Preface, p. 13, and Steinschneider, Hebr. Handschr. in der kön. Bib. Berlin, p. 3. (4) Responsa; see, for example, Raban (Prague, 1610, folio), leaves 143, col. 2, to 146b, col. 1, and elsewhere. (5) Of his controversies with Christians nothing is left except what is occasionally to be found in his commentary on the Pentateuch. (6) On his book on the calendar calculations see Berliner Magazin, vii. p. 185. (7) On the true author of the commentary on Aboth, ascribed to Rashbam, see Taylor, Catal., No. 20. (8) Although the attack on his hemero-nyction theory (commentary on Gen. i. 4, 5) was made by Ibn 'Ezra (Iggereth Hasshabbath; see Kerem Hemed, iv. pp. 159-173, and Mibhar Hammaamarim by Nathan b. Shemuel, printed at Leghorn in 1840, leaves 58a-66a) in Rashbam's lifetime he seems not to have answered it. (S. M. S.-S.) 3 Her name is unknown, as is also that of the wife whom Rashi had at least six teachers,-(1) his father; (2) R. RASHI (), that is, RABBENU SHELOMOH YISHAKI (Solomon, son of Isaac), whence by Christian writers he is also called Isacides 1 (1040-1105), was the greatest rabbi of the Middle Ages. He is equally important for Biblical and Talmudic study, and in the former connexion as interesting to Christians as to Jews from the influence of his exegesis on Luther's Bible (through De Lyra; see vol. xi. p. 601) and on the English version of the Old Testament (mainly through Ibn 'Ezra, and still more through Kimhi). Rashi is the most eminent of the "sages" or "great men of Lothaire " 2 (, .e., Lorraine) in whom culminated that movement of Jewish scholarship to which Charlemagne had given the first impulse. From the Jew Isaac, first interpreter and then ambassador in his famous mission to Hárún ar-Rashid, Charlemagne had doubtless learned how superior in literary attainments the Jews of the East were to those of the West, and therefore he gave great privileges to the accomplished Makhirites who were introduced into the south of France, and spread Jewish culture and literature there. Later on he brought from Rome to Mainz the Kalonymites, a family of distinguished Talmudists, poets, &c., of Lucca;5 and soon Spires, Worms, and Mainz (spoken of as Shum, D") became famous seats of Jewish learning; their ordinances (Takkanoth Shum) were of normative authority for centuries, and the study of the Hebrew Bible and the Babylonian Talmud steadily spread from southern Germany to northern France. Though Spires, Worms, and Mainz by the partition treaty of Verdun in 843 belonged to East Frankland, yet in Jewish literature Lothaire includes these cities; and all the greatest doctors of Jewish lore in the south of Germany or north of France belong to the "great men sages of Lothaire."6 Rashi was born, in the year in which the last nominal gaon of Pumbaditha died, at Troyes, where his father Yishak was no doubt rabbi. R. Yishak was probably a disciple of R. Gershom; certainly he was an eminent Talmudist.7 wife, Rashi's mother, was a sister of R. Shime on hazzaken. 1 The interpretation of the of "" as meaning Yarchi (Jarchi), i.e., of Lunel, is not to be charged on Buxtorf, nor on Seb. Münster, being already found in the text of the Pugio Fidei of Raymundus Martini, written in the second half of the 13th century. מלכות לותיך Or c His 2 Lothaire never means Lhuitre (Luistre), as appears from the phrase "realm of Lothaire." Instead of 7 in Rashi's so-called Siddur, ii. leaf 33a, must be read 1 y, as will be easily seen from the context. 3 See Yoḥasin Hasshalem (London and Edinburgh, 1857, 8vo), p.84. 4 Possibly also, like some princes of the 10th century, Charlemagne encouraged Jewish literature in order to keep at home the considerable sums which the Jews had been wont to send to the Babylonian geonim. 5 See 'Emek Habbakha, ed. Letteris (Vienna, 1852, 12mo), p. 13, and Wiener's German translation (Leipsic, 1858, 8vo), p. 8. Reshal's Responsa, § xxix., is unfortunately corrupt in many places. 6 See Brit. Mus. MS. Add. 27200, leaf 24a. 7 This appears from an explanation quoted from him by his son on a passage of 'Abodah Zarah (f. 75a, catchword). This treatise was at that time scarcely studied, even by eminent rabbis, and the explanation is markedly superior to one which Rashi also gives from R. Ya'akob b. Yakar, hitherto regarded as the most eminent of his teachers. 