Boastful Bagheera

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"Who is Man that we should care for him - the naked brown digger, the hairless and toothless, the eater of earth? I have followed him all day - at noon - in the white sunlight. I herded him as the wolves herd buck. I am Bagheera! Bagheera! Bagheera! As I dance with my shadow, so I danced with those men. Look!"

The great panther leaped as a kitten leaps at a dead leaf whirling overhead, struck left and right into the empty air, that sang under the strokes, landed noiselessly, and leaped again and again, while the half purr, half growl gathered head as steam rumbles in a boiler.

"I am Bagheera - in the jungle - in the night, and my strength is in me. Who shall stay my stroke? Man-cub, with one blow of my paw I could beat thy head flat as a dead frog in summer!"

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I loved the Jungle Book when I was a kid; the animal characterizations were amazing. The original by Kipling, not the watered down Disney version. In particular, I loved that little speech Bagheera gave to an unimpressed Mowgli.