Ahh-ha! Thanks. Now if I could only remember Rikki-Tikki-Tavi specifically... is that from The Jungle Book?
It is Rudyard Kipling.
A Mongoose is a ferret like critter that specifically fights snakes in India.
But, I must head off to my dark repose yet again.
May these hours keep,
lay still in blessed sleep
The hours till dawn may tick away,
while in dream we tarry and play
And with dawn's first light,
brushing away the dreams of night.