Both banks echoed his words , for all the People of the Jungle are intensely curious , and they had just seen something that none except Baloo , who looked very thoughtful , seemed to understand . `` It is an old tale , '' said Hathi ; `` a tale older than the Jungle . Keep silence along the banks and I will tell that tale . '' There was a minute or two of pushing a shouldering among the pigs and the buffalo , and then the leaders of the herds grunted , one after another , `` We wait , '' and Hathi strode forward , till he was nearly knee-deep in the pool by the Peace Rock . Lean and wrinkled and yellow-tusked though he was , he looked what the Jungle knew him to be -- their master . `` Ye know , children , '' he began , `` that of all things ye most fear Man ; '' and there was a mutter of agreement . `` This tale touches thee , Little Brother , '' said Bagheera to Mowgli . `` I ? I am of the Pack -- a hunter of the Free People , '' Mowgli answered . `` What have I to do with Man ? '' `` And ye do not know why ye fear Man ? '' Hathi went on . `` This is the reason . In the beginning of the Jungle , and none know when that was , we of the Jungle walked together , having no fear of one another . In those days there was no drought , and leaves and flowers and fruit grew on the same tree , and we ate nothing at all except leaves and flowers and grass and fruit and bark . '' `` I am glad I was not born in those days , '' said Bagheera . `` Bark is only good to sharpen claws . '' `` And the Lord of the Jungle was Tha , the First of the Elephants . He drew the Jungle out of deep waters with his trunk ; and where he made furrows in the ground with his tusks , there the rivers ran ; and where he struck with his foot , there rose ponds of good water ; and when he blew through his trunk , -- thus , -- the trees fell . That was the manner in which the Jungle was made by Tha ; and so the tale was told to me . ''
`` It has not lost fat in the telling , '' Bagheera whispered , and XXXXX laughed behind his hand .
Bagheera Baloo Brother First Hathi Jungle Mowgli Tha days minute