Rikki Tikki Tavi
This is the story of the great war that Rikki-Tikki-Tavi fought alone in the bathroom of a spacious bungalow in the Segovli military settlement. Darcy, the tailor bird, helped him, Chuchundra, the musk rat, who never goes into the middle of the room and always sneaks along the walls, gave him advice; however, it was only Rikki-Tikki who really fought.
He was a mongoose (Mangus is the local name for mongoose, or ichneumon. - Approx. Trans.), with fur and tail he resembled a cat, but his head and disposition were reminiscent of a weasel. His eyes and the tip of his restless nose were pink; With any paw, front or back, he could scratch himself anywhere; could fluff up his tail, making it look like a lamp glass brush, and as he rushed through the tall grass, his battle cry was: rikk-tikk-tikki-tikki-tchk.
One day in the middle of summer, a rainstorm washed him out of the hole in which he lived with his father and mother, and carried the floundering and clattering animal into a roadside ditch. Rikki-Tikki saw a floating lump of grass there, grabbed onto it with all his might and finally lost consciousness.
When the animal woke up, he, very wet, was lying in the middle of the garden path under the sultry rays of the sun; A little boy stood over him and said:
- Here is a dead mongoose. We'll give him a funeral.
“No,” answered the boy’s mother. – Let’s take the animal to our home and dry it. Maybe he's still alive.
They carried him into the house; a very tall man took Rikki-Tikki with two fingers and said that the animal did not die, but only almost suffocated; Rikki-Tikki was wrapped in cotton wool and warmed; he opened his eyes and sneezed.
“Now,” said the tall man (he was an Englishman who had just moved into the bungalow), “don’t frighten him and let’s see what he will do.”
The hardest thing in the world to scare is a mangos, because this animal, from its nose to its tail, is consumed by curiosity. The motto of every mongoose family is “Run and find out,” and Rikki-tikki was a true mongoose. He looked at the cotton wool, decided that it was not suitable for food, ran around the table, sat down and tidied up his fur, scratched himself and jumped on the boy’s shoulder.
“Don’t be afraid, Teddy,” the father told the boy. - This is how he gets to know you.
- Oh, it tickles; he got under his chin.
Rikki-tikki looked into the space between Teddy's collar and his neck, sniffed his ear, and finally slid to the floor, sat up and scratched his nose.
“Good God,” said Teddy’s mother, “and this is a wild creature!” I think he's so tame because we've been kind to him.
“All mongooses are like that,” her husband answered. “If Teddy doesn’t pull his tail or put him in a cage, he’ll run out and back all day.” Let's feed him something.
The animal was given a piece of raw meat. Rikki-tikki liked it; After eating, the mangus ran out onto the veranda, sat in the sun and picked up his fur to dry it to the very roots. And I felt better.
“In this house I will soon learn much more,” he said to himself, “than all my relatives could learn in a lifetime.” Of course, I'll stay here and look into everything.
He ran around the house all day; almost drowned in the bathtub; stuck his nose into the inkwell on the desk; burned him on the end of an Englishman's cigar when he climbed onto his lap to watch people write. When evening came, the mongoose ran into Teddy's nursery to see the kerosene lamps being lit; when Teddy went to bed, Rikki-Tikki climbed in after him and turned out to be a restless comrade: he jumped up every minute, listened to every rustle and went to find out what was the matter. Teddy's father and mother came into the nursery to see their boy; Rikki-tikki did not sleep; he was sitting on a pillow.
“I don’t like this,” said the boy’s mother, “he might bite Teddy.”
“Mangus won’t do anything like that,” her husband objected. “Teddy is safer with this little animal than he would be under the protection of a black dog.” If a snake crawled into the nursery now...
But Teddy's mother didn't want to think about such terrible things.
Early in the morning, Rikki-Tikki appeared on the veranda for the first breakfast, sitting on Teddy's shoulder. He was given a banana and a piece of boiled egg. He sat in turn on each person's lap, because every well-bred mongoose hopes, in time, to become a pet and run around all the rooms; and Rikki-Tikki’s mother (she lived in the general’s house in Segovli) carefully explained to him what he should do when meeting whites.
After breakfast, Rikki-tikki went out into the garden to have a good look around it. It was a large, only half-cultivated garden, with bushes of Marechal Niel roses, such a height that they reach only in greenhouses, with lemon and orange trees, with thickets of bamboo and thickets of thick, tall grass. Rikki-tikki licked his lips.
