KAA'S HUNTING
His spots are the joy of the Leopard: his horns are the Buffalo's pride-- Be clean, for the strength of the hunter is known by the gloss of his hide.
If ye find that the Bullock can toss you, or the heavy-browed Sambhur can gore; Ye need not stop work to inform us: we knew it ten seasons before.
Oppress not the cubs of the stranger, but hail them as Sister and Brother, For though they are little and fubsy, it may be the Bear is their mother.
"There is none like to me!" says the Cub in the pride of his earliest kill; But the Jungle is large and the Cub he is small. Let him think and be still.
_Maxims of Baloo._
KAA'S HUNTING
ALL that is told here happened some time before Mowgli was turned out ofthe Seeonee wolf-pack. It was in the days when Baloo was teaching himthe Law of the Jungle. The big, serious, old brown bear was delighted tohave so quick a pupil, for the young wolves will only learn as much ofthe Law of the Jungle as applies to their own pack and tribe, and runaway as soon as they can repeat the Hunting Verse: "Feet that make nonoise; eyes that can see in the dark; ears that can hear the winds intheir lairs, and sharp white teeth--all these things are the marks ofour brothers except Tabaqui and the Hyena, whom we hate." But Mowgli, asa man-cub, had to learn a great deal more than this. Sometimes Bagheera,the Black Panther, would come lounging through the jungle to see how hispet was getting on, and would purr with his head against a tree whileMowgli recited the day's lesson to Baloo. The boy could climb almost aswell as he could swim, and swim almost as well as he could run; soBaloo, the Teacher of the Law, taught him the Wood and Water laws: howto tell a rotten branch from a sound one; how to speak politely to thewild bees when he came upon a hive of them fifty feet aboveground; whatto say to Mang, the Bat, when he disturbed him in the branches atmidday; and how to warn the water-snakes in the pools before he splasheddown among them. None of the Jungle People like being disturbed, and allare very ready to fly at an intruder. Then, too, Mowgli was taught theStrangers' Hunting Call, which must be repeated aloud till it isanswered, whenever one of the Jungle People hunts outside his owngrounds. It means, translated: "Give me leave to hunt here because I amhungry"; and the answer is: "Hunt, then, for food, but not forpleasure."
All this will show you how much Mowgli had to learn by heart, and hegrew very tired of repeating the same thing a hundred times; but, asBaloo said to Bagheera one day when Mowgli had been cuffed and had runoff in a temper: "A man's cub is a man's cub, and he must learn _all_the Law of the Jungle."
"But think how small he is," said the Black Panther, who would havespoiled Mowgli if he had had his own way. "How can his little head carryall thy long talk?"
"Is there anything in the jungle too little to be killed? No. That iswhy I teach him these things, and that is why I hit him, very softly,when he forgets."
"Softly! What dost thou know of softness, old Iron-feet?" Bagheeragrunted. "His face is all bruised to-day by thy--softness. Ugh!"
"Better he should be bruised from head to foot by me who love him thanthat he should come to harm through ignorance," Baloo answered, veryearnestly. "I am now teaching him the Master Words of the Jungle thatshall protect him with the Birds and the Snake People, and all that hunton four feet, except his own pack. He can now claim protection, if hewill only remember the Words, from all in the jungle. Is not that wortha little beating?"
"Well, look to it then that thou dost not kill the man-cub. He is notree-trunk to sharpen thy blunt claws upon. But what are those MasterWords? I am more likely to give help than to ask it"--Bagheera stretchedout one paw and admired the steel-blue ripping-chisel talons at the endof it--"Still I should like to know."
"I will call Mowgli and he shall say them--if he will. Come, LittleBrother!"
"My head is ringing like a bee-tree," said a sullen voice over theirheads, and Mowgli slid down a tree-trunk, very angry and indignant,adding, as he reached the ground: "I come for Bagheera and not for_thee_, fat old Baloo!"
"That is all one to me," said Baloo, though he was hurt and grieved."Tell Bagheera, then, the Master Words of the Jungle that I have taughtthee this day."
"Master Words for which people?" said Mowgli, delighted to show off."The jungle has many tongues. _I_ know them all."
"A little thou knowest, but not much. See, O Bagheera, they never thanktheir teacher! Not one small wolfling has come back to thank old Baloofor his teachings. Say the Word for the Hunting People, then,--greatscholar!"
"We be of one blood, ye and I," said Mowgli, giving the words the Bearaccent which all the Hunting People of the Jungle use.
"Good! Now for the Birds."
Mowgli repeated, with the Kite's whistle at the end of the sentence.
"Now for the Snake People," said Bagheera.
The answer was a perfectly indescribable hiss, and Mowgli kicked up hisfeet behind, clapped his hands together to applaud himself, and jumpedon Bagheera's back, where he sat sideways, drumming with his heels onthe glossy skin and making the worst faces that he could think of atBaloo.
"There--there! That was worth a little bruise," said the Brown Bear,tenderly. "Some day thou wilt remember me." Then he turned aside to tellBagheera how he had begged the Master Words from Hathi, the WildElephant, who knows all about these things, and how Hathi had takenMowgli down to a pool to get the Snake Word from a water-snake, becauseBaloo could not pronounce it, and how Mowgli was now reasonably safeagainst all accidents in the jungle, because neither snake, bird, norbeast would hurt him.
"No one then is to be feared," Baloo wound up, patting his big furrystomach with pride.
"Except his own tribe," said Bagheera, under his breath; and then aloudto Mowgli: "Have a care for my ribs, Little Brother! What is all thisdancing up and down?"
