RABBIT. 630 RABELAIS. native home is Noi-them China and Tibet, and he is bred in Europe for the value of his skin. His limbs, nose, ears, and tail are black, and the rest of the body white. This black tipping has caused his skin, the coat of which is short and glossy, to be sometimes called 'mock ermine.' The eye is a singularly rioli golden crimson, bright and fiery. These rabbits breed as a rule very true, are smart, neat, hardy, and docile. They vary in weight from four to six pounds. The Patagonian derives its name from its great size alone, since it is really little else than a wild rabbit, bred up to 12 to 10 pounds in weight. The same may be said of the 'Flemish giants,' some specimens of which weigh 18 pounds. They grow quickly and arc profttalde for market sale. The 'silver-tip' is a fancy breed, characterized by upright ears, large prominent eyes, well- formed body, and a coat evenly silvered, with about 25 per cent, of light hairs. When first born the silver-grays are a slate-blue, and after about a month they look quite black, but at their first molt this changes to a real silvering or light color, which is perfected by the second molt, when they show the much-desired blue tint. The 'silver-browns' are bred from the sil- ver-gray bucks, cro.ssed with deep-colored Bel- gian does. The 'cream' or 'fawn' varieties re- sult from other cross-breedings. They are me- dium-sized rabbits, seven pounds being the ap- proved weight. The Pole is a delicate little all- white rabbit, often weighing only three pounds, which inhabits Poland in its wild state, but is distributed all through Switzerland and France, especially in Provence. The ears are short, up- right, and soft, and the eyes are light red. See Plate of Hakes and Pika. Consult: Knight, Book of the Rabbit (London, 2d ed., colored plates, 1889) ; Morant, Rahbtt Farming (London, 1890) ; Rayson, Rabbits for Prices and Profit (London, 1872). RABBIT BOT. The larva of one of the bot- flies {(hitcrebra cuniculi) which is commonly found luider the skin of rabbits, Ahere it forms a large tumor. The adult insect is a large fly, al- most as large as a bumblebee, and having some resemblance to that insect. The head is black and the thorax is covered with yellow-brojvn hair, the first segment of the abdomen with yellow hair, and the rest of the abdomen is blue-black. This insect occurs in Europe and in various parts of the L^nited States. See BoT. RABBIT-FISH (so called because the front teeth resemble the incisors of a rabbit). A rather large, coppery-brown fiah {Promethichthys prome- theus) of the Middle Atlantic, especially frequent about Madeira and the Bermudas. It is one of the escolars ( q.v. ) , and is known to Bermudans as 'cat-fish,' but about Madeira is called 'coelho,' or 'conejo.' Although it cannot be caught except on the bottom at depths of from 100 to 400 fathoms, it is one of the connuonest and cheapest market fishes in the islands mentioned. This name is also given to the connnon "burr- fish' of the Southern United States. See Porcu- pine-Fish. RABELAIS, ra'b'-lA', Francois (c.1490- C.1553). A great French satirist and humorist, born at Chinon, in Touraine. Rabelais's life is surrounded by legend. Even the year of his birth and the occupation of his father are matters of doubt, like the year of his death and his burial place. The year traditionally assigned to his l)irth is that of Luther (1483). Some recent biographers put it in 149.5, though others, fol- lowing De Thou, prefer 1490, a date which of- fers, perhaps, least intrinsic diffieulty. His father is said by some to have been an innkeeper, or vintner, by others an ajiothecary. Tradition records that Rabelais went when he was nine years old to a convent school at Seuillfi, near Chinon, and that he passed thence to a similar school at La Basnette, near Angers, where he seems to have made the acquaintance of the three Du Bellay brothers and of GeofTroy d'Estis- sac, afterwards Bishop of Maillezais. He prob- ably passed either from Seuille or La Basnette to the Monastery of Fontenay-le-Comte, a Francis- can house in Poitou, where he apparently was advanced to the priesthood; for we find his name on a legal document dated April 5, 1519, among those of some 12 prominent members of the mon- astery. He seems to have read and studied here after the omnivorous fashion of the Renaissance, certainly in French, Latin, and Greek, possibly in Hebrew and Arabic. His scholarship gained him the friendly patronage of the Bishop of Mail- lezais, of the distinguished scholar Budteus, and of some influential lawyers. With Budreus he and a monk, Pierre Amy, corresponded in Latin and Greek, and fragments of their letters indicate that the other monks took offense at their studies and annoyed them so much that they left the convent, and doubtless the Franciscan habit, and sought the protection of the Bishop of Mail- lezais, through whom, possibly by the interven- tion of Cardinal du Bellay, Rabelais obtained from Clement VIL, about 1524, permission to go over to the more scholarly Benedictines. He en- tered the abliey at Maillezais and soon became the table companion of Bishop Geoffi-oy d'Estis- sac, at whose chateau he was a frequent guest for long periods. But he seems to have grown .,, restless, to have abandoned the abbey, his Bene- dictine habit, and his patron, and to have gone as a secular priest possibly to Paris and probably to Lyons. On September 17, 1530, we have record of Rabelais's matriculation in the faculty of medicine at Montpellier. He took his baccalau- reate degree December 1st of that year, and lec- tured in 1531 at Montpellier on the Aphorisms of Hippocrates and Galen's Art of Medicine. We have his own testimony (Pantaitruel. iii. 34) that he took part in an academic comedy. In No- vember, 1531, he was appointed physician at the Hotel Dieu of Lyons, but he did not take his doctor's degree till 1537. At Lyons he seems to have begun publication, dividing his attention between medicine and law. At the same time his humor was finding expres- sion in popular almanacs. Of these he issued between 1532 and 1550 some 18. The under- lying purpose appears to have been to mock the astrologers and their art. One of these, the Prognostication Pantagrueline. suggests in its title the name of his most famous work. Pant a gruel, of which the present Book ii. ap- peared at least as early as 1533. He appears to have revamped also a local Touranian legend of the giant Gargantua, an elaboration of which afterwards served him as prelude to his master- piece. This new Gargantua probably dates from 1534. Early in that year Rabelais accompanied Cardinal du Bellay to Rome, where he spent three months and gathered materials published
