At the hole that he went in, red-eye called to the wrinkled skin, hear what little red eye had to say "Naga come up and dance with death, eye to eye and head to head." This shall end when one is dead, as your please Naga, turn for turn, twist for a twist, run and hide Naga". The hooded Death has missed, "wow, you are tired, Naga".
This is the Great War story that Rikki Tikki Tavi singlehanded fought through the bathrooms of the big bungalow and Ségolène Cantonment. Darzi, the Tailor Bird, helped him and Chhachhoonder, the muskrat, who never comes out into the middle of the floor but always creeps round by the wall, gave him advice. But Rikki Tikki Tavi did the real fighting. He was a mongoose, rather like a little cat, with fur and tail, and looking quite like a weasel in his head, and his habits, his eyes, and the end of his restless nose were pink. He could scratch himself any way he pleased with any leg, front, or back he chose to use. He could fluff up his tail till it looked like a bottlebrush, and his war cry as he scuttled through the long grass was Rik Tik, Tikki, Tikki, Tik. One day, a high summer flood washed him out of this borrow 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 in the middle of a garden path, very draggled indeed.
And a small boy was saying, "there'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. 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 Tavi 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 frightened, 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 out his ear and climbed down to the floor where he sat rubbing his nose. "Goodness gracious", said Teddy's mother, and "that's a wild creature; I suppose 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 Tavi liked it immensely, and when it was finished, he went out into the veranda and sat in the sunshine and fluffed up his fur to make it dry to the roots. Then he felt better. There are more things to find out about in this house, he said to himself, then 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 bathtubs, 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. At nightfall, he ran into Teddy's nursery to watch how kerosene lamps were lighted, and when Teddy went to bed, Rikki Tikki climbed up to, but he was a restless companion because he had to get up and attend to every noise all through the night and find out what made it. Teddy's mother and father came in the last thing 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, safer with that little beast than if he had a bloodhound to watch him. Suppose a snake came into the nursery now."\ But Teddy's mother wouldn't think of anything so awful.
Early in the morning, Rikki Tikki came to early an early breakfast in the veranda, riding on Teddy's shoulder, and they gave him a banana and some boiled egg. He sat on all their laps one after another because every well brought up mangoes always hopes to be a house mongoose someday and have rooms to run about in. And Ricky Tiki's mother, who lived in the general's house at Ségolène, had carefully told Ricky what to do if he ever came across a white man.
Then Rikki Tikki Tavi went out into the garden to see what was to be seen. It was a large garden, only half cultivated with bushes as big as summer houses of Marshall Niel, roses, lime and orange trees, clumps of bamboo, and high grass thickets. Rikki Tikki Tavi licked his lips. This is a splendid hunting-ground, he said, and his tale grew bottle brushy at the thought of it. And he scuttled up and down the garden, sniffing here and there till he heard very sorrowful voices in a thorn bush. It was Darzi, the Taylor Bird and his wife. They had made a beautiful nest by pulling two big leaves together and stitching them up the edges with fibre's and had filled the hollow with cotton and downy fluff. The nest swayed to and fro as they sat on the rim and cried.
