 THE JUNGLE BOOK by Rudyard Kipling, CHAPTER 3, PART 1 CHAPTER 3 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. When Mowgli left the wolf's cave after the fight with the pack at the council rock, he went down to the plowed lands where the villagers lived. But he would not stop there because it was too near to the jungle and he knew that he had 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 a steady jog trot for nearly twenty miles till he came to a country that he did not know. The valley opened out into a great plain dotted over with rocks and cut up with ravines. At one end stood a little village and at the other the thick jungle came down in a sweep to the grazing grounds and stopped there as though it had been cut off with a hoe. All over the plain cattle and buffaloes were grazing and when the little 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 the village gate he saw the big thorn bush that was drawn up before the gate at twilight pushed to one side. Humph, he said, for he had come across more than one such barricade in his night rambles after things to eat. So men are afraid of the people of the jungle here also. He sat down by the gate and when a man came out he stood up, opened his mouth and pointed down it to show that he wanted food. The man stared and ran back up the one street of the village shouting for the priest who was a big fat man dressed in white with a red and yellow mark on his forehead. The priest came to the gate and with him at least a hundred people who stared and talked and shouted and pointed at Mowgli. They have no manners these men folk said Mowgli to himself only the gray ape would behave as they do. So he threw back his long hair and frowned at the crowd. What is there to be afraid of? said the priest. Look at the marks on his arms and legs. They are the bites of wolves. He is but a wolf-child run away from the jungle. Of course in playing together the cubs had often nipped Mowgli harder than they intended and there were white scars all over his arms and legs. But he would have been the last person in the world to call these bites for he knew what real biting meant. Aray! Aray! said two or three women together to be bitten by wolves, poor child. He is a handsome boy. He has eyes like red fire. By my honour, Missua, 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 and ankles and she peered at Mowgli under the palm of her hand. Indeed he is not. He is thinner, but he has the very look of my boy. The priest was a clever man and he knew that Missua was wife to the richest 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 honour the priest who sees so far into the lives of men. By the bull that bought me, said Mowgli to himself, but all this talking is like another looking over by the pack. Well, if I am a man, a man I must be. The crowd parted as the woman beckoned Mowgli to her hut where there was a red lacquered bedstead, a great earthen grain chest with funny raised patterns on it, half a dozen copper cooking pots, an image of a Hindu god in a little alcove and on the wall a real looking glass such as they sell at the country fairs for eight cents. She gave him a long drink of milk and some bread and then she laid her hand on his head and looked into his eyes for she thought perhaps that he might be her real son come back from the jungle where the tiger had taken him. So she said, Nathu, oh Nathu! Mowgli did not show that he knew the name. Thus thou not remember the day when I gave thee thy new shoes. She touched his foot and it was almost as hard as horn. No, she said sorrowfully, these feet have never worn shoes, but thou art very like, my Nathu, and thou shalt be my son. Mowgli was uneasy because he had never been under a roof before, but as he looked at the thatch he saw that he could tear it out at any time if he wanted to get away and that the window had no fastenings. What is the good of a man, he said to himself at last, if he does not understand man's talk? Now I am as silly and dumb as a man would be with us in the jungle. I must speak their talk. He had not learned while he was with the wolves to imitate the challenge of bucks in the jungle and the grunt of the little wild pig for fun. So, as soon as Masua pronounced a word, Mowgli would imitate it almost perfectly and before dark he had learned the name of many things in the hut. There was a difficulty at bedtime because Mowgli would not sleep under anything that looked so like a panther trap as that hut and when they shut the door he went through the window. Give him his will, said Masua'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 the field but before he had closed his eyes a soft gray nose poked him under the chin. Phew! said Great Brother. He was the eldest of Mother Wolf's cubs. This is a poor reward for following the twenty miles. Thou smellest of wood-smoke and cattle, altogether like a man already. 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, Shirkhan has gone away to hunt far off till his coat grows again for he is badly singed. When he returns he swears that he will lay thy bones in the Wingunga. There are two words to that. I also have made a little promise. But news is always good. I am tired tonight, very tired with new things, Great Brother. But bring me the news always. Thou will not forget that Thou art a wolf. Men will not make thee forget, said Great Brother anxiously. Never! I will always remember that I love thee and all in our cave but also 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 the edge of the grazing ground. For three months after that night Mowgli hardly ever left the village gate he was so busy learning the ways and customs of men. First he had to wear a cloth round him which annoyed him horribly and then he had to learn about money which he did not in the least understand and about plowing of which he did not see the use. Then the little children in the village made him very angry. Luckily the law of the jungle had taught him to keep his temper for in the jungle life and food depend on keeping your temper but when they made fun of him because he would not play games or fly kites or because he mispronounced some word only the knowledge that it was unsportsmanlike to kill little naked cubs kept him from picking them up and breaking them in two. He did not know his own strength in the least. In the jungle he knew he was weak compared with the beasts but in the village people said that he was strong as a bull. He certainly had no notion of what fear was for when the village priest told him that the God in the temple would be angry with him if he ate the priest's mangoes he picked up the image, brought it over to the priest's house and asked the priest to make the God angry and he would be happy to fight him. It was a horrible scandal but the priest hushed it up and Musua's husband paid much good silver to comfort the God and Mowgli had not the faintest idea of the difference that caste makes between 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 their journey to the market at Kanawara that was very shocking too for the potter is a low caste man and his donkey is worse. When the priest scolded him Mowgli threatened to put him on the donkey too and the priest told Musua's husband that Mowgli had better be set to work as soon as possible and the village headman told Mowgli that he would have to go out with the buffaloes the next day and herd them while they grazed. No one was more pleased than Mowgli and that night because he had been appointed a servant of the village as it were he went off to a circle that met every evening on a masonry platform under a great fig tree. It was the village club and the headman and the watchman who knew all the gossip of the village an old Voldeo, the village hunter who had a tower musket met and smoked. The monkeys sat and talked in the upper branches and there was a hole under the platform where a cobra lived and he had his little platter of milk every night because he was sacred and the old men sat around the tree and talked and pulled at the big hukkas the water pipes till far into the night they told wonderful tales of gods and men and ghosts and Voldeo told even more wonderful ones of the ways of beasts in the jungle till the eyes of the children sitting outside the circle bulged out of their heads most of the tales were about animals for the jungle was always at their door the deer and the wild pig grubbed up their crops and now and again the tiger carried off a man at twilight within sight 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 Voldeo, the tower musket across his knees climbed on from one wonderful story to another and Mowgli's shoulders shook Voldeo was explaining how the tiger that had carried away Masua's son was a ghost tiger and his body was inhabited by the ghost of a wicked old moneylender who had died some years ago and I know that this is true, he said because Porundas always limped from the blow that he got in a riot when his account books were burned and the tiger that I speak of he limps too for the tracks of his pads are unequal true true that must be the truth said the greybeards nodding together are all these tales such cobwebs in moon talk said Mowgli that tiger limps because he was born lame as everyone knows to talk of the soul of a moneylender and a beast that never had the courage of a jackal is child's talk Voldeo was speechless with surprise for a moment and the headman stared oh oh it is the jungle brat is it said Voldeo if thou art so wise better bring his hide to Kanawara for the government has set a hundred rupees on his life better still talk not when thy elder speak Mowgli rose to go all the evening I have lain here listening he called back over his shoulder and except once or twice Voldeo has not said one word of truth concerning the jungle which is at his very doors how then shall I believe the tales of ghosts and gods and goblins which he says he has seen it is full time that boy went to herding said the headman while Voldeo puffed and snorted at Mowgli's impertnance the custom of most Indian villages is for a few boys to take the cattle and buffaloes out to graze in the early morning and bring them back at night and the very cattle that would trample a white man to death allow themselves to be banged and bullied and shouted at by children that hardly come up to their noses so long as the boys keep with the herds they are safe for not even the tiger will charge a mob of cattle but if they straggle to pick flowers or hunt lizards they are sometimes carried off Mowgli went through the village street in the dawn sitting on the back of Rama the great herd bull and the slaty blue buffaloes with their long backward sweeping horns and savage eyes rose out of their buyers one by one and followed him and Mowgli made it very clear to the children with him that he was the master he beat the buffaloes with a long polished bamboo and told Kamya one of the boys to graze the cattle by themselves while he went on with the buffaloes and to be very careful not to stray away from the herd an Indian grazing ground is all rocks and scrubs and tussocks and little ravines among which the herds scatter and disappear the buffaloes generally keep to the pools and muddy places where they lie wallowing or basking in the warm mud for hours Mowgli drove them on to the edge of the plain where the Wayne Ganga came out of the jungle and then he dropped from Rama's neck trotted off to a bamboo clump and found Grey Brother ah said Grey 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 herder for a while what news of sheer con? he has come back to this country and he has waited a long time for thee now he has gone off again for the game is scarce but he means to kill thee very good said Mowgli so long as he is away do thou or one of the four brothers sit on that rock so that I can see thee as I come out of the village when he comes back wait for me in the ravine by the dock tree in the centre of the plain we need not walk into sheer con's mouth then Mowgli picked out a shady place and lay down and slept while the buffaloes grazed round him herding in India is one of the laziest things in the world the cattle move and crunch and lie down and move on again and they do not even low they only grunt and the buffaloes very seldom say anything but get down into the muddy pools one after another and work their way into the mud till only their noses and staring china blue eyes show above the surface and then they lie like logs the sun makes the rocks dance in the heat and the herd children hear one kite many more whistling