"The Jungle will swallow these shells," said a quiet voice in the wreckage. "It is the outer wall that must lie down," and Mowgli, with the rain sluicing over his bare shoulders and arms, leaped back from a wall that was settling like a tired buffalo.
"All in good time," panted Hathi. "Oh, but my tusks were red at Bhurtpore! To the outer wall, children! With the head! Together! Now!"
The four pushed side by side; the outer wall bulged, split, and fell, and the villagers, dumb with horror, saw the savage, clay-streaked heads of the wreckers in the ragged gap. Then they fled, houseless and foodless, down the valley, as their village, shredded and tossed and trampled, melted behind them.
A month later the place was a dimpled mound, covered with soft, green young stuff; and by the end of the Rains there was the roaring Jungle in full blast on the spot that had been under plow not six months before.
I will let loose against you the fleet-footed vines-- I will call in the Jungle to stamp out your lines! The roofs shall fade before it, The house-beams shall fall, And the _Karela_, the bitter _Karela_, Shall cover it all!
In the gates of these your councils my people shall sing, In the doors of these your garners the Bat-folk shall cling; And the snake shall be your watchman, By a hearthstone unswept; For the _Karela_, the bitter _Karela_, Shall fruit where ye slept!
Ye shall not see my strikers; ye shall hear them and guess; By night, before the moon-rise, I will send for my cess, And the wolf shall be your herdsman By a landmark removed, For the _Karela_, the bitter _Karela_, Shall seed where ye loved!
I will reap your fields before you at the hands of a host; Ye shall glean behind my reapers for the bread that is lost; And the deer shall be your oxen By a headland untilled, For the _Karela_, the bitter _Karela_, Shall leaf where ye build!
I have untied against you the club-footed vines, I have sent in the Jungle to swamp out your lines The trees--the trees are on you! The house-beams shall fall, And the _Karela_, the bitter _Karela_, Shall cover you all!
When ye say to Tabaqui, "My Brother!" when ye call the Hyena to meat, Ye may cry the Full Truce with Jacala--the Belly that runs on four feet.