There was a ruined summer-house of white marble in the center of the terrace , built for queens dead a hundred years ago . The domed roof had half fallen in and blocked up the underground passage from the palace by which the queens used to enter . But the walls were made of screens of marble tracery -- beautiful milk-white fretwork , set with agates and cornelians and jasper and lapis lazuli , and as the moon came up behind the hill it shone through the open work , casting shadows on the ground like black velvet embroidery . Sore , sleepy , and hungry as he was , Mowgli could not help laughing when the Bandar-log began , twenty at a time , to tell him how great and wise and strong and gentle they were , and how foolish he was to wish to leave them . `` We are great . We are free . We are wonderful . We are the most wonderful people in all the jungle ! We all say so , and so it must be true , '' they shouted . `` Now as you are a new listener and can carry our words back to the Jungle-People so that they may notice us in future , we will tell you all about our most excellent selves . '' Mowgli made no objection , and the monkeys gathered by hundreds and hundreds on the terrace to listen to their own speakers singing the praises of the Bandar-log , and whenever a speaker stopped for want of breath they would all shout together : `` This is true ; we all say so . '' Mowgli nodded and blinked , and said `` Yes '' when they asked him a question , and his head spun with the noise . `` Tabaqui the Jackal must have bitten all these people , '' he said to himself , `` and now they have madness . Certainly this is dewanee , the madness . Do they never go to sleep ? Now there is a cloud coming to cover that moon . If it were only a big enough cloud I might try to run away in the darkness . But I am tired . '' That same cloud was being watched by two good friends in the ruined ditch below the city wall , for Bagheera and Kaa , knowing well how dangerous the Monkey-People were in large numbers , did not wish to run any risks . The monkeys never fight unless they are a hundred to one , and few in the jungle care for those odds .
`` I will go to the west wall , '' Kaa whispered , `` and come down swiftly with the slope of the ground XXXXX my favor .
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