RIKKI TIKKI TAVI

Chapter 1

This is the story of the great war that Rikki-tikki-tavi fought against snakes through the bathrooms of the big house for soldiers in Seagowlee in India.
Darzee, the Tailorbird, helped him, and Chuchundra, the musk-rat, who never comes out into the middle of the floor, but always creeps round by the wall, gave him advice, but Rikki-tikki did the real fighting.
He was a mongoose, rather like a little cat in his fur and his tail, but quite like a weasel in his head and his habits. His eyes and the end of his nose were pink. He could scratch himself anywhere he pleased with any leg, front or back, he chose to use. He could fluff up his tail till it looked like a bottle brush.
And his war cry was: "Rikk-tikk-tikki-tikki-tchk!"
One day it was raining cats and dogs and a high summer flood washed him out of the hole where he lived with his father and mother. Water carried him, kicking him when he was down with some grass floating there till he lost his senses.
When he revived, he was lying in the hot sun on the middle of a garden path, and a small boy was saying, "Here's a dead mongoose. Let's have a funeral."
"No," said his mother, "let's take him in and dry him. Perhaps he isn't really dead." They took him into the house, and a big man picked him up between his finger and thumb and said he was not dead but half choked. So they wrapped him in cotton wool, and warmed him over a little fire, and he opened his eyes and sneezed.

Chapter 2

"Now," said the big man (an Englishman), "don't frighten him, and we'll see what he'll do." It is the hardest thing in the world to frighten a mongoose, because the motto of all the mongoose family is "Run and find out," and Rikki-tikki was a true mongoose. He looked at the cotton wool, decided that it was not good to eat, ran all round the table, sat up and put his fur in order, scratched himself, and jumped on the small boy's shoulder.
"Don't be afraid, Teddy," said his father. "That's his way of making friends."
"Ouch! He's tickling under my chin," said Teddy.
Rikki- tikki looked down between the boy's collar and neck, snuffed at his ear, and climbed down to the floor, where he sat rubbing his nose.
"Good gracious," said Teddy's mother, "and that's a wild creature! I think he's so tame because we've been kind to him."
"All mongooses are like that," said her husband. "If Teddy doesn't pick him up by the tail, or try to put him in a cage, he'll run in and out of the house all day long. Let's give him something to eat." They gave him a little piece of raw meat. Rikki-tikki liked it very much. After breakfast he went out into the veranda and sat in the sunshine and fluffed up his fur to make it dry to the roots.
When he felt better he said to himself: "There are more things to find out about in this house than all my family could find out in all their lives. I shall certainly stay and find out." He spent all that day roaming over the house. He nearly drowned himself in the bath-tubs, put his nose into the ink on a writing table, and burned it on the end of the big man's cigar, for he climbed up in the big man's lap to see how writing was done. In the evening he ran into Teddy's nursery to watch kerosene lamps, and when Teddy went to bed Rikki-tikki climbed up too. But he was a restless companion, because he had to get up and listen to every noise all through the night, and find out what made it.
Teddy's mother and father came in to look at their boy, and Rikki-tikki was awake on the pillow. "I don't like that," said Teddy's mother. "He may bite the child."
"He'll do no such thing," said the father. "Teddy's safer with that little beast than if he had a bloodhound to watch him. If a snake came into the nursery now..."

