Everand Logo

Welcome to Everand!

  • Discover millions of ebooks, audiobooks, and so much more with a free trial

    Only $11.99/month after trial. Cancel anytime.

    The Jungle Book
    The Jungle Book
    The Jungle Book
    Ebook180 pages3 hours

    The Jungle Book

    By Rudyard Kipling

    4/5

    ()

    Switch to audiobook
    Read preview

    About this ebook

    The Jungle Book (1894) is a collection of stories written by Rudyard Kipling.The tales in the book (and also those in The Second Jungle Book which followed in 1895, and which includes five further stories about Mowgli) are fables, using animals in an anthropomorphic manner to give moral lessons. The verses of The Law of the Jungle, for example, lay down rules for the safety of individuals, families and communities. Kipling put in them nearly everything he knew or "heard or dreamed about the Indian jungle."

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherBooklassic
    Release dateJun 12, 2015
    ISBN9789635224968
    Author

    Rudyard Kipling

    Rudyard Kipling was born in India in 1865. After intermittently moving between India and England during his early life, he settled in the latter in 1889, published his novel The Light That Failed in 1891 and married Caroline (Carrie) Balestier the following year. They returned to her home in Brattleboro, Vermont, where Kipling wrote both The Jungle Book and its sequel, as well as Captains Courageous. He continued to write prolifically and was the first Englishman to receive the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1907 but his later years were darkened by the death of his son John at the Battle of Loos in 1915. He died in 1936.

    Read more from Rudyard Kipling

    Related to The Jungle Book

    Related ebooks

    Fantasy For You

    View More
    View More

    Related podcast episodes

    Related articles

    • Article

      The Griffin

      Nov 4, 2020

      The Griffin
      3 min read

    • Article

      Hans-my-hedgehog

      Aug 4, 2021

      Hans-my-hedgehog
      5 min read

    • Article

      Nosy News

      Sep 1, 2022

      Nosy News
      1 min read

    • Article

      Gray Fox

      Nov 1, 2021

      Gray Fox
      1 min read

    • Article

      Per Gynt

      Oct 6, 2021

      Per Gynt
      3 min read

    • Article

      Fish Stew for Two

      Mar 1, 2021

      Fish Stew for Two
      1 min read

    • Article

      The Dragon Of The North

      Sep 7, 2022

      The Dragon Of The North
      5 min read

    • Article

      THE WOLF & THE FOX

      Jul 27, 2018

      A wolf and a fox once lived together. The fox, who was the weaker of the two, had to do all the hard work, which made him anxious to leave his companion. One day, passing through a wood, the wolf said, ‘Red-fox, get me something to eat, or I shall ea

      3 min read

    • Article

      The Tiger and the Persimmon A Korean Folk Tale

      May 1, 2023

      The Tiger and the Persimmon A Korean Folk Tale
      3 min read

    • Article

      Strength In Unity!

      Aug 4, 2021

      Strength In Unity!
      2 min read

    • Article

      Yellow Lily

      Aug 4, 2021

      Yellow Lily
      4 min read

    • Article

      The Golden Blackbird

      Sep 8, 2021

      The Golden Blackbird
      2 min read

    • Article

      A Literary Zoo

      Dec 9, 2021

      A Literary Zoo
      4 min read

    • Article

      Tata’s Coyotes

      Jan 1, 2022

      Tata’s Coyotes
      3 min read

    • Article

      When Uncle Lion Could Fly

      Jan 6, 2021

      When Uncle Lion Could Fly
      2 min read

    • Article

      The Lion’s Wedding

      Feb 2, 2022

      The Lion’s Wedding
      2 min read

    • Article

      The Wolf

      Nov 6, 2018

      The Wolf
      12 min read

    • Article

      The Lion’s Fear

      Oct 4, 2023

      The Lion’s Fear
      2 min read

    • Article

      Large Animals

      Oct 6, 2021

      Imagine you’re a vet who has to perform surgery on a cat. Except it’s not a pet cat. It’s the biggest of the big cats – a Siberian tiger! So, a three-metre-long tiger is lying there, needing a fang removed. You’ve pumped enough drugs into it to send

      6 min read

    • Article

      Labour Days

      Nov 10, 2019

      Labour Days
      2 min read

    • Article

      The Girl Who Knew No Fear

      Jun 8, 2022

      The Girl Who Knew No Fear
      4 min read

    • Article

      DULCE DOMUM From The Wind In The Willows

      Nov 1, 2022

      DULCE DOMUM From The Wind In The Willows
      11 min read

    • Article

      Pachydermia

      Jul 4, 2020

      Pachydermia
      5 min read

    Related categories

    Reviews for The Jungle Book

    4/5

    50 ratings48 reviews

    What did you think?

