Detroit evening times. (Detroit, Mich) 1921-1958, 1941-02-15
Bri+ons Rally
In Battle
Against Rats
It's an Aee-OId Struggle
for Island Folk
BY EDWIN c. HILL


ENGLAND calls all hands to
~ fight rats. Scientists and
sanitation engineers contrive de-
lenses against them. National
rat orders" are issued. and
printed broadsides arouse and
inform the citizenry. Trap that
rat" is a national rallying cry.
From the debris of ruined cit
les, with the wreck or confusion
of mans ordered life. these
beady-eyed legions of evil are
alert to strike-age-old challen-
gers of mans rule of the earth,
the vanguard of plague, famine
and death. the lurking nemesis
of muddled. heroic little man
when his rational living is caught
in the dark unreason of war.
In today's news story about
Londons fight against rats. with
their peril of disease and
plumber. there is a passing ref
erence TO the ancient defenses
of the Sussex farmers against
rats. but no details as TO what
these defenses were. And here
is reminder that much more
than Napoleon's twenty centu-
ries. envisioned at the pyramids.
look down on old Englands
battle 10 live.
IRON the ancient Romans
i who invaded England. the
Sussex farmers got their incan-
tation against rats and II is not
unreasonable TO suppose they
are using il today. There are
two principal forms of eXorclSm.
In one of these. the farmer rises
before daybreak. stands .at the
lair of the rats. cellar, gran
airy or field. and repeats three
times the words Of strange
abacadabra. The words were
unintelliglble until in recent
years psychologists traceu them
70 the ancient Latin incantatltn
against rats - "Ernt rerbpnl
mind Denm Festrtm, distorted
in centuries of repetition
The farmer leaves al the rat
hole. or highway, a piece OF
paper on which the following
words are carefully printed
"Nale rats and female rats, l
conjure you by the great god
to go out of my house. all my
habitations and betake yourself
elsewhere. there to end your
days"
CTILL another similar eNor-
- cism is believed 10 have come
- Iau.A-fref44- The Greeks possibly
transmitted through the fto-
mans. The farmer writes the
following on a sheet of paper.
which he places carefully writ
ten-side up. on a freshly hewn
stone. at a place where he Is
sure it will get the rats atten-
ton:
II adjure you rats here pres
ent that We neither injure me.
nor suffer another rat to do so.
1 give you yonder field. II l
catch you here again. but by the
mother Of the gods. l will rand
you to pieces.
This paper also must be put
in place Just before sunrise. II
is related in Sixteenth Century
chronicles of rats and rat-catch-
ers that IT was by no means I'M
common for farmers 10 set aside
small field 10 keep the rats
satisfied. and there was a
strangely persistent belief that
you could bargain with rats.
THIS belief has existed among
L many peoples. through many
centuries. In the Island of Bali
they are still appeaSers. when II
comes to rats. Annually, they
catch a pair of the sleekeSt rats
they can find. present each of
them with a small packet of
white linen. with an elaborate
ceremony. and entertain them
lavishly. prov'i ing luxurious
quarters and food.
But somehow rats are rats
and by all accounts they never
ratified these proceedings. Here
in our country. in the bright IN
~
ence. we are perhaps amused
with tales of these fantastic do
ings. far away and long ago. But
we live in the eternal twilight
of our past.
1t was little more than CEN
fury ago that Frederick Baskin.
a British scientist, returning TO
England after study of Amer
lean agriculture. wrote as fol-
lows:
I ONG before man k n ew OF
IL these ViruseS and how they
may be carried he had a deadly
fear and hatred Of rats. They
have lived in the race mind as
the embodiment Of intrinsic and
essential evil. demanding first
all our powers of eXorciSm and
now all our powers of scientific
combat.
Thus are the centuries over
tapping and intermingled in our
will to live, in our eternal
striving. and in our undying
hope that the light Of reason
will some day be a death ray