Page 45 - THE JUNGLE BOOK

The Jungle Book

‘No,’ said Mowgli in a whisper, for the forest was very
still now Baloo had finished.
‘The Jungle-People put them out of their mouths and
out of their minds. They are very many, evil, dirty,

shameless, and they desire, if they have any fixed desire, to
be noticed by the Jungle People. But we do not notice
them even when they throw nuts and filth on our heads.’
He had hardly spoken when a shower of nuts and twigs
spattered down through the branches; and they could hear
coughings and howlings and angry jumpings high up in
the air among the thin branches.
‘The Monkey-People are forbidden,’ said Baloo,
‘forbidden to the Jungle-People. Remember.’
‘Forbidden,’ said Bagheera, ‘but I still think Baloo
should have warned thee against them.’
‘I—I? How was I to guess he would play with such
dirt. The Monkey People! Faugh!’
A fresh shower came down on their heads and the two
trotted away, taking Mowgli with them. What Baloo had
said about the monkeys was perfectly true. They belonged
to the tree-tops, and as beasts very seldom look up, there
was no occasion for the monkeys and the Jungle-People to
cross each other’s path. But whenever they found a sick
wolf, or a wounded tiger, or bear, the monkeys would

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