From the Pages of The Jungle Books

THE JUNGLE BOOK

“By thy very carelessness they know that thou art a man.”

(from “Mowgli’s Brothers,” page 19)

 

The Jungle is large and the Cub he is small. Let him think and be still.

(from “Kaa’s Hunting,” page 30)

 

“We be of one blood, ye and I.”

(from “Kaa’s Hunting,” page 33)

 

Here we go in a flung festoon, Half-way up to the jealous moon! Don’t you envy our pranceful bands? Don’t you wish you had extra hands? Wouldn’t you like if your tails were—so—Curved in the shape of a Cupid’s bow? Now you’re angry, but—never mind, Brother, thy tail hangs down behind!

(from “Road-Song of the Bandar-Log,” page 56)

 

No cradle is so comfortable as the long, rocking swell of the Pacific.

(from “The White Seal,” page 86)

 

It is the hardest thing in the world to frighten a mongoose, because he is eaten up from nose to tail with curiosity.

(from “‘Rikki-Tikki-Tavi’” page 106)

 

When a snake misses its stroke, it never says anything or gives any sign of what it means to do next.

(from “‘Rikki-Tikki-Tavi’” page 111)

 

“Anybody can be forgiven for being scared in the night.”

(from “Her Majesty’s Servants,” page 155)

THE SECOND JUNGLE BOOK

The Law of the Jungle—which is by far the oldest law in the world—has arranged for almost every kind of accident that may befall the Jungle People, till now its code is as perfect as time and custom can make it.

(from “How Fear Came,” page 177)

 

“They came back with the news that in a cave in the Jungle sat Fear, and that he had no hair, and went upon his hind legs. Then we of the Jungle followed the herd till we came to that cave, and Fear stood at the mouth of it, and he was, as the buffaloes had said, hairless, and he walked upon his hinder legs. When he saw us he cried out, and his voice filled us with the fear that we have now of that voice when we hear it, and we ran away, tramping upon and tearing each other because we were afraid.” (from “How Fear Came,” page 187)

 

The strength of the Pack is the Wolf, and the strength of the Wolf is the Pack. (from “The Law of the Jungle,” page 193)

 

Mowgli, his head on Mother Wolf’s side, smiled contentedly, and said that, for his own part, he never wished to see, or hear, or smell Man again. (from “Letting in the Jungle,” page 218)

 

“To hear is one thing; to know is another.”

(from “The Undertakers,” page 251)

 

“What more can I wish? I have the Jungle, and the favor of the Jungle! Is there more anywhere between sunrise and sunset?”

(from “The King’s Ankus,” page 278)

 

He had the good conscience that comes from paying debts; all the Jungle was his friend, and just a little afraid of him.

(from “Red Dog,” page 325)

“Man goes to Man at the last.”

(from “The Spring Running,” page 369)