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Kaa's Hunting facts for kids

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"Kaa's Hunting" is an 1893 short story by Rudyard Kipling featuring Mowgli. Chronologically the story falls between the first and second halves of Mowgli's Brothers, and is the second story in The Jungle Book (1894) where it is accompanied by the poem "Road Song of the Bandar-log".

Bagheera and Mowgli (Detmold)
Bagheera and Mowgli in an illustration from the Detmold twins' The Jungle Book (1908)

Story

The seven-year-old "man-cub" Mowgli, raised by wolves in the Indian jungle, is being tutored in the Law of the Jungle by Baloo the bear, but "runs off in a temper" when Baloo hits him over the head for inattention. Bagheera the black panther, who disapproves of this corporal punishment, persuades Mowgli to return and recite his lessons. These include the "Master Words" for various species that identify the speaker as a friend.

Stamp of Russia 2012 No 1653 Adventures of Mowgli
A Russian stamp showing Mowgli and other characters from The Jungle Book as depicted in a Soviet-era animated film.

Bagheera is impressed with Mowgli's progress, but both are horrified when the man-cub then reveals that he has been visiting the Bandar-log ("Monkey-People") who are shunned by the rest of the jungle.

Mowgli is chastened, but soon afterward is abducted by the Bandar-log through the treetops. Seeing Chil the Kite, Mowgli gives the kites' Master Word and tells Chil to find Baloo and Bagheera. The bear and the panther, unable to follow the monkeys, recall that the monkeys' only fear is Kaa the python, and Bagheera goads the python into helping them by repeating (or inventing) some of the Bandar-log's insults against him. Here, Chil tells them Mowgli has been taken to the 'Cold Lairs', an abandoned human city, and they set off to rescue him. In the Cold Lairs, Mowgli soon realises that the monkeys only captured him as an amusing novelty. They soon become bored of him but refuse to let him go. When Kaa and Bagheera arrive the monkeys throw Mowgli into an abandoned "summer-house" inhabited by cobras, whereupon Mowgli hastily uses the snakes' Master Word to prevent them from striking. When Baloo and Bagheera arrive, a furious battle ensues. Kaa is delayed by a large section of city walls, but breaks down the wall of the summer house and frees Mowgli, who thanks him courteously. Kaa then scatters, and afterward hypnotises the Bandar-log into submission to himself. Baloo and Bagheera are also hypnotized; but Mowgli frees them. Once away, Bagheera advocates corporal punishment and Baloo opposes it. After "six love-taps" from Bagheera, the score is settled and the three of them go home.

Books
Mowgli stories
Other stories
Characters
Disney franchise
Film
Television
Soundtrack
Video games
  • The Jungle Book (1993)
  • The Jungle Book Groove Party (2000)
Other
  • The Jungle Book: Alive with Magic
  • Colonel Hathi's Pizza Outpost
Other adaptations
Live-action Film
Animated Film
  • Adventures of Mowgli (1967-1971)
Television
Other
Related
Novels
  • The Light That Failed (1891)
  • The Naulahka: A Story of West and East (co-author, Wolcott Balestier, 1892)
  • Captains Courageous (1896)
  • Kim (1901)
Collections
Poems
  • "The Absent-Minded Beggar"
  • "The Ballad of the 'Clampherdown'"
  • "The Ballad of East and West"
  • "The Beginnings"
  • "The Bell Buoy"
  • "The Betrothed"
  • "Big Steamers"
  • "Boots"
  • "Cold Iron"
  • "Dane-geld"
  • "Danny Deever"
  • "A Death-Bed"
  • "The Female of the Species"
  • "Fuzzy-Wuzzy"
  • "Gentleman ranker"
  • "The Gods of the Copybook Headings"
  • "Gunga Din"
  • "Hymn Before Action"
  • "If—"
  • "In the Neolithic Age"
  • "The King's Pilgrimage"
  • "The Last of the Light Brigade"
  • "The Lowestoft Boat"
  • "Mandalay"
  • "The Mary Gloster"
  • "McAndrew's Hymn"
  • "My Boy Jack"
  • "Recessional"
  • "A Song in Storm"
  • "The Sons of Martha"
  • "Submarines"
  • "The Sweepers"
  • "Tommy"
  • "Ubique"
  • "The White Man's Burden"
  • "The Widow at Windsor"
Short stories
  • ".007"
  • "The Arrest of Lieutenant Golightly"
  • "Baa Baa, Black Sheep"
  • "Bread upon the Waters"
  • "The Broken Link Handicap"
  • "The Butterfly that Stamped"
  • "Consequences"
  • "The Conversion of Aurelian McGoggin"
  • "Cupid's Arrows"
  • "The Devil and the Deep Sea"
  • "The Drums of the Fore and Aft"
  • "Fairy-Kist"
  • "False Dawn"
  • "A Germ-Destroyer"
  • "His Chance in Life"
  • "His Wedded Wife"
  • "In the House of Suddhoo"
  • "Kidnapped"
  • "Learoyd, Mulvaney and Ortheris"
  • "Lispeth"
  • "The Man Who Would Be King"
  • "A Matter of Fact"
  • "Miss Youghal's Sais"
  • "The Mother Hive"
  • "Ortheris"
  • "The Other Man"
  • "The Rescue of Pluffles"
  • "The Ship that Found Herself"
  • "The Sing-Song of Old Man Kangaroo"
  • "The Taking of Lungtungpen"
  • "Three and – an Extra"
  • "The Three Musketeers"
  • "Thrown Away"
  • "Toomai of the Elephants"
  • "Watches of the Night"
  • "Wireless"
  • "Yoked with an Unbeliever"
Related
  • Bibliography
  • Bateman's (house)
  • Indian Railway Library
  • Ritual of the Calling of an Engineer
    • Iron Ring
  • Law of the jungle
  • Aerial Board of Control
  • My Boy Jack (1997 play)
  • Rudyard Kipling: A Remembrance Tale (2006 documentary)
  • My Boy Jack (2007 film)
Family
  • Caroline Starr Balestier Kipling (wife)
  • Elsie Bambridge (daughter)
  • John Kipling (son)
  • John Lockwood Kipling (father)
  • MacDonald sisters (mother's family)
  • Stanley Baldwin (cousin)
  • Georgiana Burne-Jones (aunt)
  • Edward Burne-Jones (uncle)
  • Philip Burne-Jones (cousin)
  • Edward Poynter (uncle)
  • Alfred Baldwin (uncle)
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