The Jungle Book

Rudyard Kipling

Darzee’s Chant

Darzee’s Chant

     (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 music—so 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 impotent—flung 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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