Status Updates From El libro de la selva

The language about fire is neat. It’s like a plant. They put the coals (seeds) in a pot. He blows on the fire to make it bloom and feeds it sticks to make it grow. If you pick up a branch and put it in the fire, it blossoms on the branch. After Mowgli snatched the pot from the boy, he spent the day in the cave practicing how to tend it based on his habit of attention! The jackal came to the cave. Mowgli laughed.

I wonder if swinging a jackal by his tail and letting him go is a bit like running out the moneychangers. Mowgli checks in with Mother Wolf who is in the cave and she can tell he is worried. Akela missed the buck and now Mowgli knows that Bagheera was right. Mowgli ran to the man village and presses his face against the window. He watches the woman with the coals to learn what to do. She sent the boy out with a pot.

The reason why other animals hate him is none can look him in the eye, not even Bagheera who was born among men. He comes up with an idea for Mowgli to get the Red Flower (fire) tha man grows. Animals are afraid of it. Man grows it in the twilight and carries it around in pots (like the pioneers). Mowgli agrees to do so but, for the first time in his life, he is troubled.

Mowgli obeyed the Law of the Jungle (also Christ). Then Bagheera reveals to Mowgli that he was born in captivity. He and his mother wore a collar and lived in a cage with iron bars. Men fed him in pans. One day he was large enough to break his collar and break out of the cage. He learned the Law of the Jungle. That combined with his knowledge of man made him feared and powerful.