MOWGLI'S BROTHERS
IT was seven o'clock of a very warm evening in the Seeonee hills whenFather Wolf woke up from his day's rest, scratched himself, yawned, andspread out his paws one after the other to get rid of the sleepy feelingin the tips. Mother Wolf lay with her big gray nose dropped across herfour tumbling, squealing cubs, and the moon shone into the mouth of thecave where they all lived. "Augrh!" said Father Wolf, "it is time tohunt again"; and he was going to spring downhill when a little shadowwith a bushy tail crossed the threshold and whined: "Good luck go withyou, O Chief of the Wolves; and good luck and strong white teeth go withthe noble children, that they may never forget the hungry in thisworld."
"'GOOD LUCK GO WITH YOU, O CHIEF OF THE WOLVES.'"]
It was the jackal--Tabaqui, the Dish-licker--and the wolves of Indiadespise Tabaqui because he runs about making mischief, and tellingtales, and eating rags and pieces of leather from the villagerubbish-heaps. They are afraid of him too, because Tabaqui, more thanany one else in the jungle, is apt to go mad, and then he forgets thathe was ever afraid of any one, and runs through the forest bitingeverything in his way. Even the tiger hides when little Tabaqui goesmad, for madness is the most disgraceful thing that can overtake a wildcreature. We call it hydrophobia, but they call it _dewanee_--themadness--and run.
"Enter, then, and look," said Father Wolf, stiffly; "but there is nofood here."
"For a wolf, no," said Tabaqui; "but for so mean a person as myself adry bone is a good feast. Who are we, the Gidur-log [the Jackal People],to pick and choose?" He scuttled to the back of the cave, where he foundthe bone of a buck with some meat on it, and sat cracking the endmerrily.
"All thanks for this good meal," he said, licking his lips. "Howbeautiful are the noble children! How large are their eyes! And soyoung too! Indeed, indeed, I might have remembered that the children ofkings are men from the beginning."
Now, Tabaqui knew as well as any one else that there is nothing sounlucky as to compliment children to their faces; and it pleased him tosee Mother and Father Wolf look uncomfortable.
Tabaqui sat still, rejoicing in the mischief that he had made, and thenhe said spitefully:
"Shere Khan, the Big One, has shifted his hunting-grounds. He will huntamong these hills during the next moon, so he has told me."
Shere Khan was the tiger who lived near the Waingunga River, twentymiles away.
"He has no right!" Father Wolf began angrily. "By the Law of the Junglehe has no right to change his quarters without fair warning. He willfrighten every head of game within ten miles; and I--I have to kill fortwo, these days."
"His mother did not call him Lungri [the Lame One] for nothing," saidMother Wolf, quietly. "He has been lame in one foot from his birth. Thatis why he has only killed cattle. Now the villagers of the Waingunga areangry with him, and he has come here to make _our_ villagers angry.They will scour the jungle for him when he is far away, and we and ourchildren must run when the grass is set alight. Indeed, we are verygrateful to Shere Khan!"
"Shall I tell him of your gratitude?" said Tabaqui.
"Out!" snapped Father Wolf. "Out, and hunt with thy master. Thou hastdone harm enough for one night."
"I go," said Tabaqui, quietly. "Ye can hear Shere Khan below in thethickets. I might have saved myself the message."
Father Wolf listened, and in the dark valley that ran down to a littleriver, he heard the dry, angry, snarly, singsong whine of a tiger whohas caught nothing and does not care if all the jungle knows it.
"The fool!" said Father Wolf. "To begin a night's work with that noise!Does he think that our buck are like his fat Waingunga bullocks?"
"H'sh! It is neither bullock nor buck that he hunts to-night," saidMother Wolf; "it is Man." The whine had changed to a sort of hummingpurr that seemed to roll from every quarter of the compass. It was thenoise that bewilders wood-cutters, and gipsies sleeping in the open,and makes them run sometimes into the very mouth of the tiger.
"Man!" said Father Wolf, showing all his white teeth. "Faugh! Are therenot enough beetles and frogs in the tanks that he must eat Man--and onour ground too!"
The Law of the Jungle, which never orders anything without a reason,forbids every beast to eat Man except when he is killing to show hischildren how to kill, and then he must hunt outside the hunting-groundsof his pack or tribe. The real reason for this is that man-killingmeans, sooner or later, the arrival of white men on elephants, withguns, and hundreds of brown men with gongs and rockets and torches. Theneverybody in the jungle suffers. The reason the beasts give amongthemselves is that Man is the weakest and most defenseless of all livingthings, and it is unsportsmanlike to touch him. They say too--and it istrue--that man-eaters become mangy, and lose their teeth.
