`` Now thou knowest ! '' and the torrent of black horns , foaming muzzles , and staring eyes whirled down the ravine just as boulders go down in floodtime ; the weaker buffaloes being shouldered out to the sides of the ravine where they tore through the creepers . They knew what the business was before them -- the terrible charge of the buffalo herd against which no tiger can hope to stand . Shere Khan heard the thunder of their hoofs , picked himself up , and lumbered down the ravine , looking from side to side for some way of escape , but the walls of the ravine were straight and he had to hold on , heavy with his dinner and his drink , willing to do anything rather than fight . The herd splashed through the pool he had just left , bellowing till the narrow cut rang . Mowgli heard an answering bellow from the foot of the ravine , saw Shere Khan turn -LRB- the tiger knew if the worst came to the worst it was better to meet the bulls than the cows with their calves -RRB- , and then Rama tripped , stumbled , and went on again over something soft , and , with the bulls at his heels , crashed full into the other herd , while the weaker buffaloes were lifted clean off their feet by the shock of the meeting . That charge carried both herds out into the plain , goring and stamping and snorting . Mowgli watched his time , and slipped off Rama 's neck , laying about him right and left with his stick . `` Quick , Akela ! Break them up . Scatter them , or they will be fighting one another . Drive them away , Akela . Hai , Rama ! Hai , hai , hai ! my children . Softly now , softly ! It is all over . '' Akela and Gray Brother ran to and fro nipping the buffaloes ' legs , and though the herd wheeled once to charge up the ravine again , Mowgli managed to turn Rama , and the others followed him to the wallows . Shere Khan needed no more trampling . He was dead , and the kites were coming for him already .
`` Brothers , that was a dog 's death , '' said Mowgli , feeling for the knife he always carried in a sheath round his neck now that he lived XXXXX men .
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