ANIMAL AND PLANT LORE. 241 



most every one is familiar with the time-honored belief that a cat 

 must not be left alone in the room with a little child for fear that 

 " the cat will suck the baby's breath." So general is the belief in 

 this breath-sucking power of the cat that I have taken pains to 

 consult several distinguished physicians in New England as to its 

 probability, and have received from each a most unequivocal 

 statement of disbelief in any such phenomenon. One eminent 

 Boston physician suggests that the notion may be based on the 

 fact that a cat likes warmth, and naturally might lie up close to 

 the warm breath of a sleeping child. Any injury which the latter 

 might receive would therefore come from breathing an impure 

 air, charged with carbonic-acid gas, and if the cat were diseased — 

 for instance, had consumption — there would be the possibility of 

 inhaling the bacilli or germs of tuberculosis. But is it not more 

 than possible that the popular apprehension is descended from 

 the old-country dread of the animal's connection with witchcraft ? 

 De Gubernatis cites the fact that, in Monferrato, black cats, being 

 thought to be witches, are carefully kept away from the cradles 

 of children ; and the same precaution is taken, for the same rea- 

 son, in Germany. In the latter country, black cats are in general 

 thought to be ill-omened creatures, and, if one is found on a sick- 

 bed, it foretells death ; or if on a grave, it signifies that the soul of 

 the departed is in the possession of the evil one. In earlier times, 

 I conclude that black cats were usually considered to be especially 

 evil-boding ; but this notion has apparently undergone a change, 

 so that now the white or light-colored cat is often reckoned the 

 forerunner of evil, while the black one is the harbinger of good. 

 There is a popular saying in various parts of New England that 

 it betokens good luck to be followed by a black cat. A black or 

 gray cat or kitten coming to a house will bring good luck, but a 

 white one is a sign of calamity. " If you drive away a black cat 

 that comes to you, you drive away your luck." The possession of 

 a black-nosed, " smutty-nosed," cat brings wealth, while in Maine 

 it is said the ownership of a white cat entails poverty. In Canada 

 and parts of Michigan I find the notion is that lucky cats are those 

 of three colors, and therefore the owner of one of the not uncom- 

 mon variety, mottled with black, white, and orange, should keep 

 her as a mascot, or luck-bringer. Among the negroes of Alabama 

 it is believed that after death the spirits of old maids take posses- 

 sion of black cats. There is a popular belief in parts of Pennsyl- 

 vania that, if by accident cats' hair be swallowed, it will turn into 

 worms. In central Maine one may find a more generalized form 

 of this superstition. The belief there is that, if any kind of a hair 

 be allowed to enter the human stomach, it will gradually change 

 into a snake — the species of the latter undefined. A native of 

 Cumberland, England, has told me that there it is a common say- 



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