"TIGER! TIGER!"
What of the hunting, hunter bold? _Brother, the watch was long and cold._ What of the quarry ye went to kill? _Brother, he crops in the jungle still._ Where is the power that made your pride? _Brother, it ebbs from my flank and side._ Where is the haste that ye hurry by? _Brother, I go to my lair--to die._
"TIGER! TIGER!"
NOW we must go back to the last tale but one. When Mowgli left thewolf's cave after the fight with the Pack at the Council Rock, he wentdown to the plowed lands where the villagers lived, but he would notstop there because it was too near to the jungle, and he knew that hehad made at least one bad enemy at the Council. So he hurried on,keeping to the rough road that ran down the valley, and followed it at asteady jog-trot for nearly twenty miles, till he came to a country thathe did not know. The valley opened out into a great plain dotted overwith rocks and cut up by ravines. At one end stood a little village, andat the other the thick jungle came down in a sweep to thegrazing-grounds, and stopped there as though it had been cut off with ahoe. All over the plain, cattle and buffaloes were grazing, and when thelittle boys in charge of the herds saw Mowgli they shouted and ran away,and the yellow pariah dogs that hang about every Indian village barked.Mowgli walked on, for he was feeling hungry, and when he came to thevillage gate he saw the big thorn-bush that was drawn up before the gateat twilight, pushed to one side.
"Umph!" he said, for he had come across more than one such barricade inhis night rambles after things to eat. "So men are afraid of the Peopleof the Jungle here also." He sat down by the gate, and when a man cameout he stood up, opened his mouth, and pointed down it to show that hewanted food. The man stared, and ran back up the one street of thevillage shouting for the priest, who was a big, fat man dressed inwhite, with a red and yellow mark on his forehead. The priest came tothe gate, and with him at least a hundred people, who stared and talkedand shouted and pointed at Mowgli.
"They have no manners, these Men Folk," said Mowgli to himself. "Onlythe gray ape would behave as they do." So he threw back his long hairand frowned at the crowd.
"What is there to be afraid of?" said the priest. "Look at the marks onhis arms and legs. They are the bites of wolves. He is but a wolf-childrun away from the jungle."
Of course, in playing together, the cubs had often nipped Mowgli harderthan they intended, and there were white scars all over his arms andlegs. But he would have been the last person in the world to call thesebites; for he knew what real biting meant.
"_Arre! Arre!_" said two or three women together. "To be bitten bywolves, poor child! He is a handsome boy. He has eyes like red fire. Bymy honor, Messua, he is not unlike thy boy that was taken by the tiger."
"Let me look," said a woman with heavy copper rings on her wrists andankles, and she peered at Mowgli under the palm of her hand. "Indeed heis not. He is thinner, but he has the very look of my boy."
The priest was a clever man, and he knew that Messua was wife to therichest villager in the place. So he looked up at the sky for a minute,and said solemnly: "What the jungle has taken the jungle has restored.Take the boy into thy house, my sister, and forget not to honor thepriest who sees so far into the lives of men."
"By the Bull that bought me," said Mowgli to himself, "but all thistalking is like another looking-over by the Pack! Well, if I am a man, aman I must become."
The crowd parted as the woman beckoned Mowgli to her hut, where therewas a red lacquered bedstead, a great earthen grain-chest with curiousraised patterns on it, half a dozen copper cooking-pots, an image of aHindu god in a little alcove, and on the wall a real looking-glass, suchas they sell at the country fairs.
She gave him a long drink of milk and some bread, and then she laid herhand on his head and looked into his eyes; for she thought perhaps thathe might be her real son come back from the jungle where the tiger hadtaken him. So she said: "Nathoo, O Nathoo!" Mowgli did not show that heknew the name. "Dost thou not remember the day when I gave thee thy newshoes?" She touched his foot, and it was almost as hard as horn. "No,"she said, sorrowfully; "those feet have never worn shoes, but thou artvery like my Nathoo, and thou shalt be my son."
Mowgli was uneasy, because he had never been under a roof before; butas he looked at the thatch, he saw that he could tear it out any time ifhe wanted to get away, and that the window had no fastenings. "What isthe good of a man," he said to himself at last, "if he does notunderstand man's talk? Now I am as silly and dumb as a man would be withus in the jungle. I must learn their talk."
