I am Bagheera ! Bagheera ! Bagheera ! As I dance with my shadow , so danced I with those men . Look ! '' The great panther leaped as a kitten leaps at a dead leaf whirling overhead , struck left and right into the empty air , that sang under the strokes , landed noiselessly , and leaped again and again , while the half purr , half growl gathered head as steam rumbles in a boiler . `` I am Bagheera -- in the jungle -- in the night , and my strength is in me . Who shall stay my stroke ? Man-cub , with one blow of my paw I could beat thy head flat as a dead frog in the summer ! '' `` Strike , then ! '' said Mowgli , in the dialect of the village , NOT the talk of the Jungle , and the human words brought Bagheera to a full stop , flung back on haunches that quivered under him , his head just at the level of Mowgli 's . Once more Mowgli stared , as he had stared at the rebellious cubs , full into the beryl-green eyes till the red glare behind their green went out like the light of a lighthouse shut off twenty miles across the sea ; till the eyes dropped , and the big head with them -- dropped lower and lower , and the red rasp of a tongue grated on Mowgli 's instep . `` Brother -- Brother -- Brother ! '' the boy whispered , stroking steadily and lightly from the neck along the heaving back . `` Be still , be still ! It is the fault of the night , and no fault of thine . '' `` It was the smells of the night , '' said Bagheera penitently . `` This air cries aloud to me . But how dost THOU know ? '' Of course the air round an Indian village is full of all kinds of smells , and to any creature who does nearly all his thinking through his nose , smells are as maddening as music and drugs are to human beings .
XXXXX gentled the panther for a few minutes longer , and he lay down like a cat before a fire , his paws tucked under his breast , and his eyes half shut .
Bagheera Brother Indian Man-cub Mowgli drugs instep left night right