Rikki-Tikki-Tavi
Rikki-Tikki-Tavi is a short story in The Jungle Book (1894) by Rudyard Kipling about the adventures of a valiant young mongoose.
The story is a favourite of Kipling fans and is notable for its frightening and serious tone. Some epic features (heightened prosaic style, songs to the hero) add to the standard typology of hero defeating villain. It has often been anthologised and has also been published more than once as a short book in its own right. The story was also adapted into an animated TV special by American animator Chuck Jones in 1975. That same year was when the story was adapted into a Russian animated short film.
Plot
An English family, have moved to a bungalow in the jungles of India - Sugauli (former British sp. Segowlee) cantonment in Bihar State, India - discover a young mongoose half drowned from a storm 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 mate 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 poor boy (Teddy). Although Rikki is inexperienced and the snake, because of its deadly venom and small size, is an even more dangerous foe than a cobra, the mongoose defeats him.
At Nagaina's urging, Nag plans to kill the human family to get the house empty again so they can have free run of its garden. She also reminds him that their eggs would hatch soon (as they might the next day) and that their children will need room and quiet. Nag goes to the bathroom to wait to kill the "big man." Rikki, who sneaks in, grabs Nag by the head above the hood. Nag thrashes about furiously, and the noise wakes the man, who fires both barrels of a shotgun into Nag, blowing him in two pieces and almost hitting Rikki. Nag is then thrown on the rubbish heap, where Nagaina mourns for him and vows vengeance.
Rikki, well aware of the threat, enlists a tailor bird, Darzee, to distract Nagaina while he searches for her eggs. However, as Rikki finds and destroys most of the brood (by stomping on the eggs), Nagaina approaches the family at the dinner table in the garden and threatens to kill the family's son with her poisonous bite. Alerted to the crisis, Rikki races to the family with the last egg in tow. Once there, he claims he killed Nag himself and shows the egg to distract Nagaina long enough for the man to pull the boy to safety. Nagaina snatches the egg and flees to her hole, with Rikki in pursuit. The underground fight is not described, but after an agonizingly long time, Rikki comes out of the hole in triumph, having killed Nagaina. After this victory, Rikki spends the rest of his days defending the family garden where no snakes dare to enter.
Books
Paul Vaderlind, Richard K. Guy, and Loren Larson wrote a mathematical book titled Inquisitive Problem Solver that references Rikki Tikki Tavi. In Robert A. Heinlein's novel The Door into Summer the main character sometimes refers to his niece Frederica (Ricky) as Rikki-tikki-tavi. In George Bernard Shaw's Man and Superman the character Octavius is given the pet-name Ricki-Ticki-Tavy by Ann Whitefield. In Barbara Kingsolver's novel The Poisonwood Bible,a girl named Ruth May Price befriends a mongoose and her sister Leah suggests she names it "Ricky Ticky Tabby", but instead Ruth chooses to name it after a rodent from a different piece of literature, Stuart Little.
Popular music
Donovan wrote a song titled "Riki Tiki Tavi", which appeared on his album Open Road. (The "snakes" referred to in Donovan's song are societal problems.) The third track on the Poison the Well album Versions is entitled "Nagaina," in reference to the snake in the story. Rikki-Tikki-Tavi is also the name of a song on the as-of-yet untitled sophomore major label release from Fair to Midland. Popular Russian band Splean (Сплин) have a song called Рикки-Тикки-Тави (Russian spelling of Rikki-Tikki-Tavi) on their 2001 album "25 кадр".
Computer software
WikkiTikkiTavi is an open source wiki engine.[1] Popular webcomic Sluggy Freelance's character, "Kiki" the ferret, takes the pseudonym "Riki Kiki Taco" when she has delusions of being a heroine.[2] *The phrase "Most Rikki-Tik"[3] means "quickly" or "immediately".
Film, television, and video
An animated Russian film adaptation was produced Aleksandra Snezhko-Blotskaya with a change being that Rikki's adoptive human family are native Indians as opposed to the original story's British family. Another change was that there is no Karait; there is only Nag and Nagaina. In 1975, Chuck Jones produced and directed an animated adaptation of Rikki-Tikki-Tavi[4]. Orson Welles provided the narration and some of the voices, based on a previous recording.[citation needed]
In an episode of British sitcom Peep Show, the last question on a quiz machine is '"What animal was Rikki-Tikki Tavi?"' In the martial arts parody film Kung Pow! Enter the Fist, Master Tang refers to Ling's father as Rikki-Tikki-Tavi. In the comedy series Bottom, the character Richie (played by Rik Mayall) refers to himself as Rikki Tikki Tavi when talking to his aunt.
The name of the "Rikti" Villain faction in the Massively multiplayer online role-playing game video games City of Heroes and City of Villains was inspired by Rikki-Tikki-Tavi.[5] Mongoose Publishing [6] has a license to author and publish a science-fiction role-playing game called "Traveller Core Rule Book (2008)" that players unofficially refer to as "RTT" or "Rikki Tikki Traveller".[7]
References
- ^ "Source Forge". 2008. Retrieved 2008-02-05.
{{cite web}}: Text "coauthors" ignored (help) - ^ "Sluggy". 2008. Retrieved 2008-02-05.
{{cite web}}: Text "coauthors" ignored (help) - ^ "Wiktionary". 2008. Retrieved 2008-02-05.
{{cite web}}: Text "coauthors" ignored (help) - ^ "Rikki-Tikki-Tavi" at the Internet Movie Database
- ^ "City of Heroes". 2008. Retrieved 2008-02-05.
{{cite web}}: Text "coauthors" ignored (help) - ^ Mongoose Publishing website
- ^ The Miniatures Page