Rudyard Kipling Classic tales
Illustrated by
Fernando Llorente
EDELVIVES
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Kaa’s Hunting
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His spots are the joy of the Leopard: his horns are the Buffalo’s pride. Be clean, for the strength of the hunter is known by the gloss of his hide. If you find that the Bullock can toss you, or the heavy-browed Sambhur can gore; You need not stop work to inform us: we knew it ten seasons before. Oppress not the cubs of the stranger, but hail them as Sister and Brother, For though they are little and fubsy, it may be the Bear is their mother. “There is none like to me!” says the Cub in the pride of his earliest kill; But the jungle is large and the Cub he is small. Let him think and be still.
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MAXIMS OF BALOO
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Everything that is told here happened some time before Mowgli was pushed out of the Seeonee Wolf Pack1, 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 very happy to have such a quick pupil, because the young wolves will only learn the parts of the Law of the Jungle that 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 holes, and sharp white teeth, all these things are the marks of our brothers except Tabaqui the Jackal and the Hyenas who we hate.” But Mowgli, as a man-cub2, had to learn a lot more than this. Sometimes Bagheera the Black Panther would come creeping through the jungle to see how his pet was getting on, and would purr3 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, 1 2 3
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pack A group of wild animals who live together cub A young animal, like a baby lion or wolf purr Make the noise of a cat when it is happy 63
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the Teacher of the Law, taught him the Wood and Water Laws: how to tell a dead branch from a strong one; how to speak politely to the wild bees when he found a hive of them fifty feet above ground; what to say to Mang the Bat when he woke him in the branches at midday; and how to warn4 the water-snakes in the pools before he splashed down among them. None of the Jungle People like being woken up, and all are very ready to attack an intruder. Mowgli was also 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 permission to hunt here because I am hungry.” And the answer is, “Hunt then for food, but not for entertainment.” All this will show you how much Mowgli had to learn by heart, and he grew very tired of saying the same thing over and over a hundred times. But, as Baloo said to Bagheera, one day when Mowgli had been cuffed and run off angrily, “A man’s cub is a man’s cub, and he must learn all the Law of the Jungle.”
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warn Advise somebody that danger is coming
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“But think how small he is,” said the Black Panther, who would have permitted Mowgli to do anything he wanted if he had had his own way. “How can his little head carry all your 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 do you know of softness, old Ironfeet?” Bagheera growled. “His face is all bruised5 today by your - softness. Ugh.” “Better he is bruised from head to foot by me who loves him than that he is in danger because he is ignorant,” Baloo answered. “I am now teaching him the Master Words of the Jungle that will protect him with the birds and the Snake People, and every animal that hunts on four feet, except his own pack. He can now ask for protection, if he will only remember the words, from everyone in the jungle. Is that not worth a little cuffing?” “Well, make sure then that you do not kill the man-cub. He is not a tree trunk to sharpen your 5 bruise Purple marks on your skin after an accident or a fight
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claws upon. But what are those Master Words? It is more probable that I give help than ask for it” - Bagheera stretched out one paw6 and admired the steel-blue claws at the end of it - “but I would like to know.” “I will call Mowgli and he can say them - if he will. Come, Little Brother!” 16
“My head is ringing like a bee tree,” said an angry little voice over their heads, and Mowgli slid down a tree trunk very indignantly, adding as he got to the ground: “I come for Bagheera and not for you, fat old Baloo!” “That does not matter to me,” said Baloo, even though he was hurt and saddened. “Tell Bagheera, then, the Master Words of the Jungle that I have taught you today.” “Master Words for which people?” said Mowgli, happy to show what he knew. “The jungle has many tongues. I know them all.” “You know a little, but not much. See, O Bagheera, they never thank their teacher. Not one small wolfling has ever come back to thank old Baloo 6
paw The soft foot of an animal, for example a dog or a cat
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for his teachings. Say the word for the HuntingPeople, then - great scholar.” “We are of one blood, you 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 Kite7’s whistle at the end of the sentence. “Now for the Snake-People,” said Bagheera. 7 kite A bird which hunts and kills animals - similar in size to a falcon
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The answer was a perfectly indescribable hiss, and Mowgli danced and clapped his hands together, and jumped onto Bagheera’s back, where he sat drumming with his feet on the panther’s shiny black coat and making the worst faces he could think of at Baloo. “There - there! That was worth a little bruise,” said the brown bear softly. “Some day you will remember me.” Then he turned to tell Bagheera how he had asked Hathi the Wild Elephant to give him the Master Words, because the Elephant 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 said, rubbing his big furry stomach with pride. “Except his own tribe,” said Bagheera quietly; and then in a loud voice, to Mowgli, “Be careful with me, Little Brother! What is all this dancing up and down?” Mowgli had been trying to make himself heard by pulling at Bagheera’s shoulder and kicking hard.
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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 foolishness, 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 picked Mowgli off Bagheera’s back, and as the boy lay in the Bear’s arms, Mowgli could see he was angry. “Mowgli,” said Baloo, “you have 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. “You have been with the Monkey People - the gray apes - the people without a law - the eaters of everything. That is a great sadness.” “When Baloo hurt my head,” said Mowgli (he was still in the Bear’s arms), “I went away, and the gray apes came down from the trees and felt sorry for me. No one else cared.” He sniffed a little.
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“The Monkey People felt sorry for you!” Baloo snorted. “The mountain stream is silent! The summer sun is cold! And then, man-cub?” “And then, and then, they gave me nuts and nice 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 have no tail, and would be their leader some day.” “They have no leader,” said Bagheera. “They lie. They have always lied.” “They were very kind and invited me to come again. Why have I never been taken to see the Monkey People? They stand on their feet like 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 want to play with them again.” “Listen, man-cub,” said the Bear, and his voice sounded like thunder on a hot night. “I have taught you 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 outcasts8. They have no language of their own, but use the stolen words which they hear when they listen to 8
outcast A person who is not accepted in society
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other people, and spy on them from up in the branches. Their way is not our way. They do not have leaders. They have no memories. They laugh and chatter and pretend that they are great people who are going to do great things in the jungle, but a nut falling from a tree makes them forget everything. The Jungle-People have no business 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. Have you ever heard me talk about the Bandar-log till today?” “No,” said Mowgli in a whisper, because the forest was very quiet now Baloo had finished. “The Jungle-People put them out of their mouths and out of their minds. They are very many, evil, dirty, cheeky, 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 dirt on our heads.” He had just finished speaking when a shower of nuts and rubbish fell down through the branches; and they could hear coughings and howlings and angry jumpings high up in the air among the thin branches.
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