Part 3 (1/2)
”He has not eaten,” said Baloo, with a grunt of relief, as soon as he saw the beautifully mottled brown and yellow jacket. ”Be careful, Bagheera! He is always a little blind after he has changed his skin,l and very quick to strike.” and very quick to strike.”
Kaa was not a poison snake-in fact he rather despised the Poison Snakes for cowards; but his strength lay in his hug, and when he had once lapped his huge coils round anybody there was no more to be said. ”Good hunting!” cried Baloo, sitting up on his haunches. Like all snakes of his breed Kaa was rather deaf, and did not hear the call at first. Then he curled up ready for any accident, his head lowered.
”Good hunting for us all,” he answered. ”Oho, Baloo, what dost thou do here? Good hunting, Bagheera. One of us at least needs food. Is there any news of game afoot? A doe now, or even a young buck? I am as empty as a dried well.”
”We are hunting,” said Baloo, carelessly. He knew that you must not hurry Kaa. He is too big.
”Give me permission to come with you,” said Kaa. ”A blow more or less is nothing to thee, Bagheera or Baloo, but I-I have to wait and wait for days in a wood path and climb half a night on the mere chance of a young ape. Pss naw! Pss naw! The branches are not what they were when I was young. Rotten twigs and dry boughs are they all.” The branches are not what they were when I was young. Rotten twigs and dry boughs are they all.”
”Maybe thy great weight has something to do with the matter,” said Baloo.
”I am a fair length-a fair length,” said Kaa, with a little pride. ”But for all that, it is the fault of this new-grown timber. I came very near to falling on my last hunt,-very near indeed, -and the noise of my slipping, for my tail was not tight wrapped round the tree, waked the Bandar-log, and they called me most evil names.”
”'Footless, yellow earthworm,”' said Bagheera under his whiskers, as though he were trying to remember something.
”Ssss! Have they ever called me that?” said Kaa.
”Something of that kind it was that they shouted to us last moon, but we never noticed them. They will say anything-even that thou hast lost all thy teeth, and dare not face anything bigger than a kid, because (they are indeed shameless, these Bandar-log)-because thou art afraid of the he-goats' horns,” Bagheera went on sweetly.
Now a snake, especially a wary old python like Kaa, very seldom shows that he is angry; but Baloo and Bagheera could see the big swallowing muscles on either side of Kaa's throat ripple and bulge.
”The Bandar-log have s.h.i.+fted their grounds,” he said, quietly. ”When I came up into the sun today I heard them whooping among the tree-tops.”
”It-it is the Bandar-log that we follow now,” said Baloo; but the words stuck in his throat, for this was the first time in his memory that one of the Jungle People had owned to being interested in the doings of the monkeys.
”Beyond doubt, then, it is no small thing that takes two such hunters-leaders in their own jungle, I am certain-on the trail of the Bandar-log,” Kaa replied, courteously, as he swelled with curiosity.
”Indeed,” Baloo began, ”I am no more than the old, and sometimes very foolish, Teacher of the Law to the Seeonee wolf-cubs, and Bagheera here-”
”Is Bagheera,” said the Black Panther, and his jaws shut with a snap, for he did not believe in being humble. ”The trouble is this, Kaa. Those nut-stealers and pickers of palm-leaves have stolen away our man-cub, of whom thou hast perhaps heard.”
”I heard some news from Ikki (his quills make him presumptuous) of a man-thing that was entered into a wolf-pack, but I did not believe. Ikki is full of stories half heard and very badly told.”
”But it is true. He is such a man-cub as never was,” said Baloo. ”The best and wisest and boldest of man-cubs. My own pupil, who shall make the name of Baloo famous through all the jungles; and besides, I-we-love him, Kaa.”
”Ts! Ts!” said Kaa, shaking his head to and fro. ”I also have known what love is. There are tales I could tell that-” said Kaa, shaking his head to and fro. ”I also have known what love is. There are tales I could tell that-”
”That need a clear night when we are all well fed to praise properly,” said Bagheera, quickly. ”Our man-cub is in the hands of the Bandar-log now, and we know that of all the Jungle People they fear Kaa alone.”