"What is the matter?" Asked Rikki Tikki." We are very miserable", said Darzi. "One of our babies fell out of the nest yesterday, and Naga eats him". "Hmm", said Rikki Tikki Tavi, "that is very sad, but Naga is a stranger here". Darzi and his wife only cowered down in the nest without answering from the thick grass at the foot of the bush. There came a low Hiss, a horrid cold sound that made Rikki Tikki Tavii jump back to a clear foot. Then inch by inch out of the grass rose 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, and he looked at Rikki Tikki Tavi with the wicked snake eyes that never changed their expression. Whatever the snake may be thinking of. "Who is Naga" said he? "I am Naga, of the great God Brahma, who put his mark upon all our people when the first Cobra spread his hood to keep the sun off Brahma as he slept. Look. and be afraid". He spread out his hood more than ever, and Rikki Tikki Tavi saw the spectacle mark on the back of it that looks exactly like the eye part of a hook and eye fastening. He was afraid for the minute, but it is impossible for a mongoose to stay frightened for any length of time, and though Rikki Tikki Tavi 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. Naga knew those two. And at the bottom of his cold heart, he was afraid. 'Well", said Rikki Tikki Tavi, and his tail began to fluff up again," marks are no marks. Do you think it is right for you to eat fledgelings out of a nest?" Naga was thinking to himself and watching the least little movement in the grass behind Rikki Tikki Tavi. He knew that mongooses in the garden meant death sooner or later for him and his family, but he wanted to get Rikki Tikki Tavi off his guard. So he dropped his head a little and put it on one side. "That was talk, he said, you eat eggs, why should not I eat birds," "behind you, look behind you", saying Darzi to Rikki Tikki Tavi knew better than to waste time and staring. He jumped up in the air as high as he could go and, just under him, whizzed by the head of Nagin, Naga's Wicked wife. She had crept up behind him as he was talking to make an end of him. He heard her savage hiss as the stroke missed. He came down across her back, and if he had been an old mongoose, he would have known that then was the time to break her back with one bite. But he was afraid of the terrible lashing returned stroke of the Cobra. He bit indeed but did not bite long enough, and he jumped clear of the whisking tail, leaving Nagin sore and angry. "Wicked, wicked", Darzi said, again lashing up as high as he could reach toward the nest and the thorn bush. But Darzi had built it out of the reach of snakes, and it only swayed to and fro. Rikki Tikki Tavi felt his eyes growing red and hot when a mongoose, his eyes grow red, he is angry, and he sat back on his tail and hind legs like a little kangaroo and looked all around him and chattered with rage. But Naga and Nagin had 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 Tavi did not care to follow them, for he did not feel sure that he could manage two snakes at once. So he trotted off to the gravel path near the house and sat down to think. It was a serious matter for him, and if you read the old books of natural history, you will find they say that when the mongoose fights the snake and happens to get bitten, he runs off and eat some herb that cures him. That is not true. The victory is only a matter of quickness, eye and quickness of foot, snake's blow against mongooses jump, and no eye can follow the motion of a snake's head when it strikes. This makes things much more wonderful than any magic herb, Rikki Tikki Tavi knew he was a young mongoose, and it made him all the more pleased to think that he had managed to escape a blow from behind. It gave him confidence in himself. And when Teddy came running down the path, Rikki Tikki Tavi was ready to be petted.
But just as Teddy was stooping, something wriggled a little in the dust, and a tiny voice said, "Be careful, I am death". Karait, the dusty brown snake ling that lies for choice on the dusty earth, and his bite is as dangerous as the Cobras, but he is so small that nobody thinks of him. And so the Karait does more harm to people. Rikki Tikki Tavi eyes grew red again, and he danced up to Krait with a peculiar rocking, swaying motion that he had inherited from his family. It looks amusing, but it is so perfectly balanced that you can fly off dead from any angle you please. And in dealing with snakes, this is an advantage. If Rikki Tikki Tavi had only known he was doing a much more dangerous thing than fighting Naga, for Karait is so small and can turn so quickly that unless Rikki Tikki Tavi bit him close to the back of the head, he would get the return stroke in his eye or his lip. But Rikki Tikki Tavi did not know his eyes were all red, and he rocked back and forth looking for a good place to hold, Karait struck out. Rikki Tikki Tavi jumped sideways and tried to run in, but the wicked little dusty grey head lashed within a fraction of 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 Tavi heard a scream from Teddy's mother. His father ran out with a stick, but by the time he came up, Karait had lunged out once too far, and Rikki Tikki Tavi had sprung, jumped on the snake's back, dropped his head far between his four legs, bitten as high up the back as he could get hold and rolled away. That bite paralyzed Karait, and Rikki Tikki Tavi was just going to eat him up from the tail after his family's custom 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 beat the dead Karait. What is the use of that thought, Rikki Tikki Tavi, I have settled it all, and then Teddy's mother picked him up from the dust and hugged him, crying that he had saved Teddy from death. And Teddy's father said that he was a providence, and Teddy looked on with big, scared eyes. Rikki Tikki Tavi was rather amused at all the fuss, which of course, he did not understand.