Chapter 3

Early in the morning Rikki-tikki came to early breakfast in the veranda riding on Teddy's shoulder, and they gave him banana and some boiled egg. He sat on all their laps one after the other, because every well-brought-up mongoose always hopes to be a house mongoose some day and have rooms to run about in; and Rikki-tikki's mother (she always lived in the general's house) told him about it as well.
After breakfast Rikki-tikki went out into the garden to see what was there. It was a large garden, only half cultivated, with bushes, as big as summer-houses, of Marshal Niel roses, lime and orange trees, clumps of bamboos, and thickets of high grass. Rikki-tikki licked his lips. "This is a splendid hunting-ground," he said, and his tail grew bottle-brushy at the thought of it, and he started running up and down the garden, snuffing here and there till he heard very sorrowful voices in a thorn-bush.
It was Darzee, the Tailorbird, and his wife. They were sitting in the beautiful nest made by pulling two big leaves together and stitching them up the edges with fibres. It was swaying to and fro. "What is the matter?" asked Rikki-tikki.
"We are very miserable," said Darzee. "One of our babies fell out of the nest yesterday and Nag ate him."
"H'm!" said Rikki-tikki, "that is very sad but I am a stranger here. Who is Nag?"
Darzee and his wife only cowered down in the nest without answering, for from the thick grass at the foot of the bush there came a low hiss a horrid cold sound that made Rikki-tikki jump back two clear feet. Then inch by inch out of the grass rose up the head and spread hood of Nag, the big black cobra, and he was five feet long from tongue to tail. When he had lifted one- third of himself clear of the ground, he stayed balancing to and fro exactly as a dandelion tuft balances in the wind.
After breakfast Rikki-tikki... out into the garden. It... only half cultivated.
There... bushes, trees and high grass. Rikki-tikki... up and down the garden, snuffing here and there when he heard very sorrowful voices in a thorn-bush.
There... Darzee and his wife. They... in the beautiful nest made by pulling two big leaves together and stitching them up the edges with fibres. Rikki-tikki... what the matter was but they only down in the nest without answering. There... a low hiss a horrid cold sound the big black cobra... It... Nag.

Chapter 4

"Who is Nag?" said he and he looked at Rikki-tikki with the wicked snake's eyes that never change their expression, whatever the snake may be thinking of. "I am Nag!" - and he spread out his hood more than ever, and Rikki-tikki saw the mark on the back of it that looks exactly like the eye part. He was afraid for a minute, but it is impossible for a mongoose to stay frightened for any longer, and though Rikki-tikki had never met a live cobra before, his mother had fed him on dead ones, and he knew that all a grown mongoose's business in life was to fight and eat snakes. Nag knew that too and, at the bottom of his cold heart, he was afraid.
"Well," said Rikki-tikki, and his tail began to fluff up again, "do you think it is right for you to eat fledglings out of a nest?" Nag was thinking to himself, and watching the least little movement in the grass behind Rikki-tikki. He knew that mongooses in the garden meant death sooner or later for him and his family, but he wanted to get Rikki-tikki off his guard. So he dropped his head a little, and put it on one side. "Let us talk," he said. "You eat eggs. Why should not I eat birds?"
"Behind you! Look behind you!" sang Darzee. Rikki-tikki knew what to do. He jumped up in the air as high as he could go, and just under him whizzed by the head of Nagaina, Nag's wicked wife. She was creeping up behind him as he was talking, to make an end of him. Now he came down almost across her back. For an old mongoose it was good opportunity to break her back with one bite; but he was afraid of the terrible lashing of the cobra's tail. He bit, indeed, but did not bite long enough, and he jumped clear of the whisking tail, leaving Nagaina torn and angry.

Chapter 5

Nag lashed up as high as he could to reach the nest in the thorn-bush. Darzee built it out of reach of snakes, and it was only swaying to and fro.
Rikki-tikki felt his eyes growing red and hot (when a mongoose's eyes grow red, he is angry), and he sat back on his tail and hind legs like a little kangaroo, and looked all round him, and chattered with rage but Nag and Nagaina disappeared into the grass.
When a snake misses its stroke, it never says anything or gives any sign of what it means to do next. Rikki-tikki did not care to follow them, for he did not feel sure that he could manage two snakes at once. So he went to the gravel path near the house, and sat down to think. It was a serious matter for him.
Rikki-tikki knew he was a young mongoose, and it made him pleased that he had escaped a blow from behind. It gave him confidence in himself. When Teddy came running down the path, Rikki-tikki was ready to play.
But just as Teddy was stooping, something wriggled a little in the dust, and a tiny voice said: "Be careful. I am Death!" It was Karait, the dusty brown snakeling and his bite is as dangerous as the cobra's. But he is so small that nobody thinks of him, and so he does more harm to people.

