Hunting-Song of the Seeonee Pack

As the dawn was breaking the Sambhur belled

Once, twice and again!

And a doe leaped up, and a doe leaped up

From the pond in the wood where the wild deer sup.

This I, scouting alone, beheld, Once, twice and again!

As the dawn was breaking the Sambhur belled

Once, twice and again!

And a wolf stole back, and a wolf stole back

To carry the word to the waiting pack,

And we sought and we found and we bayed on his track

Once, twice and again!

As the dawn was breaking the Wolf Pack yelled

Once, twice and again!

Feet in the jungle that leave no mark!

Eyes that can see in the dark—the dark! Tongue—give tongue to it!  Hark!  O hark!

Once, twice and again!

Kaa's Hunting

His spots are the joy of the Leopard: his horns are the

Buffalo's pride.

Be clean, for the strength of the hunter is known by thegloss 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 seasonsbefore.

Oppress not the cubs of the stranger, but hail them as Sisterand Brother,

For though they are little and fubsy, it may be the Bear istheir mother.

"There is none like to me!" says the Cub in the pride of hisearliest kill;

But the jungle is large and the Cub he is small.  Let himthink and be still.

Maxims of Baloo

All that is told here happened some time before Mowgli was turned out of the Seeonee Wolf Pack, or revenged himself on  Shere Khan the tiger. It was in the days when Baloo was teaching him the Law of the Jungle. The big, serious, old brown bear was delighted to have so quick a pupil, for the young wolves will only learn as much of the Law of the Jungle as applies to their own pack and tribe, and run away as soon as they can repeat the Hunting Verse—"Feet that make no noise;

eyes that can see in the dark; ears that can hear the winds in  their lairs, and sharp white teeth, all these things are the marks  of our brothers except Tabaqui the Jackal and the Hyaena whom  we hate." But Mowgli, as a man-cub, had to learn a great deal  more than this. Sometimes Bagheera the Black Panther would  come lounging through the jungle to see how his pet was getting  on, and would purr with his head against a tree while Mowgli  recited the day's lesson to Baloo. The boy could climb almost as  well as he could swim, and swim almost as well as he could run.  So Baloo, the Teacher of the Law, taught him the Wood and  Water Laws: how to tell a rotten branch from a sound one; how  to speak politely to the wild bees when he came upon a hive of  them fifty feet above 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 like being disturbed, and all are  very ready to fly at an intruder. Then, too, Mowgli was taught  the Strangers' Hunting Call, which must be repeated aloud till it  is answered, whenever one of the Jungle-People hunts outside  his own grounds. It means, translated, "Give me leave to hunt  here because I am hungry." And the answer is, "Hunt then for  food, but not for pleasure."

All this will show you how much Mowgli had to learn by heart, and he grew very  tired of saying the same thing over a hundred times. But, as Baloo 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 all the Law of the Jungle."

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

"Is there anything in the jungle too little to be killed? No. That  is why I teach him these things, and that is why I hit him, very  softly, when he forgets."

"Softly! What dost thou know of softness, old Iron-feet?"  Bagheera grunted. "His face is all bruised today by thy— softness. Ugh."

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

"Well, look to it then that thou dost not kill the man-cub. He is  no tree trunk to sharpen thy blunt claws upon. But what are  those Master Words? I am more likely to give help than to ask  it"—Bagheera stretched out one paw and admired the steel-blue,  ripping-chisel talons at the end of it—"still I should like to  know."

"I will call Mowgli and he shall say them—if he will. Come,

Little Brother!"

"My head is ringing like a bee tree," said a sullen 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 Baloo!"

"That is all one to me," said Baloo, though he was hurt and  grieved. "Tell Bagheera, then, the Master Words of the Jungle  that I have taught thee this day."

"Master Words for which people?" said Mowgli, delighted to

show off. "The jungle has many tongues. I know them all."

"A little thou knowest, but not much. See, O Bagheera, they  never thank their teacher. Not one small wolfling has 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 Bear 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.

"Now for the Snake-People," said Bagheera.

