Mowgli (ENG). Kipling Rudyard

Чтение книги онлайн.

СКАЧАТЬ ran howling with the sparks burning their fur. At last there were only Akela, Bagheera, and perhaps ten wolves that had taken Mowgli’s part. Then something began to hurt Mowgli inside him, as he had never been hurt in his life before, and he caught his breath and sobbed, and the tears ran down his face.

      “What is it? What is it?” he said. “I do not wish to leave the jungle, and I do not know what this is. Am I dying, Bagheera?”

      “No, Little Brother. That is only tears such as men use," said Bagheera. “Now I know thou art a man, and a man’s cub no longer. The jungle is shut indeed to thee henceforward. Let them fall, Mowgli. They are only tears.” So Mowgli sat and cried as though his heart would break; and he had never cried in all his life before.

      “Now,” he said, “I will go to men. But first I must say farewell to my mother.” And he went to the cave where she lived with Father Wolf, and he cried on her coat, while the four cubs howled miserably.

      “Ye will not forget me?” said Mowgli.

      “Never while we can follow a trail,” said the cubs. “Come to the foot of the hill when thou art a man, and we will talk to thee; and we will come into the croplands to play with thee by night.”

      “Come soon!” said Father Wolf. “Oh, wise little frog, come again soon; for we be old, thy mother and I.”

      “Come soon,” said Mother Wolf, “little naked son of mine. For, listen, child of man, I loved thee more than ever I loved my cubs.”

      “I will surely come,” said Mowgli. “And when I come it will be to lay out Shere Khan’s hide upon the Council Rock. Do not forget me! Tell them in the jungle never to forget me!”

      The dawn was beginning to break when Mowgli went down the hillside alone, to meet those mysterious things that are called men.

      

      

      Hunting-Song of the Seeonee Pack

      As the dawn was breaking the Sambhur belled

            Once, twice and again!

      And a doe leaped up, and a doe leaped up

      From the pond in the wood where the wild deer sup.

      This I, scouting alone, beheld,

            Once, twice and again!

      As the dawn was breaking the Sambhur belled

            Once, twice and again!

      And a wolf stole back, and a wolf stole back

      To carry the word to the waiting pack,

      And we sought and we found and we bayed on his track

            Once, twice and again!

      As the dawn was breaking the Wolf Pack yelled

            Once, twice and again!

      Feet in the jungle that leave no mark!

      Eyes that can see in the dark–the dark!

      Tongue–give tongue to it! Hark! O hark!

            Once, twice and again!

      Kaa's Hunting

      

      His spots are the joy of the Leopard:

            his horns are the Buffalo’s pride.

      Be clean, for the strength of the hunter

           is known by the gloss of his hide.

      If ye find that the Bullock can toss you,

           or the heavy-browed Sambhur can gore;

      Ye need not stop work to inform us:

           we knew it ten seasons before.

      Oppress not the cubs of the stranger,

           but hail them as Sister and Brother,

      For though they are little and fubsy,

           it may be the Bear is their mother.

      “There is none like to me!” says the Cub

           in the pride of his earliest kill;

      But the jungle is large and the Cub he is small.

           Let him think and be still.

                                       Maxims of Baloo

      All that is told here happened some time before Mowgli was turned out of the Seeonee Wolf Pack, or revenged himself on Shere Khan the tiger. It was in the days when Baloo was teaching him the Law of the Jungle. The big, serious, old brown bear was delighted to have so quick a pupil, for the young wolves will only learn as much of the Law of the Jungle as applies to their own pack and tribe, and run away as soon as they can repeat the Hunting Verse –"Feet that make no noise; eyes that can see in the dark; ears that can hear the winds in their lairs, and sharp white teeth, all these things are the marks of our brothers except Tabaqui the Jackal and the Hyaena whom we hate.” But Mowgli, as a man-cub, had to learn a great deal more than this. Sometimes Bagheera the Black Panther would come lounging through the jungle to see how his pet was getting on, and would purr with his head against a tree while Mowgli recited the day’s lesson to Baloo. The boy could climb almost as well as he could swim, and swim almost as well as he could run. So Baloo, the Teacher of the Law, taught him the Wood and Water Laws: how to tell a rotten branch from a sound one; how to speak politely to the wild bees when he came upon a hive of them fifty feet above ground; what to say to Mang the Bat when he disturbed him in the branches at midday; and how to warn the water-snakes in the pools before he splashed down among them. None of the Jungle People like being disturbed, and all are very ready to fly at an intruder. Then, too, Mowgli was taught the Strangers’ Hunting Call, which must be repeated aloud till it is answered, whenever one of the Jungle-People hunts outside his own grounds. It means, translated, “Give me leave to hunt here because I am hungry.” And the answer is, “Hunt then for food, but not for pleasure.”

      

      All this will show you how much Mowgli had to learn by heart, and he grew very tired of saying the same thing over a hundred times. But, as Baloo said to Bagheera, one day when Mowgli had been cuffed and run off in a temper, “A man’s cub is a man’s cub, and he must learn all the Law of the Jungle.”

      “But think how small he is,” said the Black Panther, who would have spoiled Mowgli if he had had his own way. “How can his little head carry all thy long talk?”

      “Is there anything in the jungle too little to be killed? No. That is why I teach him these things, and that is why I hit him, very softly, when he forgets.”

      “Softly! What dost thou know of softness, old Iron-feet?" Bagheera grunted. “His face СКАЧАТЬ