CAT

"Hiskitlingeyes begin to runQuite through the table where he spiesThe horns of paperie butterflys."

Herrick,Hesperides.

Kittenhood.—State of being a kitten.

"For thou art as beautiful as ever a catThat wantoned in the joy of kittenhood."

Southey.

Kittenish, kitten-like.

"Such a kittenish disposition in her, I called it; ...the love of playfulness."—Richardson.

Kit, orkitten.—A young cat. A young cat is a kitten until it is full-grown, then kittenhood ceases.

A school-boy being asked to describe akitten, replied: "Akittenis chiefly remarkable for rushing like mad at nothing whatever, and generally stopping before it gets there."

Puss gentleman.—An effeminate man.—Davis,Glossary.

"I cannot talk with civet in th' room,A fine puss gentleman that's all perfume."

Cowper'sConversations.

proverbs

ABLATEcat makes a proud mouse(Scotch). An idle, or stupid, or timid foe is never feared.

A cat has nine lives, a woman has nine lives.In Middleton'sBlurt Master Constable, 1602, we have: "They have nine lives apiece, like a woman."

A cat may look at a king.In Cornwall they say a cat may look at a king if he carries his eyes about him.

"A Cat may Look at a King," is the title of a book on history, published in the early part of the last century. On the frontispiece is the picture of a cat, over it the inscription, "A cat may look at a king," and a king's head and shoulders on the title-page, with the same inscription above.

A cat's walk, a little way and back (Cornwall). No place like home. Idling about.

A dead cat feels no cold.No life, no pain, nor reproach.

A dog hath a day.—Heywood. In Essex folks add:And a cat has two Sundays.Why?

The shape of a good greyhound:

A head like a snake, a neck like a drake, A back like a beam, sided like a bream, Afoot like a cat, a tail like a rat.

Ale that would make a cat talk.Strong enough to make even the dumb speak.

"A spicy pot,Then do's us reason,Would make a catTo talk high treason."—D'Urfey.

A half-penny cat may look at a king(Scotch). A jeering saying of offence—"One is as good as another," and as a Scotchman once said, "and better."

A muffled cat is no good mouser.—Clarke, 1639. No good workman wears gloves. By some is said "muzzled."

A piece of a kid is worth two of a cat.A little of good is better than much that is bad.

A scalded cat fears cold water.Once bit always shy. What was may be again.

As cat or cap case.

"Bouser I am not, but mild sober Tuesday,As catte in cap case, if I like not St. Hewsday."

The Christmas Prince, 1607.

As gray as Grannum's cat.—Hazlitt.So old as to be likely to be doubly gray.

As melancholy as a cat.—Walker.The voice of the cat is melancholy.

As melancholy as a gib-cat(Scotch). As an old, worn-out cat.—Johnston.

"I am as melancholy as a gib-cat or a lugged bear."[B]

Shakespeare.

Gib-cat; an old, lonely, melancholy cat.

Before the cat can lick her ear."Nay, you were not quite out of hearing ere the cat could lick her ear."—Oviddius Exultans, 1673, p. 50. That is never.

Dun, besides being the name of one who arrested for debt in Henry VII.'s time, was also the name of the hangman before "Jack Ketch."—Grose.

"And presently a halter got,Made of the best strong teer,And ere a cat could lick her ear,Had tied it up with so much art."

1664,Cotton'sVirgile, Book 4.

By biting and scratching dogs and cats come together.—Heywood.Quarrelling oft makes friends.

Care clammed a cat.—Sir G. C. Lewis's"Herefordshire Glossary." Clammed means starvation; that is, care killed the cat; for want of food the entrails get "clammed."

Care killed the cat, but ye canna live without it.To all some trouble, though not all take heed. None know another's burden.

Care will kill a cat.

"Then hang care and sorrow,'Tis able to kill a cat."—D'Urfey.

Alluding to its tenacity of life and the carking wear of care.

