WEATHER NOTIONS. 201 



instantly dig it up for the love thereof, as I myself have 

 seen in mine own garden, for it smelleth moreover like a 

 cat.' There is also an English rhyme on the plant marum 

 to the following effect : 



If you see it, 



The cats will eat it ; 

 If you sow it, 



The cats will know it. 



" In Suffolk, cats' eyes are supposed to dilate and con- 

 tract with the fiow^ and ebb of the tide. In Lancashire the 

 common people have an idea that those who play much 

 with cats never have good health.""^ 



If tincture of valerian is sprinkled on a plant or bush 

 the neighbouring cats roll and rub themselves on or against 

 it, often biting and scratching the plant to pieces. — H. W. 



In Lancashire it is regarded as unlucky to allow a cat to 

 die in a house. Hence,t when they are ill they are usually 

 drowned. 



At Christ Church, Spitalfields, there is a benefaction 

 for the widows of weavers under certain restrictions, called 

 " cat and dog money." There is a tradition in the parish 

 that money was given in the first instance to cats and dogs. J 



If a cat tears at the cushions, carpet, and other articles 

 of furniture with its claws, it is considered a sign of wind. 

 Hence the saying, '• the cat is raising the wind." 



Mr. Park's note in his copy of Bourn and Brand's 

 "Popular Antiquities," p. 92, says : " Cats sitting with their 

 tails to the fire, or washing with their paws behind their ears, 

 are said to foretell a change of weather." 



In Pules' play of " The Novice " is the line : 

 Ere Gil, our cat, can lick her ear. 



This is from Brand, and I do not think it refers to the weather, 

 but to an impossibility. 



* ls\x. T. F. Thiselton Dyer's " English Folk-lore." 



+ Harland and Wilkinson, "Lancashire Folk-lore," p, 141. 



X Edwards's " Old English Customs," p. 54. 



