< The Jungle Book (text)

(Sung in honor of Rikki-tikki-tavi)

  Singer and tailor am I
  Doubled the joys that I know
  Proud of my lilt to the sky,
  Proud of the house that I sew
Over and under, so weave I my musicso weave I the house that I
  sew.

  Sing to your fledglings again,
  Mother, oh lift up your head!
  Evil that plagued us is slain,
  Death in the garden lies dead.
Terror that hid in the roses is impotentflung on the dung-hill
  and dead!

  Who has delivered us, who?
  Tell me his nest and his name.
  Rikki, the valiant, the true,
  Tikki, with eyeballs of flame,
Rikk-tikki-tikki, the ivory-fanged, the hunter with eyeballs of
  flame!

  Give him the Thanks of the Birds,
  Bowing with tail feathers spread!
  Praise him with nightingale words
  Nay, I will praise him instead.
Hear! I will sing you the praise of the bottle-tailed Rikki, with
  eyeballs of red!

(Here Rikki-tikki interrupted, and the rest of the song is lost.)

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