It was not for fun that he had learned while he was with the wolves toimitate the challenge of bucks in the jungle and the grunt of the littlewild pig. So as soon as Messua pronounced a word Mowgli would imitate italmost perfectly, and before dark he had learned the names of manythings in the hut.
There was a difficulty at bedtime, because Mowgli would not sleep underanything that looked so like a panther-trap as that hut, and when theyshut the door he went through the window. "Give him his will," saidMessua's husband. "Remember he can never till now have slept on a bed.If he is indeed sent in the place of our son he will not run away."
So Mowgli stretched himself in some long, clean grass at the edge of thefield, but before he had closed his eyes a soft gray nose poked himunder the chin.
"Phew!" said Gray Brother (he was the eldest of Mother Wolf's cubs)."This is a poor reward for following thee twenty miles. Thou smellest ofwood-smoke and cattle--altogether like a man already. Wake, LittleBrother; I bring news."
"'WAKE, LITTLE BROTHER; I BRING NEWS.'"]
"Are all well in the jungle?" said Mowgli, hugging him.
"All except the wolves that were burned with the Red Flower. Now,listen. Shere Khan has gone away to hunt far off till his coat growsagain, for he is badly singed. When he returns he swears that he willlay thy bones in the Waingunga."
"There are two words to that. I also have made a little promise. Butnews is always good. I am tired to-night,--very tired with new things,Gray Brother,--but bring me the news always."
"Thou wilt not forget that thou art a wolf? Men will not make theeforget?" said Gray Brother, anxiously.
"Never. I will always remember that I love thee and all in our cave; butalso I will always remember that I have been cast out of the Pack."
"And that thou mayest be cast out of another pack. Men are only men,Little Brother, and their talk is like the talk of frogs in a pond.When I come down here again, I will wait for thee in the bamboos at theedge of the grazing-ground."
For three months after that night Mowgli hardly ever left the villagegate, he was so busy learning the ways and customs of men. First he hadto wear a cloth round him, which annoyed him horribly; and then he hadto learn about money, which he did not in the least understand, andabout plowing, of which he did not see the use. Then the little childrenin the village made him very angry. Luckily, the Law of the Jungle hadtaught him to keep his temper, for in the jungle, life and food dependon keeping your temper; but when they made fun of him because he wouldnot play games or fly kites, or because he mispronounced some word, onlythe knowledge that it was unsportsmanlike to kill little naked cubs kepthim from picking them up and breaking them in two.
He did not know his own strength in the least. In the jungle he knew hewas weak compared with the beasts, but in the village, people said hewas as strong as a bull.
And Mowgli had not the faintest idea of the difference that caste makesbetween man and man. When the potter's donkey slipped in the clay-pit,Mowgli hauled it out by the tail, and helped to stack the pots for theirjourney to the market at Khanhiwara. That was very shocking, too, forthe potter is a low-caste man, and his donkey is worse. When the priestscolded him, Mowgli threatened to put him on the donkey, too, and thepriest told Messua's husband that Mowgli had better be set to work assoon as possible; and the village head-m
an told Mowgli that he wouldhave to go out with the buffaloes next day, and herd them while theygrazed. No one was more pleased than Mowgli; and that night, because hehad been appointed a servant of the village, as it were, he went off toa circle that met every evening on a masonry platform under a greatfig-tree. It was the village club, and the head-man and the watchman andthe barber (who knew all the gossip of the village), and old Buldeo, thevillage hunter, who had a Tower musket, met and smoked. The monkeys satand talked in the upper branches, and there was a hole under theplatform where a cobra lived, and he had his little platter of milkevery night because he was sacred; and the old men sat around the treeand talked, and pulled at the big _huqas_ (the water-pipes) till farinto the night. They told wonderful tales of gods and men and ghosts;and Buldeo told even more wonderful ones of the ways of beasts in thejungle, till the eyes of the children sitting outside the circle bulgedout of their heads. Most of the tales were about animals, for the junglewas always at their door. The deer and the wild pig grubbed up theircrops, and now and again the tiger carried off a man at twilight, withinsight of the village gates.