“What an excellent hunting ground,” he said; with pleasure his tail fluffed up like a brush for lamp glasses, and he began to scurry back and forth through the garden, sniffing here and there, and finally, among the branches of the thorn tree, he heard very sad voices.
There sat Darcy, the tailor bird, and his wife. Having connected two sheets and sewed their edges with leaf fibers, they filled the empty space between them with cotton wool and down, thus making a beautiful nest. The nest swayed; the birds sat on its edge and cried.
- What's the matter? - asked Rikki-Tikki.
“We are very unhappy,” said Darcy. – One of our chicks fell out of the nest yesterday, and Nag ate it.
“Hm,” said Rikki-Tikki, “this is very sad, but I’ve only been here recently.” Who is Nag?
Darcy and his wife, instead of answering, hid in their nest, because from under the bush came a quiet hissing - a terrible cold sound that made Rikki-tikki jump back two feet. And then out of the grass, inch by inch, appeared the head, and then the swollen neck of Naga, a large black cobra, five feet long from tongue to tail. When Nag had raised a third of his body, he stopped, swaying back and forth, like a dandelion bush shaken by the wind, and looked at Rikki-Tikki with evil snake eyes that never changed expression, no matter what the snake was thinking.
-Who is Nag? - he said. - I am Nag! The great god Brahma placed his sign on our entire race when the first cobra swollen its neck to guard the deity’s sleep. Watch and be afraid!
Nag inflated his neck even more, and Rikki-Tikki saw a mark on it that looked so much like glasses and their frame. For a moment he was afraid; but the mangos cannot be afraid for long; in addition, although Rikki-Tikki had never seen a living cobra, his mother brought him dead cobras to eat, and he knew very well that the life task of an adult mantus is to fight with snakes and eat them. Nag knew this too, and fear stirred in the depths of his cold heart.
“Okay,” said Rikki-tikki, and the fur of his tail began to rise, “it’s all the same; whether you have signs on you or not, you do not have the right to eat chicks that have fallen from the nest.
Nag thought; at the same time he observed a slight movement in the grass behind Rikki-tikki. He knew that once mongooses settled in the garden, this would, sooner or later, entail his death and the death of his family, and he wanted to make Rikki-Tikki calm down. So he lowered his head a little and tilted it to one side.
“Let’s talk,” said Nag, “you eat eggs.” Why shouldn't I eat birds?
- Behind you! Look around! - Darcy sang.
Rikki-tikki did not want to waste time looking around. He jumped as high as possible, and just below him the head of Nagena, Nag’s evil wife, flashed with a whistle. While he was talking to Nag, a second cobra was creeping up behind him to finish him off; Now that her blow was in vain, Rikki-Tikki heard an angry hiss. He sank onto his paws almost across Nagena’s back, and if Rikki-Tikki had been an old mongoose, he would have understood that he should bite her once and break her back; but he was afraid of the terrible turn of the cobra's head. Of course, Ricky bit the snake, but not hard enough, not long enough, and jumped away from its lashing tail, leaving a wounded and angry Nagena.
“Evil, evil Darcy,” said Nag, rising as far as he could towards the nest on the thorn bush; but Darcy arranged his home in such a way that it was inaccessible to snakes and only swayed slightly.
Rikki-Tikki's eyes turned red and blood rushed to them; (when a mongoose's eyes turn red, it means he is angry); the animal sat down on its tail and hind legs, like a small kangaroo, looked around and began to cluck with rage. Nag and Nagena disappeared into the grass. If the snake fails to attack, it says nothing and gives no indication of what it is going to do next. Rikki-Tikki did not look for cobras; he was not sure whether he could cope with two snakes at once. So the mongoose ran onto the strewn path near the house, sat down and began to think. He had an important task ahead of him.
In old books on natural history you will read that a mangus bitten by a snake stops fighting, runs away and eats some kind of herb that heals it. It is not true. The Mangus wins only by the quickness of his eyes and feet; the strikes of the snake compete with the jumps of the mongoose, and since no vision is able to follow the movement of the head of the attacking snake, the victory of the animal can be considered more surprising than any magic herbs. Rikki-Tikki knew that he was a young mongoose, and therefore he rejoiced all the more at the thought of being saved from a blow directed from behind. Everything that happened instilled self-confidence in him, and when Teddy appeared running on the path, Rikki-Tikki was not averse to him petting him.