almost out of sight overhead and they know that if they died or a cow died that kite would sweep down and the next kite miles away would see him drop and follow and the next and the next and almost before they were dead there would be a score of hungry kites come out of nowhere then they sleep and wake and sleep again and weave little baskets of dried grass and put grasshoppers in them or catch two praying mantises and make them fight or string a necklace of red and black jungle nuts or watch a lizard basking on a rock or a snake hunting a frog near the wallows then they sing long long songs with odd native quavers at the end of them and the day seems longer than most people's whole lives and perhaps they make a mud castle with mud figures of men and horses and buffaloes and put reeds into the men's hands and pretend that they are kings and the figures are their armies or that they are gods to be worshipped then evening comes and the children call and the buffaloes lumber up out of the sticky mud with noises like gunshots going off one after the other and they all string across the grey plain back to the twinkling village lights day after day Mowgli would lead the buffaloes out to their wallows and day after day he would see grey brothers back a mile and a half away across the plain so he knew the cheer con had not come back and day after day he would lie on the grass listening to the noises round him and dreaming of the old days in the jungle if cheer con had made a false step with his lame paw up in the jungles by the Wayne Gunga Mowgli would have heard him in those long still mornings at last a day came when he did not see grey brother at the signal place and he laughed and headed the buffaloes for the ravine by the doc tree which was all covered with golden red flowers there sat grey brother every bristle on his back lifted he has hidden for a month to throw the off thy guard he crossed the ranges last night with tabaqui hot foot on thy trail said the wolf panting Mowgli frowned I am not afraid of cheer con but tabaqui is very cunning have no fear said grey brother licking his lips a little I met tabaqui in the dawn now he is telling all his wisdom to the kites but he told me everything before I broke his back cheer con's plan is to wait for thee at the village gate this evening for thee and for no one else he is lying up now in the big dry ravine of the Wayne Gunga has he eaten today or does he hunt empty said Mowgli for the answer meant life and death to him he killed at dawn a pig and he has drunk too remember cheer con could never fast even for the sake of revenge oh fool, fool what a cubs cub it is eaten and drunk too and he thinks that I shall wait till he has slept now where does he lie up if there were but ten of us we might pull him down as he lies these buffaloes will not charge unless they wind him and I cannot speak their language can we get behind his tracks so that they may smell it he swam far down the Wayne Gunga to cut that off said gray brother Tabakri told him that I know he would never have thought of it alone Mowgli stood with his finger in his mouth thinking the big ravine of the Wayne Gunga that opens out on the plain not half a mile from here I can take the herd round through the jungle to the head of the ravine and then sweep down but he would slink out at the foot we must block that end gray brother, can't thou cut the herd in two for me? not I perhaps, but I have brought a wise helper gray brother trotted off and dropped into a hole then there lifted up a huge gray head that Mowgli knew well and the hot air was filled with the most desolate cry of all the jungle the hunting howl of a wolf at midday Akila, Akila said Mowgli, clapping his hands I might have known that thou would not forget me we have a big work in hand cut the herd in two Akila keep the cows and calves together and the bulls and the ploughbuffelows by themselves the two wolves ran ladies chained fashion in and out of the herd which snorted and threw up its head and separated into two clumps in one the cowbuffelows stood with their calves in the center and glared and pawed ready if a wolf would only stay still to charge down and trample the life out of him in the other the bulls and the young bulls snorted and stamped but though they looked more imposing they were much less dangerous for they had no calves to protect no six men could have divided the herd so neatly what orders panted Akila they are trying to join again Mowgli slipped on to Rama's back drive the bulls away to the left Akila gray brother when we are gone hold the cows together and drive them into the foot of the ravine how far said gray brother panting and snapping till the sides are higher than Shirkhan can jump shouted Mowgli keep them there till we come down the bulls swept off as Akila bade 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 Akila drove the bulls far to the left well done another charge and they are fairly started careful now careful Akila a snap too much and the bulls will charge huja this is wilder work than driving black buck didst thou think these creatures could move so swiftly Mowgli called I have have hunted these two in my time gasped Akila in the dust shall I turn them into the jungle I turn swiftly turn them Rama is mad with rage how if only I could tell him what I need of him today the bulls were turned to the right this time and crashed into the standing thicket the other herd children watching with the cattle half a mile away hurried to the village as fast as their legs could carry them 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 a big circle uphill and get at the head of the ravine and then take the bulls down it and then go down between the bulls and the cows for he knew that after a meal and a full drink shirkhan would not be in any condition to fight or to clamber up the sides of the ravine he was soothing the buffaloes now by voice and Akila had dropped far to the rear only whimpering once or twice to hurry the rearguard it was a long long circle but they did not wish to get too near the ravine and give shirkhan warning at last Mowgli rounded up the bewildered herd on a grassy patch that sloped steeply down to the ravine itself from that height you could see across the tops of the trees down to the plain below but what Mowgli looked at was the sides of the ravine and he saw with a great deal of satisfaction that they ran nearly straight up and down while the vines and creepers that hung over them would give no foothold to a tiger who wanted to get out let them breathe Akila, he said holding up his hand they have not winded him yet, let them breathe I must tell shirkhan who comes we have him in the trap End of Chapter 3 Part 1 The Jungle Book by Rudyard Kipling Chapter 3 Part 2 This is a LibriVox recording all LibriVox recordings are in the public domain for more information or to volunteer please visit LibriVox.org Recording by Meredith Hughes, Cambridge, Massachusetts The Jungle Book by Rudyard Kipling Chapter 3 Part 2 He put his hands to his mouth and shouted down the ravine it was almost like shouting down a tunnel and the echoes jumped from rock to rock after a long time there came back the drawing of a sleepy snarl of a full fed tiger just wakened who calls, said shirkhan and a splendid peacock fluttered up out of the ravine screeching I, Mowgli, cattle thief, it is time to come to the council rock down, hurry them down Akila down Rama, down the herd paused for an instant at the edge of the slope but Akila gave tongue in the full hunting yell and they pitched over one after the other just to steamer shoot rapids the sand and stones spurting up round them once started there was no chance of stopping and before they were fairly in the bed of the ravine Rama winded shirkhan and bellowed Ha ha! said Mowgli on his back now thou knowest and the torrent of black horns, foaming muzzles and staring eyes whirled down the ravine just as boulders go down in flood time the weaker buffaloes being shouldered out to the sides of the ravine where they tore through the creepers they knew what the business was before them the terrible charge of the buffalo herd against which no tiger can hope to stand shirkhan heard the thunder of their hoofs picked himself up and lumbered down the ravine looking from side to side for some way of escape but the walls of the ravine were straight and he had to hold on heavy with his dinner and his drink willing to do anything rather than fight the herd splashed through the pool he had just left bellowing till the narrow cut rang Mowgli heard an answering bellow from the foot of the ravine saw shirkhan turn the tiger knew if the worst came to the worst it was better to meet the bulls than the cows with their calves and then Rama tripped, stumbled and went on again over something soft and with the bulls at his heels crashed full into the other herd while the weaker buffaloes were lifted clean off their feet by the shock of the meeting that charge carried both herds out into the plain goring and stamping and snorting Mowgli washed his time and slipped off Rama's neck laying about him right and left with his stick quick Akila, break them up scatter them or they will be fighting one another drive them away Akila hi Rama, hi hi hi my children softly now, softly it is all over Akila and grey brother ran to and fro with the buffalo's legs and though the herd wheeled once to charge up the ravine again Mowgli managed to turn Rama and the others followed him to the wallows shirkhan needed no more trampling he was dead and the kites were coming for him already brothers that was a dog's death said Mowgli feeling for the knife he always carried in a sheath round his neck now that he lived with men but he would never have shown fight voila his hide will look well on the council rock we must get to work swiftly a boy trained among men would never have dreamed of skinning a ten foot tiger alone but Mowgli knew better than anyone else how an animal skin 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 wolves lulled out their tongues or came forward and tugged as he ordered them presently a hand fell on his shoulder and looking up he saw Bldeo with the tower musket the children had told the village about the buffalo stampede and Bldeo went out angrily only too anxious to correct Mowgli for not taking better care of the herd the wolves dropped out of sight as soon as they saw the man coming what is this folly said Bldeo angrily to think that thou can't skin 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 will overlook thou letting the herd run off and perhaps I will give thee one of the rupees of the reward when I have taken the skin to Kanahuara he fumbled in his waist cloth for flint and steel and stooped down to sing Shir Khan's whiskers most native hunters always sing to tiger's whiskers to prevent his ghost from haunting them hmm said Mowgli half to himself as he ripped back the skin of a forepaw so thou wilt take the hide to Kanahuara for the reward and perhaps give me one rupee now it is in my mind that I need the skin for my own use heh old man take away that fire what talk is this to the chief hunter of the village thy luck and the stupidity of thy buffaloes have helped thee to this kill the tiger has just fed or he would have gone twenty miles by this time thou canst not even skin him properly little beggar brat and for sooth I, Bodeo, must be told not to singe his whiskers Mowgli I will not give thee one Anna of the reward but only a very big beating leave the carcass say the bull that bought me said Mowgli who was trying to get at the shoulder must I stay babbling to an old ape all noon here Akila this man plagues me Bodeo who was still stooping over Sheer Khan's head found himself sprawling on the grass with a grey wolf standing over him while Mowgli went on skinning as though he were alone in all India yes he said between his teeth thou art altogether right Bodeo thou wilt never give me one Anna of the reward there is an old war between this lame tiger and myself a very old war and I have won to do Bodeo justice if he had been ten years younger he would have taken his chance with Akila had he met the wolf in the woods but a wolf who obeyed the orders of this boy who had private wars with man-eating tigers was not a common animal it was sorcery magic of the worst kind thought Bodeo and he wondered whether the amulet round his neck would protect him he 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 I lost anything more than a herds boy may I rise up and go away or will thy servant tear me to pieces go and peace go