Mowgli, who naturally knew something about what they were talking of,had to cover his face not to show that he was laughing, while Buldeo,the Tower musket across his knees, climbed on from one wonderful storyto another, and Mowgli's shoulders shook.
Buldeo was explaining how the tiger that had carried away Messua's sonwas a ghost-tiger, and his body was inhabited by the ghost of a wickedold money-lender, who had died some years ago. "And I know that this istrue," he said, "because Purun Dass always limped from the blow that hegot in a riot when his account-books were burned, and the tiger that Ispeak of _he_ limps, too, for the tracks of his pads are unequal."
"True, true; that must be the truth," said the graybeards, noddingtogether.
"Are all these tales such cobwebs and moon-talk?" said Mowgli. "Thattiger limps because he was born lame, as every one knows. To talk of thesoul of a money-lender in a beast that never had the courage of a jackalis child's talk."
"'ARE ALL THESE TALES SUCH COBWEBS AND MOONTALK?' SAID MOWGLI."]
Buldeo was speechless with surprise for a moment, and the head-manstared.
"Oho! It is the jungle brat, is it?" said Buldeo. "If thou art so wise,better bring his hide to Khanhiwara, for the Government has set ahundred rupees [$30] on his life. Better still, do not talk when thyelders speak."
Mowgli rose to go. "All the evening I have lain here listening," hecalled back over his shoulder, "and, except once or twice, Buldeo hasnot said one word of truth concerning the jungle, which is at his verydoors. How, then, shall I believe the tales of ghosts and gods andgoblins which he says he has seen?"
"It is full time that boy went to herding," said the head-man, whileBuldeo puffed and snorted at Mowgli's impertinence.
The custom of most Indian villages is for a few boys to take the cattleand buffaloes out to graze in the early morning, and bring them back atnight; and the very cattle that would trample a white man to death allowthemselves to be banged and bullied and shouted at by children thathardly come up to their noses. So long as the boys keep with the herdsthey are safe, for not even the tiger will charge a mob of cattle. Butif they straggle to pick flowers or hunt lizards, they are sometimescarried off. Mowgli went through the village street in the dawn, sittingon the back of Rama, the great herd bull; and the slaty-blue buffaloes,with their long, backward-sweeping horns and savage eyes, rose out oftheir byres, one by one, and followed him, and Mowgli made it very clearto the children with him that he was the master. He beat the buffaloeswith a long, polished bamboo, and told Kamya, one of the boys, to grazethe cattle by themselves, while he went on with the buffaloes, and to bevery careful not to stray away from the herd.
An Indian grazing-ground is all rocks and scrub and tussocks and littleravines, among which the herds scatter and disappear. The buffaloesgenerally keep to the pools and muddy places, where they lie wallowingor basking in the warm mud for hours. Mowgli drove them on to the edgeof the plain where the Waingunga River came out of the jungle; then hedropped from Rama's neck, trotted off to a bamboo clump, and found GrayBrother. "Ah," said Gray Brother, "I have waited here very many days.What is the meaning of this cattle-herding work?"
"It is an order," said Mowgli. "I am a village herd for a while. Whatnews of Shere Khan?"
"He has come back to this country, and has waited here a long time forthee. Now he has gone off again, for the game is scarce. But he means tokill thee."
"Very good," said Mowgli. "So long as he is away do thou or one of thebrothers sit on that rock, so that I can see thee as I come out of thevillage. When he comes back wait for me in the ravine by the _dhak_-treein the center of the plain. We need not walk into Shere Khan's mouth."
Then Mowgli picked out a shady place, and lay down and slept while thebuffaloes grazed round him. Herding in India is one of the laziestthings in the world. The cattle move and crunch, and lie down, and moveon again, and they do not even low. They only grunt, and the buffaloesvery seldom say anything, but get down into the muddy pools one afteranother, and work their way into the mud till only their noses andstaring china-blue eyes show above the surface, and there they lie likelogs. The sun makes the rocks dance in the heat, and the herd-childrenhear one kite (never any more) whistling almost out of sight overhead,and they know that if they died, or a cow died, that kite would sweepdown, and the next kite miles away would see him drop and follow, andthe next, and the next, and almost before they were dead there would bea score of hungry kites come out of nowhere. Then they sleep and wakeand sleep again, and weave little baskets of dried grass and putgrasshoppers in them; or catch two praying-mantises and make them fight;or string a necklace of red and black jungle-nuts; or watch a lizardbasking on a rock, or a snake hunting a frog near the wallows. Then theysing long, long songs with odd native quavers at the end of them, andthe day seems longer than most people's whole lives, and perhaps theymake a mud castle with mud figures of men and horses and buffaloes, andput reeds into the men's hands, and pretend that they are kings and thefigures are their armies, or that they are gods to be worshiped. Thenevening comes, and the children call, and the buffaloes lumber up out ofthe sticky mud with noises like gunshots going off one after the other,and they all string across the gray plain back to the twinkling villagelights.
