Children's fairy tales online. Online reading of the book The Jungle Book The Jungle Book Mowgli's Brothers Excerpt from Mowgli's fairy tale read
© Rakhmanova N., Komarova I., translation into Russian, 2016
© Bernstein I., Ostrovskaya G., Linetskaya E., Levinton A., translation into Russian. Descendants, 2016
© Edition in Russian, design. LLC Publishing House E, 2016
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First Jungle Book
Preface by the author
Of course, an essay of this kind requires the editor to call on the courtesy of numerous specialists. And he would have repaid poorly for his kind attitude if he had not admitted that he was indebted to many people.
First of all, he must thank the highly learned and talented Bahadur Shah, Cargo Elephant No. 174 on the Indian List, who, as well as his dear sister Pudmini, most kindly contributed the story of Little Toomai and much of the material for the story "Her Majesty's Men." Information for Mowgli's adventure was collected little by little at different periods of time, in different places and from the mouths of many people, most of whom wished to remain completely anonymous. Nevertheless, being so far from them, the editor decides to express his gratitude to one Hindu gentleman of high birth, an inhabitant of the Jakka slopes, for his convincing, although somewhat satirical, characterization of his own caste of priests (temple servants). Sahi, a scholar, an indefatigable zealous explorer, one of the recently dispersed Sionian pack, and an entertainer, famous at most of the local country fairs of South India, where his muzzled dances attracted to him all the other beautiful and cultured part of the population, brought valuable information about many tribes , their morals and customs. This information was included in the stories: “Tiger! Tiger!”, “Kaa the Python Hunt” and “Mowgli’s Brothers”. For the outline of "Rikki-Tikki-Tavi" the editor remains indebted to one of the leading herpetologists of Upper India, an intrepid and independent researcher, who, adopting the motto "It is better not to live, but certainly to know", recently lost his life as a result of assiduous study of breeds of poisonous snakes , found in our Far Eastern possessions. A happy accident gave the editor the opportunity, while traveling on the Empress of India, to perform a small favor for one of his companions. How richly he was rewarded for this pitiful service, those who read the story “The White Cat” can judge for themselves.
Mowgli's brothers
It was a very hot evening in the Sioni Mountains. Father Wolf woke up after a day's rest, yawned, scratched himself and, one by one, stretched out his front paws to drive away the remaining heaviness from them. The Mother Wolf lay, covering with her large gray muzzle the four floundering, squealing wolf cubs, and the moon was shining through the opening of their cave.
“Ogur!” said Father Wolf. - It's time for me to go hunting.
And he was already preparing to set off along the slope of the mountain, when a small shadow with a fluffy tail appeared near the entrance to the cave and squealed pitifully:
“May good luck accompany you, O leader of the wolves, may fate give your noble children strong, white teeth, may happiness smile on them.”
And may they not forget the hungry!
The jackal Tabaqui spoke, the sycophant. The wolves of India despised Tabaqui because he caused trouble, gossiped, and ate rags and scraps of leather in village garbage dumps. At the same time, people in the jungle were afraid of him, because jackals are capable of going crazy, and in this state they forget all fear, run through the forests and bite everyone they meet. When the little jackal goes crazy, even the tiger hides from him. After all, for a wild creature, madness is the greatest shame! We call this disease hydrophobia, but in the jungle they call it diwani - madness.
“Go in and look,” Father Wolf told him dryly, “but there is nothing edible in the cave.”
“For a wolf, no,” answered Tabaqui, “but for such a humble creature as me, even a gnawed bone is a magnificent feast.” What are we, Jidur log - a tribe of jackals - to choose and try?
With small steps, he ran into the very depths of the cave, found a deer bone with the remains of meat there, sat down and began gnawing it with pleasure.
“Please accept my great gratitude for the wonderful treat,” he said, licking his lips. – What handsome, noble children! What big eyes they have! And so young too. However, what am I? I should have remembered that royal children are adults from the first day of their lives.
Tabaqui, like everyone else, knew very well that praising children to their faces brings them unhappiness, and he was pleased to see that the parent wolves were alarmed.
Tabaqui sat there, silently rejoicing that he had caused them trouble, then said contemptuously:
– Shere Khan changed his hunting location. He told me that he would be hunting in these mountains for the next moon.
Shere Khan was a tiger who lived twenty miles from the cave near the Vengunga River.
“He has no right to do this,” Father Wolf began angrily. – According to the Laws of the Jungle, he has no right to change the hunting location without warning. He will scare away all the game for ten miles, and I... I have to hunt these two days.
“It’s not for nothing that Shere Khan’s mother called him Lungri, the lame one,” the she-wolf calmly noted. “He’s been limping since the day he was born and that’s why he’s always killed only livestock.” The village of Wengunga is angry with him, and now he has come here to irritate “our people.” They will search the jungle when he runs away, and the children and I will have to flee the grass they set on fire. Indeed, we can thank Shere Khan.
– Should I convey your gratitude to him? – asked Tabaqui.
- Get out! – Father Wolf said, clinking his teeth. - Go away, go hunting with your master. You've given us enough trouble.
“I’ll leave,” Tabaqui answered calmly. – Do you hear Shere Khan growling in the thickets? I might not even tell you about it.
Father Wolf listened; in the valley that went down to the stream, there was a dry, angry, prolonged grumbling of a tiger who had caught nothing, and who was not ashamed that everyone in the jungle knew about his failure.
“Fool,” said the wolf. - He starts working with such noise! Does he really think that our deer are like his fattened bulls?
- Shh! “Today he is not hunting a deer or a bull,” said the she-wolf. “His game is man.”
The grumbling turned into a loud growl that seemed to come from all directions. It is this sound that makes woodcutters and gypsies sleeping in the open lose their minds; It is precisely when they hear him that they sometimes rush straight into the tiger’s mouth.
“Man,” said Father Wolf, baring his white teeth. - Ugh! Are there really not enough water beetles and frogs in the swamps for him to eat humans, especially in our area?
The Law of the Jungle, which never commands anything without reason, allows beasts to eat a person only when the beast kills him, wanting to show his children how to do it, but then he must hunt outside the hunting grounds of his pack or tribe. The real reason for this is that after the murder of a man, sooner or later, there appear white men on elephants and with guns, and hundreds of brown men with gongs, rockets and torches. And everyone in the jungle suffers. However, the animals say among themselves that the Law prohibits killing a person, because he is the weakest and most defenseless of all living creatures and, therefore, touching him is unworthy of a hunter. In addition, they claim - and rightly so - that cannibals lose weight terribly and lose teeth.
The growl became louder and suddenly an “arrrrr” was heard, the short cry of a falling tiger.
“He missed,” said Mother Wolf. - What's there?
Shere Khan could be heard rushing from one bush to another with a ferocious grunt.
“This fool has so little sense that he jumped onto a woodcutter’s fire and burned his paws,” said Father Wolf. - Tabaki is with him.
-Who climbs the slope? - asked the Wolf Mother and pricked up one ear. - Get ready!
The leaves rustled in the thicket. The wolf sank onto its hind legs, preparing to pounce on its prey. Then, if you were watching him, you would see the most amazing thing in the world: a wolf stopping mid-leap. Not yet seeing what he was rushing at, the beast jumped and at that very moment tried to stop. Consequently he rose four or five feet from the ground and fell on his paws, almost on the very spot from which he had begun the attack.
“A man,” he said briefly, “a human cub!” Look.
Just opposite the wolf, holding onto one of the low branches, stood a small, completely naked brown boy, who had just learned to walk, all soft, all dimpled. He looked straight into the wolf's eyes and laughed.
“So this is a human cub,” said Mother Wolf. - I've never seen them. Give it here.
A wolf, accustomed to carrying its cubs, can, if necessary, take a fresh egg into its mouth without breaking it, and therefore, although the beast’s jaws grabbed the child by the back, not a single tooth scratched the little boy’s skin. Father Wolf carefully placed him between his cubs.
- How small! Completely naked! And how brave,” Mother Wolf said softly.
The child pushed the wolf cubs aside to get closer to her warm skin.
- Oh, he feeds with the others! That's how a human cub is! Well, tell me: has there ever been a she-wolf in the world who could boast that there was a human cub living between her cubs?
“I heard that such things happened, but not in our pack and not in our days,” answered Father Wolf. “He has no fur at all, and I could kill him with one push of my paw.” But look: he looks and is not afraid.
Moonlight stopped penetrating into the cave opening; the large quadrangular head and shoulders of Shere Khan obscured the free opening.
And behind the tiger Tabaqui squealed:
- My lord, my lord, he came here!
“Shere Khan does us great honor,” said Father Wolf, but there was anger in his eyes. -What would Shere Khan want?
“A human cub has entered here,” answered the tiger. – His parents ran away. Give it to me.
As the wolf said, Shere Khan jumped into the woodcutter’s fire and was now raging with pain in his burnt paws. But Father Wolf knew that the tiger could not enter the cave opening that was too narrow for him. And so the edges of the side stones squeezed Shere Khan’s shoulders and his paws cramped; a person would feel the same way if he tried to fit into a barrel.
“Wolves are a free people,” said the head of the family. “They listen to the leader of the pack, not some striped livestock eater.” The human child is ours; we will kill him if we want.
- You want it, you don’t want it! What kind of talk is this? I swear by the bull I killed, I will not stand around sniffing your doghouse and asking for what is rightfully mine. This is me speaking, Shere Khan.
The tiger's roar filled the entire cave like thunder. Mother Wolf shook off her cubs and rushed forward; her eyes, shining in the darkness like two green moons, looked straight into the flaming eyes of Shere Khan.
– You speak, and I answer, Raksha. My human cub, lame! Yes, mine. They won't kill him! He will live, run with the pack, hunt with the pack and eventually kill you, pursuer of small naked cubs, eater of frogs and fish! Yes, he will kill you! Now get out or, by the sambhur I killed (I don’t eat dead cattle), you, burnt animal, will go to your mother, limping worse than the day you were born! Leave!
Father Wolf looked at her in amazement. He had almost forgotten the day on which, after a fair fight with five other wolves, he took his girlfriend with him; or the time when she ran in a pack and was called the Demon not just as a courtesy. Shere Khan could face the Wolf Father, but he did not want to fight Raksha, knowing that all the benefits were on her side and that she would fight to the death. Therefore, with a terrible grunt, he backed away, freed himself from the entrance to the cave, and finally shouted:
– Every dog barks in his own yard! Let's see, the flock itself will say something about this tenderness with the adopted child from the human tribe! He is mine and will eventually fall into my teeth, I tell you, oh you bushy-tailed thieves!
