RATTAN RAVENNA. 



819 



from the deck upwards, forming a variety of ladders 

 whereby to climb or to descend from any of the. 

 mast heads. 



RATTAN. See Ratan. 



RATTANV OR RATANHIA ROOT ; the root 

 of the krameria triandra, a plant belonging to the 

 order polygalea, and growing wild in the mountains 

 nf Peru and Chili. It is a powerful styptic, and 

 various marvellous properties have been attributed 

 to it. The plant has lately been brought into 

 Europe, and probably will succeed in temperate 

 climates. It is not yet in the English catalogues of 

 introduced plants. 



RATTLESNAKE (crotalus}; a genus of American 

 serpents, celebrated for the danger which accom- 

 panies their bite, and for the peculiar appendages 

 to their tail. The scientific name crotalus is derived 

 from *0TaXav, a bell, rattle, or cymbal. The head 

 is broad, triangular, and generally flat in its entire 

 extent. The eyes are very brilliant, and provided 

 with a nictitating membrane; the mouth very large, 

 the tongue forked at its extremity. The body is 

 robust, elongated, cylindrical, covered above with 

 carinated scales. The tail is short, cylindrical, and 

 somewhat thick. The number of the little bells 

 which terminate it, increases with age, an additional 

 one being formed at every casting of the skin. 

 These bells are truncated, quadrangular pyramids, 

 received within each other in such a manner that 

 only a third part of each is visible, the tip of every 

 bone running within two of the bones below it. 

 Thus they are united by a kind of ball and socket 

 joint, and move with a rattling sound whenever the 

 animal agitates its tail. The noise resembles that 

 made by rumpled parchment, or by two quills of a 

 goose rubbed smartly against each other. The 

 poison fangs are traversed by a canal for the emis- 

 sion of the poison. These fangs, when not used, 

 remain concealed in a fold of the gum ; when the 

 animal bites, the fangs are raised. They are two 

 in number, one at each end of the upper jaw. The 

 crotali have a foetid odour ; hogs feed upon them , 

 but most animals, especially horses and dogs, dread 

 ttiem. Their principal food is birds and squirrels. 

 They also devour rats, hares, and small reptiles. 

 Their glance has been said to have the power of 

 fascinating their prey so as to make it drop into 

 their mouths ; it is probable, however, that they 

 only seize it during the terror and confusion which 

 the sight of them occasions. They creep slowly, 

 and do not bite but when provoked, or for the pur- 

 pose of destroy ing their prey; and they sound their 

 rattles some time before attacking their assailants. 

 When seized by the head, they cannot like other 

 reptiles raise their tails and twist themselves round 

 the arm, nor make use of their strength to disengage 

 themselves. They usually rest twisted in a spiral 

 form in the customary paths of wild animals, parti- 

 cularly in those which conduct to the water. The 

 remedies employed against the bite of the rattle- 

 snake, are suction and ligatures, caustics and in- 

 ternal medicines. A 11 the species of crotali whose 

 country is well known, are confined to America ; 

 and the individuals of this genus have diminished in 

 proportion to the increase of population. Bartram 

 says, that he has seen some rattlesnakes as thick as a 

 man's thigh, and more than six feet long. When 

 the winter is rigorous, the crotali pass some time 

 in a lethargic state, near the sources of rivers, in 

 covert places, where the frost cannot reach them. 

 They bury themselves thus, before the autumnal 

 equinox after they have changed their skin ; and 

 do not emerge until after the vernal equinox. 

 Many of them are often found together in the 

 snme hole. Till the month of July, their bite 



is comparatively harmless. At Cayenne, and in the 

 hot latitudes, they are in constant activity all the 

 year. They are viviparous, and can live a long 

 time. Some have been mentioned as having forty 

 or fifty pieces in their rattles, and being from eight 

 to ten feet in length. They have great tenacity of 

 life. The crotalus horridus, Lin. (banded rattle- 

 snake), is a native of Mexico and South America, 

 and is generally from four to six feet long. The 

 crotalus durissus (striped rattlesnake of Shaw) in- 

 habits the temperate countries of North America as 

 far as the forty-fifth degree of latitude ; it traverses 

 with ease rivers and lakes by swimming, swelling 

 out its body like a bladder. Crotalus miliarius 

 (miliary rattlesnake) is an inhabitant of Carolina, 

 is of small size, and not easily perceived ; it is fond 

 of remaining coiled up on the tops of the roots of 

 large trees, or the fallen trunks ; lives on frogs, in 

 sects, worms, &c. 



RAUCOURT, SOPHIA, a French actress of emi- 

 nence, whose proper name was Saucerote, was born 

 at Nancy, in 1756, and was the daughter of a 

 theatrical performer. She first appeared on the 

 stage at Paris, in 1772, in the character of Dido, 

 and soon acquired great professional reputation, 

 which she enjoyed till 1776, when she suddenly fled 

 from France to avoid her creditors. Having re- 

 turned to the Paris stage in 1779, she continued to 

 be one of its principal ornaments, till her imprison- 

 ment during the reign of terror, in 1793. She was 

 discharged after six months' confinement, but ex- 

 perienced other persecutions till she obtained the 

 protection of Napoleon. Madame Raucourt died 

 January 15, 1815. 



RAVAILLAC, FRANCIS, the murderer of Henry 

 IV. of France, born at Angouleme in 1578, pursued 

 the practice of law, and, at the same time, instructed 

 the children of his native place. His naturally 

 gloomy disposition degenerated into a wild fanati- 

 cism, when he began to meddle in religious contro- 

 versies, which, at that time, continued to distract 

 his unhappy country. Filled with hatred of the 

 new doctrines, he became accustomed to consider 

 the good and humane Henry as the arch enemy of 

 the church, to destroy whom would be a meritorious 

 work. May 14, 1610, he succeeded in his purpose. 

 (See Henry IF'.} He was seized, condemned to death, 

 and underwent his sentence on the 27th of May. 

 He died under the severest torments of more than 

 an hour's duration, which he endured with tranqtiili- 

 ty, as he had done the rack, and without betraying 

 any especial repentance, or naming any accomplices. 



RAVELIN, in fortification, was anciently a flat 

 bastion, placed in the middle of a curtain, but is 

 now a detached work, composed only of two faces, 

 which make a salient angle, and raised before the 

 curtain on the counterscarp of the place. A ravelin 

 is a triangular work, resembling the point of a bas- 

 tion with the flanks cut off. 



RAVEN. See Crow. 



RAVENNA ; one of the oldest towns in Italy, in 

 the Romagna (States of the Church), capital of a 

 delegation of the same name, forty miles east of 

 Bologna; population 16,000. Ravenna was for- 

 merly die residence of the Western Roman emper- 

 ors, and, after the fall of the Western empire, of 

 the Gothic kings, and still later of the exarchs. 

 (See Exarchate.) In 752, it was captured by the 

 Lombards, from whom it was taken by the Prankish 

 king Pepin, and bestowed, with the exarchate, on 

 the pope. From 1440 to 1508, it was in the hands 

 of the Venetians, from whom it was taken by the 

 league of Cambray. Since that time it has belonged 

 to the papal see. It is surrounded with marshes, 

 which, however, have in modern times been partly 

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