Mowgli had been trying to make himself heard by pulling at Bagheera'sshoulder-fur and kicking hard. When the two listened to him he wasshouting at the top of his voice: "And _so_ I shall have a tribe of myown, and lead them through the branches all day long."
"What is this new folly, little dreamer of dreams?" said Bagheera.
"Yes, and throw branches and dirt at old Baloo," Mowgli went on. "Theyhave promised me this, ah!"
"Whoof!" Baloo's big paw scooped Mowgli off Bagheera's back, and as theboy lay between the big fore paws he could see the bear was angry.
"Mowgli," said Baloo, "thou hast been talking with the Bandar-log--theMonkey People."
Mowgli looked at Bagheera to see if the panther was angry too, andBagheera's eyes were as hard as jade-stones.
"Thou hast been with the Monkey People--the gray apes--the peoplewithout a Law--the eaters of everything. That is great shame."
"When Baloo hurt my head," said Mowgli (he was still down on his back),"I went away, and the gray apes came down from the trees and had pity onme. No one else cared." He snuffled a little.
"The pity of the Monkey People!" Baloo snorted.
"The stillness of the mountain stream! The cool of the summer sun! Andthen, man-cub?"
"And then--and then they gave me nuts and pleasant things to eat, andthey--they carried me in their arms up to the top of the trees and saidI was their blood-brother, except that I had no tail, and should betheir leader some day."
"They have _no_ leader," said Bagheera. "They lie. They have alwayslied."
"They were very kind, and bade me come again. Why have I never beentaken among the Monkey People? They stand on their feet as I do. They donot hit me with hard paws. They play all day. Let me get up! Bad Baloo,let me up! I will go play with them again."
"Listen, man-cub," said the bear, and his voice rumbled like thunder ona hot night. "I have taught thee all the Law of the Jungle for all thePeoples of the Jungle--except the Monkey Folk who live in the trees.They have no Law. They a
re outcastes. They have no speech of their own,but use the stolen words which they overhear when they listen and peepand wait up above in the branches. Their way is not our way. They arewithout leaders. They have no remembrance. They boast and chatter andpretend that they are a great people about to do great affairs in thejungle, but the falling of a nut turns their minds to laughter, and allis forgotten. We of the jungle have no dealings with them. We do notdrink where the monkeys drink; we do not go where the monkeys go; we donot hunt where they hunt; we do not die where they die. Hast thou everheard me speak of the Bandar-log till to-day?"
"No," said Mowgli in a whisper, for the forest was very still now thatBaloo had finished.
"The Jungle People put them out of their mouths and out of their minds.They are very many, evil, dirty, shameless, and they desire, if theyhave 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 downthrough the branches; and they could hear coughings and howlings andangry jumpings high up in the air among the thin branches.
"The Monkey People are forbidden," said Baloo, "forbidden to the JunglePeople. Remember."
"Forbidden," said Bagheera; "but I still think Baloo should have warnedthee against them."
"I--I? How was I to guess he would play with such dirt. The MonkeyPeople! Faugh!"
A fresh shower came down on their heads, and the two trotted away,taking Mowgli with them. What Baloo had said about the monkeys wasperfectly true. They belonged to the tree-tops, and as beasts veryseldom look up, there was no occasion for the monkeys and the JunglePeople to cross one another's path. But whenever they found a sick wolf,or a wounded tiger or bear, the monkeys would torment him, and wouldthrow sticks and nuts at any beast for fun and in the hope of beingnoticed. Then they would howl and shriek senseless songs, and invite theJungle People to climb up their trees and fight them, or would startfurious battles over nothing among themselves, and leave the deadmonkeys where the Jungle People could see them.
They were always just going to have a leader and laws and customs oftheir own, but they never did, because their memories would not holdover from day to day, and so they settled things by making up a saying:"What the Bandar-log think now the Jungle will think later"; and thatcomforted them a great deal. None of the beasts could reach them, but onthe other hand none of the beasts would notice them, and that was whythey were so pleased when Mowgli came to play with them, and when theyheard how angry Baloo was.
They never meant to do any more,--the Bandar-log never mean anything atall,--but one of them invented what seemed to him a brilliant idea, andhe told all the others that Mowgli would be a useful person to keep inthe tribe, because he could weave sticks together for protection fromthe wind; so, if they caught him, they could make him teach them. Ofcourse Mowgli, as a wood-cutter's child, inherited all sorts ofinstincts, and used to make little play-huts of fallen branches withoutthinking how he came to do it. The Monkey People, watching in the trees,considered these huts most wonderful. This time, they said, they werereally going to have a leader and become the wisest people in thejungle--so wise that every one else would notice and envy them.Therefore they followed Baloo and Bagheera and Mowgli through the junglevery quietly till it was time for the midday nap, and Mowgli, who wasvery much ashamed of himself, slept between the panther and the bear,resolving to have no more to do with the Monkey People.
The next thing he remembered was feeling hands on his legs andarms,--hard, strong little hands,--and then a swash of branches in hisface; and then he was staring down through the swaying boughs as Baloowoke the jungle with his deep cries and Bagheera bounded up the trunkwith every tooth bared. The Bandar-log howled with triumph, and scuffledaway to the upper branches where Bagheera dared not follow, shouting:"He has noticed us! Bagheera has noticed us! All the Jungle Peopleadmire us for our skill and our cunning!" Then they began their flight;and the flight of the Monkey People through tree-land is one of thethings nobody can describe. They have their regular roads andcross-roads, uphills and downhills, all laid out from fifty to seventyor a hundred feet aboveground, and by these they can travel even atnight if necessary.
