One day, Mowgli climbs a tree and makes friends with the Bandar-Log, the monkey tribe, who because of their stupidity and vanity are despised by the other jungle people. When the Bandar-Log carries off Mowgli, Bagheera and Baloo go in pursuit, taking along Kaa, the rock python, who loves to eat monkeys. Mowgli is rescued at the old ruined city of the Cold Lairs by the three pursuers, and Kaa feasts royally upon monkey meat.
One year during a severe drought in the jungle, Hathi the elephant proclaims the water truce; all animals are allowed to drink at the water hole unmolested. Shere Khan announces to the animals gathered there one day that he killed a man, not for food but from choice. The other animals are shocked. Hathi allows the tiger to drink and then tells him to be off. Then Hathi tells the story of how fear came to the jungle and why the tiger is striped. It is the tiger who first kills man and earns the human tribe’s unrelenting enmity; for his deed, the tiger is condemned to wear stripes. For one day a year, the tiger is not afraid of man and can kill him. This day is called, among jungle people, the Night of the Tiger.
One day, Mowgli wanders close to a native village, where he is adopted by Messua, a woman who lost her son some years before. Mowgli becomes a watcher of the village herds; from time to time, he meets Gray Wolf, his brother, and hears the news of the jungle....