Some more questions from 'The Jungle Book'

[Haihao]

Hi,

Again have I got some questions from the book I am reading now. Could you help me with:

It was useless to look down, for he could only see the topsides of the branches, so he stared upward and saw, far away in the blue, Rann the Kite balancing and wheeling as he kept watch over the jungle waiting for things to die. Rann saw that the monkeys were carrying something, and dropped a few hundred yards to find out whether their load was good to eat. He whistled with surprise when he saw Mowgli being dragged up to a treetop and heard him give the Kite call for—“We be of one blood, thou and I.” The waves of the branches closed over the boy, but Chil balanced away to the next tree in time to see the little brown face come up again. “Mark my trail!” Mowgli shouted. “Tell Baloo of the Seeonee Pack and Bagheera of the Council Rock.”

1. Are ‘balancing and wheeling’ with a sense of ‘flying in a curving way while keeping itself balanced’?

2. Should ‘as he kept watch over the jungle’ be reworded to: ‘as he kept watching over the jungle’ as the current form?

3. Should ‘give the Kite call for’ be reworded as: give the Kite a call for’?

4. Does ‘mark’ in ‘Mark my trail!’ mean ‘watch’ or ‘notice’?

“Maybe thy great weight has something to do with the matter,” said Baloo.
“I am a fair length—a fair length,” said Kaa with a little pride. “But for all that, it is the fault of this new-grown timber. I came very near to falling on my last hunt—very near indeed—and the noise of my slipping, for my tail was not tight wrapped around the tree, waked the Bandar-log, and they called me most evil names.”

5. Does ‘a fair length’ mean ‘fairly long’?

6. Could ‘falling on my last hunt’ be reworded as: falling on the prey at my last hunt?

Too many questions, I am afraid. I am sorry and thank you so much in advance.

haihao

[Mister_Micawber]

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1. Are ‘balancing and wheeling’ with a sense of ‘flying in a curving way while keeping itself balanced’?-- wheeling is circling; balancing is adjusting to the wind currents. Have you ever watched a kite (the bird) or another raptor hovering, Haihao?

2. Should ‘as he kept watch over the jungle’ be reworded to: ‘as he kept watching over the jungle’ as the current form? – No. ‘To keep watch’ is idiomatic: it means to act as watchman or sentinel.

3. Should ‘give the Kite call for’ be reworded as: give the Kite a call for’? – No. The ‘kite call’ is the vocabulary in kite language for the subsequent quotation (‘We be… etc’)

4. Does ‘mark’ in ‘Mark my trail!’ mean ‘watch’ or ‘notice’? – Yes, ‘notice and remember’.

5. Does ‘a fair length’ mean ‘fairly long’? – Yes, with the added meaning of ‘attractive’: Kaa is a python with vanity.

6. Could ‘falling on my last hunt’ be reworded as: falling on the prey at my last hunt? – No; just falling from the tree. And quit trying to reword Kipling, Haihao. He is a competent writer.
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[Haihao]

Hi Mister Micawber, Konbanwa!

I got everything I needed from you again with both my hands full! Thank you very much indeed, Mr. Micawber.

Have you ever watched a kite (the bird) or another raptor hovering, Haihao?

I am afraid I have not, Mr. Micawber, not in my memory at least. But now I can imagine it like a seagull hovering over Yamashita Park.

And quit trying to reword Kipling, Haihao. He is a competent writer.

Sorry, :oops: Mr. Micawber, and I promise I will quit the bad habit. I have really come to love this book and Mr. Kipling.

Thanks again.

Haihao

[Mister_Micawber]

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What? You’ve never seen a Tobi (Black Kite)? Yes, like a big seagull, but wheeling and balancing with an eye out for someone’s sandwich.
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[Haihao]

Hi Mr. Micawber, Ohayougozaimasu!

I am sorry for my ignorance but I am afriad I have to confess that I still can’t clearly tell a Tobi from other similar birds. I must have seen some of them more than a few times in Ueno Zoo or somewhere else but perhaps due to my ‘mukanshin’ with birds and there are too many ‘Karasu’ (crow or raven?) here in Tokyo, I really haven’t got the confidence of recognizing a kite… :oops: One more reason is perhaps my prejudice against those raptors has turned me being blind to them while fond of others such as seagulls.

Haihao