Two of the strongest monkeys caught Mowgli under the arms and swung offwith him through the tree-tops, twenty feet at a bound. Had they beenalone they could have gone twice as fast, but the boy's weight held themback. Sick and giddy as Mowgli was he could not help enjoying the wildrush, though the glimpses of earth far down below frightened him, andthe terrible check and jerk at the end of the swing over nothing butempty air brought his heart between his teeth.
His escort would rush him up a tree till he felt the weak topmostbranches crackle and bend under them, and, then, with a cough and awhoop, would fling themselves into the air outward and downward, andbring up hanging by their hands or their feet to the lower limbs of thenext tree. Sometimes he could see for miles and miles over the stillgreen jungle, as a man on the top of a mast can see for miles across thesea, 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 ofBandar-log swept along the tree-roads with Mowgli their prisoner.
For a time he was afraid of being dropped; then he grew angry, but heknew better than to struggle; and then he began to think. The firstthing was to send back word to Baloo and Bagheera, for, at the pace themonkeys were going, he knew his friends would be left far behind. Itwas useless to look down, for he could see only the top sides of thebranches, so he stared upward and saw, far away in the blue, Rann, theKite, balancing and wheeling as he kept watch over the jungle waitingfor things to die. Rann noticed that the monkeys were carryingsomething, and dropped a few hundred yards to find out whether theirload was good to eat. He whistled with surprise when he saw Mowgli beingdragged up to a tree-top, and heard him give the Kite call for "We be ofone blood, thou and I." The waves of the branches closed over the boy,but Rann balanced away to the next tree in time to see the little brownface come up again. "Mark my trail!" Mowgli shouted. "Tell Baloo of theSeeonee Pack, and Bagheera of the Council Rock."
"In whose name, Brother?" Rann had never seen Mowgli before, though ofcourse he had heard of him.
"Mowgli, the Frog. Man-cub they call me! Mark my tra--il!"
The last words were shrieked as he was being swung through the air, butRann nodded, and rose up till he looked no bigger than a speck of dust,and there he hung, watching with his telescope eyes the swaying of thetree-tops as Mowgli's escort whirled along.
"They never go far," he said, with a chuckle. "They never do what theyset out to do. Always pecking at new things are the Bandar-log. Thistime, if I have any eyesight, they have pecked down trouble forthemselves, for Baloo is no fledgling and Bagheera can, as I know, killmore than goats."
Then he rocked on his wings, his feet gathered up under him, and waited.
Meanwhile, Baloo and Bagheera were furious with rage and grief. Bagheeraclimbed as he had never climbed before, but the branches broke beneathhis weight, and he slipped down, his claws full of bark.
"Why didst thou not warn the man-cub!" he roared to poor Baloo, who hadset off at a clumsy trot in the hope of overtaking the monkeys. "Whatwas the use of half slaying him with blows if thou didst not warn him?"
"Haste! O haste! We--we may catch them yet!" Baloo panted.
"At that speed! It would not tire a wounded cow. Teacher of the Law,cub-beater--a mile of that rolling to and fro would burst thee open. Sitstill and think! Make a plan. This is no time for chasing. They may drophim if we follow too close."
"_Arrula! Whoo!_ They may have dropped him already, being tired ofcarrying him. Who can trust the Bandar-log? Put dead bats on my head!Give me black bones to eat! Roll me into the hives of the wild bees thatI may be stung to death, and bury me with the hyena; for I am the mostmiserable of bears! _Arulala! Wahooa!_ O Mowgli, Mowg
li! Why did I notwarn thee against the Monkey Folk instead of breaking thy head? Nowperhaps I may have knocked the day's lesson out of his mind, and he willbe alone in the jungle without the Master Words!"
Baloo clasped his paws over his ears and rolled to and fro, moaning.
"At least he gave me all the Words correctly a little time ago," saidBagheera, impatiently. "Baloo, thou hast neither memory nor respect.What would the jungle think if I, the Black Panther, curled myself uplike Ikki, the Porcupine, and howled?"
"What do I care what the jungle thinks? He may be dead by now."
"Unless and until they drop him from the branches in sport, or kill himout of idleness, I have no fear for the man-cub. He is wise andwell-taught, and, above all, he has the eyes that make the Jungle Peopleafraid. But (and it is a great evil) he is in the power of theBandar-log, and they, because they live in trees, have no fear of any ofour people." Bagheera licked his one fore paw thoughtfully.
"Fool that I am! Oh fat, brown, root-digging fool that I am!" saidBaloo, uncoiling himself with a jerk. "It is true what Hathi, the WildElephant, says: '_To each his own fear_'; and they, the Bandar-log, fearKaa, the Rock Snake. He can climb as well as they can. He steals theyoung monkeys in the night. The mere whisper of his name makes theirwicked tails cold. Let us go to Kaa."
"What will he do for us? He is not of our tribe, being footless and withmost evil eyes," said Bagheera.
"He is very old and very cunning. Above all, he is always hungry," saidBaloo, hopefully. "Promise him many goats."
"He sleeps for a full month after he has once eaten. He may be asleepnow, and even were he awake, what if he would rather kill his owngoats?" Bagheera, who did not know much about Kaa, was naturallysuspicious.
"Then in that case, thou and I together, old hunter, may make him seereason." Here Baloo rubbed his faded brown shoulder against thepanther, and they went off to look for Kaa, the Rock Python.
They found him stretched out on a warm ledge in the afternoon sun,admiring his beautiful new coat, for he had been in retirement for thelast ten days changing his skin, and now he was very splendid--dartinghis big blunt-nosed head along the ground, and twisting the thirty feetof his body into fantastic knots and curves, and licking his lips as hethought of his dinner to come.
