We are small, but we are legion.
Definition/Summary:
Rat King Cryptids
- A rat king involves a number of rats intertwined at their tails, which become stuck together with, for instance, blood, dirt, ice, horse-hair, or feces—or simply knotted
- The animals reputedly grow together while joined at the tails. The numbers of rats joined together can vary, but rat kings formed naturally from a large number of rats occur more rarely
- So rarely that they have sometimes been thought to be cryptids, but there are several well-attested modern occurrences
- In folklore, rat kings are associated with various superstitions and were often seen as a bad omen, particularly associated with plagues
Bubonic aka Black Death and Black plague
- Black Death was one of the most devastating pandemics in human history, resulting in the deaths of an estimated 75 to 200 million people in Eurasia and peaking in Europe
- Was caused by flea transmission
- The Oriental rat flea species of flea is the primary vector for the transmission of Yersinia pestis, the organism responsible for bubonic plague in most plague epidemics. Both male and female fleas feed on blood and can transmit the infection
Religion
- Both angelic and or Demonic reference in The King James bible
- In the Bible, Jesus comes upon a man possessed by a demon, and asks him “what is thy name,” according to the King James version. The verses continue, “And he answered, saying, My name is Legion: for we are many.”
- At the Garden of Gethsemane
“For all who take the sword will perish by the sword. Do you think that I cannot appeal to my Father, and he will at once send me more than twelve legions of angels?”