Hear what little Red-Eye saith:

     "Nag, come up and dance with death!"

     Eye to eye and head to head,

        (Keep the measure, Nag.)

     This shall end when one is dead;

        (At thy pleasure, Nag.)

     Turn for turn and twist for twist-

        (Run and hide thee, Nag.)

     Hah!  The hooded Death has missed!

        (Woe betide thee, Nag!)

     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. Hi

eyes and the end of his restless nose were pink. He coulc

  他钻进了那个洞穴

    “红眼睛”呼唤着“皱皮肤”

    小小的“红眼睛”这样说：

    “纳格，出来和死亡跳个舞吧!”   

    眼冲着眼，头对着头．

    (跟上舞拍，纳格。)

    只有其中一个死去，舞蹈才会结束．

    (悉听尊便，纳格。)

    一招还一式，翻滚对缠绕．

    (快逃吧，藏起来吧，纳格。)

    哈!戴头兜的死神没有击中!

    (该你倒霉啦，纳格!)

    这是讲述里基一蒂基一塔维在塞戈利驻屯地的

一幢宽大的带门廊的平房的浴室里，单枪匹马进行

的一次了不起的战斗的故事。长尾缝衣莺达尔齐帮

了他的忙，而从来只敢溜墙根儿，不敢跑到房间中

间去的麝鼠丘琼德尔，给他出了些主意；不过，真

正投入战斗的，只是里基一蒂基独自一个。

    他是一只獠，毛皮和尾巴长得有点像小猫，脑

袋和生活习惯却很像黄鼠狼。他的眼睛和他那只不

停地嗅来嗅去的鼻子尖是浅红色的；只要他高兴，

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 isn't really dead."

     They took him into the house, and a big man picked him

up between his finger and thumb and said he was not dead

but half choked. So they wrapped him in cotton wool, and

warmed him over a little fire, and he opened his eyes and

sneezed.

     "Now," said the big man (he was an Englishman who

had just moved into the bungalow) ,  "don't frighten him,

and we'll see what he' II do."

     It is the hardest thing in the world to frighten a mongoose,

because he is eaten up from nose to tail with curiosity. The

motto of all the mongoose family is "Run and find out," and

Rikki-tikki was a true mongoose. He looked at the cotton wool,

decided that it was not good to eat, ran all round the table,

sat up and put his fur in order,  scratched himself, and

jumped on the small boy's shoulder.

     "Don't be frightened, Teddy," said his father. "That's

his way of making friends."

丛林故事-中英对照 作者简介

拉迪亚德•吉卜林（1865～1936），英国小说家、诗人，出生于印度孟买，是20世纪英国享有盛誉的重要作家之一。他的创作十分丰富，有长篇小说、短篇小说、诗歌、游记、儿童文学、随笔、回忆录等。其中尤以短篇小说的成就最为突出，他的印度题材的动物故事集《丛林故事》更是他创作中的瑰宝，也是他最为出色的代表作品。

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