Kaa's Hunting (Campfire Story)

When Mowgli was seven years old, living with the wolves, old BALOO the brown bear was teaching him the Law of the Jungle. It was hard work. Wolf cubs only had to learn the laws for wolves, but Mowgli was a man's cub, and he had to learn a great deal more.

Most important of all, Baloo taught him the Master Words of the jungle. These were the words that would keep him safe with every hunter in the jungle, if he said them in the right way. To the hunters who walk on four feet, like the wolves and the panther, you say: 'MASTER WORDS!'

'Good!' said BALOO. 'Now the words for the Bird People.' Mowgli gave the kite's whistle at the end of the sentence. 'And for the Snake People?' Mowgli gave a perfectly indescribable hiss. 'Good!' rumbled BALOO. 'Now you are safe in the jungle. No snake, bird or beast will hurt you.'

But Mowgli had a secret. He had been playing with the BANDAR LOG, the Monkey People. They had come down from the trees, and they had told him he was clever, and given him nuts, and said he should be their leader.

When BALOO heard this, he was furious. 'The Monkey People! Little brother, they have no Law! They have no leader. They boast and chatter and pretend to be great people about to do great things, and then a nut falls and they forget everything and laugh. We of the jungle do not drink where the monkeys drink, or go where they go, or hunt where they hunt. Never speak to them again.' BANDAR LOG!

But the BANDAR LOG had heard all of it from the treetops. And that afternoon, while Mowgli napped between Baloo and Bagheera, a hundred hairy hands grabbed him by the arms and legs and swung him up into the trees. Before Baloo could even wake up, they were gone, swinging and leaping across the treetops, carrying Mowgli away. BANDAR LOG!

Mowgli was frightened, but he was not foolish. As the monkeys flung him from branch to branch, he saw Chil the kite circling high above. He gave the Master Word of the Bird People, the kite's whistle, and called, 'Mark my trail! Tell Baloo of the Seeonee Pack and Bagheera of the Council Rock!'

The monkeys carried him to the Cold Lairs, a ruined city of empty palaces, deep in the jungle, where the vines grew over broken walls. There they danced around him, boasting about how wise and great they were, and threw him into an old summer-house full of cobras.

Mowgli gave the Master Word of the Snake People, a careful hiss. 'We be of one blood, ye and I.' And the cobras answered, 'Sit still, little brother, for your feet may do us harm.' Not one of them touched him.

Meanwhile, Baloo and BAGHEERA were racing through the jungle. But Baloo was old and slow, and Bagheera knew that two of them could not fight a hundred monkeys. 'There is only one creature the BANDAR LOG truly fear,' said BAGHEERA. 'Kaa.'

They found KAA sunning himself on a warm ledge, thirty feet of rock python with a new shiny skin. 'Good hunting, Kaa,' said BALOO politely. KAA. The great snake was hungry and lazy, and not very interested, until Bagheera mentioned that the BANDAR LOG had been calling him names. 'They called you a footless yellow earthworm,' said BAGHEERA.

KAA! In an instant, the python was ready to hunt.

That night at the Cold Lairs, Bagheera crept up and leapt into the middle of the monkeys, striking right and left. But there were too many. They piled on top of him by the hundreds. Then Baloo came puffing up the hill and waded in. 'I am here!' he roared. BALOO! The fight was terrible. BANDAR LOG!

And then KAA arrived. He came up over the city wall, and his first strike was like a battering ram. And the monkeys screamed and scattered, climbing as high as they could on the broken towers, too terrified to move. KAA!

Kaa broke open the summer-house, and Mowgli jumped out and ran to his friends. Baloo hugged him. Bagheera licked his scratches.

Then Kaa began to dance. In the moonlight, he swayed and coiled, in slow loops and figure-eights, humming softly, and the monkeys could not look away. One by one, they started to walk toward him, helplessly, as if they were asleep. And Baloo and Bagheera began to step forward too.

Mowgli put his hands on their necks. 'Baloo! Bagheera! Wake up!' And he led them away down the hill, into the jungle, while Kaa's dance went on behind them.

When they were safe, Mowgli said, 'I'm sorry. I should have listened.' And he never spoke to the BANDAR LOG again.

But for the rest of his life, he never forgot the words that saved him that day, and he always used them when he met a stranger in the jungle.

'MASTER WORDS!'

Storyteller tips: practice the MASTER WORDS with everyone until they can say them together, slowly and proudly. The monkeys are the fun part; let the BANDAR LOG chatter get sillier every time.

Talk it over afterward: why did Mowgli's friends come for him even though he hadn't listened? What are the "Master Words" that help us make friends with strangers?