THE JUNGLE BOOK

By Rudyard Kipling

Contents

 Mowgli's Brothers Hunting-Song of the Seeonee Pack Kaa's Hunting Road-Song of the Bandar-Log "Tiger! Tiger!" Mowgli's Song The White Seal Lukannon "Rikki-Tikki-Tavi" Darzee's Chant Toomai of the Elephants Shiv and the Grasshopper Her Majesty's Servants Parade Song of the Camp Animals

Mowgli's Brothers

 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

It was seven o'clock of a very warm evening in the Seeonee hills whenFather Wolf woke up from his day's rest, scratched himself, yawned, andspread out his paws one after the other to get rid of the sleepy feelingin their tips. Mother Wolf lay with her big gray nose dropped across herfour tumbling, squealing cubs, and the moon shone into the mouth of thecave where they all lived. "Augrh!" said Father Wolf. "It is time tohunt again. " He was going to spring down hill when a little shadow witha bushy tail crossed the threshold and whined: "Good luck go with you, OChief of the Wolves. And good luck and strong white teeth go with noblechildren that they may never forget the hungry in this world. "

It was the jackal--Tabaqui, the Dish-licker--and the wolves of Indiadespise Tabaqui because he runs about making mischief, and tellingtales, and eating rags and pieces of leather from the villagerubbish-heaps. But they are afraid of him too, because Tabaqui, morethan anyone else in the jungle, is apt to go mad, and then he forgetsthat he was ever afraid of anyone, and runs through the forest bitingeverything in his way. Even the tiger runs and hides when little Tabaquigoes mad, for madness is the most disgraceful thing that can overtakea wild creature. We call it hydrophobia, but they call it dewanee--themadness--and run. 

"Enter, then, and look, " said Father Wolf stiffly, "but there is no foodhere. "

"For a wolf, no, " said Tabaqui, "but for so mean a person as myself adry 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 hefound the bone of a buck with some meat on it, and sat cracking the endmerrily. 

"All thanks for this good meal, " he said, licking his lips. "Howbeautiful are the noble children! How large are their eyes! And so youngtoo! Indeed, indeed, I might have remembered that the children of kingsare men from the beginning. "

Now, Tabaqui knew as well as anyone else that there is nothing sounlucky as to compliment children to their faces. It pleased him to seeMother and Father Wolf look uncomfortable. 

Tabaqui sat still, rejoicing in the mischief that he had made, and thenhe said spitefully:

"Shere Khan, the Big One, has shifted his hunting grounds. He will huntamong these hills for the next moon, so he has told me. "

Shere Khan was the tiger who lived near the Waingunga River, twentymiles away. 

"He has no right!" Father Wolf began angrily--"By the Law of the Junglehe has no right to change his quarters without due warning. He willfrighten every head of game within ten miles, and I--I have to kill fortwo, these days. "

"His mother did not call him Lungri [the Lame One] for nothing, " saidMother Wolf quietly. "He has been lame in one foot from his birth. Thatis why he has only killed cattle. Now the villagers of the Waingunga areangry 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 ourchildren must run when the grass is set alight. Indeed, we are verygrateful to Shere Khan!"

"Shall I tell him of your gratitude?" said Tabaqui. 

"Out!" snapped Father Wolf. "Out and hunt with thy master. Thou hastdone harm enough for one night. "

"I go, " said Tabaqui quietly. "Ye can hear Shere Khan below in thethickets. I might have saved myself the message. "

Father Wolf listened, and below in the valley that ran down to a littleriver he heard the dry, angry, snarly, singsong whine of a tiger who hascaught 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 he hunts to-night, " said MotherWolf. "It is Man. "

The whine had changed to a sort of humming purr that seemed to comefrom every quarter of the compass. It was the noise that bewilderswoodcutters and gypsies sleeping in the open, and makes them runsometimes into the very mouth of the tiger. 

"Man!" said Father Wolf, showing all his white teeth. "Faugh! Are therenot enough beetles and frogs in the tanks that he must eat Man, and onour 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 hischildren how to kill, and then he must hunt outside the hunting groundsof his pack or tribe. The real reason for this is that man-killingmeans, sooner or later, the arrival of white men on elephants, withguns, and hundreds of brown men with gongs and rockets and torches. Then everybody in the jungle suffers. The reason the beasts give amongthemselves is that Man is the weakest and most defenseless of all livingthings, and it is unsportsmanlike to touch him. They say too--and it istrue--that man-eaters become mangy, and lose their teeth. 

The purr grew louder, and ended in the full-throated "Aaarh!" of thetiger's charge. 

Then there was a howl--an untigerish howl--from Shere Khan. "He hasmissed, " said Mother Wolf. "What is it?"

Father Wolf ran out a few paces and heard Shere Khan muttering andmumbling savagely as he tumbled about in the scrub. 

"The fool has had no more sense than to jump at a woodcutter's campfire, and has burned his feet, " said Father Wolf with a grunt. "Tabaqui iswith him. "

"Something is coming uphill, " said Mother Wolf, twitching one ear. "Getready. "

The bushes rustled a little in the thicket, and Father Wolf droppedwith his haunches under him, ready for his leap. Then, if you had beenwatching, you would have seen the most wonderful thing in the world--thewolf checked in mid-spring. He made his bound before he saw what it washe was jumping at, and then he tried to stop himself. The result wasthat he shot up straight into the air for four or five feet, landingalmost 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 nakedbrown baby who could just walk--as soft and as dimpled a little atomas ever came to a wolf's cave at night. He looked up into Father Wolf'sface, and laughed. 

"Is that a man's cub?" said Mother Wolf. "I have never seen one. Bringit here. "

A Wolf accustomed to moving his own cubs can, if necessary, mouth an eggwithout breaking it, and though Father Wolf's jaws closed right on thechild's back not a tooth even scratched the skin as he laid it downamong the cubs. 

"How little! How naked, and--how bold!" said Mother Wolf softly. Thebaby 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'scub. Now, was there ever a wolf that could boast of a man's cub amongher children?"

"I have heard now and again of such a thing, but never in our Pack or inmy time, " said Father Wolf. "He is altogether without hair, and Icould kill him with a touch of my foot. But see, he looks up and is notafraid. "

The moonlight was blocked out of the mouth of the cave, for Shere Khan'sgreat 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 werevery angry. "What does Shere Khan need?"

"My quarry. A man's cub went this way, " said Shere Khan. "Its parentshave run off. Give it to me. "

Shere Khan had jumped at a woodcutter's campfire, as Father Wolf hadsaid, and was furious from the pain of his burned feet. But Father Wolfknew that the mouth of the cave was too narrow for a tiger to come inby. Even where he was, Shere Khan's shoulders and forepaws were crampedfor 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 fromthe Head of the Pack, and not from any striped cattle-killer. The man'scub is ours--to kill if we choose. "

"Ye choose and ye do not choose! What talk is this of choosing? By thebull that I killed, am I to stand nosing into your dog's den for my fairdues? It is I, Shere Khan, who speak!"

The tiger's roar filled the cave with thunder. Mother Wolf shook herselfclear of the cubs and sprang forward, her eyes, like two green moons inthe darkness, facing the blazing eyes of Shere Khan. 

"And it is I, Raksha [The Demon], who answers. The man's cub is mine, Lungri--mine to me! He shall not be killed. He shall live to run withthe Pack and to hunt with the Pack; and in the end, look you, hunter oflittle naked cubs--frog-eater--fish-killer--he shall hunt thee! Now gethence, or by the Sambhur that I killed (I eat no starved cattle), backthou goest to thy mother, burned beast of the jungle, lamer than everthou camest into the world! Go!"

Father Wolf looked on amazed. He had almost forgotten the days when hewon Mother Wolf in fair fight from five other wolves, when she ran inthe Pack and was not called The Demon for compliment's sake. Shere Khanmight have faced Father Wolf, but he could not stand up against MotherWolf, for he knew that where he was she had all the advantage of theground, and would fight to the death. So he backed out of the cave mouthgrowling, and when he was clear he shouted:

"Each dog barks in his own yard! We will see what the Pack will say tothis fostering of man-cubs. The cub is mine, and to my teeth he willcome in the end, O bush-tailed thieves!"

Mother Wolf threw herself down panting among the cubs, and Father Wolfsaid 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 sidealready. And that lame butcher would have killed him and would have runoff to the Waingunga while the villagers here hunted through all ourlairs in revenge! Keep him? Assuredly I will keep him. Lie still, littlefrog. O thou Mowgli--for Mowgli the Frog I will call thee--the time willcome 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 hemarries, withdraw from the Pack he belongs to. But as soon as his cubsare old enough to stand on their feet he must bring them to the PackCouncil, which is generally held once a month at full moon, in orderthat the other wolves may identify them. After that inspection the cubsare free to run where they please, and until they have killed theirfirst buck no excuse is accepted if a grown wolf of the Pack kills oneof them. The punishment is death where the murderer can be found; and ifyou 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 thenight of the Pack Meeting took them and Mowgli and Mother Wolf to theCouncil Rock--a hilltop covered with stones and boulders where a hundredwolves could hide. Akela, the great gray Lone Wolf, who led all the Packby strength and cunning, lay out at full length on his rock, andbelow him sat forty or more wolves of every size and color, frombadger-colored veterans who could handle a buck alone to young blackthree-year-olds who thought they could. The Lone Wolf had led them for ayear now. He had fallen twice into a wolf trap in his youth, and once hehad been beaten and left for dead; so he knew the manners and customsof men. There was very little talking at the Rock. The cubs tumbled overeach other in the center of the circle where their mothers and fatherssat, and now and again a senior wolf would go quietly up to a cub, lookat him carefully, and return to his place on noiseless feet. Sometimes amother would push her cub far out into the moonlight to be sure thathe had not been overlooked. Akela from his rock would cry: "Ye knowthe Law--ye know the Law. Look well, O Wolves!" And the anxious motherswould take up the call: "Look--look well, O Wolves!"

At last--and Mother Wolf's neck bristles lifted as the time came--FatherWolf pushed "Mowgli the Frog, " as they called him, into the center, where he sat laughing and playing with some pebbles that glistened inthe moonlight. 

Akela never raised his head from his paws, but went on with themonotonous cry: "Look well!" A muffled roar came up from behind therocks--the voice of Shere Khan crying: "The cub is mine. Give him tome. What have the Free People to do with a man's cub?" Akela never eventwitched his ears. All he said was: "Look well, O Wolves! What havethe Free People to do with the orders of any save the Free People? Lookwell!"

There was a chorus of deep growls, and a young wolf in his fourth yearflung back Shere Khan's question to Akela: "What have the Free People todo with a man's cub?" Now, the Law of the Jungle lays down that if thereis any dispute as to the right of a cub to be accepted by the Pack, hemust be spoken for by at least two members of the Pack who are not hisfather and mother. 

"Who speaks for this cub?" said Akela. "Among the Free People whospeaks?" There was no answer and Mother Wolf got ready for what she knewwould 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 onlynuts and roots and honey--rose upon 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 speakthe truth. Let him run with the Pack, and be entered with the others. Imyself will teach him. "

"We need yet another, " said Akela. "Baloo has spoken, and he is ourteacher for the young cubs. Who speaks besides Baloo?"

A black shadow dropped down into the circle. It was Bagheera the BlackPanther, inky black all over, but with the panther markings showingup in certain lights like the pattern of watered silk. Everybody knewBagheera, and nobody cared to cross his path; for he was as cunning asTabaqui, as bold as the wild buffalo, and as reckless as the woundedelephant. 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 yourassembly, but the Law of the Jungle says that if there is a doubt whichis not a killing matter in regard to a new cub, the life of that cub maybe bought at a price. And the Law does not say who may or may not paythat price. Am I right?"

"Good! Good!" said the young wolves, who are always hungry. "Listen toBagheera. 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 youwhen he is grown. Baloo has spoken in his behalf. Now to Baloo's wordI will add one bull, and a fat one, newly killed, not half a milefrom here, if ye will accept the man's cub according to the Law. Is itdifficult?"

There was a clamor of scores of voices, saying: "What matter? He willdie in the winter rains. He will scorch in the sun. What harm cana 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 deeply interested in the pebbles, and he did not noticewhen the wolves came and looked at him one by one. At last they all wentdown the hill for the dead bull, and only Akela, Bagheera, Baloo, andMowgli's own wolves were left. Shere Khan roared still in the night, forhe was very angry that Mowgli had not been handed over to him. 

"Ay, roar well, " said Bagheera, under his whiskers, "for the time willcome when this naked thing will make thee roar to another tune, or Iknow nothing of man. "

"It was well done, " said Akela. "Men and their cubs are very wise. Hemay be a help in time. "

"Truly, a help in time of need; for none can hope to lead the Packforever, " said Bagheera. 

Akela said nothing. He was thinking of the time that comes to everyleader of every pack when his strength goes from him and he gets feeblerand feebler, till at last he is killed by the wolves and a new leadercomes up--to be killed in his turn. 

"Take him away, " he said to Father Wolf, "and train him as befits one ofthe Free People. "

And that is how Mowgli was entered into the Seeonee Wolf Pack for theprice of a bull and on Baloo's good word. 

Now you must be content to skip ten or eleven whole years, and onlyguess at all the wonderful life that Mowgli led among the wolves, because if it were written out it would fill ever so many books. Hegrew up with the cubs, though they, of course, were grown wolves almostbefore he was a child. And Father Wolf taught him his business, and themeaning of things in the jungle, till every rustle in the grass, everybreath 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, andevery splash of every little fish jumping in a pool meant just as muchto him as the work of his office means to a business man. When he wasnot learning he sat out in the sun and slept, and ate and went to sleepagain. When he felt dirty or hot he swam in the forest pools; andwhen he wanted honey (Baloo told him that honey and nuts were just aspleasant to eat as raw meat) he climbed up for it, and that Bagheerashowed him how to do. Bagheera would lie out on a branch and call, "Comealong, Little Brother, " and at first Mowgli would cling like the sloth, but afterward he would fling himself through the branches almost asboldly 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 anywolf, the wolf would be forced to drop his eyes, and so he used to starefor fun. At other times he would pick the long thorns out of the padsof his friends, for wolves suffer terribly from thorns and burs in theircoats. 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 amistrust of men because Bagheera showed him a square box with a dropgate so cunningly hidden in the jungle that he nearly walked into it, and told him that it was a trap. He loved better than anything else togo with Bagheera into the dark warm heart of the forest, to sleep allthrough the drowsy day, and at night see how Bagheera did hiskilling. Bagheera killed right and left as he felt hungry, and so didMowgli--with one exception. As soon as he was old enough to understandthings, Bagheera told him that he must never touch cattle because he hadbeen bought into the Pack at the price of a bull's life. "All the jungleis thine, " said Bagheera, "and thou canst kill everything that thou artstrong enough to kill; but for the sake of the bull that bought theethou must never kill or eat any cattle young or old. That is the Law ofthe Jungle. " Mowgli obeyed faithfully. 

And he grew and grew strong as a boy must grow who does not know thathe is learning any lessons, and who has nothing in the world to think ofexcept things to eat. 

Mother Wolf told him once or twice that Shere Khan was not a creatureto be trusted, and that some day he must kill Shere Khan. But though ayoung wolf would have remembered that advice every hour, Mowgli forgotit because he was only a boy--though he would have called himself a wolfif he had been able to speak in any human tongue. 

Shere Khan was always crossing his path in the jungle, for as Akela grewolder and feebler the lame tiger had come to be great friends with theyounger wolves of the Pack, who followed him for scraps, a thing Akelawould never have allowed if he had dared to push his authority to theproper bounds. Then Shere Khan would flatter them and wonder that suchfine young hunters were content to be led by a dying wolf and a man'scub. "They tell me, " Shere Khan would say, "that at Council ye darenot look him between the eyes. " And the young wolves would growl andbristle. 

Bagheera, who had eyes and ears everywhere, knew something of this, andonce or twice he told Mowgli in so many words that Shere Khan would killhim some day. Mowgli would laugh and answer: "I have the Pack and I havethee; and Baloo, though he is so lazy, might strike a blow or two for mysake. Why should I be afraid?"

It was one very warm day that a new notion came to Bagheera--born ofsomething 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 laywith his head on Bagheera's beautiful black skin, "Little Brother, howoften 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, andShere 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 Packknow it; and even the foolish, foolish deer know. Tabaqui has told theetoo. "

"Ho! ho!" said Mowgli. "Tabaqui came to me not long ago with some rudetalk that I was a naked man's cub and not fit to dig pig-nuts. But Icaught Tabaqui by the tail and swung him twice against a palm-tree toteach him better manners. "

"That was foolishness, for though Tabaqui is a mischief-maker, he wouldhave told thee of something that concerned thee closely. Open thoseeyes, Little Brother. Shere Khan dare not kill thee in the jungle. Butremember, Akela is very old, and soon the day comes when he cannot killhis buck, and then he will be leader no more. Many of the wolves thatlooked thee over when thou wast brought to the Council first are oldtoo, and the young wolves believe, as Shere Khan has taught them, thata man-cub has no place with the Pack. In a little time thou wilt be aman. "

"And what is a man that he should not run with his brothers?" saidMowgli. "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 silkychin, 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 thatmark--the mark of the collar; and yet, Little Brother, I was born amongmen, and it was among men that my mother died--in the cages of theking's palace at Oodeypore. It was because of this that I paid the pricefor thee at the Council when thou wast a little naked cub. Yes, I toowas born among men. I had never seen the jungle. They fed me behindbars from an iron pan till one night I felt that I was Bagheera--thePanther--and no man's plaything, and I broke the silly lock with oneblow 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. "Andeven as I returned to my jungle, so thou must go back to men at last--tothe 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 betweenthe 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 canlook 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 meetthine; because thou art wise; because thou hast pulled out thorns fromtheir feet--because thou art a man. "

"I did not know these things, " said Mowgli sullenly, and he frownedunder his heavy black eyebrows. 

"What is the Law of the Jungle? Strike first and then give tongue. Bythy very carelessness they know that thou art a man. But be wise. It isin my heart that when Akela misses his next kill--and at each huntit costs him more to pin the buck--the Pack will turn against him andagainst thee. They will hold a jungle Council at the Rock, and then--andthen--I have it!" said Bagheera, leaping up. "Go thou down quickly tothe men's huts in the valley, and take some of the Red Flower which theygrow there, so that when the time comes thou mayest have even a strongerfriend than I or Baloo or those of the Pack that love thee. Get the RedFlower. "

By Red Flower Bagheera meant fire, only no creature in the jungle willcall 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 thetwilight. I will get some. "

"There speaks the man's cub, " said Bagheera proudly. "Remember that itgrows in little pots. Get one swiftly, and keep it by thee for time ofneed. "

"Good!" said Mowgli. "I go. But art thou sure, O my Bagheera"--heslipped his arm around the splendid neck and looked deep into the bigeyes--"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 forthis, 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 downagain. "Oh, Shere Khan, never was a blacker hunting than that frog-huntof thine ten years ago!"

Mowgli was far and far through the forest, running hard, and his heartwas hot in him. He came to the cave as the evening mist rose, and drewbreath, and looked down the valley. The cubs were out, but MotherWolf, at the back of the cave, knew by his breathing that something wastroubling her frog. 

"What is it, Son?" she said. 

"Some bat's chatter of Shere Khan, " he called back. "I hunt among theplowed fields tonight, " and he plunged downward through the bushes, tothe stream at the bottom of the valley. There he checked, for he heardthe 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, bitterhowls from the young wolves: "Akela! Akela! Let the Lone Wolf show hisstrength. Room for the leader of the Pack! Spring, Akela!"

The Lone Wolf must have sprung and missed his hold, for Mowgli heard thesnap of his teeth and then a yelp as the Sambhur knocked him over withhis forefoot. 

He did not wait for anything more, but dashed on; and the yells grewfainter behind him as he ran into the croplands where the villagerslived. 

"Bagheera spoke truth, " he panted, as he nestled down in some cattlefodder by the window of a hut. "To-morrow is one day both for Akela andfor me. "

Then he pressed his face close to the window and watched the fire onthe hearth. He saw the husbandman's wife get up and feed it in the nightwith black lumps. And when the morning came and the mists were all whiteand cold, he saw the man's child pick up a wicker pot plastered insidewith earth, fill it with lumps of red-hot charcoal, put it under hisblanket, and go out to tend the cows in the byre. 

"Is that all?" said Mowgli. "If a cub can do it, there is nothing tofear. " So he strode round the corner and met the boy, took the pot fromhis 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 hadseen the woman do. "This thing will die if I do not give it things toeat"; and he dropped twigs and dried bark on the red stuff. Halfway upthe hill he met Bagheera with the morning dew shining like moonstones onhis coat. 

"Akela has missed, " said the Panther. "They would have killed him lastnight, but they needed thee also. They were looking for thee on thehill. "

"I was among the plowed lands. I am ready. See!" Mowgli held up thefire-pot. 

"Good! Now, I have seen men thrust a dry branch into that stuff, andpresently the Red Flower blossomed at the end of it. Art thou notafraid?"

"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 andpleasant. "

All that day Mowgli sat in the cave tending his fire pot and dippingdry branches into it to see how they looked. He found a branch thatsatisfied him, and in the evening when Tabaqui came to the cave and toldhim rudely enough that he was wanted at the Council Rock, he laughedtill 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 theleadership of the Pack was open, and Shere Khan with his following ofscrap-fed wolves walked to and fro openly being flattered. Bagheera layclose to Mowgli, and the fire pot was between Mowgli's knees. When theywere all gathered together, Shere Khan began to speak--a thing he wouldnever have dared to do when Akela was in his prime. 

"He has no right, " whispered Bagheera. "Say so. He is a dog's son. Hewill be frightened. "

Mowgli sprang to his feet. "Free People, " he cried, "does Shere Khanlead 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 cattlebutcher? The leadership of the Pack is with the Pack alone. "

There were yells of "Silence, thou man's cub!" "Let him speak. He haskept our Law"; and at last the seniors of the Pack thundered: "Let theDead Wolf speak. " When a leader of the Pack has missed his kill, he iscalled the Dead Wolf as long as he lives, which is not long. 

