`` 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 King 's towers -- can never pass . They builded it before my father 's father came from the egg , and it shall endure when my son 's sons are as white as I ! Salomdhi , son of Chandrabija , son of Viyeja , son of Yegasuri , made it in the days of Bappa Rawal . Whose cattle are YE ? ''
`` It is a lost trail , '' said XXXXX , turning to Kaa .
Bagheera Cobra King Mowgli Rawal Salomdhi Viyeja ivory-white left war-gongs