The purr grew louder, and ended in the full-throated "Aaarh!" of thetiger's charge.
Then there was a howl--an untigerish howl--from Shere Khan. "He hasmissed," said Mother Wolf. "What is it?"
Father Wolf ran out a few paces and heard Shere Khan muttering andmumbling savagely, as he tumbled about in the scrub.
"The fool has had no more sense than to jump at a wood-cutters'camp-fire, so he has burned his feet," said Father Wolf, with a grunt."Tabaqui is with him."
"Something is coming uphill," said Mother Wolf, twitching one ear. "Getready."
The bushes rustled a little in the thicket, and Father Wolf dropped withhis haunches under him, ready for his leap. Then, if you had beenwatching, you would have seen the most wonderful thing in the world--thewolf checked in mid-spring. He made his bound before he saw what it washe was jumping at, and then he tried to stop himself. The result wasthat he shot up straight into the air for four or five feet, landingalmost where he left ground.
"Man!" he snapped. "A man's cub. Look!"
Directly in front of him, holding on by a low branch, stood a nakedbrown baby who could just walk--as soft and as dimpled a little thing asever came to a wolf's cave at night. He looked up into Father Wolf'sface and laughed.
"Is that a man's cub?" said Mother Wolf. "I have never seen one. Bringit here."
A wolf accustomed to moving his own cubs can, if necessary, mouth anegg without breaking it, and though Father Wolf's jaws closed right onthe child's back not a tooth even scratched the skin, as he laid it downamong the cubs.
"How little! How naked, and--how bold!" said Mother Wolf, softly. Thebaby was pushing his way between the cubs to get close to the warm hide."Ahai! He is taking his meal with the others. And so this is a man'scub. Now, was there ever a wolf that could boast of a man's cub amongher children?"
"I have heard now and again of such a thing, but never in our pack or inmy time," said Father Wolf. "He is altogether without hair, and I couldkill him with a touch of my foot. But see, he looks up and is notafraid."
The moonlight was blocked out of the mouth of the cave, for Shere Khan'sgreat square head and shoulders were thrust into the entrance. Tabaqui,behind him, was squeaking: "My Lord, my Lord, it went in here!"
"Shere Khan does us great honor," said Father Wolf, but his eyes werevery angry. "What does Shere Khan need?"
"My quarry. A man's cub went this way," said Shere Khan. "Its parentshave run off. Give it to me."
Shere Khan had jumped at a wood-cutter's camp-fire, as Father Wolf hadsaid, and was furious from the pain of his burned feet. But Father Wolfknew that the mouth of the cave was too narrow for a tiger to come inby. Even where he was, Shere Khan's shoulders and fore paws were crampedfor want of room, as a man's would be if he tried to fight in a barrel.
"The Wolves are a free people," said Father Wolf. "They take orders fromthe Head of the Pack, and not from any striped cattle-killer. The man'scub is ours--to kill if we choose."
"Ye choose and ye do not choose! What talk is this of choosing? By theBull that I killed, am I to stand nosing into your dog's den for my fairdues? It is I, Shere Khan, who speak!"
The tiger's roar fil
led the cave with thunder. Mother Wolf shook herselfclear of the cubs and sprang forward, her eyes, like two green moons inthe darkness, facing the blazing eyes of Shere Khan.
"THE TIGER'S ROAR FILLED THE CAVE WITH THUNDER."]
"And it is I, Raksha [the Demon], who answer. The man's cub is mine,Lungri--mine to me! He shall not be killed. He shall live to run withthe Pack and to hunt with the Pack; and in the end, look you, hunter oflittle naked cubs--frog-eater--fish-killer, he shall hunt _thee_! Nowget hence, or by the Sambhur that I killed (_I_ eat no starved cattle),back thou goest to thy mother, burned beast of the jungle, lamer thanever thou camest into the world! Go!"
Father Wolf looked on amazed. He had almost forgotten the days when hewon Mother Wolf in fair fight from five other wolves, when she ran inthe Pack and was not called the Demon for compliment's sake. Shere Khanmight have faced Father Wolf, but he could not stand up against MotherWolf, for he knew that where he was she had all the advantage of theground, and would fight to the death. So he backed out of the cave-mouthgrowling, and when he was clear he shouted:
"Each dog barks in his own yard! We will see what the Pack will say tothis fostering of man-cubs. The cub is mine, and to my teeth he willcome in the end, O bush-tailed thieves!"
