The Jungle Book - Rudyard Kipling - Literary Tales Collection

Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Chapter one, Mowgli's brothers now chill. The kite brings home
the night that Mang the bat sets free. The herds
are shut in byre and hut for loose till dawn
are we. This is the hour of pride and power,
talon and tush and claw. Oh, hear the call good hunting,

(00:22):
all that keep the jungle law. Night song in the jungle.
It was seven o'clock of a very warm evening in
the Siainnee Hills when Father Wulf woke up from his
day's rest, scratched himself, yawned, and spread out his paws
one after the other to get rid of the sleepy
feeling in their tips. Mother Wulf lay with her big

(00:44):
gray nose dropped across her four tumbling, squealing cubs, and
the moon shone into the mouth of the cave where
they all lived. Har said Father Wulf, it is time
to hunt again. He was going to spring down hill
when a little shadow with a bushy tail crossed the threshold,
and whind. Good luck go with you, o chief of

(01:05):
the wolves, and good luck and strong white teeth go
with the noble children, that they may never forget the
hungry in this world it was the jackal Tabaqui, the
dish liquor. And the wolves of India despise Tabaqui because
he runs about, making mischief and telling tales, and eating
rags and pieces of leather from the village rubbish heaps.

(01:27):
But they are afraid of him too, because Tabaqui, more
than any one else in the jungle, is apt to
go mad. And then he forgets that he was ever
afraid of any one, and runs through the forest, biting
everything in his way. Even the tiger runs and hides
when little Tobaqui goes mad, For madness is the most
disgraceful thing that can overtake a wild creature. We call

(01:50):
it hydrophobia, but they call it dewanee the madness. And
run enter then and look, said father Wulf stiffly. But
there is no food here for a wolf, no, said Tabaquei.
But for so mean a person as myself, A dry
bone is a good feast. Who are we, the geter

(02:12):
log the jackal people to pick and choose? He scuttled
to the back of the cave, where he found the
bone of a buck with some meat on it, and
sat cracking the end merrily. All thanks for this good meal,
he said, licking his lips. How beautiful are the noble children,
How large are their eyes? And so young too. Indeed, indeed,

(02:37):
I might have remembered that the children of kings are
men from the beginning. Now, Tobacque knew as well as
any one else that there is nothing so unlucky as
to compliment children to their faces. It pleased him to
see mother and father Wolf look uncomfortable. TABAQUEI sat still,
rejoicing in the mischief that he had made. And then

(02:58):
he said, spitefully, sher Khan, the big one, has shifted
his hunting grounds. He will hunt among these hills for
the next moon, so he has told me. Shir Khan
was the tiger who lived near the Wayne Gunga River,
twenty miles away. He has no right, father Wulf, began angrily.
By the law of the jungle. He has no right

(03:20):
to change his quarters without due warning. He will frighten
every head of game within ten miles, and I I
have to kill for two these days. His mother did
not call him Lungry, the lame one, for nothing, said
mother Wulf quietly. He has been lame in one foot
from his berth. That is why he has only killed cattle.

(03:41):
Now the villagers of the Wayne Gunga are angry with him,
and he has come here to make our villagers angry.
They will scour the jungle for him when he is
far away, and we and our children must run when
the grass is set alight. Indeed, we are very grateful
to Shear Khan. Shall I tell him of your gratitude,

(04:01):
said Tabaqwi Out, snapped Father Wulf. Out, and hunt with
thy master. Thou hast done harm enough for one night?
I go, said Tabaqui quietly. Ye can hear Sher Khan
below in the thickets? I might have saved myself the message.
Father Wulf listened, and below, in the valley that ran

(04:22):
down to a little river, he heard the dry, angry,
snarly sing song whine of a tiger who has caught
nothing and does not care if all the jungle knows it.
The fool, said Father Wulf, to begin a night's work
with that noise? Does he think that our buck are
like his fat win Gunga bullocks? Hush? It is neither

(04:43):
bullock nor buck. He hunts to night, said Mother Wulf.
It is man. The wine had changed to a sort
of humming purr that seemed to come from every quarter
of the compass. It was the noise that bewilders wood
cutters and gypsies sleeping in the open, and makes runs
sometimes into the very mouth of the tiger man, said

(05:05):
father wolf, showing all his white teeth, faugh, are there
not enough beetles and frogs in the tanks that he
must eat man? And on our ground too. The law
of the jungle, which never orders anything without a reason
forbids every beast to eat man, except when he is killing,
to show his children how to kill, and then he

(05:26):
must hunt outside the hunting grounds of his pack or tribe.
The real reason for this is that man killing means
sooner or later the arrival of white men on elephants
with guns and hundreds of brown men with gongs and
rockets and torches. Then everybody in the jungle suffers. The
reason the beasts give among themselves is that man is

(05:47):
the weakest and most defenseless of all living things, and
it is unsportsmanlike to touch him, they say, too, And
it is true that man eaters become mangy and lose
their teeth. The purr grew louder and ended in the
full throated ah of the tiger's charge. Then there was
a howl, an untigrish howl from Sher Khan. He has missed,

(06:12):
said Mother Wulf. What is it? Father Wulf ran out
a few paces and heard Sher Khan muttering and mumbling
savagely as he tumbled about in the scrub. The fool
has had no more sense than to jump at a
woodcutter's camp fire, and has burned his feet, said Father Wulf,
with a grunt. Tobacqui is with him? Something is coming

(06:34):
up hill, said Mother Wulf, twitching one ear get ready.
The bushes rustled a little in the thicket, and Father
Wulf dropped to his haunches under him, ready for his leap.
Then if you had been watching, you would have seen
the most wonderful thing in the world. The wolf checked
in mid spring. He made his bound before he saw
what he was jumping at, and then he tried to

(06:56):
stop himself. The result was that he shot up straight
into the air for four or five feet, landing almost
where he left the ground. Man he snapped a man's
cub look Directly in front of him, holding on by
a low branch, stood a naked brown baby who could
just walk as soft and as dimpled a little atom

(07:19):
as ever came to a wolf's cave at night. He
looked up into Father Wulf's face and laughed. Is that
a man's cub? Said Mother Wulf. I have never seen
one bring it here. A wolf accustomed to moving his
own cubs, can, if necessary, mouth an egg without breaking it.

(07:39):
And though Father Wulf's jaws closed right on the child's back,
not a tooth even scratched the skin as he laid
it down among the cubs. How little, how naked, and
how bold, said Mother Wolf softly. The baby was pushing
his way between the cubs to get closer to the
warm hide. Ahi, he is taking his meal with the others,

(08:02):
And so this is a man's cub. Now was there
ever a wolf that could boast of a man's cub
among her children? I have heard now and again of
such a thing, but never in our pack or in
my time, said Father Wulf. He is altogether without hair,
and I could kill him with a touch of my foot.
But see he looks up and is not afraid. The

(08:26):
moonlight was blocked out of the mouth of the cave
for Sheer Khan's great head and shoulders were thrust into
the entrance. Tabaqui behind him was squeaking, my lord, my lord.
It went in here. Shr Khan does us great honor,
said Father Wulf, but his eyes were very angry. What
does shr Khan need my quarry? A man's cub went

(08:51):
this way, said shr Khan. Its parents have run off.
Give it to me. Shrkhan had jumped at a woodcutter's
camp fire, as Father Wulf had said, and was furious
from the pain of his burned feet. But Father Wulf
knew that the mouth of the cave was too narrow
for a tiger to come in by. Even where he was,
Shrkhan's shoulders and forepaws were cramped for want of room,

(09:14):
as a man's would be if he tried to fight
in a barrel. The wolves are a free people, said
Father Wulf. They take orders from the head of the pack,
and not from any striped cattle killer. The man's cub
is ours to kill if we choose, Ye choose, and
ye do not choose. What talk is this of choosing

(09:35):
by the bull that I killed? Am I to stand
nosing in your dog's den? For my fair dues? It
is I Sheer Khan, who speak the tiger's roar filled
the cave with thunder. Mother Wulf shook herself free of
the cubs and sprang forward, her eyes like two green
moons in the darkness, facing the blazing eyes of Sher Khan.

(09:56):
And it is I Rakshah, the demon who answers the
man's cub is mine, lungry mine to me. He shall
not be killed. He shall live, to run with the pack,
and to hunt with the pack. And in the end, look,
you hunter of little naked cubs, frog eater, fish killer,
He shall hunt thee Now get hence or buy sambour

(10:17):
that I killed, I eat no starved cattle back. Thou
goest to thy mother, burned beast of the jungle, lamer
than ever thou camest into the world. Go. Father Wulf
looked on, amazed. He had almost forgotten the days when
he won Mother Wolf in fair fight from five other wolves,
when she ran in the pack and was not called
the demon. For compliment's sake. Shr Kan might have faced

(10:41):
Father Wulf, but he could not stand up against Mother Wulf,
for he knew that where he was, she had all
the advantage of the ground and would fight to the death.
So he backed out of the cave, mouth growling, and
when he was clear, he shouted, Each dog barks in
his own yard. We will see what the pack will
say to this fostering of man cubs. The cub is mine,

(11:02):
and to my teeth, he will come in the end,
o bush tailed thieves. Mother Wulf threw herself down, panting
among the cubs, and Father Wulf said to her gravely,
shar 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

(11:26):
and very hungry, Yet he was not afraid. Look, he
has pushed one of my babes to one side already,
and that lame butcher would have killed him and would
have run off to the wain Gunga, while the villagers
here hunted through all our lairs in revenge. Keep him, assuredly,
I will keep him. Lie still, little frog, O thou Mowgli,

(11:47):
for Mowgli the frog, I will call thee. The time
will come when thou wilt hunt sharr Khan, as he
has hunted thee. But what will our pack say? Said
father Wulf. The law of the jungle lays down very
clearly that any wolf may, when he marries withdraw from
the pack he belongs to, But as soon as his

(12:08):
cubs are old enough to stand on their feet, he
must bring them to the pack council, which is generally
held once a month at full moon, in order that
the other wolves may identify them. After that inspection, the
cubs are free to run where they please, and until
they have killed their first buck, no excuse is accepted.
If a grown wolf of the pack kills one of them,

(12:28):
the punishment is death where the murderer can be found.
And if you think for a minute, you will see
that this must be so. Father Wolf waited till his
cubs could run a little, and then on the night
of the pack meeting took them and Mowgli and Mother
Wolf to the council Rock, a hilltop covered with stones
and boulders where a hundred wolves could hide. Akila, the

(12:50):
great gray lone wolf, who led all the pack by
strength and cunning, lay out at full length on his rock,
and below him sat forty or more wolves of every
size and color, from badger colored veterans who could handle
a buck alone to young black three year olds who
thought they could the lone wolf had led them for
a year. Now, he had fallen twice into a wolf

(13:11):
trap in his youth, and once he had been beaten
and left for dead, so he knew the manners and
customs of men. There was very little talking at the rock.
The cubs tumbled over each other in the center of
the circle where their mothers and fathers sat, And now
and again a senior wolf would go quietly up to
a cub, look at him carefully, and return to his

(13:32):
place on noiseless feet. Sometimes a mother would push her
cub far out into the moonlight to be sure that
he had not been overlooked. Aquilah, from his rock would cry,
ye know the law, Ye know the law, Look well,
o wolves, and the anxious mothers would take up the call,
look look well o wolves. At last, and Mother Wulf's

(13:57):
neck bristles lifted. As the time came. Father Wolf pushed
Mowgli the frog as they called him, into the center,
where he sat, laughing and playing with some pebbles that
glistened in the moonlight. Akila never raised his head from
his paws, but went on with the monotonous cry, Look well.
A muffled roar came up from behind the rocks, the

(14:18):
voice of sher Khan, crying, the cub is mine, Give
him to me. What have the free people to do
with a man's cub? Akila never even twitched his ears.
All he said was, look well, o wolves, what have
the free people to do with the orders of any
save the free people? Look well? There was a chorus

(14:40):
of deep growls, and a young wolf in his fourth
year flung back sher Khan's question to Aquila, what have
the free people to do with a man's cub? Now?
The law of the jungle lays down that if there
is any dispute as to the right of a cub
to be accepted by the pack, he must be spoken
for by at least two members of the pack who

(15:00):
are not his father and mother. Who speaks for this cub,
said Aquila, among the free people who speaks? There was
no answer, and mother Wulf got ready for what she
knew would be her last fight. If things came to fighting.
Then the only other creature who is allowed at the
pack council Blue, the sleepy brown bear who teaches the

(15:24):
wolf cubs. The law of the jungle, Old Ballue, who
can come and go where he pleases, because he eats
only nuts 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,

(15:46):
but I speak the truth. Let him run with the
pack and be entered with the others. I myself will
teach him. We need yet another, said Aquila. Ballou has spoken,
and he is our teacher for the young cubs. Who
speaks besides Balue. A black shadow dropped down into the circle.

(16:08):
It was Baghira, the black panther, inky black all over,
but with the panther markings showing up in certain lights
like the pattern of watered silk. Everybody knew Bagherra, and
nobody cared to cross his path, for he was as
cunning as Tabaqui, as bold as the wild buffalo, and
as reckless as the wounded elephant. But he had a

(16:29):
voice as soft as wild honey dripping from a tree,
and a skin softer than down oh Akuila, and ye,
the free people, he purred, I have no right in
your assembly. But the law of the jungle says that
if there is a doubt which is not a killing
matter in regard to a new cub, the life of
that cub may be bought at a price, And the

(16:52):
law does not say who may or may not pay
that price. Am I right? Good? Good? Said the young
wolves who are always hungry. Listen to Bagheera. The cub
can be bought for a price. It is the law.
Knowing that I have no right to speak here, I
ask your leave speak, then cried twenty voices. To kill

(17:17):
a naked cub is a shame. Besides, he may be
better sport for you when he is grown. Ballou has
spoken in his behalf. Now to Ballou's word, I will
add one bull and a fat one, newly killed, not
half a mile from here, if you will accept the
man's cub according to the law. Is it difficult? There

(17:41):
is a clamor of scores of voices saying what matter?
He will die in the winter rains, he will scorch
in the sun. What harm can a naked frog do us?
Let him run with the pack? Where's the bull? Bagheera
let him be accepted, and then came Akilah's deep bay, crying,
look well, look well, o wolves. Mowgli was still deeply

(18:02):
interested in the pebbles, and he did not notice when
the wolves came and looked at him one by one.
At last they all went down the hill for the
dead bull, and only Akilah, Bagheera, Baloo, and Mowgli's own
wolves were left. Sher Khan roared still in the night,
for he was very angry that Mowgli had not been
handed over to him. Ay roar well, said Bagheera under

(18:27):
his whiskers, for the time will come when this naked
thing will make thee roar to another tune, or I
know nothing of man. It was well done, said Achila.
Men and their cubs are very wise. He may be
a help in time, truly a help in time of need,
for none can hope to lead the pack forever, said Bagheera.

(18:51):
Akilah said nothing. He was thinking of the time that
comes to every leader of every pack, when his strength
goes from him and he gets feebler, and till at
last he is killed by the wolves, and a new
leader comes up to be killed in his turn. Take
him away, he said to Father Wulf, and train him
as befits, one of the free people. And that is

(19:15):
how Mowgli was entered into the sea anee wolf pack
for the price of a bull, and on Bulow's good word.
End of Chapter one, Part one, Chapter one, Part two.
Now you must be content to skip ten or eleven
whole years and only guess at all the wonderful life

(19:37):
that Mowgli led among the wolves, because if it were
written out, it would fill ever so many books. He
grew up with the cubs, though they, of course were
grown wolves, almost before he was a child, and Father
Wulf taught him his business and the meaning of things
in the jungle, till every rustle in the grass, every
breath of the warm night air, every note of the

(19:58):
owls above his head, every scratch of a bat's claws
as it roosted for a while in a tree, and
every splash of every little fish jumping in a pool
meant just as much to him as the work of
his office means to a business man. When he was
not learning, he sat out in the sun and slept,
and ate and went to sleep again. When he felt

(20:18):
dirty or hot, he swam in the forest pools, and
when he wanted honey. Ballue told him that honey and
nuts were just as pleasant to eat as raw meat.
He climbed up for it, and that Bagheera showed him
how to do. Bagheera would lie out on a branch
and call, come along, little brother, and at first Mowgli
would cling like the sloth, but afterward he would fling

(20:41):
himself up through the branches almost as boldly as the
gray ape. He took his place at the council rock too,
when the pack met, and there he discovered that if
he stared hard at any wolf, the wolf would be
forced to drop his eyes, and so he used to
stare for fun. At other times, he would pick the
long thorns out of the pads of his friends, for

(21:03):
wolves suffer terribly from thorns and burrs in their coats.
He would go down the hillside into the cultivated lands
by night and look very curiously at the villagers in
their huts. But he had a mistrust of men because
Bagheera showed him a square box with a drop gate
so cunningly hidden in the jungle that he nearly walked
into it and told him that it was a trap.

(21:25):
He loved better than anything else to go with Bagheera
into the dark, warm heart of the forest to sleep
all through the drowsy day and at night see how
Bakhira did his killing. Baghia killed right and left as
he felt hungry, and so did Mowgli, with one exception.
As soon as he was old enough to understand things,
Baghiera told him that he must never touch cattle, because

(21:49):
he had been bought into the pack at the price
of a bull's life. All the jungle is thine, said Bagheera,
and thou canst kill everything that thou art strong enough
to kill. But for the sake of the bull that
bought thee thou must never kill or eat any cattle,
young or old. That is the law of the jungle.

(22:11):
Mowgli obeyed faithfully, and he grew and grew strong, as
a boy must grow who does not know that he
is learning any lessons, and who has nothing in the
world to think of except things to eat. Mother Wulf
told him once or twice that shar Khan was not
a creature to be trusted, and that some day he
must kill sher Khan. But though a young wolf would

(22:33):
have remembered that advice, every hour Mowgli forgot it because
he was only a boy, though he would have called
himself a wolf if he had been able to speak
in any human tongue. Shar Khan was always crossing his
path in the jungle, for as Akila grew older and feebler,
the lame tiger had come to be great friends with
the young wolves of the pack who followed him for scraps,

(22:54):
a thing Akuila would never have allowed. If he had
dared to push his authority to the proper bounds. Then
Shirrkan would flatter them and wonder that such fine young
hunters were content to be led by a dying wolf
and a man's cub. They tell me. Sharrkan would say
that at counsel, ye dare not look him between the eyes,

(23:15):
and the young wolves would growl and bristle. Bagheera, who
had eyes and ears everywhere, knew something of this, and
once or twice he told Mowgli in so many words
that Shirrkan would kill him some day. Mowgli would laugh
and answer, I have the pack, and I have thee
and Ballou, though he is so lazy, might strike a

(23:35):
blow or two for my sake. Why should I be afraid.
It was one very warm day that a new notion
came to Bagheera, born of something that he had heard,
perhaps saw he the porcupine had told him. But he
said to Mowgli when they were deep in the jungle,
as the boy lay with his head on Bakia's beautiful
black skin, little brother, how often have I told thee

(23:59):
that Shirkan 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, Bikhira, and
shir Khan is all long tail and loud talk like
more the peacock. But this is no time for sleeping.
Blue knows it. I know it, the pack know it,

(24:22):
and even the foolish, foolish deer know it. Tabaqui has
told thee too, Ho Ho, said Mowgli. Tobaqui came to
me not long ago with some rude talk that I
was a naked man's cub and not fit to dig
pig nuts. But I caught Tobakwi by the tail and
swung him twice against a palm tree to teach him
better manners. That was foolish, for though Tobakwi is a

(24:45):
mischief maker. He would have told thee something that concerned thee.
Closely open those eyes, little brother, shar Khan, dare not
kill thee in the jungle. But remember Akila is very old,
and soon the day comes when he ca cannot kill
his buck, and then he will be a leader no more.
Many of the wolves that look thee over when thou

(25:06):
hast brought to the council first, are old too. And
the young wolves believe as Sheer Khan has taught them
that a man club has no place with the pack.
In a little time thou wilt be a man. And
what is a man that he should not run with
his brothers? Said Mowgli. I was born in the jungle.
I have obeyed the law of the jungle. And there

(25:29):
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 Bakhiera's silky chin,
where the giant rolling muscles were all hid by the

(25:51):
glossy hair, he came upon a little bald spot. There
is no one in the jungle that knows that I
Bagheera carry that mark, the mark of the collar. And yet,
little brother, I was born among men, And it was
among men that my mother died in the cages of
the king's palace at Odeipour. It was because of this

(26:14):
that I paid the price for thee at the council,
when thou wast a little naked cub. Yes, I too
was born among men. I had never seen the jungle.
They fed me behind bars from an iron pan, till
one night I felt that I was Bagheera, the panther,
and no man's plaything. And I broke the silly lock
with one blow of my paw and came away. And

(26:37):
because I had learned the ways of men, I became
more terrible in the jungle than Sheer Khan. Is it
not so, yes, said Mowgli, All the jungle for your baghia,
all except Mowgli. Oh, thou art a man's cub, said
the black panther, very tenderly. And even as I returned

(26:59):
to myungle, so thou must go back to men at last,
to the men who are thy brothers. If thou art
not killed in the council. But why, but why should
any wish to kill me, said Mowgli. Look at me,
said Bagheera, and Mowgli looked at him steadily between the eyes.

(27:19):
The big panther turned his head away in half a minute.
That is why, he said, shifting his paw on the leaves.
Not even I can look THEE between the eyes. And
I was born among men, and I love THEE, little brother.
The others they hate THEE because their eyes cannot meet thine,
because thou art wise, because thou hast pulled out thorns

(27:41):
from their feet, because thou art a man. I did
not know these things, said Mowgli, sullenly, and he frowned
under his heavy black eyebrows. What is the law of
the jungle? Strike first, and then give tongue by thy
very carelessness. They know that thou art a man, But

(28:04):
be wise. It is in my heart that when Achila
misses his next kill, and at each hunt it costs
him more to pin the buck, the pack will turn
against him and against thee. They will hold a jungle
council at the rock. And then and then I have it,
said Bakhiera, leaping up, Go thou down quickly to the

(28:24):
men's huts in the valley, and take some of the
red flower which they grow in there, so that when
the time comes thou mayest have even a stronger friend
than I or Blue or those of the pack that
love thee. Get the red flower. By red flower, Bagheera
meant fire. Only No creature in the jungle will call
fire by its proper name. Every beast lives in deadly

(28:47):
fear of it and invents a hundred ways of describing it.
The red flower, said Mowgli, that grows outside their huts
in the twilight. I will get some there, speaks the
man's cub, said Bagheera, proudly. Remember that it grows in
little pots. Get one swiftly, and keep it by thee

(29:09):
for time of need. Good, said Mowgli. I go, but
art thou sure, o, my Baghira. He slipped his arm
around the splendid neck and looked deep into the big eyes.
Art thou sure that all this is Sheer Khan's doing.
By the broken lock that freed me, I am sure,
little brother. Then by the bull that bought me, I

(29:31):
will pay Shir Khan full tail for this, and it
may be a little over, said Mowgli, and he bounded away.
That is a man, that is all a man, said
Bagheera to himself, lying down again. Oh, Sheer Khan, never
was a blacker hunting than that frog hunt of thine
ten years ago. Mowgli was far and far through the forest,

(29:55):
running hard, and his heart was hot in him. He
came to the cave as the evening misst rose, and
drew breath and looked down the valley. The cubs were out,
but mother wolf at the back of the cave knew
by his breathing that something was troubling her frog. What
is it, son, she said, some bats chatter of Sheer Khan.

(30:16):
He called back, I hunt among the plowed fields to night,
and he plunged downward through the bushes to the stream
at the bottom of the valley. There he checked for
He heard the yell of the pack hunting, heard the
bellow of a hunted sambur, and the snort as the
buck turned at bay. Then there were wicked bitter howls
from the young wolves. Akuila. Akuila let the lone wolf

(30:40):
show his strength room for the leader of the pack spring. Akuila,
the lone wolf must have sprung and missed his hold.
Form Owgli heard the snap of his teeth, and then
a yelp as the sun bourer knocked him over with
his fore feet. He did not wait for anything more,
but dashed on, and the yells grew fainter behind him
as he ran into the crop lands where the villagers lived.

(31:03):
Pikera spoke truth. He panted as he nestled down in
some cattle fodder by the window of a hut. Tomorrow
is one day, both for Aquila and for me. Then
he pressed his face close to the window and watched
the fire on the hearth. He saw the husband man's
wife get up and feed it in the night with
black lumps, And when the morning came and the mists

(31:25):
were all white and cold, he saw the man's child
pick up a wicker pot plastered inside with earth, fill
it with lumps of red hot charcoal, put it under
his blanket, and go out to tend the cows in
the byre. Is that all, said Mowgli. If a cub
can do it, there is nothing to fear. So he
strode round the corner and met the boy took the

(31:47):
pot from his hand and disappeared into the mist, while
the boy howled with fear. They are very like me,
said Mowgli, blowing into the pot, as he had seen
the woman do. This thing will die if I do
not give things to eat, and he dropped twigs and
dried bark on the red stuff. Half Way up the
hill he met Bagheera, with the morning dew shining like

(32:08):
moonstones on his coat. Akila has missed, said the panther.
They would have killed him last night, but they needed
thee also. They were looking for thee on the hill.
I was among the plowed lands. I am ready see.
Mowgli held up the fire pot. Good now I have

(32:29):
seen men thrust a dry branch into that stuff, and
presently the red flower blossomed at the end of it.
Art thou not afraid? Now? Why should I fear? I
remember now, if it is not a dream, how before
I was a wolf. I lay beside the red flower,
and it was warm and pleasant. All that day Mowgli

(32:52):
sat in the cave, tending his fire pot and dipping
dry branches into it to see how they looked. He
found a branch that satisfied him, and in the evening,
when Tabakwi came to the cave and told him rudely
enough that he was wanted at the council rock, he
laughed till Tobakwi ran away. Then Mowgli went to the
council still laughing. Akilah, the lone wolf, lay by the

(33:14):
side of his rock as a sign that the leadership
of the pack was open, and shir Khan, with his
following of scrap fed wolves, walked to and fro openly.
Being flattered. Bagheera lay close to Mogli, and the fire
pot was between Mowgli's knees. When they were all gathered together,
shir Khan began to speak, a thing he would never

(33:34):
have dared to do when Akila was in his prime.
He has no right, whispered Bakhira. Say so, he is
a dog's son. He will be frightened. Mowgli sprang to
his feet, Free people, He cried, does shir Khan lead
the pack? What has a tiger to do with our leadership?

(33:54):
Seeing that the leadership is yet open, and being asked
to speak, shir Khan began, by whom said Mowgli are
we all jackals to fawn on this cattle, butcher the
leadership of the pack is with the pack alone. There
were yells of silence. Thou man's cub, let him speak,
he has kept our law. And at last the seniors

(34:16):
of the pack thundered, let the dead wolf speak. When
a leader of the pack has missed his kill, he
is called the dead wolf as long as he lives,
which is not long. Akilah raised his old head wearily.
Free people, and ye too, jackals of sher Khan. For
twelve seasons, I have led ye to and from the kill,

(34:39):
and in all that time not one has been trapped
or maimed. Now I have missed my kill. Ye know
how that plot was made. Ye know how ye brought
me up to an untried buck to make my weakness known.
It was cleverly done. Your right is to kill me
here on the council rock. Now therefore I ask who

(35:01):
comes to make an end of the lone wolf, For
it is my right, by the law of the jungle,
that ye come one by one. There was a long hush,
for no single wolf cared to fight Aquila to the death.
Then sher Khan roared, bah, what have we to do

(35:21):
with this toothless fool. He is doomed to die. It
is the man's cub who has lived too long free people.
He was my meat from the first. Give him to me.
I am weary of this man wolf folly. He has
troubled the jungle for ten seasons. Give me the man cub,
or I will hunt here always and not give you

(35:43):
one bone. He is a man, a man's child, and
from the marrow of my bones I hate him. Then
more than half the pack yelled, a man a man.
What has a man to do with us? Let him
go to his own place and turn all the people
of the villages against us. Clamored shrkan, no, give him

(36:05):
to me. He is a man, and none of us
can look him between the eyes. Akila lifted his head
again and said, he has eaten our food. He has
slept with us, he has driven game for us. He
has broken no word of the law of the jungle. Also,
I paid for him with a bull when he was accepted.

