Chapter - 3 How Fear Came

One winter, it hardly rained at all. The spring blossoms were heat-killed before they were born. Then, inch by inch, the heat crept into the heart of the jungle, turning it yellow, brown, and at last black. The pools in the jungle dried up. Food was so scarce that the animals were no more than skin and bone. Bagheera could kill three times in a night and hardly get a full meal. But the want of water was even worse. Although the Jungle-People seldom drink, they drink deeply.

One day Hathi the Wild Elephant saw that only the main channel of the Wainganga carried a trickle of water. That day, he lifted his trunk and called the Water Truce.

By the Law of the Jungle, no animal could kill at drinking places during the Water Truce. So now they all came, starved and worn out—tiger, bear, buffalo, and pig—to drink together.

One furnace-hot evening, Bagheera and Mowgli came to the river. Bagheera looked at the deer and the pig and the buffalo gathered at the water's edge. He said in wonder, "But for the Law, this would be very good hunting."

The deer heard him. A frightened whisper quickly carried along the riverbank, "The Truce! Remember the Truce!"

"Peace there!" gurgled Hathi. "This is no time to talk of hunting."

"And who should know that better than I?" Bagheera answered, rolling his yellow eyes. "I am now an eater of turtles, a fisher of frogs."

Then Shere Khan came limping down to the water. He waited a little before drinking, enjoying the nervous glances of the deer.

"Faugh, Shere Khan! What new shame have you brought here?" Bagheera asked.

The lame tiger had dipped his chin in the water. Dark oily streaks were floating from it downstream.

"Man!" said Shere Khan coolly. "It is true. I killed an hour ago."

A whisper went up among the animals. "Man! Man! He has killed Man!"

"Man!" Bagheera roared out scornfully. "Why?

Was there no other game to be found?"

"I killed for choice, not for food," said Shere Khan with a boastful smirk.

The horrified whisper began again. Hathi spoke quietly. "Your kill was from choice?" he asked. When Hathi asks a question, it is best to answer.

"It was my right and my night. You know this, O Hathi," said Shere Khan. His voice was now almost courteous.

"Yes, I know," said Hathi. "Now, since you have drunk your fill, go!" Shere Khan slunk away. When last comes to last, Hathi is master of the jungle.

Mowgli waited for a minute to pick up his courage. Then he cried, "What is Shere Khan's right, O Hathi?"

"It is an old tale," said Hathi. "Keep silence along the riverbank, and I will tell it to you.

"In the beginning of the jungle," Hathi began, "we walked together. We had no fear of one another. In those days, we ate nothing at all except grass and fruit and bark.

"The Lord of the Jungle was Tha, the First of the Elephants. He made the jungle out of deep waters with his trunk. Where he struck with his

foot, there rose ponds of good water. He was very busy making new jungles. But he could not walk everywhere. That's why Tha made the First of the Tigers the judge of the jungle. He could settle any disputes between the Jungle-People.

"In those days, the First of the Tigers ate fruit and grass along with all the others. He was as large as I am, and yellow all over, with no stripes. The Jungle-People came before him without fear, and his word was Law.

"Yet one night, there was a dispute between two bucks. When the two were arguing before the First of the Tigers, one buck pushed the other with his horns. The First of the Tigers leaped upon the buck and broke his neck. Before that night, none of us had ever killed another.

"Tha soon heard that one of the Jungle-People had been killed. He ordered the trees and the vines of the jungle to mark the killer, so that all might know his shame.

"Then Tha called us all together. 'One of you has brought Death into the jungle,' he said. 'From now on you shall know Fear, and you shall know that he is your master.'

"The Jungle-People said, 'What is Fear?'

"'Look till you find,' Tha answered.

"It was the buffaloes who first found Fear. They told the Jungle-People that Fear sat in a cave. They said he walked upon his hind legs and was hairless. So we of the jungle followed the buffalo to the cave. When Fear saw us, he cried out. His very voice filled us with fear—and we ran away.

"From that night on, the Jungle-People did not lie down together. Instead, each tribe kept off to itself—the pig with the pig, the deer with the deer. Horn to horn and hoof to hoof.

"Only the First of the Tigers was not with us. He was hiding, ashamed of what he had done. When he heard of the thing in the cave, he said, 'I will go to this thing and break his neck.' So he ran that night to the cave. The trees and vines marked him as he ran. Wherever they touched him, a stripe was marked on his yellow hide. As you see, his children wear those stripes to this day.

"When the First of the Tigers came to the cave, Fear put out his hand and called him 'The Striped One.' The First of the Tigers ran away, howling."So loud did he howl that Tha heard him. 'What is this sadness?' he asked.

"The First of the Tigers said, 'Give me back my power, O Tha. I am shamed before all the jungle. I have run away from the Hairless One, who called me a shameful name. What have I done, that these stripes are upon me?'

"Tha answered, 'You have killed the buck, and let loose Death in the jungle. With Death has come fear. Now the Jungle-People are afraid of one another—just as you are afraid of the Hairless One.'

"The First of the Tigers beat his head upon the ground. His pride was broken. 'Remember I was once master of the jungle, O Tha. Let my children remember that I was once without shame or fear!'

"Tha said, 'This much I will do. One night a year, if you meet the Hairless One—and his name is Man—you shall not be afraid of him. He shall be afraid of you. Show him mercy on that night of his fear, for now you know how terrible Fear is.'

"As the year went by, the First of the Tigers remembered that the Hairless One had called him the Striped One, and he was angry. On a certain night, he went to the cave of the Hairless One. There, everything happened just as Tha promised. The Hairless One fell on the ground before him. Then, without hesitation, the First of the Tiger broke his back with one mighty blow.

"When Tha saw what the First of the Tigers haddone, he said, 'Is this your mercy?'

"The First of the Tigers licked his lips and boldly answered, 'What matter? Look! I have killed Fear.'

"Tha said, 'O blind and foolish! You have untied the feet of Death! You have taught Man to kill!'

"That's how it came about that the First of the Tigers taught the Hairless One to kill. All of you know what harm Man has done to the Jungle- People from that day on."

Bagheera turned to Hathi and said, "Do men know this—tale?"

Hathi said, "None have known it except the tigers and the elephants. Now you by the river have heard it, and I have spoken." The old elephant then turned away and dipped his trunk in the water. The tale was over.