Mother Wolf threw herself down panting among the cubs, and Father Wolfsaid to her gravely:
"Shere Khan speaks this much truth. The cub must be shown to the Pack.Wilt thou still keep him, Mother?"
"Keep him!" she gasped. "He came naked, by night, alone and very hungry;yet he was not afraid! Look, he has pushed one of my babes to one sidealready. And that lame butcher would have killed him, and would have runoff to the Waingunga while the villagers here hunted through all ourlairs in revenge! Keep him? Assuredly I will keep him. Lie still, littlefrog. O thou Mowgli,--for Mowgli, the Frog, I will call thee,--the timewill come when thou wilt hunt Shere Khan as he has hunted thee!"
"But what will our Pack say?" said Father Wolf.
The Law of the Jungle lays down very clearly that any wolf may, when hemarries, withdraw from the Pack he belongs to; but as soon as his cubsare old enough to stand on their feet he must bring them to the PackCouncil, which is generally held once a month at full moon, in orderthat the other wolves may identify them. After that inspection the cubsare free to run where they please, and until they have killed theirfirst buck no excuse is accepted if a grown wolf of the Pack kills oneof them. The punishment is death where the murderer can be found; and ifyou think for a minute you will see that this must be so.
Father Wolf waited till his cubs could run a little, and then on thenight of the Pack Meeting took them and Mowgli and Mother Wolf to theCouncil Rock--a hilltop covered with stones and boulders where a hundredwolves could hide. Akela, the great gray Lone Wolf, who led all the Packby strength and cunning, lay out at full length on his rock, and belowhim sat forty or more wolves of every size and color, frombadger-colored veterans who could handle a buck alone, to young blackthree-year-olds who thought they could. The Lone Wolf had led them for ayear now. He had fallen twice into a wolf-trap in his youth, and once hehad been beaten and left for dead; so he knew the manners and customs ofmen.
THE MEETING AT THE COUNCIL ROCK.]
There was very little talking at the Rock. The cubs tumbled over oneanother 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 athim carefully, and return to his place on noiseless feet. Sometimes amother would push her cub far out into the moonlight, to be sure that hehad not been overlooked. Akela from his rock would cry: "Ye know theLaw--ye know the Law! Look well, O Wolves!" And the anxious motherswould take up the call: "Look--look well, O Wolves!"
At last--and Mother Wolf's neck-bristles lifted as the time came--FatherWolf pushed "Mowgli, the Frog," as they called him, into the center,where he sat laughing and playing with some pebbles that glistened inthe moonlight.
Akela never raised his head from his paws, but went on with themonotonous cry, "Look well!" A muffled roar came up from behind therocks--the voice of Shere Khan crying, "The cub is mine; give him to me.What have the Free People to do with a man's cub?"
Akela never even twitched his ears. All he said was, "Look well, OWolves! What have the Free People to do with the orders of any save theFree People? Look well!"
There was a chorus of deep growls, and a young wolf in his fourth yearflung back Shere Khan's question to Akela: "What have the Free People todo with a man's cub?"
Now the Law of the Jungle lays down that if there is any dispute as tothe right of a cub to be accepted by the Pack, he must be spoken for byat least two members of the Pack who are not his father and mother.
"Who speaks for this cub?" said Akela. "Among the Free People, whospeaks?" There was no answer, and Mother Wolf got ready for what sheknew would be her last fight, if things came to fighting.
Then the only other creature who is allowed at the Pack Council--Baloo,the sleepy brown bear who teaches the wolf cubs the Law of the Jungle;old Baloo, who can come and go where he pleases because he eats onlynuts and roots and honey--rose up on his hind quarters and grunted.
"The man's cub--the man's cub?" he said. "_I_ speak for the man's cub.There is no harm in a man's cub. I have no gift of words, but I speakthe truth. Let him run with the Pack, and be entered with the others. Imyself will teach him."
"We need yet another," said Akela. "Baloo has spoken, and he is ourteacher for the young cubs. Who speaks besides Baloo?"
A black shadow dropped down into the circle. It was Bagheera, the BlackPanther, inky black all over, but with the panther markings showing upin certain lights like the pattern of watered silk. Everybody knewBagheera, and nobody cared to cross his path; for he was as cunning asTabaqui, as bold as the wild buffalo, and as reckless as the woundedelephant. But he had a voice as soft as wild honey dripping from a tree,and a skin softer than down.
