Rats were said to know when disaster was coming, and to leave a ship that was about to be wrecked, or a house about to be flooded or burnt, in good time. Chambers notes that as late as 1854 a Scottish country newspaper reported in earnest that on the night before a town mill burned down, the rats that lived in it had been seen moving in a body to a nearby pea field. He took the belief to lie behind the political verb to rat, for deserting a party.
Rats Leave a Doomed House
Printed under 22 July
Lore and belief
Another prevalent notion regarding rats was, that they had a presentiment of coming evil, and always deserted in time a ship about to be wrecked, or a house about to be flooded or burned.
From Chambers's Book of Days, vol. 2, p. 103. Read the original
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