Friday, August 23, 2013

91. Rats

I found this boy hunting rats as I walked home from school today.  Using just a hoe and his bare hands, he was chopping at clumps of grass at the edge of a field.  He would chop at the soil until he found a rat-hole, and then chase that hole until he found the rat.  Then, with a few swift and sloppy hacks of the hoe, he would bludgeon it to death.  

The system was surprisingly effective.  The boy was merciless.

It was dinner, after all.

Dead rats
Dinner rats
Served in a stew

Dan actually tried this meal when Romao made it for him last year.  He ate an entire rat from head to tail (spitting out the teeth, as is custom) and then passed the bowl back to the cook.  

What was his response?

"Fine, he said,  "Not great.  Not a lot of meat.  They mostly just tasted like the curry they were cooked in."

And what about bones?

"You could just crunch through them."

And the hair?

"Yeah," he admitted.  "That was the most prominent feature.  It all got stuck in my teeth."

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