Just as Teddy leaned towards him, something stirred slightly in the dust, and a small voice said:
- Be careful. I am death!
It was a karet, a brownish snake that likes to lie in the dust. Its bite is as dangerous as the bite of a cobra. But the brown snake is so small that no one thinks about it, and therefore it brings especially much harm to people.
Rikki-tikki's eyes turned red again, and he jumped up to the carriage with that special swaying movement that he had inherited from his relatives. This is a funny gait, but thanks to it the animal remains in such perfect balance that it can rush at the enemy from any angle it pleases, and when it comes to snakes, this is a great advantage. Rikki-Tikki did not know that he had decided on a more dangerous thing than a fight with Nag! After all, the carriage is so small and can turn so quickly that if Rikki-Tikki had not grabbed it near the back of his head, it would have toppled over and bit him in the eye or lip. But Ricky didn't know that; his eyes burned, and he jumped back and forth, looking for the best place to grab the carriage. Carat rushed. Ricky jumped to the side on all four legs and tried to rush at her, but a small, angry, dusty gray head flashed close to his shoulder; he had to jump over the snake's body; her head followed him and almost touched him.
Teddy turned towards the house and shouted:
- Oh, look! Our mongoose kills the snake!
Almost immediately, Ricky heard Teddy's mother cry out in fear; The boy's father ran out into the garden with a stick, but by the time he approached the battlefield, the carriage was too long, Rikki-Tikki made a jump, jumped on the back of the snake and, pressing its head with his front paws, bit it in the back, as close as possible to the head, then jumped to the side. His bite paralyzed the carriage. Rikki-Tikki was about to start eating the snake, according to the custom of his family, starting with the tail, when he suddenly remembered that a well-fed mongoose is clumsy and that if he wants to be strong, dexterous and agile, he must remain hungry.
He went off to bathe in the dust under the castor bean bushes. At this time, Teddy's father was beating the dead carriage with a stick.
"For what? - thought Rikki-Tikki. “I’m done with her!”
Teddy's mother picked up the mongoose from the dust and caressed him, saying that he saved her son from death; Teddy's father noticed that the mongoose was their happiness, and Teddy himself looked at everyone with wide open, frightened eyes. This fuss amused Rikki-Tikki, who, of course, did not understand its reason. Teddy's mother might as well have petted Teddy for playing in the dust. But Rikki-tikki was having fun.
That evening at dinner the mongoose walked back and forth across the table and could have eaten his fill of all sorts of tasty things three times, but he remembered Naga and Nagen, and although he was very pleased when Teddy’s mother stroked and caressed him, although he liked sit on Teddy's shoulder, from time to time, his eyes flashed with red fire and his long battle cry was heard: Rikk-tikk-tikki-tikki-tchk!
Teddy carried him to his bed and wanted to lay him under his chin. Rikki-tikki was too well-mannered to bite or scratch the boy, but as soon as Teddy fell asleep, the mongoose jumped onto the floor, went to explore the house and in the dark came across Chuchundra, a musk rat, who was creeping along the wall.
Chuchundra is a little animal with a broken heart. The whole night she whines and squeaks, trying to force herself to run out into the middle of the room, but she never dares to do so.
“Don’t kill me,” Chuchundra asked, almost crying. - Don't kill me, Rikki-tikki!
“Do you think that the winner of snakes kills musk rats?” – Rikki-tikki said contemptuously.
“He who kills snakes is killed by snakes,” Chuchundra said even more sadly. “And how can I be sure that someday on a dark night Nag will not mistake me for you?”
“There’s nothing to be afraid of,” said Rikki-Tikki, “besides, Nag is in the garden, and I know you don’t go out there.”
“My relative Chua, the rat, told me...” Chuchundra began and fell silent.
- What did you say?
- Shh! Naked everywhere, Rikki-tikki. You should have talked to Chua the rat in the garden.
“I didn’t talk to her, so you have to tell me everything.” Hurry up, Chuchundra, or I'll bite you!
Chuchundra sat down and cried; tears rolled down her mustache.
“I’m unhappy,” she sobbed. “I don’t have the courage to run out into the middle of the room.” Shh! I don't have to tell you anything. Don't you hear yourself, Rikki-tikki?
Rikki-tikki listened. The house was very quiet, but it seemed to him that he could hear an incredibly faint “creak-creak” - a sound no stronger than the creaking of the paws of a wasp wandering along the window glass - the dry creaking of snake scales on bricks.