with thee only another time do not meddle with my game let him go Akila Bodeo hobbled away to the village as fast as he could looking back over his shoulder in case Mowgli should change into something terrible when he got to the village he told a tale of magic and enchantment and sorcery that made the priest look very grave Mowgli went on with his work but it was nearly twilight before he and the wolves had drawn the great gay skin clear of the body now we must hide this and take the buffaloes home help me to herd them Akila the herd rounded up in the misty twilight and when they got near the village Mowgli saw lights and heard the conscious and bells in the temple blowing and banging half the village seemed to be waiting for him by the gate that is because I have killed sheer con he said to himself but a shower of stones whistled about his ears and the villagers shouted sorcerer wolf's brat jungle demon go away get hence quickly or the priest will turn me into a wolf again shoot bull dayo shoot the old tower musket went off with a bang and a young buffalo bellowed in pain more sorcery shouted the villagers he can turn bullets bull dayo 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 Akila sitting down composably is in my head that if bullets mean anything they would cast the out wolf wolf's cub go away shouted the priest waving a sprig of the sacred tulsi plant again last time it was because I was a man this time it is because I am a wolf let us go Akila a woman it was Missua ran across to the herd and cried oh my son my son they say thou art a sorcerer who can turn himself into a beast at will I do not believe but go away or they will kill thee bull dayo says thou art a wizard but I know thou hast avenged Nathu's death come back Missua shouted the crowd come back or we will stone thee Mowgli laughed a little short ugly laugh for a stone had hit him in the mouth run back Missua this is one of the foolish tales that they tell under 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 swiftly than their brick baths I am no wizard Missua farewell now once more Akila he cried bring the herd in the buffaloes were anxious enough to get to the village they hardly needed Akila'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 stolen one of them keep count for I will do your hurting no more farewell children of men and thank Missua that I do not come in with my wolves and hunt you up and down your street he turned on his heel and walked away with the lone wolf and as he looked up at the stars he felt happy no more sleeping in traps for me Akila let us get sheer con skin and go away no we will not hurt the village for Missua was kind to me when the moon rose over the plain making it look all milky the horrified villagers saw Mowgli with two wolves at his heels and a bundle on his head trotting across at the city wolf's trot that eats up the long miles like fire then they banged the temple's bells and blew the conches louder than ever and Missua cried and Baldeo embroidered the story of his adventures in the jungle till he ended by saying that Akila stood up on his hind legs and talked like a man the moon was just going down when Mowgli and the two wolves came to the hill of the council rock and they stopped at mother wolf's cave they have cast me out from the man-pack mother shouted Mowgli but I come with the hide of sheer con to keep my word mother wolf walked stiffly from the cave with the cubs behind her and her eyes glowed as she saw the skin I told him on that day when he crammed his head and shoulders into this cave hunting for thy life little frog I told him that the hunter would be the hunted it is well done little brother it is well done said a deep voice in the thicket we were lonely in the jungle without thee and Bekira came running to Mowgli's bare feet they clambered up the council rock together and Mowgli spread the skin out on the flat stone where Akila used to sit and pegged it down with four slivers of bamboo and Akila lay down upon it and called the old call to the council look look well oh wolves exactly as he had called it when Mowgli was first brought there ever since Akila had been deposed the pack had been without a leader hunting and fighting at their own pleasure but they answered the call from habit and some of them were lame from the traps they had fallen into and some limped from shot wounds and some were mangy from eating bad food and many were missing but they came to the council rock all that was left of them and saw Shirkan's striped hide on the rock and the huge claws dangling at the end of the empty dangling feet look well oh wolves have I kept my word said Mowgli and the wolves bade yes and one tattered wolf howled lead us again oh Akila lead us again oh man-cub for we be sick of this lawlessness and we would be the free people once more nay, heard Bagheera that may not be when you're full fed the madness may come upon you again not for nothing are ye called the free people ye fought for freedom and it is yours eat it oh wolves man-pack and wolf-pack have cast me out said Mowgli now I will hunt alone 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 from that day on but he was not always alone because years afterward he became 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 Sheer Khan's hide the song of Mowgli I, Mowgli, am singing let the jungle listen to the things I have done Sheer Khan said he would kill, would kill at the gates in the twilight he would kill Mowgli the frog he ate and drank drink deep Sheer 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 and blue-skinned herd bulls with the angry eyes drive them to and fro as I order sleep as thou still Sheer Khan wake oh wake here come I and the bulls are behind Rama the king of the buffalo stamped with his foot waters of the Wayne Ganga with or went Sheer Khan he is not saw he to dig holes nor more 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 afoot he is there under the feet of Rama lies the lame one up Sheer Khan up and kill here is meat break the necks of the bulls hush 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 Sheer Khan lend me thy gay striped coat that I may go to the council rock by the bull that bought me I 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 I will stoop down for my gift waters of the Wayne Ganga Sheer Khan gives me his coat for the love that he bears me pole gray brother pole Akila heavy is the hide of Sheer Khan the man-pack are angry they throw stones and talk child's talk my mouth is bleeding let me 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 Wayne Ganga 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 birds so fly I between the village and the jungle why? I dance on the hide of Sheer 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 mogulies but the hide of Sheer Khan is under my feet all the jungle knows that I have killed Sheer Khan look, look well, oh wolves a hide my heart is heavy with the things that I do not understand end of chapter 3 part 2 the jungle book chapter 4 part 1 this is a LibriVox recording all LibriVox recordings are in the public domain for more information or to volunteer please visit LibriVox.org recording by Meredith Hughes Cambridge, Massachusetts the jungle book by Rudyard Kipling chapter 4 the white seal part 1 oh hush thee, my baby the night is behind us and black are the waters that sparkled so green the moon or the comers looks downward to find us at rest in the hollows that rustle between where billow meets billow then soft be thy pillow oh weary we flipperling curl at thy ease the storm shall not wake thee nor shark overtake thee asleep in the arms of the slow swinging seas seal lullaby all these things happened several years ago at a place called Nova Stashna or North East Point on the island of St. Paul away and away in the Bering Sea Limershin, the winter wren told me the tale when he was blown on to the rigging of a steamer going to Japan and I took him down into my cabin and warmed him and fed him for a couple of days till he was fit to fly back to St. Paul again Limershin is a very quaint little bird but he knows how to tell the truth nobody comes to Nova Stashna except on business and the only people who have regular business there are the seals they come in the summer months by hundreds and hundreds of thousands out of the cold grey sea for Nova Stashna beach has the finest accommodation for seals of any place in all the world Sea catch knew that and every spring would swim from whatever place he happened to be in would swim like a torpedo boat straight for Nova Stashna and spend a month fighting with his companions for a good place on the rocks as close to the sea as possible Sea catch was fifteen years old a huge grey fur seal with almost a mane on his shoulders and long wicked dog teeth when he heaved himself up on his front flippers he stood more than four feet clear of the ground and his weight, if anyone had been bold enough to weigh him was nearly seven hundred pounds he was scarred all over with the marks of savage fights but he was always ready for just one fight more he would put his head on one side as though he were afraid to look his enemy in the face then he would shoot it out like lightning and when the big teeth were firmly fixed on the other seals neck the other seal might get away if he could but sea catch would not help him yet sea catch never chased a beaten seal for that was against the rules of the beach he only wanted room by the sea for his nursery there were forty or fifty thousand other seals hunting for the same thing each spring the whistling, bellowing, roaring and blowing on the beach was something frightful from a little hill called Hutchinson's hill you could look over three and a half miles of ground covered with fighting seals and the surf was dotted all over with the heads of seals hurrying to land and begin their share of fighting they fought in the breakers, they fought in the sand and they fought on the smooth worn basalt rocks of the nurseries for they were just as stupid and unaccommodating as men their wives never came to the island until late in May or early in June for they did not care to be torn to pieces and the young two, three and four-year-old seals who had not begun housekeeping went inland about half a mile through the ranks of the fighters and played about on the sand dunes and droves and legions and rubbed off every single green thing that grew they were called the Hollischiki, the bachelors and there were perhaps two or three hundred thousand of them at Novastashna alone Sea-catch had just finished his forty-fifth fight one spring when Matka, his soft, sleek, gentle-eyed wife came up out of the sea and he caught her by the scruff of the neck and dumped her down on his reservation saying, gruffly, late as usual, where have you been? it was not the fashion for Sea-catch to eat anything during the four months he stayed on the beaches and so his temper was generally bad Matka knew better than to answer back she looked round and cooed how thoughtful of you you've taken the old place again I should think I had, said Sea-catch, look at me he was scratched and bleeding in twenty places one eye was almost out and his sides were torn to ribbons oh, you men, you men, Matka said fanning herself with her hind flipper why can't you be sensible and settle your places quietly you look as though you had been fighting with a killer whale I haven't been doing anything but fight since the middle of May the beach is disgracefully crowded this season I've met at least a hundred seals from Lukanan Beach, house-hunting why can't people stay where they belong? I've often thought we should be much happier if we hauled out at Otter Island instead of this crowded place, said Matka bah, only the holest chicky go to Otter Island if we went there they would say we were afraid we must preserve appearances, my dear Sea-catch sank his head proudly between his fat shoulders and pretended to go to sleep for a few minutes but all the time he was keeping a sharp look out for a fight now that all the seals and their wives were on the land you could hear their clamor miles out to sea above the loudest scales and the lowest counting there were over a million seals on the beach old seals, mother seals, tiny babies and holest chicky fighting, scuffling, bleeding, crawling, and playing together going down to the sea and coming up from it in gangs and regiments lying over every foot of ground as far as the eye could reach and skirmishing about in brigades through the fog it is nearly always foggy at Novastoshna except when the