Although she went about on her hind legs, as we do, she did not
despise her four-footed acquaintances, and was always intimate with
the tabby, to whom she had been introduced on arrival. It was a pretty
sight to watch them dip their little heads together into the saucer of
milk. They always started fair, but pussy lapped the better. The milk
diminished so fast that Charlie could see that her share would be the
smaller one at that rate. Then tenderly but irresistibly she put her
strong right arm round pussy's neck and pulled her back, out of reach
of the saucer. Charlie went on lapping herself, looking round often at
the cat, winking vigorously with both eyes, and uttering various
friendly vowel sounds. Here, perhaps, it had better be noted, for the
information of philologists, that hers was exclusively a vowel
language. I never heard her sound a consonant. It would therefore have
been difficult to represent it phonetically. The modulations of tones
were too delicate for an Aryan ear; but a Chinaman might have been
more successful, and my Burmans caught them well. Her meaning could
best have been recorded by ideograms, like the oldest of the Chinese
or Egyptian hieroglyphs. But there was no use for such a thing. She
did not need it, and would not have learned it.
It was probably the accompanying gestures that made pussy understand
her. To be pulled back from the saucer, and tightly held out of reach
of it, is what may be called an unmistakable hint. Puss acquiesced.
When Charlie thought their shares had been equalled she relaxed the
embrace, and puss began again; but though she resumed drinking in a
polite, deferential way, as if saying, "By your leave, ma'am," puss
never abated her speed of lapping, and so had soon to be withdrawn
once more. Occasionally this took place as often as three or four
times in the emptying of one saucer; and seldom did it fail to happen
once. In fact I noticed that at length they used to _begin_ operations
with Charlie's arm upon pussy's neck, ready for action. Day after day
this went on. Puss never struggled. When the milk was thus equally
finished they parted friends. The great rule of equity law, that
"Equality is equity," was never better practised; and so profoundly is
it in accordance with the nature of things that even a cat can
understand it, when constrained.