Hast thou a better plan , Kaa ? '' `` I have seen a hundred and a hundred Rains . Ere Hathi cast his milk-tushes my trail was big in the dust . By the First Egg , I am older than many trees , and I have seen all that the Jungle has done . '' `` 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 , XXXXX at his side .
Hathi Kaa Mowgli left milk-tushes moonset opals right year years