[Illustration:
BLACK PERSIAN.
(_Painted specially by Madame Henriette Ronner._)
]
THE
BOOK OF THE CAT
BY ...
FRANCES SIMPSON
_WITH 12 COLOURED PLATES, AND NEARLY
350 ILLUSTRATIONS IN THE TEXT FROM
PHOTOGRAPHS AND DRAWINGS_
CASSELL AND COMPANY, LIMITED
LONDON, PARIS, NEW YORK AND
MELBOURNE. MCMIII
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
CONTENTS.
CHAPTER PAGE
I.— CATS OF THE PAST 1
II.— CATS OF TO-DAY 18
III.— CARE AND MANAGEMENT 37
IV.— HOUSING OF CATS 49
V.— EXHIBITING 61
VI.— THE POINTS OF A CAT 96
VII.— LONG-HAIRED OR PERSIAN CATS 98
VIII.— SOME NOTABLE CATTERIES 101
IX.— BLACK PERSIANS 112
X.— WHITE PERSIANS 118
XI.— BLUE PERSIANS 125
XII.— SILVER OR CHINCHILLA PERSIANS 137
XIII.— SILVER TABBY PERSIANS 165
XIV.— SMOKE PERSIANS 178
XV.— ORANGE PERSIANS 187
XVI.— CREAM OR FAWN PERSIANS 201
XVII.— TORTOISESHELL PERSIANS 208
XVIII.— TORTOISESHELL-AND-WHITE PERSIANS 212
XIX.— BROWN TABBY PERSIANS 215
XX.— “ANY OTHER COLOUR” PERSIANS 231
XXI.— NEUTER CATS 237
XXII.— MANX CATS 244
XXIII.— SIAMESE CATS 254
XXIV.— SHORT-HAIRED CATS 274
XXV.— SHORT-HAIRED CATS (_continued_) 282
XXVI.— SOME FOREIGN CATS 297
XXVII.— CATS IN AMERICA 303
XXVIII.— MAINE CATS 325
XXIX.— CAT PHOTOGRAPHY FOR AMATEURS 332
XXX.— REARING OF KITTENS 337
XXXI.— COLOUR BREEDING 344
XXXII.— THE PLACE OF THE CAT IN NATURE 350
THE DISEASES OF CATS, AND THEIR TREATMENT 358
INDEX 377
LIST OF COLOURED PLATES.
BLACK PERSIAN _Frontispiece_
BLACK-AND-WHITE PERSIAN CATS _To face page_ 116
BLUE AND CREAM PERSIANS 126
BROWN TABBY AND SILVER PERSIANS 160
SMOKE AND ORANGE PERSIANS 186
TORTOISESHELL AND TORTOISESHELL-AND-WHITE PERSIANS 210
SILVER TABBY AND ORANGE-AND-WHITE PERSIANS 234
BROWN TABBY AND ORANGE TABBY SHORT-HAIRED CATS 252
TORTOISESHELL TOM, AND SILVER TABBY SHORT-HAIRED CATS 274
BLUE-AND-WHITE SHORT-HAIRED CATS 288
MANX AND SIAMESE 294
FOREIGN CATS 300
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS.
PAGE
“White to Move” 1
Mummy of a Cat 1
The God Cat 2
An Egyptian Wall-Painting: The Adoration of the Goddess Pasht 2
The Worship of Pasht in the Temple of Bubastes 3
Mummified Kitten 3
A Cat God of Egypt 3
Puss as a Retriever: An Egyptian Wall-Painting 4
An Egyptian Toy Cat 5
A Mineral Lusus 6
Puss in Warfare 7
A Group of Cats in Pottery 9
Tomb of a Cat which belonged to Madame de Lesdiguières 10
The Printer’s Mark of Melchior Sessa of Venice 12
A Cat in Heraldry 12
A Merchant’s Mark 12
Alice and the Cheshire Cat 13
A Study 14
Madame Ronner at Work 15
“Crystal,” the property of Mrs. Finnie Young 16
Lady Alexander’s “Brother Bump” 17
Sleeping Beauties 18
Miss F. Simpson’s “Bonnie Boy” 18
Kitten at Work and Play 19
Kitten belonging to Mrs. Owen 20
The Antiquaries 21
“Kepwick Violet” and “Kepwick Hyacinth” 22
Miss Savery’s Blue Persian Kitten 23
A Pair of Short-haired Brown Tabbies 23
Cat Calendar 24
Cat Calendar 24
Cat Calendar 25
Mr. Harrison Weir 26
Mr. Louis Wain 27
Lady Marcus Beresford 28
Litter of Siamese Kittens 29
“Puck III.” 30
Mrs. Clinton Locke and her Siamese Kittens “Calif” and “Bangkok” 31
The Cat’s Playground 32
Royal London Institution for Lost and Starving Cats 33
The Cart of the R. L. I. 34
The Hon. Philip Wodehouse’s “Silver Saint” 35
A Bevy of Blues belonging to Miss Savery 35
Cats’ Tombstones at the Dogs’ Cemetery, Hyde Park 36
Tabbies up a Tree 37
Blue Persian belonging to Her Majesty the Queen 37
Three Little Maids 39
A Perilous Perch 40
Mrs. Hardy’s Neuter “Pharaoh” 41
“The Raiders” Caught 43
Kittens belonging to Miss Bromley 45
Neuter Pets owned by Mrs. Hastings Lees 46
Carolling 48
In a Playful Sort of Way 49
A Musical Party 50
The Ideal Cattery 53
A Litter Box 55
A Useful Cat House 55
A Portable Hutch 56
Lethal Chamber, R.L.I. 57
Spratt’s Travelling Basket 58
A Useful Cat Basket 58
A Gang of Poachers 59
Waking Beauties 61
Richmond Cat Show: Arrangement of Tents 65
Mrs. Gregory’s “Skellingthorpe Patrick” 67
“Inquiry” 67
Richmond Cat Show: Judges at Work 69
Type of Cage at the Richmond Cat Show 71
Mr. C. A. House 72
Mr. T. B. Mason 72
The Toilet 73
Blue Persian Kittens 74
Kits with a Taste for Flowers 75
Two Kittens bred by Miss Williams 75
Richmond Cat Show: The Ring Class 77
Minding Shop 78
Thieves 79
Mrs. Drury’s Brown Tabby “Periwig” 80
Miss Simpson’s “Cambyses” 80
A Litter of Blues 81
Judging in the Ring at the Crystal Palace 83
Miss Kirkpatrick’s Blue Kittens 84
“Rose of Persia” 85
Mischief 88
Our Play-room 89
Mr. F. W. Western 91
Officials of the N.C.C.C. 92
Sandy Stealing the Milk 94
Silver Cats belonging to Mrs. Clark of Ashbrittle 95
The Points of a Cat 96
Tailpiece 97
Blue Persians belonging to Mrs. Wells 98
“Gentian,” owned by Lady Marcus Beresford 99
Mrs. Herring’s “Champion Jimmy” 100
The Hon. Mrs. McLaren Morrison’s Cattery 101
Scenes at “Bishopsgate” 103
A Sleeping Box at Lady Decies’ Cattery 104
Lady Decies Visiting her Pets 104
Mrs. Mackenzie Stewart’s Cattery 105
The Imitation Tree, Mrs. Clarke’s Cattery 106
Mrs. Clarke’s Cattery 107
The Hon. Mrs. McLaren Morrison 108
Mrs. Collingwood and “James II.” 109
A Morning Meal at Bossington 111
Black Persian “Johnny Fawe” 112
“Champion Menelik III.” 113
Kitten Bred by Miss Kirkpatrick 115
Mrs. Little’s Black Persian “Colleen” 115
The Carol Singers 116
“Jungfrau” 118
Mrs. McLaren’s White Persian “Ladysmith” 119
Mrs. Pettit with her White Persians 121
“Crystal” 122
“White Butterfly” 123
“Musafer” 124
“Jack” and “Jill” 125
The Artist 128
Blue Kittens bred by Miss Kirkpatrick 129
Mrs. Robinson’s Blue Kittens 129
Mrs. Wells’s Cattery 130
“Rokeles Kissi” 131
Scared 132
Cast of the Cat Club Medal 133
Miss G. Jay’s Cattery 134
Rev. P. L. Cosway’s “Imperial Blue” 135
“_Un Saut Périlleux_” 136
“Jack Frost” 137
“Star Duvals” 138
“The Absent-Minded Beggar” 138
“Omar” 139
Three Pretty Silvers 140
“Shah of Persia” 141
“Fulmer Zaida” 142
“Troubadour” 143
A Perfect Chinchilla (two views) 145
Mrs. Balding’s “Silver Lambkin” 146
Mrs. Balding’s “Fluffie Tod” 147
“Sea Foam” 148
Mrs. Wellbye’s “Silver Lotus” 149
Mrs. Wellbye’s “Silver Dossie” 150
Mrs. Wellbye’s Silver “Veronica” 151
Two Views of Woodheys Cattery 153
“Silver Blossom” 154
“Silver Blossom’s” Two Buds 155
“Wild Tom” 156
“Fur and Feather” 158
“The Silver Lambkins” 159
