Bugs and Beasts before the Law. that the said moles may be able to show cause for their conduct by pleading their exigencies and distress," a procurator, Hans Grinebuer by name, was charged with their defense, " to the end that they may have nothing to complain of in these proceedings." Schwarz Minig was the prosecuting attorney, and a long list of witnesses is given who testified that the injury done by these crea tures to the crops rendered it quite impossible for tenants to pay their rents. The counsel for the defendants urged the many benefits conferred by his clients upon the community, and concluded by expressing the hope that, if they should be sentenced to depart, some other place of abode might be assigned to them, suitable for their sustenance and sup port. He demanded, furthermore, that they should be provided with a safe conduct, securing them against harm or annoyance from dog, cat, or other foe. The judge rec ognized the reasonableness of this request, and mitigated the sentence of perpetual banishment by ordering that " a free safe conduct of fourteen days be allowed to those which are with young." A Bernese curate, named Schmid, thus solemnly warned and threatened a kind of vermin called inger: "Thou irrational and imperfect creature the inger, of which there were none in Noah's ark, by the authority of my gracious lord the Bishop of Lausanne, in the name of the ever-lauded and most blessed Trinity, through the merits of our Saviour Jesus Christ, and in obedience to the Holy Apostolic Church, I command you, each and all, to depart, within six days, from all places in which food for man springeth up and groweth." In case no heed was given to this injunction, the afore said inger were summoned to appear " on the sixth day after mid-day, at one o'clock, before his grace the Bishop of Losann gen Wivelsburg," and there to answer for their conduct. The advocate who defended them detected a technical error in the proceedings, which made it necessary to issue a second
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summons, wherein the accused are de nounced as " ye accursed uncleanness of the inger, which shall not even be called ani mals." Finally, the inger persisting in their obduracy, " Benedict of Montferrand, Bishop of Losan, at the entreaty of the high and mighty lords of Berne," laid upon them his exterminatory curse and ban, " that nothing whatever of them remain save for the use and profit of man." The Bernese govern ment ordered a report to be made of the results. But the Episcopal anathema ap pears to have proved mere brutum fnlmen; nothing more was heard of it, says Schilling, "owing to our sins." In Protestant communities, the priest as exorcist has been superseded mostly by the professional conjurer, who in some parts of Europe is still employed to save the crops from devastation. A curious case of this kind is recorded in " Gorres Hist. Polit. Blat ter "for 1845. A Protestant gentleman in Westphalia, whose garden was being rapidly consumed by worms, after having tried vari ous vermicidal remedies, resolved to have recourse to a conjurer. The wizard came and walked about among the vegetables, touching them with a wand and muttering enchantments. Some workmen, who were repairing the roof of a stable near by, made fun of this hocus pocus, and began to throw pieces of lime at the conjurer. He requested them to desist, and finally said: " If you do not leave me in peace, I will send all the worms up on the roof." This threat only increased the hilarity of the scoffers, who continued to ridicule and disturb him in his incantations. Thereupon he went to the nearest hedge, cut a number of twigs, each about a finger in length, and placed them against the wall of the stable. Soon the vermin left the plants and, crawling in count less numbers over the twigs and up the wall, took complete possession of the roof. In less than an hour the men were obliged to abandon their work, and stood in the court below covered with confusion and with cab
