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As a man thinketh by James Allen · Audiobooks & Scary Stories

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  Speaker 1: I hope you enjoy this reading, which comes from a
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  Speaker 1: work in the public domain. As a Man Thinks by
• 0:05
  Speaker 1: James Allen Carapter one. Mauglise brothers now ran the kite
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  Speaker 1: brings home the night that mang the bat sets free.
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  Speaker 1: The herds are shut in byre and hut for loose
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  Speaker 1: till dawn are we This is the hour of pride
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  Speaker 1: and power. Tellone and tushen claw, Oh, hear the call
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  Speaker 1: good hunting, all that keep the jungle law. Night song
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  Speaker 1: in the jungle. It was seven o'clock of a very
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  Speaker 1: warm evening in the Siennee Hills when Father Wulf woke
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  Speaker 1: up from his day's rest, scratched himself, yawned, and spread
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  Speaker 1: out his paws one after the other to get rid
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  Speaker 1: of the sleepy feeling in their tips. Mother Wulf lay
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  Speaker 1: with her big gray nose dropped across her fore tumbling
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  Speaker 1: squealing cups, and the moon shone into the mouth of
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  Speaker 1: the cave where they all lived. Augar, said father Wolf,
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  Speaker 1: it is time to hunt again. He was going to
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  Speaker 1: spring downhill when a little shadow with a bushy tail
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  Speaker 1: crossed the threshold and whined, good luck. Go with you, o,
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  Speaker 1: chief of the wolves. And good luck and strong white
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  Speaker 1: teeth go with noble children, that they may never forget
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  Speaker 1: the hungry in this world. Zero zero two five, good
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  Speaker 1: luck go with you, o chief of the wolves. It
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  Speaker 1: was the jackal Tobaki, the dish liquor, And the wolves
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  Speaker 1: of India despise Tabaki because he runs about making mischief
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  Speaker 1: and telling tales and eating rags and pieces of leather
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  Speaker 1: from the village rubbish heaps. But they are afraid of
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  Speaker 1: him too, because Tobaki, more than any one else in
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  Speaker 1: the jungle, is apt to go mad. And then he
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  Speaker 1: forgets that he was ever afraid of anyone, and runs
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  Speaker 1: through the forest, biting everything in his way. Even the
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  Speaker 1: tiger runs and hides when little Tobaki goes mad, For
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  Speaker 1: madness is the most disgraceful thing that can overtake a
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  Speaker 1: wild creature. We call it hydrophobia, but they call it
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  Speaker 1: dewani the madness. And run enter then, and look, said
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  Speaker 1: father wolf stiffly. But there is no food here for
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  Speaker 1: a wolf, no, said Tobaki. But for so mean a
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  Speaker 1: person as myself, a dry bone is a good feast.
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  Speaker 1: Who are we the gitter log the jackal people to
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  Speaker 1: pick and choose He scuttled to the back of the cave,
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  Speaker 1: where he found the bone of a buck with some
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  Speaker 1: meat on it, and sat cracking the end merrily. All
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  Speaker 1: thanks for this good meal, he said, licking his lips.
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  Speaker 1: How beautiful are the noble children, How large are their eyes?
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  Speaker 1: And so young too. Indeed, indeed, I might have remembered
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  Speaker 1: that the children of kings are men from the beginning.
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  Speaker 1: Now Tobaki knew as well as any one else that
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  Speaker 1: there is nothing so unlucky as to compliment children to
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  Speaker 1: their faces. It pleased him to see mother and father
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  Speaker 1: Wolf look uncomfortable. Tobaki sat still, rejoicing in the mischief
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  Speaker 1: that he had made, And then he said, spitefully, sheer Khan,
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  Speaker 1: the big one, has shifted his hunting grounds. He will
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  Speaker 1: hunt among these hills for the next moon, so he
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  Speaker 1: has told me. Sheer Khan was the tiger who lived
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  Speaker 1: near the waing Gunga River twenty miles away. He has
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  Speaker 1: no right, Father Wulf began angrily. By the law of
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  Speaker 1: the jungle. He has no right to change his quarters
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  Speaker 1: without due warning. He will frighten every head of game
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  Speaker 1: within ten miles. And I I have to kill for
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  Speaker 1: two these days his mother did not call him lungry asterisk,
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  Speaker 1: the lame one plus four nothing, said mother Wolf quietly.
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  Speaker 1: He has been lame in one foot from his berth.
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  Speaker 1: That is why he has only killed cattle. Now the
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  Speaker 1: villagers of the Wayne Gunga are angry with him, and
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  Speaker 1: he has come here to make our villagers angry. They
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  Speaker 1: will scour the jungle for him when he is far away,
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  Speaker 1: and we and our children must run when the grass
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  Speaker 1: is set alight. Indeed, we are very grateful to shear Khan.
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  Speaker 1: Shall I tell him of your gratitude, said Tobaki out,
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  Speaker 1: snapped father Wolf. Out and hunt with thy master. Thou
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  Speaker 1: hast done harm enough for one night, I go, said
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  Speaker 1: Tabaki quietly. Ye can hear sheer con below in the thickets?
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  Speaker 1: I might have saved myself the message. Father Wolf listened,
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  Speaker 1: and below, in the valley that ran down to a
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  Speaker 1: little river, he heard the dry, angry snarly sings on
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  Speaker 1: wine of a tiger who has caught nothing and does
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  Speaker 1: not care if all the jungle knows it. The fool,
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  Speaker 1: said father Wolf, to begin a night's work with that noise?
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  Speaker 1: Does he think that our buck are like his fat
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  Speaker 1: wing Gunga? Bullocks h s h. It is neither bullock
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  Speaker 1: nor buck he hunts tonight, said mother Wolf. It is man.
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  Speaker 1: The wine had changed to a sort of humming purr
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  Speaker 1: that seemed to come from every quarter of the compass.
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  Speaker 1: It was the noise that bewilders woodcutters and gipsies sleeping
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  Speaker 1: in the open, and makes them run sometimes into the
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  Speaker 1: very mouth of the tiger man, said father Wolf, showing
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  Speaker 1: all his white teeth fall. Are there not enough beetles
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  Speaker 1: and frogs in the tanks that he must eat man?
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  Speaker 1: And on our ground too. The law of the jungle,
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  Speaker 1: which never orders anything without a reason forbids every beast
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  Speaker 1: to eat man, except when he is killing to show
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  Speaker 1: his children how to kill, and then he must hunt
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  Speaker 1: outside the hunting grounds of his pack or tribe. The
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  Speaker 1: real reason for this is that man killing means sooner
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  Speaker 1: or later the arrival of white men on elephants with
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  Speaker 1: guns and hundreds of brown men with gongs and rockets
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  Speaker 1: and torches. Then everybody in the jungle suffers. The reason
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  Speaker 1: the beasts give among themselves is that man is the
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  Speaker 1: weakest and most defenseless of all living things, and it
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  Speaker 1: is unsportsmanlike to touch him, they say too, And it
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  Speaker 1: is true that man eaters become mangy and lose their teeth.
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  Speaker 1: The her grew louder and ended in the full throated
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  Speaker 1: air of the tiger's charge. Then there was a howl,
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  Speaker 1: an untigerish howl from sheer Khan. He has missed, said
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  Speaker 1: Mother Wolf. What is it? Father Wulf ran out a
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  Speaker 1: few paces and heard sheer Khan muttering and mumbling savagely
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  Speaker 1: as he tumbled about in the scrub. The fool has
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  Speaker 1: had no more sense than to jump at a woodcutter's
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  Speaker 1: camp fire, and has burned his feet, said Father Wulf,
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  Speaker 1: with a grunt. Tobaki is with him. Something is coming
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  Speaker 1: up hill, said Mother Wulf, twitching one ear. Get ready.
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  Speaker 1: The bushes rustled a little in the thicket, and Father
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  Speaker 1: Wulf dropped with his haunches under him, ready for his leap. Then,
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  Speaker 1: if you had been watching, you would have seen the
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  Speaker 1: most wonderful thing in the world. The wolf checked in
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  Speaker 1: mid spring. He made his bound before he saw what
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  Speaker 1: it was he was jumping at, and then he tried
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  Speaker 1: to stop himself. The result was that he shot up
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  Speaker 1: straight into the air for four or five feet, landing
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  Speaker 1: almost where he left ground man, he snapped a man's cub. Look.
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  Speaker 1: Directly in front of him, holding on by a low branch,
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  Speaker 1: stood a naked brown baby who could just walk as
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  Speaker 1: soft and as dimpled a little atom as ever came
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  Speaker 1: to a wolf's cave at night. He looked up into
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  Speaker 1: Father Wolf's face and laughed. Is that a man's cub?
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  Speaker 1: Said Mother Wolf? I have never seen one bring it here?
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  Speaker 1: A wolf accustomed to moving his own cubs, can, if necessary,
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  Speaker 1: mouth an egg without breaking it. And though Father Wolf's
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  Speaker 1: jaws closed right on the child's back, not a tooth
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  Speaker 1: even scratched the skin as he laid it down among
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  Speaker 1: the cubs. How little, how naked, an how bold, said
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  Speaker 1: Mother Wolf softly. The baby was pushing his way between
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  Speaker 1: the cubs to get close to the warm hide. A hi,
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  Speaker 1: he is taking meal with the others, and so this
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  Speaker 1: is a man's cub. Now was there ever a wolf
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  Speaker 1: that could boast of a man's cub among her children?
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  Speaker 1: I have heard now and again of such a thing,
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  Speaker 1: but never in our pack or in my time, said
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  Speaker 1: father Wolf. He is altogether without hair, and I could
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  Speaker 1: kill him with a touch of my foot. But see,
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  Speaker 1: he looks up and is not afraid. The moonlight was
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  Speaker 1: blocked out of the mouth of the cave, for Sheer
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  Speaker 1: Khan's great square head and shoulders were thrust into the entrance.
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  Speaker 1: Tobaki behind him was squeaking, my lord, my lord, it
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  Speaker 1: went in here. Sher Khan does us great honor, said
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  Speaker 1: Father Wolf, but his eyes were very angry. What does
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  Speaker 1: sher Khan need my quarry? A man's cub went this way,
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  Speaker 1: said sher Khan. Its parents have run off. Give it
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  Speaker 1: to me. Sheer Khan had jumped at a woodcutter's camp fire,
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  Speaker 1: as Father Wolf had said, and was furious from the
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  Speaker 1: pain of his burnt feet. But Father Wulf knew that
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  Speaker 1: the mouth of the cave was too narrow for a
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  Speaker 1: tiger to come in by. Even where he was. Sheer
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  Speaker 1: Khan's shoulders and forepaws were cramped for want of room,
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  Speaker 1: as a man's would be if he tried to fight
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  Speaker 1: in a barrel. The wolves are a free people, said
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  Speaker 1: Father Wolf. They take orders from the head of the
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  Speaker 1: pack and not from any striped cattle killer. The man's
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  Speaker 1: cub is ours to kill. If we choose, ye choose,
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  Speaker 1: and ye do not choose. What talk is this? Of
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  Speaker 1: choosing by the bull that I killed. Am I to
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  Speaker 1: stand nosing into your dog's den for my fair dues.
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  Speaker 1: It is I sheer Khan who speak zero zero three one.
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  Speaker 1: But the tiger's roar filled the cave with thunder. The
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  Speaker 1: tiger's roar filled the cave with thunder. Mother Wulf shook
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  Speaker 1: herself clear of the cubs and sprang forward her eyes
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  Speaker 1: like two green moons in the dar darkness, facing the
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  Speaker 1: blazing eyes of sher Khan. And it is I Raksha Asterisk,
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  Speaker 1: the demon plus who answers the man's cub is mine,
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  Speaker 1: lungry mine to me. He shall not be killed. He
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  Speaker 1: shall live, to run with the pack, and to hunt
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  Speaker 1: with the pack. And in the end, look, you hunter
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  Speaker 1: of little naked cubs, frog eater, fish killer, he shall
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  Speaker 1: hunt thee Now get hence or by the samber that
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  Speaker 1: I killed, I eat no starved cattle back. Thou goest
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  Speaker 1: to thy mother, burned beast of the jungle, lamer than
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  Speaker 1: ever thou camest into the world. Go. Father Wulf looked unamazed.
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  Speaker 1: He had almost forgotten the days when he won Mother
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  Speaker 1: Wolf in fair fight from five other wolves, when she
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  Speaker 1: ran in the pack and was not called the demon
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  Speaker 1: for compliment's sake. Sheer Khan might have faced Father Wolf,
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  Speaker 1: but he could not stand up against Mother Wulf, for
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  Speaker 1: he knew that where he was, she had all the
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  Speaker 1: advantage of the ground and would fight to the death.
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  Speaker 1: So he backed out of the cave, mouth growling, and
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  Speaker 1: when he was clear, he shouted, each dog barks in
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  Speaker 1: his own yard. We will see what the pack will
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  Speaker 1: say to this fostering of man cubs. The cub is mine,
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  Speaker 1: and to my teeth he will come in the end
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  Speaker 1: o bush tailed thieves. Mother Wulf threw herself down panting
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  Speaker 1: among the cubs, and Father Wulf said to her gravely,
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  Speaker 1: sheer Khan speaks this much truth. The cub must be
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  Speaker 1: shown to the pack. Wilt thou still keep him? Mother?
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  Speaker 1: Keep him? She gasped. He came naked by night, alone
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  Speaker 1: and very hungry, Yet he was not afraid. Look, he
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  Speaker 1: has pushed one of my babes to one side already,
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  Speaker 1: and that lame butcher would have killed him and would
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  Speaker 1: have run off to the wing Ganga, while the villagers
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  Speaker 1: here hunted through all our lairs in revenge. Keep him, assuredly,
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  Speaker 1: I will keep him. Lie still little frog, O, thou Mowgli.
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  Speaker 1: For Mowgli the frog, I will the The time will
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  Speaker 1: come when thou wilt hunt Sheer Khan as he has
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  Speaker 1: hunted thee. But what will our pack, say, said father Wolf.
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  Speaker 1: The law of the Jumble lays down very clearly that
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  Speaker 1: any wolf may, when he marries, withdraw from the pack
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  Speaker 1: he belongs to. But as soon as his cubs are
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  Speaker 1: old enough to stand on their feet, he must bring
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  Speaker 1: them to the pack council, which is generally held once
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  Speaker 1: a month at full moon, in order that the other
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  Speaker 1: wolves may identify them. After that inspection, the cubs are
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  Speaker 1: free to run where they please, and until they have
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  Speaker 1: killed their first buck, no excuse is accepted. If a
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  Speaker 1: grown wolf of the pack kills one of them, the
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  Speaker 1: punishment is death where the murderer can be found. And
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  Speaker 1: if you think for a minute, you will see that
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  Speaker 1: this must be so. Five thousand and twenty nine of
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  Speaker 1: the Council Rock. Father Wulf waited till his cubs could
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  Speaker 1: run a little, and then, on the night of the
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  Speaker 1: pack meeting, took them and Mowgli and Mother Wolf to
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  Speaker 1: the Council Rock, a hilltop covered with stones and boulders
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  Speaker 1: where a hundred wolves could hide. Akella, the great gray
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  Speaker 1: lone wolf who led all the pack by strength and cunning,
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  Speaker 1: lay out at full length on his rock, and below
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  Speaker 1: him sat forty or more wolves of every size and color,
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  Speaker 1: from badger colored veterans who could handle a buck alone
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  Speaker 1: to young black three year olds who thought they could.
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  Speaker 1: The lone wolf had led them for a year now,
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  Speaker 1: He had fallen twice into a wolf trap in his youth,
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  Speaker 1: and once he had been beaten and left for dead,
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  Speaker 1: so he knew the manners and customs of men. There
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  Speaker 1: was very little talking at the rock. The cubs tumbled
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  Speaker 1: over each other in the center of the circle where
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  Speaker 1: their mothers and fathers sat. And now and again a
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  Speaker 1: senior wolf would go quietly up to a cub, look
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  Speaker 1: at him carefully, and return to his place on noiseless feet.
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  Speaker 1: Sometimes a mother would push her cub far out into
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  Speaker 1: the moonlight to be sure that he had not been overlooked.
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  Speaker 1: A Kella from his rock would cry, ye know the law,
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  Speaker 1: Ye know the law, Look well, o wolves, and the
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  Speaker 1: anxious mothers would take up the call, look look well,
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  Speaker 1: o wolves. At last, and mother Wulf's neck bristles lifted
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  Speaker 1: as the time came. Father Wolf pushed moudly the frog
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  Speaker 1: as they called him, into the center, where he sat,
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  Speaker 1: laughing and playing with some pebbles that glistened in the moonlight.
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  Speaker 1: Akella never raised his head from his paws, but went
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  Speaker 1: on with the monotonous cry look well. A muffled roar
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  Speaker 1: came up from behind the rocks, the voice of sheer Khan, crying,
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  Speaker 1: the cub is mine, Give him to me. What have
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  Speaker 1: the free people to do with a man's cub? Akella
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  Speaker 1: never even twitched his ears. All he said was, look well,
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  Speaker 1: o wolves, what have the free people to do with
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  Speaker 1: the orders of any save the free people? Look well?
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  Speaker 1: Zero zero three seven. At the meeting at the council rock,
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  Speaker 1: there was a chorus of deep growls, and a young
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  Speaker 1: wolf in his fourth year, flung back sheer Khan's question
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  Speaker 1: to Akella, what have the free people to do with
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  Speaker 1: a man cup? Now? The law of the jungle lays
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  Speaker 1: down that if there is any dispute as to the
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  Speaker 1: right of a cub to be accepted by the pack,
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  Speaker 1: he must be spoken for by at least two members
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  Speaker 1: of the pack who are not his father and mother.
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  Speaker 1: Who speaks for this cub, said Akella. Among the free
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  Speaker 1: people who speaks, there was no answer, and Mother Wolf
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  Speaker 1: got ready for what she knew would be her last fight.
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  Speaker 1: If things came to fighting. Then the only other creature
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  Speaker 1: who is allowed at the pack council Balow, the sleepy
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  Speaker 1: brown bear, who teaches the wolf cubs the law of
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  Speaker 1: the jungle. Old Ballew, who can come and go where
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  Speaker 1: he pleases because he eats only nuts and roots and
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  Speaker 1: honey rows upon his hind quarters and grunted the man's cub,
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  Speaker 1: the man's cub, he said, I speak for the man's cub.
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  Speaker 1: There is no harm in a man's cub. I have
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  Speaker 1: no gift of words, but I speak the truth. Let
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  Speaker 1: him run with the pack and be entered with the others.
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  Speaker 1: I myself will teach him. We need yet another, said Akella.
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  Speaker 1: Balu has spoken, and he is our teacher for the
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  Speaker 1: young cubs. Who speaks besides Balou? A black shadow dropped
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  Speaker 1: down into the circle. It was Bagheera, the black panther,
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  Speaker 1: inky black all over, but with the panther markings showing
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  Speaker 1: up in certain lights like the pattern of watered silk.
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  Speaker 1: Everybody knew Bagheera, and nobody cared to cross his path.
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  Speaker 1: For he was as cunning as Tobaki, as bold as
• 16:28
  Speaker 1: the wild buffalo, and as reckless as the wounded elephant.
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  Speaker 1: But he had a voice as soft as wild honey
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  Speaker 1: dripping from a tree, and a skin softer than down.
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  Speaker 1: O a kella, and ye the free people, he purred,
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  Speaker 1: I have no right in your assembly. But the law
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  Speaker 1: of the jungle says that if there is a doubt
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  Speaker 1: which is not a killing matter in regard to a
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  Speaker 1: new cub, the life of that cub may be bought
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  Speaker 1: at a price, And the law does not say who
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  Speaker 1: may or may not pay that price. Am I right? Good? Good?
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  Speaker 1: Said the young wolves who are always hungry. Listen to Bagheera.
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  Speaker 1: The cub can be bought for a price. It is
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  Speaker 1: the law. Knowing that I have no right to speak here,
• 17:13
  Speaker 1: I ask your leave speak, then, cried twenty voices. To
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  Speaker 1: kill a naked cub is shame. Besides, he may make
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  Speaker 1: better sport for you when he is grown. Balu has
• 17:26
  Speaker 1: spoken in his behalf. Now to Balou's word, I will
• 17:29
  Speaker 1: add one bull and a fat one, newly killed, not
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  Speaker 1: half a mile from here, If he will accept the
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  Speaker 1: man's cub according to the law, is it difficult? There
• 17:39
  Speaker 1: was a clamor of scores of voices saying, what matter.
• 17:44
  Speaker 1: He will die in the winter rains, he will scorch
• 17:47
  Speaker 1: in the sun. What harm can a naked frog do us?
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  Speaker 1: Let him run with the pack? Where is the bull?
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  Speaker 1: Bagheera let him be accepted, And then came a kellor
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  Speaker 1: deep bay, crying, look well, look well, o wolves. Maugli
• 18:05
  Speaker 1: was still deeply interested in the pebbles, and he did
• 18:08
  Speaker 1: not notice when the wolves came and looked at him
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  Speaker 1: one by one. At last they all went down the
• 18:13
  Speaker 1: hill for the dead bull, and only Akella, Bagheera, Balu,
• 18:17
  Speaker 1: and Maugli's own wolves were left. Sheer Khan roared still
• 18:22
  Speaker 1: in the night, for he was very angry that Maugli
• 18:24
  Speaker 1: had not been handed over to him. I roar well,
• 18:28
  Speaker 1: said Bagheera, under his whiskers, for the time will come
• 18:32
  Speaker 1: when this naked thing will make thee roar to another tune,
• 18:35
  Speaker 1: or I know nothing of man. It was well done,
• 18:38
  Speaker 1: said Akella. Men and their cubs are very wise. He
• 18:43
  Speaker 1: may be a help in time. Five thousand thirty eight.
• 18:47
  Speaker 1: Akella the lone Wolf truly a help in time of need,
• 18:51
  Speaker 1: for none can hope to lead the pack forever, said Bagheera.
• 18:55
  Speaker 1: Akella said nothing. He was thinking of the time that
• 18:59
  Speaker 1: comes to every of every pack, when his strength goes
• 19:01
  Speaker 1: from him and he gets feebler and feebler, till at
• 19:04
  Speaker 1: last he is killed by the wolves, and a new
• 19:06
  Speaker 1: leader comes up to be killed in his turn. Take
• 19:09
  Speaker 1: him away, he said to father Wolf, and train him
• 19:12
  Speaker 1: as befits, one of the free people. And that is
• 19:16
  Speaker 1: how Maugli was entered into the Seine wolf pack for
• 19:18
  Speaker 1: the price of a bull, and on Bellow's good word.
• 19:22
  Speaker 1: Now you must be content to skip ten or eleven
• 19:24
  Speaker 1: whole years and only guess at all the wonderful life
• 19:27
  Speaker 1: that Maugli led among the wolves, because if it were
• 19:30
  Speaker 1: written out, it would fill ever so many books. He
• 19:33
  Speaker 1: grew up with the cubs, though they of course were
• 19:36
  Speaker 1: grown wolves, almost before he was a child, and Father
• 19:40
  Speaker 1: Wolf taught him his business and the meaning of things
• 19:43
  Speaker 1: in the jungle till every rustle in the grass, every
• 19:46
  Speaker 1: breath of the warm night air, every note of the
• 19:48
  Speaker 1: owls above his head, every scratch of a bat's claws
• 19:52
  Speaker 1: as it roost for a while in a tree, and
• 19:54
  Speaker 1: every splash of every little fish jumping in a pool
• 19:57
  Speaker 1: meant just as much to him as the work of
• 19:59
  Speaker 1: his office means to a business man. When he was
• 20:02
  Speaker 1: not learning, he sat out in the sun and slept
• 20:05
  Speaker 1: and ate, and went to sleep again. When he felt
• 20:08
  Speaker 1: dirty or hot, he swam in the forest pools. And
• 20:11
  Speaker 1: when he wanted honey, Baloo told him that honey and
• 20:14
  Speaker 1: nuts were just as pleasant to eat as raw meat.
• 20:17
  Speaker 1: He climbed up for it, and that Bagheera showed him
• 20:19
  Speaker 1: how to do zero zero four to three. Bagheera would
• 20:23
  Speaker 1: lie out on a branch and call, come along, little brother.
• 20:28
  Speaker 1: Bagheera would lie out on a branch and call, come along,
• 20:31
  Speaker 1: little brother. And at first Maugli would cling like the sloth,
• 20:35
  Speaker 1: but afterward he would fling himself through the branches, almost
• 20:38
  Speaker 1: as boldly as the gray ape. He took his place
• 20:41
  Speaker 1: at the council rock too, when the pack met, and
• 20:44
  Speaker 1: there he discovered that if he stared hard at any wolf,
• 20:47
  Speaker 1: the wolf would be forced to drop his eyes, and
• 20:50
  Speaker 1: so he used to stare for fun. At other times
• 20:53
  Speaker 1: he would pick the long thorns out of the pads
• 20:55
  Speaker 1: of his friends, for wolves suffered terribly from thorns and burrs.
• 20:59
  Speaker 1: In their coats. He would go down the hillside into
• 21:02
  Speaker 1: the cultivated lands by night and look very curiously at
• 21:06
  Speaker 1: the villagers in their huts. But he had a mistrust
• 21:08
  Speaker 1: of men because Bagheira showed him a square box with
• 21:11
  Speaker 1: a drop gate so cunningly hidden in the jungle that
• 21:13
  Speaker 1: he nearly walked into it and told him that it
• 21:16
  Speaker 1: was a trap. He loved better than anything else to
• 21:19
  Speaker 1: go with Bagheira into the dark, warm heart of the
• 21:22
  Speaker 1: forest to sleep all through the drowsy day and at
• 21:25
  Speaker 1: night see how Bagheera did his killing. Bagheira killed right
• 21:29
  Speaker 1: and left as he felt hungry, and so did Maugli,
• 21:32
  Speaker 1: with one exception. As soon as he was old enough
• 21:35
  Speaker 1: to understand things, Bagheira told him that he must never
• 21:39
  Speaker 1: touch cattle, because he had been bought into the pack
• 21:41
  Speaker 1: at the price of a bull's life. All the jungle
• 21:45
  Speaker 1: is thine, said Bagheera, and thou canst kill everything that
• 21:48
  Speaker 1: thou art strong enough to kill. But for the sake
• 21:51
  Speaker 1: of the bull that bought thee, thou must never kill
• 21:53
  Speaker 1: or eat any cattle, young or old. That is the
• 21:56
  Speaker 1: law of the jungle. Maugli obeyed, faithful, and he grew
• 22:01
  Speaker 1: and grew strong as a boy must grow who does
• 22:04
  Speaker 1: not know that he is learning any lessons, and who
• 22:06
  Speaker 1: has nothing in the world to think of, accept things
• 22:08
  Speaker 1: to eat. Mother Wolf told him once or twice that
• 22:12
  Speaker 1: sheer Khan was not a creature to be trusted, and
• 22:15
  Speaker 1: that some day he must kill sheer Khan. But though
• 22:18
  Speaker 1: a young wolf would have remembered that advice every hour,
• 22:21
  Speaker 1: Maubi forgot it because he was only a boy. Though
• 22:24
  Speaker 1: he would have called himself a wolf if he had
• 22:26
  Speaker 1: been able to speak in any human tongue, sheer Khan
• 22:30
  Speaker 1: was always crossing his path in the jungle. For as
• 22:32
  Speaker 1: Akella grew older and feebler, the lame tiger had come
• 22:35
  Speaker 1: to be great friends with the younger wolves of the pack,
• 22:38
  Speaker 1: who followed him for scraps, thing Akella would never have allowed.
• 22:41
  Speaker 1: If he had dared to push his authority to the
• 22:43
  Speaker 1: proper bounds. Then sheer Khan would flatter them and wonder
• 22:48
  Speaker 1: that such fine young hunters were content to be led
• 22:50
  Speaker 1: by a dying wolf and a man's cup. They tell me.
• 22:54
  Speaker 1: Sheer Khan would say that a council, ye dare not
• 22:57
  Speaker 1: look him between the eyes, and the young wolves would
• 23:00
  Speaker 1: growl and bristle. Bagheera, who had eyes and ears everywhere,
• 23:05
  Speaker 1: knew something of this, and once or twice he told
• 23:08
  Speaker 1: Maugli in so many words that sheer Khan would kill
• 23:11
  Speaker 1: him some day. Maugli would laugh and answer, I have
• 23:15
  Speaker 1: the pack, and I have thee, and Baloo, though he
• 23:18
  Speaker 1: is so lazy, might strike a blow or two for
• 23:20
  Speaker 1: my sake. Why should I be afraid? It was one
• 23:25
  Speaker 1: very warm day that a new notion came to Bagheera,
• 23:28
  Speaker 1: born of something that he had heard. Perhaps Ikey the
• 23:31
  Speaker 1: porcupine had told him. But he said to Maugli when
• 23:34
  Speaker 1: they were deep in the jungle, as the boy lay
• 23:36
  Speaker 1: with his head on Bagheera's beautiful black skin, little brother,
• 23:40
  Speaker 1: how often have I told thee that sheer Khan is
• 23:42
  Speaker 1: thy enemy? As many times as there are nuts on
• 23:45
  Speaker 1: that palm, said Maugli, who naturally could not count. What
• 23:50
  Speaker 1: of it? I am sleepy, Bagheera, and sheer Khan is
• 23:55
  Speaker 1: all long tail and loud talk like Mao the peacock.
• 23:59
  Speaker 1: But this is no time for sleeping. Belu knows it.
• 24:03
  Speaker 1: I know it, the pack know it, and even the foolish,
• 24:06
  Speaker 1: foolish dear no Tobaki has told thee too. Ho ho,
• 24:13
  Speaker 1: said Maugli. Tobaki came to me not long ago with
• 24:16
  Speaker 1: some rude talk that I was a naked man's cub
• 24:19
  Speaker 1: and not fit to dig pig nuts. But I caught
• 24:22
  Speaker 1: Tobaki by the tail and swung him twice against a
• 24:25
  Speaker 1: palm tree to teach him better manners. That was foolishness,
• 24:29
  Speaker 1: for though Tobaki is a mischief maker, he would have
• 24:32
  Speaker 1: told thee of something that concerned thee. Closely open those eyes,
• 24:36
  Speaker 1: little brother, Shear Khan, dare not kill thee in the jungle.
• 24:41
  Speaker 1: But remember Akela is very old, and soon the day
• 24:44
  Speaker 1: comes when he cannot kill his buck, and then he
• 24:47
  Speaker 1: will be leader no more. Many of the wolves that
• 24:50
  Speaker 1: look thee over when thou wast brought to the council first,
• 24:53
  Speaker 1: are old too. And the young wolves believe, as Shir
• 24:56
  Speaker 1: Khan has taught them, that a man cup has no
• 24:59
  Speaker 1: place with the pack. In a little time thou wilt
• 25:02
  Speaker 1: be a man. And what is a man that he
• 25:04
  Speaker 1: should not run with his brothers? Said Maugli. I was
• 25:08
  Speaker 1: born in the jungle. I have obeyed the law of
• 25:11
  Speaker 1: the jungle. And there is no wolf of ours from
• 25:14
  Speaker 1: whose paws I have not pulled a thorn. Surely they
• 25:17
  Speaker 1: are my brothers. Bagheira stretched himself at full length and
• 25:22
  Speaker 1: half shut his eyes. Little brother said he feel under
• 25:26
  Speaker 1: my jaw. Maugli put up his strong brown hand, and
• 25:30
  Speaker 1: just under Bagheera's silky chin, where the giant rolling muscles
• 25:34
  Speaker 1: were all hid by the glossy hair, he came upon
• 25:36
  Speaker 1: a little bald spot. There is no one in the
• 25:39
  Speaker 1: jungle that knows that I Bagheira, carry that mark, the
• 25:43
  Speaker 1: mark of the collar. And yet little brother, I was
• 25:46
  Speaker 1: born among men, and it was among men that my
• 25:48
  Speaker 1: mother died in the cages of the king's palace at Adipoor.
• 25:53
  Speaker 1: It was because of this that I paid the price
• 25:55
  Speaker 1: for thee at the council when thou wast a little
• 25:57
  Speaker 1: naked cub. Yes, I too was born among men. I
• 26:02
  Speaker 1: had never seen the jungle. They fed me behind bars
• 26:05
  Speaker 1: from an iron pan, till one night I felt that
• 26:08
  Speaker 1: I was Bagheera the panther and no man's plaything. And
• 26:11
  Speaker 1: I broke the silly lock with one blow of my
• 26:13
  Speaker 1: paw and came away. And because I had learned the
• 26:16
  Speaker 1: ways of men, I became more terrible in the jungle
• 26:19
  Speaker 1: than sheer khan. Is it not so, yes, said Maugli.
• 26:25
  Speaker 1: All the jungle fear Bagheera, all except Maugli. Oh, thou
• 26:29
  Speaker 1: art a man's cub, said the black panther, very tenderly.
• 26:33
  Speaker 1: And even as I returned to my jungle, So thou
• 26:36
  Speaker 1: must go back to men at last, to the men
• 26:38
  Speaker 1: who are thy brothers. If thou art not killed in
• 26:41
  Speaker 1: the council. But why, but why should any wish to
• 26:44
  Speaker 1: kill me, said Maugli. Look at me, said Bagheera, and
• 26:50
  Speaker 1: Maugli looked at him steadily between the eyes. The big
• 26:54
  Speaker 1: panther turned his head away in half a minute. That
• 26:58
  Speaker 1: is why, he said, shifting his paw on the leaves.
• 27:02
  Speaker 1: Not even I can look THEE between the eyes. And
• 27:04
  Speaker 1: I was born among men, and I love THEE, little brother.
• 27:08
  Speaker 1: The others they hate THEE because their eyes cannot meet thine,
• 27:12
  Speaker 1: because thou art wise, because thou hast pulled out thorns
• 27:15
  Speaker 1: from their feet, because thou art a man. I did
• 27:18
  Speaker 1: not know these things, said Moudly, sullenly, and he frowned
• 27:22
  Speaker 1: under his heavy black eyebrows. What is the law of
• 27:25
  Speaker 1: the jungle? Strike first, and then give tongue by thy
• 27:30
  Speaker 1: very carelessness. They know that thou art a man, But
• 27:34
  Speaker 1: be wise. It is in my heart that when Achella
• 27:37
  Speaker 1: misses his next kill, and at each hunt it costs
• 27:40
  Speaker 1: him more to pin the buck, the pack will turn
• 27:42
  Speaker 1: against him and against thee. They will hold a jungle
• 27:45
  Speaker 1: council at the rock. And then and then I have it,
• 27:49
  Speaker 1: said Bagheera, leaping up. Go thou down quickly to the
• 27:53
  Speaker 1: men's huts in the valley, and take some of the
• 27:55
  Speaker 1: red flower which they grow there, so that when the
• 27:58
  Speaker 1: time comes thou mayest have even a stronger friend than
• 28:00
  Speaker 1: I or Balu, or those of the pack that love thee.
• 28:04
  Speaker 1: Get the red flower. By red flower, Bagheira, meant fire.
• 28:09
  Speaker 1: Only no creature in the jungle will call fire by
• 28:11
  Speaker 1: its proper name. Every beast lives in deadly fear of it,
• 28:15
  Speaker 1: and invents a hundred ways of describing it. The red flower,
• 28:20
  Speaker 1: said Maugli, that grows outside their huts in the twilight.
• 28:25
  Speaker 1: I will get some there, speaks the man's cub, said Bagheera, proudly.
• 28:31
  Speaker 1: Remember that it grows in little pots. Get one swiftly,
• 28:35
  Speaker 1: and keep it by thee for time of need. Good,
• 28:38
  Speaker 1: said Maugli. I go, but art thou sure, o, my Bagheera.
• 28:44
  Speaker 1: He slipped his arm around the splendid neck and looked
• 28:46
  Speaker 1: deep into the big eyes. Art thou sure that all
• 28:49
  Speaker 1: this is sheer Khan's doing? By the broken lock that
• 28:52
  Speaker 1: freed me, I am sure, little brother. Then by the
• 28:56
  Speaker 1: bull that bought me. I will pay sheer Khan full
• 28:59
  Speaker 1: tail for this. And it may be a little over,
• 29:02
  Speaker 1: said Maugli, and he bounded away. That is a man,
• 29:06
  Speaker 1: that is all a man, said Bagheera to himself, lying
• 29:10
  Speaker 1: down again. Oh, sheer Khan never was a blacker hunting
• 29:14
  Speaker 1: than that frog hunt of Thine ten years ago. Maugli
• 29:18
  Speaker 1: was far and far through the forest, running hard, and
• 29:21
  Speaker 1: his heart was hot in him. He came to the
• 29:24
  Speaker 1: cave as the evening mist rose, and drew breath and
• 29:27
  Speaker 1: looked down the valley. The cubs were out, but mother Wulf,
• 29:31
  Speaker 1: at the back of the cave knew by his breathing
• 29:34
  Speaker 1: that something was troubling her frog. What is it, son,
• 29:38
  Speaker 1: she said, some bats chatter of sheer Khan. He called back,
• 29:44
  Speaker 1: I hunt among the plowed fields tonight, and he plunged
• 29:47
  Speaker 1: downward through the bushes to the stream at the bottom
• 29:49
  Speaker 1: of the valley. There he checked for He heard the
• 29:53
  Speaker 1: yell of the pack hunting, heard the bellow of a
• 29:55
  Speaker 1: hunted samber, and the snort as the buck turned at bay.
• 29:59
  Speaker 1: Then there were wicked, bitter howls from the young wolves. Akella, Akella,
• 30:05
  Speaker 1: let the lone wolf show his strength. Room for the
• 30:08
  Speaker 1: leader of the pack spring Akella. The lone wolf must
• 30:14
  Speaker 1: have sprung, missed his hold, for Mowgli heard the snap
• 30:17
  Speaker 1: of his teeth, and then a yelp as the samber
• 30:19
  Speaker 1: knocked him over with his forefoot. He did not wait
• 30:22
  Speaker 1: for anything more, but dashed on, and the yells grew
• 30:26
  Speaker 1: fainter behind him as he ran into the croplands where
• 30:28
  Speaker 1: the villagers lived. Bagia spoke truth. He panted as he
• 30:33
  Speaker 1: nestled down in some cattle fodder by the window of
• 30:35
  Speaker 1: a hut. Tomorrow is one day, both for a Kella
• 30:39
  Speaker 1: and for me. Then he pressed his face close to
• 30:42
  Speaker 1: the window and watched the fire on the hearth. He
• 30:46
  Speaker 1: saw the husbandman's wife get up and feed it in
• 30:48
  Speaker 1: the night with black lumps, And when the morning came
• 30:52
  Speaker 1: and the mists were all white and cold, he saw
• 30:54
  Speaker 1: the man's child pick up a wicker pot plastered inside
• 30:57
  Speaker 1: with earth. Fill it with lumps of red hot charcoal,
• 31:00
  Speaker 1: put it under his blanket, and go out to tend
• 31:03
  Speaker 1: the cows in the byre. Is that all, said Maugli.
• 31:07
  Speaker 1: If a cub can do it, there is nothing to fear.
• 31:11
  Speaker 1: So he strode round the corner and met the boy,
• 31:13
  Speaker 1: took the pot from his hand, and disappeared into the mist,
• 31:16
  Speaker 1: while the boy howled with fear. They are very like me,
• 31:20
  Speaker 1: said Maugli, blowing into the pot, as he had seen
• 31:23
  Speaker 1: the woman do. This thing will die if I do
• 31:26
  Speaker 1: not give it things to eat, And he dropped twigs
• 31:29
  Speaker 1: and dried bark on the red stuff. Half Way up
• 31:32
  Speaker 1: the hill he met Bagheera, with the morning dew shining
• 31:35
  Speaker 1: like moonstones on his coat. Akella has missed, said the panther.
• 31:41
  Speaker 1: They would have killed him last night, but they needed
• 31:43
  Speaker 1: thee also. They were looking for thee on the hill.
• 31:47
  Speaker 1: I was among the plowed lands. I am ready see,
• 31:53
  Speaker 1: Maugli held up the fire pot. Good. Now I have
• 31:58
  Speaker 1: seen men thrust a dry branch in to that stuff,
• 32:00
  Speaker 1: and presently the red flower blossomed at the end of it.
• 32:04
  Speaker 1: Art thou not afraid? No, Why should I fear? I
• 32:10
  Speaker 1: remember now if it is not a dream. How before
• 32:13
  Speaker 1: I was a wolf, I lay beside the red flower,
• 32:16
  Speaker 1: and it was warm and pleasant. All that day Maugli
• 32:19
  Speaker 1: sat in the cave, tending his fire pot and dipping
• 32:22
  Speaker 1: dry branches into it to see how they looked. He
• 32:25
  Speaker 1: found a branch that satisfied him, And in the evening,
• 32:28
  Speaker 1: when Tabaki came to the cave and told him rudely
• 32:31
  Speaker 1: enough that he was wanted at the council rock, he
• 32:33
  Speaker 1: laughed till Tobaki ran away. Then Maugli went to the
• 32:37
  Speaker 1: council still laughing. Five thousand and fifty four, Maugli and
• 32:42
  Speaker 1: Baghirra a Kella the lone wolf, lay by the side
• 32:45
  Speaker 1: of his rock as a sign that the leadership of
• 32:47
  Speaker 1: the pack was open, and sheer Khan, with his following
• 32:50
  Speaker 1: of scrap fed wolves, walked to and fro openly being flattered.
• 32:54
  Speaker 1: Bagheirra lay close to Maugli, and the fire pot was
• 32:57
  Speaker 1: between Maugli's knees. When they were all gathered together, sheer
• 33:02
  Speaker 1: Khan began to speak a thing he would never have
• 33:04
  Speaker 1: dared to do when Akellah was in his prime. He
• 33:08
  Speaker 1: has no right, whispered Bagheera say so. He is a
• 33:13
  Speaker 1: dog's son, he will be frightened. Maugli sprang to his feet.
• 33:19
  Speaker 1: Free people, he cried, does sheer Khan lead the pack?
• 33:23
  Speaker 1: What has a tiger to do with our leadership? Seeing
• 33:27
  Speaker 1: that the leadership is yet open, and being asked to speak,
• 33:30
  Speaker 1: sheer Khan began by whom said, Maugli, are we all
• 33:35
  Speaker 1: jackalls to fawn on this cattle? Butcher, the leadership of
• 33:39
  Speaker 1: the pack is with the pack alone. There were yells
• 33:43
  Speaker 1: of silence. Thou man's cup, let him speak. He has
• 33:48
  Speaker 1: kept our law, and at last the seniors of the pack, thundered,
• 33:51
  Speaker 1: let the dead wolf speak. When a leader of the
• 33:54
  Speaker 1: pack has missed his kill, he is called the dead
• 33:57
  Speaker 1: wolf as long as he lives, which is not long.
• 34:00
  Speaker 1: Akella raised his old head wearily. Free people, And ye too,
• 34:04
  Speaker 1: jackaws of sher Khan. For twelve seasons, I have led
• 34:08
  Speaker 1: ye to and from the kill, and in all that
• 34:10
  Speaker 1: time not one has been trapped remained. Now I have
• 34:13
  Speaker 1: missed my kill. Ye know how that plot was made.
• 34:18
  Speaker 1: Ye know how ye brought me up to an untried
• 34:20
  Speaker 1: buck to make my weakness known. It was cleverly done.
• 34:24
  Speaker 1: Your right is to kill me here on the council rock.
• 34:27
  Speaker 1: Now therefore I ask who comes to make an end
• 34:31
  Speaker 1: of the lone wolf, For it is my right by
• 34:34
  Speaker 1: the law of the jungle, that ye come one by one.
• 34:38
  Speaker 1: There was a long hush, for no single wolf cared
• 34:41
  Speaker 1: to fight Akella to the death. Then sheer Khan roared, bah,
• 34:46
  Speaker 1: what have we to do with this toothless fool? He
• 34:49
  Speaker 1: is doomed to die. It is the man cub who
• 34:52
  Speaker 1: has lived too long free people. He was my meat
• 34:56
  Speaker 1: from the first. Give him to me. I I'm weary
• 35:00
  Speaker 1: of this man wolf folly. He has troubled the jungle
• 35:04
  Speaker 1: for ten seasons. Give me the man cub, or I
• 35:07
  Speaker 1: will hunt here always and not give you one bone.
• 35:11
  Speaker 1: He is a man, a man's child, and from the
• 35:13
  Speaker 1: marrow of my bones I hate him. Then more than
• 35:17
  Speaker 1: half the pack yelled, a man a man? What has
• 35:21
  Speaker 1: a man to do with us? Let him go to
• 35:24
  Speaker 1: his own place and turn all the people of the
• 35:27
  Speaker 1: villages against us. Clamored shir Khan, No, give him to me.
• 35:33
  Speaker 1: He is a man, and none of us can look
• 35:35
  Speaker 1: him between the eyes. Akela lifted his head again and said,
• 35:39
  Speaker 1: he has eaten our food, he has slept with us.
• 35:44
  Speaker 1: He has driven game for us. He has broken no
• 35:47
  Speaker 1: word of the law of the jungle. Also, I paid
• 35:51
  Speaker 1: for him with a bull when he was accepted. The
• 35:54
  Speaker 1: worth of a bull is little, but Baghirra's honor is
• 35:57
  Speaker 1: something that he will perhaps fight for, said Baghiro in
• 36:00
  Speaker 1: his gentlest voice. A bull paid ten years ago. The
• 36:04
  Speaker 1: pack snarled, what do we care for bones ten years old?
• 36:09
  Speaker 1: Or for a pledge? Said Bagheera, his white teeth bared
• 36:12
  Speaker 1: under his lip. Well are ye called the free people?
• 36:16
  Speaker 1: No man's cub can run with the people of the jungle.
• 36:19
  Speaker 1: Howld Sheer Khan give him to me? He is our
• 36:23
  Speaker 1: brother in all but blood, Akella went on, and YE
• 36:26
  Speaker 1: would kill him here in truth, I have lived too long.
• 36:32
  Speaker 1: Some of ye are eaters of cattle and of others.
• 36:34
  Speaker 1: I have heard that under sher Khan's teaching, ye go
• 36:37
  Speaker 1: by dark knight and snatched children from the villager's doorstep.
• 36:41
  Speaker 1: Therefore I know ye to be cowards, and it is
• 36:44
  Speaker 1: to cowards I speak. It is certain that I must die,
• 36:48
  Speaker 1: and my life is of no worth, or I would
• 36:50
  Speaker 1: offer that in the man cub's place, But for the
• 36:53
  Speaker 1: sake of the honor of the pack, A little matter
• 36:56
  Speaker 1: that by being without a leader, ye have forgotten. I
• 36:58
  Speaker 1: promised that if ye let them man cub go to
• 37:00
  Speaker 1: his own place, I will not, when my time comes
• 37:03
  Speaker 1: to die, bear one tooth against ye. I will die
• 37:07
  Speaker 1: without fighting. That will at least save the pack three lives.
• 37:12
  Speaker 1: More I cannot do. But if ye will, I can
• 37:15
  Speaker 1: save ye the shame that comes of killing a brother
• 37:17
  Speaker 1: against whom there is no fault, a brother spoken for
• 37:20
  Speaker 1: and bought into the pack. According to the law of
• 37:22
  Speaker 1: the jungle. He is a man, a man, a man
• 37:26
  Speaker 1: snarled the pack, and most of the wolves began to
• 37:30
  Speaker 1: gather round sheer Khan, whose tail was beginning to switch.
• 37:34
  Speaker 1: Now the business is in thy hands, said Bagheera to Maugli.
• 37:38
  Speaker 1: We can do no more except fight. Maugli stood upright,
• 37:42
  Speaker 1: the fire pot in his hands. Then he stretched out
• 37:46
  Speaker 1: his arms and yawned in the face of the council.
• 37:49
  Speaker 1: But he was furious with rage and sorrow, for wolf
• 37:52
  Speaker 1: like the wolves had never told him how they hated him.
• 37:56
  Speaker 1: Listen you, he cried, There is no need for this
• 38:00
  Speaker 1: dog's jabber. Ye have told me so often tonight that
• 38:03
  Speaker 1: I am a man, and indeed I would have been
• 38:06
  Speaker 1: a wolf with you to my life's end. That I
• 38:08
  Speaker 1: feel your words are true. So I do not call
• 38:11
  Speaker 1: ye my brothers any more but sag dogs, as a
• 38:15
  Speaker 1: man should. What ye will do and what ye will
• 38:18
  Speaker 1: not do, is not yours to say that matter is
• 38:22
  Speaker 1: with me, and that we may see the matter more plainly,
• 38:25
  Speaker 1: I the man, have brought here a little of the
• 38:27
  Speaker 1: red flower which ye dog's fear. He flung the fire
• 38:32
  Speaker 1: pot on the ground, and some of the red coals
• 38:34
  Speaker 1: lit a tuft of dried moss that fluttered up as
• 38:37
  Speaker 1: all the council drew back in terror before the leaping flames,
• 38:41
  Speaker 1: maudly thrust his dead branch into the fire till the
• 38:44
  Speaker 1: twigs lit and crackled, and whirled it above his head
• 38:47
  Speaker 1: among the cowering wolves. Thou art, the master, said, bagheera,
• 38:52
  Speaker 1: in an undertone. Save a Kella from the death. He
• 38:56
  Speaker 1: was ever thy friend. Akella. The grim old wolf, who
• 39:00
  Speaker 1: had never asked for mercy in his life, gave one
• 39:03
  Speaker 1: piteous look at Maugli as the boy stood all naked,
• 39:06
  Speaker 1: his long black hair tossing over his shoulders in the
• 39:09
  Speaker 1: light of the blazing branch that made the shadows jump
• 39:11
  Speaker 1: and quiver. Good said Maugli, staring round slowly. I see
• 39:17
  Speaker 1: that ye are dogs. I go from you to my
• 39:20
  Speaker 1: own people. If they be my own people. The jungle
• 39:24
  Speaker 1: is shut to me, and I must forget your talk
• 39:26
  Speaker 1: and your companionship. But I will be more merciful than
• 39:30
  Speaker 1: ye are, because I was all but your brother in blood.
• 39:34
  Speaker 1: I promise that when I am a man among men,
• 39:36
  Speaker 1: I will not betray ye to men as ye have
• 39:38
  Speaker 1: betrayed me. He kicked the fire with his foot and
• 39:41
  Speaker 1: the sparks flew up. There shall be no war between
• 39:45
  Speaker 1: any of us in the pack. But here is a
• 39:48
  Speaker 1: debt to pay before I go. He strode forward to
• 39:51
  Speaker 1: where sheer Khan sat, blinking stupidly at the flames, and
• 39:55
  Speaker 1: caught him by the tuft on his chin. Baghirraf followed.
• 39:58
  Speaker 1: In case of accidents, up, dog, Maugli cried, up, when
• 40:05
  Speaker 1: a man speaks, or I will set that coat a blaze.
• 40:09
  Speaker 1: Sheer Khan's ears lay flat back on his head, and
• 40:12
  Speaker 1: he shut his eyes, for the blazing branch was very near.
• 40:16
  Speaker 1: This cattle killer said he would kill me in the
• 40:18
  Speaker 1: council because he had not killed me when I was
• 40:20
  Speaker 1: a cup. Thus, and thus then do we beat dogs
• 40:24
  Speaker 1: when we are men. Stir a whisker lungry, and I
• 40:28
  Speaker 1: ran the red flower down thy gullet. He beat sheer
• 40:32
  Speaker 1: Khan over the head with the branch, and the tiger
• 40:34
  Speaker 1: whimpered and whined in an agony of fear. Paw Singe,
• 40:39
  Speaker 1: jungle cat. Go now, but remember, when next I come
• 40:43
  Speaker 1: to the council rock, as a man should come, it
• 40:46
  Speaker 1: will be with sheer Khan's hide on my head. For
• 40:49
  Speaker 1: the rest Akella goes free to live as he pleases.
• 40:53
  Speaker 1: Ye will not kill him, because that is not my will,
• 40:57
  Speaker 1: Nor do I think that ye will sit here any longer,
• 41:00
  Speaker 1: lolling out your tongues as though ye were somebody's instead
• 41:03
  Speaker 1: of dogs, whom I drive out. Thus go. The fire
• 41:08
  Speaker 1: was burning furiously at the end of the branch, and
• 41:11
  Speaker 1: Maugli struck right and left round the circle, and the
• 41:13
  Speaker 1: wolves ran howling with the sparks burning their fur. At
• 41:17
  Speaker 1: last there were only a Kella Bagheera and perhaps ten
• 41:20
  Speaker 1: wolves that had taken Maugli's part. Then something began to
• 41:24
  Speaker 1: hurt Maugli inside him as he had never been heard
• 41:27
  Speaker 1: in his life before, and he caught his breath and
• 41:30
  Speaker 1: sobbed and the tears ran down his face. What is it?
