The Poems of Rudyard Kipling

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IN the old fairy tales the cradles of new-born infants were visited by beneficent beings who granted special gifts of fortune, beauty, talent, though sometimes a jealous hag would slink in and by a malevolent counter- charm try to spoil the bright future. Such things have long ago ceased in commonplace England, but it is differ- ent in India; and we can hardly help believing that the power of understanding the speech of animals and birds is still occasionally conferred on fortunate mortals. Else how can one explain "Rikki-Tikki-Tavi," and "Tomai of the Elephants " ? Fortunate for special purposes is the man of one race and language who is born amid the men of another, and thus inherits two tongues and the knowledge of two peoples. Such was the good fortune of Rudyard Kipling, and it is not a mere legend that, on meeting with Indian elephants amid the tawdry surroundings of an American circus, he was able to talk and understand the mystic language of the jungle.