Wolf Scouts
The Cub
Scout follows Akela. Akela represents bravery, determination,
experience, honesty, and authority.
About the
Program
Badge Requirements
Electives
Robert
Baden-Powell, the founder of scouting, created the Cub Scout section
for children from 7-11, he used the The Jungle Book by Rudyard Kipling
as the symbolic framework for cubs.
"Deep in the forest of India, where few
human beings have ever been able to penetrate, lives the pack of
Seeonee, wolf-folk known as the free people. They are free because they
have a law which they keep faithfully, the law of the pack, which is as
old as the jungle and as wise as nature itself.
The leader of the pack is a large, grey lone wolf called Akela, who
leads them in the hunt and brings them home safe and sound, keeping
them safe from harm. All the wolves listen to him because they know
that the leader of the pack represents the law and keeping the law is
the only thing that keeps them together and preserves their dignity as
a free people, admired by all for their cohesion, solidarity, fairness
and honesty. In a cave in the hills of Seeonee there lives one of the
families of the pack, father wolf, Raksha the mother wolf, and their
litter of four cubs.
One day a small child came to their cave, lost in the jungle fleeing
from Shere Khan, the lame tiger who is chasing him and claiming the
baby as a prey. Raksha defended the child from Shere Khan and from the
jackal Tabaqui, the dish-licker who was always close behind the tiger
to scavenge the leftovers of the hunt. Raksha welcomed the "man-cub"
like another of her own children and she called him Mowgli, the frog,
because of his hairless body.... Each full moon the pack meets at the
Council Rock, where their leader (Akela) sits on a hilltop covered with
stones and boulders. All the parents show their new cubs to the pack in
the "looking-over", so that the other wolves will know and protect them
until they are able to hunt for themselves..."
Raksha presented Mowgli to the wolves at the Council Rock and Mowgli
was accepted thanks to Bagheera, the black panther, who offered a newly
killed bull in exchange for the life of Mowgli. Mowgli lived happily in
the jungle like just one more wolf cub, under the loving care of
Bagheera and the severe but tender teaching of Baloo.
The story of the Jungle Book explains to Cub Scouts what the Pack is,
how the decisions are taken by the Council Rock and how they can
progress like Mowgli, guided by Akela, doing many hunts (activities)
and respecting the law of the Pack. You should rediscover the beauty of
the Jungle Book and see how it corresponds to Scouting for children.
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