The she-wolf, panting, rushed back to her cubs, and Father Wolf seriously said to her:
“In this regard, Shere Khan is right. The human cub must be shown to the pack. Tell me, do you still want to keep it?
- Do I want to? - she said. “He’s hairless, hungry, he came at night, all alone, and yet he wasn’t afraid.” Look: he pushed one of my children away! This lame villain would have killed him and fled to Wengunga; People would come to us and destroy all our lairs in revenge. Do I keep it? Well, of course. Lie down, lie down, little frog, oh you, Mowgli... Yes, yes, I will call you Mowgli - frog... and someday you will hunt Shere Khan, as he hunted you.
- But will our flock say something? – Father Wolf drawled. The Law of the Jungle states very clearly that every newly married wolf can separate from his pack; however, as soon as his wolf cubs grow enough to stand well on their feet, he is obliged to bring them and present them to the Council of the pack, which usually meets on the full moon; this is done so that the other wolves recognize them. After such an inspection, the wolf cubs have the right to run wherever they want and until they catch the first deer. There is no excuse for a wolf killing one of them. The murderer is punished by death. If you think carefully, you will see that this is true.
Father Wolf waited until his cubs learned to run, and finally, on the day of the pack meeting, he took them, Mowgli, Mother Wolf with him and went to the Council Rock; that was the name of the top of the hill, all covered with large boulders and stones, among which about a hundred wolves could hide. Akela, a large gray lone wolf, thanks to his strength and cunning the leader of the pack, stretched out to his full length on a stone, below sat forty or more wolves of all shades of fur - starting with veterans with the coloring of a badger, who could alone fight a wild buffalo , to young black three-year-olds who imagined that such a struggle was within their power. For a whole year now, Lone Wolf has been leading the pack. In the days of his youth, Akela was twice caught in traps; since he was beaten and abandoned, considered dead, so he knew the customs and tricks of people. There was little talk. The wolf cubs fussed and tumbled in the center of the ring that their mothers and fathers formed; from time to time, one of the older wolves calmly approached some wolf cub, carefully examined it and, silently stepping, returned to its original place. Sometimes one or another she-wolf pushed her cub with her nose into the strip of moonlight, wanting him to be noticed. Akela from his rock exclaimed:
– You know the Law, you know the Law! Look well, O wolves!
And the mothers’ long, anxious howl was picked up:
- Look, look carefully, oh wolves!
Finally - and at that moment the high stubble rose on Rakshi's neck - Father Wolf pushed Mowgli the Frog, as they called the boy, into the very middle of the open space, and he sat down there and began to laugh and play with the pebbles that glittered in the moonlight.
Akela did not raise his head, continuing to shout monotonously:
- Look carefully!
A dull roar was heard from behind the rock—the voice of Shere Khan. The tiger shouted:
- The cub is mine. Give it to me. Why do the Free People need a man cub?
Akela didn’t even move his ear. He just drawled:
- Look carefully, oh wolves. Do the Free People care about anyone's statements other than the decrees of the Free People? Take a good look.
Quiet, dissatisfied, grumbling voices were heard; One young wolf, who was in his fourth year, asked Akela the tiger’s question:
“What should the Free People do with a human child?”
It should be noted that, by virtue of the provisions of the Law of the Jungle, in the event of a dispute regarding the right of any cub to join the pack, at least two of the pack, but not its father or mother, must speak for its admission.
- Who is behind this cub? – Akela asked. “Which of the Free People speaks out for him to join the pack?”
There was no answer, and Mother Wolf prepared for the fight that she knew would be her last.
Then Baloo, who did not belong to the wolf family, but who was admitted to the Council of the pack, old Baloo, the sleepy brown bear who teaches the wolf cubs the Law of the Jungle, who has the right to walk everywhere because he eats only nuts, roots and honey, rose on his hind legs and roared :
– A human cub?.. A human cub? I speak up for him. There's nothing wrong with him. I do not have the gift of words, but I speak the truth. Let him run with the pack; accept it with the rest. I will teach him!
A slender shadow slipped into the ring of wolves. It was Bagheera, the black panther, all black as ink, but with spots visible like watermarks in a certain light. Everyone knew Bagheera and everyone was afraid to stand in her way, because she was cunning like Tabaqui, courageous like a wild buffalo, unstoppable like a wounded elephant. Nevertheless, her voice sounded soft, like the sound of drops of wild honey falling from a tree, and her fur was softer than swan's down.
“O Akela, and you, Free People,” she purred, “I have no vote in your meetings, but the Law of the Jungle says that in case of doubt about a new cub, doubts not relating to the hunt, its life can be purchased for known price. And the Law does not determine who can and who cannot pay to save his life. Am I speaking correctly?
“That’s right, that’s right,” answered the eternally hungry young wolves. - Listen to Bagheera. The cub can be bought for a known price. This is what the Law says.
“It’s shameful to kill a hairless cub.” In addition, you may need it when he grows up. Baloo spoke in his favor, and if you agree to accept the human cub, I will add to Baloo’s words the young and very fat bull I just killed, which lies less than half a mile from here. Is it difficult to make a decision?
– Is it worth discussing? He will die from the winter rains; the sun will burn it! What harm can a hairless frog do to us? Let him run with the pack. Where is the bull, Bagheera? Let's adopt the cub!
- Look carefully, look carefully, oh wolves!
Mowgli's attention was still attracted to the pebbles; he didn’t even notice that the wolves came up one after another and examined him. Finally everyone went down to the dead bull; only Akela, Bagheera, Baloo, and the wolves who adopted Mowgli remained on the Council Rock, and in the darkness the grumbling of Shere Khan could still be heard, who was angry that the boy was not given to him.
“Yes, yes, roar well into your mustache,” said Bagheera, “the time will come when a human cub will make your voice sound different.” It will be like this, or I don't know anything about people.
– You did well! - said Akela. – People and their puppies are very smart. Over time, he will become our assistant.
- Of course, he will become your assistant in difficult times; after all, no one can hope to lead a pack forever,” Bagheera remarked.
Akela said nothing. He thought about the time coming for each leader when his strength fades and he becomes weaker and weaker, until finally the pack kills him and a new leader appears, who, in turn, will also be killed.
“Take him away,” said Akela to Father Wolf, “and raise him in the rules of the Free People.”
In this way, Mowgli was introduced into the Sionian wolf pack, thanks to the payment made for him and the kind word of Baloo.
Now you will have to skip ten or eleven years and guess for yourself what a wonderful life Mowgli led among the wolves, because if it were described it would fill many books. He grew up with wolf cubs, although, of course, they became adult wolves when he was still a child. Father Wolf taught him the craft and talked about everything that was and what was happening in the jungle; finally, every rustle in the grass, every light breath of hot night air, every hooting of an owl above his head, the slightest creaking of the claws of a bat landing on a tree, every splash of fish jumping in tiny lakes - everything became as important and understandable for the boy as office work. work for a businessman. When Mowgli was not studying, he sat in the sun, slept, ate and slept again; when he felt dirty or hot, he swam in natural forest ponds; when he wanted honey (Baloo told the boy that honey and nuts were as tasty as raw meat), he climbed the trees for it. Bagheera taught him how to climb high tree trunks. Lying on a high branch, the panther shouted: “Here, Little Brother,” and at first Mowgli clung to the branches like a sloth, but over time he began to throw himself from one branch to another, almost with the courage of a gray monkey. During pack meetings, he took the place indicated to him on the Council Rock and at that time discovered that when he happened to look intently at a wolf, he involuntarily lowered his eyes. Having learned this, Mowgli began to gaze into the eyes of the wolves as a form of fun. Sometimes he took out the long thorns that were stuck between the fingers of his friends, because wolves suffer terribly from the thorns and thorns that got into their skin. At night, the boy went down from the mountain slope to the cultivated fields and looked with great curiosity at the villagers in their huts, but did not trust people, since Bagheera once showed him a box with a falling door hidden in the thickets so cleverly that he almost fell into it . Then the panther told him that it was a trap. Most of all, Mowgli loved to go with Bagheera into the dark, warm depths of the forest, sleep there all day, and at night watch the black panther hunt. Hungry, she killed everything that came her way, and Mowgli did the same... with one exception. When he grew up and his mind developed, Bagheera told him not to dare touch the livestock, since his life was bought at the cost of the life of the bull.
It was a very hot evening in the Sioni Mountains. Father Wolf woke up after a day's rest, yawned, scratched himself and, one by one, stretched out his front paws to drive away the remaining heaviness from them. The Mother Wolf lay, covering with her large gray muzzle the four floundering, squealing wolf cubs, and the moon was shining through the opening of their cave.
“Ogur!” said Father Wolf. - It's time for me to go hunting.
And he was already preparing to set off along the slope of the mountain, when a small shadow with a fluffy tail appeared near the entrance to the cave and squealed pitifully:
“May good luck accompany you, O chief of the wolves, may fate give your noble children strong, white teeth; may happiness smile upon them. And may they not forget the hungry!
The jackal Tabaqui spoke, the sycophant. The wolves of India despised Tabaqui because he caused trouble, gossiped, and ate rags and scraps of leather in rural garbage dumps. At the same time, people in the jungle were afraid of him, because jackals are capable of going crazy, and in this state they forget all fear, run through the forests and bite everyone they meet. When the little jackal goes crazy, even the tiger hides from him. After all, for a wild creature, madness is the greatest shame! We call this disease hydrophobia, but in the jungle they consider it diwani - madness.
“Go in and look,” the Wolf told him dryly, “but there is nothing edible in the cave.”
“For a wolf, no,” answered Tabaqui, “but for such a humble creature as me, even a gnawed bone is a magnificent feast.” What are we, Jidur log - a tribe of jackals - to choose and try?
With small steps, he ran into the very depths of the cave, found a deer bone with the remains of meat there, sat down and began gnawing it with pleasure.
“Please accept my great gratitude for the wonderful treat,” he said, licking his lips. – What handsome, noble children! What big eyes they have! And so young too. However, what am I? I should have remembered that royal children are adults from the first day of their lives.
