Chapter-4
Now, we must go back to the time when Mowgli had left the Council. He left his cave after the fight with the Pack at the Council Rock and went down where the villagers lived. He knew that he had to get far away from the jungle as he had made plenty of enemies at the Council. So, he kept running as fast as he could to get as far from the village as he could. He had crossed almost twenty miles till he came to a country that he did not know. At one end, there stood a little village, and at the other the thick jungle. Mowgli walked on, for he was feeling hungry. When he came to the village gate, he saw the big thorn-bush that was drawn up before the gate at twilight. He pushed it to one side.
A boy saw Mowgli coming by and shouted, “Mowgli!” and everyone started running away.
‘So, men are afraid of the people of the jungle here as well,’ Mowgli said to himself.
He sat down by the gate. When a man came out he stood up, opened his mouth and pointed down it to show that he wanted food. The man stared, and ran back up the street of the village shouting for priest, a big, fat man dressed in white, with mark on his forehead. The priest came to the gate, and with him at least a hundred people, who stared, talked, shouted and pointed at Mowgli.
“There is nothing to be afraid of him,” said the priest. “He is injured. They are the bites of wolves. He is but a wolf-child run away from the jungle.”
Of course, in playing together, the cubs had often nipped Mowgli harder than they intended, and there were white scars all over his arms and legs. But he would have been the last person in the world to call these bites, for he knew what real biting meant.
Two or three women came forward seeing the injured boy. They were sad to look the young injured boy.
“Let me look,” said a woman with heavy copper rings on her wrists and ankles. She peered at Mowgli under the palm of her hand. “Indeed, he is not. He is thinner, but he has the very look of my boy who was taken by the tiger.” The woman was Messua—wife to the richest villager in the place.
The priest then said, “Take the boy into your house, my sister.”
The crowd parted as the woman took Mowgli to her house. She gave him milk and some bread, and then she laid her hand on his head and looked into his eyes. She thought that he might be her real son who came back from the jungle where the tiger had taken him. The lady kept calling Mowgli by name of Nathu and he kept pretending that he had never heard this name.
Mowgli was uneasy, because he had never been under a roof before. But as he looked at the thatch, he saw that he could tear it out any time if he wanted to get away, and that the window had no fastenings.
Mowgli decided that if he needed to live there he had to learn their language as fast as he could. When the lady used to say something he would try to imitate it almost perfectly. Before dark he had learnt the names of many things in the house.
Mowgli was not in a habit of sleeping under a roof that looked to him as a panther’s trap. When they shut the door, he went through the window.
Messua’s husband asked her to let Mowgli do things by his own will. “Remember, he has never till now slept on a bed. If he is indeed sent in the place of our son, he will not run away.”
Mowgli stretched himself in some long, clean grass at the edge of the field and fell asleep.
For three months after that night, Mowgli hardly ever left the village gate. He started learning the ways and customs of men. First, he learnt to wear clothes around him which he always found very difficult. Then, he had to learn about money, which he did not in the least understand, and about ploughing which he felt was of no use. The kids used to make fun of him as he would not play their games properly and sometimes mispronounce the words.
Soon, the priest suggested Messua’s husband that Mowgli should be employed some work and he was then appointed as the servant of the village.
Buldeo was the village hunter, who had a tower musket. He smoked too much. The old men used to sit around the tree and talk, and smoke big hookahs till far into the night. They told wonderful tales of gods and men and ghosts. Buldeo used to tell wonderful tales of beasts in the jungle, till the eyes of the children sitting outside the circle bulged out of their heads. Most of the tales were about animals.
Mowgli’s job was to take the cattle and the buffaloes for grazing and take good care of them so that no one might get lost or be attacked by Shere Khan.
Mowgli went through the village street at dawn, sitting on the back of Rama, the great herd bull. The slaty-blue buffaloes, with their long, backward-sweeping horns followed him, and Mowgli made it very clear to the children with him that he was the master. He used to beat the buffaloes with a long bamboo. Usually, he used to take the buffaloes to the edge of the plain.
The eldest of the cub of the mother wolf used to come and meet him. They talked for several hours. Mowgli then came to know that Shere Khan had left the jungle for this season and would return when new fur grew back on him.
It happened day after day that Mowgli would lead the buffaloes to the same place and the grey eldest brother would come to meet him up and Mowgli always had the same question about the return of Shere Khan.
One day, he did not see grey brother at the usual meeting’s place. Mowgli got worried started taking the buffaloes back. But then, he saw the grey brother hiding behind a tree.
