Rikki-Tikki-Tavi kills Nag

Rikki-Tikki-Tavi kills Nag in the bathroom, transforming a hidden domestic danger into the first decisive victory in his defense of Teddy and the bungalow. The encounter begins as an ambush planned by Nag and Nagaina, but ends with the cobra dead, the household saved, and Rikki-Tikki already looking beyond the victory toward Nagaina and the eggs that threaten to renew the danger.

The Threat in the Sluice

The scene is set in a narrow, concealed space rather than in the open garden. Rikki-Tikki-Tavi hears the dry, faint scratching of scales and follows it to Teddy’s bathroom and then to Teddy’s mother’s bathroom, where a brick has been removed from the smooth plaster wall to form a sluice for bath water. From the masonry curb he hears Nag and Nagaina whispering in the moonlight. Their conversation makes the stakes explicit: Nagaina wants the people killed so that the bungalow will be empty, the garden will belong to the cobras again, and their eggs in the melon bed will have room and quiet when they hatch.

Nag’s part in the plan is to enter quietly and bite the large man first, because the man killed Karait. He intends to wait in the bathroom until morning, when the human will come to bathe without the stick he may have carried before. This is not a random attack but a calculated attempt to remove both the family and the mongoose from the garden. Rikki-Tikki-Tavi, listening from hiding, understands that the bathroom is both the cobra’s chosen killing ground and the place where he may be able to prevent the plan before it begins.

The Attack on Nag

Nag’s arrival makes the danger physically overwhelming. His head comes through the sluice, followed by five feet of cold body; he coils beside the largest water jar, raises his head, and studies the darkness. Rikki-Tikki-Tavi is enraged by what he has heard, yet he is also frightened by the cobra’s size. The confined room removes the advantage of distance, and a poorly chosen bite could leave the mongoose exposed to the snake’s full strength.

He therefore studies Nag while the cobra drinks and settles down coil by coil around the bulge at the bottom of the red earthenware water jar. Rikki-Tikki-Tavi considers the possible holds: the neck below the hood is too thick, while a bite near the tail would only make Nag more savage. He decides that the head above the hood is the only effective target. The decision converts fear into a precise objective: if he reaches the head, he must hold on without interruption.

Rikki-Tikki-Tavi then jumps. His teeth meet Nag’s head just clear of the water jar, and he braces his back against the jar’s rounded side to gain a moment of leverage. Nag immediately batters him across the floor, shaking him like a rat in a dog’s jaws and dragging him through the overturned tin dipper, soap dish, and flesh brush before striking him against the tin side of the bath. Rikki-Tikki-Tavi’s body is battered and his vision closes, but he tightens his jaws rather than releasing them. His resolve is presented not as effortless strength but as endurance under an attack that seems capable of killing him.

The Shot and the Value Shift

The fight changes when the noise wakes Teddy’s father. A double-barreled shotgun fires into Nag just behind the hood. The blast sends a hot wind over Rikki-Tikki-Tavi and singes his fur, while the cobra’s head ceases to move. Rikki-Tikki-Tavi has made the crucial hold, but the human weapon supplies the final force that kills Nag. The victory is therefore shared between animal courage and human intervention, even though the mongoose’s bite creates the opportunity for the shot.

Teddy’s father recognizes the result immediately. He picks up Rikki-Tikki-Tavi and says, "It's the mongoose again, Alice. The little chap has saved our lives now." The statement confirms the practical consequence of the struggle: Nag was not merely driven away; he was killed before he could attack the family. Teddy’s mother enters with a very white face and sees what remains of the cobra, while Rikki-Tikki-Tavi drags himself to Teddy’s bedroom and spends much of the night testing his aching body to discover whether the violent shaking has broken him.

Immediate Consequences

By morning Rikki-Tikki-Tavi is stiff but pleased with what he has done. His relief is not final, because Nagaina remains alive and, in his judgment, may be worse than five Nags. The overheard plan has also revealed that the eggs may hatch as soon as the following day. Nag’s death thus closes one line of attack while opening a larger one: the immediate male cobra has been removed, but the female and the unborn brood still threaten the bungalow and garden.

The scene’s decisive value shift runs from threatened human life to temporary safety, but the safety remains unstable. Nag had entered the bathroom expecting to wait unseen until the human was vulnerable; instead, the hidden listener turns the bathroom into a trap for him. The same domestic architecture that promised the cobra secrecy gives Rikki-Tikki-Tavi a route of approach, and the water jar becomes the point against which the mongoose anchors his body. Household objects, animal senses, and the shotgun together reverse the intended murder.

Narrative Significance

The killing establishes Rikki-Tikki-Tavi as an active guardian rather than a merely fortunate visitor. He hears a private conspiracy, assesses the physical problem, chooses the only viable point of attack, and accepts extreme danger in order to keep hold of Nag. The event also defines his conflict with Nag and Nagaina as a struggle over habitation: the cobras want the bungalow emptied so that they can reclaim the garden, while Rikki-Tikki-Tavi’s presence makes the human home a protected space.

Nag’s death is consequently both a completed action and a warning. It proves that the cobra pair can be defeated, but it exposes the reproductive future of the threat through the eggs in the melon bed. Rikki-Tikki-Tavi’s own reaction recognizes this unfinished structure: he celebrates the victory only long enough to turn toward Nagaina, whose survival and relation to the eggs make the next confrontation necessary.