“This is Nag or Nagena,” Rikki-Tikki said to himself mentally, “and the snake is crawling into the bathroom drain.” You're right, Chuchundra, I should have talked to Chua the rat.
He quietly entered Teddy's bathroom; there was nothing there; then he looked into the boy's mother's bathroom. Here, in the smooth plastered wall below, a brick had been removed to drain the water, and as Rikki-Tikki sneaked past the bathtub embedded in the floor, he heard that behind the wall, outside, Nag and Nagena were whispering in the light of the moon.
“When the house is empty,” Nagena told her husband, “he will have to leave, and then we will take full possession of the garden again.” Crawl in quietly and remember: first of all you need to bite the big man who killed the carriage. Then come back, tell me everything, and we’ll hunt Rikki-Tikki together.
“Are you sure that we will achieve anything by killing people?” – asked Nag.
- We will achieve everything. Were there mongooses in the garden when no one lived in the bungalow? While the house is empty, we are king and queen in the garden; and remember, as soon as the eggs burst in the melon patch (and this could happen tomorrow), our children will need peace and space.
“I didn’t think about that,” Nag said. “I’ll crawl in, but there’s no need for us to chase Rikki-Tikki.” I will kill the big man, his wife and child, if possible, and return. The bungalow will be empty, and Rikki-Tikki will leave on his own.
Rikki-Tikki was trembling all over with rage and hatred, but then Nag’s head appeared from the gutter, and then five feet of his cold body. No matter how angry Rikki-tikki was, when he saw the size of the huge cobra, he felt fear. The nag curled up, raised his head and looked into the dark bathroom; Ricky noticed that his eyes were shining.
“If I kill him here, Nagena will find out, and besides, if I fight him in the middle of the floor, all the benefit will be on his side.” What should I do? – thought Rikki-Tikki-Tavi.
The nag wriggled in different directions, and soon the mangus heard that he was drinking from the largest water jug with which the bath was usually filled.
“That’s it,” said Nag, “the big man killed the carriage with a stick.” Maybe he still has this stick, but in the morning he will come to swim without it. I'll wait for him here. Nagena, can you hear? I'll wait here in the cold until the morning.
There was no answer from outside, and Rikki-Tikki realized that Nagena had crawled away. Nag began to fit himself into the large jug, wrapping the rings of his body around the bulge at its bottom, and Rikki-Tikki sat silent as death. An hour has passed; the mangus slowly, tensing one muscle after another, moved towards the jug. The nag was sleeping, and looking at his broad back, Ricky asked himself where it would be best to grab the cobra with his teeth. “If I don’t break his spine at the first jump,” thought Ricky, “he will fight, and the fight with Nag... Oh Ricky!”
He measured the thickness of the snake's neck with his gaze, but it was too wide for him; if he bit the cobra near the tail, it would only infuriate it.
“It’s best to grab the head,” he finally said to himself mentally, “the head above the hood; Having let my teeth into Naga, I must not unclench them.
He jumped.
The snake's head protruded slightly from the water jug and lay below its neck. As soon as Ricky's teeth closed, the mangus rested his back against the bulge of the red clay jug to support the snake's head. This gave him a second of advantage and he took good advantage of it. But Nag immediately began to shake him, like a dog shaking a rat; dragged it back and forth across the floor, threw it up, dropped it, waved it, but the mangus’s eyes burned with red fire and he did not unclench his teeth. The snake dragged him along the floor; a tin ladle, a soap dish, a body brush, everything scattered in different directions. Ricky hit the zinc wall of the bathtub and clenched his jaw tighter. Ricky, for the sake of his family's honor, wanted to be found with his teeth closed. His head was spinning. Suddenly there was something like a thunderclap; he imagined that he was flying into pieces; the hot air washed over him and he fainted; red fire scorched his fur. The noise woke the big man, and he fired both barrels of his gun at Nag's head, above the extension of the cobra's neck.
Rikki-tikki did not open his eyes; he was quite sure that he had been killed; but the snake’s head did not move and, picking up the animal, the Englishman said:
“It’s the mongoose again, Alice; the baby has now saved our lives.
Teddy's mother came, completely pale, looked and saw what was left of Nag. Meanwhile, Rikki-tikki hobbled into Teddy's bedroom and spent the rest of the night quietly examining himself to find out whether, as he thought, his bones were really broken in forty places.
