Wëllefcher
8-10 years
"We do our best"
Wëllefcher live according to the motto “Do your best”, all together in a pack as wolves would do in the jungle.
The Law of the Pack and the Wëllefcher’s method are based on The Jungle Book, with Mowgli who is adopted and brought up by wolves.
Wëllefcher promise to do someone a Bonne Action (good deed) every day, and with their vademecum, pen, notepad, piece of string and tissue, they have almost everything they need.
Among Wëllefcher, we live together in the jungle, a tropical forest with many plants. All our friends live there: the wolf family with their leader Akela, Mother Wolf Raksha, the black panther Bagheera, the brown bear Baloo, and many others... In the jungle, there are many laws, and we also need to respect them to live together well. This way every human and animal can learn a lot and have fun together.
Like wolves in the jungle Wëllefcher live together respecting each other. The Law of the Pack helps making that happen.
The Promise, the Law and the Motto are supposed to help us to live a better life: always try to do our best, to help where we can and to respect the Law.
Our activities
Together as a pack and in smaller groups, the patrols, we have adventures, explore nature, play, help and have fun. Through trust everyone gets to know and learns to respect the others. Through games we learn to overcome difficulties together.
The Jungle Book
It was seven o’clock of a very warm evening in the Seeonee hills when Father Wolf woke up from his day’s rest and yawned. Mother Wolf, Raksha, lay with her big nose across her four cubs, and the moon shone into the mouth of the cave where they all lived. Just as Father Wolf wanted to leave the cave to go hunting, the jackal, Dish-licker, Tabaqui appeared. The wolves despise him because he runs about making mischief and telling tales and stealing from the village rubbish-heaps. But they are afraid of him too, because he is apt to go mad, and then he forgets that he was ever afraid of anyone and runs through the forest biting everything in his way. Even the tiger runs and hides when little Tabaqui goes mad, for madness is the most disgraceful thing that can overtake a wild creature. We call it rabies, but the animals call it dewanee. With little enthusiasm Father Wolf let Tabaqui enter the cave, and, even though Father stressed that there were no left-overs, Tabaqui found a bone of a buck and chewed on it. He said, ‘thank you’, but before he left, he added: ‘Shere Khan has shifted his hunting-grounds. He will hunt among these hills for the next moon.’ Shere Khan is the tiger who lives 20 miles away, near the river. Father became angry. By the Law of the Jungle, the tiger has no right to change his quarters without due warning. Father Wolf got worried for his game, especially now that he had to hunt for two. Raksha calmed him down: ‘Lungri, the Lame One, as the tiger is called, has been lame in one foot from his birth. That is why he has only killed cattle. Now the villagers of the Waingunga are angry with him, and he has come here to make our villagers angry. They will scour the Jungle for him when he is far way, and we and our children must run when the grass is set alight. Indeed, we are very grateful to Shere Kan!’ Tabaqui could only ask whether he should pass on the message before Father Wolf kicked him out of the cave. Suddenly, they could hear a husky whine, which was the tiger’s who had not caught anything, again. Mother Wolf could tell from the sound of his voice, that tonight, he would be hunting Man. This sort of humming purr would confuse people and make them run into the very mouth of the tiger.
Read the end +
Father Wolf got angry, rightfully so, because the Law of the Jungle clearly forbids the eating of Man. The reason is that man-killing means, sooner or later, the arrival of other men with elephants and weapons and then everyone in the Jungle will suffer. Moreover, Man is the weakest and most defenceless of all living things, and it is cowardly and unsportsmanlike to touch him. Also, apparently, man-eaters lose their teeth. From afar they could hear that Tabaqui had joined the tiger. At that very moment, something rustled in the bushes... Father Wolf dropped with his haunches under him, ready for his leap. He shot up straight into the air, landing almost where he left ground. ‘Man!!!!’, he snapped, ‘a man’s cub.’ Directly in front of him, holding on by a low branch, stood a naked brown baby who could just walk. And this naked little boy just walked into a wolf’s cave at night and looked up into Father Wolf’s face, and laughed. ‘Bring it here. I have never seen it’, said Raksha. She looked at him and thought that it was rather rare to see such a baby among the other cubs... ‘He is altogether without hair’, said Father Wolf, ‘and I could kill him with a touch of my foot, but he looks at me and he is not afraid’. All of a sudden, Shere Khan appeared in the entrance of the cave, with Tabaqui behind him. He was looking for his quarry, but Father knew that the mouth of the cave was too narrow for such a big tiger. With his shoulders stuck he looked rather foolish. The tiger’s roar filled that cave with thunder as Mother Wolf sprang forward: ‘The man’s cub is mine, Lungri! He shall live to run and to hunt with the Pack; and in the end, look you, hunter of little naked cubs - frog-eater – fish-killer – he shall hunt you! And now shut up and get lost.’ The tiger was clever enough to know that he could not stand up against an angry mother. He backed out of the cave and growled: ‘Each dog barks in his own yard. We will see what the Pack will say to this fostering of a man-cub. This boy will come to my teeth in the end. You bushy-tailed thieves!’ Mother and Father knew that the cub must be shown to the Pack. But Raksha had already fallen in love with the boy: ‘Don’t be afraid, little frog – for this is what you’ll be called from now on, Mowgli, the Frog’.
The Law of the Jungle lays down very clearly that as soon as cubs are old enough to stand on their feet, they must be presented to the Pack Council, which is generally held once a month at full moon. This way, the other cubs can meet and get to know them. After the inspection they get accepted into the Pack. Father and Mother Wolf waited until the cubs could run a little, and then on the night of the Pack Meeting took them and Mowgli to the Council Rock. Every wolf-family introduce their cubs in-between the rocks. Akela then would cry: ’You know the Law, look closely, you wolves!’ When it was his turn, Father Wolf pushed Mowgli into the centre, where he sat laughing and playing with some pebbles. Akela did not notice the boy until Shere Khan cried that the child was his. What does a man-cub have to do with the wolves??? – The Law of the Jungle lays down that if there is any dispute as to the right of a cub to be accepted by the Pack, he must be spoken for by at least two members of the Pack who are not his father and mother. Raksha started preparing for the worst when, suddenly, someone grunted in the back. It was Baloo, the brown bear. He is the only other creature who is allowed at the Pack Council. He can come and go as he pleases because he eats only nuts, roots and honey. He grunts: ‘I speak for the man-cub. Let him run with the Pack and be entered with the others. I myself will teach him. There is no harm in a man-cub.’ But a second vote was needed. All of a sudden, a black shadow dropped down into the circle. It was Bagheera, the black panther. He is cunning as Tabaqui, as bold as a wild buffalo and courageous as an elephant. But he had a voice as soft as wild honey dripping from a tree, and a skin softer than down. Bagheera supported Baloo’s argument for accepting the boy into the Pack. He made the decision easier by offering a newly killed bull to show his gratitude. ‘Look well, look well, you wolves,’ cried Akela. Mowgli was still deeply interested in the pebbles and did not notice when the wolves came and looked at him one by one. At last they all went down the hill for the dead bull. Only Akela, Bagheera, Baloo and Mowgli’s family were left. Shere Khan roared still in the night. ‘Ay, roar well’, said Bagheera, ‘for the time comes when this naked thing will make you roar to another tune, or I know nothing of Man.’ Akela told Father Wolf: ‘Take him away and train him as befits one of the Free People.’ And that is how Mowgli was entered into the Seeonee Wolf-Pack. He had many adventures with his brothers and his teacher. Almost like the Scouts and Wëllefcher do.