Cats after kind good mouse hunt.—Heywood.Letter by F. A. touching the quarrel between Arthur Hall and Melch Mallorie, in 1575-6, repr. of ed. 1580, in "Miscy. Antiq. Anglic." 1816, p. 93. "For never yet was good cat out of kinde."—English Proverbs,Hazlitt.

Cats and Carlins sit in the sun.When work is done then warmth and rest.

Cats eat what hussies spare.Nothing is lost. Also refers to giving away, and saying "the cat took it."

Cats hide their claws.All is not fair that seems so. Trust not to appearances.

Cry you mercy, killed my cat.—Clarke, 1639. Better away, than stay and ask pardon.

Every day's no yule; cast the cat a castock.The stump of a cabbage, and the proverb means much the same thing as "Spare no expense, bring another bottle ofsmall beer."—Denham'sPopular Sayings, 1846.

He bydes as fast as a cat bound with a sacer.He does as he likes; nothing holds him.

He can hold the cat to the sun.Bold and foolish enough for anything.

He is like a dog or a cat.Not reliable.

He looks like a wild cat out of a bush.Fiercely afraid.

He's like a cat; fling him which way you will, he'll not hurt.Some are always superior to misfortune, or fortune favours many.

He's like a singed cat, better than he's likely.He's better than he looks or seems.

He stands in great need that borrows the cat's dish.—Clarke, 1639. The starving are not particular. The hungry cannot choose.

He lives at the sign of the cat's foot.He is hen-pecked, his wife scratches him.—Ray.

He wald gar a man trow that the moon is made of green cheis, or the cat took the heron.Never believe all that is laid to another.

Honest as the cat when the meat is out of reach.Some are honest, but others not by choice.

How can the cat help it when the maid is a fool?Often things lost, given, or stolen, are laid to the cat.

If thou 'scap'st, thou hast cat's luck, in Fletcher'sKnight of Malta, alluding to the activity and caution of the cat, which generally stands it in good stead.

I'll not buy a cat in a poke.F.,Chat en Poche. See what you buy; bargain not on another's word.

Just as quick as a cat up a walnut-tree.—D'Urfey. To climb well and easily. To be alert and sudden.

Let the cat wink, and let the mouse run.For want of watching and care much is lost.—Hazlitt's"Dodsley," i. 265. The first portion is in the interlude of "The World and the Child," 1522.

Like a cat he'll fall on his legs.To succeed, never to fail, always right.

Like a cat round hot milk.Wait and have; all things come to those who wait.

Little and little the cat eateth the stickle.—Heywood. Constant dropping weareth a stone.

Long and slender like a cat's elbow.—Hazlitt. A sneer at the ill-favoured.

Love me, love my cat.—This refers to one marrying; in taking a wife he must take her belongings. Or, where you like, you must avoid contention.

Never was cat or dog drowned that could see the shore.To know the way often brings a right ending.

None but cats and dogs are allowed to quarrel here.All else agree.

No playing with a straw before an old cat.—Heywood, 1562. Every trifling toy age cannot laugh at.—"Youth and Folly, Age and Wisdom."

Rats walk at their ease if cats do not them meese.—Wodroephe, 1623. Rogues abound where laws are weak.

Send not a cat for lard.—George Herbert. Put not any to temptation.

So as cat is after kind.Near friends are dearest. Birds of a feather flock together.

Take the chestnuts out of the fire with the cat's paw.Making use of others to save oneself.

That comes of a cat will catch mice.What is bred in the bone comes out in the flesh. Like father, like son.

The cat and dog may kiss, but are none the better friends.Policy is one thing, friendship another.

The cat invites the mouse to her feast.It is difficult for the weak to refuse the strong.

The cat is in the cream-pot.Any one's fault but hers. A row in the house (Northern).

The cat is hungry when a crust contents her.Hunger is a good sauce.

The cat is out of kind that sweet milk will not lap.One is wrong who forsakes custom.—"History of Jacob and Esau," 1568.

