Grand Howl

The Grand Howl is a ceremony used by Cub Scouts. It was devised by Robert Baden-Powell and is based on the Mowgli stories in Rudyard Kipling's Jungle Book. In the ceremony, Cubs act out the wolves greeting Akela, the "Old Wolf" at the Council Rock and are reminded of the Cub Scout Promise. Baden-Powell also created a Grand Howl for Brownie Guides, which was in imitation of an owl instead of a wolf.

Five years after the founding of the Scout movement, Baden-Powell and others worked on a scheme for those who were too young to join the Boy Scouts at the age of 11, initially called "Junior Scouts". By the time of the launch of the scheme, Baden-Powell had obtained the approval of his friend and neighbor, Rudyard Kipling, to use the Jungle Book as a theme. Under the name of "Wolf Cubs", the 8- to 10-year-old boys would take part in basic versions of the activities enjoyed by the older Boy Scouts, but within a background of the jungle in the Mowgli stories of Kipling's 1898 book. The Cubs would act out scenes from the stories, and the adult leaders would adopt the names of characters from the book, the leader in charge being Akela, who had been the head of the wolf pack.

Baden-Powell wrote a book to accompany the launch of the new section of the movement; The Wolf Cub's Handbook was published on 2 December 1916. In the first chapter, he describes how in the Jungle Book, "The wolves all sat round the council rock in a circle, and when Akela, the old wolf, the head of the pack, took his place on the rock, they all threw up their heads and howled their greeting to him." Baden-Powell continued; "When your Old Wolf, Akela - that is your Cubmaster or other Scouter - comes to your meeting you salute him by squatting round in a circle as young wolves do, and giving him the Wolf Cub Grand Howl".

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