• 41:35
  Speaker 1: What is it? He said? I do not wish to
• 41:38
  Speaker 1: leave the jungle, and I do not know what this is.
• 41:41
  Speaker 1: Am I dying? Baghirra five thousand and sixty six. Maugli
• 41:46
  Speaker 1: leaving the jungle? No, little brother, that is only tears,
• 41:51
  Speaker 1: such as men use, said Baghirra. Now I know thou
• 41:54
  Speaker 1: art a man and a man's cub. No longer the
• 41:58
  Speaker 1: jungle is shut. Indeed, to the hen forward, let them fall, Maugli,
• 42:03
  Speaker 1: They are only tears. So Mawgli sat and cried as
• 42:07
  Speaker 1: though his heart would break, and he had never cried
• 42:10
  Speaker 1: in all his life before. Now he said, I will
• 42:14
  Speaker 1: go to men, but first I must say farewell to
• 42:17
  Speaker 1: my mother. And he went to the cave where she
• 42:20
  Speaker 1: lived with Father Wolf, and he cried on her coat,
• 42:23
  Speaker 1: while the four cubs howled miserably. Ye will not forget me,
• 42:27
  Speaker 1: said Maugli. Never while we can follow a trail, said
• 42:31
  Speaker 1: the cubs. Come to the foot of the hill, when
• 42:34
  Speaker 1: thou art a man, and we will talk to thee,
• 42:37
  Speaker 1: and we will come into the croplands to play with thee.
• 42:39
  Speaker 1: By night. Come soon, said father Wolf. Oh wise, little frog,
• 42:45
  Speaker 1: come again soon, For we be old thy mother, and
• 42:48
  Speaker 1: I come soon, said mother wolf, little naked son of mine.
• 42:54
  Speaker 1: For listen, child of man, I love thee more than
• 42:57
  Speaker 1: ever I loved my cubs. I will surely come, said Maugli.
• 43:02
  Speaker 1: And when I come, it will be to lay out
• 43:04
  Speaker 1: sheer khans hide upon the council rock. Do not forget me,
• 43:09
  Speaker 1: Tell them in the jungle never to forget me. The
• 43:12
  Speaker 1: dawn was beginning to break when Maugli went down the
• 43:15
  Speaker 1: hillside alone to meet those mysterious things that are called
• 43:18
  Speaker 1: men hunting song of the sea and e pack. As
• 43:21
  Speaker 1: the dawn was breaking, the samber belled once twice and again,
• 43:26
  Speaker 1: and a doe leaped up, and a doe leaped up
• 43:28
  Speaker 1: from the pond in the wood where the wild deer sap.
• 43:32
  Speaker 1: This I scouting alone beheld once twice and again. As
• 43:37
  Speaker 1: the dawn was breaking, the samber belled once twice and again,
• 43:42
  Speaker 1: and a wolf stole back, and a wolf stole back
• 43:44
  Speaker 1: to carry the word to the waiting pack. And we sought,
• 43:47
  Speaker 1: and we found, and we bade on his track once
• 43:49
  Speaker 1: twice and again. As the dawn was breaking, the wolf
• 43:53
  Speaker 1: pack yelled once twice and again. Feed in the jungle
• 43:58
  Speaker 1: that leave no mark, eyes that can see in the dark,
• 44:01
  Speaker 1: the dark tongue, give tongue to it. Hark oh, hark
• 44:08
  Speaker 1: once twice and again zero zero six seven CAUs hunting.
• 44:14
  Speaker 1: His spots are the joy of the leopard. His horns
• 44:16
  Speaker 1: are the buffalo's pride. Be clean, for the strength of
• 44:20
  Speaker 1: the hunter is known by the gloss of his hide.
• 44:23
  Speaker 1: If ye find that the bullock can toss you, or
• 44:26
  Speaker 1: the heavy browed samber can gore, ye need not stop
• 44:29
  Speaker 1: work to inform us. We knew it ten seasons before.
• 44:33
  Speaker 1: Oppress not the cubs of the stranger, but hail them
• 44:36
  Speaker 1: as sister and brother. For though they are little and fubbsy,
• 44:39
  Speaker 1: it may be the bear is their mother. There is
• 44:42
  Speaker 1: none like to me, says the cub in the pride
• 44:44
  Speaker 1: of his earliest kill. But the jungle is large, and
• 44:47
  Speaker 1: the cub he is small. Let him think and be still,
• 44:52
  Speaker 1: maxims of Balow. All that is told here happen some
• 44:55
  Speaker 1: time before Maugli was turned out of the Siainee wolf
• 44:57
  Speaker 1: pack or revenged himself on sheer com the tiger. It
• 45:01
  Speaker 1: was in the days when Balu was teaching him the
• 45:03
  Speaker 1: law of the jungle the big, serious, old brown bear,
• 45:08
  Speaker 1: was delighted to have so quick a pupil. For the
• 45:11
  Speaker 1: young wolves will only learn as much of the law
• 45:13
  Speaker 1: of the jungle as applies to their own pack and tribe,
• 45:16
  Speaker 1: and run away as soon as they can repeat the
• 45:18
  Speaker 1: hunting verse. Feet that make no noise, eyes that can
• 45:21
  Speaker 1: see in the dark, ears that can hear the winds
• 45:23
  Speaker 1: in their lairs, and sharp white teeth. All these things
• 45:28
  Speaker 1: are the marks of our brothers, except Tabaki the jackal,
• 45:31
  Speaker 1: and the hyena, whom we hate. But Maugli, as a
• 45:34
  Speaker 1: man cub, had to learn a great deal more than this.
• 45:38
  Speaker 1: Sometimes Bagheera, the black panther would come lounging through the
• 45:41
  Speaker 1: jungle to see how his pet was getting on, and
• 45:44
  Speaker 1: would purr with his head against a tree while Maugli
• 45:46
  Speaker 1: recited the day's lesson. To Bellu, the boy could climb
• 45:50
  Speaker 1: almost as well as he could swim, and swim almost
• 45:53
  Speaker 1: as well as he could run. So Balou, the teacher
• 45:56
  Speaker 1: of the law, taught him the wood and water laws,
• 45:59
  Speaker 1: how to tell a rotten branch from a sound one,
• 46:02
  Speaker 1: how to speak politely to the wild bees when he
• 46:04
  Speaker 1: came upon a hive of them fifty feet above ground,
• 46:07
  Speaker 1: what to say to Mang the bat when he disturbed
• 46:09
  Speaker 1: him in the branches at midday, and how to warn
• 46:12
  Speaker 1: the water snakes in the pools before he splashed down
• 46:15
  Speaker 1: among them. None of the jungle people like being disturbed,
• 46:19
  Speaker 1: and all are very ready to fly at an intruder. Then, too,
• 46:24
  Speaker 1: Maugli was taught the stranger's hunting call, which must be
• 46:27
  Speaker 1: repeated aloud till it is answered whenever one of the
• 46:30
  Speaker 1: jungle people hunts outside his own grounds. It means, translated,
• 46:35
  Speaker 1: give me leave to hunt here because I am hungry,
• 46:39
  Speaker 1: And the answer is hunt then for food, but not
• 46:42
  Speaker 1: for pleasure. All this will show you how much Maugli
• 46:45
  Speaker 1: had to learn by heart, and he grew very tired
• 46:48
  Speaker 1: of saying the same thing over a hundred times. But
• 46:51
  Speaker 1: as Bellu said to Bagheera one day when Maugli had
• 46:55
  Speaker 1: been cuffed and run off in a temper, a man's
• 46:57
  Speaker 1: cub is a man's cub, and he must learn all
• 47:00
  Speaker 1: the law of the jungle. But think how small he is,
• 47:04
  Speaker 1: said the black panther, who would have spoiled moudly if
• 47:07
  Speaker 1: he had had his own way. How can his little
• 47:10
  Speaker 1: head carry all thy long talk? Is there anything in
• 47:13
  Speaker 1: the jungle too little to be killed. No, that is
• 47:17
  Speaker 1: why I teach him these things, And that is why
• 47:20
  Speaker 1: I hit him very softly when he forgets softly. What
• 47:26
  Speaker 1: dost thou know of softness? Old iron feet, Baguyua grunted.
• 47:31
  Speaker 1: His face is all bruised to day by thy softness. Augh.
• 47:37
  Speaker 1: Better he should be bruised from head to foot by me,
• 47:39
  Speaker 1: who love him, than that he should come to harm
• 47:41
  Speaker 1: through ignorance. Baloo answered very earnestly. I am now teaching
• 47:46
  Speaker 1: him the master words of the jungle that shall protect
• 47:48
  Speaker 1: him with the birds and the snake people, and all
• 47:51
  Speaker 1: that hunt on four feet except his own pack. He
• 47:55
  Speaker 1: can now claim protection if he will only remember the
• 47:57
  Speaker 1: words from all in the jungle. Is not that worth
• 48:01
  Speaker 1: a little beating? Well? Look to it, then, that thou
• 48:04
  Speaker 1: dost not kill the man cup. He is no tree
• 48:08
  Speaker 1: trunk to sharpen thy blunt claws upon. But what are
• 48:11
  Speaker 1: those master words? I am more likely to give help
• 48:15
  Speaker 1: than to ask it. Bagheia stretched out one paw and
• 48:18
  Speaker 1: admired the steel blue ripping chisel talons at the end
• 48:21
  Speaker 1: of it. Still I should like to know. I will
• 48:24
  Speaker 1: call Maugli and he shall say them if he will come,
• 48:28
  Speaker 1: little brother, my head is ringing like a bee tree,
• 48:32
  Speaker 1: said a sullen little voice over their heads, and Maugli
• 48:35
  Speaker 1: slid down a tree trunk, very angry and indignant, adding
• 48:38
  Speaker 1: as he reached the ground, I come for Bagheera, and
• 48:41
  Speaker 1: not for thee. Fat Old Balu, that is all one
• 48:45
  Speaker 1: to me, said balw though he was hurt and grieved.
• 48:49
  Speaker 1: Tell Bagheera then the master words of the jungle that
• 48:52
  Speaker 1: I have taught thee this day, master words for which people,
• 48:56
  Speaker 1: said Maugli, delighted to show off the jungle as many tongues.
• 49:01
  Speaker 1: I know them all a little thou knowest, but not
• 49:05
  Speaker 1: much see o Bagheera. They never thank their teacher. Not
• 49:11
  Speaker 1: one small wolfling has ever come back to thank old
• 49:13
  Speaker 1: Bellow for his teachings. Say the word for the hunting people, then,
• 49:18
  Speaker 1: great scholar, we be of one blood, ye, and I
• 49:22
  Speaker 1: said Maugli, giving the words the bare accent which all
• 49:26
  Speaker 1: the hunting people use. Good. Now for the birds, Maugli repeated,
• 49:32
  Speaker 1: with the kite's whistle at the end of the sentence.
• 49:36
  Speaker 1: Now for the snake people, said Bagheera. The answer was
• 49:39
  Speaker 1: a perfectly indescribable hiss. And Maugli kicked up his feet behind,
• 49:44
  Speaker 1: clapped his hands together to applaud himself, and jumped on
• 49:47
  Speaker 1: to Bagheera's back, where he sat sideways, drumming with his
• 49:51
  Speaker 1: heels on the glossy skin and making the worst faces
• 49:54
  Speaker 1: he could think of at Bellu. There there that was
• 49:58
  Speaker 1: worth a little bruise, said the brown bear tenderly. Some
• 50:02
  Speaker 1: day thou wilt remember me. Then he turned aside to
• 50:06
  Speaker 1: tell Bagheera how he had begged the master words from Hathi,
• 50:09
  Speaker 1: the wild elephant, who knows all about these things, And
• 50:12
  Speaker 1: how Hathi had taken Maugli down to a pool to
• 50:15
  Speaker 1: get the snake word from a water snake because Balu
• 50:18
  Speaker 1: could not pronounce it, And how Maugli was now reasonably
• 50:21
  Speaker 1: safe against all accidents in the jungle because neither snake, bird,
• 50:26
  Speaker 1: nor beast would hurt him. No one then is to
• 50:29
  Speaker 1: be feared. Balu wound up, patting his big furry stomach
• 50:33
  Speaker 1: with pride. Except his own tribe, said Bagheera under his breath,
• 50:38
  Speaker 1: and then aloud to Maugli, have a care for my ribs,
• 50:41
  Speaker 1: little brother. What is all this dancing up and down?
• 50:45
  Speaker 1: Maugli had been trying to make himself heard by pulling
• 50:48
  Speaker 1: at Bagheera's shoulder fur and kicking hard. When the two
• 50:52
  Speaker 1: listened to him, he was shouting at the top of
• 50:54
  Speaker 1: his voice. And so I shall have a tribe of
• 50:56
  Speaker 1: my own and lead them through the branches all day long.
• 51:00
  Speaker 1: What is this new folly, little dreamer of dreams, said Bagheera. Yes,
• 51:05
  Speaker 1: and throw branches and dirt at old Balu. Maugli went on,
• 51:10
  Speaker 1: they have promised me this ah hoof Balu's big paw
• 51:16
  Speaker 1: scooped Mawgli off Bagheera's back, and as the boy lay
• 51:19
  Speaker 1: between the big forepaws, he could see the bear was angry.
• 51:23
  Speaker 1: Maugli said, Baloo, thou hast been talking with the bandar
• 51:26
  Speaker 1: Log the monkey people. Maugli looked at Bagheera to see
• 51:30
  Speaker 1: if the panther was angry too, and Baghira's eyes were
• 51:34
  Speaker 1: as hard as jade stone's. Thou hast been with the
• 51:37
  Speaker 1: monkey people, the gray apes, the people without a law,
• 51:41
  Speaker 1: the eaters of everything. That is great shame. When Balu
• 51:46
  Speaker 1: hurt my head, said Maugli. He was still on his back.
• 51:50
  Speaker 1: I went away, and the gray apes came down from
• 51:52
  Speaker 1: the trees and had pity on me. No one else cared.
• 51:57
  Speaker 1: He snuffled a little. The pity of the monkey people,
• 52:01
  Speaker 1: Balou snorted, the stillness of the mountain stream, the cool
• 52:06
  Speaker 1: of the summer sun. And then man Cub, and then
• 52:11
  Speaker 1: and then they gave me nuts and pleasant things to eat.
• 52:14
  Speaker 1: And they they carried me in their arms up to
• 52:17
  Speaker 1: the top of the trees and said I was their
• 52:19
  Speaker 1: blood brother, except that I had no tail, and should
• 52:22
  Speaker 1: be their leader some day. They have no leader, said Bagheera.
• 52:27
  Speaker 1: They lie, they have always lied. They were very kind
• 52:32
  Speaker 1: and bade me come again. Why have I never been
• 52:35
  Speaker 1: taken among the monkey people? They stand on their feet
• 52:38
  Speaker 1: as I do. They do not hit me with their
• 52:41
  Speaker 1: hard paws. They play all day. Let me get up,
• 52:47
  Speaker 1: bad Balou, Let me up. I will play with them again. Listen,
• 52:52
  Speaker 1: man Cub, said the bear, and his voice rumbled like
• 52:55
  Speaker 1: thunder on a hot night. I have taught thee all
• 52:59
  Speaker 1: the law of the jungle, for all the peoples of
• 53:01
  Speaker 1: the jungle, except the monkey folk, who live in the trees.
• 53:05
  Speaker 1: They have no law. They are outcasts. They have no
• 53:09
  Speaker 1: speech of their own, but use the stolen words which
• 53:12
  Speaker 1: they overhear when they listen and peep and wait up
• 53:15
  Speaker 1: above in the branches. Their way is not our way.
• 53:20
  Speaker 1: They are without leaders, They have no remembrance. They boast
• 53:25
  Speaker 1: and chatter and pretend that they are a great people
• 53:27
  Speaker 1: about to do great affairs in the jungle. But the
• 53:29
  Speaker 1: falling of a nut turns their minds to laughter, and
• 53:32
  Speaker 1: all is forgotten. We of the jungle have no dealings
• 53:36
  Speaker 1: with them. We do not drink where the monkeys drink.
• 53:39
  Speaker 1: We do not go where the monkeys go. We do
• 53:41
  Speaker 1: not hunt where they hunt. We do not die where
• 53:44
  Speaker 1: they die. Hast thou ever heard me speak of the
• 53:47
  Speaker 1: bondar log till to day? No, said Maudli in a whisper,
• 53:52
  Speaker 1: for the forest was very still now Baloo had finished.
• 53:56
  Speaker 1: The jungle people. Put them out of their mouths and
• 53:58
  Speaker 1: out of their minds. They are very many, evil, dirty, shameless,
• 54:03
  Speaker 1: and they desire, if they have any fixed desire, to
• 54:06
  Speaker 1: be noticed by the jungle people. But we do not
• 54:10
  Speaker 1: notice them, even when they throw nuts and filth on
• 54:12
  Speaker 1: our heads. He had hardly spoken when a shower of
• 54:16
  Speaker 1: nuts and twigs spattered down through the branches, and they
• 54:19
  Speaker 1: could hear coughings and howlings and angry jumpings high up
• 54:22
  Speaker 1: in the air among the thin branches. The monkey people
• 54:25
  Speaker 1: are forbidden, said Baloo. Forbidden to the jungle people, remember, forbidden,
• 54:32
  Speaker 1: said Bagheera. But I still think Balou should have warned
• 54:35
  Speaker 1: thee against them. Ay I, How was I to guess
• 54:39
  Speaker 1: he would play with such dirt the monkey people fall,
• 54:45
  Speaker 1: A fresh shower came down on their heads, and the
• 54:47
  Speaker 1: two trotted away, taking Moudly with them. What Baloo had
• 54:52
  Speaker 1: said about the monkeys was perfectly true. They belonged to
• 54:55
  Speaker 1: the tree tops, and as beasts, very seldom look up.
• 54:59
  Speaker 1: There was no occasion for the monkeys and the jungle
• 55:01
  Speaker 1: people to cross each other's path. But whenever they found
• 55:05
  Speaker 1: a sick wolf or a wounded tiger or bear, the
• 55:08
  Speaker 1: monkeys would torment him, and would throw sticks and nuts
• 55:11
  Speaker 1: at any beast for fun and in the hope of
• 55:13
  Speaker 1: being noticed. Then they would howl and shriek senseless songs
• 55:17
  Speaker 1: and invite the jungle people to climb up their trees
• 55:20
  Speaker 1: and fight them, or would start furious battles over nothing
• 55:23
  Speaker 1: among themselves and leave the dead monkeys where the jungle
• 55:26
  Speaker 1: people could see them. They were always just going to
• 55:30
  Speaker 1: have a leader and laws and customs of their own,
• 55:33
  Speaker 1: but they never did because their memories would not hold
• 55:35
  Speaker 1: over from day to day, and so they compromised things
• 55:38
  Speaker 1: by making up a saying what the bandar log think now,
• 55:41
  Speaker 1: the jungle will think later, and that comforted them a
• 55:44
  Speaker 1: great deal. None of the beasts could reach them, but
• 55:48
  Speaker 1: on the other hand, none of the beasts would notice them,
• 55:50
  Speaker 1: and that was why they were so pleased when Maugli
• 55:53
  Speaker 1: came to play with them and they heard how angry
• 55:55
  Speaker 1: Balloo was. They never meant to do any more. The
• 55:59
  Speaker 1: bondar log can never mean anything at all. But one
• 56:02
  Speaker 1: of them invented what seemed to him a brilliant idea,
• 56:04
  Speaker 1: and he told all the others that Maugli would be
• 56:07
  Speaker 1: a useful person to keep in the tribe because he
• 56:09
  Speaker 1: could reach sticks together for protection from the wind, so
• 56:13
  Speaker 1: if they caught him, they could make him teach them.
• 56:16
  Speaker 1: Of course, Maugli, as a woodcutter's child, inherited all sorts
• 56:20
  Speaker 1: of instincts and used to make little huts of fallen
• 56:23
  Speaker 1: branches without thinking how he came to do it. The
• 56:26
  Speaker 1: monkey people watching in the trees considered his play most wonderful.
• 56:31
  Speaker 1: This time, they said they were really going to have
• 56:34
  Speaker 1: a leader and become the wisest people in the jungle,
• 56:37
  Speaker 1: so wise that everyone else would notice and envy them. Therefore,
• 56:41
  Speaker 1: they followed Balu and Bagheera and Maugli through the jungle
• 56:45
  Speaker 1: very quietly till it was time for the midday nap,
• 56:47
  Speaker 1: and Maugli, who was very much ashamed of himself, slept
• 56:51
  Speaker 1: between the panther and the bear, resolving to have no
• 56:54
  Speaker 1: more to do with the monkey people. The next thing
• 56:57
  Speaker 1: he remembered was feeling hands on his legs and arms,
• 57:00
  Speaker 1: hard strong little hands, and then a swash of branches
• 57:04
  Speaker 1: in his face, and then he was staring down through
• 57:07
  Speaker 1: the swaying boughs as Bellu woke the jungle with his
• 57:10
  Speaker 1: deep cries, and Bagheera bounded up the trunk with every
• 57:13
  Speaker 1: tooth bared. The bond oar log howled with triumph and
• 57:16
  Speaker 1: scuffled away to the upper branches, where Bagheera dared not follow,
• 57:20
  Speaker 1: shouting he has noticed us, Bagheera has noticed us. All
• 57:26
  Speaker 1: the jungle people admire us for our skill and our cunning.
• 57:30
  Speaker 1: Then they began their flight. And the flight of the
• 57:32
  Speaker 1: monkey people through tree land is one of the things
• 57:34
  Speaker 1: nobody can describe. They have their regular roads and cross
• 57:38
  Speaker 1: roads up hills and down hills, all laid out from
• 57:42
  Speaker 1: fifty to seventy or one hundred feet above ground, and
• 57:45
  Speaker 1: by these they can travel even at night if necessary.
• 57:49
  Speaker 1: Two of the strongest monkeys caught Maugli under the arms
• 57:52
  Speaker 1: and swung off with him through the tree tops twenty
• 57:55
  Speaker 1: feet at a bound. Had they been alone, they could
• 57:58
  Speaker 1: have gone twice as fast, but the boy's weight held
• 58:01
  Speaker 1: them back. Sick and giddy as Moudley was, he could
• 58:04
  Speaker 1: not help enjoying the wild rush, though the glimpses of
• 58:07
  Speaker 1: earth far down below frightened him, and the terrible check
• 58:10
  Speaker 1: and jerk at the end of the swing over nothing
• 58:12
  Speaker 1: but empty air brought his heart between his teeth. His
• 58:16
  Speaker 1: escort would rush him up a tree till he felt
• 58:18
  Speaker 1: the thinnest topmost branches crackle and bend under them, and then,
• 58:22
  Speaker 1: with a cough and a whoop, would fling themselves into
• 58:24
  Speaker 1: the air outward and downward, and bring up, hanging by
• 58:27
  Speaker 1: their hands or their feet, to the lower limbs of
• 58:29
  Speaker 1: the next tree. Sometimes he could see for miles and
• 58:33
  Speaker 1: miles across the still green jungle, as a man on
• 58:36
  Speaker 1: the top of a mast can see for miles across
• 58:39
  Speaker 1: the sea. And then the branches and leaves would lash
• 58:42
  Speaker 1: him across the face, and he and his two guards
• 58:44
  Speaker 1: would be almost down to earth again. So, bounding and
• 58:48
  Speaker 1: crashing and whooping and yelling, the whole tribe of bondar
• 58:52
  Speaker 1: Logs swept along the tree roads, with Moudli their prisoner.
• 58:56
  Speaker 1: For a time he was afraid of being dropped. Then
• 58:59
  Speaker 1: he grew angry, but knew better than to struggle. And
• 59:02
  Speaker 1: then he began to think. The first thing was to
• 59:05
  Speaker 1: send back word to Baloo and Bagheera, for at the
• 59:08
  Speaker 1: pace the monkeys were going, he knew his friends would
• 59:11
  Speaker 1: be left far behind. It was useless to look down,
• 59:15
  Speaker 1: for he could only see the top sides of the branches,
• 59:18
  Speaker 1: so he stared upward and saw far away in the
• 59:20
  Speaker 1: blue Ran the kite, balancing and wheeling as he kept
• 59:23
  Speaker 1: watch over the jungle, waiting for things to die. Ran
• 59:27
  Speaker 1: saw that the monkeys were carrying something and dropped a
• 59:30
  Speaker 1: few hundred yards to find out whether their load was
• 59:32
  Speaker 1: good to eat. He whistled with surprise when he saw
• 59:36
  Speaker 1: Maugli being dragged up to a tree top and heard
• 59:38
  Speaker 1: him give the kite call, for we be of one blood,
• 59:41
  Speaker 1: thou and I the waves of the branches closed over
• 59:45
  Speaker 1: the boy, but Ran balanced away to the next tree
• 59:48
  Speaker 1: in time to see the little brown face come up again.
• 59:52
  Speaker 1: Mark my trail, Maugli shouted, Tell Balou of the Seainee
• 59:57
  Speaker 1: pack and Bagheera of the council rock in whose name.
• 1:00:01
  Speaker 1: Brother Ran had never seen Maugli before, though of course
• 1:00:05
  Speaker 1: he had heard of him. Maugli, the frog man cub.
• 1:00:10
  Speaker 1: They call me, mark my trail. The last words were
• 1:00:14
  Speaker 1: shrieked as he was being swung through the air, but
• 1:00:17
  Speaker 1: Ran nodded and rose up till he looked no bigger
• 1:00:19
  Speaker 1: than a speck of dust. And there he hung, watching
• 1:00:22
  Speaker 1: with his telescope eyes the swaying of the tree tops
• 1:00:25
  Speaker 1: as Maugli's escort whirled along. Five thousand and ninety Balu
• 1:00:29
  Speaker 1: in the forest. They never go far, he said, with
• 1:00:32
  Speaker 1: a chuckle. They never do what they set out to do,
• 1:00:36
  Speaker 1: always pecking at new things. Are the bandar log this time,
• 1:00:41
  Speaker 1: if I have any eye sight, they have pecked down
• 1:00:43
  Speaker 1: trouble for themselves. For Balu is no fledgling in Bagheira can,
• 1:00:47
  Speaker 1: as I know, kill more than goats. So he rocked
• 1:00:51
  Speaker 1: on his wings, his feet gathered up under him and waited. Meantime,
• 1:00:56
  Speaker 1: Balu and Bagheera were furious with rage and grief. Bagheera
• 1:01:01
  Speaker 1: climbed as he had never climbed before, but the thin
• 1:01:04
  Speaker 1: branches broke beneath his weight, and he slipped down, his
• 1:01:07
  Speaker 1: claws full of bark. Why didst thou not warn the
• 1:01:10
  Speaker 1: man cub? He roared to poor Balou, who had set
• 1:01:14
  Speaker 1: off at a clumsy trot in the hope of overtaking
• 1:01:16
  Speaker 1: the monkeys. What was the use of half slaying him
• 1:01:20
  Speaker 1: with blows if thou didst not warn him? Haste, oh, haste,
• 1:01:26
  Speaker 1: we we may catch them. Yet Balu panted at that
• 1:01:31
  Speaker 1: speed it would not tire a wounded cow. Teacher of
• 1:01:35
  Speaker 1: the law, cub beater a mile of that rolling to
• 1:01:38
  Speaker 1: and fro would burst thee open. Sit still and think,
• 1:01:43
  Speaker 1: make a plan. This is no time for chasing. They
• 1:01:48
  Speaker 1: may drop him if we follow too close a rolla
• 1:01:52
  Speaker 1: who they may have dropped him already being tired of
• 1:01:56
  Speaker 1: carrying him. Who can trust to bond our log? Put
• 1:02:00
  Speaker 1: dead bats on my head, give me black bones to eat,
• 1:02:05
  Speaker 1: Roll me into the hives of the wild bees, that
• 1:02:08
  Speaker 1: I may be stung to death, and bury me with
• 1:02:10
  Speaker 1: the Hyaena, For I am most miserable of bears. Irillala
• 1:02:16
  Speaker 1: wahua oh Maugli Maugli. Why did I not warn thee
• 1:02:21
  Speaker 1: against the monkey folk instead of breaking thy head? Now,
• 1:02:25
  Speaker 1: perhaps I may have knocked the day's lesson out of
• 1:02:27
  Speaker 1: his mind, and he will be alone in the jungle
• 1:02:29
  Speaker 1: without the master words. Balu clasped his paws over his
• 1:02:33
  Speaker 1: ears and rolled to and fro, moaning. At least he
• 1:02:37
  Speaker 1: gave me all the words correctly a little time ago,
• 1:02:40
  Speaker 1: said Bagheera, impatiently. Balu, thou hast neither memory nor respect.
• 1:02:46
  Speaker 1: What would the jungle think if I, the black panther,
• 1:02:49
  Speaker 1: curled myself up like Ikey the porcupine, and howled. What
• 1:02:53
  Speaker 1: do I care what the jungle thinks. He may be
• 1:02:56
  Speaker 1: dead by now, unless and until they drop him from
• 1:03:00
  Speaker 1: the branches in sport or kill him out of idleness.
• 1:03:03
  Speaker 1: I have no fear for the man cup He is
• 1:03:06
  Speaker 1: wise and well taught, and above all he has the
• 1:03:09
  Speaker 1: eyes that make the jungle people afraid. But an it
• 1:03:12
  Speaker 1: is a great evil. He is in the power of
• 1:03:15
  Speaker 1: the bandar log, and they, because they live in trees,
• 1:03:18
  Speaker 1: have no fear of any of our people. Bagheirra licked
• 1:03:22
  Speaker 1: one forepaw thoughtfully fool that I am, oh fat brown
• 1:03:28
  Speaker 1: root digging fool that I am, said ballew, uncoiling himself
• 1:03:32
  Speaker 1: with a jerk. It is true, what hathe the wild
• 1:03:34
  Speaker 1: elephant says to each his own fear, and they the
• 1:03:38
  Speaker 1: bondar log fear. Caw the rock snake. He can climb
• 1:03:42
  Speaker 1: as well as they can. He steals the young monkeys
• 1:03:45
  Speaker 1: in the night. The whisper of his name makes their
• 1:03:48
  Speaker 1: wicked tails cold. Let us go to Ka. What will
• 1:03:53
  Speaker 1: he do for us? He is not of our tribe,
• 1:03:56
  Speaker 1: being footless and with most evil eyes, said Bagheera. He
• 1:04:00
  Speaker 1: is very old and very cunning. Above all, he is
• 1:04:04
  Speaker 1: always hungry, said Baloo. Hopefully promise him many goats. He
• 1:04:10
  Speaker 1: sleeps for a full month after he has once eaten.
• 1:04:13
  Speaker 1: He may be asleep now. And even were he awake,
• 1:04:16
  Speaker 1: what if he would rather kill his own goats? Bagheera,
• 1:04:19
  Speaker 1: who did not know much about Ka, was naturally suspicious.
• 1:04:24
  Speaker 1: Then in that case, thou and I, together, old hunter,
• 1:04:27
  Speaker 1: might make him see reason. Here Balu rubbed his faded
• 1:04:31
  Speaker 1: brown shoulder against the panther, and they went off to
• 1:04:34
  Speaker 1: look for Kaw. The rock Python. They found him stretched
• 1:04:37
  Speaker 1: out on a warm ledge in the afternoon sun, admiring
• 1:04:40
  Speaker 1: his beautiful new coat, for he had been in retirement
• 1:04:43
  Speaker 1: for the last ten days, changing his skin, and now
• 1:04:47
  Speaker 1: he was very splendid, darting his big, blunt nosed head
• 1:04:50
  Speaker 1: along the ground and twisting the thirty feet of his
• 1:04:53
  Speaker 1: body into fantastic knots and curves, and licking his lips
• 1:04:57
  Speaker 1: as he thought of his dinner to come. He has
• 1:05:00
  Speaker 1: not eaten, said Baloo with a grunt of relief, as
• 1:05:03
  Speaker 1: soon as he saw the beautifully mottled brown and yellow jacket.
• 1:05:07
  Speaker 1: Be careful, Bagheira. He is always a little blind after
• 1:05:11
  Speaker 1: he has changed his skin, and very quick to strike.
• 1:05:15
  Speaker 1: Kaw was not a poisoned snake. In fact, he rather
• 1:05:18
  Speaker 1: despised the poisoned snakes as cowards. But his strength lay
• 1:05:21
  Speaker 1: in his hug and when he had once lapped his
• 1:05:23
  Speaker 1: huge coils round anybody, there was no more to be said.
• 1:05:27
  Speaker 1: Good hunting, cried Baloo, sitting up on his haunches. Like
• 1:05:33
  Speaker 1: all snakes of his breed, Kaw was rather deaf and
• 1:05:35
  Speaker 1: did not hear the call at first. Then he curled up,
• 1:05:39
  Speaker 1: ready for any accident. His head lowered. Good hunting for
• 1:05:43
  Speaker 1: us all, he answered, Oho, Baloo, what dost thou do here?
• 1:05:49
  Speaker 1: Good hunting? Bagheira. One of us at least needs food.
• 1:05:54
  Speaker 1: Is there any news of game? Afoot a dough now
• 1:05:57
  Speaker 1: or even a young buck? I I am as empty
• 1:06:00
  Speaker 1: as a dried well. We are hunting, said Balu carelessly.
• 1:06:05
  Speaker 1: He knew that you must not hurry ka he is
• 1:06:09
  Speaker 1: too big. Give me permission to come with you, said Kaw.
• 1:06:14
  Speaker 1: A blow more or less is nothing to thee Bagheera
• 1:06:17
  Speaker 1: or Balou. But I I have to wait and wait
• 1:06:19
  Speaker 1: for days in a wood path and climb half a
• 1:06:22
  Speaker 1: night on the mere chance of a young ape Schasshau.
• 1:06:26
  Speaker 1: The branches are not what they were when I was young.
• 1:06:29
  Speaker 1: Rotten twigs and dry boughs are they all? Maybe thy
• 1:06:33
  Speaker 1: great weight has something to do with the matter, said Ballew.
• 1:06:37
  Speaker 1: I am a fair length, A fair length, said Kaw
• 1:06:40
  Speaker 1: with a little pride. But for all that, it is
• 1:06:44
  Speaker 1: the fault of this new grown timber. I came very
• 1:06:47
  Speaker 1: near to falling on my last hunt, very near, indeed,
• 1:06:50
  Speaker 1: and the noise of my slipping, for my tail was
• 1:06:53
  Speaker 1: not tight wrapped around the tree waked the bondar Log,
• 1:06:56
  Speaker 1: and they called me most evil names. Footless, Yes, ellow earthworm,
• 1:07:01
  Speaker 1: said Bagheera under his whiskers, as though he were trying
• 1:07:04
  Speaker 1: to remember something. S S S S. Have they ever
• 1:07:08
  Speaker 1: called me that, said Kaw, something of that kind. It
• 1:07:12
  Speaker 1: was that they shouted to us last moon, but we
• 1:07:14
  Speaker 1: never noticed them. They will say anything, even that thou
• 1:07:18
  Speaker 1: hast lost all thy teeth and wilt not face anything
• 1:07:21
  Speaker 1: bigger than a kid, because they are indeed shameless, these
• 1:07:25
  Speaker 1: bond our Log, because thou art afraid of the he
• 1:07:28
  Speaker 1: goat's horns, Bagheera went on sweetly. Now a snake, especially
• 1:07:33
  Speaker 1: a wary old python like Kaw, very seldom shows that
• 1:07:36
  Speaker 1: he is angry. But Baloo and Bagheera could see the
• 1:07:39
  Speaker 1: big swallowing muscles on either side of Kaw's throat, ripple
• 1:07:42
  Speaker 1: and bulge. The bond our Log have shifted their grounds,
• 1:07:46
  Speaker 1: he said quietly. When I came up into the sun today,
• 1:07:50
  Speaker 1: I heard them whooping among the tree tops. It it
• 1:07:54
  Speaker 1: is the bond our Log that we follow, now, said
• 1:07:56
  Speaker 1: balw but the words stuck in his throat, for that
• 1:07:59
  Speaker 1: was the first time in his memory that one of
• 1:08:01
  Speaker 1: the jungle people had owned to being interested in the
• 1:08:04
  Speaker 1: doings of the monkeys beyond doubt. Then it is no
• 1:08:07
  Speaker 1: small thing that takes two such hunters leaders in their
• 1:08:10
  Speaker 1: own jungle. I am certain on the trail of the bandar,
• 1:08:13
  Speaker 1: log Ka replied courteously, as he swelled with curiosity. Indeed,
• 1:08:19
  Speaker 1: Balu began, I am no more than the old and
• 1:08:21
  Speaker 1: sometimes very foolish teacher of the law to the Siaenee
• 1:08:24
  Speaker 1: wolf cubs and Bagheera. Here is Bagheera, said the black panther,
• 1:08:29
  Speaker 1: and his jaws shut with a snap, for he did
• 1:08:31
  Speaker 1: not believe in being humble. The trouble is this, Ka,
• 1:08:36
  Speaker 1: those nut stealers and pickers of palm leaves have stolen
• 1:08:40
  Speaker 1: away our man cub, of whom thou hast perhaps heard.
• 1:08:43
  Speaker 1: I heard some news from iky His quills make him
• 1:08:46
  Speaker 1: presumptuous of a man thing that was entered into a
• 1:08:48
  Speaker 1: wolf pack. But I did not believe. Ikey is full
• 1:08:52
  Speaker 1: of stories half heard and very badly told. But it
• 1:08:56
  Speaker 1: is true he is such a man cub as never
• 1:08:59
  Speaker 1: was us, said Bellow, the best and wisest and boldest
• 1:09:03
  Speaker 1: of man cubs, my own pupil, who shall make the
• 1:09:07
  Speaker 1: name of Bellou famous through all the jungles and besides
• 1:09:10
  Speaker 1: I we love him. Ka T S T S, said Ka,
• 1:09:17
  Speaker 1: weaving his head to and fro. I also have known
• 1:09:20
  Speaker 1: what love is. There are tales I could tell that
• 1:09:24
  Speaker 1: that need a clear night, when we are all well fed,
• 1:09:26
  Speaker 1: to praise properly, said Bagheera quickly. Our man cub is
• 1:09:30
  Speaker 1: in the hands of the bondar Log now, and we
• 1:09:33
  Speaker 1: know that of all the jungle people, they fear Ka alone.
• 1:09:37
  Speaker 1: They fear me alone. They have good reason, said Ka.
• 1:09:42
  Speaker 1: Chattering foolish, vain, vain, foolish and chattering are the monkeys.
• 1:09:48
  Speaker 1: But a man thing in their hands is in no
• 1:09:50
  Speaker 1: good luck. They grow tired of the nuts they pick
• 1:09:54
  Speaker 1: and throw them down. They carry a branch half a day,
• 1:09:58
  Speaker 1: meaning to do great things with it, and then they
• 1:10:00
  Speaker 1: snap it in two. That man thing is not to
• 1:10:03
  Speaker 1: be envied. They called me also yellow fish? Was it
• 1:10:08
  Speaker 1: not worm worm? Earthworm? Said Bagheera, As well as other
• 1:10:13
  Speaker 1: things which I cannot now say for shame. We must
• 1:10:16
  Speaker 1: remind them to speak well of their master triple A SSP.
• 1:10:21
  Speaker 1: We must help their wandering memories. Now whither went they
• 1:10:25
  Speaker 1: with the cub? The jungle alone knows toward the sunset,
• 1:10:30
  Speaker 1: I believe said Balw. We had thought that thou wouldst
• 1:10:34
  Speaker 1: know ka I how I take them when they come
• 1:10:40
  Speaker 1: in my way. But I do not hunt the bond
• 1:10:42
  Speaker 1: our log, or frogs or green scum on a water
• 1:10:45
  Speaker 1: hole for that matter. Up up, up, up hillo Ilo Illo,
• 1:10:54
  Speaker 1: look up, Balou of the sea and ee wolf pack.
• 1:10:58
  Speaker 1: Balu looked up to see where the voice came from,
• 1:11:00
  Speaker 1: and there was Ran, the kite, sweeping down with the
• 1:11:03
  Speaker 1: sun shining on the upturned flanges of his wings. It
• 1:11:06
  Speaker 1: was near RAN's bedtime, but he had ranged all over
• 1:11:09
  Speaker 1: the jungle looking for the bear and had missed him
• 1:11:11
  Speaker 1: in the thick foliage. What is it, said Bellew, I
• 1:11:16
  Speaker 1: have seen Maudli among the bandar log. He bade me
• 1:11:20
  Speaker 1: tell you. I watched the bondar log have taken him
• 1:11:24
  Speaker 1: beyond the river to the monkey city, to the cold lairs.
• 1:11:28
  Speaker 1: They may stay there for a night, or ten nights
• 1:11:31
  Speaker 1: or an hour. I have told the bats to watch
• 1:11:35
  Speaker 1: through the dark time. That is my message. Good hunting
• 1:11:39
  Speaker 1: all you below full gorge in a deep sleep to you, Ran,
• 1:11:44
  Speaker 1: cried Bagheera. I will remember thee in my next kill,
• 1:11:48
  Speaker 1: and put aside the head for thee alone. O best
• 1:11:51
  Speaker 1: of kites. It is nothing, it is nothing. The boy
• 1:11:56
  Speaker 1: held the master word. I could have done no less,
• 1:12:00
  Speaker 1: and ran circled up again to his roost. He has
• 1:12:03
  Speaker 1: not forgotten to use his tongue, said Baloo, with a
• 1:12:06
  Speaker 1: chuckle of pride, to think of one so young remembering
• 1:12:10
  Speaker 1: the master word for the birds too. While he was
• 1:12:12
  Speaker 1: being pulled across trees, it was most firmly driven into him,
• 1:12:16
  Speaker 1: said Bagheira. But I am proud of him. And now
• 1:12:20
  Speaker 1: we must go to the Cold Lairs. They all knew
• 1:12:23
  Speaker 1: where that place was, but few of the jungle people
• 1:12:26
  Speaker 1: ever went there, because what they called the Cold Lairs
• 1:12:29
  Speaker 1: was an old, deserted city, lost and buried in the jungle.
• 1:12:32
  Speaker 1: And beasts seldom use a place that men have once used.
• 1:12:36
  Speaker 1: The wild boar will, but the hunting tribes do not. Besides,
• 1:12:40
  Speaker 1: the monkeys lived there as much as they could be
• 1:12:42
  Speaker 1: said to live anywhere, and no self respecting animal would
• 1:12:46
  Speaker 1: come within eyeshot of it, except in times of drought,
• 1:12:49
  Speaker 1: when the half ruined tanks and reservoirs held a little water.
• 1:12:53
  Speaker 1: Fifty one O four the Cold Lairs. It is half
• 1:12:56
  Speaker 1: a night's journey at full speed, said Bagheira, and Bellu
• 1:13:00
  Speaker 1: looked very serious. I will go as fast as I can,
• 1:13:04
  Speaker 1: he said anxiously. We dare not wait for thee follow Balou.
• 1:13:10
  Speaker 1: We must go on the quick foot Kaw and I
• 1:13:14
  Speaker 1: feet or no feet, I can keep abreast of all
• 1:13:17
  Speaker 1: thy four, said Kaw shortly. Balu made one effort to hurry,
• 1:13:21
  Speaker 1: but had to sit down panting, and so they left
• 1:13:24
  Speaker 1: him to come on later. While Bagheera hurried forward at
• 1:13:27
  Speaker 1: the quick panther canter, Kaw said nothing but strive as
• 1:13:32
  Speaker 1: Bagheera might. The huge rock Python held level with him.
• 1:13:36
  Speaker 1: When they came to a hill stream, Bagheera gained because
• 1:13:39
  Speaker 1: he bounded across, while Kaw swam his head and two
• 1:13:42
  Speaker 1: feet of his neck, clearing the water. But on level ground,
• 1:13:45
  Speaker 1: Kaw made up the distance by the broken lock that
• 1:13:49
  Speaker 1: freed me, said Bagheera, when twilight had fallen. Thou art
• 1:13:52
  Speaker 1: no slow goer. I am hungry, said ka Besides, they
• 1:13:58
  Speaker 1: called me speckled frog worm, earthworm and yellow to boot
• 1:14:04
  Speaker 1: all one. Let us go on, and Kaa seemed to
• 1:14:08
  Speaker 1: pour himself along the ground, finding the shortest road with
• 1:14:11
  Speaker 1: his steady eyes and keeping to it. In the cold lairs,
• 1:14:15
  Speaker 1: the monkey people were not thinking of Maugli's friends at all.
• 1:14:19
  Speaker 1: They had brought the boy to the lost city and
• 1:14:21
  Speaker 1: were very much pleased with themselves for the time. Maugli
• 1:14:25
  Speaker 1: had never seen an Indian city before, and though this
• 1:14:28
  Speaker 1: was almost a heap of ruins, it seemed very wonderful
• 1:14:31
  Speaker 1: and splendid. Some king had built it long ago on
• 1:14:34
  Speaker 1: a little hill. You could still trace the stone causeways
• 1:14:38
  Speaker 1: that led up to the ruined gates, where the last
• 1:14:40
  Speaker 1: splinters of wood hung to the worn, rusted hinges. Trees
• 1:14:44
  Speaker 1: had grown into and out of the walls. The battlements
• 1:14:47
  Speaker 1: were tumbled down and decayed, and wild creepers hung out
• 1:14:50
  Speaker 1: of the windows of the towers on the walls in
• 1:14:53
  Speaker 1: bushy hanging clumps. A great roofless palace crowned the hill,
• 1:14:57
  Speaker 1: and the marble of the courtyards and the fountains was
• 1:15:00
  Speaker 1: split and stained with red and green, and the very
• 1:15:03
  Speaker 1: cobblestones in the courtyard where the king's elephants used to live,
• 1:15:06
  Speaker 1: had been thrust up and apart by grasses and young trees.
• 1:15:10
  Speaker 1: From the palace you could see the rows and rows
• 1:15:13
  Speaker 1: of roofless houses that made up the city, looking like
• 1:15:15
  Speaker 1: empty honeycombs filled with blackness, the shapeless block of stone
• 1:15:19
  Speaker 1: that had been an idol in the square where four
• 1:15:21
  Speaker 1: roads met, the pits and dimples at street corners where
• 1:15:24
  Speaker 1: the public wells once stood, and the shattered domes of
• 1:15:28
  Speaker 1: temples with wild figs sprouting on their sides. The monkeys
• 1:15:32
  Speaker 1: called to place their city and pretended to despise the
• 1:15:35
  Speaker 1: jungle people because they lived in the forest, and yet
• 1:15:38
  Speaker 1: they never knew what the buildings were made for, nor
• 1:15:41
  Speaker 1: how to use them. They would sit in circles on
• 1:15:44
  Speaker 1: the hall of the King's council Chamber and scratch for
• 1:15:47
  Speaker 1: fleas and pretend to be men, where they would run
• 1:15:49
  Speaker 1: in and out of the roofless houses and collect pieces
• 1:15:52
  Speaker 1: of plaster and old bricks in a corner and forget
• 1:15:55
  Speaker 1: where they had hidden them, and fight and cry in
• 1:15:57
  Speaker 1: scuffling crowds, and then break off to play up and
• 1:16:01
  Speaker 1: down the terraces of the King's garden, where they would
• 1:16:03
  Speaker 1: shake the rose trees and the oranges in sport to
• 1:16:06
  Speaker 1: see the fruit and flowers fall. They explored all the
• 1:16:10
  Speaker 1: passages and dark tunnels in the palace, and the hundreds
• 1:16:13
  Speaker 1: of little dark rooms, but they never remembered what they
• 1:16:15
  Speaker 1: had seen, and what they had not, and so drifted
• 1:16:18
  Speaker 1: about in ones and twos or crowds, telling each other
• 1:16:20
  Speaker 1: that they were doing as men did. They drank at
• 1:16:24
  Speaker 1: the tanks and made the water all muddy, and then
• 1:16:26
  Speaker 1: they fought over it. And then they would all rush
• 1:16:29
  Speaker 1: together in mobs and shout, there is no one in
• 1:16:31
  Speaker 1: the jungle so wise and good and clever and strong
• 1:16:34
  Speaker 1: and gentle as the bandar Log. Then all would begin again,
• 1:16:38
  Speaker 1: till they grew tired of the city and went back
• 1:16:40
  Speaker 1: to the tree tops, hoping the jungle people would notice them. Maugli,
• 1:16:45
  Speaker 1: who had been trained under the law of the jungle,
• 1:16:48
  Speaker 1: did not like or understand this kind of life. The
• 1:16:51
  Speaker 1: monkeys dragged him into the cold lairs late in the afternoon,
• 1:16:55
  Speaker 1: and instead of going to sleep, as Maugli would have
• 1:16:57
  Speaker 1: done after a long journey, they joined him and danced
• 1:17:00
  Speaker 1: about and sang their foolish songs. One of the monkeys
• 1:17:04
  Speaker 1: made a speech and told his companions that Maugli's capture
• 1:17:07
  Speaker 1: marked a new thing in the history of the bandar Log,
• 1:17:10
  Speaker 1: for Maugli was going to show them how to weave
• 1:17:12
  Speaker 1: sticks and canes together as a protection against rain and cold.
• 1:17:16
  Speaker 1: Maugli picked up some creepers and began to work them
• 1:17:19
  Speaker 1: in and out, and the monkeys tried to imitate, but
• 1:17:22
  Speaker 1: in a very few minutes they lost interest and began
• 1:17:24
  Speaker 1: to pull their friend's tails, or jump up and down
• 1:17:27
  Speaker 1: on all fours, coughing. I wish to eat, said Maugli.
• 1:17:32
  Speaker 1: I am a stranger in this part of the jungle.
• 1:17:35
  Speaker 1: Bring me food or give me leave to hunt here.
• 1:17:39
  Speaker 1: Twenty or thirty monkeys bounded away to bring him nuts
• 1:17:42
  Speaker 1: and wild pawpaws, but they fell to fighting on the road,
• 1:17:46
  Speaker 1: and it was too much trouble to go back with
• 1:17:48
  Speaker 1: what was left of the fruit. Maugli was sore and
• 1:17:51
  Speaker 1: angry as well as hungry, and he roamed through the
• 1:17:54
  Speaker 1: empty city, giving the stranger's hunting call from time to time,
• 1:17:57
  Speaker 1: but no one answered him, and Maugli felt that he
• 1:18:00
  Speaker 1: had reached a very bad place. Indeed, all that Balou
• 1:18:04
  Speaker 1: has said about the bandar log is true, he thought
• 1:18:07
  Speaker 1: to himself. They have no law, no hunting call, and
• 1:18:11
  Speaker 1: no leaders, nothing but foolish words and little picking thievish hands.
• 1:18:16
  Speaker 1: So if I am starved or killed here, it will
• 1:18:19
  Speaker 1: be all my own fault. But I must try to
• 1:18:21
  Speaker 1: return to my own jungle balow will surely beat me,
• 1:18:26
  Speaker 1: but that is better than chasing silly rose leaves with
• 1:18:28
  Speaker 1: the bandar log. No sooner had he walked to the
• 1:18:32
  Speaker 1: city wall than the monkeys pulled him back, telling him
• 1:18:35
  Speaker 1: that he did not know how happy he was, and
• 1:18:37
  Speaker 1: pinching him to make him grateful. He set his teeth
• 1:18:41
  Speaker 1: and said nothing, but went with the shouting monkeys to
• 1:18:44
  Speaker 1: a terrace above the red sandstone reservoirs that were half
• 1:18:47
  Speaker 1: full of rain water. There was a ruined summer house
• 1:18:50
  Speaker 1: of white marble in the center of the terrace, built
• 1:18:53
  Speaker 1: for queens dead a hundred years ago. The domed roof
• 1:18:57
  Speaker 1: had half fallen in and blocked up the underground passage
• 1:19:00
  Speaker 1: from the palace by which the queens used to enter.
• 1:19:03
  Speaker 1: But the walls were made of screens of marble tracery,
• 1:19:06
  Speaker 1: beautiful milk white fretwork, set with agates and cornelians and
• 1:19:10
  Speaker 1: jasper and lapis lazuli. And as the moon came up
• 1:19:13
  Speaker 1: behind the hill that shone through the open work, casting
• 1:19:16
  Speaker 1: shadows on the ground like black velvet embroidery. Sore, sleepy
• 1:19:21
  Speaker 1: and hungry as he was, Maugli could not help laughing.
• 1:19:24
  Speaker 1: When the bondark Log began twenty at a time to
• 1:19:27
  Speaker 1: tell him how great and wise, and strong and gentle
• 1:19:30
  Speaker 1: they were, and how foolish he was to wish to
• 1:19:32
  Speaker 1: leave them. We are great, we are free, we are wonderful.
