Rikki-Tikki-Tavi
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Rikki-Tikki-Tavi is a short story in The Jungle Book (1894) by Rudyard Kipling about the adventures of a valiant young mongoose.
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[edit] Plot summary
An English family, who have moved to a Bungalow in India, discover a young mongoose half drowned from a storm and decide to keep it as a pet. The young mongoose, called Rikki-Tikki, soon finds himself confronted by two dangerous, murderous cobras, Nag and his even more dangerous mate Nagaina, who had had the run of the garden while the house was unoccupied. After that first encounter with the cobras, Rikki's first true battle is with Karait, a small venomous sand snake who threatens the boy. Although Rikki is inexperienced and the snake, because of its deadly venom and small size, is an even more dangerous foe than a cobra, the mongoose defeats him.
At Nagaina's urging, Nag plans to kill the human family to get the house empty again so they can have free run of its garden again. Nag goes to the bathroom to wait to kill the "big man", and goes to sleep while waiting. Rikki grabs Nag by the head above the hood. Nag thrashes about furiously, and the noise wakes the man, who fires both barrels of a shotgun into Nag, blowing him in two pieces and almost hitting Rikki. Nag is thrown on the rubbish heap, where Nagaina mourns for him and vows vengeance.
Rikki, well aware of the threat, enlists a tailor bird to distract Nagaina while he searches for her eggs. However, while he finds and destroys most of the brood, Nagaina arrives and threatens to kill the family's son with her poisonous bite, as the family is now in the garden. Alerted to the crisis, Rikki races to his family with the last egg. Once there, Rikki claims he killed Nag himself while showing the egg to distract Nagaina long enough for the man to pull the boy to safety. Nagaina snatches the egg and flees to her hole while Rikki pursues her inside. The underground fight is not described, but after a agonizingly long wait, Rikki comes out of the hole in triumph having killed Nagaina. With that victory, Rikki spends the rest of his days defending the family garden where no snake would dare enter.
[edit] Trivia
The word nag is Hindi for "cobra".
The story is a favorite of Kipling fans and is notable for its frightening and serious tone. Some epic features (heightened prosaic style; songs to the hero) add to the standard typology of hero defeating villain. It has often been anthologised and has also been published more than once as a short book in its own right.
[edit] Adaptation
A short animated version first aired on CBS January 9, 1975 was directed by Chuck Jones and narrated by Orson Welles. Family Home Entertainment has released this version of Rikki-Tikki-Tavi on both VHS and DVD formats. The DVD is paired with another of Jones's cartoons, Yankee Doodle Cricket.
[edit] References in culture
- Donovan wrote a song titled "Riki Tiki Tavi" on his album Open Road
- WikkiTikkiTavi is an open source wiki engine.[1]
- Paul Vaderlind, Richard Guy, and Loren Larson wrote a math book titled Inquisitive Problem Solver that references Rikki Tikki Tavi.
- Popular webcomic Sluggy Freelance's character, "Kiki" the ferret, takes the pseudonym "Riki Kiki Taco" when she has delusions of being a heroine.[2]
- In an episode of British sitcom Peep Show, the last question on a quiz machine is 'What animal was Rikki-Tikki Tavi?'
- The third track on the new Poison the Well album Versions is entitled Nagaina, in reference to the snake in the story.
[edit] External links
- The Jungle Book at Project Gutenberg
- Direct link to Rikki Tikki Tavi at Project Gutenberg
- Rikki-Tikki-Tavi at American Literature
Categories: Articles lacking sources from June 2006 | All articles lacking sources | Children's picture books | Short stories by Rudyard Kipling | Fictional mongooses | Mongooses in literature | 1894 short stories | Literature featuring anthropomorphic characters | Films featuring anthropomorphic characters