Akela raised his old head wearily:--

"Free People, and ye too, jackals of Shere Khan, for twelve seasons Ihave led ye to and from the kill, and in all that time not one has beentrapped or maimed. Now I have missed my kill. Ye know how that plotwas made. Ye know how ye brought me up to an untried buck to make myweakness known. It was cleverly done. Your right is to kill me here onthe Council Rock, now. Therefore, I ask, who comes to make an end of theLone Wolf? For it is my right, by the Law of the Jungle, that ye comeone by one. "

There was a long hush, for no single wolf cared to fight Akela tothe death. Then Shere Khan roared: "Bah! What have we to do with thistoothless fool? He is doomed to die! It is the man-cub who has lived toolong. Free People, he was my meat from the first. Give him to me. Iam weary of this man-wolf folly. He has troubled the jungle for tenseasons. Give me the man-cub, or I will hunt here always, and not giveyou one bone. He is a man, a man's child, and from the marrow of mybones I hate him!"

Then more than half the Pack yelled: "A man! A man! What has a man to dowith us? Let him go to his own place. "

"And turn all the people of the villages against us?" clamored ShereKhan. "No, give him to me. He is a man, and none of us can look himbetween the eyes. "

Akela lifted his head again and said, "He has eaten our food. He hasslept with us. He has driven game for us. He has broken no word of theLaw of the Jungle. "

"Also, I paid for him with a bull when he was accepted. The worth of abull is little, but Bagheera's honor is something that he will perhapsfight for, " said Bagheera in his gentlest voice. 

"A bull paid ten years ago!" the Pack snarled. "What do we care forbones 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, " howled Shere Khan. "Give him to me!"

"He is our brother in all but blood, " Akela went on, "and ye would killhim here! In truth, I have lived too long. Some of ye are eaters ofcattle, 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 iscertain that I must die, and my life is of no worth, or I would offerthat in the man-cub's place. But for the sake of the Honor ofthe Pack, --a little matter that by being without a leader ye haveforgotten, --I promise that if ye let the man-cub go to his own place, Iwill not, when my time comes to die, bare one tooth against ye. I willdie 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 ofkilling a brother against whom there is no fault--a brother spoken forand 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 wolvesbegan to gather round Shere Khan, whose tail was beginning to switch. 

"Now the business is in thy hands, " said Bagheera to Mowgli. "We can dono more except fight. "

Mowgli stood upright--the fire pot in his hands. Then he stretched outhis arms, and yawned in the face of the Council; but he was furious withrage and sorrow, for, wolflike, the wolves had never told him how theyhated him. "Listen you!" he cried. "There is no need for this dog'sjabber. Ye have told me so often tonight that I am a man (and indeed Iwould have been a wolf with you to my life's end) that I feel your wordsare true. So I do not call ye my brothers any more, but sag [dogs], asa man should. What ye will do, and what ye will not do, is not yoursto say. That matter is with me; and that we may see the matter moreplainly, I, the man, have brought here a little of the Red Flower whichye, dogs, fear. "

He flung the fire pot on the ground, and some of the red coals lita tuft of dried moss that flared up, as all the Council drew back interror before the leaping flames. 

Mowgli thrust his dead branch into the fire till the twigs lit andcrackled, and whirled it above his head among the cowering wolves. 

"Thou art the master, " said Bagheera in an undertone. "Save Akela fromthe death. He was ever thy friend. "

Akela, the grim old wolf who had never asked for mercy in his life, gaveone piteous look at Mowgli as the boy stood all naked, his long blackhair tossing over his shoulders in the light of the blazing branch thatmade the shadows jump and quiver. 

"Good!" said Mowgli, staring round slowly. "I see that ye are dogs. I gofrom you to my own people--if they be my own people. The jungle is shutto me, and I must forget your talk and your companionship. But I will bemore 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 asye have betrayed me. " He kicked the fire with his foot, and the sparksflew up. "There shall be no war between any of us in the Pack. But hereis a debt to pay before I go. " He strode forward to where Shere Khan satblinking stupidly at the flames, and caught him by the tuft on his chin. Bagheera followed 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, forthe blazing branch was very near. 

"This cattle-killer said he would kill me in the Council because he hadnot killed me when I was a cub. Thus and thus, then, do we beat dogswhen we are men. Stir a whisker, Lungri, and I ram the Red Flower downthy gullet!" He beat Shere Khan over the head with the branch, and thetiger whimpered and whined in an agony of fear. 

"Pah! Singed jungle cat--go now! But remember when next I come to theCouncil Rock, as a man should come, it will be with Shere Khan's hideon my head. For the rest, Akela goes free to live as he pleases. Ye willnot kill him, because that is not my will. Nor do I think that yewill sit here any longer, lolling out your tongues as though ye weresomebodies, instead of dogs whom I drive out--thus! Go!" The fire wasburning furiously at the end of the branch, and Mowgli struck rightand left round the circle, and the wolves ran howling with the sparksburning their fur. At last there were only Akela, Bagheera, and perhapsten wolves that had taken Mowgli's part. Then something began to hurtMowgli inside him, as he had never been hurt in his life before, and hecaught 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. That is only tears such as men use, " said Bagheera. "Now I know thou art a man, and a man's cub no longer. The jungle isshut indeed to thee henceforward. Let them fall, Mowgli. They are onlytears. " So Mowgli sat and cried as though his heart would break; and hehad never cried in all his life before. 

"Now, " he said, "I will go to men. But first I must say farewell to mymother. " And he went to the cave where she lived with Father Wolf, andhe 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 ofthe hill when thou art a man, and we will talk to thee; and we will comeinto the croplands 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 layout Shere Khan's hide upon the Council Rock. Do not forget me! Tell themin the jungle never to forget me!"

The dawn was beginning to break when Mowgli went down the hillsidealone, 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

All that is told here happened some time before Mowgli was turned out ofthe Seeonee Wolf Pack, or revenged himself on Shere Khan the tiger. Itwas in the days when Baloo was teaching him the Law of the Jungle. Thebig, 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 Jungleas applies to their own pack and tribe, and run away as soon as they canrepeat the Hunting Verse--"Feet that make no noise; eyes that can see inthe dark; ears that can hear the winds in their lairs, and sharp whiteteeth, all these things are the marks of our brothers except Tabaqui theJackal and the Hyaena whom we hate. " But Mowgli, as a man-cub, had tolearn a great deal more than this. Sometimes Bagheera the Black Pantherwould come lounging through the jungle to see how his pet was gettingon, and would purr with his head against a tree while Mowgli recited theday's lesson to Baloo. The boy could climb almost as well as he couldswim, and swim almost as well as he could run. So Baloo, the Teacher ofthe Law, taught him the Wood and Water Laws: how to tell a rotten branchfrom a sound one; how to speak politely to the wild bees when he cameupon a hive of them fifty feet above ground; what to say to Mang theBat when he disturbed him in the branches at midday; and how to warn thewater-snakes in the pools before he splashed down among them. None ofthe Jungle People like being disturbed, and all are very ready to fly atan intruder. Then, too, Mowgli was taught the Strangers' Hunting Call, which must be repeated aloud till it is answered, whenever one of theJungle-People hunts outside his own grounds. It means, translated, "Giveme leave to hunt here because I am hungry. " And the answer is, "Huntthen for food, but not for pleasure. "

All this will show you how much Mowgli had to learn by heart, and hegrew very tired of saying the same thing over a hundred times. But, asBaloo said to Bagheera, one day when Mowgli had been cuffed and run offin a temper, "A man's cub is a man's cub, and he must learn all the Lawof the Jungle. "

"But think how small he is, " said the Black Panther, who would havespoiled Mowgli if he had had his own way. "How can his little head carryall thy long talk?"

"Is there anything in the jungle too little to be killed? No. That iswhy 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?" Bagheeragrunted. "His face is all bruised today by thy--softness. Ugh. "

"Better he should be bruised from head to foot by me who love him thanthat he should come to harm through ignorance, " Baloo answered veryearnestly. "I am now teaching him the Master Words of the Jungle thatshall protect him with the birds and the Snake People, and all that hunton four feet, except his own pack. He can now claim protection, if hewill only remember the words, from all in the jungle. Is not that wortha little beating?"

"Well, look to it then that thou dost not kill the man-cub. He is notree trunk to sharpen thy blunt claws upon. But what are those MasterWords? I am more likely to give help than to ask it"--Bagheera stretchedout one paw and admired the steel-blue, ripping-chisel talons at the endof it--"still I should like to know. "

"I will call Mowgli and he shall say them--if he will. Come, LittleBrother!"

"My head is ringing like a bee tree, " said a sullen little voice overtheir 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 taughtthee 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 thanktheir teacher. Not one small wolfling has ever come back to thankold 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 Bearaccent which all the Hunting People 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 hisfeet behind, clapped his hands together to applaud himself, and jumpedon to Bagheera's back, where he sat sideways, drumming with his heels onthe glossy skin and making the worst faces he could think of at Baloo. 

"There--there! That was worth a little bruise, " said the brown beartenderly. "Some day thou wilt remember me. " Then he turned aside totell Bagheera how he had begged the Master Words from Hathi the WildElephant, who knows all about these things, and how Hathi had takenMowgli down to a pool to get the Snake Word from a water-snake, becauseBaloo could not pronounce it, and how Mowgli was now reasonably safeagainst all accidents in the jungle, because neither snake, bird, norbeast would hurt him. 

"No one then is to be feared, " Baloo wound up, patting his big furrystomach with pride. 

"Except his own tribe, " said Bagheera, under his breath; and then aloudto Mowgli, "Have a care for my ribs, Little Brother! What is all thisdancing up and down?"

Mowgli had been trying to make himself heard by pulling at Bagheera'sshoulder fur and kicking hard. When the two listened to him he wasshouting at the top of his voice, "And so I shall have a tribe of myown, 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. "Theyhave promised me this. Ah!"

"Whoof!" Baloo's big paw scooped Mowgli off Bagheera's back, and as theboy lay between the big fore-paws he could see the Bear was angry. 

"Mowgli, " said Baloo, "thou hast been talking with the Bandar-log--theMonkey People. "

Mowgli looked at Bagheera to see if the Panther was angry too, andBagheera's eyes were as hard as jade stones. 

"Thou hast been with the Monkey People--the gray apes--the peoplewithout a law--the eaters of everything. That is great shame. "

"When Baloo hurt my head, " said Mowgli (he was still on his back), "Iwent away, and the gray apes came down from the trees and had pity onme. No one else cared. " He snuffled a little. 

"The pity of the Monkey People!" Baloo snorted. "The stillness of themountain stream! The cool of the summer sun! And then, man-cub?"

"And then, and then, they gave me nuts and pleasant things to eat, andthey--they carried me in their arms up to the top of the trees and saidI was their blood brother except that I had no tail, and should be theirleader 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 takenamong the Monkey People? They stand on their feet as I do. They donot hit me with their hard paws. They play all day. Let me get up! BadBaloo, let me up! I will play with them again. "

"Listen, man-cub, " said the Bear, and his voice rumbled like thunder ona hot night. "I have taught thee all the Law of the Jungle for all thepeoples of the jungle--except the Monkey-Folk who live in the trees. They have no law. They are outcasts. 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 arewithout leaders. They have no remembrance. They boast and chatter andpretend that they are a great people about to do great affairs in thejungle, but the falling of a nut turns their minds to laughter and allis forgotten. We of the jungle have no dealings with them. We do notdrink where the monkeys drink; we do not go where the monkeys go; we donot hunt where they hunt; we do not die where they die. Hast thou everheard me speak of the Bandar-log till today?"

"No, " said Mowgli in a whisper, for the forest was very still now Baloohad 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 theyhave any fixed desire, to be noticed by the Jungle People. But we do notnotice them even when they throw nuts and filth on our heads. "

He had hardly spoken when a shower of nuts and twigs spattered downthrough the branches; and they could hear coughings and howlings andangry jumpings high up in the air among the thin branches. 

"The Monkey-People are forbidden, " said Baloo, "forbidden to theJungle-People. Remember. "

"Forbidden, " said Bagheera, "but I still think Baloo should have warnedthee against them. "

"I--I? How was I to guess he would play with such dirt. The MonkeyPeople! Faugh!"

A fresh shower came down on their heads and the two trotted away, takingMowgli with them. What Baloo had said about the monkeys was perfectlytrue. They belonged to the tree-tops, and as beasts very seldom lookup, there was no occasion for the monkeys and the Jungle-People to crosseach other's path. But whenever they found a sick wolf, or a woundedtiger, or bear, the monkeys would torment him, and would throw sticksand nuts at any beast for fun and in the hope of being noticed. Thenthey would howl and shriek senseless songs, and invite the Jungle-Peopleto climb up their trees and fight them, or would start furious battlesover nothing among themselves, and leave the dead monkeys where theJungle-People could see them. They were always just going to have aleader, and laws and customs of their own, but they never did, becausetheir memories would not hold over from day to day, and so theycompromised things by making up a saying, "What the Bandar-log think nowthe jungle will think later, " and that comforted them a great deal. Noneof the beasts could reach them, but on the other hand none of the beastswould notice them, and that was why they were so pleased when Mowglicame to play with them, and they heard how angry Baloo was. 

They never meant to do any more--the Bandar-log never mean anything atall; but one of them invented what seemed to him a brilliant idea, andhe told all the others that Mowgli would be a useful person to keep inthe tribe, because he could weave sticks together for protection fromthe wind; so, if they caught him, they could make him teach them. Of course Mowgli, as a woodcutter's child, inherited all sorts ofinstincts, and used to make little huts of fallen branches withoutthinking how he came to do it. The Monkey-People, watching in the trees, considered his play most wonderful. This time, they said, they werereally going to have a leader and become the wisest people in thejungle--so wise that everyone else would notice and envy them. Thereforethey followed Baloo and Bagheera and Mowgli through the jungle veryquietly till it was time for the midday nap, and Mowgli, who wasvery 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 andarms--hard, strong, little hands--and then a swash of branches in hisface, and then he was staring down through the swaying boughs as Baloowoke the jungle with his deep cries and Bagheera bounded up the trunkwith every tooth bared. The Bandar-log howled with triumph and scuffledaway to the upper branches where Bagheera dared not follow, shouting:"He has noticed us! Bagheera has noticed us. All the Jungle-Peopleadmire us for our skill and our cunning. " Then they began their flight;and the flight of the Monkey-People through tree-land is one ofthe things nobody can describe. They have their regular roads andcrossroads, up hills and down hills, all laid out from fifty to seventyor a hundred feet above ground, and by these they can travel even atnight if necessary. Two of the strongest monkeys caught Mowgli underthe arms and swung off with him through the treetops, twenty feet at abound. Had they been alone they could have gone twice as fast, but theboy's weight held them back. Sick and giddy as Mowgli was he could nothelp enjoying the wild rush, though the glimpses of earth far down belowfrightened him, and the terrible check and jerk at the end of the swingover nothing but empty air brought his heart between his teeth. Hisescort would rush him up a tree till he felt the thinnest topmostbranches crackle and bend under them, and then with a cough and a whoopwould fling themselves into the air outward and downward, and bringup, hanging by their hands or their feet to the lower limbs of the nexttree. Sometimes he could see for miles and miles across the still greenjungle, 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 heand his two guards would be almost down to earth again. So, bounding andcrashing and whooping and yelling, the whole tribe of Bandar-log sweptalong the tree-roads with Mowgli their prisoner. 

For a time he was afraid of being dropped. Then he grew angry but knewbetter than to struggle, and then he began to think. The first thing wasto send back word to Baloo and Bagheera, for, at the pace the monkeyswere going, he knew his friends would be left far behind. It was uselessto look down, for he could only see the topsides of the branches, so hestared upward and saw, far away in the blue, Rann the Kite balancingand wheeling as he kept watch over the jungle waiting for things to die. Rann saw that the monkeys were carrying something, and dropped afew hundred yards to find out whether their load was good to eat. Hewhistled with surprise when he saw Mowgli being dragged up to a treetopand 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 Chil balanced away tothe next tree in time to see the little brown face come up again. "Markmy trail!" Mowgli shouted. "Tell Baloo of the Seeonee Pack and Bagheeraof the Council Rock. "

"In whose name, Brother?" Rann had never seen Mowgli before, though ofcourse 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, butRann 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 thetreetops as Mowgli's escort whirled along. 

"They never go far, " he said with a chuckle. "They never do what theyset out to do. Always pecking at new things are the Bandar-log. Thistime, if I have any eye-sight, they have pecked down trouble forthemselves, for Baloo is no fledgling and Bagheera can, as I know, killmore than goats. "

So he rocked on his wings, his feet gathered up under him, and waited. 

Meantime, Baloo and Bagheera were furious with rage and grief. Bagheeraclimbed as he had never climbed before, but the thin branches brokebeneath 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 hadset off at a clumsy trot in the hope of overtaking the monkeys. "Whatwas 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 theLaw--cub-beater--a mile of that rolling to and fro would burst theeopen. 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 ofcarrying 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 beesthat I may be stung to death, and bury me with the Hyaena, for I am mostmiserable of bears! Arulala! Wahooa! O Mowgli, Mowgli! Why did I notwarn thee against the Monkey-Folk instead of breaking thy head? Nowperhaps I may have knocked the day's lesson out of his mind, and he willbe 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, " saidBagheera impatiently. "Baloo, thou hast neither memory nor respect. Whatwould the jungle think if I, the Black Panther, curled myself up likeIkki 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 himout of idleness, I have no fear for the man-cub. He is wise and welltaught, and above all he has the eyes that make the Jungle-Peopleafraid. But (and it is a great evil) he is in the power of theBandar-log, and they, because they live in trees, have no fear of any ofour people. " Bagheera licked one forepaw thoughtfully. 

"Fool that I am! Oh, fat, brown, root-digging fool that I am, " saidBaloo, uncoiling himself with a jerk, "it is true what Hathi the WildElephant says: `To each his own fear'; and they, the Bandar-log, fearKaa the Rock Snake. He can climb as well as they can. He steals theyoung monkeys in the night. The whisper of his name makes their wickedtails cold. Let us go to Kaa. "

"What will he do for us? He is not of our tribe, being footless--andwith most evil eyes, " said Bagheera. 

"He is very old and very cunning. Above all, he is always hungry, " saidBaloo hopefully. "Promise him many goats. "

"He sleeps for a full month after he has once eaten. He may be asleepnow, 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, might make him seereason. " 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 thelast ten days changing his skin, and now he was very splendid--dartinghis big blunt-nosed head along the ground, and twisting the thirty feetof his body into fantastic knots and curves, and licking his lips as hethought of his dinner to come. 

"He has not eaten, " said Baloo, with a grunt of relief, as soon ashe saw the beautifully mottled brown and yellow jacket. "Be careful, Bagheera! He is always a little blind after he has changed his skin, andvery quick to strike. "

Kaa was not a poison snake--in fact he rather despised the poison snakesas cowards--but his strength lay in his hug, and when he had oncelapped his huge coils round anybody there was no more to be said. "Goodhunting!" cried Baloo, sitting up on his haunches. Like all snakes ofhis breed Kaa was rather deaf, and did not hear the call at first. Thenhe curled up ready for any accident, his head lowered. 

"Good hunting for us all, " he answered. "Oho, Baloo, what dost thou dohere? Good hunting, Bagheera. One of us at least needs food. Is thereany news of game afoot? A doe now, or even a young buck? I am as emptyas a dried well. "

"We are hunting, " said Baloo carelessly. He knew that you must not hurryKaa. He is too big. 

"Give me permission to come with you, " said Kaa. "A blow more or less isnothing to thee, Bagheera or Baloo, but I--I have to wait and wait fordays in a wood-path and climb half a night on the mere chance of ayoung ape. Psshaw! 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, " saidBaloo. 

"I am a fair length--a fair length, " said Kaa with a little pride. "Butfor all that, it is the fault of this new-grown timber. I came verynear to falling on my last hunt--very near indeed--and the noise of myslipping, for my tail was not tight wrapped around the tree, waked theBandar-log, and they called me most evil names. "

"Footless, yellow earth-worm, " said Bagheera under his whiskers, asthough 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 wenever noticed them. They will say anything--even that thou hast lost allthy teeth, and wilt not face anything bigger than a kid, because (theyare indeed shameless, these Bandar-log)--because thou art afraid of thehe-goat's horns, " Bagheera went on sweetly. 

Now a snake, especially a wary old python like Kaa, very seldom showsthat he is angry, but Baloo and Bagheera could see the big swallowingmuscles on either side of Kaa's throat ripple and bulge. 

"The Bandar-log have shifted their grounds, " he said quietly. "When Icame 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 wordsstuck in his throat, for that was the first time in his memory that oneof the Jungle-People had owned to being interested in the doings of themonkeys. 

"Beyond doubt then it is no small thing that takes two suchhunters--leaders in their own jungle I am certain--on the trail of theBandar-log, " Kaa replied courteously, as he swelled with curiosity. 

"Indeed, " Baloo began, "I am no more than the old and sometimes veryfoolish Teacher of the Law to the Seeonee wolf-cubs, and Bagheerahere--"

"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. Thosenut-stealers and pickers of palm leaves have stolen away our man-cub ofwhom thou hast perhaps heard. "

"I heard some news from Ikki (his quills make him presumptuous) of aman-thing that was entered into a wolf pack, but I did not believe. Ikkiis full of stories half heard and very badly told. "

"But it is true. He is such a man-cub as never was, " said Baloo. "Thebest and wisest and boldest of man-cubs--my own pupil, who shallmake the name of Baloo famous through all the jungles; and besides, I--we--love him, Kaa. "

"Ts! Ts!" said Kaa, weaving his head to and fro. "I also have known whatlove 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-lognow, 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 aman-thing in their hands is in no good luck. They grow tired of the nutsthey pick, and throw them down. They carry a branch half a day, meaningto do great things with it, and then they snap it in two. That man-thingis not to be envied. They called me also--`yellow fish' was it not?"

"Worm--worm--earth-worm, " said Bagheera, "as well as other things whichI cannot now say for shame. "

"We must remind them to speak well of their master. Aaa-ssp! We musthelp their wandering memories. Now, whither went they with the cub?"

"The jungle alone knows. Toward the sunset, I believe, " said Baloo. "Wehad thought that thou wouldst know, Kaa. "

"I? How? I take them when they come in my way, but I do not hunt theBandar-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 WolfPack!"

Baloo looked up to see where the voice came from, and there was Rann theKite, sweeping down with the sun shining on the upturned flanges of hiswings. It was near Rann's bedtime, but he had ranged all over the junglelooking for the Bear and had missed him in the thick foliage. 

"What is it?" said Baloo. 

"I have seen Mowgli among the Bandar-log. He bade me tell you. Iwatched. The Bandar-log have taken him beyond the river to the monkeycity--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 ismy message. Good hunting, all you below!"

