Page 69 - THE JUNGLE BOOK

The Jungle Book

the ditch. He had no intention of losing any advantage of
the ground, and coiled and uncoiled himself once or
twice, to be sure that every foot of his long body was in
working order. All that while the fight with Baloo went

on, and the monkeys yelled in the tank round Bagheera,
and Mang the Bat, flying to and fro, carried the news of
the great battle over the jungle, till even Hathi the Wild
Elephant trumpeted, and, far away, scattered bands of the
Monkey-Folk woke and came leaping along the tree-roads
to help their comrades in the Cold Lairs, and the noise of
the fight roused all the day birds for miles round. Then
Kaa came straight, quickly, and anxious to kill. The
fighting strength of a python is in the driving blow of his
head backed by all the strength and weight of his body. If
you can imagine a lance, or a battering ram, or a hammer
weighing nearly half a ton driven by a cool, quiet mind
living in the handle of it, you can roughly imagine what
Kaa was like when he fought. A python four or five feet
long can knock a man down if he hits him fairly in the
chest, and Kaa was thirty feet long, as you know. His first
stroke was delivered into the heart of the crowd round
Baloo. It was sent home with shut mouth in silence, and
there was no need of a second. The monkeys scattered
with cries of—‘Kaa! It is Kaa! Run! Run!’

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