What words suggest Rikki is a curious character in "Rikki Tikki Tavi"?

Rikki-tikki is always described as curious, and almost impossible to frighten.

A mongoose by its very nature seems to be a curious creature.  When Rikki-tikki first washes up on the family’s doorstep, he shows that he is curious rather than afraid.

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.

Rikki-tikki decides that he wants to be a house mongoose, like his mother before him.  He makes a home with the people, and you can tell by his behavior with them that he is curious about everything around him.  On his first day he “spent all that day roaming over the house” checking to see what he could eat and what he couldn’t, and just looking around in general, and at night was too curious about the house to sleep.

At nightfall he ran into Teddy's nursery to watch how kerosene-lamps were lighted, and when Teddy went to bed Rikki-tikki climbed up too; but he was a restless companion, because he had to get up and attend to every noise all through the night, and find out what made it.

Rikki-tikki’s curiosity saves his life when it comes to snakes in the yard.  He takes nothing for granted.  He learns right away that there are two killers, the cobras, and he knows that he will need to fight them.  He is also aware that there are other snakes, and it does not take him long to kill little Karait.

Rikki’s curiosity is a survival trait.  It is what keeps him on his toes, and allows him to stay one step ahead of the snakes and other predators.  It also allows him to protect the family, which he considers his job as a house mongoose.

What incidents from "Rikki-Tikki-Tavi" illustrate Rikki-tikki's curiosity?

That Rikki sure was a curious little devil in the classic Rudyard Kipling children's tale. Rikki came to the English family's bungalow in India quite by a fateful act of nature.

    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."

Rikki quickly proved his value by saving the boy from the deadly Karait, "a dusty, brown snakeling."

As for his curiosity, three examples of Rikki's "being eaten up from nose to tail" with it include

• Trying to eat the cotton wool before realizing it was inedible.
• He tested the bath-tubs, where he nearly drowned.
• "Put his nose into the ink on a writing table" and later burned it when he sniffed too closely on the big man's cigar.
• He investigated the garden, "and he scuttled up and down... snuffing here and there..."
• After killing Karait, he celebrated by "walking to and fro among the wine-glasses on the table."

In this story by Rudyard Kipling, the mongoose is found by the family and brought into their house.  The mongoose has been flooded out of its burrow and almost dies.  Teddy's father picks it up and brings it into the house.  He allows Teddy to keep it as a pet.

When he is getting used to being in the house, we see things happen where he shows his curiosity.  The story says that he almost drowns checking out what bath tubs are.  He also put his nose in the inkwell and he burned his nose on the end of the cigar that Teddy's father was smoking.