Messua's husband

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Messua's husband is an otherwise unnamed fictional character in Rudyard Kipling's The Jungle Book and The Second Jungle Book.

He is the richest man in an Indian village. His wife Messua decides to adopt the wild boy Mowgli, who has strayed out of the jungle, because she believes him to be their long-lost son Nathoo. Her husband is initially as enthusiastic as she is, but the boy's ignorance of village customs results in some embarrassing incidents for which he is penalised; early editions of The Jungle Book mention an incident in which he has to placate the village priest with silver, but this is cut from later editions.

When Buldeo, the village's chief hunter, learns that Mowgli can command wolves, he accuses the boy of being a sorcerer and has him driven from the village. Messua and her husband are sentenced to death for harbouring him. Learning of their incarceration just in time, Mowgli returns and rescues them, but his adopted father is not happy at having to leave most of his money behind.

Six or seven years later Mowgli learns that Messua and her husband settled in a new village where he fathered another son but died soon after. Mowgli shows no grief at his death and does not inquire as to the cause.