Teddy's mother might just as well have petted Teddy for playing in the dust. Rikki Tikki Tavi was thoroughly enjoying himself. That night at dinner, walking to and fro among the wine glasses on the table, he might have stuffed himself three times over with nice things, but he remembered the Naga and Nagin. And though it was enjoyable to be patted and petted by Teddy's mother and sit on Teddy's shoulder, his eyes would get red from time to time, and Rikki would go off into his long war cry of Rik Tik, Tikki, Tikki, Tik. Teddy carried him off to bed and insisted on Rikki Tikki Tavi sleeping under his chin; Rikki Tikki Tavi was too well-bred to bite or scratch. Still, as soon as Teddy was asleep, he went off for his nightly walk round the house, and in the dark, he ran up against Chhachhoonder, the muskrat creeping around by the wall. Chhachhoonder is a broken-hearted little beast. He whimpers and keeps all 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 Chhachhoonder, almost weeping. "Rikki Tikki Tavi, 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 Chhachhoonder more sorrowfully than ever, and "how am I to be sure that Naga won't mistake me for you some night?" "There's not the least danger, said Rikki Tikki." "But Naga is in the garden. And I know you don't go there. My cousin Chuha the rat told me", said Chhachhoonder, then he stopped. "Told you what, shhhh, Naga is everywhere, Rikki Tikki, you should have talked to Chuha in the garden". "I didn't, so you must tell me quick, Chhachhoonder, or I'll bite you," Chhachhoonder 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. I mustn't tell you anything. Can't you hear Rikki Tikki Tavi?" Rikki Tikki listened; the house was as still, but he thought he could just catch the faintest scratch, scratch, in the world, a noise as faint as that of a wasp walking on a windowpane, the dry scratch of a snake's scales on brickwork. He said to himself, that's Naga or Nagin, and they are crawling into the bathroom sluice. "You're right, Chhachhoonder; I should have talked to Chuha". He stole off to Teddy's bathroom, 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 bathwater. And as Rikki Tikki Tavi stole by the masonry curb with baths put, he heard Nag and Nagin whispering together outside in the moonlight.
"When the house is emptied of people, said Nagin 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 Krait is the first to bite, then come out and tell me, and we will hunt for Rikki Tikki Tavi together". "But are you sure that there is anything to be gained by killing the people" said Naga. "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 Naga, "I will go, but there is no need that we should hunt for Rikki Tikki Tavi afterwards. 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 Tavi will go". Rikki Tikki tingled all over with rage and hatred at this, and then Nagas head came through the sluice, and his five feet of cold body followed it.
Angry as he was, Rikki Tikki Tavi was very frightened as he saw the big Cobra Naga's size coiled himself up, raised his head and looked into the bathroom in the dark, and he could see his eyes glitter. "Now, if I kill him here, Nagin will know, and if I fight him on the open floor, the odds are in his favour. What am I to do?" Said Rikki Tikki Tavi. Naga waved to and fro, and then Rikki Tikki heard him drinking from the biggest water-jar used to fill the bath. That is good, said the snake now. When Krait was killed, the big man had a stick. He may have that stick still, but he will not have a stick when he comes in to bathe in the morning.
"I shall wait here until he comes". Nagin, "Do you hear me? I shall stay here in the cool till daytime." There was no answer from outside, so Rikki Tikki Tavi knew that Nagin had gone away. Naga coiled himself down coil by coil, round the bulge at the bottom of the water jar, and Rikki Tikki Tavi stayed still as death. After an hour, he began to move muscle by muscle for the jar, Naga was asleep, and Rikki Tikki Tavi looked at his big back, wondering which would be the best place for a good hold. "If I don't break his back at the first jump", said Rikki Tikki Tavi, "he can still fight, and if he fights, oh, oh, oh Rikki Tikki Tavi". He looked at the neck's thickness below the hood, but that was too much for him, and a bite near the tail would only make Naga's Savage. "It must be the head, Rikki 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, Ricky braced his back against the bulge of the red earthenware to hold down the head. This gave him just one second of purchase, and he made the most of it. Then Rikki 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 Rikki's eyes were red, and he held on as the body whipped over the floor and around, upsetting the Tin Dipper and the Soapdish and the flush brush and banged against the tin side the bath. As Rikki Tikki Tavi held, he closed his jaws tighter and tighter, for he made sure he would be banged to death, and for the honour of his family, he preferred to be found with his teeth locked. 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 fires singed him, for the big man had been awakened by the noise and had fired both barrels of a shotgun into Nag just behind the hood. Rikki Tikki Tavi held on with his eyes shut for now. He was quite sure he was dead, but the head did not move, and 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 white face and saw what was left of Naga. And Rikki Tikki Tavi 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 40 pieces as he fancied.
