"Tiger! Tiger!" is a

short story A short story is a piece of prose fiction that typically can be read in one sitting and focuses on a self-contained incident or series of linked incidents, with the intent of evoking a single effect or mood. The short story is one of the oldest ...

Rudyard Kipling Joseph Rudyard Kipling ( ; 30 December 1865 – 18 January 1936)'' The Times'', (London) 18 January 1936, p. 12. was an English novelist, short-story writer, poet, and journalist. He was born in British India, which inspired much of his work. ...

. A direct sequel to "

Mowgli's Brothers "Mowgli's Brothers" is a short story by Rudyard Kipling. Chronologically it is the first story about Mowgli although it was written after " In the Rukh" in which Mowgli appears as an adult. The story first appeared in the January 1894 issue of '' ...

", it was published in magazines in 1893–94 before appearing as the third story in ''

The Jungle Book ''The Jungle Book'' (1894) is a collection of stories by the English author Rudyard Kipling. Most of the characters are animals such as Shere Khan the tiger and Baloo the bear, though a principal character is the boy or "man-cub" Mowgli, w ...

'' (1894), following "

Kaa's Hunting "Kaa's Hunting" is an 1893 short story by Rudyard Kipling featuring Mowgli. Chronologically the story falls between the first and second halves of Mowgli's Brothers, and is the second story in '' The Jungle Book'' (1894) where it is accompanied b ...

". The title is derived from

William Blake William Blake (28 November 1757 – 12 August 1827) was an English poet, painter, and printmaker. Largely unrecognised during his life, Blake is now considered a seminal figure in the history of the Romantic poetry, poetry and visual art of t ...

poem Poetry (derived from the Greek '' poiesis'', "making"), also called verse, is a form of literature that uses aesthetic and often rhythmic qualities of language − such as phonaesthetics, sound symbolism, and metre − to evoke meaning ...

The Tyger "The Tyger" is a poem by the English poet William Blake, published in 1794 as part of his '' Songs of Experience'' collection and rising to prominence in the romantic period. The poem is one of the most anthologised in the English literary can ...

Story

After driving out the

tiger The tiger (''Panthera tigris'') is the largest living Felidae, cat species and a member of the genus ''Panthera''. It is most recognisable for its dark vertical stripes on orange fur with a white underside. An apex predator, it primarily pr ...

Shere Khan Shere Khan (Hindi- शेर खान/ English pronunciation) is a fictional Bengal tiger and the main antagonist of Rudyard Kipling's '' Jungle Book'' and its adaptations. According to The Kipling Society, the word ''shere'' (or ''shir'') t ...

Mowgli Mowgli () is a fictional character and the protagonist of Rudyard Kipling's ''The Jungle Book'' stories. He is a feral boy from the Pench area in Seoni, Madhya Pradesh, India, who originally appeared in Kipling's short story "In the Rukh" (c ...

leaves the

wolf The wolf (''Canis lupus''; : wolves), also known as the gray wolf or grey wolf, is a large canine native to Eurasia and North America. More than thirty subspecies of ''Canis lupus'' have been recognized, and gray wolves, as popularly un ...

pack that has raised him and makes his way to a human village to be with his own (biological) kind. There he is

adopted Adoption is a process whereby a person assumes the parenting of another, usually a child, from that person's biological or legal parent or parents. Legal adoptions permanently transfer all rights and responsibilities, along with filiation, from ...

by a bereaved couple, Messua and her husband, due to his resemblance to their long-lost son

Nathoo This is a list of characters that appear in Rudyard Kipling's 1894 ''The Jungle Book'' story collection, its 1895 sequel ''The Second Jungle Book'', and the various film adaptations based on those books. Characters include both human and talkin ...

