The Sun.
London, England, 1837-08-31 00:00:00

UTILITY OF RATS.

The rat, a well-known pest, is sometimes eaten as a
matter of necessity by persons who endure the pains
of hunger, and would at another time shrink from such
a meal, although by some natioiss it is considered not
bad fare. In 1741, Admiral Don Joseph Pizarro, in
the ship Asia, was with his crew reduced to the utmost
distress at sea. Such was the famine that, when one
of the sailors died, his brother, who lay in the same
hammock with the corpse, concealed his death in order
that he might receive the dead man's allowance of
provisions. During this period a single rat sold for
four dollars.
De Lery tells us that, during his passage home from
Brazil to France, the people on board endured a dread-
ful famine. After devouring every thing, even the
horn out of the lanterns, they thought of catching rats
and mice which ran about in great numbers famishing
with hunger. They laid traps for them, pursued them,
and watched them like cats. Whoever caught one
valued it more than he would an ox upon land ; and
two, three, and even four crowns a piece were paid for
them. The ship's barber was so fortunate as to catch
two at once, and a person on board offered to clothe
him from head to foot at the first port to which they-
might arrive if he gave him one of them. The barber,
preferring life to dress, did not hesitate to refuse the
offer. They boiled the mice without cleaning out the
interior. One of the seamen having caught a fat rat,
cut off the four paws and threw them on the deck.
Another picked them up, broiled them on the coals,
and ate them, at the same time declaring that he never
had found the wings of a partridge so savoury.
Pliny narrates the instructive fact that when Han-
nibal laid siege to Cassilinum, a rat was sold within
the town for 200 sesterces : the man who bought it
lived, and the man who sold it died—so much for lore
of gold.
The repugnance felt by eivilized nations, in times
of prosperity, to rats' flesh is a prejudice, to overcome
which a less degree of privation is sufficient than
might be supposed, as appears by the relations of per-
sons whose experience entitled them to give an opinion.
In some parts of the world no such prejudice exists ;
and the rat as food is viewed in the same light as any
other quadruped, notwithstanding the shudder which
even its presence excites amongst Europeans, and the
repugnance manifested to it even by dogs and cats.
Nay, the rat is in certain countries sought after, as
well as its diminutive prototype, the mouse. Rats
and mice are' amongst the delicacies of the native of
Aracan. The people of Asam, who take nothing
amiss, devourrats and mice in abundance. When the
supply of fisb, falls, the inhabitants of the Alaman
islands are glad to have recourse to the same dainties.
The Kalmucks, more remarkable for a good dispo-
sition than for nice habits, do not object to a plump rat.
The children of the celestial empire,who consider all na-
t;ons but their own to be barbarians, are well pleased with
a dish of rats. The Tonquinese, second to none in the
plainness of their palate, eat this food with great good
will. The people of Sumatra also relish it. The Be-
douins, whose wretched condition makes every kind of
flesh welcome, consider it no. bad fare. The negroes
in Jamaica not only eat rats con amore, but expend on
them some delectable cookery in which molasses is
largely used. The rats are there very large ; and so
numerous, that they sometimes ravage and destroy
one-twelfth of the produce of the sugar plantations.
Roossewein says, that in the island of Ceylon the tribe
Partias fed on rats and mice ; but refused cow's-beef,
deemiin, that creature sacred, as the. Egyptians (lid.
Our polished neighbours, on the adjoining parts of
the Continent, do not look upon a nicely cooked
water-rat with contempt ; and there, as well as some
other countries, it is eaten as fasting fare ; because it
chiefly lives upon frogs and fish. =
We learn from Pliny that, by the edicts of the Ro-
man censsrs, and principally by one made by M.
Scaurus during his consulship, it was provided that
no rats, mice, or dormice, should be served up to ta-
ble at great suppers and feasts. The Romans must
have been much -addicted to this luxury,, since the in-
terposition of the consular authority was necessary to
restrict it.
The rats do not fail to retort on mankind whenever
they get the opportunity, either feeding on his deceased
remains, or stealing on him during sleep, or taking ad-
vantage of his inability to defend himself. Coroners'
inquests, held ' on bodies which had remained un-
watched, afford continual testimony of the depredations
committed on them by rats. Instances have frequently
occurred in which a rat has nibbled the toes, fingers, or
even the nose and lips, of a sleeping person. The
remarkable case of the unfortunate officer is still recol-
lected, who, having descended into a vault under the
church, to witness the interment of a friend, and
having wandered about, was unfortunately locked up,
and found in some titre after standing against the
wall with his sword drawn, still in the attitude of
defending himself, although dead, against the assaults
of the rats, by which he had been attacked and
much mutilated. The case of the Archbishop of
Mentz will also probably occur to the reader, who, it
is said, having retreated from the rats to a certain
tower on an island of the Rhine, was followed thither
by them, and at last devoured. These vermin have
ferocity enough to attempt anything, and do not want
for cunning to carry their designs into effect. A crowd
of persons, some time since, witnessed with great inte-
rest the sagacity of a rat occupied in a singular way
inside the railing of the Green Park. A cat sat
amonsist some bushes, in so natural a position, that
she might have been imagined to be alive. The rat,
however, knew the truth, and was busily occupied in
tearing asunder the remains of his deceased enemy,
within a few yards of the crowd ; but the animal knew
there was a railing between.—Doitouan's Domestic
Economy—Human Food ; being Vol. 94 of Dr.
Lardner s Cyclopcedia.

ELECTION PETITIONS.—Mr. Harrison, Sergeant
Merewether, Mr. Thesiger, Mr. Austin, and other Learned
Counsel usually practising before Parliamentary Committees,
have already received more retaining fees on petitions con, -
plaining of undue returns than was ever before recollected
at any general election by the oldest Parliamentary agent.