    Tap to rate

    Review must be at least 10 words

    • 5/5
      Beautiful, brilliant, nostalgic...
    • 4/5
      These are among the first books that I remember reading as a young boy. Of them my favorites were the Mowgli tales (developed by Disney for the cinema). Mowgli is an Indian infant who is lost in the jungle after Shere Khan (the tiger) kills his family. Bagheera (the black panther) places him with a wolf family that has a newborn litter. Mowgli's new "parents" and Bagheera and Baloo (the brown bear) sponsor him for membership in the Wolf Pack and, much to Shere Khan's chagrin, he is admitted. Thus Mowgli is raised according to Jungle Law, but has engendered the enmity of Shere Khan who is plotting his revenge and ingratiating himself with the younger wolves. This leads to an exciting denouement and with the several other Mowgli stories--there are some prequels--impressed this young reader. Kipling strikes a nice balance between anthropomorphizing the animals and understanding Mowgli's natural superiority. Also appearing in this collection is the story of Rikki Tikki Tavi--all about an intrepid young mongoose and his life or death battle to protect an Indian villa from a couple of particularly unpleasant cobras. Truly Rikki Tikki Tavi is one of the great heroes in all of literature. These stories are a great introduction for children (girls and boys) to the work of a true master storyteller. I enjoyed the adventures of Mowgli and his friends and eventually discovered more Kipling as I grew older.
    • 5/5
      Kipling was born in India, was removed to England when ten, to return for work as an adult for 6 years. The Jungle stories are here compiled from magazine articles written while the author was living in Vermont (!). Also contains Baloo's Maxims [46], Mowgli's Song [131], other song-verses [e.g. 42, 89, 300], and the law of the Jungle, interspersed, which lays down rules for the safety of all, as taught to all cubs, by Baloo the sleepy brown bear. Speaking of cubs, there is Mowgli, the feral child, raised by wolves. Other much-loved stories include the heroic mongoose, Rikki-Tikki-Tavi, and the elephant-handler, Toomai. Bracketed by the jungle stories is a tale out of the Bering Sea: Kotick, a fur seal, searches for a home for his kind where they will not be persecuted by humans. Since Kipling was a great admirer of Theodor Herzl who sought self-determination for the Jewish people, it is difficult not to view this otherwise out-of-place message as a metaphor in support of a fellow journalist and friend. Ironically, three decades later, a social irritant in Germany usurped a reverse of Kipling's symbol, the Swastica, as an insignia for a political party devoted to persecution.
    • 4/5
      This a collection of tales that include Mowgli, Baloo, Bagheera, and Shere Khan; the great snake Kaa and the Monkey People; the white seal Kotick; Rikki-Tikki-Tavi and the human family he saves from the cobra couple Kala Nag and Nagaina; Little Toomai and the elephants; and a mule named Billy. "Mowgli's Brothers" is Chapter 1 and it's the basis for the popularized story and film called "The Jungle Book."These are stories of adventure and exploration of the world and its inhabitants. The adventures contain life's lessons along the way. I think most of these stories are fantastic in how they engage the reader through a fun plot and an easy reading style, especially "Mowgli's Brothers" and "Rikki-Tikki-Tavi."
    • 4/5
      Most people will be familiar with this story, and will know why it is a classic. On the other hand, they may have not read the original version with the additional tales and poetry. It was worth reading these, even though the story of Mowgli is certainly the best known story for a good reason! The other tales though show the versatility of the author, and are engaging in their own way
    • 3/5
      A favorite classic from my childhood.
    • 5/5
      Not only a ripping yarn, but one with many lessons to be learned -- I have met far too many of the Bandar-Log in my time. It's been quite a while since I've read it, so parents might want to make this a read-aloud to be able to explain some of Kipling's outdated ideas. Take what's good and leave the rest.
    • 5/5
      Even better now than when I was a child