The cat, the rat, and Lovel the dog, rule England under one hog.—"A Myrrour for Magistrates," edition 1563, fol. 143. This couplet is a satire on Richard III. (who carried a boar on his escutcheon) and his myrmidons,Catesby,Ratcliffe, and Lovell.

The cat would eat fish, and would not wet her feet.—Heywood, 1562.

"Fain would the cat fish eat,But she is loth to wet her feet.""What cat's averse to fish?"—Gray.

Dr. Trench has pointed out the allusion to this saying inMacbeth, when Lady Macbeth speaks of her husband as a man,

"Letting I dare not, wait upon I would,Like the poor cat i' the adage."

The cat sees not the mouse ever.—Heywood.Those that should hide, see more than they who seek. The fearful eye sees far.

The liquorish cat gets many a rap.The wrong-doer escapes not.

The more you rub a cat on the back, the higher she sets her tail.Praise the vain and they are more than pleased. Flattery and vanity are near akin.

The mouse lords it where the cat is not.—MS., 15th century. The little rule, where there are no great.

The old cat laps as much as the young.—Clarke.One evil is much like another.

They agree like two cats in gutter.—Heywood.To be less than friends.

They argue like cats and dogs.That is to quarrel.

Thou'lt strip it, as Stack stripped the cat when he pulled her out of the churn.To take away everything.

Though the cat winks awhile, yet sure he is not blind.To know all and pretend ignorance.

To grin like a Cheshire cat.Said to be like a cheese cat, often made in Cheshire; but this is not very clear, and the meaning doubtful.

To go like a cat on a hot bake-stone.To lose no time. To be swift and stay not.

To keep a cat from the tongs.To stop at home in idleness. It is said of a youth who stays at home with his family, when others go to the wars abroad, in "A Health to the Gentlemanly Profession of Serving Men," 1598.

Too late repents the rat when caught by the cat.Shun danger, nor dare too long.

To love it as a cat loves mustard.Not at all. To abhor.

Two cats and a mouse, two wives in one house, two dogs and one bone, never agree.No peace when all want to be masters, or to possess one object.

Well might the cat wink when both her eyes were out.

"Sumwhat it was sayeth the proverbe old,That the cat winked when here iye was out."

Jack Juggler, edit. 1848, p. 46.

Those bribed are worse than blind.

"Well wots the cat whose beard she licketh."—Skelton'sGarlande of Laurel, 1523.

"Wel wot nure cat whas berd he lickat."—Wright'sEssays, vol. i. p. 149.

"The cat knoweth whose lips she licketh."—Heywood, 1562.

The first appears the most correct.

What the good wife spares the cat eats.Favourites are well cared for.

When candles are out all cats are gray.In the dark all are alike. This is said of beauty in general.

When the cat is away the mice will play.—"The Bachelor's Banquet," 1603. Heywood's "Woman Killed with Kindness," 1607. When danger is past, it is time to rejoice.

When the weasel and the cat make a marriage, it is very ill presage.When enemies counsel together, take heed; when rogues agree, let the honest folk beware.

When the maid leaves the door open, the cat's in fault.It is always well to have another to bear the blame. The way to do ill deeds oft makes ill deeds done.

Who shall hang the bell about the cat's neck?—Heywood, 1562.

"Who shall ty the bell about the cat's necke low?Not I (quoth the mouse), for a thing that I know."

The mice at a consultation held how to secure themselves from the cat, resolved upon hanging a bell about her neck, to give warning when she was near; but when this was resolved, they were as far to seek; for who would do it?—R. Who will court danger to benefit others?

A Douglas in the olden time, at a meeting of conspirators, said he would "bell the cat." Afterwards the enemy was taken by him, he retaining the cognomen of "Archibald Bell-the-cat."

You can have no more of a cat than its skin.You can have no more of a man but what he can do or what he has, or no more from a jug than what it contains.

