The Book of Cats. 3 1 



timidity was overcome. There was a captive once, 

 you may remember, who tamed a spider. A man, 

 about ten years ago, who used to go about the 

 streets, got his living by pretending to swallow 

 snakes. He allowed them, while holding tight on 

 their tails, to crawl half-way down his throat and 

 back again. He said they were nice clean animals, 

 and good company. Little boys at school often 

 swallow frogs. An ear^vig probably has fine 

 social qualities, which only want bringing out : 

 naturalists tell us they make the best of mothers. 

 The black beetle has always been a maligned 

 insect : it is a sort of nigger among insects, ap- 

 parently born only to be poisoned, drowned, or 

 smashed ; but some one ought, decidedly, to take 

 the race in hand and see of what it is capable. I 

 have, myself, a horror of most of the creatures I have 

 named, but happen not to have been reared with an 

 aversion for Cats, and I have a strong belief that if 

 I tried hard (which I am not going to do) I might 

 get upon friendly relations with the other animals 

 named above, which, I suppose, most of us are 

 taught, when children, to dislike; and as our fathers 

 and mothers have entertained the same feeling, 

 perhaps, as my authoress says, we may " regard 

 this peculiarity as hereditary." 



