Kaa led up to the ruins of the queens ' pavilion that stood on the terrace , slipped over the rubbish , and dived down the half-choked staircase that went underground from the centre of the pavilion . Mowgli gave the snake-call , -- `` We be of one blood , ye and I , '' -- and followed on his hands and knees . They crawled a long distance down a sloping passage that turned and twisted several times , and at last came to where the root of some great tree , growing thirty feet overhead , had forced out a solid stone in the wall . They crept through the gap , and found themselves in a large vault , whose domed roof had been also broken away by tree-roots so that a few streaks of light dropped down into the darkness . `` A safe lair , '' said Mowgli , rising to his firm feet , `` but over-far to visit daily . And now what do we see ? '' `` Am I nothing ? '' said a voice in the middle of the vault ; and Mowgli saw something white move till , little by little , there stood up the hugest cobra he had ever set eyes on -- a creature nearly eight feet long , and bleached by being in darkness to an old ivory-white . Even the spectacle-marks of his spread hood had faded to faint yellow . His eyes were as red as rubies , and altogether he was most wonderful . `` Good hunting ! '' said Mowgli , who carried his manners with his knife , and that never left him . `` What of the city ? '' said the White Cobra , without answering the greeting . `` What of the great , the walled city -- the city of a hundred elephants and twenty thousand horses , and cattle past counting -- the city of the King of Twenty Kings ? I grow deaf here , and it is long since I heard their war-gongs . '' `` The Jungle is above our heads , '' said Mowgli . `` I know only Hathi and his sons among elephants . Bagheera has slain all the horses in one village , and -- what is a King ? '' `` I told thee , '' said Kaa softly to the Cobra , -- `` I told thee , four moons ago , that thy city was not . ''
`` The city -- the great city of the forest whose gates are guarded by the XXXXX 's towers -- can never pass .
Cobra King Mowgli daily ivory-white lair left snake-call spectacle-marks tree-roots