CONCERNING CATS 51 



As evidence of the general and, as I think, well- 

 founded dislike of the cat, I may cite the distich which 

 often accompanies the signpost on inns, bearing the sign 

 of " The Cat and Lion " :— 



" The lion is strong, the cat is vicious, 

 My ale is strong, and so is my liquors." 



A Frenchman named Bertrand had to leave his native 

 country in a hurry, having been detected in a plot 

 against Cardinal Mazarin. He fled to the Hague, where 

 he opened a cutler's shop, setting up as a sign a picture 

 representing a cat and the Cardinal and wrote under 

 it : " Aux deux mechantes betes!' 



Among the natives of India, too, the cat does not 

 seem to be popular. This is evidenced by many native 

 proverbs. I quote two from Lockwood Kipling : " The 

 cat with mouse tails still hanging out of her mouth 

 says : ' Now I feel good, I will go on a pilgrimage to 

 Mecca,' " and " The cat does not catch mice for God." 

 Some people not merely dislike cats, they loathe 

 them with a great loathing. Napoleon was a case in 

 point. 



Henry III of France is said to have fainted at the 

 mere sight of a cat. But the gentleman who " takes 

 the cake " is he who wrote many years ago to the "Spec- 

 tator " : " As I was going through a street of London, 

 where I had never been till then, I felt a general clamp 

 and faintness all over me, which I could not tell how to 

 account for, till I chanced to cast my eyes upwards, 

 and found that I was passing under a signboard on 

 which the picture of a cat was hung ! " 



