44 ^>^^^ Book of Cats. 



accountable gatherings, and strange noises at night 

 — all contribute to invest them with a mysterious 

 fascination, which reaches its culminating point in 

 the (not very frequent) case of a completely black 

 cat." 



Instances are frequent, I am happy to tell Cat- 

 haters, of illustrious persons who have been attached 

 to the feline race, and of Cats who have merited 

 such attachment. 



Mahomet would seem to have been very fond of 

 Cats, for it is said that he once cut off the sleeve of 

 his robe rather than disturb his favourite while 

 sleeping on it. Petrarch was so fond of his Cat that 

 when it died he had it embalmed, and placed in a 

 niche in his apartment ; and you ought to read what 

 Rousseau has to say in favour of the feline race. 

 M. Baumgarten tells us that he saw a hospital for 

 Cats at Damascus : it was a large house, walled 

 round very carefully, and said to be full of patients. 

 It was at Damascus that the incident above related 

 occurred to Mahomet. His followers in this place 

 ever afterwards paid a great respect to Cats, and 

 supported the hospital in question by public sub- 

 scriptions with much liberality. 



When the Duke of Norfolk was committed to 

 the Tower, in the reign of Queen Elizabeth, a 



