`` But THIS is new hunting , '' said Mowgli . `` Never before have the dhole crossed our trail . '' `` What is has been . What will be is no more than a forgotten year striking backward . Be still while I count those my years . '' For a long hour Mowgli lay back among the coils , while Kaa , his head motionless on the ground , thought of all that he had seen and known since the day he came from the egg . The light seemed to go out of his eyes and leave them like stale opals , and now and again he made little stiff passes with his head , right and left , as though he were hunting in his sleep . Mowgli dozed quietly , for he knew that there is nothing like sleep before hunting , and he was trained to take it at any hour of the day or night . Then he felt Kaa 's back grow bigger and broader below him as the huge python puffed himself out , hissing with the noise of a sword drawn from a steel scabbard . `` I have seen all the dead seasons , '' Kaa said at last , `` and the great trees and the old elephants , and the rocks that were bare and sharp-pointed ere the moss grew . Art THOU still alive , Manling ? '' `` It is only a little after moonset , '' said Mowgli . `` I do not understand -- '' `` Hssh ! I am again Kaa . I knew it was but a little time . Now we will go to the river , and I will show thee what is to be done against the dhole . '' He turned , straight as an arrow , for the main stream of the Waingunga , plunging in a little above the pool that hid the Peace Rock , Mowgli at his side . `` Nay , do not swim . I go swiftly . My back , Little Brother . ''
XXXXX tucked his left arm round Kaa 's neck , dropped his right close to his body , and straightened his feet .
Brother Kaa Mowgli Waingunga dhole moonset night opals right year