I give you yonder field' (here
you specify the field); 'but if ever I catch you here again, by the
Mother of the Gods I will rend you in seven pieces.' Write this, and
stick the paper on an unhewn stone in the field before sunrise,
taking care to keep the written side up." In the Ardennes they say
that to get rid of rats you should repeat the following words:
"_Erat verbum, apud Deum vestrum._ Male rats and female rats, I
conjure you, by the great God, to go out of my house, out of all my
habitations, and to betake yourselves to such and such a place,
there to end your days. _Decretis, reversis et desembarassis virgo
potens, clemens, justitiae._" Then write the same words on pieces of
paper, fold them up, and place one of them under the door by which
the rats are to go forth, and the other on the road which they are
to take. This exorcism should be performed at sunrise. Some years
ago an American farmer was reported to have written a civil letter
to the rats, telling them that his crops were short, that he could
not afford to keep them through the winter, that he had been very
kind to them, and that for their own good he thought they had better
leave him and go to some of his neighbours who had more grain.
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