He took his place at the Council Rock , too , when the Pack met , and there he discovered that if he stared hard at any wolf , the wolf would be forced to drop his eyes , and so he used to stare for fun . At other times he would pick the long thorns out of the pads of his friends , for wolves suffer terribly from thorns and burs in their coats . He would go down the hillside into the cultivated lands by night , and look very curiously at the villagers in their huts , but he had a mistrust of men because Bagheera showed him a square box with a drop gate so cunningly hidden in the jungle that he nearly walked into it , and told him that it was a trap . He loved better than anything else to go with Bagheera into the dark warm heart of the forest , to sleep all through the drowsy day , and at night see how Bagheera did his killing . Bagheera killed right and left as he felt hungry , and so did Mowgli -- with one exception . As soon as he was old enough to understand things , Bagheera told him that he must never touch cattle because he had been bought into the Pack at the price of a bull 's life . `` All the jungle is thine , '' said Bagheera , `` and thou canst kill everything that thou art strong enough to kill ; but for the sake of the bull that bought thee thou must never kill or eat any cattle young or old . That is the Law of the Jungle . '' Mowgli obeyed faithfully . And he grew and grew strong as a boy must grow who does not know that he is learning any lessons , and who has nothing in the world to think of except things to eat . Mother Wolf told him once or twice that Shere Khan was not a creature to be trusted , and that some day he must kill Shere Khan . But though a young wolf would have remembered that advice every hour , Mowgli forgot it because he was only a boy -- though he would have called himself a wolf if he had been able to speak in any human tongue . Shere Khan was always crossing his path in the jungle , for as Akela grew older and feebler the lame tiger had come to be great friends with the younger wolves of the Pack , who followed him for scraps , a thing Akela would never have allowed if he had dared to push his authority to the proper bounds . Then Shere Khan would flatter them and wonder that such fine young hunters were content to be led by a dying wolf and a man 's cub . `` They tell me , '' Shere Khan would say , `` that at Council ye dare not look him between the eyes . '' And the young wolves would growl and bristle . Bagheera , who had eyes and ears everywhere , knew something of this , and once or twice he told Mowgli in so many words that Shere Khan would kill him some day . Mowgli would laugh and answer : `` I have the Pack and I have thee ; and Baloo , though he is so lazy , might strike a blow or two for my sake . Why should I be afraid ? '' It was one very warm day that a new notion came to Bagheera -- born of something that he had heard .
Perhaps Ikki the Porcupine had told him ; but he said to Mowgli when they were deep in the jungle , as the boy lay XXXXX his head on Bagheera 's beautiful black skin , `` Little Brother , how often have I told thee that Shere Khan is thy enemy ? ''
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