Hathi goes on to tell all the assembled animals the tale of how tigers came to have the right to kill people on one night each year, how tigers got their stripes and how the animals of the jungle came to know the meaning of fear. After Shere Khan leaves, Mowgli asks Hathi the Elephant what Shere Khan meant. He casually says that he has killed a man that evening and that he has the right to do so that night.

To everyone's surprise, Shere Khan the tiger also comes to the water to drink. Among those who come to drink there in the evening is Mowgli the 'man cub', a boy who has been raised by wolves and considers himself to be a wolf, his friends Bagheera the Panther and Baloo the Bear. A truce has been declared which means that the plant-eating animals can come to the water safe in the knowledge that none of the meat-eating animals will try to kill them.

Plant-eating animals and meat-eating animals drink from the same water at the same time. Only one source of water remains available. The story begins in an Indian jungle during a time of terrible drought. 'How Fear Came' was published again in 1895 as the first story in Kipling's anthology The Second Jungle Book. It appeared in the London newspaper Pall Mall Gazette in two parts under the title 'A Strange Tale of the Jungle' on June 14 and June 15, 1894. It appeared in its entirety and under its current title in the New York World newspaper on June 10, 1894. It appeared in two parts in the London newspaper Pall Mall Budget on June 7 and Junder the title 'How Fear Came to the Jungle'. It was first published in Britain and the United States in 1894. 'How Fear Came' is a short story by the British author Rudyard Kipling.

1895 title illustration for 'How Fear Came' by John Lockwood Kipling, Rudyard Kipling's father.

The law of the jungle poem