Rikki-Tikki-Tavi is a short story in The Jungle Book (1894) by Rudyard Kipling about the adventures of a valiant young mongoose.
An English family who has moved to a bungalow in the jungles of Segowlee cantonment in Bihar State, India - discovers a young mongoose half drowned from a storm. They revive it and decide to keep it as a pet. The young mongoose, named Rikki Tikki by its new owner, soon finds himself confronted by two dangerous, murderous cobras, Nag (the word is Hindi for "cobra") and his even more dangerous wife Nagaina, who 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 dust brown snakeling who threatens the young boy Teddy. Although the snake, because of its deadly venom and small size, is an even more dangerous foe than a cobra, the mongoose kills him. The grateful family pet and praise "our mongoose".
This amazing book includes twenty gorgeously illustrated pages.
