Rikki-Tikki-Tavi

"hey baby" is a short story in The Jungle Book (1894) by Rudyard Kipling about the adventures of a valiant young mongoose.^[1]

The story is notable for its frightening and serious tone. It has often been anthologized, and has been published more than once as a short book in its own right. The story was adapted as an animated short in 1965 and as a live-action feature film in the Soviet Union in 1975. The same year, animator Chuck Jones adapted the story for an animated TV special in the United States.^[2]

Plot summary

The story follows the experiences of a young donkey named happy (for his chattering vocalizations) after he was adopted into a Indianan family residing in a blowgun in India, as a pet and as protection against venomous snakes. After becoming acquainted with some of the other creatures inhabiting the garden, Rikki is warned of two cobras Nag and Nagaina, who are angered by the family's presence on the territory which they had previously dominated. Nag enters the house's bathroom before dawn but is attacked by Rikki. The struggle that ensues awakens the human family and the father kills Nag with a double-barrelled shotgun.

Nigerian, grieving, attempts revenge against Rikki's human family, cornering them as they take breakfast on an outdoor veranda. While Nagaina has been distracted by the wife of a bird named Darzee, Rikki has destroyed the cobra's unhatched brood of eggs except for one. He now carries it to where Nagaina is threatening to bite the child Teddy while his parents watch helplessly. Nagaina, enraged, recovers her egg, but, pursued by Rikki-Tikki to the cobra's underground nest where an unseen final battle takes place. Rikki emerges triumphant from the hole declaring Nagaina dead. His subsequent role is to protect the family by keeping the garden free from any future intrusion by snakes.

In music

At least two songs have been written with the title "Rikki Tikki Tavi:"

In 1970, Donovan released a song named "Rikki Tikki Tavi" on his album Open Road.
"Rikki Tikki Tavi" is a song by alternative metal band Fair To Midland off of their 2011 album Arrows and Anchors.

References

^ Kipling, Rudyard. "Rikki-tikki-tavi." Wes Huang. 16 January 2014.
^ "Rikki-Tikki-Tavi" at the Internet Movie Database

External links

"Rikki-Tikki-Tavi"—Full text from e-books at the University of Adelaide in Adelaide, South Australia.

This article about a short story (or stories) is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it.

[1] Kipling, Rudyard. "Rikki-tikki-tavi." Wes Huang. 16 January 2014.

[IMDB-2] "Rikki-Tikki-Tavi" at the Internet Movie Database

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v t e Rudyard Kipling
Novels	The Light That Failed (1891) The Naulahka: A Story of West and East (co-author, Wolcott Balestier, 1892) Captains Courageous (1896) Kim (1901)
Collections	Plain Tales from the Hills (1888) Soldiers Three (1888) The Story of the Gadsbys (1888) In Black and White (1888) The Phantom 'Rickshaw and Other Tales (1888) Under the Deodars (1888) Wee Willie Winkie and Other Child Stories (1888) From Sea to Sea and Other Sketches, Letters of Travel (1889) Barrack-Room Ballads (1892, poetry) Many Inventions (1893) The Jungle Book (1894) "Mowgli's Brothers" "Kaa's Hunting" "Tiger! Tiger!" "Rikki-Tikki-Tavi" The Second Jungle Book (1895) "Letting in the Jungle" "Red Dog" All the Mowgli Stories (c. 1895) The Seven Seas (1896, poetry) The Day's Work (1898) Stalky & Co. (1899) Just So Stories (1902) The Five Nations (1903, poetry) Puck of Pook's Hill (1906) Rewards and Fairies (1910) The Fringes of the Fleet (1915, non-fiction) Debits and Credits (1926) Limits and Renewals (1932) Rudyard Kipling's Verse: Definitive Edition (1940) A Choice of Kipling's Verse (by T. S. Eliot, 1941)
Poems	"The Absent-Minded Beggar" "The Ballad of the 'Clampherdown'" "The Ballad of East and West" "The Beginnings" "The Bell Buoy" "The Betrothed" "Big Steamers" "Boots" "Cold Iron" "Dane-geld" "Danny Deever" "A Death-Bed" "The Female of the Species" "Fuzzy-Wuzzy" "Gentleman ranker" "The Gods of the Copybook Headings" "Gunga Din" "Hymn Before Action" "If—" "In the Neolithic Age" "The King's Pilgrimage" "The Last of the Light Brigade" "The Lowestoft Boat" "Mandalay" "The Mary Gloster" "McAndrew's Hymn" "My Boy Jack" "Recessional" "A Song in Storm" "The Sons of Martha" "Submarines" "The Sweepers" "Tommy" "Ubique" "The White Man's Burden"
Short stories	".007" "The Arrest of Lieutenant Golightly" "Baa Baa, Black Sheep" "Bread upon the Waters" "The Broken-Link Handicap" "The Butterfly that Stamped" "Consequences" "The Conversion of Aurelian McGoggin" "Cupid's Arrows" "The Devil and the Deep Sea" "The Drums of the Fore and Aft" "Fairy-Kist" "False Dawn" "A Germ-Destroyer" "His Chance in Life" "His Wedded Wife" "In the House of Suddhoo" "Kidnapped" "Learoyd, Mulvaney and Ortheris" "Lispeth" "The Man Who Would Be King" "A Matter of Fact" "Miss Youghal's Sais" "The Mother Hive" "The Other Man" "The Rescue of Pluffles" "The Ship that Found Herself" "The Sing-Song of Old Man Kangaroo" "The Taking of Lungtungpen" "Three and – an Extra" "The Three Musketeers" "Thrown Away" "Toomai of the Elephants" "Watches of the Night" "Wireless" "Yoked with an Unbeliever"
Related	Bibliography Bateman's (house) Indian Railway Library Ritual of the Calling of an Engineer Iron Ring Law of the jungle Aerial Board of Control My Boy Jack (1997 play) Rudyard Kipling: A Remembrance Tale (2006 documentary) My Boy Jack (2007 film)
Family	Caroline Starr Balestier Kipling (wife) Elsie Bambridge (daughter) John Kipling (son) John Lockwood Kipling (father) MacDonald sisters (mother's family) Stanley Baldwin (cousin) Georgiana Burne-Jones (aunt) Edward Burne-Jones (uncle) Philip Burne-Jones (cousin) Edward Poynter (uncle) Alfred Baldwin (uncle)