“Jupiter Duvals” 161
“The Elder Miss Blossom” 162
“Dolly Daydream” 163
“I want to go home!” 164
“The Marquis of Dingley” 165
Miss Leake’s Summer Cattery 166
Silver Tabby Kittens owned by Princess Victoria of Schleswig-Holstein 167
“Beautiful Duchess” 168
Winter Quarters at Dingley Hill 169
In the Studio 171
Miss Cope’s “Starlet” 172
A Pair of Silver Tabbies 173
“Thames Valley Silver King” 174
“Roiall Fluffball” 177
Mrs. Stead’s Smoke Litter by “Ranji” 178
“Jo” and “Tiny” 178
Miss Bartlett’s Two Smoke Kittens 179
Mrs. James’s Cat Houses at Backwell 181
Mrs. Stead’s Smoke Persian “Champion Ranji” 182
“Champion Backwell Jogram” 183
Mrs. Sinkins’ Smoke Persian “Teufel” 185
“Lucy Claire” 186
Mrs. Singleton’s “Orange Girl” 187
“Puck” 188
“Swagger” 188
“Benjamin of the Durhams” 189
“Torrington Sunnysides” 190
“Lifeguard” 191
One of Mrs. Neate’s Outdoor Catteries at Wernham 192
“Curiosity” 193
Mrs. Neate’s Cat Houses (two views) 194
“Musing” 197
“Out in the Cold” 199
“Higher Education” 200
Mrs. Clinton Locke’s Cream Kitten 201
A Creamy Smile 201
Mrs. Norris’s Cream Kitten 202
“Kew Ronald” and “Kew Laddie” 203
Miss Beal and her Kittens 204
Mrs. D’Arcy Hildyard’s Cream Kittens 204
“Miriam of the Durhams” 205
“Champion Romaldkirk Admiral” 206
Mrs. F. Western’s “Matthew of the Durhams” 207
“Topsy of Merevale” 208
Miss H. Cochran’s Tortoiseshell “Brunette” 209
Miss Sargent’s “Topsy” 210
Miss Kate Sangster’s “Royal Yum Yum” 211
“Peggy Primrose” 212
Miss Yeoman’s “Mary II.” 213
“At Home” 214
Miss Simpson’s “Persimmon” 215
Miss Mellor’s “Lady Sholto” 216
“Champion Crystal” (American) 217
A Room in Brayfort Cattery 218
Miss Whitney and her Neuter Brown Tabby 219
“Brayfort Princess” and “Brayfort Fina” 220
“Lonsdale Chrysalis” and “Lonsdale Moth” 221
Mrs. D’Arcy Hildyard’s “Sulpherland” 222
“Pioneer Bobs” 223
“Lorna Doone” 225
“Birkdale Ruffie” 226
“Birkdale Ruffie’s” Cattery 227
Brown Tabby “Goozie” 229
A Trio of Tabbies 230
A Picturesque Group 231
A Grotesquely-marked Kitten 232
“Lockhaven Colburn” 233
“The Conquest of the Air” 234
“Grace before Meat” 235
“Marcus Superbus,” a Silver Smoke 235
“Blue Robin” 236
Miss Kirkpatrick’s “Chili” 237
“King Cy” 237
Miss Chamberlayne’s “Belvedere Tiger” 238
“Benoni” 239
Miss Adamson’s Chinchilla Neuter 240
“Nigel the Raven” 241
Madame Portier’s Neuter “Blue Boy” 242
Rascals 243
Type of Manx Kitten 244
“Golfsticks” 245
Specimen of a Manx Tabby 246
Orange Manx 248
Mrs. H. C. Brooke’s Manx “Katzenjammer” 249
“Ballochmyle Bell Spitz” 250
Manx Cat 251
Mr. Ward’s Manx “Silverwing” 253
A Litter by “Tachin” 254
The Garden Cattery at Bishopsgate 255
Mrs. Roberts Locke, with “Calif,” “Siam,” and “Bangkok” 256
“Si” 257
“Tiam-o-Shian” 257
“It” 258
Mr. Ratcliffe’s Siamese 259
Lady Marcus Beresford’s “Ursula” 260
Miss Armitage’s “Cora” 262
Pair of Siamese belonging to Mrs. Armitage 263
Mrs. Robinson’s “Ah Choo” 265
“Champion Wankee” 265
“Mafeking” 266
The late “King Kesho” 267
Lady Marcus Beresford’s “Cambodia” 268
Pugs Paying a Visit to the Siamese, Mrs. Hawkins’ Cattery 269
“Romeo” and “Juliette” 271
A Cosy Corner 273
“Ashbrittle Peter” 274
“Ballochmyle Blue Queen” 275
Mrs. Carew Cox’s Blue male “Bayard” 276
“Sherdley Michael” 277
“Sherdley Alexis” 277
“Sherdley Sacha I.” and “II.” 277
Maria 278
Mrs. Carew Cox’s “Yula” 279
Lady Alexander of Ballochmyle 280
“Champion Ballochmyle Brother Bump” 281
Short-haired Tabby Kittens 282
Another View of Lady Decies’ Cattery 283
Lady Decies’ “Champion Xenophon” 284
An American Begging Cat 285
“Ebony of Wigan” 286
Sleeping and Waking Tabbies 287
A Black-and-White Britisher 288
“Champion Ballochmyle Otter” 289
“Champion Ballochmyle Perfection” 290
Mrs. Barker’s “Tyneside Lily” 291
Two Views of Briarlea Catteries 292
A Corner of the Bossington Catteries 293
Tortoiseshell Male “Samson” 294
Mrs. A. M. Stead’s Brown Tabby 295
Mrs. Collingwood’s “James II.” 295
“Ben My Chree” 296
Burmese Cat 297
Mexican Hairless Cats 299
African Cat 300
Manx and Abyssinian 301
Geoffroy’s Wild Cat 302
“The Storm King” 303
“Rado” 303
The Old Fort Cattery 305
Mrs. Colburn and her White Persian “Paris” 306
Brushwood Cattery 307
Miss Johnston’s “Persimmon Squirrel” 308
A Reception Room in a Chicago Cattery 309
Mrs. E. N. Barker 311
“Silver Hair” and “Tiptoe” 312
Miss Ward’s “Robin” 313
Three Little Grandchildren of “Persimmon” 314
An American Beauty 317
“Champion Miss Detroit” 318
“The Commissioner” 319
“Ajax” 321
Orchard Ridge Cattery 322
Mrs. Charles A. White 323
“The Blessed Damozel” 324
“Tobey,” a Maine Trick Cat 325
“Henessey” 326
“Blue Danube” 327
“Leo,” owned by Mrs. Martin 329
“Yellow H. 14th Beauty” 330
Mrs. Bagster’s “Demidoff” 331
A Snapshot 332
Amateur Photographers 334
Playing at Work 335
In the Studio 336
Tabitha’s Afternoon Tea 337
A Happy Mother 338
Mrs. Bonny’s “Dame Fortune” 339
“Derebie” 339
A Litter of Eight belonging to Miss Savery 341
“Star of the Spheres” and “Son of Roy” 342
The Foster-Mother 343
The Foster-Mother in Action 343
“Arrived Safely” 344
“Patricia” 345
Miss Goddard’s Pair of Kittens 346
“Lollypop” 347
Three Little Americans 348
“Holmlea Thistledown” 349
Brain of Cat 350
Skull of the Great Sabre-toothed Cat 351
Superficial Flexor Tendons of a Cat’s Left Foot 352
Bones and Principal Ligaments of a Cat’s Toe 352
Pads of Cat’s Left Fore-foot 352
Skull of a Cat 353
Skeleton of a Cat 354
Skeleton of a Cat 355
A Cat’s Eye 356
Tongue of a Cat 357
Giving Medicine 358
INTRODUCTION
Fanciers have long felt the want of a work dealing in a popular manner
with cats, and it was therefore with great pleasure that I undertook to
write THE BOOK OF THE CAT, and to give the results of a long experience
in as simple and interesting a form as possible, so that the book might
be instructive to cat fanciers, and also readable to that portion of the
community which loves cats for themselves and not only for their prizes
and pedigrees. It is possible that the beautiful reproductions in this
work may result in the conversion of some cat haters, who, seeing the
error of their ways, may give poor puss a corner in their hearts. Dogs
are more essentially the friends of men, and cats may be considered as
the chosen allies of womankind.
