I first introduced a mongoose into a cage containing a _Naja bungarus_ (_Ophiophagus_) of large size. The snake rose up immediately, dilated its hood, and struck savagely at the little animal, which, darting nimbly out of the way, escaped being seized and, frightened for a moment, took refuge in a corner of the cage. Its stupor, however, was but of brief duration, for at the very moment when the hamadryad was preparing to strike at it again, the mongoose, with open mouth and snarling, sprang upon the reptile’s head, bit it hard in the upper jaw and crushed its skull in a few seconds. This scene is in every respect reminiscent of the admirable description given by Rudyard Kipling, in his celebrated “Jungle Book,” of the great war that _Rikki-tikki_ (the Mongoose) fought with Nag (the Cobra) “through the bathrooms of the big bungalow in Segowlee cantonment”:-- “Nag was asleep, and Rikki-tikki looked at his big back, wondering which would be the best place for a good hold. ‘If I don’t break his back at the first jump,’ said Rikki, ‘he can still fight; and if he fights--O Rikki!’ He looked at the thickness of the neck below the hood, but that was too much for him; and a bite near the tail would only make Nag savage. “’It must be the head,’ he said at last; ‘the head above the hood; and when I am once there, I must not let go.’ “Then he jumped. The head was lying a little clear of the water-jar, under the curve of it; and, as his teeth met, Rikki braced his back against the bulge of the red earthenware to hold down the head. This gave him just one second’s purchase, and he made the most of it. Then he was battered to and fro as a rat is shaken by a dog--to and fro on the floor, up and down, and round in great circles; but his eyes were red, and he held on as the body cart-whipped over the floor, upsetting the tin dipper and the soap-dish and the flesh-brush, and banged against the tin side of the bath. As he held he closed his jaws tighter and tighter, for he made sure he would be banged to death, and, for the honour of his family, he preferred to be found with his teeth locked. He was dizzy, aching, and felt shaken to pieces, when something went off like a thunderclap just behind him; a hot wind knocked him senseless, and red fire singed his fur. The big man had been wakened by the noise, and had fired both barrels of a shot-gun into Nag just behind the hood.”[83] From the experimental point of view, these stirring battles between mongooses and cobras only show that a mongoose of the size of a large squirrel makes a plucky and victorious attack upon a venomous reptile of the most dangerous species and of very large dimensions; but it is impossible to tell with certainty whether the mongoose has been bitten. I therefore inoculated a second mongoose with 2 milligrammes of venom, a lethal dose for 4 kilogrammes of rabbit. The animal did not experience the slightest malaise.