"Many of the wolves that looked you over when you were brought to the Council first are old too, and the young wolves believe, as Shere Khan has taught them, that a man-cub has no place with the Pack. In a little time you will be a man."

"And what is a man that he should not run with his brothers?" said Mowgli. "I was born in the jungle. I have obeyed the Law of the Jungle, and there is no wolf of ours from whose paws I have not pulled a thorn. Surely they are my brothers!"

Bagheera stretched himself at full length and half shut his eyes. "Little Brother," said he, "feel under my jaw." Mowgli put up his strong brown hand, and just under Bagheera's silky chin, where the giant rolling muscles were all hidden by the glossy hair, he came upon a little bald spot. "There is no one in the jungle that knows that I, Bagheera, carry that mark - the mark of the collar; and yet, Little Brother, I was born among men, and it was among men that my mother died - in the cages of the king's palace at Oodeypore. It was because of this that I paid the price for thee at the Council when you were a little naked cub. Yes, I too was born among men. I had never seen the jungle. They fed me behind bars from an iron pan till one night I felt that I was Bagheera - the Panther - and no man's plaything, and I broke the silly lock with one blow of my paw and came away.