Tabaqui, like everyone else, knew very well that praising children to their faces brings them unhappiness, and he was pleased to see that the parent wolves were alarmed.
Tabaqui sat there, silently rejoicing that he had caused them trouble, then said contemptuously:
– Shere Khan changed his hunting location. He told me that he would be hunting in these mountains for the next moon.
Shere Khan was a tiger who lived twenty miles from the cave near the Vengunga River.
“He has no right to do this,” Father Wolf began angrily. – According to the Laws of the Jungle, he has no right to change the hunting location without warning. He will scare away all the game for ten miles, and I... I have to hunt these two days.
“It’s not for nothing that Shere Khan’s mother called him Lungri, the lame one,” the she-wolf calmly noted. “He’s been limping since the day he was born and that’s why he’s always killed only livestock.” The village of Vengunga is angry with him, and now he has come here to irritate “our people.” They will search the jungle when he runs away, and the children and I will have to flee the grass they set on fire. Indeed, we can thank Shere Khan.
– Should I convey your gratitude to him? – asked Tabaqui.
- Get out! – Father Wolf said, clinking his teeth. - Go away; go hunting with your master. You've given us enough trouble.
“I’ll leave,” Tabaqui answered calmly. – Do you hear Shere Khan growling in the thickets? I might not even tell you about it.
Father Wolf listened; in the valley that went down to the stream, there was a dry, angry, prolonged grumbling of a tiger who had caught nothing, and who was not ashamed that everyone in the jungle knew about his failure.
“Fool,” said the wolf. - He starts working with such noise! Does he really think that our deer are like his fattened bulls?
- Shh! “Today he is not hunting a deer or a bull,” said the she-wolf. “His game is man.”
The grumbling turned into a loud growl that seemed to come from all directions. It is this sound that makes woodcutters and gypsies sleeping in the open lose their minds; It is precisely when they hear him that they sometimes rush straight into the tiger’s mouth.
“Man,” said Father Wolf, baring his white teeth. - Ugh! Are there really not enough water beetles and frogs in the swamps for him to eat a person, especially in our area?
The Law of the Jungle, which never commands anything without reason, allows beasts to eat a person only when the beast kills him, wanting to show his children how to do it, but then he must hunt outside the hunting grounds of his pack or tribe. The real reason for this is that after the murder of a man, sooner or later, there appear white men on elephants and with guns, and hundreds of brown men with gongs, rockets and torches. And everyone in the jungle suffers. However, the animals say among themselves that the Law prohibits killing a person, because he is the weakest and most defenseless of all living creatures, and, therefore, touching him is unworthy of a hunter. In addition, they claim - and rightly so - that cannibals lose weight terribly and lose teeth.
The growl became louder and suddenly we heard: “ar-rr-r”, the short cry of a falling tiger.
“He missed,” said Mother Wolf. - What's there?
Shere Khan could be heard rushing from one bush to another with a ferocious grunt.
“This fool has so little sense that he jumped onto a woodcutter’s fire and burned his paws,” said the Wolf. - Tabaki is with him.
-Who climbs the slope? - asked the Wolf Mother and pricked up one ear. - Get ready!
The leaves rustled in the thicket. The wolf sank onto its hind legs, preparing to pounce on its prey. Then, if you were watching him, you would see the most amazing thing in the world: a wolf stopping mid-leap. Not yet seeing what he was rushing at, the beast jumped and at that very moment tried to stop. Consequently he rose four or five feet from the ground and fell on his paws, almost on the very spot from which he had begun the attack.
“A man,” he said briefly, “a man’s cub!” Look.
Just opposite the wolf, holding onto one of the low branches, stood a small, completely naked, brown boy, who had just learned to walk, all soft, all dimpled. He looked straight into the wolf's eyes and laughed.
“So this is a human cub,” said Mother Wolf. - I've never seen them. Give it here.
A wolf, accustomed to carrying its cubs, if necessary, can take a fresh egg into its mouth without breaking it, and therefore, although the jaws of the beast grabbed the child by the back, not a single tooth scratched the little boy’s skin. Father Wolf carefully placed him between his cubs.
- How small! Completely naked! And how brave,” Mother Wolf said softly.
The child pushed the wolf cubs aside to get closer to her warm skin.
- Oh, he feeds with the others! That's how a human cub is! Well, tell me: has there ever been a she-wolf in the world who could boast that there was a human cub living between her cubs?
“I heard that such things happened, but not in our pack and not in our days,” answered Father Wolf. “He has no fur at all, and I could kill him with one push of my paw.” But look: he looks and is not afraid.
Moonlight stopped penetrating into the cave opening; Shere Khan's large quadrangular head and shoulders obscured the free opening. And behind the tiger Tabaqui squealed:
- My lord, my lord, he came here!
“Shere Khan does us great honor,” said Father Wolf, but there was anger in his eyes. -What would Shere Khan want?
“A man’s cub has entered here,” answered the tiger. – His parents ran away. Give it to me.
As the wolf said, Shere Khan jumped into the woodcutter’s fire and was now raging with pain in his burnt paws. But Father Wolf knew that the tiger could not enter the cave opening that was too narrow for him. And so the edges of the side stones squeezed Shere Khan’s shoulders and his paws cramped; a person would feel the same way if he tried to fit into a barrel.
“Wolves are a free people,” said the head of the family. “They listen to the leader of the pack, not some striped livestock eater.” The human child is ours; we will kill him if we want.
- You want it, you don’t want it! What kind of talk is this? I swear by the bull I killed, I will not stand around sniffing your doghouse and asking for what is rightfully mine. This is me speaking, Shere Khan.
The tiger's roar filled the entire cave like thunder. Mother Wolf shook off her cubs and rushed forward; her eyes, shining in the darkness like two green moons, looked straight into the flaming eyes of Shere Khan.
– You speak, and I answer, Raksha. My human cub, lame! Yes, mine. They won't kill him! He will live, run with the pack, hunt with the pack and, in the end, kill you, pursuer of small naked cubs, eater of frogs and fish! Yes, he will kill you! Now get out or, by the sambhur I killed (I don’t eat dead cattle), you, a burned animal, will go to your mother, limping worse than the day you were born! Leave!
Father Wolf looked at her in amazement. He had almost forgotten the day on which, after a fair fight with five other wolves, he took his girlfriend with him; or the time when she ran in a pack and was called the Demon not just as a courtesy. Shere Khan could meet face to face with the Wolf Father, but he did not want to fight with Raksha, knowing that all the benefits were on her side and that she would fight to the death. Therefore, with a terrible grunt, he backed away, freed himself from the entrance to the cave, and finally shouted:
– Every dog barks in his own yard! We'll see if the flock itself will say something about this tenderness with the adopted child from the human tribe! He is mine and will eventually fall into my teeth, I tell you, oh you bushy-tailed thieves!
The she-wolf, gasping for breath, rushed back to her cubs, and Father Wolf seriously said to her:
“In this regard, Shere Khan is right. The human cub must be shown to the pack. Tell me, do you still want to keep it?
- Do I want to? - she said. “He’s hairless, hungry, he came at night, all alone, and yet he wasn’t afraid.” Look: he pushed one of my children away! This lame villain would have killed him and fled to Wengung; People would come to us and destroy all our lairs in revenge. Do I keep it? Well, of course. Lie down, lie down, little frog, oh you, Mowgli... Yes, yes, I will call you Mowgli - frog... and someday you will hunt Shere Khan, as he hunted you.
- But will our flock say something? – Father Wolf drawled.
The Law of the Jungle states very clearly that every newly married wolf can separate from his pack; however, as soon as his wolf cubs grow enough to stand well on their feet, he is obliged to bring them and present them to the Council of the pack, which usually meets on the full moon; this is done so that the other wolves recognize them. After such an inspection, the wolf cubs have the right to run wherever they want and until they catch the first deer. There is no excuse for a wolf killing one of them. The murderer is punished by death. If you think carefully, you will see that this is true.
Father Wolf waited until his cubs learned to run, and finally, on the day of the pack meeting, he took them, Mowgli, Mother Wolf with him and went to the Council Rock; that was the name of the top of the hill, all covered with large boulders and stones, among which about a hundred wolves could hide. Akela, a large gray lone wolf, thanks to his strength and cunning the leader of the pack, stretched out to his full length on a stone, below sat forty or more wolves, of all shades of fur - starting with veterans with the coloring of a badger, who could alone fight the wild buffalo, to young black three-year-olds who imagined that such a fight was within their power. For a whole year now, Lone Wolf has been leading the pack. In the days of his youth, Akela was twice caught in traps; since he was beaten and abandoned, considered dead, so he knew the customs and tricks of people. There was little talk. The wolf cubs fussed and tumbled in the center of the ring that their mothers and fathers formed; from time to time, one of the older wolves calmly approached some wolf cub, carefully examined it and, silently stepping, returned to its original place. Sometimes one or another she-wolf pushed her cub with her nose into the strip of moonlight, wanting him to be noticed. Akela from his rock exclaimed:
– You know the Law, you know the Law! Look well, O wolves!
And the mothers’ long, anxious howl was picked up:
- Look, look carefully, oh wolves!
Finally - and at that moment the high stubble rose on Raksha's neck - Father Wolf pushed Mowgli the Frog, as they called the boy, into the very middle of the open space, and he sat down there and began to laugh and play with the pebbles that glittered in the moonlight.
Akela did not raise his head, continuing to shout monotonously:
- Look carefully!
A dull roar was heard from behind the rock—the voice of Shere Khan. The tiger shouted:
- The cub is mine. Give it to me. Why do the Free People need a man cub?
Akela didn’t even move his ear. He just drawled:
- Look carefully, oh wolves. Do the Free People care about anyone's statements other than the decrees of the Free People? Take a good look.
Quiet, dissatisfied, grumbling voices were heard; One young wolf, who was about four years old, asked Akela the tiger’s question:
“What should the Free People do with a man-cub?”
It should be noted that, by virtue of the provisions of the Law of the Jungle, in the event of a dispute regarding the right of any cub to join the pack, at least two of the pack, but not its father or mother, must speak in favor of its admission.
– Who is behind this cub? – Akela asked. “Which of the Free People speaks out for him to join the pack?”
There was no answer, and Mother Wolf prepared for the battle that she knew would be her last.