Day after day Mowgli would lead the buffaloes out to their wallows, andday after day he would see Gray Brother's back a mile and a half awayacross the plain (so he knew that Shere Khan had not come back), and dayafter day he would lie on the grass listening to the noise round him,and dreaming of old days in the jungle. If Shere Khan had made a falsestep with his lame paw up in the jungles by the Waingunga, Mowgli wouldhave heard him in those long still mornings.
At last a day came when he did not see Gray Brother at the signalplace, and he laughed and headed the buffaloes for the ravine by the_dhak_-tree, which was all covered with golden-red flowers. There satGray Brother, every bristle on his back lifted.
"He has hidden for a month to throw thee off thy guard. He crossed theranges last night with Tabaqui, hot-foot on thy trail," said the wolf,panting.
Mowgli frowned. "I am not afraid of Shere Khan, but Tabaqui is verycunning."
"Have no fear," said Gray Brother, licking his lips a little. "I metTabaqui in the dawn. Now he is telling all his wisdom to the kites, buthe told _me_ everything before I broke his back. Shere Khan's plan is towait for thee at the village gate this evening--for thee and for no oneelse. He is lying up now in the big dry ravine of the Waingunga."
"Has he eaten to-day, or does he hunt empty?" said Mowgli, for theanswer meant life or death to him.
"He killed at dawn,--a pig,--and he has drunk too. Remember, Shere Khancould never fast even for the sake of revenge."
"Oh! Fool, fool! What a cub's cub it is! Eaten and drunk too, and hethinks that I shall wait till he has slept! Now, where does he lie up?If there were but ten of us we might p
ull him down as he lies. Thesebuffaloes will not charge unless they wind him, and I cannot speak theirlanguage. Can we get behind his track so that they may smell it?"
"He swam far down the Waingunga to cut that off," said Gray Brother.
"Tabaqui told him that, I know. He would never have thought of italone." Mowgli stood with his finger in his mouth, thinking. "The bigravine of the Waingunga. That opens out on the plain not half a milefrom here. I can take the herd round through the jungle to the head ofthe ravine and then sweep down--but he would slink out at the foot. Wemust block that end. Gray Brother, canst thou cut the herd in two forme?"
"Not I, perhaps--but I have brought a wise helper." Gray Brother trottedoff and dropped into a hole. Then there lifted up a huge gray head thatMowgli knew well, and the hot air was filled with the most desolate cryof all the jungle--the hunting-howl of a wolf at midday.
"Akela! Akela!" said Mowgli, clapping his hands. "I might have knownthat thou wouldst not forget me. We have a big work in hand. Cut theherd in two, Akela. Keep the cows and calves together, and the bullsand the plow-buffaloes by themselves."
The two wolves ran, ladies'-chain fashion, in and out of the herd, whichsnorted and threw up its head, and separated into two clumps. In one thecow-buffaloes stood, with their calves in the center, and glared andpawed, ready, if a wolf would only stay still, to charge down andtrample the life out of him. In the other the bulls and the young bullssnorted and stamped; but, though they looked more imposing, they weremuch less dangerous, for they had no calves to protect. No six men couldhave divided the herd so neatly.
"What orders!" panted Akela. "They are trying to join again."
Mowgli slipped on to Rama's back. "Drive the bulls away to the left,Akela. Gray Brother, when we are gone hold the cows together, and drivethem into the foot of the ravine."
"How far?" said Gray Brother, panting and snapping.