      This is the first time I have read this book since I was a little girl. The stories are well written, for adult and child alike. It is a great thing to get to know these classical characters.
    • 3/5
      The Mowgli stories are excellent - the rest, less so. Even Riki Tiki Tavi, it turns out, isn't so great. Too bad - I remember a great animated version of it that I watched as a kid.The imperialism is present, though not generally so obtrusive as might be expected (the final story an exception, obviously).
    • 4/5
      This is a story about a little boy Mowgli. At the beginning of the story his parents are killed by the lame tiger Shere khan . Shere khan vows to eat Mowgli. But Mowgli learns the law of the jungle , how to hunt and how to make fire! as he is learning this, the evil savage monkeys catch him and make him teach them to weave stick and do man skills. But then Baloo and Bageera his two friends try to rescue him.He eventually kills Shere khan with a landslide of buffaloes when he is acting herd boy at a man village. At the end he hunts freely with his brother wolfs.This book was very good. I recommend this book to many young readers. It helps you expose your mind to literature. There is lots of action in this book,there is lots of humor as well. I like how mowgli is brave . He is very courageous, he fought a tiger,can't get more courageous than that! Once again I recommend this book!
    • 3/5
      What can you say about such a classic as this? Mowgli is raised in the wilds of the Indian Junble by wolves, and has a series of adventures, in which he proves himself brave, and kind and fair. I enjoyed reading the stories that make up The Jungle Book, for all they were a product of the era in which they were written.
    • 3/5
      I think this book is a bit gruesome for children, but... oh well, that's just me. Maybe it's all a matter of point of view, the original fairy tales are not half as glamorous as it is shown by the Disney universe.

      I usually dislike books with talking animals, and this one was no exception. I found that this book was rather bland and it failed to draw my attention to any of its tales. Rikki-Tikki-Tavi's was, by far, the most interesting one. As for the other ones, well, they're not really impressive. Indeed, perhaps I'm not the target audience of this book, thus my lack of interest for most of its aspects.
    • 4/5
      I somehow never read any of the Kipling stories as a child, I only knew the Disney animated movie, and later the Jason Scott Lee [as Mowgli] live-action version. So I was very pleased to find just how good the stories are, even to an adult. They're much heavier than the movie portrayed, and there's a lot the movie left out, even from such a short book. Definitely something young people should read.
    • 5/5
      This is a story about a man who was brought up by wolves. The boy's name is Mougl.This is a famous story.So,It is easy for me to read this book, because Ihave been known this story.This is fiction,but there is a story that a boy was brought by wolves.I hope that peopl and animal can become friends like Mougli.In fact, man hurt a lot of animals. It is sad fact.
    • 3/5
      I had no idea this book had more than the story of Mowgli. I've never even heard of the other stories although my mother says they are classic stories that she grew up with. And the story of Mowgli is much less than what I expected. I didn’t care too much for most of the other stories, though I now know what Rikki-tikki-tavi and Tomai references mean now. It was more of a book of short stories than anything else, which I usually don’t get into very often. It’s checked off the list though. Don’t regret the read since it was so short.
    • 4/5
      Inhaltsangabe:Der Autor Rudyard Kipling erzählt hier vier interessante Tier-Geschichten, die überwiegend in Indien spielen.Da ist die berühmte Geschichte um Mogli, der im Dschungel bei den Wölfen aufwächst und im Alter von 12 Jahren dann zu den Menschen geschickt wird. Der Tiger Shir Khan hat allerdings noch eine Rechnung mit dem Menschenkind offen und so muss Mogli all seinen Mut beweisen.Eine Tier-Geschichte, die außerhalb Indiens spielt, handelt von einer kleinen weißen Robbe, die im Alter von einem Jahr mit ansehen muss, wie eine Gruppe vierjähriger Robben von den Menschen erschlagen und gehäutet wird. Er sucht viele Jahre in den weiten Meeren nach einer Insel, wo die Menschen nicht hinkommen.Und dann gibt es noch den Mungo namens Rikitiki und eine spannende Geschichte mit Elefanten-Treiber.Mein Fazit:Wer kennt die Geschichte um den kleinen Mogli nicht? Walt Disney hat Mogli, Balu und Baghira in einem bezaubernden Film auf die Leinwand gebracht. Doch wie war die Geschichte um Shir Khan wirklich? Warum wollte er unbedingt das Menschenkind haben?Mit einer ziemlich hohen Erwartung ging ich also an das Hörbuch. Ich kann nicht sagen, dass ich enttäuscht wurde, aber wirklich begeistert bin ich auch nicht. Ich glaubte, in diesem Buch würde es eben nur um diese eine Geschichte gehen. Nein, es sind insgesamt vier Geschichten, allesamt aus der Tierwelt, wo die Menschen eine untergeordnete Rolle spielen, trotzdem auf die eine oder andere Weise ihre Spuren hinterlassen.Der Vorleser Stefan Kaminski hat dabei sehr bildlich gesprochen und die Tier-Geräusche beeindruckend nachgemacht. Das ist wirklich positiv anzumerken, dadurch bekam ich ein sehr gutes Bild von der damaligen Zeit und der Begebenheit. Der Erzählstil ist schon etwas eigentümlich und bei den Versen und Gedichten habe ich das nicht immer genau verfolgen können. Da wäre die Print-Version der Geschichten wohl doch besser, zumal sich die Geschichten auch gut zum Vorlesen eignen. Es gibt auch einige brutale Szenen, aber in den Märchen geht es ja auch nicht immer zahm zu.Aufgrund der gut gewählten und ausdrucksstarken Erzähl-Stimme bekommt es vier Sterne!
    • 4/5
      Picked up as premium on Folio Society order instead of 'Autumn' offering. Later saw a preview for new CGI Jungle Book Disney movie, so a refresher read seemed timely. I enjoyed all the stories, most especially 'Toomai of the Elephants' that I had never before encountered.
    • 4/5
      This small paperback edition contained the first three stories of Kipling's Jungle Books - "Mowgli's Brother"; "Kaa's Hunting"; and "Tiger! Tiger!"

