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.’
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.’
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.
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.
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 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.’