Shakespeare mentions the cat forty-four times, and in this, like nearly all else of which he wrote, displayed both wonderful and accurate knowledge, not only of the form, nature, habits, and food of the animal, but also the inner life, the disposition, what it was, of what capable, and what it resembled. How truly he saw either from study, observation, or intuitively knew, not only the outward contour of "men and things," but could see within the casket which held the life and being, noting clearly thoughts, feelings, aspirations, intents, and purposes, not of the one only, but that also of the brute creation.

How truthfully he alludes to the peculiar eyes of the cat, the fine mark that the pupil dwindles to when the sun rides high in the heavens! Hear Grumio inThe Taming of the Shrew:

And so disfigure her with it, that she shall have no more eyes to see withal than a cat.

As to the food of the cat, he well informs us that at this distant period domestic cats were fed and cared for to a certain extent, for besides much else, he points to the fact of its love of milk inThe Tempest, Antonio's reply to Sebastian in Act II., Scene 1:

For all the rest,They'll take suggestion as a cat laps milk.

And inKing Henry the Fourth, Act IV., Scene 2, of its pilfering ways, Falstaff cries out:

I am as vigilant as a cat to steal cream.

While Lady Macbeth points to the uncertain, timid, cautious habits of the cat, amounting almost to cowardice:

Letting I dare not wait upon I would,Like the poor cat i' the adage.

and in the same play the strange superstitious fear attachedto the voice and presence of the cat at certain times and seasons:

Thrice the brinded cat hath mewed.

The line almost carries a kind of awe with it, a sort of feeling of "what next will happen?" He noted, also, as he did most things, its marvellous powers of observation, for inCoriolanus, Act IV., Scene 2, occurs the following:

Cats, that can judge as fitly.

and of the forlorn loneliness of the age-stricken male cat inKing Henry the Fourth, Falstaff, murmuring, says:

I am as melancholy as a gib cat.

He marks, too, the difference of action in the lion and cat, in a state of nature:

A crouching lion and a ramping cat.

Of the night-time food-seeking cat, inThe Merchant of Venice, old Shylock talks of the

...Slow in profit, and he sleeps by dayMore than the wild cat.

In the same play Shylock discourses of those that have a natural horror of certain animals, which holds good till this day:

Some men there are love not a gaping pig,Some, that are mad if they behold a cat.

and further on:

As there is no firm reason to be renderedWhy he cannot abide a gaping pig,Why he, a harmless necessary cat.

Note the distinction he makes between the wild and the domestic cat; the one, evidently, he knew the value and use of, and the other, its peculiar stealthy ways and of nature dread. InAll's Well that Ends Well, he gives vent to his dislike; Bertram rages forth:

I could endure anything before but a cat,And now he's cat to me.

The feud with the wild cat intensifies inMidsummer Night's Dream; 'tis Lysander speaks:

Hang off, thou cat, thou burr, thou vile thing.

And Gremio tells of the untamableness of the wild cat, which he deems apparently impossible:

But will you woo this wild cat?

Romeo, inRomeo and Juliet, looks with much disfavour, not only on cats but also dogs; in fact, the dog was held in as high disdain as the cat:

And every cat and dog,And every little mouse, and every unworthy thing.

Here is Hamlet's opinion:

The cat will mew, the dog will have his day.

InCymbelinethere is:

In killing creatures vile, as cats and dogs.

The foregoing is enough to show the great poet's opinion of the cat.

A very remarkable peculiarity of the domestic cat, and possibly one that has had much to do with the ill favour with which it has been regarded, especially in the Middle Ages, is the extraordinary property which its fur possesses of yielding electric sparks when hand-rubbed or by other friction, the black in a larger degree than any other colour, even the rapid motion of a fast retreating cat through rough, tangled underwood having been known to produce a luminous effect. In frosty weather it is the more noticeable, the coldness of the weather apparently giving intensity and brilliancy, which to the ignorant would certainly be attributed to the interference of the spiritual or superhuman. To sensitive natures and nervous temperaments the very contact with the fur of the black cat will often produce a startling thrill or absolutely an electric shock. That carefully observant naturalist, Gilbert White, speaking of the frost of 1785, notes: "During those two Siberian days my parlour cat was so electric, that had a person stroked her, and beenproperly insulated, the shock might have been given to a whole circle of people."