Chapter 6

Rikki-tikki's eyes grew red again. He danced up to Karait with the rocking, swaying motion that he saw in his family. It looks very funny, but it is so perfectly balanced way to fly off from snakes at any angle you please.
Rikki-tikki didn't know that he was doing a much more dangerous thing than fighting Nag, for Karait is so small, and can turn so quickly.
His eyes were all red. He rocked back and forth, looking for a good place to hold. Karait struck out. Rikki jumped sideways and tried to run in, but the wicked little dusty grey head lashed in his shoulder, and he had to jump over the body, and the head followed his heels close.
Teddy shouted to the house: "Oh, look here! Our mongoose is killing a snake."
And Rikki-tikki heard a scream from Teddy's mother. His father ran out with a stick, but by the time he came up, Karait had struck out once more, and Rikki-tikki had sprung, jumped on the snake's back, dropped his head far between his forelegs, bitten as high up the back as he could get hold, and rolled away.
That bite paralyzed Karait, and Rikki-tikki was just going to eat him up from the tail, after the custom of his family at dinner, when he remembered that a full meal makes a slow mongoose, and if he wanted all his strength and quickness ready, he must keep himself thin.
He went away for a dust bath under the castor-oil bushes, while Teddy's father was beating the dead Karait. "What is the use of that?" thought Rikki-tikki. "I have killed him;" and then Teddy's mother picked him up from the dust and hugged him, crying that he had saved Teddy from death, and Teddy looked on with big scared eyes. Rikki-tikki was rather amused at all the fuss, which, of course, he did not understand.

Chapter 7

Rikki was enjoying himself. That night at dinner, walking to and fro among the wine-glasses on the table, he could stuff himself over with nice things. But he remembered Nag and Nagaina, and though it was very pleasant to be patted and petted by Teddy's mother, and to sit on Teddy's shoulder his eyes were getting red from time to time, and he cried "Rikk-tikk-tikki-tikki-tchk!" Teddy carried him off to bed, and insisted on Rikki-tikki sleeping under his chin. Rikki-tikki was too well bred to bite or scratch, but as soon as Teddy was asleep he went off for his nightly walk round the house, and in the dark he ran up against Chuchundra, the musk-rat, creeping around by the wall. Chuchundra is a broken-hearted little beast. He whimpers and cheeps all the night, trying to make up his mind to run into the middle of the room. But he never gets there. "Don't kill me," said Chuchundra, almost crying. "Rikki-tikki, don't kill me!"
"Do you think a snake-killer kills muskrats?" said Rikki-tikki scornfully.
"Those who kill snakes get killed by snakes," said Chuchundra very sadly. "And how am I to be sure that Nag won't mistake me for you some dark night?"
"There's not the least danger," said Rikki-tikki. "But Nag is in the garden, and I know you don't go there."
"My cousin Chua, the rat, told me" - said Chuchundra, and then he stopped.
"Told you what?"
"H'sh! Nag is everywhere, Rikki-tikki. You should have talked to Chua in the
garden."
"I didn't - so you must tell me. Quick, Chuchundra, or I'll bite you!"
Chuchundra sat down and cried till the tears rolled off his whiskers. "I am a very poor man," he sobbed. "I never had spirit enough to run out into the middle of the room. H'sh! I mustn't tell you anything. Can't you hear, Rikki-tikki?"
Rikki-tikki listened.

Chapter 8

The house was still but Rikki-tikki could just catch the faintest scratch- scratch in the world, the dry scratch of a snake's scales on brick-work. "That's Nag or Nagaina," he said to himself, "and he is crawling into the bath-room sluice. You're right, Chuchundra; I should have talked to Chua." He stole off to Teddy's bath-room, but there was nothing there, and then to Teddy's mother's bathroom.
At the bottom of the smooth plaster wall there was a brick pulled out to make a sluice for the bath water, and as Rikki-tikki stole in where the bath is put, he heard Nag and Nagaina whispering together outside in the moonlight. "When the house is emptied of people," said Nagaina to her husband, "he will have to go away, and then the garden will be our own again. Go in quietly, and remember that the big man who killed Karait is the first one to bite. Then come out and tell me, and we will hunt for Rikki-tikki together."
"But are you sure that there is anything to be gained by killing the people?" said Nag.
"Everything. When there were no people in the bungalow, did we have any mongoose in the garden? So long as the bungalow is empty, we are king and queen of the garden; and remember that as soon as our eggs in the melon bed hatch (as they may tomorrow), our children will need room and quiet."
"I had not thought of that," said Nag. "I will go but there is no need that we should hunt for Rikki-tikki afterward. I will kill the big man and his wife, and the child if I can, and come away quietly. Then the bungalow will be empty, and Rikki-tikki will go."
Rikki-tikki was full of rage when Nag's head came through the sluice and his five feet of cold body followed it. Angry as he was, Rikki-tikki was very frightened as well. He saw the size of the cobra. It was big. Nag raised his head, and looked into the bathroom in the dark, and Rikki could see his eyes glitter.

