Rikki-Tikki-Tavi
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40 free Rikki-Tikki-Tavi trivia questions with answers — literature quiz, new questions added Oct 2026.
Rudyard Kipling's tale of a young mongoose who takes on two cobras has been read in classrooms for more than a century. It first appeared in The Jungle Book in 1894, and it packs a rescue, a midnight ambush and a final chase into one short story. This quiz follows the plot in order, from the day the hero is washed into an English family's garden to his last fight with Nagaina. It checks what you remember about Teddy, Darzee, Chuchundra and Karait, and adds questions on Kipling's life, the real animals behind the characters and the cartoon and film versions. It works as a comprehension check after reading, as practice on plot development before a class test, or as a quick challenge for anyone who met the story at school.
30 of 40 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01How does Teddy's father end the midnight struggle between Rikki-tikki and Nag?
With a shotgun blast
With a shotgun blast: woken by the crashing, the big man fires both barrels into Nag. The shock knocks Rikki-tikki senseless and singes his fur, yet he never lets go.
Q 02What does Teddy suggest doing when he finds Rikki-tikki lying half-drowned on the garden path?
Holding a funeral
Holding a funeral is Teddy's idea, because he takes the limp mongoose for dead. His mother insists on drying the animal first, and it soon sneezes awake beside a little fire.
Q 03In 'Rikki-Tikki-Tavi', what does Kipling give as the motto of the whole mongoose family?
Run and find out
Run and find out sums up Rikki-tikki, who is eaten up from nose to tail with curiosity. That is why the narrator calls a mongoose the hardest thing in the world to frighten.
Q 04In Kipling's story, where does the mongoose hero Rikki-tikki-tavi get his unusual three-part name?
His chattering war cry
His chattering war cry, a rattling burst he lets out while scuttling through long grass, gives Rikki-tikki-tavi the name. He sounds it again whenever his temper rises over the cobras.
Q 05In 'Rikki-Tikki-Tavi', how does Darzee's wife trick Nagaina into chasing her along the garden path?
By faking a broken wing
By faking a broken wing, she flutters along the ground just ahead of the cobra. She even blames Teddy for throwing the stone, which makes Nagaina vow to settle accounts with the boy.
Q 06Where in the bungalow garden has Nagaina hidden the eggs that Rikki-tikki sets out to destroy?
In the melon bed
In the melon bed, at the end nearest the wall, the sun warms the clutch nearly all day. Darzee had known the spot for weeks and never thought to mention it.
Q 07Kipling says a mongoose such as Rikki-tikki is angry when his eyes turn which color?
Red
Red eyes are the warning sign, and Rikki-tikki's glow like hot coals as he circles Nagaina. When he is calm, the story says, his eyes and the end of his restless nose are pink.
Q 08After paralyzing Karait with one bite, why does Rikki-tikki decide against eating the snake?
A full meal slows a mongoose
A full meal slows a mongoose, he remembers, and with two cobras still loose he must stay thin and quick. He goes off to roll in the dust under the castor-oil bushes instead.
Q 09Where does Nagaina flee from the veranda with Rikki-tikki's teeth clenched on her tail?
Down a rat-hole
Down a rat-hole, the burrow she once shared with Nag, the two vanish into the dark. Kipling notes that very few mongooses, however wise and old, care to follow a cobra into its hole.
Q 10In which room of the bungalow does Rikki-tikki spring on the sleeping Nag in the dark?
Bathroom
A bathroom is the battlefield, because Nag plans to ambush Teddy's father there in the morning, when he comes to wash without a weapon. The story's opening line promises battles fought through such rooms.
Q 11What does Rikki-tikki carry onto the veranda to draw Nagaina's attention away from Teddy?
Her last egg
Her last egg is the bait: he has crushed the rest of the brood. When Nagaina spins round for it, Teddy's father drags the boy across the tea table to safety.
Q 12Why are Darzee and his wife crying on the rim of the nest when Rikki-tikki first meets them?
Nag ate their baby
Nag ate their baby after it fell out of the nest the day before. The news gives Rikki-tikki his first quarrel with the cobra, whom he scolds for eating fledglings.
Q 13Why does Kipling say Karait does more harm to people than the cobras Rikki-tikki fights?
Q 21Where on the sleeping Nag's body does Rikki-tikki decide he must bite and then never let go?
The head above the hood
The head above the hood is his choice, since the neck is too thick for him and a bite near the tail would only make Nag savage. He knows the cobra can still fight unless the first jump breaks its back.
Q 22Chuchundra the muskrat, who tells Rikki-tikki to listen for Nag, never finds the courage to do what?
