I70 CONCERNING CATS. 



CONCERNING CATS. 



Cat. — Irish, Cat; French, Chat ; Dutch, Kat ; Danish, 

 JCat; Swedish, A'l?//; G^rmdcn, Katti ox Katze ; Latin, Cains; 

 Italian, Gatto; Portuguese and Spanish, Gato; Polish, Kot ; 

 Russian, Kots; Turkish, Keti; Welsh, Cath; Cornish, Kath; 

 Basque, Catua ; Armenian, Gaz or Katz. In Armenic, 

 Kitta^ or Kat'ta, is a male cat. 



Abram cat. — This I first thought simply meant a male 

 cat; but I find in Nares, "Abram" is the corruption of 

 " auburn," so, no doubt, a red or sandy tabby cat is intended. 



A Wheen cat^ a Queefi cat [Cains feint na). — "Queen" 

 was used by the Saxons to signify the female sex, in that 

 " queen fugol " was used for " hen fowl." Farmers in Kent 

 and Sussex used also to call heifers " little queens." 



Carl cat. — A boar or he-cat, from the old Saxon carle 

 or karle, a male, and cat. 



Cat. — It was used to denote " Liberty." No animal is 

 more impatient of restriction or confinement, nor yet 

 seeming to bear it with more resignation. The Romans 

 made their goddess of Liberty holding a cup in one hand 

 and a broken sceptre in the other, with a cat lying at her feet. 

 Among the goddesses, Diana is said to have assumed the 

 form of a cat. The Egyptians worshipped the cat as an 

 emblem of the moon, not only because it was more active 

 after sunset, but from the dilation and contraction of its orb, 

 symbolical of the waxing and waning of the night goddess. 

 But Bailey, in his dictionary, says cats see best as the sun 

 approaches, and that their eyesight decays as it goes down 

 in the evening. Yet, ^' on this account," says Mr. Thiselton 

 Dyer, in his " English Folk-lore," " it was so highly esteemed 

 as to receive sacrifices, and even to have stately temples 



