Some more questions from 'The Jungle Book'

[Haihao]

Hi,

Could you please help me again with the following?

The monkeys never fight unless they are a hundred to one, and few in the jungle care for those odds.
“I will go to the west wall,” Kaa whispered, “and come down swiftly with the slope of the ground in my favor. They will not throw themselves upon my back in their hundreds, but—”
“I know it,” said Bagheera. "Would that Baloo were here, but we must do what we can.

1. Does ‘and few in the jungle care for those odds’ mean: and few in the jungle are willing to accept such bad a disadvantage.

2. Could I suggest ‘Would that Baloo were here’ = if Baloo were here? If so, why and how could it be?

“Even ssso! Down hoods all!” said half a dozen low voices (every ruin in India becomes sooner or later a dwelling place of snakes, and the old summerhouse was alive with cobras). “Stand still, Little Brother, for thy feet may do us harm.”
Mowgli stood as quietly as he could, peering through the open work and listening to the furious din of the fight round the Black Panther—the yells and chatterings and scufflings, and Bagheera’s deep, hoarse cough as he backed and bucked and twisted and plunged under the heaps of his enemies.

3. Does ‘Down hoods all!’ mean: put all your hoods down!?

4. Does ‘… plunged under the heaps of his enemies’ mean: … threw himself earnestly (into the fighting) under many layers of the monkeys?

Then from the ruined wall nearest the jungle rose up the rumbling war-shout of Baloo. The old Bear had done his best, but he could not come before. “Bagheera,” he shouted, “I am here. I climb! I haste! Ahuwora! The stones slip under my feet! Wait my coming, O most infamous Bandar-log!” He panted up the terrace only to disappear to the head in a wave of monkeys, but he threw himself squarely on his haunches, and, spreading out his forepaws, hugged as many as he could hold, and then began to hit with a regular bat-bat-bat, like the flipping strokes of a paddle wheel. A crash and a splash told Mowgli that Bagheera had fought his way to the tank where the monkeys could not follow. The Panther lay gasping for breath, his head just out of the water, while the monkeys stood three deep on the red steps, dancing up and down with rage, ready to spring upon him from all sides if he came out to help Baloo.

5. Is ‘nearest’ a ‘superlative preposition’? How could it be so?

6. Does ‘only to disappear to the head in a wave of monkeys’ mean: only to become covered (with monkeys) all over but his head in a wave-formed crowds of the monkeys?

7. Does ‘the monkeys stood three deep on the red steps’ mean: the monkeys stood three circles deep on the red steps (of the water tank)?

Many thaks again.

Haihao

[Mister_Micawber]

.

1. Does ‘and few in the jungle care for those odds’ mean: and few in the jungle are willing to accept such a bad disadvantage. – Yes.

2. Could I suggest ‘Would that Baloo were here’ = if Baloo were here? – Yes.
   If so, why and how could it be? – Maybe I don’t understand this question, Haihao. ‘Would that…were’ is a reasonably common formulaic subjunctive.

3. Does ‘Down hoods all!’ mean: put all your hoods down!? – Not exactly; ‘All of you, put down your hoods!’. I presume you know that a cobra has a hood which it spreads when it is alarmed or angry.

4. Does ‘… plunged under the heaps of his enemies’ mean: … threw himself earnestly (into the fighting) under many layers of the monkeys? – Yes.

5. Is ‘nearest’ a ‘superlative preposition’? How could it be so? - Yes; why not? ‘The ruined wall [which was the] nearest [to] the jungle.’

6. Does ‘only to disappear to the head in a wave of monkeys’ mean: only to become covered (with monkeys) all over but his head in a wave-formed crowds of the monkeys? – …All over but his head in a flowing wave of monkeys.

7. Does ‘the monkeys stood three deep on the red steps’ mean: the monkeys stood three circles deep on the red steps (of the water tank)? – Yes.
   .

[Haihao]

Hi Mr. Micawber,

Many many thanks again and again I have got everything I wanted with both of my hands full!

Maybe I don’t understand this question, Haihao. ‘Would that…were’ is a reasonably common formulaic subjunctive.

I am sorry, Mr Micawber, this was simply my lack of confidence in determining ‘Would that…were’ = ‘if … were’

I presume you know that a cobra has a hood which it spreads when it is alarmed or angry.

In fact I only knew that a cobra had a hood but didn’t know it spread when it was alarmed or angry.

Yes; why not? ‘The ruined wall [which was the] nearest [to] the jungle.’

I took it too rigidly thinking ‘near’ could be only a preposition here for ‘near the jungle’. Now I understand it could act as well as an adjective.

Thanks again.

Haihao