacific +as boys would talk about a wood that they had been nutting in, and if +any one had understood them, he could have gone away and made such a +chart of that ocean as never was. The three- and four-year-old +holluschickie romped down from Hutchinson's Hill, crying: "Out of the +way, youngsters! The sea is deep, and you don't know all that's in it +yet. Wait till you've rounded the Horn. Hi, you yearling, where did you +get that white coat?" + +"I didn't get it," said Kotick; "it grew." And just as he was going to +roll the speaker over, a couple of black-haired men with flat red faces +came from behind a sand-dune, and Kotick, who had never seen a man +before, coughed and lowered his head. The holluschickie just bundled off +a few yards and sat staring stupidly. The men were no less than Kerick +Booterin, the chief of the seal-hunters on the island, and Patalamon, +his son. They came from the little village not half a mile from the seal +nurseries, and they were deciding what seals they would drive up to the +killing-pens (for the seals were driven just like sheep), to be turned +into sealskin jackets later on. + +"Ho!" said Patalamon. "Look! There's a white seal!" + +Kerick Booterin turned nearly white under his oil and smoke, for he was +an Aleut, and Aleuts are not clean people. Then he began to mutter a +prayer. "Don't touch him, Patalamon. There has never been a white seal +since--since I was born. Perhaps it is old Zaharrof's ghost. He was lost +last year in the big gale." + +"I'm not going near him," said Patalamon. "He's unlucky. Do you really +think he is old Zaharrof come back? I owe him for some gulls' eggs." + +"Don't look at him," said Kerick. "Head off that drove of +four-year-olds. The men ought to skin two hundred to-day, but it's the +beginning of the season, and they are new to the work. A hundred will +do. Quick!" + +Patalamon rattled a pair of seal's shoulder-bones in front of a herd of +holluschickie and they stopped dead, puffing and blowing. Then he +stepped near, and the seals began to move, and Kerick headed them +inland, and they never tried to get back to their companions. Hundreds +and hundreds of thousands of seals watched them being driven, but they +went on playing just the same. Kotick was the only one who asked +questions, and none of his companions could tell him anything, except +that the men always drove seals in that way for six weeks or two months +of every year. + +"I am going to follow," he said, and his eyes nearly popped out of his +head as he shuffled along in the wake of the herd. + +"The white seal is coming after us," cried Patalamon. "That's the first +time a seal has ever come to the killing-grounds alone." + +"Hsh! Don't look behind you," said Kerick. "It _is_ Zaharrof's ghost! I +must speak to the priest about this." + +The distance to the killing-grounds was only half a mile, but it took an +hour to cover, because if the seals went too fast Kerick knew that they +would get heated and then their fur would come off in patches when they +were skinned. So they went on very slowly, past Sea-Lion's Neck, past +Webster House, till they came to the Salt House just beyond the sight of +the seals on the beach. Kotick followed, panting and wondering. He +thought that he was at the world's end, but the roar of the seal +nurseries behind him sounded as loud as the roar of a train in a tunnel. +Then Kerick sat down on the moss and pulled out a heavy pewter watch and +let the drove cool off for thirty minutes, and Kotick could hear the +fog-dew dripping from the brim of his cap. Then ten or twelve men, each +with an iron-bound club three or four feet long, came up, and Kerick +pointed out one or two of the drove that were bitten by their companions +or were too hot, and the men kicked those aside with their heavy boots +made of the skin of a walrus's throat, and then Kerick said: "Let go!" +and then the men clubbed the seals on the head as fast as they could. + +Ten minutes later little Kotick did not recognize his friends any more, +for their skins were ripped off from the nose to the hind +flippers--whipped off and thrown down on the ground in a pile. + +That was enough for Kotick. He turned and galloped (a seal can gallop +very swiftly for a short time) back to the sea, his little new mustache +bristling with horror. At Sea-Lion's Neck, where the great sea-lions sit +on the edge of the surf, he flung himself flipper over-head into the +cool water, and rocked there, gasping miserably. "What's here?" said a +sea-lion, gruffly; for as a rule the sea-lions keep themselves to +themselves. + +"_Scoochnie! Ochen scoochnie!_" ("I'm lonesome, very lonesome!"), said +Kotick. "They're killing _all_ the holluschickie on _all_ the beaches!" + +The sea-lion turned his head inshore. "Nonsense," he said; "your friends +are making as much noise as ever. You must have seen old Kerick +polishing off a drove. He's done that for thirty years." + +"It's horrible," said Kotick, backing water as a wave went over him, and +steadying himself with a screw-stroke of his flippers that brought him +up all standing within three inches of a jagged edge of rock. + +"Well done for a yearling!" said the sea-lion, who could appreciate good +swimming. "I suppose it _is_ rather awful from your way of looking at +it; but if you seals will come here year after year, of course the men +get to know of it, and unless you can find an island where no men ever +come, you will always be driven." + +"Isn't there any such island?" began Kotick. + +"I've followed the _poltoos_ [the halibut] for twenty years, and I can't +say I've found it yet. But look here--you seem to have a fondness for +talking to your betters; suppose you go to Walrus Islet and talk to Sea +Vitch. He may know something. Don't flounce off like that. It's a +six-mile swim, and if I were you I should haul out and take a nap first, +little one." + +Kotick thought that that was good advice, so he swam round to his own +beach, hauled out, and slept for half an hour, twitching all over, as +seals will. Then he headed straight for Walrus Islet, a little low sheet +of rocky island almost due northeast from Novastoshnah, all ledges of +rock and gulls' nests, where the walrus herded by themselves. + +He landed close to old Sea Vitch--the big, ugly, bloated, pimpled, +fat-necked, long-tusked walrus of the North Pacific, who has no manners +except when he is asleep--as he was then, with his hind flippers half in +and half out of the surf. + +"Wake up!" barked Kotick, for the gulls were making a great noise. + +"Hah! Ho! Hmph! What's that?" said Sea Vitch, and he struck the next +walrus a blow with his tusks and waked him up, and the next struck the +next, and so on till they were all awake and staring in every direction +but the right one. + + [Illustration: "THEY WERE ALL AWAKE AND STARING IN EVERY DIRECTION BUT + THE RIGHT ONE."] + +"Hi! It's me," said Kotick, bobbing in the surf and looking like a +little white slug. + +"Well! May I be----skinned!" said Sea Vitch, and they all looked at +Kotick as you can fancy a club full of drowsy old gentlemen would look +at a little boy. Kotick did not care to hear any more about skinning +just then; he had seen enough of it; so he called out: "Isn't there any +place for seals to go where men don't ever come?" + +"Go and find out," said Sea Vitch, shutting his eyes. "Run away. We're +busy here." + +Kotick made his dolphin-jump in the air and shouted as loud as he could: +"Clam-eater! Clam-eater!" He knew that Sea Vitch never caught a fish in +his life, but always rooted for clams and seaweeds; though he pretended +to be a very terrible person. Naturally the Chickies and the +Gooverooskies and the Epatkas, the Burgomaster Gulls and the Kittiwakes +and the Puffins, who are always looking for a chance to be rude, took up +the cry, and--so Limmershin told me--for nearly five minutes you could +not have heard a gun fired on Walrus Islet. All the population was +yelling and screaming: "Clam-eater! _Stareek_ [old man]!" while Sea +Vitch rolled from side to side grunting and coughing. + +"_Now_ will you tell?" said Kotick, all out of breath. + +"Go and ask Sea Cow," said Sea Vitch. "If he is living still, he'll be +able to tell you." + +"How shall I know Sea Cow when I meet him?" said Kotick, sheering off. + +"He's the only thing in the sea uglier than Sea Vitch," screamed a +burgomaster gull, wheeling under Sea Vitch's nose. "Uglier, and with +worse manners! _Stareek!_" + +Kotick swam back to Novastoshnah, leaving the gulls to scream. There he +found that no one sympathized with him in his little attempts to +discover a quiet place for the seals. They told him that men had always +driven the holluschickie--it was part of the day's work--and that if he +did not like to see ugly things he should not have gone to the +killing-grounds. But none of the other seals had seen the killing, and +that made the difference between him and his friends. Besides, Kotick +was a white seal. + +"What you must do," said old Sea Catch, after he had heard his son's +adventures, "is to grow up and be a big seal like your father, and have +a nursery on the beach, and then they will leave you alone. In another +five years you ought to be able to fight for yourself." Even gentle +Matkah, his mother, said: "You will never be able to stop the killing. +Go and play in the sea, Kotick." And Kotick went off and danced the +Fire-dance with a very heavy little heart. + +That autumn he left the beach as soon as he could, and set off alone +because of a notion in his bullet-head. He was going to find Sea Cow, if +there was such a person in the sea, and he was going to find a quiet +island with good firm beaches for seals to live on, where men could not +get at them. So he explored and explored by himself from the North to +the South Pacific, swimming as much as three hundred miles in a day and +a night. He met with more adventures than can be told, and narrowly +escaped being caught by the Basking Shark, and the Spotted Shark, and +the Hammerhead, and he met all the untrustworthy ruffians that loaf up +and down the high seas, and the heavy polite fish, and the +scarlet-spotted scallops that are moored in one place for hundreds of +years, and grow very proud of it; but he never met Sea Cow, and he never +found an island that he could fancy. + +If the beach was good and hard, with a slope behind it for seals to play +on, there was always the smoke of a whaler on the horizon, boiling down +blubber, and Kotick knew what _that_ meant. Or else he could see that +seals had once visited the island and been killed off, and Kotick knew +that where men had come once they would come again. + +He picked up with an old stumpy-tailed albatross, who told him that +Kerguelen Island was the very place for peace and quiet, and when Kotick +went down there he was all but smashed to pieces against some wicked +black cliffs in a heavy sleet-storm with lightning and thunder. Yet as +he pulled out against the gale he could see that even there had once +been a seal nursery. And it was so in all the other islands that he +visited. + +Limmershin gave a long list of them, for he said that Kotick spent five +seasons exploring, with a four months' rest each year at Novastoshnah, +where the holluschickie used to make fun of him and his imaginary +islands. He went to the Gallapagos, a horrid dry place on the Equator, +where he was nearly baked to death; he went to the Georgia Islands, the +Orkneys, Emerald Island, Little Nightingale Island, Gough's Island, +Bouvet's Island, the Crossets, and even to a little speck of an island +south of the Cape of Good Hope. But everywhere the People of the Sea +told him the same things. Seals had come to those islands once upon a +time, but men had killed them all off. Even when he swam thousands of +miles out of the Pacific, and got to a place called Cape Corientes (that +was when he was coming back from Gough's Island), he found a few +hundred mangy seals on a rock, and they told him that men came there +too. + +That nearly broke his heart, and he headed round the Horn back to his +own beaches; and on his way north he hauled out on an island full of +green trees, where he found an old, old seal who was dying, and Kotick +caught fish for him and told him all his sorrows. "Now," said Kotick, "I +am going back to Novastoshnah, and if I am driven to the killing-pens +with the holluschickie I shall not care." + +The old seal said: "Try once more. I am the last of the Lost Rookery of +Masafuera, and in the days when men killed us by the hundred thousand +there was a story on the beaches that some day a white seal would come +out of the north and lead the seal people to a quiet place. I am old and +I shall never live to see that day, but others will. Try once more." + +And Kotick curled up his mustache (it was a beauty), and said: "I am the +only white seal that has ever been born on the beaches, and I am the +only seal, black or white, who ever thought of looking for new islands." + +That cheered him immensely; and when he came back to Novastoshnah that +summer, Matkah, his mother, begged him to marry and settle down, for he +was no longer a holluschick, but a full-grown sea-catch, with a curly +white mane on his shoulders, as heavy, as big, and as fierce as his +father. "Give me another season," he said. "Remember, Mother, it is +always the seventh wave that goes farthest up the beach." + +Curiously enough, there was another seal who thought that she would put +off marrying till the next year, and Kotick danced the Fire-dance with +her all down Lukannon Beach the night before he set off on his last +exploration. + +This time he went westward, because he had fallen on the trail of a +great shoal of halibut, and he needed at least one hundred pounds of +fish a day to keep him in good condition. He chased them till he was +tired, and then he curled himself up and went to sleep on the hollows of +the ground-swell that sets in to Copper Island. He knew the coast +perfectly well, so about midnight, when he felt himself gently bumped on +a weed bed, he said: "Hm, tide 's running strong to-night," and turning +over under water opened his eyes slowly and stretched. Then he jumped +like a cat, for he saw huge things nosing about in the shoal water and +browsing on the heavy fringes of the weeds. + +"By the Great Combers of Magellan!" he said, beneath his mustache. "Who +in the Deep Sea are these people?" + +They were like no walrus, sea-lion, seal, bear, whale, shark, fish, +squid, or scallop that Kotick had ever seen before. They were between +twenty and thirty feet long, and they had no hind flippers, but a +shovel-like tail that looked as if it had been whittled out of wet +leather. Their heads were the most foolish-looking things you ever saw, +and they balanced on the ends of their tails in deep water when they +weren't grazing, bowing solemnly to one another and waving their front +flippers as a fat man waves his arm. + +"Ahem!" said Kotick. "Good sport, gentlemen?" The big things answered by +bowing and waving their flippers like the Frog-Footman. When they began +feeding again Kotick saw that their upper lip was split into two pieces, +that they could twitch apart about a foot and bring together again with +a whole bushel of seaweed between the splits. They tucked the stuff into +their mouths and chumped solemnly. + +"Messy style of feeding that," said Kotick. They bowed again, and Kotick +began to lose his temper. "Very good," he said. "If you do happen to +have an extra joint in your front flipper you needn't show off so. I +see you bow gracefully, but I should like to know your names." The split +lips moved and twitched, and the glassy green eyes stared; but they did +not speak. + +"Well!" said Kotick, "you're the only people I've ever met uglier than +Sea Vitch--and with worse manners." + +Then he remembered in a flash what the Burgomaster Gull had screamed to +him when he was a little yearling at Walrus Islet, and he tumbled +backward in the water, for he knew that he had found Sea Cow at last. + + [Illustration: "HE HAD FOUND SEA COW AT LAST."] + +The sea cows went on schlooping and grazing, and chumping in the weed, +and Kotick asked them questions in every language that he had picked up +in his travels; and the Sea People talk nearly as many languages as +human beings. But the Sea Cow did not answer, because Sea Cow cannot +talk. He has only six bones in his neck where he ought to have seven, +and they say under the sea that that prevents him from speaking even to +his companions; but, as you know, he has an extra joint in his fore +flipper, and by waving it up and down and about he makes what answers to +a sort of clumsy telegraphic code. + +By daylight Kotick's mane was standing on end and his temper was gone +where the dead crabs go. Then the Sea Cow began to travel northward very +slowly, stopping to hold absurd bowing councils from time to time, and +Kotick followed them, saying to himself: "People who are such idiots as +these are would have been killed long ago if they hadn't found out some +safe island; and what is good enough for the Sea Cow is good enough for +the Sea Catch. All the same, I wish they'd hurry." + +It was weary work for Kotick. The herd never went more than