"O Akela, and ye, the Free People," he purred, "I have no right in yourassembly; but the Law of the Jungle says that if there is a doubt whichis not a killing matter in regard to a new cub, the life of that cub maybe bought at a price. And the Law does not say who may or may not paythat price. Am I right?"
"Good! good!" said the young wolves, who are always hungry. "Listen toBagheera. The cub can be bought for a price. It is the Law."
"Knowing that I have no right to speak here, I ask your leave."
"Speak then," cried twenty voices.
"To kill a naked cub is shame. Besides, he may make better sport for youwhen he is grown. Baloo has spoken in his behalf. Now to Baloo's word Iwill add one bull, and a fat one, newly killed, not half a mile fromhere, if ye will accept the man's cub according to the Law. Is itdifficult?"
There was a clamor of scores of voices, saying: "What matter? He willdie in the winter rains. He will scorch in the sun. What harm can anaked frog do us? Let him run with the Pack. Where is the bull,Bagheera? Let him be accepted." And then came Akela's deep bay, crying:"Look well--look well, O Wolves!"
Mowgli was still playing with the pebbles, and he did not notice whenthe wolves came and looked at him one by one. At last they all wentdown the hill for the dead bull, and only Akela, Bagheera, Baloo, andMowgli's own wolves were left. Shere Khan roared still in the night, forhe was very angry that Mowgli had not been handed over to him.
"Ay, roar well," said Bagheera, under his whiskers; "for the time comeswhen this naked thing will make thee roar to another tune, or I knownothing of Man."
"It was well done," said Akela. "Men and their cubs are very wise. Hemay be a help in time."
"Truly, a help in time of need; for none can hope to lead the Packforever," said Bagheera.
Akela said nothing. He was thinking of the time that comes to everyleader of every pack when his strength goes from him and he gets feeblerand feebler, till at last he is killed by the wolves and a new leadercomes up--to be killed in his turn.
"Take him away," he said to Father Wolf, "and train him
as befits one ofthe Free People."
And that is how Mowgli was entered into the Seeonee wolf-pack for theprice of a bull and on Baloo's good word.
Now you must be content to skip ten or eleven whole years, and onlyguess at all the wonderful life that Mowgli led among the wolves,because if it were written out it would fill ever so many books. He grewup with the cubs, though they of course were grown wolves almost beforehe was a child, and Father Wolf taught him his business, and the meaningof things in the jungle, till every rustle in the grass, every breath ofthe warm night air, every note of the owls above his head, every scratchof a bat's claws as it roosted for a while in a tree, and every splashof every little fish jumping in a pool, meant just as much to him as thework of his office means to a business man. When he was not learning hesat out in the sun and slept, and ate, and went to sleep again; when hefelt dirty or hot he swam in the forest pools; and when he wanted honey(Baloo told him that honey and nuts were just as pleasant to eat as rawmeat) he climbed up for it, and that Bagheera showed him how to do.
Bagheera would lie out on a branch and call, "Come along, LittleBrother," and at first Mowgli would cling like the sloth, but afterwardhe would fling himself through the branches almost as boldly as the grayape. 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 wolfwould be forced to drop his eyes, and so he used to stare for fun.
"BAGHEERA WOULD LIE OUT ON A BRANCH AND CALL, 'COME ALONG, LITTLE BROTHER.'"]
At other times he would pick the long thorns out of the pads of hisfriends, for wolves suffer terribly from thorns and burs in their coats.He would go down the hillside into the cultivated lands by night, andlook very curiously at the villagers in their huts, but he had amistrust of men because Bagheera showed him a square box with adrop-gate so cunningly hidden in the jungle that he nearly walked intoit, and told him it was a trap.
He loved better than anything else to go with Bagheera into the darkwarm heart of the forest, to sleep all through the drowsy day, and atnight see how Bagheera did his killing. Bagheera killed right and leftas he felt hungry, and so did Mowgli--with one exception. As soon as hewas old enough to understand things, Bagheera told him that he mustnever touch cattle because he had been bought into the Pack at the priceof a bull's life. "All the jungle is thine," said Bagheera, "and thoucanst kill everything that thou art strong enough to kill; but for thesake of the bull that bought thee thou must never kill or eat anycattle young or old. That is the Law of the Jungle." Mowgli obeyedfaithfully.
And he grew and grew strong as a boy must grow who does not know that heis learning any lessons, and who has nothing in the world to think ofexcept things to eat.
