kaa Quotes

“A blow more or less is nothing to thee, Bagheera or Baloo, but I—I have to wait and wait for days in a wood-path and climb half a night on the mere chance of a young ape.

“I am a fair length—a fair length,”

″ I came very near to falling on my last hunt—very near indeed—and the noise of my slipping, for my tail was not tight wrapped around the tree, waked the Bandar-log, and they called me most evil names.”

“When I came up into the sun today I heard them whooping among the tree-tops.”

“They fear me alone. They have good reason,”

“Chattering, foolish, vain—vain, foolish, and chattering, are the monkeys.”

“But a man-thing in their hands is in no good luck. They grow tired of the nuts they pick, and throw them down. They carry a branch half a day, meaning to do great things with it, and then they snap it in two. That man-thing is not to be envied. They called me also—`yellow fish’ was it not?”

“Besides, they called me speckled frog.”

“Take him away. He dances like Mao the Peacock. He will crush our young,”

“Very soft is his skin, and he is not unlike the Bandar-log. Have a care, manling, that I do not mistake thee for a monkey some twilight when I have newly changed my coat.”

“I take my life from thee tonight. My kill shall be thy kill if ever thou art hungry, O Kaa.”

“A brave heart and a courteous tongue,” said he. “They shall carry thee far through the jungle, manling. But now go hence quickly with thy friends. Go and sleep, for the moon sets, and what follows it is not well that thou shouldst see.”

“Good. Begins now the dance—the Dance of the Hunger of Kaa. Sit still and watch.”