The Jungle Books by Rudyard Kipling, Alev Lytle Croutier Read Free Book Online Page A

pool to get the Snake Word from a water-snake, because Baloo could not pronounce it, and how Mowgli was now reasonably safe against all accidents in the jungle, because neither snake, bird, nor beast would hurt him.
    “No one then is to be feared,” Baloo wound up, patting his big furry stomach with pride.
    “Except his own tribe,” said Bagheera, under his breath; and then aloud to Mowgli: “Have a care for my ribs, Little Brother! What is all this dancing up and down?”
    Mowgli had been trying to make himself heard by pulling at Bagheera’s shoulder fur and kicking hard. When the two listened to him he was shouting at the top of his voice: “And so I shall have a tribe of my own, and lead them through the branches all day long.”
    “What is this new folly, little dreamer of dreams?” said Bagheera.
    “Yes, and throw branches and dirt at old Baloo,” Mowgli went on. “They have promised me this. Ah!”
    “
Whoof!
” Baloo’s big paw scooped Mowgli off Bagheera’s back, and as the boy lay between the big fore paws he could see the bear was angry.
    “Mowgli,” said Baloo, “thou hast been talking with the
Bandar-log
—the Monkey-People.”
    Mowgli looked at Bagheera to see if the panther was angry too, and Bagheera’s eyes were as hard as jade-stones.
    “Thou hast been with the Monkey-People—the greyapes—the people without a Law—the eaters of everything. That is great shame.”
    “When Baloo hurt my head,” said Mowgli (he was still on his back), “I went away, and the grey apes came down from the trees and had pity on me. No one else cared.” He snuffled a little.
    “The pity of the Monkey-People!” Baloo snorted. “The stillness of the mountain stream! The cool of the summer sun! And then, man-cub?”
    “And then, and then, they gave me nuts and pleasant things to eat, and they—they carried me in their arms up to the top of the trees and said I was their blood-brother except that I had no tail, and should be their leader some day.”
    “They have
no
leader,” said Bagheera. “They lie. They have always lied.”
    “They were very kind and bade me come again. Why have I never been taken among the Monkey-People? They stand on their feet as I do. They do not hit me with hard paws. They play all day. Let me get up! Bad Baloo, let me up! I will play with them again.”
    “Listen, man-cub,” said the bear, and his voice rumbled like thunder on a hot night. “I have taught thee all the Law of the Jungle for all the peoples of the jungle—except the Monkey-Folk who live in the trees. They have no Law. They are outcaste. They have no speech of their own, but use the stolen words which they overhear when they listen, and peep, and wait up above in the branches. Their way is not our way. They are without leaders. They have no remembrance. They boast and chatter and pretend that they are a great people about to do great affairs in the jungle, but the falling of a nut turns their minds to laughter and all is forgotten. We of the jungle have no dealings with them. We do not drink where the monkeys drink; we do not go where the monkeys go; we do not hunt where they hunt; we do not die where they die. Hast thou ever heard me speak of the
Bandar-log
till to-day?”
    “No,” said Mowgli in a whisper, for the forest was very still now Baloo had finished.
    “The Jungle-People put them out of their mouths and out of their mind. They are very many, evil, dirty. shameless, and they desire, if they have any fixed desire. to be noticed by the Jungle-People. But we do
not
notice them even when they throw nuts and filth on our heads.”
    He had hardly spoken when a shower of nuts and twigs spattered down through the branches; and they could hear coughings and howlings and angry jumpings high up in the air among the thin branches.
    “The Monkey-People are forbidden,” said Baloo, “forbidden to the Jungle-People. Remember.”
    “Forbidden,” said Bagheera, “but I still think Baloo should have