60 THE FIRESIDE SPHINX 



comrade's aid, — which does credit to their kind- 

 ness of heart, — and would answer any questions 

 to obtain her release. 



Strange and gruesome remedies for rheumatism, 

 and ague, and all the ills that village flesh is heir 

 to, were extracted from Pussy's brains and bones ; 

 and countless means were devised by which she 

 might afford the rural population such entertain- 

 ment as it was best fitted to enjoy. Scottish pea- 

 sants amused themselves by hanging her up in a 

 small cask or firkin, half full of soot, at which men 

 and boys struck vigorous blows, striving to escape 

 before the soot fell on them. This primitive game 

 might have been played just as effectively without 

 the assistance of the cat ; but it would have been 

 flavourless had it lacked what Montaigne so admir- 

 ably calls " the tart, sweet pleasure of inflicting 

 pain." 



In England, a cat tucked into a leathern bottle 

 was a favourite target for archery. — " Hang me 

 in a bottle like a cat, and shoot at me," says Bene- 

 dick blithely ; and cat-worrying was for centuries 

 as much a recognized sport as cock-fighting, or bull 

 and badger baiting. It is hard to forgive Christo- 

 pher North for his apparent enjoyment of this most 

 cruel of amusements, which he describes with a zest 

 that does him infinite shame. In cock-fights and 

 dog-fights there is fair play, and the combatants 