8 Not to be confounded with his older contemporary, the poet and Halakhist, Shime'on b. Yishak haggadol. The epithets "hazzaken" and "haggadol" both mean "the elder," but the epithet is varied to distinguish the persons. לפניהם 10 They married three of their father's disciples. The husband of 11 See Rashi, T. B., Berakhoth, 51a; Hagigah, 13a; Sukkah, 45a; 18 See T.B., Shabbath, 13b, catchword inn. 15 See MS. De-Rossi (Roy. Libr., Parma) 175 (Catal., p. 116), and terpreting' in his presence, and the budding intelligence | massekhtoth death surprised him. Rashi on the Talmud has never of a third, who became the greatest Talmudist of his age. Rashi, though not the originator of all that he teaches in his commentary on the Talmud, had so digested the whole literature bearing on that stupendous work that his teaching, even when it appears to be imitative, is really creative. In his Biblical commentaries he has not, of course, grammatical and philological knowledge of the modern type, but he had a very fine sense for linguistic points, which was not equalled, much less surpassed, by the greatest rabbis who followed him. He gave satisfaction, if not to all, at least to the best of his time, and, as the great German poet says, "he who has given satisfaction to the best of his time lives for all ages." RASHI'S WORKS.-A. Bible Commentary (D).-Rashi commented on the whole of the Hebrew Bible except Job, chaps. xl. 21 to the end, and the books of Chronicles. Kimbi's is the only Rabbinical commentary which can be said to have successfully approached this great work in its influence on Jewish scholarship and on the Pentateuch Rashi had no rival. For centuries too his was the text-book in boys' schools throughout the Jewish world-and in some countries it is so still, its depth and subtilty being combined with simplicity of exposition. Its currency is attested by more than a hundred supercommentaries, translations, extracts, and the like, of which there are about fifty in print. An eminent rabbi declares that Rashi may be substituted for the Targum "in the reading of the weekly pericope" (Reshal, Yam shel_Shelomoh on Kiddushin, ii. § 14). Rashi's influence on Christian scholars has already been alluded to. N. de Lyra copied him so closely as to be called his "ape." "12 Translations.-The whole commentary was rendered into Latin by PELLICANUS (q.v.), but never printed, and again by Breithaupt (3 vols. 4to, Gotha, 1710-14). This version includes the spurious commentary on Chronicles and is accompanied by notes. Of separate parts there are printed versions of Gen. i.-vi. (Scherzer, 1663), Gen. vi.-xi. (Abicht, 1705), Gen. xlix. (Loscani, 1710), Hosea (Mercier, 1621), Joel, Jonah (Leusden, 1656), Joel (Genebrard, 1563), Jonah, Zephaniah, Obadiah (Pontac, 1556), Obadiah (Crocius, 1673), Malachi (S. de Muis, 1618), Ps. xix. (Id., 1620), Proverbs (Giggeus, 1620), Canticles (Genebrard, 1570), Ruth (Carpzov, 1703), Esther (Aquinas, 1622). The Pentateuch was translated into German by L. Dukes (Prague, 1833-38, 8vo); Genesis was done by L. Haymann (Boun, 1833, 8vo). Editions, especially of the Pentateuch, are very numerous. Only some of the chief can here be named,(a) on the whole Bible, with the sacred text-Venice, 1545, 1595, 1607 (all three in 4to); Cracow, 1610, 4to; Basel, 1618, folio; (b) Pentateuch with text (all sm. folio)-Bologna, 1482; Ixar, 1490; Lisbon and Naples, 1491; (c) Pentateuch without text-Reggio, 1475, folio (the first Hebrew book printed with date); s. 1. et a., but before 1480, 4to; Soncino, 1487, folio. MSS. of Rashi on the whole Bible are very rare, and even those which are supposed to be such turn out, on examination, to be either incomplete or defective, or both. There lies a precious MS. in Leyden (1 Scal.); but it is a trifle defective in Exodus. St John's College, Cambridge, possesses a still more ancient and precious MS. (A. 3; dated 1239); but it lacks the Pentateuch and Ezra-Nehemiah), and is defective in the end (though, it is true, only in Chronicles, which is not Rashi's, as mentioned before). But MSS. of Rashi on the Pentateuch, both old and good, abound. There are few libraries in Europe that have not one or two of this commentary. It is to be hoped, therefore, that Dr A. Berliner, who has already edited critically Rashi on the Pentateuch (Berlin, 1866, 8vo), although not on the faith of a sufficient number of MSS., will soon issue a second and superior edition. B. Commentary on the Babylonian Talmud, P.