The answer was a perfectly indescribable hiss, and Mowgli kicked up his feet behind, clapped his hands together to applaud himself, and jumped on to Bagheera's back, where he sat sideways, drumming with his heels on the glossy skin and making the worst faces he could think of at Baloo.

"There—there! That was worth a little bruise," said the brown  bear tenderly. "Some day thou wilt remember me." Then he  turned aside to tell Bagheera how he had begged the Master  Words from Hathi the Wild Elephant, who knows  all about these  things, and how Hathi had taken Mowgli down to a pool to get  the Snake Word from a water-snake, because Baloo could not  pronounce it, and how Mowgli was now reasonably safe against  all accidents in the jungle, because neither snake, bird, nor beast  would hurt him.

"No one then is to be feared," Baloo wound up, patting his big

furry stomach with pride.

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

Mowgli had been trying to make himself heard by pulling at  Bagheera's shoulder fur and kicking hard. When the two listened to him he was shouting at the top of his voice, "And so I shall have a tribe of my own, and lead them through the branches all day long."

"What is this new folly, little dreamer of dreams?" said

Bagheera.

"Yes, and throw branches and dirt at old Baloo," Mowgli went

on. "They have promised me this. Ah!"

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

"Mowgli," said Baloo, "thou hast been talking with the Bandar-

log—the Monkey People."

Mowgli looked at Bagheera to see if the Panther was angry

too, and Bagheera's eyes were as hard as jade stones.

"Thou hast been with the Monkey People—the gray apes—the  people without a law—the eaters of everything. That is great  shame."

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

"The pity of the Monkey People!" Baloo snorted. "The stillness

of the mountain stream! The cool of the summer sun! And then,

man-cub?"

"And then, and then, they gave me nuts and pleasant things to  eat, and they—they carried me in their arms up to the top of the  trees and said I was their blood brother except that I had no tail,  and should be their leader some day."

"They have no leader," said Bagheera. "They lie. They have

always lied."

"They were very kind and bade me come again. Why have I  never been taken among the Monkey People? They stand on  their feet as I do. They do not hit me with their hard paws. They  play all day. Let me get up! Bad Baloo, 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. "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 outcasts. They  have no speech of their own, but use the stolen words which  they overhear when they listen, and peep, and wait up above in  the branches. Their way is not our way. They are without  leaders. They have no remembrance. They boast and chatter  and

pretend that they are a great people about to do great affairs in  the jungle, but the falling of a nut turns their minds to laughter  and all is forgotten. We of the jungle have no dealings with  them. We do not drink where the monkeys drink; we do not go  where the monkeys go; we do not hunt where they hunt; we do  not die where they die. Hast thou ever heard me speak of the  Bandar-log till today?"

"No," said Mowgli in a whisper, for the forest was very still

now Baloo had finished.

"The Jungle-People put them out of their mouths and out of  their minds. They are very many, evil, dirty, shameless, and they  desire, if they have any fixed desire, to be noticed by the Jungle  People. But we do not notice them even when they throw nuts  and filth on our heads."

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

"The Monkey-People are forbidden," said Baloo, "forbidden  to

the Jungle-People. Remember."

"Forbidden," said Bagheera, "but I still think Baloo should have

warned thee against them."

"I—I? How was I to guess he would play with such dirt. The

Monkey People! Faugh!"

A fresh shower came down on their heads and the two trotted away, taking Mowgli with them. What Baloo had said about the monkeys was perfectly true. They belonged to the tree-tops, and as beasts very seldom look up, there was no occasion for the monkeys and the Jungle-People to cross each other's path. But whenever they found a sick wolf, or a wounded tiger, or bear, the monkeys would torment him, and would throw sticks and nuts at any beast for fun and in the hope of being noticed. Then they would howl and shriek senseless songs, and invite the  Jungle-People to climb up their trees and fight them, or would

start furious battles over nothing among themselves, and leave  the dead monkeys where the Jungle-People could see them. They  were always just going to have a leader, and laws and customs  of their own, but they never did, because their memories would  not hold over from day to day, and so they compromised things  by making up a saying, "What the Bandar-log think now the  jungle will think later," and that comforted them a great deal.  None of the beasts could reach them, but on the other hand  none of the beasts would notice them, and that was why they  were so pleased when Mowgli came to play with them, and they  heard how angry Baloo was.

