There is the _cobra_, which is a snake, and which has such a deadly poison that it could kill almost all other animals in the jungle by just biting them. So, to save the other animals from being killed by the cobra, God made the _mongoose_. He is a plucky little creature, about the size of a cat. And he will fight and kill every cobra he sees! But really he is such a wonderful animal that I must keep him for another book, when you are old enough to know him better and to love him. But sometimes the deadly animal is too strong to be killed himself. There is the tiger. He can kill and eat many kinds of animals. But who can kill _him_? No animal! At least, the elephant and the buffalo could kill the tiger if the tiger should let them _catch_ him and trample on him. But the tiger does not let any animal catch him. Then how can the other animals be saved from the tiger? God made two special animals to save the others from the tiger. The first is the buffalo, of which I have already told you, and which is the Knight of the Jungle. The second animal is the barking deer. How the barking deer saves the other animals from the tiger, I shall now tell you: When the tiger is prowling about, all other kinds of deer and antelope just run away, and are glad enough if they escape being eaten. But not the plucky little barking deer! He too runs away, but as soon as he gets a little ahead of the tiger, he stops under a bush and lets out that bark or yap--then runs on at once to another bush. The tiger is furious, and jumps on the bush where he heard the bark--but the deer is not there now! The deer barks from that second bush--and runs to another one. In this way the barking deer leads the tiger on and on through the jungle from bush to bush. And why does he bark like that? To tell the other animals in good time that the tiger is coming, and then to tell them exactly _where_ the tiger is. "Look out, here's a tiger!" That is the meaning of his first bark. "Here he is! He is coming after me--this way!" That is what he means by the next bark. "He is chasing me this way! You run the other way!" And that is what the barking deer keeps on saying, as he runs from bush to bush, so that all the other animals know exactly where the tiger is at each minute. In this way the barking deer runs through the jungle, _warning all the other animals_, and so spoiling the tiger's dinner all the way. CHAPTER X Deer and Antelope: Their Special Gifts You have learned by this time that _every animal has some special gift_, that is, he can do one thing better than most other animals. The deer and the antelope have their special gifts. First, there is their gift of _hearing_. I have already told you that the wild buffaloes can hear a long way; but the deer and the antelope can hear still farther.