Then Baloo, who did not belong to the wolf family, but who was admitted to the Council of the pack, old Baloo, the sleepy brown bear who teaches the wolf cubs the Law of the Jungle, who has the right to walk everywhere because he eats only nuts, roots and honey, rose on his hind legs and roared :
– A human cub?.. A human cub? I speak up for him. There's nothing wrong with him. I do not have the gift of words, but I speak the truth. Let him run with the pack; accept it with the rest. I will teach him!
A slender shadow slipped into the ring of wolves. It was Bagheera, the black panther, all black as ink, but with spots visible like watermarks in a certain light. Everyone knew Bagheera and everyone was afraid to stand in her way, because she was cunning like Tabaqui, courageous like a wild buffalo, unstoppable like a wounded elephant. However, her voice sounded soft, like the sound of drops of wild honey falling from a tree, and her fur was softer than swan's down.
“O Akela, and you, Free People,” she purred, “I have no vote in your meetings, but the Law of the Jungle says that in case of doubt about a new cub, doubts not relating to the hunt, its life can be purchased for known price. And the Law does not determine who can and who cannot pay to save his life. Am I speaking correctly?
“That’s right, that’s right,” answered the eternally hungry young wolves. - Listen to Bagheera. A cub can be bought for a certain price. This is what the Law says.
“It’s shameful to kill a hairless cub.” In addition, you may need it when he grows up. Baloo spoke in his favor, and if you agree to accept the human cub, I will add to Baloo’s words the young and very fat bull I just killed, which lies less than half a mile from here. Is it difficult to make a decision?
- Look carefully, look carefully, oh wolves!
Mowgli's attention was still attracted to the pebbles; he didn’t even notice that the wolves came up one after another and examined him. Finally, everyone went down to the dead bull; only Akela, Bagheera, Baloo, and the wolves who adopted Mowgli remained on the Council Rock, and in the darkness the grumbling of Shere Khan was still heard, who was angry that the boy was not given to him.
“Yes, yes, roar well into your mustache,” said Bagheera, “the time will come when a human cub will make your voice sound different.” It will be like this, or I don't know anything about people.
– You did well! - said Akela. – People and their puppies are very smart. Over time, he will become our assistant.
- Of course, he will become your assistant in difficult times; after all, no one can hope to lead a pack forever,” Bagheera remarked.
Akela said nothing. He thought about the time coming for each leader, when his strength fades and he becomes weaker and weaker, until finally the pack kills him and a new leader appears, who in turn will also be killed.
“Take him away,” said Akela to Father Wolf, “and raise him in the rules of the Free People.”
In this way, Mowgli was introduced into the Sionian wolf pack, thanks to the payment made for him and the kind word of Baloo.
Now you will have to skip ten or eleven years and guess for yourself what a wonderful life Mowgli led among the wolves, because if it were described it would fill many books. He grew up with wolf cubs, although, of course, they became adult wolves when he was still a child. Father Wolf taught him the craft and talked about everything that was and what was happening in the jungle; Finally, every rustle in the grass, every light breath of hot night air, every hooting of an owl above his head, the slightest creaking of the claws of a bat landing on a tree, every splash of fish jumping in tiny lakes, everything became as important and understandable for the boy as office work for a businessman. When Mowgli was not studying, he sat in the sun, slept, ate and slept again; when he felt dirty or hot, he swam in natural forest ponds; when he wanted honey (Balu told the boy that honey and nuts were as tasty as raw meat), he climbed the trees for it. Bagheera taught him how to climb high tree trunks. Lying on a high branch, the panther shouted: “Here, Little Brother,” and at first Mowgli clung to the branches like a sloth, but over time he began to throw himself from one branch to another, almost with the courage of a gray monkey. During pack meetings, he took the place indicated to him on the Council Rock and at that time discovered that when he happened to look intently at a wolf, he involuntarily lowered his eyes. Having learned this, Mowgli began to gaze into the eyes of the wolves as a form of fun. Sometimes he took out the long thorns that were stuck between the fingers of his friends, because wolves suffer terribly from the thorns and thorns that got into their skin. oskazkah.ru - site At night, the boy went down from the mountain slope to the cultivated fields and looked with great curiosity at the villagers in their huts, but did not trust people, since Bagheera once showed him a box with a falling door that was so cleverly hidden in the thickets that he I almost hit him. Then the panther told him that it was a trap. Most of all, Mowgli loved to go with Bagheera into the dark, warm depths of the forest, sleep there all day, and at night watch the black panther hunt. Hungry, she killed everything that came her way, and Mowgli did the same... with one exception. When he grew up and his mind developed, Bagheera told him not to dare touch the livestock, since his life was bought at the cost of the life of the bull.
“The whole thicket is yours,” said Bagheera, “and you can hunt all the game that you are able to kill, but in memory of the bull that paid for you, never kill or eat any livestock, young or old.” This is the Law of the Jungle.
And Mowgli religiously obeyed. He grew up, became strong, as would happen to any boy who doesn’t sit at his lessons, who has nothing to think about except food. Once or twice Mother Wolf told him that Shere Khan could not be trusted and that he must kill Shere Khan someday. The young wolf would have remembered Rakshi's advice every hour, but Mowgli forgot her words, because he was only a boy, although, of course, he would have called himself a wolf if he could speak any human dialect.
Shere Khan always got in his way, because Akela grew older, became weaker, and now the lame tiger made friends with the younger wolves of the pack and they often ran after him; Akela would not have allowed this to happen if his former power had given him the opportunity to properly demonstrate his power. In addition, Shere Khan flattered the young wolves and expressed surprise that such beautiful young hunters voluntarily submitted to a half-dead leader and a human cub.
“They told me,” Shere Khan used to say, “that on the Council Rock you do not dare look him in the eye.”
And the young wolves grumbled, raising their bristles.
Bagheera, who had ears and eyes everywhere, knew something about such conversations and once or twice told Mowgli directly and simply that someday Shere Khan would kill him; but the boy laughed and answered:
“I have a pack, I have you, and although Baloo is lazy, he can throw a few blows with his paw in my defense.” What should I be afraid of?
One very hot day, a new thought appeared in Bagheera’s brain, born as a result of rumors that had reached her. Maybe Ikki the porcupine warned the panther; in any case, once, when Mowgli was lying in the depths of the jungle, pressing his head against her beautiful black skin, Bagheera said to him:
“Little Brother, how many times have I told you that Shere Khan is your enemy?”
“As many as there are nuts on this palm tree,” answered Mowgli, who, of course, could not count. - What of this? I want to sleep, Bagheera, and Shere Khan has the same long tail and the same loud voice as Mao, the peacock.
- Now is not the time to sleep. Baloo knows it, I know it, the pack knows it, even the stupid, stupid deer know it. Tabaqui also told you about this.
- Ho, ho! – answered Mowgli. “Recently Tabaqui came to me and began to rudely assure me that I was a hairless human cub, incapable of even pulling wild truffles out of the ground, and I grabbed the jackal by the tail, swung it twice and hit it against a palm tree to teach him politeness.
- And he did it stupidly; True, Tabaqui likes to stir things up, but he could tell you a lot that was closely related to you. Open your eyes, Little Brother, Shere Khan does not dare to kill you in the jungle, but remember: Akela is very old; the day will soon come when he will not be able to kill a deer, and then Lone Wolf will cease to be the leader of the pack. Many of the wolves who examined you when you were first brought to the Council have also grown old, and the youth believe Shere Khan and think that a man-cub has no place among us. Soon you will become an adult.
“Doesn’t a man have the right to hunt with his brothers?” - asked Mowgli. - I was born here. I obey the Law of the Jungle, and in our pack there is not a single wolf from whose paws I would not remove a splinter. They are, of course, my brothers.
Bagheera stretched out to his full length and narrowed his eyes.
“Little Brother,” she said, “feel my neck under my lower jaw with your hand.”
Mowgli extended his strong dark hand and, where the gigantic muscles were hidden under shiny fur, just under the panther's chin, he felt a small hairless space.
“No one in the jungle knows that I, Bagheera, carry this mark on me... the mark of the collar, and yet, Little Brother, I was born among people, my mother also died among people, in the cages of the royal palace in Udeypur. That's why I paid the Council for you when you were a small, naked cub. Yes, yes, I was also born among people, not in the jungle. I sat behind iron bars and was fed by pushing an iron cup between them; finally, one night I felt that I, Bagheera, was a panther, and not a human toy, with one blow of my paw I broke the stupid lock and left. Thanks to my knowledge of human customs, I became more terrible in the jungle than Shere Khan. Is this true?
“Yes,” answered Mowgli, “everyone in the jungle is afraid of Bagheera, everyone except Mowgli.”
- O you, child of man! – the panther purred very tenderly. “And just as I returned to my jungle, so you, in the end, must return to the people, to the people - your brothers... if you are not killed in the Council first.”
- But why, why can they kill me? - asked Mowgli.
“Look at me,” said Bagheera.
And Mowgli looked her straight in the eye; The panther lasted only half a minute, then turned away.
“That’s why,” she said, moving her paw on the leaves. “Even I can’t look you in the eyes, although I was born among people and love you, Little Brother.” Others hate you because they cannot stand your gaze, because you are intelligent, because you took the thorns out of their paws, because you are a human being.
“I didn’t know that,” Mowgli said gloomily, and his black eyebrows knitted together.
– What does the Law of the Jungle say? Strike first, speak later. Your very carelessness shows that you are human. But be wise. I feel in my heart that when Akela loses his prey (and every day it becomes more and more difficult for him to stop the deer), the pack will turn against him and against you. They will gather the Council on the rock, and then, then... Aha, I came up with an idea! - said Bagheera and in one jump found herself on all fours. – Quickly run to the valley to the human huts and take a piece of the Red Flower that they plant there; In due time you will have a friend stronger than me, stronger than Baloo, stronger than everyone who loves you. Get the Red Flower.
By the Red Flower Bagheera meant fire; no creature in the jungle utters this word. Wild animals are mortally afraid of flames and come up with hundreds of different names for it.
– Red Flower? - asked Mowgli. “I know that in the dark it grows near their huts.” I'll bring it.
“This is the real speech of a human cub,” Bagheera said proudly. – But remember: it grows in small pots. Get one of these and always keep it in case of need.
“Okay,” said Mowgli, “I’m going.” But are you sure, oh my Bagheera,” he put his hand around the panther’s beautiful neck and looked deeply into her big eyes, “are you sure that all this is the work of Shere Khan?