Chapter 9

"Now, if I kill him here, Nagaina will know; and if I fight him on the open floor, the odds are in his favor. What am I to do?" said Rikki-tikki-tavi.
Nag waved to and fro, and then Rikki-tikki heard him drinking from the biggest water-jar that was used to fill the bath. "That is good," said the snake. "Now, when Karait was killed, the big man had a stick. He may have that stick still, but when he comes in to bathe in the morning he will not have a stick. I shall wait here till he comes. Nagaina - do you hear me? - I shall wait here in the cool till daytime."
There was no answer from outside, so Rikki-tikki knew Nagaina had gone away. Nag coiled himself down, coil by coil, at the bottom of the water jar, and Rikki-tikki stayed still as death. After an hour he began to move, muscle by muscle, toward the jar. Nag was asleep, and Rikki-tikki looked at his big back.
He was looking for the best place for a good hold. "If I don't break his back at the first jump," said Rikki, "he can still fight. And if he fights - O Rikki!"
He looked at the thickness of the neck below the hood, but that was too much for him; and a bite near the tail would only make Nag angry. "It must be the head" he said at last; "the head above the hood. And, when I am once there, I must not let go." Then he jumped.
The head was lying a little clear of the water jar, under the curve of it; and, as his teeth met, he made the most of it. Then he was battered to and fro as a rat is shaken by a dog - to and fro on the floor, up and down, and around in great circles, but his eyes were red and he held on as the body cart - whipped over the floor, upsetting the tin dipper and the soap dish and the flesh brush, and banged against the tin side of the bath. As he held he closed his jaws tighter and tighter, for he made sure he would be banged to death, and, for the honor of his family, he preferred to be found with his teeth locked.

Chapter 10

He was dizzy, aching, and felt shaken to pieces when something went off like a thunderclap just behind him. A hot wind knocked him senseless and red fire singed his fur. The big man had been wakened by the noise, and had fired both barrels of a shotgun into Nag just behind the hood.
Rikki-tikki held on with his eyes shut for now he was quite sure he was dead.
The big man picked him up and said, "It's the mongoose again, Alice. The little chap has saved our lives now." Then Teddy's mother came in with a very white face, and saw what was left of Nag, and Rikki-tikki dragged himself to Teddy's bedroom and spent half the rest of the night shaking himself tenderly to find out whether he really was broken into forty pieces, as he fancied.
When morning came he was very stiff, but well pleased with his doings. "Now I have Nagaina to settle with, and she will be worse than five Nags, and there's no knowing when the eggs she spoke of will hatch. Goodness! I must go and see Darzee," he said.
Without waiting for breakfast, Rikki-tikki ran to the thornbush where Darzee was singing a song of triumph at the top of his voice. The news of Nag's death was all over the garden. "Oh, you stupid tuft of feathers!" said Rikki-tikki angrily. "Is this the time to sing?"
"Nag is dead - is dead - is dead!" sang Darzee.
"The valiant Rikki-tikki caught him by the head and held fast. The big man brought the bang-stick, and Nag fell in two pieces! He will never eat my babies again."
"All that's true enough. But where's Nagaina?" said Rikki-tikki, looking carefully round him.
"Let us sing about the great, the red-eyed Rikki-tikki!" And Darzee filled his throat and sang. 'You don't know when to do the right thing at the right time.
You're safe enough in your nest there, but it's war for me down here. Stop
singing a minute, Darzee."
"For the great, the beautiful Rikki-tikki's sake I will stop," said Darzee.