-Rashi had not been dead a hundred years when it was felt in the learned world that no such master in the Talmud had ever existed before him, and that without his aid and especially his corrections of the text (then only embodied in his commentary), the sea of the Babylonian Talmud could not safely be sailed on. He became now the teacher even of the Jews in the East. He commented on the whole of the Talmud to which Gemara is attached (see MISHNAH), except on Nedarim from leaf 22b to the end, Nazir and Tamid from beginning to end, Baba Bathrā from 29a to the end, and Makkoth fromn leaf 19b to the end. In commenting on the two last-named The supplement to the former is generally ascribed to R. Ya'akob Nazir; its relation to the author of the MS. commentary on Job (Camb. Univ. Lib., Dd. 8. 53) has still to be worked out. The commentary on Chronicles in which Rashi is three times cited by name (2 Chron. iii. 15, xxii. 11, and xxiii. 14) is the work of a German rabbi residing in Provence. * See J. H. Maius, Vita Reuchlini, 1687, Præf. The thanks of the present writer are due to the curators and librarian of the Bodleian for the loan of this book. On this word see Schiller-Szinessy, Catalogue, i. p. 181, note. His disciple, son-in-law, and continuator Rabbenu Yehudah b. Nathan writes: "At the word 'tahor' (pure) the soul of our teacher went out in purity." been printed apart from the text, and so the first complete edition is that contained in the editio princeps of the Babylonian Talmud (Venice, 1520-23, folio). Portions had come out before with parts of the Talmud (Soncino, 1483, and elsewhere later). There are MSS. containing Rashi on isolated Talmudic treatises in various libraries : the Cambridge University Library and British Museum have six each, the Bodleian twelve, the Paris National Library seven. C. The Religious Decisions (D'PDD) given by Rashi are to be found in various works, principally in the so-called Siddur (i. and ii.) and Happardes (Warsaw, 1870, folio)-called Happardes Haggadol to distinguish it from the abridgment by R. Shemuel of Bamberg (13th century) called Likkute Happardes (Venice, 1519, 4to)—a work of which Rashi himself seems to have laid the foundation, though other literature on other subjects is now mixed up with it. Of the same nature are Haorah and DN, MSS. of which lie at Munich (kindly lent to the writer by Merzbacher) and Oxford. (e.g., the Cambridge MS. Add. 667, leaves 153-156, and elsewhere), Various halakhoth, &c., are also to be found in various maḥzorim the Shibbole Halleket, ii. (by R. Sidkiyyahu b. Abraham Harophe, Cambridge MS. Add. 653). less by genius; but he had a tenderly feeling heart, and saw the D. Poems (DDD).-Rashi was no poet by profession and much horrors of the first crusade; and he wrote Seliḥoth (propitiatory and penitential prayers), which are by no means without their value. One is embodied in the additional service of the day of atonement and begins "Tannoth Saroth" (Reshal's Responsa, § xxix.), and several more, which form the acrostic Shelomoh bar Yishak, are found in the collection of the Selihoth of the Ashkenazic rite. It is not improbable also that the Aramaic Reshuth iv. to the Haphtarah in Targum (introduction to the prophetic portion as given in Yonathan b. 'Uzz'iel's Aramaic paraphrase), which is to be found in the Reuchlinian Codex (De Lagarde, Prophetæ chaldaice, Leipsic, 1872, 8vo, leaf 492), is his. much his style, and the acrostic is Shelomoh (and not py). It is also very probable that Reshuth v. is his. If so, he must have composed it when very young, as several expressions in it testify. It is E. Le'azim (ty).—In his commentaries Rashi, like R. Gershom before him and others after him, often introduces French words (chiefly verbs and nouns) to give precision to his explanations. Of these Le'azim there are certainly more than 3000, and they are most valuable to the student of old French. Unfortunately copyists, notably in Italy, and printers subsequently, have often substituted their own vernacular for the original French; there are now even Russian words to be found in Rashi, Four hundred years ago explanations of some of these Le'azim and of those of Kimhi were offered by the author of Makre Dardeke (Naples, 1488). Other contributions have followed intermittingly down to the present time (Brothers Bondi in Or Esther, Dessau, 1812; Dormitzer and Landau in Marpe Lashon, Odessa, 1865, 12mo). The labours of M. Arsène Darmsteter promise to be exhaustive, and are based on extensive collations, see Romania, April 1872, p. 146 sq. There is no satisfactory life of Rashi; most recent accounts rest on a Life by Zunz (1822), which has not been reprinted in his collected works. (S. M. S.