RAT 207 



Ach eirich a laochain 's dean imrich, 

 Imrich th 'ar a chaol gu seolta, 

 Thu fein 's do chuid daoine uile 

 Falbhaibh gu buileach mar chomhla' 

 Air Micheail 's air Bride min, 

 Eirich, imrich as mo thir ! 



Paraphrased into English : — 



A RAT-EXPELLING INCANTATION. 



A thousand ills befall thee, greedy rat ! 



Expertest thief that ever yet was born 

 In barn and stackyard, maugre trap and cat 



Sad is the state of all my stock of corn ; 

 Nor does a handful serve thee, shameless thief, 

 Unblushing rogue, thou claimest the whole sheaf. 



My barley thou hast millered into meal, 

 Chaif and small dust together close commingled ; 



Thou spoilest more than ever thou canst steal, 



Had'st thou but any shame thine ears had long since tingled, 



I wish I had thy head upon a stithy, 



I'd rap it with the biggest hammer in the smithy ! 



Nor corn in sheaf, nor barley snugly stacked 

 Could serve thy turn ; but all my garnered grain 



In well-filled sacks is next by thee attacked 

 And all y spoiled, thou thief of fertile brain. 



And all my sacks are nibbled too, and holed — 



A sight most aggravating to behold. 



Alas, for all my seed corn in the Spring ! 



Alas, for all thy keep, my good brown mare ! 

 . But take advice, and leave me, rat ; and bring 



All thy companions with thee ; else beware 

 My mahson shall fall withouten fail 

 On thee and thine, from whisker tip to tail ! 



So rat be warned ; away ! across the ferry. 

 And in some quarter new be sleek and merry, 

 By good St Michael, and by chaste St Bride, 

 I charge thee, leave me ere the morning tide ! 



{Exeunt Ratti tumultuously, and best foot foremost.) 



The rat is " rhymed " to death by similar compositions " aoir." 



Another old Aoireadh or Satire in Gaelic is to be found in the 

 Oban Times of 16th January 1904, given for the first time by 

 Archibald F. Shaw. 



Rhyming and satire was in vogue against rats also in Ireland 

 of old ; reference is made to some such proceeding, it is believed, 

 in Shakespeare even. In January 1853 the Rev. Dr Todd read 

 a paper on this subject before the Royal Irish Academy, and 

 introduced the tale of Seanchan, chief poet of Ireland, who 

 pronounced such a rhyme. 



Rats coming in numbers to a house foretell a flitting, leaving 

 or death, or fall of the building they have left — or what is more 

 likely a dearth of food in the latter. While destructive to corn. 