“I swear by the broken lock that freed me,” I’m sure, Little Brother!
“In that case, I swear by the bull that bought me that I will repay Shere Khan for everything, and perhaps in abundance!” - Mowgli shouted and rushed forward.
- Yes, he is a man. This is completely human,” said Bagheera, lying down again. “Oh Shere Khan, there has never been such an unsuccessful hunt in the world as your hunt for that frog ten years ago.”
Mowgli was crossing the forest; he ran quickly; his heart was burning in his chest. When the evening fog rose, he approached his native cave, took a breath and looked down at the village. The young wolves left, but Mother Wolf, who was lying in the depths of the lair, guessed from the boy’s breathing that her little frog was excited about something.
-What's troubling you, son? – she asked.
“Chatter about Shere Khan,” he replied. “Tonight I’m going hunting among the plowed fields.”
Mowgli dived into the thicket and ran to the river that flowed in the depths of the valley. Here he stopped, hearing the hunting howl of his pack, the cry of the pursued sambhur and his snorting; obviously he stopped, intending to fight back. Immediately an angry, bitter howl of young wolves was heard:
- Akela! Akela! Lone Wolf, show your strength! Place for the leader of the pack! Throw yourself!
Lone Wolf must have jumped and missed: Mowgli heard the clanging of his teeth and a short bark escaping his throat as the stag knocked him over with its foreleg.
Mowgli did not wait any longer, but ran; and as he went deeper into the cultivated fields where the people lived, the howling died away behind him.
“Bagheera told the truth,” Mowgli thought breathlessly and nestled in a cattle feeder near the window of one hut. “Tomorrow is an important day for Akela and for me.”
Pressing his face to the window and looking at the flames of the fireplace, the boy saw how the wife of the owner of the house got up and began to throw some black pieces into the fire in the darkness; when morning came, and the haze of fog turned white and cold, a small child took a cup woven from branches, smeared with clay inside, filled it with smoldering coals, covered it with his blanket and left the hut with it, heading towards the cows in the corral.
- That's all? - Mowgli whispered. – If a cub can do this, there is nothing to be afraid of!
He rounded the corner of the house, met the boy, snatched the cup from his hands and disappeared into the fog. And the boy screamed loudly and cried in horror.
“They are very similar to me,” said Mowgli, fanning the coals, as the woman did before him. “This thing will die if I don’t feed it,” and he added dry branches and bark to the red coals.
Halfway up the mountain slope Mowgli met Bagheera; drops of morning dew sparkled on her black fur like moonstones.
“Akela missed,” said the panther, “they would have killed him that night, but they also need you.” They were looking for you on the mountain.
– I was among the plowed lands. I'm ready. Look!
Mowgli raised his cup.
- Fine. Listen: I saw that people put dry branches into this red thing and then a Red Flower blooms on them. Aren't you scared?
- No, what are you afraid of? Now I remember (if this is not a dream) how, before I became a wolf, I was lying next to the Red Flower and I felt so warm and pleasant.
All that day Mowgli sat in the cave, he looked at the coals, put dry branches into a cup and watched them. The boy especially liked one branch, and when Tabaqui came to the cave in the evening and rather rudely told him that he was wanted at the Council Rock, he laughed and laughed so hard that Tabaqui ran away. Still laughing, Mowgli went to the gathering place of the pack.
Akela lay next to his former stone as a sign that the place of the leader was open, and Shere Khan with his retinue of wolves, who fed on the remains of his food, walked back and forth without hiding. He was flattered and he was not afraid. Bagheera lay down next to Mowgli, who held a cup between his knees. When everyone had gathered, Shere Khan spoke; he would not have dared to do this during the height of Akela's power.
“He has no right to speak,” Bagheera whispered to Mowgli. - Say it. He's a dog's son. He'll be scared!
Mowgli rose to his feet.
“Free People,” his voice sounded loudly. “Does Shere Khan lead a pack?” What does a tiger care about the place of our leader?
“In view of the fact that this place is still free, and also remembering that I was asked to speak...” Shere Khan began.
- Who asked? - said Mowgli. “Are we jackals and should we serve a butcher who kills livestock?” The question of the leader of the pack concerns only the pack.
- Shut up, human puppy!
- Let him talk. He kept our Law!
Finally, the older wolves growled:
– Let the Dead Wolf speak.
When the leader of the pack does not kill the intended prey, the rest of the life (usually very short) of the recent leader is called the Dead Wolf.
With a tired movement, Akela raised his old head.
- Free People and you, Shere Khan's jackals! For twelve years I took you to and from the hunt, and during all this time no one, not a single wolf, was caught in a trap or mutilated. Now I've lost my prey. You know how the plot was carried out. You know that I was brought to a strong sambhur to show everyone my weakness. Clever idea! You have the right to kill me now on the Council Rock. So I ask you, who will come forward to end Lone Wolf? Due to the Law of the Jungle, you must go out one at a time.
There was a long silence; None of the wolves wanted to fight Akela one on one to the death. Finally Shere Khan roared:
- Bah, what do we care about this toothless fool? He will die soon anyway. The human cub has lived too long. Free People, from the first moment its meat was mine. Give it to me! I'm tired of all this madness. For ten years he confused the jungle. Give me a human cub. Otherwise, I will always hunt here without leaving you a single bone. He is a man, a human child, and I hate him to the core of my bones.
And more than half the flock howled:
- Human! Human! Human! What should a person do with us? Let him go where he came from.
– And will turn the entire population of the surrounding villages against us? - Shere Khan thundered. - No, give it to me! He is a man and none of us can look him in the eye.
Akela raised his head again and said:
“He ate our food, slept next to us; he hunted game for us. He didn't break a word of the Law of the Jungle.
“And I paid for him with the life of a bull when he was accepted.” A bull is not an important thing, but Bagheera’s honor is something else, for which she may fight,” said the black panther in the softest voice.
- The bull that was paid in ten years ago? – grumbling voices were heard in the flock. “What do we care about bones that are ten years old?”
– Or to be honest? - said Bagheera, baring his white teeth. “You are rightly called the Free People!”
“A human cub has no right to hunt with the inhabitants of the jungle,” Shere Khan howled. - Give it to me!
“He is our brother in everything except birth,” Akela continued. - And you want to kill him! Indeed, I have lived too long. Some of you eat livestock, while others, taught by Shere Khan, sneak into villages in the dark nights and carry children away from the thresholds of huts. Thanks to this, I know that you are cowards, and it is to cowards that I speak. Of course, I must die, and my life has no price, otherwise I would offer it for the life of a human cub. But in the name of the honor of the pack (you forgot about this small circumstance, since you were without a leader for a long time), I promise you: if you let the human cub go home, I will die without baring a single tooth against you. I will die without a fight. Thanks to this, at least three lives will be preserved in the flock. There's nothing more I can do; however, if you agree, I will save you from the shameful murder of a brother for whom there is no guilt, a brother accepted into the pack by the Law of the Jungle after casting two votes for him and paying for his life.
– He is a man, a man, a man! - the wolves howled, and most of them crowded around Shere Khan, who began to swing his tail.
“Now the matter is in your hands,” Bagheera said to Mowgli. “We can only fight.”
Mowgli was holding a cup of coals; he stretched out his arms and yawned in front of the Council, but he was filled with rage and sadness because, as was their wont, the wolves still had not told him how much they hated him.
“Listen,” he shouted, “why do you bark like a dog?” This night you called me a man so many times (and I would so willingly remain a wolf among wolves for the rest of my life) that now I feel the truth of your words. So, I no longer call you my brothers; For me you are dogs, as for a person. It’s not for you to say what you will do or what you won’t do. I will decide for you, and so that you can see this more clearly, I, a man, have brought here a piece of the Red Flower, which you dogs are afraid of!
He threw the cup on the ground; burning coals set fire to patches of dry moss; the moss burst into flames. The entire Council retreated in horror before the leaping flames.
Mowgli lowered a dry branch into the fire, and its small branches caught fire with a crash. Standing among the trembling wolves, he twirled a flaming branch above his head.
Akela, the stern old wolf, who had never asked for mercy in his life, looked piteously at Mowgli, who, all naked, with long black hair scattered over his shoulders, stood illuminated by a burning branch, and all around the shadows fluttered, trembled and jumped.
“Okay,” said Mowgli, slowly looking around. “I see that you are dogs, and I’m leaving you for my relatives... if they are my relatives.” The jungle is closed to me, and I must forget your speech and your company, but I will be more merciful than you. Only by blood I was not your brother, and therefore I promise you that having become a man among people, I will not betray you, as you betrayed me. “Mowgli kicked the burning moss and sparks flew above him. “There will be no war between us and the pack, but before leaving I must pay one debt.”
Mowgli walked up to Shere Khan, who sat blinking stupidly at the light, and grabbed the tiger by the tuft of fur under his chin. Bagheera sneaked up to his pet just in case.
“Get up, dog,” Mowgli ordered Shere Khan. - Stand up when a person speaks to you, otherwise I will set your fur on fire.
Shere Khan's ears flattened completely to his head, and he closed his eyes because the flaming branch moved towards him.
“This livestock killer said that he would kill me at the Council, since he failed to kill me when I was a small cub. Here you go, here you go! This is how we humans beat our dogs. Move even a whisker, and the Red Flower will fall into your throat.
He hit Shere Khan's head with a branch, and in the agony of fear the tiger squealed and moaned.
- Ew, go away now, branded jungle cat! Just know this: when I come to the Council Rock again, I will have the skin of Shere Khan on my head. Further: Akela can live wherever and however he pleases. You won't kill him because I don't want that. And I think that you won’t be sitting here for long, chattering your tongue, as if you were important people, and not dogs that I’m chasing. Like this!
The end of a large branch was burning brightly. Mowgli hit it right and left; when sparks fell on the fur of the wolves sitting in a ring, they ran away screaming. Finally, Akela, Bagheera and about a dozen wolves remained near the Council Rock, who took Mowgli’s side. And in his chest Mowgli felt such pain that he had never experienced before in his life. He lost his breath; he sobbed and tears streamed down his face.
-What is this, what is this? – he asked. “I don’t want to leave the jungle and I don’t understand what’s wrong with me.” Am I dying, Bagheera?
- No, Little Brother. These are only tears, people have such tears,” said Bagheera. – Yes, now I see that you are an adult, and not a human cub. From now on, the jungle is truly closed to you. Let them flow, Mowgli; These are just tears!