In the past, as I have endeavoured to show, many noted celebrities of
the sterner sex have shown a sympathetic feeling for the feline race. At
the present time the number of men fanciers on our cat club lists and
exhibitors at our shows tends to prove that the cat is gradually
creeping into the affections of mankind, even in this busy work-a-day
world. I have given a full description of the various breeds, and have
suggested advice as to the feeding, housing, and general treatment of
cats. The chapters on the management of shows, containing also simple
rules for the guidance of exhibitors, will, I trust, prove useful and
instructive.
In my work I have received most valuable assistance, for which I am
deeply grateful, from Mr. H. Gray, the well-known veterinary surgeon,
whose chapter on the diseases of cats will, I am sure, be very
interesting to breeders and fanciers. To Mr. H. C. Brooke I must tender
my sincere thanks for his chapter on foreign cats, and to Mr. E. N.
Barker for his excellent survey of the American cat fancy, and to Mrs.
Pierce for her notes on Maine cats. Mr. Robert Holding’s chapter on the
anatomy of the cat, with its excellent diagrams, forms a valuable
addition to the work. To Mrs. S. F. Clarke I am greatly indebted for the
number of clever photographs with which she has so kindly supplied me.
To many of my “catty” friends I offer grateful thanks for interesting
items, paragraphs, and pretty photographs; and last, but not least, I
have to thank that veteran, Harrison Weir, for his kindly encouragement,
and I feel I cannot do better than quote from his letter, received on
the completion of my work—enclosing a few remarks for my preface:—
“Miss Frances Simpson has kindly dedicated her labour of love, the
fascinating BOOK OF THE CAT, to me, and truly the honour is great. Words
cannot convey my feelings, but out of its fulness the heart
speaketh—Thanks! I carry my mind back to the long, long ago, when the
cat was a god or ideal, and worshipped. Then later, ‘our gentle Will’
called it ‘the harmless, necessary cat,’ and that it has ever been, and
more than that to many. It is a lonely home without a cat; and for
awhile—and I hope for long—cats are the fashion. Thirty years ago it was
apparent to me that cats were not valued at their true worth, and then I
suggested a show of cats! Let anyone try to start anything new, though
novelty is said to charm! Many were the gibes, jokes, and jeers that
were thrown at me then. But nothing succeeds like success. Now, if I may
without offence say a few words as to present-day shows, it is that they
have not answered my expectations. Why? Because particular breeds are
catered for and run after. Why such breathless talk all about
long-haired cats, be they blues or silvers? This is not cat breeding. I
want, I wish, and, if I live, I hope to see far more of the ‘harmless,
necessary cat’ at our shows; for a high-class short-haired cat is one of
the most perfect animals ever created.
“Far more I might, and perhaps am expected to add; but my life’s work is
well-nigh done. He who fights honourably the good fight sinks at last.
Miss Frances Simpson has rendered me her debtor; and others, beside
myself, will tender her grateful thanks for her work in the cause of the
cat and for the welfare of the fancy. Adieu!”
Mr. Harrison Weir’s words are precious to me, and now that my “labour of
love” is ended I can only re-echo his wish and express a hope that the
many pages I have devoted to the “harmless, necessary cat,” whose
fireside friendship I have enjoyed all the years of my life, may awaken
and arouse a greater interest in and admiration for these gentle,
complex creatures, who in return for a little understanding will give a
great deal of love.
FRANCES SIMPSON.
KENSINGTON,
_August, 1903_.
[Illustration:
“WHITE TO MOVE.”
_Photo: Mrs. S. F. Clarke_
]
THE BOOK OF THE CAT.
CHAPTER I.
CATS OF THE PAST.
[Illustration:
MUMMY OF A CAT.
(_At the British Museum._)
]
The origin of the cat has puzzled the learned, and the stock from whence
it sprang is still, in the opinion of some, a mystery for the zoologist
to solve.
Historians tell us that the feline race came into existence about the
same time as the horse. Reference is made to the cat in Sanskrit
writings over 2,000 years old, and still earlier records are found in
the monumental figures, inscriptions, and cat mummies of ancient Egypt.
These carefully-preserved relics of the past assist us in answering the
question as to how this least tameable of animals became domesticated.
There are many legends concerning Puss and the manner in which she first
sprang into existence. A surprising account of the cat’s creation is
found in the works of an Arabian naturalist. It is as follows: “When
Noah made a couple of each kind of animal enter the Ark, his companions,
as well as the members of his family, said to him, ‘What security can
there be for us and for the animals so long as the lion shall dwell with
us in the same vessel?’ The patriarch betook himself to prayer and
entreated the Lord God. Immediately fever came down from Heaven and
seized upon the king of beasts, so that tranquility of mind was restored
to the inhabitants of the Ark. But there was in the vessel an enemy no
less harmful—this was the mouse. The companions of Noah called his
attention to the fact that it would be impossible for them to preserve
their provisions and their clothes intact. After the patriarch had
addressed renewed supplications to the Most High, the lion sneezed, and
a cat ran out of his nostrils. From that time forth the mouse became so
timid that it contracted the habit of hiding itself in holes.”
[Illustration:
THE GOD CAT.
(_From an old Wood-cut._)
]
So runs the legend, and in an old Italian picture representing the
departure from the Ark we may observe a big brindled cat leading the
procession of animals with an air of dignity and self-satisfaction.
According to the Arabic scholar Damirei, there was no cat in the Garden
of Eden. It is a singular fact that nowhere in the canonical books of
the Old Testament nor in the New Testament is the cat mentioned, and if
we take into consideration the number of books connected with the life,
manners, customs, and religions of the Egyptians, this omission is the
more striking. The only Biblical reference to cats occurs in the Book of
Baruch, chap, vi., v. 22. This is a letter by Jeremy to the Children of
Israel, who were taken captive by Nebuchadnezzar to Babylon. Some Hebrew
scholars have asserted that the animals that prowled and cried among the
ruins of Babylon were jackals, and not cats.