When morning came, he was very stiff but well pleased with his doings. Now I have Nagin to settle with, and she will be worse than five Nags, and there's no knowing when the egg's she spoke of Will Hatch, "Goodness, I must see Darzi," he said. Without waiting for breakfast, Rikki Tikki ran to the thorn bush where Daisy was singing a song of Triumph of the top of his voice; the news of Nagas death was all over the garden, for the sweeper had thrown the body on the rubbish heap. "Oh, you stupid tuft of feathers," said Rikki Tikki Tavi angrily, is this the time to sing, "Naga is dead, dead, and dead" saying Darzi. Rikki Tikki Tavi caught him by the head and held fast. The big man brought the bang stick, and the Naga had fallen to pieces. He will never eat my babies again.
All that is true enough, but where's Nagin? Said Rikki Tikki Tavi, looking carefully around him. "Nagin came to the bathroom sluice and called for Nag, and Darzi went on and then, the Naga came out on the end of a stick, the sweeper picked him up on the end of a stick and threw him up on the rubbish heap. Let us sing about the great. The red-eyed Rikki Tikki Tavi" and Darzi filled his throat and sang. "If I could get up to your nest, I'd roll your babies out," said Rikki Tikki Tavi, "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 a war for me down here. Stop singing a minute, Darzi". "For the great, the beautiful Rikki Tikki Tavi sake, I will stop," said Darzi. "What is it? Oh, killer of the terrible Naga". "Where is Nagin now for the third time?" "On the rubbish heap by the stables, morning for Naga, great Rikki Tikki Tavi with the white teeth, bother my white teeth." "Have you ever heard where she keeps her eggs?" "In the Melon bed, on end, nearest the wall with a sun strikes nearly all day, she hid them there weeks ago", "and you never thought it worthwhile to tell me the end nearest the wall," said Rikki Tikki Tavi, "you are not going to eat her eggs." "Not eat exactly, no, Darzi, if you have a grain of sense, you will fly off to the stables and pretend that your wing is broken and let Nagin chase you away to up to this bush. I must get to the melon bed, and if I went there now, she'd see me".
Darzi was a feather-brained little fellow who could never hold more than one idea at a time in his head, and just because he knew that Nagin his 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 Darzi to keep the babies warm and continue his song about Naga's death. Darzi was very like a man in some ways; she fluttered in front of Nagin 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. Nagin lifted her head and hissed. "You warned Rikki Tikki when I would have killed him. Indeed, and truly, you've chosen a bad place to be Laymen". And she moved toward Darzi's wife, slipping along over the dust. "The boy broke it with his stone", shrieked Darzi's wife. "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 the boy in the house will lie very still before night. What is the use of running away? I am sure to catch you, little fool". "Look at me". Darzi's wife knew better than to do that for a bird who looks at a snake eyes, gets so frightened that she cannot move, Darzi's wife fluttered on piping sorrowfully and never leaving the ground, and Nagin quickened her pace.
Rikki Tikki Tavi heard them going up the path from the stables, and he raced for the end of the melon patch near the wall there in the warm litter above the melons, very cunningly hidden. He found twenty-five eggs about the size of Benton'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 the minute they were hatched, 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, and Rikki Tikki Tavi began to chuckle to himself when he heard Darzi's wife screaming. "Rikki Tikki Tavi, I led Nagin toward the house, and she has gone into the veranda and oh, come quickly. She means killing".
Ricky Ticky smashed two eggs and tumbled backwards down the melon bed with the third egg in his mouth, and scuttled to the veranda as hard as he could put foot to the ground. Teddy and his mother and father were there at the early breakfast, but Rikki Tikki Tavi saw that they were not eating anything. They sat stone-still, and their faces were white. Nagin 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 for a little. Keep very still, all of you. Three of you move, and I strike. And if you do not move, I strike. "chuckles," oh, oh, foolish people who killed my Naga." 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 around, Nagin, 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 Tavi. They are still and white. They are afraid they dare not move. And if you come to a step nearer, I strike."
