our Domestic Animals. 31S 



old Greek word «<ao;, flatterer, with the ^olic diganmia FxtXii, 

 from which the Latins farmed the word Fells ; from «(A<i? comes 

 atXupoi, flattering with the tail. This etymology seems to me 

 false ; it is not founded upon the manners of the animal, which 

 is by no means addicted to caressing or flattery. It would ap- 

 ply better to the dog, which is both, and which employs its tail 

 to express these sentiments. 



Suidas * adds to the common names of the cat, aMsgo? and 

 y«x?, those of xsgSiW and a»^iet, which seem to be two epithets, 

 tlie cunning and the gay, and are derived from the manners of 

 the animal. Kuster corrects, erroneously in my opinion, />.<«§<« 

 into aiuvgoi, for the first of these names is given to the cat by 

 Artemidorus, and the playfulness of young cats has become 

 proverbial. 



The word Cattts, with the signification of cat -f-, first occurs 

 in Palladius ; but the adjective Catus, which signifies sharp or 

 piercing, is employed by Ennius: Cata signa sonitum voce 

 dare parabant. Varro, who quotes it, considers it as a word of 

 the Sabine language. At a later period, the word took the ac- 

 ceptation of solers, callidus, acutus, as Cicero informs us J. 

 The word Catus or cat, from which the Greeks of the Lower 

 Empire took their word k<«tto; §, and the Arabians their name 

 cat, unless this word be derived from a more ancient source, is 

 therefore taken either from the sharp cry, or insidious, prudent 

 and wary character of the animal, like the a^^^o; of the Greeks 

 and the felis of the Latins. 



I am ignorant of the roots or etymology of the names hir, 

 dsaiwan, ginda, chittal, and dim, which the Arabians have 

 given to the cat ; but the very variety of these names seems to 

 indicate that the animal was either common in the country, or 

 long domesticated there. 



I now pursue the description of the manners and organiza- 



• V. aiX«5o=. + III. 9- (37 Varro, lib. v. iii.) 



t De Leg. i. 16. 



§ Kams xiTeixllitiir aikv^os. This name is employed in the Schol. of Cal- 

 limachus. H. ad Cer., iii. ; in a Latin poet (in Catalog. Pith. 1. iv.) Catus in 

 obscura capit pro sorice picam. Sextus Platonicus (De Medicina Animal, part i. 

 f. xviii.) employs the word calum for felem four times. See Werheik ad 

 Antonin. Liber xxviii. p. 18fi. 