Chapter 11

"What is it, O Killer of the terrible Nag?"
"Where is Nagaina, for the third time?"
"She's on the rubbish heap by the stables, mourning for Nag. Great is Rikki-tikki with the white teeth."
"Bother my white teeth! Have you ever heard where she keeps her eggs?"
"They're in the melon bed, on the end nearest the wall, where the sun strikes nearly all day. She hid them there weeks ago."
"And you never thought it worth while to tell me. The end nearest the wall, you said?"
"Rikki-tikki, you are not going to eat her eggs?"
"Not eat exactly; no. Darzee, if you have a grain of sense you will fly off to the stables and pretend that your wing is broken, and let Nagaina chase you away to this bush. I must get to the melon bed, and if I went there now she'd see me." Darzee could never hold more than one idea at a time in his head. And just because he knew that Nagaina's children were born in eggs like his own, he didn't think at first that it was fair to kill them.
But his wife was a sensible bird, and she knew that cobra's eggs meant young cobras later on. So she flew off from the nest, and left Darzee to keep the
babies warm, and continue his song about the death of Nag. Darzee was very like a man in some ways. She fluttered in front of Nagaina by the rubbish heap and cried out, "Oh, my wing is broken! The boy in the house threw a stone at me and broke it."
Then she fluttered more desperately than ever. Nagaina lifted up her head and hissed, "You warned Rikki-tikki when I wanted to kill him. Indeed and truly, you've chosen a bad place to be lame in."
And she moved toward Darzee's wife, slipping along over the dust.
"The boy broke it with a stone!" shrieked Darzee's wife. "Well! It may be some consolation to you when you're dead to know that I shall settle accounts with the boy. My husband lies on the rubbish heap this morning, but before night the boy in the house will lie very still. What is the use of running away? I am sure to catch you. Little fool, look at me!"
Darzee's wife knew better than to do that, for a bird who looks at a snake's eyes gets so frightened that she cannot move. Darzee's wife fluttered on, piping sorrowfully, and never leaving the ground, and Nagaina quickened her pace.

Chapter 12

Rikki-tikki heard them going up the path from the stables, and he raced for the end nearest the wall. There, in the warm litter above the melons, he found twenty-five eggs, about the size of a bantam's eggs, but with whitish skin instead of shell. "I was not a day too soon," he said, for he could see the baby cobras curled up inside the skin, and he knew that very soon they could each kill a man or a mongoose. He bit off the tops of the eggs as fast as he could, taking care to crush the young cobras, and turned over the litter from time to time to see whether he had missed any. At last there were only three eggs left, when he heard Darzee's wife screaming: "Rikki-tikki, I led Nagaina toward the house, and she has gone into the veranda, and-oh, come quickly - she means killing!" Rikki-tikki smashed two eggs and fell backward down the melon-bed with the third egg in his mouth, and ran to the veranda as fast as he could put foot to the ground.
Teddy and his mother and father were there at early breakfast, but Rikki-tikki saw that they were not eating anything. They sat stone-still, and their faces were white. Nagaina was coiled up on the matting by Teddy's chair, within easy
striking distance of Teddy's bare leg, and she was swaying to and fro, singing a song of triumph. "Son of the big man that killed Nag," she hissed, "stay still.
I am not ready yet. Wait a little. Keep very still, all you three! If you move I strike, and if you do not move I strike. Oh, foolish people, who killed my Nag!"
Teddy's eyes were fixed on his father, and all his father could do was to whisper, "Sit still, Teddy. You mustn't move. Teddy, keep still." Then Rikki-tikki came up and cried,
"Turn round, Nagaina. Turn and fight!"
"All in good time," said she, without moving her eyes. "I will settle my account with you presently. Look at your friends, Rikki-tikki. They are still and white.
They are afraid. They dare not move, and if you step nearer I strike."
"Look at your eggs," said Rikki-tikki, "in the melon bed near the wall. Go and look, Nagaina!"