"Look at your eggs", said Rikki Tikki Tavi in the melon bed near the wall; go and look Nagin the big snake turned half round and saw the egg on the veranda. "Ahhhh, she cried, give it to me, she said. Rikki Tikki Tavi put his paws on each side of the egg, and his eyes were blood red. "What price for a snake, sake for a young cobra, for a young king, Cobra for the last the very last of the brood?" I have eaten all the others down by the melon bed". Nagin spun Clear round for getting everything for the sake of the one egg; Rikki Tikki Tavi saw Teddy's father shoot out a big hand, catch Teddy by the shoulder and drag him across the little table with the teacup safe and out of reach of Nagin. "Tricked, tricked, tricked", chuckled Rikki Tikki Tavi. "The boy is secure, and it was I, I, I, who caught Naga 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 Tavi, it's your turn now, come and fight with me." You shall not be a widow long. Nagin saw that she had lost her chance of killing Teddy, and the egg lay between Rikki Tikki Tavi's paws. "Give me the egg", Rikki Tikki Tavi, "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 Naga fight widow. The big man is gone for his gunfight". Rikki Tikki Tavi was bounding all around Nagin, keeping just out of reach of her stroke. His little eyes like hot coals. Nagin gathered herself together and flung out at him. Rikki Tikki Tavi jumped up and backwards. Again and again, she struck, and each time her head came down with a whack on the matted veranda floor, and she gathered herself together like a watch spring. Then Rikki Tikki Tavii danced in a circle to get behind her, and Nagin spun round each time to keep her head to his head; the rustle of her tail on the matting sounded like dry leaves blown by the wind. He had forgotten the egg. It still lay on the veranda, and Nagin came nearer and nearer to it till at last, while Rikki Tikki Tavi 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 Tavi behind her. When the Cobra runs for her life, she goes like a whiplash flicked across a horse's neck.Rikki Tikki Tavi knew that he must catch her or all the trouble would begin again. She headed straight for the long grass by the thorn bush, and as he was running, Rikki Tikki heard Darzi still singing a foolish little song of Triumph. But Darzi's wife was wiser. She flew off her nest as Nagin came along and flapped her wings about Nagin his head. If Darzi had help, they might have turned her, but Nagin only lowered her hood and went on. Still, the instance delay brought Rikki Tikki Tavi up to her, and as she plunged into the rat hole where she and Naga used to live, his little white teeth were clenched on her tail, and he went down with her. However wise and old they may be, very few mongooses care to follow a cobra into its hole. It was dark in the hole, and Rikki Tikki Tavi never knew when it might open out and give Nagin room to turn around 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 Darzi said. It's all over with Rikki Tikki Tavi. We must sing his death song. Sadly Rikki Tikki Tavi is dead, for Nagin will surely kill him underground. So he sang a very mournful song that he made up on the spur of the minute, and just as he got to the most touching part, the grass quivered again, and Rikki Tikki Tavi, covered with dirt, dragged himself out of the hole leg by leg licking his whiskers.
Darzi stopped with a little shout; Rik 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 hurt him and began to troop down one after another to see if he had spoken the truth. Rikki Tikki Tavi curled himself up in the grass and slept where he slept and slept till it was late in the afternoon, for he had done a hard day's work. When he awoke, he said I would go back to the house, tell the Coppersmith Darzi, and tell The Guardian that Nagin is dead. The coppersmith is a bird who makes the noise exactly like the beating of a little hammer on a copper pot. He is always making it because he is the town crier to every Indian garden and tells all the news to everybody who cares to listen. As Rikki Tikki Tavi went up the path, he heard his attention notes like a tiny dinner gong that set all the birds in the garden singing and the frogs croaking for Naga and Nagin used to eat frogs as well as little birds. When Ricky got to the house, Teddy and Teddy's mother looked very white still, for she had been fainting, and Teddy's father came out and almost cried over him. And that night, he ate all that was given him until 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 Tavi woke up with a jump, for the mongooses are light sleepers. "Oh, it's you, said he". "What are you bothering for? All the Cobras are dead. And if they weren't, I'm here".
Stories Retold:- Original Source:- Sir Rudyard Kipling