"Full gorge and a deep sleep to you, Rann, " cried Bagheera. "I willremember thee in my next kill, and put aside the head for thee alone, Obest of kites!"

"It is nothing. It is nothing. The boy held the Master Word. I couldhave done no less, " and Rann circled up again to his roost. 

"He has not forgotten to use his tongue, " said Baloo with a chuckle ofpride. "To think of one so young remembering the Master Word for thebirds too while he was being pulled across trees!"

"It was most firmly driven into him, " said Bagheera. "But I am proud ofhim, and now we must go to the Cold Lairs. "

They all knew where that place was, but few of the Jungle People everwent there, because what they called the Cold Lairs was an old desertedcity, lost and buried in the jungle, and beasts seldom use a place thatmen 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 liveanywhere, and no self-respecting animal would come within eyeshot of itexcept in times of drought, when the half-ruined tanks and reservoirsheld a little water. 

"It is half a night's journey--at full speed, " said Bagheera, and Baloolooked 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 thequick-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 theyleft him to come on later, while Bagheera hurried forward, at the quickpanther-canter. Kaa said nothing, but, strive as Bagheera might, thehuge Rock-python held level with him. When they came to a hill stream, Bagheera gained, because he bounded across while Kaa swam, his head andtwo feet of his neck clearing the water, but on level ground Kaa made upthe distance. 

"By the Broken Lock that freed me, " said Bagheera, when twilight hadfallen, "thou art no slow goer!"

"I am hungry, " said Kaa. "Besides, they called me speckled frog. "

"Worm--earth-worm, and yellow to boot. "

"All one. Let us go on, " and Kaa seemed to pour himself along theground, finding the shortest road with his steady eyes, and keeping toit. 

In the Cold Lairs the Monkey-People were not thinking of Mowgli'sfriends at all. They had brought the boy to the Lost City, and werevery much pleased with themselves for the time. Mowgli had never seen anIndian city before, and though this was almost a heap of ruins it seemedvery wonderful and splendid. Some king had built it long ago on a littlehill. You could still trace the stone causeways that led up to theruined gates where the last splinters of wood hung to the worn, rustedhinges. Trees had grown into and out of the walls; the battlements weretumbled down and decayed, and wild creepers hung out of the windows ofthe towers on the walls in bushy hanging clumps. 

A great roofless palace crowned the hill, and the marble of thecourtyards and the fountains was split, and stained with red and green, and the very cobblestones in the courtyard where the king's elephantsused 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 thatmade up the city looking like empty honeycombs filled with blackness;the shapeless block of stone that had been an idol in the square wherefour roads met; the pits and dimples at street corners where the publicwells once stood, and the shattered domes of temples with wild figssprouting on their sides. The monkeys called the place their city, andpretended to despise the Jungle-People because they lived in the forest. And yet they never knew what the buildings were made for nor how touse them. They would sit in circles on the hall of the king's councilchamber, and scratch for fleas and pretend to be men; or they would runin and out of the roofless houses and collect pieces of plaster and oldbricks in a corner, and forget where they had hidden them, and fightand cry in scuffling crowds, and then break off to play up and down theterraces of the king's garden, where they would shake the rose trees andthe oranges in sport to see the fruit and flowers fall. They exploredall the passages and dark tunnels in the palace and the hundreds oflittle dark rooms, but they never remembered what they had seen and whatthey had not; and so drifted about in ones and twos or crowds tellingeach other that they were doing as men did. They drank at the tanks andmade the water all muddy, and then they fought over it, and then theywould all rush together in mobs and shout: "There is no one in thejungle so wise and good and clever and strong and gentle as theBandar-log. " Then all would begin again till they grew tired of the cityand went back to the tree-tops, hoping the Jungle-People would noticethem. 

Mowgli, who had been trained under the Law of the Jungle, did not likeor understand this kind of life. The monkeys dragged him into the ColdLairs late in the afternoon, and instead of going to sleep, as Mowgliwould have done after a long journey, they joined hands and danced aboutand sang their foolish songs. One of the monkeys made a speech and toldhis companions that Mowgli's capture marked a new thing in the historyof the Bandar-log, for Mowgli was going to show them how to weave sticksand canes together as a protection against rain and cold. Mowgli pickedup some creepers and began to work them in and out, and the monkeystried to imitate; but in a very few minutes they lost interest and beganto pull their friends' tails or jump up and down on all fours, coughing. 

"I wish to eat, " said Mowgli. "I am a stranger in this part of thejungle. Bring me food, or give me leave to hunt here. "

Twenty or thirty monkeys bounded away to bring him nuts and wildpawpaws. But they fell to fighting on the road, and it was too muchtrouble to go back with what was left of the fruit. Mowgli was sore andangry as well as hungry, and he roamed through the empty city giving theStrangers' Hunting Call from time to time, but no one answered him, andMowgli felt that he had reached a very bad place indeed. "All that Baloohas said about the Bandar-log is true, " he thought to himself. "Theyhave no Law, no Hunting Call, and no leaders--nothing but foolish wordsand 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 roseleaves with the Bandar-log. "

No sooner had he walked to the city wall than the monkeys pulled himback, telling him that he did not know how happy he was, and pinchinghim to make him grateful. He set his teeth and said nothing, butwent with the shouting monkeys to a terrace above the red sandstonereservoirs that were half-full of rain water. There was a ruinedsummer-house of white marble in the center of the terrace, built forqueens dead a hundred years ago. The domed roof had half fallen in andblocked up the underground passage from the palace by which thequeens used to enter. But the walls were made of screens of marbletracery--beautiful milk-white fretwork, set with agates and corneliansand jasper and lapis lazuli, and as the moon came up behind the hill itshone through the open work, casting shadows on the ground like blackvelvet embroidery. Sore, sleepy, and hungry as he was, Mowgli could nothelp laughing when the Bandar-log began, twenty at a time, to tell himhow great and wise and strong and gentle they were, and how foolish hewas 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, andso it must be true, " they shouted. "Now as you are a new listener andcan carry our words back to the Jungle-People so that they may notice usin future, we will tell you all about our most excellent selves. " Mowglimade no objection, and the monkeys gathered by hundreds and hundreds onthe terrace to listen to their own speakers singing the praises of theBandar-log, and whenever a speaker stopped for want of breath they wouldall shout together: "This is true; we all say so. " Mowgli nodded andblinked, and said "Yes" when they asked him a question, and his headspun with the noise. "Tabaqui the Jackal must have bitten all thesepeople, " he said to himself, "and now they have madness. Certainly thisis dewanee, the madness. Do they never go to sleep? Now there is a cloudcoming to cover that moon. If it were only a big enough cloud I mighttry to run away in the darkness. But I am tired. "

That same cloud was being watched by two good friends in the ruinedditch below the city wall, for Bagheera and Kaa, knowing well howdangerous the Monkey-People were in large numbers, did not wish to runany risks. The monkeys never fight unless they are a hundred to one, andfew in the jungle care for those odds. 

"I will go to the west wall, " Kaa whispered, "and come down swiftly withthe slope of the ground in my favor. They will not throw themselves uponmy back in their hundreds, but--"

"I know it, " said Bagheera. "Would that Baloo were here, but we must dowhat 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. Thathappened to be the least ruined of any, and the big snake was delayedawhile 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 lightfeet on the terrace. The Black Panther had raced up the slope almostwithout a sound and was striking--he knew better than to waste time inbiting--right and left among the monkeys, who were seated round Mowgliin 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 scufflingmass of monkeys, biting, scratching, tearing, and pulling, closed overBagheera, while five or six laid hold of Mowgli, dragged him up the wallof the summerhouse and pushed him through the hole of the broken dome. A man-trained boy would have been badly bruised, for the fall was agood fifteen feet, but Mowgli fell as Baloo had taught him to fall, andlanded on his feet. 

"Stay there, " shouted the monkeys, "till we have killed thy friends, andlater 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'sCall. He could hear rustling and hissing in the rubbish all round himand gave the Call a second time, to make sure. 

"Even ssso! Down hoods all!" said half a dozen low voices (every ruinin India becomes sooner or later a dwelling place of snakes, and the oldsummerhouse was alive with cobras). "Stand still, Little Brother, forthy feet may do us harm. "

Mowgli stood as quietly as he could, peering through the open work andlistening to the furious din of the fight round the Black Panther--theyells and chatterings and scufflings, and Bagheera's deep, hoarse coughas he backed and bucked and twisted and plunged under the heaps of hisenemies. For the first time since he was born, Bagheera was fighting forhis life. 

"Baloo must be at hand; Bagheera would not have come alone, " Mowglithought. And then he called aloud: "To the tank, Bagheera. Roll to thewater tanks. Roll and plunge! Get to the water!"

Bagheera heard, and the cry that told him Mowgli was safe gave him newcourage. He worked his way desperately, inch by inch, straight for thereservoirs, halting in silence. Then from the ruined wall nearest thejungle rose up the rumbling war-shout of Baloo. The old Bear had donehis best, but he could not come before. "Bagheera, " he shouted, "I amhere. I climb! I haste! Ahuwora! The stones slip under my feet! Wait mycoming, O most infamous Bandar-log!" He panted up the terrace onlyto disappear to the head in a wave of monkeys, but he threw himselfsquarely on his haunches, and, spreading out his forepaws, hugged asmany 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 toldMowgli that Bagheera had fought his way to the tank where the monkeyscould not follow. The Panther lay gasping for breath, his head justout of the water, while the monkeys stood three deep on the red steps, dancing up and down with rage, ready to spring upon him from all sidesif he came out to help Baloo. It was then that Bagheera lifted up hisdripping chin, and in despair gave the Snake's Call for protection--"Webe of one blood, ye and I"--for he believed that Kaa had turned tailat the last minute. Even Baloo, half smothered under the monkeys onthe edge of the terrace, could not help chuckling as he heard the BlackPanther asking for help. 

Kaa had only just worked his way over the west wall, landing with awrench that dislodged a coping stone into the ditch. He had no intentionof losing any advantage of the ground, and coiled and uncoiled himselfonce or twice, to be sure that every foot of his long body was inworking order. All that while the fight with Baloo went on, and themonkeys yelled in the tank round Bagheera, and Mang the Bat, flying toand fro, carried the news of the great battle over the jungle, till evenHathi the Wild Elephant trumpeted, and, far away, scattered bands ofthe Monkey-Folk woke and came leaping along the tree-roads to help theircomrades in the Cold Lairs, and the noise of the fight roused all theday birds for miles round. Then Kaa came straight, quickly, and anxiousto kill. The fighting strength of a python is in the driving blow ofhis head backed by all the strength and weight of his body. If you canimagine a lance, or a battering ram, or a hammer weighing nearly halfa ton driven by a cool, quiet mind living in the handle of it, you canroughly imagine what Kaa was like when he fought. A python four or fivefeet long can knock a man down if he hits him fairly in the chest, andKaa was thirty feet long, as you know. His first stroke was deliveredinto the heart of the crowd round Baloo. It was sent home with shutmouth in silence, and there was no need of a second. The monkeysscattered with cries of--"Kaa! It is Kaa! Run! Run!"

Generations of monkeys had been scared into good behavior by the storiestheir elders told them of Kaa, the night thief, who could slip along thebranches as quietly as moss grows, and steal away the strongest monkeythat ever lived; of old Kaa, who could make himself look so like a deadbranch or a rotten stump that the wisest were deceived, till the branchcaught them. Kaa was everything that the monkeys feared in the jungle, for none of them knew the limits of his power, none of them could lookhim in the face, and none had ever come alive out of his hug. And sothey ran, stammering with terror, to the walls and the roofs of thehouses, and Baloo drew a deep breath of relief. His fur was much thickerthan Bagheera's, but he had suffered sorely in the fight. Then Kaaopened his mouth for the first time and spoke one long hissing word, andthe far-away monkeys, hurrying to the defense of the Cold Lairs, stayedwhere they were, cowering, till the loaded branches bent and crackledunder them. The monkeys on the walls and the empty houses stoppedtheir cries, and in the stillness that fell upon the city Mowgli heardBagheera shaking his wet sides as he came up from the tank. Then theclamor broke out again. The monkeys leaped higher up the walls. Theyclung around the necks of the big stone idols and shrieked as theyskipped along the battlements, while Mowgli, dancing in the summerhouse, put his eye to the screenwork and hooted owl-fashion between his frontteeth, 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, andthe city was silent once more. "I could not come before, Brother, but Ithink I heard thee call"--this was to Bagheera. 

"I--I may have cried out in the battle, " Bagheera answered. "Baloo, artthou hurt?

"I am not sure that they did not pull me into a hundred littlebearlings, " said Baloo, gravely shaking one leg after the other. "Wow! Iam 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 thebroken dome was above his head. 

"Take him away. He dances like Mao the Peacock. He will crush ouryoung, " said the cobras inside. 

"Hah!" said Kaa with a chuckle, "he has friends everywhere, thismanling. Stand back, manling. And hide you, O Poison People. I breakdown the wall. "

Kaa looked carefully till he found a discolored crack in the marbletracery showing a weak spot, made two or three light taps with his headto get the distance, and then lifting up six feet of his body clearof the ground, sent home half a dozen full-power smashing blows, nose-first. The screen-work broke and fell away in a cloud of dust andrubbish, and Mowgli leaped through the opening and flung himself betweenBaloo and Bagheera--an arm around each big neck. 

"Art thou hurt?" said Baloo, hugging him softly. 

"I am sore, hungry, and not a little bruised. But, oh, they have handledye grievously, my Brothers! Ye bleed. "

"Others also, " said Bagheera, licking his lips and looking at themonkey-dead on the terrace and round the tank. 

"It is nothing, it is nothing, if thou art safe, oh, my pride of alllittle frogs!" whimpered Baloo. 

"Of that we shall judge later, " said Bagheera, in a dry voice thatMowgli did not at all like. "But here is Kaa to whom we owe the battleand thou owest thy life. Thank him according to our customs, Mowgli. "

Mowgli turned and saw the great Python's head swaying a foot above hisown. 

"So this is the manling, " said Kaa. "Very soft is his skin, and he isnot unlike the Bandar-log. Have a care, manling, that I do not mistakethee for a monkey some twilight when I have newly changed my coat. "

"We be one blood, thou and I, " Mowgli answered. "I take my life fromthee tonight. My kill shall be thy kill if ever thou art hungry, O Kaa. "

"All thanks, Little Brother, " said Kaa, though his eyes twinkled. "Andwhat may so bold a hunter kill? I ask that I may follow when next hegoes abroad. "

"I kill nothing, --I am too little, --but I drive goats toward such as canuse 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 artin a trap, I may pay the debt which I owe to thee, to Bagheera, and toBaloo, here. Good hunting to ye all, my masters. "

"Well said, " growled Baloo, for Mowgli had returned thanks veryprettily. The Python dropped his head lightly for a minute on Mowgli'sshoulder. "A brave heart and a courteous tongue, " said he. "They shallcarry thee far through the jungle, manling. But now go hence quicklywith thy friends. Go and sleep, for the moon sets, and what follows itis not well that thou shouldst see. "

The moon was sinking behind the hills and the lines of trembling monkeyshuddled together on the walls and battlements looked like ragged shakyfringes of things. Baloo went down to the tank for a drink and Bagheerabegan to put his fur in order, as Kaa glided out into the center of theterrace and brought his jaws together with a ringing snap that drew allthe monkeys' eyes upon him. 

"The moon sets, " he said. "Is there yet light enough to see?"

From the walls came a moan like the wind in the tree-tops--"We see, OKaa. "

"Good. Begins now the dance--the Dance of the Hunger of Kaa. Sit stilland watch. "

He turned twice or thrice in a big circle, weaving his head from rightto left. Then he began making loops and figures of eight with hisbody, and soft, oozy triangles that melted into squares and five-sidedfigures, and coiled mounds, never resting, never hurrying, and neverstopping his low humming song. It grew darker and darker, till at lastthe dragging, shifting coils disappeared, but they could hear the rustleof 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 handwithout 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 andBagheera 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 thetwo great beasts started as though they had been waked from a dream. 

"Keep thy hand on my shoulder, " Bagheera whispered. "Keep it there, or Imust go back--must go back to Kaa. Aah!"

"It is only old Kaa making circles on the dust, " said Mowgli. "Let usgo. " 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. "Nevermore 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 by 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 knowanything of a python's powers of fascination. "I saw no more than a bigsnake making foolish circles till the dark came. And his nose was allsore. Ho! Ho!"

"Mowgli, " said Bagheera angrily, "his nose was sore on thy account, asmy ears and sides and paws, and Baloo's neck and shoulders are bittenon thy account. Neither Baloo nor Bagheera will be able to hunt withpleasure for many days. "

"It is nothing, " said Baloo; "we have the man-cub again. "

"True, but he has cost us heavily in time which might have been spent ingood hunting, in wounds, in hair--I am half plucked along my back--andlast of all, in honor. For, remember, Mowgli, I, who am the BlackPanther, was forced to call upon Kaa for protection, and Baloo and Iwere 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, andmy 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 couldnot 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 are wounded. It is just. "

Bagheera gave him half a dozen love-taps from a panther's point ofview (they would hardly have waked one of his own cubs), but for aseven-year-old boy they amounted to as severe a beating as you couldwish to avoid. When it was all over Mowgli sneezed, and picked himselfup without a word. 

"Now, " said Bagheera, "jump on my back, Little Brother, and we will gohome. "

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 henever waked when he was put down 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 wise and good, Done by merely wishing we could. We've forgotten, but--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. 

Now we must go back to the first tale. When Mowgli left the wolf's caveafter the fight with the Pack at the Council Rock, he went down to theplowed lands where the villagers lived, but he would not stop therebecause it was too near to the jungle, and he knew that he had made atleast one bad enemy at the Council. So he hurried on, keeping tothe rough road that ran down the valley, and followed it at a steadyjog-trot for nearly twenty miles, till he came to a country that hedid not know. The valley opened out into a great plain dotted over withrocks and cut up by ravines. At one end stood a little village, and atthe 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 theplain, cattle and buffaloes were grazing, and when the little boys incharge of the herds saw Mowgli they shouted and ran away, and the yellowpariah dogs that hang about every Indian village barked. Mowgli walkedon, for he was feeling hungry, and when he came to the village gate hesaw 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 inhis night rambles after things to eat. "So men are afraid of the Peopleof the Jungle here also. " He sat down by the gate, and when a man cameout he stood up, opened his mouth, and pointed down it to show thathe wanted food. The man stared, and ran back up the one street of thevillage shouting for the priest, who was a big, fat man dressed inwhite, with a red and yellow mark on his forehead. The priest came tothe gate, and with him at least a hundred people, who stared and talkedand shouted and pointed at Mowgli. 

"They have no manners, these Men Folk, " said Mowgli to himself. "Onlythe gray ape would behave as they do. " So he threw back his long hairand frowned at the crowd. 

"What is there to be afraid of?" said the priest. "Look at the marks onhis arms and legs. They are the bites of wolves. He is but a wolf-childrun away from the jungle. "

Of course, in playing together, the cubs had often nipped Mowgli harderthan they intended, and there were white scars all over his arms andlegs. But he would have been the last person in the world to call thesebites, 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 myhonor, 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 andankles, and she peered at Mowgli under the palm of her hand. "Indeed heis 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 therichest villager in the place. So he looked up at the sky for a minuteand said solemnly: "What the jungle has taken the jungle has restored. Take the boy into thy house, my sister, and forget not to honor thepriest who sees so far into the lives of men. "

"By the Bull that bought me, " said Mowgli to himself, "but all thistalking is like another looking-over by the Pack! Well, if I am a man, aman I must become. "

The crowd parted as the woman beckoned Mowgli to her hut, where therewas a red lacquered bedstead, a great earthen grain chest with funnyraised patterns on it, half a dozen copper cooking pots, an image of aHindu god in a little alcove, and on the wall a real looking glass, suchas they sell at the country fairs. 

She gave him a long drink of milk and some bread, and then she laid herhand on his head and looked into his eyes; for she thought perhaps thathe might be her real son come back from the jungle where the tiger hadtaken him. So she said, "Nathoo, O Nathoo!" Mowgli did not show that heknew the name. "Dost thou not remember the day when I gave thee thy newshoes?" She touched his foot, and it was almost as hard as horn. "No, "she said sorrowfully, "those feet have never worn shoes, but thou artvery like my Nathoo, and thou shalt be my son. "

Mowgli was uneasy, because he had never been under a roof before. But ashe looked at the thatch, he saw that he could tear it out any time if hewanted to get away, and that the window had no fastenings. "What is thegood of a man, " he said to himself at last, "if he does not understandman's talk? Now I am as silly and dumb as a man would be with us in thejungle. I must speak their talk. "

It was not for fun that he had learned while he was with the wolves toimitate the challenge of bucks in the jungle and the grunt of the littlewild pig. So, as soon as Messua pronounced a word Mowgli would imitateit almost perfectly, and before dark he had learned the names of manythings in the hut. 

There was a difficulty at bedtime, because Mowgli would not sleep underanything that looked so like a panther trap as that hut, and when theyshut the door he went through the window. "Give him his will, " saidMessua'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 ofthe field, but before he had closed his eyes a soft gray nose poked himunder 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 smellestof wood smoke and cattle--altogether like a man already. Wake, LittleBrother; 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 growsagain, for he is badly singed. When he returns he swears that he willlay thy bones in the Waingunga. "

"There are two words to that. I also have made a little promise. Butnews 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 theeforget?" said Gray Brother anxiously. 

"Never. I will always remember that I love thee and all in our cave. Butalso 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. WhenI come down here again, I will wait for thee in the bamboos at the edgeof the grazing-ground. "

For three months after that night Mowgli hardly ever left the villagegate, he was so busy learning the ways and customs of men. First he hadto wear a cloth round him, which annoyed him horribly; and then he hadto learn about money, which he did not in the least understand, andabout plowing, of which he did not see the use. Then the little childrenin the village made him very angry. Luckily, the Law of the Jungle hadtaught him to keep his temper, for in the jungle life and food depend onkeeping your temper; but when they made fun of him because he would notplay games or fly kites, or because he mispronounced some word, only theknowledge that it was unsportsmanlike to kill little naked cubs kept himfrom picking them up and breaking them in two. 

He did not know his own strength in the least. In the jungle he knew hewas weak compared with the beasts, but in the village people said thathe was as strong as a bull. 