But however much the origin of the feline tribe is wrapped in mystery,
we are certain that more than 3,000 years ago the cat lived and was
loved along the banks of the Nile. The ancient city of the Pharaohs paid
her homage; she was admitted into the ranks of sacred animals, she was
worshipped in the temples. Jewels were placed in her ears and necklaces
about her neck. Figures of cats were kept in the home and buried in the
tomb. Trinkets representing both the goddess and the cat were worn upon
the person, to indicate special devotion on the part of the wearer.
There seems but little doubt that the ancient and well-beloved cat of
the Egyptians was a barred or marked animal, answering to some extent to
our homely tabby. Paintings and statuettes of this type frequently
occur, and therefore we may it take for granted that the Egyptians, who
were so realistic and true to Nature when dealing with the animal world,
would have presented cats of other species had they existed.
According to the historian, animal worship was first introduced into
Egypt by Chores, the second king of the Second Dynasty.
[Illustration:
AN EGYPTIAN WALL-PAINTING: THE ADORATION OF THE GODDESS PASHT.
(_British Museum._)
]
The Egyptians made gods of many living creatures of all kinds, amongst
others the bull, the crocodile, the ibis, the hawk, the beetle, and the
asp; but the cat appears to have held the highest place in their hearts.
Not only was it preserved from injury, beloved and venerated during
life, but at its death it was buried with all respect, and everyone
mourned for it with outward and visible signs of grief, even to the
extent of shaving off their eyebrows. The Egyptian’s idea of a correct
burial involved mummification, so that all the parts might be preserved
and thus kept from annihilation against the day of resurrection. A rich
man’s cat was very elaborately mummified. Different-coloured stuffs were
twisted round and round the body, forming curious patterns in two
colours. The head would be carefully encased and sometimes gilded; the
ears were always standing upright. These curious mummies look something
like bottles of rare wine done up in plaited straw. Sometimes the mummy
would be enclosed in a bronze box with a statue of a cat seated on the
top. Mummies of cats with painted faces have been found in wooden
coffins at Bubastes, Speos, Artemidos, Thebes, and elsewhere. Here is an
illustration of a kitten brought to me from the Boulak Museum. The
picture gives but little idea of the care and neatness which must have
been employed in wrapping up the dear little dead bodies. The linen used
is of the finest. The ears of the tiny kitten are each separate and
distinct, and the muzzle of the creature shows distinctly through the
delicate wrappings. Scarcely a good museum in the country now that has
not some specimens of cat mummies. In some of these we notice that eyes
have been added after the mummy has been encased and the embalmment
completed. Most of the cats that died in the far-away time were thus
embalmed and sent for burial to the holy city of Bubastes, near Thebes,
on the banks of the Nile.
[Illustration:
MUMMIFIED KITTEN.
(_In the possession of Miss Simpson._)
]
The Temple of Bubastes, according to Herodotus, was the fairest in all
Egypt, and here special reverence was paid the cat. The local goddess of
this city was Pasht, who was represented as a woman with a cat’s head.
Cats were kept in the temples sacred to them, and doubtless the head cat
of the Pasht’s temple was a very splendid specimen, who, living the life
of great luxury, would be buried with the pomp and magnificence of a
royal personage.
[Illustration:
THE WORSHIP OF PASHT IN THE TEMPLE OF BUBASTES.
(_British Museum._)
]
[Illustration:
A CAT GOD OF EGYPT.
(_From the British Museum._)
]
It was at Bubastes, on the banks of the Nile, that an annual festival in
honour of the goddess Pasht was held. We are not told whether the cats
took any part in the proceedings. From the towns and villages within
hail, pleasure parties were sent in boats up and down the river to the
city, and on their passage the men and women who crowded these boats
made merry all the long summer day. The women clashed their cymbals and
danced, and the men played on their flutes. Seventy thousand people, it
is said, assembled at this feast, and they sacrificed victims and drank
a good deal of wine. Perhaps the cats were treated to an extra dish of
some dainty to mark this red-letter day in the annals of their patroness
and goddess.
A curious custom, which probably had its origin in these pilgrimages to
the sacred shrine, had until recent years survived amongst the Egyptian
Moslems, who when they were starting on their way to Mecca always set
apart one camel for the conveyance of several cats, and some ancient
dame was told off to take charge of the precious animals. She was
honoured with the title of “Mother of Cats.” Her office was not an
enviable one, and probably it was found that a woman was unable to
wrestle satisfactorily with the refractory travellers, for at a later
date a man was substituted to carry the pussies to the Holy City.
[Illustration:
PUSS AS A RETRIEVER: AN EGYPTIAN WALL-PAINTING.
(_At the British Museum._)
]
Thebes appears to have been a favourite burying-place for cats, and also
a place called Beni Hasan, one hundred miles from Cairo. A few years ago
some excavations were made near this town, and thousands of little
mummied bodies were found that had rested peacefully for centuries.
Their graves were desecrated, their burying ground plundered, and tons
and tons of mummied forms were carted away to the neighbouring fields to
serve the useful, if not romantic, purpose of manure! According to
Horopollo, the cat was worshipped in the temple of Heliopolis, because
the size of the pupil of the animal’s eye is regulated by the rising and
waning of the sun. Plutarch, however, states in his treatise on “Isis
and Osiris” that the image of a female cat was placed at the top of the
sistrum as an emblem of the moon. “This,” says the historian, “was on
account of the variety of her fur, and because she is astir at night;
and furthermore, because she bears firstly one kitten at a birth, and at
the second two, at the third three, and then four, and then five, until
the seventh time, so that she bears in all twenty-eight, as many as the
moon has days. Now this, perchance, is fabulous, but ’tis most true that
her eyes do enlarge and grow full at the full moon, and that on the
contrary they contract and diminish at the decline of the same.”
Among other fables of classic naturalists and historians may be
mentioned the following by Herodotus: “If a fire occurs, cats are
subject to supernatural impulses; and while the Egyptians ranged in
lines with gaps between them, are much more solicitous to save their
cats than to extinguish the fire, these animals slip through the empty
spaces, spring over the men’s shoulders, and fling themselves into the
flames. When such accidents happen, profound grief falls upon the
Egyptians.”
Whether these frenzied cats did or did not commit suicide is open to
doubt, but that they would plunge fearlessly into water is an
acknowledged fact. This is attested by paintings representing sporting
scenes in the valley of the Nile. Men and women used to go out on
fowling excursions in a boat to the jungles and thickets of the marsh
land, or to lakes in their own grounds, which abounded with wild fowl,
and there among the tall reeds knock down the bird with a stick. Into
these happy hunting grounds they took a cat who would jump into the
water and retrieve the game as it fell. There is a painting taken and
brought from a tomb in Thebes, which is now in the British Museum, and
Wilkinson, in his “Manners and Customs of Ancient Egyptians,” writes as
follows: “A favourite cat sometimes accompanied the Egyptian sportsmen
on these occasions, and the artist intends to show us, by the exactness
with which he represents the animal seizing the game, that cats were
trained to hunt and carry the water-fowl.”
[Illustration:
AN EGYPTIAN TOY CAT.
(_At the British Museum._)
]
One of the earliest representations of the cat is to be found in the
Necropolis of Thebes, which contains the tomb of Hana, who probably
belonged to the Eleventh Dynasty. There is a statue of the king standing
erect, with his cat Bouhaki between his feet. The large basalt statues,
of which there are so many in the British Museum, both seated and
standing, are examples of great interest. They have mostly the disc of
lunar divinity above their heads and the royal asp above the forehead.