forty or +fifty miles a day, and stopped to feed at night, and kept close to the +shore all the time; while Kotick swam round them, and over them, and +under them, but he could not hurry them up one half-mile. As they went +farther north they held a bowing council every few hours, and Kotick +nearly bit off his mustache with impatience till he saw that they were +following up a warm current of water, and then he respected them more. + +One night they sank through the shiny water--sank like stones--and, for +the first time since he had known them, began to swim quickly. Kotick +followed, and the pace astonished him, for he never dreamed that Sea Cow +was anything of a swimmer. They headed for a cliff by the shore, a cliff +that ran down into deep water, and plunged into a dark hole at the foot +of it, twenty fathoms under the sea. It was a long, long swim, and +Kotick badly wanted fresh air before he was out of the dark tunnel they +led him through. + +"My wig!" he said, when he rose, gasping and puffing, into open water at +the farther end. "It was a long dive, but it was worth it." + +The sea cows had separated, and were browsing lazily along the edges of +the finest beaches that Kotick had ever seen. There were long stretches +of smooth worn rock running for miles, exactly fitted to make seal +nurseries, and there were playgrounds of hard sand, sloping inland +behind them, and there were rollers for seals to dance in, and long +grass to roll in, and sand-dunes to climb up and down, and best of all, +Kotick knew by the feel of the water, which never deceives a true Sea +Catch, that no men had ever come there. + +The first thing he did was to assure himself that the fishing was good, +and then he swam along the beaches and counted up the delightful low +sandy islands half hidden in the beautiful rolling fog. Away to the +northward out to sea ran a line of bars and shoals and rocks that would +never let a ship come within six miles of the beach; and between the +islands and the mainland was a stretch of deep water that ran up to the +perpendicular cliffs, and somewhere below the cliffs was the mouth of +the tunnel. + +"It's Novastoshnah over again, but ten times better," said Kotick. "Sea +Cow must be wiser than I thought. Men can't come down the cliffs, even +if there were any men; and the shoals to seaward would knock a ship to +splinters. If any place in the sea is safe, this is it." + +He began to think of the seal he had left behind him, but though he was +in a hurry to go back to Novastoshnah, he thoroughly explored the new +country, so that he would be able to answer all questions. + +Then he dived and made sure of the mouth of the tunnel, and raced +through to the southward. No one but a sea cow or a seal would have +dreamed of there being such a place, and when he looked back at the +cliffs even Kotick could hardly believe that he had been under them. + +He was six days going home, though he was not swimming slowly; and when +he hauled out just above Sea-Lion's Neck the first person he met was the +seal who had been waiting for him, and she saw by the look in his eyes +that he had found his island at last. + +But the holluschickie and Sea Catch, his father, and all the other +seals, laughed at him when he told them what he had discovered, and a +young seal about his own age said: "This is all very well, Kotick, but +you can't come from no one knows where and order us off like this. +Remember we've been fighting for our nurseries, and that's a thing you +never did. You preferred prowling about in the sea." + +The other seals laughed at this, and the young seal began twisting his +head from side to side. He had just married that year, and was making a +great fuss about it. + +"I've no nursery to fight for," said Kotick. "I want only to show you +all a place where you will be safe. What's the use of fighting?" + +"Oh, if you're trying to back out, of course I've no more to say," said +the young seal, with an ugly chuckle. + +"Will you come with me if I win?" said Kotick; and a green light came +into his eyes, for he was very angry at having to fight at all. + +"Very good," said the young seal, carelessly. "_If_ you win, I'll come." + +He had no time to change his mind, for Kotick's head darted out and his +teeth sunk in the blubber of the young seal's neck. Then he threw +himself back on his haunches and hauled his enemy down the beach, shook +him, and knocked him over. Then Kotick roared to the seals: "I've done +my best for you these five seasons past. I've found you the island where +you'll be safe, but unless your heads are dragged off your silly necks +you won't believe. I'm going to teach you now. Look out for yourselves!" + +Limmershin told me that never in his life--and Limmershin sees ten +thousand big seals fighting every year--never in all his little life did +he see anything like Kotick's charge into the nurseries. He flung +himself at the biggest sea-catch he could find, caught him by the +throat, choked him and bumped him and banged him till he grunted for +mercy, and then threw him aside and attacked the next. You see, Kotick +had never fasted for four months as the big seals did every year, and +his deep-sea swimming-trips kept him in perfect condition, and, best of +all, he had never fought before. His curly white mane stood up with +rage, and his eyes flamed, and his big dogteeth glistened, and he was +splendid to look at. + +Old Sea Catch, his father, saw him tearing past, hauling the grizzled +old seals about as though they had been halibut, and upsetting the young +bachelors in all directions; and Sea Catch gave one roar and shouted: +"He may be a fool, but he is the best fighter on the Beaches. Don't +tackle your father, my son! He's with you!" + +Kotick roared in answer, and old Sea Catch waddled in, his mustache on +end, blowing like a locomotive, while Matkah and the seal that was going +to marry Kotick cowered down and admired their men-folk. It was a +gorgeous fight, for the two fought as long as there was a seal that +dared lift up his head, and then they paraded grandly up and down the +beach side by side, bellowing. + +At night, just as the Northern Lights were winking and flashing through +the fog, Kotick climbed a bare rock and looked down on the scattered +nurseries and the torn and bleeding seals. "Now," he said, "I've taught +you your lesson." + +"My wig!" said old Sea Catch, boosting himself up stiffly, for he was +fearfully mauled. "The Killer Whale himself could not have cut them up +worse. Son, I'm proud of you, and what's more, _I'll_ come with you to +your island--if there is such a place." + +"Hear you, fat pigs of the sea! Who comes with me to the Sea Cow's +tunnel? Answer, or I shall teach you again," roared Kotick. + +There was a murmur like the ripple of the tide all up and down the +beaches. "We will come," said thousands of tired voices. "We will follow +Kotick, the White Seal." + +Then Kotick dropped his head between his shoulders and shut his eyes +proudly. He was not a white seal any more, but red from head to tail. +All the same he would have scorned to look at or touch one of his +wounds. + +A week later he and his army (nearly ten thousand holluschickie and old +seals) went away north to the Sea Cow's tunnel, Kotick leading them, and +the seals that stayed at Novastoshnah called them idiots. But next +spring when they all met off the fishing-banks of the Pacific, Kotick's +seals told such tales of the new beaches beyond Sea Cow's tunnel that +more and more seals left Novastoshnah. + +Of course it was not all done at once, for the seals need a long time to +turn things over in their minds, but year by year more seals went away +from Novastoshnah, and Lukannon, and the other nurseries, to the quiet, +sheltered beaches where Kotick sits all the summer through, getting +bigger and fatter and stronger each year, while the holluschickie play +round him, in that sea where no man comes. + + + LUKANNON + +This is the great deep-sea song that all the St. Paul seals sing when +they are heading back to their beaches in the summer. It is a sort of +very sad seal National Anthem. + + I met my mates in the morning (and oh, but I am old!) + Where roaring on the ledges the summer ground-swell + rolled; + I heard them lift the chorus that dropped the + breakers' song-- + The beaches of Lukannon--two million voices strong! + + _The song of pleasant stations beside the salt + lagoons, + The song of blowing squadrons that shuffled down the + dunes, + The song of midnight dances that churned the sea to + flame-- + The beaches of Lukannon--before the sealers came!_ + + I met my mates in the morning (I'll never meet them + more!); + They came and went in legions that darkened all the + shore. + And through the foam-flecked offing as far as voice + could reach + We hailed the landing-parties and we sang them up + the beach. + + _The beaches of Lukannon--the winter-wheat so + tall-- + The dripping, crinkled lichens, and the sea-fog + drenching all! + The platforms of our playground, all shining smooth + and worn! + The beaches of Lukannon--the home where we were + born!_ + + I meet my mates in the morning, a broken, scattered + band. + Men shoot us in the water and club us on the land; + Men drive us to the Salt House like silly sheep and + tame, + And still we sing Lukannon--before the sealers came. + + _Wheel down, wheel down to southward; oh, + Gooverooska go! + And tell the Deep-Sea Viceroys the story of our woe; + Ere, empty as the shark's egg the tempest flings + ashore, + The beaches of Lukannon shall know their sons no + more!_ + + + + + "RIKKI-TIKKI-TAVI" + + + At the hole where he went in + Red-Eye called to Wrinkle-Skin. + Hear what little Red-Eye saith: + "Nag, come up and dance with death!" + + Eye to eye and head to head, + (_Keep the measure, Nag._) + This shall end when one is dead; + (_At thy pleasure, Nag._) + Turn for turn and twist for twist-- + (_Run and hide thee, Nag._) + Hah! The hooded Death has missed! + (_Woe betide thee, Nag!_) + + + [Illustration] + + "RIKKI-TIKKI-TAVI" + + +THIS is the story of the great war that Rikki-tikki-tavi fought +single-handed, through the bath-rooms of the big bungalow in Segowlee +cantonment. Darzee, the tailor-bird, helped him, and Chuchundra, the +muskrat, who never comes out into the middle of the floor, but always +creeps round by the wall, gave him advice; but Rikki-tikki did the real +fighting. + +He was a mongoose, rather like a little cat in his fur and his tail, but +quite like a weasel in his head and his habits. His eyes and the end of +his restless nose were pink; he could scratch himself anywhere he +pleased, with any leg, front or back, that he chose to use; he could +fluff up his tail till it looked like a bottle-brush, and his war-cry +as he scuttled through the long grass, was: +"_Rikk-tikk-tikki-tikki-tchk!_" + +One day, a high summer flood washed him out of the burrow where he lived +with his father and mother, and carried him, kicking and clucking, down +a roadside ditch. He found a little wisp of grass floating there, and +clung to it till he lost his senses. When he revived, he was lying in +the hot sun on the middle of a garden path, very draggled indeed, and a +small boy was saying: "Here's a dead mongoose. Let's have a funeral." + +"No," said his mother; "let's take him in and dry him. Perhaps he isn't +really dead." + +They took him into the house, and a big man picked him up between his +finger and thumb and said he was not dead but half choked; so they +wrapped him in cotton-wool, and warmed him, and he opened his eyes and +sneezed. + +"Now," said the big man (he was an Englishman who had just moved into +the bungalow); "don't frighten him, and we'll see what he'll do." + +It is the hardest thing in the world to frighten a mongoose, because he +is eaten up from nose to tail with curiosity. The motto of all the +mongoose family is, "Run and find out"; and Rikki-tikki was a true +mongoose. He looked at the cotton-wool, decided that it was not good to +eat, ran all round the table, sat up and put his fur in order, scratched +himself, and jumped on the small boy's shoulder. + +"Don't be frightened, Teddy," said his father. "That's his way of making +friends." + +"Ouch! He's tickling under my chin," said Teddy. + + [Illustration: "RIKKI-TIKKI LOOKED DOWN BETWEEN THE BOY'S COLLAR AND + NECK."] + +Rikki-tikki looked down between the boy's collar and neck, snuffed at +his ear, and climbed down to the floor, where he sat rubbing his nose. + +"Good gracious," said Teddy's mother, "and that's a wild creature! I +suppose he's so tame because we've been kind to him." + +"All mongooses are like that," said her husband. "If Teddy doesn't pick +him up by the tail, or try to put him in a cage, he'll run in and out of +the house all day long. Let's give him something to eat." + +They gave him a little piece of raw meat. Rikki-tikki liked it +immensely, and when it was finished he went out into the veranda and sat +in the sunshine and fluffed up his fur to make it dry to the roots. Then +he felt better. + +"There are more things to find out about in this house," he said to +himself, "than all my family could find out in all their lives. I shall +certainly stay and find out." + + [Illustration: "HE PUT HIS NOSE INTO THE INK."] + +He spent all that day roaming over the house. He nearly drowned himself +in the bath-tubs, put his nose into the ink on a writing-table, and +burned it on the end of the big man's cigar, for he climbed up in the +big man's lap to see how writing was done. At nightfall he ran into +Teddy's nursery to watch how kerosene lamps were lighted, and when Teddy +went to bed Rikki-tikki climbed up too; but he was a restless companion, +because he had to get up and attend to every noise all through the +night, and find out what made it. Teddy's mother and father came in, the +last thing, to look at their boy, and Rikki-tikki was awake on the +pillow. "I don't like that," said Teddy's mother; "he may bite the +child." "He'll do no such thing," said the father. "Teddy's safer with +that little beast than if he had a bloodhound to watch him. If a snake +came into the nursery now--" + + [Illustration: "RIKKI-TIKKI WAS AWAKE ON THE PILLOW."] + +But Teddy's mother wouldn't think of anything so awful. + +Early in the morning Rikki-tikki came to early breakfast in the veranda +riding on Teddy's shoulder, and they gave him banana and some boiled +egg; and he sat on all their laps one after the other, because every +well-brought-up mongoose always hopes to be a house-mongoose some day +and have rooms to run about in, and Rikki-tikki's mother (she used to +live in the General's house at Segowlee) had carefully told Rikki what +to do if ever he came across white men. + + [Illustration: "HE CAME TO BREAKFAST RIDING ON TEDDY'S SHOULDER."] + +Then Rikki-tikki went out into the garden to see what was to be seen. It +was a large garden, only half cultivated, with bushes as big as +summer-houses of Marshal Niel roses, lime and orange trees, clumps of +bamboos, and thickets of high grass. Rikki-tikki licked his lips. "This +is a splendid hunting-ground," he said, and his tail grew bottle-brushy +at the thought of it, and he scuttled up and down the garden, snuffing +here and there till he heard very sorrowful voices in a thorn-bush. + +It was Darzee, the tailor-bird, and his wife. They had made a beautiful +nest by pulling two big leaves together and stitching them up the edges +with fibers, and had filled the hollow with cotton and downy fluff. The +nest swayed to and fro, as they sat on the rim and cried. + +"What is the matter?" asked Rikki-tikki. + + [Illustration: "'WE ARE VERY MISERABLE,' SAID DARZEE."] + +"We are very miserable," said Darzee. "One of our babies fell out of the +nest yesterday and Nag ate him." + +"H'm!" said Rikki-tikki," that is very sad--but I am a stranger here. +Who is Nag?" + +Darzee and his wife only cowered down in the nest without answering, for +from the thick grass at the foot of the bush there came a low hiss--a +horrid cold sound that made Rikki-tikki jump back two clear feet. Then +inch by inch out of the grass rose up the head and spread hood of Nag, +the big black cobra, and he was five feet long from tongue to tail. When +he had lifted one-third of himself clear of the ground, he stayed +balancing to and fro exactly as a dandelion-tuft balances in the wind, +and he looked at Rikki-tikki with the wicked snake's eyes that never +change their expression, whatever the snake may be thinking of. + +"Who is Nag?" he said, "_I_ am Nag. The great god Brahm put his mark +upon all our people when the first cobra spread his hood to keep the sun +off Brahm as he slept. Look, and be afraid!" + + [Illustration: "'I AM NAG,' SAID THE COBRA: 'LOOK, AND BE AFRAID!' BUT + AT THE BOTTOM OF HIS COLD HEART HE WAS AFRAID."] + +He spread out his hood more than ever, and Rikki-tikki saw the +spectacle-mark on the back of it that looks exactly like the eye part of +a hook-and-eye fastening. He was afraid for the minute; but it is +impossible for a mongoose to stay frightened for any length of time, and +though Rikki-tikki had never met a live cobra before, his mother had fed +him on dead ones, and he knew that all a grown mongoose's