| |
BALOO FOR the sake of him who showed | |
| One wise Frog the Jungle-Road, | |
| Keep the Law the Man-Pack make | |
| For thy blind old Baloo’s sake! | |
| Clean or tainted, hot or stale, | 5 |
| Hold it as it were the Trail, | |
| Through the day and through the night, | |
| Questing neither left nor right. | |
| For the sake of him who loves | |
| Thee beyond all else that moves, | 10 |
| When thy Pack would make thee pain, | |
| Say: “Tabaqui sings again.” | |
| When thy Pack would work thee ill, | |
| Say: “Shere Khan is yet to kill.” | |
| When the knife is drawn to slay, | 15 |
| Keep the Law and go thy way. | |
| (Root and honey, palm and spathe, | |
| Guard a cub from harm and scathe!) | |
| Wood and Water, Wind and Tree, | |
| Jungle-Favour go with thee! | 20 |
| |
KAA Anger is the egg of Fear— | |
| Only lidless eyes see clear. | |
| Cobra-poison none may leech— | |
| Even so with Cobra-speech. | |
| Open talk shall call to thee. | 25 |
| Strength, whose mate is Courtesy. | |
| Send no lunge beyond thy length. | |
| Lend no rotten bough thy strength. | |
| Gauge thy gape with buck or goat, | |
| Lest thine eye should choke thy throat. | 30 |
| After gorging, wouldst thou sleep? | |
| Look thy den be hid and deep, | |
| Lest a wrong, by thee forgot, | |
| Draw thy killer to the spot. | |
| East and West and North and South, | 35 |
| Wash thy hide and close thy mouth. | |
| (Pit and rift and blue pool-brim, | |
| Middle-Jungle follow him!) | |
| Wood and Water, Wind and Tree, | |
| Jungle-Favour go with thee! | 40 |
| |
BAGHEERA In the cage my life began; | |
| Well I know the worth of Man. | |
| By the Broken Lock that freed— | |
| Man-cub, ’ware the Man-cub’s breed! | |
| Scenting-dew or starlight pale, | 45 |
| Choose no tangled tree-cat trail. | |
| Pack or council, hunt or den, | |
| Cry no truce with Jackal-Men. | |
| Feed them silence when they say: | |
| “Come with us an easy way.” | 50 |
| Feed them silence when they seek | |
| Help of thine to hurt the weak. | |
| Make no bandar’s boast of skill; | |
| Hold thy peace above the kill. | |
| Let nor call nor song nor sign | 55 |
| Turn thee from thy hunting-line. | |
| (Morning mist or twilight clear, | |
| Serve him, Wardens of the Deer!) | |
| Wood and Water, Wind and Tree, | |
| Jungle-Favour go with thee! | 60 |
| |
THE THREE On the trail that thou must tread | |
| To the thresholds of our dread, | |
| Where the Flower blossoms red; | |
| Through the nights when thou shalt lie | |
| Prisoned from our Mother-sky, | 65 |
| Hearing us, thy loves, go by; | |
| In the dawns when thou shalt wake | |
| To the toil thou canst not break, | |
| Heartsick for the Jungle’s sake; | |
| Wood and Water, Wind and Tree, | 70 |
| Wisdom, Strength, and Courtesy, | |
| Jungle-Favour go with thee! | |
| |
