Rikki-Tikki-Tavi | Page 8

Teddy and Teddy's mother (she 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 till 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 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."
Rikki-tikki had a right to be proud of himself. But he did not grow too proud, and he kept
that garden as a mongoose should keep it, with tooth and jump and spring and bite, till
never a cobra dared show its head inside the walls.
Darzee's Chant
(Sung in honor of Rikki-tikki-tavi)
Singer and tailor am I-- Doubled the joys that I know-- Proud of my lilt to the sky, Proud
of the house that I sew-- Over and under, so weave I my music-- so weave I the house
that I sew.
Sing to your fledglings again, Mother, oh lift up your head! Evil that plagued us is slain,
Death in the garden lies dead. Terror that hid in the roses is impotent-- flung on the
dung-hill and dead!

Who has delivered us, who? Tell me his nest and his name. Rikki, the valiant, the true,
Tikki, with eyeballs of flame, Rikk-tikki-tikki, the ivory-fanged, the hunter with eyeballs
of flame!
Give him the Thanks of the Birds, Bowing with tail feathers spread! Praise him with
nightingale words-- Nay, I will praise him instead. Hear! I will sing you the praise of the
bottle-tailed Rikki, with eyeballs of red!
(Here Rikki-tikki interrupted, and the rest of the song is lost.) 2 RTEXTR*ch

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