(36:27):
The worth of a bull is little, but Baghera's honor
is something that he will perhaps fight for, said bagheera,
in his gentlest voice. A bull paid ten years ago.
The pack snarled, What do we care for bones ten
years old? Or for a pledge? Said Baghiera, his white

(36:47):
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 Shr Khan. Give him to me.
He is our brother in all but blood. Achila went on,
and YE would kill him here In truth, I have

(37:07):
lived too long. Some of ye are eaters of cattle
and of others. I have heard that under Sher Khan's teaching,
ye go by dark night and snatch children from the
villager's doorstep. Therefore I know ye to be cowards, and
it is to cowards I speak. It is certain that
I must die, and my life is of no worth,

(37:28):
or I would offer that in the man Cub's place,
but for the sake of the honor of the pack,
A little matter that by being without a leader, ye
have forgotten. I promise that if ye let the man
cub go to his own place, I will not, when
my time comes to die, bear one tooth against ye.
I will die without fighting. That will at least save

(37:49):
the pack. Three lives. More I cannot do. But if
ye will, I can save ye the shame that comes
of killing a brother against whom there is no fault,
a brother spoken for and bought into the pack. According
to the law of the jungle. He is a man.
A man, a man, snarled the pack, and most of
the wolves began to gather round sher Khan, whose tail

(38:12):
was beginning to switch. Now the business is in thy hands,
said Bakia to Mowgli. We can do no more except fight.
Mowgli stood upright, the fire pot in his hands. Then
he stretched out his arms and yawned in the face
of the council. But he was furious with rage and sorrow,
for wolf like the wolves had never told him how

(38:34):
they hated him. Listen you, he cried, There is no
need for this dog's jabber. Ye have told me so
often to night that I am a man, and indeed
I would have been a wolf with you to my
life's end. That I feel your words are true. So
I do not call ye my brothers any more but
sag dogs, as a man should. What ye will do

(38:56):
and what ye will not do is not yours. To
say the matter is with me, and that we may
see the matter more plainly, I the man, have brought
here a little of the red flower, which ye dogs fear.
He flung the fire pot on the ground, and some
of the red coals lit a tuft of dried moss
that flared up. As all the council drew back in
terror before the leaping flames, Mowgli thrust his dead branch

(39:20):
into the fire till the twigs lit and crackled, and
whirled it above his head among the cowering wolves. Thou
art the master, said Bakhiera in an undertone. Save Aquila
from the death. He was ever thy friend. Akila, the
grim old wolf, who had never asked for mercy in
his life, gave one piteous look at Mowgli as the

(39:42):
boy stood all naked, his long black hair tossing over
his shoulders, in the light of the blazing branch that
made the shadows jump and quiver. Good, said Mowgli, staring
round slowly. I see that ye are dogs. I go
from you to my own people, if they be my
own peace. The jungle is shut to me, and I

(40:03):
must forget your talk and your companionship. But I will
be more merciful than ye are, because I was all
but your brother in blood. I promise that when I
am a man among men, I will not betray ye
to men as ye have betrayed me. He kicked the
fire with his foot and the sparks flew up. There
shall be no war between any of us in the pack.

(40:25):
But here is a debt to pay before I go.
He strode forward to where Sheer Khan sat, blinking stupidly
at the flames, and caught him by the tuft on
his chin. Beghira followed. In case of accidents, up dog
Mowgli cried, up when a man speaks, or I will
set that coat ablaze. Sharr Khan's ears lay flat back

(40:46):
on his head, and he shut his eyes, for the
blazing branch was very near. This cattle killer said he
would kill me in the council because he had not
killed me when I was a cub. Thus, and thus
then do we beat dogs when we are men. Stir
a whisker lungry, and I ram the red flower down
thy gullet. He beat Sharrkhan over the head with the branch,

(41:07):
and the tiger whimpered and whined in an agony of fear.
Pah singed, jungle cat. Go now, but remember when next
I come to the council rock, as a man should come,
it will be with Sheer Khan's hide on my head.
For the rest Akilah goes free to live as he pleases.
YE will not kill him, because that is not my will,

(41:29):
Nor do I think that ye will sit here any longer,
lolling out your tongues as though ye were somebody's instead
of dogs, whom I drive out. Thus go. The fire
was burning furiously at the end of the branch, and
Mowgli struck right and left round the circle, and the
wolves ran howling with the sparks burning their fur. At
last there were only Akila, Bagheera and perhaps ten wolves

(41:52):
that had taken Mowgli's part. Then something began to hurt
Mowgli inside him as he had never been hurt in
his life before, and he caught his breath and sobbed,
and the tears ran down his face. What is it?
What is it? He said? I do not wish to
leave the jungle, and I do not know what this is.

(42:12):
Am I dying? Bagheera, No little brother, that is only
tears such as men use, said Baghera. Now I know
thou art a man and a man's cub. No longer
the jungle is shut indeed to thee. Henceforward, let them fall, Mowgli.
They are only tears. So Mowgli sat and cried as

(42:36):
though his heart would break, and he had never cried
in all his life before. Now he said, I will
go to men, but first I must say farewell to
my mother. And he went to the cave where she
lived with Father Wulf, and he cried on her coat,
while the four cubs howled miserably. You will not forget me,

(42:58):
said Mowgli. Never while we can follow a trail, said
the cubs. Come to the foot of the hill when
thou art a man, and we will talk to thee,
and we will come into the croplands to play with
thee by night. Come soon, said father Wulf. O wise,
little frog, come again soon, for we be old, thy mother,
and I come soon, said Mother Wulf, little naked son

(43:22):
of mine. For listen, child of man, I loved thee
more than ever I loved my cubs. I will surely come,
said Mowgli. And when I come, it will be to
lay out Sheer Khan's hide upon the council rock. Do
not forget me. Tell them in the jungle, never to
forget me. The dawn was beginning to break when Mowgli

(43:43):
went down the hill side alone to meet those mysterious
things that are called men hunting. Song of the sea,
aee pack. As the dawn was breaking, the sambur belled
once twice and again, and a doe leaped up, and
a doe leaped up from the pond in the wood

(44:04):
where the wild dear sup This eye scouting alone beheld
once twice and again. As the dawn was breaking, the
sambour 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 bade on his track once twice and again. As

(44:24):
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 oh, hark, once twice and again.
End of Chapter one, Section two, Chapter two, Cause hunting.

(44:49):
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 bullet can toss you, or
the heavy brown sambur can gore you, need not stop
work to inform us. We knew it ten seasons before.

(45:10):
Oppress not the cubs of the stranger, but hail them
as sister and brother. For though they are little and fubbsy,
it may be the bear is their mother. There is
none like 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,

(45:30):
maxims of blue. All that is told here happened some
time before Mowgli was turned out of the sea any
wolf pack or revenged himself on sheer Khan the Tiger.
It was in the days when Bulloo was teaching him
the law of the jungle. The big, serious, old brown
bear was delighted to have so quick a pupil. For

(45:52):
the young wolves will only learn as much of the
law of the jungle as applies to their own pack
and tribe, and run away as soon as they can
repeat the hunter verse. Feet that make no noise, eyes
that can see in the dark ears that can hear
the winds in their lairs, and sharp white teeth. All
these things are the marks of our brothers, except Tobaki
the jackal and the Hyaena, whom we hate. But Mowgli,

(46:15):
as a man cub, had to learn a great deal
more than this. Sometimes Beghira, the black panther would come
lounging through the jungle to see how his pet was
getting on, and would purr with his head against a
tree while Mowgli recited the day's lesson to Blue. The
boy could climb almost as well as he could swim,
and swim almost as well as he could run. So Ballue,

(46:38):
the teacher of the law, taught him the wood and
water laws, how to tell a rotten branch from a
sound one, how to speak politely to the wild bees
when he came upon a hive of them fifty feet
above the ground, what to say to Mang the bat
when he disturbed him in the branches at midday, And
how to warn the water snakes in the pools before
he splashed down among them. None of the jungle people

(47:01):
like being disturbed, and all are very ready to fly
at an intruder. Then, too, Mowgli was taught the stranger's
hunting call, which must be repeated aloud till it is answered.
Whenever one of the jungle people hunts outside his own grounds.
It means translated, give me leave to hunt here because
I am hungry, And the answer is hunt then for food,

(47:25):
but not for pleasure. All this will show you how
much Mowgli had to learn by heart, and he grew
very tired of saying the same thing over a hundred times.
But as Balu said to Bagheera one day, when Mowgli
had been cuffed and run off in a temper, a
man's cub is a man's cub, and he must learn

(47:45):
all the law of the jungle. But think how small
he is, said the black panther, who would have spoiled
Mowgli if he had had his own way. How can
his little head carry all thy long talk? Is there
anything in the jungle too little to be killed? No?
That is why I teach him these things, And that

(48:07):
is why I hit him very softly when he forgets softly?
What dost thou know of softnessed? Old iron feet, baghera
grunted his face is all bruised to day by thy softness.
Ugh better he should be bruised from head to foot
by me who love him, than that he should come

(48:28):
to harm through ignorance, Blue answered very earnestly. I am
now teaching him the master words of the jungle that
shall protect him with the birds and the snake people,
and all that hunt on four feet except his own pack.
He can now claim protection if he will only remember
the words from all the jungle. Is not that worth
a little beating? Well? Look to it then, that thou

(48:52):
dost not kill the man cub. He is no tree
trunk to sharpen thy blunt claws upon. But what are
these master words? I am more likely to give help
than to ask it. The kihara stretched out one paw
and admired the steel blue ripping chisel talons at the
end of it. Still I should like to know. I

(49:14):
will call Mowgli and he shall say them if he
will come, little brother, my head is ringing like a
bee tree, said a sullen little voice over their heads,
and Mowgli slid down a tree trunk, very angry and indignant,
adding as he reached the ground, I come for Bagheera,
and not for thee fat old ballue. That is all

(49:36):
one to me, said Bullo, though he was hurt and grieved.
Tell Bagherra, then the master words of the jungle that
I have taught thee this day, master words for which people,
said Mowgli, delighted to show off. The jungle has many tongues.
I know them all a little thou knowest, but not much,
see o, Beghira. They never thank their teacher. Not one

(50:00):
small wolfling has ever come back to thank Old Baloo
for his teachings. Say the word for the hunting people, then,
great scholar, we be of one blood. Ye, and I
said Mowgli, giving the words the bare accent which all
the hunting people use. Good. Now for the birds, Mowgli repeated,
with the kite's whistle at the end of the sentence.

(50:23):
Now for the snake people, said Baghiera. The answer was
a perfectly indescribable hiss, and Mowgli kicked up his feet behind,
clapped his hands together to applaud himself, and jumped on
to Beghira's back, where he sat sideways, drumming with his
heels on the glossy skin and making the worst faces
he could think of at Ballue. There there that was

(50:43):
worth a little bruise, said the brown bear tenderly. Some
day thou wilt remember me. Then he turned aside to
tell Baghiera how he had begged the master words from Hathi,
the wild elephant, who knows all about these things, And
how Hathi had taken Mowgli down to a pool to
get the sword from a water snake because Balloo could
not pronounce it, And how Mowgli was now reasonably safe

(51:05):
against all accidents in the jungle because neither snake, bird,
nor beast would hurt him. No one then is to
be feared. Balu wound up, patting his big furry stomach
with pride, except his own tribe, said Bagheera under his breath,
and then allowed to Mowgli, have a care for my ribs,

(51:25):
little brother. What is all this dancing up and down?
Mowgli had been trying to make himself heard by pulling
at Baghera's shoulder fur and kicking hard. When the two
listened to him, he was shouting at the top of
his voice. And so I shall have a tribe of
my own and lead them through the branches all day long.
What is this new folly, little dreamer of dreams, said Bagheera, Yes,

(51:49):
and throw branches and dirt at old Balloo. Mowgli went on,
They have promised me this ah woof Baloo's big paw
scooped Mowgli off Bagheera's back, and as the boy lay
between the big fore paws, he could see the bear
was angry. Mowgli said, Balu, thou hast been talking with
the bend or Log, the monkey people. Mowgli looked at

(52:12):
Baghir to see if the panther was angry too, and
Beghera's eyes were as hard as jadestones. Thou hast been
with the monkey people, the gray apes, the people without
a law, the eaters of everything that is great shame.
When Baloo hurt my head, said Mowgli. He was still
on his back. I went away, and the gray apes

(52:35):
came down from the trees and had pity on me.
No one else cared. He snuffled a little, the pity
of the monkey people. Blue snorted, the stillness of the
mountain stream, the cool of the summer sun, and then
man Cub, and then and then They gave me nuts

(52:55):
and pleasant things to eat. And they they carried me
and their arms up to the top of the trees
and said I was their blood brother, except that I
had no tail, and should be their leader some day.
They have no leader, said Bagheera. They lie, They have
always lied. They were very kind and bade me come again.

(53:16):
Why have I never been taken among the monkey people.
They stand on their feet as I do. They do
not hit me with hard paws. They play all day.
Let me get up, bad balloo, Let me up. I
will play with them again. Listen, man cub, said the bear,
and his voice rumbled like thunder on a hot night.

(53:36):
I have taught thee all the law of the jungle,
for all the peoples of the jungle, except the monkey
folk who live in the trees. They have no law.
They are outcast. They have no speech of their own,
but use the stolen words which they overhear when they
listen and peep and wait up above in the branches.
Their way is not our way. They are without leaders.

(53:59):
They have no remembrance. They boast and chatter and pretend
that they are a great people about to do great
affairs in the jungle, But the falling of a nut
turns their minds to laughter, and all is forgotten. We
of the jungle have no dealings with them. We do
not drink where the monkeys drink. We do not go
where the monkeys go. We do not hunt where they hunt.

(54:19):
We do not die where they die. Hast thou ever
heard me speak of the band our log till to day? No,
said Mowgli in a whisper, for the forest was very
still now Blue had finished. The jungle people put them
out of their mouths and out of their mind. They
are very many, evil, dirty, shameless, and they desire, if

(54:41):
they have any fixed desire, to be noticed by the
jungle people. But we do not notice them, even when
they throw nuts and filth on our heads. He had
hardly spoken when a shower of nuts and twigs spattered
down through the branches, and they could hear coughings and
howlings and angry jumpings high up in the air among
the branches. The monkey people are forbidden, said Blo, Forbidden

(55:06):
to the jungle people. Remember forbidden, said Bakhiera. But I
still think Ballue should have warned thee against them. I
I how was I to guess? He would play with
such dirt. The monkey people faugh, a fresh shower came
down on their heads, and the two trotted away, taking

(55:27):
Mowgli with them. What Baalu had said about the monkeys
was perfectly true. They belonged to the tree tops, and
as beasts, very seldom look up. There was no occasion
for the monkeys and the jungle people to cross each
other's path. But whenever they found a sick wolf, for
a wounded tiger or bear, the monkeys would torment him
and would throw sticks and nuts at any beast for

(55:47):
fun and in the hope of being noticed. Then they
would howl and shriek senseless songs and invite the jungle
people to climb up their trees and fight them, or
would start furious battles over nothing among themselves and lee
of the dead monkeys where the jungle people could see them.
They were always just going to have a leader and
laws and customs of their own, but they never did

(56:09):
because their memories would not hold over from day to day,
and so they compromised things by making up a saying
what the band our log think now, the jungle will
think later, and that comforted them a great deal none
of the beasts could reach them, but on the other hand,
none of the beasts would notice them, and that was
why they were so pleased when Mowgli came to play

(56:30):
with them and they heard how angry Balloo was. They
never meant to do any more. The bandar log never
meant anything at all, but one of them invented what
seemed to him a brilliant idea, and he told all
the others that Mowgli would be a useful person to
keep in the tribe because he could weave sticks together
for protection from the wind, so if they caught him,

(56:53):
they could make him teach them. Of course, Mogli, as
a woodcutter's child, inherited all sorts of inns instincts and
used to make little huts of fallen branches without thinking
how he came to do it, and the monkey people
watching in the trees considered his play most wonderful. This time,
they said they were really going to have a leader

(57:14):
and become the wisest people in the jungle, so wise
that everyone else would notice and envy them. Therefore, they
followed Blue and Baghera and Mowgli through the jungle very quietly,
till it was time for the midday nap, and Mowgli,
who was very much ashamed of himself, slept between the
panther and the bear, resolving to have no more to

(57:35):
do with the monkey people. The next thing he remembered
was feeling hands on his legs and arms, hard, strong
little hands, and then a swash of branches in his face,
and then he was staring down through the swaying branches
as Blue woke the jungle with his deep cries, and
Bagera bounded up the trunk with every tooth bared. The

(57:56):
bander Log howled with triumph and scuffled away to the
upper branches, where Bagheera dared not follow, shouting he has
noticed us, Bagheera has noticed us. All the jungle people
admire us for our skill and our cunning. Then they
began their flight. And the flight of the monkey people
through tree Land is one of the things nobody can describe.

(58:17):
They have their regular roads and cross roads, up hills
and down hills, all laid out from fifty to seventy
or a hundred feet above the ground, and by these
they can travel even at night if necessary. Two of
the strongest monkeys caught Mowgli under the arms and swung
off with him through the tree tops twenty feet at
a bound. Had they been alone, they could have gone

(58:39):
twice as fast, but the boy's weight held them back.
Sick and giddy as Mowgli was, he could not help
enjoying the wild rush, though the glimpses of the earth
far down below frightened him, and the terrible check and
jerk at the end of the swing over nothing but
empty air brought his heart between his teeth. His escort
would brush him up a tree till he felt the

(59:01):
thinnest topmost branches crackle and bend under them, and then,
with a cough and a whoop, would fling themselves into
the air outwards and downwards, and bring up, hanging by
their hands or their feet, to the lower limbs of
the next tree. Sometimes he could see for miles and
miles across the still green jungle, as a man on
the top of a mast can see for miles across

(59:22):
the sea. And then the branches and leaves would lash
him across the face, and he and his two guards
would be almost down to earth again, so bounding and
crashing and whooping and yelling. The whole tribe of band
or Logs swept along the tree roads, with Mowgli their prisoner.
For a time he was afraid of being dropped. Then

(59:44):
he grew angry, but knew better than to struggle, And
then he began to think. The first thing was to
send back word to Ballue and bagheera, for at the
pace the monkeys were going, he knew his friends would
be left far behind. It was useless to look down,
for he could only see the top sides of the branches,
so he stared upwards and saw far away in the

(01:00:06):
blue Chill the kite, balancing and wheeling as he kept
watch over the jungle, waiting for things to die. Chill
saw that the monkeys were carrying something and dropped a
few hundred yards to find out whether their load was
good to eat. He whistled with surprise when he saw
Mowgli being dragged up to a tree top and heard
him give the kite call for we be of one blood,

(01:00:28):
thou and I. The waves of the branches closed over
the boy, but Chill balanced away to the next tree
in time to see the little brown face come back
up again. Mark my trail Mowgli shouted, Tell Baloo of
the sea and Epac and Bagheera of the council rock
in whose name. Brother Chill had never seen Mowgli before,

(01:00:51):
though of course he had heard of him, Mowgli the
frog man cub. They call me mark my trail. The
last towards were shrieked as he was being swung through
the air, but Chill nodded and rose up till he
looked no bigger than a speck of dust. And there
he hung, watching with his telescope eyes the swaying of
the tree tops as Mowgli's escort whirled along. They never

(01:01:15):
go far, he said, with a chuckle. They never do
what they set out to do, always pecking at new things.
Are the bander log this time, if I have any eyesight,
they have pecked down trouble for themselves, for Balloo is
no fledgling, and beg Hira can, as I know, kill
more than goats. So he rocked on his wings, his
feet gathered up under him, and waited. Meantime, Balloo and

(01:01:39):
Bagheera were furious with rage and grief. Bagheera climbed as
he had never climbed before, but the thin branches broke
beneath his weight, and he slipped down, his claws full
of bark. Why didst thou not warn the man cub?
He roared to poor Buloo, who had set off at
a clumsy trot in the hope of overtaking the monkeys.

(01:02:00):
What was the use of half slaying him with blows
if thou didst not warn him? Haste, oh, haste, we
we may catch them, Yet Blue panted at that speed,
it would not tire a wounded cow. Teacher of the law,
cub beater A mile of that rolling to and fro
would burst thee open. Sit still and think, make a plan.

(01:02:24):
This is no time for chasing. They may drop him
if we follow too close. Arrula Ooo. They may have
dropped him already, being tired of carrying him. Who can
trust the bander log? Put dead bats on my head,
give me black bones to eat, Roll me into the
hives of the wild bees that I may be stung
to death, and bury me with the hyaena, for I

(01:02:47):
am the most miserable of bears. Arula la wahooa, oh, Mowgli, Mowgli.
Why did I not warn thee against the monkey? Folk
instead of breaking thy head. Now, perhaps I may have
knocked the day's lesson out of his mind, and he
will be alone in the jungle without the master words.
Baloo clasped his paws over his ears and rolled to

(01:03:10):
and fro, moaning. At least he gave me all the
words correctly a little time ago, said Bakhera impatiently, Baloo,
thou hast neither memory nor respect. What would the jungle
think if I, the black panther, curled myself up like
saw he the porcupine, and howled? What do I care

(01:03:30):
what the jungle thinks. He may be dead by now,
unless and until they drop him from the branches in
sport or kill him out of idleness. I have no
fear for the man cub. He is wise and well taught,
and above all he has the eyes that make the
jungle people afraid. But and it is a great evil.

(01:03:51):
He is in the power of the bandar Log and they,
because they live in trees, have no fear of any
of our people. Kira licked one forepaw, thoughtfully, fool that
I am, oh fat brown root digging fool that I am,
said Balloo, uncoiling himself with a jerk. It is true

(01:04:12):
what Hathi the wild elephant says to each his own fear,
and they the bandar log fear. Caw the rock snake.
He can climb as well as they can. He steals
the young monkeys in the night. The whisper of his
name makes their wicked tails cold. Let us go to Kaw.
What will he do for us? He is not of

(01:04:34):
our tribe, being footless and with most evil eyes, said Bagheera.
He is very old and very cunning. Above all, he
is always hungry, said Baloo. Hopefully, promise him many goats.
He sleeps for a full month after he has once eaten.
He may be asleep now. And even were he awake,

(01:04:54):
what if he would rather kill his own goats? Bagheera,
who did not know much about Kaw, was naturally suspicious.
Then in that case, thou and I, together, old hunter,
might make him see reason. Here Balu rubbed his faded
brown shoulder against the panther, and they went off to
look for Kaw the rock Python. They found him stretched

(01:05:16):
out on a warm ledge in the afternoon sun, admiring
his beautiful new coat, for he had been in retirement
for the last ten days, changing his skin, and now
he was very splendid, darting his big, blunt nosed head
along the ground and twisting the thirty feet of his
body into fantastic knots and curves, and licking his lips
as he thought of his dinner to come. He has

(01:05:40):
not eaten, said Balue, with a grunt of relief. As
soon as he saw the beautifully mottled brown and yellow jacket.
Be careful, bagheera. He is always a little blind after
he has changed his skin, and very quick to strike.
Kaw was not a poison snake. In fact, he rather
despised the poison snakes as cowards. But his strength lay

(01:06:01):
in his hug, and when he had once lapped his
huge coils round anybody, there was no more to be said.
Good hunting, cried Balloo, sitting up on his haunches. Like
all snakes of his breed, Kaw was rather deaf and
did not hear the call at first. Then he curled up,
ready for any accident. His head lowered. Good hunting for

(01:06:23):
us all, he answered, Oh, Ballou, what dost thou do here?
Good hunting? Bighira, One of us at least needs food.
Is there any news of game, afoot, a dough now
or even a young buck. I am as empty as
a dried well. We are hunting, said Ballu carelessly. He

(01:06:44):
knew that you must not hurry Ka, he is too big.
Give me permission to come with you, said Ka. A
blow more or less is nothing to thee bighira or Balloo.
But I I have to wait and wait for days
in a wood path and climb half an on the
mere chance of a young ape pshaw. The branches are

(01:07:04):
not what they were when I was young. Rotten twigs
and dried thows are they all? Maybe thy great weight
has something to do with that matter, said Billoo. I
am a fair length a fair length, said Ka, with
a little pride. But for all that, it is the
fault of this new grown timber. I came very near

(01:07:25):
to falling on my last hunt, very near, indeed, and
the noise of my slipping, for my tail was not
tight wrapped round the tree waked the bandir log. And
they called me most evil names, footless yellow earthworm, said
Baghera under his whiskers, as though he were trying to
remember something. Have they ever called me that? Said Ka,

(01:07:50):
something of that kind? It was that they shouted to
us last moon, but we never noticed them. They will
say anything, even that thou had lost all thy teeth,
and wilt not face anything bigger than a kid, because
they are indeed shameless, these bander Log, because thou art
afraid of the he goat's horns. Bagheera went on sweetly.

(01:08:12):
Now a snake, especially a wary old python like Kaw,
very seldom shows that he is angry. But Balloo and
Bagheera could see the big swallowing muscles on either side
of Ka's throat, ripple and bulge. The bander log have
shifted their grounds, he said quietly. When I came up
into the sun to day, I heard them whooping among

(01:08:33):
the tree tops. It it is the bander log that
we follow, now, said Bulloo, but the words stuck in
his throat, for that was the first time in his
memory that one of the jungle people had owned to
being interested in the doings of the monkeys. Beyond doubt.
Then it is no small thing that it takes two
such hunters leaders in their own jungle. I am certain

(01:08:56):
on the trail of the bander log, Kaw replied, courteous
as he swelled with curiosity, indeed, Baloo began, I am
no more than the old and sometimes very foolish teacher
of the law to the sea any wolf cubs and
Baghira here is Baghira, said the black panther, and his
jaws shut with a snap, for he did not believe

(01:09:18):
in being humble. The trouble is this, Ka, those nut
stealers and pickers of palm leaves have stolen away our
man cub, of whom thou hast perhaps heard. I heard
some news from Sahi. His quills make him presumptuous of
a man thing that was entered into a wolf pack.

(01:09:38):
But I did not believe Sah. He is full of
stories half heard and very badly told. But it is
true he is such a man cub as never was,
said Baloo, the best and wisest and boldest of man cubs,
my own pupil, who shall make the name of Ballou
famous throughout the jungles. And besides we love him Ka

(01:10:03):
t st t s said Ka, waving his head to
and fro. I also have known what love is. There
are tales I could tell that that need a clear night,
when we are all well fed to praise properly, said
Bagheera quickly. Our man cub is in the hands of
the bandar log now, and we know that of all
the jungle people, they fear kaw alone. They fear me alone.

(01:10:29):
They have good reasons, said Ka Chattering. Foolish, vain, vain,
foolish and chattering are the monkeys. But a man thing
in their hands is in no good luck. They grow
tired of the nuts they pick and throw them down.
They carry a branch half a day, meaning to do
great things with it, and then they snap it in two.

(01:10:51):
That man thing is not to be envied. They called
me also yellow fish? Was it not? Worm worm? Earth worm?
Said Bagheera, as well as other things which I cannot
now say for shame. We must remind them to speak
well of their master, ah sp We must help their

(01:11:14):
wandering memories. Now whither went they with the cub? The
jungle alone knows towards the sunset, I believe, said Baloo.
We had thought that thou wouldstnow caw ay how I
take them when they come in my way. But I
do not hunt the bander log or frogs or green

(01:11:36):
scum on a water hole, for that matters up up
up up hillo Illo. Illo look up blue of the sea,
any wolf pack. Balu looked up to see where the
voice came from, and there was Chill the kite, sweeping
down with the sun shining on the upturned flanges of
his wings. It was near Chill's bedtime, but he had

(01:11:58):
ranged all over the jungle looking for the bear and
missed him in the thick foliage. What is it, said Baloo.
I have seen Mowgli among the bander log. He bade
me tell you. I watched the bander log have taken
him beyond the river to the monkey city, to the
cold lairs. They may stay there for a night, or
ten nights or an hour. I have told the bats

(01:12:19):
to watch through the dark time. That is my message.
Good hunting all you below, full gorge, and a deep
sleep to you. Chill, cried Bakhira. I will remember thee
in my next kill, and put aside the head for
thee alone. Oh, best of kites, it is nothing, it
is nothing. The boy held the master word. I could

(01:12:41):
have done no less, and Chill circled up again to
his roost. He has not forgotten to use his tongue,
said Baloo, with a chuckle of pride to think of
one so young, remembering the master word for the birds too.
While he was being pulled across the trees, it was
most firmly driven in to him, said Bagheera. But I

(01:13:01):
am proud of him. And now we must go to
the Cold Lairs. They all knew where that place was,
but few of the jungle people ever went there, because
what they called the Cold Lairs was an old, deserted city,
lost and buried in the jungle. And beasts seldom use
a place that men have once used. The wild boar will,
but the hunting tribes do not. Besides, the monkeys lived

(01:13:25):
there as much as they could be said to live anywhere,
and no self respecting animal would come within eyeshot of it,
except in times of drought, when the half ruined tanks
and reservoirs held a little water. It is half a
night's journey at full speed, said Baghiera, and Balloo looked
very serious. I will go as fast as I can,
he said anxiously. We dare not wait for thee follow Ballou.