In the morning he felt tired all over his body, but was very pleased with what he managed to accomplish.
“Now I must deal with Nagena, although she will be more dangerous than the five Nagas; besides, no one knows when the eggs she mentioned will burst. Yes, yes, I must talk to Darcy, the mongoose said to himself.
Without waiting for breakfast, Rikki-Tikki ran to the thorn bush, where Darcy was singing a triumphant song at the top of his voice. The news of Naga's death spread throughout the garden because the cleaner threw his body on a pile of garbage.
- Oh, you stupid bunch of feathers! - Rikki-tikki said angrily. – Is now the time to sing?
- Nag is dead, dead, dead! - Darcy sang. “Brave Rikki-Tikki grabbed his head and squeezed it tightly. The big man brought a rattling stick, and Nag split into two parts. Never again will he eat my chicks.
- All this is true, but where is Nagena? – Rikki-Tikki asked, looking around carefully.
“Nagena approached the drainage chute of the bathroom, I called Naga,” Darcy continued. – And Nag appeared at the end of the stick; the cleaner pierced him with the end of a stick and threw him on the garbage heap. Let us sing of the great, red-eyed Rikki-Tikki!
Darcy's throat swelled and he continued to sing.
“If only I could get to your nest, I would throw all your children out of there,” said Rikki-Tikki. “You don’t know how to do anything on your own time.” In your nest you are in no danger, but here below I have a war going on. Wait a minute to sing, Darcy.
“For the sake of the great, for the sake of the beautiful Rikki-Tikki, I will shut up,” said Darcy. – What do you want, O conqueror of the terrible Naga?
– Where is Nagena, I ask you for the third time?
- On the garbage pile, near the stables; she mourns Naga! Great Rikki-Tikki with white teeth!
- Give up my white teeth. Did you hear where her balls are?
– At the end of the melon ridge closest to the fence; where the sun shines almost all day long. A few weeks ago she buried them in this place.
“Have you thought about telling me about them?” So, next to the wall, then?
“But you won’t eat her eggs, will you, Rikki-Tikki?”
“I can’t say that I was actually going to eat them; No. Darcy, if you have any sense in your head, fly to the stable, pretend you have a broken wing, and let Nagena chase you all the way to that bush. I have to go to the melon patch, but if I run there now, she will notice me.
Darcy was a small creature with a bird's brain, which never contained more than one thought at once; It was only because Nagena's children were born in eggs like his own that it seemed unfair to him to kill them. But his wife was a prudent bird and knew that cobra eggs foreshadow the appearance of young cobras. So, she flew out of the nest, leaving Darcy to warm the chicks and continue chanting Nag's death. In some respects Darcy was very human.
The bird began to flutter in front of Nagena near a pile of garbage, shouting:
- Oh, my wing is broken! The boy from the house threw a stone at me and killed him. - And she fluttered even more desperately than before.
Nagena raised her head and hissed:
“You warned Rikki-tikki when I could have killed him.” Truly you have chosen a bad place to hobble. “And, sliding through the layer of dust, the cobra moved towards Darcy’s wife.
- The boy broke my wing with a stone! - Darcy the bird shouted.
“Well, maybe it will be a consolation for you if I tell you that when you die, I will settle scores with this boy.” Now it is morning, and my husband is lying on a pile of rubbish, and before night falls, the boy will be lying motionless in the house. Why are you running away? I'll still catch you. Stupid girl, look at me.
But Darcy’s wife knew very well that “this” did not need to be done, because, looking into the eyes of a snake, the bird becomes so frightened that it loses the ability to move. With a sad squeak, Darcy's wife continued to flutter her wings and run away without rising from the ground. Nagena crawled faster.
Rikki-Tikki heard them moving along the path from the stables and rushed to the end of the melon ridge closest to the fence. There, on the hot manure and very cunningly hidden between the melons, lay snake eggs, twenty-five in all, the size of the eggs of bantams (a breed of chicken), but with a whitish leathery shell, and not in a shell.
“I didn’t come ahead of time,” thought Ricky. Through the leathery shell, he saw curled up cobra cubs inside the eggs, and he knew that every baby snake that barely hatched could kill a person or a mongoose. He bit the tops of the eggs as quickly as possible, not forgetting to carefully crush the small cobras. From time to time the mangus looked to see if he had missed at least one egg. There were only three left, and Rikki-Tikki was already chuckling to himself, when suddenly the scream of Darcy’s wife reached him!
