Does ‘What a cub’s cub it is!’ imply Mowgli’s contempt for Shere Khan? – Yes: a cub’s cub = a very foolish baby.
Does ‘he thinks that I shall wait till he has slept!’ mean 'he is so foolish as to think that I will delay my charge until he falls asleep!" – No: until he has rested and digested and awakened refreshed.
Does ladies’-chain fashion have something to do with ladies’-chain family or some dance? – I think it means that the two wolves ran a chain-link sort of path, crossing and recrossing each other’s trail, to divide the herd. I am not sure, though.
I guess ‘which’ refers to ‘the herd’. If so, why not ‘snorted and threw up their heads’? Or does ‘its head’ here have a collective meaning? – Yes, I think that is Kipling’s intention-- to represent the herd as a single entity.
Does this mean ‘A snap is more than enough to make the bulls charge’? – No; it is a fine line between enough snaps to control the bulls and too many snaps, which will cause them to charge.
Does ‘the bed’ mean ‘the bottom of a stream’? If so, how and why should they (the herd) get there? – I suppose they went down to drink, if there is a stream at the bottom (bed) of the ravine; otherwise, they just went down to cool off in the shade or eat succulents or something.
Does it suggest a harsh (narrow) rencounter (cut) began (rang)? – The cut is the ravine: the ravine echoed (rang) with their bellowing sounds.
Childrens’ books are one of the best ways to acquire basic (and often not so basic), everyday vocabulary. They can also provide a good insight into the natural speech forms of a language.
PS: It’s really nice to meet you ‘in picture’, Haihao – thank you for it!
Always my pleasure meeting you all! I am sorry for the delay of my picture. It really ‘cost’ me some courage to ‘publish’ it.
I always appreciate your kind help and company, Conchita, and many times I wished I could tell you that one of my most favorite food is paella and one of my most favorite books is Don Quixote.
Humm…, I am sorry but I can’t remember if we met before, Nina. But I am happy we are meeting here!
I can’t wait too, Mr. Micawber, until I have gotten a whole picture for the book. Thank you very much again for your precious help with my endless questions. Sometimes I really feel uneasy to ‘lay on’ so many questions.