326 Origines Zoologicce, 



and the horrible wailings of pain or fighting, which give name 

 to the noisy and discordant instrument of disapprobation, the 

 catcall. 



She is the emblem of the moon, from the great change- 

 ableness of the pupil of the eye, which in the daytime is a 

 mere narrow line, dilatable in the dark to a luminous globe ; 

 and she can, for this reason, like most animals of prey, see 

 best by night. 



It was formerly the trick of the countrymen to substitute a 

 cat for a sucking pig, and bring it to market in a bag : so 

 that he who, without careful examination, made a hasty bar- 

 gain, was said to buy a pig in a poke, and might get a cat 

 in a bag; and a discovery of this cheat gave origin to the 

 expression of letting the cat out of the bag, as a premature 

 and unlucky disclosure. 



The fur of the cat was formerly used in the ornamental 

 trimming of coats and cloaks : and in allusion to the unfitness 

 of her flesh for food, it is said of any thing confined to one 

 purpose only, What can you have of a cat but her skin ? The 

 catgut used by ladies, and for rackets, and also the finer 

 strings for violins, are made from the dried intestines of the 

 cat ; and a smaller kind of fiddle is called a kit : the larger 

 strings are from the intestines of sheep and lambs. Her 

 claws are retractile, and can be protruded with great violence 

 in anger. Her scratch is supposed to be venomous, because 

 a lacerated wound is more apt to fester than a definite cut 

 with a sharp instrument. The tenacity of her hold gave 

 origin to many metaphorical expressions and appellations ; 

 as the cat, or tackle, for drawing up the anchor of a ship ; and 

 a cat-o'-nine tails, or scourge, so called from the scratches it 

 leaves on the skin like the clawings of a cat. A domestic 

 implement for holding a plate before the fire, with six spokes 

 or radii, three of which rest on the ground in whatever 

 position it is placed, is called a cat, from the belief that, how- 

 ever a cat may be thrown, she always falls on her legs. From 

 her great powers of resistance, she is said to have nine lives. 

 " 'Tis a pity you had not ten lives, a cat's and your own," 

 says Ben Jonson, in Everj/ Man in his Humour. The well- 

 known tale of the monkey seizing hold of the paw of the cat, 

 to get the roasted chestnuts from the hot embers, gave origin 

 to the proverb, " to make a cat's paw of one," or to make 

 another subservient to one's own purposes.* 



* This expression is of greater antiquity than many suppose ; for we find 

 the story of the cat and the monkey thus related, as an original anecdote, 

 in the Voyage round the World, by Dr. John Francis Gemilli Careri, in 1695. 

 The Doctor, treating of the kingdom of Canara, in Hindostan, after reciting 



