Chapter - 5 “Tiger! Tiger!”

After leaving the jungle, Mowgli came upon a great plain where cattle and buffalo were grazing. At one end of the plain was a little village. Mowgli stood at the gate. As he waited there, a crowd of people gathered around him. They pointed and stared at the naked boy.

"They have no manners, these Men-Folk," Mowgli said to himself.

The village priest said to the crowd, "There is nothing to be afraid of. Look at the scars of little wolf bites on him. He is but a wolf-child run away from the jungle."

One of the women cried, "Look closely, Messua! By my honor, the boy is much like your son who was stolen away by the tiger."

The priest was a clever man. He knew that Messua's husband was the richest man in the village. "What the jungle has taken, the jungle has brought back to you," he said. "Take the boy into your house, Messua. And do not forget to honor the priest, for he sees far into the lives of men."

Messua took Mowgli into her hut. There she gave him some bread and a long drink of milk. She looked deep into his eyes. "Nathoo! Nathoo! Do you remember when I gave you new shoes?" She touched his foot. It was almost as hard as horn. "No," she said sadly. "Those feet have never worn shoes. But you are very like Nathoo—and now you shall be my son."

Mowgli thought, "I must soon learn to speak as they do." As Messua talked throughout the day, he imitated her words. Before dark, he knew the names of many things in the hut.

But that night, he would not get in the bed. To him, it looked like a trap. He went outside to sleep. Just before he closed his eyes, a soft gray nose poked him. It was Gray Brother, the oldest of Mother Wolf's cubs.

"Wake," said Gray Brother. "I bring news. Shere Khan's coat was badly burned with the red flower. He has gone away until it grows back. But I must warn you. When he returns, he swears that he will lay your bones in the Wainganga River!"

"I, too, have made a promise," Mowgli replied. "When he comes back, wait for me under the dhaktree in the middle of the plain. We do not need to walk into Shere Khan's mouth."

"I will wait for you," Gray Brother promised. "You will not forget you are a wolf, then? Men will not make you forget?"

"Never!" Mowgli promised. "But I will always remember that I was cast out of the pack."

"You may be cast out of another pack," Gray Brother warned him. "Men are only men, after all - and their talk is like the talk of frogs in a pond."

For the next three months, Mowgli learned the ways of men. He had to wear a cloth around him, which annoyed him horribly. And there were many things he did not understand in the least. The village priest told Mowgli that the god in the temple would be angry if he ate the priest's mangos. So Mowgli picked up the image of the god and brought it to the priest's house. When he said he would be happy to fight the god, there was an awful scandal. Messua's husband had to pay much good silver to comfort the offended god.

Mowgli knew nothing of the castes which separate men. When the potter's donkey fell into a pit, Mowgli pulled it out by the tail. This shocked the villagers, for the potter is a low-caste man, and his donkey, of course, even lower.

At night Mowgli sat with the men under the great fig tree and listened to the tales of Buldeo, the village hunter. Buldeo told stories of gods and men and ghosts. One night Buldeo spoke of the tiger who had carried off Messua's son. It was a ghost-tiger, he said, inhabited by the spirit of a wicked old moneylender. The old man had a limp, the same as the tiger.

"These tales are nothing but cobwebs and moon-talk," Mowgli snorted. "That tiger probably had a limp because he was born lame."

"Oho! It is the jungle brat, is it?" said Buldeo. "If you are so wise, why don't you bring the tiger's hide to Khanhiwara? The government has set a hundred rupees on his life."

The head man of the village said, "It is high time the boy was set to work. Perhaps herding buffalo will teach him some respect for his elders."

Nothing could have pleased Mowgli more. Every morning he set off with other village boys to herd the cattle and buffalo. He rode on the back of Rama, the great herd bull. From the start he made it clear to the other children that he was master.

At last the day came when Mowgli saw Gray Brother sitting under the dhak-tree. "Shere Khan's plan is to wait for you at the village gate this evening," Gray Brother warned. "He is hiding now in the dry ravine of the Wainganga."

"Has he eaten today?" asked Mowgli.

"He killed a pig at dawn, and he has drunk, too," said Gray Brother. "He could never fast - even for the sake of revenge!"

"Oh, fool, fool!" said Mowgli. "He plans to wait until he has slept. I know! I could take the herd to the head of the ravine and then sweep down. But someone must block the other end. Can you cut the herd in two for me?"

Gray Brother said, "Not I alone—but I have brought a wise helper."

Akela trotted out from behind a rock.

"Akela!" cried Mowgli, clapping his hands. "I might have known you would not forget me. We have big work at hand. Cut the herd in two, Akela. Keep the cows and calves together, and leave the buffaloes alone."

The two wolves ran in and out of the herd. The animals snorted and threw up their heads. At last they separated into two clumps. The other herdchildren, watching from half a mile away, ran to the village as fast as their legs could carry them.

Mowgli slipped onto Rama's back. "Drive the bulls away to the left, Akela. And you, Gray Brother—hold the cows together and then drive them into the foot of the ravine."

Mowgli and Akela drove the buffaloes to the top of the ravine. Then Akela gave a full hunting yell and the buffaloes charged down the steep slope.

Shere Khan heard the thunder of their hooves. He ran around the ravine, looking for some way to escape. But the sides of the deep gorge were steep, and he was heavy with food and drink.

Mowgli, riding on Rama's back, saw Shere Khan turn in his direction. Then Rama tripped and stumbled over something soft. The bulls behind him crashed full into the other herd.

Now the cattle were stamping and snorting. Mowgli cried, "Quick, Akela! Break them up. Softly now, softly, Rama! It is all over."

Shere Khan was dead. Mowgli sat down and began to skin the tiger. "His hide will look well on the Council Rock," he said.

Suddenly, Buldeo appeared, and the wolves quickly dropped out of sight.

"What is this?" said Buldeo. "Why, it is the Lame Tiger! Well, boy, we will overlook your letting the herd run off. Perhaps I will even give you one of the rupees as a reward when I take the skin to Khanhiwara."

"I need the skin for my own use," said Mowgli. "Come, Akela, this man is bothering me."

In the blink of an eye, Buldeo found himself down in the grass, with a wolf standing over him. After a while Mowgli let him go, and the hunter hobbled away to the village as fast as he could.

When Mowgli returned at twilight with the buffaloes, it seemed that half the village was waiting for him at the gate. "It is because I have killed Shere Khan," he said to himself.

But then a shower of stones whistled about his ears. "Jungle demon! Wolf's brat! Go away!" shouted the villagers.

"Again?" Mowgli cried in disbelief. "The last time I was sent away it was because I was a man. This time it is because I am a wolf!"

Messua ran up to Mowgli. "Oh, my son! They say you are a demon! I do not believe such a thing, but go now—or they will kill you!"

"Farewell, Messua," Mowgli cried. "I have at least paid for your son's life. Farewell!"

Akela yelled, and the buffaloes charged through the gate, scattering the crowd left and right.

Later that morning, Mowgli laid Shere Khan'shide on the Council Rock. Akela wailed the old call to the wolf pack. Since the fight with Mowgli, the wolves had been without a leader. Now, when the pack had gathered at the Council Rock, they cried, "Lead us again, O Akela! You lead us too, O man-cub."

"No," said Bagheera, who had heard the call and come to the Rock. "You fought for freedom, and it is yours. Eat it, O wolves."

"Both man pack and wolf pack have cast me out," Mowgli said sadly. "Now I must hunt alone in the jungle."

"Not alone," said the four cubs. "We will hunt with you."