“Now whither does THIS trail lead?" Kaa's voice was gentler. "Not a moon since there was a Manling with a knife threw stones at my head and called me bad little tree-cat names, because I lay asleep in the open.”
“The Man went to sleep in front of the fire ever so happy; but the Woman sat up, combing her hair. She took the bone of the shoulder of mutton – the big fat blade bone – and she looked at the wonderful marks on it, and she threw more wood on the fire, and she made a Magic. She made the first Singing Magic in the world.”
“A black shadow dropped down into the circle. It was Bagheera the Black Panther, inky black all over, but with the panther markings showing up in certain lights like the pattern of watered silk. Everybody knew Bagheera, and nobody cared to cross his path, for he was as cunning as Tabaqui, as bold as the wild buffalo, and as reckless as the wounded elephant. But he had a voice as soft as wild honey dripping from a tree, and a skin softer than down.”
“I will remember what I was, I am sick of rope and chains -I will remember my old strength and all my forest affairs.I will not sell my back to man for a bundle of sugar cane;I will go out to my own kind, and the wood-folk in their lairs.I will go out until the day, until the morning break -Out to the wind's untainted kiss, the water's clean caress;I will forget my ankle-ring and snap my picket stake.I will revisit my lost love and playmates masterless!”
“I have my own matches and sulphur, and I'll make my own hell.”
“My heart is so tired”