And Mowgli had not the faintest idea of the difference that caste makesbetween 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 theirjourney to the market at Khanhiwara. That was very shocking, too, forthe potter is a low-caste man, and his donkey is worse. When the priestscolded him, Mowgli threatened to put him on the donkey too, and thepriest told Messua's husband that Mowgli had better be set to work assoon as possible; and the village head-man told Mowgli that he wouldhave to go out with the buffaloes next day, and herd them while theygrazed. No one was more pleased than Mowgli; and that night, because hehad been appointed a servant of the village, as it were, he went offto a circle that met every evening on a masonry platform under a greatfig-tree. It was the village club, and the head-man and the watchman andthe barber, who knew all the gossip of the village, and old Buldeo, thevillage hunter, who had a Tower musket, met and smoked. The monkeyssat and talked in the upper branches, and there was a hole under theplatform where a cobra lived, and he had his little platter of milkevery night because he was sacred; and the old men sat around the treeand talked, and pulled at the big huqas (the water-pipes) till far intothe night. They told wonderful tales of gods and men and ghosts; andBuldeo told even more wonderful ones of the ways of beasts in thejungle, till the eyes of the children sitting outside the circle bulgedout of their heads. Most of the tales were about animals, for the junglewas always at their door. The deer and the wild pig grubbed up theircrops, and now and again the tiger carried off a man at twilight, withinsight 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 storyto another, and Mowgli's shoulders shook. 

Buldeo was explaining how the tiger that had carried away Messua's sonwas 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 istrue, " he said, "because Purun Dass always limped from the blow that hegot in a riot when his account books were burned, and the tiger that Ispeak of he limps, too, for the tracks of his pads are unequal. "

"True, true, that must be the truth, " said the gray-beards, noddingtogether. 

"Are all these tales such cobwebs and moon talk?" said Mowgli. "Thattiger limps because he was born lame, as everyone knows. To talk of thesoul of a money-lender in a beast that never had the courage of a jackalis child's talk. "

Buldeo was speechless with surprise for a moment, and the head-manstared. 

"Oho! It is the jungle brat, is it?" said Buldeo. "If thou art sowise, better bring his hide to Khanhiwara, for the Government has seta hundred rupees on his life. Better still, talk not when thy eldersspeak. "

Mowgli rose to go. "All the evening I have lain here listening, " hecalled back over his shoulder, "and, except once or twice, Buldeo hasnot said one word of truth concerning the jungle, which is at his verydoors. How, then, shall I believe the tales of ghosts and gods andgoblins which he says he has seen?"

"It is full time that boy went to herding, " said the head-man, whileBuldeo puffed and snorted at Mowgli's impertinence. 

The custom of most Indian villages is for a few boys to take the cattleand buffaloes out to graze in the early morning, and bring them backat night. The very cattle that would trample a white man to death allowthemselves to be banged and bullied and shouted at by children thathardly come up to their noses. So long as the boys keep with the herdsthey are safe, for not even the tiger will charge a mob of cattle. Butif they straggle to pick flowers or hunt lizards, they are sometimescarried off. Mowgli went through the village street in the dawn, sittingon the back of Rama, the great herd bull. The slaty-blue buffaloes, with their long, backward-sweeping horns and savage eyes, rose out theirbyres, one by one, and followed him, and Mowgli made it very clear tothe children with him that he was the master. He beat the buffaloes witha long, polished bamboo, and told Kamya, one of the boys, to graze thecattle by themselves, while he went on with the buffaloes, and to bevery careful not to stray away from the herd. 

An Indian grazing ground is all rocks and scrub and tussocks and littleravines, among which the herds scatter and disappear. The buffaloesgenerally keep to the pools and muddy places, where they lie wallowingor basking in the warm mud for hours. Mowgli drove them on to the edgeof the plain where the Waingunga came out of the jungle; then he droppedfrom 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 themeaning of this cattle-herding work?"

"It is an order, " said Mowgli. "I am a village herd for a while. Whatnews of Shere Khan?"

"He has come back to this country, and has waited here a long time forthee. Now he has gone off again, for the game is scarce. But he means tokill thee. "

"Very good, " said Mowgli. "So long as he is away do thou or one of thefour brothers sit on that rock, so that I can see thee as I come out ofthe village. When he comes back wait for me in the ravine by the dhaktree in the center of the plain. We need not walk into Shere Khan'smouth. "

Then Mowgli picked out a shady place, and lay down and slept whilethe buffaloes grazed round him. Herding in India is one of the laziestthings in the world. The cattle move and crunch, and lie down, and moveon again, and they do not even low. They only grunt, and the buffaloesvery seldom say anything, but get down into the muddy pools one afteranother, and work their way into the mud till only their noses andstaring china-blue eyes show above the surface, and then they lie likelogs. The sun makes the rocks dance in the heat, and the herd childrenhear 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 sweepdown, and the next kite miles away would see him drop and follow, andthe next, and the next, and almost before they were dead there would bea score of hungry kites come out of nowhere. Then they sleep andwake and sleep again, and weave little baskets of dried grass and putgrasshoppers in them; or catch two praying mantises and make them fight;or string a necklace of red and black jungle nuts; or watch a lizardbasking on a rock, or a snake hunting a frog near the wallows. Then theysing long, long songs with odd native quavers at the end of them, andthe day seems longer than most people's whole lives, and perhaps theymake a mud castle with mud figures of men and horses and buffaloes, andput reeds into the men's hands, and pretend that they are kings and thefigures are their armies, or that they are gods to be worshiped. Thenevening comes and the children call, and the buffaloes lumber up out ofthe sticky mud with noises like gunshots going off one after the other, and they all string across the gray plain back to the twinkling villagelights. 

Day after day Mowgli would lead the buffaloes out to their wallows, andday after day he would see Gray Brother's back a mile and a half awayacross the plain (so he knew that Shere Khan had not come back), and dayafter day he would lie on the grass listening to the noises round him, and dreaming of old days in the jungle. If Shere Khan had made a falsestep with his lame paw up in the jungles by the Waingunga, Mowgli wouldhave heard him in those long, still mornings. 

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 theranges 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 verycunning. "

"Have no fear, " said Gray Brother, licking his lips a little. "I metTabaqui in the dawn. Now he is telling all his wisdom to the kites, buthe told me everything before I broke his back. Shere Khan's plan is towait for thee at the village gate this evening--for thee and for no oneelse. He is lying up now, in the big dry ravine of the Waingunga. "

"Has he eaten today, or does he hunt empty?" said Mowgli, for the answermeant life and death to him. 

"He killed at dawn, --a pig, --and he has drunk too. Remember, Shere Khancould never fast, even for the sake of revenge. "

"Oh! Fool, fool! What a cub's cub it is! Eaten and drunk too, and hethinks 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. Thesebuffaloes will not charge unless they wind him, and I cannot speak theirlanguage. 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 italone. " Mowgli stood with his finger in his mouth, thinking. "The bigravine of the Waingunga. That opens out on the plain not half a milefrom here. I can take the herd round through the jungle to the head ofthe ravine and then sweep down--but he would slink out at the foot. Wemust block that end. Gray Brother, canst thou cut the herd in two forme?"

"Not I, perhaps--but I have brought a wise helper. " Gray Brother trottedoff and dropped into a hole. Then there lifted up a huge gray head thatMowgli knew well, and the hot air was filled with the most desolate cryof all the jungle--the hunting howl of a wolf at midday. 

"Akela! Akela!" said Mowgli, clapping his hands. "I might have knownthat thou wouldst not forget me. We have a big work in hand. Cut theherd in two, Akela. Keep the cows and calves together, and the bulls andthe plow buffaloes by themselves. "

The two wolves ran, ladies'-chain fashion, in and out of the herd, whichsnorted and threw up its head, and separated into two clumps. In one, the cow-buffaloes stood with their calves in the center, and glaredand pawed, ready, if a wolf would only stay still, to charge down andtrample the life out of him. In the other, the bulls and the young bullssnorted and stamped, but though they looked more imposing they were muchless dangerous, for they had no calves to protect. No six men could havedivided 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 drivethem 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 drovethe 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 thesecreatures 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 onlytell him what I need of him to-day. "

The bulls were turned, to the right this time, and crashed into thestanding thicket. The other herd children, watching with the cattle halfa mile away, hurried to the village as fast as their legs could carrythem, 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 abig circle uphill and get at the head of the ravine, and then take thebulls down it and catch Shere Khan between the bulls and the cows; forhe knew that after a meal and a full drink Shere Khan would not be inany condition to fight or to clamber up the sides of the ravine. He wassoothing the buffaloes now by voice, and Akela had dropped far to therear, only whimpering once or twice to hurry the rear-guard. It was along, long circle, for they did not wish to get too near the ravine andgive Shere Khan warning. At last Mowgli rounded up the bewildered herdat the head of the ravine on a grassy patch that sloped steeply down tothe ravine itself. From that height you could see across the tops of thetrees down to the plain below; but what Mowgli looked at was the sidesof the ravine, and he saw with a great deal of satisfaction that theyran nearly straight up and down, while the vines and creepers that hungover 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 notwinded him yet. Let them breathe. I must tell Shere Khan who comes. Wehave him in the trap. "

He put his hands to his mouth and shouted down the ravine--it was almostlike shouting down a tunnel--and the echoes jumped from rock to rock. 

After a long time there came back the drawling, sleepy snarl of afull-fed tiger just wakened. 

"Who calls?" said Shere Khan, and a splendid peacock fluttered up out ofthe 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 gavetongue in the full hunting-yell, and they pitched over one after theother, just as steamers shoot rapids, the sand and stones spurting upround them. Once started, there was no chance of stopping, and beforethey were fairly in the bed of the ravine Rama winded Shere Khan andbellowed. 

"Ha! Ha!" said Mowgli, on his back. "Now thou knowest!" and the torrentof black horns, foaming muzzles, and staring eyes whirled down theravine just as boulders go down in floodtime; the weaker buffaloes beingshouldered out to the sides of the ravine where they tore through thecreepers. They knew what the business was before them--the terriblecharge of the buffalo herd against which no tiger can hope to stand. Shere Khan heard the thunder of their hoofs, picked himself up, andlumbered down the ravine, looking from side to side for some way ofescape, but the walls of the ravine were straight and he had to hold on, heavy with his dinner and his drink, willing to do anything rather thanfight. The herd splashed through the pool he had just left, bellowingtill the narrow cut rang. Mowgli heard an answering bellow from the footof the ravine, saw Shere Khan turn (the tiger knew if the worst cameto the worst it was better to meet the bulls than the cows with theircalves), and then Rama tripped, stumbled, and went on again oversomething soft, and, with the bulls at his heels, crashed full into theother herd, while the weaker buffaloes were lifted clean off their feetby the shock of the meeting. That charge carried both herds out into theplain, goring and stamping and snorting. Mowgli watched his time, andslipped 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 oneanother. 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, Mowglimanaged to turn Rama, and the others followed him to the wallows. 

Shere Khan needed no more trampling. He was dead, and the kites werecoming for him already. 

"Brothers, that was a dog's death, " said Mowgli, feeling for the knifehe 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 theCouncil Rock. We must get to work swiftly. "

A boy trained among men would never have dreamed of skinning a ten-foottiger alone, but Mowgli knew better than anyone else how an animal'sskin 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 wolveslolled 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 withthe Tower musket. The children had told the village about the buffalostampede, and Buldeo went out angrily, only too anxious to correctMowgli for not taking better care of the herd. The wolves dropped out ofsight as soon as they saw the man coming. 

"What is this folly?" said Buldeo angrily. "To think that thou canstskin a tiger! Where did the buffaloes kill him? It is the Lame Tigertoo, and there is a hundred rupees on his head. Well, well, we willoverlook thy letting the herd run off, and perhaps I will give thee oneof 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 tosinge Shere Khan's whiskers. Most native hunters always singe a tiger'swhiskers to prevent his ghost from haunting them. 

"Hum!" said Mowgli, half to himself as he ripped back the skin of aforepaw. "So thou wilt take the hide to Khanhiwara for the reward, andperhaps give me one rupee? Now it is in my mind that I need the skin formy own use. Heh! Old man, take away that fire!"

"What talk is this to the chief hunter of the village? Thy luck and thestupidity of thy buffaloes have helped thee to this kill. The tiger hasjust fed, or he would have gone twenty miles by this time. Thou canstnot 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 oneanna 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 theshoulder, "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 himselfsprawling on the grass, with a gray wolf standing over him, while Mowgliwent 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 warbetween 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 havetaken his chance with Akela had he met the wolf in the woods, but a wolfwho obeyed the orders of this boy who had private wars with man-eatingtigers was not a common animal. It was sorcery, magic of the worst kind, thought Buldeo, and he wondered whether the amulet round his neck wouldprotect him. He lay as still as still, expecting every minute to seeMowgli 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 aherdsboy. May I rise up and go away, or will thy servant tear me topieces?"

"Go, and peace go with thee. Only, another time do not meddle with mygame. Let him go, Akela. "

Buldeo hobbled away to the village as fast as he could, looking backover his shoulder in case Mowgli should change into something terrible. When he got to the village he told a tale of magic and enchantment andsorcery that made the priest look very grave. 

Mowgli went on with his work, but it was nearly twilight before he andthe wolves had drawn the great gay skin clear of the body. 

"Now we must hide this and take the buffaloes home! Help me to herdthem, Akela. "

The herd rounded up in the misty twilight, and when they got near thevillage Mowgli saw lights, and heard the conches and bells in the templeblowing and banging. Half the village seemed to be waiting for himby the gate. "That is because I have killed Shere Khan, " he saidto himself. But a shower of stones whistled about his ears, and thevillagers shouted: "Sorcerer! Wolf's brat! Jungle demon! Go away! Gethence 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 bellowedin 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 meananything, they would cast thee out. "

"Wolf! Wolf's cub! Go away!" shouted the priest, waving a sprig of thesacred tulsi plant. 

"Again? Last time it was because I was a man. This time it is because Iam 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 beastat will. I do not believe, but go away or they will kill thee. Buldeosays thou art a wizard, but I know thou hast avenged Nathoo's death. "

"Come back, Messua!" shouted the crowd. "Come back, or we will stonethee. "

Mowgli laughed a little short ugly laugh, for a stone had hit him inthe mouth. "Run back, Messua. This is one of the foolish tales they tellunder 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 swiftlythan 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 hardlyneeded 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 stolenone of them. Keep count, for I will do your herding no more. Fare youwell, children of men, and thank Messua that I do not come in with mywolves and hunt you up and down your street. "

He turned on his heel and walked away with the Lone Wolf, and as helooked 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 hurtthe village, for Messua was kind to me. "

When the moon rose over the plain, making it look all milky, thehorrified villagers saw Mowgli, with two wolves at his heels and abundle on his head, trotting across at the steady wolf's trot that eatsup the long miles like fire. Then they banged the temple bells and blewthe conches louder than ever. And Messua cried, and Buldeo embroideredthe story of his adventures in the jungle, till he ended by saying thatAkela stood up on his hind legs and talked like a man. 

The moon was just going down when Mowgli and the two wolves came to thehill of the Council Rock, and they stopped at Mother Wolf's cave. 

"They have cast me out from the Man-Pack, Mother, " shouted Mowgli, "butI come with the hide of Shere Khan to keep my word. "

Mother Wolf walked stiffly from the cave with the cubs behind her, andher eyes glowed as she saw the skin. 

"I told him on that day, when he crammed his head and shoulders intothis cave, hunting for thy life, Little Frog--I told him that the hunterwould 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 runningto Mowgli's bare feet. They clambered up the Council Rock together, andMowgli 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 uponit, and called the old call to the Council, 'Look--look well, O Wolves, 'exactly as he had called when Mowgli was first brought there. "

Ever since Akela had been deposed, the Pack had been without a leader, hunting and fighting at their own pleasure. But they answered the callfrom habit; and some of them were lame from the traps they had falleninto, and some limped from shot wounds, and some were mangy from eatingbad food, and many were missing. But they came to the Council Rock, allthat 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. Itwas then that Mowgli made up a song that came up into his throat allby itself, and he shouted it aloud, leaping up and down on the rattlingskin, 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. And the wolvesbayed "Yes, " and one tattered wolf howled:

"Lead us again, O Akela. Lead us again, O Man-cub, for we be sick ofthis lawlessness, and we would be the Free People once more. "

"Nay, " purred Bagheera, "that may not be. When ye are full-fed, themadness may come upon you again. Not for nothing are ye called the FreePeople. 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 huntalone 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 fromthat day on. But he was not always alone, because, years afterward, hebecame 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, oh, 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 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, I will stoop down for my gift. 

 Waters of the Waingunga, 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 me 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 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, then 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

All these things happened several years ago at a place calledNovastoshnah, or North East Point, on the Island of St. Paul, away andaway in the Bering Sea. Limmershin, the Winter Wren, told me the talewhen he was blown on to the rigging of a steamer going to Japan, and Itook him down into my cabin and warmed and fed him for a couple of daystill he was fit to fly back to St. Paul's again. Limmershin is a veryquaint little bird, but he knows how to tell the truth. 

Nobody comes to Novastoshnah except on business, and the only peoplewho have regular business there are the seals. They come in the summermonths by hundreds and hundreds of thousands out of the cold gray sea. For Novastoshnah Beach has the finest accommodation for seals of anyplace in all the world. 

Sea Catch knew that, and every spring would swim from whatever placehe happened to be in--would swim like a torpedo-boat straight forNovastoshnah and spend a month fighting with his companions for a goodplace on the rocks, as close to the sea as possible. Sea Catch wasfifteen years old, a huge gray fur seal with almost a mane on hisshoulders, and long, wicked dog teeth. When he heaved himself up on hisfront flippers he stood more than four feet clear of the ground, and hisweight, if anyone had been bold enough to weigh him, was nearly sevenhundred 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 headon 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 werefirmly fixed on the other seal's neck, the other seal might get away ifhe could, but Sea Catch would not help him. 

Yet Sea Catch never chased a beaten seal, for that was against the Rulesof the Beach. He only wanted room by the sea for his nursery. But asthere were forty or fifty thousand other seals hunting for the samething each spring, the whistling, bellowing, roaring, and blowing on thebeach was something frightful. 

From a little hill called Hutchinson's Hill, you could look over threeand a half miles of ground covered with fighting seals; and the surf wasdotted all over with the heads of seals hurrying to land and begin theirshare of the fighting. They fought in the breakers, they fought in thesand, and they fought on the smooth-worn basalt rocks of the nurseries, for they were just as stupid and unaccommodating as men. Their wivesnever came to the island until late in May or early in June, for theydid not care to be torn to pieces; and the young two-, three-, andfour-year-old seals who had not begun housekeeping went inland abouthalf a mile through the ranks of the fighters and played about on thesand dunes in droves and legions, and rubbed off every single greenthing that grew. They were called the holluschickie--the bachelors--andthere were perhaps two or three hundred thousand of them at Novastoshnahalone. 

Sea Catch had just finished his forty-fifth fight one spring whenMatkah, 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 hisreservation, saying gruffly: "Late as usual. Where have you been?"

It was not the fashion for Sea Catch to eat anything during the fourmonths he stayed on the beaches, and so his temper was generally bad. Matkah knew better than to answer back. She looked round and cooed: "Howthoughtful 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 out, and his sides were torn to ribbons. 

"Oh, you men, you men!" Matkah said, fanning herself with her hindflipper. "Why can't you be sensible and settle your places quietly? Youlook as though you had been fighting with the Killer Whale. "

"I haven't been doing anything but fight since the middle of May. Thebeach is disgracefully crowded this season. I've met at least a hundredseals from Lukannon Beach, house hunting. Why can't people stay wherethey belong?"

"I've often thought we should be much happier if we hauled out at OtterIsland instead of this crowded place, " said Matkah. 

"Bah! Only the holluschickie go to Otter Island. If we went there theywould say we were afraid. We must preserve appearances, my dear. "

Sea Catch sunk his head proudly between his fat shoulders and pretendedto go to sleep for a few minutes, but all the time he was keeping asharp lookout for a fight. Now that all the seals and their wives wereon the land, you could hear their clamor miles out to sea above theloudest gales. At the lowest counting there were over a million sealson the beach--old seals, mother seals, tiny babies, and holluschickie, fighting, scuffling, bleating, crawling, and playing together--goingdown to the sea and coming up from it in gangs and regiments, lyingover every foot of ground as far as the eye could reach, and skirmishingabout in brigades through the fog. It is nearly always foggy atNovastoshnah, except when the sun comes out and makes everything lookall pearly and rainbow-colored for a little while. 

Kotick, Matkah's baby, was born in the middle of that confusion, and hewas all head and shoulders, with pale, watery blue eyes, as tiny sealsmust be, but there was something about his coat that made his motherlook 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 hasbeen such a thing in the world as a white seal. "

"I can't help that, " said Matkah; "there's going to be now. " And shesang the low, crooning seal song that all the mother seals sing to theirbabies:

 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. Hepaddled and scrambled about by his mother's side, and learned to scuffleout of the way when his father was fighting with another seal, and thetwo rolled and roared up and down the slippery rocks. Matkah used to goto 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 tensof thousands of babies of his own age, and they played together likepuppies, went to sleep on the clean sand, and played again. The oldpeople in the nurseries took no notice of them, and the holluschickiekept to their own grounds, and the babies had a beautiful playtime. 

When Matkah came back from her deep-sea fishing she would go straightto their playground and call as a sheep calls for a lamb, and wait untilshe heard Kotick bleat. Then she would take the straightest of straightlines in his direction, striking out with her fore flippers and knockingthe youngsters head over heels right and left. There were always a fewhundred mothers hunting for their children through the playgrounds, andthe babies were kept lively. But, as Matkah told Kotick, "So long as youdon't lie in muddy water and get mange, or rub the hard sand into a cutor scratch, and so long as you never go swimming when there is a heavysea, nothing will hurt you here. "

Little seals can no more swim than little children, but they are unhappytill they learn. The first time that Kotick went down to the sea a wavecarried him out beyond his depth, and his big head sank and his littlehind 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 havedrowned. 

After that, he learned to lie in a beach pool and let the wash of thewaves just cover him and lift him up while he paddled, but he alwayskept his eye open for big waves that might hurt. He was two weekslearning to use his flippers; and all that while he floundered in andout of the water, and coughed and grunted and crawled up the beach andtook catnaps on the sand, and went back again, until at last he foundthat he truly belonged to the water. 