. The village priest agrees to this because it will keep Messua's rich husband happy. For three months Mowgli learns human language and customs such as wearing

clothes Clothing (also known as clothes, apparel, and attire) are items worn on the human body, body. Typically, clothing is made of fabrics or textiles, but over time it has included garments made from animal skin and other thin sheets of materials ...

plough A plough or plow ( US; both ) is a farm tool for loosening or turning the soil before sowing seed or planting. Ploughs were traditionally drawn by oxen and horses, but in modern farms are drawn by tractors. A plough may have a wooden, iron or ...

ing,

money Money is any item or verifiable record that is generally accepted as payment for goods and services and repayment of debts, such as taxes, in a particular country or socio-economic context. The primary functions which distinguish money ar ...

and

caste Caste is a form of social stratification characterised by endogamy, hereditary transmission of a style of life which often includes an occupation, ritual status in a hierarchy, and customary social interaction and exclusion based on cultur ...

divisions, few of which impress him. He is also disrespectful to the village elders when they tell fanciful tales of the jungle, such as claims of the tiger being the

reincarnation Reincarnation, also known as rebirth or transmigration, is the philosophical or religious concept that the non-physical essence of a living being begins a new life in a different physical form or body after biological death. Resurrectio ...

of a lame money-lender, since he has first-hand experience of what the jungle is really like. What is not fanciful is the 100-

rupee Rupee is the common name for the currencies of India, Mauritius, Nepal, Pakistan, Seychelles, and Sri Lanka, and of former currencies of Afghanistan, Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, the United Arab Emirates (as the Gulf rupee), British East Africa, ...

reward for the tiger's skin. During this period, Mowgli regularly sneaks out of the village to meet his wolf friend Grey Brother who brings him news of the jungle. To keep Mowgli out of trouble the village elders decide to put him to work herding buffalo. One day while taking a break from this task he meets Grey Brother again. The wolf tells him that Shere Khan has returned and is planning to kill Mowgli. For the next few weeks Grey Brother keeps watch on Shere Khan while Mowgli goes about his tasks in the village. Eventually he meets Mowgli again and tells him that Shere Khan is hiding in a nearby ravine in preparation to attack. Mowgli learns that Grey Brother obtained this information from Shere Khan's accomplice

Tabaqui This is a list of characters that appear in Rudyard Kipling's 1894 ''The Jungle Book'' story collection, its 1895 sequel ''The Second Jungle Book'', and the various film adaptations based on those books. Characters include both human and talking ...

the

jackal Jackals are medium-sized canids native to Africa and Eurasia. While the word "jackal" has historically been used for many canines of the subtribe canina, in modern use it most commonly refers to three species: the closely related black-backed ...

, before killing him. With the aid of Akela, Mowgli and Grey Brother divide the buffalo herd in two and

stampede A stampede () is a situation in which a group of large animals suddenly start running in the same direction, especially because they are excited or frightened. Non-human species associated with stampede behavior include zebras, cattle, elephants ...

them from opposite ends of the ravine, trampling the tiger to death between them. Mowgli, who has promised to lay Shere Khan's skin on the wolf pack's Council Rock, sets about skinning the tiger. The village hunter Buldeo has been told of the stampede by the other village boys, and soon arrives to chastise Mowgli. Buldeo demands that Mowgli hand the skin over to him for the reward. Mowgli refuses, and summons Akela to restrain him. When Mowgli and Akela let him go, the frightened hunter returns to the village and tells the villagers Mowgli is a

shapeshifting In mythology, folklore and speculative fiction, shape-shifting is the ability to physically transform oneself through an inherently superhuman ability, divine intervention, demonic manipulation, sorcery, spells or having inherited the ...

sorcerer. By the time the unsuspecting Mowgli returns with the buffalo, the entire village except Messua has turned against him and they drive him away. Confused and disgusted by their behaviour, Mowgli fulfils his promise to lay out Shere Khan's hide on Council Rock and dances upon it, singing of his emotional confusion. The pack offers to take Mowgli back, but he refuses to forgive them for casting him out earlier. Instead he decides that from now on he will hunt alone, except for his four wolf-brothers who refuse to be parted from him. The story ends with the statement that Mowgli will eventually grow up and get married, "but that is a story for grown-ups". This is clearly a reference to Kipling's earlier story "In the Rukh" (collected in '' Many Inventions''), which was indeed aimed at adults, in which the adult Mowgli does marry. {{Rudyard Kipling The Jungle Book stories 1894 short stories Works originally published in St. Nicholas Magazine