(01:13:50):
We must go on the quick foot, Kaw and ay
feet or no feet. I can keep abreast of all
thy for said ka. Shortly, Balloo made one effort to hurry,
but he had to sit down panting, and so they
left him to come on later. While Bakia hurried forward
at the quick panther canter, Ka said nothing but strive

(01:14:11):
as Baghera might. The huge rock Python held level with him.
When they came to a hill stream, Bakera gained because
he bounded across, while Kaw swam his head and two
feet of his neck clearing the water. But on level ground,
Ka made up the distance by the broken lock that
freed me, said Bakhia, when twilight had fallen. Thou art

(01:14:31):
no slow goer. I am hungry, said Ka. Besides, they
called me a speckled frog worm, earthworm and yellow to boot.
All one let us go on, and Ka seemed to
pour himself along the ground, finding the shortest road with
his steady eyes and keeping to it. End of Chapter two,

(01:14:56):
Part one, Chapter two, Part two. In the Cold Lairs,
the monkey people were not thinking of Mowgli's friends at all.
They had brought the boy to the lost city and
were very pleased with themselves for the time. Mowgli had
never seen an Indian city before, and though this was

(01:15:16):
almost a heap of ruins, it seemed very wonderful and splendid.
Some king had built it long ago on a little hill.
You could still trace the stone causeways that led up
to the ruined gates, where the last splinters of wood
hung to the worn, rusted hinges. Trees had grown into
and out of the walls. The battlements were tumbled down

(01:15:37):
and decayed, and wild creepers hung out of the windows
of the towers on the walls in bushy hanging clumps.
A great roofless palace crowned the hill, and the marble
of the courtyards and the fountains was split and stained
with red and green, and the very cobblestones in the
courtyard where the king's elephants used to live had been
thrust up and apart by grasses and yeng trees. From

(01:16:01):
the palace you could see the rows and rows of
roofless houses that made up the city, looking like empty
honeycombs filled with blackness, the shapeless block of stone that
had been an idol in the square where four roads met,
the pits and dimples at street corners where the public
wells once stood, and the shattered domes of temples with
wild figs sprouting on their sides. The monkeys called the

(01:16:26):
place their city, and pretended to despise the jungle people
because they lived in the forest. And yet they never
knew what the buildings were made for, nor how to
use them. They would sit in circles on the hall
of the King's council Chamber and scratch for fleas and
pretend to be men. Or they would run in and
out of the roofless houses and collect pieces of plaster

(01:16:48):
and old bricks in a corner and forget where they
had hidden them, and fight and cry in scuffling crowds,
and then break off to play up and down the
terraces of the King's garden, where they would shake the
rose trees and the oranges in sport to see the
fruit and flowers fall. They explored all the passages and
dark tunnels in the palace, and the hundreds of little

(01:17:09):
dark rooms, but they never remembered what they had seen
and what they had not, and so drifted about in
ones and twos or crowds, telling each other that they
were doing as men did. They drank at the tanks
and made the water all muddy, and then they fought
over it, and then they would all rush together in
mobs and shout, there is no one in the jungle

(01:17:30):
so wise and good, and clever and strong and gentle
as the bend are log. Then all would begin again
till they grew tired of the city and went back
to the tree tops, hoping the jungle people would notice them. Mowgli,
who had been trained under the law of the jungle,
did not like or understand this kind of life. The

(01:17:51):
monkeys dragged him into the cold lairs late in the afternoon,
and instead of going to sleep as Mowgli would have
done after a long journey, they joined hands and danced
about and sang their foolish songs. One of the monkeys
made a speech and told his companions that Mowgli's capture
marked a new thing in the history of the bandar Log,
for Mowgli was going to show them how to weave

(01:18:13):
sticks and canes together as a protection against rain and cold.
Mowgli picked up some creepers and began to work them
in and out, and the monkeys tried to imitate, but
in a very few minutes they lost interest and began
to pull their friend's tails or jump up and down
on all fours, coughing. I wish to eat, said Mowgli.

(01:18:34):
I am a stranger in this part of the jungle.
Bring me food or give me leave to hunt here.
Twenty or thirty monkeys bounded away to bring him nuts
and wild pawpaws, but they felt a fighting on the road,
and it was too much trouble to go back with
what was left of the fruit. Mowgli was sore and
angry as well as hungry, and he roamed through the

(01:18:54):
empty city, giving the stranger's hunting call from time to time,
but no one answered him, and Mowgli felt that he
had reached a very bad place. Indeed, all that Blue
has said about the bander log is true, he thought
to himself. They have no law, no hunting call, and
no leaders, nothing but foolish words and little picking thievish hands.

(01:19:17):
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. Ballue will surely beat me,
but that is better than chasing silly rose leaves with
a bander log. No sooner had he walked to the
city wall than the monkeys pulled him back telling him
that he did not know how happy he was, and
pinching him to make him grateful. He set his teeth

(01:19:39):
and said nothing, but went with the shouting monkeys to
a terrace above the red sandstone reservoirs that were half
full of rain water. There was a ruined summer house
of white marble in the center of the terrace, built
for queens dead a hundred years ago. The domed roof
had half fallen in and blocked up the underground passage
from the palace by which the queens used to enter,

(01:20:02):
But the walls were made of screens of marble tracery,
beautiful milk white fretwork, set with agates and cornelians and
jasper and lapis lazuli. And as the moon came up
behind the hill, it shone through the open work, casting
shadows on the ground like black velvet embroidery. Sore, sleepy
and hungry as he was, Mowgli could not help laughing

(01:20:24):
when the bander log began twenty at a time to
tell him how great and wise and strong and gentle
they were, and how foolish he was to wish to
leave them. We are great, we are free, we are wonderful.
We are the most wonderful people in all the jungle.
We all say so, and so it must be true,
they shouted. Now, as you are a new listener and

(01:20:45):
can carry our words back to the jungle people, so
that they may notice us in the future, we will
tell you all about our most excellent selves. Mowgli made
no objection, and the monkeys gathered by hundreds and hundreds
on the terrace to listen to their own star speakers
singing the praises of the bander Log, And whenever a
speaker stopped for want of breath, they would all shout together.

(01:21:06):
This is true, we all say so. Mowgli nodded and
blinked and said yes when they asked him a question,
and his head spun with all the noise to Poqui,
the jackal must have fitten all these people, he said
to himself, And now they have the madness. Certainly this
is des wanie, the madness. Did they never go to sleep?

(01:21:28):
Now there is a cloud coming to cover the moon.
If it were only a big enough cloud, I might
try to run away in the darkness. But I am tired.
That same cloud was being watched by two good friends
in the ruined ditch below the city wall. For Bagheera
and Kaw, knowing well how dangerous the monkey people were
in large numbers, did not wish to run any risks.

(01:21:51):
The monkeys never fight unless they are a hundred to one,
and few in the jungle care for those odds. I
will go to the west, all Kaw whispered, and come
swiftly down the slope of the ground in my favor.
They will not throw themselves upon my back in their hundreds.
But I know it, said Bagheera, would that baloo were here.

(01:22:14):
But we must do what we can. When that cloud
covers the moon, I shall go by the terrace. They
hold some sort of council there over the boy. Good hunting,
said Kaw grimly, and glided away to the west wall
that happened to be the least ruined of any and
the big snake was delayed awhile before he could find

(01:22:35):
a way up the stones, the cloud hid the moon,
and as Mowgli wondered what would come next, he heard
Bagheera's light feet on the terrace. The black panther had
raced up the slope almost without a sound, and was
striking he knew better than to waste time in biting
right and left. Among the monkeys who were seated round
Mowgli in circles fifty and sixty deep, there was a

(01:22:57):
howl of fright and rage, and then, as Baguire a
trip on the rolling, kicking bodies beneath him, a monkey shouted,
there's only one here, Kill him. Kill. A scuffling mass
of monkeys, biting, scratching, tearing and pulling closed over Bagheera,
while five or six laid hold of Mowgli, dragged him
up the wall of the summer house, and pushed him

(01:23:18):
through the whole of the broken dome. A man trained
boy would have been badly bruised, for the fall was
a good fifteen feet, but Mowgli fell as Balloo had
taught him to fall, and landed on his feet. Stay there,
shouted the monkeys, till we have killed thy friends, and
later we will play with thee. If the poison people
leave thee alive, we be of one blood, ye, And

(01:23:41):
I said Mowgli, quickly giving the snake's call. He could
hear rustling and hissing in the rubbish around him, and
he gave the call a second time to make sure.
Even so down hoods all said half a dozen low
voices every ruin in India, because sooner or later a
dwelling place of snakes and the old summer house was

(01:24:03):
alive with cobras. Stand still, little brother, for thy feet
may do us harm. Mowgli stood as quietly as he could,
peering through the open work and listening to the furious
din of the fight round the black panther, the yells
and chatterings and scufflings, and Bakira's deep, hoarse cough as
he backed and bucked and twisted and plunged under the

(01:24:25):
heaps of the enemies. For the first time since he
was born, Baghira was fighting for his life. Blue must
be at hand. Baghira would not have come alone, Mowgli thought,
And then he called aloud to the tank bagheera, roll
to the water tanks, roll and plunge. Get to the water.

(01:24:47):
Baghierra heard, and the cry that told him Mowgli was
safe gave him new courage. He worked his way desperately,
inch by inch, straight for the reservoirs, halting in silence.
Then from the ruin wall nearest the jungle rose up
the rumbling war shout of blue. The old bear had
done his best, but he could not come before begheerra.

(01:25:10):
He shouted, I am here, I climb, I haste ah, hoorrah.
The stone slip under my feet, wait my coming. Almost
infamous banned our log. He panted up the terrace, only
to disappear to the head in a wave of monkeys.
But he threw himself squarely on his haunches and spreading

(01:25:31):
out his fore paws, hugged as many as he could hold,
and then began to hit with ir regular bat bat bat,
like the flipping strokes of a paddle wheel. A crash
and a splash told Mowgli that Bagheera had fought his
way to the tank, where the monkeys could not follow.
The panther lay gasping for breath, his head just out
of water, while the monkeys stood three deep on the

(01:25:52):
red steps, dancing up and down with rage, ready to
spring upon him from all sides if he came out
to help Balloo. It was then that Baghier lifted up
his dripping chin and in despair, gave the snake's call
for protection. We be of one blood, ye and I
for he believed that Ka had turned tail at the
last minute. Even Bullue, half smothered under the monkeys on

(01:26:15):
the edge of the terrace, could not help chuckling as
he heard the black panther asking for help. Ka had
only just worked his way over the west wall, landing
with a wrench that dislodged a coping stone into the ditch.
He had no intention of losing any advantage of the ground,
and coiled and uncoiled himself once or twice to be
sure that every foot of his long body was in

(01:26:37):
working order. All that while the fight with Balloo went on,
and the monkeys yelled in the tank round Bagheera and
Mang the bat, flying to and fro, carried the news
of the great battle over the jungle till even Hathy
the wild elephant trumpeted, and far away, scattering bands of
the monkey folk woke and came leaping along the tree
roads to help their comrades in the cold lairs, and

(01:27:00):
the noise of the fight roused all the day birds
for miles round. Then Kaw came straight, quickly and anxious
to kill. The fighting strength of a python is in
the driving blow of his head, backed by all the
strength and weight of his body. If you can imagine
a lance, or a battering ram, or a hammer weighing
nearly half a ton, driven by a cool, quiet mind

(01:27:23):
limbing in the handle of it, you can roughly imagine
what Kaw was like when he fought. A python four
or five feet long can knock a man down if
he hits him fairly in the chest, and Kaw was
thirty feet long. As you know. His first stroke was
delivered into the heart of the crowd. Round Blue was
sent home with shut mouth, in silence, and there was

(01:27:45):
no need of a second The monkeys scattered with cries
of Kaw. It is Kaw, Run run. Generations of monkeys
had been scared into good behavior by the stories their
elders told them of Kaw, the knight beef, who could
slip along the branches as quietly as moss grows and
steal away the strongest monkey that ever lived, Of old Ka,

(01:28:06):
who could make himself look so like a dead branch
or a rotten stump, that the wisest were deceived till
the branch caught them. Ka was everything that the monkeys
feared in the jungle, for none of them knew the
limits of his power. None of them could look him
in the face, and none had ever come alive out
of his hug. And so they ran, stammering with terror,

(01:28:29):
to the walls and the roofs of the houses, and
Blue drew a deep breath of relief. His fur was
much thicker than Bagheera's, but he had suffered sorely in
the fight. Then Kaw opened his mouth for the first
time and spoke one long, hissing word, and the far
away monkeys, hurrying to the defense of the cold lairs,

(01:28:50):
stayed where they were, cowering till the loaded branches bent
and crackled under them. The monkeys on the walls and
the empty houses stopped their cries, and in the stillness
that fell upon the city, Mowgli heard Bakira shaking his
wet sides as he came up from the tank. Then
the clamor broke out again. The monkeys leaped higher up

(01:29:11):
on the walls. They clung round the necks of the
big stone idols and shrieked as they skipped along the battlements,
while Mowgli, dancing in the summer house, put his eye
to the screenwork and hooted owl fashion between his front
teeth to show his derision and contempt. Get the man
cub out of that trap. I can do no more,

(01:29:32):
Pekia gasped. Let us take the man cub and go.
They may attack again. They will not move till I
order them to stay. You so Kaw hissed, and the
city was silent once more. I could not come before, brother,
But I think I heard THEE call. This was to Bagheera.

(01:29:55):
I I may have cried out in the battle Pegkuerra,
answered Balloo. Art thou hurt. I am sure that they
did not pull me into a hundred little bearlings, said
Baloo gravely, shaking one leg after the other. Wow, I
am sore. Kaw we owe THEE. I think our lives

(01:30:16):
Bagheira and I no matter where is the manling here
in a trap, I cannot climb out, cried Mowgli. The
curve of the broken dome was above his head. Take
him away. He dances like more at the peacock. He
will crush our young, said the cobras inside Ha said

(01:30:39):
Ka with a chuckle. He has friends everywhere. This manling.
Stand back, Manling, and hide you o poisoned people. I
break down the wall. Kaw looked carefully till he found
a discolored crack in the marble tracery, showing a weak spot,
made two or three light taps with his head to
get the distance, and then, lifting up six feet of

(01:31:00):
his body clear of the ground, sent home half a
dozen full power smashing blows nose first. The screenwork broke
and fell away in a cloud of dust and rubbish,
and Mowgli leaped through the opening and flung himself between
Baalu and Baghira, an arm around each big neck. Art
thou hurt, said Balu, hugging him softly. I am sore, hungry,

(01:31:25):
and not a little bruised. But oh, they have handled
ye grievously, my brothers, Ye bleed others, also said Bagheera,
licking his lips and looking at the monkey dead on
the terrace and round the tank. It is nothing, It
is nothing. If thou art safe, Oh, my pride of
all little frogs, whimpered Balu. Of that we shall judge. Later,

(01:31:49):
said Baghira, in a dry voice, that Mowgli did not
at all like. But here is Kaw to whom we
owe the battle, and thou owest thy life. Thank him
according to our customs, Mowgli. Mowgli turned and saw the
great python's head swaying a foot above his own. So

(01:32:10):
this is the manling, said Kaw. Very soft is his skin,
and he is not unlike the bander log. Have a care, Manling,
that I do not mistake thee for a monkey. Some twilight,
when I have newly changed my coat. We be of
one blood, thou and I, Mowgli answered, I take my

(01:32:30):
life from thee to night. My kill shall be thy kill.
If ever thou art hungry, O Kaw, all, thanks, little brother,
said Kaw, though his eyes twinkled. And what may so
bold a hunter kill? I ask that I may follow
when next he goes abroad. I kill nothing. I am

(01:32:52):
too little, but I drive goats towards such as can
use them. When thou art empty, come to me and
see if I speak the truth. I have some skill
in these. He held out his hands. And if ever
thou art in a trap, I may pay the debt
which I owe to Thee, to Bakhyra and to Ballou.
Here good hunting to ye all my masters, well, said

(01:33:14):
growled Blue. For Mowgli had returned thanks, very prettily. The
python dropped his head lightly for a minute on Mowgli's shoulder.
A brave heart and a courteous tongue, said he. They
shall carry thee far through the jungle manling. But now
go hence quickly with thy friends, go and sleep, for
the moon sets and what follows. It is not well

(01:33:36):
that thou shouldst see. The moon was sinking behind the hills,
and the lines of trembling monkeys huddled together on the
walls and battlements looked like ragged, shaky fringes of things.
Balu went down to the tank for a drink, and
Bakirra began to put his fur in order as Kaw
glided out into the center of the terrace and brought
his jaws together with a ringing snap that drew all

(01:33:59):
the monkey's 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, O Kaw, good begins now the dance, the
dance of the hunger of Kaw. Sit still and watch.

(01:34:24):
He turned twice or thrice in a big circle, weaving
his head from right to left. Then he began making
loops and figures of eight with his body, and soft
oozy triangles that melted into squares and five sided figures
and coiled mounds, never resting, never hurrying, and never stopping
his low humming song. It grew darker and darker, till

(01:34:47):
at last the dragging, shifting coils disappeared, but they could
hear the rustle of the scales. Blue and Bagheera stood
still as stone, growling in their throats, neck hair bristling,
and Mowgli watched and wondered. Bander Log said the voice
of Kaw. At last, can ye stir foot or hand

(01:35:10):
without my order? Speak? Without thy order? We cannot stir
foot or hand? O Kaw good, Come all one pace
nearer to me. The lines of the monkeys swayed forward helplessly,
and Baloo and Bakhia took one stiff step forward with
them nearer, hissed Kaw, and they all moved again. Mowgli

(01:35:37):
laid his hands on Baloo and Bagheera to get them away,
and the two great beasts started as though they had
been waked from a dream. Keep thy hand on my shoulder,
Bakhia whispered, keep it there, or I must go back,
must go back to kaw ah. It is only old

(01:35:57):
kaw making circles on the dust, said Mowgli. Let us go,
and the three slipped off through a gap in the
walls to the jungle. Whuff, said Bloo when he stood
under the still trees again. Never more will I make
an ally of kaw And he shook himself all over.
He knows more than we, said Bakhira, trembling in a

(01:36:20):
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 know anything of

(01:36:40):
a python's powers of fascination. I saw no more than
a big snake making foolish circles till the dark came,
and his nose was all sore. Ho ho, Mowgli, said
Baghirra angrily. His nose was sore on thy account, as
my ears and sides and paws, and Ballow's no and

(01:37:00):
shoulders are bitten on thy account. Neither Balloo nor Pakhira
will be able to hunt with pleasure. For many days.
It is nothing, said Balloo. We have the man cub again. True,
but he has cost us heavily in time which might
have been spent in good hunting, in wounds, in hair,

(01:37:23):
I am half plucked along my back, and last of all,
in honor. For remember Mowgli, I who am the black panther,
was forced to call upon Kaw for protection, and Balloo
and I were both made stupid as little birds by
the hunger dance. All this man cub came of thy

(01:37:44):
playing with the banderlock. True, it is true, said Mowgli sorrowfully.
I am an evil man cub, and my stomach is
sad in me humph, what says the law of the
jungle Ballu. Balu did not wish to bring Mowgli into
any more trouble, but he could not tamper with the law,

(01:38:07):
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, Balu, and

(01:38:30):
thou art wounded. It is just Bagheera gave him half
a dozen love taps. From a panther's point of view,
they would hardly have waked one of his own cubs.
But for a seven year old boy they amounted to
as severe a beating as you could wish to avoid.
When it was all over, Mowgli sneezed and picked himself

(01:38:50):
up without a word. Now said Baghirra, Jump on my back,
little brother, and we will go home. One of the
beauties of the jungle law is that punishment settles all scores.
There is no nagging. Afterwards, Mowgli laid his head down
on Bakira's back and slept so deeply that he never

(01:39:11):
waked when he was put down in the Home Cave
Road song of the bander 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 it if your tails
were so curved in the shape of a cupid's bow.

(01:39:34):
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 forgotten. But never mind, brother, thy tail

(01:39:55):
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

(01:40:18):
our leaping lines, that scumfish through the pines that rock
it 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.
End of Chapter two, Part two, Chapter three, Tiger Tiger.

(01:40:41):
What if the hunting hunter bold brother? The watch was
long and cold? What if 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 where is the haste that ye hurry by? Brother?

(01:41:06):
I go to my lair to die. When Mowgli left
the wolf's cave after the fight with the pack at
the council rock, he went down to the plowed lands
where the villagers lived, but he would not stop there
because it was too near to the jungle, and he
knew that he had made at least one bad enemy
at the council So he hurried on, keeping to the

(01:41:28):
rough road that ran down the valley, and followed it
of a steady jog trot for nearly twenty miles till
he came to a country that he did not know.
The valley opened out into a great plain, dotted over
with rocks and cut up with ravines. At one end
stood a little village, and at the other the thick
jungle came down in a sweep to the grazing grounds

(01:41:49):
and stopped there as though it had been cut off
with a hoe. All over the plain, cattle and buffaloes
were grazing, and when the little boys in charge of
the herds saw Mowgli, they shouted and ran away, and
the yellow pariah dogs that hang about every Indian village barked.
Mowgli walked on for he was feeling hungry, and when

(01:42:10):
he came to the village gate, he saw the big
thorn bush that was drawn up before the gate at
twilight pushed to one side. Humph, he said, for he
had come across more than one such barricade, and his
night rambles after things to eat. So man are afraid
of the people of the jungle. Here also he sat
down by the gate, and when a man came out,

(01:42:32):
he stood up, opened his mouth and pointed down it
to show that he wanted food. The man stared and
ran back up the one street of the village, shouting
for the priest, who was a big, fat man dressed
in white with a red and yellow mark on his forehead.
The priest came to the gate and with him at
least a hundred people, who stared and talked and shouted

(01:42:54):
and pointed at Mowgli. They have no manners, these men folk,
said Mowgli to himself. Only the gray ape would behave
as they do. So he threw back his long hair
and frowned at the crowd. What is there to be
afraid of, said the priest. Look at the marks on
his arms and legs. They are the bites of wolves.

(01:43:16):
He is but a wolf child run away from the jungle.
Of course, in playing together the cubs had often nipped
Mowgli harder than they intended, and there were white scars
all over his arms and legs. But he would have
been the last person in the world to call these bites,
for he knew what real biting meant. Aarrey, aarrey said,

(01:43:38):
two or three women together to be bitten by wolves.
Poor child, he is a handsome boy. He has eyes
like red fire. By my honor, monsieur, he is not
unlike thy boy that was taken by the tiger. Let
me look, said a woman with heavy copper rings on
her wrists and ankles, and she peered at Mowgli under

(01:43:58):
the palm of her hand. Indeed he is not. He
is thinner, but he has the very look of my boy.
The priest was a clever man, and he knew that
Messua was wife to the richest villager in the place.
So he looked up at the sky for a minute
and said, solemnly, what the jungle has taken, the jungle

(01:44:19):
has restored. Take the boy into thy house, my sister,
and forget not to honor the priest who sees so
far into the lives of men. Buy the bull that
bought me, said Mowgli to himself. But all this talking
is like another looking over by the pack. Well, if
I am a man, a man, I must be. The

(01:44:41):
crowd parted as the woman beckoned Mowgli to her hut,
where there was a red lacquered bedstead, a great earthen
grain chest with funny raised patterns on it, half a
dozen copper cooking pots, an image of a Hindu god
in a little alcove, and on the wall a real
looking glass, such as they sell at the country fairs.
For eight cents, she gave him a long drink of

(01:45:03):
milk and some bread, and then she laid her hand
on his head and looked into his eyes, for she
thought perhaps that he might be her real son, come
back from the jungle where the tiger had taken him.
So she said, Natu, oh, natu. Mowgli did not show
that he knew the name. Dost thou not remember the

(01:45:23):
day when I gave thee thy new shoes? She touched
his foot, and it was almost as hard as horn. No,
she said, sorrowfully, these feet have never worn shoes. But
thou art very like mine, na too, and thou shalt
be my son Mowgli was uneasy because he had never
been under a roof before. But as he looked at

(01:45:46):
the thatch, he saw that he could tear it out
at any time if you wanted to get away, and
that the window had no fastenings. What is the good
of a man, he said to himself at last, if
he does not understand man's talk. Now, I am as
silly and dumb as a man would be with us
in the jungle. I must speak their talk. He had

(01:46:09):
not learned while he was with the wolves to imitate
the challenge of bucks in the jungle and the grunt
of the little wild pig for fun. So as soon
as Missua pronounced a word, Mowgli would imitate it almost perfectly,
and before dark he had learned the name of many
things in the hut. There was a difficulty at bedtime,

(01:46:29):
because Mowgli would not sleep under anything that looked so
like a panther trap as that hut. And when they
shut the door, he went through the window. Give him
his will, said missus 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

(01:46:53):
grass at the edge of the field. But before he
had closed his eyes, a soft gray nose poked him
under the chin. Phew, said Gray brother. He was the
eldest of mother Wolf's cubs. This is a poor reward
for following thee twenty miles. Thou smellest of wood, smoke
and cattle altogether like a man. Already, wake, little brother,

(01:47:15):
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. Sheer Khan has gone away
to hunt far off till his coat grows again, for
he is badly singed. When he returns, he swears that
he will lay thy bones in the wing gunga. There

(01:47:37):
are two words to that. I also have made a
little promise. But news is always good. I am tired
to night, very tired with new things, Gray brother. But
bring me the news always. Thou wilt not forget that
thou art a wolf. Men will not make THEE forget,
said Gray Brother anxiously. Never, I will always remember that

(01:48:01):
I love THEE and all in our cave. But also
I will always remember that I have been cast out
of the pack, and that thou mayest be cast out
of another pack. Men are only men, little brother, and
their talk is like the talk of frogs in a pond.
When I come down here again, I will wait for

(01:48:21):
thee in the bamboos at the edge of the grazing ground.
For three months after that night, Mowgli hardly ever left
the village gate. He was so busy learning the ways
and customs of men. First he had to wear a
cloth round him, which annoyed him horribly, and then he
had to learn about money, which he did not in
the least understand, and about plowing of which he did

(01:48:44):
not see the use. Then the little children in the
village made him very angry. Luckily, the law of the
jungle had taught him to keep his temper, for in
the jungle, life and food depend on keeping your temper.
But when they made fun of him because he would
not play games or fly kites, or because he mispronounced
some word, only the knowledge that it was unsportsmanlike to

(01:49:06):
kill little naked cubs kept him from picking them up
and breaking them in two. He did not know his
own strength in the least in the jungle, he knew
he was weak compared with the beasts, but in the
village people said that he was strong as a bull.
He certainly had no notion of what fear was, for
when the village priest told him that the god in

(01:49:27):
the temple would be angry with him if he ate
the priest's mangoes, he picked up the image, brought it
over to the priest's house, and asked the priest to
make the god angry and he would be happy to
fight him. It was a horrible scandal, but the priest
hushed it up, and Messu's husband paid much good silver
to comfort the god. And Mowgli had not the faintest

(01:49:47):
idea of the difference that cast makes between man and man.
When the potter's donkey slipped in the clay pit, Mowgli
hauled it out by the tail and helped to stack
the pots for their journey to the market at Kanowara.
That was very shocking too, for the potter is a
low caste man, and his donkey is worse. When the
priest scolded him, Mowgli threatened to put him on the

(01:50:10):
donkey too, and the priest told missus husband that Mowgli
had better be set to work as soon as possible,
And the village headman told Mowgli that he would have
to go out with the buffaloes the next day, and
heard them while they grazed. No one was more pleased
than Mowgli. And that night, because he had been appointed
a servant of the village, as it were, he went

(01:50:30):
off to a circle that met every evening on a
masonry platform under a great fig tree. It was the
village club, and the headman, and the watchman, and the
barber who knew all the gossip of the village. An
old Baldeo, the village hunter, who had a tower musket,
met and smoked. The monkeys sat and talked in the
upper branches. And there was a hole under the platform

(01:50:52):
where a cobra lived, and he had his little platter
of milk every night because he was sacred. And the
old men sat around the tree and talked and pulled
at the big hookahs the water pipes till far into
the night. They told wonderful tales of gods and men
and ghosts, and Buldeo told even more wonderful ones of
the ways of beasts in the jungle till the eyes

(01:51:14):
of the children sitting outside the circle bulged out of
their heads. Most of the tales were about animals, for
the jungle was always at their door. The deer and
the wild pig grubbed up their crops, and now and
again the tiger carried off a man at twilight within
sight of the village gates. Mowgli, who naturally knew something

(01:51:35):
about what they were talking of, had to cover his
face not to show that he was laughing, while Buldeo,
the tower musket across his knees, climbed on from one
wonderful story to another, and Mowgli's shoulders shook. Buldeo was
explaining how the tiger that had carried away Messua's son
was a ghost tiger, and his body was inhabited by

(01:51:55):
the ghost of a wicked old money lender who had
died some years ago. And I know that this is true,
he said, because poor Undas always limped from the blow
that he got in a riot when his account books
were burned. And the tiger that I speak of he
limps too, for the tracks of his pads are unequal. True. True,

(01:52:16):
that must be the truth, said the graybeards, nodding together.
Are all these tales such cobwebs and moon talk? Said Mowgli.
That tiger limps because he was born lame, as every
one knows. To talk of the soul of a money
lender in a beast that never had the courage of
a jackal is child's talk. Bodeo was speechless with surprise

(01:52:38):
for a moment, and the headman stared, Oho, it is
the jungle, brat, is it? Said Budeo. If thou art
so wise, better bring his hide to Caniwara, for the
government has set a hundred rupees on his life. Better still,
talk not when thy elder speak. Mowgli rose to go.

