50 BOMBAY DUCKS 



In the Middle Ages cats were feared rather than 

 loved, and, as we shall see, cats are not now, nor ever 

 have been, universally popular. The mysterious air of 

 the cat, its nocturnal habits, its terrible caterwaulings, 

 which often sound like the cries of human beings in 

 distress, and its shining orbs, all tended to cause the 

 belief that cats were witches' familiars. 



Sailors, who are invariably superstitious, object to 

 having cats on a ship ; but when once a cat finds its 

 way on board it is usually allowed to remain there, for, 

 were pussy thrown overboard, a furious storm would 

 assuredly arise. 



Before passing on to demonstrate the popular dislike 

 of cats, let me quote the excellent description of the 

 animal given by Bartholomew Angelicus : " He is a 

 full lecherous beast in youth, swift, pliant, and merry, 

 and leapeth and reseth on everything that is afore him, 

 and is led by a straw and playeth therewith, and is a 

 right heavy beast in age and full sleepy, and lieth slyly 

 in wait for mice, and is aware where they be more by 

 smell than by sight, and hunteth and reseth on them 

 in privy places, and when he taketh a mouse he playeth 

 therewith, and eateth him after the play. In time of 

 love is hard fighting for wives, and one scratcheth and 

 rendeth the other grievously with biting and with claws, 

 and he maketh a rueful noise and ghastful when one 

 preferreth to fight with another, and hardly is he hurt 

 when he is thrown down off an high place. And when 

 he hath a fair skin he is, as it were, proud thereof, and 

 goeth fast about, and is oft for his fair skin taken of the 

 skinner and slain and flayed." 