– Rikki-Tikki, I took Nagena to the house, she crawled onto the veranda... Oh, quickly, she wants to kill!
Rikki-Tikki crushed two eggs, rolled down the ridge and, taking the third into his mouth, ran to the veranda, moving his legs very quickly. Teddy, his father and mother were sitting there having an early breakfast, but Rikki-Tikki immediately saw that they were not eating anything. They did not move, like stones, and their faces turned white. On the mat, next to Teddy’s chair, Nagena lay curled up, and her head was at such a distance that at any moment she could bite the boy’s bare leg. The cobra swayed back and forth and sang a triumphant song.
“Son of the big man who killed Nag,” she hissed, “don’t move!” I'm not ready yet. Wait a little. Stay still, all three of you. If you move, I will bite; If you don't move, I'll bite you too. Oh, stupid people who killed my Naga!
Teddy kept his eyes on his father, and his father could only whisper:
“Sit still, Teddy.” You shouldn't move. Teddy, don't move!
Rikki-Tikki went up to the veranda:
– Turn around, Nagena, turn around and start the fight.
“Everything in due time,” answered the cobra, without taking his eyes off Teddy. “I’ll settle my scores with you soon.” Look at your friends, Rikki-tikki. They don't move; they are completely white; they are afraid. People don’t dare move, and if you take another step, I’ll bite you.
“Look at your eggs,” said Rikki-Tikki, “there on the melon ridge, near the fence!” Crawl there and look at them, Nagena.
The big snake made a half turn and saw its egg on the veranda.
- Ahh! Give it to me! - she said.
Rikki-tikki placed the egg between his front paws; his eyes were red as blood.
- How much do they give for a snake egg? For a young cobra? For a young king cobra? For the last, for the very last of the whole brood? There, on the melon ridge, the ants eat the rest.
Nagena turned completely; she forgot everything for the sake of her one egg, and Rikki-tikki saw Teddy's father reach out with his big hand, grab Teddy by the shoulder, drag him across the small table with tea cups, so that the boy was safe and out of Nagena's reach.
- Deceived, deceived, deceived, ricky-tchk-tchk! – Rikki-tikki laughed. - The boy was saved, and it was me, me, I caught Nag in the bathroom at night. – And the mangus began to jump on all four legs at once, lowering his head to the floor. – Nag threw me in all directions, but could not shake me off. He died before the big man broke him into two pieces. I did it. Rikki-tikki, tick-tick! Come, Nagena, fight me quickly. You won't be a widow for long.
Nagena realized that she had lost the opportunity to kill Teddy! In addition, her egg lay between the legs of the mangus.
“Give me the egg, Rikki-tikki, give me the last of my eggs, and I will leave here and never come back,” she said, and her neck narrowed.
- Yes, you will disappear and never return, because you will go to a pile of garbage, to Nagu. Fight, widow! The big man went for his gun. Fight!
Rikki-Tikki's eyes looked like hot coals, and he jumped around Nagena, keeping at such a distance that she could not bite him. Nagena shrank and took a leap forward. Rikki-tikki jumped into the air and recoiled from her; The cobra rushed again, again and again.
Each time her head fell on the mats of the veranda with a thud, and the snake coiled up like a clock spring. Finally, Rikki-Tikki began to jump in circles, hoping to find himself behind the snake, and Nagena wriggled, trying to keep her head against his head, and the rustle of her tail on the mat was like the rustle of dry leaves blown by the wind.
Mangus forgot about the egg. It was still lying on the veranda, and Nagena was getting closer and closer to it. And so, at that second, when Rikki-Tikki paused to catch his breath, the cobra grabbed its egg in its mouth, turned towards the stairs, descended from the veranda and, like an arrow, flew along the path; Rikki-tikki rushed after her. When the cobra runs for its life, it moves like a whip, curving around the horse's neck.
Rikki-Tikki knew that he had to catch her, otherwise everything would start all over again. Nagena was heading towards the tall grass near the thorn bushes and, rushing after her, Rikki-Tikki heard that Darcy was still singing his stupid triumphant song. Darcy's wife was smarter than her husband. As Nagena rushed past her nest, she flew out of it and flapped her wings over the cobra's head. If Darcy had helped his friend and Rikki, they could have made her turn, but now Nagena only narrowed her neck and slid further. Nevertheless, a short stop gave Rikki the opportunity to run closer to her and, when the cobra descended into the hole that made up his home with Nag, his white teeth grabbed her by the tail, and he went down underground with her, although very few mongooses, even the most smart and old, they decide to rush after the snake into its house. It was dark in the hole, and Rikki-Tikki did not know where the underground passage might widen and allow Nagena to turn around and bite him. He held on to her tail with all his strength, spreading his small legs so that they served as a brake, resting against the black, hot, wet slope of earth.
