`` I wash , and ALSO I take off my skin . How looks the new coat ? '' Mowgli ran his hand down the diagonal checkerings of the immense back . `` The Turtle is harder-backed , but not so gay , '' he said judgmatically . `` The Frog , my name-bearer , is more gay , but not so hard . It is very beautiful to see -- like the mottling in the mouth of a lily . '' `` It needs water . A new skin never comes to full colour before the first bath . Let us go bathe . '' `` I will carry thee , '' said Mowgli ; and he stooped down , laughing , to lift the middle section of Kaa 's great body , just where the barrel was thickest . A man might just , as well have tried to heave up a two-foot water-main ; and Kaa lay still , puffing with quiet amusement . Then the regular evening game began -- the Boy in the flush of his great strength , and the Python in his sumptuous new skin , standing up one against the other for a wrestling match -- a trial of eye and strength . Of course , Kaa could have crushed a dozen Mowglis if he had let himself go ; but he played carefully , and never loosed one-tenth of his power . Ever since Mowgli was strong enough to endure a little rough handling , Kaa had taught him this game , and it suppled his limbs as nothing else could . Sometimes Mowgli would stand lapped almost to his throat in Kaa 's shifting coils , striving to get one arm free and catch him by the throat . Then Kaa would give way limply , and Mowgli , with both quick-moving feet , would try to cramp the purchase of that huge tail as it flung backward feeling for a rock or a stump . They would rock to and fro , head to head , each waiting for his chance , till the beautiful , statue-like group melted in a whirl of black-and-yellow coils and struggling legs and arms , to rise up again and again . `` Now ! now ! now ! ''
said XXXXX , making feints with his head that even Mowgli 's quick hand could not turn aside .
Kaa Mowgli Mowglis Python Turtle colour evening first one-tenth water-main