"He has not eaten," said Baloo, with a grunt of relief, as soon as hesaw the beautifully mottled brown and yellow jacket. "Be careful,Bagheera! He is always a little blind after he has changed his skin, andvery quick to strike."
Kaa was not a poison snake--in fact he rather despised the Poison Snakesfor cowards; but his strength lay in his hug, and when he had oncelapped his huge coils round anybody there was no more to be said. "Goodhunting!" cried Baloo, sitting up on his haunches. Like all snakes ofhis breed Kaa was rather deaf, and did not hear the call at first. Thenhe curled up ready for any accident, his head lowered.
"Good hunting for us all," he answered. "Oho, Baloo, what dost thou dohere? Good hunting, Bagheera. One of us at least needs food. Is thereany news of game afoot? A doe now, or even a young buck? I am as emptyas a dried well."
"We are hunting," said Baloo, carelessly. He knew that you must nothurry Kaa. He is too big.
"Give me permission to come with you," said Kaa. "A blow more or less isnothing to thee, Bagheera or Baloo, but I--I have to wait and wait fordays in a wood path and climb half a night on the mere chance of a youngape. _Pss naw!_ The branches are not what they were when I was young.Rotten twigs and dry boughs are they all."
"Maybe thy great weight has something to do with the matter," saidBaloo.
"I am a fair length--a fair length," said Kaa, with a little pride. "Butfor all that, it is the fault of this new-grown timber. I came very nearto falling on my last hunt,--very near indeed,--and the noise of myslipping, for my tail was not tight wrapped round the tree, waked theBandar-log, and they called me most evil names."
"'Footless, yellow earthworm,'" said Bagheera under his whiskers, asthough he were trying to remember something.
"_Sssss!_ Have they ever called me _that_?" said Kaa.
"Something of that kind it was that they shouted to us last moon, but wenever noticed them. They will say anything--even that thou hast lost allthy teeth, and dare not face anything bigger than a kid, because (theyare indeed shameless, these Bandar-log)--because thou art afraid of thehe-goats' horns," Bagheera went on sweetly.
Now a snake, especially a wary old python like Kaa, very seldom showsthat he is angry; but Baloo and Bagheera could see the big swallowingmuscles on either side of Kaa's throat ripple and bulge.
"The Bandar-log have shifted their grounds," he said, quietly. "When Icame up into the sun today I heard them whooping among the tree-tops."
"It--it is the Bandar-log that we follow now," said Baloo; but the wordsstuck in his throat, for this was the first time in his memory that oneof the Jungle People had owned to being interested in the doings of themonkeys.
"Beyond doubt, then, it is no small thing that takes two suchhunters--leaders in their own jungle, I am certain--on the trail of theBandar-log," Kaa replied, courteously, as he swelled with curiosity.
"Indeed," Baloo began, "I am no more than the old, and sometimes veryfoolish, Teacher of the Law to the Seeonee wolf-cubs, and Bagheerahere--"
"Is Bagheera," said the Black Panther, and his jaws shut with a snap,for he did not believe in being humble. "The trouble is this, Kaa. Thosenut-stealers and pickers of palm-leaves have stolen away our man-cub, ofwhom thou hast perhaps heard."
"I heard some news from Ikki (his quills make him presumptuous) of aman-thing that was entered into a wolf-pack, but I did not believe. Ikkiis full of stories half heard and very badly told."
"But it is true. He is such a man-cub as never was," said Baloo. "Thebest and wisest and boldest of man-cubs. My own pupil, who shall makethe name of Baloo famous through all the jungles; and besides,I--we--love him, Kaa."
"_Ts! Ts!_" said Kaa, shaking his head to and fro. "I also have knownwhat 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-lognow, and we know that of all the Jungle People they fear Kaa alone."
"They fear me alone. They have good reason," said Kaa. "Chattering,foolish, vain--vain, foolish, and chattering--are the monkeys. But aman-thing in their hands is in no good luck. They grow tired of the nutsthey pick, and throw them down. They carry a branch half a day, meaningto do great things with it, and then they snap it in two. That manlingis not to be envied. They called me also--'yellow fish,' was it not?"
"Worm--worm--earthworm," said Bagheera; "as well as other things which Icannot now say for shame."
"We must remind them to speak well of their master. _Aaa-sssh!_ We musthelp their wandering memories. Now, whither went they with thy cub?"
"The jungle alone knows. Toward the sunset, I believe," said Baloo. "Wehad thought that thou wouldst know, Kaa."
"I? How? I take them when they come in my way, but I do not hunt theBandar-log--or frogs--or green scum on a water-hole, for that matter."
"Up, up! Up, up! _Hillo! Illo! Illo!_ Look up, Baloo of the Seeonee WolfPack!"
Baloo looked up to see where the voice came from, and there was Rann,the Kite, sweeping down with the sun shining on the upturned flanges ofhis wings. It was near Rann's bedtime, but he had ranged all over thejungle looking for the bear, and missed him in the thick foliage.
"What is it?" said Baloo.
"I have seen Mowgli among the Bandar-log. He bade me tell you. Iwatched. The Bandar-log have taken him beyond the river to the MonkeyCity--to the Cold Lairs. They may stay there for a night, or ten nights,or an hour. I have told the bats to watch through the dark time. That ismy message. Good hunting, all you below!"
"Full gorge and a deep sleep to you, Rann!" cried Bagheera. "I willremember thee in my next kill, and put aside the head for thee alone, Obest of kites!"