sun comes out and makes everything look all pearly and rainbow-colored for a little while Kodak, Makka's baby, was born in the middle of that confusion and he was all head and shoulders with pale watery blue eyes as tiny seals must be but there was something about his coat that made his mother look at him very closely Sea-catch, she said at last our baby's going to be white empty clan shells and dry seaweed snorted Sea-catch there never has been such a thing in the world as a white seal I can't help that, said Makka, there's going to be now and she sang the low, crooning seal song that all the mother seals sing to their babies you mustn't swim till you're six weeks old or your head will be sunk by your heels and summer gales and killer whales are bad for baby seals are bad for baby seals, dear rat, as bad as bad can be but splash and grow strong and you can't be wrong child of the open sea of course the little fellow did not understand the words at first he paddled and scrambled about by his mother's side and learned to scuffle out of the way when his father was fighting with another seal and the two rolled and roared up and down the slippery rocks Makka used to go to sea to get things to eat and the baby was only fed once in two days but then he ate all he could and throw upon it the first thing he did was to crawl inland and there he met tens of thousands of babies of his own age and they played together like puppies went to sleep on the clean sand and played again the old people in the nurseries took no notice of them and the Hollis cheeky kept to their own grounds and the babies had a beautiful play time when Makka came back from her deep sea fishing she would go straight to their playground and call as a sheep calls for a lamb and wait until she heard Kodak bleed then she would take the straightest of straight lines in his direction striking out with her four flippers and knocking the youngsters head over heels right and left there were always a few hundred mothers hunting for their children through the playgrounds and the babies were kept lively but as Makka told Kodak so long as you don't lie in muddy water and get mainge or rub the hard sand into a cutter scratch and so long as you never go swimming when there is a heavy sea nothing will hurt you here little seals can no more swim than little children they are unhappy till they learn the first time that Kodak went down to the sea a wave carried him out beyond his depth and his big heads sank and his little hind flippers flew up exactly as his mother told him in the song and if the next wave had not thrown him back again he would have drowned after that he learned to lie in a beach pool and let the wash of the waves just cover him and lift him up while he paddled but he always kept his eye open for big waves that might hurt he was two weeks learning to use his flippers and all that while he floundered in and out of the water and coughed and grunted and crawled up the beach and took catnaps on the sand and went back again until at last he found that he truly belonged to the water then you can imagine the times that he had with his companions ducking under the rollers or coming in on top of a coma and landing with a swash and a splutter as the big wave went whirling far up the beach or standing up on his tail and scratching his head as the old people did or playing I'm the King of the Castle on slippery, weedy rocks that just stuck out of the wash now and then he would see a thin fin like a big shark's fin drifting along close to the shore and he knew that this was the killer whale, the Grampus who eats young seals when he can get them and Kotick would head for the beach like an arrow and the fin would jig off slowly as if it were looking for nothing at all late in October the seals began to leave St. Paul under the deep sea by families and tribes and there was no more fighting over the nurseries and the Hollis Chicky played anywhere they liked next year said Matka to Kotick you will be a Hollis Chicky but this year you must learn how to catch fish they set out together across the Pacific and Matka showed Kotick how to sleep on his back with his flippers tucked down by his side and his little nose just out of the water no cradle is so comfortable as the long, rocking swell of the Pacific when Kotick felt his skin tingle all over Matka told him he was learning the feel of the water and that tingly, prickly feelings met bad weather coming and he must swim hard and get away in a little time she said you'll know where to swim to but just now we'll follow Seapig for he is very wise a school of porpoises was ducking and tearing through the water and little Kotick followed them as fast as he could how do you know where to go? he panted the leader of the school rolled his white eye and ducked under my tail tingles youngster he said that means there's a gale behind me come along when you're south of the sticky water he meant the equator and your tail tingles that means there's a gale in front of you and you must head north come along the water feels bad here this was one of very many things that Kotick learned and he was always learning Matka taught him to follow the cod in the halibut along the undersea banks and wrench the rockling out of his hole among the weeds how to skirt the racks lying a hundred fathoms below water and dart like a rifle bullet in it one porthole and out at another as the fishes ran how to dance on top of the waves when the lightning was racing all over the sky and wave his flipper politely to the stumpy tailed albatross and the man of Warhawk as they went down the wind how to jump three or four feet clear of the water like a dolphin flippers close to the side and tail curved to leave the flying fish alone because they were all bony to take the shoulder piece out of a cod at full speed ten fathoms deep and never to stop to look at a boat or a ship but particularly a rowboat at the end of six months what Kotick did not know about deep sea fishing was not worth knowing and all that time he never set flipper on dry ground one day however as he was lying half asleep in the warm water somewhere off the island of Juan Fernandez he felt faint and lazy all over just as human people do when the spring is in their legs and he remembered the good firm beaches of Novostoshna seven thousand miles away the games his companions played and the smell of the seaweed the seal roar and the fighting that very minute he turned north swimming steadily and as he went on he met scores of his mates all bound for the same place greeting Kotick this year we are all Hollis Chiki and we can dance the fire dance and the breakers off Lukanon and play on the new grass but where did you get that coat? Kotick's fur was almost pure white now and though he felt very proud of it he only said swim quickly my bones are aching for the land and so they all came to the beaches where they had been born and heard the old seals their fathers fighting in the rolling mist that night Kotick danced the fire dance with the yearling seals the sea is full of fire on summer nights all the way down from Novostoshna to Lukanon and each seal leaves a wake like burning oil behind him and a flaming flash where he jumps and the waves break in great phosphorescent streaks and swirls then they went inland to the Hollis Chiki grounds and rolled up and down in the new wild wheat and told stories of what they had done while they had been at sea they talked about the Pacific as boys would talk about a wood that they had been nutting in and if anyone had understood them he could have gone away and made such a chart of that ocean as never was the three and four year old Hollis Chiki romped down from Hutchinson's Hill crying out of the way youngsters the sea is deep and you don't know all that's in it yet wait till you've rounded the horn hi you yearling where did you get that white coat? I didn't get it said Kotick it grew and just as he was going to roll the speaker over a couple of black-haired men with flat red faces came from behind a sand dune and Kotick, who had never seen a man before coughed and lowered his head the Hollis Chiki just bundled off a few yards and sat staring stupidly the men were no less than Karik Buterin, chief of the seal hunters on the island and Petalamin his son they came from the little village not half a mile from the seal nurseries and they were deciding what seals they would drive up to the killing pens for the seals were driven just like sheep to be turned into seal skin jackets later on oh, said Petalamin look, there's a white seal Karik Buterin turned nearly white under his oil and smoke for he was an Allute and Allutes are not clean people then he began to mutter a prayer don't touch him Petalamin there has never been a white seal since since I was born perhaps it is old Zaharoff's ghost he was lost last year in the big gale I'm not going near him, said Petalamin he's unlucky do you really think he is old Zaharoff come back I owe him for some gull's eggs don't look at him, said Karik head off that drove of four year olds the men opt to skin two hundred today but at the beginning of the season and they are new to the work a hundred will do quick Petalamin rattled a pair of seals shoulder bones in front of a herd of Hollischiki and they stopped dead, puffing and blowing then he stepped near and the seals began to move and Karik headed them inland and they never tried to get back to their companions hundreds and hundreds of thousands of seals watched them being driven but they went on playing just the same Kotuk was the only one who asked questions and none of his companions could tell him anything except that the men always drove seals in that way for six weeks or two months of every year I'm going to follow, he said and his eyes nearly popped out of his head as he shuffled along in the wake of the herd the white seal is coming after us, cried Petalamin that's the first time a seal has ever come to the killing grounds alone hush, don't look behind you, said Karik it is Zaharoff's ghost I must speak to the priest about this the distance to the killing ground was only half a mile but it took an hour to cover because if the seals went too fast, Karik knew they would get heated and then their fur would come off in patches when they were skinned so they went on very slowly past Sea Lion's neck past Webster House till they came to the Salt House just beyond the side of the seals on the beach Kotuk followed, panting and wondering he thought that he was at the world's end but the roar of the seal nurseries behind him sounded as loud as the roar of a train in a tunnel then Karik sat down on the moss and pulled out a heavy pewter watch and let the drove cool off for thirty minutes and Kotuk could hear the fog dude dripping off the brim of his cap then ten or twelve men each with an iron-bound club three or four feet long came up and Karik pointed out one or two of the drove that were bitten by their companions are too hot and the men kicked those aside with their heavy boots made of the skin of a walrus' throat and then Karik said, let go and then the men clubbed the seals on the head as fast as they could ten minutes later little Kotuk did not recognize his friends anymore for their skins were ripped off from the nose to the hind flippers whipped off and thrown down on the ground in a pile that was enough for Kotuk he turned and galloped a seal can gallop very swiftly for a short time back to sea his little new mustache bristling with horror at Sea Lion's neck where the great Sea Lion sit on the edge of the surf he flung himself flipper overhead into the cool water and rocked there gasping miserably what's here? said a Sea Lion gruffly for as a rule the Sea Lions keep themselves to themselves scooch me oh and scooch me I'm lonesome very lonesome said Kotuk they're killing all the Hollis Chiki on all the beaches the Sea Lion turned his head inshore nonsense he said your friends are making just as much noise as ever you must have seen old Carrick polishing off a drove he's done that for thirty years it's horrible said Kotuk backing water as a wave went over him and steadying himself with a screw stroke of his flippers that brought him all standing within three inches of a jagged edge of rock well done for a yearlings said the Sea Lion who could appreciate good swimming I suppose it is rather awful from your way of looking at it but if you seals will come here year after year of course the men get to know of it and unless you can find an island where no men ever come you will always be driven isn't there any such island? began