-S.) RASHT (also Räscht, Rescht, Rashd, and Resht), a town in northern Persia, situated in 37° 18′ N. lat. and 49° 37′ E. long., capital of the richly wooded maritime province of Gilan, contains from 15,000 to 20,000 inhabitants. Eastwick, who was there in 1861, accepts the former estimate, but states that the place was four times as populous before the plague of 1831. The distance from Enzelli, on the southern shores of the Caspian, the actual port of disembarkation for passengers and goods from Russia, is about 16 miles, of which 12 (to Pari Bazaar) are accomplished in an open boat, the last part by river, but for the most part over a widespread brackish lake or lagoon (murdáb), abounding in wild fowl, surrounded by reeds, and separated from the sea by a narrow belt of sand. From Pari Bazaar to Rasht the road, piercing through forest and swamp, had for many long years been memorable only for its puddles and pools, its ruts and ruggedness, but it has more recently undergone great improvement. As for the town itself, the tiled houses in the streets, and the lanes, lined with hedge and cottage, in the environs, impart a cheerfulness to the locality little in unison with the sickly and fever-stricken faces and forms of the inhabitants. Yet the beauty and hazel eyes of the children, with their "true English pink and white complexions" noticed by Eastwick, are not significant of inherited enervation. Rasht is the residence of a Russian and an English consul, and the seat of a local governor nominated by the | brought out the first complete editions of Snorro's Edda sháh. It is the centre of the silk trade, which once flourished so greatly in Persia as to show an annual export of nearly a million and a half pounds in weight, valued at £700,000. In 1882, however, the prevalence of disease among the silkworms caused many of the peasants of Gilan to abandon the culture of silk in favour of rice, which became largely exported to Russia. But the geographical position of Rasht gives it a world-wide reputation irrespective of trade. If the roads by Trebizond, Erzeroum, and Tabriz on the one hand and by Poti, Tiflis, and Tabriz on the other can still be considered the two "commercial highways" from Europe to Persia, the line of land and water communication by Astrakhan and the south-eastern shores of the Caspian has a good claim to be called the true modern highway for travellers and diplomatists moving in the same direction. Rasht was visited in 1739 by "two English gentlemen from Petersburg," whose narrative, published three years later, contains much interesting information on the existing relations of Gilan with Russia. It is noteworthy, but not astonishing, to find that in those days the sháh (Nádir Kúli) was himself in a manner the sole merchant or trader in all Persia." In 1744 Jonas Hanway came there also; but no fuller account of the capital of Gilan has perhaps ever been recorded than that of Samuel Gmelin in 1771, when Hidáiyat Khán ruled the province, and Karim Khán Zend was sovereign of Persia. Gmelin was received with extraordinary honours, as an imperial officer of Russia, and every opportunity was afforded him of observing the country, its features and produce, and of acquainting himself with the manners and customs of the inhabitants. In 1882 a concession for the construction of a railway from Rasht to Teheran, via Kazvin, was granted to a M. Boital. It is probable that no more practical effect will be given to this scheme than to that of Baron de Reuter some ten years before. See A Journey through Russia into Persia (London, 1742); Histoire des Décou vertes, vol. ii. (Lausanne, 1784); Eastwick, Three Years Residence in Persia (1864); Telegraph and Travel (1874); and published official Reports (1882). The RASK, RASMUS CHRISTIAN (1787-1832), an eminent scholar and philologist, was born at Brändekilde in the Island of Fünen or Fyen in Denmark in 