M. Champfleury, in his delightful book, “Les Chats,” gives a good deal
of information regarding the cats of ancient Egypt, and mentions the
existence of funerary statues of women which bear the inscription
Techau, the cat, in token of the patronage of the goddess Bast.
Frenchmen occasionally call their wives _ma chatte_ without attaching
any hieratic association to that term of endearment.
According to ancient documents in the Louvre, we are enabled to surmise
the name by which the cat was known in Egypt. It was Mau-Maï, Maau, or
Maon. A tablet in the Berlin Museum, bearing the representation of a
cat, dates from 1600 B.C., and another, two hundred years older, has an
inscription in which the word “Mau” appears.
Amongst old Egyptian images in bronze and earthenware, we may often find
the cat crouching with the symbolic eye, emblem of the sun, engraved
upon its collar. In the British Museum there is a curious example of a
toy in the shape of a wooden cat with inlaid glass eyes and a movable
lower jaw well lined with teeth.
There is a tradition that Cambyses devised a scheme for the capture of
the town of Peluse, which, if true, is one example among many of the
devotion of the Egyptians to cats. It was in the fourteenth year of his
reign that this king of Persia tried to effect an entry into Egypt, and
he is said to have hit upon a clever strategy. Knowing that the garrison
of the town was entirely comprised of Egyptians, he put at the head of
his army soldiers each carrying in their arms a cat. The Egyptians,
alarmed lest they might injure the sacred animals when destroying their
enemies, consented rather to be vanquished. But for their scruples they
might perhaps have repulsed the invaders, for the Persian soldiers could
not well have done their share of the fighting while clasping in their
arms restless and terrified cats!
It is strange that the cat was almost neglected by the Greeks and
Romans. It is true that Grecian art working on such grand sweeping lines
might fail to follow the insignificant yet graceful curves of the cat.
Therefore no Greek monument is adorned with a figure of the idol of
Egypt, and Homer never gives a passing mention of the cat. Among the
Greeks the cat was sacred to the goddess Diana. Mythologists pretend
that Diana created the cat in order to throw ridicule upon the lion, an
animal supposed to have been called into existence by Apollo with the
intention of frightening his sister. This he followed up by producing a
mouse, which Hecate’s cat immediately ate up. A cat was often emblazoned
on the shields and flags of Roman soldiers. That the cat was known at an
early period in Italy we have proof in the curious mosaic in the Museum
at Naples, which depicts one pouncing upon a bird. The date of this has
been fixed at about one hundred years prior to the Christian era. In the
Bordeaux Museum there is a tomb of the Gallo-Roman period with a
representation of a girl holding a cat in her arms and with a cock at
her feet. In those days the playthings and domestic animals belonging to
children were buried with them.
From some of the oldest Indian fables we learn that the cat was
domesticated in that country at a very early period. Her first
appearance into China would seem to have been about 400 A.D. There is a
curious ancient Chinese saying to the effect that “A lame cat is better
than a swift horse when rats infest a palace.”
Amongst the curious freaks in the natural world are mineral _lusus_.
These are stones, agates, or marbles, which, by the action of the soil,
air, or water during thousands of years, have assumed various forms,
which we may interpret to represent human heads, trees, animals, and so
forth. This illustration of a mineral _lusus_ is taken on a reduced
scale from a book by Aldrovandus, an Italian naturalist of the
seventeenth century. The figure of the cat occurs, he says, in a slab of
marble. It was also reproduced by Athanasius Kircher, the Jesuit, who
copied many of Aldrovandus’s engravings.
[Illustration:
A MINERAL LUSUS.
(_From an old Engraving._)
]
I think the most casual observer would pronounce this illustration to be
the representation of a cat; and if, as we are led to believe, this and
other figures are really the result of natural causes, we can only
marvel at the wonderful correctness of outline and form in which through
countless ages the substances comprising the specimen have arranged
themselves.
We have no record that the cat became domesticated in Great Britain and
France before the ninth century, when it would seem that she was by no
means common, and considered of great value; for in the time of one of
the old Princes of Wales, who died in 948, the price of a kitten before
it could see was fixed at a penny, after it had captured a mouse,
twopence; and if it gave further proofs of its usefulness it was rated
at fourpence. This same prince, Howel the Good, issued an order that
anyone who stole or killed a cat that guarded the prince’s granary was
to forfeit a milch ewe, its fleece, and lamb, or as much wheat as when
poured on the cat suspended by its tail (the head touching the floor)
would form a heap high enough to cover the top of the tail.
This is not only curious, as being an evidence of the simplicity of
ancient customs, but it goes far to prove that cats were not aborigines
of these islands. The large price set on them—if we consider the high
value of specie at that time—and the great care taken of the improvement
and breed of an animal that multiplies so quickly, are almost certain
proofs of their being little known at that period. No doubt wild cats
abounded in our islands, and this creature is described by Pennant as
being three or four times as large as the house cat. The teeth and claws
are, to use his expression, “tremendous,” and the animal is altogether
more robust. The tail of the wild cat is thick and as large at the
extremity as it is in the centre and at the base; that of the house cat
tapers to the tip. This ferocious creature, well named the British
tiger, was formerly common enough in the wooded and mountainous
districts of England, Scotland, and Wales, but owing to the attention
paid to the preservation of game it has gradually become almost if not
entirely exterminated. In olden times, when wild cats were hunted and
captured, the principal use they were put to was to trim with their fur
the garments of the ladies in the various nunneries scattered over the
land. A writer of the Middle Ages says: “The peasants wore cat skins,
badger skins, &c.” It would appear that lambs’ and cats’ skins were of
equal value at that period.
Harrison Weir, in his work on cats, tells us that in 1871 and 1872 a
wild cat was exhibited at the Crystal Palace by the Earl of Hopetoun; he
also mentions that as late as 1889 Mr. Edward Hamilton, M.D., writing to
the _Field_, gives information of a wild cat being shot at
Inverness-shire. He states: “A fine specimen of a wild cat was sent to
me on May 3rd, trapped on the Ben Nevis range. Its dimensions were: from
nose to base of tail, 1 foot; height at shoulders, 1 foot 2 inches.” In
July, 1900, a paragraph to the following effect appeared in the
_Stock-Keeper_:—
“The Zoological Society have just acquired a litter of wild cats. This
is the only instance where a whole litter has been sent to the
Gardens. It was taken not far from Spean Bridge, Inverness-shire.”
[Illustration:
PUSS IN WARFARE (_vide p. 8_).
(_From a 16th Century MS._)
]
The late Professor Rolleston, in an article on the “Domestic Cats of
Ancient and Modern Times” (_Journal of Anatomy and Physiology_), has
well explained much of the confusion about cats in former writers and
their so-called interpreters. He shows how loosely now, as long ago, the
word “cat” and its classic equivalents may be employed. Just as we still
speak of civet cats and martens. Up to the beginning of this century the
wild cat was wrongly thought to be the original of the tame species. Yet
apart from more exact evidence this is shown to be an error if we note
the value set upon domestic cats in former centuries. The Rev. Dr.
Fleming, in his “History of British Animals” (1828), points out some of
the distinctions between the two species. He also alludes to the spotted
variety, termed the Cypress Cat, as noticed by Menet, who wrote the
earliest book on British Natural History in 1667.
“It is a curious fact,” says Mr. J. E. Herting, an eminent naturalist,
“that in Ireland, notwithstanding reports to the contrary, all
endeavours to find a genuine wild cat have failed, the so-called ‘wild
cat’ of the natives proving to be the ‘marten cat,’ a very different
animal.”
