132 
THE RAT. 
be eaten alive. The ordinary means of destruction had been 
resorted to, but with trifling effect. How then was the 
impending ruin to be averted ? Here was matter for most 
serious deliberation. The result was, that a meeting of the 
cleverest heads of the town was convened to sit in council, and 
give judgment according to the evidence adduced. This 
went to prove that not only had a horde of ground-pigs 
or sermulots taken entire possession of the island, but 
that after they Avere laid on the ground for dead, they, by 
some means unknown to any but themselves, recovered 
faster than they could be skinned ; then making their escape 
into their holes, they seemed to increase and multiply faster 
than ever. 
The great question now at issue was not how to kill them, 
but how to annihilate them so effectually that the whole 
population might know for certain that the reappearance 
even of one of them would be a thing beyond all possibility. 
Here was the problem ; and which was practically and 
triumphantly solved in the following manner : — A grand 
bunt was proclaimed for a certain day, to be followed by 
a splendid entertainment for all the huntsmen as well as 
their wives, children, and friends. At the time appointed 
all the enterprising spirits of the town sallied forth in a body 
to Looe Island ; and great was the destruction among the 
sermulots, which were as speedily conveyed across the water 
to the inn, and thence to the kitchen, whei'e the cooks soon 
found themselves up to their eyes in business, preparing 
them for dinner. The throng of company met in good 
time, and after being seated in due order around the various 
tables, the sermulots were speedily served up, steaming in 
large clean china dishes, and smothered in onion-sauce. At 
the given signal, every cover was removed, and the sermulots, 
says Mr. Wilkie Collins, were straightway eaten with the 
keenest relish by the good people of Looe. 
Never in England was any invention for destroying ser- 
mulots so eminently successful as this. Every man, woman, 
and child present could swear to the death and annihilation 
of all the sermulots they had devoured ; and such was the 
liking thereby created for this species of game, that the 
local returns of dead sermulots were not made by the bills 
of mortality, but by the bills of fiare. Day after day were they 
