Page 70 - THE JUNGLE BOOK

The Jungle Book

Generations of monkeys had been scared into good
behavior by the stories their elders told them of Kaa, the
night thief, who could slip along the branches as quietly as
moss grows, and steal away the strongest monkey that ever

lived; of old Kaa, who could make himself look so like a
dead branch or a rotten stump that the wisest were
deceived, till the branch caught them. Kaa was everything
that the monkeys feared in the jungle, for none of them
knew the limits of his power, none of them could look
him in the face, and none had ever come alive out of his
hug. And so they ran, stammering with terror, to the walls
and the roofs of the houses, and Baloo drew a deep breath
of relief. His fur was much thicker than Bagheera’s, but he
had suffered sorely in the fight. Then Kaa opened his
mouth for the first time and spoke one long hissing word,
and the far-away monkeys, hurrying to the defense of the
Cold Lairs, stayed where they were, cowering, till the
loaded branches bent and crackled under them. The
monkeys on the walls and the empty houses stopped their
cries, and in the stillness that fell upon the city Mowgli
heard Bagheera shaking his wet sides as he came up from
the tank. Then the clamor broke out again. The monkeys
leaped higher up the walls. They clung around the necks
of the big stone idols and shrieked as they skipped along

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