Then you can imagine the times that he had with his companions, duckingunder the rollers; or coming in on top of a comber and landing with aswash and a splutter as the big wave went whirling far up the beach; orstanding 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 thatjust stuck out of the wash. Now and then he would see a thin fin, likea big shark's fin, drifting along close to shore, and he knew that thatwas the Killer Whale, the Grampus, who eats young seals when he can getthem; and Kotick would head for the beach like an arrow, and the finwould 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, byfamilies and tribes, and there was no more fighting over the nurseries, and the holluschickie played anywhere they liked. "Next year, " saidMatkah to Kotick, "you will be a holluschickie; but this year you mustlearn how to catch fish. "

They set out together across the Pacific, and Matkah showed Kotick howto sleep on his back with his flippers tucked down by his side and hislittle nose just out of the water. No cradle is so comfortable as thelong, rocking swell of the Pacific. When Kotick felt his skin tingle allover, Matkah told him he was learning the "feel of the water, " and thattingly, prickly feelings meant bad weather coming, and he must swim hardand get away. 

"In a little time, " she said, "you'll know where to swim to, but justnow we'll follow Sea Pig, the Porpoise, for he is very wise. " A schoolof porpoises were ducking and tearing through the water, and littleKotick followed them as fast as he could. "How do you know where to goto?" he panted. The leader of the school rolled his white eye and duckedunder. "My tail tingles, youngster, " he said. "That means there's a galebehind me. Come along! When you're south of the Sticky Water [he meantthe Equator] and your tail tingles, that means there's a gale in frontof 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 alwayslearning. Matkah taught him to follow the cod and the halibut along theunder-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 dartlike a rifle bullet in at one porthole and out at another as the fishesran; how to dance on the top of the waves when the lightning was racingall over the sky, and wave his flipper politely to the stumpy-tailedAlbatross and the Man-of-war Hawk as they went down the wind; how tojump three or four feet clear of the water like a dolphin, flippersclose to the side and tail curved; to leave the flying fish alonebecause they are all bony; to take the shoulder-piece out of a cod atfull speed ten fathoms deep, and never to stop and look at a boat or aship, but particularly a row-boat. At the end of six months what Kotickdid not know about deep-sea fishing was not worth the knowing. And allthat time he never set flipper on dry ground. 

One day, however, as he was lying half asleep in the warm watersomewhere off the Island of Juan Fernandez, he felt faint and lazy allover, just as human people do when the spring is in their legs, and heremembered the good firm beaches of Novastoshnah seven thousand milesaway, the games his companions played, the smell of the seaweed, theseal roar, and the fighting. That very minute he turned north, swimmingsteadily, and as he went on he met scores of his mates, all bound forthe same place, and they said: "Greeting, Kotick! This year we areall holluschickie, and we can dance the Fire-dance in the breakers offLukannon 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 ofit, he only said, "Swim quickly! My bones are aching for the land. " Andso they all came to the beaches where they had been born, and heard theold seals, their fathers, fighting in the rolling mist. 

That night Kotick danced the Fire-dance with the yearling seals. The seais full of fire on summer nights all the way down from Novastoshnah toLukannon, and each seal leaves a wake like burning oil behind him and aflaming flash when he jumps, and the waves break in great phosphorescentstreaks and swirls. Then they went inland to the holluschickie groundsand rolled up and down in the new wild wheat and told stories of whatthey had done while they had been at sea. They talked about the Pacificas boys would talk about a wood that they had been nutting in, and ifanyone had understood them he could have gone away and made such a chartof that ocean as never was. The three- and four-year-old holluschickieromped 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 tillyou've rounded the Horn. Hi, you yearling, where did you get that whitecoat?"

"I didn't get it, " said Kotick. "It grew. " And just as he was going toroll the speaker over, a couple of black-haired men with flat red facescame from behind a sand dune, and Kotick, who had never seen a manbefore, coughed and lowered his head. The holluschickie just bundled offa few yards and sat staring stupidly. The men were no less than KerickBooterin, 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 seanurseries, and they were deciding what seals they would drive up to thekilling pens--for the seals were driven just like sheep--to be turnedinto seal-skin jackets later on. 

"Ho!" said Patalamon. "Look! There's a white seal!"

Kerick Booterin turned nearly white under his oil and smoke, for he wasan Aleut, and Aleuts are not clean people. Then he began to mutter aprayer. "Don't touch him, Patalamon. There has never been a white sealsince--since I was born. Perhaps it is old Zaharrof's ghost. He was lostlast year in the big gale. "

"I'm not going near him, " said Patalamon. "He's unlucky. Do you reallythink he is old Zaharrof come back? I owe him for some gulls' eggs. "

"Don't look at him, " said Kerick. "Head off that drove offour-year-olds. The men ought to skin two hundred to-day, but it's thebeginning 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 herdof holluschickie and they stopped dead, puffing and blowing. Then hestepped near and the seals began to move, and Kerick headed them inland, and they never tried to get back to their companions. Hundreds andhundreds of thousands of seals watched them being driven, but they wenton playing just the same. Kotick was the only one who asked questions, and none of his companions could tell him anything, except that themen always drove seals in that way for six weeks or two months of everyyear. 

"I am going to follow, " he said, and his eyes nearly popped out of hishead as he shuffled along in the wake of the herd. 

"The white seal is coming after us, " cried Patalamon. "That's the firsttime a seal has ever come to the killing-grounds alone. "

"Hsh! Don't look behind you, " said Kerick. "It is Zaharrof's ghost! Imust speak to the priest about this. "

The distance to the killing-grounds was only half a mile, but it took anhour to cover, because if the seals went too fast Kerick knew that theywould get heated and then their fur would come off in patches when theywere skinned. So they went on very slowly, past Sea Lion's Neck, pastWebster House, till they came to the Salt House just beyond the sightof 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 sealnurseries 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 watchand let the drove cool off for thirty minutes, and Kotick could hear thefog-dew dripping off the brim of his cap. Then ten or twelve men, eachwith an iron-bound club three or four feet long, came up, and Kerickpointed out one or two of the drove that were bitten by their companionsor too hot, and the men kicked those aside with their heavy boots madeof the skin of a walrus's throat, and then Kerick said, "Let go!" andthen 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 enoughfor Kotick. He turned and galloped (a seal can gallop very swiftly fora short time) back to the sea; his little new mustache bristling withhorror. At Sea Lion's Neck, where the great sea lions sit on the edgeof the surf, he flung himself flipper-overhead into the cool water androcked 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!") saidKotick. "They're killing all the holluschickie on all the beaches!"

The Sea Lion turned his head inshore. "Nonsense!" he said. "Yourfriends are making as much noise as ever. You must have seen old Kerickpolishing off a drove. He's done that for thirty years. "

"It's horrible, " said Kotick, backing water as a wave went over him, andsteadying himself with a screw stroke of his flippers that brought himall standing within three inches of a jagged edge of rock. 

"Well done for a yearling!" said the Sea Lion, who could appreciate goodswimming. "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 getto know of it, and unless you can find an island where no men ever comeyou 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'tsay I've found it yet. But look here--you seem to have a fondness fortalking to your betters--suppose you go to Walrus Islet and talk toSea Vitch. He may know something. Don't flounce off like that. It's asix-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 ownbeach, hauled out, and slept for half an hour, twitching all over, asseals will. Then he headed straight for Walrus Islet, a little low sheetof rocky island almost due northeast from Novastoshnah, all ledges androck 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 mannersexcept when he is asleep--as he was then, with his hind flippers half inand 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 nextwalrus a blow with his tusks and waked him up, and the next struck thenext, and so on till they were all awake and staring in every directionbut the right one. 

"Hi! It's me, " said Kotick, bobbing in the surf and looking like alittle white slug. 

"Well! May I be--skinned!" said Sea Vitch, and they all looked at Kotickas you can fancy a club full of drowsy old gentlemen would look at alittle boy. Kotick did not care to hear any more about skinning justthen; he had seen enough of it. So he called out: "Isn't there any placefor seals to go where men don't ever come?"

"Go and find out, " said Sea Vitch, shutting his eyes. "Run away. We'rebusy 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 inhis life but always rooted for clams and seaweed; though he pretended tobe a very terrible person. Naturally the Chickies and the Gooverooskiesand the Epatkas--the Burgomaster Gulls and the Kittiwakes and thePuffins, who are always looking for a chance to be rude, took up thecry, and--so Limmershin told me--for nearly five minutes you could nothave heard a gun fired on Walrus Islet. All the population was yellingand screaming "Clam-eater! Stareek [old man]!" while Sea Vitch rolledfrom 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 beable 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 aBurgomaster gull, wheeling under Sea Vitch's nose. "Uglier, and withworse manners! Stareek!"

Kotick swam back to Novastoshnah, leaving the gulls to scream. There hefound that no one sympathized with him in his little attempt to discovera quiet place for the seals. They told him that men had always driventhe holluschickie--it was part of the day's work--and that if he did notlike 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 thedifference between him and his friends. Besides, Kotick was a whiteseal. 

"What you must do, " said old Sea Catch, after he had heard his son'sadventures, "is to grow up and be a big seal like your father, and havea nursery on the beach, and then they will leave you alone. In anotherfive years you ought to be able to fight for yourself. " Even gentleMatkah, 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 theFire-dance with a very heavy little heart. 

That autumn he left the beach as soon as he could, and set off alonebecause 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 quietisland with good firm beaches for seals to live on, where men could notget at them. So he explored and explored by himself from the North tothe South Pacific, swimming as much as three hundred miles in a dayand a night. He met with more adventures than can be told, and narrowlyescaped being caught by the Basking Shark, and the Spotted Shark, andthe Hammerhead, and he met all the untrustworthy ruffians that loaf upand down the seas, and the heavy polite fish, and the scarlet spottedscallops that are moored in one place for hundreds of years, and growvery proud of it; but he never met Sea Cow, and he never found an islandthat he could fancy. 

If the beach was good and hard, with a slope behind it for seals to playon, there was always the smoke of a whaler on the horizon, boiling downblubber, and Kotick knew what that meant. Or else he could see thatseals had once visited the island and been killed off, and Kotick knewthat where men had come once they would come again. 

He picked up with an old stumpy-tailed albatross, who told him thatKerguelen Island was the very place for peace and quiet, and when Kotickwent down there he was all but smashed to pieces against some wickedblack cliffs in a heavy sleet-storm with lightning and thunder. Yet ashe pulled out against the gale he could see that even there had oncebeen a seal nursery. And it was so in all the other islands that hevisited. 

Limmershin gave a long list of them, for he said that Kotick spent fiveseasons exploring, with a four months' rest each year at Novastoshnah, when the holluschickie used to make fun of him and his imaginaryislands. 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 islandsouth of the Cape of Good Hope. But everywhere the People of the Seatold him the same things. Seals had come to those islands once upon atime, but men had killed them all off. Even when he swam thousands ofmiles out of the Pacific and got to a place called Cape Corrientes (thatwas when he was coming back from Gough's Island), he found a few hundredmangy 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 hisown beaches; and on his way north he hauled out on an island full ofgreen trees, where he found an old, old seal who was dying, and Kotickcaught 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-penswith the holluschickie I shall not care. "

The old seal said, "Try once more. I am the last of the Lost Rookery ofMasafuera, and in the days when men killed us by the hundred thousandthere was a story on the beaches that some day a white seal would comeout 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 theonly white seal that has ever been born on the beaches, and I am theonly seal, black or white, who ever thought of looking for new islands. "

This cheered him immensely; and when he came back to Novastoshnah thatsummer, Matkah, his mother, begged him to marry and settle down, forhe was no longer a holluschick but a full-grown sea-catch, with a curlywhite mane on his shoulders, as heavy, as big, and as fierce as hisfather. "Give me another season, " he said. "Remember, Mother, it isalways the seventh wave that goes farthest up the beach. "

Curiously enough, there was another seal who thought that she would putoff marrying till the next year, and Kotick danced the Fire-dance withher all down Lukannon Beach the night before he set off on his lastexploration. This time he went westward, because he had fallen on thetrail of a great shoal of halibut, and he needed at least one hundredpounds of fish a day to keep him in good condition. He chased them tillhe was tired, and then he curled himself up and went to sleep on thehollows of the ground swell that sets in to Copper Island. He knew thecoast perfectly well, so about midnight, when he felt himself gentlybumped on a weed-bed, he said, "Hm, tide's running strong tonight, " andturning over under water opened his eyes slowly and stretched. Thenhe jumped like a cat, for he saw huge things nosing about in the shoalwater and browsing on the heavy fringes of the weeds. 

"By the Great Combers of Magellan!" he said, beneath his mustache. "Whoin 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 betweentwenty and thirty feet long, and they had no hind flippers, but ashovel-like tail that looked as if it had been whittled out of wetleather. Their heads were the most foolish-looking things you ever saw, and they balanced on the ends of their tails in deep water when theyweren't grazing, bowing solemnly to each other and waving their frontflippers as a fat man waves his arm. 

"Ahem!" said Kotick. "Good sport, gentlemen?" The big things answered bybowing and waving their flippers like the Frog Footman. When they beganfeeding again Kotick saw that their upper lip was split into two piecesthat they could twitch apart about a foot and bring together again witha whole bushel of seaweed between the splits. They tucked the stuff intotheir mouths and chumped solemnly. 

"Messy style of feeding, that, " said Kotick. They bowed again, andKotick began to lose his temper. "Very good, " he said. "If you do happento have an extra joint in your front flipper you needn't show off so. Isee you bow gracefully, but I should like to know your names. " The splitlips moved and twitched; and the glassy green eyes stared, but they didnot speak. 

"Well!" said Kotick. "You're the only people I've ever met uglier thanSea Vitch--and with worse manners. "

Then he remembered in a flash what the Burgomaster gull had screamedto him when he was a little yearling at Walrus Islet, and he tumbledbackward in the water, for he knew that 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 pickedup in his travels; and the Sea People talk nearly as many languages ashuman beings. But the sea cows did not answer because Sea Cow cannottalk. 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 evento his companions. But, as you know, he has an extra joint in hisforeflipper, and by waving it up and down and about he makes whatanswers to a sort of clumsy telegraphic code. 

By daylight Kotick's mane was standing on end and his temper was gonewhere the dead crabs go. Then the Sea Cow began to travel northward veryslowly, stopping to hold absurd bowing councils from time to time, andKotick followed them, saying to himself, "People who are such idiots asthese are would have been killed long ago if they hadn't found out somesafe island. And what is good enough for the Sea Cow is good enough forthe Sea Catch. All the same, I wish they'd hurry. "

It was weary work for Kotick. The herd never went more than forty orfifty miles a day, and stopped to feed at night, and kept close to theshore all the time; while Kotick swam round them, and over them, andunder them, but he could not hurry them up one-half mile. As they wentfarther north they held a bowing council every few hours, and Koticknearly bit off his mustache with impatience till he saw that they werefollowing up a warm current of water, and then he respected them more. 

One night they sank through the shiny water--sank like stones--and forthe first time since he had known them began to swim quickly. Kotickfollowed, and the pace astonished him, for he never dreamed that Sea Cowwas anything of a swimmer. They headed for a cliff by the shore--a cliffthat ran down into deep water, and plunged into a dark hole at thefoot of it, twenty fathoms under the sea. It was a long, long swim, andKotick badly wanted fresh air before he was out of the dark tunnel theyled him through. 

"My wig!" he said, when he rose, gasping and puffing, into open water atthe farther end. "It was a long dive, but it was worth it. "

The sea cows had separated and were browsing lazily along the edges ofthe finest beaches that Kotick had ever seen. There were longstretches of smooth-worn rock running for miles, exactly fitted to makeseal-nurseries, and there were play-grounds of hard sand sloping inlandbehind them, and there were rollers for seals to dance in, and longgrass 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 seacatch, 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 lowsandy islands half hidden in the beautiful rolling fog. Away to thenorthward, out to sea, ran a line of bars and shoals and rocks thatwould never let a ship come within six miles of the beach, and betweenthe islands and the mainland was a stretch of deep water that ran up tothe perpendicular cliffs, and somewhere below the cliffs was the mouthof the tunnel. 

"It's Novastoshnah over again, but ten times better, " said Kotick. "SeaCow must be wiser than I thought. Men can't come down the cliffs, evenif there were any men; and the shoals to seaward would knock a ship tosplinters. 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 wasin a hurry to go back to Novastoshnah, he thoroughly explored the newcountry, so that he would be able to answer all questions. 

Then he dived and made sure of the mouth of the tunnel, and racedthrough to the southward. No one but a sea cow or a seal would havedreamed of there being such a place, and when he looked back at thecliffs even Kotick could hardly believe that he had been under them. 

He was six days going home, though he was not swimming slowly; and whenhe hauled out just above Sea Lion's Neck the first person he met was theseal who had been waiting for him, and she saw by the look in his eyesthat he had found his island at last. 

But the holluschickie and Sea Catch, his father, and all the other sealslaughed at him when he told them what he had discovered, and a youngseal about his own age said, "This is all very well, Kotick, but youcan't come from no one knows where and order us off like this. Rememberwe'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 hishead from side to side. He had just married that year, and was making agreat fuss about it. 

"I've no nursery to fight for, " said Kotick. "I only want to show youall 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, " saidthe young seal with an ugly chuckle. 

"Will you come with me if I win?" said Kotick. And a green light cameinto his eye, 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 was out and histeeth sunk in the blubber of the young seal's neck. Then he threwhimself back on his haunches and hauled his enemy down the beach, shookhim, and knocked him over. Then Kotick roared to the seals: "I've donemy best for you these five seasons past. I've found you the island whereyou'll be safe, but unless your heads are dragged off your silly necksyou 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 tenthousand big seals fighting every year--never in all his little lifedid he see anything like Kotick's charge into the nurseries. He flunghimself at the biggest sea catch he could find, caught him by thethroat, choked him and bumped him and banged him till he grunted formercy, and then threw him aside and attacked the next. You see, Kotickhad never fasted for four months as the big seals did every year, andhis deep-sea swimming trips kept him in perfect condition, and, bestof all, he had never fought before. His curly white mane stood up withrage, and his eyes flamed, and his big dog teeth glistened, and he wassplendid 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 gavea roar and shouted: "He may be a fool, but he is the best fighter on thebeaches! Don't tackle your father, my son! He's with you!"

Kotick roared in answer, and old Sea Catch waddled in with his mustacheon end, blowing like a locomotive, while Matkah and the seal that wasgoing to marry Kotick cowered down and admired their men-folk. It wasa gorgeous fight, for the two fought as long as there was a seal thatdared lift up his head, and when there were none they paraded grandly upand down the beach side by side, bellowing. 

At night, just as the Northern Lights were winking and flashing throughthe fog, Kotick climbed a bare rock and looked down on the scatterednurseries and the torn and bleeding seals. "Now, " he said, "I've taughtyou your lesson. "

"My wig!" said old Sea Catch, boosting himself up stiffly, for he wasfearfully mauled. "The Killer Whale himself could not have cut them upworse. Son, I'm proud of you, and what's more, I'll come with you toyour island--if there is such a place. "

"Hear you, fat pigs of the sea. Who comes with me to the Sea Cow'stunnel? Answer, or I shall teach you again, " roared Kotick. 

There was a murmur like the ripple of the tide all up and down thebeaches. "We will come, " said thousands of tired voices. "We will followKotick, the White Seal. "

Then Kotick dropped his head between his shoulders and shut his eyesproudly. 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 hiswounds. 

A week later he and his army (nearly ten thousand holluschickie and oldseals) went away north to the Sea Cow's tunnel, Kotick leading them, and the seals that stayed at Novastoshnah called them idiots. But nextspring, when they all met off the fishing banks of the Pacific, Kotick'sseals told such tales of the new beaches beyond Sea Cow's tunnel thatmore and more seals left Novastoshnah. Of course it was not all done atonce, for the seals are not very clever, and they need a long time toturn things over in their minds, but year after year more seals wentaway from Novastoshnah, and Lukannon, and the other nurseries, to thequiet, sheltered beaches where Kotick sits all the summer through, getting bigger and fatter and stronger each year, while theholluschickie play around him, in that sea where no man comes. 

Lukannon

This is the great deep-sea song that all the St. Paul seals sing whenthey are heading back to their beaches in the summer. It is a sort ofvery 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 drowned 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 o'er 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 met 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!)

This is the story of the great war that Rikki-tikki-tavi foughtsingle-handed, through the bath-rooms of the big bungalow in Segowleecantonment. Darzee, the Tailorbird, helped him, and Chuchundra, themusk-rat, who never comes out into the middle of the floor, but alwayscreeps round by the wall, gave him advice, but Rikki-tikki did the realfighting. 

He was a mongoose, rather like a little cat in his fur and his tail, butquite like a weasel in his head and his habits. His eyes and the endof his restless nose were pink. He could scratch himself anywhere hepleased with any leg, front or back, that he chose to use. He couldfluff up his tail till it looked like a bottle brush, and his war cry ashe 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 livedwith his father and mother, and carried him, kicking and clucking, downa roadside ditch. He found a little wisp of grass floating there, andclung to it till he lost his senses. When he revived, he was lying inthe hot sun on the middle of a garden path, very draggled indeed, and asmall 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'treally dead. "

They took him into the house, and a big man picked him up between hisfinger and thumb and said he was not dead but half choked. So theywrapped him in cotton wool, and warmed him over a little fire, and heopened his eyes and sneezed. 

"Now, " said the big man (he was an Englishman who had just moved intothe 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, becausehe is eaten up from nose to tail with curiosity. The motto of allthe mongoose family is "Run and find out, " and Rikki-tikki was a truemongoose. He looked at the cotton wool, decided that it was not good toeat, ran all round the table, sat up and put his fur in order, scratchedhimself, and jumped on the small boy's shoulder. 

"Don't be frightened, Teddy, " said his father. "That's his way of makingfriends. "

"Ouch! He's tickling under my chin, " said Teddy. 

Rikki-tikki looked down between the boy's collar and neck, snuffed athis 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! Isuppose he's so tame because we've been kind to him. "

"All mongooses are like that, " said her husband. "If Teddy doesn't pickhim up by the tail, or try to put him in a cage, he'll run in and out ofthe house all day long. Let's give him something to eat. "

They gave him a little piece of raw meat. Rikki-tikki liked itimmensely, and when it was finished he went out into the veranda and satin the sunshine and fluffed up his fur to make it dry to the roots. Thenhe felt better. 

