1 Mowgli’s Brothers Now Chil the Kite brings home the night That Mang the Bat sets free The herds are shut in barn and hut For loosed till dawn are we This is the hour of pride and power Talon and tush and claw Oh hear the call Good hunting all That keep the Jungle Law Night Song in the Jungle It was seven o’clock on a very warm evening in the Seeonee hills Father Wolf woke up from his day’s rest scratched himself and yawned He spread out his paws to get rid of the sleepy feeling in their tips Mother Wolf lay with her big gray nose across her four tumbling squealing cubs The moon shone into the mouth of the cave where they all lived 4
Augrh said Father Wolf It is time to hunt again He was going to spring downhill when a little shadow with a bushy tail crossed the threshold It whined Good luck go with you O Chief of the Wolves Good luck and strong white teeth go with noble children May they never forget the hungry in this world It was the Jackal Tabaqui the Dish-licker The wolves of India despise Tabaqui because he runs about making mischief and telling tales But they are afraid of him too More than anyone else in the jungle Tabaqui is apt to go mad Then he forgets that he is ever afraid of anyone and runs through the forest biting everything in his way Even the tiger runs and hides when little Tabaqui goes mad Madness is the most disgraceful thing that can overtake a wild creature We call it rabies but they call it dewanee the madness and run Enter and look then said Father Wolf stiffl y But there is no food here 5
For a wolf no said Tabaqui But for myself a dry bone is a good feast Who are the Gidur-log the Jackal People to pick and choose He scuttled to the back of the cave He found the bone of a buck with some meat on it and sat cracking the end merrily All thanks for this good meal he said licking his lips Then he said spitefully Shere Khan the Big One has shifted his hunting grounds He has told me that he will hunt among these hills for the next moon Shere Khan was the tiger who lived near the Waingunga River twenty miles away He has no right Father Wolf began angrily By the Law of the Jungle he has no right to change without warning He will frighten every head of game within ten miles And I have to kill for two these days Mother Wolf said quietly He has been lame in one foot from his birth That is why he has only killed cattle Now the villagers of 6
