32 
THE KAT. 
spectators cruelly nipping their tails with their thumb-nails, 
as they popped through the wires ; and that where they 
nipped them, there would their tails rot off. This, I am satis- 
fied will be sufficient to induce any person of feeling to check 
such wantonness where they see it. But let me proceed 
with my narrative of tame rats. 
In a wild and undisturbed state, how often are rats to be 
seen so indifferent to man that they will scarcely take the 
trouble to get out of his way. This indifference arises 
either from indolence in the man, pres^re of business, or 
kindness of disposition ; and thus are rats often charged 
with daring and impudence which, in truth, is only a confi- 
dence they have acquired in man through coming so fre- 
quently in contact with him without molestation. I have 
known instances of their ascending from the bottom of the 
house to the drawing-room, and eating the crumbs beneath 
the table that have fallen from supper, while persons were 
seated' at the fireside in comfortable conversation ; nor 
would they go out unless driven ; but, upon being left 
alone, they would clear the carpet, and quietly depart. 
In Neale's " Residence at Siam," the author says he 
was astonished, on visiting the houses of some of the in- 
habitants, to see a huge rat walking about the room, and 
crawling up the master's legs in a cool familiar manner. 
Instead of repulsing it, or evincing any horror or alarm, he 
took it up in his hands, and fondly caressed it ; and then Mr. 
Neale learned, for the first time, that it was a custom pre- 
valent at Bankok to keep pet rats, which are taken very 
young, and carefully reared, till they attain a perfectly 
monstrous size, from good and plentiful feeding. The do- 
mestic rats are kept expressly to free the house of other 
rats ; and so ferocious are they in their attacks, that few 
houses where they are kept are ever annoyed with either 
mice or rats. 
I have met with another instance of the above kind. A 
friend, b}^ trade a corn-dealer, told me that he had at home 
one of the finest rats in England, and that he would not 
take the best ten sovereigns coined for it. Upon further 
inquiry, he told me that he found it when quite young in 
the corner of a bin, and that curiosity prompted him to have 
it emasculated. The consequence was that it grev>^ up one of 
