Note on the “ichneumon” motif

Note: this text is extracted from Book VI, chapter 33.

“Once on a time there was a large banyan-tree outside the city of Vidiśā. In that vast tree dwelt four creatures, an ichneumon,[5] an owl, a cat and a mouse, and their habitations were apart. The ichneumon and the mouse dwelt in separate holes in the root, the cat in a great hollow in the middle of the tree; but the owl dwelt in a bower of creepers on the top of it, which was inaccessible to the others...”

The ichneumon is found in several animal stories in Eastern collections, often in company with a mouse. See, for instance, Schiefner and Ralston’s Tibetan Tales, p. 308, where there is a pathetic little story about an ichneumon, a mouse and a snake. The cunning of the former is shown in the tale of the “Mouse and the Ichneumon” in the Nights, Burton, vol. iii, pp. 147-148. (See Burton’s note on p. 147.) It is unnecessary to speak of Kipling’s Rikki-Tikki-Tavi.

It would be more correct in our text to call the animal by the Indian name “mongoose” (Herpestes mungo), the Indian being smaller than the Egyptian variety (H. ichneumon). The type genus has numerous species found all over Africa and throughout Southern Asia. In India the mongoose is especially famous as a serpent-killer, and owing to its successful encounters with even the deadliest snakes has been credited with immunity from snakebites. The Hindus also say that, if bitten, the animal has recourse to a certain root which it uses as an antidote. It has been found, however, that the mongoose is affected by venom just like other animals, but owing to its extraordinary quickness, and the thickness of its skin and the protection afforded by its long stiff hair, which it erects in anger, it is a very formidable enemy to the snake.

A spectator of a fight between a mongoose and a snake thus writes (Ency. Brit., vol. xiv, p. 242):

“His whole nature appears to be changed. His fur stands on end, and he presents the incarnation of intense rage. The snake invariably attempts to escape, but, finding it impossible to evade the rapid onslaught of the mongoose, raises his crest and lashes out fiercely at his little persecutor, who seems to delight in dodging out of the way just in time. This goes on until the mongoose sees his opportunity, when like lightning he rushes in and seizes the snake with his teeth by the back of the neck close to the head, shaking him as a terrier does a rat. These tactics are repeated until the snake is killed.”

It was, however, in ancient Egypt that the ichneumon was most venerated, the centre of the worship being at Heracleopolis. The principal cause of the respect paid to the animal is said to be on account of its great hostility to the crocodile, an animal especially feared and hated by the Heracleopolites. Living among the reeds on the banks of the Nile, it takes the eggs of young crocodiles which have been hidden in the sand. Diodorus (i, 87, etc.) tells us that it even kills full-grown crocodiles in a wonderful and almost incredible manner. Covering itself with a coat of mud, the ichneumon watches the moment when the crocodile, coming out of the river, sleeps (as is its custom) upon a sand-bank, with its mouth open (turned towards the wind), and, adroitly gliding down its throat, penetrates to its entrails. It then gnaws through its stomach, and, having killed its enemy, escapes without receiving any injury (quoted by Wilkinson, Manners and Customs of the Ancient Egyptians, vol. iii, p. 280).

Several other classical writers, Pliny, Strabo, Herodotus, Aelian, etc., have described the mode of attack of the ichneumon against the snake.

The animal is often kept as a pet and becomes very tame, and usually has a wonderful temper, but its partiality for eggs and poultry makes it a bad substitute for the cat. It is the cat that is afraid of the mongoose rather than the opposite, as mentioned in our text. For further details see Wilkinson, op. cit., pp. 279-285, and Yule, Hobson Jobson, under Mungoose.”—n.m.p.