“The pity of the Monkey People!” Baloo snorted.  “The stillness of the mountain stream!  The cool of the summer sun!  And then, man-cub?”

“And then, and then, they gave me nuts and pleasant things to eat, and they—­they carried me in their arms up to the top of the trees and said I was their blood brother except that I had no tail, and should be their leader some day.”

“They have no leader,” said Bagheera.  “They lie.  They have always lied.”

“They were very kind and bade me come again.  Why have I never been taken among the Monkey People?  They stand on their feet as I do.  They do not hit me with their hard paws.  They play all day.  Let me get up!  Bad Baloo, let me up!  I will play with them again.”

“Listen, man-cub,” said the Bear, and his voice rumbled like thunder on a hot night.  “I have taught thee all the Law of the Jungle for all the peoples of the jungle—­except the Monkey-Folk who live in the trees.  They have no law.  They are outcasts.  They have no speech of their own, but use the stolen words which they overhear when they listen, and peep, and wait up above in the branches.  Their way is not our way.  They are without leaders.  They have no remembrance.  They boast and chatter and pretend that they are a great people about to do great affairs in the jungle, but the falling of a nut turns their minds to laughter and all is forgotten.  We of the jungle have no dealings with them.  We do not drink where the monkeys drink; we do not go where the monkeys go; we do not hunt where they hunt; we do not die where they die.  Hast thou ever heard me speak of the Bandar-log till today?”

“No,” said Mowgli in a whisper, for the forest was very still now Baloo had finished.

“The Jungle-People put them out of their mouths and out of their minds.  They are very many, evil, dirty, shameless, and they desire, if they have any fixed desire, to be noticed by the Jungle People.  But we do not notice them even when they throw nuts and filth on our heads.”

He had hardly spoken when a shower of nuts and twigs spattered down through the branches; and they could hear coughings and howlings and angry jumpings high up in the air among the thin branches.

“The Monkey-People are forbidden,” said Baloo, “forbidden to the Jungle-People.  Remember.”

“Forbidden,” said Bagheera, “but I still think Baloo should have warned thee against them.”

“I—­I?  How was I to guess he would play with such dirt.  The Monkey People!  Faugh!”

A fresh shower came down on their heads and the two trotted away, taking Mowgli with them.  What Baloo had said about the monkeys was perfectly true.  They belonged to the tree-tops, and as beasts very seldom look up, there was no occasion for the monkeys and the Jungle-People to cross each other’s path.  But whenever they found a sick wolf, or a wounded tiger, or bear, the monkeys would torment him, and would throw sticks and nuts at any beast