"Tiger! Tiger!" is a short story

Short story

A short story is a work of fiction that is usually written in prose, often in narrative format. This format tends to be more pointed than longer works of fiction, such as novellas and novels. Short story definitions based on length differ somewhat, even among professional writers, in part because...

 by Rudyard Kipling

Rudyard Kipling

Joseph Rudyard Kipling was an English poet, short-story writer, and novelist chiefly remembered for his celebration of British imperialism, tales and poems of British soldiers in India, and his tales for children. Kipling received the 1907 Nobel Prize for Literature...

. A direct sequel to "Mowgli's Brothers

Mowgli's Brothers

"Mowgli's Brothers" is a short story by Rudyard Kipling. Chronologically it is the first story about Mowgli although it was written after "In the Rukh" in which Mowgli appears as an adult.The story first appeared in the January 1894 issue of St...

", it was published in magazines in 1893–94 before appearing as the third story in The Jungle Book

The Jungle Book

The Jungle Book is a collection of stories by British Nobel laureate Rudyard Kipling. The stories were first published in magazines in 1893–4. The original publications contain illustrations, some by Rudyard's father, John Lockwood Kipling. Kipling was born in India and spent the first six...

(1894), following "Kaa's Hunting

Kaa's Hunting

"Kaa's Hunting" is an 1893 short story by Rudyard Kipling featuring Mowgli. Chronologically the story falls between the first and second halves of Mowgli's Brothers, and is the second story in The Jungle Book where it is accompanied by the poem "Road Song of the Bandar-log".-Story:The...

". The title is derived from William Blake

William Blake

William Blake was an English poet, painter, and printmaker. Largely unrecognised during his lifetime, Blake is now considered a seminal figure in the history of both the poetry and visual arts of the Romantic Age...

's poem

Poetry

Poetry is a form of literary art in which language is used for its aesthetic and evocative qualities in addition to, or in lieu of, its apparent meaning...

 "The Tyger

The Tyger

"The Tyger" is a poem by the English poet William Blake. It was published as part of his collection Songs of Experience in 1794 . It is one of Blake's best-known and most analyzed poems...

".

Story

After driving out the tiger

Tiger

The tiger is the largest cat species, reaching a total body length of up to and weighing up to . Their most recognizable feature is a pattern of dark vertical stripes on reddish-orange fur with lighter underparts...

 Shere Khan

Shere Khan

Shere Khan is a fictional tiger of the Indian jungle. He is the chief antagonist in two of Rudyard Kipling's Jungle Book stories featuring Mowgli. Shere Khan is named after an Afghan Prince Kipling encountered on his trips to Afghanistan...

, Mowgli

Mowgli

Mowgli is a fictional character from India who originally appeared in Rudyard Kipling's short story "In the Rukh" and then went on to become the most prominent and memorable character in his fantasies, The Jungle Book and The Second Jungle Book , which also featured stories about other...

 leaves the wolf pack that has raised him and makes his way to a human village to be with his own (biological) kind. There he is adopted

Adoption

Adoption is a process whereby a person assumes the parenting for another and, in so doing, permanently transfers all rights and responsibilities from the original parent or parents...

 by a bereaved couple, Messua and her husband, who believe he is their long-lost son Nathoo. The village priest agrees to this because it will keep Messua's rich husband happy.

For three months Mowgli learns human language and customs such as wearing clothes

Clothing

Clothing refers to any covering for the human body that is worn. The wearing of clothing is exclusively a human characteristic and is a feature of nearly all human societies...

, plough

Plough

The plough or plow is a tool used in farming for initial cultivation of soil in preparation for sowing seed or planting. It has been a basic instrument for most of recorded history, and represents one of the major advances in agriculture...

ing, money

Money

Money is any object or record that is generally accepted as payment for goods and services and repayment of debts in a given country or socio-economic context. The main functions of money are distinguished as: a medium of exchange; a unit of account; a store of value; and, occasionally in the past,...

 and caste

Caste

Caste is an elaborate and complex social system that combines elements of endogamy, occupation, culture, social class, tribal affiliation and political power. It should not be confused with race or social class, e.g. members of different castes in one society may belong to the same race, as in India...

 divisions, few of which impress him. He is also disrespectful to the village elders when they tell fanciful tales of the jungle, since he has first-hand experience of what the jungle is really like. This earns him the particular contempt of Buldeo, the village's chief hunter

Hunting

Hunting is the practice of pursuing any living thing, usually wildlife, for food, recreation, or trade. In present-day use, the term refers to lawful hunting, as distinguished from poaching, which is the killing, trapping or capture of the hunted species contrary to applicable law...

 who claims that the tiger is the reincarnation

Reincarnation

Reincarnation best describes the concept where the soul or spirit, after the death of the body, is believed to return to live in a new human body, or, in some traditions, either as a human being, animal or plant...

 of a lame money-lender

Usury

Usury Originally, when the charging of interest was still banned by Christian churches, usury simply meant the charging of interest at any rate . In countries where the charging of interest became acceptable, the term came to be used for interest above the rate allowed by law...