"Till the sides are higher than Shere Khan can jump," shouted Mowgli."Keep them there till we come down." The bulls swept off as Akela bayed,and Gray Brother stopped in front of the cows. They charged down on him,and he ran just before them to the foot of the ravine, as Akela drovethe bulls far to the left.
"Well done! Another charge and they are fairly started. Careful,now--careful, Akela. A snap too much, and the bulls will charge._Hujah!_ This is wilder work than driving black-buck. Didst thou thinkthese creatures could move so swiftly?" Mowgli called.
"I have--have hunted these too in my time," gasped Akela in the dust."Shall I turn them into the jungle?"
"Ay, turn! Swiftly turn them. Rama is mad with rage. Oh, if I could onlytell him what I need of him to-day!"
The bulls were turned to the right this time, and crashed into thestanding thicket. The other herd-children, watching with the cattle halfa mile away, hurried to the village as fast as their legs could carrythem, crying that the buffaloes had gone mad and run away.
But Mowgli's plan was simple enough. All he wanted to do was to make abig circle uphill and get at the head of the ravine, and then take thebulls down it and catch Shere Khan between the bulls and the cows, forhe knew that after a meal and a full drink Shere Khan would not be inany condition to fight or to clamber up the sides of the ravine. He wassoothing the buffaloes now by voice, and Akela had dropped far to therear, only whimpering once or twice to hurry the rear-guard. It was along, long circle, for they did not wish to get too near the ravine andgive Shere Khan warning. At last Mowgli rounded up the bewildered herdat the head of the ravine on a grassy patch that sloped steeply down tothe ravine itself. From that height you could see across the tops of thetrees down to the plain below; but what Mowgli looked at was the sidesof the ravine, and he saw with a great deal of satisfaction that theyran nearly straight up and down, and the vines and creepers that hungover them would give no foothold to a tiger who wanted to get out.
"Let them breathe, Akela," he said, holding up his hand. "They have notwinded him yet. Let them breathe. I must tell Shere Khan who comes. Wehave him in the trap."
He put his hands to his mouth and shouted down the ravine,--it wasalmost like shouting down a tunnel,--and the echoes jumped from rock torock.
After a long time there came back the drawling, sleepy snarl of afull-fed tiger just awakened.
"Who calls?" said Shere Khan, and a splendid peacock fluttered up out ofthe ravine, screeching.
"I, Mowgli. Cattle-thief, it is time to come to the Council Rock!Down--hurry them down, Akela. Down, Rama, down!"
The herd paused for an instant at the edge of the slope, but Akela gavetongue in the full hunting-yell, and they pitched over one after theother just as steamers shoot rapids, the sand and stones spurting upround them. Once started, there was no chance of stopping, and beforethey were fairly in the bed of the ravine Rama winded Shere Khan andbellowed.
"Ha! Ha!" said Mowgli, on his back. "Now thou knowest!" and the torrentof black horns, foaming muzzles, and staring eyes whirled down theravine like boulders in flood-time; the weaker buffaloes beingshouldered out to the sides of the ravine where they tore through thecreepers. They knew what the business was before them--the terriblecharge of the buffalo-herd, against which no tiger can hope to stand.Shere Khan heard the thunder of their hoofs, picked himself up, andlumbered down the ravine, looking from side to side for some way ofescape, but the walls of the ravine were straight, and he had to keepon, heavy with his dinner and his drink, willing to do anything ratherthan fight. The herd splashed through the pool he had just left,bellowing till the narrow cut rang. Mowgli heard an answering bellowfrom the foot of the ravine, saw Shere Khan turn (the tiger knew if theworst came to the worst it was better to meet the bulls than the cowswith their calves), and then Rama tripped, stumbled, and went on againover something soft, and, with the bulls at his heels, crashed full intothe other herd, while the weaker buffaloes were lifted clean off theirfeet by the shock of the meeting. That charge carried both herds outinto the plain, goring and stamping and snorting. Mowgli watched histime, and slipped off Rama's neck, laying about him right and left withhis stick.
"Quick, Akela! Break them up. Scatter them, or they will be fighting oneanother. Drive them away, Akela. _Hai_, Rama! _Hai! hai! hai!_ mychildren. Softly now, softly! It is all over."
