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} (I shall overlook the fact that the customary sniveling and groveling
} was omitted, but only this once; you've caught me in a good aeon,
} where such glibness causes me no more than minor indigestion.)
}
} It is interesting that you should ask this question, because it is one
} that has rung throughout the halls of history for millenia. The Roman
} philosopher Seneca had once asked "Quid est cornu ratti?"; Thomas
} Aquinas had attempted to prove the existence of the rathorn; and even
} David Byrne had his heartbreaking lament: "Psycho-rathorn --
} qu'est-ce que c'est. Fuh fuh fuh fuh, fuh fuh fuh fuh fuh fuh."
}
} The answer is quite simple: The horn of the great horned rat. But
} this extends into a vast and glorious mythos that you don't want to
} hear, but which I will summarize briefly anyway:
}
} In prehistoric times, before an enormous meteorite had clouded the
} skies, the mammals were first evolving, and had to compete with the
} dinosaurs. The first mammals were, of course, small furry things, and
} then needed some way to defend thenmselves from the jaws of such
} creatures as the _Tyrannosaurus Rex_. Thus, there was serious
} selective pressure for the animals to become bigger, and their
} defenses stronger -- thus the advent of the great horned rat.
}
} By the time the dinosaurs began to die, the rats -- over four feet
} tall, and with one unicorn-like horn -- had scampered over the Sahara
} unchecked, dominated the North American Great Plains, and done the
} backstroke in the Indian Ocean. Their dominance over all of the major
} landmasses was fierce and tyrannical until, by a leap of logic, we
} reach the Middle Ages, where they were slain by such famous
} knights-errant as Gluteus the Half-Assed and Snurfle, the Four-Nosed
} Puce Knight. The horns of the dead horned rats were removed and
} used as spears, or sharpened and used in hand-to-hand combat. In
} addition, the tails of these great rats where cut off and used as
} whips, thus the "rattails" that children fashion, nowadays out of wet
} towels.
}
} There is some speculation that Jabberwocky is truly about the death of
} the last horned-rat king, but that is as of yet unconfirmed. It
} appears that, after the Middle Ages, all of the horned rats were slain
} for glory and prestige, so all that remains are the small ones that
} have, so far, ceased to cause mankind any trouble whatsoever.
}
} You owe the Oracle one plague, any size.
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