How fear came

night only,” said Hathi.
“But I-but we-but all the Jungle knows that Shere Khan kills Man twice and thrice in a moon.”
“Even so. Then he springs from behind and turns his head aside as he strikes, for he is full of fear. If Man looked at him he would run. But on his one Night he goes openly down to the village. He walks between the houses and thrusts his head into the doorway, and the men fall on their faces and there he does his kill. One kill in that Night.”
“Oh!” said Mowgli to himself, rolling over in the water. “Now I see why it was Shere Khan bade me look at him! He got no good of it, for he could not hold his eyes steady, and-and I certainly did not fall down at his feet. But then I am not a man, being of the Free People.”
“Umm!” said Bagheera deep in his furry throat. “Does the Tiger know his Night?”
“Never till the Jackal of the Moon stands clear of the evening mist. Sometimes it falls in the dry summer and sometimes in the wet rains-this one Night of the Tiger. But for the First of the Tigers, this would never have been, nor would any of us have known fear.”
The deer grunted sorrowfully, and Bagheera`s lips curled in a wicked smile. “Do men know this-tale?” said he.
“None know it except the tigers, and we, the elephants-the children of Tha. Now ye by the pools have heard it, and I have spoken.”
Hathi dipped his trunk into the water as a sign that he did not wish to talk.
“But-but-but,” said Mowgli, turning to Baloo, “why did not the First of the Tigers continue to eat grass and leaves and trees? He did but break the buck`s neck. He did not eat. What led him to the hot meat?”
“The trees and the creepers marked him, Little Brother, and made him the striped thing that we see. Never again would he eat their fruit; but from that day he revenged himself upon the deer, and the others, the Eaters of Grass,” said Baloo.
“Then thou knowest the tale. Heh? Why have I never heard?”
“Because the Jungle is full of such tales. If I made a beginning there would never be an end to them. Let go my ear, Little Brother.”