Some more questions from 'The Jungle Book'

[Haihao]

Hi,

Could you please help me with the following passages? Thank you in advance.

His first stroke was delivered into the heart of the crowd round Baloo. It was sent home with shut mouth in silence, and there was no need of a second. The monkeys scattered with cries of—“Kaa! It is Kaa! Run! Run!”

1. Is this ‘home’ with a sense similar to ‘hit the nail home’?
2. Just to make sure, does the ‘shut mouth’ belong to Kaa?

"I am not sure that they did not pull me into a hundred little bearlings," said Baloo, gravely shaking one leg after the other. “Wow! I am sore. Kaa, we owe thee, I think, our lives—Bagheera and I.”

“No matter. Where is the manling?”

3. I presume that ‘bearling’ and ‘manling’ are the jungle language meaning ‘bear’ and ‘man’ but I can’t feel sure why Baloo said ‘they did not pull me into a hundred little bearlings’ to refer his fight with monkeys on the terrace. Did he say ‘a hundred little bearlings’ just to mean ‘a huge amount of monkey’ in a little ironic mood?

Kaa looked carefully till he found a discolored crack in the marble tracery showing a weak spot, made two or three light taps with his head to get the distance, …

4. I suppose that ‘get the distance’ means ‘get the distance from the marble screen-work’. If so, how could Kaa make get the distance in such a fashion?

Thanks again.

Haihao

[Mister_Micawber]

.

1. Is this ‘home’ with a sense similar to ‘hit the nail home’? – Yes

2. Just to make sure, does the ‘shut mouth’ belong to Kaa? – Yes

3. I presume that ‘bearling’ and ‘manling’ are the jungle language meaning ‘bear’ and ‘man’ – They mean ‘baby bear’ and ‘baby man’, respectively.
   
   Did he say ‘a hundred little bearlings’ just to mean ‘a huge amount of monkey’ in a little ironic mood? – He was facetiously suggesting that they (all the monkeys) almost pulled him into many small pieces.

4. I suppose that ‘get the distance’ means ‘get the distance from the marble screen-work’. If so, how could Kaa make get the distance in such a fashion? – He is testing his striking distance: a couple of soft taps, like a hammer, and then he will make a heavy blow with his head from the established distance, which will shatter the screen-work.
   .

[Haihao]

Hi Mr. Micawber,

You made me understand them so satisfactorily! Your explanation ‘He was facetiously suggesting that they (all the monkeys) almost pulled him into many small pieces’ pulled me out of the dark at the moment!

Many thanks again.

Haihao