      Kipling's prose impressed me with it's poetry and imaginative metaphors. A beautiful love letter to his adopted homeland of India. These stories have aged remarkably well.

      A must read for children, tweens, teen, young adults, and the young at heart.
    • 5/5
      Don't rely on Disney, read the book(s) for yourself! The cartoon I've seen of Rikki Tikki Tavi is a faithful adaptation, and there are other stories I was wholly unaware of, but everything involving Mowgli is a bit different. There's more too. Don't get me wrong, I enjoy the film adaptations too, but the book is likewise worth your time, if not more so.
    • 3/5
      Verzameling verhalen waarvan alleen eerste 5 over Mowgli. Verhalen telkens gevolgd door bijhorend lied; zeer mooi geschreven.
    • 4/5
      Very enjoyable. Kipling knows his Subcontinent thoroughly and this epic yarn of an orphan boy raised by a menagerie of animals is priceless. Even Kaa the snake is a wise teacher to the boy. Much more involved than the wonderful cartoon movie by Disney, this book should be read first.
    • 2/5
      One of my favorites.
    • 5/5
      I have to say I like the movie better, but I think that's because of the music! It was an interesting story. Kipling either has an amazing imagination or he actually spent time in the jungle. Maybe it's both.
    • 4/5
      Rikki-Tikki-Tavi has always been my favourite story in this book.
    • 5/5
      The delightful tales in The Jungle Book can and should be enjoyed by young and old. Mowgli, a human child in India, is rescued by wolves and raised by them with wolf brothers and sisters by wolf parents, after an evil lame tiger chased away his human parents. The tiger who not only kills humans wants to control the wolf pact. He tells the wolves insistently that Mowgli belongs to him. Mowgli has many adventures among the wolves and later among humans. Once, for instance, he was captured when he was ten or eleven years old by monkeys, who are portrayed as stupid forgetful creatures in the book. He is saved during a lengthy battle by Bagheera the black panther who loves him and by Baloo the bear that is his instructor, as well as the python Kaa who respects him. Mowgli leaves the jungle and goes to live in the human village. He thinks that people act and think strangely, speak foolishly, and believe that they can change things, which Mowgli knows cannot be changed. These are just some of Mowgli's many adventures. The book also contains exploits by many different animals, such as the story of the white seal that saves other seals from being killed by men for their skins, the mongoose who rescues a family from husband and wife cobras, and a boy who sees elephants dance.
    • 3/5
      Rudyard Kipling’s _The Jungle Book_ is an enjoyable read. A collection of short stories, all of which revolve around the lives and troubles of different animals and the people who interact with them, it has a surprising amount of depth coupled with rather pleasant prose. The most famous of these stories are probably those that revolve around Mowgli, the jungle boy raised by wolves in India whose adventures with Baloo the bear and Bagheera the panther against the machinations of Shere Khan the tiger are fairly well-known (even resulting in a typically watered-down Disney movie from many years ago).