• 1:19:39
  Speaker 1: We are the most wonderful people in all the jungle.
• 1:19:42
  Speaker 1: We all say so, and so it must be true,
• 1:19:45
  Speaker 1: they shouted. Now, as you are a new listener and
• 1:19:48
  Speaker 1: can carry our words back to the jungle people so
• 1:19:51
  Speaker 1: that they may notice us in future, we will tell
• 1:19:53
  Speaker 1: you all about our most excellent cels. Maugli made no objection,
• 1:19:58
  Speaker 1: and the monkeys gathered by hundred and hundreds on the
• 1:20:00
  Speaker 1: terrace to listen to their own speakers singing the praises
• 1:20:03
  Speaker 1: of the bandar Log, and whenever a speaker stopped for
• 1:20:06
  Speaker 1: want of breath, they would all shout together. This is true,
• 1:20:09
  Speaker 1: we all say so. Malgli nodded and blinked and said
• 1:20:14
  Speaker 1: yes when they asked him a question, and his head
• 1:20:16
  Speaker 1: spun with the noise. Tabaki the jackal must have bitten
• 1:20:20
  Speaker 1: all these people, he said to himself, And now they
• 1:20:23
  Speaker 1: have madness. Certainly this is dewani the madness. Do they
• 1:20:28
  Speaker 1: never go to sleep? Now there is a cloud coming
• 1:20:32
  Speaker 1: to cover that moon. If it were only a big
• 1:20:35
  Speaker 1: enough cloud, I might try to run away in the darkness,
• 1:20:38
  Speaker 1: But I am tired. That same cloud was being watched
• 1:20:42
  Speaker 1: by two good friends in a ruined ditch below the
• 1:20:44
  Speaker 1: city wall. For Baghia and Kha, knowing well how dangerous
• 1:20:48
  Speaker 1: the monkey people were in large numbers, did not wish
• 1:20:51
  Speaker 1: to run any risks. The monkeys never fight unless they
• 1:20:55
  Speaker 1: are a hundred to one, and few in the jungle
• 1:20:57
  Speaker 1: care for those odds. I will go to the west wall,
• 1:21:01
  Speaker 1: Ka whispered, and come down swiftly, with the slope of
• 1:21:04
  Speaker 1: the ground in my favor. They will not throw themselves
• 1:21:07
  Speaker 1: upon my back in their hundreds. But I know it,
• 1:21:10
  Speaker 1: said Bagheera, would that Baloo were here. But we must
• 1:21:14
  Speaker 1: do what we can. When that cloud covers the moon,
• 1:21:18
  Speaker 1: I shall go to the terrace. They hold some sort
• 1:21:21
  Speaker 1: of council there over the boy good hunting, said Kaw grimly,
• 1:21:25
  Speaker 1: and glided away to the west wall that happened to
• 1:21:29
  Speaker 1: be the least ruined of any and the big snake
• 1:21:31
  Speaker 1: was delayed awhile before he could find the way up
• 1:21:34
  Speaker 1: the stones, the cloud hid the moon, and as Maugli wondered,
• 1:21:38
  Speaker 1: what would come next? He heard Bagheera's light feet on
• 1:21:40
  Speaker 1: the terrace. The black panther had raced up the slope
• 1:21:44
  Speaker 1: almost without a sound, and was striking. He knew better
• 1:21:47
  Speaker 1: than to waste time in biting right and left. Among
• 1:21:50
  Speaker 1: the monkeys who were seated round Maugli in circles fifty
• 1:21:53
  Speaker 1: and sixty deep. There was a howl of fright and rage,
• 1:21:57
  Speaker 1: And then as Bagheera tripped on the rolling kick king
• 1:22:00
  Speaker 1: bodies beneath him, a monkey shouted, there is only one here,
• 1:22:04
  Speaker 1: kill him. Kill. A scuffling mass of monkeys, biting, scratching,
• 1:22:11
  Speaker 1: tearing and pulling closed over Bagheera, while five or six
• 1:22:15
  Speaker 1: laid hold of Maugli, dragged him up the wall of
• 1:22:17
  Speaker 1: the summer house, and pushed him through the whole of
• 1:22:19
  Speaker 1: the broken dome. A man trained boy would have been
• 1:22:23
  Speaker 1: badly bruised, for the fall was a good fifteen feet,
• 1:22:26
  Speaker 1: but Maugli fell as Balou had taught him to fall,
• 1:22:29
  Speaker 1: and landed on his feet. Fifty one seventeen. The monkey fight.
• 1:22:34
  Speaker 1: Stay there, shouted the monkeys, till we have killed thy friends,
• 1:22:37
  Speaker 1: and later we will play with thee. If the poisoned
• 1:22:40
  Speaker 1: people leave, thee alive. We be of one blood, ye,
• 1:22:44
  Speaker 1: and I said Maugli, quickly giving the snake's call. He
• 1:22:48
  Speaker 1: could hear rustling and hissing in the rubbish all round him,
• 1:22:51
  Speaker 1: and gave the call a second time to make sure.
• 1:22:55
  Speaker 1: Even so down hoods all said half a dozen low voices.
• 1:23:00
  Speaker 1: Every ruin in India becomes sooner or later a dwelling
• 1:23:03
  Speaker 1: place of snakes. And the old summer house was alive
• 1:23:06
  Speaker 1: with cobras. Stand still, little brother, for thy feet may
• 1:23:11
  Speaker 1: do us harm. Maugli stood as quietly as he could,
• 1:23:15
  Speaker 1: peering through the open work and listening to the furious
• 1:23:18
  Speaker 1: din of the fight round the black panther, the yells
• 1:23:20
  Speaker 1: and chatterings and scufflings, and Bagheera's deep, hoarse cough as
• 1:23:24
  Speaker 1: he backed and bucked and twisted and plunged under the
• 1:23:27
  Speaker 1: heaps of his enemies. For the first time since he
• 1:23:30
  Speaker 1: was born, Bagheira was fighting for his life. Balu must
• 1:23:34
  Speaker 1: be at hand. Bagheira would not have come alone, Maugli thought,
• 1:23:39
  Speaker 1: and then he called aloud to the tank, Bagheira, Roll
• 1:23:43
  Speaker 1: to the water tanks, roll and plunge. Get to the water.
• 1:23:49
  Speaker 1: Bagheera heard and the cry that told him Maugli was safe,
• 1:23:53
  Speaker 1: gave him new courage. He worked his way desperately, inch
• 1:23:57
  Speaker 1: by inch, straight for the reservoirs, halting in silence. Then
• 1:24:01
  Speaker 1: from the ruined wall nearest the jungle rose up the
• 1:24:04
  Speaker 1: rumbling war shout of Balou. The old bear had done
• 1:24:08
  Speaker 1: his best, but he could not come before Bagheera. He shouted,
• 1:24:12
  Speaker 1: I am here, I climb, I haste I Huera, the
• 1:24:19
  Speaker 1: stone slip under my feet, wait my coming. Almost infamous
• 1:24:24
  Speaker 1: bandar log. He panted up the terrace, only to disappear
• 1:24:28
  Speaker 1: to the head in a wave of monkeys. But he
• 1:24:30
  Speaker 1: threw himself squarely on his haunches and spreading out his forepaws,
• 1:24:34
  Speaker 1: hugged as many as he could hold, and then began
• 1:24:37
  Speaker 1: to hit with a regular bat bat bat, like the
• 1:24:39
  Speaker 1: flipping strokes of a paddle wheel. A crash and a
• 1:24:42
  Speaker 1: splash told Moudly that Bagheera had fought his way to
• 1:24:45
  Speaker 1: the tank, where the monkeys could not follow. The panther
• 1:24:49
  Speaker 1: lay gasping for breath, his head just out of the water,
• 1:24:52
  Speaker 1: while the monkeys stood three deep on the red steps,
• 1:24:55
  Speaker 1: dancing up and down with rage, ready to spring upon
• 1:24:58
  Speaker 1: him from all sides if he came out to help Bellou.
• 1:25:01
  Speaker 1: It was then that Bagheera lifted up his dripping chin
• 1:25:04
  Speaker 1: and in despair, gave the snake's call for protection. We
• 1:25:07
  Speaker 1: be of one blood, ye and I, for he believed
• 1:25:10
  Speaker 1: that Ka had turned tail at the last minute. Even Balu,
• 1:25:14
  Speaker 1: half smothered under the monkeys on the edge of the terrace,
• 1:25:17
  Speaker 1: could not help chuckling as he heard the black panther
• 1:25:20
  Speaker 1: asking for help. Ka had only just worked his way
• 1:25:24
  Speaker 1: over the west wall, landing with a wrench that dislodged
• 1:25:27
  Speaker 1: a coping stone into the ditch. He had no intention
• 1:25:30
  Speaker 1: of losing any advantage of the ground, and coiled and
• 1:25:33
  Speaker 1: uncoiled himself once or twice to be sure that every
• 1:25:37
  Speaker 1: foot of his long body was in working order. All
• 1:25:40
  Speaker 1: that while the fight with Bellou went on, and the
• 1:25:43
  Speaker 1: monkeys yelled in the tank round, Bagheera and Mang the bat,
• 1:25:46
  Speaker 1: flying to and fro, carried the news of the great
• 1:25:49
  Speaker 1: battle over the jungle till even Hathi the wild elephant trumpeted,
• 1:25:53
  Speaker 1: and far away scattered bands of the monkey folk woke
• 1:25:57
  Speaker 1: and came leaping along the tree roads to help their camrads.
• 1:26:00
  Speaker 1: And the cold lairs and the noise of The fight
• 1:26:02
  Speaker 1: roused all the day birds for miles round. Then Kaw
• 1:26:06
  Speaker 1: came straight, quickly and anxious to kill. The fighting strength
• 1:26:11
  Speaker 1: of a python is in the driving blow of his head,
• 1:26:14
  Speaker 1: backed by all the strength and weight of his body.
• 1:26:17
  Speaker 1: If you can imagine a lance, or a battering ram,
• 1:26:20
  Speaker 1: or a hammer weighing nearly half a ton, driven by
• 1:26:22
  Speaker 1: a cool, quiet mind living in the handle of it,
• 1:26:25
  Speaker 1: you can roughly imagine what Ka was like when he fought.
• 1:26:29
  Speaker 1: A python four or five feet long can knock a
• 1:26:31
  Speaker 1: man down if he hits him fairly in the chest,
• 1:26:34
  Speaker 1: and Ka was thirty feet long. As you know. His
• 1:26:38
  Speaker 1: first stroke was delivered into the heart of the crowd,
• 1:26:41
  Speaker 1: round bellow. It was sent home with shut mouth, in silence,
• 1:26:45
  Speaker 1: and there was no need of a second. The monkeys
• 1:26:48
  Speaker 1: scattered with cries of Ka. It is Ka, Run Run.
• 1:26:56
  Speaker 1: Five thousand, one hundred and twenty five The Ka the Python.
• 1:26:59
  Speaker 1: Generation of monkeys had been scared into good behavior by
• 1:27:02
  Speaker 1: the stories their elders told them of Ka, the night thief,
• 1:27:06
  Speaker 1: who could slip along the branches as quietly as moss
• 1:27:08
  Speaker 1: grows and steal away the strongest monkey that ever lived,
• 1:27:12
  Speaker 1: Of old Ka, who could make himself look so like
• 1:27:16
  Speaker 1: a dead branch or a rotten stump, that the wisest
• 1:27:19
  Speaker 1: were deceived till the branch caught them. Ka was everything
• 1:27:23
  Speaker 1: that the monkeys feared in the jungle, for none of
• 1:27:25
  Speaker 1: them knew the limits of his power. None of them
• 1:27:27
  Speaker 1: could look him in the face, and none had ever
• 1:27:29
  Speaker 1: come alive out of his hug. And so they ran,
• 1:27:33
  Speaker 1: stammering with terror, to the walls and the roofs of
• 1:27:36
  Speaker 1: the houses, and Balu drew a deep breath of relief.
• 1:27:40
  Speaker 1: His fur was much thicker than Bagheera's, but he had
• 1:27:43
  Speaker 1: suffered sorely in the fight. Then ka A opened his
• 1:27:47
  Speaker 1: mouth for the first time and spoke one long, hissing word,
• 1:27:50
  Speaker 1: and the far away monkeys, hurrying to the defense of
• 1:27:53
  Speaker 1: the cold lairs, stayed where they were, cowering till the
• 1:27:56
  Speaker 1: loaded branches bent and crackled under them. The monkeys on
• 1:28:00
  Speaker 1: the walls and the empty houses stopped their cries, and
• 1:28:03
  Speaker 1: in the stillness that fell upon the city, Maugli heard
• 1:28:06
  Speaker 1: Bagheera shaking his wet sides as he came up from
• 1:28:09
  Speaker 1: the tank. Then the clamor broke out again. The monkeys
• 1:28:13
  Speaker 1: leaped higher up the walls. They clung around the necks
• 1:28:17
  Speaker 1: of the big stone idols and shrieked as they skipped
• 1:28:20
  Speaker 1: along the battlements, while Maugli, dancing in the summer house,
• 1:28:23
  Speaker 1: put his eye to the screenwork and hooted owl fashion
• 1:28:26
  Speaker 1: between his front teeth to show his derision and contempt.
• 1:28:30
  Speaker 1: Get the man cub out of that trap. I can
• 1:28:33
  Speaker 1: do no more, Bagheirra, gasped, Let us take the man
• 1:28:37
  Speaker 1: cub and go. They may attack again. They will not
• 1:28:41
  Speaker 1: move till I order them. Stay you so kaw hissed,
• 1:28:46
  Speaker 1: and the city was silent once more. I could not
• 1:28:49
  Speaker 1: come before, brother, But I think I heard THEE call.
• 1:28:52
  Speaker 1: This was to Bagheirra. I I may have cried out
• 1:28:56
  Speaker 1: in the battle. Bagheera answered, balu are thou hurt? I
• 1:29:01
  Speaker 1: am not sure that they did not pull me into
• 1:29:03
  Speaker 1: a hundred little bullings, said Ballew, gravely, shaking one leg
• 1:29:07
  Speaker 1: after the other. Wow, I am sore ka, we owe THEE.
• 1:29:14
  Speaker 1: I think our lives, Bagheera, and I, no matter where
• 1:29:19
  Speaker 1: is the manling here in a trap, I cannot climb out,
• 1:29:24
  Speaker 1: cried Maugli. The curve of the broken dome was above
• 1:29:28
  Speaker 1: his head. Take him away, he dances like Mao the peacock.
• 1:29:34
  Speaker 1: He will crush our young, said the cobras inside Ha
• 1:29:38
  Speaker 1: said Ka with a chuckle. He has friends everywhere this manling,
• 1:29:43
  Speaker 1: stand back, Manling, and hide you o poisoned people. I
• 1:29:49
  Speaker 1: break down the wall. Ka looked carefully till he found
• 1:29:53
  Speaker 1: a discolored crack in the marble tracery, showing a weak spot,
• 1:29:56
  Speaker 1: made two or three light taps with his head to
• 1:29:58
  Speaker 1: get the distance, and then, lifting up six feet of
• 1:30:01
  Speaker 1: his body clear of the ground, sent home half a
• 1:30:04
  Speaker 1: dozen full power smashing blows, nose first. The screenwork broke
• 1:30:09
  Speaker 1: and fell away in a cloud of dust and rubbish,
• 1:30:11
  Speaker 1: and Maugli leaped through the opening and flung himself between
• 1:30:14
  Speaker 1: Balu and Bagheera, an arm around each big neck. Art
• 1:30:18
  Speaker 1: thou hurt, said Balu, hugging him softly. I am sore, hungry,
• 1:30:24
  Speaker 1: and not a little bruised. But oh they have handled
• 1:30:28
  Speaker 1: ye grievously, My brothers, Ye bleed others, also said Bagheera,
• 1:30:34
  Speaker 1: licking his lips and looking at the monkey dead on
• 1:30:37
  Speaker 1: the terrace and round the tank. It is nothing, It
• 1:30:40
  Speaker 1: is nothing. If thou art safe, Oh, my pride of
• 1:30:44
  Speaker 1: all little frogs. Whimpered Bellew of that we shall judge. Later,
• 1:30:48
  Speaker 1: said Bagheira, in a dry voice, that Maugli did not
• 1:30:51
  Speaker 1: at all like. But here is k to whom we
• 1:30:54
  Speaker 1: owe the battle, and thou owest thy life. Thank him
• 1:30:58
  Speaker 1: according to our customs. Maugli maldly turned and saw the
• 1:31:02
  Speaker 1: great python's head swaying a foot above his own. So
• 1:31:06
  Speaker 1: this is the manling, said Kaw. Very soft is his skin,
• 1:31:10
  Speaker 1: and he is not unlike the bondar log. Have a care, Manling,
• 1:31:15
  Speaker 1: that I do not mistake thee for a monkey. Some twilight,
• 1:31:18
  Speaker 1: when I have newly changed my coat, we be one blood.
• 1:31:22
  Speaker 1: Thou and I maudly answered, I take my life from
• 1:31:26
  Speaker 1: thee to night. My kill shall be thy killed. If
• 1:31:29
  Speaker 1: ever thou art hungry, O Kaw all, thanks, little brother,
• 1:31:33
  Speaker 1: said Kaw, though his eyes twinkled. And what may so
• 1:31:38
  Speaker 1: bold a hunter kill? I ask that I may follow
• 1:31:41
  Speaker 1: when next he goes abroad. I kill nothing. I am
• 1:31:45
  Speaker 1: too little, but I drive goats towards such as can
• 1:31:47
  Speaker 1: use them. When thou art empty, come to me and
• 1:31:50
  Speaker 1: see if I speak the truth. I have some skill
• 1:31:54
  Speaker 1: in these. He held out his hands. And if ever
• 1:31:56
  Speaker 1: thou art in a trap, I may pay the debt
• 1:31:59
  Speaker 1: which I owe to thee, to Bagheera and to Balu.
• 1:32:02
  Speaker 1: Here good hunting to ye all my masters, well, said
• 1:32:07
  Speaker 1: growled Baloo, for Maugli had returned. Thanks very prettily. The
• 1:32:11
  Speaker 1: python dropped his head lightly for a minute on Maugli's shoulder.
• 1:32:16
  Speaker 1: A brave heart and a courteous tongue said he. They
• 1:32:20
  Speaker 1: shall carry thee far through the jungle manling. But now
• 1:32:24
  Speaker 1: go hence quickly with thy friends, go and sleep for
• 1:32:28
  Speaker 1: the moon sets and what follows. It is not well
• 1:32:30
  Speaker 1: that thou shouldst see. The moon was sinking behind the hills,
• 1:32:34
  Speaker 1: and the lines of trembling monkeys huddled together on the
• 1:32:37
  Speaker 1: walls and battlements looked like ragged, shaky fringes of things.
• 1:32:42
  Speaker 1: Balu went down to the tank for a drink, and
• 1:32:44
  Speaker 1: Bagheera began to put his fur in order as Kaw
• 1:32:47
  Speaker 1: glided out into the center of the terrace and brought
• 1:32:49
  Speaker 1: his jaws together with a ringing snap that drew all
• 1:32:52
  Speaker 1: the monkey's eyes upon him. The moon sets, he said,
• 1:32:57
  Speaker 1: is there yet light enough to see from the walls?
• 1:33:00
  Speaker 1: Came a moan, like the wind in the tree tops.
• 1:33:03
  Speaker 1: We see, O Kaw, good begins now the dance, the
• 1:33:08
  Speaker 1: dance of the hunger of Kaw. Sit still and watch.
• 1:33:13
  Speaker 1: He turned twice or thrice in a big circle, weaving
• 1:33:16
  Speaker 1: his head from right to left. Then he began making
• 1:33:19
  Speaker 1: loops and figures of eight with his body, and soft
• 1:33:22
  Speaker 1: boozy triangles that melted into squares and five sided figures
• 1:33:26
  Speaker 1: and coiled mounds, never resting, never hurrying, and never stopping
• 1:33:30
  Speaker 1: his low humming song. It grew darker and darker, till
• 1:33:34
  Speaker 1: at last the dragging, shifting coils disappeared, but they could
• 1:33:38
  Speaker 1: hear the rustle of the scales. Balu and Bagheera stood
• 1:33:42
  Speaker 1: still as stone, growling in their throats, their neck hair bristling,
• 1:33:46
  Speaker 1: and moudly watched and wondered. Bond our log said the
• 1:33:49
  Speaker 1: voice of Ka. At last, can ye stir foot or
• 1:33:52
  Speaker 1: hand without my order? Speak? Without thy order? We cannot
• 1:33:57
  Speaker 1: stir foot or hand? O Kaw good, Come all one
• 1:34:03
  Speaker 1: pace nearer to me. The lines of the monkeys swayed
• 1:34:06
  Speaker 1: forward helplessly, and Balu and Bagheera took one stiff step
• 1:34:10
  Speaker 1: forward with them. Nearer, hissed Kaw, and they all moved again.
• 1:34:16
  Speaker 1: Maugli laid his hands on Balu and Bagheira to get
• 1:34:19
  Speaker 1: them away, and the two great beasts started as though
• 1:34:22
  Speaker 1: they had been waked from a dream. Keep thy hand
• 1:34:25
  Speaker 1: on my shoulder, Bagheera whispered, keep it there, or I
• 1:34:29
  Speaker 1: must go back, must go back to ka Ah. It
• 1:34:33
  Speaker 1: is only old Khaw making circles on the dust, said Maugli.
• 1:34:38
  Speaker 1: Let us go, and the three slipped off through a
• 1:34:41
  Speaker 1: gap in the walls to the jungle. Hoof said Balu
• 1:34:45
  Speaker 1: when he stood under the still trees again. Never more
• 1:34:49
  Speaker 1: will I make an ally of Kaw, And he shook
• 1:34:51
  Speaker 1: himself all over. He knows more than we, said Bagheira, trembling.
• 1:34:57
  Speaker 1: In a little time. Had I stayed, I should have
• 1:34:59
  Speaker 1: walked down his throat. Many will walk by that road
• 1:35:03
  Speaker 1: before the moon rises again, said Balu. He will have
• 1:35:07
  Speaker 1: good hunting after his own fashion. But what was the
• 1:35:11
  Speaker 1: meaning of it all, said Maugli, who did not know
• 1:35:13
  Speaker 1: anything of a python's powers of fascination. I saw no
• 1:35:18
  Speaker 1: more than a big snake making foolish circles till the
• 1:35:20
  Speaker 1: dark came, and his nose was all sore. Ho ho, Maugli,
• 1:35:28
  Speaker 1: said Bagheia angrily. His nose was sore on thy account,
• 1:35:32
  Speaker 1: as my ears and sides and paws, and Balu's neck
• 1:35:35
  Speaker 1: and shoulders are bitten on thy account. Neither Balu nor
• 1:35:39
  Speaker 1: Bagheira will be able to hunt with pleasure for many days.
• 1:35:43
  Speaker 1: It is nothing, said Balu. We have the man cub again. True,
• 1:35:47
  Speaker 1: but he has cost us heavily in time which might
• 1:35:50
  Speaker 1: have been spent in good hunting, in wounds, in hair,
• 1:35:53
  Speaker 1: I am half plucked along my back, and last of all,
• 1:35:56
  Speaker 1: in honor. For remember Maugli, I, who am the black panther,
• 1:36:02
  Speaker 1: was forced to call upon Kaw for protection, and Baloo
• 1:36:05
  Speaker 1: and I were both made stupid as little birds by
• 1:36:08
  Speaker 1: the hunger dance. All this man cub came of thy
• 1:36:12
  Speaker 1: playing with the bandar log. True, it is true, said
• 1:36:16
  Speaker 1: Maugli sorrowfully. I am an evil man cub, and my
• 1:36:20
  Speaker 1: stomach is sad in me m f what says the
• 1:36:25
  Speaker 1: law of the jungle Balou Balu did not wish to
• 1:36:28
  Speaker 1: bring Maugli into any more trouble, but he could not
• 1:36:31
  Speaker 1: tamper with the law, so he mumbled, sorrow never stays punishment.
• 1:36:36
  Speaker 1: But remember Bagheera. He is very little. I will remember,
• 1:36:42
  Speaker 1: but he has done mischief and blows must be dealt
• 1:36:44
  Speaker 1: now Maugli, hast thou anything to say. Nothing I did wrong? Balu,
• 1:36:52
  Speaker 1: and thou are wounded. It is just Bagheera gave him
• 1:36:57
  Speaker 1: half a dozen love taps. From a panther's point, you,
• 1:37:00
  Speaker 1: they would hardly have waked one of his own cubs,
• 1:37:03
  Speaker 1: But for a seven year old boy, they amounted to
• 1:37:05
  Speaker 1: as severe a beating as you could wish to avoid.
• 1:37:08
  Speaker 1: When it was all over, Moudley sneezed and picked himself
• 1:37:11
  Speaker 1: up without a word. Now said Bagheera, Jump on my back,
• 1:37:16
  Speaker 1: little brother, and we will go home. One of the
• 1:37:19
  Speaker 1: beauties of jum The law is that punishment settles all scores.
• 1:37:24
  Speaker 1: There is no nagging. Afterward, Maugli laid his head down
• 1:37:28
  Speaker 1: on Bagheera's back and slept so deeply that he never
• 1:37:30
  Speaker 1: waked when he was put down in the Home Cave
• 1:37:34
  Speaker 1: road song of the bandar log, Here we go in
• 1:37:36
  Speaker 1: a flung festoon, half way up to the jealous moon.
• 1:37:39
  Speaker 1: Don't you envy our pranceful bands? Don't you wish you
• 1:37:43
  Speaker 1: had extra hands? Wouldn't you like if your tails were
• 1:37:47
  Speaker 1: so curved in the shape of a cupid's bow? Now
• 1:37:50
  Speaker 1: you're angry, but never mind, brother, Thy tail hangs down behind.
• 1:37:56
  Speaker 1: Here we sit in a branchy row, thinking of beautiful
• 1:37:59
  Speaker 1: things we know, dreaming of deeds that we mean to do,
• 1:38:02
  Speaker 1: all complete in a minute or two, something noble and
• 1:38:05
  Speaker 1: wise and good, done by merely wishing we could. We've forgotten.
• 1:38:10
  Speaker 1: But never mind, brother, thy tail hangs down behind. All
• 1:38:15
  Speaker 1: the talk we ever have heard, uttered by bat or
• 1:38:17
  Speaker 1: beast or bird, hide or fin or scale or feather,
• 1:38:21
  Speaker 1: jabber it quickly and all together, excellent, wonderful. Once again,
• 1:38:29
  Speaker 1: now we are talking just like men. Let's pretend we
• 1:38:32
  Speaker 1: are never mind. Brother, thy tail hangs down behind. This
• 1:38:37
  Speaker 1: is the way of the monkey kind. Then join our
• 1:38:40
  Speaker 1: leaping lines. That scumfish through the pines that rock it
• 1:38:44
  Speaker 1: by wear light and high. The wild grape swings by
• 1:38:48
  Speaker 1: the rubbish in our wake, and the noble noise we make.
• 1:38:51
  Speaker 1: Be sure, be sure, We're going to do some splendid things.
• 1:38:56
  Speaker 1: Zero one one three Tiger, tiger? What of the hunting hunter?
• 1:39:02
  Speaker 1: Bold brother? The watch was long and cold? What of
• 1:39:07
  Speaker 1: the quarry you went to kill? Brother? He crops in
• 1:39:10
  Speaker 1: the jungle? Still, where is the power that made your pride? Brother?
• 1:39:15
  Speaker 1: It ebbs from my flank inside? Where is the haste?
• 1:39:19
  Speaker 1: That ye hurry by, brother, I go to my lair
• 1:39:22
  Speaker 1: to die. Now we must go back to the first tail.
• 1:39:27
  Speaker 1: When Maugli left the wolf's cave after the fight with
• 1:39:29
  Speaker 1: the pack at the Council Rock, he went down to
• 1:39:32
  Speaker 1: the plowed lands where the villagers lived. But he would
• 1:39:35
  Speaker 1: not stop there because it was too near to the jungle,
• 1:39:37
  Speaker 1: and he knew that he had made at least one
• 1:39:39
  Speaker 1: bad enemy at the council. So he hurried on, keeping
• 1:39:43
  Speaker 1: to the rough road that ran down the valley, and
• 1:39:46
  Speaker 1: followed it at a steady jog trot for nearly twenty
• 1:39:49
  Speaker 1: miles till he came to a country that he did
• 1:39:51
  Speaker 1: not know. The valley opened out into a great plain
• 1:39:55
  Speaker 1: dotted over with rocks and cut up by ravines. At
• 1:39:58
  Speaker 1: one end stood a little village, and at the other
• 1:40:01
  Speaker 1: the thick jungle came down in a sweep to the
• 1:40:03
  Speaker 1: grazing grounds and stopped there as though it had been
• 1:40:06
  Speaker 1: cut off with a hoe. All over the plain cattle
• 1:40:10
  Speaker 1: and buffaloes were grazing, and when the little boys in
• 1:40:13
  Speaker 1: charge of the herd saw Maugli, they shouted and ran away,
• 1:40:16
  Speaker 1: and the yellow pariah dogs that hang about every Indian
• 1:40:19
  Speaker 1: village barked. Maugli walked on, for he was feeling hungry.
• 1:40:24
  Speaker 1: And when he came to the village gate, he saw
• 1:40:26
  Speaker 1: the big thorn bush that was drawn up before the
• 1:40:28
  Speaker 1: gate at twilight. Pushed to one side. Umph, he said,
• 1:40:32
  Speaker 1: for he had come across more than one such barricade
• 1:40:35
  Speaker 1: in his night rambles after things to eat. So men
• 1:40:39
  Speaker 1: are afraid of the people of the jungle. Here also
• 1:40:42
  Speaker 1: he sat down by the gate, and when a man
• 1:40:44
  Speaker 1: came out, he stood up, opened his mouth and pointed
• 1:40:47
  Speaker 1: down it to show that he wanted food. The man
• 1:40:50
  Speaker 1: stared and ran back up the one street of the village,
• 1:40:53
  Speaker 1: shouting for the priest, who was a big, fat man
• 1:40:56
  Speaker 1: dressed in white with a red and yellow mark on
• 1:40:59
  Speaker 1: his forehead. The priest came to the gate and with
• 1:41:02
  Speaker 1: him at least a hundred people, who stared and talked
• 1:41:05
  Speaker 1: and shouted and pointed at Maugli. They have no manners,
• 1:41:09
  Speaker 1: these men folk, said Maugli to himself. Only the gray
• 1:41:13
  Speaker 1: ape would behave as they do. So he threw back
• 1:41:16
  Speaker 1: his long hair and frowned at the crowd. What is
• 1:41:20
  Speaker 1: there to be afraid of? Said the priest. Look at
• 1:41:23
  Speaker 1: the marks on his arms and legs. They are the
• 1:41:26
  Speaker 1: bites of wolves. He is but a wolf child run
• 1:41:30
  Speaker 1: away from the jungle. Of course, in playing together, the
• 1:41:34
  Speaker 1: cubs had often nipped Mowgli harder than they intended, and
• 1:41:37
  Speaker 1: there were white scars all over his arms and legs.
• 1:41:41
  Speaker 1: But he would have been the last person in the
• 1:41:43
  Speaker 1: world to call these bites, for he knew what real
• 1:41:45
  Speaker 1: biting meant. R R said, two or three women together
• 1:41:52
  Speaker 1: to be bitten by wolves. Poor child, he is a
• 1:41:56
  Speaker 1: handsome boy. He has eyes like red fire. By my honor, Messua,
• 1:42:02
  Speaker 1: he is not unlike thy boy that was taken by
• 1:42:04
  Speaker 1: the tiger. Let me look, said a woman with heavy
• 1:42:08
  Speaker 1: copper rings on her wrists and ankles, and she peered
• 1:42:11
  Speaker 1: at Maugli under the palm of her hand. Indeed he
• 1:42:14
  Speaker 1: is not. He is thinner, but he has the very
• 1:42:18
  Speaker 1: look of my boy. The priest was a clever man,
• 1:42:21
  Speaker 1: and he knew that Messua was wife to the richest
• 1:42:23
  Speaker 1: villager in the place. So he looked up at the
• 1:42:26
  Speaker 1: sky for a minute and said, solemnly, what the jungle
• 1:42:29
  Speaker 1: has taken, the jungle has restored. Take the boy into
• 1:42:33
  Speaker 1: thy house, my sister, and forget not to honor the
• 1:42:36
  Speaker 1: priest who sees so far into the lives of men
• 1:42:39
  Speaker 1: by the bull that bought me, said Maugli to himself.
• 1:42:42
  Speaker 1: But all this talking is like another looking over by
• 1:42:45
  Speaker 1: the pack. Well, if I am a man, a man,
• 1:42:49
  Speaker 1: I must become. The crowd parted as the woman beckoned
• 1:42:52
  Speaker 1: Maugli to her hut, where there was a red lacquered bedstead,
• 1:42:56
  Speaker 1: a great earthen grain chest with funny raised patterns on it,
• 1:42:59
  Speaker 1: half a dozen copper cooking pots, an image of a
• 1:43:02
  Speaker 1: Hindoo god in a little alcove, and on the wall
• 1:43:05
  Speaker 1: a real looking glass, such as they sell at the
• 1:43:08
  Speaker 1: country fairs. She gave him a long drink of milk
• 1:43:12
  Speaker 1: and some bread, and then she laid her hand on
• 1:43:14
  Speaker 1: his head and looked into his eyes, for she thought
• 1:43:17
  Speaker 1: perhaps that he might be her real son, come back
• 1:43:19
  Speaker 1: from the jungle where the tiger had taken him. So
• 1:43:22
  Speaker 1: she said, Nthu, oh Nathu. Maugli did not show that
• 1:43:27
  Speaker 1: he knew the name. Dost thou not remember the day
• 1:43:30
  Speaker 1: when I gave thee thy new shoes. She touched his foot,
• 1:43:34
  Speaker 1: and it was almost as hard as horn. No, she said, sorrowfully,
• 1:43:39
  Speaker 1: those feet have never worn shoes. But thou art very
• 1:43:42
  Speaker 1: like my Nathu, and thou shalt be my son. Maugli
• 1:43:46
  Speaker 1: was uneasy because he had never been under a roof before.
• 1:43:50
  Speaker 1: But as he looked at the thatch, he saw that
• 1:43:52
  Speaker 1: he could tear it out any time if he wanted
• 1:43:54
  Speaker 1: to get away, and that the window had no fastenings.
• 1:43:58
  Speaker 1: What is the good of a man, he he said
• 1:44:00
  Speaker 1: to himself at last, if he does not understand man's talk. Now,
• 1:44:04
  Speaker 1: I am as silly and dumb as a man would
• 1:44:06
  Speaker 1: be with us in the jungle. I must speak their talk.
• 1:44:11
  Speaker 1: It was not for fun that he had learned while
• 1:44:13
  Speaker 1: he was with the wolves to imitate the challenge of
• 1:44:15
  Speaker 1: bucks in the jungle and the grunt of the little
• 1:44:17
  Speaker 1: wild pig. So as soon as Messua pronounced a word,
• 1:44:21
  Speaker 1: Maugli would imitate it almost perfectly, and before dark he
• 1:44:25
  Speaker 1: had learned the names of many things in the hut.
• 1:44:28
  Speaker 1: There was a difficulty at bedtime, because Maugli would not
• 1:44:31
  Speaker 1: sleep under anything that looked so like a panther trap
• 1:44:34
  Speaker 1: as that hut. And when they shut the door, he
• 1:44:36
  Speaker 1: went through the window. Give him his will, said Messua's husband.
• 1:44:41
  Speaker 1: Remember he can never till now have slept on a bed.
• 1:44:45
  Speaker 1: If he is indeed sent in the place of our son,
• 1:44:47
  Speaker 1: he will not run away. So Maugli stretched himself in
• 1:44:51
  Speaker 1: some long, clean grass at the edge of the field.
• 1:44:54
  Speaker 1: But before he had closed his eyes, a soft gray
• 1:44:57
  Speaker 1: nose poked him under the chin. You, said, gray brother,
• 1:45:01
  Speaker 1: he was the eldest of mother Wolf's cubs. This is
• 1:45:05
  Speaker 1: a poor reward for following thee twenty miles. Thou smellest
• 1:45:09
  Speaker 1: of wood, smoke and cattle altogether like a man. Already, Wake,
• 1:45:14
  Speaker 1: little brother, I bring news. Zero one one nine, Wake,
• 1:45:19
  Speaker 1: little brother, I bring news. Are all well in the jungle,
• 1:45:23
  Speaker 1: said Mowgli, hugging him, All except the wolves that were
• 1:45:27
  Speaker 1: burned with the red flower. Now listen. Sheer Khan has
• 1:45:33
  Speaker 1: gone away to hunt far off till his coat grows again,
• 1:45:36
  Speaker 1: for he is badly singed. When he returns, he swears
• 1:45:40
  Speaker 1: that he will lay thy bones in the wing gunga.
• 1:45:42
  Speaker 1: There are two words to that. I also have made
• 1:45:46
  Speaker 1: a little promise. But news is always good. I am
• 1:45:50
  Speaker 1: tired to night, very tired with new things, gray brother.
• 1:45:54
  Speaker 1: But bring me the news always. Thou wilt not forget
• 1:45:58
  Speaker 1: that thou art a wolf. Men will not make thee forget,
• 1:46:01
  Speaker 1: said gray brother anxiously. Never, I will always remember that
• 1:46:07
  Speaker 1: I love THEE and all in our cave. But also
• 1:46:10
  Speaker 1: I will always remember that I have been cast out
• 1:46:12
  Speaker 1: of the pack, and that thou mayest be cast out
• 1:46:16
  Speaker 1: of another pack. Men are only men, little brother, and
• 1:46:20
  Speaker 1: their talk is like the talk of frogs in a pond.
• 1:46:23
  Speaker 1: When I come down here again, I will wait for
• 1:46:26
  Speaker 1: THEE in the bamboos at the edge of the grazing ground.
• 1:46:29
  Speaker 1: For three months after that, Knight Maugli hardly ever left
• 1:46:32
  Speaker 1: the village gate. He was so busy learning the ways
• 1:46:35
  Speaker 1: and customs of men. First he had to wear a
• 1:46:38
  Speaker 1: cloth round him, which annoyed him horribly. And then he
• 1:46:41
  Speaker 1: had to learn about money, which he did not in
• 1:46:44
  Speaker 1: the least understand, and about plowing of which he did
• 1:46:47
  Speaker 1: not see the use. Then the little children in the
• 1:46:50
  Speaker 1: village made him very angry. Luckily, the law of the
• 1:46:54
  Speaker 1: jungle had taught him to keep his temper, for in
• 1:46:56
  Speaker 1: the jungle, life and food depend on keeping your temper.
• 1:46:59
  Speaker 1: But when they made fun of him because he would
• 1:47:01
  Speaker 1: not play games or fly kites, or because he mispronounced
• 1:47:04
  Speaker 1: some word, only the knowledge that it was unsportsmanlike to
• 1:47:08
  Speaker 1: kill little naked cubs kept him from picking them up
• 1:47:11
  Speaker 1: and breaking them in two. He did not know his
• 1:47:14
  Speaker 1: own strength, in the least in the jungle, he knew
• 1:47:17
  Speaker 1: he was weak compared with the beasts, but in the
• 1:47:20
  Speaker 1: village people said that he was as strong as a bull,
• 1:47:23
  Speaker 1: and Malgli had not the faintest idea of the difference
• 1:47:26
  Speaker 1: that cast makes between man and man. When the potter's
• 1:47:30
  Speaker 1: donkey slipped in the clay pit, Maugli hauled it out
• 1:47:32
  Speaker 1: by the tail and helped to stack the pots for
• 1:47:35
  Speaker 1: their journey to the market at Conhuara. That was very
• 1:47:38
  Speaker 1: shocking too, for the potter is a low caste man
• 1:47:42
  Speaker 1: and his donkey is worse. When the priest scolded him,
• 1:47:46
  Speaker 1: Mawgli threatened to put him on the donkey too, and
• 1:47:48
  Speaker 1: the priest told messer's husband that Maugli had better be
• 1:47:51
  Speaker 1: set to work as soon as possible, And the village
• 1:47:54
  Speaker 1: headman told Maugli that he would have to go out
• 1:47:56
  Speaker 1: with the buffaloes next day and heard them while they grazed.
• 1:48:00
  Speaker 1: No one was more pleased than Maugli, And that night,
• 1:48:03
  Speaker 1: because he had been appointed a servant of the village
• 1:48:06
  Speaker 1: as it were, he went off to a circle that
• 1:48:08
  Speaker 1: met every evening on a masonry platform under a great
• 1:48:11
  Speaker 1: fig tree. It was the village club, and the headman,
• 1:48:15
  Speaker 1: the watchman, and the barber, who knew all the gossip
• 1:48:18
  Speaker 1: of the village, and old Bodio, the village hunter, who
• 1:48:21
  Speaker 1: had a tower musket, met and smoked. The monkeys sat
• 1:48:25
  Speaker 1: and talked in the upper branches. And there was a
• 1:48:28
  Speaker 1: hole under the platform where a cobra lived, and he
• 1:48:30
  Speaker 1: had his little platter of milk every night because he
• 1:48:33
  Speaker 1: was sacred. And the old men sat around the tree
• 1:48:35
  Speaker 1: and talked and pulled at the big hucas the water
• 1:48:39
  Speaker 1: pipes till far into the night. They told wonderful tales
• 1:48:43
  Speaker 1: of gods and men and ghosts, and Bodio told even
• 1:48:46
  Speaker 1: more wonderful ones of the ways of beasts in the jungle,
• 1:48:49
  Speaker 1: till the eyes of the children sitting outside the circle
• 1:48:52
  Speaker 1: bulged out of their heads. Most of the tales were
• 1:48:55
  Speaker 1: about animals, for the jungle was always at their door.
• 1:48:59
  Speaker 1: The deer and the wild pig grubbed up their crops,
• 1:49:02
  Speaker 1: and now and again the tiger carried off a man
• 1:49:04
  Speaker 1: at twilight within sight of the village gates. Fifty one
• 1:49:09
  Speaker 1: fifty two of the village club. Maugli, who naturally knew
• 1:49:12
  Speaker 1: something about what they were talking of, had to cover
• 1:49:15
  Speaker 1: his face not to show that he was laughing, while Bodeo,
• 1:49:18
  Speaker 1: the tower musket across his knees, climbed on from one
• 1:49:21
  Speaker 1: wonderful story to another, and Maugli's shoulders shook. Boldeo was
• 1:49:26
  Speaker 1: explaining how the tiger that had carried away Messua's son
• 1:49:29
  Speaker 1: was a ghost tiger, and his body was inhabited by
• 1:49:32
  Speaker 1: the ghost of a wicked old money lender who had
• 1:49:34
  Speaker 1: died some years ago. And I know that this is true,
• 1:49:38
  Speaker 1: he said, because Puran Das always limped from the blow
• 1:49:41
  Speaker 1: that he got in a riot when his account books
• 1:49:44
  Speaker 1: were burned. And the tiger that I speak of he
• 1:49:46
  Speaker 1: limps too, for the tracks of his pads are unequal. True, True,
• 1:49:51
  Speaker 1: that must be the truth, said the graybeards, nodding together.
• 1:49:56
  Speaker 1: Zero one, two, five. Are all these tales such cobweb
• 1:50:00
  Speaker 1: and moontalk, said Maugli. Are all these tales, such cobwebs
• 1:50:04
  Speaker 1: and moontalk? Said Maugli. That tiger limps because he was
• 1:50:09
  Speaker 1: born lame, as every one knows. To talk of the
• 1:50:12
  Speaker 1: soul of a money lender in a beast that never
• 1:50:15
  Speaker 1: had the courage of a jackal is child's talk. Bodio
• 1:50:19
  Speaker 1: was speechless with surprise for a moment, and the headman stared, o,
• 1:50:24
  Speaker 1: Ho it is the jungle? Brat is it? Said Boldio?
• 1:50:29
  Speaker 1: If thou art so wise, better bring his hide to
• 1:50:31
  Speaker 1: con Hiwara, for the government has set a hundred rupees
• 1:50:34
  Speaker 1: on his life. Better still, talk not when thy elders speak.
• 1:50:40
  Speaker 1: Maugli rose to go. All the evening I have lain
• 1:50:43
  Speaker 1: here listening, he called back over his shoulder, And except
• 1:50:47
  Speaker 1: once or twice, Bodio has not said one word of
• 1:50:50
  Speaker 1: truth concerning the jungle which is at his very doors.
• 1:50:54
  Speaker 1: How then shall I believe the tales of ghosts and
• 1:50:57
  Speaker 1: gods and goblins which he says he has seen. It
• 1:51:01
  Speaker 1: is full time that boy went to herding, said the headman,
• 1:51:04
  Speaker 1: while Bodeo puffed and snorted at Maugli's impertinence. The custom
• 1:51:09
  Speaker 1: of most Indian villages is for a few boys to
• 1:51:11
  Speaker 1: take the cattle and buffaloes out to graze in the
• 1:51:14
  Speaker 1: early morning and bring them back at night. The very
• 1:51:17
  Speaker 1: cattle that would trample a white man to death allow
• 1:51:20
  Speaker 1: themselves to be banged and bullied and shouted at by
• 1:51:23
  Speaker 1: children that hardly come up to their noses. So long
• 1:51:26
  Speaker 1: as the boys keep with the herds, they are safe.
• 1:51:29
  Speaker 1: For not even the tiger will charge a mob of cattle,
• 1:51:32
  Speaker 1: but if they straggle to pick flowers or hunt lizards,
• 1:51:35
  Speaker 1: they are sometimes carried off. Maugli went through the village
• 1:51:39
  Speaker 1: street in the dawn, sitting on the back of Rama,
• 1:51:42
  Speaker 1: the great herd bull. The slaty blue buffaloes, with their long, backward,
• 1:51:47
  Speaker 1: sweeping horns and savage eyes, rose out their buyers one
• 1:51:51
  Speaker 1: by one and followed him, and Maugli made it very
• 1:51:54
  Speaker 1: clear to the children with him that he was the master.
• 1:51:57
  Speaker 1: He beat the buffaloes with a long polish bamboo and
• 1:52:01
  Speaker 1: told Kamayah, one of the boys, to graze the cattle
• 1:52:04
  Speaker 1: by themselves while he went on with the buffaloes, and
• 1:52:07
  Speaker 1: to be very careful not to stray away from the herd.
• 1:52:10
  Speaker 1: An Indian grazing ground is all rocks and scrub and
• 1:52:13
  Speaker 1: tussocks and little ravines, among which the herds scatter and disappear.
• 1:52:19
  Speaker 1: The buffaloes generally keep to the pools and muddy places,
• 1:52:22
  Speaker 1: where they lie wallowing or basking in the warm mud
• 1:52:25
  Speaker 1: for hours. Maugli drove them on to the edge of
• 1:52:28
  Speaker 1: the plain where the wing Gangha came out of the jungle.
• 1:52:31
  Speaker 1: Then he dropped from Rama's neck, trotted off to a
• 1:52:33
  Speaker 1: bamboo clump and found Gray brother. Ah, said Gray brother,
• 1:52:38
  Speaker 1: I have waited here very many days. What is the
• 1:52:42
  Speaker 1: meaning of this cattle herding work? It is an order,
• 1:52:45
  Speaker 1: said Maugli. I am a village herd for a while.
• 1:52:50
  Speaker 1: What news of sheer Khan. He has come back to
• 1:52:53
  Speaker 1: this country and has waited here a long time for thee.
• 1:52:57
  Speaker 1: Now he has gone off again, for the game is scarce,
• 1:53:00
  Speaker 1: But he means to kill thee. Very good, said Maugli.
• 1:53:05
  Speaker 1: So long as he is away, do thou or one
• 1:53:07
  Speaker 1: of the four brothers sit on that rock so that
• 1:53:10
  Speaker 1: I can see thee as I come out of the village.
• 1:53:13
  Speaker 1: When he comes back, wait for me in the ravine
• 1:53:15
  Speaker 1: by the dark tree in the center of the plain.
• 1:53:18
  Speaker 1: We need not walk into sheer Khan's mouth. Then Maugli
• 1:53:22
  Speaker 1: picked out a shady place and lay down and slept
• 1:53:25
  Speaker 1: while the buffaloes grazed round him. Herding in India is
• 1:53:29
  Speaker 1: one of the laziest things in the world. The cattle
• 1:53:32
  Speaker 1: move and crunch and lie down and move on again.
• 1:53:36
  Speaker 1: And they do not even low. They only grunt. And
• 1:53:39
  Speaker 1: the buffaloes very seldom say anything but get down into
• 1:53:42
  Speaker 1: the muddy pools, one after another and work their way
• 1:53:45
  Speaker 1: into the mud till only their noses and staring China
• 1:53:48
  Speaker 1: blue eyes show above the surface. And then they lie
• 1:53:51
  Speaker 1: like logs. The sun makes the rocks dance in the heat,
• 1:53:55
  Speaker 1: and the herd children hear one kite never any more, whistling,
• 1:53:59
  Speaker 1: almost out of sight overhead, and they know that if
• 1:54:02
  Speaker 1: they died, or a cow died, that kite would sweep down,
• 1:54:05
  Speaker 1: and the next kite miles away would see him drop
• 1:54:08
  Speaker 1: and follow, and the next and the next, and almost
• 1:54:12
  Speaker 1: before they were dead, there would be a score of
• 1:54:14
  Speaker 1: hungry kites come out of nowhere. Then they sleep and
• 1:54:17
  Speaker 1: wake and sleep again. And we've little baskets of dried
• 1:54:20
  Speaker 1: grass and put grasshoppers in them, Or catch two praying
• 1:54:24
  Speaker 1: mantises and make them fight, or string a necklace of
• 1:54:27
  Speaker 1: red and black jungle nuts, or watch a lizard basking
• 1:54:30
  Speaker 1: on a rock, or a snake hunting a frog near
• 1:54:33
  Speaker 1: the wallows. Then they sing long, long songs with odd
• 1:54:38
  Speaker 1: native quavers at the end of them, and the day
• 1:54:40
  Speaker 1: seems longer than most people's whole lives. And perhaps they
• 1:54:43
  Speaker 1: make a mud castle with mud figures of men and
• 1:54:46
  Speaker 1: horses and buffaloes, and put reeds into the men's hands,
• 1:54:50
  Speaker 1: and pretend that they are kings and the figures are
• 1:54:53
  Speaker 1: their armies, or that they are gods to be worshiped.
• 1:54:57
  Speaker 1: Then evening comes, and the children call, and the buffaloes
• 1:55:00
  Speaker 1: lumber up out of the sticky mud, with noises like
• 1:55:02
  Speaker 1: gunshots going off one after the other, and they all
• 1:55:05
  Speaker 1: straying across the gray plain back to the twinkling village lights.
• 1:55:09
  Speaker 1: Day after day Maubli would lead the buffaloes out to
• 1:55:12
  Speaker 1: their wallows, and day after day he would see gray
• 1:55:15
  Speaker 1: brothers back a mile and a half away across the plain.
• 1:55:18
  Speaker 1: So he knew that sher Khan had not come back.
• 1:55:20
  Speaker 1: And day after day he would lie on the grass,
• 1:55:22
  Speaker 1: listening to the noises round him and dreaming of old
• 1:55:25
  Speaker 1: days in the jungle. If Sheer Khan had made a
• 1:55:28
  Speaker 1: false step with his lame paw up in the jungles
• 1:55:31
  Speaker 1: by the wing Gangha, Maubli would have heard him. In
• 1:55:33
  Speaker 1: those long still mornings, zero won three zero At last,
• 1:55:38
  Speaker 1: a day came when he did not see Gray Brother
• 1:55:40
  Speaker 1: at the signal place, and he laughed and headed the
• 1:55:43
  Speaker 1: buffaloes for the ravine by the d h k tree,
• 1:55:46
  Speaker 1: which was all covered with golden red flowers. There sat
• 1:55:50
  Speaker 1: Gray Brother, every bristle on his back lifted. He has
• 1:55:54
  Speaker 1: hidden for a month to throw Thee off thy guard.
• 1:55:57
  Speaker 1: He crossed the ranges last night with Tabaki hot foot
• 1:56:00
  Speaker 1: on thy trail, said the wolf, panting. Maugli frowned. I
• 1:56:06
  Speaker 1: am not afraid of sheer Khan, but Tobaki is very cunning.
• 1:56:10
  Speaker 1: Have no fear, said Gray Brother, licking his lips a little.