So Mowgli sat and cried, as if his heart had broken. He had never known tears before.
“Now,” the boy finally said, “I will go to the people, but first I will say goodbye to my mother.”
He went to the cave in which he lived with Father Wolf’s family, and cried so much, clinging to the she-wolf’s fur, that four young wolves howled pitifully.
-You won't forget me? - Mowgli asked them.
– Let’s not forget until we have enough strength to follow the tracks. When you become a man, come to the foot of the hill, we will talk to you and at night we will run out into the fields to play with you.
“Come back quickly,” said the Wolf Father, “come back quickly, oh wise frog, because we, your mother and I, are already old.”
“Come quickly,” repeated the Mother Wolf, “my little hairless son, because know, child of people, I loved you more than any of my wolf cubs.”
“Of course I will,” answered Mowgli, “and I will come to place Shere Khan’s skin on the Council Rock.” Don't forget me. Tell the jungle not to forget me there.
The dawn began to light up; Mowgli was descending from a mountain slope; he, silent and lonely, walked towards the mysterious creatures called people.
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Mowgli's brothers
It was seven o'clock on a hot evening in the Sionian Mountains when Father Wolf woke up after a day's rest, scratched himself, yawned and stretched his numb paws one after another, driving away the sleep. Mother Wolf was dozing, placing her large gray muzzle on the four wolf cubs, and they were tossing and turning and squealing, and the moon was shining at the mouth of the cave where the whole family lived.
- Ugh! - said Father Wolf. - It's time to hunt again.
He was about to gallop down the mountain when suddenly a short shadow with a shaggy tail lay down on the threshold and whined:
– I wish you good luck, O Chief of Wolves! Good luck and strong white teeth to your noble children. Let them never forget that there are hungry people in the world!
It was a jackal, the Lizard Tabaqui - and the wolves of India despise Tabaqui because he prowls everywhere, sows discord, spreads gossip and does not disdain rags and scraps of skin, rummaging through the village garbage heaps. And yet they are afraid of Tabaqui, because he suffers from rabies more often than other animals in the jungle and then rushes through the forest and bites everyone who comes his way. Even a tiger runs and hides when little Tabaqui gets mad, because nothing worse than rabies can happen to a wild animal. We call it hydrophobia, and animals call it “divani” - rabies - and flee from it.
“Well, come in and see for yourself,” Father Wolf said dryly. - Only there is no food here.
“For a wolf, no,” said Tabaqui, “but for such a nonentity like me, even a bare bone is a whole feast.” It doesn't suit us jackals to be picky.
He crept into the depths of the cave, found a deer bone with the remains of meat and, very pleased, sat down, gnawing this bone with a crash.
“Thank you for the treat,” he said, licking his lips. – How beautiful noble children are! What big eyes they have! But they are still so small! True, true, I should have remembered that the royal children were already adults from the very first days.
But Tabaqui knew as well as anyone that there is nothing more dangerous than praising children in the eyes, and he watched with pleasure how Mother and Father Wolves were embarrassed.
Tabaqui sat silently, rejoicing in the fact that he was bringing trouble to others, then he said angrily:
- Shere Khan, the Great Tiger, has changed his hunting location. He will be hunting here in the mountains all this month. That's what he said himself.
Shere Khan was a tiger who lived twenty miles from the cave, near the Wainganga River.
“He has no right!” Father Wolf began angrily. – According to the Law of the Jungle, he cannot change the hunting location without warning anyone. He will scare away all the game for ten miles around, and I... now I have to hunt for two.
“It was not for nothing that his mother nicknamed him Langri (Lame),” Mother Wolf said calmly. “He has been lame in one leg since birth.” That's why he only hunts livestock. The inhabitants of the villages along the banks of the Wainganga are angry with him, and now he has come here, and the same thing will begin with us: people will scour the forest for him, they will not be able to catch him, and we and our children will have to run wherever they look when they set fire to the grass. Indeed, we have a lot to thank Shere Khan for!
– Should I convey your gratitude to him? – asked Tabaqui.
- Get out of here! – Father Wolf snapped. - Get out! Go hunting with your master! You've made quite a mess today.
“I’ll leave,” Tabaqui answered calmly. “You yourself will soon hear Shere Khan’s voice below, in the thicket.” I labored in vain to convey this news to you.
Father Wolf pricked his ears: below in the valley that ran down to a small river, he heard the dry, angry, abrupt, mournful roar of a tiger who had caught nothing and was not at all ashamed that the whole jungle knew this.
- Fool! - said Father Wolf. – Start night work with such noise! Does he really think that our deer are like the fat buffaloes of Wainganga?
- Shh! “He’s not hunting for buffalo or deer these days,” said Mother Wolf. - He's hunting for a person.
The roar turned into a dull growl, which seemed to come from all sides at once. It was that roar that frightens woodcutters and gypsies sleeping in the open air, and sometimes makes them run straight into the clutches of a tiger.
- Behind the man! - said Father Wolf, baring his white teeth. “Aren’t there enough beetles and frogs in the ponds that he needed to eat human flesh, and even on our land?”
The Law of the Jungle, whose commands are always based on something, allows animals to hunt humans only when they teach their young to kill. But even then the beast must not kill a person in those places where his pack or tribe hunts. Following the murder of a man, sooner or later white men appear on elephants, with guns, and hundreds of dark people with gongs, rockets and torches. And then it will be bad for all the inhabitants of the jungle. And the animals say that man is the weakest and most defenseless of all living creatures and it is unworthy of a hunter to touch him. They also say - and this is true - that cannibals become lousy over time and their teeth fall out.
The grumbling became more audible and ended with a thunderous “Ah-ah!” » tiger ready to jump.
Then a howl was heard, not like a tiger's - the howl of Shere Khan.
“He missed,” said Mother Wolf. - Why?
Father Wolf ran a few steps away from the cave and heard the irritated growl of Shere Khan, tossing and turning in the bushes.
- This fool burned his paws. You're smart enough to jump into a woodcutter's fire! – Father Wolf said with a snort. - And Tabaki is with him.
“Someone is climbing the mountain,” said Mother Wolf, moving one ear. - Get ready.
The bushes in the thicket rustled slightly, and Father Wolf sat down on his hind legs, preparing to jump. And then, if you watched him, you would see the most amazing thing in the world - how the wolf stopped in the middle of a jump. He rushed forward, not yet seeing what he was rushing at, and then stopped abruptly. It turned out that he jumped up four or five feet and sat down in the same place where he left the ground.
- Human! – he snapped. - Human cub! Look!
Directly in front of him, holding onto a low-growing branch, stood a naked, dark-skinned child who had barely learned to walk - a soft, dimpled, tiny living lump. Such a tiny child had never looked into a wolf's lair at night. He looked into Father Wolf's eyes and laughed.
– Is this a human cub? – asked Mother Wolf. - I've never seen them. Bring it here.
A wolf, accustomed to carrying his wolf cubs, can, if necessary, take an egg in his teeth without crushing it, and although Father Wolf's teeth squeezed the child's back, there was not even a scratch left on the skin after he placed it between the wolf cubs.
- How small! Completely naked, and how brave! – Mother Wolf said affectionately. (The child pushed his way among the wolf cubs closer to the warm side.) - Oh! He sucks with others! So this is what he is, a human cub! Well, when could a she-wolf boast that among her cubs there was a human cub!
“I heard that this happened before, but not in our Pack and not in my time,” said Father Wolf. “He's completely hairless, and I could kill him with one slap.” Look, he looks and is not afraid.
The moonlight faded at the mouth of the cave: Shere Khan's large square head and shoulders blocked the entrance. Tabaqui squealed behind him:
- Mister, master, he came here!
“Shere Khan does us great honor,” said Father Wolf, but his eyes flashed angrily. -What does Shere Khan need?
- My prey! The man-cub has entered here,” said Shere Khan. – His parents ran away. Give it to me.
Shere Khan jumped into the woodcutter's fire, as Father Wolf said, burned his paws and was now furious. However, Father Wolf knew very well that the entrance to the cave was too narrow for the tiger. Even where Shere Khan stood now, he could not move either his shoulder or his paw. It would have been cramped for him, like a man who would have decided to fight in a barrel.
“Wolves are a free people,” said Father Wolf. “They obey only the Leader of the Pack, and not any striped ogre.” The human cub is ours. If we want, we can kill him ourselves.
- “We want, we want”! What do I care? I swear by the buffalo I killed, how long will I have to stand with my nose buried in your dog’s den and wait for what is rightfully due to me? This is what I say, Shere Khan!
The roar of the tiger filled the cave with thunderclaps. Mother Wolf, shaking off her cubs, jumped forward, and her eyes, like two green moons in the darkness, met the burning eyes of Shere Khan.
- And I answer, Raksha (Demon): the human cub is mine, Langri, and will remain with me! Nobody will kill him. He will live and hunt with the Pack and run with the Pack! Beware, hunter of naked cubs, fish eater, killer of frogs - the time will come, he will hunt you! Now get out or, I swear by the deer I killed (I don’t eat carrion), you will go to the other world lame on all fours, you scorched monster of the jungle! Get out of here!
Father Wolf looked at her in amazement. He managed to forget the time when he won back Mother Wolf in open battle with five wolves, the time when she ran with the Pack and not without reason bore the nickname Demon. Shere Khan would not have been afraid of the Father Wolf, but he did not dare to fight the Mother Wolf: he knew that the advantage was on her side and that she would fight to the death. Grumbling, he backed away and, feeling free, roared:
- Every dog barks in his yard! Let's see what the Flock says about the adopted child from the human tribe! The cub is mine, and sooner or later I will eat it, oh you long-tailed thieves!
Mother Wolf, breathing heavily, threw herself on the ground near her cubs, and Father Wolf said to her sternly:
“This time Shere Khan is telling the truth: the cub must be shown to the Pack.” Do you still want to keep it, Mother?
- Keep it for yourself? – the She-Wolf said, moving her sides heavily. “He came to us completely naked, at night, alone, and yet he was not afraid!” Look, he's already pushed one of my wolf cubs away! This lame butcher would have killed him and fled to Wainganga, and the people would have destroyed our lair in revenge. Leave him? Yes, I'll leave him. Lie still, little frog! O Mowgli - for I will call you Mowgli the Frog - the time will come when you will hunt Shere Khan as he hunted you.
