Rock. Lean and wrinkled and yellow-tusked though he was,
he looked what the Jungle knew him to be--their master.

"Ye know, children," he began, "that of all things ye most fear
Man"; and there was a mutter of agreement.

"This tale touches thee, Little Brother," said Bagheera
to Mowgli.

"I? I am of the Pack--a hunter of the Free People," Mowgli
answered. "What have I to do with Man?"

"And ye do not know why ye fear Man?" Hathi went on. "This is
the reason. In the beginning of the Jungle, and none know when
that was, we of the Jungle walked together, having no fear of
one another. In those days there was no drought, and leaves and
flowers and fruit grew on the same tree, and we ate nothing at
all except leaves and flowers and grass and fruit and bark."

"I am glad I was not born in those days," said Bagheera. "Bark
is only good to sharpen claws."

"And the Lord of the Jungle was Tha, the First of the
Elephants. He drew the Jungle out of deep waters with his
trunk; and where he made furrows in the ground with his tusks,
there the rivers ran; and where he struck with his foot, there
rose ponds of good water; and when he blew through his trunk,--
thus,--the trees fell. That was the manner in which the Jungle
was made by Tha; and so the tale was told to me."