Chapter 13

The big snake turned half around. She saw the egg on the veranda. "Ah-h! Give it to me," she said. Rikki-tikki put his paws one on each side of the egg. His eyes were blood-red.
"What price for a snake's egg? For a young cobra? For a young king cobra? For the last - the very last of the brood? The ants are eating all the others down by the melon bed." Nagaina spun clear round, forgetting everything for the sake of the one egg.
Rikki-tikki saw Teddy's father take out a big hand, catch Teddy by the shoulder and drag him across the little table with the tea-cups, safe and out of reach of Nagaina. "Tricked! Tricked! Tricked! Rikk- tck-tck!" chuckled Rikki-tikki. "The boy is safe, and it was I-I-I that caught Nag by the hood last night in the bathroom." Then he began to jump up and down, all four feet together, his head close to the floor.
"He threw me to and fro, but he could not shake me off. He was dead before the big man blew him in two. I did it! Rikki-tikki- tck-tck! Come then, Nagaina.
Come and fight with me. You shall not be a widow long." Nagaina saw that she had
lost her chance of killing Teddy, and the egg lay between Rikki-tikki's paws. "Give me the egg, Rikki-tikki. Give me the last of my eggs, and I will go away and never come back," she said, lowering her hood. 'Yes, you will go away, and you will never come back. For you will go to the rubbish heap with Nag. Fight, widow! The big man has gone for his gun! Fight!" Rikki-tikki was bounding all round Nagaina, keeping just out of reach of her stroke, his little eyes like hot coals.
Nagaina gathered herself together and struck out. Rikki-tikki jumped up and backward. Again and again and again she struck, and each time she gathered herself together like a watch spring.

Chapter 14

Rikki-tikki danced in a circle to get behind her and Nagaina spun round to keep her head to his head. The rustle of her tail on the matting sounded like dry leaves blown along by the wind. He left the egg on the veranda and Nagaina came nearer and nearer to it. While Rikki-tikki was drawing breath, she caught it in her mouth, turned to the veranda steps and flew like an arrow down the path with Rikki-tikki behind her. When the cobra runs for her life, she goes like a whip flicked across a horse's neck.
Rikki-tikki knew that he must catch her or all the trouble would begin again.
She headed straight for the long grass by the thorn-bush. While Rikki-tikki was running Darzee was still singing his foolish little song of triumph. But Darzee's wife was wiser. She flew off her nest as Nagaina came along, and flapped her wings about Nagaina's head. It was a little help. Nagaina only lowered her hood and went on. Still, the instant's delay brought Rikki-tikki up to her. When she ran into the rat hole where she and Nag used to live, his little white teeth met on her tail, and he went down with her - and very few mongooses, however wise and old they may be, care to follow a cobra into its hole.
It was dark in the hole. Rikki-tikki never knew when it might open out and give Nagaina room to turn and strike at him. He held on savagely, and stuck out his feet to act as brakes on the dark slope of the hot, moist earth. Then the grass by the mouth of the hole stopped waving, and Darzee said, "It is all over with Rikki-tikki! We must sing his death song. Valiant Rikki-tikki is dead! For Nagaina will surely kill him underground."
So he sang a very mournful song that he made up on his own, and just as he got to the most touching part, the grass was waving again, and Rikki-tikki, covered
with dirt, dragged himself out of the hole leg by leg, licking his whiskers.

Chapter 15

Darzee stopped with a little shout. Rikki-tikki shook some of the dust out of his fur and sneezed. "It is all over," he said. "The widow will never come out again." And the red ants that live between the grass stems heard him, and began to troop down one after another to see if he had spoken the truth.
Rikki-tikki curled himself up in the grass and slept till it was late in the afternoon, for he had done a hard day's work. "Now," he said, when he awoke, "I will go back to the house. Tell the Coppersmith, Darzee, and he will tell the garden that Nagaina is dead."
The Coppersmith is a bird who makes a noise exactly like the beating of a little hammer on a copper pot. The reason he is always making it is because he is the town crier to every Indian garden. He tells all the news to everybody who cares to listen.
As Rikki-tikki went up the path, he heard his "attention" notes like a tiny dinner gong, and then the steady "Ding- dong-tock! Nag is dead-dong! Nagaina is dead! Ding-dong-tock!" That set all the birds in the garden singing, and the frogs croaking, for Nag and Nagaina used to eat frogs as well as little birds.
When Rikki got to the house, Teddy and Teddy's mother and Teddy's father came out and almost cried over him; and that night he ate all that was given him till he could eat no more, and went to bed on Teddy's shoulder, where Teddy's mother saw him when she came to look late at night. "He saved our lives and Teddy's life," she said to her husband. 'Just think, he saved all our lives."
Rikki-tikki woke up with a jump, for the mongooses are light sleepers and now he is a garden keeper as a mongoose should keep it, with tooth and jump and spring and bite, till never a cobra dared show its head inside the walls.