Rudyard Kipling. The Jungle Book. Amazon Classics, 2017.
———. The Second Jungle Book. Amazon Services, 2012.
Kipling’s Jungle Books are two collections of stories, but the majority of the stories tell us about Mowgli, “the man-cub,” raised by wolves in the Indian jungle. Those tales rightly deserve the credit for why we remember these stories. First, a few of the others.
The first non-Mowgli story in The Jungle Book is not even set in the jungle. “The White Seal” is set mostly on an island in the Bering Sea, about as un-jungly (if there is such a term) as you can get. The title character has a number of adventures as he searches the Pacific Ocean for a safe place to breed, away from the seal hunters.
Since the white seal ends up in a sea where sea cows (i.e. dugongs) live, he must end up in the Indian Ocean or nearby seas, so, I suppose, he cannot be too far from a tropical rain forest of some kind. The seals do not have a Law of the Jungle, but they do observe the Rules of the Beach.
“Quiquern” is a very entertaining Arctic survival story. There is no setting farther from the jungle than this one. Well, there is a convoluted explanation at the end that the author got the story from a walrus tusk with carvings that told the story that he acquired in Ceylon (modern Sri Lanka). Like so many of Kipling’s stories, there is a real appreciation and understanding for the culture and survival skills of the Inuit—and, yes, that is what he calls them.
The Second Jungle Book contains a sweet story called “The Miracle of Purun Bhagat.” Sir Purun Dass is high ranking government official who leaves it all behind to become a monk in the Himalayan foothills. He develops a kind of St. Francis reputation, though the author notes that people who stay still and quiet can have animals come close to them. There is no magic other than patience. Ultimately, his awareness of the local fauna provokes him to once again act like the political leader he left behind. That becomes the real miracle.
Other Jungle Book stories include the favorite about the mongoose, “Rikki-Tikki-Tavi.” “Toomai of the Elephants” relates a great story about elephant behavior. Is the elephant’s dance a legend, a prank played on tenderfeet, a silly cliche like saying “when pigs fly,” or is it something else?
“Her Majesty’s Servants” tells a story from the perspective of the various animals one might find in an English army camp in India in the nineteenth century including donkeys, horses, camels, elephants, mules, bulls, and dogs. This reminded me of Kipling’s short story “The Ship that Found Itself” where all the parts of the ship on its maiden voyage begin to work together as a whole. So it is with the military animals. Presumably, it will be so with the solders themselves.
Ah, but both Jungle Books mostly tell us about the growth and adventures of Mowgli. While a boy raised in the wild by wolves causes us to suspend our disbelief some, the character and experiences of the animals in Mowgli’s jungle are fairly realistic. It is, for example, much easier to picture Mowgli among wolves and the descriptions of how he survived and what he observed than it is to picture Tarzan and his apes and his fantastical ape-men. If Kipling had the same streak of humor that Twain did, he might have penned “Rice Burroughs Literary Offenses.” Kipling is the realist here.
While most of Mowgli’s adventures are in the wild, he does have some interaction with people. Human nature being what it is,some people think he is evil and try to kill him. Others are grateful to him for saving their lives. One long-lived crocodile enjoys the special treatment he gets from some villagers who think he is a god—even though he occasionally eats a child.
While Mowgli lives by the Law of the Jungle, he uses his wits in such a way that the reader realizes he is, indeed, a human being, a homo sapiens. Mowgli means “frog,” which resembles his state when the animals find him—small and hairless. We see his cleverness especially when he gets his revenge on Shere Khan the tiger or when he outwits a pack of nearly two hundred dholes. He begins to realize that he does not quite fit in when spring mating season comes and even his closest companions are otherwise occupied.
Kipling tells the stories and tells them well. We see the regal black panther, Bagheera; the observant python, Kaa; the various members of the wolf pack, including Akela the noble leader; the wise bear, Baloo; the anarchic monkeys who follow no law; and even the white cobra who guards a treasure the way dragons in Norse myths do. We learn to appreciate the animals for who they are, and even mankind for who they are. The Law of the Jungle teaches them to survive. We can learn a thing or two from it as well.