(01:53:00):
All the evening I have lain here listening, he called
back over his shoulder, And except once or twice, Baldeo
has not said one word of truth concerning the jungle
which is at his very doors. How then shall I
believe the tales of ghosts and gods and goblins which
he says he has seen. It is full time that
boy went to herding, said the headman, while Buldeo puffed

(01:53:22):
and snorted at Mowgli's impertinence. The custom of most Indian
villages is for a few boys to take the cattle
and buffaloes out to graze in the early morning and
bring them back at night. And the very cattle that
would trample a white man to death allow themselves to
be banged and bullied and shouted at by children that
hardly come up to their noses. So long as the

(01:53:44):
boys keep with the herds, they are safe. For not
even the tiger will charge a mob of cattle, but
if they straggle to pick flowers or hunt lizards, they
are sometimes carried off. Mowgli went through the village street
in the dawn, sitting on the back of Rama, the
great herd bull, and the slaty blue buffaloes with their long,
backward sweeping horns and savage eyes, rose out of their

(01:54:06):
buyers one by one and followed him, and Mowgli made
it very clear to the children with him that he
was the master. He beat the buffaloes with a long
polished bamboo and told Kamya, one of the boys, to
graze the cattle by themselves while he went on with
the buffaloes, and to be very careful not to stray
away from the herd. An Indian grazing ground is all

(01:54:29):
rocks and scrubs and tussocks and little ravines, among which
the herds scatter and disappear. The buffaloes generally keep to
the pools and muddy places, where they lie wallowing or
basking in the warm mud for hours. Mowgli drove them
on to the edge of the plain where the wain
Gunga came out of the jungle. And then he dropped
from Rama's neck, trotted off to a bamboo clump and

(01:54:51):
found Gray brother. Ah, said Gray brother, I have waited
here very many days. What is the meaning of this
cattle herding work? It is an order, said Mowgli. I
am a village herder for a while. What news of
sher Khan. He has come back to this country, and
he has waited a long time for thee. Now he

(01:55:14):
has gone off again, for the game is scarce. But
he means to kill thee. Very good, said Mowgli. So
long as he is away, do thou or one of
the four brothers sit on that rock, so that I
can see thee as I come out of the village.
When he comes back, wait for me in the ravine
by the dock tree in the center of the plain.

(01:55:34):
We need not walk into sharr Khan's mouth. Then Mowgli
picked out a shady place and lay down and slept
while the buffaloes grazed round him. Herding in India is
one of the laziest things in the world. The cattle
move and crunch and lie down and move on again,
and they do not even low. They only grunt, and

(01:55:56):
the buffaloes very seldom say anything but get down into
the muddy pools, one after another and work their way
into the mud till only their noses and staring China
blue eyes show above the surface. And then they lie
like logs. The sun makes the rocks dance in the heat,
and the herd children hear one kite never any more,
whistling almost out of sight overhead, and they know that

(01:56:20):
if they died, or a cow died, that kite would
sweep down, and the next kite miles away would see
him drop and follow, and the next and the next,
and almost before they were dead, there would be a
score of hungry kites come out of nowhere. Then they
sleep and wake and sleep again, and weave little baskets
of dried grass and put grasshoppers in them, or catch

(01:56:42):
two praying mantises and make them fight, or string a
necklace of red and black jungle nuts, or watch a
lizard basking on a rock, or a snake hunting a
frog near the wallows. Then they sing long, long songs,
with odd native quavers at the end of them, and
the day seems longer than most people's whole lives. And

(01:57:03):
perhaps they make a mud castle with mud figures of
men and horses and buffaloes, and put reeds into the
men's hands, and pretend that they are kings and the
figures are their armies, or that they are gods to
be worshiped. Then evening comes, and the children call, and
the buffaloes lumber up out of the sticky mud with
noises like gunshots going off one after the other, and

(01:57:25):
they all string across the gray plain back to the
twinkling village lights. Day after day, Mowgli would lead the
buffaloes out to their wallows, and day after day he
would see gray brothers back a mile and a half
away across the plain, so he knew that Shirrkan had
not come back. And day after day he would lie
on the grass listening to the noises round him, and

(01:57:46):
dreaming of the old days in the jungle. If shirr
Kan had made a false step with his lame paw
up in the jungles by the wayne Gunga, Mowgli would
have 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 dock tree, which was

(01:58:07):
all covered with golden red flowers. There sat Gray Brother,
every bristle on his back lifted. He has hidden for
a month to throw thee off thy guard. He crossed
the ranges last night with Tobaqui hot foot on thy trail,
said the wolf, panting. Mowgli frowned. I am not afraid

(01:58:27):
of Sharrkhan, but Tabakwe is very cunning. Have no fear,
said Gray Brother, licking his lips a little. I met
Tabakwei in the dawn. Now he is telling all his
wisdom to the kites. But he told me everything before
I broke his back. Sharrkhan's plan is to wait for
thee at the village gate this evening. For thee and

(01:58:48):
for no one else. He is lying up now in
the big dry ravine of the Wayne Gunga. Has he
eaten to day? Or does he hunt empty? Said Mowgli,
For the answer meant life and death to him. He
killed at dawn a pig, and he has drunk too,
Remember sher Khan could never fast, even for the sake

(01:59:10):
of revenge. Oh fool, fool, what a cub's cub? It
is eaten and drunk too. And he thinks that I
shall wait till he has slept. Now where does he
lie up? If there were but ten of us, we
might pull him down as he lies. These buffaloes will
not charge unless they wind him, and I cannot speak
their language. Can we get behind his track so that

(01:59:33):
they may smell it? He swam far down the waing
Gunga to cut that off, said gray brother. Tobaki told
him that I know he would never have thought of
it alone. Mowgli stood with his finger in his mouth, thinking,
the big ravine of the Wayne Gunga that opens out
on the plain not half a mile from here. I

(01:59:54):
can take the herd round through the jungle to the
head of the ravine and then sweep down. But he
would slink out at the foot. We must block that end,
Gray brother, canst thou cut the herd in two for me?
Not I perhaps, But I have brought a wise helper.
Gray brother trotted off and dropped into a hole. Then

(02:00:15):
there lifted up a huge gray head that Mowgli knew well,
and the hot air was filled with the most desolate
cry of all the jungle, the hunting howl of a wolf.
At midday, Aquila Akila, said Mowgli, clapping his hands. I
might have known that thou wouldst not forget me. We
have a big work in hand. Cut the herd in two, Akila.

(02:00:37):
Keep the cows and calves together, and the bowls and
the plow buffaloes by themselves. The two wolves ran Lady's
chain fashion in and out of the herd, which snorted
and threw up its head and separated into two clumps.
In one, the cow buffaloes stood with their calves in
the center and glared and pawed, ready if a wolf
would only stay still to charge down and trample the

(02:01:00):
life out of him. In the other, the bulls and
the young bulls snorted and stamped, but though they looked
more imposing they were much less dangerous, for they had
no calves to protect. No six men could have divided
the herd so neatly. What orders, panted Aquila. They are
trying to join again. Mowgli slipped on to Rama's back.

(02:01:22):
Drive the bulls away to the left, Aquila, gray Brother,
when we are gone, hold the cows together and drive
them into the foot of the ravine. How far, said
Gray Brother, panting and snapping. Till the sides are higher
than sher Khan can jump, shouted Mowgli. Keep them there
till we come down. The bulls swept off as Aekila
bade and Gray Brother stopped in front of the cows.

(02:01:45):
They charged down on him, and he ran just before
them to the foot of the ravine. As Aquila drove
the bulls far to the left. Well done, another charge
and they are fairly started. Careful now, careful, Aquila. A
snap two much much and the bulls will charge. Hushah,
this is wilder work than driving black buck? Didst thou

(02:02:06):
think these creatures could move so swiftly? Mowgli called, I
have have hunted these too in my time, gasped Tekila,
and the dust Shall I turn them into the jungle.
I turn swiftly turn them. Rama is mad with rage. Oh,
if only I could tell him what I need of
him to day. The bulls were turned to the right

(02:02:28):
this time and crashed into the standing thicket. The other
heard children watching with the cattle half a mile away,
hurried to the village as fast as their legs could
carry them, crying that the buffaloes had gone mad and
run away. But Mowgli's plan was simple enough. All he
wanted to do was to make a big circle up
hill and get at the head of the ravine, and

(02:02:48):
then take the bulls down it and catch sher Khan
between the bulls and the cows, for he knew that
after a meal and a full drink, shir Khan would
not be in any condition to fight or to clamber
up the sides of the ravine. He was soothing the
buffaloes now by voice, and Akilah had dropped far to
the rear, only whimpering once or twice to hurry the

(02:03:08):
rear guard. It was a long, long circle, for they
did not wish to get too near the ravine and
give Shirrkan warning. At last, Mowgli rounded up the bewildered
herd at the head of the ravine, on a grassy
patch that sloped steeply down to the ravine itself. From
that height you could see across the tops of the
trees down to the plain below. But what Mowgli looked

(02:03:29):
at was the sides of the ravine, and he saw
with a great deal of satisfaction that they ran nearly
straight up and down, while the vines and creepers that
hung over them would give no foothold to a tiger
who wanted to get out. Let them breathe, Akuila, he said,
holding up his hand. They have not winded him yet.
Let them breathe. I must tell Sharrkan, who comes We

(02:03:53):
have him in the trap. End of Chapter three, Part one,
Chapter three, part art too. He put his hands to
his mouth and shouted down the ravine. It was almost
like shouting down a tunnel, and the echoes jumped from
rock to rock. After a long time, there came back

(02:04:14):
the drawling, sleepy snarl of a full fed tiger just wakened.
Who calls, said sheer Khan, And a splendid peacock fluttered
up out of the ravines, screeching. I Mowgli cattle thief,
it is time to come to the council. Rock down,
hurry them down, Akila down, Rama down. The herd paused

(02:04:37):
for an instant at the edge of the slope, but
Akila gave tongue in the full hunting yell, and they
pitched over, one after the other, just the steamers shoot rapids,
the sand and stones spurting up round them. Once started,
there was no chance of stopping, and before they were
fairly in the bed of the ravine, Rama winded, shear
Khan and bellowed. Ha Ha said Mowglia on his back,

(02:05:00):
Now thou knowest, and the torrent of black horns, foaming muzzles,
and staring eyes whirled down the ravine, just as boulders
go down in flood time. The weaker buffaloes being shouldered
out to the sides of the ravine, where they tore
through the creepers, they knew what the business was before them.
The terrible charge of the buffalo heard against which no

(02:05:21):
tiger can hope to stand. Shir Kan heard the thunder
of their hoofs, picked himself up and lumbered down the ravine,
looking from side to side for some way of escape,
but the walls of the ravine were straight, and he
had to hold on heavy with his dinner and his drink.
Willing to do anything rather than fight, The herd splashed

(02:05:41):
through the pool he had just left, bellowing till the
narrow cut rang. Mowgli heard an answering bellow from the
foot of the ravine, saw sher Khan turn. The tiger
knew if the worst came to the worst, it was
better to meet the bulls than the cows with their calves.
And then Rama tripped, stumbled, and went on again over
something soft, and with the bulls at his heels, crashed

(02:06:03):
full into the other herd, while the weaker buffaloes were
lifted clean off their feet by the shock of the meeting.
That charge carried both herds out into the plain, goring
and stamping and snorting. Mowgli watched his time and slipped
off Rama's neck, lying about him right and left with
his stick. Quick, Aquila, break them up, scatter them, or

(02:06:24):
they will be fighting one another. Drive them away. Aquila Hi, Rama, Hi, Hi, Hi,
my children. Softly, now, softly, it is all over. Akila
and gray brother ran to and fro nipping the buffalo's legs,
and though the herd wheeled once to charge up the
ravine again, Mowgli managed to turn Rama and the others

(02:06:44):
followed him to the wallows. Sher Khan needed no more trampling.
He was dead, and the kites were coming for him already. Brothers,
that was a dog's death, said Mowgli, fling for the
knife he always carried in a sheath round his neck,
now that he lived with men. But he would never

(02:07:05):
have shown fight. Waala. His hide will look well on
the council rock. We must get to work swiftly. A
boy trained among men would never have dreamed of skinning
a ten foot tiger alone. But Mowgli knew better than
any one else how an animal's skin is fitted on,
and how it can be taken off. But it was
hard work, and Mowgli slashed and tore and grunted for

(02:07:28):
an hour, while the wolves lolled out their tongues or
came forward and tugged as he ordered them. Presently a
hand fell on his shoulder, and looking up, he saw
Bulldeo with the tower musket. The children had told the
village about the buffalo stampede. And Buldeo went out angrily,
only too anxious to correct Mowgli for not taking better

(02:07:48):
care of the herd. The wolves dropped out of sight
as soon as they saw the man coming. What is
this folly, said Buldeo angrily, to think that thou canst
skin tiger? Where did the buffaloes kill him? It is
the lame tiger too, and there is a hundred rupees
on his head. Well, well, we will overlook thy letting

(02:08:10):
the herd run off, and perhaps I will give thee
one of the rupees of the reward when I have
taken the skin to Conahuara. He fumbled in his waistcloth
for flint and steel, and stooped down to sin sher
Khan's whiskers. Most native hunters always sin to tiger's whiskers
to prevent his ghost from haunting them. Hum said Mowgli

(02:08:31):
half to himself, as he ripped back the skin of
a forepaw. So thou wilt take the hide to Conahuara
for the reward, and perhaps give me one rupee Now
it is in my mind that I need the skin
for my own use. Eh old man, take away that fire.
What talk is this to the chief hunter of the village.

(02:08:52):
Thy luck and the stupidity of thy buffaloes have helped
thee to this kill. The tiger has just fed, or
he would have gone twenty miles by this time. Thou
canst not even skin him properly, little beggar brat, And
forsooth I Buldeo must be told not to singe his whiskers. Mowgli,
I will not give thee one anna of the reward,
but only a very big beating. Leave the carcass, buy

(02:09:17):
the bull that bought me, said Mowgli, who was trying
to get at the shoulder. Must I stay babbling to
an old ape all noon? Here, Aquila? This man plagues me. Budeo,
who was still stooping over Sher Khan's head, found himself
sprawling on the grass with a gray wolf standing over him,
while Mowgli went on skinning as though he were alone
in all India. Yes, he said between his teeth, thou

(02:09:42):
art altogether right, Buldeo, Thou wilt never give me one
anna of the reward. There is an old war between
this lame tiger and myself, a very old war, and
I have won to do Buldeo justice. If he had
been ten years younger, he would have taken his chance
with Aquila had he met the wolf in the woods.

(02:10:03):
But a wolf who obeyed the orders of this boy,
who had private wars with man eating tigers, was not
a common animal. It was sorcery, magic of the worst kind,
thought Buldeo, and he wondered whether the amulet round his
neck would protect him. He lay as still less, still
expecting every minute to see Mowgli turn into a tiger too. Maharaje,

(02:10:26):
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 thou hast
anything more than a herd's boy. May I rise up
and go away? Or will thy servant tear me to pieces?

(02:10:49):
Go and peace? Go with thee only another time. Do
not meddle with my game. Let him go Aquila. Buldeo
hobbled away to the village as fast as he could,
looking back over his shoulder in case Mowgli should change
into something terrible. When he got to the village, he
told a tale of magic and enchantment and sorcery that
made the priest look very grave. Mowgli went on with

(02:11:14):
his work, but it was nearly twilight before he and
the wolves had drawn the great gay skin clear of
the body. Now we must hide this and take the
buffaloes home. Help me to herd them Akilah. The herd
rounded up in the misty twilight, and when they got
near the village, Mowgli saw lights and heard the conscies

(02:11:34):
and bells, and the temple blowing and banging. Half the
village seemed to be waiting for him by the gate.
That is because I have killed Sheer Khan, he said
to himself. But a shower of stones whistled about his ears,
and the villager shouted, sorcerer, wolf's brat, jungle demon, go away,
get hens quickly, or the priest will turn thee into

(02:11:54):
a wolf again. Shoot buldeo shoot the old tower musket
went off. The bang, and a young buffalo bellowed in pain.
More sorcery, shouted the villagers. He can turn bullets, bull
day out. That was thy buffalo. Now what is this,
said Mowgli, bewildered, as the stones flew thicker. They are

(02:12:18):
not unlike the pack, these brothers of thine, said Aquila,
sitting down composedly. It is in my head that if
bullets mean anything, they would cast thee out wolf wolf's cub.
Go away, shouted the priest, waving a sprig of the
sacred Tulsi plant. Again. Last time it was because I

(02:12:40):
was a man. This time it is because I am
a wolf. Let us go, Aquila, a woman it was.
Monsieur ran across to the herd and cried, oh, my son,
my son. They say, thou art a sorcerer who can
turn himself into a beast at will I do not believe.

(02:13:00):
But go away, or they will kill thee. Baldeo says
thou art a wizard. But I know thou hast avenge
Nefheu's death. Come back, Mossuur, shouted the crowd. Come back,
or we will stone thee. Mowgli laughed a little, short,
ugly laugh, for a stone h hit him in the mouth.

(02:13:22):
Run back, Monsieur, this is one of the foolish tales
that they tell under the big tree at dusk. I
have at least paid for thy son's life. Farewell and
run quickly, for I shall send the herd in more
swiftly than their brick baths. I am no wizard, monsieur.
Farewell now once more, Akuila, he cried, bring the herd in.

(02:13:45):
The buffaloes were anxious enough to get to the village.
They hardly needed Akila's yell, but charged through the gate
like a whirlwind, scattering the crowd right and left. Keep count,
shouted Mowgli, scornfully. It may be that I have stolen
one of them. Keep count, for I will do your
hurting no more. Fare you well, children of men, and

(02:14:06):
thank Missua that I did not come in with my
wolves and hunt you up and down your street. He
turned on his heel and walked away with the lone wolf,
and as he looked up at the stars, he felt happy.
No more sleeping in traps for me, Akilah, Let us
get sher Khan's skin and go away. No, we will

(02:14:26):
not hurt the village, for Missua was kind to me.
When the moon rose over the plain, making it look
all milky, the horrified villagers saw Mowgli with two wolves
at his heels and a bundle on his head, trotting
across at the steady wolf's trot that eats up the
long miles like fire. Then they banged the temple's bells

(02:14:48):
and blew the conscies louder than ever, and Massua cried,
and Baldeo embroidered the story of his adventures in the
jungle till he ended by saying that Akilah 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 the hill of the Council Rock, and
they stopped at Mother Wulf's cave. They have cast me

(02:15:12):
out from the man pack, mother shouted Mowgli. But I
come with the hide of sheer Khan to keep my word.
Mother Wulf walked stiffly from the cave with the cubs
behind her, and her eyes glowed as she saw the skin.
I told him on that day, when he crammed his
head and shoulders into this cave, hunting for thy life,

(02:15:33):
little frog, I told him that the hunter would be
the hunted. It is well done, little brother, It is
well done, said a deep voice in the thicket. We
were lonely in the jungle without thee and Bagheera came
running to Mowgli's bare feet. They clambered up the council

(02:15:54):
Rock together, and Mowgli spread the skin out on the
flat stone where Akila used to sit and pegged it
down with four slivers of bamboo, and Aquila lay down
upon it and called the old call to the council. Look,
look well, o wolves, exactly as he had called it
when Mowgli was first brought there. Ever since Aquila had

(02:16:16):
been deposed, the pack had been without a leader, hunting
and fighting at their own pleasure. But they answered the
call from habit. And some of them were lame from
the traps they had fallen into, and some limped from
shot wounds, and some were mangy from eating bad food,
and many were missing. But they came to the council
Rock all that was left of them, and saw sheer

(02:16:38):
khans striped hide on the rock and the huge claws
dangling at the end of the empty dangling feet. Look well,
o wolves, have I kept my word? Said Mowgli, and
the wolves bade yes, and one tattered wolf howled, lead
us again, oh, Aquila, Lead us again, o man cub,

(02:16:59):
for we be sick of this lawlessness, and we would
be the free people once more. Nay pried Bagheera that
may not be. When ye are full fed, the madness
may come upon you again. Not for nothing are ye
called the free people. Ye fought for freedom, and it
is yours. Eat it o wolves. Man pack and wolf

(02:17:25):
pack have cast me out, said Mowgli. Now I will
hunt alone in the jungle, and we will hunt with thee,
said the four cubs. So Mowgli went away and hunted
with the four cubs in the jungle from that day on.
But he was not always alone, because years afterward he
became a man and married. But that is a story

(02:17:48):
for grown ups. Mowgli's song that he sang at the
Council Rock when he danced on sher Khan's hide, the
song of Mogli. I Mowgli am singing. Let the jungle
listen to the things I have done. Shr Khan said
he would kill, would kill at the gates in the twilight.

(02:18:10):
He would kill Mogli. The frog he ate and drank
drink deep, sher 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

(02:18:31):
the great bull buffaloes and blue skinned herd bulls with
the angry eyes, drive them to and fro as I order.
Sleepest thou still, shar Khan, Wake o wake here come
I and the bulls are behind Rama, the king of
the buffaloes, stamped with his foot waters of the waing Gunga.

(02:18:51):
Whither went shar Khan. He has not saw he to
dig holes, nor more the peacock that he should fly.
He is no mang the bat to hang in the branches,
little bamboos that creak together. Tell me where he ran? Ah,
he is there, Ahu, he is there. Under the feet
of Rama lies the lame one. Up, sher Khan, up

(02:19:14):
and kill. Here is meat. Break the necks of the bulls. Hush.
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 Allallah. I
have no cloth to wrap me. The kites will see

(02:19:37):
that I am naked. I am ashamed to meet all
these people. Lend me thy coat, Sheer 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

(02:19:58):
knife that men use, with the knife of the hunter,
I will stoop down for my gift waters of the
waine Gunga. Sheer Khan gives me his coat for the
love that he bears me. Pole gray brother poll Aquila.
Heavy is the hide of sheer Khan. The man pack
are angry. They throw stones and talk child's talk. My

(02:20:18):
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 wain Gunga. The
man pack have cast me out. I did them no harm,
but they were afraid of me. Why wolf pack, ye

(02:20:41):
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 sheer Khan. But my heart is very heavy. My
mouth is cut and wounded with the stones from the village.

(02:21:03):
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 sher Khan is under my feet. All the jungle

(02:21:24):
knows that I have killed sher Khan. Look look well,
o wolves Ahi. My heart is heavy with the things
that I do not understand. End of Chapter three, Part two,
Chapter four, The White Seal, Part one. Oh hush thee,

(02:21:47):
my baby. The night is behind us, and black are
the waters that sparkled so green. The moon or the
combers looks downward to find us at rest in the
hollows that rustle between where billow meets billow. Then soft
be thy pillow. Oh weary wee flipperling, curl at thy ease.
The storm shall not wake thee, nor shark overtake thee

(02:22:10):
asleep in the arms of the slow swinging seas seal lullaby.
All these things happened several years ago at a place
called Novastoshna, or Northeast Point, on the island of Saint Paul,
Away and Away in the bering Sea. Lemershen the winter wren,

(02:22:30):
told me the tale when he was blown on to
the rigging of a steamer going to Japan, And I
took him down into my cabin and warmed him and
fed him for a couple of days till he was
fit to fly back to Saint Paul again. Lmershin is
a very quaint little bird, but he knows how to
tell the truth. Nobody comes to Novastoshna except on business,

(02:22:51):
and the only people who have regular business there are
the seals. They come in the summer months by hundreds
and hundreds of thousands out of the cold gray sea.
For Novastoshna Beach has the finest accommodation for seals of
any place in all the world. Sea Catch knew that,
and every spring would swim from whatever place he happened
to be in, would swim like a torpedo boat straight

(02:23:12):
for Novastashna and spend a month fighting with his companions
for a good place on the rocks as close to
the sea as possible. Sea Catch was fifteen years old,
a huge gray fur seal with almost a mane on
his shoulders and long, wicked dog teeth. When he heaved
himself up on his front flippers. He stood more than

(02:23:32):
four feet clear of the ground, and his weight, if
any one had been bold enough to weigh him, was
nearly seven hundred pounds. He was scarred all over with
the marks of savage fights, but he was always ready
for just one fight more. He would put his head
on one side, as though he were afraid to look
his enemy in the face. Then he would shoot it

(02:23:52):
out like lightning, And when the big teeth were firmly
fixed on the other seal's neck, the other seal might
get away if he could, but sea catch would not
help him. Yet. Sea catch never chased a beaten seal,
for that was against the rules of the beach. He
only wanted room by the sea for his nursery. But
as there were forty or fifty thousand other seals hunting

(02:24:13):
for the same thing each spring, the whistling, bellowing, roaring
and blowing on the beach was something frightful. From a
little hill called Hutchinson's Hill, you could look over three
and a half miles of ground covered with fighting seals,
and the surf was dotted all over with the heads
of seals hurrying to land and begin their share of fighting.

(02:24:33):
They fought in the breakers, they fought in the sand,
and they fought on the smooth worn basalt rocks of
the nurseries. For they were just as stupid and unaccommodating
as men. Their wives never came to the island until
late in May or early in June, for they did
not care to be torn to pieces. And the young two,
three and four year old seals, who had not begun housekeeping,

(02:24:55):
went inland about half a mile through the ranks of
the fighters, and played about on the sand dune and
droves and legions, and rubbed off every single green thing
that grew. They were called the hollis Chickie the bachelors,
and there were perhaps two or three hundred thousand of
them at Novastoshna alone. Sea Ketch had just finished his
forty fifth fight one spring when Matka, his soft, sleek,

(02:25:19):
gentle eyed wife, came up out of the sea, and
he caught her by the scruff of the neck and
dumped her down on his reservation, saying, gruffly, late, as usual,
where have you been. It was not the fashion for
Sea Ketch to eat anything During the four months he
stayed on the beeches, and so his temper was generally bad.
Motka knew better than to answer back. She looked round

(02:25:40):
and cooed, how thoughtful of you, you've taken the old
place again. I should think, I had, said, Sea Ketch.
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, Matka said, fanning

(02:26:01):
herself with her hind flipper. Why can't you be sensible
and settle your places quietly? You look as though you
had been fighting with a killer whale. I haven't been
doing anything but fight since the middle of May. The
beech is disgracefully crowded this season. I've met at least
a hundred zeals from Lucannan Beach house hunting. Why can't

(02:26:21):
people stay where they belong? I've often thought we should
be much happier if we hauled out at Otter Island
instead of this crowded place, said Maka Bah. Only the
holliest chickie go to Otter Island. If we went there,
they would say we were afraid. We must preserve appearances.
My dear sea Ketch sank his head proudly between his

(02:26:43):
fat shoulders and pretended to go to sleep for a
few minutes, But all the time he was keeping a
sharp lookout for a fight. Now that all the seals
and their wives were on the land, you could hear
their clamor miles out to sea, above the loudest gales
and the lowest counting there were over a million seat
on the beach, old seals, mother seals, tiny babies and

(02:27:03):
hollis chickie fighting, scuffling, bleating, crawling and playing together, going
down to the sea and coming up from it in
gangs and regiments, lying over every foot of ground as
far as the eye could reach, and skirmishing about in
brigades through the fog. It is nearly always foggy at Novastoshna,
except when the sun comes out and makes everything look
all pearly and rainbow colored for a little while. Kodik

(02:27:28):
Matka's baby was born in the middle of that confusion,
and he was all head and shoulders, with pale, watery
blue eyes, as tiny seals must be. But there was
something about his coat that made his mother look at
him very closely. Sea catch. She said, at last, are
babies going to be white? Empty clan shells and dry

(02:27:50):
seaweed snorted sea catch. There never has been such a
thing in the world as a white seal. I can't
help that, said Matka. There's going to be now, And
she sang the low crooning seal song that all the
mother seals sing to their babies. You mustn't swim till
you're six weeks old, or your head will be sunk

(02:28:11):
by your heels. And summer gales and killer whales are
bad for baby seals, are bad for baby seals, dear rat,
as bad as bad can be. But splash and grow strong,
and you can't be wrong, child of the open sea.
Of course, the little fellow did not understand the words
at first. He paddled and scrambled about by his mother's side,

(02:28:32):
and learned to scuffle out of the way when his
father was fighting with another seal, and the two rolled
and roared up and down the slippery rocks. Matka used
to go to sea to get things to eat, and
the baby was only fed once in two days. But
then he ate all he could and throve upon it.
The first thing he did was to crawl inland, and
there he met tens of thousands of babies of his

(02:28:55):
own age, and they played together like puppies, went to
sleep on the clean sand, and played again. The old
people in the nurseries took no notice of them, and
the Hollis chickie kept to their own grounds, and the
babies had a beautiful playtime. When Maka came back from
her deep sea fishing, she would go straight to their
playground and call as a sheep calls for a lamb,

(02:29:15):
and wait until she heard Kodak bleat. Then she would
take the straightest of straight lines in his direction, striking
out with her fore flippers and knocking the youngsters head
over heels, right and left. There were always a few
hundred mothers hunting for their children through the playgrounds, and
the babies were kept lively. But as Maka told Kodak,

(02:29:35):
so long as you don't lie in muddy water and
get mange, or rub the hard sand into a cutter scratch,
and so long as you never go swimming when there
is a heavy sea, nothing will hurt you. Here. Little
seals can no more swim than little children. But they
are unhappy till they learn the first time that Kodok
went down to the sea, a wave carried him out

(02:29:56):
beyond his depth, and his big head sank, and his
little hind flippers flew up exactly as his mother told
him in the song, and if the next wave had
not thrown him back again, he would have drowned. After that,
he learned to lie in a beech pool and let
the wash of the waves just cover him and lift
him up while he paddled, but he always kept his
eye open for big waves that might hurt. He was

(02:30:18):
two weeks learning to use his flippers and all that
while he floundered in and out of the water, and
coughed and grunted, and crawled up the beach and took
cat naps on the sand and went back again, until
at last he found that he truly belonged to the water.
Then you can imagine the times that he had with
his companions, ducking under the rollers, or coming in on
top of a comber and landing with a swash in

(02:30:39):
a splutter as the big wave went whirling far up
the beach, or standing up on his tail and scratching
his head as the old people did, or playing I'm
the King of the Castle on slippery, weedy rocks that
just stuck out of the wash now and then he
would see a thin fin like a big shark's fin,
drifting along close to the shore, and he knew that
this was the killer whale, the grampus who eats young

