The Story of My Cats 



of the swinging motion in the bag. Are they 

 thrown out of their latitude by this stratagem, 

 or are they not? I was thinking of making 

 some experiments, when more precise infor- 

 mation arrived and taught me that it was not 

 necessary. The first who acquainted me with 

 the method of the revolving bag was telling 

 the story told him by a second person, who 

 repeated the story of a third, a story related 

 on the authority of a fourth; and so on. 

 None had tried it, none had seen it for him- 

 self. It is a tradition of the country-side. 

 One and all extol it as an infallible method, 

 without, for the most part, having attempted 

 it. And the reason which they give for its 

 success is, in their eyes, conclusive. If, say 

 they, we ourselves are blindfolded and then 

 spin round for a few seconds, we no longer 

 know where we are. Even so with the Cat 

 carried off in the darkness of the swinging 

 bag. They argue from man to the animal, 

 just as others argue from the animal to man: 

 a faulty method in either case, if there really 

 be two distinct psychic worlds. 



The belief would not be so deep-rooted In 

 the peasant's mind, if facts had not from time 

 to time confirmed it. But we may assume 



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