business in +life was to fight and eat snakes. Nag knew that too, and at the bottom +of his cold heart he was afraid. + +"Well," said Rikki-tikki, and his tail began to fluff up again, "marks +or no marks, do you think it is right for you to eat fledglings out of a +nest?" + +Nag was thinking to himself, and watching the least little movement in +the grass behind Rikki-tikki. He knew that mongooses in the garden meant +death sooner or later for him and his family; but he wanted to get +Rikki-tikki off his guard. So he dropped his head a little, and put it +on one side. + +"Let us talk," he said. "You eat eggs. Why should not I eat birds?" + +"Behind you! Look behind you!" sang Darzee. + +Rikki-tikki knew better than to waste time in staring. He jumped up in +the air as high as he could go, and just under him whizzed by the head +of Nagaina, Nag's wicked wife. She had crept up behind him as he was +talking, to make an end of him; and he heard her savage hiss as the +stroke missed. He came down almost across her back, and if he had been +an old mongoose he would have known that then was the time to break her +back with one bite; but he was afraid of the terrible lashing +return-stroke of the cobra. He bit, indeed, but did not bite long +enough, and he jumped clear of the whisking tail, leaving Nagaina torn +and angry. + + [Illustration: "HE JUMPED UP IN THE AIR, AND JUST UNDER HIM WHIZZED BY + THE HEAD OF NAGAINA."] + +"Wicked, wicked Darzee!" said Nag, lashing up as high as he could reach +toward the nest in the thorn-bush; but Darzee had built it out of reach +of snakes, and it only swayed to and fro. + +Rikki-tikki felt his eyes growing red and hot (when a mongoose's eyes +grow red, he is angry), and he sat back on his tail and hind legs like a +little kangaroo, and looked all around him, and chattered with rage. But +Nag and Nagaina had disappeared into the grass. When a snake misses its +stroke, it never says anything or gives any sign of what it means to do +next. Rikki-tikki did not care to follow them, for he did not feel sure +that he could manage two snakes at once. So he trotted off to the +gravel path near the house, and sat down to think. It was a serious +matter for him. + +If you read the old books of natural history, you will find they say +that when the mongoose fights the snake and happens to get bitten, he +runs off and eats some herb that cures him. That is not true. The +victory is only a matter of quickness of eye and quickness of +foot,--snake's blow against mongoose's jump,--and as no eye can follow +the motion of a snake's head when it strikes, that makes things much +more wonderful than any magic herb. Rikki-tikki knew he was a young +mongoose, and it made him all the more pleased to think that he had +managed to escape a blow from behind. It gave him confidence in himself, +and when Teddy came running down the path, Rikki-tikki was ready to be +petted. + +But just as Teddy was stooping, something flinched a little in the dust, +and a tiny voice said: "Be careful. I am death!" It was Karait, the +dusty brown snakeling that lies for choice on the dusty earth; and his +bite is as dangerous as the cobra's. But he is so small that nobody +thinks of him, and so he does the more harm to people. + +Rikki-tikki's eyes grew red again, and he danced up to Karait with the +peculiar rocking, swaying motion that he had inherited from his family. +It looks very funny, but it is so perfectly balanced a gait that you can +fly off from it at any angle you please; and in dealing with snakes this +is an advantage. If Rikki-tikki had only known, he was doing a much more +dangerous thing than fighting Nag, for Karait is so small, and can turn +so quickly, that unless Rikki bit him close to the back of the head, he +would get the return-stroke in his eye or lip. But Rikki did not know: +his eyes were all red, and he rocked back and forth, looking for a good +place to hold. Karait struck out. Rikki jumped sideways and tried to run +in, but the wicked little dusty gray head lashed within a fraction of +his shoulder, and he had to jump over the body, and the head followed +his heels close. + +Teddy shouted to the house: "Oh, look here! Our mongoose is killing a +snake"; and Rikki-tikki heard a scream from Teddy's mother. His father +ran out with a stick, but by the time he came up, Karait had lunged out +once too far, and Rikki-tikki had sprung, jumped on the snake's back, +dropped his head far between his fore legs, bitten as high up the back +as he could get hold, and rolled away. That bite paralyzed Karait, and +Rikki-tikki was just going to eat him up from the tail, after the custom +of his family at dinner, when he remembered that a full meal makes a +slow mongoose, and if he wanted all his strength and quickness ready, he +must keep himself thin. + +He went away for a dust-bath under the castor-oil bushes, while Teddy's +father beat the dead Karait. "What is the use of that?" thought +Rikki-tikki. "I have settled it all"; and then Teddy's mother picked him +up from the dust and hugged him, crying that he had saved Teddy from +death, and Teddy's father said that he was a providence, and Teddy +looked on with big scared eyes. Rikki-Tikki was rather amused at all the +fuss, which, of course, he did not understand. Teddy's mother might just +as well have petted Teddy for playing in the dust. Rikki was thoroughly +enjoying himself. + +That night, at dinner, walking to and fro among the wine-glasses on the +table, he could have stuffed himself three times over with nice things; +but he remembered Nag and Nagaina, and though it was very pleasant to be +patted and petted by Teddy's mother, and to sit on Teddy's shoulder, +his eyes would get red from time to time, and he would go off into his +long war-cry of "_Rikk-tikk-tikki-tikki-tchk!_" + +Teddy carried him off to bed, and insisted on Rikki-tikki sleeping under +his chin. Rikki-tikki was too well bred to bite or scratch, but as soon +as Teddy was asleep he went off for his nightly walk round the house, +and in the dark he ran up against Chuchundra, the muskrat, creeping +round by the wall. Chuchundra is a broken-hearted little beast. He +whimpers and cheeps all the night, trying to make up his mind to run +into the middle of the room, but he never gets there. + +[Illustration: "IN THE DARK HE RAN UP AGAINST CHUCHUNDRA, THE MUSKRAT."] + +"Don't kill me," said Chuchundra, almost weeping. "Rikki-tikki, don't +kill me." + +"Do you think a snake-killer kills muskrats?" said Rikki-tikki +scornfully. + +"Those who kill snakes get killed by snakes," said Chuchundra, more +sorrowfully than ever. "And how am I to be sure that Nag won't mistake +me for you some dark night?" + +"There's not the least danger," said Rikki-tikki; "but Nag is in the +garden, and I know you don't go there." + +"My cousin Chua, the rat, told me--" said Chuchundra, and then he +stopped. + +"Told you what?" + +"H'sh! Nag is everywhere, Rikki-tikki. You should have talked to Chua in +the garden." + +"I didn't--so you must tell me. Quick, Chuchundra, or I'll bite you!" + +Chuchundra sat down and cried till the tears rolled off his whiskers. "I +am a very poor man," he sobbed. "I never had spirit enough to run out +into the middle of the room. H'sh! I mustn't tell you anything. Can't +you _hear_, Rikki-tikki?" + +Rikki-tikki listened. The house was as still as still, but he thought he +could just catch the faintest _scratch-scratch_ in the world,--a noise +as faint as that of a wasp walking on a window-pane,--the dry scratch of +a snake's scales on brickwork. + +"That's Nag or Nagaina," he said to himself; "and he is crawling into +the bath-room sluice. You're right, Chuchundra; I should have talked to +Chua." + +He stole off to Teddy's bath-room, but there was nothing there, and then +to Teddy's mother's bath-room. At the bottom of the smooth plaster wall +there was a brick pulled out to make a sluice for the bath-water, and as +Rikki-tikki stole in by the masonry curb where the bath is put, he heard +Nag and Nagaina whispering together outside in the moonlight. + +"When the house is emptied of people," said Nagaina to her husband, +"_he_ will have to go away, and then the garden will be our own again. +Go in quietly, and remember that the big man who killed Karait is the +first one to bite. Then come out and tell me, and we will hunt for +Rikki-tikki together." + +"But are you sure that there is anything to be gained by killing the +people?" said Nag. + +"Everything. When there were no people in the bungalow, did we have any +mongoose in the garden? So long as the bungalow is empty, we are king +and queen of the garden; and remember that as soon as our eggs in the +melon-bed hatch (as they may to-morrow), our children will need room and +quiet." + +"I had not thought of that," said Nag. "I will go, but there is no need +that we should hunt for Rikki-tikki afterward. I will kill the big man +and his wife, and the child if I can, and come away quietly. Then the +bungalow will be empty, and Rikki-tikki will go." + +Rikki-tikki tingled all over with rage and hatred at this, and then +Nag's head came through the sluice, and his five feet of cold body +followed it. Angry as he was, Rikki-tikki was very frightened as he saw +the size of the big cobra. Nag coiled himself up, raised his head, and +looked into the bath-room in the dark, and Rikki could see his eyes +glitter. + +"Now, if I kill him here, Nagaina will know; and if I fight him on the +open floor, the odds are in his favor. What am I to do?" said +Rikki-tikki-tavi. + +Nag waved to and fro, and then Rikki-tikki heard him drinking from the +biggest water-jar that was used to fill the bath. "That is good," said +the snake. "Now, when Karait was killed, the big man had a stick. He may +have that stick still, but when he comes in to bathe in the morning he +will not have a stick. I shall wait here till he comes. Nagaina--do you +hear me?--I shall wait here in the cool till daytime." + +There was no answer from outside, so Rikki-tikki knew Nagaina had gone +away. Nag coiled himself down, coil by coil, round the bulge at the +bottom of the water-jar, and Rikki-tikki stayed still as death. After an +hour he began to move, muscle by muscle, toward the jar. Nag was asleep, +and Rikki-tikki looked at his big back, wondering which would be the +best place for a good hold. "If I don't break his back at the first +jump," said Rikki, "he can still fight; and if he fights--O Rikki!" He +looked at the thickness of the neck below the hood, but that was too +much for him; and a bite near the tail would only make Nag savage. + +"It must be the head," he said at last: "the head above the hood; and, +when I am once there, I must not let go." + +Then he jumped. The head was lying a little clear of the water-jar, +under the curve of it; and, as his teeth met, Rikki braced his back +against the bulge of the red earthenware to hold down the head. This +gave him just one second's purchase, and he made the most of it. Then he +was battered to and fro as a rat is shaken by a dog--to and fro on the +floor, up and down, and round in great circles; but his eyes were red, +and he held on as the body cartwhipped over the floor, upsetting the tin +dipper and the soap-dish and the flesh-brush, and banged against the tin +side of the bath. As he held he closed his jaws tighter and tighter, +for he made sure he would be banged to death, and, for the honor of his +family, he preferred to be found with his teeth locked. He was dizzy, +aching, and felt shaken to pieces when something went off like a +thunderclap just behind him; a hot wind knocked him senseless and red +fire singed his fur. The big man had been wakened by the noise, and had +fired both barrels of a shot-gun into Nag just behind the hood. + + [Illustration: "THEN RIKKI-TIKKI WAS BATTERED TO AND FRO AS A RAT IS + SHAKEN BY A DOG."] + +Rikki-tikki held on with his eyes shut, for now he was quite sure he was +dead; but the head did not move, and the big man picked him up and said: +"It's the mongoose again, Alice; the little chap has saved _our_ lives +now." Then Teddy's mother came in with a very white face, and saw what +was left of Nag, and Rikki-tikki dragged himself to Teddy's bedroom and +spent half the rest of the night shaking himself tenderly to find out +whether he really was broken into forty pieces, as he fancied. + +When morning came he was very stiff, but well pleased with his doings. +"Now I have Nagaina to settle with, and she will be worse than five +Nags, and there's no knowing when the eggs she spoke of will hatch. +Goodness! I must go and see Darzee," he said. + +Without waiting for breakfast, Rikki-tikki ran to the thorn-bush where +Darzee was singing a song of triumph at the top of his voice. The news +of Nag's death was all over the garden, for the sweeper had thrown the +body on the rubbish-heap. + +"Oh, you stupid tuft of feathers!" said Rikki-tikki, angrily. "Is this +the time to sing?" + +"Nag is dead--is dead--is dead!" sang Darzee. "The valiant Rikki-tikki +caught him by the head and held fast. The big man brought the bang-stick +and Nag fell in two pieces! He will never eat my babies again." + +"All that's true enough; but where's Nagaina?" said Rikki-tikki, looking +carefully round him. + +"Nagaina came to the bath-room sluice and called for Nag," Darzee went +on; "and Nag came out on the end of a stick--the sweeper picked him up +on the end of a stick and threw him upon the rubbish-heap. Let us sing +about the great, the red-eyed Rikki-tikki!" and Darzee filled his throat +and sang. + +"If I could get up to your nest, I'd roll all your babies out!" said +Rikki-tikki. "You don't know when to do the right thing at the right +time. You're safe enough in your nest there, but it's war for me down +here. Stop singing a minute, Darzee." + +"For the great, the beautiful Rikki-tikki's sake I will stop," said +Darzee. "What is it, O Killer of the terrible Nag!" + +"Where is Nagaina, for the third time?" + +"On the rubbish-heap by the stables, mourning for Nag. Great is +Rikki-tikki with the white teeth." + +"Bother my white teeth! Have you ever heard where she keeps her eggs?" + +"In the melon-bed, on the end nearest the wall, where the sun strikes +nearly all day. She had them there weeks ago." + +"And you never thought it worth while to tell me? The end nearest the +wall, you said?" + +"Rikki-tikki, you are not going to eat her eggs?" + +"Not eat exactly; no. Darzee, if you have a grain of sense you will fly +off to the stables and pretend that your wing is broken, and let Nagaina +chase you away to this bush? I must get to the melon-bed, and if I went +there now she'd see me." + +Darzee was a feather-brained little fellow who could never hold more +than one idea at a time in his head; and just because he knew that +Nagaina's children were born in eggs like his own, he didn't think at +first that it was fair to kill them. But his wife was a sensible bird, +and she knew that cobra's eggs meant young cobras later on; so she +flew off from the nest, and left Darzee to keep the babies warm, and +continue his song about the death of Nag. Darzee was very like a man in +some ways. + +She fluttered in front of Nagaina by the rubbish-heap, and cried out, +"Oh, my wing is broken! The boy in the house threw a stone at me and +broke it." Then she fluttered more desperately than ever. + + [Illustration: DARZEE'S WIFE PRETENDS TO HAVE BROKEN A WING.] + +Nagaina lifted up her head and hissed, "You warned Rikki-tikki when I +would have killed him. Indeed and truly, you've chosen a bad place to be +lame in." And she moved toward Darzee's wife, slipping along over the +dust. + +"The boy broke it with a stone!" shrieked Darzee's wife. + +"Well! It may be some consolation to you when you're dead to know that I +shall settle accounts with the boy. My husband lies on the rubbish-heap +this morning, but before night the boy in the house will lie very still. +What is the use of running away? I am sure to catch you. Little fool, +look at me!" + +Darzee's wife knew better than to do _that_, for a bird who looks at a +snake's eyes gets so frightened that she cannot move. Darzee's wife +fluttered on, piping sorrowfully, and never leaving the ground, and +Nagaina quickened her pace. + +Rikki-tikki heard them going up the path from the stables, and he raced +for the end of the melon-patch near the wall. There, in the warm litter +about the melons, very cunningly hidden, he found twenty-five eggs, +about the size of a bantam's eggs, but with whitish skin instead of +shell. + +"I was not a day too soon," he said; for he could see the baby cobras +curled up inside the skin, and he knew that the minute they were hatched +they could each kill a man or a mongoose. He bit off the tops of the +eggs as fast as he could, taking care to crush the young cobras, and +turned over the litter from time to time to see whether he had missed +any. At last there were only three eggs left, and Rikki-tikki began to +chuckle to himself, when he heard Darzee's wife screaming: + +"Rikki-tikki, I led Nagaina toward the house, and she has gone into the +veranda, and--oh, come quickly--she means killing!" + +Rikki-tikki smashed two eggs, and tumbled backward down the melon-bed +with the third egg in his mouth, and scuttled to the veranda as hard as +he could put foot to the ground. Teddy and his mother and father were +there at early breakfast; but Rikki-tikki saw that they were not eating +anything. They sat stone-still, and their faces were white. Nagaina was +coiled up on the matting by Teddy's chair, within easy striking distance +of Teddy's bare leg, and she was swaying to and fro singing a song of +triumph. + +"Son of the big man that killed Nag," she hissed, "stay still. I am not +ready yet. Wait a little. Keep very still, all you three. If you move I +strike, and if you do not move I strike. Oh, foolish people, who killed +my Nag!" + +Teddy's eyes were fixed on his father, and all his father could do was +to whisper, "Sit still, Teddy. You mustn't move. Teddy, keep still." + +Then Rikki-tikki came up and cried: "Turn round, Nagaina; turn and +fight!" + +"All in good time," said she, without moving her eyes. "I will settle my +account with _you_ presently. Look at your friends, Rikki-tikki. They +are still and white; they are afraid. They dare not move, and if you +come a step nearer I strike." + +"Look at your eggs," said Rikki-tikki, "in the melon-bed near the wall. +Go and look, Nagaina." + +The big snake turned half round, and saw the egg on the veranda. "Ah-h! +Give it to me," she said. + +Rikki-tikki put his paws one on each side of the egg, and his eyes were +blood-red. "What price for a snake's egg? For a young cobra? For a +young king-cobra? For the last--the very last of the brood? The ants are +eating all the others down by the melon-bed." + +Nagaina spun clear round, forgetting everything for the sake of the one +egg; and Rikki-tikki saw Teddy's father shoot out a big hand, catch +Teddy by the shoulder, and drag him across the little table with the +tea-cups, safe and out of reach of Nagaina. + +"Tricked! Tricked! Tricked! _Rikk-tck-tck!