FINDING RELATIONS.
"Well, this is at length such weather as a creature may live and breathe
in! I've been half stifled all the autumn with the heat, but now the
fresh keen air seems like a breeze from my own dear Lapland!"
"Lapland! oh! there is nothing like Lapland," said a very dolorous voice
in reply. I lifted up my eyes to get a glimpse of the speaker.
Within the cage were two beautiful little Lemmings, (I learnt their name
afterwards as well as those of other inhabitants of the place.) They
were not much more than half my size, had pointed heads, very short
tails, and whiskers uncommonly long. Their coats were black and tawny,
but yellowish-white beneath. I heard subsequently that their race
inhabit Siberia, Norway, and other cold climes, moving in large bodies
like locusts, and like locusts eating up every thing green. But this
pair, as was evident from their conversation, had been natives of a
country called Lapland.
"Oh for a sight of the icy lakes, the snow-covered plains and the
reindeer moving lightly over them; while the rosy Aurora Borealis throws
its bright streamers across the sky!"
"And the strange little huts," rejoined the other, "made of briers,
bark, felt, and reindeer skins, where, when we peeped under the curtains
which made the door, we saw the tiny people, in their sheepskin
doublets, sitting on their heels round the fire! I don't wonder that the
Lapps love their land; I don't wonder that when long exiled from it,
they die of intense longing to return. That will be my fate, oh! that
will be mine!"
"Allow an English rat, gentle strangers," said I, "to offer a little
word of comfort. I grieve that you feel your captivity so much, that you
so deeply mourn your absence from your dear native land. But is it not
better to meet misfortune with courage, and bear it with patience? You
are yet left the society of each other, you can yet talk over old days
together, while the white bear growls in his prison alone, and the lofty
camel has no companion near him."
I was interrupted by some animal near dashing itself passionately
against the bars of its cage, and, turning round, I beheld a very savage
rat, which bore the name of the German Hamster. His head was thick,
blunt, and garnished with plenty of whiskers; he had big eyes, and
large, open, rounded ears. His back and head were of a reddish-brown
colour, his cheeks red, his feet white, and he had three odd white spots
on each side of his chest. But the funniest thing which I noticed about
him, (I was always an observant rat,) was that he had a claw on his
forefeet in addition to four toes, which I had never before seen in the
tribes of Mus.
"'Tis easy to talk of comfort!" he exclaimed angrily, "when a rat has
freedom and everything else that he cares for! But here-- why I have not
even the comfort of going to sleep after the fashion of my country!"
"Not going to sleep!" I repeated in some surprise, thinking to myself
that so peevish a creature must certainly be best in his sleep.
"No; who can sleep on bare boards, or a poor sprinkling of straw!" he
exclaimed, striking contemptuously the floor of his cage. "I who used to
burrow deep in the earth, and enjoy a long nap all during the winter,
shut up in my snug little home, I know what comfort is! There is nothing
like lying some feet under the earth, as quiet as if one were dead, and
know that there is a good magazine collected of grain, beans, and pease,
to feast on when one awakes in the spring."
"But at any rate here you are well fed," I suggested.
The words, however kindly intended, had only the effect of increasing
the Hamster's passion to a shocking extent. To my amazement and horror
he blew out his cheeks till the size of his head and neck exceeded that
of his body. He raised himself on his hind legs, and but for the bars of
his cage I believe that he would really have flown at me.
"Well fed!" he exclaimed, as soon as he could speak; "I should like to
know what you call being well fed! Since I have come to this hateful
country, not once have I had an opportunity of filling my cheeks with
grain. Man, stingy man, thinks it enough to give me a wretched pittance
from day to day,-- to me who have had a hundred pounds of corn packed up
in my own deep hole,-- to me whose delight it was to carry three ounces
weight of it at once in these bags with which Nature has provided my
face!"
"Most curious and convenient bags they are," said I, willing to appease
him by a civil word, though I thought that thus puffed out with air,
they anything but added to the beauty of his appearance.
"They were the cause of my being taken," cried the fierce Hamster, whose
savage complaints had quite silenced the gentler murmurs of the pretty
little Lemmings, and had done more perhaps to make them submissive to
their lot than anything which I could have said.
"How were your pouches the cause of your being taken?" inquired I.
"I can fight savagely-- I will fly even at dogs," replied the Hamster
(no one could have looked at him and have doubted it,) "but I cannot
bite when my cheeks are stuffed full of grain, which was the case when a
German peasant seized me; I had no time to empty them, not a moment, or
wouldn't I have bitten him! oh, would not I have bitten him!"
I felt so much disgusted at the words and manner of this most ferocious
of rats, that I was glad to turn away from his cage; reflecting to
myself how hideous and how hateful any creature is rendered by violent
passion.
A perfume, rather more powerful than agreeable, drew my attention
towards a division occupied by a Musk-Rat, a native of Canada. I saw
within it a creature of the size of a small rabbit, quiet and staid in
his demeanour, who welcomed me with a grave courtesy strangely in
contrast to the rudeness of the Hamster.
"May I venture to look upon you as belonging to the race of Mus?"
I inquired, looking doubtingly at his large size, soft fur, and long
flat tail.
"Well," he replied, good-humouredly, "some naturalists, and I believe
the great Linnaeus amongst them, class me with the Castor or Beaver
race, and dignify me with a very long and learned-sounding name,
Zibethicus. But I am quite content, for my part, to own my relationship
to the race of Mus, and to be known by the simple name Musk-Rat, which
they give me on the lakes of Canada."
"I am delighted," said I, with a wave of my whiskers, "at this
opportunity of paying my respects to so dignified a relation."
"Ah!" replied Zibethicus, "I only wish that I could have received you in
my own house upon the Lake Huron. If you could but have seen the pretty
round dwelling raised by myself and my companions-- the neat dome-shaped
roof which covered it, formed of herbs and reeds cemented with clay.
So prettily it was stuccoed within! A great deal of trouble it cost us,
to be sure, but I often think there's no pleasure without trouble; and
there's nothing in my captivity which I miss so much as the power to
labour and build."
"May I ask," said I, "whether you be of the same family with the Musk
Cavy, which I have heard of as inhabiting Ceylon and other places in the
East?"
"I believe not," answered my courteous companion, "but we doubtless
belong to the same race, however our habits and appearance may differ."
Our pleasant conversation was here unfortunately interrupted by the
keeper's opening the door. I had barely time to hide myself under some
straw, resolving not to show myself again till darkness should render it
safe for me to creep out.
Soon various visitors arrived, and I was vastly amused by watching the
different varieties of the human species, of which there must be nearly
as many as of the race of Mus. For the first time in my life I saw
ladies all bedizened in velvets and silks, and the furry spoils of many
an unfortunate ermine or sable. I saw gentlemen too, and I confess that
a creeping uncomfortable feeling came over me when I looked at the hats
which they had on their heads, the fine black gloss was so exceedingly
like that of the coat which I wore. I have since learnt that my
conjecture was but too close to the fact-- that numberless hapless rats
are slaughtered in France on account of their fatal beauty; and that man
not only manufactures their fur into hats, but uses their soft and
delicate skins to make the thumbs of his best gloves. Alas, for the race
of Mus!