Rat Superstitions A great increase in the number of rats foretells a war. If a rat gnaws your clothing, you will soon remove your furniture from that house. Always drop a baby's tooth into a rat hole and the new tooth will be beautiful. If a rat finds a tooth that you have thrown away, you will get a rat tooth. If you see rats leaving a building, it will soon burn. It is the sign of good luck to have a rat jump out of a drawer that you have opened. Rats will desert a doomed ship. It was an old superstition among sailors that rats deserted a ship before she set out on a voyage that was to end in her sinking. Rats will not remain in a cellar where there is a mole. To drive away rats, singe the hair from one rat and turn it loose. You may look for bad luck, if rats cut your clothes. It is the sign of a cave-in, if a white rat is seen in a coal mine. You yourself should never mend any clothes that a rat has gnawed, for it will bring you bad luck. "I smell a rat." I perceive there is something concealed which is mischievous. The allusion is to a cat smelling a rat.