Possibly from this lively fiery sparkling tendency, combined with its noiseless motion and stealthy habits, our ancestors were led in the happily bygone superstitious days to regard the unconscious animal as a "familiar" of Satan or some other evil spirit, which generally appeared in the form of a black cat; hence witches were said to have a black cat as their "familiar," or could at will change themselves into the form of a black cat with eyes of fire. Shakespeare says, "the cat with eyne of burning coal," and in Middleton'sWitch, Act III., Hecate says:

I will but 'noint, and then I'll mount.(A Spirit like a cat descends. Voice above.)There's one come down to fetch his dues.(Later on the Voice calls.) Hark! hark! the cat sings a brave treble inher own language.(ThenHecate.) Now I go, now I fly,Malkin, my sweet spirit, and I, etc.

Note.—Almost the same words are sung in the music toMacbeth.

"One of the frauds of witchcraft," says Timbs, "is the witch pretending to transform herself into a certain animal, the favourite and most usual transformation being acat; hence cats were tormented by the ignorant vulgar."

"Rutterkinwas a famous cat, a cat who was 'cater'-cousin to the great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-grandmother of Grimalkin, and first cat in the caterie of an old woman who was tried for bewitching a daughter of the Countess of Rutland in the beginning of the sixteenth century. The monodis connects him with cats of great renown in the annals of witchcraft, a science whereto they have been allied as poor old women, one of whom, it appears, on the authority of an old pamphlet entitled 'Newes from Scotland,' etc., printed in the year 1591, 'confessed that she took a cat and christened it, etc., and that in the night following, the said cat was conveyed into the middest of the sea by all these witches sayling in their Riddles, or Cives, and so left the said cat right before the towne of Leith in Scotland.This done, there did arise such a tempest at sea as a greater hath not been seen, etc. Againe it is confessed that the said christened cat was the cause of the kinges majestie's shippe, at his coming forthe of Denmarke, had a contrarie winde to the rest of the shippes then being in his companie, which thing was most straunge and true, as the kinges majestie acknowledgeth, for when the rest of the shippes had a fair and good winde, then was the winde contrairie, and altogether against his majestie,' etc."[C]

"In some parts black cats are said to bring good luck, and in Scarborough (Henderson's 'Folk-lore of the Northern Counties'). A few years ago, sailors' wives were in the habit of keeping one, thinking thereby to ensure the safety of their husbands at sea. This, consequently, gave black cats such a value that no one else could keep them, as they were nearly always stolen. There are various proverbs which attach equal importance to this lucky animal, as, for example:

Whenever the cat o' the house is black,The lasses o' lovers will have no lack.

"And again:

Kiss the black cat,An' 'twill make ye fat;Kiss the white ane,'Twill make ye lean.

"In Scotland there is a children's rhyme upon the purring of the cat:

Dirdum drum,Three threads and a thrum;Thrum gray, thrum gray!

"In Devonshire and Wiltshire it is believed that a May cat—or, in other words, a cat born in the month of May—will never catch any rats or mice, but, contrary to the wont of cats, will bring into the house snakes, and slow-worms, and other disagreeable reptiles. In Huntingdonshire it is a common saying that 'a May kitten makes a dirty cat.' Ifa cat should leap over a corpse, it is said to portend misfortune. Gough, in his 'Sepulchral Monuments,' says that in Orkney, during the time the corpse remains in the house, all the cats are locked up, and the looking-glasses covered over. In Devonshire a superstition prevails that a cat will not remain in a house with an unburied corpse; and stories are often told how, on the death of one of the inmates of a house, the cat has suddenly made its disappearance, and not returned again until after the funeral. The sneezing of the cat, says Brand ('Popular Antiquities,' 1849, vol. iii., p. 187), appears to have been considered as a lucky omen to a bride who was to be married on the succeeding day.