Mother Wolf told him once or twice that Shere Khan was not a creature tobe trusted, and that some day he must kill Shere Khan; but though ayoung wolf would have remembered that advice every hour, Mowgli forgotit because he was only a boy--though he would have called himself a wolfif he had been able to speak in any human tongue.
Shere Khan was always crossing his path in the jungle, for as Akela grewolder and feebler the lame tiger had come to be great friends with theyounger wolves of the Pack, who followed him for scraps, a thing Akelawould never have allowed if he had dared to push his authority to theproper bounds. Then Shere Khan would flatter them and wonder that suchfine young hunters were content to be led by a dying wolf and a man'scub. "They tell me," Shere Khan would say, "that at Council ye dare notlook him between the eyes"; and the young wolves would growl andbristle.
Bagheera, who had eyes and ears everywhere, knew something of this, andonce or twice he told Mowgli in so many words that Shere Khan would killhim some day; and Mowgli would laugh and answer: "I have the Pack and Ihave thee; and Baloo, though he is so lazy, might strike a blow or twofor my sake. Why should I be afraid?"
It was one very warm day that a new notion came to Bagheera--born ofsomething that he had heard. Perhaps Ikki, the Porcupine, had told him;but he said to Mowgli when they were deep in the jungle, as the boy laywith his head on Bagheera's beautiful black skin: "Little Brother, howoften have I told thee that Shere Khan is thy enemy?"
"As many times as there are nuts on that palm," said Mowgli, who,naturally, could not count. "What of it? I am sleepy, Bagheera, andShere Khan is all long tail and loud talk, like Mao, the Peacock."
"But this is no time for sleeping. Baloo knows it, I know it, the Packknow it, and even the foolish, foolish deer know. Tabaqui has told theetoo."
"Ho! ho!" said Mowgli. "Tabaqui came to me not long ago with some rudetalk that I was a naked man's cub, and not fit to dig pig-nuts; but Icaught Tabaqui by the tail and swung him twice against a palm-tree toteach him better manners."
"That was foolishness; for though Tabaqui is a mischief-maker, he wouldhave told thee of something that concerned thee closely. Open thoseeyes, Little Brother! Shere Khan dares not kill thee in the jungle forfear of those that love thee; but remember, Akela is very old, and soonthe day comes when he cannot kill his buck, and then he will be leaderno more. Many of the wolves that looked thee over when thou wast broughtto the Council first are old too, and the young wolves believe, as ShereKhan has taught them, that a man-cub has no place with the Pack. In alittle time thou wilt be a man."
"And what is a man that he should not run with his brothers?" saidMowgli. "I was born in the jungle; I have obeyed the Law of the Jungle;and there is no wolf of ours from whose paws I have not pulled a thorn.Surely they are my brothers!"
Bagheera stretched himself at full length and half shut his eyes."Little Brother," said he, "feel under my jaw."
Mowgli put up his strong brown hand, and just under Bagheera's silkychin, where the giant rolling muscles were all hid by the glossy hair,he came upon a little bald spot.
"There is no one in the jungle that knows that I, Bagheera, carry thatmark--the mark of the collar; and yet, Little Brother, I was born amongmen, and it was among men that my mother died--in the cages of theKing's Palace at Oodeypore. It was because of this that I paid the pricefor thee at the Council when thou wast a little naked cub. Yes, I toowas born among men. I had never seen the jungle. They fed me behind barsfrom 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 mypaw, and came away; and because I had learned the ways of men, I becamemore terrible in the jungle than Shere Khan. Is it not so?"
"Yes," said Mowgli; "all the jungle fear Bagheera--all except Mowgli."
"Oh, _thou_ art a man's cub," said the Black Panther, very tenderly;"and even as I returned to my jungle, so thou must go back to men atlast,--to the men who are thy brothers,--if thou art not killed in theCouncil."
"But why--but why should any wish to kill me?" said Mowgli.
"Look at me," said Bagheera; and Mowgli looked at him steadily betweenthe eyes. The big panther turned his head away in half a minute.
"_That_ is why," he said, shifting his paw on the leaves. "Not even Ican look thee between the eyes, and I was born among men, and I lovethee, Little Brother. The others they hate thee because their eyescannot meet thine; because thou art wise; because thou hast pulled outthorns from their feet--because thou art a man."
"I did not know these things," said Mowgli, sullenly; and he frownedunder his heavy black eyebrows.