"It is nothing. It is no
thing. The boy held the Master Word. I couldhave done no less," and Rann circled up again to his roost.
"He has not forgotten to use his tongue," said Baloo, with a chuckle ofpride. "To think of one so young remembering the Master Word for thebirds while he was being pulled across trees!"
"It was most firmly driven into him," said Bagheera. "But I am proud ofhim, and now we must go to the Cold Lairs."
They all knew where that place was, but few of the Jungle People everwent there, because what they called the Cold Lairs was an old desertedcity, lost and buried in the jungle, and beasts seldom use a place thatmen have once used. The wild boar will, but the hunting-tribes do not.Besides, the monkeys lived there as much as they could be said to liveanywhere, and no self-respecting animal would come within eye-shot of itexcept in times of drouth, when the half-ruined tanks and reservoirsheld a little water.
"It is half a night's journey--at full speed," said Bagheera. Baloolooked very serious. "I will go as fast as I can," he said, anxiously.
"We dare not wait for thee. Follow, Baloo. We must go on thequick-foot--Kaa and I."
"Feet or no feet, I can keep abreast of all thy four," said Kaa,shortly.
Baloo made one effort to hurry, but had to sit down panting, and so theyleft him to come on later, while Bagheera hurried forward, at therocking panther-canter. Kaa said nothing, but, strive as Bagheera might,the huge Rock Python held level with him. When they came to ahill-stream, Bagheera gained, because he bounded across while Kaa swam,his head and two feet of his neck clearing the water, but on levelground Kaa made up the distance.
"By the Broken Lock that freed me," said Bagheera, when twilight hadfallen, "thou art no slow-goer."
"I am hungry," said Kaa. "Besides, they called me speckled frog."
"Worm--earthworm, and yellow to boot."
"All one. Let us go on," and Kaa seemed to pour himself along theground, finding the shortest road with his steady eyes, and keeping toit.
In the Cold Lairs the Monkey People were not thinking of Mowgli'sfriends at all. They had brought the boy to the Lost City, and were verypleased with themselves for the time. Mowgli had never seen an Indiancity before, and though this was almost a heap of ruins it seemed verywonderful and splendid. Some king had built it long ago on a littlehill. You could still trace the stone causeways that led up to theruined gates where the last splinters of wood hung to the worn, rustedhinges. Trees had grown into and out of the walls; the battlements weretumbled down and decayed, and wild creepers hung out of the windows ofthe towers on the walls in bushy hanging clumps.
A great roofless palace crowned the hill, and the marble of thecourtyards and the fountains was split and stained with red and green,and the very cobblestones in the courtyard where the king's elephantsused to live had been thrust up and apart by grasses and young trees.From the palace you could see the rows and rows of roofless houses thatmade up the city, looking like empty honeycombs filled with blackness;the shapeless block of stone that had been an idol in the square wherefour roads met; the pits and dimples at street corners where the publicwells once stood, and the shattered domes of temples with wild figssprouting on their sides.
The monkeys called the place their city, and pretended to despise theJungle People because they lived in the forest. And yet they never knewwhat the buildings were made for nor how to use them. They would sit incircles on the hall of the king's council-chamber, and scratch for fleasand pretend to be men; or they would run in and out of the rooflesshouses and collect pieces of plaster and old bricks in a corner, andforget where they had hidden them, and fight and cry in scufflingcrowds, and then break off to play up and down the terraces of theking's garden, where they would shake the rose-trees and the oranges insport to see the fruit and flowers fall. They explored all the passagesand dark tunnels in the palace and the hundreds of little dark rooms;but they never remembered what they had seen and what they had not, andso drifted about in ones and twos or crowds, telling one another thatthey were doing as men did. They drank at the tanks and made the waterall muddy, and then they fought over it, and then they would all rushtogether in mobs and shout: "There are none in the jungle so wise andgood and clever and strong and gentle as the Bandar-log." Then all wouldbegin again till they grew tired of the city and went back to thetree-tops, hoping the Jungle People would notice them.
Mowgli, who had been trained under the Law of the Jungle, did not likeor understand this kind of life. The monkeys dragged him into the ColdLairs late in the afternoon, and instead of going to sleep, as Mowgliwould have done after a long journey, they joined hands and danced aboutand sang their foolish songs.
One of the monkeys made a speech, and told his companions that Mowgli'scapture marked a new thing in the history of the Bandar-log, for Mowgliwas going to show them how to weave sticks and canes together as aprotection against rain and cold. Mowgli picked up some creepers andbegan to work them in and out, and the monkeys tried to imitate; but ina very few minutes they lost interest and began to pull their friends'tails or jump up and down on all fours, coughing.
"I want to eat," said Mowgli. "I am a stranger in this part of thejungle. Bring me food, or give me leave to hunt here."
Twenty or thirty monkeys bounded away to bring him nuts and wildpawpaws; but they fell to fighting on the road, and it was too muchtrouble to go back with what was left of the fruit. Mowgli was sore andangry as well as hungry, and he roamed through the empty city giving theStrangers' Hunting Call from time to time, but no one answered him, andMowgli felt that he had reached a very bad place indeed.
"All that Baloo has said about the Bandar-log is true," he thought tohimself. "They have no Law, no Hunting Call, and no leaders--nothing butfoolish words and little picking, thievish hands. So if I am starved orkilled here, it will be all my own fault. But I must try to return to myown jungle. Baloo will surely beat me, but that is better than chasingsilly rose-leaves with the Bandar-log."