(02:31:02):
seals when he can get them. And Kodok would head
for the beach like an arrow, and the fin would
jig off slowly, as if it were looking for nothing
at all. Late in October, the seals began to leave
Saint Paul for the deep sea by families and tribes,
and there was no more fighting over the nurseries, and
the Hollis chickie played anywhere they liked. Next year, said

(02:31:23):
Maka to Kodok, you will be a Hollis chicky, but
this year you must learn how to catch fish. They
set out together across the Pacific, and Maka showed Kodok
how to sleep on his back, with his flippers tucked
down by his side and his little nose just out
of the water. No cradle is so comfortable as the long,
rocking swell of the Pacific. When Kodok felt his skin

(02:31:45):
tingle all over, Matka told him he was learning the
feel of the water, and that tingly, prickly feelings meant
bad weather coming, and he must swim hard and get
away in a little time. She said, you'll know where
to swim to. But just now we'll fall sea pig,
for he is very wise. A school of porpoises was
ducking and tearing through the water, and little Kodok followed

(02:32:07):
them as fast as he could. How do you know
where to go? He panted. The leader of the school
rolled his white eye and ducked under my tail tingles, youngster,
He said, that means there's a gale behind me. Come along.
When you're south of the sticky water. He meant the
equator and your tail tingles. That means there's a gale

(02:32:28):
in front of you, and you must head north. Come along.
The water feels bad here. This was one of very
many things that Kodok learned, and he was always learning.
Maka taught him to follow the cod and the halibut
along the under sea banks and wrench the rockling out
of his hole among the weeds. How to skirt the
racks lying a hundred fathoms below water, and dart like

(02:32:50):
a rifle bullet in at one porthole and out at
another as the fishes ran. How to dance on top
of the waves when the lightning was racing all over
the sky, and wave his flipper politely to the stumpy
tailed albatross and the man of war hawk as they
went down the wind. How to jump three or four
feet clear of the water like a dolphin, flippers close
to the side and tail curved to leave the flying

(02:33:12):
fish alone because they were all bony. To take the
shoulder piece out of a cod at full speed ten
fathoms deep. And never to stop to look at a
boat or a ship, but particularly a row boat. At
the end of six months, what Kodak did not know
about deep sea fishing was not worth knowing, And all
that time he never set flipper on dry ground. One day, however,

(02:33:34):
as he was lying half asleep in the warm water
somewhere off the island of Juan Fernandez, he felt faint
and lazy all over, just as human people do when
the spring is in their legs, and he remembered the good,
firm beaches of Novastoshna, seven thousand miles away, the games
his companions played, and the smell of the seaweed, the
seal roar, and the fighting. That very minute he turned north,

(02:33:57):
swimming steadily and as he went on, I met scores
of his mates, all bound for the same place, and
they said, greeting, Kodok. This year we are all Hollis
Chicky and we can dance the fire dance and the
breakers off Lucanan and play on the new grass. But
where did you get that coat? Kodak's fur was almost
pure white now, and though he felt very proud of it,

(02:34:19):
he only said, swim quickly. My bones are aching for
the land. And so they all came to the beaches
where they had been born and heard the old seals
their fathers fighting in the rolling mist. That night, Kodak
danced the fire dance with the yearling seals. The sea
is full of fire on summer nights, all the way
down from Novastoshna to Lucanan, and each seal leaves awake

(02:34:41):
like burning oil behind him, and a flaming flash where
he jumps, and the waves break in great phosphorescent streaks
and swirls. Then they went inland to the Hollis Chickie
grounds and rolled up and down in the new wild
wheat and told stories of what they had done while
they had been at sea. They talked about the Pacific
as boys would talk about a wood that they had

(02:35:01):
been nutting in, and if any one had understood them,
he could have gone away and made such a chart
of that ocean as never was. The three and four
year old Hollischickie romped down from Hutchinson's Hill, crying, out
of the way, youngsters, the sea is deep and you
don't know all that's in it yet, wait till you've
rounded the horn. Hi, you yearling, where did you get
that white coat? I didn't get it, said Kodok. It

(02:35:25):
grew and just as he was going to roll the
speaker over, a couple of black haired men with flat
red faces came from behind a sand dune, and Kodok,
who had never seen a man before, coughed and lowered
his head. The Hollischickie just bundled off a few yards
and sat staring stupidly. The men were no less than
Kerrik bouderin chief of the seal hunters on the island,

(02:35:48):
and pad Lemmon, his son. They came from the little
village not half a mile from the seal nurseries, and
they were deciding what seals they would drive up to
the killing pens. For the seals were driven just like
sheep to be turned into seal skin jackets. Later on, Oh,
said Poddalammon. Look, there's a white seal Kaok Bhutan turned

(02:36:10):
nearly white under his oil and smoke, for he was
an alute and alutes are not clean people. Then he
began to mutter a prayer. Don't touch him, paddle Leammon,
there has never been a white seal since since I
was born. Perhaps it is Old Zaharov's ghost. He was
lost last year in the Big Gale. I'm not going

(02:36:31):
near him, said paddal Leyman, he's unlucky. Do you really
think he is Old Zaharov? Come back? I owe him
for some gulls eggs. Don't look at him, said kaock
head off. That drove of four year olds. The men
ought to skin two hundred to day, but at the
beginning of the season and they are new to the work,
a hundred will do quick. Paddle Leammon rattled a pair

(02:36:53):
of seals shoulder bones in front of a herd of
hollows chicky, and they stopped dead, puffing and blowing. Then
he's up near and the seals began to move and
Kak headed them inland. And they never tried to get
back to their companions. Hundreds and hundreds of thousands of
seals watched them being driven, but they went on playing
just the same. Kodok was the only one who asked questions,

(02:37:16):
and none of his companions could tell him anything except
that the men always drove seals in that way for
six weeks or two months of every year. I am
going to follow, he said, and his eyes nearly popped
out of his head as he shuffled along in the
wake of the herd. The white seal is coming after us,
cried Padalaman. That's the first time a seal has ever

(02:37:37):
come to the killing grounds alone. Hush, don't look behind you,
said Kak. It is Aharaf's ghost. I must speak to
the priest about this. The distance to the killing ground
was only half a mile, but it took an hour
to cover because if the seals went too fast, Kak
knew they would get heated and then their fur would
come off in patches when they were skinned. So they

(02:37:59):
went on very slowly, passed Sea Lion's Neck, past Webster House,
till they came to the salt house, just beyond the
sight of the seals on the beach. Kodok followed, panting
and wondering. He thought that he was at the world's end,
but the roar of the seal nurseries behind him sounded
as loud as the roar of a train in a tunnel.

(02:38:19):
Then Kak sat down on the moss and pulled out
a heavy pewter watch and let the drove cool off
for thirty minutes, and Kodok could hear the fog de
dripping off the brim of his cap. Then ten or
twelve men, each with an iron bound club three or
four feet long, came up, and Kaak pointed out one
or two of the drove that were bitten by their

(02:38:39):
companions are too hot, and the men kicked those aside
with their heavy boots made of the skin of a
walrus's throat. And then Kaak said let go, and then
the men clubbed the seals on the head as fast
as they could. Ten minutes later, little Kodok did not
recognize his friends anymore, for their skins were ripped off
from the nose to the hind, flippers whipped off and

(02:39:02):
thrown down on the ground in a pile. That was
enough for Kodok. He turned and galloped a seal can
gallop very swiftly for a short time back to see
his little new mustache bristling with horror at sea lion's neck,
where the great sea lions sit on the edge of
the surf. He flung himself flipper overhead into the cool

(02:39:24):
water and rocked there, gasping miserably. What's here, said a
sea lion gruffly. For as a rule, the sea lions
keep themselves to themselves. Scoochny oughn skuchne. I'm lonesome, very lonesome,
said Kodok. They're killing all the hollis chickie on all
the beeches. The sea lion turned his head in shore nonsense,

(02:39:48):
he said, your friends are making just as much noise
as ever. You must have seen old Karok polishing off
a drove. He's done that for thirty years. It's horrible,
said Kodok, backing water as a wave went over him,
and steadying himself with a screw stroke of his flippers
that brought him all standing within three inches of a
jagged edge of rock. Well done for a yearling, said

(02:40:12):
the sea lion, who could appreciate good swimming. I suppose
it is rather awful from your way of looking at it.
But if you seals will come here year after year,
of course the men get to know of it. And
unless you can find an island where no men ever come,
you will always be driven. Isn't there any such island?
Began Kodok. I've followed the Poltoos the Halibut for twenty years,

(02:40:37):
and I can't say I've found it yet. But look here,
you seem to have a fondness for talking to your betters.
Supposing you go to Walrus Islet and talk to Sievitch,
he may know something. Don't flounce off like that. It's
a six mile swim, and if I were you, I
should haul out and take a nap first. Little one
Kodok thought that was good advice, so he swam round

(02:40:59):
to his own beach, hauled out, and slept for half
an hour, twitching all over as seal's will. Then he
headed straight for wall or Silt, a little low sheet
of rocky island almost due northeast from Novastoshna, all ledges
of rock and gull's nests where the walrus herded by themselves.
He landed close to old Sievitch, the big, ugly, bloated,

(02:41:20):
pimpled fat necked, long tusked walrus of the North Pacific,
who has no manners except when he is asleep, as
he was then with his hind flippers half in and
half out of the surf. Wake up, barked Kodok, for
the gulls were making a great noise. Ha ho, humph,
what's that? Said Sievitch, And he struck the next walrus

(02:41:41):
a blow with his tusks and waked him up, and
the next struck the next, and so on till they
were all awake and staring in every direction but the
right one. Hi, it's me, said Kodok, bobbing in the
surf and looking like a little white slug. Well may
I be skinned? Said Sievitch, and they all looked at
Kodok as you can fancy a club full of drowsy

(02:42:03):
old gentlemen would look at a little boy. Kodok did
not care to hear any more about skinning. Just then
he had seen enough of it, so he called out,
isn't there any place for seals to go where men
don't ever come? Go and find out, said Sievitch, shutting
his eyes. Run away, We're busy here. Kodok made his

(02:42:23):
dolphin jump in the air and shouted as loud as
he could, clam eater, clam eater. He knew that Sievitch
never caught a fish in his life, but always rooted
for clams and seaweeds, though he pretended to be a
very terrible person. Naturally, the chickies and the Guveruskis and
the apatkas, the burgomaster gulls, and the kidawakes and the puffins,
who were always looking for a chance to be rude,

(02:42:44):
took up the cry, and so Limershen told me, for
nearly five minutes you could not have heard a gun
fired on Waler silid. All the population was yelling and
screaming clam eater, starr eek old man, while Sievitch rolled
from side to side, grunting him coughing. Now will you tell,
said Kodok, all out of breath, Go and ask sea Cow,

(02:43:07):
said Sievitch. If he is living still, he'll be able
to tell you. How Shall I know Sea Cow when
I meet him? Said Kodok, cheering off. He is the
only thing in the sea uglier than Sievitch, screamed a
Burgomaster gill, wheeling under Sievitch's nose, uglier and with worse
manners streak. Kodok swam back to Novastoshna, leaving the gulls

(02:43:30):
to scream. There, he found that no one sympathized with
him in his little attempt to discover a quiet place
for the seals. They told him that Ben had always
driven the hollis Chickie, it was part of the day's work,
and that if he did not like to see ugly things,
he should not have gone to the killing grounds. But
none of the other seals had seen the killing, and
that made the difference between him and his friends. Besides,

(02:43:53):
Kodok was a white seal. What you must do, said
old Sea Ketch after he had heard his son's adventures,
is to grow up and be a big seal like
your father, and have a nursery on the beach, and
then they will leave you alone in another five years.
You ought to be able to fight for yourself, Even
gentle Natka, his mother, said, you will never be able

(02:44:15):
to stop the killing. Go and play in the sea.
Kodek and Kodak went off and danced the fire dance
with a very heavy little heart. End of Chapter four,
Part one, Chapter four, part two. That autumn, he left
the beach as soon as he could and set off

(02:44:36):
alone because of a notion in his bullet head. He
was going to find sea Cow, if there was such
a person in the sea, And he was going to
find a quiet island with a good, firm beach for
seals to live on, where men could not get at them.
So he explored, and explored by himself, from the North
to the South Pacific, swimming as much as three hundred

(02:44:56):
miles in a day and a night. He met with
more adventures than can be told, and narrowly escaped being
caught by the basking shark and the spotted shark and
the hammer head. And he met all the untrustworthy ruffians
that loaf up and down the seas, and the heavy
polite fish and the scarlet spotted scallops that are moored
in one place for hundreds of years and grow very

(02:45:18):
proud of it. But he never met sea Cow, and
he never found an island that he could fancy. If
the beach was good and hard, with a slope behind
it for seals to play on. There was always the
smoke of a whaler on the horizon, boiling down blubber,
and Kodok knew what that meant or else. He could
see that seals had once visited the island and had

(02:45:38):
been killed off, and Kodok knew that where men had
come once, they would come again. He picked up with
an old, stumpy tailed albatross who told him that Kirkwaln
Island was the very place for peace and quiet. And
when Kodak went down there, he was all but smashed
to pieces against some wicked black cliffs in a heavy
sleet storm with lightning and thunder. Yet as he pulled

(02:46:00):
out against the gale, he could see even there had
once been a seal nursery. And it was so in
all the other islands that he visited. Limersham gave a
long list of them, for he said that Kodak spent
five seasons exploring, with a four month's rest each year
at Novastoshna, when the Hollischickie used to make fun of
him in his imaginary islands. He went to the Galapagos,

(02:46:22):
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 Island, Bouvet Island,
the crozees, and even to a little speck of an
island south of the Cape of Good Hope. But everywhere
the people of the sea told him the same things.

(02:46:43):
Seals had come to those islands once upon a time,
but men had killed them all off. Even when he
swam thousands of miles out of the Pacific and got
to a place called Cape Corientes, that was when he
was coming back from Gough Island. He found a few
hundred main seals on a rock, and they told him
that men came there too. That nearly broke his heart,

(02:47:06):
and he headed round the horn back to his own beeches.
And on his way north he hauled out on an
island full of green trees, where he found an old
old seal who was dying, and Kodok caught fish for
him and told him all his failures. Now, said Kodok,
I am going back to Novastoshna, and if I am
driven to the killing pens with the hollis chickie, I

(02:47:28):
shall not care. The old seal said, try once more.
I am the last of the lost rookery of mass Afuera.
And in the days when men killed us by the
hundred thousand, there was a story on the beeches, that
some day a white seal would come out of the
north and lead the seal people to a quiet place.

(02:47:51):
I am old, and I shall never live to see
that day, but others will try once more. And Kodok
curled up his mustache. It was a beauty, and said,
I am the only white seal that has ever been
born on the beeches, and I am the only seal,
black or white, who has ever thought of looking for

(02:48:12):
new islands. This cheered him immensely, and when he came
back to Novastoshna that summer Matka, his mother begged him
to marry and settle down, for he was no longer
a hollischick, but a full grown sea catch, with a
curly white mane on his shoulders, as heavy as big
and as fierce as his father. Give me another season,

(02:48:33):
he said, Remember, mother, it is always the seventh wave
that goes farthest up the beach. Curiously enough, there was
another seal who thought that she would put off marrying
till the next year, and Kodok danced the fire dance
with her all down Lucannan Beach the night before he
set off on his last exploration. This time he went

(02:48:53):
westwards because he had fallen on the trail of a
great shoal of Halibut, and he needed at least one
hundred pounds of fish day to keep him in good condition.
He chased them till he was tired, and then he
curled himself up and went to sleep on the hollows
of a ground swell that sets into Copper Island. He
knew the coast perfectly well, so about midnight, when he

(02:49:13):
felt himself gently bumped on a weed bed, he said, hm,
tides running strong tonight and turning over under water. Opened
his eyes slowly and stretched. Then he jumped like a cat,
for he saw huge things nosing about in the shoal
water and browsing on the heavy fringes of the weeds

(02:49:33):
by the great combers of Magellan, he said, beneath his mustache,
Who in the deep sea are these people? They were
like no walrus, sea lion, seal, bear, whale, shark, fish,
squid or scallop that Kodak had ever seen before. They
were between twenty and thirty feet long, and they had
no hind flippers, but a shovel like tail that looked

(02:49:56):
as if it had been whittled out of wet leather.
Their heads were the most foolish looking things you ever saw,
and they balanced on the ends of their tails in
deep water when they weren't grazing, bowing solemnly to each
other and waving their front flippers as a fat man
waves his arm. Ahem, said Kodok, A good sport, gentlemen.

(02:50:17):
The big things answered by bowing and waving their flippers
like the frog footman. When they began feeding again, Kodok
saw that their upper lip was split into two pieces
that they could twitch apart about a foot and bring
together again. With a whole bushel of seaweed between the splits,
they tucked the stuff into their mouths and chumped solemnly.

(02:50:38):
Messy style of feeding, that, said Kodok. They bowed again,
and Kodok began to lose his temper. Very good, he said,
if you do happen to have an extra joint in
your front flipper, you needn't show off. So I see
you bow gracefully, but I should like to know your names.
The split lips moved and twitched, and the glassy green

(02:50:59):
eyes stayed, but they did not speak well, said Kodok.
You're the only people I've ever met uglier than Sievitch,
and with worse manners. Then he remembered in a flash
what the burgomaster Gull had screamed to him when he
was a little yearling at waller silet, and he tumbled
backwards in the water, for he knew that he had

(02:51:20):
found sea cow. At last, the sea cows went on
slooping and grazing and chumping in the weed, and Kodok
asked them questions in every language he had picked up
in his travels, and the sea people talk nearly as
many languages as human beings. But the sea cows did
not answer, because sea cow cannot talk. He has only
six bones in his neck, where he ought to have seven,

(02:51:42):
and they say under the sea that that prevents him
from speaking even to his companions. But as you know,
he has an extra joint in his foreflipper, and by
waving it up and down and about, he makes what
answers to a sort of clumsy telegraphic code. By daylight,
Kodok's man was standing up on end, and his temper
was gone where the dead crabs go. Then the sea

(02:52:04):
cows began to travel northwards, very slowly, stopping to hold
absurd bowing councils from time to time, and Kodok followed them,
saying to himself, people who were such idiots as these
are would have been killed long ago if they hadn't
found out some safe island. And what is good enough
for the sea cow is good enough for the sea
catch all the same. I'd wish they'd hurry. It was

(02:52:28):
weary work for Kodok. The sea cows heard never went
more than forty or fifty miles a day, and stopped
to feed at night, and kept close to the shore
all the time, while Kodak swam round them and over
them and under them. But he could not hurry them
up one mile. As they went farther north, they held
a bowing council every few hours, and Kodak nearly bit

(02:52:49):
off his mustache with impatience till he saw that they
were following up a warm current of water, and then
he respected them more. One night, they sank through the
shiny water, sank like stones, and for the first time
since he had known them, began to swim quickly. Kodok followed,
and the pace astonished him, for he never dreamed that

(02:53:11):
sea cow was anything of a swimmer. They headed for
a cliff by the shore, a cliff that ran down
into deep water and plunged into a dark hole at
the foot of it, twenty fathoms under the sea. It
was a long, long swim, and Kodak badly wanted fresh air.
Before he was out of the dark tunnel, they led
him through my wig, he said, when he rose, gasping

(02:53:35):
and puffing, into the open water at the farther end.
It was a long dive, but it was worth it.
The sea cows had separated and were browsing lazily along
the edges of the finest beaches that Kodok had ever seen.
There were long stretches of smooth, worn rock running for miles,
exactly fitted to make seal nurseries. And there were playgrounds

(02:53:57):
of hard sand sloping inland behind them. And there were
rollers for seals to dance in, and long grass to
roll in, and sand dunes to climb up and down.
And best of all, Kodok knew, by the feel of
the water, which never deceives a sea catch, that no
men had ever come there. The first thing he did
was to assure himself that the fishing was good, and

(02:54:18):
then he swam along the beaches and counted up the
delightful low sandy islands, half hidden in the beautiful rolling fog.
Away to the northward, out to sea ran a line
of bars and shoals and rocks that would never let
a ship come within six miles of the beach. And
between the islands and the mainland was a stretch of
deep water that ran up to the perpendicular cliffs, And

(02:54:39):
somewhere below the cliffs was the mouth of the tunnel.
It's no Vastoshna over again, but ten times better, said Kodok.
Sea cow must be wiser than I thought. Men can't
come down the cliffs even if there were any men,
and the shoals to seaward would knock a ship to splinters.
If any place in the sea is safe, this is it.

(02:55:02):
He began to think of the seal he had left
behind him. But though he was in a hurry to
go back to Novastoshna, he thoroughly explored the new country
so that he would be able to answer all questions.
Then he dived and made sure of the mouth of
the tunnel, and raced through to the southward. No one
but a sea cow or a seal would have dreamed

(02:55:22):
of there being such a place, and when he looked
back at the cliffs, even Kodak could hardly believe that
he had been there. He was ten days going home,
though he was not swimming slowly, and when he hauled
out just above Sea Lion's Neck, the first person he
met was the seal who had been waiting for him,
and she saw by the look in his eyes that
he had found his island at last. But the hollis

(02:55:46):
Chickie and sea catch, his father and all the other
seals laughed at him when he told them what he
had discovered, and a young seal about his own age said,
this is all very well, Kodk, but you can't come
from no one knows where and order us off like this.
Remember we've been fighting for our nurseries, and that's a
thing you never did. You preferred prowling about in the sea.

(02:56:06):
The other seals laughed at this, and the young seal
began twisting his head from side to side. He had
just married that year and was making a great fuss
about it. I've no nursery to fight for, said Kodok.
I only want to show you all a place where
you'll be safe. What's the use of fighting? Oh, if
you're trying to back out, of course, I've no more

(02:56:27):
to say, said the young seal with an ugly chuckle.
Will you come with me if I win, said Kodok,
and a green light came into 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 Kodok's

(02:56:48):
head was out and his teeth sank in the blubber
of the young seal's neck. Then he threw himself back
on his haunches and hauled his enemy down the beach,
shook him and knocked him over. Then Kodok roared to
the seals, I've done my best for you, these five
seasons passed. I've found you the island where you'll be safe.
But unless your heads are dragged off your silly necks,
you won't believe I'm going to teach you. Now, look

(02:57:10):
out for yourselves. Limershen told me that never in his life,
and Limershen seized ten thousand big seals fighting every year,
never in his life did he see anything like Kotok's
charge into the nurseries. He flung himself at the biggest
sea catch he could find, caught him by the throat,
choked him and bumped him and banged him till he

(02:57:31):
grunted for mercy, and then threw him aside and attacked
the next You see, Kotok had never fasted for four months,
as the big seals did every year, and his deep
sea swimming trips kept him in perfect condition. And best
of all, he had never fought before. His curly white
mane stood up with rage, and his eyes flamed, and
his big dog teeth glistened, and he was splendid to

(02:57:54):
look at old sea catch. His father saw him tearing past,
hauling the grizzled old seal about as though they had
been halibut, and upsetting the young bachelors in all directions,
and Sea Ketch gave a roar and shouted, he may
be a fool, but he is the best fighter on
the beaches. Don't tackle your father, my son, he's with you.
Kodak roared in answer, and old Sea Ketch waddled in

(02:58:16):
with his mustache on end, blowing like a locomotive, while
Motka and the seal that was going to marry Kodak
cowered down and admired their men folk. It was a
gorgeous fight, for the two fought as long as there
was a seal that dared lift up his head, and
when there were none, they paraded grandly up and down
the beach, side by side, bellowing. At night, Just as

(02:58:37):
the northern lights were winking and flashing through the fog,
Kodak climbed a bare rock and looked down on the
scattered nurseries and the torn and bleeding seals. Now he said,
I've taught you your lesson, my wig, said old sea Ketch,
boosting himself up stiffly, for he was fearfully mauled. The
killer whale himself could not have cut them up worse, son,

(02:59:00):
I'm proud of you, And what's more, I'll come with
you to your island if there is such a place.
Hear you, fat pigs of the sea, who comes with
me to see Cow's tunnel? Answer? Or I shall teach
you again, roared Kodok. There was a murmur like the
ripple of the tide, all up and down the beaches.

(02:59:20):
We will come, said thousands of tired voices. We will
follow Kodik. The white seal. Then Kodok dropped his head
between his shoulders and shut his eyes proudly. He was
not a white seal any more, but red from head
to tail all the same. He would have scorned to
look at or touch one of his wounds. A week later,

(02:59:43):
he and his army, nearly ten thousand hollis chicky and
old seals, went away north to see Cow's Tunnel, Kodik
leading them, and the seals that stayed at Novastoshna called
them idiots. But the next spring, when they all met
off the fishing banks of the Pacific, Kodak's seals told
such tales of the new beaches beyond sea Cow's Tunnel
that more and more seals left Novastoshna. Of course, it

(03:00:07):
was not all done at once, for the seals are
not very clever, and they need a long time to
turn things over in their minds. But year after year
more seals went away from Novastoshna and Leucanan and the
other nurseries to the quiet, sheltered beaches where Kodik sits
all the summer through, getting bigger and fatter and stronger
each year, while the Hollischickie play round him in that

(03:00:30):
sea where no man comes Lucanan. This is a sort
of sad seal national anthem. I met my mates in
the morning, and oh but I am old. Where roaring
on the ledges and summer groundswell rolled, I heard them
lift the chorus that drowned, the breaker's song, the beaches

(03:00:53):
of Lucanan, 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 swells of flame, the beaches of Lucanan.
Before the sealers came. I met my mates in the morning,
I'll never meet the more. They came and went in

(03:01:15):
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 Lucanan, 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

(03:01:36):
beaches of Lucanan, 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 Lucanan before
the sealers came, Wheel down, wheel down to southward. Oh guvaruska,

(03:01:58):
go and tell the deep sea viceroys the story of
our woe. Ere empty as the shark's egg. The tempest
flings ashore. The beeches of Lucannon shall know their sons
no more. End of chapter four, Chapter five. Ricki Tiki
Tavi at the hole where he went in red Eye

(03:02:21):
called to Wrinkleskin. 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 Ha,
the hooded death has missed. Woe betide thee nag. This

(03:02:47):
is the story of the great war that Riki Tiki
Tavi fought single handed through the bathrooms of the big
Bungalow and Sagowley Cantonment. Darzy the tailor bird helped him,
and Chuchundra, the muskrat who never comes out in the
middle of the floor but always creeps round by the wall,
gave him advice, but Rickie Tiki did the real fighting.

(03:03:08):
He was a mongoose, rather like a little cat in
his fur and his tail, but quite like a weasel
in his head, in his habits. His eyes and the
end of his restless nose were pink. He could scratch
himself anywhere he pleased, with any leg, front or back
that he chose to use. He could fluff up his
tail till it looked like a bottle brush, and his
war cry as he scuttled through the long grass was

(03:03:30):
Ricki tik Tiki tik tak. One day, a high summer
flood washed him out of the burrow where he lived
with his father and mother, and carried him, kicking and clucking,
down a roadside ditch. He found a little wisp of
grass floating there and clung to it till he lost
his senses. When he revived, he was lying in the
hot sun on the middle of a garden path, very

(03:03:51):
draggled indeed, and a small boy was saying, here's a
dead mongoose. Let's have a funeral, No, said his mother.
Let's take him in and dry him. Perhaps he isn't
really dead. They took him into the house and a
big man picked him up between his finger and thumb
and said he was not dead, but half choked. So

(03:04:13):
they wrapped him in cotton wool and warmed him over
a little fire, and he opened his eyes and sneezed. Now,
said the big man. He was an Englishman who had
just moved into the bungalow. Don't frighten him, and we'll
see what he'll do. It is the hardest thing in
the world to frighten a mongoose, because he is eaten

(03:04:33):
up from nose to tail with curiosity. The motto of
the mongoose family is run and find out. And Rikki
Tiki was a true mongoose. He looked at the cotton wool,
decided that it was not good to eat, ran all
round the table, sat up and put his fur in order,
scratched himself, and jumped on the small boy's shoulder. Don't

(03:04:54):
be frightened, Teddy, said his father. That's his way of
making friends. Ouch, he's tickl under my chin, said Teddy.
Rinkitinky looked down between the boy's collar and neck, snuffed
at his ear, and climbed down to the floor where
he sat rubbing his nose. Good gracious, said Teddy's mother.
And that's a wild creature. I suppose he's so tame

(03:05:16):
because we've been kind to him. All mongooses are like that,
said her husband. If Teddy doesn't pick him up by
the tail or, try to put him in a cage,
he'll run in and out of the house all day long.
Let's give him something to eat. They gave him a
little piece of raw meat. Rikitiky liked it immensely, and
when it was finished, he went out into the verandah

(03:05:38):
and sat in the sunshine and fluffed up his fur
to make it dry to the roots. Then he felt better.
There are more things to find out about in this house,
he said to himself, than all my family could find
out in all their lives. I shall certainly stay and
find out. He spent all that day roaming over the house.

