198 SUPERSTITION AND WITCHCRAFT 



a cat should leap over a corpse, it is said to portend mis- 

 fortune. Gough, in his ' Sepulchral Monuments,' says that 

 in Orkney, during the time the corpse remains in the house, 

 all the cats are locked up, and the looking-glasses covered 

 over. In Devonshire a superstition prevails that a cat will 

 not remain in a house with an unburied corpse ; and stories 

 are often told how, on the death of one of the inmates of a 

 house, the cat has suddenly made its disappearance, and 

 not returned again until after the funeral. The sneezing of 

 the cat, says Brand ('Popular Antiquities,' 1849, vol. iii., 

 p. 187), appears to have been considered as a lucky omen 

 to a bride who was to be married on the succeeding day. 



" 'In Cornwall,' says Hunt, 'those little gatherings which 

 come on children's eyelids, locally called " whilks," and also 

 " warts," are cured by passing the tail of a black cat nine 

 times over the place. If a ram cat, the cure is more 

 certain. In Ireland it is considered highly unlucky.' "* 



Sailors are very superstitious as regards cats. If a black 

 cat comes on board, it is a presage of disaster ; if the ship's 

 cat is more Hvely than ordinary, it is a sign of wind ; but if 

 the cat is accidentally drowned, then there is consternation, 

 which does not wear oif until the vessel is safe in harbour. 



Lady Wilde, in her " Irish Legends," gives a cat story quite 

 of the fairy type, and well in keeping with many of witch- 

 craft and sorcery. " One dark, cold night, as an old woman 

 was spinning, there came three taps at her door, and not 

 until after the last did she open it, when a pleading voice 

 said : ' Let me in, let me in,' and a handsome black cat, 

 with a white breast, and two white kittens, entered. The 

 old woman spun on, and the cats purred loudly, till the 

 mother puss warned her that it was very late, that they 

 wanted some milk, and that the fairies wanted her room that 

 night to dance and sup in. The milk was given, the cats 

 thanked her, and said they would not forget her kindness ; 

 but, ere they vanished up the chimney, they left her a great 

 silver coin, and the fairies had their ball untroubled by the old 

 woman's presence, for the pussy's warning was a gentle hint." 

 * Mr. T. F. Thiselton Dyer's '* English Folk-lore." 