"'In Cornwall,' says Hunt, 'those little gatherings which come on children's eyelids, locally called "whilks," and also "warts," are cured by passing the tail of a black cat nine times over the place. If a ram cat, the cure is more certain. In Ireland it is considered highly unlucky.'"[D]

Sailors are very superstitious as regards cats. If a black cat comes on board, it is a presage of disaster; if the ship's cat is more lively than ordinary, it is a sign of wind; but if the cat is accidentally drowned, then there is consternation, which does not wear off until the vessel is safe in harbour.

Lady Wilde, in her "Irish Legends," gives a cat story quite of the fairy type, and well in keeping with many of witchcraft and sorcery. "One dark, cold night, as an old woman was spinning, there came three taps at her door, and not until after the last did she open it, when a pleading voice said: 'Let me in, let me in,' and a handsome black cat, with a white breast, and two white kittens, entered. The old woman spun on, and the cats purred loudly, till the mother puss warned her that it was very late, that they wanted some milk, and that the fairies wanted her room that night to dance and sup in. The milk was given, the cats thanked her, and said they would not forget her kindness; but, ere they vanished up the chimney, they left her a great silver coin, and the fairies had their ball untroubled by the old woman's presence, for the pussy's warning was a gentle hint."

If a kitten comes to a house in the morning, it is lucky; if in the evening, it portends evil of some kind, unless it stays to prevent it.

A cat's hair is said to be indigestible, and if one is swallowed death will ensue (Northern).

Milton, in his "Astrologaster," p. 48, tells us: "That when the cat washes her face over her eares we shall have great store of raine."

Lord Westmoreland, in a poem "To a cat bore me company in confinement," says:

——Scratch but thine ear,Then boldly tell what weather's drawing near.

The cat sneezing appears to be a lucky omen to a bride.

It was a vulgar notion that cats, when hungry, would eat coals; and even to this day, in some parts there is a doubt about it. In "The Tamer Tamed, or, Woman's Pride," Izamo says to Moroso, "I'd learn to eat coals with a hungry cat"; and in "Boduca," the first daughter says, "They are cowards; eat coals like compelled cats."

"The crying of cats, ospreys, ravens, or other birds upon the tops of houses in the night time are observed by the vulgar to presignify death to the sick."—Brand.

There is also a superstition that cats will suck the breath of infants. Nothing could be more ridiculous. The formation of the cat's mouth is not well adapted for such action, the under jaw being shorter than the upper, which is one reason why itlapsfluids instead of drinking. Cats will creep into cradles, but for no other purpose than that of sleep, the bed and clothes being warm and soft, and of course comfortable; yet instead of doing harm, they help to keep the child's temperature more even in cold weather. Of course, if they lie on the infant, it is a different matter.

"Signs of Foul Weather," by Dr. Erasmus Darwin. In a poem, the well-known relative of the eminent Charles Darwin describes the various natural indications of coming storms. Among the animals and birds he notes the cat:

Low o'er the grass the swallow wings;The cricket, too, how sharp he sings;Puss on the hearth, with velvet paws,Sits wiping o'er his whiskered jaws.

"In England," says Mr. T. F. Thiselton Dyer, "the superstitious still hold the cat in high esteem, and oftentimes, when observing the weather, attribute much importance to its various movements. Thus, according to some, when they sneeze it is a sign of rain; and Herrick, in his 'Hesperides,' tells us how:

True calendars as pusses eare,Wash't o're to tell what change is neare.

"It is a common notion that when a cat scratches the legs of a table, it is a prognostic of change of weather. John Swan, in his 'Speculum Mundi' (Cambridge, 1643), writing of the cat, says: 'She useth therefore to wash her face with her feet, which she licketh and moisteneth with her tongue; and it is observed by some that if she put her feet beyond the crown of her head in this kind of washing, it is a signe of rain.' Indeed, in the eyes of the superstitious, there is scarcely a movement of the cat which is not supposed to have some significance.

