56 THE FIRESIDE SPHINX 



were lit, fiddlers scraped their bows, and — crown- 

 ing relish of the entertainment — cats, fastened to 

 long poles, were dropped into the heart of the 

 flames, while the children danced merrily, hand in 

 hand, laughing and screaming with delight. The 

 Flemish peasants, more stolid and unimaginative, 

 carried their cats in bags to the top of steeple or 

 belfry, and dropped the poor creatures from this 

 cruel height. A statute of 1618 forbids the in- 

 habitants of Ypres the pleasure of hurling a cat 

 from their tower on the second Wednesday in 

 Lent, as had been their honoured custom for years. 



To Brussels is due the unenviable distinction of 

 having produced the first cat organ, in 1549. This 

 triumph of ingenuity was designed to lend merri- 

 ment to the street pageant in honour of Philip the 

 Second, and is described by Juan Cristoval, a Span- 

 iard in attendance upon the King. 



" The organ," says Cristoval, "was carried on a 

 car, with a great bear for the musician. In place 

 of pipes, it had twenty cats separately confined in 

 narrow cases, from which they could not stir. 

 Their tails were tied to cords attached to the key- 

 board of the organ. When the bear pounded the 

 keys, the cords were jerked, and this pulled the 

 tails of the cats, and made them mew in bass or 

 treble notes, according to the nature of the airs." 



Such an invention could have afforded, at best, 