"There are more things to find out about in this house, " he said tohimself, "than all my family could find out in all their lives. I shallcertainly stay and find out. "

He spent all that day roaming over the house. He nearly drowned himselfin the bath-tubs, put his nose into the ink on a writing table, andburned it on the end of the big man's cigar, for he climbed up in thebig man's lap to see how writing was done. At nightfall he ran intoTeddy's nursery to watch how kerosene lamps were lighted, and when Teddywent 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 thenight, 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 onthe pillow. "I don't like that, " said Teddy's mother. "He may bite thechild. " "He'll do no such thing, " said the father. "Teddy's safer withthat little beast than if he had a bloodhound to watch him. If a snakecame into the nursery now--"

But Teddy's mother wouldn't think of anything so awful. 

Early in the morning Rikki-tikki came to early breakfast in the verandariding on Teddy's shoulder, and they gave him banana and some boiledegg. He sat on all their laps one after the other, because everywell-brought-up mongoose always hopes to be a house mongoose some dayand have rooms to run about in; and Rikki-tikki's mother (she used tolive in the general's house at Segowlee) had carefully told Rikki whatto do if ever he came across white men. 

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 assummer-houses, of Marshal Niel roses, lime and orange trees, clumps ofbamboos, and thickets of high grass. Rikki-tikki licked his lips. "Thisis a splendid hunting-ground, " he said, and his tail grew bottle-brushyat the thought of it, and he scuttled up and down the garden, snuffinghere and there till he heard very sorrowful voices in a thorn-bush. 

It was Darzee, the Tailorbird, and his wife. They had made a beautifulnest by pulling two big leaves together and stitching them up the edgeswith fibers, and had filled the hollow with cotton and downy fluff. Thenest swayed to and fro, as they sat on the rim and cried. 

"What is the matter?" asked Rikki-tikki. 

"We are very miserable, " said Darzee. "One of our babies fell out of thenest 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, forfrom the thick grass at the foot of the bush there came a low hiss--ahorrid cold sound that made Rikki-tikki jump back two clear feet. Theninch 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 stayedbalancing 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 neverchange their expression, whatever the snake may be thinking of. 

"Who is Nag?" said he. "I am Nag. The great God Brahm put his mark uponall our people, when the first cobra spread his hood to keep the sun offBrahm as he slept. Look, and be afraid!"

He spread out his hood more than ever, and Rikki-tikki saw thespectacle-mark on the back of it that looks exactly like the eye partof a hook-and-eye fastening. He was afraid for the minute, but it isimpossible for a mongoose to stay frightened for any length of time, andthough Rikki-tikki had never met a live cobra before, his mother had fedhim on dead ones, and he knew that all a grown mongoose's business inlife was to fight and eat snakes. Nag knew that too and, at the bottomof his cold heart, he was afraid. 

"Well, " said Rikki-tikki, and his tail began to fluff up again, "marksor no marks, do you think it is right for you to eat fledglings out of anest?"

Nag was thinking to himself, and watching the least little movement inthe grass behind Rikki-tikki. He knew that mongooses in the gardenmeant death sooner or later for him and his family, but he wanted to getRikki-tikki off his guard. So he dropped his head a little, and put iton 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 inthe air as high as he could go, and just under him whizzed by the headof Nagaina, Nag's wicked wife. She had crept up behind him as he wastalking, to make an end of him. He heard her savage hiss as the strokemissed. He came down almost across her back, and if he had been an oldmongoose he would have known that then was the time to break her backwith one bite; but he was afraid of the terrible lashing return strokeof the cobra. He bit, indeed, but did not bite long enough, and hejumped clear of the whisking tail, leaving Nagaina torn and angry. 

"Wicked, wicked Darzee!" said Nag, lashing up as high as he could reachtoward the nest in the thorn-bush. But Darzee had built it out of reachof snakes, and it only swayed to and fro. 

Rikki-tikki felt his eyes growing red and hot (when a mongoose's eyesgrow red, he is angry), and he sat back on his tail and hind legs like alittle kangaroo, and looked all round him, and chattered with rage. ButNag and Nagaina had disappeared into the grass. When a snake misses itsstroke, it never says anything or gives any sign of what it means to donext. Rikki-tikki did not care to follow them, for he did not feel surethat he could manage two snakes at once. So he trotted off to the gravelpath near the house, and sat down to think. It was a serious matter forhim. 

If you read the old books of natural history, you will find they saythat 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 offoot--snake's blow against mongoose's jump--and as no eye can follow themotion of a snake's head when it strikes, this makes things much morewonderful 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 toescape a blow from behind. It gave him confidence in himself, and whenTeddy came running down the path, Rikki-tikki was ready to be petted. 

But just as Teddy was stooping, something wriggled a little in the dust, and a tiny voice said: "Be careful. I am Death!" It was Karait, thedusty brown snakeling that lies for choice on the dusty earth; and hisbite is as dangerous as the cobra's. But he is so small that nobodythinks 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 thepeculiar rocking, swaying motion that he had inherited from his family. It looks very funny, but it is so perfectly balanced a gait that you canfly off from it at any angle you please, and in dealing with snakes thisis an advantage. If Rikki-tikki had only known, he was doing a much moredangerous thing than fighting Nag, for Karait is so small, and can turnso quickly, that unless Rikki bit him close to the back of the head, he would get the return stroke in his eye or his lip. But Rikki did notknow. His eyes were all red, and he rocked back and forth, looking fora good place to hold. Karait struck out. Rikki jumped sideways andtried to run in, but the wicked little dusty gray head lashed within afraction of his shoulder, and he had to jump over the body, and the headfollowed his heels close. 

Teddy shouted to the house: "Oh, look here! Our mongoose is killing asnake. " And Rikki-tikki heard a scream from Teddy's mother. His fatherran out with a stick, but by the time he came up, Karait had lunged outonce too far, and Rikki-tikki had sprung, jumped on the snake's back, dropped his head far between his forelegs, bitten as high up the backas he could get hold, and rolled away. That bite paralyzed Karait, andRikki-tikki was just going to eat him up from the tail, after the customof his family at dinner, when he remembered that a full meal makes aslow mongoose, and if he wanted all his strength and quickness ready, hemust keep himself thin. 

He went away for a dust bath under the castor-oil bushes, whileTeddy's father beat the dead Karait. "What is the use of that?" thoughtRikki-tikki. "I have settled it all;" and then Teddy's mother pickedhim up from the dust and hugged him, crying that he had saved Teddyfrom death, and Teddy's father said that he was a providence, and Teddylooked on with big scared eyes. Rikki-tikki was rather amused at all thefuss, which, of course, he did not understand. Teddy's mother might justas well have petted Teddy for playing in the dust. Rikki was thoroughlyenjoying himself. 

That night at dinner, walking to and fro among the wine-glasses on thetable, he might have stuffed himself three times over with nice things. But he remembered Nag and Nagaina, and though it was very pleasant to bepatted and petted by Teddy's mother, and to sit on Teddy's shoulder, hiseyes would get red from time to time, and he would go off into his longwar cry of "Rikk-tikk-tikki-tikki-tchk!"

Teddy carried him off to bed, and insisted on Rikki-tikki sleeping underhis chin. Rikki-tikki was too well bred to bite or scratch, but as soonas Teddy was asleep he went off for his nightly walk round the house, and in the dark he ran up against Chuchundra, the musk-rat, creepingaround by the wall. Chuchundra is a broken-hearted little beast. Hewhimpers and cheeps all the night, trying to make up his mind to runinto the middle of the room. But he never gets there. 

"Don't kill me, " said Chuchundra, almost weeping. "Rikki-tikki, don'tkill me!"

"Do you think a snake-killer kills muskrats?" said Rikki-tikkiscornfully. 

"Those who kill snakes get killed by snakes, " said Chuchundra, moresorrowfully than ever. "And how am I to be sure that Nag won't mistakeme for you some dark night?"

"There's not the least danger, " said Rikki-tikki. "But Nag is in thegarden, and I know you don't go there. "

"My cousin Chua, the rat, told me--" said Chuchundra, and then hestopped. 

"Told you what?"

"H'sh! Nag is everywhere, Rikki-tikki. You should have talked to Chua inthe 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 outinto the middle of the room. H'sh! I mustn't tell you anything. Can'tyou hear, Rikki-tikki?"

Rikki-tikki listened. The house was as still as still, but he thought hecould just catch the faintest scratch-scratch in the world--a noise asfaint as that of a wasp walking on a window-pane--the dry scratch of asnake's scales on brick-work. 

"That's Nag or Nagaina, " he said to himself, "and he is crawling intothe bath-room sluice. You're right, Chuchundra; I should have talked toChua. "

He stole off to Teddy's bath-room, but there was nothing there, and thento Teddy's mother's bathroom. At the bottom of the smooth plaster wallthere was a brick pulled out to make a sluice for the bath water, and asRikki-tikki stole in by the masonry curb where the bath is put, he heardNag and Nagaina whispering together outside in the moonlight. 

"When the house is emptied of people, " said Nagaina to her husband, "hewill have to go away, and then the garden will be our own again. Go inquietly, and remember that the big man who killed Karait is the firstone to bite. Then come out and tell me, and we will hunt for Rikki-tikkitogether. "

"But are you sure that there is anything to be gained by killing thepeople?" said Nag. 

"Everything. When there were no people in the bungalow, did we have anymongoose in the garden? So long as the bungalow is empty, we are kingand queen of the garden; and remember that as soon as our eggs in themelon bed hatch (as they may tomorrow), our children will need room andquiet. "

"I had not thought of that, " said Nag. "I will go, but there is no needthat we should hunt for Rikki-tikki afterward. I will kill the big manand his wife, and the child if I can, and come away quietly. Then thebungalow will be empty, and Rikki-tikki will go. "

Rikki-tikki tingled all over with rage and hatred at this, and thenNag's head came through the sluice, and his five feet of cold bodyfollowed it. Angry as he was, Rikki-tikki was very frightened as he sawthe size of the big cobra. Nag coiled himself up, raised his head, and looked into the bathroom in the dark, and Rikki could see his eyesglitter. 

"Now, if I kill him here, Nagaina will know; and if I fight him onthe open floor, the odds are in his favor. What am I to do?" saidRikki-tikki-tavi. 

Nag waved to and fro, and then Rikki-tikki heard him drinking from thebiggest water-jar that was used to fill the bath. "That is good, " saidthe snake. "Now, when Karait was killed, the big man had a stick. He mayhave that stick still, but when he comes in to bathe in the morning hewill not have a stick. I shall wait here till he comes. Nagaina--do youhear me?--I shall wait here in the cool till daytime. "

There was no answer from outside, so Rikki-tikki knew Nagaina had goneaway. Nag coiled himself down, coil by coil, round the bulge at thebottom of the water jar, and Rikki-tikki stayed still as death. After anhour 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 thebest place for a good hold. "If I don't break his back at the firstjump, " said Rikki, "he can still fight. And if he fights--O Rikki!" Helooked at the thickness of the neck below the hood, but that was toomuch 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 backagainst the bulge of the red earthenware to hold down the head. Thisgave him just one second's purchase, and he made the most of it. Then hewas battered to and fro as a rat is shaken by a dog--to and fro on thefloor, up and down, and around in great circles, but his eyes were redand he held on as the body cart-whipped over the floor, upsetting thetin dipper and the soap dish and the flesh brush, and banged against thetin 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 hisfamily, he preferred to be found with his teeth locked. He was dizzy, aching, and felt shaken to pieces when something went off like athunderclap just behind him. A hot wind knocked him senseless and redfire singed his fur. The big man had been wakened by the noise, and hadfired both barrels of a shotgun into Nag just behind the hood. 

Rikki-tikki held on with his eyes shut, for now he was quite sure he wasdead. 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 livesnow. "

Then Teddy's mother came in with a very white face, and saw what wasleft of Nag, and Rikki-tikki dragged himself to Teddy's bedroom andspent half the rest of the night shaking himself tenderly to find outwhether 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 fiveNags, 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 thornbush whereDarzee was singing a song of triumph at the top of his voice. The newsof Nag's death was all over the garden, for the sweeper had thrown thebody on the rubbish-heap. 

"Oh, you stupid tuft of feathers!" said Rikki-tikki angrily. "Is thisthe time to sing?"

"Nag is dead--is dead--is dead!" sang Darzee. "The valiant Rikki-tikkicaught him by the head and held fast. The big man brought thebang-stick, and Nag fell in two pieces! He will never eat my babiesagain. "

"All that's true enough. But where's Nagaina?" said Rikki-tikki, lookingcarefully round him. 

"Nagaina came to the bathroom sluice and called for Nag, " Darzee wenton, "and Nag came out on the end of a stick--the sweeper picked him upon the end of a stick and threw him upon the rubbish heap. Let us singabout the great, the red-eyed Rikki-tikki!" And Darzee filled his throatand sang. 

"If I could get up to your nest, I'd roll your babies out!" saidRikki-tikki. "You don't know when to do the right thing at the righttime. You're safe enough in your nest there, but it's war for me downhere. Stop singing a minute, Darzee. "

"For the great, the beautiful Rikki-tikki's sake I will stop, " saidDarzee. "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 isRikki-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 strikesnearly all day. She hid them there weeks ago. "

"And you never thought it worth while to tell me? The end nearest thewall, 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 flyoff to the stables and pretend that your wing is broken, and let Nagainachase you away to this bush. I must get to the melon-bed, and if I wentthere now she'd see me. "

Darzee was a feather-brained little fellow who could never hold morethan one idea at a time in his head. And just because he knew thatNagaina's children were born in eggs like his own, he didn't think atfirst 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 flewoff from the nest, and left Darzee to keep the babies warm, and continuehis song about the death of Nag. Darzee was very like a man in someways. 

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 andbroke it. " Then she fluttered more desperately than ever. 

Nagaina lifted up her head and hissed, "You warned Rikki-tikki when Iwould have killed him. Indeed and truly, you've chosen a bad place tobe lame in. " And she moved toward Darzee's wife, slipping along over thedust. 

"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 Ishall settle accounts with the boy. My husband lies on the rubbish heapthis 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 asnake's eyes gets so frightened that she cannot move. Darzee's wifefluttered on, piping sorrowfully, and never leaving the ground, andNagaina quickened her pace. 

Rikki-tikki heard them going up the path from the stables, and he racedfor the end of the melon patch near the wall. There, in the warm litterabove the melons, very cunningly hidden, he found twenty-five eggs, about the size of a bantam's eggs, but with whitish skin instead ofshell. 

"I was not a day too soon, " he said, for he could see the baby cobrascurled up inside the skin, and he knew that the minute they were hatchedthey could each kill a man or a mongoose. He bit off the tops of theeggs as fast as he could, taking care to crush the young cobras, andturned over the litter from time to time to see whether he had missedany. At last there were only three eggs left, and Rikki-tikki began tochuckle to himself, when he heard Darzee's wife screaming:

"Rikki-tikki, I led Nagaina toward the house, and she has gone into theveranda, and--oh, come quickly--she means killing!"

Rikki-tikki smashed two eggs, and tumbled backward down the melon-bedwith the third egg in his mouth, and scuttled to the veranda as hard ashe could put foot to the ground. Teddy and his mother and father werethere at early breakfast, but Rikki-tikki saw that they were not eatinganything. They sat stone-still, and their faces were white. Nagaina wascoiled up on the matting by Teddy's chair, within easy striking distanceof Teddy's bare leg, and she was swaying to and fro, singing a song oftriumph. 

"Son of the big man that killed Nag, " she hissed, "stay still. I am notready yet. Wait a little. Keep very still, all you three! If you move Istrike, and if you do not move I strike. Oh, foolish people, who killedmy Nag!"

Teddy's eyes were fixed on his father, and all his father could do wasto whisper, "Sit still, Teddy. You mustn't move. Teddy, keep still. "

Then Rikki-tikki came up and cried, "Turn round, Nagaina. Turn andfight!"

"All in good time, " said she, without moving her eyes. "I will settle myaccount with you presently. Look at your friends, Rikki-tikki. They arestill and white. They are afraid. They dare not move, and if you come astep 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 around, 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 wereblood-red. "What price for a snake's egg? For a young cobra? For ayoung king cobra? For the last--the very last of the brood? The ants areeating all the others down by the melon bed. "

Nagaina spun clear round, forgetting everything for the sake of the oneegg. Rikki-tikki saw Teddy's father shoot out a big hand, catch Teddyby 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. "Theboy is safe, and it was I--I--I that caught Nag by the hood last nightin the bathroom. " Then he began to jump up and down, all four feettogether, his head close to the floor. "He threw me to and fro, but hecould 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 withme. You shall not be a widow long. "

Nagaina saw that she had lost her chance of killing Teddy, and the egglay between Rikki-tikki's paws. "Give me the egg, Rikki-tikki. Give methe 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 goto the rubbish heap with Nag. Fight, widow! The big man has gone for hisgun! Fight!"

Rikki-tikki was bounding all round Nagaina, keeping just out of reachof her stroke, his little eyes like hot coals. Nagaina gathered herselftogether and flung out at him. Rikki-tikki jumped up and backward. Againand again and again she struck, and each time her head came with a whackon the matting of the veranda and she gathered herself together like awatch spring. Then Rikki-tikki danced in a circle to get behind her, andNagaina spun round to keep her head to his head, so that the rustle ofher 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 camenearer and nearer to it, till at last, while Rikki-tikki was drawingbreath, she caught it in her mouth, turned to the veranda steps, andflew like an arrow down the path, with Rikki-tikki behind her. Whenthe cobra runs for her life, she goes like a whip-lash flicked across ahorse's neck. 

Rikki-tikki knew that he must catch her, or all the trouble would beginagain. She headed straight for the long grass by the thorn-bush, and ashe was running Rikki-tikki heard Darzee still singing his foolish littlesong of triumph. But Darzee's wife was wiser. She flew off her nestas Nagaina came along, and flapped her wings about Nagaina's head. IfDarzee had helped they might have turned her, but Nagaina only loweredher hood and went on. Still, the instant's delay brought Rikki-tikki upto her, and as she plunged into the rat-hole where she and Nag used tolive, his little white teeth were clenched on her tail, and he went downwith 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; andRikki-tikki never knew when it might open out and give Nagaina room toturn and strike at him. He held on savagely, and stuck out his feet toact 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. ValiantRikki-tikki is dead! For Nagaina will surely kill him underground. "

So he sang a very mournful song that he made up on the spur of theminute, and just as he got to the most touching part, the grass quiveredagain, and Rikki-tikki, covered with dirt, dragged himself out of thehole leg by leg, licking his whiskers. Darzee stopped with a littleshout. 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. " Andthe red ants that live between the grass stems heard him, and began totroop down one after another to see if he had spoken the truth. 

Rikki-tikki curled himself up in the grass and slept where he was--sleptand slept till it was late in the afternoon, for he had done a hardday's work. 

"Now, " he said, when he awoke, "I will go back to the house. Tell theCoppersmith, Darzee, and he will tell the garden that Nagaina is dead. "

The Coppersmith is a bird who makes a noise exactly like the beating ofa little hammer on a copper pot; and the reason he is always making itis because he is the town crier to every Indian garden, and tells allthe news to everybody who cares to listen. As Rikki-tikki went up thepath, he heard his "attention" notes like a tiny dinner gong, andthen 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 thefrogs croaking, for Nag and Nagaina used to eat frogs as well as littlebirds. 

When Rikki got to the house, Teddy and Teddy's mother (she looked verywhite still, for she had been fainting) and Teddy's father came out andalmost cried over him; and that night he ate all that was given him tillhe could eat no more, and went to bed on Teddy's shoulder, where Teddy'smother saw him when she came to look late at night. 

"He saved our lives and Teddy's life, " she said to her husband. "Justthink, he saved all our lives. "

Rikki-tikki woke up with a jump, for the mongooses are light sleepers. 

"Oh, it's you, " said he. "What are you bothering for? All the cobras aredead. And if they weren't, I'm here. "

Rikki-tikki had a right to be proud of himself. But he did not grow tooproud, and he kept that garden as a mongoose should keep it, with toothand jump and spring and bite, till never a cobra dared show its headinside the walls. 

Darzee's Chant

 (Sung in honor of Rikki-tikki-tavi)

 Singer and tailor am I-- Doubled the joys that I know-- Proud of my lilt to 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 has delivered us, who? Tell me his nest and his name. Rikki, the valiant, the true, Tikki, with eyeballs of flame, Rikk-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 wind's untainted kiss, the water's clean caress; I will forget my ankle-ring and snap my picket stake. I will revisit my lost loves, and playmates masterless!

Kala Nag, which means Black Snake, had served the Indian Government inevery way that an elephant could serve it for forty-seven years, and ashe was fully twenty years old when he was caught, that makes him nearlyseventy--a ripe age for an elephant. He remembered pushing, with a bigleather pad on his forehead, at a gun stuck in deep mud, and that wasbefore the Afghan War of 1842, and he had not then come to his fullstrength. 

His mother Radha Pyari, --Radha the darling, --who had been caught in thesame drive with Kala Nag, told him, before his little milk tusks haddropped out, that elephants who were afraid always got hurt. Kala Nagknew that that advice was good, for the first time that he saw a shellburst he backed, screaming, into a stand of piled rifles, and thebayonets pricked him in all his softest places. So, before he wastwenty-five, he gave up being afraid, and so he was the best-lovedand the best-looked-after elephant in the service of the Government ofIndia. He had carried tents, twelve hundred pounds' weight of tents, onthe march in Upper India. He had been hoisted into a ship at the end ofa steam crane and taken for days across the water, and made to carry amortar on his back in a strange and rocky country very far from India, and had seen the Emperor Theodore lying dead in Magdala, and hadcome back again in the steamer entitled, so the soldiers said, to theAbyssinian War medal. He had seen his fellow elephants die of cold andepilepsy and starvation and sunstroke up at a place called Ali Musjid, ten years later; and afterward he had been sent down thousands of milessouth to haul and pile big balks of teak in the timberyards at Moulmein. There he had half killed an insubordinate young elephant who wasshirking his fair share of work. 

After that he was taken off timber-hauling, and employed, with a fewscore other elephants who were trained to the business, in helping tocatch wild elephants among the Garo hills. Elephants are very strictlypreserved by the Indian Government. There is one whole department whichdoes nothing else but hunt them, and catch them, and break them in, andsend 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 beencut off short at five feet, and bound round the ends, to prevent themsplitting, with bands of copper; but he could do more with those stumpsthan any untrained elephant could do with the real sharpened ones. When, after weeks and weeks of cautious driving of scattered elephants acrossthe hills, the forty or fifty wild monsters were driven into the laststockade, and the big drop gate, made of tree trunks lashed together, jarred down behind them, Kala Nag, at the word of command, would gointo that flaring, trumpeting pandemonium (generally at night, whenthe flicker of the torches made it difficult to judge distances), and, picking out the biggest and wildest tusker of the mob, would hammerhim and hustle him into quiet while the men on the backs of the otherelephants roped and tied the smaller ones. 

