Outsong in the Jungle

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,
• 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,
• 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,
• 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!

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
• 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.
• 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,
• 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!

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,
• 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."
• 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
• 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!

The Three

• On the trail that thou must tread
• To the threshold of our dread,
• Where the Flower blossoms red;
• Through the nights when thou shalt lie
• Prisoned from our Mother-sky,
• 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 air Tree,
• Wisdom, Strength, and Courtesy,
• Jungle-Favour go with thee!