They never meant to do any more—the Bandar-log never mean anything at all; but one of them invented what seemed to him a brilliant idea, and he told all the others that Mowgli would be a useful person to keep in the tribe, because he could weave sticks together for protection from the wind; so, if they caught him, they could make him teach them. Of course Mowgli, as a woodcutter's child, inherited all sorts of instincts, and used to make little huts of fallen branches without thinking how he came to do it. The Monkey-People, watching in the trees, considered his play most wonderful. This time, they said, they were really going to have a leader and become the wisest people in the jungle—so wise that everyone else would notice and envy them.  Therefore they followed Baloo and Bagheera and Mowgli through the jungle very quietly till it was time for the midday nap, and  Mowgli, who was very much ashamed of himself, slept between the Panther and the Bear, resolving to have no more to do with the Monkey People.

The next thing he remembered was feeling hands on his legs and arms—hard, strong, little hands—and then a swash of branches in his face, and then he was staring down through the swaying boughs as Baloo woke the jungle with his deep cries and  Bagheera bounded up the trunk with every tooth bared. The  Bandar-log howled with triumph and scuffled away to the upper branches where Bagheera dared not follow, shouting: "He has noticed us! Bagheera has noticed us. All the Jungle-People admire us for our skill and our cunning." Then they began their

flight; and the flight of the Monkey-People through tree-land is  one of the things nobody can describe. They have their regular  roads and crossroads, up hills and down hills, all laid out from  fifty to seventy or a hundred feet above 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 treetops, twenty feet at a bound. Had they been  alone they could have gone twice as fast, but the boy's weight  held them back. Sick and giddy as Mowgli was he could not help  enjoying the wild rush, though the glimpses of earth far down  below frightened him, and the terrible check and jerk at the end  of the swing over nothing but empty air brought his heart  between his teeth. His escort would rush him up a tree till he  felt the thinnest topmost branches crackle and bend under them,  and then with a cough and a whoop would fling themselves into  the air outward and downward, and bring up, hanging by their  hands or their feet to the lower limbs of the next tree.

Sometimes he could see for miles and miles across the still green jungle, as a man on the top of a mast can see for miles across the sea, and then the branches and leaves would lash him across the face, and he and his two guards would be almost down to earth again. So, bounding and crashing and whooping and yelling, the whole tribe of Bandar-log swept along the tree-roads with Mowgli their prisoner.

For a time he was afraid of being dropped. Then he grew angry but knew  better than to struggle, and then he began to think. The first thing was to send back word to Baloo and  Bagheera, for, at the pace the monkeys were going, he knew his friends would be left far behind. It was useless to look down, for he could only see the  topsides of the branches, so he stared upward and saw, far away in the blue, Rann the Kite balancing and wheeling as he kept watch over the jungle waiting for things to die. Rann 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 treetop and heard him give the Kite call for—"We be of one blood, thou and I." The waves of the branches closed over the boy, but Chil balanced away to the next  tree in time to see the little brown face come up again. "Mark  my trail!" Mowgli shouted. "Tell Baloo of the Seeonee Pack and  Bagheera of the Council Rock."

"In whose name, Brother?" Rann had never seen Mowgli

before, though of course he had heard of him.

"Mowgli, the Frog. Man-cub they call me! Mark my tra-il!"

The last words were shrieked as he was being swung through the air, but Rann nodded and rose up till he looked no bigger than a speck of dust, and there he hung, watching with his telescope eyes the swaying of the treetops as Mowgli's escort whirled along.

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

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

and waited.

Meantime, Baloo and Bagheera were furious with rage and grief. 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  Baloo, who had set off at a clumsy trot in the hope of overtaking  the monkeys. "What was the use of half slaying him with blows  if thou didst not warn him?"

"Haste! O haste! We—we may catch them yet!" Baloo panted.