Kotuk I followed the Pultus, the halibut, for twenty years and I can't say I've found it yet but look here you seem to have a fondness for talking to your betters supposing you go to Walrus Islet and talk to Seevich he may know something don't flounce off like that it's a six mile swim and if I were you I should haul out and take a nap first little one Kotuk thought that was good advice so he swam round to his own beach hauled out and slept for half an hour twitching all over a seals will then he headed straight for Walrus Islet a little low sheet of rocky island almost due northeast from Novostoshna all ledges of rock and gulls nests where the walrus herded by themselves he landed close to old Seevich the big ugly bloated pimpled fat-necked long-tussed walrus of the north pacific who has no manners except when he is asleep as he was then with his hind flippers half in and half out of the surf wake up barked Kotuk for the gulls were making great noise ha oh what's that said Seevich and he struck the next walrus a blow with his tusks and waked him up and the next struck the next and so on till they were all awake staring in every direction but the right one hi it's me said Kotuk bobbing in the surf and looking like a little white slug well may I be skinned said Seevich and they all looked at Kotuk as you can fancy a club full of drowsy old gentlemen would look at a little boy Kotuk did not care to hear anymore about skinning just then he had seen enough of it so he called out isn't there any place for seals to go where men don't ever come go and find out said Seevich shutting his eyes run away we're busy here Kotuk made his dolphin jump in the air and shouted as loud as he could clam eater clam eater he knew that Seevich never caught a fish in his life but always rooted for clams and seaweeds though he pretended to be a very terrible person naturally the chickies and the guvruvskies and the apatkas the burgomaster gulls and the kidawakes and the puffins who were always looking for a chance to be rude took up the cry and so limershin told me for nearly five minutes you could not have heard a gun fired on walrus islet all the population was yelling and screaming clam eater star eek old man while Seevich rolled from side to side grunting and coughing now will you tell said Kotuk all out of breath go and ask sea cow said Seevich if he is living still he'll be able to tell you how shall I know sea cow when I meet him said Kotuk shearing off he's the only thing in the sea uglier than Seevich screamed a burgomaster gill wheeling under Seevich's nose uglier and with worse manners streak Kotuk swam back to Novostoshna leaving the gulls to scream there he found that no one sympathized with him in his little attempt to discover a quiet place for the seals they told him that Ben had always driven the holless chickie it was part of the day's work and that if he did not like to see ugly things he should not have gone to the killing grounds but none of the other seals had seen the killing and that made the difference between him and his friends besides Kotuk was a white seal what you must do said old Seevich after he had heard his son's adventures is to grow up and be a big seal like your father and have a nursery on the beach and then they will leave you alone in another five years you ought to be able to fight for yourself and when Kotuk came back in gentle matka his mother said you will never be able to stop the killing go and play in the sea Kotuk and Kotuk went off and danced the fire dance with a very heavy little heart end of chapter 4 part 1 the jungle book chapter 4 part 2 this is a LibriVox recording all LibriVox recordings are in the public domain for more information or to volunteer please visit LibriVox.org recording by Meredith Hughes Cambridge, Massachusetts the jungle book by Rudyard Kipling chapter 4 part 2 that autumn he left the beach as soon as he could and set off alone because of a notion in his bullet head he was going to find sea cow if there was such a person in the sea and he was going to find a quiet island with a good firm beach for seals to live on where men could not get at them so he explored and explored by himself from the north to the south pacific swimming as much as 300 miles in a day and a night he met with more adventures than can be told and narrowly escaped being caught by the basking shark and the spotted shark and the hammerhead and he met all the untrustworthy ruffians that loaf up and down the seas and the heavy polite fish and the scarlet spotted scallops he explored in one place for hundreds of years and grew very proud of it but he never met sea cow and he never found an island that he could fancy if the beach was good and hard with a slope behind it for seals to play on there was always the smoke of a whaler on the horizon boiling down blubber and Kodak knew what that meant or else he could see that seals had once visited the island and had been killed off and Kodak knew that where men had come once they would come again he picked up with an old, stumpy tailed albatross who told him that Kurgwelen Island was the very place for peace and quiet and when Kodak went down there he was all but smashed to pieces against some wicked black cliffs in a heavy sleet storm with lightning and thunder yet as he pulled out against the gale he could see even there had once been a seal nursery and it was so in all the other islands that he visited Limershin gave a long list of them he said that Kodak spent five seasons exploring with a four months rest each year at Novostashna when the Hollischiki used to make fun of him in his imaginary islands he went to the Galapagos a hard, dry place on the equator where he was nearly baked to death he went to the Georgia Islands the Orkmys, Emerald Island Little Nightingale Island Goff Island, Bouvet Island the Crozées and even to a little speck of an island south of the Cape of Good Hope but everywhere the people of the sea told him the same things seals had come to those islands once upon a time but men had killed them all off even when he swam thousands of miles out of the Pacific and got to a place called Cape Coriantes that was when he was coming back from Goff Island he found a few hundred mangy seals on a rock and they told him that men came there too that nearly broke his heart and he headed round the horn back to his own beaches and on his way north he hauled out on an island full of green trees where he found an old, old seal who was dying and Kodak caught fish for him and told him all his failures now said Kodak I am going back to Nova Stashna and if I am driven to the killing-pens with the Hollischiki I shall not care the old seal said try once more I am the last of the lost rookery of Mas Afuera and in the days when men killed us by the hundred thousand there was a story on the beaches that some day a white seal would come out of the north and lead the seal people to a quiet place I am old and I shall never live to see that day but others will try once more and Kodak curled up his moustache it was a beauty and said I am the only white seal that has ever been born on the beaches and I am the only seal, black or white who has ever thought of looking for new islands this cheered him immensely and when he came back to Nova Stashna that summer Matka, his mother, begged him to marry and settle down for he was no longer a Hollischik but a full-grown sea-catch with a curly white mane on his shoulders as heavy, as big, and as fierce as his father this season, he said remember, mother, it is always the seventh wave that goes farthest up the beach curiously enough there was another seal who thought that she would put off marrying till the next year and Kodak danced the fire dance with her all down Lucannon Beach the night before he set off on his last exploration this time he went westwards because he had fallen on the trail of a great shoal of halibut and he needed at least one hundred pounds in good condition he chased them till he was tired and then he curled himself up and went to sleep on the hollows of a groundswell that sets into Copper Island he knew the coast perfectly well so about midnight, when he felt himself gently bumped on a weed bed he said, hmm, tide's running strong tonight and turning over under water opened his eyes slowly and stretched then he jumped like a cat for he saw huge things nosing about water and browsing on the heavy fringes of the weeds by the great comers of Magellan, he said beneath his mustache who in the deep sea are these people they were like no walrus sea lion, seal, bear whale, shark, fish squid or scallop that Kodak had ever seen before they were between twenty and thirty feet long and they had no hind flippers but a shovel-like tail that looked as if it had been whittled out of wet leather their heads were the most foolish-looking things you ever saw and they balanced on the ends of their tails in deep water when they weren't grazing bowing solemnly to each other and waving their front flippers as a fat man waves his arm ahem, said Kodak good sport, gentlemen the big things answered by bowing and waving their flippers like the frog-foot man when they began feeding again Kodak saw that their upper lip was split into two pieces that they could twitch apart about a foot and bring together again with a whole bushel of seaweed between the splits they tucked the stuff into their mouths and chumped solemnly messy style of feeding that said Kodak they bowed again and Kodak began to lose his temper very good, he said if you do happen to have an extra joint in your front flipper you needn't show off so I see you bow gracefully but I should like to know your names the split lips moved and twitched and the glassy green eyes stared but they did not speak well, said Kodak you're the only people I've ever met uglier than Sivic and with worse manners then he remembered in a flash what the burgomaster gull had screamed to him when he was a little yearling at Waller's Islet and he tumbled backwards in the water for he knew that he had found sea-cow at last the sea-cows went on schluping and grazing and chumping in the weed and Kodak asked them questions in every language he had picked up in his travels and the sea-people talk nearly as many languages as human beings but the sea-cows did not answer because sea-cow cannot talk he has only six bones in his neck where he ought to have seven and they say under the sea that that prevents him from speaking even to his companions but as you know he has an extra joint in his foreflipper and by waving it up and down about he makes what answers to a sort of clumsy telegraphic code by daylight Kodak's main was standing up on end and his temper was gone where the dead crabs go then the sea-cows began to travel northwards very slowly stopping to hold absurd bowing councils from time to time and Kodak followed them saying to himself people who are such idiots as these are would have been killed long ago if they hadn't found out some safe island and what is good enough for the sea-cow is good enough for the sea-catch all the same I'd wish they'd hurry it was weary work for Kodak the sea-cows heard never went more than 40 or 50 miles a day and stopped to feed at night and kept close to the shore all the time while Kodak swam round them and over them and under them but he could not hurry them up one mile as they went farther north they held a bowing council every few hours and Kodak nearly bit off his mustache with impatience till he saw that they were following up a warm current of water and then he respected them more one night they sank through the shiny water sank like stones and for the first time since he had known them began to swim quickly Kodak followed and the pace astonished him for he never dreamed that sea-cow was anything of a swimmer they headed for a cliff by the shore a cliff that ran down into deep water and plunged into a dark hole at the foot of it 20 fathoms under the sea it was a long, long swim and Kodak badly wanted fresh air before he was out of the dark tunnel they led him through my wig he said when he rose gasping and puffing into the open water at the farther end it was a long dive but it was worth it the sea-cows had separated and were browsing lazily along the edges of the finest beaches that Kodak had ever seen there were long stretches of smooth-worn rock running for miles exactly fitted to make seal nurseries and there were playgrounds of hard sand sloping inland behind them and there were rollers for seals to dance in and long grass to roll in and sand dunes to climb up and down and best of all, Kodak