Rudyard Kipling

Hunting-song of the Seeonee Pack

From The Jungle Book

Hunting-song of the Seeonee Pack - context Summary

From the Jungle Book (1894)

Published in Kipling's 1894 collection The Jungle Book, this hunting-song is voiced by the Seeonee wolf pack and functions as a ritual chant establishing the pack's hunting routine and laws. It combines vivid animal action with prescriptive lines about strength, respect for young, and humility, presenting the jungle as a moral community governed by tradition and collective responsibility rather than human law.

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As the dawn was breaking the Sambhur belled Once, twice, and again! And a doe leaped up -- and a doe leaped up From the pond in the wood where the wild deer sup. This I, scouting alone, beheld, Once, twice, and again! As the dawn was breaking the Sambhur belled Once, twice, and again! And a wolf stole back -- and a wolf stole back To carry the word to the waiting Pack; And we sought and we found and we bayed on his track Once, twice, and again! As the dawn was breaking the Wolf-pack yelled Once, twice, and again! Feet in the jungle that leave no mark! Eyes that can see in the dark -- the dark! Tongue -- give tongue to it! Hark! O Hark! Once, twice, and again! 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. If ye find that the Bullock can toss you, or the heavy-browed Sambhur can gore; Ye need not stop work to inform us; we knew it ten seasons before. Oppress not the cubs of the stranger, but hail them as Sister and Brother, For though they are little and fubsy, it may be the Bear is their mother. "There is none like to me!" says the Cub in the pride of his earliest kill; But the Jungle is large and the Cub he is small. Let him think and be still.

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