”They fear me alone. They have good reason,” said Kaa. ”Chattering, foolish, vain-vain, foolish, and chattering-are the monkeys. But a man-thing in their hands is in no good luck. They grow tired of the nuts they pick, and throw them down. They carry a branch half a day, meaning to do great things with it, and then they snap it in two. That manling is not to be envied. They call me also-'yellow fish,' was it not?”
”Worm-worm-earthworm,” said Bagheera; ”as well as other things which I cannot now say for shame.”
”We must remind them to speak well of their master. Aaa.s.ss.h.!.+ Aaa.s.ss.h.!.+ We must help their wandering memories. Now, whither went they with thy cub?” We must help their wandering memories. Now, whither went they with thy cub?”
”The jungle alone knows. Toward the sunset, I believe,” said Baloo. ”We had thought that thou wouldst know, Kaa.”
”I? How? I take them when they come in my way, but I do not hunt the Bandar-log-or frogs-or green sc.u.m on a water-hole, for that matter.”
”Up, up! Up, up! Hillo! Illo! Illo! Hillo! Illo! Illo! Look up, Baloo of the Seeonee Wolf Pack!” Look up, Baloo of the Seeonee Wolf Pack!”
Baloo looked up to see where the voice came from, and there was Rann, the Kite, sweeping down with the sun s.h.i.+ning on the upturned f.l.a.n.g.es of his wings. It was near Rann's bedtime, but he had ranged all over the jungle looking for the bear, and missed him in the thick foliage.
”What is it?” said Baloo.
”I have seen Mowgli among the Bandar-log. He bade me tell you. I watched. The Bandar-log have taken him beyond the river to the Monkey City-to the Cold Lairs. They may stay there for a night, or ten nights, or an hour. I have told the bats to watch through the dark time. That is my message. Good hunting, all you below!”
”Full gorge and a deep sleep to you, Rann!” cried Bagheera. ”I will remember thee in my next kill, and put aside the head for thee alone, O best of kites!”
”It is nothing. It is nothing. The boy held the Master Word. I could have done no less,” and Rann circled up again to his roost.”
”He has not forgotten to use his tongue,” said Baloo, with a chuckle of pride. ”To think of one so young remembering the Master Word for the birds while he was being pulled across trees!”
”It was most firmly driven into him,” said Bagheera. ”But I am proud of him, and now we must go to the Cold Lairs.”
They all knew where that place was, but few of the Jungle People ever went there, because what they called the Cold Lairs was an old deserted city, lost and buried in the jungle,m and beasts seldom use a place that men have once used. The wild boar will, but the hunting-tribes do not. Besides, the monkeys lived there as much as they could be said to live anywhere, and no self-respecting animal would come within eye-shot of it except in times of drought, when the half-ruined tanks and reservoirs held a little water. and beasts seldom use a place that men have once used. The wild boar will, but the hunting-tribes do not. Besides, the monkeys lived there as much as they could be said to live anywhere, and no self-respecting animal would come within eye-shot of it except in times of drought, when the half-ruined tanks and reservoirs held a little water.
”It is half a night's journey-at full speed,” said Bagheera. Baloo looked very serious. ”I will go as fast as I can,” he said, anxiously.
”We dare not wait for thee. Follow, Baloo. We must go on the quick-foot-Kaa and I.”
”Feet or no feet, I can keep abreast of all thy four,” said Kaa, shortly.
Baloo made one effort to hurry, but had to sit down panting, and so they left him to come on later, while Bagheera hurried forward, at the rocking panther-canter. Kaa said nothing, but, strive as Bagheera might, the huge Rock Python held level with him. When they came to a hill-stream, Bagheera gained, because he bounded across while Kaa swam, his head and two feet of his neck clearing the water, but on level ground Kaa made up the distance.
”By the Broken Lock that freed me,” said Bagheera, when twilight had fallen, ”thou art no slow-goer.”
”I am hungry,” said Kaa. ”Besides, they called me speckled frog.”
”Worm-earthworm, and yellow to boot.”
”All one. Let us go on,” and Kaa seemed to pour himself along the ground, finding the shortest road with his steady eyes, and keeping to it.
