`` Rikki-Tikki-Tavi '' At the hole where he went in Red-Eye called to Wrinkle-Skin . Hear what little Red-Eye saith : `` Nag , come up and dance with death ! '' Eye to eye and head to head , -LRB- Keep the measure , Nag . -RRB- This shall end when one is dead ; -LRB- At thy pleasure , Nag . -RRB- Turn for turn and twist for twist -- -LRB- Run and hide thee , Nag . -RRB- Hah ! The hooded Death has missed ! -LRB- Woe betide thee , Nag ! -RRB- This is the story of the great war that Rikki-tikki-tavi fought single-handed , through the bath-rooms of the big bungalow in Segowlee cantonment . Darzee , the Tailorbird , helped him , and Chuchundra , the musk-rat , who never comes out into the middle of the floor , but always creeps round by the wall , gave him advice , but Rikki-tikki did the real fighting . He was a mongoose , rather like a little cat in his fur and his tail , but quite like a weasel in his head and his habits . His eyes and the end of his restless nose were pink . He could scratch himself anywhere he pleased with any leg , front or back , that he chose to use . He could fluff up his tail till it looked like a bottle brush , and his war cry as he scuttled through the long grass was : `` Rikk-tikk-tikki-tikki-tchk ! '' One day , a high summer flood washed him out of the burrow where he lived with his father and mother , and carried him , kicking and clucking , down a roadside ditch . He found a little wisp of grass floating there , and clung to it till he lost his senses . When he revived , he was lying in the hot sun on the middle of a garden path , very draggled indeed , and a small boy was saying , `` Here 's a dead mongoose . Let 's have a funeral . '' `` No , '' said his mother , `` let 's take him in and dry him . Perhaps he is n't really dead . ''
They took him XXXXX the house , and a big man picked him up between his finger and thumb and said he was not dead but half choked .
At by in into like on that through till with