• 1:56:14
  Speaker 1: I met Toabaki in the dawn. Now he is telling
• 1:56:18
  Speaker 1: all his wisdom to the kites. But he told me
• 1:56:20
  Speaker 1: everything before I broke his back. Sheer Khan's plan is
• 1:56:24
  Speaker 1: to wait for Thee at the village gate this evening,
• 1:56:27
  Speaker 1: for thee and for no one else. He is lying
• 1:56:30
  Speaker 1: up now in the big dry ravine of the Wing Ganga.
• 1:56:34
  Speaker 1: Has he eaten to day? Or does he hunt empty?
• 1:56:38
  Speaker 1: Said Maugli. For the answer meant life and death to him.
• 1:56:42
  Speaker 1: He killed at dawn a pig, and he has drunk too. Remember,
• 1:56:46
  Speaker 1: sheer Khan could never fast even for the sake of revenge.
• 1:56:51
  Speaker 1: Oh fool, fool, what a cub's cub? It is eaten
• 1:56:57
  Speaker 1: and drunk too, And he thinks that I shall wait
• 1:57:00
  Speaker 1: till he has slept. Now where does he lie up?
• 1:57:04
  Speaker 1: If there were but ten of us, we might pull
• 1:57:06
  Speaker 1: him down as he lies. These buffaloes will not charge
• 1:57:10
  Speaker 1: unless they wind him, and I cannot speak their language.
• 1:57:13
  Speaker 1: Can we get behind his track so that they may
• 1:57:16
  Speaker 1: smell it? He swam far down the Wayne Gunga to
• 1:57:19
  Speaker 1: cut that off, said Gray Brother. Tobaki told him that
• 1:57:23
  Speaker 1: I know he would never have thought of it alone.
• 1:57:27
  Speaker 1: Maugli stood with his finger in his mouth, thinking, the
• 1:57:31
  Speaker 1: big ravine of the Wayne Gunga that opens out on
• 1:57:35
  Speaker 1: the plain not half a mile from here. I can
• 1:57:38
  Speaker 1: take the herd round through the jungle to the head
• 1:57:40
  Speaker 1: of the ravine and then sweep down. But he would
• 1:57:43
  Speaker 1: slink out at the foot. We must block that end,
• 1:57:47
  Speaker 1: Gray Brother, canst thou cut the herd in two for me?
• 1:57:51
  Speaker 1: Not I perhaps, But I have brought a wise helper.
• 1:57:55
  Speaker 1: Gray Brother trotted off and dropped into a hole. Then
• 1:57:59
  Speaker 1: there lifted up a huge gray had that Maugli knew well,
• 1:58:02
  Speaker 1: and the hot air was filled with the most desolate
• 1:58:04
  Speaker 1: cry of all the jungle, the hunting howl of a
• 1:58:07
  Speaker 1: wolf at midday, Akella, Akella, said Maugli, clapping his hands,
• 1:58:15
  Speaker 1: I might have known that thou wouldst not forget me.
• 1:58:18
  Speaker 1: We have a big work in hand. Cut the herd
• 1:58:22
  Speaker 1: in two, Akella. Keep the cows and calves together, and
• 1:58:26
  Speaker 1: the bulls and the plow buffaloes by themselves. The two
• 1:58:30
  Speaker 1: wolves ran ladies chain fashion in and out of the herd,
• 1:58:34
  Speaker 1: which snorted and threw up its head and separated into
• 1:58:37
  Speaker 1: two clumps. In one, the cow buffaloes stood with their
• 1:58:41
  Speaker 1: calves in the center and glared and pawed, ready if
• 1:58:44
  Speaker 1: a wolf would only stay still, to charge down trample
• 1:58:48
  Speaker 1: the life out of him. In the other, the bulls
• 1:58:51
  Speaker 1: and the young bulls snorted and stamped. But though they
• 1:58:53
  Speaker 1: looked more imposing, they were much less dangerous, for they
• 1:58:56
  Speaker 1: had no calves to protect. No six men could have
• 1:59:00
  Speaker 1: divided the herd so neatly. What orders, panted a Kella.
• 1:59:05
  Speaker 1: They are trying to join again. Maugli slipped on to
• 1:59:09
  Speaker 1: Rama's back. Drive the bulls away to the left, Akella,
• 1:59:14
  Speaker 1: gray brother, When we are gone, hold the cows together
• 1:59:17
  Speaker 1: and drive them into the foot of the ravine. How far,
• 1:59:21
  Speaker 1: said Gray Brother, panting and snapping, Till the sides are
• 1:59:25
  Speaker 1: higher than sheer Khan can jump, shouted Maugli, Keep them
• 1:59:30
  Speaker 1: there till we come down. The bulls swept off as
• 1:59:33
  Speaker 1: a Kella bayed and Gray Brother stopped in front of
• 1:59:36
  Speaker 1: the cows. They charged down on him, and he ran
• 1:59:39
  Speaker 1: just before them to the foot of the ravine. As
• 1:59:42
  Speaker 1: Akella drove the bulls far to the left. Well done,
• 1:59:46
  Speaker 1: Another charge and they are fairly started. Careful now, careful
• 1:59:52
  Speaker 1: a kella. A snap too much and the bulls will charge. Hooja,
• 1:59:58
  Speaker 1: this is wilder work than dry riving black buck. Didst
• 2:00:02
  Speaker 1: thou think these creatures could move so swiftly? Maugli called,
• 2:00:07
  Speaker 1: I have have hunted these two in my time, gasped
• 2:00:10
  Speaker 1: a Kella in the dust. Shall I turn them into
• 2:00:13
  Speaker 1: the jungle? I turn swiftly turn them. Rama is mad
• 2:00:21
  Speaker 1: with rage. Oh, if I could only tell him what
• 2:00:24
  Speaker 1: I need of him to day. The bulls were turned
• 2:00:27
  Speaker 1: to the right this time and crashed into the standing thicket.
• 2:00:31
  Speaker 1: The other herd children, watching with the cattle half a
• 2:00:34
  Speaker 1: mile away, hurried to the village as fast as their
• 2:00:37
  Speaker 1: legs could carry them, crying that the buffaloes had gone
• 2:00:40
  Speaker 1: mad and run away. But Maugli's plan was simple enough.
• 2:00:45
  Speaker 1: All he wanted to do was to make a big
• 2:00:47
  Speaker 1: circle uphill and get at the head of the ravine,
• 2:00:49
  Speaker 1: and then take the bulls down it and catch sheer
• 2:00:52
  Speaker 1: Khan between the bulls and the cows, for he knew
• 2:00:54
  Speaker 1: that after a meal and a full drink, sheer Khan
• 2:00:57
  Speaker 1: would not be in any condition to fight or to
• 2:00:59
  Speaker 1: clam up the sides of the ravine. He was soothing
• 2:01:03
  Speaker 1: the buffaloes now by voice, and Akella had dropped far
• 2:01:06
  Speaker 1: to the rear, only whimpering once or twice to hurry
• 2:01:09
  Speaker 1: the rear guard. It was a long, long circle, for
• 2:01:12
  Speaker 1: they did not wish to get too near the ravine
• 2:01:15
  Speaker 1: and give sheer Khan warning. At last, Maugli rounded up
• 2:01:19
  Speaker 1: the bewildered herd at the head of the ravine, on
• 2:01:21
  Speaker 1: a grassy patch that sloped steeply down to the ravine itself.
• 2:01:25
  Speaker 1: From that height you could see across the tops of
• 2:01:27
  Speaker 1: the trees down to the plain below. But what Maugli
• 2:01:30
  Speaker 1: looked at was the sides of the ravine, and he
• 2:01:32
  Speaker 1: saw with a great deal of satisfaction that they ran
• 2:01:35
  Speaker 1: nearly straight up and down, while the vines and creepers
• 2:01:38
  Speaker 1: that hung over them would give no foothold to a
• 2:01:40
  Speaker 1: tiger who wanted to get out. Let them breathe, Akella,
• 2:01:44
  Speaker 1: he said, holding up his hand. They have not winded
• 2:01:48
  Speaker 1: him yet. Let them breathe. I must tell sheer Khan,
• 2:01:53
  Speaker 1: who comes, We have him in the trap. He put
• 2:01:57
  Speaker 1: his hands to his mouth and shouted down the ravine,
• 2:02:00
  Speaker 1: was almost like shouting down a tunnel, and the echoes
• 2:02:02
  Speaker 1: jumped from rock to rock. After a long time, there
• 2:02:06
  Speaker 1: came back the drawling, sleepy snarl of a full fed
• 2:02:09
  Speaker 1: tiger just wakened. Who calls, said sheer Khan, And a
• 2:02:13
  Speaker 1: splendid peacock fluttered up out of the ravine, screeching, I Maugli,
• 2:02:19
  Speaker 1: cattle thief, it is time to come to the council.
• 2:02:22
  Speaker 1: Rock down, hurry them down, Akella, down, Rama down. The
• 2:02:29
  Speaker 1: herd paused for an instant at the edge of the slope,
• 2:02:32
  Speaker 1: but Akella gave tongue in a full hunting yell, and
• 2:02:35
  Speaker 1: they pitched over one after the other, just as steamers
• 2:02:37
  Speaker 1: shoot rapids, the sand and stones spurting up round them.
• 2:02:42
  Speaker 1: Once started, there was no chance of stopping, and before
• 2:02:45
  Speaker 1: they were fairly in the bed of the ravine, Rama
• 2:02:47
  Speaker 1: winded sheer Khan and bellowed five thousand, one hundred and
• 2:02:51
  Speaker 1: seventy one. Sheerd Khan in the jungle, ha Ha, said
• 2:02:56
  Speaker 1: Maugli on his back, Now thou knowest, and the torrent
• 2:03:01
  Speaker 1: of black horns, foaming muzzles, and staring eyes whirled down
• 2:03:05
  Speaker 1: the ravine, just as boulders go down in flood time.
• 2:03:08
  Speaker 1: The weaker buffaloes being shouldered out to the sides of
• 2:03:11
  Speaker 1: the ravine, where they tore through the creepers. They knew
• 2:03:14
  Speaker 1: what the business was before them. The terrible charge of
• 2:03:17
  Speaker 1: the buffalo heard, against which no tiger can hope to stand.
• 2:03:21
  Speaker 1: Sheer Khan heard the thunder of their hoofs, picked himself
• 2:03:24
  Speaker 1: up and lumbered down the ravine, looking from side to
• 2:03:28
  Speaker 1: side for some way of escape. But the walls of
• 2:03:30
  Speaker 1: the ravine were straight, and he had to hold on
• 2:03:32
  Speaker 1: heavy with his dinner and his drink, willing to do
• 2:03:35
  Speaker 1: anything rather than fight. The herd splashed through the pool
• 2:03:39
  Speaker 1: he had just left, bellowing till the narrow cut rang.
• 2:03:43
  Speaker 1: Maugli heard an answering bellow from the foot of the
• 2:03:45
  Speaker 1: ravine saw sheer con turn. The tiger knew if the
• 2:03:48
  Speaker 1: worst came to the worst, it was better to meet
• 2:03:51
  Speaker 1: the bulls than the cows with their calves. And then
• 2:03:53
  Speaker 1: Rama tripped, stumbled, and went on again over something soft,
• 2:03:58
  Speaker 1: and with the bols at his heels, crashed full into
• 2:04:01
  Speaker 1: the other herd, while the weaker buffaloes were lifted clean
• 2:04:04
  Speaker 1: off their feet by the shock of the meeting. That
• 2:04:07
  Speaker 1: charge carried both herds out into the plain, goring and
• 2:04:10
  Speaker 1: stamping and snorting. Maugli watched his time and slipped off
• 2:04:15
  Speaker 1: Rama's neck, laying about him right and left with his stick.
• 2:04:19
  Speaker 1: Quick a, Kella, break them up, scatter them, or they
• 2:04:24
  Speaker 1: will be fighting one another. Drive them away, Akella, Hi, Rama,
• 2:04:30
  Speaker 1: Hi high high, my children. Softly, now, softly, it is
• 2:04:38
  Speaker 1: all over. Akella and Gray brother ran to and fro
• 2:04:42
  Speaker 1: nipping the buffalo's legs, and though the herd wheeled once
• 2:04:45
  Speaker 1: to charge up the ravine again, Maugli managed to turn
• 2:04:48
  Speaker 1: Rama and the others followed him to the wallows. Sheer
• 2:04:51
  Speaker 1: Khan needed no more trampling. He was dead and the
• 2:04:55
  Speaker 1: kites were coming for him already. Brothers. That was a
• 2:04:59
  Speaker 1: dog's death, said Maugli, feeling for the knife he always
• 2:05:03
  Speaker 1: carried in a sheath round his neck, now that he
• 2:05:05
  Speaker 1: lived with men, but he would never have shown fight.
• 2:05:09
  Speaker 1: His hide will look well on the council rock. We
• 2:05:13
  Speaker 1: must get to work swiftly. A boy trained among men
• 2:05:16
  Speaker 1: would never have dreamed of skinning a ten foot tiger alone.
• 2:05:20
  Speaker 1: But Maugli knew better than any one else how an
• 2:05:22
  Speaker 1: animal's skin is fitted on, and how it can be
• 2:05:25
  Speaker 1: taken off. But it was hard work, and Maugli slashed
• 2:05:29
  Speaker 1: and tore and grunted for an hour, while the wolves
• 2:05:32
  Speaker 1: lolled out their tongues or came forward and tugged as
• 2:05:35
  Speaker 1: he ordered them. Presently, a hand fell on his shoulder,
• 2:05:39
  Speaker 1: and looking up, he saw Bodeo with the tower musket.
• 2:05:43
  Speaker 1: The children had told the village about the buffalo stampede,
• 2:05:46
  Speaker 1: and Bodio went out angrily, only too anxious to correct
• 2:05:49
  Speaker 1: Maugli for not taking better care of the herd. The
• 2:05:53
  Speaker 1: wolves dropped out of sight as soon as they saw
• 2:05:55
  Speaker 1: the man coming. What is this folly, said Bodeo, angrily,
• 2:06:00
  Speaker 1: to think that thou canst skin a tiger? Where did
• 2:06:04
  Speaker 1: the buffaloes kill him? It is the lame tiger too,
• 2:06:07
  Speaker 1: and there is a hundred rupees on his head. Well,
• 2:06:11
  Speaker 1: well we will overlook thy letting the herd run off,
• 2:06:14
  Speaker 1: and perhaps I will give thee one of the rupees
• 2:06:16
  Speaker 1: of the reward when I have taken the skin to Conhuara.
• 2:06:19
  Speaker 1: He fumbled in his waist cloth for flint and steel,
• 2:06:22
  Speaker 1: and stooped down to send sheer Khan's whiskers. Most native
• 2:06:26
  Speaker 1: hunters always sind a tiger's whiskers to prevent his ghost
• 2:06:29
  Speaker 1: from haunting them. Hum, said Maudli half to himself, as
• 2:06:34
  Speaker 1: he ripped back the skin of a forepaw. So thou
• 2:06:37
  Speaker 1: wilt take the hide to kan Huara for the reward,
• 2:06:39
  Speaker 1: and perhaps give me one rupee. Now it is in
• 2:06:43
  Speaker 1: my mind that I need the skin for my own use. Ha,
• 2:06:47
  Speaker 1: old man, take away that fire. What talk is this
• 2:06:51
  Speaker 1: to the chief hunter of the village. Thy luck and
• 2:06:54
  Speaker 1: the stupidity of thy buffaloes have helped thee to this kill.
• 2:06:58
  Speaker 1: The tiger has just fed, or he would have gone
• 2:07:01
  Speaker 1: twenty miles by this time. Thou canst not even skin
• 2:07:05
  Speaker 1: him properly, little beggar brat, And forsooth thy bodio must
• 2:07:09
  Speaker 1: be told not to singe his whiskers. Maugli, I will
• 2:07:13
  Speaker 1: not give thee one anna of the reward, but only
• 2:07:15
  Speaker 1: a very big beating. Leave the carcass by the bull
• 2:07:20
  Speaker 1: that bought me, said Maugli, who was trying to get
• 2:07:23
  Speaker 1: at the shoulder. Must I stay babbling to an old
• 2:07:25
  Speaker 1: ape all noon? Here? Akella? This man plagues me. Bodeo,
• 2:07:31
  Speaker 1: who was still stooping over sheer Khan's head, found himself
• 2:07:35
  Speaker 1: sprawling on the grass with a gray wolf standing over him,
• 2:07:38
  Speaker 1: while Maugli went on skinning as though he were alone
• 2:07:41
  Speaker 1: in all India. Ye, yes, he said between his teeth,
• 2:07:46
  Speaker 1: thou art altogether right, Bodio, thou wilt never give me
• 2:07:50
  Speaker 1: one anna of the reward. There is an old war
• 2:07:54
  Speaker 1: between this lame tiger and myself, a very old war.
• 2:07:57
  Speaker 1: Anne I have won to do Bodio justice. If he
• 2:08:01
  Speaker 1: had been ten years younger, he would have taken his
• 2:08:04
  Speaker 1: chance with a kella, had he met the wolf in
• 2:08:05
  Speaker 1: the woods. But a wolf who obeyed the orders of
• 2:08:08
  Speaker 1: this boy, who had private wars with man eating tigers,
• 2:08:11
  Speaker 1: was not a common animal. It was sorcery, magic of
• 2:08:15
  Speaker 1: the worst kind, thought Botheo, And he wondered whether the
• 2:08:18
  Speaker 1: amulet round his neck would protect him. He lay as
• 2:08:21
  Speaker 1: still as still expecting every minute to see Maugli turn
• 2:08:25
  Speaker 1: into a tiger too. Zero one four one bothio lay
• 2:08:29
  Speaker 1: as still expecting every minute to see Maugli turn into
• 2:08:32
  Speaker 1: a tiger too. Maharaj great king, he said at last,
• 2:08:38
  Speaker 1: in a husky whisper. Yes, said Maugli, without turning his head,
• 2:08:43
  Speaker 1: chuckling a little. I am an old man. I did
• 2:08:47
  Speaker 1: not know that thou wast anything more than a herd's boy.
• 2:08:50
  Speaker 1: May I rise up and go away? Or will thy
• 2:08:53
  Speaker 1: servant tear me to pieces? Go and peace? Go with
• 2:08:56
  Speaker 1: thee only another time? Do not meddle with my game.
• 2:09:01
  Speaker 1: Let him go. Akella Boldeo hobbled away to the village
• 2:09:05
  Speaker 1: as fast as he could, looking back over his shoulder
• 2:09:08
  Speaker 1: in case Maugli should change into something terrible. When he
• 2:09:12
  Speaker 1: got to the village, he told a tale of magic
• 2:09:14
  Speaker 1: and enchantment and sorcery that made the priest look very grave.
• 2:09:19
  Speaker 1: Maugli went on with his work, but it was nearly
• 2:09:21
  Speaker 1: twilight before he and the wolves had drawn the great
• 2:09:24
  Speaker 1: gay skin clear of the body. Fifty one seventy nine
• 2:09:28
  Speaker 1: of the Return of the Buffalo heard now we must
• 2:09:31
  Speaker 1: hide this and take the buffaloes home. Help me to
• 2:09:34
  Speaker 1: herd them, Akella. The herd rounded up in the misty twilight,
• 2:09:39
  Speaker 1: and when they got near the village, Maugli saw lights
• 2:09:42
  Speaker 1: and heard the conches and bells in the temple blowing
• 2:09:44
  Speaker 1: and banging. Half the village seemed to be waiting for
• 2:09:48
  Speaker 1: him by the gate. That is because I have killed
• 2:09:51
  Speaker 1: sher Khan, he said to himself. But a shower of
• 2:09:55
  Speaker 1: stones whistled about his ears, and the villagers shouted sorcerer,
• 2:10:00
  Speaker 1: wolf's brat, jungle demon, go away, get hence quickly, or
• 2:10:06
  Speaker 1: the priest will turn thee into a wolf again. Shoot
• 2:10:10
  Speaker 1: boldio shoot. The old tower musket went off with a bang,
• 2:10:14
  Speaker 1: and a young buffalo bellowed in pain. More sorcery, shouted
• 2:10:19
  Speaker 1: the villagers. He can turn bullets. BOLDEO, that was thy buffalo.
• 2:10:26
  Speaker 1: Now what is this, said Mowgli, bewildered, as the stones
• 2:10:30
  Speaker 1: flew thicker. They are not unlike the pack these brothers
• 2:10:33
  Speaker 1: of thine, said Akella, sitting down composedly. It is in
• 2:10:38
  Speaker 1: my head that if bullets mean anything, they would cast
• 2:10:41
  Speaker 1: thee out wolf. Wolf's cub, Go away, shouted the priest,
• 2:10:49
  Speaker 1: waving a sprig of the sacred toolsey plant again. Last
• 2:10:54
  Speaker 1: time it was because I was a man. This time
• 2:10:57
  Speaker 1: it is because I am a wolf. Let us go, Akella,
• 2:11:01
  Speaker 1: a woman, it was. Messua ran across to the herd
• 2:11:05
  Speaker 1: and cried, Oh, my son, my son. They say, thou
• 2:11:09
  Speaker 1: art a sorcerer who can turn himself into a beast
• 2:11:12
  Speaker 1: at will. I do not believe. But go away, or
• 2:11:15
  Speaker 1: they will kill thee BOLDEO says thou art a wizard.
• 2:11:19
  Speaker 1: But I know thou hast avenged Netheu's death. Come back, Messua,
• 2:11:24
  Speaker 1: shouted the crowd. Come back, or we will stone thee
• 2:11:29
  Speaker 1: Moldy laughed a little, short, ugly laugh, for a stone
• 2:11:32
  Speaker 1: had hit him in the mouth. Run back, Messua, this
• 2:11:37
  Speaker 1: is one of the foolish tales they tell under the
• 2:11:39
  Speaker 1: big tree at dusk. I have at least paid for
• 2:11:42
  Speaker 1: thy son's life. Farewell and run quickly, for I shall
• 2:11:47
  Speaker 1: send the herd in more swiftly than their brick bats.
• 2:11:50
  Speaker 1: I am no wizard, Messua. Farewell now once more, Akella,
• 2:11:56
  Speaker 1: he cried, bring the herd in. The buffaloes were anxious
• 2:12:01
  Speaker 1: enough to get to the village. They hardly needed Akella's yell,
• 2:12:06
  Speaker 1: but charged through the gate like a whirlwind, scattering the
• 2:12:09
  Speaker 1: crowd right and left. Keep count, shouted Maugli scornfully. It
• 2:12:14
  Speaker 1: may be that I have stolen one of them. Keep count,
• 2:12:18
  Speaker 1: for I will do your hurting. No more. Fare you well,
• 2:12:22
  Speaker 1: children of men, and thank Messua that I do not
• 2:12:24
  Speaker 1: come in with my wolves and hunt you up and
• 2:12:27
  Speaker 1: down your street. He turned on his heel and walked
• 2:12:30
  Speaker 1: away with the lone wolf, and as he looked up
• 2:12:32
  Speaker 1: at the stars, he felt happy. No more sleeping in
• 2:12:36
  Speaker 1: traps for me, Pekella. Let us get Sheer Khan's skin
• 2:12:40
  Speaker 1: and go away. No, we will not hurt the village,
• 2:12:44
  Speaker 1: for Messua was kind to me. Zero one four six.
• 2:12:48
  Speaker 1: When the moon rose over the plain, the villagers saw
• 2:12:50
  Speaker 1: Maugli trotting across with two wolves at his heels. When
• 2:12:54
  Speaker 1: the moon rose over the plain, making it look all milky,
• 2:12:57
  Speaker 1: the horrified villagers saw Maugli with two wolves at his
• 2:13:00
  Speaker 1: heels and a bundle on his head, trotting across at
• 2:13:04
  Speaker 1: the steady wolf's trot that eats up the long miles
• 2:13:06
  Speaker 1: like fire. Then they banged the temple bells and blew
• 2:13:10
  Speaker 1: the conscience louder than ever, and Messua cried, and Boldeo
• 2:13:14
  Speaker 1: embroidered the story of his adventures in the jungle till
• 2:13:17
  Speaker 1: he ended by saying that Akella stood up on his
• 2:13:20
  Speaker 1: hind legs and talked like a man. The moon was
• 2:13:23
  Speaker 1: just going down when Maugli and the two wolves came
• 2:13:26
  Speaker 1: to the hill of the council Rock, and they stopped
• 2:13:28
  Speaker 1: at Mother Wulf's cave. They have cast me out from
• 2:13:32
  Speaker 1: the man pack, mother shouted Maugli. But I come with
• 2:13:35
  Speaker 1: the hide of sheer Khan to keep my word. Mother
• 2:13:39
  Speaker 1: Wulf walked stiffly from the cave with the cubs behind her,
• 2:13:42
  Speaker 1: and her eyes glowed as she saw the skin. I
• 2:13:45
  Speaker 1: told him on that day when he crammed his head
• 2:13:48
  Speaker 1: and shoulders into this cave, hunting for thy life, little frog,
• 2:13:52
  Speaker 1: I told him that the hunter would be the hunted.
• 2:13:55
  Speaker 1: It is well done, little brother, it is well done,
• 2:13:59
  Speaker 1: said a deep in the thicket. We were lonely in
• 2:14:02
  Speaker 1: the jungle without thee and Bagheera came running to Maugli's
• 2:14:06
  Speaker 1: spare feet. They clambered up the council rock together, and
• 2:14:10
  Speaker 1: Maugli spread the skin out on the flat stone where
• 2:14:12
  Speaker 1: Achlla used to sit and pegged it down with four
• 2:14:15
  Speaker 1: slivers of bamboo, and Akella lay down upon it and
• 2:14:18
  Speaker 1: called the old call to the council look, look well,
• 2:14:21
  Speaker 1: o wolves, exactly as he had called when Maugli was
• 2:14:24
  Speaker 1: first brought there zero one four nine that they clambered
• 2:14:29
  Speaker 1: up the council rock together, and Maugli spread the skin
• 2:14:32
  Speaker 1: out on the flat stone. Ever since a Kella had
• 2:14:34
  Speaker 1: been deposed, the pack had been without a leader, hunting
• 2:14:37
  Speaker 1: and fighting at their own pleasure. But they answered the
• 2:14:41
  Speaker 1: call from habit. And some of them were laying from
• 2:14:43
  Speaker 1: the traps they had fallen into, and some limp from
• 2:14:46
  Speaker 1: shot wounds, and some were mangy from eating bad food,
• 2:14:50
  Speaker 1: and many were missing. But they came to the council
• 2:14:53
  Speaker 1: rock all that were left of them, and saw sheer
• 2:14:56
  Speaker 1: khans striped hide on the rock, and the huge claws
• 2:14:59
  Speaker 1: dangling at the end of the empty dangling feet. It
• 2:15:02
  Speaker 1: was then that Maugli made up a song that came
• 2:15:05
  Speaker 1: up into his throat all by itself, and he shouted
• 2:15:07
  Speaker 1: it aloud, leaping up and down on the rattling skin,
• 2:15:10
  Speaker 1: and beating time with his heels till he had no
• 2:15:13
  Speaker 1: more breath left, while Gray Brother and Akella howled between
• 2:15:16
  Speaker 1: the verses. Look well, o wolves, have I kept my word?
• 2:15:21
  Speaker 1: Said Maugli, and the wolves bathe yes, and one tattered
• 2:15:26
  Speaker 1: wolf howled, lead us again, O akella, Let us again,
• 2:15:30
  Speaker 1: o man cub, for we be sick of this lawlessness,
• 2:15:33
  Speaker 1: and we would be the free people once more. Nay
• 2:15:37
  Speaker 1: perd bagheera. That may not be. When ye are full fed,
• 2:15:41
  Speaker 1: the madness may come upon you again. Not for nothing
• 2:15:45
  Speaker 1: are ye called the free people. Ye fought for freedom
• 2:15:48
  Speaker 1: and it is yours. Eat it, O wolves, man pack
• 2:15:53
  Speaker 1: and wolf pack have cast me out, said Maugli. Now
• 2:15:57
  Speaker 1: I will hunt alone in the jungle, and we will
• 2:16:00
  Speaker 1: hunt with thee, said the four cubs. So Maugli went
• 2:16:04
  Speaker 1: away and hunted with the four cubs in the jungle
• 2:16:07
  Speaker 1: from that day on. But he was not always alone,
• 2:16:11
  Speaker 1: because years afterward he became a man and married. But
• 2:16:15
  Speaker 1: that is a story for grown ups. Maugli's song that
• 2:16:19
  Speaker 1: he sang at the Council Rock when he danced on
• 2:16:21
  Speaker 1: sheer Khan's hide, the song of Maugli. I Maugli am singing.
• 2:16:26
  Speaker 1: Let the jungle listen to the things I have done.
• 2:16:29
  Speaker 1: Sheer Khan said he would kill, would kill at the
• 2:16:33
  Speaker 1: gates in the twilight he would kill Maugli the frog
• 2:16:37
  Speaker 1: he ate and he drank. Drink deep, sheer Khan. For
• 2:16:41
  Speaker 1: when wilt thou drink again, sleep and dream of the kill.
• 2:16:46
  Speaker 1: I am alone on the grazing grounds. Gray brother, Come
• 2:16:50
  Speaker 1: to me. Come to me, lone wolf, for there is
• 2:16:53
  Speaker 1: big game afoot. Bring up the great bull buffaloes, the
• 2:16:58
  Speaker 1: blueskinned herd bulls with the angry eyes. Drive them to
• 2:17:02
  Speaker 1: and fro as I order. Sleepest thou still, sheer Khan. Wake, oh, wake,
• 2:17:10
  Speaker 1: here come I and the bulls are behind Rama, the
• 2:17:13
  Speaker 1: king of the buffaloes, stamped with his foot waters of
• 2:17:17
  Speaker 1: the wing Ganga. Whither went sheer Khan. He is not
• 2:17:21
  Speaker 1: Ikey to dig holes, nor Mao the peacock that he
• 2:17:25
  Speaker 1: should fly. He is not mang the bat to hang
• 2:17:28
  Speaker 1: in the branches, little bamboos that creak together. Tell me
• 2:17:32
  Speaker 1: where he ran? Aw, he is there, Ahoo, he is there.
• 2:17:40
  Speaker 1: Under the feet of Rama lies the lame one. Up,
• 2:17:43
  Speaker 1: sheer Khan, Up and kill. Here is meat. Break the
• 2:17:48
  Speaker 1: necks of the bulls. H s h. He is asleep.
• 2:17:54
  Speaker 1: We will not wake him, for his strength is very great.
• 2:17:58
  Speaker 1: The kites have come down to see it. The black
• 2:18:01
  Speaker 1: ants have come up to know it. There is a
• 2:18:04
  Speaker 1: great assembly in his honor allallah. I have no cloth
• 2:18:08
  Speaker 1: to wrap me. The kites will see that I am naked.
• 2:18:13
  Speaker 1: I am ashamed to meet all these people. Lend me
• 2:18:16
  Speaker 1: thy coat, sheer Khan. Lend me thy gay striped coat,
• 2:18:20
  Speaker 1: that I may go to the council rock by the
• 2:18:23
  Speaker 1: bull that bought me. I made a promise, a little promise.
• 2:18:27
  Speaker 1: Only thy coat is lacking. Before I keep my word
• 2:18:30
  Speaker 1: with the knife, with the knife that men use, with
• 2:18:33
  Speaker 1: the knife of the hunter, I will stoop down for
• 2:18:35
  Speaker 1: my gift waters of the wing Gangha. Sheer Khan gives
• 2:18:39
  Speaker 1: me his coat for the love that he bears me.
• 2:18:42
  Speaker 1: Pull gray brother, pull a kella heavy is the hide
• 2:18:48
  Speaker 1: of sheer Khan. The man pack are angry. They throw
• 2:18:53
  Speaker 1: stones and talk child's talk. My mouth is bleeding. Let
• 2:18:58
  Speaker 1: me run away the night through the hot night. Run
• 2:19:02
  Speaker 1: swiftly with me, my brothers. We will leave the lights
• 2:19:06
  Speaker 1: of the village and go to the low moon waters
• 2:19:09
  Speaker 1: of the wing Gangha. The man pack have cast me out.
• 2:19:13
  Speaker 1: I did them no harm, but they were afraid of me.
• 2:19:16
  Speaker 1: Why wolf pack, ye have cast me out too. The
• 2:19:21
  Speaker 1: jungle is shut to me, and the village gates are shut.
• 2:19:25
  Speaker 1: Why as mang flies between the beasts and birds, so
• 2:19:29
  Speaker 1: fly I between the village and the jungle. Why I
• 2:19:34
  Speaker 1: dance on the heid of sheer Khan. But my heart
• 2:19:36
  Speaker 1: is very heavy. My mouth is cut and wounded with
• 2:19:40
  Speaker 1: the stones from the village. But my heart is very
• 2:19:42
  Speaker 1: light because I have come back to the jungle. Why
• 2:19:47
  Speaker 1: these two things fight together in me as the snakes
• 2:19:50
  Speaker 1: fight in the spring. The water comes out of my eyes,
• 2:19:54
  Speaker 1: Yet I laugh while it falls. Why I am too mauglies.
• 2:19:59
  Speaker 1: But the hide of s Khan is under my feet.
• 2:20:02
  Speaker 1: All the jungle knows that I have killed sheer Khan.
• 2:20:05
  Speaker 1: Look look well, o wolves, ahey. My heart is heavy
• 2:20:11
  Speaker 1: with the things that I do not understand. Zero one
• 2:20:15
  Speaker 1: five seven the white seal, Oh, hush thee my baby.
• 2:20:20
  Speaker 1: The night is behind us, and black are the waters
• 2:20:23
  Speaker 1: that sparkled so green. The moon o'er the combers looks
• 2:20:27
  Speaker 1: downward to find us at rest in the hollows that
• 2:20:29
  Speaker 1: rustle between where billow meets billow. Then soft be thy pillow, Ah,
• 2:20:35
  Speaker 1: weary we flipperling, curl at thy ease. The storm shall
• 2:20:39
  Speaker 1: not wake thee nor shark overtake thee asleep in the
• 2:20:43
  Speaker 1: arms of the slow swinging seas seal lullaby. All these
• 2:20:47
  Speaker 1: things happened several years ago at a place called Novastashna,
• 2:20:50
  Speaker 1: or northeast point on the island of Saint Paul, away
• 2:20:54
  Speaker 1: and away in the Bearing Sea. Limersham, the winter ran,
• 2:20:58
  Speaker 1: told me the tale when he was blown on to
• 2:21:00
  Speaker 1: the rigging of a steamer going to Japan. And I
• 2:21:02
  Speaker 1: took him down into my cabin and warmed and fed
• 2:21:05
  Speaker 1: him for a couple of days till he was fit
• 2:21:06
  Speaker 1: to fly back to Saint Paul's again. Limoshen is a
• 2:21:10
  Speaker 1: very quaint little bird, but he knows how to tell
• 2:21:13
  Speaker 1: the truth. Nobody comes to Novastashna except on business, and
• 2:21:18
  Speaker 1: the only people who have regular business there are the seals.
• 2:21:22
  Speaker 1: They come in the summer months by hundreds and hundreds
• 2:21:24
  Speaker 1: of thousands out of the cold gray sea. For Novastashna
• 2:21:28
  Speaker 1: Beach has the finest accommodation for seals of any place
• 2:21:31
  Speaker 1: in all the world. Sea catch knew that, and every
• 2:21:35
  Speaker 1: spring would swim from whatever place he happened to be in,
• 2:21:38
  Speaker 1: would swim like a torpedo boat straight for Novastashna and
• 2:21:41
  Speaker 1: spend a month, fighting with his companions for a good
• 2:21:43
  Speaker 1: place on the rocks as close to the sea as possible.
• 2:21:47
  Speaker 1: Sea Catch was fifteen years old, a huge gray fur
• 2:21:51
  Speaker 1: seal with almost a mane on his shoulders and long,
• 2:21:54
  Speaker 1: wicked dog teeth. When he heaved himself up on his
• 2:21:57
  Speaker 1: front flippers, he stood more than four feet of the ground,
• 2:22:01
  Speaker 1: and his weight, if anyone had been bold enough to
• 2:22:03
  Speaker 1: weigh him, was nearly seven hundred pounds. He was scarred
• 2:22:07
  Speaker 1: all over with the marks of savage fights, but he
• 2:22:10
  Speaker 1: was always ready for just one fight more. He would
• 2:22:13
  Speaker 1: put his head on one side, as though he were
• 2:22:15
  Speaker 1: afraid to look his enemy in the face. Then he
• 2:22:18
  Speaker 1: would shoot it out like lightning, And when the big
• 2:22:20
  Speaker 1: teeth were firmly fixed on the other seal's neck, the
• 2:22:23
  Speaker 1: other seal might get away if he could, but Sea
• 2:22:27
  Speaker 1: Catch would not help him. Yet. Sea Catch never chased
• 2:22:31
  Speaker 1: a beaten seal, for that was against the rules of
• 2:22:33
  Speaker 1: the beach. He only wanted room by the sea for
• 2:22:37
  Speaker 1: his nursery. But as there were forty or fifty thousand
• 2:22:40
  Speaker 1: other seals hunting for the same thing each spring, the whistling, bellowing, roaring,
• 2:22:46
  Speaker 1: and blowing on the beach was something frightful. From a
• 2:22:49
  Speaker 1: little hill called Hutchinson's Hill, you could look over three
• 2:22:52
  Speaker 1: and a half miles of ground covered with fighting seals,
• 2:22:56
  Speaker 1: and the surf was dotted all over with the heads
• 2:22:58
  Speaker 1: of seals hurrying to land and begin their share of
• 2:23:00
  Speaker 1: the fighting. They fought in the breakers, they fought in
• 2:23:04
  Speaker 1: the sand, and they fought on the smooth, worn basalt
• 2:23:07
  Speaker 1: rocks of the nurseries. For they were just as stupid
• 2:23:09
  Speaker 1: and unaccommodating as men. Their wives never came to the
• 2:23:13
  Speaker 1: island until late in May or early in June, for
• 2:23:16
  Speaker 1: they did not care to be torn to pieces. And
• 2:23:19
  Speaker 1: the young two dash, three dash and four year old
• 2:23:22
  Speaker 1: seals who had not begun housekeeping, went inland about half
• 2:23:25
  Speaker 1: a mile through the ranks of the fighters, and played
• 2:23:27
  Speaker 1: about on the sand dunes in droves and legions, and
• 2:23:31
  Speaker 1: rubbed off every single green thing that grew. They were
• 2:23:35
  Speaker 1: called the Hollischickie the bachelors, and there were perhaps two
• 2:23:38
  Speaker 1: or three hundred thousand of them at Novstashna alone. Sea
• 2:23:43
  Speaker 1: Catch had just finished his forty fifth fight one spring
• 2:23:46
  Speaker 1: when Matka, his soft, sleek, gentle eyed wife, came up
• 2:23:50
  Speaker 1: out of the sea and he caught her by the
• 2:23:52
  Speaker 1: scruff of the neck and dumped her down on his reservation, saying, gruffly, late,
• 2:23:56
  Speaker 1: as usual, where have you been? It was as not
• 2:24:00
  Speaker 1: the fashion for sea catch to eat anything during the
• 2:24:02
  Speaker 1: four months he stayed on the beaches, and so his
• 2:24:05
  Speaker 1: temper was generally bad. Motka knew better than to answer back.
• 2:24:10
  Speaker 1: She looked round and cooed, how thoughtful of you. You've
• 2:24:14
  Speaker 1: taken the old place again. I should think I had said,
• 2:24:18
  Speaker 1: see catch, look at me. He was scratched and bleeding
• 2:24:23
  Speaker 1: in twenty places one I was almost out, and his
• 2:24:26
  Speaker 1: sides were torn to ribbons. Oh you men, you men,
• 2:24:31
  Speaker 1: Matka said, fanning herself with her hind flipper. Why can't
• 2:24:35
  Speaker 1: you be sensible and settle your places quietly? You look
• 2:24:39
  Speaker 1: as though you had been fighting with the killer whale.
• 2:24:42
  Speaker 1: I haven't been doing anything but fight since the middle
• 2:24:45
  Speaker 1: of May. The beach is disgracefully crowded this season. I've
• 2:24:50
  Speaker 1: met at least a hundred seals from lookin' on beach
• 2:24:53
  Speaker 1: house hunting. Why can't people stay where they belong? I've
• 2:24:57
  Speaker 1: often thought we should be much happier if we hauled
• 2:25:00
  Speaker 1: out at Otter Island, instead of this crowded place, said
• 2:25:03
  Speaker 1: Matka Bah. Only the hollischickie go to Otter Island. If
• 2:25:09
  Speaker 1: we went there, they would say we were afraid. We
• 2:25:12
  Speaker 1: must preserve appearances. My dear sea catch sunk his head
• 2:25:17
  Speaker 1: proudly between his fat shoulders and pretended to go to
• 2:25:19
  Speaker 1: sleep for a few minutes. But all the time he
• 2:25:22
  Speaker 1: was keeping a sharp lookout for a fight. Now that
• 2:25:26
  Speaker 1: all the seals and their wives were on the land,
• 2:25:28
  Speaker 1: you could hear their clamor miles out to see above
• 2:25:30
  Speaker 1: the loudest gales. At the lowest counting, there were over
• 2:25:34
  Speaker 1: a million seals on the beach, old seals, mother seals,
• 2:25:38
  Speaker 1: tiny babies, and hollis chickie, fighting, scuffling, bleeding, crawling and
• 2:25:43
  Speaker 1: playing together, going down to the sea and coming up
• 2:25:46
  Speaker 1: from it in gangs and regiments, lying over every foot
• 2:25:49
  Speaker 1: of ground as far as the eye could reach, and
• 2:25:52
  Speaker 1: skirmishing about in brigades through the fog. It is nearly
• 2:25:56
  Speaker 1: always foggy at Navastashna, except when the sun comes out
• 2:26:00
  Speaker 1: and makes everything look all pearly and rainbow colored for
• 2:26:03
  Speaker 1: a little while. Kodyk Matka's baby was born in the
• 2:26:07
  Speaker 1: middle of that confusion, and he was all head and shoulders,
• 2:26:10
  Speaker 1: with pale, watery blue eyes, as tiny seals must be.
• 2:26:14
  Speaker 1: But there was something about his coat that made his
• 2:26:16
  Speaker 1: mother look at him very closely. Sea catch. She said,
• 2:26:21
  Speaker 1: at last, our baby's going to be white, empty clam
• 2:26:25
  Speaker 1: shells and dry seaweed snorted sea catch. There never has
• 2:26:30
  Speaker 1: been such a thing in the world as a white seal.
• 2:26:33
  Speaker 1: I can't help that, said Matka. There's going to be now,
• 2:26:38
  Speaker 1: And she sang the low, crooning seal song that all
• 2:26:40
  Speaker 1: the mother seals sing to their babies. You mustn't swim
• 2:26:43
  Speaker 1: till you're six weeks old, or your head will be
• 2:26:46
  Speaker 1: sunk by your heels. And summer gales and killer whales
• 2:26:49
  Speaker 1: are bad for baby seals, are bad for baby seals,
• 2:26:53
  Speaker 1: dear rat, as bad as bad can be. But splash
• 2:26:57
  Speaker 1: and grow strong, and you can't be wrong, child of
• 2:27:01
  Speaker 1: the open sea. Of course, the little fellow did not
• 2:27:04
  Speaker 1: understand the words at first. He paddled and scrambled about
• 2:27:08
  Speaker 1: by his mother's side and learned to scuffle out of
• 2:27:11
  Speaker 1: the way when his father was fighting with another seal,
• 2:27:14
  Speaker 1: and the two rolled and roared up and down the
• 2:27:16
  Speaker 1: slippery rocks. Maka used to go to sea to get
• 2:27:19
  Speaker 1: things to eat, and the baby was fed only once
• 2:27:22
  Speaker 1: in two days, but then he ate all he could
• 2:27:24
  Speaker 1: and throve upon it. The first thing he did was
• 2:27:28
  Speaker 1: to crawl inland, and there he met tens of thousands
• 2:27:31
  Speaker 1: of babies of his own age, and they played together
• 2:27:33
  Speaker 1: like puppies, went to sleep on the clean sand, and
• 2:27:36
  Speaker 1: played again. The old people in the nurseries took no
• 2:27:40
  Speaker 1: notice of them, and the Hollischickie kept to their own grounds,
• 2:27:43
  Speaker 1: and the babies had a beautiful playtime. When Matka came
• 2:27:47
  Speaker 1: back from her deep sea fishing, she would go straight
• 2:27:49
  Speaker 1: to their playground and call as a sheep calls for
• 2:27:52
  Speaker 1: a lamb, and wait until she heard kodk bleat. Then
• 2:27:56
  Speaker 1: she would take the straightest of straight lines in his direction,
• 2:27:59
  Speaker 1: striking out with her four flippers and knocking the youngster's
• 2:28:02
  Speaker 1: head over heels, right and left. There were always a
• 2:28:05
  Speaker 1: few hundred mothers hunting for their children through the playgrounds,
• 2:28:08
  Speaker 1: and the babies were kept lively. But as Maka told Kodak,
• 2:28:13
  Speaker 1: so long as you don't lie in muddy water and
• 2:28:15
  Speaker 1: get mange or rub the hard sand into a cut
• 2:28:18
  Speaker 1: or scratch, and so long as you never go swimming
• 2:28:21
  Speaker 1: when there is a heavy sea. Nothing will hurt you here.
• 2:28:24
  Speaker 1: Little seals can no more swim than little children, but
• 2:28:28
  Speaker 1: they are unhappy till they learn. The first time that
• 2:28:31
  Speaker 1: Kodak went down to the sea, a wave carried him
• 2:28:34
  Speaker 1: out beyond his depth, and his big head sank and
• 2:28:36
  Speaker 1: his little hind flippers flew up, exactly as his mother
• 2:28:39
  Speaker 1: had told him in the song, And if the next
• 2:28:41
  Speaker 1: wave had not thrown him back again, he would have drowned.
• 2:28:45
  Speaker 1: After that, he learned to lie in a beech pool
• 2:28:48
  Speaker 1: and let the wash of the waves just cover him
• 2:28:50
  Speaker 1: and lift him up while he paddled, but he always
• 2:28:52
  Speaker 1: kept his eye open for big waves that might hurt.
• 2:28:56
  Speaker 1: He was two weeks learning to use his flippers, and
• 2:28:58
  Speaker 1: all that while he floundered in and out of the water,
• 2:29:01
  Speaker 1: and coughed and grunted, and crawled up the beach and
• 2:29:03
  Speaker 1: took cat naps on the sand and went back again,
• 2:29:06
  Speaker 1: until at last he found that he truly belonged to
• 2:29:09
  Speaker 1: the water. Then you can imagine the times that he
• 2:29:12
  Speaker 1: had with his companions, ducking under the rollers, or coming
• 2:29:16
  Speaker 1: in on top of a comber and landing with a
• 2:29:18
  Speaker 1: swash and a splutter. As the big wave went whirling
• 2:29:21
  Speaker 1: far up the beach, or standing up on his tail
• 2:29:23
  Speaker 1: and scratching his head as the old people did, or
• 2:29:26
  Speaker 1: playing I'm the King of the Castle on slippery, weedy
• 2:29:30
  Speaker 1: rocks that just stuck out of the wash. Now and
• 2:29:33
  Speaker 1: then he would see a thin fin like a big
• 2:29:36
  Speaker 1: shark's fin, drifting along close to shore, and he knew
• 2:29:39
  Speaker 1: that that was the killer whale, the grampus who eats
• 2:29:42
  Speaker 1: young seals when he can get them. And Kodak would
• 2:29:45
  Speaker 1: head for the beach like an arrow, and the fin
• 2:29:47
  Speaker 1: would jig off slowly, as if it were looking for
• 2:29:50
  Speaker 1: nothing at all. Late in October, the seals began to
• 2:29:54
  Speaker 1: leave Saint Paul's with a deep sea by families and tribes,
• 2:29:58
  Speaker 1: and there was no more fighting over the nurse wh
• 2:30:00
  Speaker 1: and the hollis Chiki played anywhere they liked. Next year,
• 2:30:04
  Speaker 1: said Matka to Kodak, you will be a hollis Chicky,
• 2:30:07
  Speaker 1: but this year you must learn how to catch fish.
• 2:30:10
  Speaker 1: They set out together across the Pacific, and Mahka showed
• 2:30:14
  Speaker 1: Kodok how to sleep on his back, with his flippers
• 2:30:16
  Speaker 1: tucked down by his side and his little nose just
• 2:30:19
  Speaker 1: out of the water. No cradle is so comfortable as
• 2:30:22
  Speaker 1: the long, rocking swell of the Pacific. When Kodak felt
• 2:30:26
  Speaker 1: his skin tingle all over, Maka told him he was
• 2:30:29
  Speaker 1: learning the feel of the water, and that tingly, prickly
• 2:30:32
  Speaker 1: feelings meant bad weather coming, and he must swim hard
• 2:30:35
  Speaker 1: and get away nine thousand, one hundred and sixty six
• 2:30:39
  Speaker 1: ten fathoms deep in a little time. She said, you'll
• 2:30:43
  Speaker 1: know where to swim to. But just now, we'll follow
• 2:30:45
  Speaker 1: sea pig the porpoise, for he is very wise. A
• 2:30:49
  Speaker 1: school of porpoises were ducking and tearing through the water,
• 2:30:53
  Speaker 1: and little Kodak followed them as fast as he could.
• 2:30:56
  Speaker 1: How do you know where to go to? He panted.
• 2:30:59
  Speaker 1: The leader of the school rolled his white eye and
• 2:31:02
  Speaker 1: duct under my tail tingles, youngster, He said, that means
• 2:31:07
  Speaker 1: there's a gale behind me. Come along when you're south
• 2:31:12
  Speaker 1: of the sticky water asterisk, he meant the equator, and
• 2:31:15
  Speaker 1: your tail tingles. That means there's a gale in front
• 2:31:17
  Speaker 1: of you and you must head north. Come along. The
• 2:31:22
  Speaker 1: water feels bad here. This was one of very many
• 2:31:25
  Speaker 1: things that Kodik learned, and he was always learning. Motka
• 2:31:29
  Speaker 1: taught him to follow the cod and the halibut along
• 2:31:32
  Speaker 1: the under sea banks and wrench the rockling out of
• 2:31:34
  Speaker 1: his hole among the weeds. How to skirt the wrecks
• 2:31:38
  Speaker 1: lying a hundred fathoms below water in dart like a
• 2:31:40
  Speaker 1: rifle bullet in at one porthole and out at another
• 2:31:43
  Speaker 1: as the fishes ran. How to dance on the top
• 2:31:46
  Speaker 1: of the waves when the lightning was racing all over
• 2:31:48
  Speaker 1: the sky, and wave his flipper politely to the stumpy
• 2:31:51
  Speaker 1: tailed albatross and the man of war hawk as they
• 2:31:54
  Speaker 1: went down the wind. How to jump three or four
• 2:31:57
  Speaker 1: feet clear of the water like a dolphin, flippers close
• 2:32:00
  Speaker 1: to the side and tail curved to leave the flying
• 2:32:03
  Speaker 1: fish alone because they are all bony. To take the
• 2:32:05
  Speaker 1: shoulder piece out of a cod at full speed ten
• 2:32:08
  Speaker 1: fathoms deep. And never to stop and look at a
• 2:32:10
  Speaker 1: boat or a ship, but particularly a row boat. At
• 2:32:14
  Speaker 1: the end of six months, what Kodak did not know
• 2:32:17
  Speaker 1: about deep sea fishing was not worth the knowing, and
• 2:32:20
  Speaker 1: all that time he never set flipper on dry ground.
• 2:32:24
  Speaker 1: One day, however, as he was lying half asleep in
• 2:32:28
  Speaker 1: the warm water somewhere off the island of Juan Fernandez,
• 2:32:31
  Speaker 1: he felt faint and lazy all over, just as human
• 2:32:34
  Speaker 1: people do when the spring is in their legs. And
• 2:32:37
  Speaker 1: he remembered the good, firm beaches of Novastashna, seven thousand
• 2:32:40
  Speaker 1: miles away the games his companions played, the smell of
• 2:32:44
  Speaker 1: the seaweed, the seal roar, and the fighting. That very
• 2:32:49
  Speaker 1: minute he turned north, swimming steadily, and as he went
• 2:32:52
  Speaker 1: on he met scores of his mates, all bound for
• 2:32:54
  Speaker 1: the same place. And they said, greeting, Kodak, this year
• 2:32:59
  Speaker 1: we are all Hollis chickie, and we can dance the
• 2:33:01
  Speaker 1: fire dance and the breakers off lookin' on and play
• 2:33:04
  Speaker 1: on the new grass. But where did you get that coat?
• 2:33:08
  Speaker 1: Kodak's fur was almost pure white now, and though he
• 2:33:11
  Speaker 1: felt very proud of it, he only said, swim quickly.