Reach the middle of the room
Reach the middle of the room: he whimpers and cheeps all night trying to make up his mind, and never gets there. Even so, it is his hint that sends Rikki-tikki off to catch the faint scratch of scales.
Q 23What does Nagaina promise on the veranda if Rikki-tikki will hand back what lies between his paws?
He is small and overlooked
He is small and overlooked: the dusty brown snakeling lies on bare earth where nobody thinks of him. Kipling adds that fighting him was riskier for Rikki-tikki than facing Nag.
Q 14What are Teddy and his parents doing on the veranda when Nagaina coils beside the boy's chair?
Having breakfast
Having breakfast is impossible once she arrives: the three sit stone-still with white faces, their food untouched. Nagaina lies within easy striking distance of Teddy's bare leg.
Q 15In 'Rikki-Tikki-Tavi', why does Nagaina urge Nag to kill the people living in the bungalow?
So the mongoose will leave
So the mongoose will leave: an empty bungalow, she argues, means no Rikki-tikki, and the pair can rule the garden again. Her eggs are close to hatching and will need room and quiet.
Q 16Darzee, who shouts a warning as Nagaina strikes at Rikki-tikki from behind, is which kind of bird?
A tailorbird
A tailorbird really does stitch leaves together with fibers to cradle its nest, just as Darzee and his wife do. His name means tailor in Hindi and Urdu.
Q 17Kipling says Rikki-tikki is like a little cat in fur and tail, but which animal in head and habits?
A weasel
A weasel in head and habits is the narrator's verdict, though mongooses belong to a family of their own. He adds that Rikki-tikki could scratch himself anywhere with any leg he chose.
Q 18Teddy's father says the boy is safer with Rikki-tikki on the pillow than with which dog on watch?
A bloodhound
A bloodhound could not guard Teddy better, the father tells his worried wife, who fears the mongoose may bite the child. He starts to add what would happen if a snake came into the nursery.
Q 19On what does the curious Rikki-tikki burn his nose during his first day exploring the bungalow?
A cigar
A cigar belonging to Teddy's father does it, after Rikki-tikki climbs into his lap to see how writing is done. He has already dipped his nose in the ink on the writing table.
Q 20What does Nag coil himself around to sleep while he waits until morning for Teddy's father?
A water jar
A water jar of earthenware gives Nag a cool place to curl up, once he has drunk from it. Its bulge then gives Rikki-tikki something to brace his back against in the fight.
To go away forever
To go away forever is her offer, made with her hood lowered once Teddy is out of reach. Rikki-tikki answers that she will indeed go, to join Nag, and tells her to fight.
Q 24Which bird, the town crier of every Indian garden, announces Nagaina's death in 'Rikki-Tikki-Tavi'?
The Coppersmith
The Coppersmith earns the title because its call sounds like a little hammer beating a copper pot. The real bird is a barbet, and in the story its dinging sets the frogs croaking with relief.
Q 25Why is the end of 'Darzee's Chant', the song printed after Kipling's mongoose story, lost to readers?
Rikki-tikki interrupted him
Rikki-tikki interrupted him, a closing note explains, so the rest of the song is lost. Darzee is the same bird who was scolded for celebrating while Nagaina was still alive.
Q 26Which literary term describes giving the animals of 'Rikki-Tikki-Tavi' human speech and motives?
Anthropomorphism
Anthropomorphism lets the Jungle Book stories work as fables, with animals standing in for human types to teach a lesson. Rikki-tikki argues, boasts and worries just as a person would.
Q 27Which belief from old natural-history books does Kipling call untrue in 'Rikki-Tikki-Tavi'?
Bitten mongooses eat a herb
Bitten mongooses eat a herb that cures them, the old books claimed. Kipling says victory is only quickness of eye and foot, the snake's blow against the mongoose's jump, which he finds more wonderful than magic.
Q 28Nag tells Rikki-tikki that the god Brahm marked every cobra's hood after the first cobra did what?
Shaded him as he slept
Shaded him as he slept is Nag's proud boast: the first cobra spread its hood to keep the sun off the god. The spectacle mark, he says, has been on his people ever since.
Q 29Which insects troop down to check whether Rikki-tikki has told the truth about Nagaina's death?
Ants
Ants living between the grass stems hear his announcement and file down one after another to see for themselves. Worn out, Rikki-tikki curls up where he is and sleeps until late afternoon.
Q 30Rudyard Kipling wrote 'Rikki-Tikki-Tavi' and the other Jungle Book tales in which American state?
Vermont
Vermont was his home for four years in the 1890s, in a house he named Naulakha near Brattleboro. The Jungle Books first took shape there in a cottage workroom where snow lay level with the windowsill.