(03:05:58):
He nearly drowned himself in the bath tubs, put his
nose into the ink on a writing table, and burnt
it on the end of a big man's cigar. For
he climbed up in the big man's lap to see
how writing was done. At nightfall, he ran into Teddy's
nursery to watch how kerosene lamps were lighted. And when
Teddy went to bed, Rickie Ticky climbed up too. But
he was a restless companion because he had to get

(03:06:20):
up and attend to every noise all through the night
and find out what made it. Teddy's mother and father
came in the last thing to look at their boy,
and Rickie Ticky was awake on the pillow. I don't
like that, said Teddy's mother. He may bite the child.
He'll do no such things, said the father. Teddy's safer

(03:06:40):
with that little beast than if he had a bloodhound
to watch him if a snake came into the nursery now.
But Teddy's mother wouldn't think of anything so awful. Early
in the morning, Riki Ticky came to early breakfast in
the veranda, riding on Teddy's shoulder, and they gave him
banana and some boiled egg, and he sat on all
their laps, one after the other. Because every well brought

(03:07:01):
up mongoose always hopes to be a house mongoose some
day and have rooms to run about him and Rikiitinky's mother,
she used to live in the general's house at Segali,
had carefully told Rickie what to do if he ever
came across white men. Then Rikiitiky went out into the
garden to see what was to be seen. It was
a large garden, only half cultivated, with bushes as big

(03:07:23):
as summer houses of marshall neil roses, lime and orange trees,
clumps of bamboos, and thickets of high grass. Rikiitiky licked
his lips. This is a splendid hunting ground, he said,
And his tail grew bottle brushy at the thought of it.
And he scuttled up and down the garden, snuffling here
and there, till he heard very sorrowful voices in a

(03:07:44):
thorn bush. It was Darzy, the tailor bird, and his wife.
They had made a beautiful nest by pulling two big
leaves together and stitching them up at the edges with fibers,
and had filled the hollow with cotton and downy fluff.
The nest swayed to and fro as they sat on
the rim and cried. What is the matter, asked Rikie. Ticky,

(03:08:05):
we are very miserable, said Darzy. One of our babies
fell out of the nest yesterday and Nag ate him. Hum,
said Riki Ticky, that is very sad, but I am
a stranger here? Who is Nag? Darzy and his wife
only cowered down in the nest without answering, for from
the thick grass at the foot of the bush there

(03:08:27):
came a low hiss, a horrid cold sound that made
Rikki Tiki jump back two clear feet. Then, inch by inch,
out of the grass, rose up the head and spread
hood of Nag, the big black cobra, and he was
five feet long from tongue to tail. When he had
lifted one third of himself clear of the ground, he

(03:08:48):
stayed balancing to and fro, exactly as a dandelion toughed
balances in the wind. And he looked at Rikie Ticky
with the wicked snake's eyes that never changed their expression whatever.
The snake baby, thinking of who is Nag, said he
I am Nag. The great god Brahm put his mark
upon all our people. When the first cobra spread his

(03:09:11):
hood to keep the son off Brahm. As he slept
look and be afraid, he spread out his hood more
than ever, and Rikiitinky saw the spectacle mark on the
back of it that looks exactly like the eye part
of a hook and eye fastening. He was afraid for
the minute, but it is impossible for a mongoose to
stay frightened for any length of time. And though Rikitiky

(03:09:33):
had never met alive cobra before, his mother had fed
him on dead ones, and he knew that all a
grown mongoose's business in life was to fight and eat snakes.
Nag knew this too, and at the bottom of his
cold heart, he was afraid, well, said Rikitiki, and his
tail began to fluff up again. Marks or no marks?

(03:09:54):
Do you think it is right for you to eat
fledglings out of a nest? Nag was thinking to himself
and watching the least little movement in the grass behind
Rickie Ticky. He knew that mongoose is in the garden
meant death sooner or later for him and his family.
But he wanted to get Rikki Tiky off his guard,
so he dropped his head a little and put it

(03:10:14):
on one side. Let us talk, He said, you eat eggs,
why should not I eat birds? Behind? You look behind you,
sang Darzy. Rikki Tiky knew better than to waste time
in staring. He jumped up in the air as high
as he could go, and just under him whizzed by
the head of Nagina, Nag's wicked wife. She had crept

(03:10:37):
up behind him as he was talking to make an
end of him, and he heard her savage hiss as
the stroke missed. He came down almost across her back,
and if he had been an old mongoose, he would
have known that then was the time to break her
back with one bite, but he was afraid of the
terrible lashing return stroke of the cobra. He bit indeed,

(03:10:57):
but did not bite long enough, and he jumped clear
of the whisking tail, leaving Nagina torn and angry. Wicked
wicked Darzy said nag lashing up as high as he
could reach toward the nest in the thorn bush, but
Darsy had built it out of reach of snakes, and
it only swayed to and fro. Rik Tiky felt his
eyes growing red and hot. When a mongoose's eyes grow red,

(03:11:20):
he is angry, and he sat back on his tail
and hind legs like a little kangaroo, and looked all
round him and chattered with rage. But Nag and Negina
had disappeared into the grass. When a snake misses its stroke,
it never says anything or gives any sign of what
it means to do next. Riki Tiky did not care
to follow them, for he did not feel sure that

(03:11:41):
he could manage two snakes at once, So he trotted
off to the gravel path near the house and sat
down to think. It was a serious matter for him.
If you read the old books of natural history, you
will find that they say that when the mongoose fights
the snake and happens to get bitten, he runs off
and eats some herb that cures him. That is not true.

(03:12:03):
The victory is only a matter of quickness of eye
and quickness of foot. Snakes blow against mongoose's jump, and
as no eye can follow the motion of a snake's
head when it strikes, this makes things much more wonderful
than any magic. Herb Rikitiky knew he was a young mongoose,
and it made him all the more pleased to think
that he had managed to escape a blow from behind.

(03:12:24):
It gave him confidence in himself, and when Teddy came
running down the path, Rikitiky 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 Karaate, the dusty brown snakeling
that lies for choice on the dusty earth, and his

(03:12:44):
bite is as dangerous as the cobras, but he is
so small that nobody thinks of him, and so he
does the more harm to people. Rikitiky's eyes grew red again,
and he danced up to Kyrie with the peculiar rocking
swaying motion that he had inherited from his family. It
looks very funny, but it is so perfectly balanced a
gait that you can fly off from it at any

(03:13:06):
angle you please, And in dealing with snakes, this is
an advantage. If Rinkitinky had only known, he was doing
a much more dangerous thing than fighting nag For karait
is so small and can turn so quickly that unless
Ricky bit him close to the back of his head,
he would get the return stroke in his eye or
his lip. But Ricky did not know. His eyes were

(03:13:27):
all red and he rocked back and forth, looking for
a good place to hold Karait struck out. Ricky jumped
sideways and tried to run in, but the wicked, little
dusty gray head lashed within a fraction of his shoulder
and he had to jump over the body, and the
head followed his heels close. Teddy shouted to the house, Oh,
look here, our mongoose is killing a snake, and Rinkitinky

(03:13:49):
heard a scream from Teddy's mother. His father ran out
with a stick, but by the time he came up,
Karait had lunged out once too far, and Rikitinky had
sprung jumped on the snake's back, his head far between
his fore legs, bitten as high up the back as
he could get hold, and rolled away. That bite paralyzed
kari and Riki. Ticky was just going to eat him

(03:14:10):
up from the tail after the custom of his family
at dinner, when he remembered that a full meal makes
a slow mongoose, and if he wanted all his strength
and quickness ready, he must keep himself thin. He went
away for a dust bath under the castor oil bushes
while Teddy's father beat the dead kara eat what is
the use of that thought, rik Tiky, I have settled

(03:14:32):
it all. And then Teddy's mother picked him up from
the dust and hugged him, crying that he had saved
Teddy from death, and Teddy's father said that he was
a providence, and Teddy looked on with big scared eyes.
Rikiitiky was rather amused at all this fuss, which, of
course he did not understand. Teddy's mother might just as
well have petted Teddy for playing in the dust. Ricky

(03:14:55):
was thoroughly enjoying himself that night at dinner, walking to
and fro among the wine glasses on the table. He
might have stuffed himself three times over with nice things,
but he remembered nag and nagaina. And though it was
very pleasant to be patted and petted by Teddy's mother
and to sit on Teddy's shoulder, his eyes would get
red from time to time, and he would go off

(03:15:16):
into his long war cry of rik tik tiki tiki ti.
Teddy carried him off to bed and insisted on Rikiitinky
sleeping under his chin. Rikiitiky was too well bred to
bite or scratch. But as soon as Teddy was asleep.
He went off for his nightly walk round the house,
and in the dark he ran up against Chuchundra, the
muskrat creeping round by the wall. Chichundra is a broken

(03:15:39):
hearted little beast. He whimpers and cheaps all the night,
trying to make up his mind to run into the
middle of the room, but he never gets there. Don't
kill me, said Chuchundra, almost weeping. Rikiitiky, don't kill me.
D'ye think a snake killer kills muskrats, said Rinkitinky scornfully.

(03:16:00):
Those who kill snakes get killed by snakes, said Chichindra,
more sorrowfully than ever. And how am I to be
sure that Nag won't mistake me for you some dark night.
There's not the least danger, said Rikitiky. But Nag is
in the garden, and I know you don't go there.
My cousin, Chewa the rat, told me, said Chichindra, and

(03:16:22):
then he stopped. Told you what hush Nag is everywhere,
rik Tiky, you should have talked to Chewa in the garden.
I didn't. So you must tell me quick, Chichindra, or
I'll bite you. Chichindra sat down and cried till the
tears rolled off his whiskers. I am a very poor man,

(03:16:44):
he sobbed. I never had spirit enough to run out
into the middle of the room. Hush, I mustn't tell
you anything, can't you hear? Rikki Tiky Rikitiky listened. The
house was as still as still, but he thought he
could just hear the faintest scratch scratch in the world,
a noise just as faint as that of a wasp
walking on a window pane, the dry scratch of a

(03:17:07):
snake's scales on brickwork. That's nag or Nagina, he said
to himself, and he is crawling into the bathroom sluice.
You're right, Chuchundra. I should have talked to Chiua. He
stole off to Teddy's bathroom, but there was nothing there,
and then to Teddy's mother's bathroom. At the bottom of
the smooth plaster wall, there was a brick pulled out

(03:17:29):
to make a sluice for the bath water, and as
Riki Tiki stole in by the masonry curb where the
bath is put, he heard nag and Nagina whispering together
outside in the moonlight. When the house is emptied of people,
said Nagina to her husband. He will have to go away,
and then the garden will be our own again. Go
in quietly, and remember that the big man who killed

(03:17:51):
Karaiat is the first one to bite. Then come out
and tell me, and we will hunt for Rickie Tiki together.
But are you sure there is anything to be gained
by killing the people, said nag Everything when there were
no people in the bungalow, did we have any mongoose
in the garden. So long as the bungalow is empty,

(03:18:12):
we are king and queen of the garden. And remember
that as soon as our eggs in the melon bed hatch,
as they may tomorrow, our children will need room and quiet.
I had not thought of that, said nag I will go,
but there is no need that we should hunt for Rinkitinky. Afterwards,
I will kill the big man and his wife and
the child if I can, and come away quietly. Then

(03:18:36):
the bungalow will be empty, and Rikitiki will go. Rikitiky
tingled all over with rage and hatred at this, and
then Nag's head came through the sluice, and his five
feet of cold body followed it. Angry as he was,
Rikitiky was very frightened as he saw the sighs of
the big cobra. Nag coiled himself up, raised his head

(03:18:59):
and looked into the back through in the dark, and
Riki could see his eyes glitter. Now, if I kill
him here, Naggina will know. And if I fight him
on the open floor, the otter in his favor. What
am I to do, said Rikki Tiky Tavy Nag waved
to and fro, and then Rinkitinky heard him drinking from

(03:19:20):
the biggest water jar that was used to fill the bath.
That is good, said the snake. Now, when Kari was killed,
the big man had a stick. He may have that
stick still, but when he comes in to bathe in
the morning, he will not have a stick. I shall
wait here till he comes, Nagina, do you hear me?
I shall wait here in the cool till daytime. There

(03:19:44):
was no answer from outside, so Rikitiky knew Nakina had
gone away. Nag coiled himself down, coil by coil round
the bulge at the bottom of the water jar, and
Rikiitiky stayed still as death. After an hour, he began
to move muscle by muscle towards the jar. Nag was asleep,

(03:20:04):
and Rikkiitinki looked at his big back, wondering which would
be the best place for a good hold. If I
don't break his back at the first jump, said Rickie,
he can still fight. And if he fights, oh Rickie.
He looked at the thickness of the neck below the hood,
but that was too much for him, and a bite
near the tail would only make Nag savage. It must

(03:20:27):
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, Rickie braced his
back against the bulge of the red earthenware to hold
down the head. This gave him just one second's purchase,

(03:20:50):
and he made the most of it. Then he was
battered to and fro as a rat is shaken by
a dog, to and fro on the floor, up and
down and round in great circles. But his eyes were
red and he held on as the body cart whipped
over the floor, upsetting the tin dipper and the soap dish.
In the fleshbrush and banged against the tin side of
the bath. As he held he closed his jaws tighter

(03:21:11):
and tighter, for he made sure he would be banged
to death, and for the honor of his family, he
preferred to be found with his teeth locked. He was dizzy,
aching and felt shaken to pieces when something went off
like a thunderclap just behind him. A hot wind knocked
him senseless, and red fire singed his fur. The big
Man had been wakened by the noise and had fired

(03:21:32):
both barrels of a shotgun into Nag just behind the hood.
Rikitiky held on with his eyes shut. For now he
was quite sure he was dead, but the head did
not move, and the Big Man picked him up and said,
it's the mongoose again, Alice, the little chap has saved
our lives now. Then Teddy's mother came in with a

(03:21:53):
very white face and saw what was left of Nag,
and Rikitiky dragged himself to Teddy's bedroom and spent half
the rest the knight shaking himself tenderly to find out
whether he really was broken into forty pieces as he fancied.
When morning came, he was very stiff but well pleased
with his doings. Now I have Nigina to settle with,

(03:22:14):
and she will be worse than five nags. And there's
no knowing when those eggs she spoke of will hatch. Goodness,
I must go and see Darcy, he said, without waiting
for breakfast. Rikitiki ran to the thorn bush, where Darzy
was singing a song of triumph at the top of
his voice. The news of Nag's death was all over
the garden, for the sweeper had thrown the body on

(03:22:35):
the rubbish heap. Oh, you stupid tuft of feathers, said
Rikitiky angrily. Is this the time to sing? Nag is dead?
Is dead? Is dead? Sang Darzy. The valiant Rikitiki caught
him by the head and held fast. The big man
brought the bangs stick, and Nag fell in two pieces.
He will never eat my babies again. All that's true enough,

(03:23:00):
But where's Nigina, said rikki Tiky, looking carefully round him.
Nagina came to the bathroom sluice and called for Nag.
Darzy went on and Nag came out of the end
of a stick. The sweeper picked him up on the
end of a stick and threw him upon the rubbish heap.
Let us sing about the grate the red eyed rik Tiki,
and Darzy filled his throat and sang. If I could

(03:23:22):
get up to your nest, i'd roll your babies out,
said Rikki Tiky. You don't know when to do the
right thing at the right time. You're safe enough in
your nest there, but it's war for me down here.
Stop singing a minute, Darzy, for the great, the beautiful
rik Tiky's sake, I will stop, said Darzy. What is it, oak,
killer of the terrible Nag? Where is Nigina for the

(03:23:46):
third time on the rubbish heap by the stables, mourning
for Nag? Great is Ricky Ticky with the white teeth?
Bother my white teeth? Have you ever heard where she
keeps her eggs in the melon bed on the end
nearest the wall where the sun strikes nearly all day.
She hit them there weeks ago, and you never thought

(03:24:08):
it worth while to tell me the end nearest the wall,
you said, Ricky Ticky, You are not going to eat
her eggs. Not eat exactly now, Darcy. If you have
a grain of sense, you will fly off to the
stables and pretend that your wing is broken, and let
Neagina chase you away to this bush. I must get
to the melon bed, and if I went there now,

(03:24:29):
she'd see me. Darcy was a feather brained little fellow
who could never hold more than one idea at a
time in his head. And just because he knew that
Neaggina's children were born in eggs like his own, he
didn't think at first that it was fair to kill them.
But his wife was a sensible bird, and she knew
that the cobra's eggs meant young cobras laid her on.

(03:24:50):
So she flew off from the nest and left Darzy
to keep the babies warm and continue his song about
the death of nag Darzy was very like a man
in some ways. She fluttered in front of Nigina by
the rubbish heap and cried out, oh, my wing is broken.
The boy in the house threw a stone at me
and broke it. Then she fluttered more desperately than ever.

(03:25:12):
Nigkina lift up her head and hissed, You warned Rickie Tiki,
when I would have killed him. Indeed, and truly you've
chosen a bad place to be lame in, and she
moved towards Darzy's wife, slipping along over the dust. The
boy broke it with a stone, shrieked Darcy's wife. Well,

(03:25:33):
it may be some consolation to you when you are dead,
to know that I shall settle accounts with the boy.
My husband lies on the rubbish heap this morning, but
before night the boy in the house will lie very still.
What is the use of running away? I am sure
to catch you, little fool. Look at me. Darcy's wife
knew better than to do that, For a bird who

(03:25:54):
looks at a snake's eyes gets so frightened that she
cannot move. Darcy's wife fluttered on, piping sorrowfully and never
leaving the ground, and Nagina quickened her pace. Rikitiki heard
them going up the path from the stables, and he
raced for the end of the melon patch near the wall. There,
in the warm litter above the melons, very cunningly hidden,

(03:26:16):
he found twenty five eggs, about the size of a
bantam's eggs, but with whitish skins instead of shells. I
was not a day too soon, he said, for he
could see the baby cobras curled up inside the skin,
and he knew that the minute they were hatched, they
could each kill a man or a mongoose. He bit
off the tops of the eggs as fast as he could,

(03:26:37):
taking care to crush the young cobras, and turned over
the litter from time to time to see whether he
had missed any. At last, there were only three eggs left,
and Rikkitiki began to chuckle to himself when he heard
Darcy's wife screaming, Rikitiky, I let Niakina toward the house,
and she has gone into the verandah, and oh, come quickly,
she means killing. Rikiticky smashed two eggs and tumbled backwards

(03:27:02):
down the melon bed with the third egg in his mouth,
and scuttled to the veranda as hard as he could
put foot to the ground. Teddy and his mother and
father were there at early breakfast, but Rikitiki saw that
they were not eating anything. They sat stone still and
their faces were white. Niggina was coiled up on the
matting by Teddy's chair, with an easy striking distance of

(03:27:23):
Teddy's bare leg, and she was swaying to and fro
singing a song of triumph, son of the Big Man,
that killed nag She hissed, stay still, I am not
ready yet. Wait a little, keep very still, all you three.
If you move, I strike, and if you do not move,
I strike. Oh, foolish people who killed my nag Teddy's

(03:27:48):
eyes were fixed on his father, and all his father
could do was whisper, Sit still, Teddy, you mustn't move, Teddy.
Keep still. Then Rikitiky came up and cried, turn round, Nagina,
turn and fight all in good time, said she, without
moving her eyes. I will settle my account with you presently.

(03:28:10):
Look at your friends, Rikitinky. They are still and white.
They are afraid. They dare not move, And if you
come a step nearer, I strike. Look at your eggs,
said rik Tiky in the melon bed near the wall.
Go and look, Nagina. The big snake turned half round
and saw the egg on the veranda. Ah, give it

(03:28:33):
to me, she said. Rikkitinky put his paws, one on
each side of the egg, and his eyes were blood red.
What price for a snake's egg? For a young cobra,
for a young king cobra, For the last, the very
last of the brood. The ants are eating all the others.
Down by the melon bed Nikina spun clear round forgetting

(03:28:57):
everything for the sake of the one egg, and Rikiitinky
saw Teddy's father shoot out a big hand, catch Teddy
by the shoulder and drag him across the little table
with the teacups, safe and out of reach of Nagina. Tricked, tricked, tricked,
rick tick tick chuckled, Ricky Ticky, the boy is safe.
And it was I aye, I that caught nag by

(03:29:17):
the hood last night in the bathroom. Then he began
to jump up and down, all four feet together, his
head close to the floor. He threw me to and fro,
but he could not shake me off. He was dead
before a big man blew him in two. I did it,
Ricky Ticky tick Tick, Come then, Nagina, come and fight
with me. You shall not be a widow long. Nagina

(03:29:38):
saw that she had lost her chances of killing Teddy,
and the egg lay between Ricky Ticky's paws. Give me
the egg, Ricky Ticky, give me the last of my eggs,
and I will go away and never come back, she said,
lowering her hood. Yes, you will go away and you
will never come back, for you will go to the
rubbish heap with nag fight widow. The big man has

(03:30:01):
gone for his gun fight. Rinkitinky was bounding all round Niagina,
keeping just out of reach of her stroke, his little
eyes like hot coals. Egguina gathered herself together and flung
out at him. Rinkitinky jumped up and backwards. Again and
again she struck, and each time her head came with
a whack on the matting of the veranda, and she

(03:30:22):
gathered herself together like a watch spring. Then Rinkitinky danced
in a circle to get behind her, and Nigina spun
round to keep her head to his head, so that
the rustle of her tail on the matting sounded like
dry leaves blown along by the wind. He had forgotten
the egg. It still lay on the veranda, and Nigina
came nearer and nearer to it, till at last, while

(03:30:44):
Rinkitinky was drawing breath, she caught it in her mouth,
turned to the veranda steps, and flew like an arrow
down the path, with Rikitiky behind her. When the cobra
runs for her life, she goes like a whiplash flicked
across a horse's neck. Rinkitinky knew that he must ketch,
or all the trouble would begin again. She headed straight
for the long Grasp by the Thorn bush, and as

(03:31:06):
he was running, Rikiticky heard Darcy still singing his foolish
little song of triumph. But Darzy's wife was wiser. She
flew off her nest as Nigina came along and flapped
her wings about Nikina's head. If Darcy had helped, they
might have turned her, but Nagina only lowered her hood
and went on still. The instant's delay brought Rikitiki up

(03:31:27):
to her, and as she plunged into the rat hole
where she and nag used to live, his little white
teeth were clenched on her tail, and he went down
with her. And very few mongooses, however wise and old
they may be, care to follow a cobra into its hole.
It was dark in the hole, and Rikki Tiki never
knew when it might open out and give Nagina a
room to turn and strike at him. He held on

(03:31:48):
savagely and stuck out his feet to act as brakes
on the dark slope of the hot, moist earth. Then
the grasp by the mouth of the hole stopped waving
and Darcy said, it is all over with Ricky Ticky.
We must sing his death song. Valiant rik Tiky is dead,
for Nikina will surely kill him underground. So he sang

(03:32:09):
a very mournful song that he made up on the
spur of the minute. And just as he got to
the most touching part, the grass quivered again, and Riki Ticky,
covered with dirt, dragged himself out of the hole, legged
by leg, licking his whiskers. Darcy stopped to a little shout.
Riki Tikey shook some of the dust out of his
fur and sneezed. It is all over, he said. The

(03:32:32):
widow will never come out again. And the red ants
that lived between the grass stems heard him and began
to troop down one after another to see if he
had spoken the truth. Ricky Ticky curled himself up in
the grass and slept where he was slept and slept
till it was late in the afternoon, for he had
done a hard day's work. Now, he said, when he awoke,

(03:32:54):
I will go back to the house. Tell the coppersmith Darzy,
and he will tell the garden that Nick Guina is dead.
The coppersmith is a bird who makes a noise exactly
like the beating of a little hammer on a copper pot.
And the reason he is always making it is because
he is the town crier to every Indian garden and
tells all the news to everybody who cares to listen.

(03:33:15):
As Rickie Ticky went up the path, he heard his
attention notes like a tiny dinner gong, and then the
steady ding dong talk, Nag is dead dong, Neggina is
dead ding dong talk. That said, all the birds in
the garden singing and the frog's croaking, for Nag and
Neigina used to eat frogs as well as little birds.

(03:33:37):
When Rickie got to the house Teddy and Teddy's mother,
she looked very white still, for she had been fainting,
And Teddy's father came out and almost cried over him.
And that night he ate all that was given him
till he could eat no more and went to bed
on Teddy's shoulder, where Teddy's mother saw him. When she
came to look late at night. He saved our lives

(03:33:57):
and Teddy's life, she said to her husband. Just think
he saved all our lives. Rinkitinky woke up with a jump,
for mongooses are light sleepers. Oh it's you, said, he,
What are you bothering? For all the cobras are dead,
and if they weren't, I'm here. Rinkitinky had a right

(03:34:19):
to be proud of himself, but he did not grow
too proud, and he kept that garden as a mongoose
should keep it with tooth and jump and spring and
bite till never a cobra dared show its head inside
the walls. Darcy's chant sung in honor of Rikitiki Tavi,

(03:34:39):
singer and tailor. Am I doubled the joys that I know,
Proud of my lilt to the sky, proud of the
house that I sow over and under. So weviy my music,
So we viy the house that I sow. Sing to
your fledglings again, mother, Oh lift up your head. Evil
that plagued us is slain. Death in the garden lies dead,

(03:35:03):
Terror that hid in the roses is impotent, flung on
the dunghill and dead? Who has delivered us? Who tell
me his nest and his name? Rickie the Valiant, the
true Tickie with eyeballs of flame, Rikitiki Tiki the Ivory
fanged the hunter with the eyeballs of flame, give him
the thanks of the birds, bowing with tail feathers spread,

(03:35:26):
praise him with nightingale words. Nay, I will praise him instead.
Here I will sing you the praise of the bottle
tailed Rickie with eyeballs of red. Here Rikitiki interrupted, so
the rest of the song is lost. End of chapter five,
Chapter six. To my of the elephants, I will remember

(03:35:52):
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

(03:36:12):
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 in
every way that an elephant could serve it for forty

(03:36:34):
seven years, and as he was fully twenty years old
when he was caught, that makes him nearly seventy a
ripe age for an elephant. He remembered pushing with a
big leather pad on his forehead at a gun stuck
deep in mud. And that was before the Afghan War
of eighteen forty two, and he had not then come
to his full strength. His mother, Rata Pyari Rada, the

(03:36:59):
darling who had been caught in the same drive with Kalinag,
told him before his little milk tusks had dropped out,
that elephants who were afraid always got hurt, and klinagg
knew that that advice was good. For the first time
that he saw a shell burst, he backed screaming into
a stand of piled rifles, and the bayonets pricked him

(03:37:19):
in all his softest places. So before he was twenty five,
he gave up being afraid, and so he was the
best loved and the best looked after elephant in the
service of the Government of India. He had carried tents
twelve hundred pounds weight of tents on the march in
Upper India. He had been hoisted into a ship at
the end of a steam crane and taken for days

(03:37:42):
across the water, and made to carry a mortar on
his back in a strange and rocky country very far
from India, and had seen the Emperor Theodore lying dead
in Magdala, and had come back again, and the steamer entitled.
So the soldier said to the Abyssinian war medal. He
had seen his fellow elephants die of cold and epilepsy

(03:38:02):
and starvation and sunstroke up at a place called Ali
Masjid ten years later, and afterwards he had been sent
down thousands of miles south to haul and pile big
balks of teak in the timber yards at Moulmain. There
he had half killed an insubordinate young elephant who was
shirking his fair share of work. After that he was

(03:38:23):
taken off timberhauling and employed with a few score other
elephants who were trained to the business in helping to
catch wild elephants among the Garrow hills. Elephants are very
strictly preserved by the Indian government. There is one whole
department which does nothing else but hunt them and catch
them and break them in and send them up and
down the country as they are needed for work. Kala

(03:38:47):
Nag stood ten fair feet at the shoulders, and his
tusks had been cut off short at five feet and
bound round the ends to prevent them splitting with bands
of copper. But he could do more with those stumps
than any untrained elephant could do with the real sharpened ones.
When after weeks and weeks of cautious driving of scattered
elephants across the hills, the forty or fifty wild monsters

(03:39:08):
were driven into the last stockade, and the big drop
gate made of tree trunks lashed together, jarred down behind them,
Kala nag At, the word of command, would go into
that flaring, trumpeting pandemonium, generally at night, when the flickering
of the torches made it difficult to judge distances, and
picking out the biggest and wildest tusker of the mob,

(03:39:28):
would hammer him and hustle him into quiet, while the
men on the backs of the other elephants roped and
tied the smaller ones. There was nothing in the way
of fighting that Colin nag the old wise black snake
did not know, for he had stood up more than
once in his time to the charge of the wounded tiger,
and curling up his soft trunk to be out of

(03:39:49):
harm's way, had knocked the springing brute sideways in mid
air with a quick sickle cut of his head that
he had invented all by himself, had knocked him over
and kneeled upon him with his huge knees till the
life went out with a gasp and a howl, and
there was only a fluffy striped thing on the ground
for Kalinagg to pull by the tail. Yes, said big

(03:40:10):
to May, his driver, the son of Black Tomi, who
had taken him to Abyssinia, and grandson of tou May
of the elephants, who had seen him caught. There is
nothing that the black snake fears except me. He has
seen three generations of us feed him and groom him,
and he will live to see four. He's afraid of me,
also said little to May, standing up to his full

(03:40:32):
height of four feet with only one rag upon him.
He was ten years old, the eldest son of big
to Mae, and according to custom, he would take his
father's place on Kalinag's neck when he grew up, and
would handle the heavy iron uncus, the elephant goad that
had been worn smooth by his father and his grandfather
and his great grandfather. He knew what he was talking of.

