The Sauk Centre herald. (Sauk Centre, Stearns County, Minn.) 1886-current, 1891-11-12
STORY OF THE TRUMPET RAr.s
How a Clever French zouave Duped an
Unsuspecting Naturalist.


How Clever French zouave Duped an
disappearing Naturalist.
When the French zouaves were first
In Africa new sort of rat made its APP
pearance there. 1t was called the
trumpet rat" having long probes
els. The sale of specimen by one of
the soldiers TO an enthusiastic natural
list gave rise to an action at law. Said
the plaintiff in court:
'sThis zouave has cheated Inc out of
100 francs He knows that am much
interested in natural sciences. have
collections of fossils, of shells, of rare
animals, OF curious plants. One day
he called upon me and said: Sir,
have kind Of animal which has never
been mentioned by any naturalist. 1t
is q trumpet rat, and has trunk like an
elephants. 1t is alive and well. If
you wish to see it you have only to
come to my house
81 was very anxious to behold this
strange animal We arrived at his
house and he showed me In a cage an
enormous rat, very lively and in good
condition, which really had on its nose
slender excrescence more than an
inch in length. The excrescence was
covered with hair like the body OF the
animal, with vertebre In 1t, and Ia
most extraordinary thing larger at the
summit than at the base-the contrary
to what it ought to be in the usual
course of things. To convince myself
that it was not dupe and mystificac
ton l stuck a pin into the trumpet
The animal cried out and drop of
blood came from the prick. The ex,
pertinent was conclusive. 1t was really
a trumpet forming part of the rat.
IT was amazed. / asked this man If
he would sell his rat. He said yes, and
1 paid him fifty francs for 1t. My
friends and servants all admired 1t, and
/ was enchanted. My rat was a male.
Some one said to me that ought to
procure female. asked the zouave
If he could procure for me fe-
male, and he said he had two.
I saw them and bought one of
them for fifty francs. Some months
afterward the female had young. l.
looked at them and they had no trum-
pets. / said to myself, They will
sprout.' I waited one month, two
months six months; every day ]
looked at the noses of my rats, but the
trumpets never appeared. - -. ..
"In house where Igo frequently ]
made the acquaintance of an officer
who had served long time in Africa.
1 told him about my trumpet rats and
he laughed as though his sides would
split. When he was calm again he
told me that the trumpet rat was not
freak of nature, but an invention due
to the leisure moments of the zouaves.
This is how they make them: You take
two rats and fasten their paws firmly
to board, the nose of one close to. the
end of the tail of the other. Then
with penknife or a lancet you make
an incision into the nose of the rat
which is, hinderhost and you graft the
tail of the first into the nose; you tie
firmly the muzzle to the tail and you
leave the two rats in this position for
forty-eight hours. ...-..~.
''At the end of that time the union
has taken place and the two parts are
grown together; then you cut off the
tail of the rat which is In front to the re-
quired length and let him go, but still
keep the other fastened to the board
with his head loose, and you give him
something to eat. At the end of fort
night the wound is perfectly healed and
the eye of the most curious investigator
would not see trace of the grating.
This is the way the zouayes make rats
with trilnpets. " ~'.
On the part of the defendant it was
urged that he had certainly made up
the rats as stated, but he affirmed that
he had not sold them to the plaintiff as
being "born" with trumpets. Verdict
for the Observation-Disclosures Star.