But no sooner had he walked to the city wall than the monkeys pulled himback, telling him that he did not know how happy he was, and pinchinghim to make him grateful. He set his teeth and said nothing, but wentwith the shouting monkeys to a terrace above the red sandstonereservoirs that were half full of rain-water. There was a ruinedsummer-house of white marble in the center of the terrace, built forqueens dead a hundred years ago. The domed roof had half fallen in andblocked up the underground passage from the palace by which the queensused to enter; but the walls were made of screens of marbletracery--beautiful, milk-white fretwork, set with agates and corneliansand jasper and lapis lazuli, and as the moon came up behind the hill itshone through the openwork, casting shadows on the ground likeblack-velvet embroidery.
Sore, sleepy, and hungry as he was, Mowgli could not help laughing whenthe Bandar-log began, twenty at a time, to tell him how great and wiseand strong and gentle they were, and how foolish he was to wish to leavethem. "We are great. We are free. We are wonderful. We are the mostwonderful people in all the jungle! We all say so, and so it must betrue," they shouted. "Now as you are a new listener and can carry ourwords back to the Jungle People so that they may notice us in future, wewill tell you all about our most excellent selves."
Mowgli made no objection, and the monkeys gathered by hundreds andhundreds on the terrace to listen to their own speakers singing thepraises of the Bandar-log, and whenever a speaker stopped for want ofbreath they would all shout together: "This is true; we all say so."
Mowgli nodded and blinked, and said "Yes" when they asked him aquestion, and his head spun with the noise. "Tabaqui, the Jackal, musthave bitten all these people," he said to himself, "and now they havethe madness. Certainly this is _dewance_--the madness. Do they never goto sleep? Now there is a cloud coming to cover that moon. If it wereonly a big enough cloud I might try to run away in the darkness. But Iam tired."
That same cloud was being watched by two good friends in the ruinedditch below the city wall, for Bagheera and Kaa, knowing well howdangerous the Monkey People were in lar
ge numbers, did not wish to runany risks. The monkeys never fight unless they are a hundred to one, andfew in the jungle care for those odds.
"I will go to the west wall," Kaa whispered, "and come down swiftly withthe slope of the ground in my favor. They will not throw themselves upon_my_ back in their hundreds, but--"
"I know it," said Bagheera. "Would that Baloo were here; but we must dowhat we can. When that cloud covers the moon I shall go to the terrace.They hold some sort of council there over the boy."
"Good hunting," said Kaa, grimly, and glided away to the west wall. Thathappened to be the least ruined of any, and the big snake was delayed awhile before he could find a way up the stones.
The cloud hid the moon, and as Mowgli wondered what would come next heheard Bagheera's light feet on the terrace. The Black Panther had racedup the slope almost without a sound, and was striking--he knew betterthan to waste time in biting--right and left among the monkeys, who wereseated round Mowgli in circles fifty and sixty deep. There was a howl offright and rage, and then as Bagheera tripped on the rolling, kickingbodies beneath him, a monkey shouted: "There is only one here! Kill him!Kill!" A scuffling mass of monkeys, biting, scratching, tearing, andpulling, closed over Bagheera, while five or six laid hold of Mowgli,dragged him up the wall of the summer-house, and pushed him through thehole of the broken dome. A man-trained boy would have been badlybruised, for the fall was a good ten feet, but Mowgli fell as Baloo hadtaught him to fall, and landed light.
"Stay there," shouted the monkeys, "till we have killed thy friend.Later we will play with thee, if the Poison People leave thee alive."
"We be of one blood, ye and I," said Mowgli, quickly giving the Snake'sCall. He could hear rustling and hissing in the rubbish all round him,and gave the Call a second time to make sure.
"Down hoods all," said half a dozen low voices. Every old ruin in Indiabecomes sooner or later a dwelling-place of snakes, and the oldsummer-house was alive with cobras. "Stand still, Little Brother, lestthy feet do us harm."
Mowgli stood as quietly as he could, peering through the openwork andlistening to the furious din of the fight round the Black Panther--theyells and chatterings and scufflings, and Bagheera's deep, hoarse coughas he backed and bucked and twisted and plunged under the heaps of hisenemies. For the first time since he was born, Bagheera was fighting forhis life.
"Baloo must be at hand; Bagheera would not have come alone," Mowglithought; and then he called aloud: "To the tank, Bagheera! Roll to thewater-tanks! Roll and plunge! Get to the water!"
Bagheera heard, and the cry that told him Mowgli was safe gave him newcourage. He worked his way desperately, inch by inch, straight for thereservoirs, hitting in silence.
Then from the ruined wall nearest the jungle rose up the rumblingwar-shout of Baloo. The old bear had done his best, but he could notcome before. "Bagheera," he shouted, "I am here! I climb! I haste!_Ahuwora!_ The stones slip under my feet! Wait my coming, O mostinfamous Bandar log!"
He panted up the terrace only to disappear to the head in a wave ofmonkeys, but he threw himself squarely on his haunches, and spreadingout his fore paws, hugged as many as he could hold, and then began tohit with a regular _bat-bat-bat_, like the flipping strokes of apaddle-wheel.
A crash and a splash told Mowgli that Bagheera had fought his way to thetank, where the monkeys could not follow. The panther lay gasping forbreath, his head just out of water, while the monkeys stood three deepon the red stone steps, dancing up and down with rage, ready to springupon him from all sides if he came out to help Baloo. It was then thatBagheera lifted up his dripping chin, and in despair gave the Snake'sCall for protection,--"We be of one blood, ye and I,"--for he believedthat Kaa had turned tail at the last minute. Even Baloo, half smotheredunder the monkeys on the edge of the terrace, could not help chucklingas he heard the big Black Panther asking for help.
