Characters
This is the young English boy who rescues Rikki-tikki and becomes his close companion.
Who is Teddy?
The story takes place in this country during the era of British colonial rule.
What is India?
A mongoose's ultimate natural life purpose is to fight and eat this type of animal.
What is a snake/cobra?
"Run and look, Teddy. Dear me, it's a wild mongoose."
Who is Teddy's Mom?
This large cobra is Rikki-tikki's primary enemy in the garden.
Who is Nag?
This is the specific type of large, single story house with a wide veranda where Teddy and his family live.
What is a bungalow?
This tiny, dusty-brown snake is the first venomous creature Rikki-tikki kills in the garden.
Who is Karait?
"Look at me, and be afraid... I carry death in my front teeth."
Who is Nag?
This tail-wagging, emotional bird helps Rikki-tikki but often acts out of intense fear.
Who is Darzee?
Rikki-tikki washes up in a roadside ditch after this type of weather event floods his original home.
What is a flood?
This part of a mongoose's body turns bright red when they grow angry or excited during a battle.
What are his eyes?
"Don't kill me! I am a miserable man, and I always weep."
Who is Chuchundra?
This muskrat is too terrified to ever run into the middle of a room, preferring to creep along the walls.
Who is Chuchundra?
Nag plans to hide inside this specific room of the house to ambush Teddy's father in the morning.
What is the bathroom?
Rikki-tikki manages to kill Nag while the cobra is sleeping by biting and holding onto this specific body part.
What is the head/hood?
"Rikki-tikki, go and catch the grasshoppers! My son is dead in the garden."
Who is Darzee's wife?
This is Nag's clever, highly dangerous wife who plans the attack on Teddy's family.
Who is Nagaina?
Nagaina hides her nest of deadly eggs in this specific location within the garden.
What is the melon-bed?
Rikki-tikki does something other mongooses are warned never to do: he follows Nagaina into this dangerous spot.
What is his underground hole/burrow?
"Give me the last egg, Rikki-tikki, and I will go away and never come back."
Who is Nagaina?