There was nothing in the way of fighting that Kala Nag, the old wiseBlack Snake, did not know, for he had stood up more than once in histime to the charge of the wounded tiger, and, curling up his soft trunkto be out of harm's way, had knocked the springing brute sideways inmid-air with a quick sickle cut of his head, that he had invented all byhimself; had knocked him over, and kneeled upon him with his huge kneestill the life went out with a gasp and a howl, and there was only afluffy 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 hadtaken him to Abyssinia, and grandson of Toomai of the Elephants who hadseen 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 willlive to see four. "

"He is afraid of me also, " said Little Toomai, standing up to his fullheight 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 takehis father's place on Kala Nag's neck when he grew up, and would handlethe heavy iron ankus, the elephant goad, that had been worn smooth byhis father, and his grandfather, and his great-grandfather. 

He knew what he was talking of; for he had been born under Kala Nag'sshadow, had played with the end of his trunk before he could walk, hadtaken him down to water as soon as he could walk, and Kala Nag would nomore have dreamed of disobeying his shrill little orders than he wouldhave dreamed of killing him on that day when Big Toomai carried thelittle brown baby under Kala Nag's tusks, and told him to salute hismaster that was to be. 

"Yes, " said Little Toomai, "he is afraid of me, " and he took longstrides up to Kala Nag, called him a fat old pig, and made him lift uphis feet one after the other. 

"Wah!" said Little Toomai, "thou art a big elephant, " and he wagged hisfluffy head, quoting his father. "The Government may pay for elephants, but they belong to us mahouts. When thou art old, Kala Nag, there willcome some rich rajah, and he will buy thee from the Government, onaccount of thy size and thy manners, and then thou wilt have nothingto do but to carry gold earrings in thy ears, and a gold howdah on thyback, and a red cloth covered with gold on thy sides, and walk at thehead of the processions of the King. Then I shall sit on thy neck, OKala Nag, with a silver ankus, and men will run before us with goldensticks, crying, `Room for the King's elephant!' That will be good, KalaNag, 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 Governmentservice. I am getting old, and I do not love wild elephants. Give mebrick elephant lines, one stall to each elephant, and big stumps to tiethem to safely, and flat, broad roads to exercise upon, instead of thiscome-and-go camping. Aha, the Cawnpore barracks were good. There was abazaar 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 longhours when there was nothing to do except to watch Kala Nag fidgeting inhis pickets. 

What Little Toomai liked was to scramble up bridle paths that only anelephant could take; the dip into the valley below; the glimpses of thewild elephants browsing miles away; the rush of the frightened pig andpeacock under Kala Nag's feet; the blinding warm rains, when all thehills and valleys smoked; the beautiful misty mornings when nobody knewwhere they would camp that night; the steady, cautious drive of the wildelephants, and the mad rush and blaze and hullabaloo of the last night'sdrive, when the elephants poured into the stockade like boulders in alandslide, found that they could not get out, and flung themselves atthe heavy posts only to be driven back by yells and flaring torches andvolleys of blank cartridge. 

Even a little boy could be of use there, and Toomai was as useful asthree boys. He would get his torch and wave it, and yell with thebest. But the really good time came when the driving out began, and theKeddah--that is, the stockade--looked like a picture of the end of theworld, and men had to make signs to one another, because they could nothear themselves speak. Then Little Toomai would climb up to the top ofone of the quivering stockade posts, his sun-bleached brown hair flyingloose all over his shoulders, and he looking like a goblin in thetorch-light. And as soon as there was a lull you could hear hishigh-pitched yells of encouragement to Kala Nag, above the trumpetingand crashing, and snapping of ropes, and groans of the tetheredelephants. "Mael, mael, Kala Nag! (Go on, go on, Black Snake!) Dant do!(Give him the tusk!) Somalo! Somalo! (Careful, careful!) Maro! Mar! (Hithim, hit him!) Mind the post! Arre! Arre! Hai! Yai! Kya-a-ah!" he wouldshout, and the big fight between Kala Nag and the wild elephant wouldsway to and fro across the Keddah, and the old elephant catchers wouldwipe the sweat out of their eyes, and find time to nod to Little Toomaiwriggling with joy on the top of the posts. 

He did more than wriggle. One night he slid down from the post andslipped 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 onthe leg of a kicking young calf (calves always give more trouble thanfull-grown animals). Kala Nag saw him, caught him in his trunk, andhanded him up to Big Toomai, who slapped him then and there, and put himback on the post. 

Next morning he gave him a scolding and said, "Are not good brickelephant lines and a little tent carrying enough, that thou must needsgo elephant catching on thy own account, little worthless? Now thosefoolish hunters, whose pay is less than my pay, have spoken to PetersenSahib of the matter. " Little Toomai was frightened. He did not know muchof white men, but Petersen Sahib was the greatest white man in the worldto him. He was the head of all the Keddah operations--the man who caughtall the elephants for the Government of India, and who knew more aboutthe 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 whyshould he go hunting these wild devils? He may even require thee to bean 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 thisnonsense ends safely. Next week the catching is over, and we of theplains are sent back to our stations. Then we will march on smoothroads, and forget all this hunting. But, son, I am angry that thoushouldst meddle in the business that belongs to these dirty Assamesejungle folk. Kala Nag will obey none but me, so I must go with him intothe Keddah, but he is only a fighting elephant, and he does not helpto rope them. So I sit at my ease, as befits a mahout, --not a merehunter, --a mahout, I say, and a man who gets a pension at the end ofhis service. Is the family of Toomai of the Elephants to be troddenunderfoot 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 nothorns in his feet. Or else Petersen Sahib will surely catch thee andmake thee a wild hunter--a follower of elephant's foot tracks, a junglebear. Bah! Shame! Go!"

Little Toomai went off without saying a word, but he told Kala Nag allhis grievances while he was examining his feet. "No matter, " said LittleToomai, turning up the fringe of Kala Nag's huge right ear. "Theyhave said my name to Petersen Sahib, and perhaps--and perhaps--andperhaps--who knows? Hai! That is a big thorn that I have pulled out!"

The next few days were spent in getting the elephants together, inwalking the newly caught wild elephants up and down between a couple oftame ones to prevent them giving too much trouble on the downward marchto the plains, and in taking stock of the blankets and ropes and thingsthat had been worn out or lost in the forest. 

Petersen Sahib came in on his clever she-elephant Pudmini; he had beenpaying off other camps among the hills, for the season was coming to anend, and there was a native clerk sitting at a table under a tree, topay the drivers their wages. As each man was paid he went back to hiselephant, and joined the line that stood ready to start. The catchers, and hunters, and beaters, the men of the regular Keddah, who stayed inthe jungle year in and year out, sat on the backs of the elephants thatbelonged to Petersen Sahib's permanent force, or leaned against thetrees with their guns across their arms, and made fun of the drivers whowere going away, and laughed when the newly caught elephants broke theline and ran about. 

Big Toomai went up to the clerk with Little Toomai behind him, andMachua Appa, the head tracker, said in an undertone to a friend of his, "There goes one piece of good elephant stuff at least. 'Tis a pity tosend that young jungle-cock to molt in the plains. "

Now Petersen Sahib had ears all over him, as a man must have who listensto the most silent of all living things--the wild elephant. He turnedwhere he was lying all along on Pudmini's back and said, "What is that?I did not know of a man among the plains-drivers who had wit enough torope even a dead elephant. "

"This is not a man, but a boy. He went into the Keddah at the lastdrive, and threw Barmao there the rope, when we were trying to get thatyoung calf with the blotch on his shoulder away from his mother. "

Machua Appa pointed at Little Toomai, and Petersen Sahib looked, andLittle Toomai bowed to the earth. 

"He throw a rope? He is smaller than a picket-pin. Little one, what isthy 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 inhis trunk and held him level with Pudmini's forehead, in front of thegreat Petersen Sahib. Then Little Toomai covered his face with hishands, for he was only a child, and except where elephants wereconcerned, he was just as bashful as a child could be. 

"Oho!" said Petersen Sahib, smiling underneath his mustache, "and whydidst thou teach thy elephant that trick? Was it to help thee stealgreen corn from the roofs of the houses when the ears are put out todry?"

"Not green corn, Protector of the Poor, --melons, " said Little Toomai, and all the men sitting about broke into a roar of laughter. Most ofthem had taught their elephants that trick when they were boys. LittleToomai was hanging eight feet up in the air, and he wished very muchthat he were eight feet underground. 

"He is Toomai, my son, Sahib, " said Big Toomai, scowling. "He is a verybad boy, and he will end in a jail, Sahib. "

"Of that I have my doubts, " said Petersen Sahib. "A boy who can face afull Keddah at his age does not end in jails. See, little one, here arefour annas to spend in sweetmeats because thou hast a little head underthat great thatch of hair. In time thou mayest become a hunter too. " BigToomai scowled more than ever. "Remember, though, that Keddahs are notgood 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 elephantsdance. That is the proper time. Come to me when thou hast seen theelephants dance, and then I will let thee go into all the Keddahs. "

There was another roar of laughter, for that is an old joke amongelephant-catchers, and it means just never. There are great cleared flatplaces hidden away in the forests that are called elephants' ball-rooms, but even these are only found by accident, and no man has ever seen theelephants dance. When a driver boasts of his skill and bravery the otherdrivers say, "And when didst thou see the elephants dance?"

Kala Nag put Little Toomai down, and he bowed to the earth again andwent away with his father, and gave the silver four-anna piece to hismother, who was nursing his baby brother, and they all were put up onKala Nag's back, and the line of grunting, squealing elephants rolleddown the hill path to the plains. It was a very lively march on accountof the new elephants, who gave trouble at every ford, and needed coaxingor beating every other minute. 

Big Toomai prodded Kala Nag spitefully, for he was very angry, butLittle 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 hehad 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 ofthese hill buffaloes of trackers. That was what he meant. Oh, you infront, 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 goodbehavior. Why should Petersen Sahib have chosen me to go down with youdonkeys of the rice fields? Lay your beast alongside, Toomai, andlet him prod with his tusks. By all the Gods of the Hills, these newelephants are possessed, or else they can smell their companions in thejungle. " Kala Nag hit the new elephant in the ribs and knocked thewind out of him, as Big Toomai said, "We have swept the hills of wildelephants 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! Youare very wise, you plains people. Anyone but a mud-head who never sawthe jungle would know that they know that the drives are ended for theseason. Therefore all the wild elephants to-night will--but why should Iwaste 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 hasta cool head. They will dance, and it behooves thy father, who hasswept all the hills of all the elephants, to double-chain his picketsto-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 aboutdances. "

"Yes; but a plainsman who lives in a hut knows only the four wallsof his hut. Well, leave thy elephants unshackled tonight and see whatcomes. As for their dancing, I have seen the place where--Bapree-bap!How many windings has the Dihang River? Here is another ford, and wemust 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 newelephants. But they lost their tempers long before they got there. 

Then the elephants were chained by their hind legs to their big stumpsof pickets, and extra ropes were fitted to the new elephants, and thefodder was piled before them, and the hill drivers went back to PetersenSahib through the afternoon light, telling the plains drivers to beextra careful that night, and laughing when the plains drivers asked thereason. 

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 anoise in an irregular fashion. He sits down to a sort of revel all byhimself. And Little Toomai had been spoken to by Petersen Sahib! If hehad not found what he wanted, I believe he would have been ill. But thesweetmeat seller in the camp lent him a little tom-tom--a drum beatenwith the flat of the hand--and he sat down, cross-legged, before KalaNag as the stars began to come out, the tom-tom in his lap, and hethumped and he thumped and he thumped, and the more he thought of thegreat honor that had been done to him, the more he thumped, all aloneamong the elephant fodder. There was no tune and no words, but thethumping made him happy. 

The new elephants strained at their ropes, and squealed and trumpetedfrom time to time, and he could hear his mother in the camp hut puttinghis small brother to sleep with an old, old song about the great GodShiv, who once told all the animals what they should eat. It is a verysoothing 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 eachverse, till he felt sleepy and stretched himself on the fodder at KalaNag's side. At last the elephants began to lie down one after anotheras is their custom, till only Kala Nag at the right of the line wasleft standing up; and he rocked slowly from side to side, his ears putforward to listen to the night wind as it blew very slowly across thehills. 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 squawkof a half-waked bird (birds are awake in the night much more often thanwe imagine), and the fall of water ever so far away. Little Toomai sleptfor some time, and when he waked it was brilliant moonlight, and KalaNag was still standing up with his ears cocked. Little Toomai turned, rustling in the fodder, and watched the curve of his big back againsthalf the stars in heaven, and while he watched he heard, so far awaythat it sounded no more than a pinhole of noise pricked through thestillness, the "hoot-toot" of a wild elephant. 

All the elephants in the lines jumped up as if they had been shot, andtheir grunts at last waked the sleeping mahouts, and they came out anddrove in the picket pegs with big mallets, and tightened this rope andknotted that till all was quiet. One new elephant had nearly grubbed uphis picket, and Big Toomai took off Kala Nag's leg chain and shackledthat elephant fore-foot to hind-foot, but slipped a loop of grass stringround Kala Nag's leg, and told him to remember that he was tied fast. Heknew that he and his father and his grandfather had done the very samething hundreds of times before. Kala Nag did not answer to the orderby gurgling, as he usually did. He stood still, looking out across themoonlight, his head a little raised and his ears spread like fans, up tothe great folds of the Garo hills. 

"Tend to him if he grows restless in the night, " said Big Toomai toLittle Toomai, and he went into the hut and slept. Little Toomai wasjust going to sleep, too, when he heard the coir string snap with alittle "tang, " and Kala Nag rolled out of his pickets as slowly and assilently as a cloud rolls out of the mouth of a valley. Little Toomaipattered after him, barefooted, down the road in the moonlight, callingunder his breath, "Kala Nag! Kala Nag! Take me with you, O Kala Nag!"The elephant turned, without a sound, took three strides back to theboy in the moonlight, put down his trunk, swung him up to his neck, and almost before Little Toomai had settled his knees, slipped into theforest. 

There was one blast of furious trumpeting from the lines, and then thesilence shut down on everything, and Kala Nag began to move. Sometimesa tuft of high grass washed along his sides as a wave washes along thesides of a ship, and sometimes a cluster of wild-pepper vines wouldscrape along his back, or a bamboo would creak where his shouldertouched it. But between those times he moved absolutely without anysound, drifting through the thick Garo forest as though it had beensmoke. He was going uphill, but though Little Toomai watched the starsin 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 andfurry under the moonlight for miles and miles, and the blue-white mistover the river in the hollow. Toomai leaned forward and looked, and hefelt 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 quillsrattled in the thicket; and in the darkness between the tree stems heheard a hog-bear digging hard in the moist warm earth, and snuffing asit digged. 

Then the branches closed over his head again, and Kala Nag began to godown into the valley--not quietly this time, but as a runaway gun goesdown a steep bank--in one rush. The huge limbs moved as steadily aspistons, eight feet to each stride, and the wrinkled skin of the elbowpoints rustled. The undergrowth on either side of him ripped with anoise like torn canvas, and the saplings that he heaved away right andleft with his shoulders sprang back again and banged him on the flank, and great trails of creepers, all matted together, hung from his tusksas he threw his head from side to side and plowed out his pathway. ThenLittle Toomai laid himself down close to the great neck lest a swingingbough should sweep him to the ground, and he wished that he were back inthe lines again. 

The grass began to get squashy, and Kala Nag's feet sucked and squelchedas he put them down, and the night mist at the bottom of the valleychilled Little Toomai. There was a splash and a trample, and the rush ofrunning water, and Kala Nag strode through the bed of a river, feelinghis way at each step. Above the noise of the water, as it swirled roundthe elephant's legs, Little Toomai could hear more splashing and sometrumpeting both upstream and down--great grunts and angry snortings, andall the mist about him seemed to be full of rolling, wavy shadows. 

"Ai!" he said, half aloud, his teeth chattering. "The elephant-folk areout tonight. It is the dance, then!"

Kala Nag swashed out of the water, blew his trunk clear, and begananother climb. But this time he was not alone, and he had not to makehis path. That was made already, six feet wide, in front of him, wherethe bent jungle-grass was trying to recover itself and stand up. Manyelephants must have gone that way only a few minutes before. LittleToomai looked back, and behind him a great wild tusker with his littlepig's eyes glowing like hot coals was just lifting himself out of themisty river. Then the trees closed up again, and they went on and up, with trumpetings and crashings, and the sound of breaking branches onevery side of them. 

At last Kala Nag stood still between two tree-trunks at the very topof the hill. They were part of a circle of trees that grew round anirregular space of some three or four acres, and in all that space, asLittle Toomai could see, the ground had been trampled down as hard asa brick floor. Some trees grew in the center of the clearing, but theirbark was rubbed away, and the white wood beneath showed all shiny andpolished in the patches of moonlight. There were creepers hanging fromthe upper branches, and the bells of the flowers of the creepers, greatwaxy white things like convolvuluses, hung down fast asleep. Butwithin the limits of the clearing there was not a single blade ofgreen--nothing but the trampled earth. 

The moonlight showed it all iron gray, except where some elephantsstood upon it, and their shadows were inky black. Little Toomai looked, holding his breath, with his eyes starting out of his head, and as helooked, more and more and more elephants swung out into the open frombetween the tree trunks. Little Toomai could only count up to ten, andhe counted again and again on his fingers till he lost count of thetens, and his head began to swim. Outside the clearing he could hearthem crashing in the undergrowth as they worked their way up thehillside, but as soon as they were within the circle of the tree trunksthey moved like ghosts. 

There were white-tusked wild males, with fallen leaves and nuts andtwigs lying in the wrinkles of their necks and the folds of their ears;fat, slow-footed she-elephants, with restless, little pinky blackcalves only three or four feet high running under their stomachs; youngelephants with their tusks just beginning to show, and very proud ofthem; lanky, scraggy old-maid elephants, with their hollow anxiousfaces, and trunks like rough bark; savage old bull elephants, scarredfrom shoulder to flank with great weals and cuts of bygone fights, and the caked dirt of their solitary mud baths dropping from theirshoulders; and there was one with a broken tusk and the marks of thefull-stroke, the terrible drawing scrape, of a tiger's claws on hisside. 

They were standing head to head, or walking to and fro across the groundin couples, or rocking and swaying all by themselves--scores and scoresof elephants. 

Toomai knew that so long as he lay still on Kala Nag's neck nothingwould happen to him, for even in the rush and scramble of a Keddah drivea wild elephant does not reach up with his trunk and drag a man off theneck of a tame elephant. And these elephants were not thinking of menthat night. Once they started and put their ears forward when they heardthe chinking of a leg iron in the forest, but it was Pudmini, PetersenSahib's pet elephant, her chain snapped short off, grunting, snufflingup the hillside. She must have broken her pickets and come straight fromPetersen Sahib's camp; and Little Toomai saw another elephant, one thathe 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 intothe middle of the crowd, clucking and gurgling, and all the elephantsbegan to talk in their own tongue, and to move about. 

Still lying down, Little Toomai looked down upon scores and scores ofbroad backs, and wagging ears, and tossing trunks, and little rollingeyes. He heard the click of tusks as they crossed other tusks byaccident, and the dry rustle of trunks twined together, and the chafingof enormous sides and shoulders in the crowd, and the incessant flickand hissh of the great tails. Then a cloud came over the moon, and hesat in black darkness. But the quiet, steady hustling and pushing andgurgling went on just the same. He knew that there were elephants allround Kala Nag, and that there was no chance of backing him out of theassembly; so he set his teeth and shivered. In a Keddah at least therewas torchlight and shouting, but here he was all alone in the dark, andonce a trunk came up and touched him on the knee. 

Then an elephant trumpeted, and they all took it up for five or tenterrible seconds. The dew from the trees above spattered down like rainon the unseen backs, and a dull booming noise began, not very loud atfirst, and Little Toomai could not tell what it was. But it grew andgrew, and Kala Nag lifted up one forefoot and then the other, andbrought them down on the ground--one-two, one-two, as steadily astrip-hammers. The elephants were stamping all together now, and itsounded like a war drum beaten at the mouth of a cave. The dew fell fromthe 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 upto his ears to shut out the sound. But it was all one gigantic jar thatran 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 forwarda few strides, and the thumping would change to the crushing sound ofjuicy green things being bruised, but in a minute or two the boomof feet on hard earth began again. A tree was creaking and groaningsomewhere near him. He put out his arm and felt the bark, but Kala Nagmoved forward, still tramping, and he could not tell where he was in theclearing. There was no sound from the elephants, except once, when twoor three little calves squeaked together. Then he heard a thump and ashuffle, 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 thenight 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 hadbeen 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 insight except Kala Nag, Pudmini, and the elephant with the rope-galls, and there was neither sign nor rustle nor whisper down the hillsides toshow 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 theundergrowth and the jungle grass at the sides had been rolled back. Little Toomai stared once more. Now he understood the trampling. Theelephants had stamped out more room--had stamped the thick grass andjuicy cane to trash, the trash into slivers, the slivers into tinyfibers, and the fibers into hard earth. 

"Wah!" said Little Toomai, and his eyes were very heavy. "Kala Nag, mylord, let us keep by Pudmini and go to Petersen Sahib's camp, or I shalldrop from thy neck. "

The third elephant watched the two go away, snorted, wheeled round, andtook his own path. He may have belonged to some little native king'sestablishment, fifty or sixty or a hundred miles away. 

Two hours later, as Petersen Sahib was eating early breakfast, hiselephants, who had been double chained that night, began to trumpet, andPudmini, mired to the shoulders, with Kala Nag, very footsore, shambledinto the camp. Little Toomai's face was gray and pinched, and hishair was full of leaves and drenched with dew, but he tried to salutePetersen Sahib, and cried faintly: "The dance--the elephant dance! Ihave seen it, and--I die!" As Kala Nag sat down, he slid off his neck ina dead faint. 

But, since native children have no nerves worth speaking of, in twohours he was lying very contentedly in Petersen Sahib's hammock withPetersen 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 theold 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 shortwords, as a child will, and wound up with:

"Now, if I lie in one word, send men to see, and they will find that theelephant folk have trampled down more room in their dance-room, andthey will find ten and ten, and many times ten, tracks leading to thatdance-room. They made more room with their feet. I have seen it. KalaNag took me, and I saw. Also Kala Nag is very leg-weary!"

