Nathoo

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Nathoo is a fictional character referred to, but perhaps never seen, in The Jungle Book and The Second Jungle Book by Rudyard Kipling.

He is the long-lost son of Messua and her husband, who has been snatched by a tiger (arguably, Shere Khan). When Mowgli leaves the jungle and arrives in their village, they assume that he is Nathoo returned to them, although Kipling never makes clear whether he is or not.

Kipling's stage adaptation, The Jungle Play (written 1899 but unpublished until 2000), states explicitly that Mowgli is not Nathoo. In this version of the story Messua has only recently lost her son and is under the delusion that Mowgli's changed appearance and behaviour are the result of amnesia from having lived wild in the jungle. Mowgli has seen the real Nathoo's body in the jungle, but spares Messua the truth. The 1942 film starring Sabu differs by showing the baby Nathoo wandering into the jungle where he meets the family of wolves that raise him as Mowgli, the 'little frog'.