The Question of Saliva as Glue

(date: I'm pretty sure it's still late Einmánuður.)

Rat-A-Task is a weaver. Like, the way a basket weaver is a weaver, but Rat is a weaver of his nest. That's how he does it. Really. He told me that people sometimes believe squirrels use their saliva to build their nests, but Rat thinks that's just gross. 'Gross!' he says. 'Ew!' And other things. 'I hope you don't believe a squirrel would use saliva as building material,' he says, casting me a suspicious look.

'No, I don't,' I say. 'I've never even heard of it.'

'Just think about it. It's only logical. Do you think I could sleep in a nest that was all glued together with my own saliva? That's for the birds!'

He means it literally. There are birds that do that. I've seen them, on other branches of the Tree of the World. They line their nests with a shiny liquid that comes from their beaks.

'That, my friend,' says Rat-A-Task, 'is bird saliva. Birds are not civilized like we squirrels are, and that's the evidence right there. Saliva. Just gross.'

And then he leans in, almost conspiratorially, as if the birds with their saliva might overhear him, and he says:

'No, the secret, if you know what you're doing, is all in the weaving. That's how my mother taught me and it's how I do it. Don't you worry. Your hands are too big. I'll never be able to teach you. But if you bring me the raw material, that will be help enough.'

So that's what I will do. I will bring the raw material to Rat-A-Task, and he will use what I bring him (and what he gets to himself) to build the biggest drey there ever was built. Right here in the biggest tree that ever has grown.