. What is not fanciful is the 100-rupee

Rupee

The rupee is the common name for the monetary unit of account in India, Sri Lanka, Nepal, Pakistan, Mauritius, Seychelles, Maldives, and formerly in Burma, and Afghanistan. Historically, the first currency called "rupee" was introduced in the 16th century...

 reward for the tiger's skin.

During this period, Mowgli regularly sneaks out of the village to meet his wolf friend Grey Brother who brings him news of the jungle.

To keep Mowgli out of trouble the village elders decide to put him to work herding buffalo

Bubalus

Bubalus is a genus of bovines, whose English name is buffalo. Species that belong to this genus are:* Subgenus Bubalus** Water Buffalo, Bubalus bubalis*** Carabao, Bubalus bubalis carabanesis...

. One day while taking a break from this task he meets Grey Brother again. The wolf tells him that Shere Khan has returned and is planning to kill Mowgli.

For the next few weeks Grey Brother keeps watch on Shere Khan while Mowgli goes about his tasks in the village. Eventually he meets Mowgli again and tells him that Shere Khan is hiding in a nearby ravine in preparation to attack. Mowgli learns that Grey Brother obtained this information from Shere Khan's accomplice Tabaqui the jackal

Jackal

Although the word jackal has been historically used to refer to many small- to medium-sized species of the wolf genus of mammals, Canis, today it most properly and commonly refers to three species: the black-backed jackal and the side-striped jackal of sub-Saharan Africa, and the golden jackal of...

, before killing him.

With the aid of Akela

Akela (Jungle Book)

Akela is a character in Rudyard Kipling's stories, The Jungle Book and The Second Jungle Book. He is the leader of the Seeonee pack of Indian wolves and presides over the pack's council meetings...

, Mowgli and Grey Brother divide the buffalo herd in two and stampede

Stampede

A stampede is an act of mass impulse among herd animals or a crowd of people in which the herd collectively begins running with no clear direction or purpose....

 them from opposite ends of the ravine, trampling the tiger between them.

Mowgli, who has promised to lay Shere Khan's skin on the wolf pack's Council Rock, sets about skinning the tiger. Buldeo has been told of the stampede by the other village boys, and soon arrives to chastise Mowgli. Buldeo demands that Mowgli hand the skin over to him for the reward. Mowgli refuses, and summons Akela to restrain him.

When Mowgli and Akela let him go the hunter returns to the village and tells the villagers Mowgli is a shapeshifting

Shapeshifting

Shapeshifting is a common theme in mythology, folklore, and fairy tales. It is also found in epic poems, science fiction literature, fantasy literature, children's literature, Shakespearean comedy, ballet, film, television, comics, and video games...

 sorcerer

Magic (paranormal)

Magic is the claimed art of manipulating aspects of reality either by supernatural means or through knowledge of occult laws unknown to science. It is in contrast to science, in that science does not accept anything not subject to either direct or indirect observation, and subject to logical...

. By the time the unsuspecting Mowgli returns with the buffalo, Buldeo has turned the entire village except Messua against him and they drive him away.

Confused and disgusted by their behaviour, Mowgli fulfils his promise to lay out Shere Khan's hide on Council Rock and dances upon it, singing of his emotional confusion. The pack offers to take Mowgli back, but he refuses to forgive them for casting him out earlier. Instead he decides that from now on he will hunt alone, except for his four wolf-brothers who refuse to be parted from him.

The story is continued in "Letting in the Jungle

Letting In the Jungle

"Letting In the Jungle" is a short story by Rudyard Kipling which continues Mowgli's adventures from "Mowgli's Brothers" and "Tiger! Tiger!". The story was written at Kipling's parents' home in Tisbury, Wiltshire, and is therefore the only Mowgli story not written in Vermont.It was published in the...

", collected in The Second Jungle Book

The Second Jungle Book

The Second Jungle Book is a sequel to The Jungle Book by Rudyard Kipling. First published in 1895, it features five stories about Mowgli and three unrelated stories, all but one set in India, most of which Kipling wrote while living in Vermont...

.