1787. He studied at the university of Copenhagen, and early distinguished himself by singular talent for the acquisition of languages. In the year 1808 he was appointed assistant keeper of the university library, and some years after wards made professor of literary history. In 1811 he published, in Danish, his Introduction to the Grammar of the Icelandic and other Ancient Northern Languages, from printed and MS. materials which had been accumulated by his predecessors in the same field of research. reputation which Rask thus acquired recommended him to the Arna-Magnæan Institution, by which he was employed as editor of the Icelandic Lexicon (1814) of Björn Haldorson, which had long remained in manuscript. About the same time Rask paid a visit to Iceland, where he remained from 1813 to 1815, and made himself completely master of the language and familiarized himself with the literature, manners, and customs of the natives. To the interest with which they inspired him may probably be attributed the establishment at Copenhagen, early in 1816, of the Icelandic Literary Society, which was mainly instituted by his exertions, and of which he was the first president. and Sæmund's Edda, in the original text, along with In October 1816 Rask left Denmark on a literary expedition, at the cost of the king, to prosecute inquiries into the languages of the East, and collect manuscripts for the university library at Copenhagen. He proceeded first to Sweden, where he remained two years, in the course of which he made an excursion into Finland, for the purpose of studying the language of that country. Here he published, in Swedish, his Anglo-Saxon Grammar in 1817. In 1818 there appeared at Copenhagen, in Danish, an Essay on the Origin of the Ancient Scandinavian or Icelandic Tongue, in which he traced the affinity of that idiom to the other European languages, particularly to the Latin and the Greek. In the same year he During the period between his return from the East and his RASPBERRY. See HORTICULTURE, vol. xii. p. 276. Previous to the close of the 17th century Rastatt was a place of no importance, but after its destruction by the French in 1689 it was rebuilt on a larger scale by Margrave Lewis, the well-known imperial general in the Turkish wars, and became the residence of the margraves of Baden down to 1771. In 1714 the preliminary articles of the peace between Austria and France, ending the War Rastatt in 1797-99 had for its object the re-arrangement of the of the Spanish Succession, were signed here. The congress of map of Germany by providing compensation for those princes who had relinquished to France territory on the left bank of the Rhine. It dispersed, however, without result, war having again broken out between France and Austria. As the French plenipotentiaries were leaving the town they were waylaid and assassinated by Hungarian hussars. The object and instigators of this deed have remained shrouded in mystery, but the balance of evidence seems to indicate that the Austrian authorities had ordered a violent seizure of the ambassadors' papers, to avoid damaging disclosures with regard to Austrian designs on Bavaria, and that the soldiers had simply exceeded their instructions. The Baden revolution of 1849 began at Rastatt with a military mutiny and ended here a few months later with the capture of the town by the Prussians. Rastatt is now a fortress of the German empire. RASTELL, the name of two early English printers. I. JOHN RASTELL or RASTALL, printer and author, was born at London towards the end of the 15th century. He was educated at Oxford, and married Elizabeth, the sister of Sir Thomas More. He was a man of considerable learning and, although not bred to the law like his son, showed his devotion to legal studies by his writings. He went into the printing business about the year 1514, and produced Liber assisarum, with a preface by himself. His first dated publication was Abbreviamentum librorum legum Anglorum (1517). He also printed The Wydow Edyth (1525), A Dyaloge of Syr Thomas More (1529), and a number of other books. The last dated piece from his press was Fabyl's Ghoste (1533), a poem. He lived "at the sygne of the meremayd at Powlysgate." John Rastell, the Jesuit, who has been frequently confounded with him, was no relation. By his will, dated 20th April 1536, he appointed Henry