The Jungle Book Study Guide

"Mowgli's Brothers" is set deep in the jungle of India. At the start of the story, the reader meets a family of wolves, just as they are waking up. The wolf family is hungry, and the mother wolf is nursing her cubs. Tabaqui, the jackal, enters the cave, looking for food. In Kipling's jungle, the animals are highly eloquent beings with a rigid system of hierarchy. The reader is told that the jackal is among the lowest of the animals, because he is a scavenger and prone to "dewanee," what today is called hydrophobia or rabies. Tabaqui tells them that Shere Khan, a fearsome tiger, is hunting in the wolves' neighborhood. The tiger is lame in one leg, but still dangerous. His coming upsets the wolves, because it will scare all the games away as well as threaten their cubs. (read more)