The grass near the entrance to the hole stopped swaying, and Darcy noticed:
“It’s all over for Rikki-tikki.” We should sing a song in honor of his death. Brave Rikki-Tikki is dead! Of course, Nagena killed him underground.
And he sang a very sad song, which he composed, inspired by this moment, but just when the singer reached the most touching part of it, the grass began to move again and Rikki-Tikki appeared covered with dirt; step by step, barely moving his feet, he came out of the hole and licked his mustache. Darcy fell silent with a slight exclamation. Rikki-tikki shook off some of the dust from his fur and sneezed.
“It’s over,” he said. “The widow will never come out again.”
The red ants that live between the stems of grass heard his remark, began to fuss and, one after another, went to see if he was telling the truth.
Rikki-tikki curled up in the grass and fell asleep. He slept for the rest of the day; the mangus did a good job that day.
“Now,” the animal said when it woke up, “I will return to the house; you, Darcy, tell the coppersmith bird about what happened, he will spread the news of Nagena’s death throughout the garden.
The coppersmith is a bird whose cry resembles the blows of a small hammer on a copper cup; he shouts so because he serves as the herald of every garden in India and conveys the message to all who are willing to listen. As Rikki-tikki moved along the path, he heard his cry, indicating “attention,” and reminiscent of the ringing of a tiny dinner gong. After that there was a sound: “Ding-dong-tok! Nag is dead! Dong! Nagena is dead! Ding dong tok." And then all the birds in the garden began to sing, all the frogs began to croak; after all, Nag and Nagena ate not only birds, but also frogs.
When Ricky approached the house, Teddy, Teddy's mother (she was still pale, having just recovered from fainting) and Teddy's father came out to meet him; they almost cried over the mongoose. In the evening he ate everything they gave him while he could eat, and went to sleep on Teddy's shoulder; When the boy's mother came late at night to look at her son, she saw Ricky.
“He saved our lives and he saved Teddy,” she told her husband. - Just think; he delivered us all from death.
Rikki-Tikki suddenly woke up: mongooses sleep very lightly.
“Oh, it’s you,” he said. - Why are you bothering? All cobras are killed; and even if it weren’t, I’m here.
Rikki-tikki could be proud; however, he was not too proud and guarded the garden, as befitted a mongoose, with his teeth and jumps; and not a single cobra dared to show itself outside the garden fence anymore.
Lesson summary on literature “R. Kipling "Rikki-Tikki-Tavi"
Topic: R. Kipling. "Rikki-Tikki-Tavi."
Target:
summarize students’ knowledge of R. Kipling’s work “Rikki-Tikki-Tavi”
Tasks:
Subject:
- Repeat the biography of the author, the characteristic features of the main characters,
- Repeat the composition of the construction of a work of art
- Test your ability to write a review of a work
Metasubject:
- Develop the ability to work in groups, with deformed text and picture cards
- Develop articulatory apparatus, speech, attention, working memory
Personal:
- Cultivate respect for your classmates
- Instill a love for animals.
Lesson type:
repeating and generalizing
Teaching methods:
conversation, partial search, research, verbal, visual, analytical
Forms of organization of cognitive activity:
individual, frontal and group.
Equipment:
- Portrait of R. Capling
- Deformed excerpt from the work
- Portraits of the main characters: Rikki-Tikki-Tavi, the boy Teddy, Teddy's mother - Ellis, Teddy's father - Big Man, Darzi, the tailor bird and his wife, Nag and his wife Nagaina, Chuchundra and his sister Chua.
- Parts of the composition (Exposition. Commencement. Development. Climax. Resolution)
- Recall plan
- Text with key words
During the classes.
1. Organizational moment.
- Greetings, psychological mood.
- Checking the class's readiness for the lesson - availability of textbooks and school supplies.
2.Updating knowledge
- Warm up.
Working on pure language .
- Let’s read the phrase clearly, pronouncing the words clearly.
Rikki-tikki-tikki-chk!
- Everyone “to themselves” about