knew by the feel of the water which never deceives a sea-catch that no men had ever come there the first thing he did was to assure himself that the fishing was good and then he swam along the beaches and counted up the delightful low sandy islands half hidden in the beautiful rolling fog away to the northward out to sea ran a line of bars and shoals and rocks that would never let a ship come within six miles of the beach and between the islands and the mainland was a stretch of deep water that ran up to the perpendicular cliffs and somewhere below the cliffs was the mouth of the tunnel it's Novostoshna over again but ten times better, said Kodak sea cow must be wiser than I thought men can't come down the cliffs even if there were any men and the shoals to seaward would knock a ship to splinters if any place in the sea is safe this is it he began to think of the seal he had left behind him but though he was in a hurry to go back to Novostoshna he thoroughly explored the new country so that he would be able to answer all questions then he dived and made sure of the mouth of the tunnel and raced through to the southward no one but a sea cow or a seal would have dreamed of there being such a place and when he looked back at the cliffs even Kodak could hardly believe that he had been there he was ten days going home though he was not swimming slowly and when he hauled out just above sea lion's neck the first person he met was the seal who had been waiting for him and she saw by the look in his eyes that he had found his island at last but the hauless chicky and sea catch his father and all the other seals laughed at him when he told them what he had discovered and a young seal about his own age said this is all very well Kodak but you can't come from no one knows where and order us off like this remember we've been fighting for our nurseries and that's a thing you never did you preferred prowling about in the sea the other seals laughed at this and the young seal began twisting his head from side to side he had just married that year and was making a great fuss about it I've no nursery to fight for said Kodak I only want to show you all a place where you will be safe what's the use of fighting oh if you're trying to back out of course I've no more to say said the young seal with an ugly chuckle will you come with me if I win said Kodak and a green light came into his eye very angry at having to fight at all very good said the young seal carelessly if you win I'll come he had no time to change his mind for Kodak's head was out and his teeth sank in the blubber of the young seal's neck then he threw himself back on his haunches and hauled his enemy down the beach shook him and knocked him over then Kodak roared to the seals I've done my best for you these five seasons past I've found you the island where you'll be safe but unless your heads are dragged off your silly necks you won't believe I'm going to teach you now look out for yourselves Limershin told me that never in his life and Limershin sees ten thousand big seals fighting every year never in his life did he see anything like Kodak's charge into the nurseries he flung himself at the biggest sea catch he could find caught him by the throat, choked him and bumped him and banged him till he grunted for mercy and then threw him aside and attacked the next you see Kodak had never fasted for four months as the big seals did every year and his deep-sea swimming trips kept him in perfect condition and best of all he had never fought before his curly white mane stood up with rage and his eyes flamed and his big dog teeth glistened and he was splendid to look at old sea-catch his father saw him tearing past hauling the grizzled old seals about they had been halibut and upsetting the young bachelors in all directions and sea-catch gave a roar and shouted he may be a fool but he is the best fighter on the beaches don't tackle your father, my son, he's with you Kodak roared in answer and old sea-catch waddled in with his mustache on end, blowing like a locomotive while Matka and the seal that was going to marry Kodak cowered down and admired their menfolk it was a gorgeous fight for the two fought as long as there was a seal where he would lift up his head and when there were none they paraded grandly up and down the beach side by side bellowing at night, just as the northern lights were winking and flashing through the fog Kodak climbed a bare rock and looked down on the scattered nurseries and the torn and bleeding seals now, he said, I've taught you your lesson my wig said old sea-catch boosting himself up stiffly for he was fearfully mauled the killer whale himself could not have cut them up worse son, I'm proud of you and what's more, I'll come with you to your island if there is such a place hear you fat pigs of the sea who comes with me to seek how's tunnel answer or I shall teach you again roared Kodak there was a murmur like the ripple of the tide all up and down the beaches we will come, said thousands of tired voices we will follow Kodak the white seal then Kodak dropped his head between his shoulders and shut his eyes proudly he was not a white seal anymore but red from head to tail all the same he would have scorned to look at or touch one of his wounds a week later, he and his army nearly 10,000 Hollis chicken and old seals went away north to seek how's tunnel Kodak leading them and the seals stayed at Novostoshna called them idiots but the next spring when they all met off the fishing banks of the pacific Kodak seals told such tales of the new beaches beyond seek how's tunnel that more and more seals left Novostoshna of course it was not all done at once for the seals are not very clever and they need a long time to turn things over in their minds but year after year more seals went away from Novostoshna and Leucannon and the other nurseries went to the quiet sheltered beaches where Kodak sits all the summer through getting bigger and fatter and stronger each year while the Hollis chicken play around him in that sea where no man comes Leucannon this is a sort of sad seal national anthem I met my mates in the morning and oh but I am old where roaring on the ledges and summer grounds well rolled I heard them lift the chorus and I heard a liquor song the beaches of Leucannon two million voices strong the song of pleasant stations beside the salt lagoons the song of blowing squadrons that shuffle down the dunes the song of midnight dances that churned the swell to flame the beaches of Leucannon before the sealers came I met my mates in the morning I'll never meet them more they came and went in legions they looked often as far as voice could reach we hailed the landing parties and we sang them up the beach the beaches of Leucannon the winter wheat so tall the dripping crinkled lichens and the sea fog drenching all the platforms of our playground all shining smooth and worn the beaches of Leucannon the home where we were born I met my mates in the morning a broken scattered band men shoot us in the water men drive us to the salt house like silly sheep and tame and still we sing Leucannon before the sealers came wheel down, wheel down to southward O guverusca go and tell the deep sea viceroys the story of our woe air empty as the sharks egg the tempest flings ashore the beaches of Leucannon shall know their sons no more End of Chapter 4 The Jungle Book This is a LibriVox recording all LibriVox recordings are in the public domain For more information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox.org Recording by Meredith Hughes Cambridge, Massachusetts The Jungle Book by Rudyard Kipling Chapter 5 Ricky Tickey Tavi at the hole where he went in red eye called to wrinkle skin hear what little red eye saith nag come up and dance with death eye to eye and head to head keep the measure nag this shall end when one is dead at thy pleasure nag turn for turn and twist for twist run and hide thee nag ha! the hooded death has missed woe betide thee nag this is the story of the great war that Ricky Tickey Tavi fought single-handed through the bathrooms of the big bungalow in Saigali Cantonment Darzi, the tailor-bird, helped him and Chuchundra, the muskrat who never comes out in the middle of the floor but always creeps round by the wall gave him advice but Ricky Tickey did the real fighting he was a mongoose rather like a little cat in his fur and his tail but quite like a weasel in his head in his habits his eyes and the end of his restless nose he could scratch himself anywhere he pleased with any leg, front or back that he chose to use he could fluff up his tail till it looked like a bottle brush and his war cry as he scuttled through the long grass was Ricky Tickey Tickey Tic one day a high summer flood washed him out of the burrow where he lived with his father and mother and carried him, kicking and clucking down a roadside ditch he found a little wisp of grass floating there and clung to it till he lost his senses when he arrived he was lying in the hot sun on the middle of a garden path very draggled indeed and a small boy was saying here's a dead mongoose, let's have a funeral no said his mother let's take him in and dry him perhaps he isn't really dead they took him into the house and a big man picked him up between his finger and thumb and said he was not dead but half choked so they wrapped him in cotton wool and warmed him over a little fire and he opened his eyes and sneezed now said the big man he was an Englishman who had just moved into the bungalow don't frighten him and we'll see what he'll do it is the hardest thing in the world to frighten a mongoose because he is eaten up from nose to tail with curiosity the motto of the mongoose family is run and find out and Ricky Tickey was a true mongoose he looked at the cotton wool decided that it was not good to eat ran all round the table sat up and put his fur in order scratched himself and jumped on the small boy's shoulder don't be frighten Teddy said his father that's his way of making friends ouch! he's tickling under my chin said Teddy Ricky Tickey looked down between the boy's collar and neck snuffed at his ear and climbed down to the floor where he sat rubbing his nose good gracious said Teddy's mother and that's a wild creature I suppose he's so tame because we've been kind to him all mongooses are like that said her husband if Teddy doesn't pick him up by the tail or try to put him in a cage he'll run in and out of the house all day long let's give him something to eat they gave him a little piece of raw meat Ricky Tickey liked it immensely and when it was finished he went out into the veranda and put his fur to make it dry to the roots then he felt better there are more things to find out about in this house he said to himself then all my family could find out in all their lives I shall certainly stay and find out he spent all that day roaming over the house he nearly drowned himself in the bathtubs put his nose into the ink on a writing table and burnt it on the end of a big man's cigar for he climbed up in the big man's lap and he was done at nightfall he ran into Teddy's nursery to watch how kerosene lamps were lighted and when Teddy went to bed Ricky Tickey climbed up too but he was a restless companion because he had to get up and attend to every noise all through the night and find out what made it Teddy's mother and father came in the last thing to look at their boy and Ricky Tickey was awake on the pillow I don't like that said Teddy's mother he may bite the child he'll do no such things at the father Teddy's safer with that little beast than if he had a bloodhound to watch him if a snake came into the nursery now but Teddy's mother wouldn't think of anything so awful early in the morning Ricky Tickey came to early breakfast in the veranda riding on Teddy's shoulder and they gave him banana and some boiled egg and he sat on all their laps one after the other because every well brought up mongoose always hopes to be a house mongoose someday to run about in and Ricky Tickey's mother she used to live in the general's house at Segali had carefully told Ricky what to do if he ever came across white men then Ricky Tickey went out into the garden to see what was to be seen it was a large garden only half cultivated with bushes as big as summer houses of Marshall Neal roses, lime and orange trees clumps of bamboos and thickets of high grass Ricky Tickey licked his lips this is a splendid hunting ground he said and his tail grew bottle brushy at the thought of it and he scuttled up and down the garden snuffling here and there till he