"At that speed! It would not tire a wounded cow. Teacher of  the Law—cub-beater—a mile of that rolling to and fro would  burst thee open. Sit still and think! Make a plan. This is no time  for chasing. They may drop him if we follow too close."

"Arrula! Whoo! They may have dropped him already, being  tired of carrying him. Who can trust the Bandar-log? Put dead  bats on my head! Give me black bones to eat! Roll me into the  hives of the wild bees that I may be stung to death, and bury me  with the Hyaena, for I am most miserable of bears! Arulala!  Wahooa! O Mowgli, Mowgli! Why did I not warn thee against the Monkey-Folk instead of breaking thy head? Now perhaps I  may have knocked the day's lesson out of his mind, and he will  be alone in the jungle without the Master Words."

Baloo clasped his paws over his ears and rolled to and fro

moaning.

"At least he gave me all the Words correctly a little time ago,"  said Bagheera impatiently. "Baloo, thou hast neither memory nor  respect. What would the jungle think if I, the Black Panther,  curled myself up like Ikki the Porcupine, and howled?"

"What do I care what  the jungle thinks? He may be dead by

now."

"Unless and until they drop him from the branches in sport, or  kill him out of idleness, I have no fear for the man-cub. He is  wise and well taught, and above all he has the eyes that make  the Jungle-People afraid. But (and it is a great evil) he is in the  power of the Bandar-log, and they, because they live in trees,  have no fear of any of our people." Bagheera licked one forepaw  thoughtfully.

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

"What will he do for us? He is not of our tribe, being

footless—and with most evil eyes," said Bagheera.

"He is very old and very cunning. Above all, he is always

hungry," said Baloo hopefully. "Promise him many goats."

"He sleeps for a full month after he has once eaten. He may be  asleep now, and even were he awake what if he would rather kill  his own goats?" Bagheera, who did not know much about Kaa,  was naturally suspicious.

"Then in that case, thou and I together, old hunter, might  make him see reason." Here Baloo rubbed his faded brown  shoulder against the Panther, and they went off to look for Kaa  the Rock Python.

They found him stretched out on a warm ledge in the afternoon sun, admiring his beautiful new coat, for he had been in retirement for the last ten days changing his skin, and now he was very splendid—darting his big blunt-nosed head along the ground, and twisting the thirty feet of his body into fantastic knots and curves, and licking his lips as he thought of his dinner to come.

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

Kaa was not a poison snake—in fact he rather despised the poison snakes as cowards—but his strength lay in his hug, and when he had once lapped his huge coils round anybody there was no more to be said. "Good hunting!" cried Baloo, sitting up on his haunches. Like all snakes of his breed Kaa was rather deaf, and did not hear the call at first. Then he curled up ready

for any accident, his head lowered.

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

"We are hunting," said Baloo carelessly. He knew that you

must not hurry Kaa. He is too big.

"Give me permission to come with you," said Kaa. "A blow

more or less is nothing to thee, Bagheera or Baloo, but I—I have

to wait and wait for days in a wood-path and climb half a night  on the mere chance of a young ape. Psshaw! The branches are  not what they were when I was young. Rotten twigs and dry  boughs are they all."

"Maybe thy great weight has something to do with the matter,"

said Baloo.

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

"Footless, yellow earth-worm," said Bagheera under his

whiskers, as though he were trying to remember something.

"Sssss! Have they ever called me that?" said Kaa.

"Something of that kind it was that they shouted to us last  moon, but we never noticed them. They will say anything—even  that thou hast lost all thy teeth, and wilt not face anything  bigger than a kid, because (they are indeed shameless, these  Bandar-log)—because thou art afraid of the he-goat's horns,"  Bagheera went on sweetly.

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

"The Bandar-log have shifted their grounds," he said quietly.  "When I came up into the sun today I heard them whooping  among the tree-tops."

"It—it is the Bandar-log that we follow now," said Baloo, but  the words stuck in his throat, for 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 takes two such  hunters—leaders in their own jungle I am certain—on the trail of  the Bandar-log," Kaa replied courteously, as he swelled with  curiosity.