"What is the Law of the Jungle? Strike first and then give tongue. Bythy very carelessness they know that thou art a man. But be wise. It isin my heart that when Akela misses his next kill,--and at each hunt itcosts him more to pin the buck,--the Pack will turn against him andagainst thee. They will hold a jungle Council at the Rock, and then--andthen ... I have it!" said Bagheera, leaping up. "Go thou down quickly tothe men's huts in the valley, and take some of the Red Flower which theygrow there, so that when the time comes thou mayest have even astronger friend than I or Baloo or those of the Pack that love thee. Getthe Red Flower."
By Red Flower Bagheera meant fire, only no creature i
n the jungle willcall fire by its proper name. Every beast lives in deadly fear of it,and invents a hundred ways of describing it.
"The Red Flower?" said Mowgli. "That grows outside their huts in thetwilight. I will get some."
"There speaks the man's cub," said Bagheera, proudly. "Remember that itgrows in little pots. Get one swiftly, and keep it by thee for time ofneed."
"Good!" said Mowgli. "I go. But art thou sure, O my Bagheera"--heslipped his arm round the splendid neck, and looked deep into the bigeyes--"art thou sure that all this is Shere Khan's doing?"
"By the Broken Lock that freed me, I am sure, Little Brother."
"Then, by the Bull that bought me, I will pay Shere Khan full tale forthis, and it may be a little over," said Mowgli; and he bounded away.
"That is a man. That is all a man," said Bagheera to himself, lying downagain. "Oh, Shere Khan, never was a blacker hunting than that frog-huntof thine ten years ago!"
Mowgli was far and far through the forest, running hard, and his heartwas hot in him. He came to the cave as the evening mist rose, and drewbreath, and looked down the valley. The cubs were out, but Mother Wolf,at the back of the cave, knew by his breathing that something wastroubling her frog.
"What is it, Son?" she said.
"Some bat's chatter of Shere Khan," he called back. "I hunt among theplowed fields to-night"; and he plunged downward through the bushes, tothe stream at the bottom of the valley. There he checked, for he heardthe yell of the Pack hunting, heard the bellow of a hunted Sambhur, andthe snort as the buck turned at bay. Then there were wicked, bitterhowls from the young wolves: "Akela! Akela! Let the Lone Wolf show hisstrength. Room for the leader of our Pack! Spring, Akela!"
The Lone Wolf must have sprung and missed his hold, for Mowgli heard thesnap of his teeth and then a yelp as the Sambhur knocked him over withhis fore foot.
He did not wait for anything more, but dashed on; and the yells grewfainter behind him as he ran into the crop-lands where the villagerslived.
"Bagheera spoke truth," he panted, as he nestled down in somecattle-fodder by the window of a hut. "To-morrow is one day for Akelaand for me."
Then he pressed his face close to the window and watched the fire on thehearth. He saw the husbandman's wife get up and feed it in the nightwith black lumps; and when the morning came and the mists were all whiteand cold, he saw the man's child pick up a wicker pot plastered insidewith earth, fill it with lumps of red-hot charcoal, put it under hisblanket, and go out to tend the cows in the byre.
"Is that all?" said Mowgli. "If a cub can do it, there is nothing tofear"; so he strode around the corner and met the boy, took the pot fromhis hand, and disappeared into the mist while the boy howled with fear.
"They are very like me," said Mowgli, blowing into the pot, as he hadseen the woman do. "This thing will die if I do not give it things toeat"; and he dropped twigs and dried bark on the red stuff. Half-way upthe hill he met Bagheera with the morning dew shining like moonstones onhis coat.
"Akela has missed," said the panther. "They would have killed him lastnight, but they needed thee also. They were looking for thee on thehill."
"I was among the plowed lands. I am ready. Look!" Mowgli held up thefire-pot.
"Good! Now, I have seen men thrust a dry branch into that stuff, andpresently the Red Flower blossomed at the end of it. Art thou notafraid?"
"No. Why should I fear? I remember now--if it is not a dream--how,before I was a wolf, I lay beside the Red Flower, and it was warm andpleasant."
All that day Mowgli sat in the cave tending his fire-pot and dipping drybranches into it to see how they looked. He found a branch thatsatisfied him, and in the evening when Tabaqui came to the cave and toldhim, rudely enough, that he was wanted at the Council Rock, he laughedtill Tabaqui ran away. Then Mowgli went to the Council, still laughing.
Akela the Lone Wolf lay by the side of his rock as a sign that theleadership of the Pack was open, and Shere Khan with his following ofscrap-fed wolves walked to and fro openly, being flattered. Bagheera layclose to Mowgli, and the fire-pot was between Mowgli's knees. When theywere all gathered together, Shere Khan began to speak--a thing he wouldnever have dared to do when Akela was in his prime.
