In some of the
houses, thirty thousand have been known to be killed in one year.
In Egypt, when the waters of the Nile retire, after the annual overflow,
multitudes of rats and mice are seen to issue from the moistened soil.
The Egyptians believe that these animals are generated from the earth;
and some of the people assert, that they have seen the rats in a state
of formation, while one half of the bodies was flesh and the other half
mud.
The following anecdote is related by a correspondent of one of the
English newspapers: "This morning," says he, "while reading in bed, I
was suddenly interrupted by a noise similar to that made by rats, when
running through a double wainscot, and endeavoring to pierce it. The
noise ceased for some moments, and then commenced again. I was only two
or three feet from the wall whence the noise proceeded; and soon I
perceived a great rat making his appearance at a hole. It looked about
for awhile, without making any noise, and having made the observations
it wished, it retired. An instant after, I saw it come again, leading by
the ear another rat, larger than itself, and which appeared to be much
advanced in years. Having left this one at the edge of the hole, it was
joined by another young rat. The two then ran about the chamber,
collecting the crumbs of bread which had fallen from the table at supper
the previous evening, and carried them to the rat which they had left at
the edge of the hole.
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