Kaa had only just worked his way over the west wall, landing with awrench that dislodged a coping-stone into the ditch. He had no intentionof losing any advantage of the ground, and coiled and uncoiled himselfonce or twice, to be sure that every foot of his long body was inworking order.
All that while the fight with Baloo went on, and the monkeys yelled inthe tank round Bagheera, and Mang, the Bat, flying to and fro, carriedthe news of the great battle over the jungle, till even Hathi, the WildElephant, trumpeted, and, far away, scattered bands of the Monkey Folkwoke and came leaping along the tree-roads to help their comrades in theCold Lairs, and the noise of the fight roused all the day-birds formiles round.
Then Kaa came straight, quickly, and anxious to kill. The fightingstrength of a python is in the driving blow of his head, backed by allthe strength and weight of his body. If you can imagine a lance, or abattering-ram, or a hammer, weighing nearly half a ton driven by a cool,quiet mind living in the handle of it, you can imagine roughly what Kaawas like when he fought. A python four or five feet long can knock a mandown if he hits him fairly in the chest, and Kaa was thirty feet long,as you know. His first stroke was delivered into the heart of the crowdround Baloo--was sent home with shut mouth in silence, and there was noneed of a second. The monkeys scattered with cries of "Kaa! It is Kaa!Run! Run!"
Generations of monkeys had been scared into good behavior by the storiestheir elders told them of Kaa, the night-thief, who could slip along thebranches as quietly as moss grows, and steal away the strongest monkeythat ever lived; of old Kaa, who could make himself look so like a deadbranch or a rotten stump that the wisest were deceived till the branchcaught them, and then--
Kaa was everything that the monkeys feared in the jungle, for none ofthem knew the limits of his power, none of them could look him in theface, and none had ever come alive out of his hug. And so they ran,stammering with terror, to the walls and the roofs of the houses, andBaloo drew a deep breath of relief. His fur was much thicker thanBagheera's, but he had suffered sorely in the fight. Then Kaa opened hismouth for the first time and spoke one long hissing word, and thefar-away monkeys, hurrying to the defense of the Cold Lairs, stayedwhere they were, cowering, till the loaded branches bent and crackledunder them. The monkeys on the walls and the empty houses stopped theircries, and in the stillness that fell upon the city Mowgli heardBagheera shaking his wet sides as he came up from the tank.
Then the clamor broke out again. The monkeys leaped higher up the walls;they clung round the necks of the big stone idols and shrieked as theyskipped along the battlements; while Mowgli, dancing in thesummer-house, put his eye to the screenwork and hooted owl-fashionbetween his front teeth, to show his derision and contempt.
"Get the man-cub out of that trap; I can do no more," Bagheera gasped."Let us take the man-cub and go. They may attack again."
"They will not move till I order them. Stay you sssso!" Kaa hissed, andthe city was silent once more. "I could not come before, Brother, but I_think_ I heard thee call"--this was to Bagheera.
"I--I may have cried out in the battle," Bagheera answered. "Baloo, artthou hurt?"
"I am not sure that they have not pulled me into a hundred littlebearlings," said Baloo, gravely shaking one leg after the other. "Wow! Iam sore. Kaa, we owe thee, I think, our lives--Bagheera and I."
"No matter. Where is the manling?"
"Here, in a trap. I cannot climb out," cried Mowgli. The curve of thebroken dome was above his head.
"Take him away. He dances like Mao, the Peacock. He will crush ouryoung," said the cobras inside.
"Hah!" said Kaa, with a chuckle, "he has friends everywhere, thismanling. Stand back, Manling; and hide you, O Poison People. I breakdown the wall."
Kaa looked carefully till he found a discolored crack in the marbletracery showing a weak spot, made two or three light taps with his headto get the distance, and then lifting up six feet of his body clear ofthe ground, sent home half a dozen full-power, smashing blows,nose-first. The screenwork broke and fell away in a cloud of dust andrubbish, and Mowgli leaped through the opening and flung himself betweenBaloo and Bagheera--
an arm round each big neck.
"Art thou hurt?" said Baloo, hugging him softly.
"I am sore, hungry, and not a little bruised; but, oh, they have handledye grievously, my Brothers! Ye bleed."
"Others also," said Bagheera, licking his lips and looking at themonkey-dead on the terrace and round the tank.
"It is nothing, it is nothing if thou art safe, O my pride of all littlefrogs!" whimpered Baloo.
"Of that we shall judge later," said Bagheera, in a dry voice thatMowgli did not at all like. "But here is Kaa, to whom we owe the battleand thou owest thy life. Thank him according to our customs, Mowgli."
Mowgli turned and saw the great python's head swaying a foot above hisown.
"So this is the manling," said Kaa. "Very soft is his skin, and he isnot so unlike the Bandar-log. Have a care, Manling, that I do notmistake thee for a monkey some twilight when I have newly changed mycoat."
"We be of one blood, thou and I," Mowgli answered. "I take my life fromthee, to-night. My kill shall be thy kill if ever thou art hungry, OKaa."
"All thanks, Little Brother," said Kaa, though his eyes twinkled. "Andwhat may so bold a hunter kill? I ask that I may follow when next hegoes abroad."
"I kill nothing,--I am too little,--but I drive goats toward such as canuse them. When thou art empty come to me and see if I speak the truth. Ihave some skill in these [he held out his hands], and if ever thou artin a trap, I may pay the debt which I owe to thee, to Bagheera, and toBaloo, here. Good hunting to ye all, my masters."