heard very sorrowful voices in a thorn bush it was Darzy the tailor-bird and his wife they had made a beautiful nest by pulling two big leaves together and stitching them up at the edges with fibers and had filled the hollow with cotton and downy fluff the nest swayed to and fro as they sat on the rim and cried what is the matter? asked Ricky Tickey we are very miserable said Darzy one of our babies fell out of the nest yesterday and Nag ate him hmm said Ricky Tickey that is very sad but I am a stranger here who is Nag? Darzy and his wife only cowered down on the nest without answering for from the thick grass at the foot of the bush there came a low hiss a horrid cold sound that made Ricky Tickey jump back to clear feet then inch by inch out of the grass rose up the head and spread hood of Nag the big black cobra and he was five feet long from tongue to tail when he had lifted one third of himself clear of the ground he stayed balancing to and fro exactly as a dandelion toughed balances in the wind and he looked at Ricky Tickey with the wicked snake's eyes and his expression whatever the snake baby thinking of who is Nag? said he I am Nag the great God Brahm put his mark upon all our people when the first cobra spread his hood to keep the sun off Brahm as he slept look and be afraid he spread out his hood more than ever and Ricky Tickey saw the spectacle mark on the back of it that looks exactly like the eye part of a hook and eye fastening he was afraid for the minute but it is impossible for a mongoose to stay frightened for any length of time and though Ricky Tickey had never met a live cobra before his mother had fed him on dead ones and he knew that all a grown mongoose's business in life was to fight and eat snakes Nag knew this too and at the bottom of his cold heart he was afraid well said Ricky Tickey and his tail began to fluff up again marks or no marks do you think it is right for you to eat fledglings out of a nest Nag was thinking to himself and watching the least little movement in the grass behind Ricky Tickey he knew that mongooses in the garden meant death sooner or later for him and his family but he wanted to get Ricky Tickey off his guard so he dropped his head a little and put it on one side let us talk, he said you eat eggs, why should not I eat birds behind you, look behind you sang Darcy Ricky Tickey knew better than to waste time in staring he jumped up in the air as high as he could go and just under him whizzed by the head of Nagina Nag's wicked wife she had crept up behind him as he was talking to make an end of him and he heard her savage hiss as the stroke missed he came down almost across her back and if he had been an old mongoose he would have known that Ben was the time to break her back but he was afraid of the terrible lashing return stroke of the cobra he bit indeed but did not bite long enough and he jumped clear of the whisking tail leaving Nagina torn and angry wicked wicked Darcy said nag lashing up as high as he could reach toward the nest in the thorn bush but Darcy had built it out of reach of snakes and it only swayed to and fro Ricky Tickey felt his eyes growing red and hot when a mongoose's eyes grow red he felt that he is angry and he sat back on his tail and hind legs like a little kangaroo and looked all round him and chattered with rage but Nag and Nagina had disappeared into the grass when a snake misses its stroke it never says anything or gives any sign of what it means to do next Ricky Tickey did not care to follow them for he did not feel sure that he could manage two snakes at once so he trotted off to the gravel path near the house and sat down to think it was a serious matter for him if you read the old books of natural history you will find that they say that when the mongoose fights the snake and happens to get bitten he runs off and eats some herb that cares him that is not true the victory is only a matter of quickness of eye and quickness of foot snakes blow against mongoose's jump and his no eye can follow the motion of a snake's head when it strikes this makes things much more wonderful than any magic herb Ricky Tickey knew he was a young mongoose and it made him all the more pleased to think that he had managed to escape a blow from behind it gave him confidence in himself and when Teddy came running down the path Ricky Tickey was ready to be petted but just as Teddy was stooping something wriggled a little in the dust and a tiny voice said be careful, I am deaf it was Kara-eat the dusty brown snakeling that lies for choice on the dusty earth and his bite is as dangerous as the cobra's but he is so small that nobody thinks of him and so he does the more harm to people Ricky Tickey's eyes grew red again and he danced up to Kara-eat with the peculiar rocking swaying motion that he had inherited from his family it looks very funny but it is so perfectly balanced to gate that you can fly off from it at any angle you please and in dealing with snakes this is an advantage if Ricky Tickey had only known he was doing a much more dangerous thing than fighting Nag for Kara-eat is so small and can turn so quickly that unless Ricky bit him close to the back of his head he would get the return stroke in his eye or his lip but Ricky did not know his eyes were all red and he rocked back and forth looking for a good place to hold Kara-eat struck out Ricky jumped sideways and tried to run in but the wicked little dusty gray head lashed within a fraction of his shoulder and he had to jump over the body and the head followed his heels close Teddy shouted to the house oh look here our mongoose is killing a snake and Ricky Tickey heard a scream from Teddy's mother his father ran out with a stick but by the time he came up Kara-eat had lunged out once too far and Ricky Tickey had sprung jumped on the snake's back dropped his head far between his forelegs bitten as high up the back as he could get hold and rolled away that bite paralyzed Kara-eat and Ricky Tickey was just going to eat him up from the tail after the custom of his family at dinner when he remembered that a full meal makes a slow mongoose and if he wanted all his strength and quickness ready he must keep himself thin he went away for a dust bath under the castor oil bushes while Teddy's father beat the dead Kara-eat what is the use of that but Ricky Tickey I have settled it all and then Teddy's mother picked him up from the dust and hugged him crying that he had saved Teddy from death and Teddy's father said that he was a providence and Teddy looked on with big scared eyes Ricky Tickey was rather amused at all this fuss which of course he did not understand Teddy's mother might just as well have petted Teddy for playing in the dust Ricky was thoroughly enjoying himself that night at dinner walking to and fro among the wine-glasses on the table he might have stuffed himself three times over with nice things but he remembered nag and nagaina and though it was very pleasant to be patted and petted by Teddy's mother and to sit on Teddy's shoulder his eyes would get red from time to time and he would go off into his long war cry of Ricky Tickey Tickey Tickey Teddy carried him off to bed and insisted on Ricky Tickey sleeping under his chin Ricky Tickey was too well-bred to bite or scratch but as soon as Teddy was asleep he went off for his nightly walk round the house and in the dark he ran up against Chuchundra the muskrat creeping round by the wall Chuchundra is a broken-hearted little beast he whimpers and cheeps all the night trying to make up his mind to run into the middle of the room but he never gets there Don't kill me said Chuchundra almost weeping Ricky Tickey don't kill me Do you think a snake killer kills muskrats said Ricky Tickey scornfully? Those who kill snakes get killed by snakes said Chuchundra more sorrowfully than ever and how am I to be sure that Nag won't mistake me for you some dark night? There's not the least danger said Ricky Tickey but Nag is in the garden and I know you don't go there My cousin Chua the Rat told me said Chuchundra and then he stopped Told you what? Hush! Nag is everywhere Ricky Tickey You should have talked to Chua in the garden I didn't so you must tell me quick Chuchundra or I'll bite you Chuchundra sat down and cried till the tears rolled off his whiskers I am a very poor man he sobbed I never had spirit enough to run out into the middle of the room Hush! I mustn't tell you anything Can't you hear Ricky Tickey? Ricky Tickey listened The house was as still as still but he thought he could just hear the faintest scratch scratch in the world a noise just as faint as that of a wasp walking on a windowpane the dry scratch of a snake scales on brickwork That's Nag or Nagina he said to himself and he is crawling into the bathroom sluice You're right Chuchundra I should have talked to Chua He stole off to Teddy's bathroom but there was nothing there and then to Teddy's mother's bathroom at the bottom of the smooth plaster wall there was a brick pulled out to make a sluice for the bathwater and as Ricky Tickey stolen by the masonry curb where the bath is put he heard Nag and Nagina whispering together outside in the moonlight When the house is emptied of people said Nagina to her husband he will have to go away and then the garden will be our own again going quietly and remember that the big man who killed Kara-eat is the first one to bite then come out and tell me and we will hunt for Ricky Tickey together but are you sure there is anything to be gained by killing the people said Nag everything when there were no people in the bungalow did we have any mongoose in the garden so long as the bungalow is empty we are king and queen of the garden and remember that as soon as our eggs in the melon bed hatch as they may tomorrow our children will need room and quiet I had not thought of that said Nag I will go but there is no need that we should hunt for Ricky Tickey afterwards I will kill the big man and his wife and the child if I can and come away quietly then the bungalow will be empty and Ricky Tickey will go Ricky Tickey tingled all over with rage and hatred at this and then Nag's head came through the sluice and his five feet of cold body followed it angry as he was Ricky Tickey was very frightened as he saw the size of the big cobra Nag coiled himself up raised his head and looked into the bathroom in the dark and Ricky could see his eyes glitter now if I kill him here Nagina will know and if I fight him on the open floor the odds are in his favor what am I to do said Ricky Tickey Tavi Nag waved to and fro and then Ricky Tickey heard him drinking from the biggest water jar that was used to fill the bath that is good said the snake now when Kari was killed the big man had a stick he may have that stick still but when he comes and debate in the morning he will not have a stick I shall wait here till he comes Nagina do you hear me I shall wait here in the cool till day time there was no answer from outside so Ricky Tickey knew Nagina had gone away Nag coiled himself down coil by coil round the bulge at the bottom of the water jar and Ricky Tickey stayed still as death after an hour he began to move muscle by muscle towards the jar Nag was asleep and Ricky Tickey looked at his big back wondering which would be the best place for a good hold if I don't break his back at the first jump said Ricky he can still fight and if he fights oh Ricky he looked at the thickness of the neck below the hood but that was too much for him and a bite near the tail would only make Nag savage it must be the head he said at last the head above the hood and when I am once there I must not let go then he jumped the head was lying a little clear of the water jar under the curve of it and as his teeth met he braced his back against the bulge of the red earthenware to hold down the head this gave him just one seconds purchase and he made the most of it then he was battered to and fro as a rat is shaken by a dog to and fro on the floor up and down and round in great circles but his eyes were red and he held on as the body cart whipped over the floor upsetting the tin dipper and the soap dish and the flush brush and banged against the tin side of the bath as he held he closed his jaws tighter and tighter for he made sure he would be banged to death and for the honour of his family he preferred to be found with his teeth locked he was dizzy, aching and felt shaken to pieces when something went off like a thunderclap just behind him a hot wind knocked him senseless and red fire singed his fur the big man had been wakened by the noise and had