      All of the stories are notable for their fairly even handed treatment of the interactions between animals and men. The tragedy and pathos of the tribulations and abuse animals often have to suffer at the hands of man are not glossed over, but neither is it implied that all interactions between mankind and the animal kingdom are destructive or unwarranted. The animals are presented as having languages and customs of their own and Kipling generally does a pretty neat trick of managing to straddle the line between having his animal characters behave too much like humans and having them fall into unrelatability by being purely ‘animals’. The most significant contravention of this occurs, I think, in the story “Her Majesty’s Servants” in which, in my opinion, a group of animals serving various roles in a British regiment shade a bit more towards taking on the roles of their all-too human handlers. That quibble aside I enjoyed these morality fables and adventure stories, with those centring on Mowgli and his lessons in the Laws of the Jungle topping the list. Good clean fun with enough meat to the bone to give you something to think about.
    • 3/5
      The Jungle Book, a three star rated book, would be a good book for elementary or middle level students. The book comes in pictures or just words. This book is a classic tale that teachers could have a good time with to introduce the jungle and/or wild animals.
    • 4/5
      This classic story of a boy raised by a pack of wolves has lost none of its power over the years, but the Disney movie certainly doesn't do it justice. Mowgli's journey to manhood is so much more complicated than that depiction shows. He learns the jungle law from the vivid characters Baloo the bear and the panther Bagheera and he must fight the tiger Shere Khan, but the true story lies in his life as a misfit. Though he's raised in the jungle, most animals never accept him. Then when he returns to the human village he finds the same is true there. He has no real home and the pain of that breaks his heart.
    • 5/5
      A classic that I loved since I read it for the first time at age 5. My favourite till today is Rikki Tikki Tavi, the mongoose who makes friends with beings so totally different from itself and protects them with wit and skill.Oh, and Bagheera, of course. Every child should have a Bagheera.
    • 3/5
      Wonderful descriptions...but all the laws that must be obeyed just because get under my skin. Why is Akela "The Lone Wolf" when he is the leader of the pack? This is not the only bit that doesn't make sense.When I was young I found the stories about Mowgli tremendously exciting and longed to go live in the jungle with a wolf pack myself. Killing my enemy and being the darling of all other reputable creatures in the jungle seemed like great fun. I also wanted to be a mongoose. I found many of the poems moving and evocative.The chatter of the livestock in the camp in the last story was obviously intended as some kind of allegory about the social structure of the British Empire and neighboring Afghanistan.As an adult I'm much more interested in finding out the truth behind the tales. For example, fur seal rookeries are really as crowded as Kipling describes them and fur seals really do live out in the ocean for a good eight months at a time. Sexual dimorphism is extremely pronounced with full grown males weighing up to five times as much as full grown females. The seals can way up to 500 lbs. Clubbing the seals was the preferred way to begin the process of skinning them, and so forth.The reading by Rebecca Burns was too fast, almost breathless.

    Book preview

    The Jungle Book - Rudyard Kipling

    978-963-522-496-8

    Chapter 1

    Mowgli's Brothers

    Now Rann the Kite brings home the night

    That Mang the Bat sets free–

    The herds are shut in byre and hut

    For loosed till dawn are we.

    This is the hour of pride and power,

    Talon and tush and claw.

    Oh, hear the call!–Good hunting all

    That keep the Jungle Law!

    Night-Song in the Jungle

    It was seven o’clock of a very warm evening in the Seeonee hills when Father Wolf woke up from his day’s rest, scratched himself, yawned, and spread out his paws one after the other to get rid of the sleepy feeling in their tips. Mother Wolf lay with her big gray nose dropped across her four tumbling, squealing cubs, and the moon shone into the mouth of the cave where they all lived. Augrh! said Father Wolf. It is time to hunt again. He was going to spring down hill when a little shadow with a bushy tail crossed the threshold and whined: Good luck go with you, O Chief of the Wolves. And good luck and strong white teeth go with noble children that they may never forget the hungry in this world.

    It was the jackal–Tabaqui, the Dish-licker–and the wolves of India despise Tabaqui because he runs about making mischief, and telling tales, and eating rags and pieces of leather from the village rubbish-heaps. But they are afraid of him too, because Tabaqui, more than anyone else in the jungle, is apt to go mad, and then he forgets that he was ever afraid of anyone, and runs through the forest biting everything in his way. Even the tiger runs and hides when little Tabaqui goes mad, for madness is the most disgraceful thing that can overtake a wild creature. We call it hydrophobia, but they call it dewanee–the madness– and run.

