Mowgli. I was born in the jungle. I have obeyed the Law of the Jungle,
and there is no wolf of ours from whose paws I have not pulled a thorn.
Surely they are my brothers!
Bagheera stretched himself at full length and half shut his eyes.
Little Brother, said he, feel under my jaw.
Mowgli put up his strong brown hand, and just under Bagheera s silky
chin, where the giant rolling muscles were all hid by the glossy hair,
he came upon a little bald spot.
There is no one in the jungle that knows that I, Bagheera, carry that
mark--the mark of the collar; and yet, Little Brother, I was born among
men, and it was among men that my mother died--in the cages of the
king s palace at Oodeypore. It was because of this that I paid the price
for thee at the Council when thou wast a little naked cub. Yes, I too
was born among men. I had never seen the jungle. They fed me behind
bars from an iron pan till one night I felt that I was Bagheera--the
Panther--and no man s plaything, and I broke the silly lock with one
blow of my paw and came away. And because I had learned the ways of men,
I became more terrible in the jungle than Shere Khan. Is it not so?
Yes, said Mowgli, all the jungle fear Bagheera--all except Mowgli.
Oh, thou art a man s cub, said the Black Panther very tenderly. And
even as I returned to my jungle, so thou must go back to men at last--to
the men who are thy brothers--if thou art not killed in the Council.
But why--but why should any wish to kill me? said Mowgli.
Look at me, said Bagheera. And Mowgli looked at him steadily between
the eyes. The big panther turned his head away in half a minute.
That is why, he said, shifting his paw on the leaves. Not even I can
look thee between the eyes, and I was born among men, and I love thee,
Little Brother. The others they hate thee because their eyes cannot meet
thine; because thou art wise; because thou hast pulled out thorns from
their feet--because thou art a man.
I did not know these things, said Mowgli sullenly, and he frowned
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