"He has no right," whispered Bagheera. "Say so. He is a dog's son. Hewill be frightened."
Mowgli sprang to his feet. "Free People," he cried, "does Shere Khanlead the Pack? What has a tiger to do with our leadership?"
"Seeing that the leadership is yet open, and being asked to speak--"Shere Khan began.
"By whom?" said Mowgli. "Are we _all_ jackals, to fawn on thiscattle-butcher? The leadership of the Pack is with the Pack alone."
There were yells of "Silence, thou man's cub!" "Let him speak; he haskept our law!" And at last the seniors of the Pack thundered: "Let theDead Wolf speak!"
When a leader of the Pack has missed his kill, he is called the DeadWolf as long as he lives, which is not long, as a rule.
Akela raised his old head wearily:
"Free People, and ye too, jackals of Shere Khan, for twelve seasons Ihave led ye to and from the kill, and in all that time not one has beentrapped or maimed. Now I have missed my kill. Ye know how that plot wasmade. Ye know how ye brought me up to an untried buck to make myweakness known. It was cleverly done. Your right is to kill me here onthe Council Rock now. Therefore I ask, 'Who comes to make an end of theLone Wolf?' For it is my right, by the Law of the Jungle, that ye comeone by one."
There was a long hush, for no single wolf cared to fight Akela to thedeath. Then Shere Khan roared: "Bah! What have we to do with thistoothless fool? He is doomed to die! It is the man-cub who has lived toolong. Free People, he was my meat from the first. Give him to me. I amweary of this man-wolf folly. He has troubled the jungle for tenseasons. Give me the man-cub, or I will hunt here always, and not giveyou one bone! He is a man--a man's child, and from the marrow of mybones I hate him!"
Then more than half the Pack yelled: "A man--a man! What has a man to dowith us? Let him go to his own place."
"And turn all the people of the villages against us?" snarled ShereKhan. "No; give him to me. He is a man, and none of us can look himbetween the eyes."
Akela lifted his head again, and said: "He has eaten our food; he hasslept with us; he has driven game for us; he has broken no word of theLaw of the Jungle."
"Also, I paid for him with a bull when he was accepted. The worth of abull is little, but Bagheera's honor is something that he will perhapsfight for," said Bagheera in his gentlest voice.
"A bull paid ten years ago!" the Pack snarled. "What do we care forbones ten years old?"
"Or for a pledge?" said Bagheera, his white teeth bared under his lip."Well are ye called the Free People!"
"No man's cub can run with the people of the jungle!" roared Shere Khan."Give him to me."
"He is our brother in all but blood," Akela went on; "and ye would killhim here. In truth, I have lived too long. Some of ye are eaters ofcattle, and of others I have heard that, under Shere Khan's teaching, yego by dark night and snatch children from the villager's doorstep.Therefore I know ye to be cowards, and it is to cowards I speak. It iscertain that I must die, and my life is of no worth, or I would offerthat in the man-cub's place. But for the sake of the Honor of thePack,--a little matter that, by being without a leader, ye haveforgotten,--I promise that if ye let the man-cub go to his own place, Iwill not, when my time comes to die, bare one tooth against ye. I willdie without fighting. That will at least save the Pack three lives. MoreI cannot do; but, if ye will, I can save ye the shame that comes ofkilling a brother against whom there is no fault--a brother spoken forand bought into the Pack according to the Law of the Jungle."
"He is a man--a man--a man!" snarled the Pack; and most of the wolvesbegan to gather round Shere Khan, whose tail was beginning to switch.
"Now the business is in thy hands," said Bagheera to Mowgli. "_We_ cando no more except fight."
Mowgli stood upright--the fire-pot in hi
s hands. Then he stretched outhis arms, and yawned in the face of the Council; but he was furious withrage and sorrow, for, wolf-like, the wolves had never told him how theyhated him.
"Listen, you!" he cried. "There is no need for this dog's jabber. Yehave told me so often to-night that I am a man (though indeed I wouldhave been a wolf with you to my life's end) that I feel your words aretrue. So I do not call ye my brothers any more, but _sag_ [dogs], as aman should. What ye will do, and what ye will not do, is not yours tosay. That matter is with _me_; and that we may see the matter moreplainly, I, the man, have brought here a little of the Red Flower whichye, dogs, fear."