In the early Middle Ages, according to tradition, cats were utilised in
a strange manner. The illustration on p. 7 depicts a German fortress
which it was desired by the enemy to set on fire. Not being able, one
may suppose, to effect this by treachery, the foes pressed into their
service both biped and quadruped. On the back of the pigeon and cat
alike, a flask of inflammable matter is attached, and furnished with a
time fuse to ignite at the proper moment. There is a broad road for the
cat to travel, and we must presume that the gate of the fortress was
left open for her entrance. The pigeon would be supposed to cut the cord
of the flask with her beak when just over the magazine and let it drop
at an auspicious moment. This cut is reduced from a coloured drawing in
an unpublished manuscript volume dated 1575, in which is a great variety
of illustrations of fireworks for war and recreation.
It is strange that the cat, which was an object of worship and adoration
to the Egyptians, should, during the long, dark years of mediæval
history, be looked upon as a diabolical creature. The only pleasant
legend handed down to us from the Middle Ages is that of “Dick
Whittington and his Cat.” There are records to show that this worthy
citizen was thrice Lord Mayor of London, and we have always been led to
believe that it was to his cat he owed his wealth and prosperity. At all
events, so long as London is London, Whittington will ever be associated
with his cat.
Innumerable are the legends that gather round the cat during the Middle
Ages. It was believed that the devil borrowed the coat of a black cat
when he wished to torment his victims. Sorcerers pretended to cure
epilepsy by the help of three drops of blood taken from the vein under a
cat’s tail. At numerous trials for witchcraft, puss figured as the
wicked associate of the accused. Cats were offered by sorcerers as
oblations to Satan, and they were flung into the fire at the Festival of
St. John. All praise to Louis XIII., who as the Dauphin interceded for
the lives of these poor pussies thus annually sacrificed. It was thought
to bring good luck to a house if a cat were cooked alive in a brick
oven, and in Scotland she was roasted before a slow fire as a means of
divining the future.
The mania of witchcraft had pervaded all ranks, even the holy
profession, whose duty it should be to preach peace and goodwill.
Hundreds of wretched old women were sent out of life “in a red gown”
(the slang of that day for being burnt “quick” or alive), after
undergoing the most excruciating tortures to make them confess the
impossibilities for which they suffered.
In 1591, when King James of Scotland was crossing from Denmark, a great
tempest arose at sea. This was supposed to have been caused by a
“christened cat” being placed in the vessel by witches. The following is
an extract from an old pamphlet: “Againe it is confessed that the said
christened cat was the cause that the Kings Majestie’s shippe had a
contrarie wind to the rest of the shippes in his companie, for when the
rest of the shippes had a fair and good winde, then was the winde
contrarie and altogether against his Majestie.” Thus, in the past as in
the present day, blame was laid upon the poor harmless puss, where no
blame was due.
In an old book called “Twenty Lookes over all the Roundheads of the
World,” published in 1643, we read:—
[Illustration:
A GROUP OF CATS IN POTTERY.
(_From Figures in Cases at the British Museum._)
]
“In the Reigne of Queene Mary (at which time Popery was much exalted)
then were the Roundheads (namely, the monks and friars) so odious to
the people, that in derision of them a cat was taken on a Sabbath day,
with her head shorne as a Fryer’s and the likeness of a vestment cast
over her, with her feet tied together, and a round piece of paper like
a singing Celse between them; and thus was she hanged in a gallows in
Cheapside, neere to the Crosse, in the Parish of St. Matthew. Which
cat, being taken down, was sent to Doctor Pendleton (who was then
preaching at St. Paul’s Cross), commanding it to be shown to the
congregation. The Round-head Fryers cannot abide to heare of this
cat.”
At the coronation of Elizabeth there is an account given, in the Hatton
correspondence, of an effigy of the Pope being carried through the
streets and afterwards burnt with several live cats, which, we are told,
“squalled in a most hideous manner” as soon as they felt the fire.
After a famous French trial in the seventeenth century, a woman
condemned as a murderess was hung in an iron cage over a slow fire, and
fourteen poor unoffending cats were made to share the same fate. It is
difficult to conceive by what train of thought civilised beings could
arrive at such a pitch of wicked and horrible cruelty. Why should a
gentle, shrinking, graceful little creature be thus made the savage
sport of devils in human form?
There seems, however, to have been one haven of rest for poor persecuted
pussy during the Middle Ages, and that was in the nunneries. Here, at
least, she would be kindly treated, let us hope. It is said that this
fact has something to do with the cat’s traditional association with old
maids.
And now let us quit this dark page of history, where the shameful
treatment of an innocent race makes the lover of the poor pussies
sorrowful and indignant. It was in France that, after the period when
the cat was given over to the ways of the witch and the sorcerer, we
find her yet again taking her proper place in the home and the heart of
the highest in the land. Writers of natural history and others
frequently denounce the cat as an animal incapable of personal
attachment, yet puss has wooed and won the friendship and affection of
many notable men.
Cats, the most politic, the most polite, and in proportion to their size
the most powerful of beasts—realising almost literally Napoleon’s
favourite maxim, “Iron hand in velvet glove”—have the permanent fame of
being loved by that most eminent of Frenchmen, Cardinal Richelieu, who
delighted to watch the frolics of a number of kittens by which he was
generally surrounded in his leisure hours. In this _tendresse_ he
resembled a still more famous Churchman! A cat went to sleep once, we
are told, on the sleeve of Mahomet’s robe. The hour of prayer arrived,
and he chose rather to cut away his sleeve than to disturb the slumbers
of his beloved Muezza.
[Illustration:
TOMB OF A CAT WHICH BELONGED TO MADAME DE LESDIGUIÈRES.
]
Chateaubriand makes frequent mention of the cat in his “Memoires.” He
received a present of a cat from the Pope. Moncrieff wrote a series of
quaintly worded letters on cats, and the book has some curious
illustrations. In this we read of the pussies of many grand dames of the
French Court of that day. We give an illustration taken from this book,
which represents the tomb of a cat which belonged to Madame
Lesdiguières, and bears this inscription:—
UNE CHATTE JOLIE.
Sa maitresse qui n’aima rien
L’aima jusques à la folie.
Pourquoi le dire? On le voit bien.
Moncrieff had to suffer an immense amount of ridicule on account of his
charming “Lettres sur les Chats,” which the author himself calls “a
gravely frivolous book.” Victor Hugo had a favourite cat he called
“Chanoine,” and Gautier’s cat slept in his bed, and always kept him
company at meals. Petrarch loved his cat as he loved his Laura. Dr.
Johnson used to indulge his cat Hodge with oysters, which he would go
out himself to purchase. Chesterfield provided for his cat in his will.
Sir Walter Scott’s love of dogs did not prevent him delighting in the
company of a “conversable cat,” and Hunse, of Hunsefield, seems to have
possessed a large share of the great man’s affection, and when he died
his master wrote thus to Richardson: “Alack-a-day! my poor cat, Hime, my
acquaintance, and in some sort my friend of fifteen years, was snapped
at even by that paynim, Nimrod. What could I say to him, but what
Brantôme said to some _ferrailleur_ who had been too successful in a
duel: ‘Ah, mon grand ami, vous avez tué mon autre grand ami.’” Amongst
famous French novelists several have been cat lovers, especially Dumas,
who in his “Mémoires” makes notable mention of “Le Docteur.” Cowper,
Shelley, Wordsworth, Swinburne, and Matthew Arnold all wrote lovingly of
cats. But Shakespeare, although he makes forty-four distinct mentions of
cats, never has a good word for poor pussy. In “All’s Well that Ends
Well” he gives vent to his dislike. Bertram rages forth:—
“I could endure anything before me but a cat, and now he’s cat to me.”
In “Cymbeline” occurs this passage:—“In killing creatures vile as cats
and dogs”; and in “Midsummer Night’s Dream” Lysander is made to
exclaim:—“Hang off, thou cat, thou burr, thou vile thing.”