Little Toomai lay back and slept all through the long afternoon and intothe twilight, and while he slept Petersen Sahib and Machua Appa followedthe track of the two elephants for fifteen miles across the hills. Petersen Sahib had spent eighteen years in catching elephants, and hehad only once before found such a dance-place. Machua Appa had no needto look twice at the clearing to see what had been done there, or toscratch with his toe in the packed, rammed earth. 

"The child speaks truth, " said he. "All this was done last night, andI have counted seventy tracks crossing the river. See, Sahib, wherePudmini's leg-iron cut the bark of that tree! Yes; she was there too. "

They looked at one another and up and down, and they wondered. For theways of elephants are beyond the wit of any man, black or white, tofathom. 

"Forty years and five, " said Machua Appa, "have I followed my lord, theelephant, but never have I heard that any child of man had seen whatthis child has seen. By all the Gods of the Hills, it is--what can wesay?" and he shook his head. 

When they got back to camp it was time for the evening meal. PetersenSahib ate alone in his tent, but he gave orders that the camp shouldhave two sheep and some fowls, as well as a double ration of flour andrice and salt, for he knew that there would be a feast. 

Big Toomai had come up hotfoot from the camp in the plains to search forhis son and his elephant, and now that he had found them he looked atthem as though he were afraid of them both. And there was a feast bythe blazing campfires in front of the lines of picketed elephants, and Little Toomai was the hero of it all. And the big brown elephantcatchers, the trackers and drivers and ropers, and the men who know allthe secrets of breaking the wildest elephants, passed him from one tothe other, and they marked his forehead with blood from the breast of anewly killed jungle-cock, to show that he was a forester, initiated andfree of all the jungles. 

And at last, when the flames died down, and the red light of the logsmade the elephants look as though they had been dipped in blood too, Machua Appa, the head of all the drivers of all the Keddahs--MachuaAppa, Petersen Sahib's other self, who had never seen a made road inforty years: Machua Appa, who was so great that he had no other namethan Machua Appa, --leaped to his feet, with Little Toomai held high inthe air above his head, and shouted: "Listen, my brothers. Listen, too, you my lords in the lines there, for I, Machua Appa, am speaking! Thislittle one shall no more be called Little Toomai, but Toomai of theElephants, as his great-grandfather was called before him. What neverman has seen he has seen through the long night, and the favor of theelephant-folk and of the Gods of the Jungles is with him. He shallbecome a great tracker. He shall become greater than I, even I, MachuaAppa! He shall follow the new trail, and the stale trail, and the mixedtrail, with a clear eye! He shall take no harm in the Keddah when heruns under their bellies to rope the wild tuskers; and if he slipsbefore the feet of the charging bull elephant, the bull elephantshall know who he is and shall not crush him. Aihai! my lords in thechains, "--he whirled up the line of pickets--"here is the little onethat has seen your dances in your hidden places, --the sight that neverman saw! Give him honor, my lords! Salaam karo, my children. Make yoursalute to Toomai of the Elephants! Gunga Pershad, ahaa! Hira Guj, BirchiGuj, Kuttar Guj, ahaa! Pudmini, --thou hast seen him at the dance, andthou too, Kala Nag, my pearl among elephants!--ahaa! Together! To Toomaiof the Elephants. Barrao!"

And at that last wild yell the whole line flung up their trunks till thetips touched their foreheads, and broke out into the full salute--thecrashing trumpet-peal that only the Viceroy of India hears, the Salaamutof the Keddah. 

But it was all for the sake of Little Toomai, who had seen what neverman had seen before--the dance of the elephants at night and alone inthe 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; Battle 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!

It had been raining heavily for one whole month--raining on a campof thirty thousand men and 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 fromthe Amir of Afghanistan--a wild king of a very wild country. The Amirhad brought with him for a bodyguard eight hundred men and horses whohad never seen a camp or a locomotive before in their lives--savagemen and savage horses from somewhere at the back of Central Asia. Everynight a mob of these horses would be sure to break their heel ropes andstampede up and down the camp through the mud in the dark, or the camelswould 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 scuttledout into the slush. Little Vixen, my fox terrier, went out through theother 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 danceabout like a mad ghost. A camel had blundered into it, and wet and angryas I was, I could not help laughing. Then I ran on, because I did notknow how many camels might have got loose, and before long I was out ofsight of the camp, plowing my way through the mud. 

At last I fell over the tail-end of a gun, and by that knew I wassomewhere near the artillery lines where the cannon were stacked atnight. As I did not want to plowter about any more in the drizzle andthe dark, I put my waterproof over the muzzle of one gun, and made asort of wigwam with two or three rammers that I found, and lay along thetail of another gun, wondering where Vixen had got to, and where I mightbe. 

Just as I was getting ready to go to sleep I heard a jingle of harnessand a grunt, and a mule passed me shaking his wet ears. He belonged toa screw-gun battery, for I could hear the rattle of the straps and ringsand chains and things on his saddle pad. The screw-guns are tiny littlecannon made in two pieces, that are screwed together when the time comesto use them. They are taken up mountains, anywhere that a mule can finda road, and they are very useful for fighting in rocky country. 

Behind the mule there was a camel, with his big soft feet squelchingand slipping in the mud, and his neck bobbing to and fro like astrayed hen's. Luckily, I knew enough of beast language--not wild-beastlanguage, but camp-beast language, of course--from the natives to knowwhat he was saying. 

He must have been the one that flopped into my tent, for he called tothe mule, "What shall I do? Where shall I go? I have fought with a whitething that waved, and it took a stick and hit me on the neck. " (That wasmy broken tent pole, and I was very glad to know it. ) "Shall we run on?"

"Oh, it was you, " said the mule, "you and your friends, that havebeen disturbing the camp? All right. You'll be beaten for this in themorning. But I may as well give you something on account now. "

I heard the harness jingle as the mule backed and caught the cameltwo 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 downwhimpering. There was a regular beat of hoofs in the darkness, and a bigtroop-horse cantered up as steadily as though he were on parade, jumpeda gun tail, and landed close to the mule. 

"It's disgraceful, " he said, blowing out his nostrils. "Those camelshave racketed through our lines again--the third time this week. How's ahorse 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 ScrewBattery, " said the mule, "and the other's one of your friends. He'swaked me up too. Who are you?"

"Number Fifteen, E troop, Ninth Lancers--Dick Cunliffe's horse. Standover a little, there. "

"Oh, beg your pardon, " said the mule. "It's too dark to see much. Aren'tthese camels too sickening for anything? I walked out of my lines to geta 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 39thNative Infantry, and I am not as brave as you are, my lords. "

"Then why didn't you stay and carry baggage for the 39th NativeInfantry, 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 stick-legs betweenthe guns. " He cocked one ear and listened. "Bullocks!" he said. "Gunbullocks. On my word, you and your friends have waked the camp verythoroughly. 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 sulkywhite bullocks that drag the heavy siege guns when the elephants won'tgo any nearer to the firing, came shouldering along together. And almoststepping 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 neverhurt anybody yet. "

The gun-bullocks lay down together and began chewing the cud, but theyoung mule huddled close to Billy. 

"Things!" he said. "Fearful and horrible, Billy! They came into ourlines 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 thebattery before this gentleman!"

"Gently, gently!" said the troop-horse. "Remember they are always likethis to begin with. The first time I ever saw a man (it was in Australiawhen I was a three-year-old) I ran for half a day, and if I'd seen acamel, I should have been running still. "

Nearly all our horses for the English cavalry are brought to India fromAustralia, and are broken in by the troopers themselves. 

"True enough, " said Billy. "Stop shaking, youngster. The first timethey put the full harness with all its chains on my back I stood onmy forelegs and kicked every bit of it off. I hadn't learned the realscience of kicking then, but the battery said they had never seenanything 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, andthey fell up and down the lines and bubbled; and my head-rope broke, andI couldn't find my driver, and I couldn't find you, Billy, so I ran offwith--with these gentlemen. "

"H'm!" said Billy. "As soon as I heard the camels were loose I came awayon my own account. When a battery--a screw-gun mule calls gun-bullocksgentlemen, he must be very badly shaken up. Who are you fellows on theground there?"

The gun bullocks rolled their cuds, and answered both together: "Theseventh yoke of the first gun of the Big Gun Battery. We were asleepwhen the camels came, but when we were trampled on we got up and walkedaway. It is better to lie quiet in the mud than to be disturbed on goodbedding. We told your friend here that there was nothing to be afraidof, 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 bygun-bullocks. I hope you like it, young un. "

The young mule's teeth snapped, and I heard him say something about notbeing afraid of any beefy old bullock in the world. But the bullocksonly clicked their horns together and went on chewing. 

"Now, don't be angry after you've been afraid. That's the worst kindof cowardice, " said the troop-horse. "Anybody can be forgiven for beingscared 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 fiftyof us, just because a new recruit got to telling tales of whip snakes athome in Australia till we were scared to death of the loose ends of ourhead-ropes. "

"That's all very well in camp, " said Billy. "I'm not above stampedingmyself, for the fun of the thing, when I haven't been out for a day ortwo. But what do you do on active service?"

"Oh, that's quite another set of new shoes, " said the troop horse. "DickCunliffe's on my back then, and drives his knees into me, and all I haveto do is to watch where I am putting my feet, and to keep my hind legswell 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 youmean 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 therein is pressed on your neck? It means life or death to your man, and ofcourse that's life and death to you. Get round with your hind legs underyou the instant you feel the rein on your neck. If you haven't room toswing round, rear up a little and come round on your hind legs. That'sbeing bridle-wise. "

"We aren't taught that way, " said Billy the mule stiffly. "We're taughtto obey the man at our head: step off when he says so, and step in whenhe says so. I suppose it comes to the same thing. Now, with all thisfine 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 alot of yelling, hairy men with knives--long shiny knives, worse thanthe farrier's knives--and I have to take care that Dick's boot is justtouching the next man's boot without crushing it. I can see Dick's lanceto the right of my right eye, and I know I'm safe. I shouldn't care tobe 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'sfault--"

"A lot I should have cared whose fault it was, if it hurt!" said theyoung mule. 

"You must, " said the troop horse. "If you don't trust your man, you mayas well run away at once. That's what some of our horses do, and I don'tblame them. As I was saying, it wasn't Dick's fault. The man was lyingon the ground, and I stretched myself not to tread on him, and heslashed up at me. Next time I have to go over a man lying down I shallstep on him--hard. "

"H'm!" said Billy. "It sounds very foolish. Knives are dirty thingsat any time. The proper thing to do is to climb up a mountain with awell-balanced saddle, hang on by all four feet and your ears too, andcreep and crawl and wriggle along, till you come out hundreds of feetabove anyone else on a ledge where there's just room enough for yourhoofs. Then you stand still and keep quiet--never ask a man to hold yourhead, young un--keep quiet while the guns are being put together, andthen you watch the little poppy shells drop down into the tree-tops everso 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 perhaps a badly packed saddle will upset a mule, but it'svery 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. Thescience 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 keephidden as much as possible, even if you have to go a mile out of yourway. 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 shouldwant to charge--with Dick. "

"Oh, no, you wouldn't. You know that as soon as the guns are inposition they'll do all the charging. That's scientific and neat. Butknives--pah!"

The baggage-camel had been bobbing his head to and fro for some timepast, anxious to get a word in edgewise. Then I heard him say, as hecleared his throat, nervously:

"I--I--I have fought a little, but not in that climbing way or thatrunning way. "

"No. Now you mention it, " said Billy, "you don't look as though you weremade 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, andthe men piled our packs and saddles, outside the square, and they firedover our backs, the men did, on all sides of the square. "

"What sort of men? Any men that came along?" said the troop-horse. "Theyteach us in riding school to lie down and let our masters fire acrossus, but Dick Cunliffe is the only man I'd trust to do that. It ticklesmy 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 areplenty of men and plenty of other camels close by, and a great manyclouds of smoke. I am not frightened then. I sit still and wait. "

"And yet, " said Billy, "you dream bad dreams and upset the camp atnight. 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 somethingto 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 hisbig head and said, "This is very foolish indeed. There is only one wayof fighting. "

"Oh, go on, " said Billy. "Please don't mind me. I suppose you fellowsfight 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 soonas 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 otherside. Two Tails is a great coward. Then we tug the big gun alltogether--Heya--Hullah! Heeyah! Hullah! We do not climb like cats norrun like calves. We go across the level plain, twenty yoke of us, tillwe are unyoked again, and we graze while the big guns talk across theplain to some town with mud walls, and pieces of the wall fall out, andthe dust goes up as though many cattle were coming home. "

"Oh! And you choose that time for grazing?" said the young mule. 

"That time or any other. Eating is always good. We eat till we are yokedup 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 ofus are killed, and then there is all the more grazing for those that areleft. This is Fate. None the less, Two Tails is a great coward. That isthe proper way to fight. We are brothers from Hapur. Our father was asacred 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 youare 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 allover us, or run into people with knives. I never heard such stuff. Amountain ledge, a well-balanced load, a driver you can trust to let youpick your own way, and I'm your mule. But--the other things--no!" saidBilly, with a stamp of his foot. 

"Of course, " said the troop horse, "everyone is not made in the sameway, and I can quite see that your family, on your father's side, wouldfail to understand a great many things. "

"Never you mind my family on my father's side, " said Billy angrily, forevery mule hates to be reminded that his father was a donkey. "My fatherwas a Southern gentleman, and he could pull down and bite and kick intorags every horse he came across. Remember that, you big brown Brumby!"

Brumby means wild horse without any breeding. Imagine the feelings ofSunol if a car-horse called her a "skate, " and you can imagine how theAustralian horse felt. I saw the white of his eye glitter in the dark. 

"See here, you son of an imported Malaga jackass, " he said betweenhis teeth, "I'd have you know that I'm related on my mother's side toCarbine, winner of the Melbourne Cup, and where I come from we aren'taccustomed to being ridden over roughshod by any parrot-mouthed, pig-headed mule in a pop-gun pea-shooter battery. Are you ready?"

"On your hind legs!" squealed Billy. They both reared up facing eachother, and I was expecting a furious fight, when a gurgly, rumblyvoice, called out of the darkness to the right--"Children, what are youfighting about there? Be quiet. "

Both beasts dropped down with a snort of disgust, for neither horse normule can bear to listen to an elephant's voice. 

"It's Two Tails!" said the troop-horse. "I can't stand him. A tail ateach end isn't fair!"

"My feelings exactly, " said Billy, crowding into the troop-horse forcompany. "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 forthe night. I've heard what you fellows have been saying. But don't beafraid. I'm not coming over. "

The bullocks and the camel said, half aloud, "Afraid of Two Tails--whatnonsense!" And the bullocks went on, "We are sorry that you heard, butit 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, exactlylike a little boy saying a poem, "I don't quite know whether you'dunderstand. "

"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 thinkyou are. But it's different with me. My battery captain called me aPachydermatous Anachronism the other day. "

"That's another way of fighting, I suppose?" said Billy, who wasrecovering his spirits. 

"You don't know what that means, of course, but I do. It means betwixtand between, and that is just where I am. I can see inside my head whatwill happen when a shell bursts, and you bullocks can't. "

"I can, " said the troop-horse. "At least a little bit. I try not tothink about it. "

"I can see more than you, and I do think about it. I know there's agreat deal of me to take care of, and I know that nobody knows how tocure me when I'm sick. All they can do is to stop my driver's pay till Iget 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 mefeel any better. I know just enough to be uncomfortable, and not enoughto 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 bloodis. "

"We do, " said the bullocks. "It is red stuff that soaks into the groundand 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 sostupid?"

"It's vile stuff, " said Billy. "I don't want to run, but I don't want totalk 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'mnot talking to you. You can't see inside your heads. "

"No. We see out of our four eyes, " said the bullocks. "We see straightin front of us. "

"If I could do that and nothing else, you wouldn't be needed to pull thebig guns at all. If I was like my captain--he can see things inside hishead before the firing begins, and he shakes all over, but he knows toomuch to run away--if I was like him I could pull the guns. But if I wereas wise as all that I should never be here. I should be a king in theforest, 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 namedoesn't make it any better. "

"H'sh!" said the troop horse. "I think I understand what Two Tailsmeans. "

"You'll understand better in a minute, " said Two Tails angrily. "Now youjust 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 couldhear them stamp and shiver. An elephant's trumpeting is always nasty, especially on a dark night. 

"I shan't stop, " said Two Tails. "Won't you explain that, please?Hhrrmph! Rrrt! Rrrmph! Rrrhha!" Then he stopped suddenly, and I hearda 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 theelephant is more afraid of than another it is a little barking dog. Soshe stopped to bully Two Tails in his pickets, and yapped round his bigfeet. 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--nicelittle doggie, then! Go home, you yelping little beast! Oh, why doesn'tsomeone take her away? She'll bite me in a minute. "

"Seems to me, " said Billy to the troop horse, "that our friend Two Tailsis afraid of most things. Now, if I had a full meal for every dog I'vekicked 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. Inever let her know that I understood beast talk, or she would havetaken all sorts of liberties. So I buttoned her into the breast of myovercoat, 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 hisnose. "Now, you gentlemen were alarmed, I believe, when I trumpeted. "

"Not alarmed, exactly, " said the troop-horse, "but it made me feel asthough 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 baddreams in the night. "

"It is very lucky for us that we haven't all got to fight in the sameway, " said the troop-horse. 

"What I want to know, " said the young mule, who had been quiet for along time--"what I want to know is, why we have to fight at all. "

"Because we're 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 TwoTails 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 noserope--Or twists your tail, " said Billy and the troop-horse and the cameland 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 oneway of getting kicked. All you have to do is to obey the man at yourhead and ask no questions. "

"He's quite right, " said Two Tails. "I can't always obey, because I'mbetwixt and between. But Billy's right. Obey the man next to you whogives the order, or you'll stop all the battery, besides getting athrashing. "

The gun-bullocks got up to go. "Morning is coming, " they said. "We willgo back to our lines. It is true that we only see out of our eyes, andwe are not very clever. But still, we are the only people to-night whohave 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 about. "

"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 veryangry. "

"Phew!" said the bullocks. "He must be white!"

"Of course he is, " said Vixen. "Do you suppose I'm looked after by ablack 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 yokeon the pole of an ammunition wagon, where it jammed. 

"Now you have done it, " said Billy calmly. "Don't struggle. You're hungup till daylight. What on earth's the matter?"

The bullocks went off into the long hissing snorts that Indian cattlegive, and pushed and crowded and slued and stamped and slipped andnearly fell down in the mud, grunting savagely. 

"You'll break your necks in a minute, " said the troop-horse. "What's thematter with white men? I live with 'em. "

"They--eat--us! Pull!" said the near bullock. The yoke snapped with atwang, and they lumbered off together. 

I never knew before what made Indian cattle so scared of Englishmen. We eat beef--a thing that no cattle-driver touches--and of course thecattle do not like it. 

"May I be flogged with my own pad-chains! Who'd have thought of two biglumps like those losing their heads?" said Billy. 

"Never mind. I'm going to look at this man. Most of the white men, Iknow, have things in their pockets, " said the troop-horse. 

"I'll leave you, then. I can't say I'm over-fond of 'em myself. Besides, white men who haven't a place to sleep in are more than likely to bethieves, and I've a good deal of Government property on my back. Comealong, 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!--tryto control your feelings, won't you? Good-night, Two Tails! If you passus on the ground tomorrow, don't trumpet. It spoils our formation. "

Billy the Mule stumped off with the swaggering limp of an oldcampaigner, as the troop-horse's head came nuzzling into my breast, andI 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. "Wherewill you be?"

"On the left hand of the second squadron. I set the time for all mytroop, little lady, " he said politely. "Now I must go back to Dick. Mytail's all muddy, and he'll have two hours' hard work dressing me forparade. "

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 ofAfghanistan, with high, big black hat of astrakhan wool and the greatdiamond star in the center. The first part of the review was allsunshine, and the regiments went by in wave upon wave of legs all movingtogether, and guns all in a line, till our eyes grew dizzy. Then thecavalry came up, to the beautiful cavalry canter of "Bonnie Dundee, " andVixen cocked her ear where she sat on the dog-cart. The second squadronof the Lancers shot by, and there was the troop-horse, with his taillike spun silk, his head pulled into his breast, one ear forward and oneback, setting the time for all his squadron, his legs going as smoothlyas waltz music. Then the big guns came by, and I saw Two Tails and twoother elephants harnessed in line to a forty-pounder siege gun, whiletwenty yoke of oxen walked behind. The seventh pair had a new yoke, andthey looked rather stiff and tired. Last came the screw guns, and Billythe mule carried himself as though he commanded all the troops, and hisharness was oiled and polished till it winked. I gave a cheer all bymyself 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 seewhat the troops were doing. They had made a big half circle across theplain, and were spreading out into a line. That line grew and grew andgrew till it was three-quarters of a mile long from wing to wing--onesolid wall of men, horses, and guns. Then it came on straight toward theViceroy 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 effectthis steady come-down of troops has on the spectators, even when theyknow it is only a review. I looked at the Amir. Up till then he had notshown the shadow of a sign of astonishment or anything else. But now hiseyes began to get bigger and bigger, and he picked up the reins on hishorse's neck and looked behind him. For a minute it seemed as though hewere going to draw his sword and slash his way out through the Englishmen and women in the carriages at the back. Then the advance stoppeddead, the ground stood still, the whole line saluted, and thirty bandsbegan to play all together. That was the end of the review, and theregiments went off to their camps in the rain, and an infantry bandstruck up with--

 The animals went in two by two, Hurrah! The animals went in two by two, The elephant and the battery mul', 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 hadcome down with the Amir, asking questions of a native officer. 

"Now, " said he, "in what manner was this wonderful thing done?"

And the officer answered, "An order was given, 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, heobeys his driver, and the driver his sergeant, and the sergeant hislieutenant, and the lieutenant his captain, and the captain his major, and the major his colonel, and the colonel his brigadier commandingthree regiments, and the brigadier the 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 obeyonly 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 ourViceroy. "

Parade Song of the Camp Animals

 ELEPHANTS OF THE GUN TEAMS

 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 shoulder, 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 squadron 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, Oh, 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, Oh, 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 hair trombone (Rtt-ta-ta-ta! is a hair trombone!) And this 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!