_" chuckled Rikki-tikki. "The +boy is safe, and it was I--I--I that caught Nag by the hood last night +in the bath-room." Then he began to jump up and down, all four feet +together, his head close to the floor. "He threw me to and fro, but he +could not shake me off. He was dead before the big man blew him in two. +I did it. _Rikki-tikki-tck-tck!_ Come then, Nagaina. Come and fight with +me. You shall not be a widow long." + +Nagaina saw that she had lost her chance of killing Teddy, and the egg +lay between Rikki-tikki's paws. "Give me the egg, Rikki-tikki. Give me +the last of my eggs, and I will go away and never come back," she said, +lowering her hood. + +"Yes, you will go away, and you will never come back; for you will go to +the rubbish-heap with Nag. Fight, widow! The big man has gone for his +gun! Fight!" + +Rikki-tikki was bounding all round Nagaina, keeping just out of reach of +her stroke, his little eyes like hot coals. Nagaina gathered herself +together, and flung out at him. Rikki-tikki jumped up and backward. +Again and again and again she struck, and each time her head came with a +whack on the matting of the veranda and she gathered herself together +like a watch-spring. Then Rikki-tikki danced in a circle to get behind +her, and Nagaina spun round to keep her head to his head, so that the +rustle of her tail on the matting sounded like dry leaves blown along by +the wind. + +He had forgotten the egg. It still lay on the veranda, and Nagaina came +nearer and nearer to it, till at last, while Rikki-tikki was drawing +breath, she caught it in her mouth, turned to the veranda steps, and +flew like an arrow down the path, with Rikki-tikki behind her. When the +cobra runs for her life, she goes like a whiplash flicked across a +horse's neck. + +[Illustration: "NAGAINA FLEW DOWN THE PATH, WITH RIKKI-TIKKI BEHIND + HER."] + +Rikki-tikki knew that he must catch her, or all the trouble would begin +again. She headed straight for the long grass by the thorn-bush, and as +he was running Rikki-tikki heard Darzee still singing his foolish little +song of triumph. But Darzee's wife was wiser. She flew off her nest as +Nagaina came along, and flapped her wings about Nagaina's head. If +Darzee had helped they might have turned her; but Nagaina only lowered +her hood and went on. Still, the instant's delay brought Rikki-tikki up +to her, and as she plunged into the rat-hole where she and Nag used to +live, his little white teeth were clenched on her tail, and he went down +with her--and very few mongooses, however wise and old they may be, +care to follow a cobra into its hole. It was dark in the hole; and +Rikki-tikki never knew when it might open out and give Nagaina room to +turn and strike at him. He held on savagely, and struck out his feet to +act as brakes on the dark slope of the hot, moist earth. + +Then the grass by the mouth of the hole stopped waving, and Darzee said: +"It is all over with Rikki-tikki! We must sing his death-song. Valiant +Rikki-tikki is dead! For Nagaina will surely kill him underground." + +So he sang a very mournful song that he made up all on the spur of the +minute, and just as he got to the most touching part the grass quivered +again, and Rikki-tikki, covered with dirt, dragged himself out of the +hole leg by leg, licking his whiskers. Darzee stopped with a little +shout. Rikki-tikki shook some of the dust out of his fur and sneezed. +"It is all over," he said. "The widow will never come out again." And +the red ants that live between the grass stems heard him, and began to +troop down one after another to see if he had spoken the truth. + + [Illustration: "IT IS ALL OVER."] + +Rikki-tikki curled himself up in the grass and slept where he was--slept +and slept till it was late in the afternoon, for he had done a hard +day's work. + +"Now," he said, when he awoke, "I will go back to the house. Tell the +Coppersmith, Darzee, and he will tell the garden that Nagaina is dead." + +The Coppersmith is a bird who makes a noise exactly like the beating of +a little hammer on a copper pot; and the reason he is always making it +is because he is the town-crier to every Indian garden, and tells all +the news to everybody who cares to listen. As Rikki-tikki went up the +path, he heard his "attention" notes like a tiny dinner-gong; and then +the steady "_Ding-dong-tock!_ Nag is dead--_dong!_ Nagaina is dead! +_Ding-dong-tock!_" That set all the birds in the garden singing, and the +frogs croaking; for Nag and Nagaina used to eat frogs as well as little +birds. + +When Rikki got to the house, Teddy and Teddy's mother (she looked very +white still, for she had been fainting) and Teddy's father came out and +almost cried over him; and that night he ate all that was given him till +he could eat no more, and went to bed on Teddy's shoulder, where Teddy's +mother saw him when she came to look late at night. + +"He saved our lives and Teddy's life," she said to her husband. "Just +think, he saved all our lives." + +Rikki-tikki woke up with a jump, for all the mongooses are light +sleepers. + +"Oh, it's you," said he. "What are you bothering for? All the cobras are +dead; and if they weren't, I'm here." + +Rikki-tikki had a right to be proud of himself; but he did not grow too +proud, and he kept that garden as a mongoose should keep it, with tooth +and jump and spring and bite, till never a cobra dared show its head +inside the walls. + + + DARZEE'S CHAUNT + + (SUNG IN HONOR OF RIKKI-TIKKI-TAVI) + + Singer and tailor am I-- + Doubled the joys that I know-- + Proud of my lilt through the sky, + Proud of the house that I sew-- + Over and under, so weave I my music--so weave I + the house that I sew. + + Sing to your fledglings again, + Mother, oh lift up your head! + Evil that plagued us is slain, + Death in the garden lies dead. + Terror that hid in the roses is impotent--flung + on the dung-hill and dead! + + Who hath delivered us, who? + Tell me his nest and his name. + Rikki, the valiant, the true, + Tikki, with eyeballs of flame. + Rik-tikki-tikki, the ivory-fanged, the hunter with + eyeballs of flame. + + Give him the Thanks of the Birds, + Bowing with tail-feathers spread! + Praise him with nightingale words-- + Nay, I will praise him instead. + Hear! I will sing you the praise of the bottle-tailed + Rikki, with eyeballs of red! + +(_Here Rikki-tikki interrupted, and the rest of the song is lost._) + + + + + TOOMAI OF THE ELEPHANTS + + + I will remember what I was, I am sick of rope and chain-- + I will remember my old strength and all my forest affairs. + I will not sell my back to man for a bundle of sugar-cane, + I will go out to my own kind, and the wood-folk in their lairs. + + I will go out until the day, until the morning break, + Out to the winds' untainted kiss, the waters' clean caress: + I will forget my ankle-ring and snap my picket-stake. + I will revisit my lost loves, and playmates masterless! + + + [Illustration] + + TOOMAI OF THE ELEPHANTS + + +KALA NAG, which means Black Snake, had served the Indian Government in +every way that an elephant could serve it for forty-seven years, and as +he was fully twenty years old when he was caught, that makes him nearly +seventy--a ripe age for an elephant. He remembered pushing, with a big +leather pad on his forehead, at a gun stuck in deep mud, and that was +before the Afghan war of 1842, and he had not then come to his full +strength. His mother, Radha Pyari,--Radha the darling,--who had been +caught in the same drive with Kala Nag, told him, before his little milk +tusks had dropped out, that elephants who were afraid always got hurt: +and Kala Nag knew that that advice was good, for the first time that he +saw a shell burst he backed, screaming, into a stand of piled rifles, +and the bayonets pricked him in all his softest places. So, before he +was twenty-five, he gave up being afraid, and so he was the best-loved +and the best-looked-after elephant in the service of the Government of +India. He had carried tents, twelve hundred pounds' weight of tents, on +the march in Upper India: he had been hoisted into a ship at the end of +a steam-crane and taken for days across the water, and made to carry a +mortar on his back in a strange and rocky country very far from India, +and had seen the Emperor Theodore lying dead in Magdala, and had come +back again in the steamer entitled, so the soldiers said, to the +Abyssinian war medal. He had seen his fellow-elephants die of cold and +epilepsy and starvation and sunstroke up at a place called Ali Musjid, +ten years later; and afterward he had been sent down thousands of miles +south to haul and pile big baulks of teak in the timber-yards at +Moulmein. There he had half killed an insubordinate young elephant who +was shirking his fair share of the work. + + [Illustration: "KALA NAG WAS THE BEST-LOVED ELEPHANT IN THE SERVICE."] + +After that he was taken off timber-hauling, and employed, with a few +score other elephants who were trained to the business, in helping to +catch wild elephants among the Garo hills. Elephants are very strictly +preserved by the Indian Government. There is one whole department which +does nothing else but hunt them, and catch them, and break them in, and +send them up and down the country as they are needed for work. + +Kala Nag stood ten fair feet at the shoulders, and his tusks had been +cut off short at five feet, and bound round the ends, to prevent them +splitting, with bands of copper; but he could do more with those stumps +than any untrained elephant could do with the real sharpened ones. + +When, after weeks and weeks of cautious driving of scattered elephants +across the hills, the forty or fifty wild monsters were driven into the +last stockade, and the big drop-gate, made of tree-trunks lashed +together, jarred down behind them, Kala Nag, at the word of command, +would go into that flaring, trumpeting pandemonium (generally at night, +when the flicker of the torches made it difficult to judge distances), +and, picking out the biggest and wildest tusker of the mob, would hammer +him and hustle him into quiet while the men on the backs of the other +elephants roped and tied the smaller ones. + +There was nothing in the way of fighting that Kala Nag, the old wise +Black Snake, did not know, for he had stood up more than once in his +time to the charge of the wounded tiger, and, curling up his soft trunk +to be out of harm's way, had knocked the springing brute sideways in +mid-air with a quick sickle-cut of his head, that he had invented all by +himself; had knocked him over, and kneeled upon him with his huge knees +till the life went out with a gasp and a howl, and there was only a +fluffy striped thing on the ground for Kala Nag to pull by the tail. + +"Yes," said Big Toomai, his driver, the son of Black Toomai who had +taken him to Abyssinia, and grandson of Toomai of the Elephants who had +seen him caught, "there is nothing that the Black Snake fears except me. +He has seen three generations of us feed him and groom him, and he will +live to see four." + +"He is afraid of _me_ also," said Little Toomai, standing up to his full +height of four feet, with only one rag upon him. He was ten years old, +the eldest son of Big Toomai, and, according to custom, he would take +his father's place on Kala Nag's neck when he grew up, and would handle +the heavy iron _ankus_, the elephant-goad that had been worn smooth +by his father, and his grandfather, and his great-grandfather. He knew +what he was talking of; for he had been born under Kala Nag's shadow, +had played with the end of his trunk before he could walk, had taken him +down to water as soon as he could walk, and Kala Nag would no more have +dreamed of disobeying his shrill little orders than he would have +dreamed of killing him on that day when Big Toomai carried the little +brown baby under Kala Nag's tusks, and told him to salute his master +that was to be. + + [Illustration: "'HE IS AFRAID OF ME,' SAID LITTLE TOOMAI, AND HE MADE + KALA NAG LIFT UP HIS FEET ONE AFTER THE OTHER."] + +"Yes," said Little Toomai, "he is afraid of _me_," and he took long +strides up to Kala Nag, called him a fat old pig, and made him lift up +his feet one after the other. + +"Wah!" said Little Toomai, "thou art a big elephant," and he wagged his +fluffy head, quoting his father. "The Government may pay for elephants, +but they belong to us mahouts. When thou art old, Kala Nag, there will +come some rich Rajah, and he will buy thee from the Government, on +account of thy size and thy manners, and then thou wilt have nothing to +do but to carry gold earrings in thy ears, and a gold howdah on thy +back, and a red cloth covered with gold on thy sides, and walk at the +head of the processions of the King. Then I shall sit on thy neck, O +Kala Nag, with a silver _ankus_, and men will run before us with golden +sticks, crying, 'Room for the King's elephant!' That will be good, Kala +Nag, but not so good as this hunting in the jungles." + +"Umph!" said Big Toomai. "Thou art a boy, and as wild as a buffalo-calf. +This running up and down among the hills is not the best Government +service. I am getting old, and I do not love wild elephants, Give me +brick elephant-lines, one stall to each elephant, and big stumps to tie +them to safely, and flat, broad roads to exercise upon, instead of this +come-and-go camping. Aha, the Cawnpore barracks were good. There was a +bazaar close by, and only three hours' work a day." + +Little Toomai remembered the Cawnpore elephant-lines and said nothing. +He very much preferred the camp life, and hated those broad, flat roads, +with the daily grubbing for grass in the forage-reserve, and the long +hours when there was nothing to do except to watch Kala Nag fidgeting in +his pickets. + +What Little Toomai liked was to scramble up bridle-paths that only an +elephant could take; the dip into the valley below; the glimpses of the +wild elephants browsing miles away; the rush of the frightened pig and +peacock under Kala Nag's feet; the blinding warm rains, when all the +hills and valleys smoked; the beautiful misty mornings when nobody knew +where they would camp that night; the steady, cautious drive of the wild +elephants, and the mad rush and blaze and hullaballoo of the last +night's drive, when the elephants poured into the stockade like boulders +in a landslide, found that they could not get out, and flung themselves +at the heavy posts only to be driven back by yells and flaring torches +and volleys of blank cartridge. + + [Illustration: "HE WOULD GET HIS TORCH AND WAVE IT, AND YELL WITH THE + BEST."] + +Even a little boy could be of use there, and Toomai was as useful as +three boys. He would get his torch and wave it, and yell with the best. +But the really good time came when the driving out began, and the +Keddah, that is, the stockade, looked like a picture of the end of the +world, and men had to make signs to one another, because they could not +hear themselves speak. Then Little Toomai would climb up to the top of +one of the quivering stockade-posts, his sun-bleached brown hair flying +loose all over his shoulders, and he looking like a goblin in the +torch-light; and as soon as there was a lull you could hear his +high-pitched yells of encouragement to Kala Nag, above the trumpeting +and crashing, and snapping of ropes, and groans of the tethered +elephants. "_Mail, mail, Kala Nag!