(03:40:54):
For he had been born under Kalinagg's shadow, had played
with the end of his trunk before he could walk,
had taken him down to water as soon as he
could walk, And Colinagg would no more have dreamed of
disobeying his shrill little orders than he would have dreamed
of killing him. On that day when big to My
carried the little brown baby under Kalinagg's tusks and told
him to salute his master, that was to be Yes,

(03:41:17):
said little to May, he is afraid of me, and
he took long strides up to Colinagg, called him a
fat old pig, and made him lift up his feet
one after the other. Hua said, little to May, thou
art a big elephant, and he wagged his fluffy head,
quoting his father. The government may pay for elephants, but

(03:41:38):
they belong to us, my hoots. When thou art old Kalinag,
there will come some rich rajah, and he will buy
thee from the government on account of thy size and
thy manners. And then thou wilt have nothing to do
but to carry gold ear rings in thy ears, and
a gold how to on thy back, and a red
cloth covered with gold on thy sides, and walk at
the head of the processions of the king. Then I

(03:42:00):
shall sit on thy neck o Kalanag with a silver uncus,
and men will run before us with golden sticks, crying
room for the king's elephant. That will be good, Kalinagg.
But not so good as this hunting in the jungles,
Humph said big to my thou art a boy and
as wild as a buffalo calf. This running up and

(03:42:21):
down among the hills is not the best government service.
I am getting old, and I do not love wild elephants.
Give me brick elephant lines, one to stall each elephant,
and big stumps to tie them safely, and flat broad
roads to exercise upon. Instead of this, come and go camping. Aha.
The cawnpoor barracks were good. There was a bazaar close by,

(03:42:43):
and only three hours work a day. Little to My
remembered the conpoor elephant lines and said nothing. He very
much preferred the camp life, and hated those broad, flat roads,
with the daily grubbing for grass and the forage reserve,
and the long hours when there was nothing to do
except watch Colin Nag fidgeting in his pickets. What Little

(03:43:04):
Toom I liked was to scramble up bridle paths that
only an elephant could take, the dip into the valley below,
the glimpses of the wild elephants browsing miles away, The
rush of the frightened pig and peacock under Kalinagg's feet,
The blinding warm rains when all the hills and valleys smoked,
the beautiful misty mornings when nobody knew where he would
camp that night, The steady, cautious drive of the wild elephants,

(03:43:28):
and the mad rush and blaze and hullabaloo of the
last night's drive, when the elephants poured into the stockade
like boulders in a landslide, found that they could not
get out, and flung themselves at the heavy posts, only
to be driven back by yells and flaring torches and
volleys of blank cartridge. Even a little boy could be
of use there, and to my was as useful as

(03:43:48):
three boys. He would get his torch and wave it
and yell with the best. But the really good time
came when the driving out began, and the ketta, that
is the stockade looked like a picture of the end
of the world, and men had to make signs to
one another because they could not hear themselves speak. Then
little to My would climb up to the top of

(03:44:09):
one of the quivering stockade posts, his sun bleached brown
hair flying loose all over his shoulders, and he looking
like a goblin in the torchlight. And as soon as
there was a lull, you could hear his high pitched
yells of encouragement to Colin A. Nagg above the trumpeting
and crashing and snapping of ropes and groans of the
tethered elephants. Maye, maye, kalinagg, go on, go on, black snake,

(03:44:34):
dan't do, give him the tusk. Somallo, somallow, careful, careful
morrow mar hit him, hit him mind the post or
ey aorry hi yay kia a ah, he would shout,
and the big fight between Colinagg and the wild elephant
would sway to and fro across the ketdah, and the
old elephant catchers would wipe the sweat out of their

(03:44:55):
eyes and find time to nods a little to my,
wriggling with joy on the top of the post hosts,
he did more than wriggle. One night, he slid down
from the post and slipped in between the elephants, and
threw up the loose end of a rope which had
dropped to a driver who was trying to get a
purchase on the leg of the kicking Young calf calves
always give more trouble than full grown animals. Kalinagg saw him,

(03:45:20):
caught him in his trunk and handed him up to
Big to Mye, who slapped him then and there and
put him back on the post. Next morning he gave
him a scolding and said, are not good brick elephant
lines and a little tent carrying enough that thou must
needs go elephant catching on thy own account? Little worthless?
Now those foolish hunters whose pay is less than my
pay have spoken to Peterson Sahib of the matter. Little

(03:45:44):
to my was frightened. He did not know much of
white men. But Peterson Sahib was the greatest white man
in the world. To him, he was the head of
all the Keddah operations, the man who caught all the
elephants for the government of India, and who knew more
about the ways of wild elephants than any living man.
What what will happen? Said little to my happen the

(03:46:08):
worst that can happen peters, and Sahib is a madman.
Else why should he go hunting these wild devils. He
may even require thee to be an elephant catcher, to
sleep anywhere in these fever filled jungles, and at last
to be trampled to death on the ketta. It is
well with his nonsense ends safely. Next week the catching
is over and we of the plains are sent back

(03:46:29):
to our stations. Then we will march on smooth roads
and forget all this hunting. But Son, I am angry
that thou shouldst meddle in the business that belongs to
these dirty Assamese jungle folk. Kala Nag will obey none
but me, so I must go with him into the ketta.
But he is only a fighting elephant, and he does
not help to rope them. So I set at my

(03:46:51):
ease as befits. I'm a hoot, not a mere hunter.
I'm a hoot, I say. And a man who gets
a pension at the end of his service is the
thing family of to my of the elephants to be
trodden under foot in the dirt of a ketta, bad one, wicked,
one worthless. Son, go and wash kllannagg and attend to
his ears and see that there are no thorns in

(03:47:11):
his feet, or else Peterson's a heap will surely catch
thee and make thee a wild hunter, a follower of
elephant's foot tracks, a jungle bear. Bah shame go. Little
Tomye went off without saying a word, but he told
Kalinagg all his grievances while he was examining his feet.
No matter said little to my turning up the fringe

(03:47:32):
of Kalinagg's huge right ear. They have said my name
to Peterson's a heap, And perhaps, and perhaps and perhaps
who knows hi, that is a big thorn that I
have pulled out. The next few days were spent in
getting the elephants together, in walking the newly caught wild
elephants up and down between a couple of tame ones

(03:47:53):
to prevent them giving too much trouble on the downward
march to the plains, and in taking stock of the
blankets and ropes and things that had been worn out
or lost in the forest. Peterson Saheb came in on
his clever she elephant Pudmini. He had been paying off
other camps among the hills for the season, was coming
to an end, and there was a native clerk sitting
at a table under a tree to pay the drivers

(03:48:14):
their wages. As each man was paid, he went back
to his elephant and joined the line that stood ready
to start. The catchers and hunters and beaters. The men
of the regular ketda who stayed in the jungle year
in and year out, sat on the backs of the
elephants that belonged to Peterson Sahib's permanent force, or leaned
against the trees with their guns across their arms, and

(03:48:36):
made fun of the drivers who were going away, and
laughed when the newly caught elephants broke the line and
ran about. Big to Ma went up to the clerk
with little to Maie behind him, and Matua 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 to send that young jungle cock to

(03:48:57):
mount in the plains. Now Peterson Sahib had ears all
over him, as a man must have who listened to
the most silent of all living things, the wild elephant.
He turned where he was lying all along on Pudnini's back,
and said, what is that I did not know of
a man among the plains drivers who had wit enough
to rope even a dead elephant. This is not a man,

(03:49:21):
but a boy. He went into the keddah the last
drive and threw our mouth there the rope. When we
were trying to get that young calf with the blotch
on his shoulder away from his mother, matua Appa pointed
at Little to May, and Peterson Sahib looked, and Little
to My bowed to the earth. He throw a rope.
He is smaller than a picket pin, little one, What

(03:49:42):
is thy name? Said Peterson Sahib. Little to mye was
too frightened to speak. But Kalinagg was behind him, and
to my made a sign with his hand, and the
elephant caught him up in his trunk and held him
level with Pudmini's forehead in front of the great Peterson Sahib.
Then Little to My covered his face with his hands,
for he was only a child, and except where elephants

(03:50:04):
were concerned, he was just as bashful as a child
could be. Oh, said Peterson Sahib, smiling under his mustache.
And why Didst thou teach thy elephant that trick? Was
it to help thee steel green corn from the roofs
of the houses, when the ears are put out to dry,
not green corn, protector of the poor melons, said little

(03:50:26):
to May, and all the men sitting about broke into
a roar of laughter. Most of them had taught their
elephants that trick when they were boys. Little to My
was hanging eight feet up in the air, and he
wished very much that he were eight feet under ground.
He is to my my son, Sahib said, big to myye, scowling.
He's a very bad boy, and he will end in jail. Sahib,

(03:50:50):
of that I have my doubts, said Peterson Sahib. A
boy who can face a full keddah at his age
does not end in jails. See little one here for
Anna's to spend on sweetmeats, because thou hast a little
head under that great thatch of hair. In time thou
mayst become a hunter too big to my scowled more
than ever, Remember though, that kettas are not good for

(03:51:13):
children to play, And Peterson Sahib went on, Must I
never go there, Sahib asked Little to My with a
big gasp. Yes, Peterson Sahib smiled, again when thou hast
seen the elephants dance. That is the proper time. Come
to me, when thou hast seen the elephants dance, And
then I will let thee go into all the kettahs.

(03:51:37):
There is another roar of laughter, for that is an
old joke among elephant catchers, and it means just never.
There are great cleared flat places hidden away in the
forests that are called elephant's ball rooms, But even these
are only found by accident, and no man has ever
seen the elephants dance. When a driver boasts of his
skill and bravery, the other drivers say, and when didst

(03:51:58):
thou see the elephants dance? Colin Egg put little to
mye down, and he bowed to the earth again, and
went away with his father, and gave the silver for
anepiece to his mother, who was nursing his baby brother.
And they all were put up on Colinagg's back, and
the line of grunting, squealing elephants rolled down the hill
path to the plains. It was a very lively march

(03:52:20):
on account of the new elephants, who gave trouble at
every ford and needed coaxing or beating every other minute,
Big to My prodded Colin egg spitefully, for he was
very angry, but Little to My was too happy to speak.
Peterson Sahib had noticed him and given him money, so
he felt as a private soldier would feel if he
had been called out of the ranks and praised by

(03:52:41):
his commander in chief. What did Peterson Sahib mean by
the elephant dance, he said at last, softly to his mother.
Big to My heard him and grunted that thou shouldst
never be one of these hill buffaloes of trackers. That
was what he meant. Oh, you in front, what is
blocking the way? An Assamese driver two or three elephants ahead,

(03:53:05):
turned round angrily, crying, bring up Kalinagg and knock this
youngster of mine into good behavior. Why should Peterson Saheb
have chosen me to go down with you donkeys of
the rice field. Lay your beast alongside to my and
let him prod with his tusks. By all the gods
of the hills, these new elephants are possessed, or else
they can smell their companions in the jungle. Klinagg hit

(03:53:27):
the new elephant in the ribs and knocked the wind
out of him, as Big to my said, we have
swept the hills of wild elephants at the last catch.
It is only your carelessness in driving. Must I keep
order along the whole line? Hear him, said the other driver,
We have swept the hills. Ho Ho, you are very wise,
you plains people. Any one but a mudhead who never

(03:53:48):
saw the jungle would know that. They know that the
drives are ended for the season. Therefore all the wild
elephants tonight will But why should I waste wisdom on
a river turtle? What will they do? Little to Maye
called out, Oh, hey, little one, art thou there? Well,
I will tell thee, for thou hast a cool head.
They will dance. And it behooves thy father, who has

(03:54:11):
swept all the hills of all the elephants, to double
chain his pickets to night. What talk is this, said
Big to my. For forty years, father and son, we
have tended elephants, and we have never heard such moonshine
about dances. Yes, but a plain man who lives in
a hut only knows the four walls of his hut. Well,

(03:54:33):
leave thy elephants unshackled tonight and see what comes as
for the dancing, I have seen the place where, but
pre bap how many windings has the deehang river? Here's
another ford, and we must swim the calves. Stop still
you behind there? And in this way, talking and wrangling
and splashing through the rivers, they made their first march
to a sort of receiving camp for the new elephants,

(03:54:55):
but they lost their tempers long before they got there.
Then the elephants were chained by their hind legs. The
big stumps of pickets and extra ropes were fitted to
the new elephants, and the fodder was piled before them,
and the hill drivers went back to Peterson. Saheb through
the afternoon light, telling the plains drivers to be extra
careful that night, and laughing when the planes drivers asked
the reason. Little to Maye attended to Kalanag's supper, and

(03:55:19):
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 noise
in an irregular fashion. He sits down to a sort
of revel all by himself. And Little to My had
been spoken to by Peterson saheb. If he had not
found what he wanted, I believe he would have been ill.

(03:55:41):
But the sweetmeat cellar in the camp lent him a
little tom tom, a drum beaten with the flat of
the hand, and he sat down cross legged before Colin
Nag as the stars began to come out, the tom
tom in his lap, and he thumped, and he thumped,
and he thumped. And the more he thought of the
great honor that had been done to him, the more
he thumped. All alone among the elephant fodder. There was

(03:56:03):
no tune and no words, but the thumping made him happy.
The new elephants strained at their ropes and squealed and
trumpeted from time to time, And he could hear his
mother in the camp, and he could hear his mother
in the camp hut, putting his small brother to sleep
with an old old song about the great god Shiv,
who once told all the animals what they should eat.

(03:56:24):
It is a very soothing lullaby, and the first verse
says Shiv, who poured the harvest and made the winds
to blow, sitting at the doorways of a day of
long ago, gave to each his portion food and toil.
And fate. From the king upon the guddy to the
beggar at the gate. All things made he shive the preserver, mahadeo, mahadeo.

(03:56:47):
He made them all thorn for the camel, fodder for
the kine, and mother's heart for sleepy head. O, little
son of mine, Little to My came in with a
joyous tunk, a tunk at the end of each verse,
till he felt and stretched himself on the fodder at
Colinagg's side. At last, the elephants began to lie down,
one after another, as is their custom, till only call

(03:57:09):
a Nagg at the right of the line was left
standing up, and he rocked slowly from side to side,
his ears put forward to listen to the night wind
as it blew very softly across the hills. The air
was full of all the night noises that, taken together,
make one big silence. The click of one bamboo stem
against the other, the rustle of something alive in the undergrowth,

(03:57:31):
the scratch and squawk of a half waked bird. Birds
are awake in the night much more often than we imagine,
and the fall of water, ever so far away. Little
to My slept for some time and when he waked,
it was brilliant moonlight, and Colin n Egg was still
standing up with his ears cocked Little to my turned
rustling in the fodder, and watched the curve of his

(03:57:53):
big back against half the stars in heaven. And while
he watched, he heard so far away that it sounded
no more than a pit hole of noise pricked through
the stillness, the hoot toot of a wild elephant. All
the elephants in the line jumped up as if they
had been shot, and their grunts at last waked the
sleeping mahoots, and they came out and drove the picket

(03:58:13):
pegs with big mallets, and tightened this rope and knotted
back till all was quiet. One new elephant had nearly
grubbed up his picket, and Big to My took off
Kalenagg's leg chain and shackled that elephant four foot to
hind foot. But slipped a loop of grass string round
Kallenagg's leg and told him to remember that he was
tied fast. He knew that he and his father and

(03:58:36):
his grandfather had done the very same thing hundreds of
times before. Kullenagg did not answer to this order by
gurgling as he usually did. He stood still, looking out
across the moonlight, his head a little raised, and his
ears spread like fans up to the great folds of
the garrow hills. Tend to him if he grows restless

(03:58:57):
in the night, said Big to miye, to Little to
my and he went into the hut and slept. Little
Too may was just going to sleep too, when he
heard the choir string snap with a little ding, and
Colin Nagg rolled out of his pickets, as slowly and
silently as a cloud rolls out of the mouth of
a valley. Little Tomye pattered after him, barefooted, down the
road in the moonlight, calling under his breath, call a Nagg,

(03:59:20):
Call a Nagg. Take me with you, Oh, call a nagg.
The elephant turned without a sound, took three strides back
to the boy in the moonlight, put down his trunk,
swung him up to his neck, and almost before Little
Too Maye had settled his knees slipped into the forest.
There was one blast of furious trumpeting from the lines,

(03:59:40):
and then the silence shut down on everything, and Colin
n Egg began to move. Sometimes a tuft of high
grass washed along his sides as a wave washes along
the sides of the ship, and sometimes a cluster of
wild pepper vines would scrape along his back, or a
bamboo would creak where his shoulder touched it. But between
those times he moved absolutely without any sound, drifting through

(04:00:03):
the thick carrow forest as though it had been smoke.
He was going up hill, but though little to my
watch the stars and the rifts of the trees, he
could not tell in what direction. Then Colin Egg reached
the crest of the ascent and sopped for a minute,
and little to my could see the tops of the
trees lying all speckled and furry under the moonlight for
miles and miles, and the blue white mist over the

(04:00:26):
river in the hollow. To my leaned forward and looked,
and he felt that the forest was awake below him,
awake and alive and crowded. A big brown fruit eating
bat brushed past his ear. A porcupine's quills rattled in
the thicket, and in the darkness between the tree stems,
he heard a hog bear digging hard in the moist

(04:00:47):
warm earth, and snuffing as it digged. Then the branches
closed over his head, again, and Colinagg began to go
down into the valley, not quietly this time, but as
a runaway gun goes down a steep bank in one rush.
The huge limbs moved as steadily as pistons, eight feet
to each stride, and the wrinkled skin of the elbow

(04:01:09):
points rustled. The undergrowth on either side of him ripped
with a noise like torn canvas, and the saplings that
he heaved away right and left with his shoulders sprang
back again and banged him on the flank, and great
trails of creepers, all matted together, hung from his tusks
as he threw his head from side to side and
plowed out his pathway. Then Little to May laid himself

(04:01:31):
down close to the great neck, lest a swinging bough
should sweep him to the ground, and he wished that
he were back in the lines again. The grass began
to get squashy, and Klinagg's feet sucked and squelched as
he put them down, and the night missed at the
bottom of the valley chilled Little to Miye. There was
a splash and a trample, and the rush of running water,

(04:01:54):
and Colinagg strode through the bed of a river, feeling
his way at each step above the noise of the
water as it swirled round the elephant's legs. Little to
My could hear more splashing and some trumpeting, both up
stream and down, great grunts and angry snortings, and all
the mist about him seemed to be full of rolling,
wavy shadows. Ay, he said, half aloud, his teeth chattering,

(04:02:16):
The elephant folk are out to night. It is the dance.
Then Coullenagg swashed out of the water, blew his trunk clear,
and began another climb. But this time he was not alone,
and he had not to make his path that was
made already six feet wide in front of him, where
the bent jungle grass was trying to recover itself and
stand up. Many elephants must have gone that way only

(04:02:39):
a few minutes before. Little to May looked back, and
behind him, a great wild tusker, with his little pig's
eyes glowing like hot coals, was just lifting himself out
of the misty river. Then the trees closed up again,
and they went on and up, with trumpetings and crashings
and the sound of breaking branches on every side of them.

(04:03:00):
At last, colin Nag stood still between two tree trunks
at the very top of the hill. They were part
of a circle of trees that grew round an irregular
space of some three or four acres, And in all
that space, as Little to Mie could see, the ground
had been trampled down, as hard as a brick floor.
Some trees grew in the center of the clearing, but
their bark was rubbed away, and the white wood beneath

(04:03:22):
showed all shiny and polished. In the patches of moonlight.
There were creepers hanging from the upper branches, and the
bells of the flowers of the creepers. Great waxy white
things like convolvuluses, hung down, fast asleep. But within the
limits of the clearing there was not a single blade
of green, nothing but the trampled earth. The moonlight showed
it all iron gray, except where some elephants stood upon it,

(04:03:45):
and their shadows were inky black. Little to My looked,
holding his breath, with his eyes starting out of his head,
and as he looked, more and more and more elephants
swung out into the open from between the tree trunks.
Little to My could only count up to ten, and
he counted again and again on his fingers, till he
lost count of the Thames, and his head began to swim.

(04:04:07):
Outside the clearing, he could hear them crashing in the
undergrowth as they worked their way up the hillside, but
as soon as they were within the circle of tree trunks,
they moved like ghosts. There were white tusks, wild males
with fallen leaves and nuts and twigs lying in the
wrinkles of their necks and the folds of their ears. Fat,
slow footed she elephants with restless, little pinky black calves

(04:04:28):
only three or four feet high, running under their stomachs,
young elephants with their tusks just beginning to show, and
very proud of them. Lanky, scraggy old maid elephants with
their hollow, anxious faces and trunks like rough bark, savage
old bull elephants, scarred from shoulder to flank, with great
wheels and cuts of bygone fights, and the caked dirt

(04:04:49):
of their solitary mud baths dripping from their shoulders. And
there was one with a broken tusk in the marks
of the full stroke, the terrible drawing scrape of a
tiger's claws on his side. They were standing head to head,
or walking to and fro across the ground in couples,
or rocking and swaying all by themselves, scores and scores
of elephants to mine. Knew that so long as he

(04:05:12):
lay on Kalinagg's neck, nothing would happen to him, For
even in that rush and scramble of a Ketta drive,
a wild elephant does not reach up with his trunk
and drag a man off the neck of a tame elephant.
And these elephants were not thinking of men that night.
Once they started and put their ears forward when they
heard the chinking of a leg iron in the forest.

(04:05:32):
But it was Pudnini, Peterson Sahib's pet elephant. Her chain
snapped short off, grunting snuffling up the hillside. She must
have broken her pickets and come straight from Peterson Sahib's camp.
And little to my saw another elephant, one that he
did not know, with deep rope galls on his back
and breast. He too, must have run away from some

(04:05:53):
camp in the hills. About at last there was no
sound of any more elephants moving in the forest, and
Klin Egg rolled out from his station between the trees
and went into the middle of the crowd, clucking and gurgling,
and all the elephants began to talk in their own
tongue and to move about. Still lying down, little to
may looked down upon scores and scores of broad backs

(04:06:15):
and wagging years and tossing trunks and little rolling eyes.
He heard the click of tusks as they crossed other
tusks by accident, and the dry rustle of trunks twined together,
and the chafing of enormous sides and shoulders in the crowd,
and the incessant flick and hish of the great tails.
Then a cloud came over the moon, and he sat

(04:06:38):
in black darkness, but the quiet, steady hustling and pushing
and gurgling went on just the same. He knew that
there were elephants all round Kalanag, and that there was
no chance of backing him out of the assembly, so
he set his teeth and shivered. In Akeda, at least
there was torch light and shouting, But here he was

(04:06:58):
all alone in the dark. And once a trunk came
up and touched him on the knee. Then an elephant trumpeted,
and they all took it up for five or ten
terrible seconds. The dew from the trees above spattered down
like rain on the unseen backs, and a dull, booming
noise began, not very loud at first, and Little to
My could not tell what it was. But it grew

(04:07:21):
and grew, and Colinagg lifted up one fore foot and
then the other, and brought them down on the ground,
one too, one too, as steadily as trip hammers. The
elephants were stamping altogether now, and it sounded like a
war drum beaten at the mouth of a cave. The
dew fell from the trees till there was no more
left to fall, and the booming went on, and the

(04:07:42):
ground rocked and shivered, and Little to My put his
hands up to his ears to shut out the sound.
But it was all one gigantic jar that ran through him,
this stamp of hundreds of heavy feet on the raw earth.
Once or twice he could feel Colinagg and all the
others surged forward a few strides, and the thumping changed
to the crushing sound of juicy green things being bruised.

(04:08:03):
But in a minute or two the boom of feet
on hard earth began again. A tree was creaking and
groaning somewhere near him. He put out his arm and
felt the bark, but Klinagg moved forward, still tramping, and
he could not tell where he was in the clearing.
There was no sound from the elephants, except once when
two or three little calves squeaked together. Then he heard

(04:08:25):
a thump and a shuffle, and the booming went on.
It must have lasted fully two hours, and Little tomye
ached in every nerve, but he knew by the smell
of the night air that 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
light had been in order before Little too Maye had

(04:08:47):
gotten the ringing out of his head. Before even he
had shifted his position. There was not an elephant in
sight except colin egg Pudmini and the elephant with the
rope galls. And there was neither sign, nor rustle nor
whisper down the hillsides to show where the others had gone.
Little to My stared again and again the clearing, as
he remembered it, had grown in the night. More trees

(04:09:11):
stood in the middle of it, but the undergrowth, and
the jungle grass at the sides had been rolled back.
Little to my stared once more. Now he understood the
trampling the elephants had stamped out more room had stamped
the thick grass and juicy cane to trash, the trash
into slivers, the slivers into tiny fibers, and the fibers

(04:09:32):
into hard earth. Whah said Little to Maye, and his
eyes were very heavy. Call a nag, my lord. Let
us keep by Pudmini and go back to Peterson Saheb's camp,
or I shall drop from thy neck. The third elephant
watched the two go away, snorted, wheeled round, and took
his own path. He may have belonged to some little

(04:09:54):
native king's establishment fifty or sixty or a hundred miles away.
Two hours later, as Peterson Sahib was eating early breakfast,
his elephants, who had been double chained that night, began
to trumpet, and Pudnini, mired to the shoulders with colin
nagg very footsore, shambled into the camp. Little to May's

(04:10:14):
face was gray and pinched, and his hair was full
of leaves and drenched with dew. But he tried to
salute Peterson Sahib and cried faintly the dance, the elephant dance.
I have seen it, and I die. As Klinagg sat down,
he slid off his neck in a dead faint. But

(04:10:35):
since native children have no nerves worth speaking of, in
two hours he was lying very contentedly in Peterson Sahib's hammock,
with Peterson Sahib's shooting coat under his head, and a
glass of warm milk a little brandy with a dash
of quinine inside him. And while the old, hairy, scarred
hunters of the Jungles sat three deep before him, looking
at him as though he were a spirit. He told

(04:10:55):
his tale in short words as a child will, and
wound up with Now, if I lie in one word,
send men to sea, and they will find that the
elephant folk have trampled down more room in their dance room.
And they will find ten and ten and many times
ten tracks leading to that dance room. They made more
room with their feet. I have seen it. Kalinag took me,

(04:11:16):
and I saw also Kalanag is very leg weary. Little too.
My laid back and slept all through the long afternoon
and into the twilight, And while he slept. Peterson Sahib
and Machua Appa followed the track of the two elephants
for fifteen miles across the hills. Peterson Sahib had spent
eighteen years in catching elephants, and he had only once

(04:11:38):
before found such a dance place. Machua Appa had no
need to look twice at the clearing to see what
had been done there, or to scratch with his toe
in the packed rammed earth. The child speaks the truth,
said he. All this was done last night, and I
have counted seventy tracks crossing the river. See Sahib, where
Pudmini's leg iron cut the bark of that tree. Yes,

(04:12:01):
she was there too. They looked at one another, and
up and down, and they wondered, for the ways of
the elephants are beyond the wit of any man, black
or white to fathom. Forty years and five, said Machua Appa.
Have I followed my lord the elephant? But never have
I heard that any child of man had seen what

(04:12:22):
this child has seen by all the gods of the hills.
Is it? What can we say? And he shook his head.
When they got back to the camp, it was time
for the evening meal. Peterson sahib Ate alone in his tent,
but he gave orders that the camp should have two
sheep and some fowls, as well as a double ration
of flour and rice and salt, for he knew that

(04:12:44):
there would be a feast. Big to My had come
up hot foot from the camp in the plains to
search for his son and his elephant, and now that
he had found them, he looked at them as though
he were afraid of them both. And there was a
feast by the blazing camp fires in front of the
lines of picketed eleph and little to My was the
hero at all, and the big brown elephant catchers, the

(04:13:05):
trackers and drivers and ropers, and the men who knew
all the secrets of breaking the wildest elephants passed him
from one to the other, and they marked his forehead
with blood from the breast of a newly killed jungle cock,
to show that he was a forester, initiated and free
of all the jungles. And at last, when the flames
died down, and the red light of the logs made

(04:13:27):
the elephants look as though they had been dipped in
blood too, matua Appa, the head of all the drivers
and all the keddahs. Matua Appa Peterson Sahib's other self,
who had never seen a maid road in forty years.
Matua Appa, who was so great that he had no
other name than machua Appa, leaped to his feet, while
little to My held in the air above his head

(04:13:47):
and shouted, listen, my brothers, listen to you, my lords,
and the lines there. For I matua Appa am speaking.
This little one shall no more be called little to my,
but to my of the elephants, as his great grandfather
was called before him. What never man has seen, he
has seen through the long night, and the favor of

(04:14:07):
the elephant folk and of the gods of the jungles
is with him. He shall become a great tracker. He
shall become greater than I, even I betchua Appa. He
shall follow the new trail and the stale trail and
the mixed trail with a clear eye. He shall take
no harm in the kedda when he runs under their
bellies to rope the wild tuskers. And if he slips

(04:14:29):
before the feet of the charging bull elephant, the bull
elephant shall know who he is and shall not crush him. Ahei,
my Lord's in the chains. He whirled up to the
line of pickets. Here is the little one that has
seen your dances in your hidden places, the sight that
never man saw. Give him honor, my lords, Salaam kar O,

(04:14:50):
my children, make your salute to Toumai of the elephants.
Gunga pershad Ah, hire a gush Birchi, guj Qutar, guj
Aha pu Mini. Thou hast seen him at the dance,
and thou too call a nag my pearl among elephants.
Aha together two to my of the elephants, but rau.