"Cats are exceedingly fond of valerian (V. officinalis), and in Topsell's 'Four-footed Beasts' (1658, p. 81), we find the following curious remarks: 'The root of the herb valerian (calledPhu), is very like to the eye of a cat, and wheresoever it groweth, if cats come thereunto, theyinstantly dig it up for the love thereof, as I myself have seen in mine own garden, for it smelleth moreover like a cat.' There is also an English rhyme on the plantmarumto the following effect:

If you see it,The cats will eat it;If you sow it,The cats will know it.

"In Suffolk, cats' eyes are supposed to dilate and contract with the flow and ebb of the tide. In Lancashire the common people have an idea that those who play much with cats never have good health."[E]

If tincture of valerian is sprinkled on a plant or bush the neighbouring cats roll and rub themselves on or against it, often biting and scratching the plant to pieces.—H. W.

In Lancashire it is regarded as unlucky to allow a cat to die in a house. Hence,[F]when they are ill they are usually drowned.

At Christ Church, Spitalfields, there is a benefaction for the widows of weavers under certain restrictions, called "cat and dog money." There is a tradition in the parish that money was given in the first instance to cats and dogs.[G]

If a cat tears at the cushions, carpet, and other articles of furniture with its claws, it is considered a sign of wind. Hence the saying, "the cat is raising the wind."

Mr. Park's note in his copy of Bourn and Brand's "Popular Antiquities," p. 92, says: "Cats sitting with their tails to the fire, or washing with their paws behind their ears, are said to foretell a change of weather."

In Pules' play of "The Novice" is the line:

Ere Gil, our cat, can lick her ear.

This is from Brand, and I do not think it refers to the weather, but to an impossibility.

The following curious incident is to be found in Huc's "Chinese Empire":

"One day, when we went to pay a visit to some families of ChineseChristian peasants, we met, near a farm, a young lad, who wastaking a buffalo to graze along our path. We asked him carelesslyas we passed whether it was yet noon. The child raised his headto look at the sun, but it was hidden behind thick clouds, and hecould read no answer there. 'The sky is so cloudy,' said he; 'butwait a moment;' and with these words he ran towards the farm, andcame back a few minutes afterwards with a cat in his arms. 'Lookhere,' said he, 'it is not noon yet;' and he showed us the cat'seyes by pushing up the lids with his hands. We looked at thechild with surprise; but he was evidently in earnest, and thecat, though astonished, and not much pleased at the experimentmade on her eyes, behaved with most exemplary complaisance. 'Verywell,' said we, 'thank you;' and he then let go the cat, who madeher escape pretty quickly, and we continued our route. To say thetruth, we had not at all understood the proceeding, but did notwish to question the little pagan, lest he should find out thatwe were Europeans by our ignorance. As soon as we reached thefarm, however, we made haste to ask our Christians whether theycould tell the clock by looking into the cat's eyes. They seemedsurprised at the question, but as there was no danger inconfessing to them our ignorance of the properties of the cat'seyes, we related what had just taken place. That was all that wasnecessary; our complaisant neophytes immediately gave chase toall the cats in the neighbourhood. They brought us three or four,and explained in what manner they might be made use of forwatches. They pointed out that the pupils of their eyes went onconstantly growing narrower until twelve o'clock, when theybecame like a fine line, as thin as a hair, drawn perpendicularlyacross the eye, and that after twelve the dilatationrecommenced."

"Archbishop Whately once declared that there was only one noun in English which had a real vocative case. It was 'cat,' vocative 'puss.' I wonder if this derivation is true (I take it from a New York journal): When the Egyptians of old worshipped the cat they settled it that she was like the moon, because she was more bright at night, and because her eyes changed just as the moon changes—from new, to crescent, and to full. So they made an idol of the cat's head, and named itpasht, which meant the face of the moon.Pashtbecame pas, pus, puss."—Church Times, March 8th, 1888.

