THE DARK AGES 39 



hunted the animal, he unwisely admitted — or so at 

 least deposed several garrulous witnesses — that 

 Satan had need of all the cats his servants could 

 bring him, being unable without their aid to raise 

 storms or to wreck ships, — a curious limitation of 

 diabolic power. 



The trial which of all others, however, established 

 the Scotch cat's reputation for sorcery was that of 

 Margaret Gilbert and Margaret Olson, two women 

 of Caithness, who were accused of bewitching the 

 household of a stone-mason named Montgomerie 

 by means of a number of cats. No bolts nor bars 

 could exclude these emissaries of evil, nor could they 

 be. killed like ordinary animals. When run through 

 by a sword, or cleft in twain by a hatchet, they 

 merely disappeared, to return again at some more 

 convenient opportunity. Moreover, they had a 

 habit of conversing together at night with human 

 voices, but in an unknown tongue ; — a habit which 

 seems to have thrilled the unfortunate Montgom- 

 eries with terror, and which, it may well be admit- 

 ted, was calculated to try the nerves. No wonder 

 that a little maid servant fled from the house in 

 mid-term, and would enter it no more, after she had 

 heard these cats talking by the kitchen fire. No 

 wonder that villagers came in time to look askance 

 upon all pussies as possible imps of Belial ; — a 

 possibility which assumed definite shape and ma- 