_ (Go on, go on, Black Snake!) _Dant +do!_ (Give him the tusk!) _Somalo! Somalo!_ (Careful, careful!) _Maro! +Mar!_ (Hit him, hit him!) Mind the post! _Arre! Arre! Hai! Yai! +Kya-a-ah!_" he would shout, and the big fight between Kala Nag and the +wild elephant would sway to and fro across the Keddah, and the old +elephant-catchers would wipe the sweat out of their eyes, and find time +to nod to Little Toomai wriggling with joy on the top of the posts. + +He did more than wriggle. One night he slid down from the post and +slipped in between the elephants, and threw up the loose end of a rope, +which had dropped, to a driver who was trying to get a purchase on the +leg of a kicking young calf (calves always give more trouble than +full-grown animals). Kala Nag saw him, caught him in his trunk, and +handed him up to Big Toomai, who slapped him then and there, and put him +back on the post. + +Next morning he gave him a scolding, and said: "Are not good brick +elephant-lines and a little tent-carrying enough, that thou must needs +go elephant-catching on thy own account, little worthless? Now those +foolish hunters, whose pay is less than my pay, have spoken to Petersen +Sahib of the matter." Little Toomai was frightened. He did not know much +of white men, but Petersen Sahib was the greatest white man in the world +to him. He was the head of all the Keddah operations--the man who caught +all the elephants for the Government of India, and who knew more about +the ways of elephants than any living man. + +"What--what will happen?" said Little Toomai. + +"Happen! the worst that can happen. Petersen Sahib is a madman. Else why +should he go hunting these wild devils? He may even require thee to be +an elephant-catcher, to sleep anywhere in these fever-filled jungles, +and at last to be trampled to death in the Keddah. It is well that this +nonsense ends safely. Next week the catching is over, and we of the +plains are sent back to our stations. Then we will march on smooth +roads, and forget all this hunting. But, son, I am angry that thou +shouldst meddle in the business that belongs to these dirty Assamese +jungle-folk. Kala Nag will obey none but me, so I must go with him into +the Keddah, but he is only a fighting elephant, and he does not help to +rope them. So I sit at my ease, as befits a mahout,--not a mere +hunter,--a mahout, I say, and a man who gets a pension at the end of his +service. Is the family of Toomai of the Elephants to be trodden +underfoot in the dirt of a Keddah? Bad one! Wicked one! Worthless son! +Go and wash Kala Nag and attend to his ears, and see that there are no +thorns in his feet; or else Petersen Sahib will surely catch thee and +make thee a wild hunter--a follower of elephant's foot-tracks, a +jungle-bear. Bah! Shame! Go!" + +Little Toomai went off without saying a word, but he told Kala Nag all +his grievances while he was examining his feet. "No matter," said Little +Toomai, turning up the fringe of Kala Nag's huge right ear. "They have +said my name to Petersen Sahib, and perhaps--and perhaps--and +perhaps--who knows? Hai! That is a big thorn that I have pulled out!" + +The next few days were spent in getting the elephants together, in +walking the newly caught wild elephants up and down between a couple of +tame ones, to prevent them from giving too much trouble on the downward +march to the plains, and in taking stock of the blankets and ropes and +things that had been worn out or lost in the forest. + +Petersen Sahib came in on his clever she-elephant Pudmini; he had been +paying off other camps among the hills, for the season was coming to an +end, and there was a native clerk sitting at a table under a tree, to +pay the drivers their wages. As each man was paid he went back to his +elephant, and joined the line that stood ready to start. The catchers, +and hunters, and beaters, the men of the regular Keddah, who stayed in +the jungle year in and year out, sat on the backs of the elephants that +belonged to Petersen Sahib's permanent force, or leaned against the +trees with their guns across their arms, and made fun of the drivers who +were going away, and laughed when the newly caught elephants broke the +line and ran about. + +Big Toomai went up to the clerk with Little Toomai behind him, and +Machua Appa, the head-tracker, said in an undertone to a friend of his, +"There goes one piece of good elephant-stuff at least. 'T is a pity to +send that young jungle-cock to moult in the plains." + +Now Petersen Sahib had ears all over him, as a man must have who listens +to the most silent of all living things--the wild elephant. He turned +where he was lying all along on Pudmini's back, and said, "What is that? +I did not know of a man among the plain-drivers who had wit enough to +rope even a dead elephant." + +"This is not a man, but a boy. He went into the Keddah at the last +drive, and threw Barmao there the rope, when we were trying to get that +young calf with the blotch on his shoulder away from his mother." + +Machua Appa pointed at Little Toomai, and Petersen Sahib looked, and +Little Toomai bowed to the earth. + +"He throw a rope? He is smaller than a picket-pin. Little one, what is +thy name?" said Petersen Sahib. + +Little Toomai was too frightened to speak, but Kala Nag was behind him, +and Toomai made a sign with his hand, and the elephant caught him up in +his trunk and held him level with Pudmini's forehead, in front of the +great Petersen Sahib. Then Little Toomai covered his face with his +hands, for he was only a child, and except where elephants were +concerned, he was just as bashful as a child could be. + +"Oho!" said Petersen Sahib, smiling underneath his mustache, "and why +didst thou teach thy elephant _that_ trick? Was it to help thee steal +green corn from the roofs of the houses when the ears are put out to +dry?" + + [Illustration: "'NOT GREEN CORN, PROTECTOR OF THE POOR,--MELONS,' SAID + LITTLE TOOMAI."] + +"Not green corn, Protector of the Poor,--melons," said Little Toomai, +and all the men sitting about broke into a roar of laughter. Most of +them had taught their elephants that trick when they were boys. Little +Toomai was hanging eight feet up in the air, and he wished very much +that he were eight feet underground. + +"He is Toomai, my son, Sahib," said Big Toomai, scowling. "He is a very +bad boy, and he will end in a jail, Sahib." + +"Of that I have my doubts," said Petersen Sahib. "A boy who can face a +full Keddah at his age does not end in jails. See, little one, here are +four annas to spend in sweetmeats because thou hast a little head under +that great thatch of hair. In time thou mayest become a hunter too." Big +Toomai scowled more than ever. "Remember, though, that Keddahs are not +good for children to play in," Petersen Sahib went on. + +"Must I never go there, Sahib?" asked Little Toomai, with a big gasp. + +"Yes." Petersen Sahib smiled again. "When thou hast seen the elephants +dance. That is the proper time. Come to me when thou hast seen the +elephants dance, and then I will let thee go into all the Keddahs." + +There was another roar of laughter, for that is an old joke among +elephant-catchers, and it means just never. There are great cleared flat +places hidden away in the forests that are called elephants' ballrooms, +but even these are found only by accident, and no man has ever seen the +elephants dance. When a driver boasts of his skill and bravery the other +drivers say, "And when didst _thou_ see the elephants dance?" + +Kala Nag put Little Toomai down, and he bowed to the earth again and +went away with his father, and gave the silver four-anna piece to his +mother, who was nursing his baby-brother, and they all were put up on +Kala Nag's back, and the line of grunting, squealing elephants rolled +down the hill-path to the plains. It was a very lively march on account +of the new elephants, who gave trouble at every ford, and who needed +coaxing or beating every other minute. + +Big Toomai prodded Kala Nag spitefully, for he was very angry, but +Little Toomai was too happy to speak. Petersen Sahib had noticed him, +and given him money, so he felt as a private soldier would feel if he +had been called out of the ranks and praised by his commander-in-chief. + +"What did Petersen Sahib mean by the elephant-dance?" he said, at last, +softly to his mother. + +Big Toomai heard him and grunted. "That thou shouldst never be one of +these hill-buffaloes of trackers. _That_ was what he meant. Oh you in +front, what is blocking the way?" + +An Assamese driver, two or three elephants ahead, turned round angrily, +crying: "Bring up Kala Nag, and knock this youngster of mine into good +behavior. Why should Petersen Sahib have chosen _me_ to go down with you +donkeys of the rice-fields? Lay your beast alongside, Toomai, and let +him prod with his tusks. By all the Gods of the Hills, these new +elephants are possessed, or else they can smell their companions in the +jungle." + +Kala Nag hit the new elephant in the ribs and knocked the wind out of +him, as Big Toomai said, "We have swept the hills of wild elephants at +the last catch. It is only your carelessness in driving. Must I keep +order along the whole line?" + +"Hear him!" said the other driver. "_We_ have swept the hills! Ho! ho! +You are very wise, you plains-people. Any one but a mudhead who never +saw the jungle would know that _they_ know that the drives are ended for +the season. Therefore all the wild elephants to-night will--but why +should I waste wisdom on a river-turtle?" + +"What will they do?" Little Toomai called out. + +"_Ohe_, little one. Art thou there? Well, I will tell thee, for thou +hast a cool head. They will dance, and it behooves thy father, who has +swept _all_ the hills of _all_ the elephants, to double-chain his +pickets to-night." + +"What talk is this?" said Big Toomai. "For forty years, father and son, +we have tended elephants, and we have never heard such moonshine about +dances." + +"Yes; but a plains-man who lives in a hut knows only the four walls of +his hut. Well, leave thy elephants unshackled to-night and see what +comes; as for their dancing, I have seen the place where--_Bapree-Bap!_ +how many windings has the Dihang River? Here is another ford, and we +must swim the calves. Stop still, you behind there." + +And in this way, talking and wrangling and splashing through the rivers, +they made their first march to a sort of receiving-camp for the new +elephants; but they lost their tempers long before they got there. + +Then the elephants were chained by their hind legs to their big stumps +of pickets, and extra ropes were fitted to the new elephants, and the +fodder was piled before them, and the hill-drivers went back to Petersen +Sahib through the afternoon light, telling the plains-drivers to be +extra careful that night, and laughing when the plains-drivers asked the +reason. + +Little Toomai attended to Kala Nag's supper, and as evening fell, +wandered through the camp, unspeakably happy, in search of a tom-tom. +When an Indian child's heart is full, he does not run about and make a +noise in an irregular fashion. He sits down to a sort of revel all by +himself. And Little Toomai had been spoken to by Petersen Sahib! If he +had not found what he wanted I believe he would have burst. But the +sweatmeat-seller in the camp lent him a little tom-tom--a drum beaten +with the flat of the hand--and he sat down, cross-legged, before Kala +Nag as the stars began to come out, the tom-tom in his lap, and he +thumped and he thumped and he thumped, and the more he thought of the +great honor that had been done to him, the more he thumped, all alone +among the elephant-fodder. There was no tune and no words, but the +thumping made him happy. + +The new elephants strained at their ropes, and squealed and trumpeted +from time to time, and he could hear his mother in the camp hut putting +his small brother to sleep with an old, old song about the great God +Shiv, who once told all the animals what they should eat. It is a very +soothing lullaby, and the first verse says: + + Shiv, who poured the harvest and made the winds to blow, + Sitting at the doorways of a day of long ago, + Gave to each his portion, food and toil and fate, + From the King upon the _guddee_ to the Beggar at the gate. + All things made he--Shiva the Preserver. + Mahadeo! Mahadeo! he made all,-- + Thorn for the camel, fodder for the kine, + And mother's heart for sleepy head, O little son of mine! + +Little Toomai came in with a joyous _tunk-a-tunk_ at the end of each +verse, till he felt sleepy and stretched himself on the fodder at Kala +Nag's side. + +At last the elephants began to lie down one after another as is their +custom, till only Kala Nag at the right of the line was left standing +up; and he rocked slowly from side to side, his ears put forward to +listen to the night wind as it blew very slowly across the hills. The +air was full of all the night noises that, taken together, make one big +silence--the click of one bamboo-stem against the other, the rustle of +something alive in the undergrowth, the scratch and squawk of a +half-waked bird (birds are awake in the night much more often than we +imagine), and the fall of water ever so far away. Little Toomai slept +for some time, and when he waked it was brilliant moonlight, and Kala +Nag was still standing up with his ears cocked. Little Toomai turned, +rustling in the fodder, and watched the curve of his big back against +half the stars in heaven, and while he watched he heard, so far away +that it sounded no more than a pinhole of noise pricked through the +stillness, the "hoot-toot" of a wild elephant. + +All the elephants in the lines jumped up as if they had been shot, and +their grunts at last waked the sleeping mahouts, and they came out and +drove in the picket-pegs with big mallets, and tightened this rope and +knotted that till all was quiet. One new elephant had nearly grubbed up +his picket, and Big Toomai took off Kala Nag's leg-chain and shackled +that elephant fore foot to hind foot, but slipped a loop of grass-string +round Kala Nag's leg, and told him to remember that he was tied fast. He +knew that he and his father and his grandfather had done the very same +thing hundreds of times before. Kala Nag did not answer to the order by +gurgling, as he usually did. He stood still, looking out across the +moonlight, his head a little raised and his ears spread like fans, up +to the great folds of the Garo hills. + +"Look to him if he grows restless in the night," said Big Toomai to +Little Toomai, and he went into the hut and slept. Little Toomai was +just going to sleep, too, when he heard the coir string snap with a +little "tang," and Kala Nag rolled out of his pickets as slowly and as +silently as a cloud rolls out of the mouth of a valley. Little Toomai +pattered after him, bare-footed, down the road in the moonlight, calling +under his breath, "Kala Nag! Kala Nag! Take me with you, O Kala Nag!" +The elephant turned without a sound, took three strides back to the boy +in the moonlight, put down his trunk, swung him up to his neck, and +almost before Little Toomai had settled his knees, slipped into the +forest. + +There was one blast of furious trumpeting from the lines, and then the +silence shut down on everything, and Kala Nag began to move. Sometimes a +tuft of high grass washed along his sides as a wave washes along the +sides of a ship, and sometimes a cluster of wild-pepper vines would +scrape along his back, or a bamboo would creak where his shoulder +touched it; but between those times he moved absolutely without any +sound, drifting through the thick Garo forest as though it had been +smoke. He was going uphill, but though Little Toomai watched the stars +in the rifts of the trees, he could not tell in what direction. + +Then Kala Nag reached the crest of the ascent and stopped for a minute, +and Little Toomai could see the tops of the trees lying all speckled and +furry under the moonlight for miles and miles, and the blue-white mist +over the river in the hollow. Toomai leaned forward and looked, and he +felt that the forest was awake below him--awake and alive and crowded. A +big brown fruit-eating bat brushed past his ear; a porcupine's quills +rattled in the thicket, and in the darkness between the tree-stems he +heard a hog-bear digging hard in the moist warm earth, and snuffing as +it digged. + +Then the branches closed over his head again, and Kala Nag began to go +down into the valley--not quietly this time, but as a runaway gun goes +down a steep bank--in one rush. The huge limbs moved as steadily as +pistons, eight feet to each stride, and the wrinkled skin of the +elbow-points rustled. The undergrowth on either side of him ripped with +a noise like torn canvas, and the saplings that he heaved away right +and left with his shoulders sprang back again, and banged him on the +flank, and great trails of creepers, all matted together, hung from his +tusks as he threw his head from side to side and plowed out his pathway. +Then Little Toomai laid himself down close to the great neck, lest a +swinging bough should sweep him to the ground, and he wished that he +were back in the lines again. + +The grass began to get squashy, and Kala Nag's feet sucked and squelched +as he put them down, and the night mist at the bottom of the valley +chilled Little Toomai. There was a splash and a trample, and the rush of +running water, and Kala Nag strode through the bed of a river, feeling +his way at each step. Above the noise of the water, as it swirled round +the elephant's legs, Little Toomai could hear more splashing and some +trumpeting both up-stream and down--great grunts and angry snortings, +and all the mist about him seemed to be full of rolling wavy shadows. + +"_Ai!