Sewer talk

There’s an interesting post over on Erik Dams’ blog about a trip of his through the Brussels sewers in the company of two rat catchers, who leave a colleague above-ground in case of emergency. Mobiles don’t work in such a damp environment, so how does Mr Fragrant keep in touch with Messrs Smelly?

I imagine this to be a dumbo version of how bats communicate with one another, so it’s pleasing to be able to record that names here for “bat” often reflect the notion–usually untrue–that they hunt rats and mice, rather than the standard Latin -> Castilian Mus muris (mouse) + caecus (blind) = murciélago (bat). The most frequent addition to bat names in Spanish is “ratonero”, which I think means “mouse-hunter” rather than “mouse-like”, and which is sometimes expressed more explicitly as “cat” or (literally) as “mouse-hunter” (translation (cazaratones (PDF)) from Latin in critical edition of Liber contra venena et animalia venenosa, which recommends the same remedies for bats as for cats).

Although Tunisia plays host to at least one mouse hunter, I have never met a rat catcher in Spain or in any other part of the Mediterranean. The environment here is probably too dry to support anything more than mammoth cockroaches, and more interesting examples of these craftsmen at work are to be found in damp, northern Europe (with the exception of Brussels, where nobody does anything).

I’ve already noted that English bats go pork hunting, and here is a rather superior letter from an 18th century rat catcher to one of his clients:

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Comments

1. Karim sez:
   3 May 2005 at 12:20 PM

   Yes, we are the only ratoneros here thanks for the information !

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