"In the cloisters of San Lorenzo there are many cats, and every evening
people may be seen who go there to feed them, among whom are many old men
and women. But these cats were long ago themselves human, that is to
say, they were once all wizards and witches, who bear their present form
for punishment of an evil deed.
"There was once a very wealthy and powerful family in Florence, at the
head of which was a gentleman and lady who had an only daughter, in whom
was all their love and hope. Among their servants in a higher position
was an old woman, who was very vindictive and easily offended, so that
she could brood over deadly revenge for years for the least affront, and
she fancied she had a great many, because when she had neglected her duty
at times she had been scolded by her mistress or master.
"Now this old woman knew that death or disaster to the daughter would
drive the parents mad; and so having recourse to witchcraft, she put into
the drink of the young lady a decoction, the result of which was that she
began to waste away, growing weaker and paler, without feeling any pain.
"Then her parents, in great fear, consulted the best physicians, who did
no good, for indeed it was a case beyond their skill. And at last,
beginning to believe that there was something unearthly in it all, they
sent for an old woman who cured by occult art. {171} And when she came
she looked steadily at the girl, then frowned and shook her head, and
asked for a ribbon or cord, no matter what, so that it were one which the
young lady had worn about her waist. With this she measured accurately
the height of the patient from head to foot, and then the width from hand
to hand, it being desirous that the arms be of equal length; but there
was the disproportion of the thickness of a piece of money. Then the
witch said:
"'This is none of my affair as regards the cure. Your daughter is
bewitched, and I can indeed make the witch appear, but to beat her and
compel her to remove the spell depends on you alone.'
"Now they, suspecting the old servant, sent for her, but she had
disappeared and could not be found. Then the doctress took a caldron,
and put into it hot water and the undergarments of the girl and certain
herbs, and boiled them all together, singing an incantation, and, taking
a knife, sharpened it on the table, whetting it on the chemise of the
young lady.
"Then the old servant woman appeared at the door, against her will,
forced by the power of the spell, in an agony of rage and bitterness; but
she was at once seized and beaten, whereupon she consented to unbewitch
the girl, who speedily recovered.
"Now Florence was at that time fearfully afflicted with evil witches, who
defied all authority, and spread disease and death far and wide; but this
affair of the bewitched lady being made known, both priests and laymen
rose up in wrath, and the sorceress fled for sanctuary to the cloisters
of San Lorenzo.
"Then to save their lives the _Strege_ made a compromise with the
priests, and it was agreed that they should no longer live as witches, or
do any harm, but all live and die as cats in the cloister, where they
should be regularly fed, and exist in peace. Which agreement has been
duly carried out to this day, and among these cats are many who were once
witches in human form hundreds of years ago."
* * * * *
This narrative is not so much a story as an account of the manner in
which bewitchment is undone by another witch. The reader will find the
incantations in the chapter entitled "The Spell of the Boiling Clothes,"
in my work on "Etruscan-Roman Remains." One of the most serious riots
which has occurred in Milan for many years took place March 3, 1891, when
the populace tortured terribly and tried to kill a witch, who had, it was
believed, been detected by this spell.
* * * * *
"_Haec fabula docet_," adds the wise Flaxius, "this story suggests a
reason why a certain kind of ladies of ecclesiastical proclivities are
always called tabbies. And that there is something in it I can well
believe, knowing one who, when she calls her rector or bishop '_De-ar
man_!' does so in a manner which marvellously suggests the purring of a
cat. And the manner in which the tabby pounces on the small birds, mice,
and gold-fish of others--_i.e._, their peccadilloes, and small pets or
pleasures, which in good faith do her no harm--seems like literally
copying the feline--upon line. . . .
"Oh! ye who visit the cloister, and see the cats, think well on this
legend, and especially on the deep identity of witches with tabbies!
"And for a moral, note that, with all their sins, what the witches and
cats aimed at above all things was _food_, with which they have remained
content, according to the exquisite lyric by the divine Shelley, p. 661,
Dowden's edition:--
"'This poor little cat
Only wanted a rat,
To stuff out its own little maw,
And it were as good
Some people had such food
To make them _hold their jaw_.'"