In the Cold Lairs the Monkey People were not thinking of Mowgli's friends at all. They had brought the boy to the Lost City, and were very pleased with themselves for the time. Mowgli had never seen an Indian city before, and though this was almost a heap of ruins it seemed very wonderful and splendid. Some king had built it long ago on a little hill. You could still trace the stone causeways that led up to the ruined gates where the last splinters of wood hung to the worn, rusted hinges. Trees had grown into and out of the walls; the battlements were tumbled down and decayed, and wild creepers hung out of the windows of the towers on the walls in bushy hanging clumps.
A great roofless palace crowned the hill, and the marble of the courtyards and the fountains was split and stained with red and green, and the very cobblestones in the courtyard where the king's elephants used to live had been thrust up and apart by gra.s.ses and young trees. From the palace you could see the rows and rows of roofless houses that made up the city, looking like empty honeycombs filled with blackness; the shapeless block of stone that had been an idol in the square where four roads met; the pits and dimples at street corners where the public wells once stood, and the shattered domes of temples with wild figs sprouting on their sides.
The monkeys called the place their city, and pretended to despise the Jungle People because they lived in the forest. And yet they never knew what the buildings were made for nor how to use them. They would sit in circles on the hall of the king's council-chamber, and scratch for fleas and pretend to be men; or they would run in and out of the roofless houses and collect pieces of plaster and old bricks in a corner, and forget where they had hidden them, and fight and cry in scuffling crowds, and then break off to play up and down the terraces of the king's garden, where they would shake the rose-trees and the oranges in sport to see the fruit and flowers fall. They explored all the pa.s.sages and dark tunnels in the palace and the hundreds of little dark rooms; but they never remembered what they had seen and what they had not, and so drifted about in ones and twos or crowds, telling one another that they were doing as men did. They drank at the tanks and made the water all muddy, and then they fought over it, and then they would all rush together in mobs and shout: ”There are none in the jungle so wise and good and clever and strong and gentle as the Bandar-log.” Then all would begin again till they grew tired of the city and went back to the tree-tops, hoping the Jungle People would notice them.
Mowgli, who had been trained under the Law of the Jungle, did not like or understand this kind of life. The monkeys dragged him into the Cold Lairs late in the afternoon, and instead of going to sleep, as Mowgli would have done after a long journey, they joined hands and danced about and sang their foolish songs.
One of the monkeys made a speech, and told his companions that Mowgli's capture marked a new thing in the history of the Bandar-log, for Mowgli was going to show them how to weave sticks and canes together as a protection against rain and cold. Mowgli picked up some creepers and began to work them in and out, and the monkeys tried to imitate; but in a very few minutes they lost interest and began to pull their friends' tails or jump up and down on all fours, coughing.
”I want to eat,” said Mowgli. ”I am a stranger in this part of the jungle. Bring me food, or give me leave to hunt here.”
Twenty or thirty monkeys bounded away to bring him nuts and wild pawpaws; but they fell to fighting on the road, and it was too much trouble to go back with what was left of the fruit. Mowgli was sore and angry as well as hungry, and he roamed through the empty city giving the Strangers' Hunting Call from time to time, but no one answered him, and Mowgli felt that he had reached a very bad place indeed.
”All that Baloo has said about the Bandar-log is true,” he thought to himself. ”They have no Law, no Hunting Call, and no leaders-nothing but foolish words and little picking, thievish hands. So if I am starved or killed here, it will be all my own fault. But I must try to return to my own jungle. Baloo will surely beat me, but that is better than chasing silly rose-leaves with the Bandar-log.”
But no sooner had he walked to the city wall than the monkeys pulled him back, telling him that he did not know how happy he was, and pinching him to make him grateful. He set his teeth and said nothing, but went with the shouting monkeys to a terrace above the red sandstone reservoirs that were half full of rain-water. There was a ruined summer-house of white marble in the center of the terrace, built for queens dead a hundred years ago. The domed roof had half fallen in and blocked up the underground pa.s.sage from the palace by which the queens used to enter; but the walls were made of screens of marble tracery-beautiful, milk-white fretwork, set with agates and cornelians and jasper and lapis lazuli, and as the moon came up behind the hill it shone through the openwork, casting shadows on the ground like black-velvet embroidery.