Great Rat Catchers

According to an account in Th Jonrual d'Hygiene, rats have becoroe so abundaut in Brazil that a domestio snake, the giboya, which has about the circnmference of the arm, is sold in the rnarket place in Rio Janeiro, to be kept in the house as a protection against rodents. It wonld seem that the serpent pursues its prey more for the pleasure ;hat there is in it than from a sense of ianger, since it is eaid it rarely ents ;he rats caoght. Similar in its hablts nd attachnieuts to the domestic cat of our more noithern latitudes, the giboya will, it is said, find its way back to the ïouse oí its master even if transponed to a considerable distance. The seal worn by the pope and used }y him ou official documents to whioh lis siguaturt, is attached has on it the engraving of a fish, with the cipher of ,he wearer. Since the thirteenth century every pope has woru a ring of this cbaracter, and it is shattered with a íainmer when the wearer dies to prevent its use on a forged document.