He flung the fire-pot on the ground, and some of the red coals lit atuft of dried moss that flared up as all the Council drew back in terrorbefore the leaping flames.
Mowgli thrust his dead branch into the fire till the twigs lit andcrackled, and whirled it above his head among the cowering wolves.
"Thou art the master," said Bagheera, in an undertone. "Save Akela fromthe death. He was ever thy friend."
Akela, the grim old wolf who had never asked for mercy in his life, gaveone piteous look at Mowgli as the boy stood all naked, his long blackhair tossing over his shoulders in the light of the blazing branch thatmade the shadows jump and quiver.
"Good!" said Mowgli, staring around slowly, and thrusting out his lowerlip. "I see that ye are dogs. I go from you to my own people--if they bemy own people. The jungle is shut to me, and I must forget your talk andyour companionship; but I will be more merciful than ye are. Because Iwas all but your brother in blood, I promise that when I am a man amongmen I will not betray ye to men as ye have betrayed me." He kicked thefire with his foot, and the sparks flew up. "There shall be no warbetween any of us and the Pack. But here is a debt to pay before I go."He strode forward to where Shere Khan sat blinking stupidly at theflames, and caught him by the tuft on his chin. Bagheera followed close,in case of accidents. "Up, dog!" Mowgli cried. "Up, when a man speaks,or I will set that coat ablaze!"
Shere Khan's ears lay flat back on his head, and he shut his eyes, forthe blazing branch was very near.
"This cattle-killer said he would kill me in the Council because he hadnot killed me when I was a cub. Thus and thus, then, do we beat dogswhen we are men! Stir a whisker, Lungri, and I ram the Red Flower downthy gullet!" He beat Shere Khan over the head with the branch, and thetiger whimpered and whined in an agony of fear.
"Pah! Singed jungle-cat--go now! But remember when next I come to theCouncil Rock, as a man should come, it will be with Shere Khan's hide onmy head. For the rest, Akela goes free to live as he pleases. Ye will_not_ kill him, because that is not my will. Nor do I think that ye willsit here any longer, lolling out your tongues as though ye weresomebodies, instead of dogs whom I drive out--thus! Go!"
The fire was burning furiously at the end of the branch, and Mowglistruck right and left round the circle, and the wolves ran howling withthe sparks burning their fur. At last there were only Akela, Bagheera,and perhaps ten wolves that had taken Mowgli's part. Then somethingbegan to hurt Mowgli inside him, as he had never been hurt in his lifebefore, and he caught his breath and sobbed, and the tears ran down hisface.
"What is it? What is it?" he said. "I do not wish to leave the jungle,and I do not know what this is. Am I dying, Bagheera?"
"No, Little Brother. Those are only tears such as men use," saidBagheera. "Now I know thou art a man, and a man's cub no longer. Thejungle is shut indeed to thee henceforward. Let them fall, Mowgli; theyare only tears." So Mowgli sat and cried as though his heart wouldbreak; 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 mymother"; and he went to the cave where she lived with Father Wolf, andhe cried on her coat, while the four cubs howled miserably.
"Ye will not forget me?" said Mowgli.
"Never while we can follow a trail," said the cubs. "Come to the foot ofthe hill when thou art a man, and we will talk to thee; and we will comeinto the crop-lands to play with thee by night."
"Come soon!" said Father Wolf. "Oh, wise little Frog, come again soon;for we be old, thy mother and I."
"Come soon," said Mother Wolf, "little naked son of mine; for, listen,child of man, I loved thee more than ever I loved my cubs."
"I will surely come," said Mowgli; "and when I come it will be to layout Shere Khan's hide upon the Council Rock. Do not forget me! Tell themin the jungle never to forget me!"
The dawn was beginning to break when Mowgli went down the hillside aloneto the crops to meet those mysterious things that are called men.
HUNTING-SONG OF THE SEEONEE PACK
As the dawn was breaking the Sambhur belled Once, twice, and again! And a doe leaped up--and a doe leaped up From the pond in the wood where the wild deer sup. This I, scouting alone, beheld, Once, twice, and again!
As the dawn was breaking the Sambhur belled Once, twice, and again! And a wolf stole back--and a wolf stole back To carry the word to the waiting Pack; And we sought and we found and we bayed on his track Once, twice, and again!
As the dawn was breaking the Wolf-pack yelled Once, twice, and again! Feet in the jungle that leave no mark! Eyes that can see in the dark--the dark! Tongue--give tongue to it! Hark! O Hark! Once, twice, and again!