    Enter, then, and look, said Father Wolf stiffly, but there is no food here.

    For a wolf, no, said Tabaqui, but for so mean a person as myself a dry 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 found the bone of a buck with some meat on it, and sat cracking the end merrily.

    All thanks for this good meal, he said, licking his lips. How beautiful are the noble children! How large are their eyes! And so young too! Indeed, indeed, I might have remembered that the children of kings are men from the beginning.

    Now, Tabaqui knew as well as anyone else that there is nothing so unlucky as to compliment children to their faces. It pleased him to see Mother and Father Wolf look uncomfortable.

    Tabaqui sat still, rejoicing in the mischief that he had made, and then he said spitefully:

    Shere Khan, the Big One, has shifted his hunting grounds. He will hunt among these hills for the next moon, so he has told me.

    Shere Khan was the tiger who lived near the Waingunga River, twenty miles away.

    He has no right! Father Wolf began angrily–By the Law of the Jungle he has no right to change his quarters without due warning. He will frighten every head of game within ten miles, and I–I have to kill for two, these days.

    His mother did not call him Lungri [the Lame One] for nothing, said Mother Wolf quietly. He has been lame in one foot from his birth. That is why he has only killed cattle. Now the villagers of the Waingunga are angry 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 our children must run when the grass is set alight. Indeed, we are very grateful to Shere Khan!

    Shall I tell him of your gratitude? said Tabaqui.

    Out! snapped Father Wolf. Out and hunt with thy master. Thou hast done harm enough for one night.

    I go, said Tabaqui quietly. Ye can hear Shere Khan below in the thickets. I might have saved myself the message.

    Father Wolf listened, and below in the valley that ran down to a little river he heard the dry, angry, snarly, singsong whine of a tiger who has 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 he hunts to-night, said Mother Wolf. It is Man.

    The whine had changed to a sort of humming purr that seemed to come from every quarter of the compass. It was the noise that bewilders woodcutters and gypsies 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 there not enough beetles and frogs in the tanks that he must eat Man, and on our 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 his children how to kill, and then he must hunt outside the hunting grounds of his pack or tribe. The real reason for this is that man-killing means, sooner or later, the arrival of white men on elephants, with guns, and hundreds of brown men with gongs and rockets and torches. Then everybody in the jungle suffers. The reason the beasts give among themselves is that Man is the weakest and most defenseless of all living things, and it is unsportsmanlike to touch him. They say too–and it is true –that man-eaters become mangy, and lose their teeth.

    The purr grew louder, and ended in the full-throated Aaarh! of the tiger’s charge.

    Then there was a howl–an untigerish howl–from Shere Khan. He has missed, said Mother Wolf. What is it?

    Father Wolf ran out a few paces and heard Shere Khan muttering and mumbling savagely as he tumbled about in the scrub.

    The fool has had no more sense than to jump at a woodcutter’s campfire, and has burned his feet, said Father Wolf with a grunt. Tabaqui is with him.

    Something is coming uphill, said Mother Wolf, twitching one ear. Get ready.

    The bushes rustled a little in the thicket, and Father Wolf dropped with his haunches under him, ready for his leap. Then, if you had been watching, you would have seen the most wonderful thing in the world–the wolf checked in mid-spring. He made his bound before he saw what it was he was jumping at, and then he tried to stop himself. The result was that he shot up straight into the air for four or five feet, landing almost 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 naked brown baby who could just walk–as soft and as dimpled a little atom as ever came to a wolf’s cave at night. He looked up into Father Wolf’s face, and laughed.

    Is that a man’s cub? said Mother Wolf. I have never seen one. Bring it here.

    A Wolf accustomed to moving his own cubs can, if necessary, mouth an egg without breaking it, and though Father Wolf’s jaws closed right on the child’s back not a tooth even scratched the skin as he laid it down among the cubs.

    How little! How naked, and–how bold! said Mother Wolf softly. The baby 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’s cub. Now, was there ever a wolf that could boast of a man’s cub among her children?

    I have heard now and again of such a thing, but never in our Pack or in my time, said Father Wolf. He is altogether without hair, and I could kill him with a touch of my foot. But see, he looks up and is not afraid.