– But what will our Flock say? – asked Father Wolf.
The Law of the Jungle says very clearly that every wolf, having acquired a family, can leave his Pack. But as soon as his wolf cubs grow up and get on their feet, he must bring them to the Pack Council, which usually meets once a month, during the full moon, and show them to all the other wolves. After this, the cubs can run wherever they please, and until they have killed their first deer, there is no excuse for any adult wolf to kill a wolf cub. The penalty for this is death if the killer is caught. Think for a minute, and you yourself will understand that this is how it should be.
Father Wolf waited until his wolf cubs grew up and began to run a little, and on one of those nights when the Pack gathered, he led all the wolf cubs, Mowgli and Mother Wolf to the Council Rock. It was the top of a hill, strewn with large boulders, behind which a hundred wolves could hide. Akela, a large gray lone wolf, chosen as the leader of the entire Pack for his strength and agility, lay on a rock, stretched out to his full height. Under the rock sat more than forty wolves of all ages and stripes - from gray-haired veterans like badgers who dealt with a buffalo alone, to young black three-year-olds who imagined that they could do it too. The lone wolf had been their leader for about a year. In his youth, he fell into a wolf trap twice, once people beat him and abandoned him, deciding that he was dead, so the morals and customs of people were familiar to him. Almost no one spoke at Council Rock. The wolf cubs tumbled in the middle of the platform, their fathers and mothers sat around them. From time to time, one of the adult wolves rose slowly, approached some wolf cub, looked at him intently and returned to his place, walking silently. Sometimes the mother pushed her wolf cub into the moonlight, afraid that he would not be noticed. Akela cried from his rock:
- You know the law, you know the law! Look, O wolves!
And caring mothers picked up:
- Look, look carefully, oh wolves!
Finally - and Mother Wolf bristled all over when it was their turn - Father Wolf pushed Mowgli the Frog into the middle of the circle. Sitting down on the ground, Mowgli laughed and began to play with the pebbles that glittered in the moonlight.
Akela never raised his head, which lay on his front paws, but only repeated from time to time:
- Look, oh wolves!
- My cub! Give it to me! Why do the Free People need a human cub?
But Akela didn’t even bat an eye. He only said:
- Look, oh wolves! Why should the Free People listen to strangers? Take a good look!
The wolves roared dully in unison, and one of the young four-year-olds, in response to Akele, repeated Shere Khan’s question:
– Why do the Free People need a human cub?
And the Law of the Jungle says that if a dispute arises about whether a cub can be accepted into the Pack, at least two wolves from the Pack must speak in its favor, but not the father and not the mother.
- Who is behind this cub? – Akela asked. “Who of the Free People wants to speak?”
There was no answer, and Mother Wolf prepared herself for what she knew would be her last fight if push came to shove.
Then the only animal of a different breed that is allowed to attend the Council of the Pack rose on its hind legs and grumbled - Baloo, the lazy brown bear who teaches wolf cubs the Law of the Jungle, old Baloo, who can wander wherever he pleases, because he eats only nuts, honey and roots.
- A human cub? Well,” he said, “I’m for the cub.” He won't harm anyone. I'm not a good talker, but I tell the truth. Let him run with the Pack. Let's adopt the cub along with others. I will teach him myself.
“We need someone else,” Akela said. “Balu said his word, but he is the teacher of our wolf cubs.” Who else will speak besides Balu?
A black shadow lay in the middle of the circle. It was Bagheera, a black panther, completely black, like ink, but with markings that, like all panthers, are visible in the light like a light moire pattern.
Everyone in the jungle knew Bagheera, and no one would want to stand in her way, for she was cunning like Tabaqui, brave like a wild buffalo, and fearless like a wounded elephant. But her voice was sweet, like wild honey dripping from a tree, and her skin was softer than fluff.
“O Akela, and you, Free People,” she purred, “I have no rights in your assembly, but the Law of the Jungle says that if there is a dispute over a new cub, that cub’s life can be ransomed.” And the Law does not say to whom this ransom can and cannot be paid. Is this true?
- So! So! - cried the young wolves, who are always hungry. - Listen to Bagheera! You can take a ransom for the cub. This is the Law.
“I know that I have no right to speak here, and I ask your permission.”
“It’s a shame to kill a hairless baby.” Plus, he'll be a great treat for you as he grows up. Baloo put in a good word for him. And to the word Baloo I will add a buffalo, a fat, freshly killed buffalo, just half a mile from here, if you accept a human cub into the Pack, as required by the Law. Is it really that hard?
- What's the problem? He will die during the winter rains. The sun will burn him. What can a naked frog do to us? Let him run with the Pack. Where's the buffalo, Bagheera? Let's adopt the cub!
Mowgli was still playing with pebbles and did not see how the wolves came up one after another and examined him. Finally they all left the hill behind the dead buffalo, and only Akela, Bagheera, Baloo and Mowgli the Frog's family remained. Shere Khan was still roaring in the darkness - he was very angry that Mowgli had not been given to him.
- Yes, yes, roar louder! - Bagheera said into his mustache. “The time will come when this little baby will make you cry in a different way, or I don’t know anything about people.”
- We did well! - said Akela. – People and their cubs are very smart. Someday he will become our assistant.
“Yes, an assistant in difficult times, for no one can be the leader of the Pack forever,” said Bagheera.
Akela did not answer. He thought about that time that comes for every leader of the Pack, when the strength leaves him little by little. The wolves kill him when he is completely weakened, and a new leader takes his place, only to be killed over time.
“Take the cub,” he said to Father Wolf, “and raise him as the sons of the Free People should be raised.”
So Mowgli the Frog was accepted into the Sionian Flock - for the buffalo and the kind word of Baloo.
Now you will have to skip ten or eleven whole years and can only guess what an amazing life Mowgli led among the wolves, because if it were written in detail, many, many books would be published. He grew up with the cubs, although they, of course, became full-grown wolves long before he was out of his infancy, and Father Wolf taught him his trade and explained everything that happened in the jungle. And therefore, every rustle in the grass, every blow of the warm night breeze, every cry of an owl overhead, every movement of a bat, catching its claws on a tree branch in flight, every splash of a small fish in the pond meant a lot to Mowgli. When he was not learning anything, he dozed, sitting in the sun, ate and fell asleep again. When he was hot and wanted to cool off, he swam in forest lakes; and when he wanted honey (from Baloo he learned that honey and nuts are as tasty as raw meat), he climbed a tree for it - Bagheera showed him how to do it. Bagheera stretched out on the branch and called:
- Come here, Little Brother!
At first Mowgli clung to the branches like a sloth animal, and then he learned to jump from branch to branch almost as boldly as a gray monkey. On the Council Rock, when the Flock gathered, he also had his place. There he noticed that not a single wolf could withstand his gaze and lowered his eyes in front of him, and then, for fun, he began to stare at the wolves. It happened that he pulled splinters out of the paws of his friends - wolves suffer greatly from thorns and burrs that dig into their skin. At night he went down from the hills to the cultivated fields and watched the people in the huts with curiosity, but did not feel trust in them. Bagheera showed him a square box with a drain door, so skillfully hidden in the thicket that Mowgli himself almost fell into it, and said that it was a trap. Most of all, he loved to go with Bagheera into the dark, hot depths of the forest, fall asleep there all day, and at night watch Bagheera hunt. She killed left and right when she was hungry. Mowgli did the same. But when the boy grew up and began to understand everything, Bagheera told him not to dare touch the livestock, because they paid a ransom to the Pack for him by killing a buffalo.
“The whole jungle is yours,” said Bagheera. “You can hunt any game you can, but for the sake of the buffalo who bought you, you must not touch any animal, neither young nor old.” This is the Law of the Jungle.
And Mowgli obeyed unquestioningly.
He grew and grew - strong, as a boy should grow, who learns everything he needs to know in passing, without even thinking that he is learning, and cares only about getting food for himself.
Mother Wolf told him one day that Shere Khan could not be trusted and that someday he would have to kill Shere Khan. The wolf cub would not have forgotten this advice for a minute, but Mowgli forgot, because he was just a boy, although he would have called himself a wolf if he could speak human language.
In the Jungle, Shere Khan constantly stood in his way, because Akela was becoming decrepit and weaker, and during this time the lame tiger managed to make friends with the young wolves of the Sioni Pack. They followed on his heels, waiting for scraps, which Akela would not have allowed if he had used his power in the old way. And Shere Khan flattered the wolf cubs: he wondered how such brave young hunters allowed themselves to be commanded by a dying wolf and a human cub. “I heard,” Shere Khan used to say, “that at the Council you do not dare look him in the eye.” And the young wolves growled angrily and bristled.
Bagheera, who saw and heard everything, knew something about this, and several times she directly told Mowgli that Shere Khan would kill him someday. But Mowgli only laughed and answered:
– I have a Flock, and I have you. And Baloo, lazy as he is, can grab someone with his paw for my sake. What should I be afraid of?
It was a very hot day when a new thought occurred to Bagheera - she must have heard something. Maybe the Porcupine Sakhi told her about this, but one day, when she and Mowgli climbed deep into the thicket of the forest and the boy lay down, resting his head on the beautiful black back of the panther, she told him:
“Little Brother, how many times have I told you that Shere Khan is your enemy?”
“As many times as there are nuts on this palm tree,” answered Mowgli, who, of course, could not count. - Well, so what of this? I want to sleep, Bagheera, and Shere Khan is just a long tail and a loud voice, like Mora’s peacock.
- Now is not the time to sleep!.. Baloo knows this, I know, the whole Flock knows, even the stupid, stupid deer knows. And Tabaqui told you this too.
- Ho-ho! - said Mowgli. “Tabaki came to me recently with some insolence, saying that I was a hairless puppy, I didn’t even know how to dig up groundnuts, but I caught him by the tail and hit him twice on a palm tree so that he would behave more politely.
- You did something stupid: Tabaky, although he is a troublemaker, knows a lot of things that directly concern you. Open your eyes, Little Brother. Shere Khan dare not kill you in the jungle, but do not forget that Akela is very old. The day will soon come when he will not be able to kill the buffalo, and then he will no longer be the leader. Those wolves who saw you on the Council Rock also grew old, and the lame tiger inspired the young ones that a human cub had no place in the Wolf Pack. It won't be long before you become human.
