A small crack might let in some wisdom . '' Ikki ducked quickly to prevent Mowgli from pulling his nose-bristles , and Mowgli told Baloo what Ikki had said . Baloo looked very grave , and mumbled half to himself : `` If I were alone I would change my hunting-grounds now , before the others began to think . And yet -- hunting among strangers ends in fighting ; and they might hurt the Man-cub . We must wait and see how the mohwa blooms . '' That spring the mohwa tree , that Baloo was so fond of , never flowered . The greeny , cream-coloured , waxy blossoms were heat-killed before they were born , and only a few bad-smelling petals came down when he stood on his hind legs and shook the tree . Then , inch by inch , the untempered heat crept into the heart of the Jungle , turning it yellow , brown , and at last black . The green growths in the sides of the ravines burned up to broken wires and curled films of dead stuff ; the hidden pools sank down and caked over , keeping the last least footmark on their edges as if it had been cast in iron ; the juicy-stemmed creepers fell away from the trees they clung to and died at their feet ; the bamboos withered , clanking when the hot winds blew , and the moss peeled off the rocks deep in the Jungle , till they were as bare and as hot as the quivering blue boulders in the bed of the stream . The birds and the monkey-people went north early in the year , for they knew what was coming ; and the deer and the wild pig broke far away to the perished fields of the villages , dying sometimes before the eyes of men too weak to kill them . Chil , the Kite , stayed and grew fat , for there was a great deal of carrion , and evening after evening he brought the news to the beasts , too weak to force their way to fresh hunting-grounds , that the sun was killing the Jungle for three days ' flight in every direction . Mowgli , who had never known what real hunger meant , fell back on stale honey , three years old , scraped out of deserted rock-hives -- honey black as a sloe , and dusty with dried sugar . He hunted , too , for deep-boring grubs under the bark of the trees , and robbed the wasps of their new broods . All the game in the jungle was no more than skin and bone , and Bagheera could kill thrice in a night , and hardly get a full meal . But the want of water was the worst , for though the Jungle People drink seldom they must drink deep . And the heat went on and on , and sucked up all the moisture , till at last the main channel of the Waingunga was the only stream that carried a trickle of water between its dead banks ; and when Hathi , the wild elephant , who lives for a hundred years and more , saw a long , lean blue ridge of rock show dry in the very centre of the stream , he knew that he was looking at the Peace Rock , and then and there he lifted up his trunk and proclaimed the Water Truce , as his father before him had proclaimed it fifty years ago . The deer , wild pig , and buffalo took up the cry hoarsely ; and Chil , the Kite , flew in great circles far and wide , whistling and shrieking the warning . By the Law of the Jungle it is death to kill at the drinking-places when once the Water Truce has been declared . The reason of this is that drinking comes before eating . Every one in the Jungle can scramble along somehow when only game is scarce ; but water is water , and when there is but one source of supply , all hunting stops while the Jungle People go there for their needs .
In good seasons , when water was plentiful , those who came down to drink at the XXXXX -- or anywhere else , for that matter -- did so at the risk of their lives , and that risk made no small part of the fascination of the night 's doings .
Bagheera Hathi Jungle Waingunga bamboos days evening mohwa old years