“He was hiding past one month and crossed the ranges last night with Tabaqui. I guess he has returned back to the jungle,” said the wolf.
Mowgli frowned, “I am not afraid of Shere Khan, but Tabaqui is very cunning.”
“Don’t be afraid,” said the grey brother, “I met Tabaqui at dawn. Before I broke his back he told me about Shere Khan’s intentions. Shere Khan’s plan is to wait for you at the village gate this evening when you come out with the buffaloes and nobody else is with you. At present, he is lying up in the big dry ravine of the Waingunga.”
Mowgli thought for a while and said, “The big ravine of the Waingunga! That opens out on the plain not half a mile from here. I can take the herd round through the jungle to the head of the ravine and then sweep down. We must block that end. Grey brother, can you do it alone?”
But to Mowgli’s surprise, his brother had brought someone along with him for help. It was Akela. Mowgli was delighted to see the old Akela.
So the two wolves had to cut the herd in two.
“Akela, keep the cows and calves together, and I will keep the bulls and the buffaloes,” said the grey brother.
The two wolves ran in and out of the herd and separated into two clumps. In one, the cow-buffaloes stood with their calves in the centre and in the other, the bulls and the young bulls. But this went in vain as all the animals started joining back. Then, Mowgli slipped on to Rama’s back.
“Drive the bulls away to the left, Akela. Grey brother, when we have gone, hold the cows together, and drive them into the foot of the ravine,” said Mowgli, “till the sides are higher than Shere Khan can jump. Keep them there till we come down.”
The bulls swept off as Akela bayed, and the grey brother stopped in front of the cows. They charged down at him, and he ran just before them to the foot of the ravine, as Akela drove the bulls far to the left.
“Shall I turn them towards the jungle,” shouted Akela.
“Swiftly, do it,” shouted Mowgli.
The bulls were turned to the right this time, and crashed into the standing thicket. The other herd children hurried to the village as fast as their legs could carry them, crying that the buffaloes had gone mad and run away.
But Mowgli’s plan was simple enough. All he wanted to do was to make a big circle uphill and get at the head of the ravine, and then take the bulls down it and catch Shere Khan between the bulls and the cows.
He knew that Shere Khan would have taken up his meal by now and after a meal Shere Khan would not be in any condition to fight or to clamber up the sides of the ravine. He was soothing the buffaloes now by voice, and Akela had dropped far to the rear. They built up a long circle as they did not want to get near to the ravine which would alert Shere Khan. At last, Mowgli rounded up the herd at the head of the ravine. From that height, they could see across the tops of the trees down to the plain below.
“Let the cattle take a breather, Akela,” Mowgli said, holding up his hand. “We have Shere Khan in the trap by now.”
Mowgli put his hands to his mouth and shouted down the ravine. It was almost like shouting down a tunnel. He wanted Shere Khan to know that he himself came looking after him.
After a long time, there came back the drawling, sleepy snarl of a full-fed tiger just a wakened.
“Who is it?” said Shere Khan.
“I, Mowgli,” shouted loud.
The herd paused for an instant at the edge of the slope, but Akela gave tongue in the full hunting.
Mowgli ordered the stronger buffaloes to move forward. Shere Khan heard the thunder of their hoofs, picked himself up, and lumbered down the ravine, looking from side to side for some way of escape, but the walls of the ravine were straight and he had to hold on. The herd splashed through the pool he had just left. Rama tripped, stumbled, and went on again over something soft, and, with the bulls at his heels, crashed full into the other herd, while the weaker buffaloes were lifted clean off their feet by the shock of the meeting. One strong buffalo went and hit Shere Khan straight head on and he fell. Mowgli watched this time, and slipped off Rama’s neck, laying about him right and left with his stick.
“Akela! Break them up. Scatter them, or they will be fighting one another,” shouted Mowgli.
Akela and the grey Brother ran to and fro nipping the buffaloes’ legs and Mowgli manaaged to turn Rama. The others followed him to the wallows.
Shere Khan needed no more trampling. He was dead, and the kites were coming for him already.
“Brothers, that was a dog’s death,” said Mowgli.
A boy trained among men would never have dreamed of fighting a ten-foot tiger alone, but Mowgli knew better than anyone else how an animal’s skin is fitted on, and how it can be taken off. But it was hard work for him too. As soon as he reached the village and looked up, he saw Buldeo. The children had told the village about the buffaloes’ stampede. Buldeo went out angrily, only too anxious to correct Mowgli for not taking better care of the herd. The wolves dropped out of sight as soon as they saw the man coming.