VIII. one of his executors; administration was granted on the renunciation of the executorship by the king on 18th July 1536. It is a curious document, and contains a long account of the testator's religious belief. Rastell was occupied upon a concordance at the time of his death; its publication was provided for by the will (see Arber's Registers of Comp. of Stationers, ii. 8, 9). He died at London, leaving two sons,-William, printer and judge (see below), and John, a justice of the peace. Rastell's chief writings are the following. The Pastyme of People; the Chronycles of dyuers Realmys and most specially of the Realme of Englonde (1529), now of extreme rarity; a note in the catalogue of the British Museum says, "the only perfect copy known." It ranges from the earliest times to Richard III., and was edited by Dibdin in 1811 for the quarto series of English chronicles. A new Boke of Purgatory, 1530, being dialogues on the subject between "Comyngo au Almayne a Christen Man, and one Gyngemyn a Turke." This was answered by John Frith, producing Rastell's Apology against John Fryth, also answered by the latter. The controversy is said to have ended in Rastell's conversion to the Reformed religion. Expositiones terminorum legum anglorum (in French, also translated into English, 1527; reprinted as recently as 1812 as Les Termes de la Ley). The Abbreviacion of Statutis (1520), the first abridgment of the statutes in English, with an interesting preface by Rastell, giving reasons for the innovation; down to 1625 fifteen editions appeared. II. WILLIAM RASTELL (c. 1508-1565), printer and judge, son of the above, was born in London about 1508. At the age of seventeen he went to the university of Oxford, but did not take a degree, being probably called home to superintend his father's business. The first work which bears his own imprint was A Dyaloge of Sir Thomas More (1531), a reprint of the edition published by his father in 1529. He also brought out a few law books, some poetry, an edition of Fabyan's Cronycle (1533), and The Apologye (1533) and The Supplycacyon of Soulys of his uncle Sir Thomas More. His office was "in Fletestrete in saynt Brydys chyrche yarde." He became a student at Lincoln's Inn on 12th September 1532, and gave up the printing business two years later. In 1547 he was appointed reader. On account of his religion he left England for Louvain; but upon the accession of Mary he returned, and was made sergeant-at-law in October 1555. He was one of the seven sergeants who gave the famous feast that year in the Inner Temple Hall (see Dugdale's Orig. Jurid., 1680, p. 128). His patent as judge of the Queen's Bench One of his pre was granted on 27th October 1558. decessors, John Boteler, had also been printer and judge. Rastell continued on the bench until 1562, when he retired to Louvain without the queen's licence. By virtue of a special commission issued by the barons of the Exchequer on the occasion an inventory of his goods and chattels was taken. It furnishes an excellent idea of the modest nature of the law library (consisting of twenty-four works) and of the chambers of an Elizabethan judge (see Law Magazine, February 1844). He died at Louvain on 27th August 1565. It is difficult to distinguish between the books written by him and those by his father. The following are believed to be his : A the Kynges of Englande (1561), both frequently reprinted with conColleccion of all the Statutes (1557), A Table collected of the Yeares of tinuations, and A Colleccion of Entrees, of Declaracions, &c. (1566), also frequently reprinted. The entries are not of Rastell's own drawing, but have been selected from printed and MS. collections; their "pointed brevity and precision" are commended by Story. He supplied tables or indexes to several law books, and edited La novel natura brevium de Monsieur Anton. Fitzherbert and The Workes of Sir T. More in the English Tonge (1557). He is also stated to have written a life of Sir T. More, but it has not come down to us. See Bale, Scriptores maioris Brytanniæ, 1557-59; Pits, Relationes hist. de rebus Angl., 1619; Tanner, Bibliotheca, 1748; Ames, Typogr. Antiq., by Dibdin, 1816, iii. pp. 81, 370; Wood, Athene Oxonienses, 1813, i. pp. 100, 343; Dodd, Church History, 1739, ii. p. 149; Foss, Biographia Juridica, 1870; Reeves, History of the Engl. Law, 