The native born
the flowers
municipal
the coastwise lights
the English flag
England’s answer
the Overland mail
in spring time
‘Rikki-tikki-tavi’
At the hole where he went in
Red-Eye called to Wrinkle-Skin.
Hear what little Red-Eye saith:
‘Nag, come up and dance with death!’
Eye to eye and head to head,
(Keep the measure, Nag.)
This shall end when one is dead;
(At thy pleasure, Nag.)
Turn for turn and twist for twist—
(Run and hide thee, Nag.)
Hah! The hooded Death has missed!
(Woe betide thee, Nag!)
This is the story of the great war that Kikki-tikki-tavi
fought single-handed, through the bath-rooms of the
big bungalow in Segowlee cantonment. Darzee,
the tailor-bird, 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 habits. His eyes and the end of his restless
nose were pink; he could scratch himself anywhere he
pleased, with any leg, front or back, that he chose
to use; he could fluff up his tail till it looked
like a bottle-brush, and his war-cry, as he scuttled
through the long grass, was: ‘Rikk-tikk-tikki-tikki-tchk!’
One day, a high summer flood washed him out of the
burrow where he lived with his father and mother,
and carried him, kicking and clucking, down a roadside
ditch. He found a little wisp of grass floating
there, and clung to it till he lost his senses.
When he revived, he was lying in the hot sun on the
middle of a garden path, very draggled indeed, 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 and he opened his eyes and sneezed.
‘Now,’ said the big man (he was an Englishman
who had just moved into the bungalow); ‘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 he is eaten up from nose to tail
with curiosity. 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.