Romeo cries out:—
“Every cat and dog
And little mouse, every unworthy thing.”
From these quotations alone we may infer that, at any rate, dogs and
cats were not favourites with the great bard. There is only one mention
of cats in Dante. He compares to cats the demons who, with their hooks,
claw the “barterers” (_i.e._ abusers of their office as magistrates),
when these sinners try to emerge from the hot pitch wherein they are
punished. He says of one of these wretches:—“Tra male gatte era venuto
il sorco.” (_Inf. XXII._, 58.) Translation:—“Among wicked cats the mouse
came.”
In the “Westlosthcher Divan” of Goethe, written in his old age, but full
of youthful spirit and of the freshest allusions to Eastern things, the
cat is called one of the four “favoured beasts,” _i.e._ animals in a
state of grace, admitted into Paradise, in a verse very near the end of
the poem, which being literally translated, reads thus:—
“This cat of Abuherriras” (a friend of the prophet Mahomet) “purrs about
the Lord, and coaxes. Since he is ever a holy beast whom the Prophet
stroked.”
Robert Liston, who, as everyone knows, was the leading London surgeon in
the middle of the nineteenth century, was passionately attached to his
cat, and used to introduce it to his guests at the dinner parties which,
according to the custom of a past generation, he gave his medical
friends. On these occasions the cat would gravely walk round the dinner
table during dessert to be admired by the guests in succession, and it
once happened that the top of its tail got into the wineglass of Dr.
Anthony Todd Thoruson, Liston’s famous colleague at University College
Hospital. This man promptly struck the animal. Liston was so enraged
that he started from his seat and denounced his guest in language more
forcible than elegant.
Jeremy Bentham, who introduced by their names to Lord Brougham the cats
seated on chairs round his table, deserves honour, not only as the
foremost of modern jurists but also because, in his “Principles of
Morals and Legislation,” he had expressed better than others the claims
of brutes to kind treatment.
The great scholar and eminent writer, St. George Mivart, has given the
world a wonderfully comprehensive work on the Cat, and has used the
maligned feline as his type for an introduction to the study of
back-boned animals. It is he who remarks:—“We cannot, without becoming
cats, perfectly understand the cat mind.”
[Illustration:
THE CAT IN HERALDRY.
(_From Frank’s Collection of Book Plates._)
]
Perhaps the unkindest picture given to us of a cat is from the pen of
the naturalist Buffon. “The cat” (says this unsympathetic student) “is
an unfaithful animal, kept only from necessity in order to suppress a
less domestic and more unpleasant one, and although these animals are
pretty creatures, especially when they are young, they have a
treacherous and perverse disposition, which increases with age, and is
only disguised by training. They are inveterate thieves; only when they
are well brought up they become as cunning and flattering as human
rascals.”
[Illustration:
THE PRINTER’S MARK OF MELCHIOR SESSA, OF VENICE.
(_From a Print at the British Museum._)
]
Chateaubriand, referring to these scathing remarks, says:—“Buffon has
belied this animal. I am labouring at her rehabilitation, and hope to
make her appear a tolerably good sort of beast.”
[Illustration:
A MERCHANT’S MARK.
(_From a Print at the British Museum._)
]
A charming reference to the ways of cats occurs in a curious and
interesting book by a once famous Jesuit, Father Bougeant, who lived in
the first half of the eighteenth century. There is an English
translation of this work, which has passed also into other languages and
several editions. This is the passage translated:—
“Such is one of those big-whiskered and well-furred tom cats, that you
see quiet in a corner, digesting at his leisure, sleeping if it seems
good to him, sometimes giving himself the pleasure of hunting, for the
rest enjoying life peaceably, without being troubled by the events
which agitate us, without tiring his mind by a thousand useless
reflections, and little caring to communicate his thoughts to others.
Truly it needs only that a female cat (_une chatte_) come on the scene
to derange all his philosophy; but are our philosophers wiser on such
occasions?”
The cat, as the emblem of independence and liberty, has been used in
heraldry, statuary, and signboards. In the sixteenth century a
well-known firm of printers named Sessa, at Venice, adopted the device
of a cat surrounded by curious ornamentation, and Dibdin in one of his
works tells us that whenever you see Sessa’s cat you may be sure the
book is a good one and worth reading. Ever since the days when the
Romans carried on their banners the design of a cat, this combative and
courageous animal has been a favourite symbol of warriors and nobles.
The wife of King Clovis, Clotilde, had a cat sable upon her armorial
bearings, springing at a rat, and on the famous Katzen family’s shield
was a cat holding a mouse in its mouth. In Scotland the Clan Chattan was
known by the emblem of a wild cat with the significant motto, “Touch not
the cat, but” (meaning without) “the glove.” Their chief was called Mohr
au chat, or the great wild cat.
M. Champfleury, dealing with cats in heraldry, tells us that the French
Republic resumed heraldic possession of the cat and added it to its
glorious shield of arms; and an illustration is given in his book of the
republican painter’s figure of Liberty holding a pike surmounted with a
Phrygian cap, and at her feet is seated a cat.
In past, rather than in present, days the cat was used on signboards,
especially in France. We read of “La Maison du chat pelote” (_i.e._
which rolls itself up), and “La Maison du chat qui pêche.” In the
Lombards’ quarter of Paris, “Le Chat Noir” was formerly a familiar
figure above restaurants and confectioners. In England we often come
across “The Cat and the Fiddle” as a signboard to old country village
inns, and in Cassell’s “Old and New London” a writer says:—“Piccadilly
was the place in which ‘The Cat and Fiddle’ first appeared as a
publichouse sign. The story is that a Frenchwoman, a small shopkeeper,
had a very faithful and favourite cat, and that in 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.”
[Illustration:
ALICE AND THE CHESHIRE CAT.
From “Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland,” by Lewis Carroll.
(_By permission of Messrs. Macmillan & Co., Limited._)
]
Many are the popular traditions, maxims, proverbs, and superstitions
connected with the cat. In olden days her every movement was looked upon
as a sign of ill-omen or of good luck. Old nurses would drive a cat out
of the bedroom with much significance of manner, that it might not “suck
the child’s breath.” There is a superstition that a cat will not remain
in a house with an unburied corpse.
M. Presse d’Aveunes gives an account of a curious cat superstition.
“When a woman gives birth to twins, boys or girls, the last born of the
two, whom they call ‘barecy’ (sometimes both), has at times, and it may
be all its life long, an irresistible craving for particular eatables;
and in order to satisfy more easily its gluttonous desires, it assumes
the shape of different animals, and especially that of the cat. During
the transmigration of the spirit into another shell, the human body is
as a corpse, but when the spirit has satisfied its desires it retakes
its proper form.”
He continues: “Having one day killed a cat which had made inroads upon
my larder, a druggist of the neighbourhood came to me in a great fright
and entreated me to spare all animals, for he said he had a daughter who
had the misfortune to be a ‘barecy,’ and that she was often in the habit
of assuming the shape of a cat in order to eat the sweetmeats served at
my table.”
[Illustration:
A STUDY.
(_From the painting by Madame Ronner._)
]
Milton tells us “that when the cat washes her face over her eares, we
shall have a great store of raine.” A cat sneezing is supposed to bring
luck to a bride on her wedding day. Sailors have in all times been prone
to superstition as regards cats. A black cat’s appearance on the ship
foretells disaster, but if a cat should disappear overboard the greatest
consternation is caused amongst the crew.
Very plentiful are the nursery rhymes, fairy tales, and stories
concerning cats—a good-sized book would not contain them. “The cat,”
says M. Champfleury, “is the nurse’s favourite and the baby’s earliest
friend. It plays its part in little rhythmical dramas, cunningly
presented to the drowsy child, who falls asleep with a familiar image
parading fantastically through his brain.” French nursery rhymes are
much prettier than English. For instance, this bald and commonplace
statement is not calculated to catch the attention of the juvenile
mind:—
“Great A, little A, bouncing B,
Cat’s in the cupboard, and can’t see me.”