-What is a person? Shouldn't he run around with his brothers? - asked Mowgli. “I was born in the jungle, I obeyed the Law of the Jungle, and there is not a single wolf in the Pack from whom I would not pull out a splinter.” They are all my brothers!
Bagheera stretched out to his full height and closed his eyes.
“Little Brother,” she said, “feel under my jaw.”
Mowgli extended his strong dark hand and felt a small bald spot on Bagheera’s silky neck, where huge muscles rolled under the shiny fur.
Once upon a time, in the jungle there lived a tiger named Shere Khan. Everyone was afraid of him - he was cruel and did not spare anyone.
On the day this story began, the smell of prey brought him to the river bank. Making his way through the thickets, he saw a crying child. “A human cub!” exclaimed Shere Khan. “What luck! True, I have never eaten anything like this, but it looks so appetizing that it must be delicious. Now I’ll have a great meal.”
But just as he was about to pounce on the child, three angry wolves blocked his way. “One more step, Shere Khan, and you will die,” they said. “This is our territory. Get out!” The tiger could not cope with three wolves and retreated, vowing revenge. Meanwhile, the wolves were looking at the child. "Poor thing! He'll die alone in the jungle!" - said the mother wolf. Turning to the other wolves, she added: “I would gladly take him into my family.”
Adopting a human child is not easy - such decisions are not made overnight. Each wolf had to express his opinion at the Great Council of the Wolf Pack. At night, when the full moon was over the jungle, the whole Flock gathered at Council Rock. In addition to the wolves, there were the panther Bagheera and the brown bear Baloo. He was the first to speak: “I agree for the human cub to stay with us. He will not harm anyone.”
“Be careful!” said Bagheera. “What if he later betrays us? When he grows up, he can return to the people and bring them here to hunt us.” “We need him to love us,” answered the mother wolf. “I take it upon myself.” “And I,” said Baloo, “I will teach him the Law of the Jungle.” “In that case,” said Bagheera, “ I am in favor. So, the Great Council decided to accept the human cub into the Pack. The mother wolf gave him the name Mowgli.
Several years have passed. The mother wolf could be proud of her adopted child. Mowgli grew up with the wolf cubs - he became smart and strong and loved the wolves like his brothers. But he was terribly curious and walked through the jungle, not knowing the danger that lurks at every step. “Be careful!” Bagheera told him. “If you run into Shere Khan, you will be in trouble.” “But I have you, Bagheera,” answered Mowgli. “What should I be afraid of?”
“Monkeys are not your friends,” Baloo told him. “Don’t hang out with them. They are lazy, ill-mannered and never keep their promises.” “Perhaps,” Mowgli agreed, “but they are so funny.” As soon as he said this, a monkey appeared among the branches. She picked a coconut and threw it straight at Baloo's head - "bang!" In a moment there was no trace of her, and Mowgli could not help but laugh.
The next day the monkeys appeared again. Now there was a whole flock of them. They came to Mowgli. “Come with us,” they told him, “you will like it with us. Do you want to visit our palace?” Mowgli thought - doubts overwhelmed him: “What if Baloo is right, and this is a trap?” But curiosity turned out to be stronger - after all, visiting the ruins of an ancient Indian city where monkeys lived was his long-standing dream. And, forgetting Balu’s instructions, he set off.
Noticing Mowgli's disappearance, Baloo immediately guessed that the monkeys had managed to lure the boy into their lair. The bear rushed to look for Bagheera. “Two of us,” said the panther, “we can’t cope with them. There are too many monkeys. I see only one way out - to ask Kaa for help.” Kaa was a huge snake - a boa constrictor. He was terribly gluttonous and climbed trees as well as monkeys, so they were mortally afraid of him. Kaa, without hesitation, agreed to help Bagheera and Baloo.
They found Mowgli in a deep snake pit at the entrance to an ancient Indian city. “The monkeys deceived me,” Mowgli complained. “I’m hungry and covered in bruises. They wanted to make me their slave and threw me here.” Cobras writhed at his feet. “I’m already tired of fighting off these poisonous people,” he added, throwing away another cobra. “I’ll deal with them,” said Bagheera. “But we must hurry before the monkeys gather their strength.”
“That’s my concern,” said Kaa. And then a terrible fight began. Mowgli's friends turned out to be stronger. Only flight could save the monkeys. But they had only two options for this: either jump into the water, where Bagheera was waiting for them, baring his terrible fangs, or try to slip past Kaa, who opened his terrible mouth. Few of the monkeys managed to escape the jaws of a huge boa constrictor.
This is how Mowgli was saved. The unrest is behind us. “Well,” said Bagheera, “I hope this time the lesson will benefit you. Just think how much trouble you have caused the three of us!” Ashamed, Mowgli lowered his eyes. But Kaa, who knew nothing about moralizing, objected: “And, in my opinion, everything was just right. We had a lot of fun - I’m pleased. And my stomach is even more so.” “Thank you, dear Kaa,” said Mowgli. “I will never forget this.”
Unpleasant news awaited Mowgli in the Wolf Pack. Old Shere Khan appeared again in these places. But what was even worse was that he managed to sow discord among the wolves. The old wolves were on Mowgli's side, but the young ones believed that he should leave the jungle and return to the people. They did not know that Shere Khan dreamed of tearing Mowgli to pieces at the first opportunity.
But Bagheera knew this. And she told Mowgli what to do: “Go to the people and don’t come back until you get the Red Flower!” In the language of animals, the Red Flower is called fire - only this formidable weapon could scare away Shere Khan. As night fell, Mowgli headed towards the village. There, unnoticed by anyone, he mined a whole pot of burning coals and brought them into the jungle.
Mowgli summoned Shere Khan to the Great Council of the Pack. Raising the burning torch high, he shouted to him: “Shere Khan, I am not afraid of you! Get away and remember: next time I will come to the Great Council with your skin!” The tiger took flight. But this did not reconcile the wolves; on the contrary, it became another reason for discord between the old and the young. And then Mowgli decided to go to the people.
At first, life in the village amused Mowgli. Never before had he heard so many ridiculous stories about the jungle and the animals that lived there. At first, he tried to dispel people’s misconceptions, talking about the secrets of the forest, how he was raised by wolves. But no one believed him, and, in despair, he fell silent. More and more often he dreamed of returning to the jungle. Separation from his friends and his wolf mother was difficult for him.
People entrusted him with tending a herd of buffaloes. Mowgli took advantage of this and drove the animals to the very edge of the pasture, where the jungle began. There he once met two young wolves. “You were right,” they told him. “We made a mistake by betraying you and trusting Shere Khan. The old tiger turned out to be treacherous. He killed two wolves. If you had been with us, you would have taken revenge on him.”
So Mowgli realized that he could return to the jungle, to the life he loved. “Call Shere Khan here,” he suggested to the wolves. “Tell him that I am alone, and that he can easily devour me. And I will take care of our meeting.” The wolves fulfilled his request exactly. Not even a day had passed when a tiger appeared at the edge of the forest. Deciding that Mowgli was truly defenseless, the tiger prepared to jump, but the boy launched a herd of buffaloes straight at him.
Confused, Shere Khan ran away, and Mowgli, with loud cries, drove his buffalos after him. The tiger was agile and fast, but he was hampered by obstacles - large boulders, fallen trees... But nothing stopped the buffaloes - they rushed ahead. Shere Khan was doomed. The herd overtook him and trampled him. Shere Khan was dead and the kites were already flocking to him. There was nothing left of him except his skin and eyes bulging in death horror.
Mowgli returned to his Flock as a real hero. Bagheera, Baloo and the wolf brothers were proud of him, and this filled his heart with happiness. On the day of his great victory, he vowed never to leave the jungle again.
Translation by Alina Kuberskaya, artist V. Gul
All the best! See you again!
MOWGL'S BROTHERS
It was seven o'clock on a sultry evening in the Sionian mountains when
Father Wolf woke up after a day's rest, scratched himself, yawned and
He spread his numb paws one after another, driving away sleep. Mother
The she-wolf was dozing, resting her large gray muzzle on four
the wolf cubs, and they tossed and turned and squealed, and the moon shone at the mouth
caves where the whole family lived.
- Ugh! - said Father Wolf. - It's time to hunt again.
He was about to gallop down the mountain when suddenly
a short shadow with a shaggy tail lay on the threshold and whimpered:
- I wish you good luck, O Chief of Wolves! Good luck and strong
white teeth to your noble children. May they never
They forget that there are hungry people in the world!
It was a jackal, the Sycophant Tabaki, - and the wolves of India despise
Tobacco because he prowls everywhere, sows discord, spreads
gossip and does not disdain rags and scraps of leather, rummaging through
village garbage heaps. And yet they are afraid of Tabaka,
because he suffers from rabies more often than other animals in the jungle and
then he rushes through the forest and bites everyone he comes across
towards. Even a tiger runs and hides when a little one gets mad
Tobacco, because nothing worse than rabies can happen to a wild
beast. We call it hydrophobia, but animals call it
"divani" - rabies - and flee from it.
“Well, come in and see for yourself,” Father Wolf said dryly.
- Only there is no food here.
“For a wolf, no,” said Tabaqui, but for such a
insignificances like me and a bare bone - a whole feast. To us jackals
It’s not becoming to be picky.
He crept into the depths of the cave, found a deer bone with
leftover meat and, very satisfied, sat down, gnawing
this bone.
“Thank you for the treat,” he said, licking his lips. --
How beautiful noble children are! What big eyes they have! But
they are still so small! True, true, I should have remembered that
The royal children were already adults from the very first days.
But Tabaqui knew as well as anyone that there was nothing
more dangerous than praising children in the eyes, and I watched with pleasure,
How embarrassed Mother and Father Wolves were.
Tabaqui sat silently, rejoicing in the fact that he had provoked others
trouble, then said angrily:
- Shere Khan, the Great Tiger, has changed his hunting location. He will
hunting all this month here in the mountains. That's what he said himself.
Shere Khan was a tiger who lived twenty miles from the cave,
by the Wainganga River.
- He has no right! - Father Wolf began angrily. -- By
According to the law of the Jungle, he cannot change the place of hunting, no one
warning He will scare away all the game for ten miles around, and
I... I now have to hunt for two.
“It was not for nothing that his mother nicknamed him Langri (Lame),” calmly
said Mother Wolf. - He's been limping on one leg since birth.
leg.