Akela and Gray Brother ran to and fro nipping the buffaloes' legs, andthough the herd wheeled once to charge up the ravine again, Mowglimanaged to turn Rama, and the others followed him to the wallows.
Shere Khan needed no more trampling. He was dead, and the kites werecoming for him already.
"Brothers, that was a dog's death," said Mowgli, feeling for the knifehe always carried in a sheath round his neck now that he lived with men."But he would never have shown fight. His hide will look well on theCouncil Rock. We must get to work swiftly."
A boy trained among men would never have dreamed of skinning a ten-foottiger alone, but Mowgli knew better than any one else how an animal'sskin is fitted on, and how it can be taken off. But it was hard work,and Mowgli slashed and tore and grunted for an hour, while the wolveslolled out their tongues, or came forward and tugged as he ordered them.
Presently a hand fell on his shoulder, and looking up he saw Buldeo withthe Tower musket. The children had told the village about the buffalostampede, and Buldeo went out angrily, only too anxious to correctMowgli for not taking better care of the herd. The wolves dropped out ofsight as soon as they saw the man coming.
"What is this folly?" said Buldeo, angrily. "To think that thou canstskin a tiger! Where did the buffaloes kill him? It is the Lame Tiger,too, and there is a hundred rupees on his head. Well, well, we willoverlook thy letting the herd run off, and perhaps I will give thee oneof the rupees of the reward when I have taken the skin to Khanhiwara."He fumbled in his waist-cloth for flint and steel, and stooped down tosinge Shere Khan's whiskers. Most native hunters singe a tiger'swhiskers to prevent his ghost haunting them.
"Hum!" said Mowgli, half to himself as he ripped back the skin of a forepaw. "So thou wilt take the hide to
Khanhiwara for the reward, andperhaps give me one rupee? Now it is in my mind that I need the skin formy own use. Heh! old man, take away that fire!"
"What talk is this to the chief hunter of the village? Thy luck and thestupidity of thy buffaloes have helped thee to this kill. The tiger hasjust fed, or he would have gone twenty miles by this time. Thou canstnot even skin him properly, little beggar-brat, and forsooth I, Buldeo,must be told not to singe his whiskers. Mowgli, I will not give thee oneanna of the reward, but only a very big beating. Leave the carcass!"
"By the Bull that bought me," said Mowgli, who was trying to get at theshoulder, "must I stay babbling to an old ape all noon? Here, Akela,this man plagues me."
Buldeo, who was still stooping over Shere Khan's head, found himselfsprawling on the grass, with a gray wolf standing over him, while Mowgliwent on skinning as though he were alone in all India.
"Ye-es," he said, between his teeth. "Thou art altogether right, Buldeo.Thou wilt never give me one anna of the reward. There is an old warbetween this lame tiger and myself--a very old war, and--I have won."
To do Buldeo justice, if he had been ten years younger he would havetaken his chance with Akela had he met the wolf in the woods, but a wolfwho obeyed the orders of this boy who had private wars with man-eatingtigers was not a common animal. It was sorcery, magic of the worst kind,thought Buldeo, and he wondered whether the amulet round his neck wouldprotect him. He lay as still as still, expecting every minute to seeMowgli turn into a tiger, too.
"BULDEO LAY AS STILL AS STILL, EXPECTING EVERY MINUTE TO SEE MOWGLI TURN INTO A TIGER, TOO."]
"Maharaj! Great King," he said at last, in a husky whisper.
"Yes," said Mowgli, without turning his head, chuckling a little.
"I am an old man. I did not know that thou wast anything more than aherd-boy. May I rise up and go away, or will thy servant tear me topieces?"
"Go, and peace go with thee. Only, another time do not meddle with mygame. Let him go, Akela."
Buldeo hobbled away to the village as fast as he could, looking backover his shoulder in case Mowgli should change into something terrible.When he got to the village he told a tale of magic and enchantment andsorcery that made the priest look very grave.
Mowgli went on with his work, but it was nearly twilight before he andthe wolves had drawn the great gay skin clear of the body.
"Now we must hide this and take the buffaloes home! Help me to herdthem, Akela."
