Baloo Quotes

“Ah, but what about the Law of the Jungle?”

“I speak for the man’s cub. There is no harm in a man’s cub. I have no gift of words, but I speak the truth. Let him run with the Pack, and be entered with the others. I myself will teach him.”

His spots are the joy of the Leopard: his horns are the Buffalo’s pride.

Be clean, for the strength of the hunter is known by the gloss of his hide.

But the jungle is large and the Cub he is small.

“A man’s cub is a man’s cub, and he must learn all the Law of the Jungle.”

“Is there anything in the jungle too little to be killed? No. That is why I teach him these things, and that is why I hit him, very softly, when he forgets.”

“Better he should be bruised from head to foot by me who love him than that he should come to harm through ignorance,”

“A little thou knowest, but not much. See, O Bagheera, they never thank their teacher. Not one small wolfling has ever come back to thank old Baloo for his teachings. Say the word for the Hunting-People, then—great scholar.”

“There—there! That was worth a little bruise,”

“No one then is to be feared,” Baloo wound up, patting his big furry stomach with pride. “Except his own tribe,” said Bagheera, under his breath; and then aloud to Mowgli, “Have a care for my ribs, Little Brother! What is all this dancing up and down?”

“Thou hast been with the Monkey People—the gray apes—the people without a law—the eaters of everything. That is great shame.”

“The pity of the Monkey People!”

“The stillness of the mountain stream! The cool of the summer sun! And then, man-cub?”

“I have taught thee all the Law of the Jungle for all the peoples of the jungle—except the Monkey-Folk who live in the trees.

They have no speech of their own, but use the stolen words which they overhear when they listen, and peep, and wait up above in the branches.

“Their way is not our way. They are without leaders. They have no remembrance. They boast and chatter and pretend that they are a great people about to do great affairs in the jungle, but the falling of a nut turns their minds to laughter and all is forgotten.”

“The Monkey-People are forbidden,” said Baloo, “forbidden to the Jungle-People. Remember.”

“They never do what they set out to do. Always pecking at new things are the Bandar-log.

“Haste! O haste! We—we may catch them yet!”

Roll me into the hives of the wild bees that I may be stung to death, and bury me with the Hyaena, for I am most miserable of bears!

Now perhaps I may have knocked the day’s lesson out of his mind, and he will be alone in the jungle without the Master Words.”

“Fool that I am! Oh, fat, brown, root-digging fool that I am,”

“He can climb as well as they can. He steals the young monkeys in the night. The whisper of his name makes their wicked tails cold.”

“The best and wisest and boldest of man-cubs—my own pupil, who shall make the name of Baloo famous through all the jungles; and besides, I—we—love him, Kaa.”

“The jungle alone knows. Toward the sunset, I believe,”

“I saw no more than a big snake making foolish circles till the dark came. And his nose was all sore. Ho! Ho!”

“Sorrow never stays punishment. But remember, Bagheera, he is very little.”