• 2:33:16
  Speaker 1: My bones are aching for the land. And so they
• 2:33:19
  Speaker 1: all came to the beaches where they had been born
• 2:33:21
  Speaker 1: and heard the old seals, their fathers fighting in the
• 2:33:25
  Speaker 1: rolling mist. That night, Kodak danced the fire dance with
• 2:33:29
  Speaker 1: the yearling seals. The sea is full of fire on
• 2:33:32
  Speaker 1: summer nights, all the way down from Novastashna to lookin' On,
• 2:33:36
  Speaker 1: and each seal leaves awake like burning oil behind him,
• 2:33:39
  Speaker 1: and a flaming flash when he jumps, and the waves
• 2:33:42
  Speaker 1: break in great phosphorescent streaks and swirls. Then they went
• 2:33:46
  Speaker 1: inland to the Hollis Chicky grounds and rolled up and
• 2:33:49
  Speaker 1: down in the new wild wheat and told stories of
• 2:33:51
  Speaker 1: what they had done while they had been at sea.
• 2:33:54
  Speaker 1: They talked about the Pacific as boys would talk about
• 2:33:57
  Speaker 1: a wood that they had been nutting in, And if
• 2:33:59
  Speaker 1: anyone had understood them, he could have gone away and
• 2:34:01
  Speaker 1: made such a chart of that ocean as never was.
• 2:34:05
  Speaker 1: The three and four year old Hollis Chickie romped down
• 2:34:08
  Speaker 1: from Hutchinson's Hill, crying, out of the way, youngsters, the
• 2:34:13
  Speaker 1: sea is deep and you don't know all that's in
• 2:34:15
  Speaker 1: it yet, wait till you've rounded the horn. Hi, you yearling,
• 2:34:20
  Speaker 1: where did you get that white coat? I didn't get it,
• 2:34:23
  Speaker 1: said Kodok. It grew, and just as he was going
• 2:34:28
  Speaker 1: to roll the speaker over, a couple of black haired
• 2:34:30
  Speaker 1: men with flat red faces came from behind a sand dune,
• 2:34:33
  Speaker 1: and Kodok, who had never seen a man before, coughed
• 2:34:36
  Speaker 1: and lowered his head. The Hollis Chickie just bundled off
• 2:34:40
  Speaker 1: a few yards and sat staring stupidly. The men were
• 2:34:44
  Speaker 1: no less than Krrik bood Erin, the chief of the
• 2:34:46
  Speaker 1: seal hunters on the island, and Pittaloman, his son. They
• 2:34:51
  Speaker 1: came from the little village not half a mile from
• 2:34:53
  Speaker 1: the sea nurseries, and they were deciding what seals they
• 2:34:56
  Speaker 1: would drive up to the killing pens, for the seals
• 2:34:58
  Speaker 1: were driven just like sheep, to be turned into sealskin jackets.
• 2:35:02
  Speaker 1: Later on, ho said Petaloman, look, there's a white seal.
• 2:35:09
  Speaker 1: Carrik Bouderin turned nearly white under his oil and smoke,
• 2:35:13
  Speaker 1: for he was an allute and alutes are not clean people.
• 2:35:17
  Speaker 1: Then he began to mutter a prayer. Don't touch him, Petaloman,
• 2:35:22
  Speaker 1: there has never been a white seal since since I
• 2:35:25
  Speaker 1: was born. Perhaps it is Old Zaharaf's ghost. He was
• 2:35:30
  Speaker 1: lost last year in the big Gale. I'm not going
• 2:35:33
  Speaker 1: near him, said Petaloman. He's unlucky. Do you really think
• 2:35:38
  Speaker 1: he is Old Zaharaf? Come back? I owe him for
• 2:35:42
  Speaker 1: some gulls eggs. Don't look at him, said Kerrick head Off.
• 2:35:47
  Speaker 1: That drove of four year olds. The men ought to
• 2:35:50
  Speaker 1: skin two hundred today, but it's the beginning of the
• 2:35:53
  Speaker 1: season and they are new to the work. A hundred
• 2:35:56
  Speaker 1: will do quick, Petaloman, rattle the pair of seals shoulder
• 2:36:01
  Speaker 1: bones in front of a herd of hollischiki, and they
• 2:36:03
  Speaker 1: stopped dead, puffing and blowing. Then he stepped near, and
• 2:36:07
  Speaker 1: the seals began to move, and Karrik headed them inland,
• 2:36:11
  Speaker 1: and they never tried to get back to their companions.
• 2:36:14
  Speaker 1: Hundreds and hundreds of thousands of seals watched them being driven,
• 2:36:18
  Speaker 1: but they went on playing just the same. Kodok was
• 2:36:21
  Speaker 1: the only one who asked questions, and none of his
• 2:36:24
  Speaker 1: companions could tell him anything except that the men always
• 2:36:27
  Speaker 1: drove seals in that way for six weeks or two
• 2:36:30
  Speaker 1: months of every year. I am going to follow, he said,
• 2:36:33
  Speaker 1: and his eyes nearly popped out of his head as
• 2:36:36
  Speaker 1: he shuffled along in the wake of the herd. The
• 2:36:39
  Speaker 1: white seal is coming after us, cried Petaloman. That's the
• 2:36:43
  Speaker 1: first time a seal has ever come to the killing
• 2:36:45
  Speaker 1: grounds alone. H s h. Don't look behind you, said Kerrik.
• 2:36:51
  Speaker 1: It is a horrice ghost. I must speak to the
• 2:36:55
  Speaker 1: priest about this. The distance to the killing grounds was
• 2:36:58
  Speaker 1: only half a mile, but it took an hour to
• 2:37:01
  Speaker 1: cover because if the seals went too fast, Karek knew
• 2:37:04
  Speaker 1: that they would get heated and then their fur would
• 2:37:06
  Speaker 1: come off in patches when they were skinned. So they
• 2:37:09
  Speaker 1: went on very slowly, past Sea Lion's Neck, past Webster House,
• 2:37:14
  Speaker 1: till they came to the salt house just beyond the
• 2:37:16
  Speaker 1: side of the seals on the beach. Kodak followed, panting
• 2:37:20
  Speaker 1: and wondering. He thought that he was at the world's end,
• 2:37:24
  Speaker 1: but the roar of the seal nurseries behind him sounded
• 2:37:26
  Speaker 1: as loud as the roar of a train in a tunnel.
• 2:37:30
  Speaker 1: Then Karek sat down on the moss and pulled out
• 2:37:32
  Speaker 1: a heavy pewter watch and let the drove cool off
• 2:37:35
  Speaker 1: for thirty minutes, and Kodak could hear the fog dew
• 2:37:38
  Speaker 1: dripping off the brim of his cap. Then ten or
• 2:37:41
  Speaker 1: twelve men, each with an iron bound club three or
• 2:37:44
  Speaker 1: four feet long, came up, and Karek pointed out one
• 2:37:47
  Speaker 1: or two of the drove that were bitten by their
• 2:37:49
  Speaker 1: companions or too hot, and the men kicked those aside
• 2:37:53
  Speaker 1: with their heavy boots made of the skin of a
• 2:37:55
  Speaker 1: walrus's throat, and then Karek said let go, and then
• 2:37:59
  Speaker 1: the men club the seals on the head as fast
• 2:38:02
  Speaker 1: as they could. Ten minutes later, little Kodak did not
• 2:38:05
  Speaker 1: recognize his friends any more, for their skins were ripped
• 2:38:08
  Speaker 1: off from the nose to the hind, flippers whipped off
• 2:38:11
  Speaker 1: and thrown down on the ground in a pile. That
• 2:38:14
  Speaker 1: was enough for Kodik. He turned and galloped a seal
• 2:38:18
  Speaker 1: can gallop, very swiftly for a short time back to
• 2:38:21
  Speaker 1: the sea, his little new mustache bristling with horror. At
• 2:38:25
  Speaker 1: sea lion's neck, where the great sea lions sit on
• 2:38:28
  Speaker 1: the edge of the surf, he flung himself flipper overhead
• 2:38:31
  Speaker 1: into the cool water and rocked there, gasping miserably. What's here,
• 2:38:37
  Speaker 1: set a sea lion, gruffly, For as a rule, the
• 2:38:40
  Speaker 1: sea lions keep themselves to themselves. Skutchny oaken, skutchney. I'm lonesome,
• 2:38:48
  Speaker 1: very lonesome, said Kodik. They're killing all the hollis chiki
• 2:38:52
  Speaker 1: on all the beeches. The sea lion turned his head inshore. Nonsense,
• 2:38:58
  Speaker 1: he said, you're your friends are making as much noise
• 2:39:01
  Speaker 1: as ever. You must have seen old Karrick polishing off
• 2:39:05
  Speaker 1: a drove. He's done that for thirty years it's horrible,
• 2:39:10
  Speaker 1: said Kodik, backing water as a wave went over him,
• 2:39:13
  Speaker 1: and steadying himself with a screw stroke of his flippers
• 2:39:16
  Speaker 1: that brought him all standing within three inches of a
• 2:39:19
  Speaker 1: jagged edge of rock. Well done for a yearling, said
• 2:39:24
  Speaker 1: the sea lion, who could appreciate good swimming. I suppose
• 2:39:28
  Speaker 1: it is rather awful from your way of looking at it.
• 2:39:30
  Speaker 1: But if you seals will come here year after year,
• 2:39:33
  Speaker 1: of course the men get to know of it. And
• 2:39:35
  Speaker 1: unless you can find an island where no men ever come,
• 2:39:37
  Speaker 1: you will always be driven. Isn't there any such island?
• 2:39:41
  Speaker 1: Began Kodik. I followed the Poulter's asterisk, the Halibut plus
• 2:39:46
  Speaker 1: four twenty years. And I can't say I've found it yet,
• 2:39:49
  Speaker 1: but look here. You seem to have a fondness for
• 2:39:52
  Speaker 1: talking to your betters. Suppose you go to Walrus Island
• 2:39:55
  Speaker 1: and talk to see Vich. He may know something. Don't
• 2:40:00
  Speaker 1: flounce off like that. It's a six mile swim, and
• 2:40:03
  Speaker 1: if I were you, I should haul out and take
• 2:40:05
  Speaker 1: a nap first. Little one Kodik thought that that was
• 2:40:09
  Speaker 1: good advice, so he swam round to his own beach,
• 2:40:12
  Speaker 1: hauled out and slept for half an hour, twitching all
• 2:40:15
  Speaker 1: over as seals will. Then he headed straight for Walrus Islet,
• 2:40:20
  Speaker 1: a little low sheet of rocky island almost due northeast
• 2:40:23
  Speaker 1: from Novastashna, all ledges and rock and gulls nests, where
• 2:40:27
  Speaker 1: the walrus herded by themselves. He landed close to old
• 2:40:31
  Speaker 1: Sea Vitch, the big, ugly bloated, pimpled, fat necked, long
• 2:40:36
  Speaker 1: tussed walrus of the North Pacific, who has no manners
• 2:40:39
  Speaker 1: except when he is asleep, as he was then with
• 2:40:42
  Speaker 1: his hind flippers half in and half out of the surf.
• 2:40:46
  Speaker 1: Wake up, barked Kodik, for the gulls were making a
• 2:40:49
  Speaker 1: great noise. Ha ho humph, what's that? Said Sea Vitch,
• 2:40:57
  Speaker 1: And he struck the next walrus a blow with his
• 2:41:00
  Speaker 1: tusks and waked him up, And the next struck the next,
• 2:41:03
  Speaker 1: and so on till they were all awake and staring
• 2:41:05
  Speaker 1: in every direction but the right one. Zero won, seven four.
• 2:41:10
  Speaker 1: They were all awake and staring in every direction but
• 2:41:13
  Speaker 1: the right one. Hi, it's me, said Kodik, bobbing in
• 2:41:18
  Speaker 1: the surf and looking like a little white slug. Well
• 2:41:22
  Speaker 1: may I be skinned, said Sievich, and they all looked
• 2:41:26
  Speaker 1: at Kodak as you can fancy a club full of
• 2:41:28
  Speaker 1: drowsy old gentlemen would look at a little boy. Kodak
• 2:41:32
  Speaker 1: did not care to hear any more about skinning. Just
• 2:41:34
  Speaker 1: then he had seen enough of it, so he called out,
• 2:41:38
  Speaker 1: isn't there any place for seals to go where men
• 2:41:41
  Speaker 1: don't ever come? Go and find out, said Sievich, shutting
• 2:41:45
  Speaker 1: his eyes, run away, We're busy here. Kodak made his
• 2:41:51
  Speaker 1: dolphin jump in the air and shouted as loud as
• 2:41:53
  Speaker 1: he could, clam eater, clam eater. He knew that Sivich
• 2:41:59
  Speaker 1: never caught a fish in his life, but always rooted
• 2:42:01
  Speaker 1: for clams and seaweed, though he pretended to be a
• 2:42:04
  Speaker 1: very terrible person. Naturally, the chickies and the gouvaruskis and
• 2:42:09
  Speaker 1: the Apachus, the bergamaster gulls, and the kittiwakes and the puffins,
• 2:42:13
  Speaker 1: who are always looking for a chance to be rude,
• 2:42:15
  Speaker 1: took up the cry, and so Limershen told me, for
• 2:42:19
  Speaker 1: nearly five minutes you could not have heard a gun
• 2:42:21
  Speaker 1: fired on Walrus Islet. All the population was yelling and
• 2:42:25
  Speaker 1: screaming clammeater, streak, Astoris gold man plus while Sievich rolled
• 2:42:31
  Speaker 1: from side to side, grunting and coughing. Now will you tell,
• 2:42:35
  Speaker 1: said Kodik, all out of breath, Go and ask sea Cow,
• 2:42:39
  Speaker 1: said Sievitch. If he is living still, he'll be able
• 2:42:43
  Speaker 1: to tell you. How Shall I know sea cow when
• 2:42:46
  Speaker 1: I meet him? Said Kodik, sheering off. He's the only
• 2:42:51
  Speaker 1: thing in the sea uglier than see Vich, screamed the
• 2:42:53
  Speaker 1: Bergamaster gull wheeling under Seavitch's nose, uglier and with worse
• 2:42:59
  Speaker 1: manners Styreek. Kodik swam back to Novstashna, leaving the gulls
• 2:43:05
  Speaker 1: to scream. There, he found that no one sympathized with
• 2:43:08
  Speaker 1: him in his little attempt to discover a quiet place
• 2:43:11
  Speaker 1: for the seals. They told him that men had always
• 2:43:15
  Speaker 1: driven the Hollischiki, it was part of the day's work,
• 2:43:18
  Speaker 1: and that if he did not like to see ugly things,
• 2:43:20
  Speaker 1: he should not have gone to the killing grounds. But
• 2:43:23
  Speaker 1: none of the other seals had seen the killing, and
• 2:43:25
  Speaker 1: that made the difference between him and his friends. Besides,
• 2:43:30
  Speaker 1: Kodok was a white seal. What you must do, said
• 2:43:33
  Speaker 1: old sea Catch, after he had heard his son's adventures,
• 2:43:37
  Speaker 1: is to grow up and be a big seal like
• 2:43:39
  Speaker 1: your father, and have a nursery on the beach, and
• 2:43:41
  Speaker 1: then they will leave you alone in another five years.
• 2:43:45
  Speaker 1: You ought to be able to fight for yourself, even
• 2:43:48
  Speaker 1: gentle Matka, his mother said, you will never be able
• 2:43:51
  Speaker 1: to stop the killing. Go and play in the sea,
• 2:43:55
  Speaker 1: Kodik and Kodak went off and danced the fire dance
• 2:43:59
  Speaker 1: with a very heavy life heart. That autumn, he left
• 2:44:02
  Speaker 1: the beach as soon as he could and set off
• 2:44:04
  Speaker 1: alone because of a notion in his bullet head. He
• 2:44:08
  Speaker 1: was going to find sea cow, if there was such
• 2:44:10
  Speaker 1: a person in the sea, and he was going to
• 2:44:12
  Speaker 1: find a quiet island with good firm beaches for seals
• 2:44:15
  Speaker 1: to live on where men could not get at them.
• 2:44:19
  Speaker 1: So he explored and explored by himself from the North
• 2:44:21
  Speaker 1: to the South Pacific, swimming as much as three hundred
• 2:44:24
  Speaker 1: miles in a day and a night. He met with
• 2:44:27
  Speaker 1: more adventures than can be told, and narrowly escaped being
• 2:44:31
  Speaker 1: caught by the basking shark and the spotted shark and
• 2:44:34
  Speaker 1: the hammer head, And he met all the untrustworthy ruffians
• 2:44:37
  Speaker 1: that loaf up and down the seas, and the heavy
• 2:44:39
  Speaker 1: polite fish and the scarlet spotted scallops that are moored
• 2:44:43
  Speaker 1: in one place for hundreds of years and grow very
• 2:44:46
  Speaker 1: proud of it. But he never met sea cow, and
• 2:44:49
  Speaker 1: he never found an island that he could fancy. If
• 2:44:52
  Speaker 1: the beach was good and hard, with a slope behind
• 2:44:55
  Speaker 1: it for seals to play on, there was always the
• 2:44:57
  Speaker 1: smoke of a whaler on the horizon, boiling down blubber,
• 2:45:01
  Speaker 1: and Kodak knew what that meant or else he could
• 2:45:04
  Speaker 1: see that seals had once visited the island and been
• 2:45:07
  Speaker 1: killed off, and Kodik knew that where men had come once,
• 2:45:10
  Speaker 1: they would come again. He picked up with an old,
• 2:45:13
  Speaker 1: stumpy tailed albatross who told him that Kerglen Island was
• 2:45:16
  Speaker 1: the very place for peace and quiet. And when Kodak
• 2:45:19
  Speaker 1: went down there, he was all but smashed to pieces
• 2:45:22
  Speaker 1: against some wicked black cliffs in a heavy sleet storm,
• 2:45:25
  Speaker 1: with lightning in thunder. Yet as he pulled out against
• 2:45:28
  Speaker 1: the gale, he could see that even there had once
• 2:45:30
  Speaker 1: been a seal nursery, and it was so in all
• 2:45:34
  Speaker 1: the other islands that he visited. Limoshen gave a long
• 2:45:37
  Speaker 1: list of them, for he said that Kodak spent five
• 2:45:40
  Speaker 1: seasons exploring with a four months rest each year at Navastashna,
• 2:45:44
  Speaker 1: when the Hollischiki used to make fun of him and
• 2:45:47
  Speaker 1: his imaginary islands. He went to the Galapagos, a horrid
• 2:45:51
  Speaker 1: dry place on the equator, where he was nearly baked
• 2:45:54
  Speaker 1: to death. He went to the Georgia Islands, the Orkneys,
• 2:45:57
  Speaker 1: Emerald Island, Little Nightingale Island, Gorov's Island, Bouvet's Island, the Crossets,
• 2:46:02
  Speaker 1: and even to a little speck of an island south
• 2:46:05
  Speaker 1: of the Cape of Good Hope. But everywhere the people
• 2:46:08
  Speaker 1: of the sea told him the same things. Seals had
• 2:46:12
  Speaker 1: come to those islands once upon a time, but men
• 2:46:14
  Speaker 1: had killed them all off. Even when he swam thousands
• 2:46:18
  Speaker 1: of miles out of the Pacific and got to a
• 2:46:20
  Speaker 1: place called Cape Corientes, that was when he was coming
• 2:46:23
  Speaker 1: back from Goff's Island. He found a few hundred mangy
• 2:46:26
  Speaker 1: seals on a rock, and they told him that men
• 2:46:28
  Speaker 1: came there too. That nearly broke his heart, and he
• 2:46:32
  Speaker 1: headed round the horn back to his own beeches. And
• 2:46:35
  Speaker 1: on his way north he hauled out on an island
• 2:46:37
  Speaker 1: full of green trees, where he found an old, old
• 2:46:40
  Speaker 1: seal who was dying and Kodak caught fish for him
• 2:46:43
  Speaker 1: and told him all his sorrows now, said Kodik, I
• 2:46:47
  Speaker 1: am going back to Novastashna, and if I am driven
• 2:46:50
  Speaker 1: to the killing pens with the hollis Chikie, I shall
• 2:46:52
  Speaker 1: not care. The old seal said, try once more. I
• 2:46:57
  Speaker 1: am the last of the lost rookery of Massafura. And
• 2:47:00
  Speaker 1: in the days when men killed us by the hundred thousand,
• 2:47:03
  Speaker 1: there was a story on the beaches that some day
• 2:47:05
  Speaker 1: a white seal would come out of the north and
• 2:47:07
  Speaker 1: lead the seal people to a quiet place. I am old,
• 2:47:11
  Speaker 1: and I shall never live to see that day, but
• 2:47:13
  Speaker 1: others will try once more. And Kodak curled up his mustache.
• 2:47:19
  Speaker 1: It was a beauty, and said, I am the only
• 2:47:22
  Speaker 1: white seal that has ever been born on the beeches,
• 2:47:24
  Speaker 1: and I am the only seal black or white, who
• 2:47:27
  Speaker 1: ever thought of looking for new islands. This cheered him immensely,
• 2:47:32
  Speaker 1: and when he came back to Novastashna that summer, Matka
• 2:47:35
  Speaker 1: his mother begged him to marry and settle down, for
• 2:47:38
  Speaker 1: he was no longer a hollischick, but a full grown
• 2:47:41
  Speaker 1: sea catch with a curly white mane on his shoulders.
• 2:47:44
  Speaker 1: As heavy, as big, and as fierce as his father.
• 2:47:48
  Speaker 1: Give me another season, he said, Remember, mother, it is
• 2:47:52
  Speaker 1: always the seventh wave that goes farthest up the beach.
• 2:47:56
  Speaker 1: Curiously enough, there was another seal who thought that she
• 2:47:59
  Speaker 1: would put off marrying till the next year, and Kodak
• 2:48:02
  Speaker 1: danced the fire dance with her all down lookin' on
• 2:48:04
  Speaker 1: beach the night before he set off on his last exploration.
• 2:48:09
  Speaker 1: This time he went westward because he had fallen on
• 2:48:11
  Speaker 1: the trail of a great shoal of Halibu, and he
• 2:48:14
  Speaker 1: needed at least one hundred pounds of fish a day
• 2:48:16
  Speaker 1: to keep him in good condition. He chased them till
• 2:48:19
  Speaker 1: he was tired, and then he curled himself up and
• 2:48:22
  Speaker 1: went to sleep on the hollows of the ground swell
• 2:48:24
  Speaker 1: that sets into Copper Island. He knew the coast perfectly well,
• 2:48:29
  Speaker 1: so about midnight, when he felt himself gently bumped on
• 2:48:32
  Speaker 1: a weed bed, he said, um tides running strong tonight
• 2:48:35
  Speaker 1: and turning over under water. Opened his eyes slowly and stretched.
• 2:48:40
  Speaker 1: Then he jumped like a cat, for he saw huge
• 2:48:42
  Speaker 1: things nosing about in the shoal water and browsing on
• 2:48:45
  Speaker 1: the heavy fringes of the weeds. By the great combers
• 2:48:49
  Speaker 1: of Magellan, he said beneath his mustache, Who in the
• 2:48:53
  Speaker 1: deep sea are these people? They were like no walrus,
• 2:48:57
  Speaker 1: sea lion, seal, bear, waiale, shark, fish, squid, or scallop
• 2:49:03
  Speaker 1: that Kodak had ever seen before. They were between twenty
• 2:49:06
  Speaker 1: and thirty feet long, and they had no hind flippers,
• 2:49:10
  Speaker 1: but a shovel like tail that looked as if it
• 2:49:12
  Speaker 1: had been whittled out of wet leather. Their heads were
• 2:49:15
  Speaker 1: the most foolish looking things you ever saw, and they
• 2:49:18
  Speaker 1: balanced on the ends of their tails in deep water
• 2:49:20
  Speaker 1: when they weren't grazing, bowing solemnly to each other and
• 2:49:23
  Speaker 1: waving their front flippers as a fat man waves his arm. Ahem,
• 2:49:28
  Speaker 1: said Kodik, good sport, gentlemen. The big things answered by
• 2:49:33
  Speaker 1: bowing and waving their flippers like the frog footmen. When
• 2:49:37
  Speaker 1: they began feeding again, Kodik saw that their upper lip
• 2:49:40
  Speaker 1: was split into two pieces that they could twitch apart
• 2:49:43
  Speaker 1: about a foot and bring together again. With a whole
• 2:49:45
  Speaker 1: bushel of seaweed between the splits, they tucked the stuff
• 2:49:49
  Speaker 1: into their mouths and chumped solemnly. Messy style of feeding, that,
• 2:49:54
  Speaker 1: said Kodik, They bowed again, and Kodak began to lose
• 2:49:58
  Speaker 1: his temper. Very good, he said, if you do happen
• 2:50:03
  Speaker 1: to have an extra joint in your front flipper, you
• 2:50:05
  Speaker 1: needn't show off. So I see you bow gracefully, but
• 2:50:09
  Speaker 1: I should like to know your names. The split lips
• 2:50:12
  Speaker 1: moved and twitched, and the glassy green eyes stared, but
• 2:50:16
  Speaker 1: they did not speak well, said Kodik, You're the only
• 2:50:20
  Speaker 1: people I've ever met uglier than sea vitch, and with
• 2:50:23
  Speaker 1: worse manners. Then he remembered in a flash what the
• 2:50:27
  Speaker 1: burgomaster gull had screamed to him when he was a
• 2:50:30
  Speaker 1: little yearling at Walrus Islet, and he tumbled backward in
• 2:50:33
  Speaker 1: the water, for he knew that he had found sea cow.
• 2:50:35
  Speaker 1: At last, the sea cows went on slooping and grazing
• 2:50:40
  Speaker 1: and chumping in the weed, and Kodik asked them questions
• 2:50:43
  Speaker 1: in every language that he had picked up in his travels,
• 2:50:45
  Speaker 1: and the sea people talk nearly as many languages as
• 2:50:48
  Speaker 1: human beings. But the sea cows did not answer, because
• 2:50:52
  Speaker 1: sea cow cannot talk. He has only six bones in
• 2:50:56
  Speaker 1: his neck, where he ought to have seven, and they
• 2:50:59
  Speaker 1: say under the sea that that prevents him from speaking
• 2:51:01
  Speaker 1: even to his companions. But as you know, he has
• 2:51:05
  Speaker 1: an extra joint in his fore flipper, and by waving
• 2:51:08
  Speaker 1: it up and down and about, he makes what answers
• 2:51:10
  Speaker 1: to a sort of clumsy telegraphic code. By daylight, Kodok's
• 2:51:14
  Speaker 1: man was standing on end, and his temper was gone
• 2:51:17
  Speaker 1: where the dead crabs go. Then the sea cow began
• 2:51:21
  Speaker 1: to travel northward, very slowly, stopping to hold absurd bowing
• 2:51:24
  Speaker 1: counsels from time to time, and Kodik followed them, saying
• 2:51:28
  Speaker 1: to himself, people who are such idiots as these? Or
• 2:51:31
  Speaker 1: what have been killed long ago if they hadn't found
• 2:51:34
  Speaker 1: out some safe island? And what is good enough for
• 2:51:37
  Speaker 1: the sea cow is good enough for the sea catch
• 2:51:40
  Speaker 1: all the same? I wish they'd hurry. It was weary
• 2:51:44
  Speaker 1: work for Kodok. The herd never went more than forty
• 2:51:48
  Speaker 1: or fifty miles a day, and stopped to feed at night,
• 2:51:51
  Speaker 1: and kept close to the shore all the time, while
• 2:51:53
  Speaker 1: Kodok swam round them and over them and under them,
• 2:51:57
  Speaker 1: But he could not hurry them up one half mile.
• 2:52:00
  Speaker 1: As they went farther north, they held a bowing council
• 2:52:02
  Speaker 1: every few hours, and Kodak nearly bit off his mustache
• 2:52:06
  Speaker 1: with impatience till he saw that they were following up
• 2:52:08
  Speaker 1: a warm current of water, and then he respected the more.
• 2:52:12
  Speaker 1: One night, they sank through the shiny water, sank like stones,
• 2:52:16
  Speaker 1: and for the first time since he had known them,
• 2:52:18
  Speaker 1: began to swim quickly. Kodak followed, and the pace astonished him,
• 2:52:23
  Speaker 1: for he never dreamed that sea cow was anything of
• 2:52:25
  Speaker 1: a swimmer. They headed for a cliff by the shore,
• 2:52:29
  Speaker 1: a cliff that ran down into deep water and plunged
• 2:52:32
  Speaker 1: into a dark hole at the foot of it, twenty
• 2:52:34
  Speaker 1: fathoms under the sea. It was a long, long swim,
• 2:52:39
  Speaker 1: and Kodak badly wanted fresh air. Before he was out
• 2:52:41
  Speaker 1: of the dark tunnel, they led him through my wig,
• 2:52:46
  Speaker 1: he said, when he rose, gasping and puffing, into open
• 2:52:50
  Speaker 1: water at the farther end. It was a long dive,
• 2:52:53
  Speaker 1: but it was worth it. The sea cows had separated
• 2:52:57
  Speaker 1: and were browsing lazily along the edges of the final
• 2:53:00
  Speaker 1: beaches that Kodak had ever seen. There were long stretches
• 2:53:04
  Speaker 1: of smooth, worn rock running for miles, exactly fitted to
• 2:53:07
  Speaker 1: make seal nurseries, and there were playgrounds of hard sand
• 2:53:10
  Speaker 1: sloping inland behind them, and there were rollers for seals
• 2:53:13
  Speaker 1: to dance in, and long grass to roll in, and
• 2:53:16
  Speaker 1: sand dunes to climb up and down. And best of all,
• 2:53:20
  Speaker 1: kodk knew, by the feel of the water, which never
• 2:53:23
  Speaker 1: deceives a true sea catch, that no men had ever
• 2:53:26
  Speaker 1: come there. The first thing he did was to assure
• 2:53:30
  Speaker 1: himself that the fishing was good. And then he swam
• 2:53:32
  Speaker 1: along the beaches and counted up the delightful low sandy islands,
• 2:53:36
  Speaker 1: half hidden in the beautiful rolling fog. Away to the northward,
• 2:53:40
  Speaker 1: out to sea ran a line of bars and shoals
• 2:53:43
  Speaker 1: and rocks that would never let a ship come within
• 2:53:45
  Speaker 1: six miles of the beach. And between the islands and
• 2:53:48
  Speaker 1: the mainland was a stretch of deep water that ran
• 2:53:51
  Speaker 1: up to the perpendicular cliffs, And somewhere below the cliffs
• 2:53:54
  Speaker 1: was the mouth of the tunnel. It's Novustashna over again,
• 2:53:58
  Speaker 1: but ten times better at Kodik Sea. Cow must be
• 2:54:02
  Speaker 1: wiser than I thought. Men can't come down the cliffs
• 2:54:06
  Speaker 1: even if there were any men, and the shoals to
• 2:54:08
  Speaker 1: seaward would knock a ship to splinters. If any place
• 2:54:12
  Speaker 1: in the sea is safe, this is it, he began
• 2:54:15
  Speaker 1: to think of the seal he had left behind him.
• 2:54:18
  Speaker 1: But though he was in a hurry to go back
• 2:54:20
  Speaker 1: to Novastashna, he thoroughly explored the new country so that
• 2:54:23
  Speaker 1: he would be able to answer all questions. Then he
• 2:54:27
  Speaker 1: dived and made sure of the mouth of the tunnel,
• 2:54:29
  Speaker 1: and raced through to the southward. No one but a
• 2:54:32
  Speaker 1: sea cow or a seal would have dreamed of there
• 2:54:35
  Speaker 1: being such a place, And when he looked back at
• 2:54:37
  Speaker 1: the cliffs, even Kodak could hardly believe that he had
• 2:54:40
  Speaker 1: been under them. He was six days going home, though
• 2:54:44
  Speaker 1: he was not swimming slowly, And when he hauled out
• 2:54:47
  Speaker 1: just above Sea Lion's Neck, the first person he met
• 2:54:49
  Speaker 1: was the seal who had been waiting for him, and
• 2:54:52
  Speaker 1: she saw by the look in his eyes that he
• 2:54:54
  Speaker 1: had found his island at last. But the Hollischickie and
• 2:54:57
  Speaker 1: sea catch, his father and all the the other seals
• 2:55:00
  Speaker 1: laughed at him when he told them what he had discovered,
• 2:55:03
  Speaker 1: and a young seal about his own age said, this
• 2:55:05
  Speaker 1: is all very well, Kodk, but you can't come from
• 2:55:08
  Speaker 1: no one knows where and order us off like this.
• 2:55:12
  Speaker 1: Remember we've been fighting for our nurseries, and that's a
• 2:55:14
  Speaker 1: thing you never did. You preferred prowling about in the sea.
• 2:55:19
  Speaker 1: The other seals laughed at this, and the young seal
• 2:55:22
  Speaker 1: began twisting his head from side to side. He had
• 2:55:26
  Speaker 1: just married that year and was making a great fuss
• 2:55:28
  Speaker 1: about it. I've no nursery to fight for, said Kodik.
• 2:55:33
  Speaker 1: I only want to show you all a place where
• 2:55:35
  Speaker 1: you will be safe. What's the use of fighting, Oh,
• 2:55:39
  Speaker 1: if you're trying to back out, of course, I've no
• 2:55:42
  Speaker 1: more to say, said the young seal, with an ugly chuckle.
• 2:55:46
  Speaker 1: Will you come with me if I win, said Kodik,
• 2:55:49
  Speaker 1: and a green light came into his eye, for he
• 2:55:52
  Speaker 1: was very angry at having to fight at all. Very good,
• 2:55:56
  Speaker 1: said the young seal carelessly. If you win, I'll come.
• 2:56:01
  Speaker 1: He had no time to change his mind, for Kodak's
• 2:56:04
  Speaker 1: head was out and his teeth sunk in the blubber
• 2:56:06
  Speaker 1: of the young seal's neck. Then he threw himself back
• 2:56:09
  Speaker 1: on his haunches and hauled his enemy down the beach,
• 2:56:12
  Speaker 1: shook him and knocked him over. Then Kodak roared to
• 2:56:16
  Speaker 1: the seals, I've done my best for you these five
• 2:56:19
  Speaker 1: seasons past, I've found you the island where you'll be safe.
• 2:56:23
  Speaker 1: But unless your heads are dragged off your silly necks,
• 2:56:25
  Speaker 1: you won't believe I'm going to teach you. Now look
• 2:56:29
  Speaker 1: out for yourselves. Limoshen told me that never in his life,
• 2:56:34
  Speaker 1: and Limoshen sees ten thousand big seals fighting every year,
• 2:56:38
  Speaker 1: never in all his little life did he see anything
• 2:56:40
  Speaker 1: like Kodak's charge into the nurseries. He flung himself at
• 2:56:44
  Speaker 1: the biggest sea catch he could find, caught him by
• 2:56:47
  Speaker 1: the throat, choked him and bumped him and banged him
• 2:56:49
  Speaker 1: till he grunted for mercy, and then threw him aside
• 2:56:52
  Speaker 1: and attacked the next You see, Kodak had never fasted
• 2:56:57
  Speaker 1: for four months, as the big seals did every year,
• 2:57:00
  Speaker 1: and his deep sea swimming trips kept him in perfect condition.
• 2:57:03
  Speaker 1: And best of all, he had never fought before. His
• 2:57:07
  Speaker 1: curly white mane stood up with rage, and his eyes flamed,
• 2:57:11
  Speaker 1: and his big dog teeth glistened, and he was splendid
• 2:57:14
  Speaker 1: to look at old sea catch. His father saw him
• 2:57:18
  Speaker 1: tearing past, hauling the grizzled old seals about as though
• 2:57:21
  Speaker 1: they had been hal of it, and upsetting the young
• 2:57:23
  Speaker 1: bachelors in all directions, and Sea Catch gave a roar
• 2:57:27
  Speaker 1: and shouted, he may be a fool, but he is
• 2:57:29
  Speaker 1: the best fighter on the beaches. Don't tackle your father,
• 2:57:33
  Speaker 1: my son, he's with you. Kodak roared in answer, and
• 2:57:38
  Speaker 1: Old Sea Catch waddled in with his mustache on end,
• 2:57:41
  Speaker 1: blowing like a locomotive, while Motka and the seal that
• 2:57:45
  Speaker 1: was going to marry Kodak cowered down and admired their
• 2:57:47
  Speaker 1: men folk. It was a gorgeous fight, for the two
• 2:57:51
  Speaker 1: fought as long as there was a seal that dared
• 2:57:53
  Speaker 1: lift up his head, and when there were none, they
• 2:57:55
  Speaker 1: paraded grandly up and down the beach, side by side, bellowing.
• 2:58:00
  Speaker 1: At night, just as the northern lights were winking and
• 2:58:03
  Speaker 1: flashing through the fog, Kodak climbed a bare rock and
• 2:58:06
  Speaker 1: looked down on the scattered nurseries and the torn and
• 2:58:08
  Speaker 1: bleeding seals. Now, he said, I've taught you your lesson,
• 2:58:14
  Speaker 1: my wig, said Old Sea Catch, boosting himself up stiffly,
• 2:58:18
  Speaker 1: for he was fearfully mauled. The killer wail himself could
• 2:58:22
  Speaker 1: not have cut them up worse, son, I'm proud of you,
• 2:58:26
  Speaker 1: And what's more, I'll come with you to your island,
• 2:58:29
  Speaker 1: if there is such a place. Hear you, fat pigs
• 2:58:32
  Speaker 1: of the sea, who comes with me to the Sea
• 2:58:35
  Speaker 1: Cow's tunnel? Answer, or I shall teach you again, roared Kodik.
• 2:58:41
  Speaker 1: There was a murmur like the ripple of the tide,
• 2:58:43
  Speaker 1: all up and down the beaches. We will come, said
• 2:58:47
  Speaker 1: thousands of tired voices. We will follow Kodik, the white seal.
• 2:58:53
  Speaker 1: Then Kodok dropped his head between his shoulders and shut
• 2:58:56
  Speaker 1: his eyes proudly. He was not a white seal any more,
• 2:59:00
  Speaker 1: but read from head to tail all the same. He
• 2:59:03
  Speaker 1: would have scorned to look at or touch one of
• 2:59:05
  Speaker 1: his wounds. A week later, he and his army, nearly
• 2:59:09
  Speaker 1: ten thousand hollischiki and old seals, went away north to
• 2:59:12
  Speaker 1: the Sea Cow's Tunnel, Kodk leading them, and the seals
• 2:59:15
  Speaker 1: that stayed at Navastashna called the idiots. But next spring,
• 2:59:20
  Speaker 1: when they all met off the fishing banks of the Pacific,
• 2:59:23
  Speaker 1: Kodk seals told such tales of the new beaches beyond
• 2:59:26
  Speaker 1: Sea Cow's Tunnel that more and more seals left Navastashna.
• 2:59:30
  Speaker 1: Of course, it was not all done at once, for
• 2:59:33
  Speaker 1: the seals are not very clever, and they need a
• 2:59:35
  Speaker 1: long time to turn things over in their minds. But
• 2:59:38
  Speaker 1: year after year more seals went away from Novastashna and
• 2:59:41
  Speaker 1: lookin' On and the other nurseries to the quiet, sheltered
• 2:59:45
  Speaker 1: beaches where Kodek sits all the summer through, getting bigger
• 2:59:49
  Speaker 1: and fatter and stronger each year, while the Hollischiki play
• 2:59:52
  Speaker 1: around him in that sea where no man comes. Lookin' On.
• 2:59:56
  Speaker 1: This is the great deep sea song that all the
• 2:59:59
  Speaker 1: Saint Paul seals sing when they are heading back to
• 3:00:01
  Speaker 1: their beaches in the summer. It is a sort of
• 3:00:04
  Speaker 1: very sad, sealed national anthem. I met my mates in
• 3:00:08
  Speaker 1: the morning, and oh but I am old. Where roaring
• 3:00:12
  Speaker 1: on the ledges the summer ground swell rolled, I heard
• 3:00:15
  Speaker 1: them lift the chorus that drowned the breaker's song, the
• 3:00:18
  Speaker 1: beaches of Loucanon, two million voices strong, the song of
• 3:00:22
  Speaker 1: pleasant stations beside the salt lagoons, The song of blowing
• 3:00:26
  Speaker 1: squadrons that shuffled down the dunes, The song of midnight
• 3:00:29
  Speaker 1: dances that churned the sea to flame, the beaches of
• 3:00:32
  Speaker 1: Lucanon before the sealers came. I met my mates in
• 3:00:36
  Speaker 1: the morning, I'll never meet them more. They came and
• 3:00:39
  Speaker 1: went in legions that darkened all the shore, and o'er
• 3:00:43
  Speaker 1: the foam flecked offing as far as voice could reach.
• 3:00:46
  Speaker 1: We hailed the landing parties, and we sang them up
• 3:00:48
  Speaker 1: the beach. The beaches of Locanon, the winter wheat so tall,
• 3:00:53
  Speaker 1: the dripping crinkled lichens, and the sea fog drenching all
• 3:00:57
  Speaker 1: the platforms of our playground all shine smooth and worn.
• 3:01:02
  Speaker 1: The beeches of Locanan, the home where we were born.
• 3:01:06
  Speaker 1: I met my mates in the morning, a broken scattered band.
• 3:01:10
  Speaker 1: Men shoot us in the water and club us on
• 3:01:12
  Speaker 1: the land. Men drive us to the salt house like
• 3:01:15
  Speaker 1: silly sheep, and tame, and still we sing lookinon before
• 3:01:18
  Speaker 1: the sealers came. Will down, Will down to southward, Oh Govoruska,
• 3:01:24
  Speaker 1: go and tell the deep sea viceroys the story of
• 3:01:27
  Speaker 1: our woe. Air empty as the shark's egg, the tempest
• 3:01:31
  Speaker 1: flings ashore. The beeches of Locanon shall know their sons
• 3:01:34
  Speaker 1: no more. Zero one nine five Ricky Tiki Tavi at
• 3:01:39
  Speaker 1: the hole where he went in. Red Eye called to Wrinkleskin.
• 3:01:42
  Speaker 1: Hear what little Red Eye saeth nag come up and
• 3:01:45
  Speaker 1: dance with death, eye to eye and head to head.
• 3:01:49
  Speaker 1: Keep the measure, nag. This shall end when one is
• 3:01:53
  Speaker 1: dead at thy pleasure. Nag. Turn for turn, and twist
• 3:01:57
  Speaker 1: for twist. Run and hide thee nag Ha, the hooded
• 3:02:02
  Speaker 1: death has missed. Woe betide thee nag. This is the
• 3:02:07
  Speaker 1: story of the great war that rik Tiki Tavi fought
• 3:02:10
  Speaker 1: single handed through the bath rooms of the big bungalow
• 3:02:13
  Speaker 1: in Segaly Cantonment. Darzi the tailor bird, helped him, and Chichundra,
• 3:02:19
  Speaker 1: the muskrat, who never comes out into the middle of
• 3:02:22
  Speaker 1: the floor but always creeps round by the wall, gave
• 3:02:25
  Speaker 1: him advice. But Rikitiki did the real fighting. He was
• 3:02:29
  Speaker 1: a mongoose, rather like a little cat in his fur
• 3:02:32
  Speaker 1: and his tail, but quite like a weasel in his
• 3:02:35
  Speaker 1: head and his habits. His eyes and the end of
• 3:02:38
  Speaker 1: his restless nose were pink. He could scratch himself anywhere
• 3:02:42
  Speaker 1: he pleased with any leg, front or back that he
• 3:02:45
  Speaker 1: chose to use. He could fluff up his tail till
• 3:02:49
  Speaker 1: it looked like a bottle brush, and his war cry
• 3:02:51
  Speaker 1: as he scuttled through the long grass was rick tik
• 3:02:54
  Speaker 1: Tiki tiki t h K. One day, a high summer
• 3:02:58
  Speaker 1: flood washed him out of the burrow where he lived
• 3:03:00
  Speaker 1: with his father and mother, and carried him, kicking and clucking,
• 3:03:04
  Speaker 1: down a roadside ditch. He found a little wisp of
• 3:03:07
  Speaker 1: grass floating there and clung to it till he lost
• 3:03:10
  Speaker 1: his senses. When he revived, he was lying in the
• 3:03:14
  Speaker 1: hot sun on the middle of a garden path, very
• 3:03:16
  Speaker 1: draggled indeed, and a small boy was saying, here's a
• 3:03:19
  Speaker 1: dead mongoose. Let's have a funeral. No, said his mother.
• 3:03:25
  Speaker 1: Let's take him in and dry him. Perhaps he isn't
• 3:03:28
  Speaker 1: really dead. They took him into the house, and a
• 3:03:32
  Speaker 1: big man picked him up between his finger and thumb
• 3:03:34
  Speaker 1: and said he was not dead, but half choked. So
• 3:03:38
  Speaker 1: they wrapped him in cotton wool and warned him over
• 3:03:40
  Speaker 1: a little fire, and he opened his eyes and sneezed. Now,
• 3:03:45
  Speaker 1: said the big man. He was an Englishman who had
• 3:03:47
  Speaker 1: just moved into the bungalow. Don't frighten him, and we'll
• 3:03:50
  Speaker 1: see what he'll do. It is the hardest thing in
• 3:03:53
  Speaker 1: the world to frighten a mongoose, because he is eaten
• 3:03:56
  Speaker 1: up from nose to tail with curiosity The motto of
• 3:04:00
  Speaker 1: all the mongoose family is run and find out, and
• 3:04:03
  Speaker 1: Ricky Ticky was a true mongoose. He looked at the
• 3:04:07
  Speaker 1: cotton wool, decided that it was not good to eat,
• 3:04:10
  Speaker 1: ran all round the table, sat up and put his
• 3:04:12
  Speaker 1: fur in order, scratched himself, and jumped on the small
• 3:04:15
  Speaker 1: boy's shoulder. Eight thousand, one hundred and ninety seven. Ricky
• 3:04:19
  Speaker 1: Ticky looked down between the boy's collar and neck. Don't
• 3:04:22
  Speaker 1: be frightened, Teddy, said his father. That's his way of
• 3:04:26
  Speaker 1: making friends. Ouch. He's tickling under my chin, said Teddy.
• 3:04:33
  Speaker 1: Ricky Ticky looked down between the boy's collar and neck,
• 3:04:36
  Speaker 1: snuffed at his ear, and climbed down to the floor,
• 3:04:39
  Speaker 1: where he sat rubbing his nose. Good gracious, said Teddy's mother.
• 3:04:44
  Speaker 1: And that's a wild creature. I suppose he's so tame
• 3:04:47
  Speaker 1: because we've been kind to him. All mongoosays are like that,
• 3:04:52
  Speaker 1: said her husband. If Teddy doesn't pick him up by
• 3:04:55
  Speaker 1: the tail or, try to put him in a cage,
• 3:04:57
  Speaker 1: he'll run in and out of the house all day long.
• 3:05:01
  Speaker 1: Let's give him something to eat. They gave him a
• 3:05:04
  Speaker 1: little piece of raw meat. Rick Ticky liked it immensely,
• 3:05:08
  Speaker 1: and when it was finished, he went out into the
• 3:05:10
  Speaker 1: verandah and sat in the sunshine and fluffed up his
• 3:05:13
  Speaker 1: fur to make it dry to the roots. Then he
• 3:05:16
  Speaker 1: felt better zero one nine eight. He put his nose
• 3:05:20
  Speaker 1: into the ink. There are more things to find out
• 3:05:22
  Speaker 1: about in this house, he said to himself, than all
• 3:05:25
  Speaker 1: my family could find out in all their lives. I
• 3:05:29
  Speaker 1: shall certainly stay and find out. He spent all that
• 3:05:32
  Speaker 1: day roaming over the house. He nearly drowned himself in
• 3:05:36
  Speaker 1: the bath tubs, put his nose into the ink on
• 3:05:39
  Speaker 1: a writing table, and burned it on the end of
• 3:05:41
  Speaker 1: the big Man's cigar. For he climbed up in the
• 3:05:43
  Speaker 1: big Man's lap to see how writing was done. At nightfall,
• 3:05:47
  Speaker 1: he ran into Teddy's nursery to watch how kerosene lamps
• 3:05:50
  Speaker 1: were lighted. And when Teddy went to bed, Riki Ticky
• 3:05:53
  Speaker 1: climbed up too. But he was a restless companion because
• 3:05:57
  Speaker 1: he had to get up and attend to every noise
• 3:05:59
  Speaker 1: all through the night and find out what made it.
• 3:06:03
  Speaker 1: Teddy's mother and father came in the last thing to
• 3:06:06
  Speaker 1: look at their boy, and Ricky Ticky was awake on
• 3:06:09
  Speaker 1: the pillow I don't like that, said Teddy's mother. He
• 3:06:13
  Speaker 1: may bite the child. He'll do no such thing, said
• 3:06:17
  Speaker 1: the father. Teddy's safer with that little beast than if
• 3:06:21
  Speaker 1: he had a bloodhound to watch him if a snake
• 3:06:24
  Speaker 1: came into the nursery. Now zero one nine nine, Ricky
• 3:06:27
  Speaker 1: Ticky was awake on the pillow, but Teddy's mother wouldn't
• 3:06:31
  Speaker 1: think of anything so awful. Early in the morning, Ricky
• 3:06:35
  Speaker 1: Ticky came to early breakfast in the veranda, riding on
• 3:06:38
  Speaker 1: Teddy's shoulder, and they gave him banana and some boiled egg.
• 3:06:42
  Speaker 1: He sat on all their laps, one after the other.
• 3:06:44
  Speaker 1: Because every well brought up mongoose always hopes to be
• 3:06:47
  Speaker 1: a house mongoose some day and have rooms to run
• 3:06:50
  Speaker 1: about in. And Ricky Ticky's mother, she used to live
• 3:06:53
  Speaker 1: in the General's house at Segelee, had carefully told Ricky
• 3:06:56
  Speaker 1: what to do if ever he came across white men
• 3:07:00
  Speaker 1: nine thousand, two hundred. He came to breakfast riding on
• 3:07:03
  Speaker 1: Teddy's shoulder. Then Ricki Ticky went out into the garden
• 3:07:07
  Speaker 1: to see what was to be seen. It was a
• 3:07:10
  Speaker 1: large garden, only half cultivated, with bushes as big as
• 3:07:13
  Speaker 1: summer houses of marshal neil, roses, lime and orange trees,
• 3:07:18
  Speaker 1: clumps of bamboos, and thickets of high grass. Rickie Ticky
• 3:07:23
  Speaker 1: licked his lips. This is a splendid hunting ground, he said,
• 3:07:27
  Speaker 1: And his tail grew bottle brushy at the thought of it.
• 3:07:30
  Speaker 1: And he scuttled up and down the garden, snuffing here
• 3:07:33
  Speaker 1: and there, till he heard very sorrowful voices in a
• 3:07:36
  Speaker 1: thorn bush. It was Darzy, the tailor bird, and his wife.
• 3:07:41
  Speaker 1: They had made a beautiful nest by pulling two big
• 3:07:44
  Speaker 1: leaves together and stitching them up the edges with fibers,
• 3:07:47
  Speaker 1: and had filled the hollow with cotton and downy fluff.
• 3:07:50
  Speaker 1: The nest swayed to and fro as they sat on
• 3:07:53
  Speaker 1: the rim and cried. Zero two zero one. We are
• 3:07:57
  Speaker 1: very miserable, said Darzy. What is the matter, asked Rikitiki.
• 3:08:03
  Speaker 1: We are very miserable, said Darzy. One of our babies
• 3:08:07
  Speaker 1: fell out of the nest yesterday and nag ate him.
• 3:08:10
  Speaker 1: Hum said Riki Ticky. That is very sad, But I
• 3:08:14
  Speaker 1: am a stranger here who is nag Darzy and his
• 3:08:18
  Speaker 1: wife only cowered down in the nest without answering for
• 3:08:21
  Speaker 1: from the thick grass at the foot of the bush
• 3:08:23
  Speaker 1: there came a low hiss, a horrid cold sound that
• 3:08:26
  Speaker 1: made Rikitiki jump back two clear feet. Then inch by inch,
• 3:08:31
  Speaker 1: out of the grass rose up the head and spread
• 3:08:33
  Speaker 1: hood of Nag, the big black cobra, And he was
• 3:08:36
  Speaker 1: five feet long from tongue to tail. When he had
• 3:08:39
  Speaker 1: lifted one third of himself clear of the ground, he
• 3:08:42
  Speaker 1: stayed balancing to and fro, exactly as a dandelion tufted
• 3:08:45
  Speaker 1: balances in the wind. And he looked at Riki Ticky
• 3:08:48
  Speaker 1: with the wicked snake's eyes that never changed their expression.
• 3:08:52
  Speaker 1: Whatever the snake may be thinking of, who is Nag?