1869, iii. p. 432; Marvin, Legal Bibliography, 1847; Clarke, Bibliotheca Legum, 1819; Bridgman, Legal Bibliography, 1807; Catalogue of Books in the British Museum before 1640, 1884. RASTRICK, an urban sanitary district in the West Riding of Yorkshire, is situated on an acclivity near the Calder, and on the Lancashire and Yorkshire Railway 5 miles south-east of Halifax and 3 north of Huddersfield. It possesses woollen and silk manufactures, and there are stone quarries in the neighbourhood. The ancient chapel of St Matthew was replaced in 1798 by a church in the Grecian style, which was restored in 1879. A school was founded in 1701 by Mrs Mary Law, who also endowed a charity for poor widows. The population of the urban sanitary district (area, 1371 acres) in 1871 was 5896, and in 1881 it was 8039. A. RAT. Under the article MOUSE (vol. xvii. p. 5) an account has been already given of the relationships and chief allies of the animals known as rats, and the present article is confined to the two species to which the name rat is most strictly applicable. These are the so-called old English black rat, Mus rattus, and the common brown or Norway rat, M. decumanus. The first of these is a comparatively small and lightly built. animal, animal, seldom exceeding about 7 inches in length, with a slender head, large cars (see fig., A), and a long thin scaly tail about 8 or 9 inches in length. Its colour is, at least in all temperate climates, a peculiar shining bluish black, rather lighter on the belly, the ears, feet, and A. Black Rat (Mus rattus). tail being also B. Brown Rat (M. decumanus). black; but in tropical regions it is represented by a grey or rufous-backed and white-bellied race to which the name of Alexandrian rat (M. alexandrinus) has been applied, owing to its having been first discovered at Alexandria, but which cannot be considered to be really specifically distinct from the true black rat. Its disposi B. 1 very much tion is milder and more tamable than that of M. decu- | been named M. leuconota. All the ratels are of the same colour, namely, iron-grey on the upper parts of manus, and it is therefore the species to which the tame white and pied rats kept as pets commonly belong. It is the head, body, and tail, and black below, a style of colorasaid that in some parts of Germany M. rattus has been tion rather rare among mammals, as the upper side of the lately reasserting itself and increasing at the expense of body is in the great majority darker than the lower. Their M. decumanus, but this seems very unlikely from the pre- body is stout and thickly built; the legs are short and vious history of the two animals (compare MOUSE, vol. strong, and armed, especially on the anterior pair, with xvii. p. 5). long curved fossorial claws; the tail is short; and the ear-conches are reduced to mere rudiments. These modifications are all in relation to a burrowing mode of life, for which the ratels are among the best adapted of all carnivores. The skull is conical, stout, and heavy, and the teeth, although sharper and less rounded than those of their allies the badgers, are yet far less suited to a purely carnivorous diet than those of such typical Mustelida as The two species of the stoats, weasels, and martens. ratel may be distinguished by the fact that the African has a distinct white line round the body at the junction of the grey of the upper side with the black of the lower, while in the Indian this line is absent; the teeth also of the former are on the whole decidedly larger, rounder, and heavier than those of the latter. In spite of these differences, however, the two ratels are so nearly allied that they might almost be considered to be merely geographical races of a single widely spread species. The brown or Norway rat, M. decumanus, is a heavily built animal, growing to 8 or 9 inches in length, with a bluff rounded head, small ears (see fig., B), and a comparatively short tail,-always shorter than the head and body combined, and generally not longer than the body alone. Its colour is a uniform greyish brown above, and white below, the ears, feet, and tail being flesh-coloured; melanistic varieties are by no means rare, and these are often mistaken for true black rats, but the differences in size and proportions form a ready means of distinguishing the two. The brown rat is believed to be a