_" he said, half aloud, his teeth chattering. "The elephant-folk +are out to-night. It _is_ the dance, then." + +Kala Nag swashed out of the water, blew his trunk clear, and began +another climb; but this time he was not alone, and he had not to make +his path. That was made already, six feet wide, in front of him, where +the bent jungle-grass was trying to recover itself and stand up. Many +elephants must have gone that way only a few minutes before. Little +Toomai looked back, and behind him a great wild tusker with his little +pig's eyes glowing like hot coals, was just lifting himself out of the +misty river. Then the trees closed up again, and they went on and up, +with trumpetings and crashings, and the sound of breaking branches on +every side of them. + +At last Kala Nag stood still between two tree-trunks at the very top of +the hill. They were part of a circle of trees that grew round an +irregular space of some three or four acres, and in all that space, as +Little Toomai could see, the ground had been trampled down as hard as a +brick floor. Some trees grew in the center of the clearing, but their +bark was rubbed away, and the white wood beneath showed all shiny and +polished in the patches of moonlight. There were creepers hanging from +the upper branches, and the bells of the flowers of the creepers, great +waxy white things like convolvuluses, hung down fast asleep; but within +the limits of the clearing there was not a single blade of +green--nothing but the trampled earth. + +The moonlight showed it all iron-gray, except where some elephants stood +upon it, and their shadows were inky black. Little Toomai looked, +holding his breath, with his eyes starting out of his head, and as he +looked, more and more and more elephants swung out into the open from +between the tree-trunks. Little Toomai could count only up to ten, and +he counted again and again on his fingers till he lost count of the +tens, and his head began to swim. Outside the clearing he could hear +them crashing in the undergrowth as they worked their way up the +hillside; but as soon as they were within the circle of the tree-trunks +they moved like ghosts. + +There were white-tusked wild males, with fallen leaves and nuts and +twigs lying in the wrinkles of their necks and the folds of their ears; +fat slow-footed she-elephants, with restless, little pinky-black calves +only three or four feet high running under their stomachs; young +elephants with their tusks just beginning to show, and very proud of +them; lanky, scraggy old-maid elephants, with their hollow anxious +faces, and trunks like rough bark; savage old bull-elephants, scarred +from shoulder to flank with great weals and cuts of bygone fights, and +the caked dirt of their solitary mud-baths dropping from their +shoulders; and there was one with a broken tusk and the marks of the +full-stroke, the terrible drawing scrape, of a tiger's claws on his +side. + +They were standing head to head, or walking to and fro across the ground +in couples, or rocking and swaying all by themselves--scores and scores +of elephants. + +Toomai knew that so long as he lay still on Kala Nag's neck nothing +would happen to him; for even in the rush and scramble of a Keddah-drive +a wild elephant does not reach up with his trunk and drag a man off the +neck of a tame elephant; and these elephants were not thinking of men +that night. Once they started and put their ears forward when they heard +the chinking of a leg-iron in the forest, but it was Pudmini, Petersen +Sahib's pet elephant, her chain snapped short off, grunting, snuffling +up the hillside. She must have broken her pickets, and come straight +from Petersen Sahib's camp; and Little Toomai saw another elephant, one +that he did not know, with deep rope-galls on his back and breast. He, +too, must have run away from some camp in the hills about. + +At last there was no sound of any more elephants moving in the forest, +and Kala Nag rolled out from his station between the trees and went +into the middle of the crowd, clucking and gurgling, and all the +elephants began to talk in their own tongue, and to move about. + + [Illustration: "LITTLE TOOMAI LOOKED DOWN UPON SCORES AND SCORES OF + BROAD BACKS."] + +Still lying down, Little Toomai looked down upon scores and scores of +broad backs, and wagging ears, and tossing trunks, and little rolling +eyes. He heard the click of tusks as they crossed other tusks by +accident, and the dry rustle of trunks twined together, and the chafing +of enormous sides and shoulders in the crowd, and the incessant flick +and _hissh_ of the great tails. Then a cloud came over the moon, and he +sat in black darkness; but the quiet, steady hustling and pushing and +gurgling went on just the same. He knew that there were elephants all +round Kala Nag, and that there was no chance of backing him out of the +assembly; so he set his teeth and shivered. In a Keddah at least there +was torch-light and shouting, but here he was all alone in the dark, and +once a trunk came up and touched him on the knee. + +Then an elephant trumpeted, and they all took it up for five or ten +terrible seconds. The dew from the trees above spattered down like rain +on the unseen backs, and a dull booming noise began, not very loud at +first, and Little Toomai could not tell what it was; but it grew and +grew, and Kala Nag lifted up one fore foot and then the other, and +brought them down on the ground--one-two, one-two, as steadily as +trip-hammers. The elephants were stamping altogether now, and it sounded +like a war-drum beaten at the mouth of a cave. The dew fell from the +trees till there was no more left to fall, and the booming went on, and +the ground rocked and shivered, and Little Toomai put his hands up to +his ears to shut out the sound. But it was all one gigantic jar that ran +through him--this stamp of hundreds of heavy feet on the raw earth. Once +or twice he could feel Kala Nag and all the others surge forward a few +strides, and the thumping would change to the crushing sound of juicy +green things being bruised, but in a minute or two the boom of feet on +hard earth began again. A tree was creaking and groaning somewhere near +him. He put out his arm and felt the bark, but Kala Nag moved forward, +still tramping, and he could not tell where he was in the clearing. +There was no sound from the elephants, except once, when two or three +little calves squeaked together. Then he heard a thump and a shuffle, +and the booming went on. It must have lasted fully two hours, and Little +Toomai ached in every nerve; but he knew by the smell of the night air +that the dawn was coming. + +The morning broke in one sheet of pale yellow behind the green hills, +and the booming stopped with the first ray, as though the light had been +an order. Before Little Toomai had got the ringing out of his head, +before even he had shifted his position, there was not an elephant in +sight except Kala Nag, Pudmini, and the elephant with the rope-galls, +and there was neither sign nor rustle nor whisper down the hillsides to +show where the others had gone. + +Little Toomai stared again and again. The clearing, as he remembered it, +had grown in the night. More trees stood in the middle of it, but the +undergrowth and the jungle-grass at the sides had been rolled back. +Little Toomai stared once more. Now he understood the trampling. The +elephants had stamped out more room--had stamped the thick grass and +juicy cane to trash, the trash into slivers, the slivers into tiny +fibers, and the fibers into hard earth. + +"Wah!" said Little Toomai, and his eyes were very heavy. "Kala Nag, my +lord, let us keep by Pudmini and go to Peterson Sahib's camp, or I shall +drop from thy neck." + +The third elephant watched the two go away, snorted, wheeled round, and +took his own path. He may have belonged to some little native king's +establishment, fifty or sixty or a hundred miles away. + +Two hours later, as Petersen Sahib was eating early breakfast, his +elephants, who had been double-chained that night, began to trumpet, and +Pudmini, mired to the shoulders, with Kala Nag, very foot-sore, shambled +into the camp. + +Little Toomai's face was gray and pinched, and his hair was full of +leaves and drenched with dew; but he tried to salute Petersen Sahib, and +cried faintly: "The dance--the elephant-dance! I have seen it, and--I +die!" As Kala Nag sat down, he slid off his neck in a dead faint. + +But, since native children have no nerves worth speaking of, in two +hours he was lying very contentedly in Petersen Sahib's hammock with +Petersen Sahib's shooting-coat under his head, and a glass of warm milk, +a little brandy, with a dash of quinine inside of him, and while the old +hairy, scarred hunters of the jungles sat three-deep before him, looking +at him as though he were a spirit, he told his tale in short words, as a +child will, and wound up with: + +"Now, if I lie in one word, send men to see, and they will find that the +elephant-folk have trampled down more room in their dance-room, and they +will find ten and ten, and many times ten, tracks leading to that +dance-room. They made more room with their feet. I have seen it. Kala +Nag took me, and I saw. Also Kala Nag is very leg-weary!" + +Little Toomai lay back and slept all through the long afternoon and into +the twilight, and while he slept Petersen Sahib and Machua Appa followed +the track of the two elephants for fifteen miles across the hills. +Petersen Sahib had spent eighteen years in catching elephants, and he +had only once before found such a dance-place. Machua Appa had no need +to look twice at the clearing to see what had been done there, or to +scratch with his toe in the packed, rammed earth. + +"The child speaks truth," said he. "All this was done last night, and I +have counted seventy tracks crossing the river. See, Sahib, where +Pudmini's leg-iron cut the bark of that tree! Yes; she was there too." + +They looked at each other, and up and down, and they wondered; for the +ways of elephants are beyond the wit of any man, black or white, to +fathom. + +"Forty years and five," said Machua Appa, "have I followed my lord, the +elephant, but never have I heard that any child of man had seen what +this child has seen. By all the Gods of the Hills, it is--what can we +say?" and he shook his head. + +When they got back to camp it was time for the evening meal. Peterson +Sahib ate alone in his tent, but he gave orders that the camp should +have two sheep and some fowls, as well as a double-ration of flour and +rice and salt, for he knew that there would be a feast. + +Big Toomai had come up hot-foot from the camp in the plains to search +for his son and his elephant, and now that he had found them he looked +at them as though he were afraid of them both. And there was a feast by +the blazing campfires in front of the lines of picketed elephants, and +Little Toomai was the hero of it all; and the big brown +elephant-catchers, the trackers and drivers and ropers, and the men who +know all the secrets of breaking the wildest elephants, passed him from +one to the other, and they marked his forehead with blood from the +breast of a newly killed jungle-cock, to show that he was a forester, +initiated and free of all the jungles. + +And at last, when the flames died down, and the red light of the logs +made the elephants look as though they had been dipped in blood too, +Machua Appa, the head of all the drivers of all the Keddahs--Machua +Appa, Petersen Sahib's other self, who had never seen a made road in +forty years: Machua Appa, who was so great that he had no other name +than Machua Appa--leaped to his feet, with Little Toomai held high in +the air above his head, and shouted: "Listen, my brothers. Listen, too, +you my lords in the lines there, for I, Machua Appa, am speaking! This +little one shall no more be called Little Toomai, but Toomai of the +Elephants, as his great-grandfather was called before him. What never +man has seen he has seen through the long night, and the favor of the +elephant-folk and of the Gods of the Jungles is with him. He shall +become a great tracker; he shall become greater than I, even I, Machua +Appa! He shall follow the new trail, and the stale trail, and the mixed +trail, with a clear eye! He shall take no harm in the Keddah when he +runs under their bellies to rope the wild tuskers; and if he slips +before the feet of the charging bull-elephant that bull-elephant shall +know who he is and shall not crush him. _Aihai!_ my lords in the +chains,"--he whirled up the line of pickets,--"here is the little one +that has seen your dances in your hidden places--the sight that never +man saw! Give him honor, my lords! _Salaam karo_, my children. Make your +salute to Toomai of the Elephants! Gunga Pershad, ahaa! Hira Guj, +Birchi Guj, Kuttar Guj, ahaa! Pudmini,--thou hast seen him at the dance, +and thou too, Kala Nag, my pearl among elephants!--ahaa! Together! To +Toomai of the Elephants. _Barrao!_" + + [Illustration: "'TO TOOMAI OF THE ELEPHANTS. BARRAO!'"] + +And at that last wild yell the whole line flung up their trunks till the +tips touched their foreheads, and broke out into the full salute--the +crashing trumpet-peal that only the Viceroy of India hears, the Salaamut +of the Keddah. + +But it was all for the sake of Little Toomai, who had seen what never +man had seen before--the dance of the elephants at night and alone in +the heart of the Garo hills! + + + SHIV AND THE GRASSHOPPER + + (THE SONG THAT TOOMAI'S MOTHER SANG TO + THE BABY) + + Shiv, who poured the harvest and made the winds to blow, + Sitting at the doorways of a day of long ago, + Gave to each his portion, food and toil and fate, + From the King upon the _guddee_ to the Beggar at the gate. + _All things made he--Shiva the Preserver, + Mahadeo! Mahadeo! he made all,-- + Thorn for the camel, fodder for the kine, + And mother's heart for sleepy head, O little son of mine!_ + + Wheat he gave to rich folk, millet to the poor, + Broken scraps for holy men that beg from door to door; + Cattle to the tiger, carrion to the kite, + And rags and bones to wicked wolves without the wall at night. + Naught he found too lofty, none he saw too low-- + Parbati beside him watched them come and go; + Thought to cheat her husband, turning Shiv to jest-- + Stole the little grasshopper and hid it in her breast. + _So she tricked him, Shiva the Preserver. + Mahadeo! Mahadeo! turn and see. + Tall are the camels, heavy are the kine, + But this was least of little things, O little son of mine!_ + + When the dole was ended, laughingly she said, + "Master, of a million mouths is not one unfed?" + Laughing, Shiv made answer, "All have had their part, + Even he, the little one, hidden 'neath thy heart." + From her breast she plucked it, Parbati the thief, + Saw the Least of Little Things gnawed a new-grown leaf! + Saw and feared and wondered, making prayer to Shiv, + Who hath surely given meat to all that live. + _All things made he--Shiva the Preserver. + Mahadeo! Mahadeo! he made all,-- + Thorn for the camel, fodder for the kine, + And mother's heart for sleepy head, O little son of mine!