Buldeo saw Mowgli carrying the tiger’s skin on Rama. He knew that there was a reward of a hundred rupees on Shere Khan’s head.
Buldeo said to Mowgli, “We will overlook your mistake of letting the herd run off, and perhaps I will give you one rupee out of the total reward money.”
Mowgli said, “I killed Shere Khan and you offer me just one rupee. Now, it is in my mind that I need the skin for my own use.”
“It was not, you nut, your luck and the stupidity of the buffaloes that helped you out in this kill. If it had not been for your luck, you would have been lying yourself by now,” said Buldeo angrily.
Buldeo, who was still stooping over Shere Khan’s head, found himself sprawling on the grass, with a grey wolf standing over him.
Mowgli then told Buldeo that it was a very old enmity between Shere Khan and him. He finally won and didn’t want the reward.
To do Buldeo justice, if he had been ten years younger he would have taken his chance with Akela had he met the wolf in the woods. But a wolf who obeyed the orders of this boy who had private wars with man-eating tigers was not a common animal. He lay as still, expecting every minute to see Mowgli turn into a tiger too.
Buldeo ran away to the village as fast as he could, looking back over his shoulder in case Mowgli should change into something terrible. When he got to the village, he told a tale of magic and enchantment which made the priest look very grave. Mowgli went on with his work, but it was nearly dark before he and the wolves had drawn the great gay skin clear of the body.
“Now we must hide this and take the buffaloes home. Help me to herd them, Akela,” said Mowgli.
The herd rounded up in the misty twilight. When they got near the village, Mowgli saw lights and heard the bells in the temple blowing and banging. Half the village seemed to be waiting for him by the gate. Mowgli thought everyone would come and greet him with pleasure because he had killed the biggest fear that the villagers had but everyone at the gate was standing furiously. They started throwing stones at him as he entered the gate.
“Shoot, Buldeo, shoot!” shouted the mob.
The old tower musket went off with a bang, and a young buffalo fell in pain.
“Now, what is this?” said Mowgli, bewildered, as the stones flew thicker.
“Wolf! Wolf’s cub! Go away!” shouted the priest, waving a sprig of the sacred tulsi plant.
“Last time it was because I was a man. This time it is because I am a wolf. Let us go, Akela,” said Mowgli.
A woman—it was Messua—ran across to the herd, and cried, “Oh, my son, my son! Leave fast or else they will kill you.”
“Come back, Messua!” shouted the crowd, “Come back, or we will throw stones even at you.”
The buffaloes were anxious enough to get to the village. They hardly needed Akela’s yell, but charged through the gate scattering the crowd right and left.
“Keep count!” shouted Mowgli scornfully, “It may be that I have stolen one of them. Keep a count as I will not do any herding for you from now on. Goodbye all and thank Messua that I will not come with my wolves to hunt you all down.”
He turned to his heels and walked away with the lone wolf. As he looked up at the stars he felt happy. “No more sleeping in traps for me, Akela. Let us get Shere Khan’s skin and go away. No, we will not hurt the village, as Messua was very kind to me.”
When the moon rose over the plain, making it look all milky, the horrified villagers saw Mowgli, with two wolves at his heels and a bundle on his head. Buldeo told the story of his adventures in the jungle, till he ended by saying that Akela stood up on his hind legs and talked like a man.
The moon was just going down when Mowgli and the two wolves came to the hill of the Council Rock, and they stopped at mother wolf’s cave. The mother wolf was happy to see her cub back again after so long. Mowgli told the entire story of his life at the village and how he killed Shere Khan. But the mother wolf paid not much interest as she was just happy in having her cub back to her cave.
Bagheera came running to Mowgli’s bare feet. They clambered up the Council Rock together, and Mowgli spread the skin out on the flat stone where Akela used to sit. Ever since Akela had been deposed, the Pack had been without a leader, hunting and fighting at their own pleasure. Some of them were lame from the traps they had fallen into, and some limped from shot wounds, and some were ill by eating bad food, and many were missing. But they came to the Council Rock, all that were left of them, and saw Shere Khan’s striped hide on the rock. Everyone in the pack felt ashamed facing Mowgli and Akela. So, they all requested Akela to lead the pack again.
Mowgli announced that he would not hunt with Pack instead will do it alone. The four brother cubs decided to go along with Mowgli and soon the five brothers disappeared from the rock.