• 3:08:55
  Speaker 1: Said he? I am Nag. The great god Brahm put
• 3:09:00
  Speaker 1: his mark upon all our people. When the first cobra
• 3:09:03
  Speaker 1: spread his hood to keep the son off Brahm as
• 3:09:05
  Speaker 1: he slept, look and be afraid zero two zero three,
• 3:09:11
  Speaker 1: I am Nag, said the cobra look and be afraid.
• 3:09:15
  Speaker 1: But at the bottom of his cold heart he was afraid.
• 3:09:19
  Speaker 1: He spread out his hood more than ever, and Ricky
• 3:09:22
  Speaker 1: Ticky saw the spectacle mark on the back of it
• 3:09:24
  Speaker 1: that looks exactly like the I part of a hook
• 3:09:26
  Speaker 1: and eye fastening. He was afraid for the minute, but
• 3:09:30
  Speaker 1: it is impossible for a mongoose to stay frightened for
• 3:09:32
  Speaker 1: any length of time. And though Ricky Ticky had never
• 3:09:35
  Speaker 1: met a live cobra before, his mother had fed him
• 3:09:38
  Speaker 1: on dead ones, and he knew that all a grown
• 3:09:40
  Speaker 1: mongoose's business in life was to fight and eat snakes.
• 3:09:44
  Speaker 1: Nag knew that two end at the bottom of his
• 3:09:47
  Speaker 1: cold heart. He was afraid five thousand, two hundred and
• 3:09:51
  Speaker 1: fifty Ricky Tiki tavi in nag well, said Ricky Ticky,
• 3:09:55
  Speaker 1: and his tail began to fluff up again. Marks or
• 3:09:58
  Speaker 1: no marks? Do you think it is right for you
• 3:10:00
  Speaker 1: to eat fledglings out of a nest? Nag was thinking
• 3:10:04
  Speaker 1: to himself and watching the least little movement in the
• 3:10:06
  Speaker 1: grass behind Ricky Ticky. He knew that mongoosys in the
• 3:10:10
  Speaker 1: garden meant death sooner or later for him and his family.
• 3:10:13
  Speaker 1: But he wanted to get Ricky Ticky off his guard,
• 3:10:17
  Speaker 1: so he dropped his head a little and put it
• 3:10:19
  Speaker 1: on one side. Let us talk. He said, you eat eggs,
• 3:10:25
  Speaker 1: why should not I eat birds? Behind you? Look behind you,
• 3:10:30
  Speaker 1: sang Darzy zero two zero seven. He jumped up in
• 3:10:35
  Speaker 1: the air, and just under him whizzed by the head
• 3:10:37
  Speaker 1: of Nagenna Ricki. Ticky knew better than to waste time
• 3:10:40
  Speaker 1: in staring. He jumped up in the air as high
• 3:10:43
  Speaker 1: as he could go, and just under him whizzed by
• 3:10:46
  Speaker 1: the head of Nagenna, Nag's wicked wife. She had crept
• 3:10:50
  Speaker 1: up behind him as he was talking to make an
• 3:10:52
  Speaker 1: end of him. He heard her savage hiss as the
• 3:10:55
  Speaker 1: stroke missed. He came down almost across her back, and
• 3:10:59
  Speaker 1: if he had been an old mongoose, he would have
• 3:11:01
  Speaker 1: known that then was the time to break her back
• 3:11:03
  Speaker 1: with one bite, but he was afraid of the terrible
• 3:11:06
  Speaker 1: lashing returned stroke of the cobra. He bit indeed, but
• 3:11:10
  Speaker 1: did not bite long enough, and he jumped clear of
• 3:11:13
  Speaker 1: the whisking tail, leaving the againa torn and angry, wicked,
• 3:11:17
  Speaker 1: wicked Darzy said nag lashing up as high as he
• 3:11:21
  Speaker 1: could reach toward the nest in a thorn bush, But
• 3:11:24
  Speaker 1: Darzi had built it out of reach of snakes, and
• 3:11:26
  Speaker 1: it only swayed to and fro Rikitiky felt his eyes
• 3:11:30
  Speaker 1: growing red and hot. When a mongoose's eyes grow red,
• 3:11:34
  Speaker 1: he is angry, and he sat back on his tail
• 3:11:36
  Speaker 1: and hind legs like a little kangaroo, and looked all
• 3:11:39
  Speaker 1: round him and chattered with rage. But nag and Nigena
• 3:11:43
  Speaker 1: had disappeared into the grass. When a snake misses its stroke,
• 3:11:48
  Speaker 1: it never says anything or gives any sign of what
• 3:11:50
  Speaker 1: it means to do next. Rikitiky did not care to
• 3:11:54
  Speaker 1: follow them, for he did not feel sure that he
• 3:11:56
  Speaker 1: could manage two snakes at once, so he tried got
• 3:12:00
  Speaker 1: it off to the gravel path near the house and
• 3:12:02
  Speaker 1: sat down to think. It was a serious matter for him.
• 3:12:07
  Speaker 1: If you read the old books of natural history, you
• 3:12:10
  Speaker 1: will find they say that when the mongoose fights the
• 3:12:12
  Speaker 1: snake and happens to get bitten, he runs off and
• 3:12:15
  Speaker 1: eats some herb that cures him. That is not true.
• 3:12:19
  Speaker 1: The victory is only a matter of quickness of eye
• 3:12:22
  Speaker 1: and quickness of foot. Snakes blow against mongoose's jump, and
• 3:12:25
  Speaker 1: as no eye can follow the motion of a snake's
• 3:12:28
  Speaker 1: head when it strikes, this makes things much more wonderful
• 3:12:31
  Speaker 1: than any magic herb. Rik Ticky knew he was a
• 3:12:34
  Speaker 1: young mongoose, and it made him all the more pleased
• 3:12:37
  Speaker 1: to think that he had managed to escape a blow
• 3:12:39
  Speaker 1: from behind. It gave him confidence in himself, and when
• 3:12:43
  Speaker 1: Teddy came running down the path, rick Ticky was ready
• 3:12:46
  Speaker 1: to be petted. But just as Teddy was stooping, something
• 3:12:50
  Speaker 1: wriggled a little in the dust, and a tiny voice said,
• 3:12:53
  Speaker 1: be careful, I am death. It was Karaite, the dusty
• 3:12:58
  Speaker 1: brown snakeling that lies for choice on the dusty earth,
• 3:13:01
  Speaker 1: and his bite is as dangerous as the cobras, but
• 3:13:04
  Speaker 1: he is so small that nobody thinks of him, and
• 3:13:07
  Speaker 1: so he does the more harm to people. Riki Tiky's
• 3:13:11
  Speaker 1: eyes grew red again, and he danced up to Kararite
• 3:13:14
  Speaker 1: with the peculiar rocking swaying motion that he had inherited
• 3:13:17
  Speaker 1: from his family. It looks very funny, but it is
• 3:13:20
  Speaker 1: so perfectly balanced a gait that you can fly off
• 3:13:23
  Speaker 1: from it at any angle you please, And in dealing
• 3:13:26
  Speaker 1: with snakes, this is an advantage. If Ricky Ticky had
• 3:13:29
  Speaker 1: only known, he was doing a much more dangerous thing
• 3:13:32
  Speaker 1: than fighting Nag, For Karrite is so small and can
• 3:13:36
  Speaker 1: turn so quickly that unless Ricky bit him close to
• 3:13:39
  Speaker 1: the back of the head, he would get the return
• 3:13:41
  Speaker 1: stroke in his eye or his lip. But Ricky did
• 3:13:44
  Speaker 1: not know his eyes were all red, and he rocked
• 3:13:48
  Speaker 1: back and forth looking for a good place to hold
• 3:13:52
  Speaker 1: Kararite struck out. Ricky jumped sideways and tried to run in,
• 3:13:56
  Speaker 1: but the wicked, little, dusty gray head lashed within a
• 3:13:59
  Speaker 1: fraction of his should and he had to jump over
• 3:14:01
  Speaker 1: the body, and the head followed his heels close. Teddy
• 3:14:05
  Speaker 1: shouted to the house, Oh, look here, our mongoose is
• 3:14:09
  Speaker 1: killing a snake, and Ricky Ticky heard a scream from
• 3:14:13
  Speaker 1: Teddy's mother. His father ran out with a stick, but
• 3:14:17
  Speaker 1: by the time he came up, Kararite had lunged out
• 3:14:19
  Speaker 1: once too far, and Ricky Ticky had sprung jumped on
• 3:14:22
  Speaker 1: the snake's back, dropped his head far between his forelegs,
• 3:14:26
  Speaker 1: bitten as high up the back as he could get hold,
• 3:14:28
  Speaker 1: and rolled away. That bite paralyzed Karrite, and Ricky Ticky
• 3:14:33
  Speaker 1: was just going to eat him up from the tail
• 3:14:35
  Speaker 1: after the custom of his family at dinner, when he
• 3:14:37
  Speaker 1: remembered that a full meal makes a slow mongoose, and
• 3:14:40
  Speaker 1: if he wanted all his strength and quickness ready, he
• 3:14:43
  Speaker 1: must keep himself thin. He went away for a dust
• 3:14:47
  Speaker 1: bath under the castor oil bushes while Teddy's father beat
• 3:14:50
  Speaker 1: the dead karate. What is the use of that, thought
• 3:14:53
  Speaker 1: Ricky Ticky, I have settled it all. And then Teddy's
• 3:14:57
  Speaker 1: mother picked him up from the dust and hugged him,
• 3:15:00
  Speaker 1: crying that he had saved Teddy from death, and Teddy's
• 3:15:03
  Speaker 1: father said that he was a providence, and Teddy looked
• 3:15:05
  Speaker 1: on with big scared eyes. Ricky Ticky was rather amused
• 3:15:10
  Speaker 1: at all the fuss, which of course he did not understand.
• 3:15:14
  Speaker 1: Teddy's mother might just as well have petted Teddy for
• 3:15:17
  Speaker 1: playing in the dust. Ricky was thoroughly enjoying himself that
• 3:15:22
  Speaker 1: night at dinner, walking to and fro among the wine
• 3:15:25
  Speaker 1: glasses on the table. He might have stuffed himself three
• 3:15:28
  Speaker 1: times over with nice things, but he remembered nag and Nagenna.
• 3:15:32
  Speaker 1: And though it was very pleasant to be patted and
• 3:15:35
  Speaker 1: petted by Teddy's mother and to sit on Teddy's shoulder,
• 3:15:38
  Speaker 1: his eyes would get red from time to time, and
• 3:15:40
  Speaker 1: he would go off into his long war cry of
• 3:15:42
  Speaker 1: rick Tik Tiki tiki t c h K zero two
• 3:15:46
  Speaker 1: one two. In the dark, he ran up against Chichundra,
• 3:15:49
  Speaker 1: the muskrat. Teddy carried him off to bed and insisted
• 3:15:54
  Speaker 1: on Riki Ticky sleeping under his chin. Ricki Ticky was
• 3:15:58
  Speaker 1: too well bred to bite or scratch. But as soon
• 3:16:00
  Speaker 1: as Teddy was asleep, he went off for his nightly
• 3:16:03
  Speaker 1: walk round the house, and in the dark he ran
• 3:16:05
  Speaker 1: up against Chichundra, the muskrat, creeping around by the wall.
• 3:16:10
  Speaker 1: Chichundra is a broken hearted little beast. He whimpers and
• 3:16:14
  Speaker 1: cheaps all the night, trying to make up his mind
• 3:16:16
  Speaker 1: to run into the middle of the room, but he
• 3:16:19
  Speaker 1: never gets there. Don't kill me, said Chichundra, almost weeping.
• 3:16:25
  Speaker 1: Riki Tiki, don't kill me. Do you think a snake
• 3:16:28
  Speaker 1: killer kills muskrats? Said Rikitiki scornfully. Those who kill snakes
• 3:16:34
  Speaker 1: get killed by snakes, said Chichundra, more sorrowfully than ever.
• 3:16:38
  Speaker 1: And how am I to be sure that Nag won't
• 3:16:40
  Speaker 1: mistake me for you some dark night? There's not the
• 3:16:44
  Speaker 1: least danger, said Rikitiki. But Nag is in the garden,
• 3:16:48
  Speaker 1: and I know you don't go there. My cousin, Chua
• 3:16:52
  Speaker 1: the rat told me, said Chichundra, and then he stopped.
• 3:16:56
  Speaker 1: Told you what h s H. Nag is everywhere? Ricki
• 3:17:01
  Speaker 1: Tiky you should have talked to Chua in the garden.
• 3:17:05
  Speaker 1: I didn't. So you must tell me quick, Chichundra, or
• 3:17:10
  Speaker 1: I'll bite you. Chichundra sat down and cried till the
• 3:17:13
  Speaker 1: tears rolled off his whiskers. I am a very poor man,
• 3:17:18
  Speaker 1: he sobbed. I never had spirit enough to run out
• 3:17:21
  Speaker 1: into the middle of the room. H s h. I
• 3:17:25
  Speaker 1: mustn't tell you anything, can't you? Hear? Riki Ticky Riki
• 3:17:30
  Speaker 1: Ticky listened. The house was as still as still, but
• 3:17:34
  Speaker 1: he thought he could just catch the faintest scratch scratch
• 3:17:37
  Speaker 1: in the world, A noise as faint as that of
• 3:17:39
  Speaker 1: a wasp walking on a window pane, the dry scratch
• 3:17:42
  Speaker 1: of a snake's scales on brickwork. That's nag or nagena,
• 3:17:46
  Speaker 1: he said to himself, And he is crawling into the
• 3:17:48
  Speaker 1: bathroom sluice. You're right, Chichundra, I should have talked to Chua.
• 3:17:54
  Speaker 1: He stole off to Teddy's bathroom, but there was nothing there,
• 3:17:58
  Speaker 1: and then to Teddy's mother's bathroom. At the bottom of
• 3:18:01
  Speaker 1: the smooth plaster wall, there was a brick pulled out
• 3:18:04
  Speaker 1: to make a sluice for the bath water, and as
• 3:18:06
  Speaker 1: Rikitiki stole in by the masonry curb where the bath
• 3:18:09
  Speaker 1: is put. He heard nag and Nigena whispering together outside
• 3:18:13
  Speaker 1: in the moonlight. When the house is emptied of people,
• 3:18:16
  Speaker 1: said Nagena to her husband, he will have to go away,
• 3:18:19
  Speaker 1: and then the garden will be our own again. Go
• 3:18:22
  Speaker 1: in quietly, and remember that the big man who killed
• 3:18:25
  Speaker 1: Karaite is the first one to bite. Then come out
• 3:18:29
  Speaker 1: and tell me, and we will hunt for Rikitiki together.
• 3:18:33
  Speaker 1: But are you sure that there is anything to be
• 3:18:35
  Speaker 1: gained by killing the people, said nag Everything. When there
• 3:18:40
  Speaker 1: were no people in the bungalow, did we have any
• 3:18:42
  Speaker 1: mongoose in the garden. So long as the bungalow is empty,
• 3:18:46
  Speaker 1: we are king and queen of the garden. And remember
• 3:18:49
  Speaker 1: that as soon as our eggs in the melon bed hatch,
• 3:18:51
  Speaker 1: as they may tomorrow, our children will need room and quiet.
• 3:18:55
  Speaker 1: I had not thought of that, said nag. I will go,
• 3:18:59
  Speaker 1: but there is there is no need that we should
• 3:19:01
  Speaker 1: hunt for rik Tiky. Afterward, I will kill the big
• 3:19:04
  Speaker 1: man and his wife and the child if I can,
• 3:19:07
  Speaker 1: and come away quietly. Then the bungalow will be empty,
• 3:19:11
  Speaker 1: and Ricky Ticky will go, rik Tiky tingled all over
• 3:19:15
  Speaker 1: with rage and hatred at this. And then Nag's head
• 3:19:18
  Speaker 1: came through the sluice and his five feet of cold
• 3:19:21
  Speaker 1: body followed it. Angry as he was, rik Tiky was
• 3:19:25
  Speaker 1: very frightened as he saw the size of the big cobra.
• 3:19:29
  Speaker 1: Nag coiled himself, up raised his head and looked into
• 3:19:32
  Speaker 1: the bathroom in the dark, and Ricky could see his
• 3:19:35
  Speaker 1: eyes glitter. Now, if I kill him here, Nagena will know.
• 3:19:39
  Speaker 1: And if I fight him on the open floor, the
• 3:19:42
  Speaker 1: odds are in his favor. What am I to do?
• 3:19:46
  Speaker 1: Said Rikitiky Tavy. Nag waved to and fro, and then
• 3:19:50
  Speaker 1: Ricky Ticky heard him drinking from the biggest water jar
• 3:19:53
  Speaker 1: that was used to fill the bath. That is good,
• 3:19:56
  Speaker 1: said the snake. Now, when Karaite was killed, the big
• 3:20:01
  Speaker 1: man had a stick. He may have that stick still,
• 3:20:04
  Speaker 1: but when he comes in to bathe in the morning,
• 3:20:06
  Speaker 1: he will not have a stick. I shall wait here
• 3:20:09
  Speaker 1: till he comes, Nigenna, do you hear me? I shall
• 3:20:13
  Speaker 1: wait here in the cool till daytime. There was no
• 3:20:16
  Speaker 1: answer from outside, so Riki Ticky knew Niggenna had gone away.
• 3:20:21
  Speaker 1: Nag coiled himself down coil by coil round the bulge
• 3:20:24
  Speaker 1: at the bottom of the water jar, and Riki Ticky
• 3:20:27
  Speaker 1: stayed still as death. After an hour, he began to move,
• 3:20:31
  Speaker 1: muscle by muscle toward the jar. Nag was asleep, and
• 3:20:36
  Speaker 1: Ricky Ticky looked at his big back, wondering which would
• 3:20:39
  Speaker 1: be the best place for a good hold. If I
• 3:20:41
  Speaker 1: don't break his back at the first jump, said RICKI,
• 3:20:44
  Speaker 1: he can still fight. And if he fights, oh, Rickie.
• 3:20:49
  Speaker 1: He looked at the thickness of the neck below the hood,
• 3:20:52
  Speaker 1: but that was too much for him, and a bite
• 3:20:54
  Speaker 1: near the tail would only make Nag savage. It must
• 3:20:58
  Speaker 1: be the head, he said, at last, the head above
• 3:21:00
  Speaker 1: the hood, and when I am once there, I must
• 3:21:04
  Speaker 1: not let go. Zero two one seven, And then Ricky
• 3:21:08
  Speaker 1: Ticky was battered to and fro as a rat is
• 3:21:10
  Speaker 1: shaken by a dog. Then he jumped. The head was
• 3:21:15
  Speaker 1: lying a little clear of the water jar, under the
• 3:21:17
  Speaker 1: curve of it, and as his teeth met, Ricky braced
• 3:21:21
  Speaker 1: his back against the bulge of the red earthenware to
• 3:21:23
  Speaker 1: hold down the head. This gave him just one second's purchase,
• 3:21:27
  Speaker 1: and he made the most of it. Then he was
• 3:21:30
  Speaker 1: battered to and fro as a rat is shaken by
• 3:21:32
  Speaker 1: a dog, to and fro on the floor, up and
• 3:21:35
  Speaker 1: down and around in great circles. But his eyes were red,
• 3:21:39
  Speaker 1: and he held on as the body cart whipped over
• 3:21:41
  Speaker 1: the floor, upsetting the tin dipper and the soap dish
• 3:21:44
  Speaker 1: and the flesh brush, and banged against the tin side
• 3:21:47
  Speaker 1: of the bath. As he held he closed his jaws
• 3:21:50
  Speaker 1: tighter and tighter, for he made sure he would be
• 3:21:53
  Speaker 1: banged to death, and for the honor of his family,
• 3:21:56
  Speaker 1: he preferred to be found with his teeth locked. He
• 3:21:59
  Speaker 1: was dizzy, aching and felt shaken to pieces when something
• 3:22:03
  Speaker 1: went off like a thunderclap just behind him. A hot
• 3:22:06
  Speaker 1: wind knocked him senseless, and red fire singed his fur.
• 3:22:11
  Speaker 1: The big Man had been wakened by the noise and
• 3:22:13
  Speaker 1: had fired both barrels of a shot gun into nag
• 3:22:16
  Speaker 1: just behind the hood. Rikitiky held on with his eyes
• 3:22:20
  Speaker 1: shut for now he was quite sure he was dead.
• 3:22:23
  Speaker 1: But the head did not move, and the big Man
• 3:22:26
  Speaker 1: picked him up and said, it's the mongoose again. Alice,
• 3:22:30
  Speaker 1: the little chap has saved our lives now. Then Teddy's
• 3:22:34
  Speaker 1: mother came in with a very white face and saw
• 3:22:37
  Speaker 1: what was left of Nag, and Rikiticky dragged himself to
• 3:22:40
  Speaker 1: Teddy's bedroom and spent half the rest of the night
• 3:22:43
  Speaker 1: shaking himself tenderly to find out whether he really was
• 3:22:45
  Speaker 1: broken into forty pieces as he fancied. When morning came
• 3:22:50
  Speaker 1: he was very stiff, but well pleased with his doings.
• 3:22:54
  Speaker 1: Now I have mc genna to settle with, and she
• 3:22:56
  Speaker 1: will be worse than five nags. And there's no knowing
• 3:22:59
  Speaker 1: when the egg she spoke of will hatch. Goodness, I
• 3:23:04
  Speaker 1: must go and see Darzy, he said, without waiting for breakfast.
• 3:23:08
  Speaker 1: Ricki Tiky ran to the thorn bush, where Darzy was
• 3:23:11
  Speaker 1: singing a song of triumph at the top of his voice.
• 3:23:15
  Speaker 1: The news of Nag's death was all over the garden,
• 3:23:18
  Speaker 1: for the sweeper had thrown the body on the rubbish heap. Oh,
• 3:23:22
  Speaker 1: you stupid tuft of feathers, said Ricky Ticky angrily. Is
• 3:23:26
  Speaker 1: this the time to sing? Nag is dead? Is dead?
• 3:23:30
  Speaker 1: Is dead? Sang Darzy. The valiant Rikiticky caught him by
• 3:23:34
  Speaker 1: the head and held fast. The big man brought the
• 3:23:38
  Speaker 1: bang stick and Nag fell in two pieces. He will
• 3:23:42
  Speaker 1: never eat my babies again. All that's true enough. But
• 3:23:47
  Speaker 1: where's Nagena, said rik Ticky, looking carefully round him. Nagenna
• 3:23:52
  Speaker 1: came to the bathroom sluice and called for nag Darzy
• 3:23:55
  Speaker 1: went on, and nag came out on the end of
• 3:23:58
  Speaker 1: a stick. The sweeper picked him up on the end
• 3:24:00
  Speaker 1: of a stick and threw him upon the rubbish heap.
• 3:24:03
  Speaker 1: Let us sing about the grate the red eyed Rikitiki,
• 3:24:07
  Speaker 1: and Darzy filled his throat and sang. If I could
• 3:24:11
  Speaker 1: get up to your nest, i'd roll your babies out,
• 3:24:14
  Speaker 1: said Ricky Ticky. You don't know when to do the
• 3:24:17
  Speaker 1: right thing at the right time. You're safe enough in
• 3:24:20
  Speaker 1: your nest there, but it's war for me down here.
• 3:24:23
  Speaker 1: Stop singing a minute, Darzy, for the great, the beautiful
• 3:24:28
  Speaker 1: Ricky Ticky's sake, I will stop, said Darzy. What is it,
• 3:24:32
  Speaker 1: o killer of the terrible nag Where is Nagena? For
• 3:24:36
  Speaker 1: the third time on the rubbish heap by the stables,
• 3:24:40
  Speaker 1: mourning for nag Great is Ricky Ticky with the white teeth?
• 3:24:45
  Speaker 1: Bother my white teeth? Have you ever heard where she
• 3:24:48
  Speaker 1: keeps her eggs? In the melon bed on the end
• 3:24:52
  Speaker 1: nearest the wall where the sun strikes nearly all day.
• 3:24:56
  Speaker 1: She hid them there weeks ago, and you never thought
• 3:24:59
  Speaker 1: it worth while while to tell me the end nearest
• 3:25:02
  Speaker 1: the wall, you said, Rickie Ticky, you are not going
• 3:25:06
  Speaker 1: to eat her eggs zero two two one. Darzy's wife
• 3:25:10
  Speaker 1: pretends to have a broken wing, not eat exactly. No, Darzy,
• 3:25:15
  Speaker 1: if you have a grain of sense, you will fly
• 3:25:17
  Speaker 1: off to the stables and pretend that your wing is broken,
• 3:25:20
  Speaker 1: and let Negana chase you away to this bush. I
• 3:25:23
  Speaker 1: must get to the melon bed, and if I went
• 3:25:25
  Speaker 1: there now she'd see me. Darzy was a feather brained
• 3:25:29
  Speaker 1: little fellow who could never hold more than one idea
• 3:25:32
  Speaker 1: at a time in his head. And just because he
• 3:25:35
  Speaker 1: knew that mcginna's children were born in eggs like his own,
• 3:25:38
  Speaker 1: he didn't think at first that it was fair to
• 3:25:40
  Speaker 1: kill them. But his wife was a sensible bird, and
• 3:25:43
  Speaker 1: she knew that Cobra's eggs meant young Cobra's later on,
• 3:25:48
  Speaker 1: so she flew off from the nest and left Darzy
• 3:25:50
  Speaker 1: to keep the babies warm and continue his song about
• 3:25:53
  Speaker 1: the death of nag. Darzy was very like a man
• 3:25:57
  Speaker 1: in some ways. She fluttered in front of mc genna
• 3:26:00
  Speaker 1: by the rubbish heap and cried out, oh, my wing
• 3:26:03
  Speaker 1: is broken. The boy in the house threw a stone
• 3:26:06
  Speaker 1: at me and broke it. Then she fluttered more desperately
• 3:26:10
  Speaker 1: than ever. Nagenna lifted up her head and hissed, you
• 3:26:14
  Speaker 1: warned Ricky Ticky, when I would have killed him. Indeed,
• 3:26:17
  Speaker 1: and truly you've chosen a bad place to be lame in,
• 3:26:21
  Speaker 1: And she moved toward Darzy's wife, slipping along over the dust.
• 3:26:26
  Speaker 1: The boy broke it with a stone, shrieked Darzy's wife. Well,
• 3:26:31
  Speaker 1: it may be some consolation to you when you're dead,
• 3:26:34
  Speaker 1: to know that I shall settle accounts with the boy.
• 3:26:37
  Speaker 1: My husband lies on the rubbish heap this morning, but
• 3:26:40
  Speaker 1: before night the boy in the house will lie very still.
• 3:26:43
  Speaker 1: What is the use of running away? I am sure
• 3:26:46
  Speaker 1: to catch you, little fool, Look at me, Darzy's wife
• 3:26:51
  Speaker 1: knew better than to do that, For a bird who
• 3:26:54
  Speaker 1: looks at a snake's eyes get so frightened that she
• 3:26:56
  Speaker 1: cannot move. Darzy's wife fluttered on, piping sorrowfully and never
• 3:27:01
  Speaker 1: leaving the ground, and Agenna quickened her pace. Rikitiky heard
• 3:27:06
  Speaker 1: them going up the path from the stables, and he
• 3:27:09
  Speaker 1: raced for the end of the melon patch near the wall. There,
• 3:27:13
  Speaker 1: in the warm litter above the melons, very cunningly hidden,
• 3:27:16
  Speaker 1: he found twenty five eggs, about the size of a
• 3:27:19
  Speaker 1: bantam's eggs, but with whitish skin instead of shell. I
• 3:27:23
  Speaker 1: was not a day too soon, he said, for he
• 3:27:26
  Speaker 1: could see the baby cobras curled up inside the skin,
• 3:27:29
  Speaker 1: and he knew that the minute they were hatched, they
• 3:27:31
  Speaker 1: could each kill a man or a mongoose. He bit
• 3:27:35
  Speaker 1: off the tops of the eggs as fast as he could,
• 3:27:37
  Speaker 1: taking care to crush the young cobras, and turned over
• 3:27:40
  Speaker 1: the litter from time to time to see whether he
• 3:27:42
  Speaker 1: had missed any. At last, there were only three eggs left,
• 3:27:46
  Speaker 1: and Riki Ticky began to chuckle to himself when he
• 3:27:49
  Speaker 1: heard Darzi's wife screaming, Rickie Ticky, I led Nagena toward
• 3:27:53
  Speaker 1: the house, and she has gone into the verandah, and oh,
• 3:27:57
  Speaker 1: come quickly, she means killing. Rick Ticky smashed two eggs
• 3:28:02
  Speaker 1: and tumbled backward down the melon bed with the third
• 3:28:05
  Speaker 1: egg in his mouth, and scuttled to the verandah as
• 3:28:07
  Speaker 1: hard as he could put foot to the ground. Teddy
• 3:28:11
  Speaker 1: and his mother and father were there at early breakfast,
• 3:28:13
  Speaker 1: but rick Ticky saw that they were not eating anything.
• 3:28:17
  Speaker 1: They sat stone still and their faces were white. Nagina
• 3:28:21
  Speaker 1: was coiled up on the matting by Teddy's chair, within
• 3:28:24
  Speaker 1: easy striking distance of Teddy's bare leg, and she was
• 3:28:27
  Speaker 1: swaying to and fro, singing a song of triumph. Son
• 3:28:31
  Speaker 1: of the big man that killed nag She hissed, stay still,
• 3:28:36
  Speaker 1: I am not ready yet. Wait a little, Keep very still,
• 3:28:41
  Speaker 1: all you three. If you move, I strike, and if
• 3:28:44
  Speaker 1: you do not move, I strike, Oh, foolish people who
• 3:28:48
  Speaker 1: killed my nag Teddy's eyes were fixed on his father,
• 3:28:52
  Speaker 1: and all his father could do was to whisper, Sit still, Teddy,
• 3:28:57
  Speaker 1: you mustn't move. Teddy still. Then Ricky Ticky came up
• 3:29:02
  Speaker 1: and cried, turn round, Nagenna, turn and fight all in
• 3:29:08
  Speaker 1: good time, said she, without moving her eyes. I will
• 3:29:12
  Speaker 1: settle my account with you presently. Look at your friends,
• 3:29:16
  Speaker 1: Ricky Ticky. They are still and white. They are afraid.
• 3:29:22
  Speaker 1: They dare not move, and if you come a step nearer,
• 3:29:24
  Speaker 1: I strike. Look at your eggs, said Ricky Ticky in
• 3:29:28
  Speaker 1: the melon bed near the wall, Go and look. Nagena.
• 3:29:33
  Speaker 1: The big snake turned half around and saw the egg
• 3:29:36
  Speaker 1: on the verandah ah h, give it to me, she said.
• 3:29:43
  Speaker 1: Ricky Ticky put his paws, one on each side of
• 3:29:45
  Speaker 1: the egg, and his eyes were blood red. What price
• 3:29:49
  Speaker 1: for a snake's egg, For a young cobra, for a
• 3:29:53
  Speaker 1: young king cobra, for the last, the very last of
• 3:29:57
  Speaker 1: the brood. The ants are eating all the other down
• 3:30:00
  Speaker 1: by the melon bed, Nagennethe spun clear round forgetting everything
• 3:30:05
  Speaker 1: for the sake of the one egg. Ricky Ticky saw
• 3:30:08
  Speaker 1: Teddy's father shoot out a big hand, catch Teddy by
• 3:30:11
  Speaker 1: the shoulder and drag him across the little table with
• 3:30:14
  Speaker 1: the teacups, safe and out of reach of Nigenna. Tricked, tricked, tricked,
• 3:30:22
  Speaker 1: rick t c K t c K chuckled, Ricky Ticky,
• 3:30:26
  Speaker 1: the boy is safe. And it was I I I
• 3:30:29
  Speaker 1: that caught nag by the hood last night in the bathroom.
• 3:30:33
  Speaker 1: Then he began to jump up and down, all four
• 3:30:35
  Speaker 1: feet together, his head close to the floor. He threw
• 3:30:39
  Speaker 1: me to and fro, but he could not shake me off.
• 3:30:43
  Speaker 1: He was dead before the big man blew him in two.
• 3:30:46
  Speaker 1: I did it, Ricky Ticky, t c K t c
• 3:30:49
  Speaker 1: K come then mcgenna, come and fight with me. You
• 3:30:55
  Speaker 1: shall not be a widow. Long Nigennette saw that she
• 3:30:58
  Speaker 1: had lost her chance of killing Teddy, and the egg
• 3:31:01
  Speaker 1: lay between Ricky Ticky's paws. Give me the egg, Ricky Ticky,
• 3:31:06
  Speaker 1: give me the last of my eggs, and I will
• 3:31:08
  Speaker 1: go away and never come back, she said, lowering her hood. Yes,
• 3:31:13
  Speaker 1: you will go away and you will never come back,
• 3:31:17
  Speaker 1: for you will go to the rubbish heap with nag
• 3:31:20
  Speaker 1: fight widow. The big man has gone for his gun fight.
• 3:31:26
  Speaker 1: Zero two two seven. Nagenna flew down the path with
• 3:31:30
  Speaker 1: Ricky Ticky behind her. Ricky Ticky was bounding all round Nagenna,
• 3:31:35
  Speaker 1: keeping just out of reach of her stroke, his little
• 3:31:37
  Speaker 1: eyes like hot coals. Nagenna gathered herself together and flung
• 3:31:42
  Speaker 1: out at him. Ricky Ticky jumped up and backward, again
• 3:31:46
  Speaker 1: and again and again she struck, and each time her
• 3:31:49
  Speaker 1: head came with a whack on the matting of the verandah,
• 3:31:52
  Speaker 1: and she gathered herself together like a watch spring. Then
• 3:31:55
  Speaker 1: Ricky Ticky danced in a circle to get behind her,
• 3:31:58
  Speaker 1: and n Agenna spun round to keep her head to
• 3:32:00
  Speaker 1: his head, so that the rustle of her tail on
• 3:32:03
  Speaker 1: the matting sounded like dry leaves blown along by the wind.
• 3:32:07
  Speaker 1: He had forgotten the egg. It still lay on the veranda,
• 3:32:11
  Speaker 1: and Nigenna came nearer and nearer to it, till at last,
• 3:32:14
  Speaker 1: while Riki Ticky was drawing breath, she caught it in
• 3:32:17
  Speaker 1: her mouth, turned to the veranda steps, and flew like
• 3:32:20
  Speaker 1: an arrow down the path, with Ricky Ticky behind her.
• 3:32:24
  Speaker 1: When the cobra runs for her life, she goes like
• 3:32:26
  Speaker 1: a whiplash flicked across a horse's neck. Rik Tiky knew
• 3:32:31
  Speaker 1: that he must catch her or all the trouble would
• 3:32:33
  Speaker 1: begin again. She headed straight for the long grasp by
• 3:32:37
  Speaker 1: the thorn bush, and as he was running, Ricky Ticky
• 3:32:39
  Speaker 1: heard Darzy still singing his foolish little song of triumph.
• 3:32:43
  Speaker 1: But Darzy's wife was wiser. She flew off her nest
• 3:32:48
  Speaker 1: as Nagenna came along and flapped her wings about mcgenna's head.
• 3:32:52
  Speaker 1: If Darzy had helped, they might have turned her, but
• 3:32:55
  Speaker 1: Nagenna only lowered her hood and went on still. The
• 3:32:59
  Speaker 1: instant still lay brought Ricky Ticky up to her, and
• 3:33:02
  Speaker 1: as she plunged into the rat hole where she and
• 3:33:04
  Speaker 1: nag used to live, his little white teeth were clenched
• 3:33:07
  Speaker 1: on her tail, and he went down with her. And
• 3:33:09
  Speaker 1: very few mongooses, however wise and old, they may be,
• 3:33:13
  Speaker 1: care to follow a cobra into its hole. It was
• 3:33:17
  Speaker 1: dark in the hole, and Ricky Ticky never knew when
• 3:33:19
  Speaker 1: it might open out and give Nagen a room to
• 3:33:21
  Speaker 1: turn and strike at him. He held on savagely and
• 3:33:25
  Speaker 1: stuck out his feet to act as breaks on the
• 3:33:27
  Speaker 1: dark slope of the hot, moist earth. Then the grasp
• 3:33:31
  Speaker 1: by the mouth of the hole stopped waving, and Darzy said,
• 3:33:34
  Speaker 1: it is all over with Ricky Ticky. We must sing
• 3:33:38
  Speaker 1: his death song. Valiant Ricky Ticky is dead, for Nigena
• 3:33:43
  Speaker 1: will surely kill him underground. So he sang a very
• 3:33:46
  Speaker 1: mournful song that he made up on the spur of
• 3:33:49
  Speaker 1: the minute, And just as he got to the most
• 3:33:51
  Speaker 1: touching part, the grass quivered again, and Ricky Ticky, covered
• 3:33:54
  Speaker 1: with dirt, dragged himself out of the whole leg by leg,
• 3:33:58
  Speaker 1: licking his whiskers. Darzy stopped with a little shout. Ricky
• 3:34:04
  Speaker 1: Ticky shook some of the dust out of his fur
• 3:34:06
  Speaker 1: and sneezed. It is all over, he said. The widow
• 3:34:11
  Speaker 1: will never come out again, and the red ants that
• 3:34:14
  Speaker 1: lived between the grass stems heard him and began to
• 3:34:17
  Speaker 1: troop down one after another to see if he had
• 3:34:19
  Speaker 1: spoken the truth. Ricki Ticky curled himself up in the
• 3:34:23
  Speaker 1: grass and slept where he was slept and slept till
• 3:34:26
  Speaker 1: it was late in the afternoon, for he had done
• 3:34:28
  Speaker 1: a hard day's work. Now, he said, when he awoke,
• 3:34:32
  Speaker 1: I will go back to the house. Tell the coppersmith Darzy,
• 3:34:36
  Speaker 1: and he will tell the garden that Nigenna is dead.
• 3:34:40
  Speaker 1: Zero two three zero, It is all over. The coppersmith
• 3:34:44
  Speaker 1: is a bird who makes a noise exactly like the
• 3:34:47
  Speaker 1: beating of a little hammer on a copper pot. And
• 3:34:49
  Speaker 1: the reason he is always making it is because he
• 3:34:51
  Speaker 1: is the town crier to every Indian garden and tells
• 3:34:54
  Speaker 1: all the news to everybody who cares to listen. As
• 3:34:58
  Speaker 1: Rick Ticky went up the path, he heard his attention
• 3:35:01
  Speaker 1: notes like a tiny dinner gong, and then the steady
• 3:35:04
  Speaker 1: ding dong talk, Nag is dead, dong, Niginna is dead,
• 3:35:10
  Speaker 1: ding dong talk. That set all the birds in the
• 3:35:14
  Speaker 1: gardens singing and the frogs croaking. For Nag and Niginna
• 3:35:18
  Speaker 1: used to eat frogs as well as little birds. When
• 3:35:21
  Speaker 1: Ricky got to the house Teddy and Teddy's mother, she
• 3:35:24
  Speaker 1: looked very white still, for she had been fainting. And
• 3:35:27
  Speaker 1: Teddy's father came out and almost cried over him. And
• 3:35:30
  Speaker 1: that night he ate all that was given him till
• 3:35:32
  Speaker 1: he could eat no more and went to bed on
• 3:35:35
  Speaker 1: Teddy's shoulder, where Teddy's mother saw him when she came
• 3:35:37
  Speaker 1: to look late at night. He saved our lives in
• 3:35:41
  Speaker 1: Teddy's life, she said to her husband. Just think he
• 3:35:45
  Speaker 1: saved all our lives. Rickie Ticky woke up with a jump.
• 3:35:49
  Speaker 1: For the mongooses are light sleepers. Oh it's you, said he,
• 3:35:55
  Speaker 1: What are you bothering? For all the cobras are dead,
• 3:35:59
  Speaker 1: and if they warn't, I'm here. Rik Tiki had a
• 3:36:03
  Speaker 1: right to be proud of himself, but he did not
• 3:36:06
  Speaker 1: grow too proud, and he kept that garden as a
• 3:36:09
  Speaker 1: mongoose should keep it, with tooth and jump and spring
• 3:36:12
  Speaker 1: and bite till never a cobra dared show its head
• 3:36:14
  Speaker 1: inside the walls. Darzy's chant sung in honor of Riki Tiki,
• 3:36:19
  Speaker 1: Tavi singer and tailor. Am I doubled the joys that
• 3:36:22
  Speaker 1: I know proud of my lilt to the sky, proud
• 3:36:25
  Speaker 1: of the house that I sow over and under. So
• 3:36:28
  Speaker 1: we by my music, so weviy the house that I sow.
• 3:36:32
  Speaker 1: Sing to your fledglings again, mother, oh, lift up your head.
• 3:36:36
  Speaker 1: Evil that plague does is slain. Death in the garden
• 3:36:39
  Speaker 1: lies dead. Terror that hid in the roses is impotent,
• 3:36:43
  Speaker 1: flung on the dunghill and dead? Who has delivered us?
• 3:36:47
  Speaker 1: Who tell me his nest and his name? Ricki the valiant,
• 3:36:52
  Speaker 1: the true Tiki, with eyeballs of flame, rick Tiki Tiki,
• 3:36:56
  Speaker 1: the ivory fanged, the hunter, with eyeballs of flame, Give
• 3:37:00
  Speaker 1: him the thanks of the birds, bowing with tail feathers spread,
• 3:37:04
  Speaker 1: praise him with nightingale words. Nay, I will praise him instead.
• 3:37:09
  Speaker 1: Here I will sing you the praise of the bottle
• 3:37:12
  Speaker 1: tailed Rickie with eyeballs of red. Here Ricky Ticky interrupted,
• 3:37:17
  Speaker 1: and the rest of the song is lost. Zero two
• 3:37:20
  Speaker 1: three seven to my of the elephants. I will remember
• 3:37:23
  Speaker 1: what I was. I am sick of rope and chain.
• 3:37:26
  Speaker 1: I will remember my old strength and all my forest affairs.
• 3:37:30
  Speaker 1: I will not sell my back to man for a
• 3:37:32
  Speaker 1: bundle of sugar cane. I will go out to my
• 3:37:34
  Speaker 1: own kind and the wood folk in their lairs. I
• 3:37:38
  Speaker 1: will go out until the day, until the morning, break
• 3:37:41
  Speaker 1: out to the wind's untainted kiss, the water's clean caress.
• 3:37:44
  Speaker 1: I will forget my ankle ring and snap my picket steak.
• 3:37:48
  Speaker 1: I will revisit my lost loves and playmates. Masterless call
• 3:37:53
  Speaker 1: a Nag which means black snake had served the Indian
• 3:37:56
  Speaker 1: government in every way that an elephant could serve it
• 3:37:59
  Speaker 1: for forty seven years, and as he was fully twenty
• 3:38:02
  Speaker 1: years old when he was caught, that makes him nearly
• 3:38:04
  Speaker 1: seventy a ripe age for an elephant. He remembered pushing
• 3:38:09
  Speaker 1: with a big leather pad on his forehead at a
• 3:38:11
  Speaker 1: gun stuck in deep mud, and that was before the
• 3:38:14
  Speaker 1: Afghan War of eighteen forty two, and he had not
• 3:38:17
  Speaker 1: then come to his full strength. His mother, Radha Pyari,
• 3:38:21
  Speaker 1: rather the darling, who had been caught in the same
• 3:38:23
  Speaker 1: drive with Colin Nag, told him before his little milk
• 3:38:26
  Speaker 1: tusks had dropped out that elephants who were afraid always
• 3:38:30
  Speaker 1: got hurt. Kolin Nag knew that that advice was good.
• 3:38:34
  Speaker 1: For the first time that he saw a shell burst,
• 3:38:36
  Speaker 1: he backed screaming into a stand of piled rifles, and
• 3:38:40
  Speaker 1: the bayonets pricked him in all his softest places. So
• 3:38:44
  Speaker 1: before he was twenty five he gave up being afraid,
• 3:38:48
  Speaker 1: and so he was the best loved and the best
• 3:38:50
  Speaker 1: looked after elephant in the service of the government of India.
• 3:38:53
  Speaker 1: He had carried tents twelve hundred pounds weight of tents
• 3:38:57
  Speaker 1: on the march in Upper India. He had been hoisted
• 3:39:00
  Speaker 1: into a ship at the end of a steam crane,
• 3:39:02
  Speaker 1: taken for days across the water, and made to carry
• 3:39:05
  Speaker 1: a mortar on his back in a strange and rocky
• 3:39:08
  Speaker 1: country very far from India, and had seen the Emperor
• 3:39:11
  Speaker 1: Theodore lying dead in Magdala, and had come back again
• 3:39:14
  Speaker 1: in the steamer entitled So the soldier said to the
• 3:39:17
  Speaker 1: Abyssinian war medal. He had seen his fellow elephants die
• 3:39:21
  Speaker 1: of cold and epilepsy and starvation and sunstroke up at
• 3:39:24
  Speaker 1: a place called Ali Musjid ten years later, and afterward
• 3:39:28
  Speaker 1: he had been sent down thousands of miles south to
• 3:39:30
  Speaker 1: haul and pile big box of teak in the timber
• 3:39:33
  Speaker 1: yards at Momain. There he had half killed an insubordinate
• 3:39:37
  Speaker 1: young elephant who was shirking his fair share of work.
• 3:39:41
  Speaker 1: Zero two three nine Kala Nag was the best loved
• 3:39:44
  Speaker 1: elephant in the service. After that he was taken off
• 3:39:48
  Speaker 1: timber hauling and employed with a few score other elephants
• 3:39:51
  Speaker 1: who were trained to the business in helping to catch
• 3:39:54
  Speaker 1: wild elephants among the Gharol Hills. Elephants are very strictly
• 3:39:58
  Speaker 1: preserved by the Indian government. There is one whole department
• 3:40:02
  Speaker 1: which does nothing else but hunt them and catch them,
• 3:40:05
  Speaker 1: and break them in and send them up and down
• 3:40:08
  Speaker 1: the country as they are needed for work. Colin Nag
• 3:40:11
  Speaker 1: stood ten fair feet at the shoulders, and his tusks
• 3:40:14
  Speaker 1: had been cut off short at five feet and bound
• 3:40:17
  Speaker 1: round the ends to prevent them splitting with bands of copper.
• 3:40:21
  Speaker 1: But he could do more with those stumps than any
• 3:40:23
  Speaker 1: untrained elephant could do with the real sharpened ones. When
• 3:40:28
  Speaker 1: after weeks and weeks of cautious driving of scattered elephants
• 3:40:31
  Speaker 1: across the hills, the forty or fifty wild monsters were
• 3:40:34
  Speaker 1: driven into the last stockade and the big drop gate
• 3:40:37
  Speaker 1: made of tree trunks lashed together, jarred down behind them.
• 3:40:41
  Speaker 1: Col A Nag, at the word of command, would go
• 3:40:43
  Speaker 1: into that flaring, trumpeting pandemonium, generally at night, when the
• 3:40:48
  Speaker 1: flicker of the torches made it difficult to judge distances,
• 3:40:52
  Speaker 1: and picking out the biggest and wildest tusker of the mob,
• 3:40:55
  Speaker 1: would hammer him and hustle him into quiet, while the
• 3:40:57
  Speaker 1: men on the backs of the other elephants broke and
• 3:41:00
  Speaker 1: tied the smaller ones. There was nothing in the way
• 3:41:03
  Speaker 1: of fighting that Colin Nag, the old wise black snake
• 3:41:07
  Speaker 1: did not know. For he had stood up more than
• 3:41:09
  Speaker 1: once in his time to the charge of the wounded tiger,
• 3:41:11
  Speaker 1: and curling up his soft trunk to be out of
• 3:41:14
  Speaker 1: harm's way, had knocked the springing brute sideways in mid
• 3:41:18
  Speaker 1: air with a quick sickle cut of his head that
• 3:41:21
  Speaker 1: he had invented all by himself, had knocked him over,
• 3:41:24
  Speaker 1: and kneeled upon him with his huge knees till the
• 3:41:26
  Speaker 1: life went out with a gasp and a howl, and
• 3:41:28
  Speaker 1: there was only a fluffy striped thing on the ground
• 3:41:31
  Speaker 1: for Colin Nag to pull by the tail. Yes, said
• 3:41:35
  Speaker 1: Big Tumi, his driver, the son of Black Tumai who
• 3:41:38
  Speaker 1: had taken him to Abyssinia, and grandson of Tumai of
• 3:41:41
  Speaker 1: the elephants, who had seen him caught. There is nothing
• 3:41:44
  Speaker 1: that the black snake fears except me. He has seen
• 3:41:47
  Speaker 1: three generations of us feed him and groom him, and
• 3:41:50
  Speaker 1: he will live to see, for he is afraid of me.
• 3:41:53
  Speaker 1: Also said little Tumai, standing up to his full height
• 3:41:57
  Speaker 1: of four feet with only one rag upon him. He
• 3:42:01
  Speaker 1: was ten years old, the eldest son of Big Tumi,
• 3:42:04
  Speaker 1: and according to custom, he would take his father's place
• 3:42:07
  Speaker 1: on Colin Nagg's neck when he grew up, and would
• 3:42:09
  Speaker 1: handle the heavy iron ankus the elephant goat that had
• 3:42:13
  Speaker 1: been worn smooth by his father and his grandfather and
• 3:42:16
  Speaker 1: his great grandfather five thousand, two hundred ninety one. Colin
• 3:42:21
  Speaker 1: Nagg he knew what he was talking of, for he
• 3:42:23
  Speaker 1: had been born under klin Nagg's shadow, had played with
• 3:42:26
  Speaker 1: the end of his trunk before he could walk, had
• 3:42:28
  Speaker 1: taken him down to water as soon as he could walk,
• 3:42:31
  Speaker 1: And Colin Nagg would no more have dreamed of disobeying
• 3:42:34
  Speaker 1: his shrill little orders than he would have dreamed of
• 3:42:36
  Speaker 1: killing him. On that day when Big Tuomi carried the
• 3:42:39
  Speaker 1: little brown baby under Klagg's tusks and told him to
• 3:42:42
  Speaker 1: salute his master, that was to be yes, said little
• 3:42:46
  Speaker 1: to Mai, he is afraid of me, and he took
• 3:42:49
  Speaker 1: long strides up to Colin Nagg called him a fat
• 3:42:52
  Speaker 1: old pig, and made him lift up his feet one
• 3:42:54
  Speaker 1: after the other. Wah said little to Mai, thou art
• 3:42:58
  Speaker 1: a big elephant, and he wagged his fluffy head, quoting
• 3:43:02
  Speaker 1: his father. The government may pay for elephants, but they
• 3:43:05
  Speaker 1: belong to us, mahouts. When thou art old, call a nag,
• 3:43:10
  Speaker 1: there will come some rich raja, and he will buy
• 3:43:12
  Speaker 1: thee from the government on account of thy size and
• 3:43:15
  Speaker 1: thy manners. And then thou wilt have nothing to do
• 3:43:18
  Speaker 1: but to carry gold ear rings in thy ears, and
• 3:43:20
  Speaker 1: a gold howdah on thy back, and a red cloth
• 3:43:23
  Speaker 1: covered with gold on thy sides, and walk at the
• 3:43:27
  Speaker 1: head of the processions of the king. Then I shall
• 3:43:30
  Speaker 1: sit on thy neck O call a nag with a
• 3:43:32
  Speaker 1: silver anchors, and men will run before us with golden sticks,
• 3:43:36
  Speaker 1: crying room for the king's elephant. That will be good
• 3:43:40
  Speaker 1: call a nag, But not so good as this hunting
• 3:43:43
  Speaker 1: in the jungles, Um said big to mine, thou art
• 3:43:48
  Speaker 1: a boy and as wild as a buffalo calf. This
• 3:43:52
  Speaker 1: running up and down among the hills is not the
• 3:43:54
  Speaker 1: best government service. I am getting old and I do
• 3:43:58
  Speaker 1: not love wild elephants. Give me brick elephant lines, one
• 3:44:03
  Speaker 1: stall to each elephant, and big stumps to tie them
• 3:44:05
  Speaker 1: to safely, and flat broad roads to exercise upon instead
• 3:44:10
  Speaker 1: of this come and go camping. Aha. The conpoor barracks
• 3:44:14
  Speaker 1: were good. There was a bazaar close by, and only
• 3:44:18
  Speaker 1: three hours work a day. Little Too I remembered the
• 3:44:21
  Speaker 1: conpoor elephant lines and said nothing. He very much preferred
• 3:44:26
  Speaker 1: the camp life and hated those broad, flat roads, with
• 3:44:29
  Speaker 1: the daily grubbing for grass in the forage reserve, and
• 3:44:32
  Speaker 1: the long hours when there was nothing to do except
• 3:44:35
  Speaker 1: to watch Colin Nag fidgeting in his pickets. What Little
• 3:44:39
  Speaker 1: two I liked was to scramble up bridle paths that
• 3:44:42
  Speaker 1: only an elephant could take, The dip into the valley below,
• 3:44:45
  Speaker 1: the glimpses of the wild elephants browsing miles away, the
• 3:44:49
  Speaker 1: rush of the frightened pig and peacock under Kalinag's feet,
• 3:44:52
  Speaker 1: The blinding warm rains when all the hills and valleys smoked,
• 3:44:57
  Speaker 1: the beautiful misty mornings when nobody knew where the would
• 3:45:00
  Speaker 1: camp that night, the steady cautious drive of the wild elephants,
• 3:45:04
  Speaker 1: and the mad rush and blaze and hullabaloo of the
• 3:45:06
  Speaker 1: last night's drive, when the elephants poured into the stockade
• 3:45:10
  Speaker 1: like boulders in a landslide, found that they could not
• 3:45:12
  Speaker 1: get out, and flung themselves at the heavy posts, only
• 3:45:16
  Speaker 1: to be driven back by yells and flaring torches and
• 3:45:19
  Speaker 1: volleys of blank cartridge. Even a little boy could be
• 3:45:23
  Speaker 1: of use there, and Tumi was as useful as three boys.