(04:15:12):
And at that last wild yell, the whole line flung
up their trunks till the tips touched their foreheads, and
broke out into the full salute. The crashing trumpet peal
that only the Viceroy of India hears the salahmut of
the Keddah. But it was all for the sake of
little to My who had seen what never man had
seen before, the dance of the elephants. At night and

(04:15:34):
alone in the heart of the Garo hills, Shiv and
the grasshopper, the song that to Ma'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

(04:15:55):
toil and fate. From the king upon the goody, to
the beggar at the gate. All things made he shive
the preserver Mahadeo mahadeo. He made them 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 the rich folk, millet to the poor, broken scraps

(04:16:17):
for holy men that beg from door to door, cattle
to the tiger, carry into the kite, and rags and
bones to wicked wolves. Without the wall at night, nought
he found too lofty, None he saw too low. Parbati
beside him, watched them come and go tat to cheat.
Her husband, turning shive to jest, stole the little grasshopper

(04:16:38):
and hid it in her breast. So she tricked him,
shive of the preserver, Mahadeo mahadeo. Turn and see taller
the camels, heavier the kine. But this was least of
little things, O, little son of mine. When the doll
was ended, laughingly, she said master of a million mouths,
is not one unfed. Laughing Shiv made Anne, Sir, all

(04:17:01):
have had their part, even he the little one hidden
neath thy heart from her breast, she plucked it parbody.
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 shive of the preserver, Mahadeo, Mahadeo.

(04:17:23):
He made all thorn for the camel, fodder for the kine,
and mother's heart for sleepy head, o, little son of mine.
End of chapter six, Chapter seven, Servants of the Queen.
You can work it out by fractions or by simple

(04:17:45):
rule of three. But the way of tweedl dumb is
not the way of tweedledee. You can twist it, you
can turn it, you can plait it till you drop,
But the way of pilliwinkies not the way of winkie pop.
It had been raining for one whole month, raining on
a camp of thirty thousand men and thousands of camels, elephants, horses, bullocks,

(04:18:07):
and mules, all gathered together at a place called Raul
Pindi to be reviewed by the Viceroy of India. He
was receiving a visit from the Amir of Afghanistan, a
wild king of a very wild country, and the Emir
had brought with him for a bodyguard eight hundred men
and horses who had never seen a camp or a

(04:18:28):
locomotive before in their lives, savage men and savage horses
from somewhere at the back of Central Asia. Every night
a mob of these horses would be sure to break
their heel ropes and stampede up and down the camp
through the mud in the dark. Or the camels would
break loose and run about and fall over the ropes
of the tents, and you can imagine how pleasant that

(04:18:48):
was for men trying to go to sleep. My tent
lay far away from the camel lines, and I thought
it was safe. But one night a man popped his
head in and shouted, get out quick, they're coming. My
tent's gone. I knew who they were, so I put
on my boots and waterproof and scuttled out into the slush.

(04:19:09):
Little Vixen, my fox terrier, went out through the other side.
And then there was a roaring and a grunting and
a bubbling, and I saw the tent cave in as
the pole snapped and began to dance about like a
mad ghost. A camel had blundered into it, and wet
and angry as I was, I could not help laughing.
Then I ran on because I did not know how

(04:19:30):
many camels might have got loose, and before long I
was out of sight 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 was
somewhere near the artillery lines where the cannons were stacked
at night. As I did not want to plowder about
any more in the drizzle in the dark, I put
my waterproof over the muzzle of one gun and made

(04:19:51):
a sort of wigwam with two or three rammers that
I found, and lay along the tail of another gun,
wondering where Vixen had got to and where I might be.
Just as I was getting ready to go to sleep,
I heard a jingle of harness and a grunt, and
a mule passed me, shaking his wet ears. He belonged
to a screw gun pattery, for I could hear the
rattle of the straps and rings and chains and things

(04:20:13):
on his saddle pad. The screw guns are the tiny
little cannons made in two pieces that are screwed together
when the time comes to use them. They are taken
up mountains anywhere that a mule can find a road.
They are very useful for fighting in rocky country. Behind
the mule there was a camel with his big soft
feet squelching and slipping in the mud, and his neck

(04:20:36):
bobbing to and fro like a strayed hen's. Luckily I
knew enough of beast language, not wild beast language, but
camp beast language, of course, from the natives, to know
what he was saying. He must have been the one
that flopped into my tent, for he called to the mule,
what shall I do? Where shall I go? I have
fought with a white thing that waved, and it took

(04:20:58):
a stick and hit me on the neck. That was
my 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 have been
disturbing the camp. All right, you'll be beaten for this
in the morning, but I may as well give you
something on account. Now I heard the harnessed jingle as

(04:21:19):
the mule backed and caught the camel two kicks in
the ribs that rang like a drum. Another time, he said,
you'll know better than to run through a mule battery
at night, shouting thieves and fire. Sit down and keep
your silly neck quiet. The camel doubled up camel fashion
like a two foot rule and sat down whimpering. There

(04:21:39):
was a regular beat of hoofs in the darkness, and
a big troop horse cantered up as steadily as though
he were on parade, jumped a guntail and landed close
to the mule. It's disgraceful, he said, blowing out his nostrils.
These camels have racketed through our lines again, third time
this week. How's a horse to keep up his condition
if he isn't allowed to sleep? Who U here? I'm

(04:22:02):
the breech peace mule of number two gun of the
first screw battery, said the mule and the others one
of your friends. He's waked me up too. Who are you?
Number fifteen E Troop ninth Lancers Dick Cunliff's horse stand
over a little bear, Oh beg your pardon, said the mule.
It's dark to see much. Aren't these camels too sickening

(04:22:24):
for anything? I walked out of my lines to get
a little piece 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 thirty ninth Native Infantry, and I am not as
brave as you are, my lords? Then why didn't you

(04:22:45):
stay and carry baggage for the thirty ninth Native Infantry
instead of running all round the camp? Said the mule.
They were such very bad dreams, said the camel. I
am sorry. Listen, what is that? Shall we run on again?
Sit down, said the mule, or you'll snap your long
stick legs between the guns. He cocked one ear and listened. Bullocks,

(04:23:09):
he said, gun, bullocks. On my word, you and your
friends have waked the camp very thoroughly. It takes a
good deal of protting to put up a gun. Bullock.
I heard a chain dragging along the ground, and a
yoke of the great sulky white bullocks that dragged the
heavy siege guns. When the elephants won't go any nearer
to the firing came shouldering along together and almost stepping

(04:23:30):
on the chain was another battery mule calling wildly for Billy.
That's one of our recruits, said the old mule to
the true horse. He's calling for me here, youngster, stop squealing.
The dark never heard anybody yet. The gun bullocks lay
down together and began chewing the cud, But the young
mule huddled close to Billy. Things, he said, fearful and

(04:23:54):
horrible things. Billy. They came into our lines while we
were asleep. Do you think they'll kill us? I've a
very great mind to give you a number one kicking,
said Billy, the idea of a fourteen hand mule with
your training disgracing the battery before this, gentleman gently gently
said the troop horse. Remember they are always like this

(04:24:15):
to begin with. The first time I ever saw man,
it was in Australia when I was a three year old.
I ran for half a day, and if i'd seen
a camel, I should be running still. Nearly all our
horses for the English Cavalry are brought to India from
Australia and are broken in by the troopers themselves. True enough,

(04:24:36):
said Billy, stop shaking, youngster. The first time they put
the full harness with all its chains on my back,
I stood on my fore legs and kicked every bit
of it off. I hadn't learned the real science of
kicking then. But the battery said they'd never seen anything
like it. But this wasn't harness or anything that jingled,
said the young mule. You know, I don't mind that now, Billy.

(04:24:57):
It was the things like trees, and they he fell
up and down the lines and bubbled, and my head
rope broke, and I couldn't find my driver, and I
couldn't find you, Billy, So I ran off with with
these gentlemen, HM, said Billy. As soon as I heard
the camels were loose, I came away on my own account.
When a battery, a screw gun mule calls gun bullocks, gentlemen,

(04:25:20):
he must be very badly shaken up. Who are you
fellows on the ground there? The gun bullocks rolled their
cuds and answered both together the seventh yoke of the
first gun of the big gun battery. We were asleep
when the camels came, but when we were trampled on,
we got up and walked away. It is better to
lie quiet in the mud than to be disturbed on

(04:25:42):
good bedding. We told your friend here that there was
nothing to be afraid of, but he knew so much
that he thought otherwise. Whah, They went on chewing. That
comes of being afraid, said Billy. You get laughed at
by gun bullocks. I hope you like it, youngun. The
young mule's teeth snapped, and I heard him say something

(04:26:03):
about not being afraid of any beefy old bullock in
the world. But the bullocks only clicked their horns together
and went on chewing. Now, don't be angry after you've
been afraid. That's the worst kind of cowardice, said the
true horse. Anybody can be forgiven for being scared in
the night. I think if they see things they don't understand.

(04:26:24):
We've broken out of our pickets again and again, four
hundred and fifty of us, just because a new recruit
got to telling tales of whip snakes at home in Australia,
till we were scared to death at the loose ends
of our head ropes. That's all very well in camp,
said Billy. I'm not above stampeding myself for the fun
of the thing when I haven't been out for a
day or two. But what do you do on active service.

(04:26:48):
Oh that's quite another set of new shoes, said the
true horse. Dick cunlifts on my back then and drives
his knees into me. And all I have to do
is to watch where I'm putting my feet, and to
keep my hind legs well under me, and be bridle wise.
What's bridle wise, said the young mule. Buy the blue
gums of the black blocks, snorted the true horse. Do

(04:27:10):
you mean to say that you aren't taught to be
bridle wise in your business? How can you do anything
unless you can spin round at once? When the rain
is pressed on your neck. It means life or death
to your man, And of course that's life or death
to you. Get round with your hind legs under you
the instant you feel the rain on your neck. If
you haven't room to swing round, rear up a little
and come round on your hind legs, that's being bridle wise.

(04:27:35):
We aren't taught that way, said Billy the mule, stiffly.
We're taught to obey the man at our head, step
off when he says, and step in when he says so,
I suppose it comes to the same thing. Now, with
all this fine fancy business and rearing, which must be
very bad for your hawks, what do you do well?
That depends, said the true horse. Generally I have to

(04:27:58):
go in among a lot of yelling, hairy men with knives,
long shiny knives worse than the farrier's knives, and I
have to take care that Dick's boot is just touching
the next man's boot without crushing it. I can see
Dick's lance to the right of my right eye, and
I know I'm safe. I shouldn't care to be the
man or horse that stood up to Dick and me
when we're in a hurry. Don't the knives hurt, said

(04:28:21):
the young mule. Well, I got one cut across the
chest once, but that wasn't Dick's fault a lot. I
should have cared whose fault it was if it hurt,
said the young mule. You must, said the true horse.
If you don't trust your man, you may as well
run away at once. That's what some of our horses do,
and I don't blame them. As I was saying it

(04:28:42):
wasn't Dick's fault, the man was lying on the ground,
and I stretched myself not to tread on him, and
he slashed up at me. Next time I have to
go over a man lying down, I shall step on
him hard hm, said Billy. It sounds very foolish. Knives
are dirty things at any time. The proper things to
do is to climb up a mountain with a well

(04:29:03):
balanced saddle, hang on by all four feet and your
ears too, and creep and crawl and wiggle along till
you come out hundreds of feet above anyone else on
a ledge where there's just room enough for your hoofs.
Then you stand still and keep quiet. Never ask a
man to hold your head, young un, keep quiet while
the guns are being put together, and then you wash
the little poppy shells drop down into the tree tops

(04:29:25):
ever so far below. Don't you ever trip, said the
troop horse. They say that when a mule trips, you
can split a hen's ear, said Billy. Now and again,
perhaps a badly packed saddle will upset a mule, but
it's very seldom. I wish I could show you our business.
It's beautiful. Why it took me three years to find

(04:29:46):
out what the men were driving at the Science of
the thing is never to show up against the sky line,
because if you do, you may get fired at. Remember that,
young un, always keep hidden as much as possible, even
if you have to go a mile out of your way.
I leave the battery when it comes to that sort
of climbing fired at, without the chance of running into

(04:30:07):
the people who were firing, said the true horse, thinking hard.
I couldn't stand that I should want to charge with dick.
Oh no, you wouldn't you know that as soon as
the guns are in position, they'll do the charging. That's
scientific and neat, but knives pah. The baggage camel had
been bobbing his head to and fro for some time past,

(04:30:29):
anxious to get a word in edgewise. Then I heard
him say, as he cleared his throat nervously, I I
have fought a little, but not in that climbing way
or that running way. No, now you mention it, said billy.
You don't look as though you were made for climbing
or running much. Well, how was it, old hay Bales,

(04:30:52):
The proper way, said the camel. We all sat down. Oh,
my crupper and breastplates, said the troop horse under his breath,
sat down. We sat down, a hundred of us. The
camel went on in a big square, and the men
piled our cajawas, our packs and saddles outside the square,
and they fired over our backs. The men did on
all sides of the square. What sort of men, any

(04:31:16):
men that came along, said the true horse. They teach
us in riding school to lie down and let our
masters fire across us. But Dick Cunliff is the only
man I'd trust to do that. It tickles my girths.
And besides, I can't see you with my head on
the ground. What does it matter who fires across you,
said the camel. There are plenty of men, and plenty

(04:31:36):
of other camels close by, and a great many clouds
of smoke. I am not frightened. Then I sit still
and wait. And yet said billy, you dream bad dreams
and upset the camp at night. Well, well before i'd
lie down, not to speak of sitting down and let
a man fire across me, my heels and head would

(04:31:57):
have something to say to each other. Did you ever
hear anything so awful as that? There is a long silence,
and then one of the gun bullocks lifted up his
big head and said, this is very foolish. Indeed, there
is only one way of fighting. Oh go on, said billy,

(04:32:17):
Please don't mind me. I suppose you fellows fight standing
on your tails. Only one way, said the two together.
They must have been twins. This is that way to
put all twenty yoke of us to the big gun.
As soon as two tails trumpets. Two tails is camp
slang for the elephant. What does two tails trumpet for,

(04:32:41):
said the young mule, to show that he is not
going any nearer to the smoke on the other side.
Two tails is a great coward. Then we tugged the
big gun all together. Hey ya hula, he ya hula.
We do not climb like cats, nor run like calves.

(04:33:03):
We go across the level plain twenty yoke of us
till we are unyoked again, and we graze while the
big guns talk across the plain to some town with
mud walls, and pieces of the wall fall out and
the dust goes up as though many cattle were coming home.
Oh and you choose that time for grazing, said the

(04:33:24):
young mule. That time or any other eating is always good.
We eat till we are yoked up again and tug
the gun back to where two Tails is waiting for it.
Sometimes there are big guns in the city that speak back,
and some of us are killed, and then there is

(04:33:45):
all the more grazing for those that are left. This
is fate, nothing but fate none the less. Two Tails
is a great coward. That is the proper way to fight.
We are brothers from Hapor. Our father was a sacred
bowl of shive. We have spoken well. I've certainly learned

(04:34:07):
something to night, said the true Horse. Do you, gentlemen
of the screw gun battery, feel inclined to eat when
you are being fired at with big guns and two
Tails is behind you? About as much as we feel
inclined to sit down and let men sprawl all over
us or run into people with knives. I never heard
such stuff. A mountain ledge, a well balanced load, a

(04:34:28):
driver you can trust to let you pick your own way,
and I'm your mule. But the other things, no, said Billy,
with a stamp of his foot. Of course, said the
true horse. Every one is not made in the same way.
And I can quite see that your family on your
father's side would fail to understand a great many things.

(04:34:49):
Never you mind. My family on my father's side, said
Billy angrily. For every mule hates to be reminded that
his father was a donkey. My father was a Southern gentleman,
and he could down and bite and kick into rags
every horse he came across. Remember that, you big brown brumby.
Brumby means wild horse without any breathing. Imagine the feelings

(04:35:10):
of Ormond if a bus horse called him a cocktail,
and you can imagine how an Australian horse felt. I
saw the white of his eye glitter in the dark.
See here, you son of an important molliga jackass, he
said between his teeth. I'd have you know that I'm
related on my mother's side to Carbine, winner of the
Melbourne Cup, and where I come from, we aren't accustomed

(04:35:31):
to being ridden over, roughshod by any parrot mouth, pig
headed mule and a pop gun, pea shoot or battery?
Are you ready on your hind legs, squealed Billy. They
both reared up, facing each other, and I was expecting
a furious fight when a griggly, rumbly voice called out
of the darkness to the right, children, what are you
fighting about? There? Be quiet. Both beasts dropped down with

(04:35:55):
a snort of disgust, for neither horse nor mule can
bear to listen to an elephant's voice. It's two tails,
said the true horse. I can't stand him. A tail
at each end isn't fair. My feeling's exactly, said Billy,
crowding into the true horse for company. We're very alike
in some things. I suppose we've been heard at them

(04:36:16):
from our mothers, said the true horse. It's not worth
quarreling about, Hi, two tails, are you tied up? Yes,
said two Tails, with a laugh all up his trunk.
I'm picketed for the night. I've heard what you fellows
have been saying, but don't be afraid. I'm not coming over,
the bullocks and the camel said, half aloud, afraid of

(04:36:39):
two tails? What nonsense? And the bullocks went on, we
are sorry that you heard, but it is true, two tails.
Why are you afraid of the guns when they fire? Well,
said two Tails, rubbing one hind leg against the other,
exactly like a little boy saying a poem. I don't

(04:36:59):
quite know whether you'd understand. We don't, but we have
to pull the guns, said the bullocks. I know it,
and I know you are a good deal braver than
you think you are. But it's different with me. My
battery captain called me a packidermatis anachronism the other day.
That's another way of fighting, I suppose, said Billy, who

(04:37:21):
was recovering his spirits. You don't know what that means,
of course, but I do. It means betwixt and between,
and that is just where I am. I can see
inside my head what will happen when a shell bursts,
and you bullocks can't. I can, said the true horse,
at least a little bit. I try not to think
about it. I can see more than you do, and

(04:37:44):
I do think about it. I know there's a great
deal of me to take care of, and I know
that nobody knows how to cure me when I'm sick.
All they can do is to stop my driver's pay
till I get well. And I can't trust my driver, ah,
said the troop horse. That explains it. I can trust Dick.

(04:38:05):
You could put a whole regiment of Dick's on my
back without making me feel any better. I know, just
enough to be uncomfortable, and not enough to go on
in spite of it. We do not understand, said the bullocks.
I know you don't. I'm not talking to you. You
don't know what blood is. We do, said the bullocks,

(04:38:26):
is red stuff that soaks into the ground and smells.
The troop horse gave a kick and a bound and
a snort. Don't talk of it, he said. I can
smell it now just thinking of it. It makes me
want to run when I haven't dick on my back.
But it's not here, said the camel and the bullocks.
Why are you so stupid? It's vile stuff, said billy.

(04:38:51):
I don't want to run, but I don't want to
talk about it. There you are, said two tails, waving
his tail to explain. Surely, Yes, we have been here
all night, said the bullocks. Two Tails stamped his foot
till the iron ring on it jingled. Oh, I'm not
talking to you. You can't see inside your heads. No,

(04:39:14):
we see out of our four eyes, said the bullocks.
We see straight in front of us. If I could
do that and nothing else, you wouldn't be needed to
pull the big guns at all. If I was like
my captain, He can see things inside his head before
the firing begins, and he shakes all over, But he
knows too much to run away. If I was like him,

(04:39:35):
I could pull the guns. But if I were as
wise as all that, I should never be here. I
should be a king in the forest as I used
to be, sleeping half the day and bathing when I liked.
I haven't had a good bath for a month. That's
all very fine, said Billy. But giving a thing a
long name doesn't make it any better. Hush, said the

(04:39:57):
true horse. I think I understand what two tails mean.
You'll understand better in a minute, said two Tails angrily.
Now you just 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 True Horse together, and
I could hear them stamp and shiver. An elephant's trumpeting

(04:40:18):
is always nasty, especially on a dark night. I shan't stop,
said two tails. Won't you explain that please? Humph hup
humph rah. Then he stopped suddenly, and I heard a
little whimper in the dark, and I knew that Vixen
had found me. At last. She knew as well as
I did that if there is one thing in the world,

(04:40:39):
an elephant is more afraid of than another. It is
a little barking dog. So she stopped to bully two
Tails in his pickets and yapped round his big feet.
Two Tails shuffled and squeaked. Go away, little dog, he said,
don't snuff at my ankles or I'll kick you. Good
little dog, nice little doggie. Then go home, you yelping beast.
Oh why doesn't someone take her away? She'll bite me

(04:41:02):
in a minute, seems to me, said Billy the true Porse,
that her friend two Tails is afraid of most things. Now,
if I had a full meal for every dog I've
kicked across the parade ground, I should be as fat
as two tails. Nearly, I whistled, and Vixen ran up
to me, muddy all over, and licked my nose and
told me a long tale about hunting for me all

(04:41:23):
through the camp. I never let her know that I
understood beast talk, or she would have taken all sorts
of liberties. So I buttoned her into the breast of
my overcoat, and two Tails shuffled and stamped and growled
to himself. Extraordinary, most extraordinary, he said, It runs in
our family. Now, where is that nasty little beast gone to.

(04:41:44):
I heard him feeling about with his trunk. We all
seemed to be affected in various ways. He went on
blowing his nose. Now, you gentlemen were alarmed, I believe
when I trumpeted. Not alarmed exactly, said the true porse.
But it made me feel as though I had hornets
where my saddle ought to be. Don't begin again. I'm

(04:42:06):
frightened of a little dog, and the camel here is
frightened by bad dreams in the night. It is very
lucky for us that we haven't all got to fight
in the same way, said the troop horse. What I
want to know, said the young mule, who had been
quiet for a long while. What I want to know
is why we have to fight at all? Because we're

(04:42:27):
told to, said the troop horse, with a snort of contempt. Orders,
said Billy the mule, and his teeth snapped. Hookum high.
It is an order, said the camel, with a gurgle
and two tails, and the bullocks repeated hook em high. Yes.
But who gives the orders, said the recruit mule. The

(04:42:50):
man who walks at your head or sits on your
back and holds the nose rope or twist your tail,
said Billy. And the troop horse and the camel and
the bullocks one after the other. But who gives them
the orders? Now you want to know too much, younguinn,
said Billy, And that is one way of getting kicked.
All you have to do is to obey the man

(04:43:11):
at your head and ask no questions. He's quite right,
said two tails. I can't always obey because I'm betwixt
in between. But Billy's right. Obey the man next to
you who gives the order, or he'll stop all the battery,
besides getting a thrashing. The gun bullocks got up to go.
Morning is coming, they said, we will go back to

(04:43:33):
our lines. It is true that we only see out
of our eyes, and we are not very clever, but
still we are the only people to night who have
not been afraid. Good night, you brave people. Nobody answered,
and the troop horse said, to change the conversation, where's

(04:43:53):
that little dog? A dog means a man somewhere about here,
I am yapped fixen under the guntail with my man,
you big blundering beast of a camel. You you upset
our tent. My man's very angry phew, said the bullocks.
He must be white. Of course he is, said vixen.

(04:44:15):
Do you suppose I'm looked after by a black bullock driver?
Whaw w wash oh, said the bullocks. Let us get
away quickly. They plunged forward in the mud and managed
somehow to run their yoke on the pole of an
ammunition wagon, where it jammed. Now you have done it,

(04:44:35):
said billy, calmly. Don't struggle. You're hung up till daylight.
What on earth's the matter? The bullocks went off into
the long hissing snorts that Indian cattle give, and pushed
and crowded and slewed and stamped and slipped and nearly
fell down in the mud, grunting savagely. You'll break your
necks in a minute, said the true horse. What's the

(04:44:56):
matter with white men? I live with em. They eat us, pull,
said the near bullock. The yolks snapped with a twang,
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

(04:45:17):
the cattle do not like it. May I be flogged
with my own pad chains. Who'd have thought of two
big lumps like those losing their heads? Said Billy, never mind,
I'm going to look at this man. Most of the
white men I know have things in their pockets, said
the True Horse. I'll leave you then. I can't say

(04:45:39):
I'm over fond of em myself. Besides, white men who
haven't a place to sleep in are more than likely
to be thieves. And I've a good deal of government
property on my back. Come along, Yanun, and we'll go
back to our lines. Good Night, Australia, see you on
pray tomorrow. I suppose good night, old hay Bales. Try
to control your feelings, won't you? Good night, two tales.

(04:46:01):
If you pass us on the ground tomorrow, don't trumpet.
It spoils our formation. Billy the mule stamped off with
the swaggering limp of an old campaigner as the True
Horse's head came nuzzling into my breast and I gave
him biscuits, while Vixen, who's a most conceited little dog,
told him FIBs about the scores of horses that she
and I kept. I'm coming to the parade tomorrow in

(04:46:22):
my dog cart, she said, where will you be on
the left hand of the second squadron. I set the
time for all my troop, little lady, he said politely.
Now I must go back to Dick. My tail's all muddy,
and he'll have two hours hard work dressing me for parade.
The big parade of all the thirty thousand men was

(04:46:43):
held that afternoon, and Vixen and I had a good
place close to the Viceroy and the Amir of Afghanistan
with his high, big black hat of astrachan wool and
the great diamond star in the center. The first part
of the review was all sunshine, and the regiments went by,
and wave upon wave of legs all moving together, and
guns all in a line, till our eyes grew dizzy.

(04:47:05):
Then the cavalry came up to the beautiful cavalry canter
of Bonnie Dundee, and Vixen cocked her ear where she
sat on the dog cart. The second squadron of the
Lancers shot by, and there was the troop horse with
his tail like spun silk, his head pulled into his breast,
one ear forward and one back, setting the time for
all his squadron, his legs going as smoothly as waltz music.

(04:47:28):
Then the big guns came by, and I saw two
tails and two other elephants harnessed in line to a
forty pounder siege gun, while twenty yoke of oxen walked behind.
The seventh pair had a new yoke, and they looked
rather stiff and tired. Last came the screw guns, and
Billy the Mule carried himself as though he commanded all
the troops, and his harness was oiled and polished till

(04:47:51):
it winked. I gave a cheer all by myself for
Billy the Mule, but he never looked right or left.
The rain began to fall again, and for a while
it was too misty to see what the troops were doing.
They had made a big half circle across the plain
and were spreading out into a line. That line grew
and grew and grew, till it was three quarters of

(04:48:11):
a mile long from wing to wing, one solid wall
of men, horses and guns. Then it came on straight
toward the Viceroy and the Emir, and as it got nearer,
the ground began to shake, like the deck of a
steamer when the engines are going fast. Unless you have
been there, you cannot imagine what a frightening effect the
steady come down of troops has on the spectators, even

(04:48:33):
when they know it is only a review. I looked
at the Emir up till then he had not shown
the shadow of a sign of astonishment or anything else.
But now his eyes began to get bigger and bigger,
and he picked up the reins on his horse's neck
and looked behind him. For a minute. It seemed as
though he was going to draw his sword and slash
his way out through the Englishmen and women in the

(04:48:53):
carriages at the back. Then the advance stopped dead, the
ground stood still, the whole line saluted, and thirty bands
began to play all together. That was the end of
the review, and the regiments went off to their camps
in the rain, and an infantry band struck up with
the animals went in two by two, Hurrah. The animals

(04:49:15):
went in two by two, the elephant and the battery mule,
and they all got into the ark for to get
out of the rain. Then I heard an old, grizzled,
long haired Central Asian chief who had come down with
the Emir, asking questions of a native officer, now said
he in what manner was this wonderful thing done? And

(04:49:37):
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. He obeys his driver, and the driver
his sergeant, and the sergeant his lieutenant, and the lieutenant

(04:49:57):
his captain, and the captain his maie major, and the
major his colonel, and the colonel his brigadier commanding three 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 obey only our own wills. And for that reason,

(04:50:22):
said the native officer, twirling his mustache, you are a
mere whom you do not obey. Must come here and
take orders from our viceroy. Parade song of the camp animals,
elephants of the gun team. We lent to Alexander, the

(04:50:43):
strength of Hercules, the wisdom of our foreheads, the cunning
of our knees. We bowed our next 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 and their harnesses avoid a cannon ball, and

(04:51:03):
what they know of powder upsets them one and all.
Then we come into action and tug the guns again.
Make way there waigh 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

(04:51:24):
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 sea the way of the war
horse to Bonnie Dundee. Screw gun mules. As me and

(04:51:46):
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 drivermen that cannot pack a load for we

(04:52:08):
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 troll up along.
But every neck is a hair trombone. Rich a tie
is a hair trombone. And this is our marching song.

(04:52:30):
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 loads tipped off in the road. Cheer for a
halt in a row or yar, ger ar, somebody's catching
it now, all the beasts together, children of the camp,

(04:52:50):
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 heelro 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 are. They march and suffer day by day. Children

(04:53:14):
of the camp, are we serving each in his degree?
Children of the yoke, and goad pack and harness pad
and load end of chapter seven,

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The Jungle Book - Rudyard Kipling

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.css-14f5ked{margin:0;word-break:break-word;display:-webkit-box;-webkit-box-orient:vertical;box-orient:vertical;-webkit-line-clamp:2;overflow:hidden;}The Jungle Book - Rudyard Kipling