"Well said," growled Baloo, for Mowgli had returned thanks veryprettily. The python dropped his head lightly for a minute on Mowgli'sshoulder. "A brave heart and a courteous tongue," said he. "They shallcarry thee far through the jungle, Manling. But now go hence quicklywith thy friends. Go and sleep, for the moon sets, and what follows itis not well that thou shouldst see."
The moon was sinking behind the hills and the lines of trembling monkeyshuddled together on the walls and battlements looked like ragged, shakyfringes of things. Baloo went down to the tank for a drink, and Bagheerabegan to put his fur in order, as Kaa glided out into the center of theterrace and brought his jaws together with a ringing snap that drew allthe monkeys' eyes upon him.
"The moon sets," he said. "Is there yet light to see?"
From the walls came a moan like the wind in the tree-tops: "We see, OKaa!"
"Good! Begins now the Dance--the Dance of the Hunger of Kaa. Sit stilland watch."
He turned twice or thrice in a big circle, weaving his head from rightto left. Then he began making loops and figures of eight with his body,and soft, oozy triangles that melted into squares and five-sidedfigures, and coiled mounds, never resting, never hurrying, and neverstopping his low, humming song. It grew darker and darker, till at lastthe dragging, shifting coils disappeared, but they could hear the rustleof the scales.
Baloo and Bagheera stood still as stone, growling in their throats,their neck-hair bristling, and Mowgli watched and wondered.
"Bandar-log," said the voice of Kaa at last, "can ye stir foot or handwithout my order? Speak!"
"Without thy order we cannot stir foot or hand, O Kaa!"
"Good! Come all one pace nearer to me."
The lines of the monkeys swayed forward helplessly, and Baloo andBagheera took one stiff step forward with them.
"Nearer!" hissed Kaa, and they all moved again.
Mowgli laid his hands on Baloo and Bagheera to get them away, and thetwo great beasts started as though they had been waked from a dream.
"Keep thy hand on my shoulder," Bagheera whispered. "Keep it there, or Imust go back--must go back to Kaa. _Aah!_"
"It is only old Kaa making circles on the dust," said Mowgli; "let usgo"; and the three slipped off through a gap in the walls to the jungle.
"_Whoof!_" said Baloo, when he stood under the still trees again. "Nevermore will I make an ally of Kaa," and he shook himself all over.
"He knows more than we," said Bagheera, trembling. "In a little time,had I stayed, I should have walked down his throat."
"Many will walk that road before the moon rises again," said Baloo. "Hewill have good hunting--after his own fashion."
"But what was the meaning of it all?" said Mowgli, who did not knowanything of a python's powers of fascination. "I saw no more than a bigsnake making foolish circles till the dark came. And his nose was allsore. Ho! Ho!"
"Mowgli," said Bagheera, angrily, "his nose was sore on _thy_ account;as my ears and sides and paws, and Baloo's neck and shoulders are bittenon _thy_ account. Neither Baloo nor Bagheera will be able to hunt withpleasure for many days."
"It is nothing," said Baloo; "we have the man-cub again."
"True; but he has cost us most heavily in time which might have beenspent in good hunting, in wounds, in hair,--I am half plucked along myback,--and last of all, in honor. For, remember, Mowgli, I, who am theBlack Panther, was forced to call upon Kaa for protection, and Baloo andI were both made stupid as little birds by the Hunger-Dance. All this,Man-cub, came of thy playing with the Bandar-log."
"True; it is true," said Mowgli, sorrowfully. "I am an evil man-cub, andmy stomach is sad in me."
"_Mf!_ What says the Law of the Jungle, Baloo?"
Baloo did not wish to bring Mowgli into any more trouble, but he couldnot tamper with the Law, so he mumbled, "Sorrow never stays punishment.But remember, Bagheera, he is very little."
"I will remember; but he has done mischief; and blows must be dealt now.Mowgli, hast thou anything to say?"
"Nothing. I did wrong. Baloo and thou art wounded. It is just."
Bagheera gave him half a dozen love-taps; from a panther's point of viewthey would hardly have waked one of his own cubs, but for a sevenyear-old boy they amounted to as severe a beating as you could wish toavoid. When it was all over Mowgli sneezed, and picked himself upwithout a word.
"Now," said Bagheera, "jump on my back, Little Brother, and we will gohome."
One of the beauties of Jungle Law is that punishment settles all scores.There is no nagging afterward.
Mowgli laid his head down on Bagheera's back and slept so deeply that henever waked when he was put down by Mother Wolf's side in thehome-cave.
ROAD-SONG OF THE BANDAR-LOG
Here we go in a flung festoon, Half-way up to the jealous moon! Don't you envy our pranceful bands? Don't you wish you had extra hands? Wouldn't you like if your tails were--_so_-- Curved in the shape of a Cupid's bow? Now you're angry, but--never mind, _Brother, thy tail hangs down behind_!
Here we sit in a branchy row, Thinking of beautiful things we know; Dreaming of deeds that we mean to do, All complete, in a minute or two-- Something noble and grand and good, Won by merely wishing we could. Now we're going to--never mind, _Brother, thy tail hangs down behind_!
All the talk we ever have heard Uttered by bat or beast or bird-- Hide or fin or scale or feather-- Jabber it quickly and all together! Excellent! Wonderful! Once again! Now we are talking just like men. Let's pretend we are ... never mind, _Brother, thy tail hangs down behind_! This is the way of the Monkey-kind.
_Then join our leaping lines that scumfish through the pines, That rocket by where, light and high, the wild-grape swings. By the rubbish in our wake, and the noble noise we make, Be sure, be sure, we're going to do some splendid things!_