• 3:45:27
  Speaker 1: He would get his torch and wave it and yell
• 3:45:30
  Speaker 1: with the best. But the really good time came when
• 3:45:33
  Speaker 1: the driving out began, and the cada that is the
• 3:45:36
  Speaker 1: stockade looked like a picture of the end of the world,
• 3:45:39
  Speaker 1: and men had to make signs to one another because
• 3:45:42
  Speaker 1: they could not hear themselves speak. Then little Tumi would
• 3:45:46
  Speaker 1: climb up to the top of one of the quivering
• 3:45:48
  Speaker 1: stockade posts, his sun bleached brown hair flying loose all
• 3:45:52
  Speaker 1: over his shoulders, and he looking like a goblin in
• 3:45:54
  Speaker 1: the torchlight. And as soon as there was a lull,
• 3:45:57
  Speaker 1: you could hear his high pitched yells of encouragement to
• 3:46:00
  Speaker 1: call a nag above the trumpeting and crashing and snapping
• 3:46:03
  Speaker 1: of ropes and groans of the tethered elephants. Mail mail,
• 3:46:08
  Speaker 1: Colin Nag, go on, go on, black snake, dan't do,
• 3:46:15
  Speaker 1: give him the tusk. Samolo, Samolo, careful, careful, morrow mar
• 3:46:25
  Speaker 1: hit him, hit him mind the post. R r hi
• 3:46:34
  Speaker 1: yai kia ah. He would shout, and the big fight
• 3:46:38
  Speaker 1: between Colin Nag and the wild elephant would sway to
• 3:46:41
  Speaker 1: and fro across the cada, and the old elephant catchers
• 3:46:44
  Speaker 1: would wipe the sweat out of their eyes and find
• 3:46:46
  Speaker 1: time to nod to little to my wriggling with joy
• 3:46:49
  Speaker 1: on the top of the posts, he did more than wriggle.
• 3:46:53
  Speaker 1: One night he slid down from the post and slipped
• 3:46:56
  Speaker 1: in between the elephants and threw up the loose end
• 3:46:58
  Speaker 1: of a rope which had drops to a driver who
• 3:47:01
  Speaker 1: was trying to get a purchase on the leg of
• 3:47:03
  Speaker 1: a kicking young calf. Calves always give more trouble than
• 3:47:06
  Speaker 1: full grown animals. Kala Nag saw him, caught him in
• 3:47:10
  Speaker 1: his trunk and handed him up to big Tumai, who
• 3:47:13
  Speaker 1: slapped him then and there and put him back on
• 3:47:15
  Speaker 1: the post. Next morning he gave him a scolding and said,
• 3:47:20
  Speaker 1: are not good brick elephant lines, and a little tent
• 3:47:22
  Speaker 1: caring enough that thou must needs go elephant catching on
• 3:47:25
  Speaker 1: thy own account, little worthless. Now those foolish hunters whose
• 3:47:30
  Speaker 1: pay is less than my pay have spoken to Peterson
• 3:47:33
  Speaker 1: Sahib of the matter. Little tou Mai was frightened. He
• 3:47:38
  Speaker 1: did not know much of white men. But Peterson Sahib
• 3:47:41
  Speaker 1: was the greatest white man in the world. To him,
• 3:47:44
  Speaker 1: he was the head of all the cada operations, the
• 3:47:47
  Speaker 1: man who caught all the elephants for the government of India,
• 3:47:50
  Speaker 1: and who knew more about the ways of elephants than
• 3:47:52
  Speaker 1: any living man. What what will happen, said little to Mai. Happen?
• 3:48:00
  Speaker 1: That can happen? Peterson Sahib is a madman. Else why
• 3:48:05
  Speaker 1: should he go hunting these wild devils. He may even
• 3:48:08
  Speaker 1: require thee to be an elephant catcher, to sleep anywhere
• 3:48:11
  Speaker 1: in these fever filled jungles, and at last to be
• 3:48:14
  Speaker 1: trampled to death in the cada. It is well that
• 3:48:17
  Speaker 1: this nonsense ends safely. Next week the catching is over,
• 3:48:22
  Speaker 1: and we of the plains are sent back to our stations.
• 3:48:25
  Speaker 1: Then we will march on smooth roads and forget all
• 3:48:28
  Speaker 1: this hunting but Son, I am angry that thou shouldst
• 3:48:32
  Speaker 1: meddle in the business that belongs to these dirty Ossemese
• 3:48:35
  Speaker 1: jungle folk. Col A Nag will obey none but me,
• 3:48:39
  Speaker 1: so I must go with him into the cada. But
• 3:48:41
  Speaker 1: he is only a fighting elephant, and he does not
• 3:48:44
  Speaker 1: help to rope them. So I sit at my ease
• 3:48:47
  Speaker 1: as befits a mahout, not a mere hunter. A mahout,
• 3:48:51
  Speaker 1: I say, And a man who gets a pension at
• 3:48:53
  Speaker 1: the end of his service is the family of Tumai.
• 3:48:56
  Speaker 1: Of the elephants to be trodden under foot in the
• 3:48:58
  Speaker 1: dirt of a cada, bad one, wicked one, worthless son,
• 3:49:05
  Speaker 1: go and wash Colin Nag, and attend to his ears,
• 3:49:08
  Speaker 1: and see that there are no thorns in his feet,
• 3:49:11
  Speaker 1: Or else Peterson Sahib will surely catch thee and make
• 3:49:14
  Speaker 1: thee a wild hunter, a follower of elephant's foot tracks,
• 3:49:18
  Speaker 1: a jungle bear. Bah shame go. Little Toomey went off
• 3:49:25
  Speaker 1: without saying a word, but he told Colin and Nag
• 3:49:27
  Speaker 1: all his grievances while he was examining his feet. No
• 3:49:31
  Speaker 1: matter said little to my turning up the fringe of
• 3:49:34
  Speaker 1: Kalinnag's huge right ear they have said my name to
• 3:49:38
  Speaker 1: Peterson Sahib, and perhaps, and perhaps and perhaps who knows hi?
• 3:49:45
  Speaker 1: That is a big thorn that I have pulled out.
• 3:49:48
  Speaker 1: The next few days were spent in getting the elephants together,
• 3:49:51
  Speaker 1: in walking the newly caught wild elephants up and down
• 3:49:54
  Speaker 1: between a couple of tame ones to prevent them giving
• 3:49:56
  Speaker 1: too much trouble on the downward march to the plains,
• 3:49:59
  Speaker 1: and in take king stock of the blankets and ropes
• 3:50:01
  Speaker 1: and things that had been worn out or lost in
• 3:50:03
  Speaker 1: the forest. Peterson Sahib came in on his clever she
• 3:50:07
  Speaker 1: elephant pugmeny. He had been paying off other camps among
• 3:50:10
  Speaker 1: the hills for the season was coming to an end,
• 3:50:13
  Speaker 1: and there was a native clerk sitting at a table
• 3:50:15
  Speaker 1: under a tree to pay the drivers their wages. As
• 3:50:19
  Speaker 1: each man was paid, he went back to his elephant
• 3:50:22
  Speaker 1: and joined the line that stood ready to start. The
• 3:50:25
  Speaker 1: catchers and hunters and beaters. The men of the regular
• 3:50:29
  Speaker 1: Keida who stayed in the jungle year in and year out,
• 3:50:32
  Speaker 1: sat on the backs of the elephants that belonged to
• 3:50:34
  Speaker 1: Peterson Sahib's permanent force, or leaned against the trees with
• 3:50:38
  Speaker 1: their guns across their arms and made fun of the
• 3:50:40
  Speaker 1: drivers who were going away, and laughed. When the newly
• 3:50:44
  Speaker 1: caught elephants broke the line and ran about. Big two
• 3:50:48
  Speaker 1: Ma went up to the clerk with Little two Myi
• 3:50:50
  Speaker 1: behind him, and maqua Appa, the head tracker said, in
• 3:50:54
  Speaker 1: an undertone to a friend of his, there goes one
• 3:50:56
  Speaker 1: piece of good elephant stuff. At least tis a pity
• 3:51:00
  Speaker 1: to send that young junglecock to molt in the plains. Now,
• 3:51:04
  Speaker 1: Peterson Sahib had ears all over him, as a man
• 3:51:07
  Speaker 1: must have who listens to the most silent of all
• 3:51:09
  Speaker 1: living things, the wild elephant. He turned where he was
• 3:51:13
  Speaker 1: lying all along on Pudmany's back and said, what is that?
• 3:51:18
  Speaker 1: I did not know of a man among the plains
• 3:51:20
  Speaker 1: drivers who had wit enough to rope even a dead elephant.
• 3:51:23
  Speaker 1: This is not a man but a boy. He went
• 3:51:26
  Speaker 1: into the cada at the last drive and threw Barmao
• 3:51:29
  Speaker 1: there the rope. When we were trying to get that
• 3:51:31
  Speaker 1: young calf with the blotch on his shoulder away from
• 3:51:34
  Speaker 1: his mother, Macua Appa pointed at Little to Mai, and
• 3:51:38
  Speaker 1: Peterson Sahib looked, and Little too My bowed to the earth.
• 3:51:42
  Speaker 1: He throw a rope, he is smaller than a picket pin.
• 3:51:47
  Speaker 1: Little one, what is thy name? Said Peterson Sahib. Little
• 3:51:51
  Speaker 1: too Mai was too frightened to speak. But Kala Nag
• 3:51:54
  Speaker 1: was behind him, and Toomey made a sign with his hand,
• 3:51:57
  Speaker 1: and the elephant caught him up in his trunk and
• 3:51:59
  Speaker 1: held level with Pudmany's forehead in front of the Great
• 3:52:02
  Speaker 1: Peterson Sahib. Then Little Tumi covered his face with his hands,
• 3:52:07
  Speaker 1: for he was only a child, and except where elephants
• 3:52:10
  Speaker 1: were concerned, he was just as bashful as a child
• 3:52:13
  Speaker 1: could be. Oho, said Peterson Sahib, smiling underneath his mustache.
• 3:52:19
  Speaker 1: And why didst thou teach thy elephant that trick? Was
• 3:52:22
  Speaker 1: it to help thee steal green corn from the roofs
• 3:52:24
  Speaker 1: of the houses when the years are put out to
• 3:52:26
  Speaker 1: dry zero two five five? Not green corn, protector of
• 3:52:31
  Speaker 1: the poor melons, said little to Mai. Not green corn,
• 3:52:36
  Speaker 1: protector of the poor melons, said little to Mai. And
• 3:52:39
  Speaker 1: all the men sitting about broke into a roar of laughter.
• 3:52:43
  Speaker 1: Most of them had taught their elephants that trick when
• 3:52:46
  Speaker 1: they were boys. Little Tumi was hanging eight feet up
• 3:52:49
  Speaker 1: in the air, and he wished very much that he
• 3:52:52
  Speaker 1: were eight feet underground. He is Tou Mai, my son,
• 3:52:56
  Speaker 1: Sahib said, Big Tu Mai, scowling. He is a very
• 3:53:00
  Speaker 1: bad boy, and he will end in a jail. Sahib.
• 3:53:04
  Speaker 1: Of that, I have my doubts, said Peterson Sahib. A
• 3:53:08
  Speaker 1: boy who can face a full cada at his age
• 3:53:11
  Speaker 1: does not end in jails. See, little one, here are
• 3:53:15
  Speaker 1: four honors to spend in sweetmeats, because thou hast a
• 3:53:18
  Speaker 1: little head under that great thatch of hair. In time
• 3:53:21
  Speaker 1: thou mayest become a hunter too big to my scowled
• 3:53:25
  Speaker 1: more than ever, Remember though, that cadas are not good
• 3:53:29
  Speaker 1: for children to play in. Peterson Sahib went on, Must
• 3:53:33
  Speaker 1: I never go there, Sahib asked, little to Mai, with
• 3:53:36
  Speaker 1: a big gasp. Yes, Peterson Sahib smiled again. When thou
• 3:53:43
  Speaker 1: hast seen the elephants dance, that is the proper time.
• 3:53:48
  Speaker 1: Come to me, when thou hast seen the elephants dance,
• 3:53:51
  Speaker 1: And then I will let thee go into all the cadas.
• 3:53:54
  Speaker 1: There was another roar of laughter, for that is an
• 3:53:56
  Speaker 1: old joke among elephant catchers, and it means just never
• 3:54:01
  Speaker 1: there are great cleared flat places hidden away in the
• 3:54:03
  Speaker 1: forests that are called elephants ball rooms. But even these
• 3:54:06
  Speaker 1: are only found by accident, and no man has ever
• 3:54:09
  Speaker 1: seen the elephants dance. When a driver boasts of his
• 3:54:13
  Speaker 1: skill and bravery, the other drivers say, and when didst
• 3:54:16
  Speaker 1: thou see the elephants dance? Kola Nag put little two
• 3:54:20
  Speaker 1: May down, and he bowed to the earth again, and
• 3:54:23
  Speaker 1: went away with his father, and gave the silver foreann
• 3:54:26
  Speaker 1: apiece to his mother, who was nursing his baby brother.
• 3:54:29
  Speaker 1: And they all were put up on Kala Nag's back,
• 3:54:31
  Speaker 1: and the line of grunting, squealing elephants rolled down the
• 3:54:34
  Speaker 1: hill path to the plains. It was a very lively
• 3:54:38
  Speaker 1: march on account of the new elephants, who gave trouble
• 3:54:41
  Speaker 1: at every ford and needed coaxing or beating every other minute.
• 3:54:45
  Speaker 1: Big two Mike prodded Colin Nag spitefully, for he was
• 3:54:49
  Speaker 1: very angry, but Little to Mai was too happy to speak.
• 3:54:53
  Speaker 1: Peterson Sahib had noticed him and given him money, so
• 3:54:56
  Speaker 1: he felt as a private soldier would feel if he
• 3:54:59
  Speaker 1: had been called out out of the ranks and praised
• 3:55:01
  Speaker 1: by his commander in chief. What did Peterson Sahib mean
• 3:55:05
  Speaker 1: by the elephant dance, he said at last, softly to
• 3:55:09
  Speaker 1: his mother. Big two I heard him and grunted that
• 3:55:13
  Speaker 1: thou shouldst never be one of these hill buffaloes of trackers.
• 3:55:17
  Speaker 1: That was what he meant. Oh you in front, what
• 3:55:21
  Speaker 1: is blocking the way? An Assamese driver two or three
• 3:55:25
  Speaker 1: elephants ahead, turned round angrily, crying, bring up Colin Nag
• 3:55:29
  Speaker 1: and knock this youngster of mine into good behavior. Why
• 3:55:33
  Speaker 1: should Peterson Sahib have chosen me to go down with
• 3:55:36
  Speaker 1: you donkeys of the rice fields. Lay your beast alongside
• 3:55:40
  Speaker 1: to my and let him prod with his tusks. By
• 3:55:44
  Speaker 1: all the gods of the hills, these new elephants are possessed,
• 3:55:47
  Speaker 1: or else they can smell their companions in the jungle.
• 3:55:51
  Speaker 1: Colin Nag hit the new elephant in the ribs and
• 3:55:53
  Speaker 1: knocked the wind out of him. As Big two I said,
• 3:55:56
  Speaker 1: we have swept the hills of wild elephants at the
• 3:55:58
  Speaker 1: last catch. It is only your carelessness in driving. Must
• 3:56:03
  Speaker 1: I keep order along the whole line? Hear him, said
• 3:56:07
  Speaker 1: the other driver, We have swept the hills. Ho ho,
• 3:56:14
  Speaker 1: you are very wise eu plains people any one but
• 3:56:18
  Speaker 1: a mudhead who never saw the jungle would know that.
• 3:56:20
  Speaker 1: They know that the drives are ended for the season.
• 3:56:24
  Speaker 1: Therefore all the wild elephants tonight will But why should
• 3:56:27
  Speaker 1: I waste wisdom on a river turtle? What will they do?
• 3:56:31
  Speaker 1: Little two Mike called out, Oh, hey, little one, art
• 3:56:36
  Speaker 1: thou there? Well, I will tell thee for thou hast
• 3:56:39
  Speaker 1: a cool head. They will dance, And it behooves thy father,
• 3:56:44
  Speaker 1: who has swept all the hills of all the elephants,
• 3:56:46
  Speaker 1: to double chain his pickets to night. What talk is this,
• 3:56:50
  Speaker 1: said big two Mai. For forty years, father and son,
• 3:56:55
  Speaker 1: we have tended elephants, and we have never heard such
• 3:56:58
  Speaker 1: moonshine about dances. Yes, but a plainsman who lives in
• 3:57:02
  Speaker 1: a hut knows only the four walls of his hut.
• 3:57:05
  Speaker 1: Well leave thy elephants unshackled to night and see what
• 3:57:08
  Speaker 1: comes As for their dancing. I have seen the place
• 3:57:12
  Speaker 1: where the pre bap how many windings has the dihon river?
• 3:57:17
  Speaker 1: Here is another ford, and we must swim the calves.
• 3:57:21
  Speaker 1: Stop still you behind there? And in this way, talking
• 3:57:25
  Speaker 1: and wrangling and splashing through the rivers, they made their
• 3:57:28
  Speaker 1: first march to a sort of receiving camp for the
• 3:57:31
  Speaker 1: new elephants, but they lost their tempers long before they
• 3:57:35
  Speaker 1: got there. Then the elephants were chained by their hind
• 3:57:38
  Speaker 1: legs to their big stumps of pickets, and extra ropes
• 3:57:41
  Speaker 1: were fitted to the new elephants, and the fodder was
• 3:57:44
  Speaker 1: piled before them, and the hill drivers went back to
• 3:57:46
  Speaker 1: Petersen Sahib through the afternoon light, telling the Plains drivers
• 3:57:50
  Speaker 1: to be extra careful that night, and laughing when the
• 3:57:53
  Speaker 1: Plains drivers asked the reason. Little two I attended to
• 3:57:58
  Speaker 1: call a Nag's supper, and as evening fell, wandered through
• 3:58:01
  Speaker 1: the camp unspeakably happy, in search of a tom tom.
• 3:58:05
  Speaker 1: When an Indian child's heart is full, he does not
• 3:58:08
  Speaker 1: run about and make a noise in an irregular fashion.
• 3:58:12
  Speaker 1: He sits down to a sort of revel all by himself,
• 3:58:16
  Speaker 1: and little to my I had been spoken to by
• 3:58:18
  Speaker 1: Peterson Sahib. If he had not found what he wanted,
• 3:58:22
  Speaker 1: I believe he would have been ill. But the sweetmeat
• 3:58:25
  Speaker 1: cellar in the camp lent him a little tom tom,
• 3:58:27
  Speaker 1: a drum beaten with the flat of the hand, and
• 3:58:30
  Speaker 1: he sat down cross legged before Colin Nag. As the
• 3:58:33
  Speaker 1: stars began to come out the tom tom in his lap,
• 3:58:36
  Speaker 1: and he thumped, and he thumped, and he thumped. And
• 3:58:38
  Speaker 1: the more he thought of the great honor that had
• 3:58:40
  Speaker 1: been done to him, the more he thumped. All alone
• 3:58:44
  Speaker 1: among the elephant fodder. There was no tune and no words,
• 3:58:48
  Speaker 1: but the thumping made him happy. The new elephants strained
• 3:58:52
  Speaker 1: at their ropes and squealed and trumpeted from time to time.
• 3:58:55
  Speaker 1: And he could hear his mother in the camp hut,
• 3:58:57
  Speaker 1: putting his small brother to sleep with an old old
• 3:59:00
  Speaker 1: song about the great god Shiv, who once told all
• 3:59:04
  Speaker 1: the animals what they should eat. It is a very
• 3:59:07
  Speaker 1: soothing lullaby, And the first verse says Shiv, who poured
• 3:59:11
  Speaker 1: the harvest and made the winds to blow, sitting at
• 3:59:13
  Speaker 1: the doorways of a day of long ago, gave to
• 3:59:16
  Speaker 1: each his portion food and toil and fate. From the
• 3:59:19
  Speaker 1: king upon the gadid to the beggar at the gate,
• 3:59:22
  Speaker 1: all things made he Shiva, the preserver Mahadio, mahaio. He
• 3:59:30
  Speaker 1: made all thorn for the camel, fodder for the kind,
• 3:59:33
  Speaker 1: and mother's heart for sleepy head. O, little son of mine,
• 3:59:37
  Speaker 1: little too, my came in with a joyous tunka tunk
• 3:59:40
  Speaker 1: at the end of each verse, till he felt sleepy
• 3:59:42
  Speaker 1: and stretched himself on the fodder at Kala Nag's side.
• 3:59:46
  Speaker 1: At last, the elephants began to lie down, one after another,
• 3:59:49
  Speaker 1: as is their custom, till only Kala Nag, at the
• 3:59:52
  Speaker 1: right of the line, was left standing up, and he
• 3:59:55
  Speaker 1: rocked slowly from side to side, his ears put forward
• 3:59:58
  Speaker 1: to listen to the night wind as it blew very
• 4:00:00
  Speaker 1: slowly across the hills. The air was full of all
• 4:00:04
  Speaker 1: the night noises that, taken together, make one big silence.
• 4:00:08
  Speaker 1: The click of one bamboo stem against the other, the
• 4:00:10
  Speaker 1: rustle of something alive in the undergrowth, the scratch and
• 4:00:14
  Speaker 1: squawk of a half wake bird. Birds are awake in
• 4:00:17
  Speaker 1: the night much more often than we imagine, and the
• 4:00:19
  Speaker 1: fall of water, ever so far away. Little two My
• 4:00:23
  Speaker 1: slept for some time, and when he waked, it was
• 4:00:25
  Speaker 1: brilliant moonlight, and Colin Nag was still standing up with
• 4:00:29
  Speaker 1: his ears cocked. Little two My turned rustling in the
• 4:00:32
  Speaker 1: fodder and watched the curve of his big back against
• 4:00:35
  Speaker 1: half the stars in heaven. And while he watched, he
• 4:00:38
  Speaker 1: heard so far away that it sounded no more than
• 4:00:41
  Speaker 1: a pin hole of noise pricked through the stillness the
• 4:00:44
  Speaker 1: hutute of a wild elephant. All the elephants in the
• 4:00:48
  Speaker 1: lines jumped up as if they had been shot, and
• 4:00:50
  Speaker 1: their grunts at last waked the sleeping mahouts, and they
• 4:00:53
  Speaker 1: came out and drove in the picket pegs with big mallets,
• 4:00:56
  Speaker 1: and tightened this rope and knotted that till all was quiet.
• 4:01:00
  Speaker 1: One new elephant had nearly grubbed up his picket, and
• 4:01:03
  Speaker 1: Big two Mike took off Kola Nag's leg chain and
• 4:01:05
  Speaker 1: shackled that elephant four foot to hindfoot, but slipped a
• 4:01:09
  Speaker 1: loop of grass string round Kola Nag's leg and told
• 4:01:12
  Speaker 1: him to remember that he was tied fast. He knew
• 4:01:15
  Speaker 1: that he and his father and his grandfather had done
• 4:01:18
  Speaker 1: the very same thing hundreds of times before. Kola Nag
• 4:01:22
  Speaker 1: did not answer to the order by gurgling as he
• 4:01:24
  Speaker 1: usually did. He stood still, looking out across the moonlight,
• 4:01:29
  Speaker 1: his head a little raised, and his ears spread like
• 4:01:31
  Speaker 1: fans up to the great folds of the Garo Hills.
• 4:01:35
  Speaker 1: Ten to him if he grows restless in the night,
• 4:01:38
  Speaker 1: said Big Tumi to little Tumai, and he went into
• 4:01:41
  Speaker 1: the hut and slept. Little Tumi was just going to
• 4:01:44
  Speaker 1: sleep too, when he heard the choir string snap with
• 4:01:47
  Speaker 1: a little tang, and Kola Nagg rolled out of his pickets,
• 4:01:50
  Speaker 1: as slowly and as silently as a cloud rolls out
• 4:01:53
  Speaker 1: of the mouth of a valley. Little two Mai pattered
• 4:01:57
  Speaker 1: after him, barefooted, down the road in the moonlightight, calling
• 4:02:00
  Speaker 1: under his breath, call a nag, Call a nag, Take
• 4:02:05
  Speaker 1: me with you, Oh, call a nag. The elephant turned
• 4:02:09
  Speaker 1: without a sound, took three strides back to the boy
• 4:02:12
  Speaker 1: in the moonlight, put down his trunk, swung him up
• 4:02:15
  Speaker 1: to his neck, and almost before Little two I had
• 4:02:18
  Speaker 1: settled his knees slipped into the forest. There was one
• 4:02:22
  Speaker 1: blast of furious trumpeting from the lines, and then the
• 4:02:25
  Speaker 1: silence shut down on everything, and Colin a Nagg began
• 4:02:28
  Speaker 1: to move. Sometimes a tuft of high grass washed along
• 4:02:32
  Speaker 1: his sides as a wave washes along the sides of
• 4:02:35
  Speaker 1: a ship, and sometimes a cluster of wild pepper vines
• 4:02:38
  Speaker 1: would scrape along his back, or a bamboo would creak
• 4:02:41
  Speaker 1: where his shoulder touched it. But between those times he
• 4:02:44
  Speaker 1: moved absolutely without any sound, drifting through the thick garrow
• 4:02:48
  Speaker 1: forest as though it had been smoke. He was going
• 4:02:51
  Speaker 1: up hill, but though Little two I watched the stars
• 4:02:54
  Speaker 1: in the rifts of the trees, he could not tell
• 4:02:56
  Speaker 1: in what direction. Then col A Nag reached the crest
• 4:03:00
  Speaker 1: of the ascent and stopped for a minute, and Little
• 4:03:03
  Speaker 1: two Mike could see the tops of the trees lying
• 4:03:05
  Speaker 1: all speckled and furry under the moonlight for miles and miles,
• 4:03:08
  Speaker 1: and the blue white mist over the river. In the hollow.
• 4:03:12
  Speaker 1: Two my leaned forward and looked, and he felt that
• 4:03:15
  Speaker 1: the forest was awake below him, awake and alive and crowded.
• 4:03:19
  Speaker 1: A big brown fruit eating bat brushed past his ear.
• 4:03:22
  Speaker 1: A porcupine's quills rattled in the thicket, and in the
• 4:03:25
  Speaker 1: darkness between the tree stems, he heard a hogbaar digging
• 4:03:28
  Speaker 1: heart in the moist warm earth, and snuffing as it digged.
• 4:03:32
  Speaker 1: Then the branches closed over his head again, and Colin
• 4:03:35
  Speaker 1: Nag began to go down into the valley, not quietly
• 4:03:39
  Speaker 1: this time, but as a runaway gun goes down a
• 4:03:41
  Speaker 1: steep bank in one rush. The huge limbs moved as
• 4:03:45
  Speaker 1: steadily as pistons, eight feet to each stride, and the
• 4:03:49
  Speaker 1: wrinkled skin of the elbow points rustled. The undergrowth on
• 4:03:53
  Speaker 1: either side of him ripped with a noise like torn canvas,
• 4:03:56
  Speaker 1: and the saplings that he heaved away right and left
• 4:03:58
  Speaker 1: with his shoulders sprang back again and banged him on
• 4:04:01
  Speaker 1: the flank. And great trails of creepers, all matted together,
• 4:04:05
  Speaker 1: hung from his tusks as he threw his head from
• 4:04:07
  Speaker 1: side to side and plowed out his pathway. Then little
• 4:04:11
  Speaker 1: too May laid himself down close to the great neck
• 4:04:13
  Speaker 1: lest a swinging bough should sweep him to the ground,
• 4:04:16
  Speaker 1: and he wished that he were back in the lines again.
• 4:04:19
  Speaker 1: Zero zero won zero. Of the grass began to get squashy,
• 4:04:23
  Speaker 1: and Kala Nag's feet sucked and squelched as he put
• 4:04:26
  Speaker 1: them down, and the night mist at the bottom of
• 4:04:28
  Speaker 1: the valley chilled little Tumai. There was a splash in
• 4:04:32
  Speaker 1: a trample and the rush of running water, and Kola
• 4:04:35
  Speaker 1: Nag strode through the bed of a river, feeling his
• 4:04:38
  Speaker 1: way at each step. Above the noise of the water
• 4:04:41
  Speaker 1: as it swirled round the elephant's legs, Little Tumi could
• 4:04:45
  Speaker 1: hear more splashing and some trumpeting, both up stream and down,
• 4:04:48
  Speaker 1: great grunts and angry snortings and all the mist about
• 4:04:51
  Speaker 1: him seemed to be full of rolling, wavy shadows. A I,
• 4:04:56
  Speaker 1: he said, half aloud, his teeth chattering. The elephant folk
• 4:05:00
  Speaker 1: are out tonight. It is the dance. Then Colin Nag
• 4:05:05
  Speaker 1: swashed out of the water, blew his trunk clear, and
• 4:05:08
  Speaker 1: began another climb. But this time he was not alone,
• 4:05:12
  Speaker 1: and he had not to make his path that was
• 4:05:15
  Speaker 1: made already six feet wide in front of him, where
• 4:05:19
  Speaker 1: the bent jungle grass was trying to recover itself and
• 4:05:21
  Speaker 1: stand up. Many elephants must have gone that way only
• 4:05:25
  Speaker 1: a few minutes before. Little Toomey looked back, and behind him,
• 4:05:30
  Speaker 1: a great wild tusker, with his little pig's eyes glowing
• 4:05:33
  Speaker 1: like hot coals, was just lifting himself out of the
• 4:05:35
  Speaker 1: misty river. Then the trees closed up again, and they
• 4:05:39
  Speaker 1: went on and up, with trumpetings and crashings and the
• 4:05:43
  Speaker 1: sound of breaking branches on every side of them. Five thousand,
• 4:05:47
  Speaker 1: three hundred and seventeen Elephant Dance. At last, Colin Nag
• 4:05:50
  Speaker 1: stood still between two tree trunks at the very top
• 4:05:53
  Speaker 1: of the hill. They were part of a circle of
• 4:05:56
  Speaker 1: trees that grew round an irregular space of some three
• 4:05:59
  Speaker 1: or four acres, and in all that space, as Little
• 4:06:02
  Speaker 1: two I could see, the ground had been trampled down,
• 4:06:05
  Speaker 1: as hard as a brick floor. Some trees grew in
• 4:06:09
  Speaker 1: the center of the clearing, but their bark was rubbed away,
• 4:06:12
  Speaker 1: and the white wood beneath showed all shiny and polished.
• 4:06:15
  Speaker 1: In the patches of moonlight. There were creepers hanging from
• 4:06:18
  Speaker 1: the upper branches, and the bells of the flowers of
• 4:06:21
  Speaker 1: the creepers. Great waxy white things like convolvuluses, hung down
• 4:06:25
  Speaker 1: fast asleep. But within the limits of the clearing there
• 4:06:29
  Speaker 1: was not a single blade of green, nothing but the
• 4:06:31
  Speaker 1: trampled earth. The moonlight showed it all iron gray, except
• 4:06:36
  Speaker 1: where some elephants stood upon it, and their shadows were
• 4:06:38
  Speaker 1: inky black. Little two I looked, holding his breath, with
• 4:06:43
  Speaker 1: his eyes starting out of his head, and as he looked,
• 4:06:46
  Speaker 1: more and more and more elephants swung out into the
• 4:06:48
  Speaker 1: open from between the tree trunks. Little two I could
• 4:06:52
  Speaker 1: only count up to ten, and he counted again and
• 4:06:54
  Speaker 1: again on his fingers till he lost count of the tens,
• 4:06:57
  Speaker 1: and his head began to swim. Outside the clearing, he
• 4:07:01
  Speaker 1: could hear them crashing in the undergrowth as they worked
• 4:07:03
  Speaker 1: their way up the hillside, but as soon as they
• 4:07:06
  Speaker 1: were within the circle of the tree trunks, they moved
• 4:07:08
  Speaker 1: like ghosts. There were white, tussed wild males with fallen
• 4:07:12
  Speaker 1: leaves and nuts and twigs lying in the wrinkles of
• 4:07:15
  Speaker 1: their necks and the folds of their ears. Fat, slow
• 4:07:18
  Speaker 1: footed she elephants with restless, little pinky black calves only
• 4:07:22
  Speaker 1: three or four feet high, running under their stomachs. Young
• 4:07:25
  Speaker 1: elephants with their tusks just beginning to show, and very
• 4:07:29
  Speaker 1: proud of them. Lanky, scraggy, old made elephants with their hollow,
• 4:07:33
  Speaker 1: anxious faces and trunks like rough bark, savage old bull elephants,
• 4:07:38
  Speaker 1: scarred from shoulder to flank, with great wheels and cuts
• 4:07:40
  Speaker 1: of bygone fights, and the caked dirt of their solitary
• 4:07:43
  Speaker 1: mud baths dropping from their shoulders. And there was one
• 4:07:47
  Speaker 1: with a broken tusk in the marks of the full stroke,
• 4:07:50
  Speaker 1: the terrible drawing scrape of a tiger's claws on his side.
• 4:07:54
  Speaker 1: They were standing head to head, or walking to and
• 4:07:57
  Speaker 1: fro across the ground in couples, or rocking in weighing,
• 4:08:00
  Speaker 1: all by themselves. Scores and scores of elephants too, mine
• 4:08:04
  Speaker 1: knew that so long as he lay still on Cola
• 4:08:07
  Speaker 1: Nag's neck, nothing would happen to him. For even in
• 4:08:10
  Speaker 1: the rush and scramble of a cada drive, a wild
• 4:08:12
  Speaker 1: elephant does not reach up with his trunk and drag
• 4:08:15
  Speaker 1: a man off the neck of a tame elephant. And
• 4:08:18
  Speaker 1: these elephants were not thinking of men that night. Once
• 4:08:21
  Speaker 1: they started and put their ears forward when they heard
• 4:08:24
  Speaker 1: the chinking of a leg iron in the forest. But
• 4:08:26
  Speaker 1: it was Pudminy Peterson Sahib's pet elephant. Her chains snapped
• 4:08:30
  Speaker 1: short off, grunting, snuffling up the hillside. She must have
• 4:08:35
  Speaker 1: broken her pickets and come straight from Peterson Sahib's camp.
• 4:08:38
  Speaker 1: And little too, I saw another elephant, one that he
• 4:08:41
  Speaker 1: did not know, with deep rope galls on his back
• 4:08:44
  Speaker 1: and breast. He too, must have run away from some
• 4:08:47
  Speaker 1: camp in the hills. About at last there was no
• 4:08:51
  Speaker 1: sound of any more elephants moving in the forest, and
• 4:08:53
  Speaker 1: Colin Nag rolled out from his station between the trees
• 4:08:56
  Speaker 1: and went into the middle of the crowd, clucking and gurgling,
• 4:09:00
  Speaker 1: And all the elephants began to talk in their own
• 4:09:02
  Speaker 1: tongue and to move about zero two seven one, little
• 4:09:06
  Speaker 1: to my looked down upon scores and scores of broad backs.
• 4:09:11
  Speaker 1: Still lying down little to Mai looked down upon scores
• 4:09:14
  Speaker 1: and scores of broad backs, and wagging ears and tossing
• 4:09:18
  Speaker 1: trunks and little rolling eyes. He heard the click of
• 4:09:22
  Speaker 1: tusks as they crossed other tusks by accident, and the
• 4:09:25
  Speaker 1: dry rustle of trunks twined together, and the chafing of
• 4:09:28
  Speaker 1: enormous sides and shoulders in the crowd, and the incessant
• 4:09:31
  Speaker 1: flick and hish of the great tails. Then a cloud
• 4:09:35
  Speaker 1: came over the moon, and he sat in black darkness.
• 4:09:39
  Speaker 1: But the quiet, steady hustling and pushing and gurgling went
• 4:09:42
  Speaker 1: on just the same. He knew that there were elephants
• 4:09:45
  Speaker 1: all round Colin Nag, and that there was no chance
• 4:09:48
  Speaker 1: of backing him out of the assembly. So he set
• 4:09:50
  Speaker 1: his teeth and shivered. In Akeda, at least there was
• 4:09:54
  Speaker 1: torchlight and shouting. But here he was all alone in
• 4:09:57
  Speaker 1: the dark. And once a trunk came up and touched
• 4:10:00
  Speaker 1: him on the knee. Then an elephant trumpeted, and they
• 4:10:03
  Speaker 1: all took it up for five or ten terrible seconds.
• 4:10:07
  Speaker 1: The dew from the trees above spattered down like rain
• 4:10:10
  Speaker 1: on the unseen backs, and a dull, booming noise began,
• 4:10:13
  Speaker 1: not very loud at first, and Little two Mike could
• 4:10:16
  Speaker 1: not tell what it was, but it grew and grew,
• 4:10:19
  Speaker 1: and Colin Nag lifted up one fore foot and then
• 4:10:22
  Speaker 1: the other, and brought them down on the ground, one too,
• 4:10:25
  Speaker 1: one too, as steadily as trip hammers. The elephants were
• 4:10:30
  Speaker 1: stamping all together now, and it sounded like a war
• 4:10:33
  Speaker 1: drum beaten at the mouth of a cave. The dew
• 4:10:36
  Speaker 1: fell from the trees till there was no more left
• 4:10:38
  Speaker 1: to fall, and the booming went on, and the ground
• 4:10:41
  Speaker 1: rocked and shivered, and Little two Mike put his hands
• 4:10:44
  Speaker 1: up to his ears to shut out the sound. But
• 4:10:47
  Speaker 1: it was all one gigantic jar that ran through him,
• 4:10:50
  Speaker 1: this stamp of hundreds of heavy feet on the raw earth.
• 4:10:54
  Speaker 1: Once or twice he could feel Colin Nag and all
• 4:10:56
  Speaker 1: the others surged forward a few strides, and the thumping
• 4:10:59
  Speaker 1: would changed to the crushing sound of juicy green things
• 4:11:02
  Speaker 1: being bruised. But in a minute or two the boom
• 4:11:05
  Speaker 1: of feet on hard earth began again. A tree was
• 4:11:08
  Speaker 1: creaking and groaning somewhere near him. He put out his
• 4:11:12
  Speaker 1: arm and felt the bark, but Kala Nag moved forward,
• 4:11:15
  Speaker 1: still tramping, and he could not tell where he was
• 4:11:18
  Speaker 1: in the clearing. There was no sound from the elephants,
• 4:11:22
  Speaker 1: except once when two or three little calves squeaked together.
• 4:11:26
  Speaker 1: Then he heard a thump and a shuffle, and the
• 4:11:29
  Speaker 1: booming went on. It must have lasted fully two hours,
• 4:11:33
  Speaker 1: and Little twomight ached in every nerve, but he knew
• 4:11:36
  Speaker 1: by the smell of the night air that the dawn
• 4:11:38
  Speaker 1: was coming. The morning broke in one sheet of pale
• 4:11:41
  Speaker 1: yellow behind the green hills, and the booming stopped with
• 4:11:45
  Speaker 1: the first ray, as though the light had been in
• 4:11:47
  Speaker 1: order before Little Toomi had got the ringing out of
• 4:11:50
  Speaker 1: his head. Before even he had shifted his position, there
• 4:11:54
  Speaker 1: was not an elephant in sight except Cola nag pudmany
• 4:11:57
  Speaker 1: and the elephant with the rope gulls. And there was
• 4:12:00
  Speaker 1: neither sign, nor rustle, nor whispered down the hillsides to
• 4:12:03
  Speaker 1: show where the others had gone. Little to My stared
• 4:12:06
  Speaker 1: again and again the clearing as he remembered it had
• 4:12:10
  Speaker 1: grown in the night. More trees stood in the middle
• 4:12:14
  Speaker 1: of it, but the undergrowth and the jungle grass at
• 4:12:16
  Speaker 1: the sides had been rolled back. Little to My stared
• 4:12:20
  Speaker 1: once more. Now he understood the trampling the elephants had
• 4:12:25
  Speaker 1: stamped out more room had stamped the thick grass and
• 4:12:28
  Speaker 1: juicy cane to trash, the trash into slivers, the slivers
• 4:12:32
  Speaker 1: into tiny fibers, and the fibers into hard earth. Wah
• 4:12:36
  Speaker 1: said little to May, and his eyes were very heavy.
• 4:12:40
  Speaker 1: Call a nag, my lord. Let us keep by pudmany
• 4:12:43
  Speaker 1: and go to Peterson Sahib's camp, or I shall drop
• 4:12:46
  Speaker 1: from thy neck. The third elephant watched the two go away, snorted,
• 4:12:51
  Speaker 1: wheeled round, and took his own path. He may have
• 4:12:55
  Speaker 1: belonged to some little native king's establishment fifty or sixty
• 4:12:59
  Speaker 1: or a hundred miles away. Two hours later, as Peterson
• 4:13:03
  Speaker 1: Sahib was eating early breakfast, his elephants, who had been
• 4:13:07
  Speaker 1: double chained that night, began to trumpet, and Pudminy, mired
• 4:13:10
  Speaker 1: to the shoulders with kala nag, very footsore, shambled into
• 4:13:14
  Speaker 1: the camp. Little Tomai's face was gray and pinched, and
• 4:13:18
  Speaker 1: his hair was full of leaves and drenched with dew,
• 4:13:21
  Speaker 1: but he tried to salute Peterson Sahib and cried faintly
• 4:13:25
  Speaker 1: the dance, the elephant dance. I have seen it, and
• 4:13:29
  Speaker 1: I die. As Kala Nag sat down, he slid off
• 4:13:33
  Speaker 1: his neck in a dead faint. But since native children
• 4:13:37
  Speaker 1: have no nerves worth speaking of, in two hours he
• 4:13:40
  Speaker 1: was lying very contentedly in Peterson Sahib's hammock, with Peterson
• 4:13:44
  Speaker 1: Sahib's shooting coat under his head, and a glass of
• 4:13:47
  Speaker 1: warm milk a little brandy with a dash of quinine
• 4:13:50
  Speaker 1: inside of him. And while the old harry scarred hunters
• 4:13:54
  Speaker 1: of the jungle sat three deep before him, looking at
• 4:13:57
  Speaker 1: him as though he were a spirit. He told his
• 4:13:59
  Speaker 1: tale in short words as a child will, and wound
• 4:14:02
  Speaker 1: up with Now, if I lie in one word, send
• 4:14:06
  Speaker 1: men to sea, and they will find that the elephant
• 4:14:08
  Speaker 1: folk have trampled down more room in their dance room.
• 4:14:11
  Speaker 1: And they will find ten and ten and many times
• 4:14:13
  Speaker 1: ten tracks leading to that dance room. They made more
• 4:14:18
  Speaker 1: room with their feet. I have seen it. Colin Nag
• 4:14:22
  Speaker 1: took me, and I saw also Colin Nag is very
• 4:14:26
  Speaker 1: leg weary, little too. My lay back and slept all
• 4:14:30
  Speaker 1: through the long afternoon and into the twilight. And while
• 4:14:33
  Speaker 1: he slept, Peterson Sahib and macua Appa followed the track
• 4:14:36
  Speaker 1: of the two elephants for fifteen miles across the hills.
• 4:14:40
  Speaker 1: Peterson Sahib had spent eighteen years in catching elephants, and
• 4:14:44
  Speaker 1: he had only once before found such a dance place.
• 4:14:48
  Speaker 1: Macua Appa had no need to look twice at the
• 4:14:50
  Speaker 1: clearing to see what had been done there, or to
• 4:14:52
  Speaker 1: scratch with his toe in the pact ran to earth.
• 4:14:56
  Speaker 1: The child speaks truth, said he. All this was done
• 4:15:00
  Speaker 1: last night, and I have counted seventy tracks crossing the river.
• 4:15:04
  Speaker 1: See Sahib, where Pudminy's leg iron cut the bark of
• 4:15:08
  Speaker 1: that tree. Yes, she was there too. They looked at
• 4:15:12
  Speaker 1: one another, and up and down, and they wondered, for
• 4:15:16
  Speaker 1: the ways of elephants are beyond the wit of any man,
• 4:15:19
  Speaker 1: black or white to fathom. Forty years and five, said
• 4:15:23
  Speaker 1: macua Appa. Have I followed my lord the elephant, But
• 4:15:27
  Speaker 1: never have I heard that any child of man had
• 4:15:29
  Speaker 1: seen what this child has seen. By all the gods
• 4:15:33
  Speaker 1: of the hills, it is what can we say? And
• 4:15:36
  Speaker 1: he shook his head. When they got back to camp,
• 4:15:39
  Speaker 1: it was time for the evening meal. Peterson Sahib ate
• 4:15:42
  Speaker 1: alone in his tent, but he gave orders that the
• 4:15:45
  Speaker 1: camp should have two sheep and some fowls, as well
• 4:15:48
  Speaker 1: as a double ration of flour and rice and salt,
• 4:15:51
  Speaker 1: for he knew that there would be a feast five thousand,
• 4:15:54
  Speaker 1: three hundred thirty two to May of the elephants. Big too,
• 4:15:58
  Speaker 1: my I had come up hot foot from the camp
• 4:15:59
  Speaker 1: in the planes to search for his son and his elephant,
• 4:16:02
  Speaker 1: And now that he had found them, he looked at
• 4:16:04
  Speaker 1: them as though he were afraid of them both. And
• 4:16:07
  Speaker 1: there was a feast by the blazing camp fires in
• 4:16:09
  Speaker 1: front of the lines of picketed elephants, and little Tumi
• 4:16:13
  Speaker 1: was the hero of it all. And the big brown
• 4:16:16
  Speaker 1: elephant catchers, the trackers and drivers and ropers, and the
• 4:16:20
  Speaker 1: men who know all the secrets of breaking the wildest
• 4:16:22
  Speaker 1: elephants passed him from one to the other, and they
• 4:16:25
  Speaker 1: marked his forehead with blood from the breast of a
• 4:16:27
  Speaker 1: newly killed jungle cock, to show that he was a
• 4:16:30
  Speaker 1: forester initiated and free of all the jungles. And at last,
• 4:16:34
  Speaker 1: when the flames died down and the red light of
• 4:16:37
  Speaker 1: the logs made the elephants look as though they had
• 4:16:39
  Speaker 1: been dipped in blood too, Maqua Appa, the head of
• 4:16:42
  Speaker 1: all the drivers of all the cadis macua Appa Peterson
• 4:16:46
  Speaker 1: Sahib's other self, who had never seen a maid road
• 4:16:49
  Speaker 1: in forty years. Maqua Appa, who was so great that
• 4:16:53
  Speaker 1: he had no other name than Macua Appa, leaped to
• 4:16:56
  Speaker 1: his feet, with little two my held high in the
• 4:16:59
  Speaker 1: air above his head, and shouted, listen, my brothers, listen
• 4:17:04
  Speaker 1: to you, my lords in the lines there, For I
• 4:17:07
  Speaker 1: macua Appa am speaking. This little one shall no more
• 4:17:11
  Speaker 1: be called little Tumai, but to may of the elephants,
• 4:17:14
  Speaker 1: as his great grandfather was called before him. What never
• 4:17:18
  Speaker 1: man has seen, he has seen through the long night,
• 4:17:20
  Speaker 1: and the favor of the elephant folk and of the
• 4:17:23
  Speaker 1: gods of the jungles is with him. He shall become
• 4:17:26
  Speaker 1: a great tracker. He shall become greater than I, even
• 4:17:30
  Speaker 1: I macua Appa. He shall follow the new trail, and
• 4:17:34
  Speaker 1: the stale trail, and the mixed trail with a clear eye.
• 4:17:38
  Speaker 1: He shall take no harm in the cada when he
• 4:17:40
  Speaker 1: runs under their bellies to rope the wild tuskers. And
• 4:17:43
  Speaker 1: if he slips before the feet of the charging bull elephant,
• 4:17:46
  Speaker 1: the bull elephant shall know who he is and shall
• 4:17:49
  Speaker 1: not crush him. A hai, my lords. In the chains,
• 4:17:53
  Speaker 1: he whirled up the line of pickets. Here is the
• 4:17:56
  Speaker 1: little one that has seen your dances in your hidden places,
• 4:17:59
  Speaker 1: the sight that never and saw. Give him honor, my lords.
• 4:18:04
  Speaker 1: Salaam karo, my children, make your salute to Tumi of
• 4:18:08
  Speaker 1: the elephants, Gundha prashad Aha. Here a goodj birchie gooch
• 4:18:14
  Speaker 1: cuttar guj Aha, hudminy thou hast seen him at the dance,
• 4:18:19
  Speaker 1: And thou too call a nag my pearl among elephants
• 4:18:23
  Speaker 1: Aha together to Tumi of the elephants, bar rau zero
• 4:18:30
  Speaker 1: two seven nine, to Tumi of the Elephants, bar raou.
• 4:18:35
  Speaker 1: And at that last wild yelled. The whole line flung
• 4:18:38
  Speaker 1: up their trunks till the tips touched their foreheads, and
• 4:18:41
  Speaker 1: broke out into the full salute. The crashing trumpet peal
• 4:18:44
  Speaker 1: that only the Viceroy of India hears the salamet of
• 4:18:47
  Speaker 1: the cada. But it was all for the sake of
• 4:18:50
  Speaker 1: little Tumai, who had seen what never man had seen before,
• 4:18:54
  Speaker 1: the dance of the elephants at night and alone in
• 4:18:56
  Speaker 1: the heart of the Garo hills. Shiv and the grasshopper,
• 4:19:00
  Speaker 1: the song that Toumai's mother sang to the baby Shiv,
• 4:19:04
  Speaker 1: who poured the harvest and made the winds to blow.
• 4:19:07
  Speaker 1: Sitting at the doorways of a day of long ago,
• 4:19:09
  Speaker 1: gave to each his portion food and toil and fate.
• 4:19:12
  Speaker 1: From the king upon the gadi to the beggar at
• 4:19:15
  Speaker 1: the gate, all things made he Shiva the preserver, Mahaio, mahaio.
• 4:19:23
  Speaker 1: He made all thorn for the camel, fodder for the kind,
• 4:19:26
  Speaker 1: and mother's heart for sleepy head, O, little son of mine.
• 4:19:31
  Speaker 1: Wheat he gave to rich folk, millet to the poor,
• 4:19:34
  Speaker 1: broken scraps for holy men that beg from door to door,
• 4:19:37
  Speaker 1: battle to the tiger, carry into the kite, and rags
• 4:19:40
  Speaker 1: and bones to wicked wolves. Without the wall at night,
• 4:19:44
  Speaker 1: nought he found too lofty, None he saw too low.
• 4:19:47
  Speaker 1: Her body beside him watched them come and go. Thought
• 4:19:50
  Speaker 1: to cheat her husband, turning Shiv to jest, stole the
• 4:19:53
  Speaker 1: little grasshopper and hid it in her breast. So she
• 4:19:56
  Speaker 1: tricked him, Shiva the Preserver, Mahai mahadio, turn and see
• 4:20:04
  Speaker 1: tall are the camels, heavy are the kind. But this
• 4:20:07
  Speaker 1: was least of little things, O, little son of mine.
• 4:20:11
  Speaker 1: When the dole was ended. Laughingly, she said, Master of
• 4:20:15
  Speaker 1: a million mouths, is not one unfed. Laughing Shiv made answer,
• 4:20:20
  Speaker 1: All have had their part, even he, the little one
• 4:20:23
  Speaker 1: hidden neath thy heart. From her breast, she plucked it parbody.
• 4:20:28
  Speaker 1: The thief saw the least of little things, not a
• 4:20:30
  Speaker 1: new grown leaf, saw and feared and wondered, making prayer
• 4:20:34
  Speaker 1: to Shiv, who hath surely given meat to all that live.