The herd rounded up in the misty twilight, and when they got near thevillage Mowgli saw lights, and heard the conches and bells in the templeblowing and banging. Half the village seemed to be waiting for him bythe gate. "That is because I have killed Shere Khan," he said tohimself; but a shower of stones whistled about his ears, and thevillagers shouted: "Sorcerer! Wolf's brat! Jungle-demon! Go away! Gethence quickly, or the priest will turn thee into a wolf again. Shoot,Buldeo, shoot!"
The old Tower musket went off with a bang, and a young buffalo bellowedin pain.
"More sorcery!" shouted the villagers. "He can turn bullets. Buldeo,that was _thy_ buffalo."
"Now what is this?" said Mowgli, bewildered, as the stones flew thicker.
"They are not unlike the Pack, these brothers of thine," said Akela,sitting down composedly. "It is in my head that, if bullets meananything, they would cast thee out."
"Wolf! Wolf's cub! Go away!" shouted the priest, waving a sprig of thesacred _tulsi_ plant.
"Again? Last time it was because I was a man. This time it is because Iam a wolf. Let us go, Akela."
A woman--it was Messua--ran across to the herd, and cried: "Oh, my son,my son! They say thou art a sorcerer who can turn himself into a beastat will. I do not believe, but go away or they will kill thee. Buldeosays thou art a wizard, but I know thou hast avenged Nathoo's death."
"Come back, Messua!" shouted the crowd. "Come back, or we will stonethee."
Mowgli laughed a little short ugly laugh, for a stone had hit him in themouth. "Run back, Messua. This is one of the foolish tales they tellunder the big tree at dusk. I have at least paid for thy son's life.Farewell; and run quickly, for I shall send the herd in more swiftlythan their brickbats. I am no wizard, Messua. Farewell!
"Now, once more, Akela," he cried. "Bring the herd in."
The buffaloes were anxious enough to get to the village. They hardlyneeded Akela's yell, but charged through the gate like a whirlwind,scattering the crowd right and left.
"Keep count!" shouted Mowgli, scornfully. "It may be that I have stolenone of them. Keep count, for I will do your herding no more. Fare youwell, children of men, and thank Messua that I do not come in with mywolves and hunt you up and down your street."
He turned on his heel and walked away with the Lone Wolf; and as helooked up at the stars he felt happy. "No more sleeping in traps for me,Akela. Let us get Shere Khan's skin and go away. No; we will not hurtthe village, for Messua was kind to me."
When the moon rose over the plain, making it look all milky, thehorrified villagers saw Mowgli, with two wolves at his heels and abundle on his head, trotting across at the steady wolf's trot that eatsup the long miles like fire. Then they banged the temple bells and blewthe conches louder than ever; and Messua cried, and Buldeo embroideredthe story of his adventures in the jungle, till he ended by saying thatAkela stood up on his hind legs and talked like a man.
"WHEN THE MOON ROSE OVER THE PLAIN THE VILLAGERS SAW MOWGLI TROTTING ACROSS, WITH TWO WOLVES AT HIS HEELS."]
The moon was just going down when Mowgli and the two wolves came to thehill of the Council Rock, and they stopped at Mother Wolf's cave.
"They have cast me out from the Man Pack, Mother," shouted Mowgli, "butI come with the hide of Shere Khan to keep my word." Mother Wolf walkedstiffly from the cave with the cubs behind her, and her eyes glowed asshe saw the skin.
"I told him on that day, when he crammed his head and shoulders intothis cave, hunting for thy life, Little Frog--I told him that the hunterwould be the hunted. It is well done."
"Little Brother, it is well done," said a deep voice in the thicket. "Wewere lonely in the jungle without thee," and Bagheera came running toMowgli's bare feet. They clambered up the Council Rock together, andMowgli spread the skin out on the flat stone where Akela used to sit,and pegged it down with four slivers of bamboo, and Akela lay down uponit, and called the old call to the Council, "Look--look well, O Wolves!"exactly as he had called when Mowgli was first brought there.
"THEY CLAMBERED UP ON THE COUNCIL ROCK TOGETHER, AND MOWGLI SPREAD THE SKIN OUT ON THE FLAT STONE."]