    The moonlight was blocked out of the mouth of the cave, for Shere Khan’s great 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 were very angry. What does Shere Khan need?

    My quarry. A man’s cub went this way, said Shere Khan. Its parents have run off. Give it to me.

    Shere Khan had jumped at a woodcutter’s campfire, as Father Wolf had said, and was furious from the pain of his burned feet. But Father Wolf knew that the mouth of the cave was too narrow for a tiger to come in by. Even where he was, Shere Khan’s shoulders and forepaws were cramped for 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 from the Head of the Pack, and not from any striped cattle-killer. The man’s cub is ours–to kill if we choose.

    Ye choose and ye do not choose! What talk is this of choosing? By the bull that I killed, am I to stand nosing into your dog’s den for my fair dues? It is I, Shere Khan, who speak!

    The tiger’s roar filled the cave with thunder. Mother Wolf shook herself clear of the cubs and sprang forward, her eyes, like two green moons in the darkness, facing the blazing eyes of Shere Khan.

    And it is I, Raksha [The Demon], who answers. The man’s cub is mine, Lungri–mine to me! He shall not be killed. He shall live to run with the Pack and to hunt with the Pack; and in the end, look you, hunter of little naked cubs–frog-eater– fish-killer–he shall hunt thee! Now get 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 than ever thou camest into the world! Go!

    Father Wolf looked on amazed. He had almost forgotten the days when he won Mother Wolf in fair fight from five other wolves, when she ran in the Pack and was not called The Demon for compliment’s sake. Shere Khan might have faced Father Wolf, but he could not stand up against Mother Wolf, for he knew that where he was she had all the advantage of the ground, and would fight to the death. So he backed out of the cave mouth growling, and when he was clear he shouted:

    Each dog barks in his own yard! We will see what the Pack will say to this fostering of man-cubs. The cub is mine, and to my teeth he will come in the end, O bush-tailed thieves!

    Mother Wolf threw herself down panting among the cubs, and Father Wolf said 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 side already. And that lame butcher would have killed him and would have run off to the Waingunga while the villagers here hunted through all our lairs in revenge! Keep him? Assuredly I will keep him. Lie still, little frog. O thou Mowgli –for Mowgli the Frog I will call thee–the time will 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 he marries, withdraw from the Pack he belongs to. But as soon as his cubs are old enough to stand on their feet he must bring them to the Pack Council, which is generally held once a month at full moon, in order that the other wolves may identify them. After that inspection the cubs are free to run where they please, and until they have killed their first buck no excuse is accepted if a grown wolf of the Pack kills one of them. The punishment is death where the murderer can be found; and if you 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 the night of the Pack Meeting took them and Mowgli and Mother Wolf to the Council Rock–a hilltop covered with stones and boulders where a hundred wolves could hide. Akela, the great gray Lone Wolf, who led all the Pack by strength and cunning, lay out at full length on his rock, and below him sat forty or more wolves of every size and color, from badger-colored veterans who could handle a buck alone to young black three-year-olds who thought they could. The Lone Wolf had led them for a year now. He had fallen twice into a wolf trap in his youth, and once he had been beaten and left for dead; so he knew the manners and customs of men. There was very little talking at the Rock. The cubs tumbled over each other 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 at him carefully, and return to his place on noiseless feet. Sometimes a mother would push her cub far out into the moonlight to be sure that he had not been overlooked. Akela from his rock would cry: Ye know the Law–ye know the Law. Look well, O Wolves! And the anxious mothers would take up the call: Look–look well, O Wolves!

    At last–and Mother Wolf’s neck bristles lifted as the time came–Father Wolf pushed Mowgli the Frog, as they called him, into the center, where he sat laughing and playing with some pebbles that glistened in the moonlight.

    Akela never raised his head from his paws, but went on with the monotonous cry: Look well! A muffled roar came up from behind the rocks–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, O Wolves! What have the Free People to do with the orders of any save the Free People? Look well!

    There was a chorus of deep growls, and a young wolf in his fourth year flung back Shere Khan’s question to Akela: What have the Free People to do with a man’s cub? Now, the Law of the Jungle lays down that if there is any dispute as to the right of a cub to be accepted by the Pack, he must be spoken for by at least two members of the Pack who are not his father and mother.

    Who speaks for this cub? said Akela. Among the Free People who speaks? There

    Enjoying the preview?
    Page 1 of 1