Is from the "Eleventh Night" of Straparola's Italian fairy tales, where Constantine's cat procures his master a fine castle and the king's heiress, first translated into French in 1585. Our version is taken from that of Charles Perrault. There is a similar one in the Scandinavian nursery tales. This clever cat secures a fortune and a royal partner for his master, who passes off as the Marquis of Carabas, but is in reality a young miller, without a penny in the world.

The above is from Dr. Brewer's "Dictionary of Phrase and Fable," and goes far to prove the antiquity of what is generally believed to be a modern story, many believing it to be one of the numberless pleasant, amusing, and in a sense instructive nursery or children's stories of the present time.

D'Urfey, in his poem on Knole, speaks of "The Cats" at Sevenoaks.

"The Cat" or "Cats" is by no means a common sign. The subject is well alluded to in "The Cat, Past and Present," from the French of M. Champfleury, translated by Mrs. Cashel Hoey, at page 33. A sign is pictured from the Lombards' quarter, Paris. It is there over a confectioner's shop, and is a cat seated, or rather two, a sign being placed on either side of the corner. Underneath one is "Au Chat," the other, "Noir." I may add the work is a most excellent and amusing collection of much appertaining to cats, and is well worthy of a place in the cat-lover's library.

In Larwood and Hotten's "History of Sign-boards," a work of much research and merit, occurs the following: "As I was going through a street of London where I had never been till then, I felt a general damp and faintness all over me which I could not tell how to account for, till I chanced to cast my eyes upwards, and found I was passing under a sign-post on which the picture of acatwas hung." This little incident of the cat-hater, told in No. 538 ofThe Spectator, is a proof of the presence of cats on the sign-board, where, indeed, they are still to be met with, but very rarely. There is a sign of "The Cat" at Egremont, in Cumberland, a "Black Cat" at St. Leonard's Gate, Lancaster, and a "Red Cat" at Birkenhead; and a "Red Cat" in the Hague, Holland, to which is attached an amusing story worthy of perusal.

"The Cat and Parrot" and "The Cat and Lion" apparently have no direct meaning, unless by the former may be inferred that if you lap like a cat of the liquids sold at the hostelry, you will talk like a parrot; yet, according to Larwood and Hotten, it was a bookseller's sign.

"The Cat and Cage" and "The Cat in Basket" were signs much in vogue during the frost fair on the Thames in1739-40, a live cat being hung outside some of the booths, which afterwards was not infrequent at other festive meetings. What the exact origin was is not quite apparent.

"'Cat and Fiddle,' a public-house sign, is a corruption either of the FrenchCatherine la fidèle, wife of Czar Peter the Great of Russia, or ofCaton le fidèle, meaning Caton, governor of Calais."—Dr. Brewer'sDictionary of Phrase and Fable.

Cat and Fiddle.—"While on the subject of sign-boards," says a writer in Cassell's "Old and New London," vol. i., p. 507, "we may state that Piccadilly was the place in which 'The Cat and Fiddle' first appeared as a public-house sign. The story is that a Frenchwoman, a small shopkeeper at the eastern end soon after it was built, had a very faithful and favourite cat, and that in the lack of any other sign she put over her door the words, 'Voici un Chat fidèle.' From some cause or other the 'Chat fidèle' soon became a popular sign in France, and was speedily Anglicised into 'The Cat and Fiddle,' because the words form part of one of our most popular nursery rhymes. We do not pledge ourselves as to the accuracy of this definition."

"In Farringdon (Devon) is the sign of 'La Chatte Fidèle,' in commemoration of a faithful cat. Without scanning the phrase too nicely, it may simply indicate that the game ofcat(trap-ball) and afiddlefor dancing are provided for customers."

Yet, according to Larwood and Hotten's "History of Sign-boards," there is yet another version, and another, of the matter, for it is stated, "a little hidden meaning is there in the 'Cat and Fiddle,' still a great favourite in Hampshire, the only connection between the animal and the instrument being that the strings are made from cats' entrails (sic), and that a small fiddle is called akit, and a small cat akitten; besides, they have been united from time immemorial in the nursery rhyme:

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