Poems of Rudyard Kipling: 1899

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.