An India cobra (Naja naja). Kipling’s short story “Rikki-Tikki-Tavi” forms a chapter of The Jungle Book (1894), and along with “Mowgli’s Brothers” is one of the most enduring tales it contains. It tells how a young mongoose finds himself in the garden of an English family in the far north of India, and follows his epic tussle to deliver both the human family and the other animals of the garden from the ever-present threat of two Indian cobras.
Part 1 of 2
“WHAT is the matter?” asked Rikki-tikki.
“We are very miserable,” said Darzee.* “One of our babies fell out of the nest yesterday and Nag ate him.”
“H’m!” said Rikki-tikki, “that is very sad — but I am a stranger here. Who is Nag?”*
Darzee and his wife only cowered down in the nest without answering, for from the thick grass at the foot of the bush there came a low hiss — a horrid cold sound that made Rikki-tikki jump back two clear feet. Then inch by inch out of the grass rose up the head and spread hood of Nag, the big black cobra, and he was five feet long from tongue to tail. When he had lifted one-third of himself clear of the ground, he stayed balancing to and fro exactly as a dandelion tuft balances in the wind, and he looked at Rikki-tikki with the wicked snake’s eyes that never change their expression, whatever the snake may be thinking of.
* ‘Naga’ is Sanskrit for ‘serpent’. The feminine is Nagaina.
* Darzee is a tailorbird (Orthotomus sutorius), which constructs a nest by folding a leaf over and stitching or riveting the edges together with plant fibres or sticky gossamer, forming a cup. The nest itself is then laid inside, lined with soft grass. See a picture at Wikimedia Commons. Kipling makes it clear that Mrs Darzee has the advantage of her mate in both wits and courage.
Part Two
An Indian grey mongoose (Herpestes edwardsi) in Amravati in northern Maharashtra, about 90 miles west of Nagpur. Kipling tells us that the English couple lived in a bungalow in Sugauli, a town in the modern-day State of Bihar near the border with Nepal. Bungalows were typical of the houses built for colonial settlers in Bengal, and indeed ‘bungalow’ is derived from the Gujarati word bangalo, meaning ‘Bengal-style’. Some were ‘dak bungalows’ made for postal workers, criticised by Kipling’s father for being as plain as a haystack and hardly more luxurious. Others could be quite grand, extending to more than one floor, embellished with verandahs and surrounded by that most English of domestic requirements, a garden.
“WHO is Nag?” said he. “I am Nag. The great God Brahm put his mark upon all our people, when the first cobra spread his hood to keep the sun off Brahm as he slept.* Look, and be afraid!”
He spread out his hood more than ever, and Rikki-tikki saw the spectacle-mark on the back of it that looks exactly like the eye part of a hook-and-eye fastening.* He was afraid for the minute, but it is impossible for a mongoose to stay frightened for any length of time, and though Rikki-tikki had never met a live cobra before, his mother had fed him on dead ones, and he knew that all a grown mongoose’s business in life was to fight and eat snakes. Nag knew that too and, at the bottom of his cold heart, he was afraid.
* Brahma is the Hindu creator-god. Kipling here echoes a tale told of the Buddha, Siddhartha Gautama (?5th-4th century BC), by naturalist John George Wood (1827-1889), who heard it in India.
“One day when Buddha was lying asleep in the sun, a Cobra came and raised its body between him and the burning beams, spreading its hood so as to shade his face. The grateful deity promised to repay the favour, but forgot to do so. In those days the Brahminny kite used to prey largely on the Cobras, and worked such devastation among them that the individual who had done Buddha the forgotten service ventured to remind him of his promise, and to beg relief from the attacks of the kite. Buddha immediately granted the request by placing the spectacles on the Snake’s hood, thereby frightening the kite so much that it has never since ventured to attack a Cobra.”
According to Sikh lore, a cobra performed the same office for the founder of Sikhism, Guru Nanak (1469-1539). Buddhism also tells another tale, in which the naga Muccalinda sheltered the Buddha from a great storm for seven days.
* For the posterior view of the cobra’s hood, see a photo at ‘Indian cobra’ (Wikimedia Commons). For the clasp, see ‘Hook-and-eye clasp’ (Wikimedia Commons).
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