_ + + + + + HER MAJESTY'S SERVANTS + + + You can work it out by Fractions or by simple Rule of Three, + But the way of Tweedle-dum is not the way of Tweedle-dee. + You can twist it, you can turn it, you can plait it till you drop + But the way of Pilly-Winky's not the way of Winkie-Pop! + + + [Illustration] + + HER MAJESTY'S SERVANTS + + +IT had been raining heavily for one whole month--raining on a camp of +thirty thousand men, thousands of camels, elephants, horses, bullocks, +and mules, all gathered together at a place called Rawal Pindi, to be +reviewed by the Viceroy of India. He was receiving a visit from the Amir +of Afghanistan--a wild king of a very wild country; and the Amir had +brought with him for a bodyguard eight hundred men and horses who had +never seen a camp or a locomotive before in their lives--savage men and +savage horses from somewhere at the back of Central Asia. Every night a +mob of these horses would be sure to break their heel-ropes, and +stampede up and down the camp through the mud in the dark, or the +camels would break loose and run about and fall over the ropes of the +tents, and you can imagine how pleasant that was for men trying to go to +sleep. My tent lay far away from the camel lines, and I thought it was +safe; but one night a man popped his head in and shouted, "Get out, +quick! They're coming! My tent's gone!" + +I knew who "they" were; so I put on my boots and waterproof and scuttled +out into the slush. Little Vixen, my fox-terrier, went out through the +other side; and then there was a roaring and a grunting and bubbling, +and I saw the tent cave in, as the pole snapped, and begin to dance +about like a mad ghost. A camel had blundered into it, and wet and angry +as I was, I could not help laughing. Then I ran on, because I did not +know how many camels might have got loose, and before long I was out of +sight of the camp, plowing my way through the mud. + + [Illustration: "A CAMEL HAD BLUNDERED INTO MY TENT."] + +At last I fell over the tail-end of a gun, and by that knew I was +somewhere near the Artillery lines where the cannon were stacked at +night. As I did not want to plowter about any more in the drizzle and +the dark, I put my waterproof over the muzzle of one gun, and made a +sort of wigwam with two or three rammers that I found, and lay along +the tail of another gun, wondering where Vixen had got to, and where I +might be. + +Just as I was getting ready to sleep I heard a jingle of harness and a +grunt, and a mule passed me shaking his wet ears. He belonged to a +screw-gun battery, for I could hear the rattle of the straps and rings +and chains and things on his saddle-pad. The screw-guns are tidy little +cannon made in two pieces, that are screwed together when the time comes +to use them. They are taken up mountains, anywhere that a mule can find +a road, and they are very useful for fighting in rocky country. + +Behind the mule there was a camel, with his big soft feet squelching and +slipping in the mud, and his neck bobbing to and fro like a strayed +hen's. Luckily, I knew enough of beast language--not wild-beast +language, but camp-beast language, of course--from the natives to know +what he was saying. + +He must have been the one that flopped into my tent, for he called to +the mule, "What shall I do? Where shall I go? I have fought with a white +thing that waved, and it took a stick and hit me on the neck." (That was +my broken tentpole, and I was very glad to know it.) "Shall we run on?" + +"Oh, it was you," said the mule, "you and your friends, that have been +disturbing the camp? All right. You'll be beaten for this in the +morning; but I may as well give you something on account now." + +I heard the harness jingle as the mule backed and caught the camel two +kicks in the ribs that rang like a drum. "Another time," he said, +"you'll know better than to run through a mule-battery at night, +shouting 'Thieves and fire!' Sit down, and keep your silly neck quiet." + +The camel doubled up camel-fashion, like a two-foot rule, and sat down +whimpering. There was a regular beat of hoofs in the darkness, and a big +troop-horse cantered up as steadily as though he were on parade, jumped +a gun-tail, and landed close to the mule. + +"It's disgraceful," he said, blowing out his nostrils. "Those camels +have racketed through our lines again--the third time this week. How's a +horse to keep his condition if he isn't allowed to sleep? Who's here?" + +"I'm the breech-piece mule of number two gun of the First Screw +Battery," said the mule, "and the other's one of your friends. He's +waked me up too. Who are you?" + +"Number Fifteen, E troop, Ninth Lancers--Dick Cunliffe's horse. Stand +over a little, there." + +"Oh, beg your pardon," said the mule. "It's too dark to see much. Aren't +these camels too sickening for anything? I walked out of my lines to get +a little peace and quiet here." + +"My lords," said the camel humbly, "we dreamed bad dreams in the night, +and we were very much afraid. I am only a baggage-camel of the 39th +Native Infantry, and I am not so brave as you are, my lords." + +"Then why the pickets didn't you stay and carry baggage for the 39th +Native Infantry, instead of running all round the camp?" said the mule. + +"They were such very bad dreams," said the camel. "I am sorry. Listen! +What is that? Shall we run on again?" + +"Sit down," said the mule, "or you'll snap your long legs between the +guns." He cocked one ear and listened. "Bullocks!" he said; +"gun-bullocks. On my word, you and your friends have waked the camp very +thoroughly. It takes a good deal of prodding to put up a gun-bullock." + +I heard a chain dragging along the ground, and a yoke of the great sulky +white bullocks that drag the heavy siege-guns when the elephants won't +go any nearer to the firing, came shouldering along together; and almost +stepping on the chain was another battery-mule, calling wildly for +"Billy." + +"That's one of our recruits," said the old mule to the troop-horse. +"He's calling for me. Here, youngster, stop squealing; the dark never +hurt anybody yet." + +The gun-bullocks lay down together and began chewing the cud, but the +young mule huddled close to Billy. + +"Things!" he said; "fearful and horrible things, Billy! They came into +our lines while we were asleep. D'you think they'll kill us?" + +"I've a very great mind to give you a number one kicking," said Billy. +"The idea of a fourteen-hand mule with your training disgracing the +battery before this gentleman!" + +"Gently, gently!" said the troop-horse. "Remember they are always like +this to begin with. The first time I ever saw a man (it was in Australia +when I was a three-year-old) I ran for half a day, and if I'd seen a +camel I should have been running still." + +Nearly all our horses for the English cavalry are brought to India from +Australia, and are broken in by the troopers themselves. + +"True enough," said Billy. "Stop shaking, youngster. The first time they +put the full harness with all its chains on my back, I stood on my fore +legs and kicked every bit of it off. I hadn't learned the real science +of kicking then, but the battery said they had never seen anything like +it." + +"But this wasn't harness or anything that jingled," said the young mule. +"You know I don't mind that now, Billy. It was Things like trees, and +they fell up and down the lines and bubbled; and my head-rope broke, and +I couldn't find my driver, and I couldn't find you, Billy, so I ran off +with--with these gentlemen." + +"H'm!" said Billy. "As soon as I heard the camels were loose I came away +on my own account, quietly. When a battery--a screw-gun mule calls +gun-bullocks gentlemen, he must be very badly shaken up. Who are you +fellows on the ground there?" + +The gun-bullocks rolled their cuds, and answered both together: "The +seventh yoke of the first gun of the Big Gun Battery. We were asleep +when the camels came, but when we were trampled on we got up and walked +away. It is better to lie quiet in the mud than to be disturbed on good +bedding. We told your friend here that there was nothing to be afraid +of, but he knew so much that he thought otherwise. Wah!" + +They went on chewing. + +"That comes of being afraid," said Billy. "You get laughed at by +gun-bullocks. I hope you like it, young 'un." + +The young mule's teeth snapped, and I heard him say something about not +being afraid of any beefy old bullock in the world; but the bullocks +only clicked their horns together and went on chewing. + +"Now, don't be angry _after_ you've been afraid. That's the worst kind +of cowardice," said the troop-horse. "Anybody can be forgiven for being +scared in the night, _I_ think, if they see things they don't +understand. We've broken out of our pickets, again and again, four +hundred and fifty of us, just because a new recruit got to telling tales +of whip-snakes at home in Australia till we were scared to death of the +loose ends of our head-ropes." + +[Illustration: "'ANYBODY CAN BE FORGIVEN FOR BEING SCARED IN THE NIGHT,' + SAID THE TROOP-HORSE."] + +"That's all very well in camp," said Billy; "I'm not above stampeding +myself, for the fun of the thing, when I haven't been out for a day or +two; but what do you do on active service?" + +"Oh, that's quite another set of new shoes," said the troop-horse. "Dick +Cunliffe's on my back then, and drives his knees into me, and all I +have to do is to watch where I am putting my feet, and to keep my hind +legs well under me, and be bridle-wise." + +"What's bridle-wise?" said the young mule. + +"By the Blue Gums of the Back Blocks," snorted the troop-horse, "do you +mean to say that you aren't taught to be bridle-wise in your business? +How can you do anything, unless you can spin round at once when the rein +is pressed on your neck? It means life or death to your man, and of +course that's life or death to you. Get round with your hind legs under +you the instant you feel the rein on your neck. If you haven't room to +swing round, rear up a little and come round on your hind legs. That's +being bridle-wise." + +"We aren't taught that way," said Billy the mule stiffly. "We're taught +to obey the man at our head: step off when he says so, and step in when +he says so. I suppose it comes to the same thing. Now, with all this +fine fancy business and rearing, which must be very bad for your hocks, +what do you _do_?" + +"That depends," said the troop-horse. "Generally I have to go in among a +lot of yelling, hairy men with knives,--long shiny knives, worse than +the farrier's knives,--and I have to take care that Dick's boot is just +touching the next man's boot without crushing it. I can see Dick's lance +to the right of my right eye, and I know I'm safe. I shouldn't care to +be the man or horse that stood up to Dick and me when we're in a hurry." + +"Don't the knives hurt?" said the young mule. + +"Well, I got one cut across the chest once, but that wasn't Dick's +fault--" + +"A lot I should have cared whose fault it was, if it hurt!" said the +young mule. + +"You must," said the troop-horse. "If you don't trust your man, you may +as well run away at once. That's what some of our horses do, and I don't +blame them. As I was saying, it wasn't Dick's fault. The man was lying +on the ground, and I stretched myself not to tread on him, and he +slashed up at me. Next time I have to go over a man lying down I shall +step on him--hard." + +[Illustration: "'THE MAN WAS LYING ON THE GROUND, AND I STRETCHED MYSELF + NOT TO TREAD ON HIM, AND HE SLASHED UP AT ME.'"] + +"H'm!" said Billy; "it sounds very foolish. Knives are dirty things at +any time. The proper thing to do is to climb up a mountain with a +well-balanced saddle, hang on by all four feet and your ears too, and +creep and crawl and wriggle along, till you come out hundreds of feet +above any one else, on a ledge where there's just room enough for your +hoofs. Then you stand still and keep quiet,--never ask a man to hold +your head, young 'un,--keep quiet while the guns are being put together, +and then you watch the little poppy shells drop down into the tree-tops +ever so far below." + +"Don't you ever trip?" said the troop-horse. + +"They say that when a mule trips you can split a hen's ear," said Billy. +"Now and again _per-haps_ a badly packed saddle will upset a mule, but +it's very seldom. I wish I could show you our business. It's beautiful. +Why, it took me three years to find out what the men were driving at. +The science of the thing is never to show up against the sky-line, +because, if you do, you may get fired at. Remember that, young 'un. +Always keep hidden as much as possible, even if you have to go a mile +out of your way. I lead the battery when it comes to that sort of +climbing." + +"Fired at without the chance of running into the people who are firing!" +said the troop-horse, thinking hard. "I couldn't stand that. I should +want to charge, with Dick." + +"Oh no, you wouldn't; you know that as soon as the guns are in position +_they'll_ do all the charging. That's scientific and neat; but +knives--pah!" + +The baggage-camel had been bobbing his head to and fro for some time +past, anxious to get a word in edgeways. Then I heard him say, as he +cleared his throat, nervously: + +"I--I--I have fought a little, but not in that climbing way or that +running way." + +"No. Now you mention it," said Billy, "you don't look as though you were +made for climbing or running--much. Well, how was it, old Hay-bales?" + +"The proper way," said the camel. "We all sat down--" + +"Oh, my crupper and breastplate!" said the troop-horse under his breath. +"Sat down?" + +"We sat down--a hundred of us," the camel went on, "in a big square, and +the men piled our packs and saddles outside the square, and they fired +over our backs, the men did, on all sides of the square." + +"What sort of men? Any men that came along?" said the troop-horse. "They +teach us in riding-school to lie down and let our masters fire across +us, but Dick Cunliffe is the only man I'd trust to do that. It tickles +my girths, and, besides, I can't see with my head on the ground." + +"What does it matter who fires across you?" said the camel. "There are +plenty of men and plenty of other camels close by, and a great many +clouds of smoke. I am not frightened then. I sit still and wait." + +"And yet," said Billy, "you dream bad dreams and upset the camp at +night. Well! well! Before I'd lie down, not to speak of sitting down, +and let a man fire across me, my heels and his head would have something +to say to each other. Did you ever hear anything so awful as that?" + +There was a long silence, and then one of the gun-bullocks lifted up his +big head and said, "This is very foolish indeed. There is only one way +of fighting." + +"Oh, go on," said Billy. "_Please_ don't mind me. I suppose you fellows +fight standing on your tails?" + +"Only one way," said the two together. (They must have been twins.) +"This is that way. To put all twenty yoke of us to the big gun as soon +as Two Tails trumpets." ("Two Tails" is camp slang for the elephant.) + +"What does Two Tails trumpet for?" said the young mule. + +"To show that he is not going any nearer to the smoke on the other side. +Two Tails is a great coward. Then we tug the big gun all +together--_Heya_--_Hullah! Heeyah! Hullah!_ _We_ do not climb like cats +nor run like calves. We go across the level plain, twenty yoke of us, +till we are unyoked again, and we graze while the big guns talk across +the plain to some town with mud walls, and pieces of the wall fall out, +and the dust goes up as though many cattle were coming home." + +"Oh! And you choose that time for grazing do you?" said the young mule. + +"That time or any other. Eating is always good. We eat till we are yoked +up again and tug the gun back to where Two Tails is waiting for it. +Sometimes there are big guns in the city that speak back, and some of us +are killed, and then there is all the more grazing for those that are +left. This is Fate--nothing but Fate. None the less, Two Tails is a +great coward. That is the proper way to fight. We are brothers from +Hapur. Our father was a sacred bull of Shiva. We have spoken." + +"Well, I've certainly learned something tonight," said the troop-horse. +"Do you gentlemen of the screw-gun battery feel inclined to eat when you +are being fired at with big guns, and Two Tails is behind you?" + +"About as much as we feel inclined to sit down and let men sprawl all +over us, or run into people with knives. I never heard such stuff. A +mountain ledge, a well-balanced load, a driver you can trust to let you +pick your own way, and I'm your mule; but the other things--no!" said +Billy, with a stamp of his foot. + +"Of course," said the troop-horse, "every one is not made in the same +way, and I can quite see that your family, on your father's side, would +fail to understand a great many things." + +"Never you mind my family on my father's side," said Billy angrily; for +every mule hates to be reminded that his father was a donkey. "My father +was a Southern gentleman, and he could pull down and bite and kick into +rags every horse he came across. Remember that, you big brown Brumby!" + +Brumby means wild horse without any breeding. Imagine the feelings of +Sunol if a car-horse called her a "skate," and you can imagine how the +Australian horse felt. I saw the white of his eye glitter in the dark. + +"See here, you son of an imported Malaga jackass," he said between his +teeth, "I'd have you know that I'm related on my mother's side to +Carbine, winner of the Melbourne Cup, and where _I_ come from we aren't +accustomed to being ridden over roughshod by any parrot-mouthed, +pig-headed mule in a pop-gun peashooter battery. Are you ready?" + +"On your hind legs!" squealed Billy. They both reared up facing each +other, and I was expecting a furious fight, when a gurgly, rumbly voice +called out of the darkness to the right--"Children, what are you +fighting about there? Be quiet." + +Both beasts dropped down with a snort of disgust, for neither horse nor +mule can bear to listen to an elephant's voice. + +"It's Two Tails!" said the troop-horse. "I can't stand him. A tail at +each end isn't fair!" + +"My feelings exactly," said Billy, crowding into the troop-horse for +company. "We're very alike in some things." + +"I suppose we've inherited them from our mothers," said the troop-horse. +"It's not worth quarreling about. Hi! Two Tails, are you tied up?" + +"Yes," said Two Tails, with a laugh all up his trunk. "I'm picketed for +the night. I've heard what you fellows have been saying. But don't be +afraid. I'm not coming over." + +The bullocks and the camel said, half aloud: "Afraid of Two