What does a tarabagan look like?

A tarabagan is a rodent, also known as a Pharaoh's Rat. Many are found in the area between Eastern Europe and Asia, where they gained infamy for their role in the "Black Death", a pneumonic plague that broke out in 1910 in Manchuria among hunters of tarabagan. Over sixty thousand people died in that epidemic. Eventually the plague bacilli were spread to Mongol herdsmen and the "Black Death"then continued to spread leaving a high death toll.

Steppe lore includes the warning, "Never Skin a Staggering Tarabagan".