ratts

Rather it was used to stuff pincushions-the oil from the hair serving to lubricate the pins-or to create "ratts", which were balls of old hair stuffed inside a hairnet then pinned under one's actual hair to provide volume to the hairdo.

Book-Wyrm-Knits 2010

As for them of Amsterdam, [i.e. the members of Rev. Henry Ainsworth's church there] I had thought they would as soon gone to Rome as with us; for our libertie is to them as ratts bane, and their riggour as bad to us as ye Spanish Inquisition.

The Mayflower and Her Log; July 15, 1620-May 6, 1621 — Complete Azel Ames 1876

Johnson's house, and immediately gets from the Indians all the bounty money they receive for scalps, "which leaves them as poor as ratts," and therefore refractory and unmanageable.

A Half-Century of Conflict - Volume II Francis Parkman 1858

And coming off the stunning loss in Massachusetts this past Tuesday, the Demo-ratts are now going to have hearings into the Supreme Court ruling vis-a-vis Chucky Schumer!

Yahoo! Buzz US: Top Stories 2010

Great extremity occasioned by ratts; Bread made of dryed Sturgeon; the punishment for loyterers; the discovery of the Mangoags.

The Generall Historie of Virginia, New-England, and the Summer Isles: With the Names of the Adventurers, Planters, and Governours from Their First Beginning, Ano: 1584. To This Present 1624. With the Procedings of Those Severall Colonies and the Accidents That Befell Them in All Their Journyes and Discoveries. Also the Maps and Descriptions of All Those Countryes, Their Commodities, People, Government, Customes, and Religion Yet Knowne. Divided into Sixe Bookes. By Captaine Iohn Smith, Sometymes Governour in Those Countryes & Admirall of New England 1624

The Country neer devoured with ratts; their strange confusion.

The Generall Historie of Virginia, New-England, and the Summer Isles: With the Names of the Adventurers, Planters, and Governours from Their First Beginning, Ano: 1584. To This Present 1624. With the Procedings of Those Severall Colonies and the Accidents That Befell Them in All Their Journyes and Discoveries. Also the Maps and Descriptions of All Those Countryes, Their Commodities, People, Government, Customes, and Religion Yet Knowne. Divided into Sixe Bookes. By Captaine Iohn Smith, Sometymes Governour in Those Countryes & Admirall of New England 1624

I cannot sell the pease, being the worst that ever I saw, black and worm eaten, and boil like shot; about halfe the rye also is landed for the ratts.

Collections of the Massachusetts Historical Society 1792

I cannot sell the pease, being the worst that ever I saw, black and worm eaten, and boil like shot; about halfe the rye also is landed for the ratts.

Collections of the Massachusetts Historical Society 1792