How much softer and daintier are the following lines:—
“A, B, C,
Le chat est allé
Dans la neige; en retournant
Il avait les souliers tout blancs.”
In passing, I should say it is strange that to the French a cat is
always masculine, and to the English feminine.
In the days of good Queen Anne the story of pussy’s venturesome journey
to London was put into verse, and what child has not listened eagerly to
these lines from that time down to our present day?
“‘Pussy-cat, Pussy-cat,
Where have you been?’
‘I’ve been to London
To see the Queen.’
“‘Pussy-cat, Pussy-cat,
What did you do there?’
‘I frightened a little mouse
Under her chair.’”
In “Alice in Wonderland” Lewis Carroll has given the world “a childish
story” which will never cease to delight both young and old. In this we
read of the “Cheshire Cat” which grinned down upon the guests assembled
at the royal croquet party, and having incurred the anger of the Queen,
was in danger of having its head cut off by order of the infuriated
monarch. The other volume by the same author—“Alice Through the
Looking-Glass”—opens with a description of the way in which Dinah the
cat washed her children’s faces:—“First she held the poor thing down by
its ear with one paw, and then with the other paw she rubbed its face
all over the wrong way, beginning at the nose.” Then follows an animated
conversation between Alice and the kitten. All the world knows of the
love Lewis Carroll had for children, and I can assert he had an
affection also for cats, for when a child he spoilt and petted me and my
kitten. I only wish I could remember the deliciously impossible stories
he was wont to tell me of fairies, goblins, and pussy-cats.
Harrison Weir, in his book on cats, has gathered together a number of
curious cat proverbs. Some are very familiar, such as: “A cat may look
at a king”; “Care will kill the cat”; “When the cat is away the mice
will play,” and a very significant one is: “When the maid leaves the
door open the cat’s in fault.” The quaint saying, “When candles are out
all cats are gray” is a very expressive one.
When we consider the cat in art, it is among Eastern painters we find
the most delicate and skilful studies. Next to the Egyptians, the
Chinese and Japanese have excelled in the artistic treatment of animals.
In many of the Dutch interiors given to us by Flemish artists, the
domestic cat may be seen curled up on the hearth, or sitting erect,
bearing somewhat the appearance of being stuffed with bran.
[Illustration:
MADAME RONNER AT WORK.
(_Photo: Alexandre, Brussels_)
]
In many of the early Italian sacred pictures we find the cat depicted,
but great painters, like Titian, Velasquez, and Murillo, seem to have
preferred the dog as an adjunct to their portraits. Raphael and Salvator
both considered puss a worthy subject for their brush. In M.
Champfleury’s interesting book on cats he gives a facsimile from the
powerful pencil of Mind, whom Madame Lebrun has termed “the Raphael of
Cats.” The attitudes are so true to nature that the cat seems alive.
Mind was a native of Berne, and in 1809, on account of a scare of
madness amongst cats, eight hundred were put to death. This was a
heartbreak to the cat-loving painter, who, however, managed to save his
favourite pet Minette from the wholesale massacre.
Very quaint reproductions of cats have been made in the following wares:
Whieldon, Salt Glaze, Agate, and Staffordshire. With Chinese and
Japanese cat figures we are all familiar; they are grotesque rather than
beautiful.
Coming down to the cat artists of the present day, we would mention
Madame Henriette Ronner, who has justly deserved the great reputation
that she has acquired in her own country as well as ours. It is in
depicting kittens in their ever-varying moods that Madame Ronner most
excels. Whether playing havoc with antique lace, as in “Un Bout de
Toilette,” scattering an artist’s materials, as in “Mischief,” or
dragging jewels from a casket, her kittens are instinct with vitality,
and are portrayed in a manner implying knowledge of their anatomical
structure, as well as in a most appreciative perception of their youth
and beauty. Most lovers of cats are acquainted with Madame Ronner’s
artistic volume containing so many faithful and lovely reproductions of
several of her best pictures, and an interesting account of her life and
work written by Mr. M. H. Spielmann.
Another famous painter of cats is M. Eugène Lambert, who may be said to
divide the honours with Madame Ronner in portraying with fidelity and
artistic taste the feline race. Among English animal painters we have
none who can come anywhere near to these two celebrated French artists
in their marvellous delicacy of touch and subtle skill in depicting cat
and kittens.
In these latter days who is there amongst us, young and old, who has not
enjoyed a hearty laugh over the comical cats of Louis Wain? In his
particular line, he is unique, for no one has ever portrayed cats in
such various attitudes and with such deliciously expressive
countenances. The adjectives and adverbs of the Cataract of Lodore would
not suffice to describe the varied emotions of these funny felines. A
Christmas without one of Louis Wain’s clever catty pictures would be
like a Christmas pudding without the currants!
[Illustration:
“CRYSTAL,”
THE PROPERTY OF MRS. FINNIE YOUNG. (_Photo: C. Reid, Wishaw._)
]
To Harrison Weir cats and cat lovers owe a debt of gratitude. He has
done much to raise the standard of the feline race, and in his excellent
book called “Our Cats,” he thus writes in his preface:—
“Long ages of neglect, ill treatment, and absolute cruelty, with
little or no gentleness, kindness, or training, have made the cat
self-reliant; and from this emanates the marvellous powers of
observation, the concentration of which has produced a style analogous
to reasoning, not unmixed with timidity, caution, wildness, and a
retaliative nature. But should a new order of things arise, and it is
nurtured, petted, cosseted, talked to, noticed, and tamed with
mellowed firmness and tender gentleness, then in but a few generations
much evil that bygone cruelty has stamped into its wretched existence
will disappear, and it will be more than ever, not only a useful,
serviceable helpmate, but an object of unceasing interest, admiration,
and cultured beauty, and thus being of value, it will be profitable.”
It was Harrison Weir who instituted and carried out the first Cat Show
held at the Crystal Palace in 1871, and since then he has taken an
active part in the cat world. Of late years, however, he has been
failing in health, and it was suggested that some testimonial should be
offered to him in his declining years by his many admirers and
cat-loving friends.
_Our Cats_, that popular weekly publication, opened a list in their
columns, the result being a handsome piece of plate, which the veteran
F.R.H.S. was asked to accept. In his reply acknowledging the gift, he
writes:—“Kindest and best wishes to those warm-hearted and truly
unforgetful friends who have contributed towards the very handsome
testimonial.” Then he goes on to allude to the first cat show and to his
prophecy regarding the growing popularity of the cat family:—“Did I
expect the outcome to be what it is? Yes, and no. I fully expected large
shows and more of them, and a ‘Cat Press,’ and in the papers cat columns
for the universal and worthy favourite cat. But in another way I am
disappointed, and that is for the neglect of the short-haired English
cat by the ascendancy of the foreign long-hair. Both are truly
beautiful, but the first in intelligence, in my opinion, is far in
advance of the latter.” Therefore, with a hope that Harrison Weir may
yet live to see the English short-haired cats still more widely loved
and appreciated, and given better classification at our shows, I will
pass on to my chapter on present-day cats and cat clubs, and the many
other institutions and societies which are the outcome of the rapid
strides that have been made in the cat fancy since the day when Harrison
Weir was laughed at by his incredulous and astonished railway companion
as they travelled together to the first Cat Show held at the Crystal
Palace in 1871.
[Illustration:
LADY ALEXANDER’S “BROTHER BUMP.”
CHAMPION SHORT-HAIRED BLUE.
]
[Illustration:
SLEEPING BEAUTIES.
(_Photo: Mrs. S. Francis Clarke._)
]