Tails--what +nonsense!" And the bullocks went on: "We are sorry that you heard, but +it is true. Two Tails, why are you afraid of the guns when they fire?" + +"Well," said Two Tails, rubbing one hind leg against the other, exactly +like a little boy saying a piece, "I don't quite know whether you'd +understand." + +"We don't, but we have to pull the guns," said the bullocks. + +"I know it, and I know you are a good deal braver than you think you +are. But it's different with me. My battery captain called me a +Pachydermatous Anachronism the other day." + +"That's another way of fighting, I suppose?" said Billy, who was +recovering his spirits. + +"_You_ don't know what that means, of course, but I do. It means betwixt +and between, and that is just where I am. I can see inside my head what +will happen when a shell bursts; and you bullocks can't." + +"I can," said the troop-horse. "At least a little bit. I try not to +think about it." + +"I can see more than you, and I _do_ think about it. I know there's a +great deal of me to take care of, and I know that nobody knows how to +cure me when I'm sick. All they can do is to stop my driver's pay till +I get well, and I can't trust my driver." + +"Ah!" said the troop-horse. "That explains it. I can trust Dick." + +"You could put a whole regiment of Dicks on my back without making me +feel any better. I know just enough to be uncomfortable, and not enough +to go on in spite of it." + +"We do not understand," said the bullocks. + +"I know you don't. I'm not talking to you. You don't know what blood +is." + +"We do," said the bullocks. "It is red stuff that soaks into the ground +and smells." + +The troop-horse gave a kick and a bound and a snort. + +"Don't talk of it," he said. "I can smell it now, just thinking of it. +It makes me want to run--when I haven't Dick on my back." + +"But it is not here," said the camel and the bullocks. "Why are you so +stupid?" + +"It's vile stuff," said Billy. "I don't want to run, but I don't want to +talk about it." + +"There you are!" said Two Tails, waving his tail to explain. + +"Surely. Yes, we have been here all night," said the bullocks. + +Two Tails stamped his foot till the iron ring on it jingled. "Oh, I'm +not talking to _you_. You can't see inside your heads." + +"No. We see out of our four eyes," said the bullocks. "We see straight +in front of us." + +"If I could do that and nothing else you wouldn't be needed to pull the +big guns at all. If I was like my captain--he can see things inside his +head before the firing begins, and he shakes all over, but he knows too +much to run away--if I was like him I could pull the guns. But if I were +as wise as all that I should never be here. I should be a king in the +forest, as I used to be, sleeping half the day and bathing when I liked. +I haven't had a good bath for a month." + +"That's all very fine," said Billy; "but giving a thing a long name +doesn't make it any better." + +"H'sh!" said the troop-horse. "I think I understand what Two Tails +means." + +"You'll understand better in a minute," said Two Tails angrily. "Now, +just you explain to me why you don't like _this_!" + +He began trumpeting furiously at the top of his trumpet. + +"Stop that!" said Billy and the troop-horse together, and I could hear +them stamp and shiver. An elephant's trumpeting is always nasty, +especially on a dark night. + +"I sha'n't stop," said Two Tails. "Won't you explain that, please? +_Hhrrmh! Rrrt! Rrrmph! Rrrhha!_" Then he stopped suddenly, and I heard +a little whimper in the dark, and knew that Vixen had found me at last. +She knew as well as I did that if there is one thing in the world the +elephant is more afraid of than another it is a little barking dog; so +she stopped to bully Two Tails in his pickets, and yapped round his big +feet. Two Tails shuffled and squeaked. "Go away, little dog!" he said. +"Don't snuff at my ankles, or I 'll kick at you. Good little dog--nice +little doggie, then! Go home, you yelping little beast! Oh, why doesn't +some one take her away? She'll bite me in a minute." + +"Seems to me," said Billy to the troop-horse, "that our friend Two Tails +is afraid of most things. Now, if I had a full meal for every dog I've +kicked across the parade-ground, I should be as fat as Two Tails +nearly." + +I whistled, and Vixen ran up to me, muddy all over, and licked my nose, +and told me a long tale about hunting for me all through the camp. I +never let her know that I understood beast talk, or she would have taken +all sorts of liberties. So I buttoned her into the breast of my +overcoat, and Two Tails shuffled and stamped and growled to himself. + +"Extraordinary! Most extraordinary!" he said. "It runs in our family. +Now, where has that nasty little beast gone to?" + +I heard him feeling about with his trunk. + +"We all seem to be affected in various ways," he went on, blowing his +nose. "Now, you gentlemen were alarmed, I believe, when I trumpeted." + +"Not alarmed, exactly," said the troop-horse, "but it made me feel as +though I had hornets where my saddle ought to be. Don't begin again." + +"I'm frightened of a little dog, and the camel here is frightened by bad +dreams in the night." + +"It is very lucky for us that we haven't all got to fight in the same +way," said the troop-horse. + +"What I want to know," said the young mule, who had been quiet for a +long time--"what _I_ want to know is, why we have to fight at all." + +"Because we are told to," said the troop-horse, with a snort of +contempt. + +"Orders," said Billy the mule; and his teeth snapped. + +"_Hukm hai!_" (It is an order), said the camel with a gurgle; and Two +Tails and the bullocks repeated, "_Hukm hai!_" + +"Yes, but who gives the orders?" said the recruit-mule. + +"The man who walks at your head--Or sits on your back--Or holds the +nose-rope--Or twists your tail," said Billy and the troop-horse and the +camel and the bullocks one after the other. + +"But who gives them the orders?" + +"Now you want to know too much, young un," said Billy, "and that is one +way of getting kicked. All you have to do is to obey the man at your +head and ask no questions." + +"He's quite right," said Two Tails. "I can't always obey, because I'm +betwixt and between; but Billy's right. Obey the man next to you who +gives the order, or you'll stop all the battery, besides getting a +thrashing." + +The gun-bullocks got up to go. "Morning is coming," they said. "We will +go back to our lines. It is true that we see only out of our eyes, and +we are not very clever; but still, we are the only people to-night who +have not been afraid. Good night, you brave people." + +Nobody answered, and the troop-horse said, to change the conversation, +"Where's that little dog? A dog means a man somewhere near." + +"Here I am," yapped Vixen, "under the gun-tail with my man. You big, +blundering beast of a camel you, you upset our tent. My man's very +angry." + +"Phew!" said the bullocks. "He must be white?" + +"Of course he is," said Vixen. "Do you suppose I'm looked after by a +black bullock-driver?" + +"_Huah! Ouach! Ugh!_" said the bullocks. "Let us get away quickly." + +They plunged forward in the mud, and managed somehow to run their yoke +on the pole of an ammunition-wagon, where it jammed. + +"Now you _have_ done it," said Billy calmly. "Don't struggle. You're +hung up till daylight. What on earth's the matter?" + +The bullocks went off into the long hissing snorts that Indian cattle +give, and pushed and crowded and slued and stamped and slipped and +nearly fell down in the mud, grunting savagely. + +"You'll break your necks in a minute," said the troop-horse. "What's the +matter with white men? I live with 'em." + +"They--eat--us! Pull!" said the near bullock: the yoke snapped with a +twang, and they lumbered off together. + +I never knew before what made Indian cattle so afraid of Englishmen. We +eat beef--a thing that no cattle-driver touches--and of course the +cattle do not like it. + +"May I be flogged with my own pad-chains! Who'd have thought of two big +lumps like those losing their heads?" said Billy. + +"Never mind. I'm going to look at this man. Most of the white men, I +know, have things in their pockets," said the troop-horse. + +"I'll leave you, then. I can't say I'm overfond of 'em myself. Besides, +white men who haven't a place to sleep in are more than likely to be +thieves, and I've a good deal of Government property on my back. Come +along, young 'un, and we'll go back to our lines. Good-night, Australia! +See you on parade to-morrow, I suppose. Good-night, old Hay-bale!--try +to control your feelings, won't you? Good-night, Two Tails! If you pass +us on the ground to-morrow, don't trumpet. It spoils our formation." + +Billy the mule stumped off with the swaggering limp of an old +campaigner, as the troop-horse's head came nuzzling into my breast, and +I gave him biscuits; while Vixen, who is a most conceited little dog, +told him fibs about the scores of horses that she and I kept. + +"I'm coming to the parade to-morrow in my dog-cart," she said. "Where +will you be?" + +"On the left hand of the second squadron. I set the time for all my +troop, little lady," he said politely. "Now I must go back to Dick. My +tail's all muddy, and he'll have two hours' hard work dressing me for +the parade." + +The big parade of all the thirty thousand men was held that afternoon, +and Vixen and I had a good place close to the Viceroy and the Amir of +Afghanistan, with his high big black hat of astrakhan wool and the great +diamond star in the center. The first part of the review was all +sunshine, and the regiments went by in wave upon wave of legs all moving +together, and guns all in a line, till our eyes grew dizzy. Then the +cavalry came up, to the beautiful cavalry canter of "Bonnie Dundee," and +Vixen cocked her ear where she sat on the dog-cart. The second squadron +of the lancers shot by, and there was the troop-horse, with his tail +like spun silk, his head pulled into his breast, one ear forward and one +back, setting the time for all his squadron, his legs going as smoothly +as waltz-music. Then the big guns came by, and I saw Two Tails and two +other elephants harnessed in line to a forty-pounder siege-gun while +twenty yoke of oxen walked behind. The seventh pair had a new yoke, and +they looked rather stiff and tired. Last came the screw-guns, and Billy +the mule carried himself as though he commanded all the troops, and his +harness was oiled and polished till it winked. I gave a cheer all by +myself for Billy the mule, but he never looked right or left. + +The rain began to fall again, and for a while it was too misty to see +what the troops were doing. They had made a big half-circle across the +plain, and were spreading out into a line. That line grew and grew and +grew till it was three-quarters of a mile long from wing to wing--one +solid wall of men, horses, and guns. Then it came on straight toward the +Viceroy and the Amir, and as it got nearer the ground began to shake, +like the deck of a steamer when the engines are going fast. + +Unless you have been there you cannot imagine what a frightening effect +this steady come-down of troops has on the spectators, even when they +know it is only a review. I looked at the Amir. Up till then he had not +shown the shadow of a sign of astonishment or anything else; but now his +eyes began to get bigger and bigger, and he picked up the reins on his +horse's neck and looked behind him. For a minute it seemed as though he +were going to draw his sword and slash his way out through the +English men and women in the carriages at the back. Then the advance +stopped dead, the ground stood still, the whole line saluted, and thirty +bands began to play all together. That was the end of the review, and +the regiments went off to their camps in the rain; and an infantry band +struck up with-- + + The animals went in two by two, + Hurrah! + The animals went in two by two, + The elephant and the battery mu- + l', and they all got into the Ark, + For to get out of the rain! + +Then I heard an old, grizzled, long-haired Central Asian chief, who had +come down with the Amir, asking questions of a native officer. + +[Illustration: "THEN I HEARD AN OLD, GRIZZLED, LONG-HAIRED, CENTRAL + ASIAN CHIEF ASKING QUESTIONS OF A NATIVE OFFICER."] + +"Now," said he, "in what manner was this wonderful thing done?" + +And the officer answered, "There was an order, and they obeyed." + +"But are the beasts as wise as the men?" said the chief. + +"They obey, as the men do. Mule, horse, elephant, or bullock, he obeys +his driver, and the driver his sergeant, and the sergeant his +lieutenant, and the lieutenant his captain, and the captain his major, +and the major his colonel, and the colonel his brigadier commanding +three regiments, and the brigadier his general, who obeys the Viceroy, +who is the servant of the Empress. Thus it is done." + +"Would it were so in Afghanistan!" said the chief; "for there we obey +only our own wills." + +"And for that reason," said the native officer, twirling his mustache, +"your Amir whom you do not obey must come here and take orders from our +Viceroy." + + + PARADE-SONG OF THE CAMP ANIMALS + + ELEPHANTS OF THE GUN-TEAM + + We lent to Alexander the strength of Hercules, + The wisdom of our foreheads, the cunning of our knees; + We bowed our necks to service; they ne'er were loosed again,-- + Make way there, way for the ten-foot teams + Of the Forty-Pounder train! + + + GUN-BULLOCKS + + Those heroes in their harnesses avoid a cannon-ball, + And what they know of powder upsets them one and all; + Then _we_ come into action and tug the guns again,-- + Make way there, way for the twenty yoke + Of the Forty-Pounder train! + + + CAVALRY HORSES + + By the brand on my withers, the finest of tunes + Is played by the Lancers, Hussars, and Dragoons, + And it's sweeter than "Stables" or "Water" to me, + The Cavalry Canter of "Bonnie Dundee"! + + Then feed us and break us and handle and groom, + And give us good riders and plenty of room, + And launch us in column of squadrons and see + The way of the war-horse to "Bonnie Dundee"! + + + SCREW-GUN MULES + + As me and my companions were scrambling up a hill, + The path was lost in rolling stones, but we went + forward still; + For we can wriggle and climb, my lads, and turn up + everywhere, + And it's our delight on a mountain height, with + a leg or two to spare! + + Good luck to every sergeant, then, that lets us + pick our road; + Bad luck to all the driver-men that cannot pack + a load: + For we can wriggle and climb, my lads, and turn + up everywhere, + And it's our delight on a mountain height with + a leg or two to spare! + + + COMMISSARIAT CAMELS + + We haven't a camelty tune of our own + To help us trollop along, + But every neck is a hairy trombone + (_Rtt-ta-ta-ta!_ is a hairy trombone!) + And this is our marching song: + _Can't! Don't! Shan't! Won't!_ + Pass it along the line! + Somebody's pack has slid from his back, + Wish it were only mine! + Somebody's load has tipped off in the road-- + Cheer for a halt and a row! + _Urrr! Yarrh! Grr! Arrh!_ + Somebody's catching it now! + + + ALL THE BEASTS TOGETHER + + Children of the Camp are we, + Serving each in his degree; + Children of the yoke and goad, + Pack and harness, pad and load. + See our line across the plain, + Like a heel-rope bent again. + Reaching, writhing, rolling far, + Sweeping all away to war! + While the men that walk beside, + Dusty, silent, heavy-eyed, + Cannot tell why we or they + March and suffer day by day. + _Children of the Camp are we,_ + _Serving each in his degree;_ + _Children of the yoke and goad,_ + _Pack and harness, pad and load._ + + + + + Transcriber's Notes: + +Passages in italics were indicated by _underscores_. + +Small caps were replaced with ALL CAPS. + +Throughout the dialogues, there were words used to mimic accents of +the speakers. Those words were retained as-is. + +The illustrations have been moved so that they do not break up +paragraphs and so that they are next the text they illustrate. Thus the +page number of the illustration might not match the page number in the +List of Illustrations, and the order of illustrations may not be the +same in the List of Illustrations and in the book. + +On page 78, "Bandar log" was replaced with "Bandar-log". + +On page 80, a period was added after "leave to hunt here". + +On page 156, "Novastoshna" was replaced with "Novastoshnah". + +On page 171, "floam-flecked" was replaced with "foam-flecked". + +On page 299, there is a hyphen at the end of a line of poetry. That +hyphen seems to be deliberate, and was kept as-is. + + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The jungle book, by Rudyard Kipling + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE JUNGLE BOOK *** + +***** This file should be named 35997.txt or 35997.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/3/5/9/9/35997/ + +Produced by Suzanne Shell, Ernest Schaal, and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This +file was produced from images generously made available +by The Internet Archive/American Libraries.) + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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