of the burthen of life, exactly like the
Massagetae, the worthy ancestors of the modern
Cossacks. Magendie, wanting some rats for
an experiment, went himself to Montfaucon,
to fetch a dozen, which he shut up together
in a box. On reaching home, there were
only three surviving; they had devoured one
another, leaving nothing remaining except
the tails and a few bits of the inferior joints.
Some clearance of the kind had need take
place; for a female rat will produce five or
six litters a year, of from fourteen to eighteen
young ones in each litter.

When the late Duke of Sussex was at
Naples, in his early manhood, having heard
speak of the rat-hunts and their results, the
delicate rat-pies, enjoyed on board the
English fleet, he expressed a desire to be
able to pronounce an opinion on the novel
dish. Accordingly, after the breakfast to
which his Royal Highness was consequently
invited, he heartily thanked the officers for
the treat which their captatory and culinary
skill had afforded him. But still more
repulsive quadrupeds than rats may be eaten
with relish. Vampire bats abound in the
Samoa Islands; they are also numerous at
Mangaia. At Savage Island, they are
regarded by the natives as a great delicacy.
Some that Mr. Williams, the missionary, was
conveying to Rarotonga as curiosities, and
which died during the voyage, were skinned,
broiled, and eaten by his travelling
companions, a couple of youths from Savage
Island, rightly so named. The Samoans
venerated them as etus, or deities; and, if
Satan is worshipped for his ugliness, it is not
to be wondered at that the vampire should
be selected to represent him.

Mr. Williams, during his Polynesian mission,
was called upon to settle certain scruples
of conscience which arose out of a murine
difficulty. At a meeting held with the native
Christians, his advice was solicited, amongst
other topics, upon the lawfulness of rat-eating.
As Mangaia was not so abundantly
supplied with fish as some other islands, and
as there were no quadrupeds there except
rats, until Mr. Williams's arrival, these small
deer formed a common article of food, and
the natives said they were exceedingly good
and sweet. Indeed, a common expression
with them, when speaking of anything
delicious, was, "It is as sweet as a rat." They
found no difficulty in catching them in great
numbers ; the capture was effected in many
ways, but principally by digging holes and
strewing a quantity of caudle-nut at the
bottom as a bait. When a sufficient assemblage
of rats were congregated in a hole, a
net was drawn over it, and the whole party
secured. As soon as the game-bag was full
enough to meet the demand, the rat-feast
was prepared by singeing the hair off with
red-hot stones, and then baking the animals,
each neatly wrapped in a fresh-gathered leaf.
Saturday was the principal rat-catching day
because they liked to have animal food to eat
with their cold vegetables on the Sabbath.
They, therefore, requested the missionary's
opinion, whether or not it were a sin to eat
rats. Mr. Williams told them that Englishmen
were in the habit of looking upon rats
as exceedingly disgusting; but not perceiving
anything morally wrong in the practice, he
could only recommend them to take great
care of the pigs and goats he had brought,
by which means they would speedily obtain
an abundant supply of animal food far superior
to what they esteemed so sweet and good.

The most magnificent rat battues in the
world are held, at intervals, at Montfaucon,
already mentioned, outside Paris. Montfaucon
is an establishment, under government
superintendence, where worn-out horses are
slain, stray dogs are made an end of, and
several other secret mysteries are
accomplished. When Monsieur Brissot-Thivars
had charge of the public salubrity—which
gave him the command of Montfaucon as
well as of the Parisian sewers—he invited
Balzac, the novelist, to a field-day, which was
eagerly accepted by that distinguished writer.
Brissot-Thivars was enthusiastically fond of
everything that belonged to his department.
He spoke of sewers and drains with poetic
fervour; he quoted the Romans and their
cloaca maxima, with the ambition of
surpassing their subterranean architecture; he
vaunted the pilgrimage to Montfaucon as
travellers now descant on the sublimities of
Mont Blanc or the Jung Frau. It was
agreed that the Inspector of Salubrity, Balzac,
Dr. Gentil, and another gentleman should
reach their destination at three in the morning.
The party were exact at the rendez-vous.
But to get to Montfaucon in the dead
of the night was no easy task. The rain had
fallen in torrents for four-and-twenty hours
previously; the roads outside the barriers
were impracticable for wheel carriages; and
the pilgrims were absolutely obliged to
perform their journey on foot, through puddles
of water and sloughs of despond. Like an
able general, Brissot-Thivars sought to dissipate
the increasing demoralisation of his
army by an exciting address.

"My dear friends, in a little quarter of an
hour we shall be there; but I will not wait
till the end of that quarter of an hour to let
you know the surprise which I have specially
reserved for you, in addition to the other
surprises which await you there."

"What may be that wonderful surprise?"
asked Balzac, in a tone which seemed to say,
"If I don't like the surprise, I won't stir a
step further."

"Yesterday," continued the bold inspector,
"one of Lord Egerton's finest horses was
obliged to be killed. I have ordered it to be
set aside for your special use, and for yours
alone."

"Is it intended that we should eat the
horse?" inquired Balzac.