Ever since Akela had been deposed, the Pack had been without a leader,hunting and fighting at their own pleasure. But they answered the callfrom habit, and some of them were lame from the traps they had falleninto, and some limped from shot-wounds, and some were mangy from eatingbad food, and many were missing; but they came to the Council Rock, allthat were left of them, and saw Shere Khan's striped hide on the rock,and the huge claws dangling at the end of the empty, dangling feet. Itwas then that Mowgli made up a song without any rhymes, a song that cameup into his throat all by itself, and he shouted it aloud, leaping upand down on the rattling skin, and beating time with his heels till hehad no more breath left, while Gray Brother and Akela howled between theverses.
"Look well, O Wolves. Have I kept my word?" said Mowgli when he hadfinished; and the wolves bayed "Yes," and one tattered wolf howled:
"Lead us again, O Akela. Lead us again, O Man-cub, for we be sick ofthis lawlessness, and we would be the Free People once more."
"Nay," purred Bagheera, "that may not be. When ye are full-fed, themadness may come upon ye again. Not for nothing are ye called the FreePeople. Ye fought for freedom, and it is yours. Eat it, O Wolves."
"Man Pack and Wolf Pack have cast me out," said Mowgli. "Now I will huntalone in the jungle."
"And we will hunt with thee," said the four cubs.
So Mowgli went away and hunted with the four
cubs in the jungle fromthat day on. But he was not always alone, because years afterward hebecame a man and married.
But that is a story for grown-ups.
MOWGLI'S SONG
THAT HE SANG AT THE COUNCIL ROCK WHEN HE DANCED ON SHERE KHAN'S HIDE
The Song of Mowgli--I, Mowgli, am singing. Let the jungle listen to the things I have done. Shere Khan said he would kill--would kill! At the gates in the twilight he would kill Mowgli, the Frog! He ate and he drank. Drink deep, Shere Khan, for when wilt thou drink again? Sleep and dream of the kill. I am alone on the grazing-grounds. Gray Brother, come to me! Come to me, Lone Wolf, for there is big game afoot. Bring up the great bull-buffaloes, the blue-skinned herd-bulls with the angry eyes. Drive them to and fro as I order. Sleepest thou still, Shere Khan? Wake, O wake! Here come I, and the bulls are behind.
Rama, the King of the Buffaloes, stamped with his foot. Waters of the Waingunga, whither went Shere Khan? He is not Ikki to dig holes, nor Mao, the Peacock, that he should fly. He is not Mang, the Bat, to hang in the branches. Little bamboos that creak together, tell me where he ran? _Ow!_ He is there. _Ahoo!_ He is there. Under the feet of Rama lies the Lame One! Up, Shere Khan! Up and kill! Here is meat; break the necks of the bulls! _Hsh!_ He is asleep. We will not wake him, for his strength is very great. The kites have come down to see it. The black ants have come up to know it. There is a great assembly in his honor. _Alala!_ I have no cloth to wrap me. The kites will see that I am naked. I am ashamed to meet all these people. Lend me thy coat, Shere Khan. Lend me thy gay striped coat that I may go to the Council Rock. By the Bull that bought me I have made a promise--a little promise. Only thy coat is lacking before I keep my word. With the knife--with the knife that men use--with the knife of the hunter, the man, I will stoop down for my gift. Waters of the Waingunga, bear witness that Shere Khan gives me his coat for the love that he bears me. Pull, Gray Brother! Pull, Akela! Heavy is the hide of Shere Khan. The Man Pack are angry. They throw stones and talk child's talk. My mouth is bleeding. Let us run away. Through the night, through the hot night, run swiftly with me, my brothers. We will leave the lights of the village and go to the low moon. Waters of the Waingunga, the Man Pack have cast me out. I did them no harm, but they were afraid of me. Why? Wolf Pack, ye have cast me out too. The jungle is shut to me and the village gates are shut. Why? As Mang flies between the beasts and the birds so fly I between the village and the jungle. Why? I dance on the hide of Shere Khan, but my heart is very heavy. My mouth is cut and wounded with the stones from the village, but my heart is very light because I have come back to the jungle. Why? These two things fight together in me as the snakes fight in the spring. The water comes out of my eyes; yet I laugh while it falls. Why? I am two Mowglis, but the hide of Shere Khan is under my feet. All the jungle knows that I have killed Shere Khan. Look--look well, O Wolves! _Ahae!_ My heart is heavy with the things that I do not understand.