native of western China, where a wild race has been recently discovered so like it as to be practically indistinguishable. The two species agree fully in their predaceous habits, omnivorous diet, and great fecundity. They bear four or five times in the year from four to ten blind and naked young, which are in their turn able to breed at an age of about six months. The time of gestation is about twenty days. (0. T.) RATAFIA is a term applied to a flavouring essence, the basis of which is the essential oil of bitter almonds. Peach kernels are properly the source of ratafia, but any of the other substances yielding bitter almond oil is used. The name "ratafia" is also applied in France to a variety of liquors, and from Dantzic a special liqueur is sent out under the name of "ratafia" (see vol. xiv. p. 686). RATEL. The animals known as Ratels or Honey-sionally partakes of honey. It is often very destructive to poultry, badgers are small clumsy-looking creatures of about the size and appearance of the true badgers, and belong to the same natural group of the Carnivora, namely, the subfamily Melina of the large family Mustelida, which contains the otters, badgers, stoats, weasels, &c. (see MAMMALIA, vol. xv. p. 440). Of the ratels two species are generally recognized, viz., the Indian Ratel (Mellivora indica), a native of all the peninsula of India, and the African (M. ratel), which ranges over the whole of the African continent -although by some authors the West African race is considered to represent a third distinct species, which has The following account of the Indian ratel is extracted from Dr Judson's Mammals of India :-"The Indian badger is found throughout the whole of India, from the extreme south to the foot of the Himalayas, chiefly in hilly districts, where it has greater facilities for constructing the holes and dens in which it lives; but also in the north of India in alluvial plains, where the banks of large rivers afford equally suitable localities wherein to make its lair. It is stated to live usually in pairs, and to eat rats, birds, frogs, white ants, and various insects, and in the north of India it is accused of digging out dead bodies, and is popularly known as the grave-digger. It doubtless also, like its Cape congener, occaand I have known of several having been trapped and killed whilst Circars. committing such depredations in Central India and in the northern In confinement the Indian badger is quiet and will par(0. T.) take of vegetable food, fruits, rice, &c." RATHENOW, a small town of Prussia in the province of Brandenburg, lies on the right bank of the Havel, 44 miles to the west of Berlin. It is known for its "Rathenow stones," i.e., bricks made of the clay of the Havel, and for its spectacles and optical instruments, which are exported to various parts of the world. It contains no buildings of note. The population in 1880 was 11,394, including 174 Roman Catholics and 68 Jews. Rathenow has enjoyed the privileges of a town since 1217. In 1394 it was taken and partly destroyed by the archbishop of Magdeburg. During the Thirty Years' War it was repeatedly occupied by the opposing troops, and in 1675 it was cleverly snatched from the Swedish garrison by the Great Elector. RATIBOR (Polish Raciborz), a town of Prussian Silesia in the department of Oppeln, is pleasantly situated on the left bank of the Oder at the point where the river becomes navigable, about 12 miles from the Austrian frontier. The most prominent buildings are the handsome courthouse by Schinkel and the Modern Gothic church; on the right bank of the Oder is the old château of the dukes of Ratibor. The town is the seat of a diversified industry, the chief products of which are machinery and railway gear, iron wares, tobacco and cigars, paper, sugar, furni ture, and glass. Trade is carried on in these articles and in agricultural produce, and hemp and vegetables are largely grown in the environs. The population in 1880 was 18,373, or, including the immediately adjacent villages, 27,100, five-sixths of whom are Roman Catholics. In the town itself, where there are only about 2500 Poles, German is chiefly spoken, but Polish and Czechish dialects are predominant in the neighbourhood. Ratibor, which received municipal privileges at the close of the 13th century, was formerly the capital of an independent duchy, |