The Second Jungle Book - Contents of The Second Jungle Book

Contents of The Second Jungle Book

Each story is followed by a related poem

1. "How Fear Came": This story takes place before Mowgli fights Shere Khan. During a drought, Mowgli and the animals gather at a shrunken river for a 'water truce', during which Hathi the elephant tells the story of how the first tiger got his stripes. This story can be seen as a forerunner of the Just So Stories.
2. "The Law of the Jungle" (poem)
3. "The Miracle of Purun Bhagat": An influential Indian politician abandons his worldly goods to become an ascetic holy man. Later he must save a village from a landslide with the help of the local animals whom he has befriended.
4. "A Song of Kabir" (poem)
5. "Letting In the Jungle": Mowgli has been driven out of the human village for witchcraft, and the superstitious villagers are preparing to kill his adopted parents Messua and her (unnamed) husband. Mowgli rescues them and then prepares to take revenge.
6. "Mowgli's Song Against People" (poem)
7. "The Undertakers": A mugger crocodile, a jackal and an adjutant stork (erroneously referred to as a crane in the story), three of the most unpleasant characters on the river, spend an afternoon bickering with each other until some Englishmen arrive to settle some unfinished business with the crocodile.
8. "A Ripple Song" (poem)
9. "The King's Ankus": Mowgli discovers a jewelled object beneath the Cold Lairs which he later discards carelessly, not realising that men will kill each other to possess it. Note: the first edition of The Second Jungle Book inadvertently omits the final 500 words of this story, in which Mowgli returns the treasure to its hiding-place to prevent further killings. Although the error was corrected in later printings, it was picked up by some later editions.
10. "The Song of the Little Hunter" (poem)
11. "Quiquern": A teenaged Inuit boy and girl set out across the arctic ice on a desperate hunt for food to save their tribe from starvation, guided by the mysterious animal-spirit Quiquern. However, Quiquern is really just two sleigh dogs that ran away from the village and accidentally tied each other together, making them appear to be Quiquern with 8 legs and 2 heads.
12. "Angutivaun Taina" (poem)
13. "Red Dog": Mowgli's wolfpack is threatened by a pack of rampaging dhole. Mowgli asks Kaa the python to help him formulate a plan to defeat them.
14. "Chil's Song" (poem)
15. "The Spring Running": Mowgli, now almost seventeen years old, is growing restless for reasons he cannot understand. On an aimless run through the jungle he stumbles across the village where his adopted mother Messua is now living with her two-year old son, and is torn between staying with her and returning to the jungle.
16. "The Outsong" (poem)