fired both barrels of a shotgun into Nag just behind the hood Ricky Tickey held on with his eyes shut for now he was quite sure he was dead but the head did not move and the big man picked him up and said it's the Mongoose again Alice the little chap has saved our lives now then Teddy's mother came in with a very white face and saw what was left of Nag and Ricky Tickey dragged himself to Teddy's bedroom and spent half the rest of the night shaking himself tenderly to find out whether he really was broken into 40 pieces as he fancied when morning came he was very stiff but well pleased with his doings now I have Nagina to settle with and she will be worse than five Nags and there's no knowing when those eggs she spoke of will hatch goodness I must go and see Darcy he said without waiting for breakfast Ricky Tickey ran to the thorn bush where Darcy was singing a song of triumph at the top of his voice the news of Nag's death was all over the garden for the sweeper had thrown the body on the rubbish heap oh you stupid tuft of feather said Ricky Tickey angrily is this the time to sing Nag is dead is dead is dead sang Darcy the valiant Ricky Tickey caught him by the head and held fast the big man brought the bang stick and Nag fell in two pieces he will never eat my babies again all that's true enough but where's Nagina said Ricky Tickey looking carefully around him Nagina came to the bathroom's lewis and called for Nag Darcy went on and Nag came out of the end of a stick the sweeper picked him up on the end of a stick and threw him upon the rubbish heap let us sing about the great the red eyed Ricky Tickey and Darcy filled his throat and sang if I could get up to your nest I'd roll your babies out said Ricky Tickey you don't know when to do the right thing at the right time you're safe enough in your nest there but it's war for me down here stop singing a minute Darcy for the great the beautiful Ricky Tickey's sake I will stop said Darcy what is it oak killer of the terrible Nag where is Nagina for the third time on the rubbish heap by the stables morning for Nag great is Ricky Tickey with the white teeth bother my white teeth have you ever heard where she keeps her eggs in the melon bed on the end nearest the wall where the sun strikes nearly all day she hid them there weeks ago and you never thought it worthwhile to tell me the end nearest the wall you said Ricky Tickey you are not going to eat her eggs not eat exactly no Darcy if you have a grain of sense you will fly off to the stables and pretend that your wing is broken and let Nagina chase you away to this bush I must get to the melon bed and if I went there now she'd see me Darcy was a feather-brained little fellow who could never hold more than one idea at a time in his head and just because he knew that Nagina's children were born in eggs like his own he didn't think at first that it was fair to kill them but his wife was a sensible bird and she knew that the cobra's eggs meant young cobras later on so she flew off from the nest and left Darcy to keep the babies warm and continue his song about the death of Nag Darcy was very like a man in some ways she fluttered in front of Nagina by the rubbish heap and cried out oh my wing is broken the boy in the house threw a stone at me and broke it then she fluttered more desperately than ever Nagina lift up her head and hissed you warned Ricky Tickey when I would have killed him indeed and truly you've chosen a bad place to be layman and she moved towards Darcy's wife slipping along over the dust the boy broke it with a stone shrieked Darcy's wife well it may be some consolation to you when you're dead to know that I shall settle accounts with the boy my husband lies on the rubbish heap this morning but before night the boy in the house will lie very still what is the use of running away I am sure to catch you little fool look at me Darcy's wife knew better than to do that the looks at a snake's eyes get so frightened that she cannot move Darcy's wife fluttered on piping sorrowfully and never leaving the ground and Nagina quickened her pace Ricky Tickey heard them going up the path from the stables and he raced for the end of the melon patch near the wall there in the warm litter above the melons very cunningly hidden he found twenty-five eggs about the size of a bantam's eggs but with whitish skins instead of shells that was not a day too soon he said for he could see the baby cobras curled up inside the skin and he knew that the minute they were hatched they could each kill a man or a mongoose he bit off the tops of the eggs as fast as he could taking care to crush the young cobras and turned over the litter from time to time to see whether he had missed any at last there were only three eggs left and Ricky Tickey began to chuckle to himself when he heard Darcy's wife screaming Ricky Tickey, I led Nagina toward the house and she has gone into the veranda and oh come quickly she means killing Ricky Tickey smashed two eggs and tumbled backwards down the melon bed with the third egg in his mouth and scuttled to the veranda as hard as he could put foot to the ground Teddy and his mother and father were there at early breakfast but Ricky Tickey saw that they were not eating anything they sat stone still and their faces were white Nagina was coiled up on the matting by Teddy's chair with an easy striking distance of Teddy's bare leg and she was swaying to and fro singing a song of triumph son of the big man that killed Nag she hissed stay still I am not ready yet wait a little keep very still all you three if you move I strike and if you do not move I strike oh foolish people who killed my Nag Teddy's eyes were fixed on his father and all his father could do was whisper sit still Teddy you mustn't move Teddy keep still then Ricky Tickey came up and cried turn round Nagina turn and fight all in good time said she without moving her eyes I will settle my account with you presently look at your friends Ricky Tickey they are still and white they are afraid they dare not move and if you come a step nearer I strike look at your eggs said Ricky Tickey in the melon bed near the wall go and look Nagina the big snake turned half round and saw the egg on the veranda ah give it to me she said Ricky Tickey put his paws one on each side of the egg and his eyes were blood red what price for a snake's egg for a young cobra for a young king cobra for the last the very last of the brood the ants are eating all the others down by the melon bed Nagina spun clear round forgetting everything for the sake of the one egg and Ricky Tickey saw Teddy's father shoot out a big hand catch Teddy by the shoulder and drag him across the little table with the tea cups safe and out of reach of Nagina tricked tricked tricked tricked chuckled Ricky Tickey the boy is safe and it was I I I that caught Nag by the hood last night in the bathroom then he began to jump up and down all four feet together his head close to the floor he threw me to and fro but he could not shake me off he was dead before a big man blew him into I did it Ricky Tickey Tic Tic come then Nagina come and fight with me you shall not be a widow long Nagina saw that she had lost her chances of killing Teddy the egg lay between Ricky Tickey's paws give me the egg Ricky Tickey give me the last of my eggs and I will go away and never come back she said lowering her hood yes you will go away and you will never come back for you will go to the rubbish heap with Nag fight widow the big man has gone for his gun fight Ricky Tickey was bounding all round Nagina keeping just out of reach of her stroke her eyes like hot coals Nagina gathered herself together and flung out at him Ricky Tickey jumped up and backwards again and again she struck and each time her head came with a whack on the matting of the veranda and she gathered herself together like a watch spring then Ricky Tickey danced in a circle to get behind her and Nagina spun round to keep her head to his head so that the rustle of her tail on the matting sounded like dry leaves blown along by the wind he had forgotten the egg it still lay on the veranda and Nagina came nearer and nearer to it till at last while Ricky Tickey was drawing breath she caught it in her mouth turned to the veranda steps and flew like an arrow down the path with Ricky Tickey behind her when the cobra runs for her life she goes like a whip lash flipped across a horse's neck Ricky Tickey knew that he must catch her or all the trouble would begin again she headed straight for the long grass in the thorn bush and as he was running Ricky Tickey heard Darzi still singing his foolish little song of triumph but Darzi's wife was wiser she flew off her nest as Nagina came along and flapped her wings about Nagina's head if Darzi had helped they might have turned her but Nagina only lowered her hood and went on still the instance delay brought Ricky Tickey up to her and as she plunged into the rat hole where she and Nag used to live his little white teeth were clinched on his tail and he went down with her and very few mongooses however wise and old they may be cared to follow a cobra into its hole it was dark in the hole and Ricky Tickey never knew when it might open out and give Nagina room to turn and strike at him he held on savagely and stuck out his feet to act as breaks on the dark slope of the hot moist earth then the grass by the mouth of the hole stopped waving and Darzi said it is all over with Ricky Tickey we must sing his death song valiant Ricky Tickey is dead for Nagina will surely kill him underground so he sang a very mournful song that he made up on the spur of the minute and just as he got to the most touching part the grass quivered again and Ricky Tickey, covered with dirt dragged himself out of the hole leg by leg, licking his whiskers Darzi stopped with a little shout Ricky Tickey shook some of the dust out of his fur and sneezed it is all over he said the widow will never come out again and the red ants that live between the grass stems heard him and began to troop down one after another to see if he had spoken the truth Ricky Tickey curled himself up in the grass and slept where he was slept and slept till it was late in the afternoon for he had done a hard day's work now he said when he awoke I will go back to the house and tell the coppersmith Darzi and he will tell the garden that Nagina is dead the coppersmith is a bird who makes a noise exactly like the beating of a little hammer on a copper pot and the reason he is always making it is because he is the town crier to every Indian garden and tells all the news to everybody who cares to listen as Ricky Tickey went up the path he heard his attention notes like a tiny dinner gong and then the steady ding dong talk, nag is dead ding dong talk that said all the birds in the garden singing and the frogs croaking for Nagin Nagina used to eat frogs as well as little birds when Ricky got to the house Teddy and Teddy's mother she looked very white still for she had been fainting and Teddy's father came out and almost cried over him and that night he ate all that was given him till he could eat no more and went to bed on Teddy's shoulder where Teddy's mother saw him when she came to look late at night he saved our lives and Teddy's life she said to her husband just think he saved all our lives Ricky Tickey woke up with a jump for mongooses or light sleepers oh it's you said he what are you bothering for all the copers are dead and if they weren't I'm here Ricky Tickey had a right to be proud of himself but he did not grow too proud and he kept that garden as a mongoose should keep it with tooth and jump and spring and bite till never a cobra dared show its head inside the walls Darzi's chant sung in honor of Ricky Tickey Tavi Singer and tailor am I doubled the joys that I know proud of my lilt to the sky proud of the house that I sew over and under so we vie my music so we vie the house that I sew sing to your fledglings again mother oh lift up your head evil that plagued us is slain death in the garden lies dead terror that hid in the roses is impotent flung on the dung hill and dead who has delivered us who tell me his nest and his name Ricky the valiant the true Tickey with eyeballs of flame Ricky Tickey Tickey the ivory fanged the hunter with the eyeballs of flame give him the thanks of the birds bowing with tail feathers spread praise him with nightingale words nay I will praise him instead here I will sing you the praise of the bottletailed Ricky with eyeballs of red here Ricky Tickey interrupted so the rest of the song is lost end of chapter 5