If you read the old books of natural history , you will find they say that when the mongoose fights the snake and happens to get bitten , he runs off and eats some herb that cures him . That is not true . The victory is only a matter of quickness of eye and quickness of foot -- snake 's blow against mongoose 's jump -- and as no eye can follow the motion of a snake 's head when it strikes , this makes things much more wonderful than any magic herb . Rikki-tikki knew he was a young mongoose , and it made him all the more pleased to think that he had managed to escape a blow from behind . It gave him confidence in himself , and when Teddy came running down the path , Rikki-tikki was ready to be petted . But just as Teddy was stooping , something wriggled a little in the dust , and a tiny voice said : `` Be careful . I am Death ! '' It was Karait , the dusty brown snakeling that lies for choice on the dusty earth ; and his bite is as dangerous as the cobra 's . But he is so small that nobody thinks of him , and so he does the more harm to people . Rikki-tikki 's eyes grew red again , and he danced up to Karait with the peculiar rocking , swaying motion that he had inherited from his family . It looks very funny , but it is so perfectly balanced a gait that you can fly off from it at any angle you please , and in dealing with snakes this is an advantage . If Rikki-tikki had only known , he was doing a much more dangerous thing than fighting Nag , for Karait is so small , and can turn so quickly , that unless Rikki bit him close to the back of the head , he would get the return stroke in his eye or his lip . But Rikki did not know . His eyes were all red , and he rocked back and forth , looking for a good place to hold . Karait struck out . Rikki jumped sideways and tried to run in , but the wicked little dusty gray head lashed within a fraction of his shoulder , and he had to jump over the body , and the head followed his heels close . Teddy shouted to the house : `` Oh , look here ! Our mongoose is killing a snake . '' And Rikki-tikki heard a scream from Teddy 's mother . His father ran out with a stick , but by the time he came up , Karait had lunged out once too far , and Rikki-tikki had sprung , jumped on the snake 's back , dropped his head far between his forelegs , bitten as high up the back as he could get hold , and rolled away .
That bite paralyzed Karait , and Rikki-tikki was just going XXXXX eat him up from the tail , after the custom of his family at dinner , when he remembered that a full meal makes a slow mongoose , and if he wanted all his strength and quickness ready , he must keep himself thin .
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