• 4:20:39
  Speaker 1: All things made he Shiva the preserver, Mahadio, Mahardio. He
• 4:20:46
  Speaker 1: made all thorn for the camel, fodder for the kind,
• 4:20:49
  Speaker 1: and mother's heart for sleepy head, O, little son of mine,
• 4:20:54
  Speaker 1: zero two eight five, Her Majesty's servants, you can work
• 4:20:57
  Speaker 1: it out by fractions or by simple rule of three.
• 4:21:00
  Speaker 1: But the way of tweedledum is not the way of tweedledee.
• 4:21:04
  Speaker 1: You can twist it, you can turn it, you can
• 4:21:06
  Speaker 1: plait it till you drop, But the way of pilly
• 4:21:08
  Speaker 1: winkies not the way of winkie pop. It had been
• 4:21:12
  Speaker 1: raining heavily for one whole month, raining on a camp
• 4:21:15
  Speaker 1: of thirty thousand men and thousands of camels, elephants, horses, bullocks,
• 4:21:20
  Speaker 1: and mules, all gathered together at a place called ravol
• 4:21:23
  Speaker 1: Pindi to be reviewed by the Viceroy of India. He
• 4:21:26
  Speaker 1: was receiving a visit from the Emir of Afghanistan, a
• 4:21:30
  Speaker 1: wild king of a very wild country. The Emir had
• 4:21:33
  Speaker 1: brought with him for a bodyguard eight hundred men and
• 4:21:36
  Speaker 1: horses who had never seen a camp or a locomotive
• 4:21:39
  Speaker 1: before in their lives, savage men and savage horses from
• 4:21:42
  Speaker 1: somewhere at the back of Central Asia. Every night a
• 4:21:46
  Speaker 1: mob of these horses would be sure to break their
• 4:21:48
  Speaker 1: heel ropes and stampede up and down the camp through
• 4:21:50
  Speaker 1: the mud in the dark. Or the camels would break
• 4:21:53
  Speaker 1: loose and run about and fall over the ropes of
• 4:21:55
  Speaker 1: the tents, and you can imagine how pleasant that was
• 4:21:57
  Speaker 1: for men trying to go to sleep. My tent lay
• 4:22:01
  Speaker 1: far away from the camel lines, and I thought it
• 4:22:03
  Speaker 1: was safe. But one night a man popped his head
• 4:22:06
  Speaker 1: in and shouted, get out quick, they're coming. My tent's gone.
• 4:22:13
  Speaker 1: I knew who they were, so I put on my
• 4:22:15
  Speaker 1: boots and waterproof and scuttled out into the slush. Little Vixen,
• 4:22:20
  Speaker 1: my fox terrier, went out through the other side. And
• 4:22:23
  Speaker 1: then there was a roaring in a grunting and bubbling,
• 4:22:26
  Speaker 1: and I saw the tent cave in as the poles
• 4:22:28
  Speaker 1: snapped and begin to dance about like a mad ghost.
• 4:22:32
  Speaker 1: A camel had blundered into it, and wet and angry
• 4:22:35
  Speaker 1: as I was, I could not help laughing. Then I
• 4:22:39
  Speaker 1: ran on because I did not know how many camels
• 4:22:41
  Speaker 1: might have got loose, and before long I was out
• 4:22:44
  Speaker 1: of sight of the camp, plowing my way through the
• 4:22:46
  Speaker 1: mud zero two eight seven. The camel had blundered into
• 4:22:50
  Speaker 1: my tent. At last I fell over the tail end
• 4:22:54
  Speaker 1: of a gun, and by that knew I was somewhere
• 4:22:56
  Speaker 1: near the artillery lines where the cannon were stacked at night.
• 4:23:00
  Speaker 1: As I did not want to plowter about any more
• 4:23:02
  Speaker 1: in the drizzle and the dark, I put my waterproof
• 4:23:05
  Speaker 1: over the muzzle of one gun and made a sort
• 4:23:07
  Speaker 1: of wigwam with two or three rammers that I found,
• 4:23:10
  Speaker 1: and lay along the tail of another gun, wondering where
• 4:23:13
  Speaker 1: Vixen had got to and where I might be. Just
• 4:23:17
  Speaker 1: as I was getting ready to go to sleep, I
• 4:23:18
  Speaker 1: heard a jingle of harness and a grunt, and a
• 4:23:21
  Speaker 1: mule past me, shaking his wet ears. He belonged to
• 4:23:25
  Speaker 1: a screw gun battery, for I could hear the rattle
• 4:23:27
  Speaker 1: of the straps and rings and chains and things on
• 4:23:29
  Speaker 1: his saddle pad. The screw guns are tiny little cannon
• 4:23:33
  Speaker 1: made in two pieces that are screwed together when the
• 4:23:36
  Speaker 1: time comes to use them. They are taken up mountains
• 4:23:40
  Speaker 1: anywhere that a mule can find the road, and they
• 4:23:42
  Speaker 1: are very useful for fighting in rocky country. Behind the
• 4:23:46
  Speaker 1: mule there was a camel with his big soft feet
• 4:23:49
  Speaker 1: squelching and slipping in the mud, and his neck bobbing
• 4:23:52
  Speaker 1: to and fro like a straight hen's. Luckily I knew
• 4:23:56
  Speaker 1: enough of beast language, not wild beast language, but can
• 4:24:00
  Speaker 1: beast language, of course, from the natives, to know what
• 4:24:03
  Speaker 1: he was saying. He must have been the one that
• 4:24:06
  Speaker 1: flopped into my tent, for he called to the mule,
• 4:24:08
  Speaker 1: what shall I do? Where shall I go? I have
• 4:24:12
  Speaker 1: fought with a white thing that waved, and it took
• 4:24:14
  Speaker 1: a stick and hit me on the neck. That was
• 4:24:17
  Speaker 1: my broken tent pole, and I was very glad to
• 4:24:20
  Speaker 1: know it. Shall we run on? Oh? It was you,
• 4:24:25
  Speaker 1: said the mule, You and your friends that have been
• 4:24:27
  Speaker 1: disturbing the camp. All right, you'll be beaten for this
• 4:24:32
  Speaker 1: In the morning, but I may as well give you
• 4:24:34
  Speaker 1: something on account now. I heard the harnessed jingle as
• 4:24:38
  Speaker 1: the mule backed and caught the camel two kicks in
• 4:24:41
  Speaker 1: the ribs that rang like a drum. Another time, he said,
• 4:24:45
  Speaker 1: you'll know better than to run through a mule battery
• 4:24:47
  Speaker 1: at night, shouting thieves and fire. Sit down and keep
• 4:24:52
  Speaker 1: your silly neck quiet. The camel doubled up camel fashion
• 4:24:56
  Speaker 1: like a two foot rule and sat down whimpering. There
• 4:25:00
  Speaker 1: was a regular beat of hoofs in the darkness, and
• 4:25:02
  Speaker 1: a big troop horse cantered up as steadily as though
• 4:25:05
  Speaker 1: he were on parade, jumped a gun tail and landed
• 4:25:08
  Speaker 1: close to the mule. It's disgraceful, he said, blowing out
• 4:25:12
  Speaker 1: his nostrils. Those camels have racket through our lines again
• 4:25:17
  Speaker 1: the third time this week. How's a horse to keep
• 4:25:20
  Speaker 1: his condition if he isn't allowed to sleep? Who's here?
• 4:25:25
  Speaker 1: I'm the breech piece mule of number two gun of
• 4:25:27
  Speaker 1: the first screw battery, said the mule, and the others
• 4:25:30
  Speaker 1: one of your friends. He's wake me up too. Who
• 4:25:34
  Speaker 1: are you? Number fifteen E Troop ninth Lancers Dick Cunliff's
• 4:25:40
  Speaker 1: horse stand over a little there. Oh, beg your pardon,
• 4:25:45
  Speaker 1: said the mule. It's too dark to see much. Aren't
• 4:25:50
  Speaker 1: these camels too sickening for anything? I walked out of
• 4:25:53
  Speaker 1: my lines to get a little piece in quiet here,
• 4:25:57
  Speaker 1: my lords, said the camel, humbly. We dreamed bad dreams
• 4:26:00
  Speaker 1: in the night, and we were very much afraid. I
• 4:26:03
  Speaker 1: am only a baggage camel of the thirty ninth Native Infantry,
• 4:26:07
  Speaker 1: and I am not as brave as you are, my lords?
• 4:26:11
  Speaker 1: Then why didn't you stay and carry baggage for the
• 4:26:13
  Speaker 1: thirty ninth Native Infantry instead of running all round the camp,
• 4:26:17
  Speaker 1: said the mule. They were such very bad dreams, said
• 4:26:21
  Speaker 1: the camel. I am sorry. Listen, what is that? Shall
• 4:26:28
  Speaker 1: we run on again? Sit down, said the mule, or
• 4:26:31
  Speaker 1: you'll snap your long stick legs between the guns. He
• 4:26:35
  Speaker 1: cocked one ear and listened. Bullocks, he said, gun, bullocks.
• 4:26:42
  Speaker 1: On my word, you and your friends have waked the
• 4:26:44
  Speaker 1: camp very thoroughly. It takes a good deal of prodding
• 4:26:48
  Speaker 1: to put up a gun. Bullock. I heard a chain
• 4:26:51
  Speaker 1: dragging along the ground, and a yoke of the great
• 4:26:53
  Speaker 1: sulky white bullocks that dragged the heavy siege guns. When
• 4:26:56
  Speaker 1: the elephants won't go any nearer to the firing came
• 4:26:59
  Speaker 1: shoulders along together, and almost stepping on the chain, was
• 4:27:03
  Speaker 1: another battery mule calling wildly for Billy. That's one of
• 4:27:08
  Speaker 1: our recruits, said the old mule to the troop horse.
• 4:27:12
  Speaker 1: He's calling for me here, youngster, stop squealing. The dark
• 4:27:17
  Speaker 1: never hurt anybody yet. The gun bullocks lay down together
• 4:27:21
  Speaker 1: and began chewing the cut. But the young mule huddled
• 4:27:24
  Speaker 1: close to Billy. Things, he said, fearful and horrible, Billy,
• 4:27:31
  Speaker 1: they came into our lines while we were asleep. Jew
• 4:27:34
  Speaker 1: think they'll kill us. I've a very great mind to
• 4:27:38
  Speaker 1: give you a number one kicking, said Billy. The idea
• 4:27:42
  Speaker 1: of a fourteen hand mule with your training disgracing the
• 4:27:44
  Speaker 1: battery before this, gentleman gently gently said the troop horse.
• 4:27:50
  Speaker 1: Remember they are always like this to begin with. The
• 4:27:54
  Speaker 1: first time I ever saw a man, it was in
• 4:27:56
  Speaker 1: Australia when I was a three year old. I ran
• 4:27:59
  Speaker 1: for half a day, and if I'd seen a camel,
• 4:28:01
  Speaker 1: I should have been running still. Nearly all our horses
• 4:28:05
  Speaker 1: for the English Cavalry are brought to India from Australia
• 4:28:08
  Speaker 1: and are broken in by the troopers themselves, true enough,
• 4:28:12
  Speaker 1: said Billy, Stop shaking, youngster. The first time they put
• 4:28:18
  Speaker 1: the full harness with all its chains on my back,
• 4:28:20
  Speaker 1: I stood on my fore legs and kicked every bit
• 4:28:22
  Speaker 1: of it off. I hadn't learned the real science of
• 4:28:26
  Speaker 1: kicking then. But the battery said they had never seen
• 4:28:28
  Speaker 1: anything like it. But this wasn't harness or anything that jingled,
• 4:28:33
  Speaker 1: said the young mule. You know, I don't mind that now, Billy.
• 4:28:38
  Speaker 1: It was things like trees. And they fell up and
• 4:28:40
  Speaker 1: down the lines and bubbled, and my head rope broke,
• 4:28:43
  Speaker 1: and I couldn't find my driver, and I couldn't find you, Billy,
• 4:28:47
  Speaker 1: So I ran off with with these gentlemen, hum, said Billy.
• 4:28:52
  Speaker 1: As soon as I heard the camels were loose, I
• 4:28:54
  Speaker 1: came away on my own account. When a battery, a
• 4:28:58
  Speaker 1: screw gun mule calls gun bullocks, gentlemen, he must be
• 4:29:01
  Speaker 1: very badly shaken up. Who are you fellows on the
• 4:29:05
  Speaker 1: ground there? The gun bullocks rolled their cuds and answered
• 4:29:09
  Speaker 1: both together the seventh yoke of the first gun of
• 4:29:11
  Speaker 1: the big gun battery. We were asleep when the camels came,
• 4:29:16
  Speaker 1: but when we were trampled on, we got up and
• 4:29:18
  Speaker 1: walked away. It is better to lie quiet in the
• 4:29:21
  Speaker 1: mud than to be disturbed on good bedding. We told
• 4:29:24
  Speaker 1: your friend here that there was nothing to be afraid of,
• 4:29:27
  Speaker 1: but he knew so much that he thought otherwise. Wah.
• 4:29:32
  Speaker 1: They went on chewing. That comes of being afraid, said Billie,
• 4:29:37
  Speaker 1: you get laughed at by gun bullocks. I hope you
• 4:29:41
  Speaker 1: like it, young un. The young mule's teeth snapped, and
• 4:29:45
  Speaker 1: I heard him say something about not being afraid of
• 4:29:47
  Speaker 1: any beefy old bullock in the world. But the bullocks
• 4:29:51
  Speaker 1: only clicked their horns together and went on chewing. Zero
• 4:29:55
  Speaker 1: two nine five. Anybody can be forgiven for being scared
• 4:29:58
  Speaker 1: in the night, said the true lube horse. Now, don't
• 4:30:01
  Speaker 1: be angry after you've been afraid. That's the worst kind
• 4:30:05
  Speaker 1: of cowardice, said the troop horse. Anybody can be forgiven
• 4:30:09
  Speaker 1: for being scared in the night. I think if they
• 4:30:11
  Speaker 1: see things they don't understand. We've broken out of our
• 4:30:15
  Speaker 1: pickets again and again, four hundred and fifty of us,
• 4:30:19
  Speaker 1: just because a new recruit got to telling tales of
• 4:30:21
  Speaker 1: whip snakes at home in Australia, till we were scared
• 4:30:24
  Speaker 1: to death of the loose ends of our head ropes.
• 4:30:27
  Speaker 1: That's all very well in camp, said Billy. I'm not
• 4:30:31
  Speaker 1: above stampeding myself for the fun of the thing when
• 4:30:34
  Speaker 1: I haven't been out for a day or two. But
• 4:30:37
  Speaker 1: what do you do on active service. Oh that's quite
• 4:30:40
  Speaker 1: another set of new shoes, said the troop horse. Dick
• 4:30:44
  Speaker 1: cunlifts on my back then and drives his knees into me.
• 4:30:48
  Speaker 1: And all I have to do is to watch where
• 4:30:50
  Speaker 1: I am putting my feet, and to keep my hind
• 4:30:52
  Speaker 1: legs well under me, and be bridle wise. What's bridle wise?
• 4:30:57
  Speaker 1: Said the young mule by the blue of the back blocks,
• 4:31:01
  Speaker 1: snorted the troop horse. Do you mean to say that
• 4:31:04
  Speaker 1: you aren't taught to be bridle wise in your business?
• 4:31:07
  Speaker 1: How can you do anything unless you can spin round
• 4:31:10
  Speaker 1: at once? When the rain is pressed on your neck,
• 4:31:13
  Speaker 1: it means life or death to your man, And of
• 4:31:15
  Speaker 1: course that's life and death to you. Get round with
• 4:31:19
  Speaker 1: your hind legs under you the instant you feel the
• 4:31:21
  Speaker 1: rain on your neck. If you haven't room to swing round,
• 4:31:25
  Speaker 1: rear up a little and come round on your hind legs,
• 4:31:28
  Speaker 1: that's being bridle wise. We aren't taught that way. Said
• 4:31:32
  Speaker 1: Billy the mule stiffly. We're taught to obey the man
• 4:31:36
  Speaker 1: at our head, step off when he says so, and
• 4:31:39
  Speaker 1: step in when he says so. I suppose it comes
• 4:31:42
  Speaker 1: to the same thing. Now, with all this fine fancy
• 4:31:46
  Speaker 1: business and rearing, which must be very bad for your hawks,
• 4:31:49
  Speaker 1: what do you do? That depends, said the troop horse.
• 4:31:54
  Speaker 1: Generally I have to go in among a lot of yelling,
• 4:31:56
  Speaker 1: hairy men with knives, long shiny knives or worse than
• 4:32:00
  Speaker 1: the ferrier's knives, and I have to take care that
• 4:32:02
  Speaker 1: Dick's boot is just touching the next man's boot without
• 4:32:05
  Speaker 1: crushing it. I can see Dick's lance to the right
• 4:32:08
  Speaker 1: of my right eye, and I know I'm safe. I
• 4:32:12
  Speaker 1: shouldn't care to be the man or horse that stood
• 4:32:14
  Speaker 1: up to Dick and me when we're in a hurry.
• 4:32:17
  Speaker 1: Don't the knives hurt, said the young mule. Well, I
• 4:32:21
  Speaker 1: got one cut across the chest once, but that wasn't
• 4:32:24
  Speaker 1: Dick's fault a lot. I should have cared whose fault
• 4:32:26
  Speaker 1: it was if it hurt, said the young mule. You must,
• 4:32:31
  Speaker 1: said the troop horse. If you don't trust your man,
• 4:32:34
  Speaker 1: you may as well run away at once. That's what
• 4:32:37
  Speaker 1: some of our horses do, and I don't blame them.
• 4:32:41
  Speaker 1: As I was saying, it wasn't Dick's fault. The man
• 4:32:45
  Speaker 1: was lying on the ground, and I stretched myself not
• 4:32:47
  Speaker 1: to tread on him, and he slashed up at me.
• 4:32:51
  Speaker 1: Next time I have to go over a man lying down,
• 4:32:53
  Speaker 1: I shall step on him hard. Zero two nine nine.
• 4:32:57
  Speaker 1: The man was lying on the ground, and I wretch
• 4:33:00
  Speaker 1: myself not to tread on him, and he slashed up
• 4:33:02
  Speaker 1: at me. Hum said Billy. It sounds very foolish. Knives
• 4:33:09
  Speaker 1: are dirty things at any time. The proper thing to
• 4:33:12
  Speaker 1: do is to climb up a mountain with a well
• 4:33:14
  Speaker 1: balanced saddle, hang on by all four feet, in your
• 4:33:17
  Speaker 1: ears too, and creep and crawl and wriggle along till
• 4:33:21
  Speaker 1: you come out hundreds of feet above anyone else, on
• 4:33:23
  Speaker 1: a ledge where there's just room enough for your hoofs.
• 4:33:26
  Speaker 1: Then you stand still and keep quiet. Never ask a
• 4:33:29
  Speaker 1: man to hold your head, young nun. Keep quiet while
• 4:33:32
  Speaker 1: the guns are being put together, And then you watch
• 4:33:35
  Speaker 1: the little poppy shells drop down into the tree tops
• 4:33:37
  Speaker 1: ever so far below. Don't you ever trip, said the
• 4:33:41
  Speaker 1: troop horse. They say that when a mule trips. You
• 4:33:44
  Speaker 1: can split a hen's ear, said Billy. Now and again.
• 4:33:48
  Speaker 1: Perhaps a badly packed saddle will upset a mule, but
• 4:33:51
  Speaker 1: it's very seldom. I wish I could show you our business.
• 4:33:56
  Speaker 1: It's beautiful. Why it took me three years to find
• 4:34:00
  Speaker 1: out what the men were driving at. The science of
• 4:34:03
  Speaker 1: the thing is never to show up against the sky line,
• 4:34:06
  Speaker 1: because if you do, you may get fired at. Remember that,
• 4:34:11
  Speaker 1: young un, always keep hidden as much as possible, even
• 4:34:15
  Speaker 1: if you have to go a mile out of your way.
• 4:34:18
  Speaker 1: I lead the battery when it comes to that sort
• 4:34:20
  Speaker 1: of climbing fired at, without the chance of running into
• 4:34:24
  Speaker 1: the people who are firing. Said the troop horse, thinking hard.
• 4:34:28
  Speaker 1: I couldn't stand that I should want to charge with dick.
• 4:34:33
  Speaker 1: Oh no, you wouldn't You know that as soon as
• 4:34:37
  Speaker 1: the guns are in position, they'll do all the charging.
• 4:34:40
  Speaker 1: That's scientific and neat. But knives pah. The baggage camel
• 4:34:46
  Speaker 1: had been bobbing his head to and fro for some
• 4:34:48
  Speaker 1: time past, anxious to get a word in edgewise. Then
• 4:34:52
  Speaker 1: I heard him say, as he cleared his throat nervously,
• 4:34:56
  Speaker 1: I I I have fought a little, but not in
• 4:34:59
  Speaker 1: that climbing way or that running way. No, now you
• 4:35:04
  Speaker 1: mention it, said Billy ye. Don't look as though you
• 4:35:06
  Speaker 1: were made for climbing or running much. Well, how was it,
• 4:35:11
  Speaker 1: old hay Bales, The proper way, said the camel. We
• 4:35:16
  Speaker 1: all sat down, Oh, my crupper and breastplate, said the
• 4:35:20
  Speaker 1: troop horse, under his breath. Sat down. We sat down,
• 4:35:25
  Speaker 1: a hundred of us. The camel went on in a
• 4:35:28
  Speaker 1: big square, and the men piled our packs and saddles
• 4:35:32
  Speaker 1: outside the square, and they fired over our backs. The
• 4:35:35
  Speaker 1: men did on all sides of the square. What sort
• 4:35:39
  Speaker 1: of men, any men that came along, said the troop horse.
• 4:35:44
  Speaker 1: They teach us in riding school to lie down and
• 4:35:46
  Speaker 1: let our masters fire across us. But Dick Cunliffe is
• 4:35:49
  Speaker 1: the only man I'd trust to do that. It tickles
• 4:35:53
  Speaker 1: my girths, And besides, I can't see with my head
• 4:35:56
  Speaker 1: on the ground. What does it matter who fires a
• 4:36:00
  Speaker 1: cross you, said the camel. There are plenty of men,
• 4:36:03
  Speaker 1: and plenty of other camels close by, and a great
• 4:36:06
  Speaker 1: many clouds of smoke. I am not frightened. Then I
• 4:36:11
  Speaker 1: sit still and wait, And yet, said Billy, you dream
• 4:36:15
  Speaker 1: bad dreams and upset the camp at night. Well, well
• 4:36:20
  Speaker 1: before i'd lie down, not to speak of sitting down
• 4:36:23
  Speaker 1: and let a man fire across me, my heels and
• 4:36:26
  Speaker 1: his head would have something to say to each other.
• 4:36:29
  Speaker 1: Did you ever hear anything so awful as that? There
• 4:36:32
  Speaker 1: was a long silence, and then one of the gun
• 4:36:34
  Speaker 1: bullocks lifted up his big head and said, this is
• 4:36:37
  Speaker 1: very foolish. Indeed, there is only one way of fighting.
• 4:36:42
  Speaker 1: Oh go on, said billy. Please don't mind me. I
• 4:36:47
  Speaker 1: suppose you fellows fight standing on your tails. Only one way,
• 4:36:52
  Speaker 1: said the two together. They must have been twins. This
• 4:36:56
  Speaker 1: is that way to put all twenty yoke of us
• 4:36:59
  Speaker 1: to the big gun. As soon as two tails trumpets.
• 4:37:03
  Speaker 1: Two tails is camp slang for the elephant. What does
• 4:37:07
  Speaker 1: two tails trumpet for? Said the young mule, to show
• 4:37:11
  Speaker 1: that he is not going any nearer to the smoke
• 4:37:14
  Speaker 1: on the other side. Two tails is a great coward.
• 4:37:18
  Speaker 1: Then we tug the big gun all together. Heya hullah,
• 4:37:23
  Speaker 1: he yah hullah. We do not climb like cats, nor
• 4:37:28
  Speaker 1: run like calves. We go across the level plain twenty
• 4:37:32
  Speaker 1: yoke of us till we are unyoked again, and we
• 4:37:35
  Speaker 1: graze while the big guns talk across the plain to
• 4:37:37
  Speaker 1: some town with mud walls, and pieces of the wall
• 4:37:40
  Speaker 1: fall out, and the dust goes up as though many
• 4:37:43
  Speaker 1: cattle were coming home. Oh, and you choose that time
• 4:37:47
  Speaker 1: for grazing, said the young mule. That time or any other,
• 4:37:52
  Speaker 1: eating is always good. We eat till we are yoked
• 4:37:56
  Speaker 1: up again, and tug the gun back to where two
• 4:37:58
  Speaker 1: Tails is waiting for it. Sometimes there are big guns
• 4:38:02
  Speaker 1: in the city that speak back, and some of us
• 4:38:04
  Speaker 1: are killed, and then there is all the more grazing
• 4:38:07
  Speaker 1: for those that are left. This is fate, none the less.
• 4:38:11
  Speaker 1: Two Tails is a great coward. That is the proper
• 4:38:15
  Speaker 1: way to fight. We are brothers from Hupwer. Our father
• 4:38:20
  Speaker 1: was a sacred bull of Shiva. We have spoken well.
• 4:38:24
  Speaker 1: I've certainly learned something to night, said the troop horse.
• 4:38:28
  Speaker 1: Do you, gentlemen of the screw gun battery, feel inclined
• 4:38:31
  Speaker 1: to eat when you are being fired at with big
• 4:38:33
  Speaker 1: guns and two Tails is behind you? About as much
• 4:38:37
  Speaker 1: as we feel inclined to sit down and let men
• 4:38:40
  Speaker 1: sprawl all over us or run into people with knives.
• 4:38:44
  Speaker 1: I never heard such stuff. A mountain ledge, a well
• 4:38:48
  Speaker 1: balanced load, a driver you can trust to let you
• 4:38:50
  Speaker 1: pick your own way, and I'm your mule. But the
• 4:38:54
  Speaker 1: other things, no, said Billy, with a stamp of his foot.
• 4:38:58
  Speaker 1: Of course, said the true horse. Every one is not
• 4:39:01
  Speaker 1: made in the same way. And I can quite see
• 4:39:03
  Speaker 1: that your family on your father's side would fail to
• 4:39:06
  Speaker 1: understand a great many things. Never you mind, my family
• 4:39:10
  Speaker 1: on my father's side, said Billy angrily. For every mule
• 4:39:14
  Speaker 1: hates to be reminded that his father was a donkey.
• 4:39:17
  Speaker 1: My father was a Southern gentleman, and he could pull
• 4:39:20
  Speaker 1: down and bite and kick into rags every horse he
• 4:39:22
  Speaker 1: came across. Remember that, you, big brown brumby. Brumby means
• 4:39:28
  Speaker 1: wild horse without any breeding. Imagine the feelings of Segnol
• 4:39:33
  Speaker 1: if a car horse called her a skate, and you
• 4:39:35
  Speaker 1: can imagine how the Australian horse felt. I saw the
• 4:39:39
  Speaker 1: white of his eye glitter in the dark. See here,
• 4:39:42
  Speaker 1: you son of an imported Malaga jackass, he said between
• 4:39:46
  Speaker 1: his teeth. I'd have you know that I'm related on
• 4:39:48
  Speaker 1: my mother's side to Carbine, winner of the Melbourne Cup.
• 4:39:51
  Speaker 1: And where I come from, we aren't accustomed to being
• 4:39:53
  Speaker 1: ridden over rushot by any parrot mouthed, pig headed mule
• 4:39:58
  Speaker 1: in a pop gun pea shooter battery. Are you ready
• 4:40:02
  Speaker 1: on your hind legs, squealed Billy. They both reared up
• 4:40:06
  Speaker 1: facing each other, and I was expecting a furious fight,
• 4:40:09
  Speaker 1: when a gurgly, rum by voice called out of the
• 4:40:12
  Speaker 1: darkness to the right, children, what are you fighting about? There?
• 4:40:17
  Speaker 1: Be quiet? Both beasts dropped down with a snort of disgust,
• 4:40:21
  Speaker 1: for neither horse nor mule can bear to listen to
• 4:40:24
  Speaker 1: an elephant's voice. It's two tails, said the troop horse.
• 4:40:29
  Speaker 1: I can't stand him. A tale at each end. Isn't
• 4:40:33
  Speaker 1: fair my feelings exactly, said Billy, crowding into the troop
• 4:40:37
  Speaker 1: horse for company. We're very alike in some things. I
• 4:40:42
  Speaker 1: suppose we've inherited them from our mothers, said the troop horse.
• 4:40:46
  Speaker 1: It's not worth quarreling about. Hi, two tails, are you
• 4:40:52
  Speaker 1: tied up? Yes, said two Tails, with a laugh all
• 4:40:56
  Speaker 1: up his trunk. I'm picketed for the night. I've heard
• 4:41:00
  Speaker 1: what you fellows have been saying, but don't be afraid.
• 4:41:04
  Speaker 1: I'm not coming over, the bullocks. And the camel said,
• 4:41:08
  Speaker 1: half aloud, afraid of two tales? What nonsense? And the
• 4:41:13
  Speaker 1: bullocks went on, we are sorry that you heard, but
• 4:41:16
  Speaker 1: it is true, two tales, Why are you afraid of
• 4:41:19
  Speaker 1: the guns when they fire? Well, said two tales, rubbing
• 4:41:24
  Speaker 1: one hind leg against the other, exactly like a little
• 4:41:27
  Speaker 1: boy saying a poem. I don't quite know whether you'd understand.
• 4:41:31
  Speaker 1: We don't, but we have to pull the guns, said
• 4:41:34
  Speaker 1: the bullocks. I know it, and I know you are
• 4:41:37
  Speaker 1: a good deal braver than you think you are. But
• 4:41:40
  Speaker 1: it's different with me. My battery captain called me a
• 4:41:44
  Speaker 1: pachydermitis anachronism the other day. That's another way of fighting,
• 4:41:48
  Speaker 1: I suppose, said Billy, who was recovering his spirits. You
• 4:41:53
  Speaker 1: don't know what that means, of course, but I do.
• 4:41:57
  Speaker 1: It means betwixt and between, and that is just where
• 4:42:00
  Speaker 1: I am. I can see inside my head what will
• 4:42:03
  Speaker 1: happen when a shell bursts, and you bullocks can't. I can,
• 4:42:07
  Speaker 1: said the troop horse, at least a little bit. I
• 4:42:12
  Speaker 1: try not to think about it. I can see more
• 4:42:15
  Speaker 1: than you, and I do think about it. I know
• 4:42:18
  Speaker 1: there's a great deal of me to take care of,
• 4:42:20
  Speaker 1: and I know that nobody knows how to cure me
• 4:42:22
  Speaker 1: when I'm sick. All they can do is to stop
• 4:42:25
  Speaker 1: my driver's pay. Till I get well. And I can't
• 4:42:28
  Speaker 1: trust my driver, ah, said the troop horse. That explains it.
• 4:42:34
  Speaker 1: I can trust Dick. You could put a whole regiment
• 4:42:37
  Speaker 1: of Dick's on my back without making me feel any better.
• 4:42:41
  Speaker 1: I know just enough to be uncomfortable, and not enough
• 4:42:44
  Speaker 1: to go on in spite of it. We do not understand,
• 4:42:47
  Speaker 1: said the bullocks. I know you don't. I'm not talking
• 4:42:52
  Speaker 1: to you. You don't know what blood is. We do,
• 4:42:56
  Speaker 1: said the bullocks. It is red stuff that soaks it
• 4:43:00
  Speaker 1: to the ground and smells. The troop horse gave a
• 4:43:03
  Speaker 1: kick and a bound and a snort. Don't talk of it,
• 4:43:07
  Speaker 1: he said. I can smell it now just thinking of it.
• 4:43:11
  Speaker 1: It makes me want to run when I haven't Dick
• 4:43:14
  Speaker 1: on my back. But it is not here, said the
• 4:43:17
  Speaker 1: camel and the bullocks. Why are you so stupid? It's
• 4:43:21
  Speaker 1: vile stuff, said Billie. I don't want to run, but
• 4:43:25
  Speaker 1: I don't want to talk about it. There you are,
• 4:43:28
  Speaker 1: said two tails, waving his tail to explain. Surely, Yes,
• 4:43:34
  Speaker 1: we have been here all night, said the bullocks. Two
• 4:43:38
  Speaker 1: Tails stamped his foot till the iron ring on it jingled. Oh,
• 4:43:42
  Speaker 1: I'm not talking to you. You can't see inside your heads. No,
• 4:43:49
  Speaker 1: we see out of our four eyes, said the bullocks.
• 4:43:52
  Speaker 1: We see straight in front of us. If I could
• 4:43:55
  Speaker 1: do that and nothing else, you wouldn't be needed to
• 4:43:58
  Speaker 1: pull the big guns at all. If I was like
• 4:44:01
  Speaker 1: my captain, he can see things inside his head before
• 4:44:04
  Speaker 1: the firing begins, and he shakes all over, but he
• 4:44:07
  Speaker 1: knows too much to run away. If I was like him,
• 4:44:09
  Speaker 1: I could pull the guns. But if I were as
• 4:44:12
  Speaker 1: wise as all that, I should never be here. I
• 4:44:15
  Speaker 1: should be a king in the forest, as I used
• 4:44:18
  Speaker 1: to be, sleeping half the day in bathing when I liked.
• 4:44:22
  Speaker 1: I haven't had a good bath for a month. That's
• 4:44:25
  Speaker 1: all very fine, said Billy. But giving a thing a
• 4:44:28
  Speaker 1: long name doesn't make it any better. H s H,
• 4:44:32
  Speaker 1: said the troop horse. I think I understand what two
• 4:44:36
  Speaker 1: tails means. You'll understand better in a minute, said two
• 4:44:40
  Speaker 1: tails angrily. Now you just explain to me why you
• 4:44:44
  Speaker 1: don't like this. He began trumpeting furiously at the top
• 4:44:48
  Speaker 1: of his trumpet. Stop that, said Billy and the troop
• 4:44:52
  Speaker 1: horse together, and I could hear them stamp and shiver.
• 4:44:55
  Speaker 1: An elephant's trumpeting is always nasty, especially on a dark night.
• 4:45:01
  Speaker 1: I shan't stop, said two Tails, won't you explain that? Please?
• 4:45:06
  Speaker 1: Itch it? R m p h r r t r
• 4:45:10
  Speaker 1: r m p h raha. Then he stopped suddenly, and
• 4:45:15
  Speaker 1: I heard a little whimper in the dark, and knew
• 4:45:17
  Speaker 1: that Vixen had found me. At last. She knew as
• 4:45:21
  Speaker 1: well as I did that if there is one thing
• 4:45:23
  Speaker 1: in the world the elephant is more afraid of than another,
• 4:45:25
  Speaker 1: it is a little barking dog. So she stopped to
• 4:45:28
  Speaker 1: bully Two Tails in his pickets and yapped round his
• 4:45:31
  Speaker 1: big feet. Two Tails shuffled and squeaked. Go away, little dog,
• 4:45:37
  Speaker 1: he said, don't snuff at my ankles or I'll kick
• 4:45:41
  Speaker 1: at you. Good little dog, nice little doggie. Then go home,
• 4:45:47
  Speaker 1: you yelping little beast. Oh why doesn't some one take
• 4:45:51
  Speaker 1: her away? She'll bite me in a minute, seems to me,
• 4:45:55
  Speaker 1: said Billy to the troop horse, that our friend two
• 4:45:58
  Speaker 1: Tails is afraid of most things. Now, if I had
• 4:46:02
  Speaker 1: a full meal for every dog I've kicked across the
• 4:46:04
  Speaker 1: parade ground, I should be as fat as two tails. Nearly.
• 4:46:08
  Speaker 1: I whistled, and Vixen ran up to me, muddy all over,
• 4:46:12
  Speaker 1: and licked my nose. And told me a long tale
• 4:46:15
  Speaker 1: about hunting for me all through the camp. I never
• 4:46:18
  Speaker 1: let her know that I understood beast talk, or she
• 4:46:20
  Speaker 1: would have taken all sorts of liberties. So I buttoned
• 4:46:24
  Speaker 1: her into the breast of my overcoat, and two tails
• 4:46:27
  Speaker 1: shuffled and stamped and growled to himself. Extraordinary, most extraordinary,
• 4:46:33
  Speaker 1: he said, It runs in our family. Now, where has
• 4:46:38
  Speaker 1: that nasty little beast gone to? I heard him feeling
• 4:46:41
  Speaker 1: about with his trunk. We all seemed to be affected
• 4:46:45
  Speaker 1: in various ways, he went on, blowing his nose. Now,
• 4:46:50
  Speaker 1: you gentlemen, were alarmed, I believe when I trumpeted. Not
• 4:46:54
  Speaker 1: alarmed exactly, said the troop horse. But it made me
• 4:46:57
  Speaker 1: feel as though I had hornets where my saddle to be.
• 4:47:01
  Speaker 1: Don't begin again. I'm frightened of a little dog, and
• 4:47:05
  Speaker 1: the camel here is frightened by bad dreams in the night.
• 4:47:09
  Speaker 1: It is very lucky for us that we haven't all
• 4:47:11
  Speaker 1: got to fight in the same way, said the troop horse.
• 4:47:14
  Speaker 1: What I want to know, said the young mule, who
• 4:47:17
  Speaker 1: had been quiet for a long time. What I want
• 4:47:19
  Speaker 1: to know is why we have to fight at all?
• 4:47:22
  Speaker 1: Because we're told to, said the troop horse with a
• 4:47:25
  Speaker 1: snort of contempt. Orders, said Billy. The mule and his
• 4:47:29
  Speaker 1: teeth snapped huck m hi. It is an order, said
• 4:47:35
  Speaker 1: the camel with a gurgle and two tails, and the
• 4:47:37
  Speaker 1: bullocks repeated huck m hi. Yes. But who gives the orders,
• 4:47:42
  Speaker 1: said the recruit mule. The man who walks at your head,
• 4:47:46
  Speaker 1: or sits on your back, or holds the nose rope
• 4:47:49
  Speaker 1: or twists your tail, said Billy. And the troop horse
• 4:47:52
  Speaker 1: and the camel and the bullocks, one after the other.
• 4:47:55
  Speaker 1: But who gives them the orders? Now you want to
• 4:47:58
  Speaker 1: know too much, young, none, said Billy, And that is
• 4:48:01
  Speaker 1: one way of getting kicked. All you have to do
• 4:48:05
  Speaker 1: is to obey the man at your head and ask
• 4:48:07
  Speaker 1: no questions. He's quite right, said two tails. I can't
• 4:48:12
  Speaker 1: always obey because I'm betwixt and between. But Billy's right.
• 4:48:18
  Speaker 1: Obey the man next to you who gives the order,
• 4:48:20
  Speaker 1: or you'll stop all the battery besides getting a thrashing
• 4:48:24
  Speaker 1: the gun bullocks got up to go. Morning is coming,
• 4:48:28
  Speaker 1: they said, we will go back to our lines. It
• 4:48:32
  Speaker 1: is true that we only see out of our eyes,
• 4:48:35
  Speaker 1: and we are not very clever, but still we are
• 4:48:38
  Speaker 1: the only people tonight who have not been afraid? Good night,
• 4:48:42
  Speaker 1: you brave people. Nobody answered, and the troop horse said,
• 4:48:47
  Speaker 1: to change the conversation, where's that little dog? A dog
• 4:48:51
  Speaker 1: means a man somewhere about here. I am yapped vixen
• 4:48:55
  Speaker 1: under the gun tail with my man, You big blundering
• 4:48:59
  Speaker 1: beast of a camel. You you upset our tent. My man's
• 4:49:03
  Speaker 1: very angry, few, said the bullocks. He must be white.
• 4:49:10
  Speaker 1: Of course he is, said vixen. Do you suppose I'm
• 4:49:13
  Speaker 1: looked after by a black bullet driver? Huah, watch ugh,
• 4:49:20
  Speaker 1: said the bullocks. Let us get away quickly. They plunged
• 4:49:24
  Speaker 1: forward in the mud and managed somehow to run their
• 4:49:27
  Speaker 1: yoke on the pole of an ammunition wagon, where it jammed.
• 4:49:31
  Speaker 1: Now you have done it, said billy, calmly. Don't struggle.
• 4:49:36
  Speaker 1: You're hung up till daylight. What on earth's the matter?
• 4:49:41
  Speaker 1: The bullocks went off into the long hissing snorts that
• 4:49:43
  Speaker 1: Indian cattle give, and pushed and crowded and slewed and
• 4:49:47
  Speaker 1: stamped and slipped and nearly fell down in the mud,
• 4:49:50
  Speaker 1: grunting savagely. You'll break your necks in a minute, said
• 4:49:54
  Speaker 1: the troop horse. What's the matter with white men? I
• 4:49:58
  Speaker 1: live with m they eat us, pull, said the near bullock.
• 4:50:05
  Speaker 1: The yoke snapped with a twang, and they lumbered off together.
• 4:50:09
  Speaker 1: I never knew before what made Indian cattle so scared
• 4:50:12
  Speaker 1: of englishmen. We eat beef, a thing that no cattle
• 4:50:16
  Speaker 1: driver touches, and of course the cattle do not like it.
• 4:50:20
  Speaker 1: May I be flogged with my own pad chains? Who'd
• 4:50:24
  Speaker 1: have thought of two big lumps like those losing their heads?
• 4:50:26
  Speaker 1: Said Billy. Never mind, I'm going to look at this man.
• 4:50:32
  Speaker 1: Most of the white men I know have things in
• 4:50:35
  Speaker 1: their pockets, said the troop horse. I'll leave you then.
• 4:50:40
  Speaker 1: I can't say I'm over fond of em myself. Besides,
• 4:50:44
  Speaker 1: white men who haven't a place to sleep in are
• 4:50:47
  Speaker 1: more than likely to be thieves. And I've a good
• 4:50:49
  Speaker 1: deal of government property on my back. Come along, young nun,
• 4:50:54
  Speaker 1: and we'll go back to our lines. Good Night, Australia,
• 4:50:58
  Speaker 1: see you on parade to morrow, I suppose. Good night,
• 4:51:02
  Speaker 1: old hay Bale. Try to control your feelings, won't you?
• 4:51:06
  Speaker 1: Good Night? Two tales. If you pass us on the
• 4:51:10
  Speaker 1: ground tomorrow, don't trumpet. It spoils our formation. Billy the
• 4:51:15
  Speaker 1: mule stumped off with the swaggering limp of an old
• 4:51:18
  Speaker 1: campaigner as the true horse head came nezzling into my
• 4:51:21
  Speaker 1: breast and I gave him biscuits, while Vixen, who is
• 4:51:24
  Speaker 1: a most conceited little dog, told him FIBs about the
• 4:51:27
  Speaker 1: scores of horses that she and I kept. I'm coming
• 4:51:31
  Speaker 1: to the parade tomorrow in my dogcart, she said, where
• 4:51:35
  Speaker 1: will you be on the left hand of the second squadron.
• 4:51:40
  Speaker 1: I set the time for all my troop, little lady,
• 4:51:42
  Speaker 1: he said politely, Now I must go back to Dick.
• 4:51:47
  Speaker 1: My tail's all muddy, and he'll have two hours hard
• 4:51:50
  Speaker 1: worth dressing me for parade. The big parade of all
• 4:51:53
  Speaker 1: the thirty thousand men was held that afternoon, and Vixen
• 4:51:57
  Speaker 1: and I had a good place close to the Viceroy
• 4:51:59
  Speaker 1: and the Emir Afghanistan, with high big black hat of
• 4:52:02
  Speaker 1: Astrakhan wool and the great diamond star in the center.
• 4:52:06
  Speaker 1: The first part of the review was all sunshine, and
• 4:52:09
  Speaker 1: the regiments went by in wave upon wave of legs
• 4:52:12
  Speaker 1: all moving together, and guns all in a line, till
• 4:52:15
  Speaker 1: our eyes grew dizzy. Then the cavalry came up to
• 4:52:19
  Speaker 1: the beautiful cavalry canter of Bonnie Dundee, and Vixen cocked
• 4:52:23
  Speaker 1: her ear where she sat on the dog cart. The
• 4:52:26
  Speaker 1: second squadron of the Lancers shot by, and there was
• 4:52:29
  Speaker 1: the troop horse with his tail like spun silk, his
• 4:52:32
  Speaker 1: head pulled into his breast, one ear forward in one back,
• 4:52:35
  Speaker 1: setting the time for all his squadron, his legs going
• 4:52:38
  Speaker 1: as smoothly as Walt's music. Then the big guns came by,
• 4:52:43
  Speaker 1: and I saw two tails and two other elephants harnessed
• 4:52:46
  Speaker 1: in line to a forty pounder siege gun, while twenty
• 4:52:49
  Speaker 1: yoke of oxen walked behind. The seventh pair had a
• 4:52:52
  Speaker 1: new yoke, and they looked rather stiff and tired. Last
• 4:52:57
  Speaker 1: came the screw guns, and Billy the Mule carried himself
• 4:53:00
  Speaker 1: as though he commanded all the troops, and his harness
• 4:53:02
  Speaker 1: was oiled and polished till it winked. I gave a
• 4:53:06
  Speaker 1: cheer all by myself for Billy the Mule, but he
• 4:53:08
  Speaker 1: never looked right or left. The rain began to fall again,
• 4:53:13
  Speaker 1: and for a while it was too misty to see
• 4:53:14
  Speaker 1: what the troops were doing. They had made a big
• 4:53:17
  Speaker 1: half circle across the plain and were spreading out into
• 4:53:20
  Speaker 1: a line. That line grew and grew and grew, till
• 4:53:24
  Speaker 1: it was three quarters of a mile long from wing
• 4:53:26
  Speaker 1: to wing, one solid wall of men, horses and guns.
• 4:53:31
  Speaker 1: Then it came on straight toward the Viceroy and the Emir,
• 4:53:34
  Speaker 1: and as it got nearer, the ground began to shake,
• 4:53:37
  Speaker 1: like the deck of a steamer when the engines are
• 4:53:39
  Speaker 1: going fast. Unless you have been there, you cannot imagine
• 4:53:43
  Speaker 1: what a frightening effect this steady come down of troops
• 4:53:45
  Speaker 1: has on the spectators, even when they know it is
• 4:53:48
  Speaker 1: only a review. I looked at the Emir up till
• 4:53:52
  Speaker 1: then he had not shown the shadow of a sign
• 4:53:54
  Speaker 1: of astonishment or anything else. But now his eyes began
• 4:53:58
  Speaker 1: to get bigger and bigger, and he picked up the
• 4:54:00
  Speaker 1: reins on his horse's neck and looked behind him. For
• 4:54:04
  Speaker 1: a minute, it seemed as though he were going to
• 4:54:06
  Speaker 1: draw his sword and slash his way out through the
• 4:54:08
  Speaker 1: englishmen and women in the carriages at the back. Then
• 4:54:12
  Speaker 1: the advance stopped dead, the ground stood still, the whole
• 4:54:15
  Speaker 1: line saluted, and thirty bands began to play altogether. That
• 4:54:20
  Speaker 1: was the end of the review, and the regiments went
• 4:54:22
  Speaker 1: off to their camps. In the rain, and an infantry
• 4:54:25
  Speaker 1: band struck up with the animals went in two by two. Hurrah.
• 4:54:30
  Speaker 1: The animals went in two by two, the elephant and
• 4:54:32
  Speaker 1: the battery mul and they all got into the ark
• 4:54:35
  Speaker 1: for to get out of the rain. Then I heard
• 4:54:38
  Speaker 1: an old, grizzled, long haired Central Asian chief, who had
• 4:54:41
  Speaker 1: come down with the Emir, asking questions of a native officer.
• 4:54:45
  Speaker 1: Now said he, in what manner was this wonderful thing done?
• 4:54:50
  Speaker 1: And the officer answered, An order was given, and they obeyed.
• 4:54:54
  Speaker 1: But are the beasts as wise as the men, said
• 4:54:57
  Speaker 1: the chief. They obey as the men do, mule, horse,
• 4:55:02
  Speaker 1: elephant or bullock. He obeys his driver, and the driver
• 4:55:06
  Speaker 1: his sergeant, and the sergeant his lieutenant, and the lieutenant
• 4:55:09
  Speaker 1: his captain, and the captain his major, and the major
• 4:55:12
  Speaker 1: his colonel, and the colonel, his brigadier commanding three regiments,
• 4:55:15
  Speaker 1: and the brigadier the general who obeys the viceroy, who
• 4:55:20
  Speaker 1: is the servant of the Empress. Thus it is done.
• 4:55:24
  Speaker 1: Would it were so in Afghanistan, said the chief. For
• 4:55:27
  Speaker 1: that we obey only our own wills. And for that reason,
• 4:55:31
  Speaker 1: said the native officer, twirling his mustache, you're Amir, whom
• 4:55:35
  Speaker 1: you do not obey, must come here and take orders
• 4:55:37
  Speaker 1: from our viceroy. Parade song of the camp animals, elephants
• 4:55:41
  Speaker 1: of the gun teams. We lent to Alexander, the strength
• 4:55:44
  Speaker 1: of Hercules, the wisdom of our foreheads, the cunning of
• 4:55:47
  Speaker 1: our knees. We bowed our next to service. They ne'er
• 4:55:50
  Speaker 1: were loosed again. Make way there, wag for the ten
• 4:55:53
  Speaker 1: foot teams of the forty pounder train. Gun bullocks. Those
• 4:55:57
  Speaker 1: heroes in their harnesses avoid a cannon ball, and what
• 4:56:00
  Speaker 1: they know of powder upsets them one and all. Then
• 4:56:03
  Speaker 1: we come into action and tug the guns again. Make
• 4:56:05
  Speaker 1: way there, waigh for the twenty yoke of the forty
• 4:56:08
  Speaker 1: pounder train. Cavalry horses. By the brand on my shoulder.
• 4:56:12
  Speaker 1: The finest of tunes is played by the lancers, hussars
• 4:56:16
  Speaker 1: and dragoons, And it's sweeter than stables or water to
• 4:56:20
  Speaker 1: me the cavalry canter of Bonnie Dundee. Then feed us
• 4:56:24
  Speaker 1: and break us, and handle and groom, and give us
• 4:56:27
  Speaker 1: good riders and plenty of room, and launch us in
• 4:56:29
  Speaker 1: column of squadron. And see the way of the war
• 4:56:31
  Speaker 1: horse to Bonnie Dundee. Screw gun mules. As me and
• 4:56:35
  Speaker 1: my companions were scrambling up a hill, the path was
• 4:56:38
  Speaker 1: lost in rolling stones. But we went forward still, for
• 4:56:42
  Speaker 1: we can wriggle and climb my lads and turn up everywhere.
• 4:56:45
  Speaker 1: Oh it's our delight on a mountain height with a
• 4:56:48
  Speaker 1: leg or two to spare. Good luck to every sergeant
• 4:56:52
  Speaker 1: then that lets us pick our road, Bad luck to
• 4:56:55
  Speaker 1: all the driver men that cannot pack a load, For
• 4:56:58
  Speaker 1: we can wriggle and climb my lap and turn up everywhere.
• 4:57:01
  Speaker 1: Oh it's our delight on a mountain height with a
• 4:57:04
  Speaker 1: leg or two. Despair, Commissariat camels. We haven't a camelty
• 4:57:09
  Speaker 1: tune of our own to help us trawl up along.
• 4:57:11
  Speaker 1: But every neck is a hair trombone. Ur titi tatata
• 4:57:15
  Speaker 1: is a hair trombone. And this our marching song. Can't
• 4:57:20
  Speaker 1: don't shian't won't pass it along the line. Somebody's pack
• 4:57:28
  Speaker 1: has slid from his back. Wish it were only mine.
• 4:57:32
  Speaker 1: Somebody's load has tipped off in the road. Cheer for
• 4:57:34
  Speaker 1: a halt and a row, Err, yar goor r. Somebody's
• 4:57:43
  Speaker 1: catching it now. All the beasts together, children of the camp,
• 4:57:47
  Speaker 1: are we serving each in his degree, Children of the
• 4:57:50
  Speaker 1: yoke and goad, pack and harness, pad and load. See
• 4:57:54
  Speaker 1: our line across the plain like a heel rope bent again, reaching, writhing,
• 4:57:59
  Speaker 1: rolling far, sweeping all away to war. While the men
• 4:58:03
  Speaker 1: that walk beside, dusty, silent, heavy eyed, cannot tell why
• 4:58:08
  Speaker 1: we or they march in suffer day by day. Children
• 4:58:11
  Speaker 1: of the camp, are we serving each in his degree?
• 4:58:14
  Speaker 1: Children of the yoke and gold, pack and harness, pad
• 4:58:17
  Speaker 1: and load. The end, Thanks for listening,