52 TABBY CATS. 



the ground colour should be of a pale, soft, blue colour — 

 not the slightest tint of brown in it, The clearer, the 

 lighter^ and brighter the blue the better, bearing in mind 

 always that the bands should be of a Jet blacky sharply and 

 very clearly defined. 



The word tabby was derived from a kind of taffeta, or 

 ribbed silk, which when calendered or what is now termed 

 " watered," is by that process covered with wavy lines. 

 This stuff, in bygone times, was often called " tabby : " 

 hence the cat with lines or markings on its fur was called 

 a ''tabby" cat. But it might also, one would suppose, 

 with as much justice, be called a taffety cat, unless the 

 calendering of "taffety" caused it to become "tabby." 

 Certain it is that the word tabby only referred to the mark- 

 ing or stripes, not to the absolute colour, for in " Wit and 

 Drollery" (1682), p. 343, is the following : — 



" Her petticoat of satin, 



Her gown of crimson tabby." 



Be that as it may, I think there is little doubt that the 

 foregoing was the origin of the term. Yet it was also called 

 the brinded cat, or the brindled cat, also tiger cat, with 

 some the gray cat, graymalkin ; but I was rather unprepared 

 to learn that in Norfolk and Suffolk it is called a Cyprus 

 cat. "Why Cyprus cat?" quoth I. " I do not know," said 

 my informant. " All I know is, that such is the case." 



So I referred to my Bailey's Dictionary of 1730, and 

 there, " sure enough," was the elucidation ; for I found that 

 Cyprus was a kind of cloth made of silk and hair, showing 

 wavy lines on it, and coming from Cyprus ; therefore this 

 somewhat strengthens the argument in favour of " taffeta," 

 or "tabby," but it is still curious that the Norfolk and 

 Suffolk people should have adopted a kind of cloth as that 

 representing the markings and colour of the cat, and that of 

 a different name from that in use for the cat — one or more 

 counties calling it a "tabby cat," as regards colour, and the 

 other naming the same as " Cyprus." I take this to be 

 exceedingly interesting. How or when such naming took 



