***** Curiously enough , the Jackal and the Adjutant made the very same remark not three minutes after the men had left . A RIPPLE SONG Once a ripple came to land In the golden sunset burning -- Lapped against a maiden 's hand , By the ford returning . Dainty foot and gentle breast -- Here , across , be glad and rest . `` Maiden , wait , '' the ripple saith . `` Wait awhile , for I am Death ! '' `` Where my lover calls I go -- Shame it were to treat him coldly -- 'T was a fish that circled so , Turning over boldly . '' Dainty foot and tender heart , Wait the loaded ferry-cart . `` Wait , ah , wait ! '' the ripple saith ; `` Maiden , wait , for I am Death ! '' `` When my lover calls I haste -- Dame Disdain was never wedded ! '' Ripple-ripple round her waist , Clear the current eddied . Foolish heart and faithful hand , Little feet that touched no land . Far away the ripple sped , Ripple -- ripple -- running red ! THE KING 'S ANKUS These are the Four that are never content , that have never been filled since the Dews began -- Jacala 's mouth , and the glut of the Kite , and the hands of the Ape , and the Eyes of Man . Jungle Saying . Kaa , the big Rock Python , had changed his skin for perhaps the two-hundredth time since his birth ; and Mowgli , who never forgot that he owed his life to Kaa for a night 's work at Cold Lairs , which you may perhaps remember , went to congratulate him . Skin-changing always makes a snake moody and depressed till the new skin begins to shine and look beautiful . Kaa never made fun of Mowgli any more , but accepted him , as the other Jungle People did , for the Master of the Jungle , and brought him all the news that a python of his size would naturally hear . What Kaa did not know about the Middle Jungle , as they call it , -- the life that runs close to the earth or under it , the boulder , burrow , and the tree-bole life , -- might have been written upon the smallest of his scales . That afternoon Mowgli was sitting in the circle of Kaa 's great coils , fingering the flaked and broken old skin that lay all looped and twisted among the rocks just as Kaa had left it .
XXXXX had very courteously packed himself under Mowgli 's broad , bare shoulders , so that the boy was really resting in a living arm-chair .
Adjutant Ape Dews Jacala Jackal Kaa Mowgli left minutes night