PERSECUTION 61 



are enamoured of the strife ; but the desperate 

 courage of a cat at bay can ill excuse the brutality 

 which matches it against an animal of many times 

 its strength. That a good sportsman like Wilson 

 should have relished such a spectacle, puts us out 

 of conceit with humanity. 



In tracing the long and bitter persecution of the 

 cat, there are two points to be especially considered. 

 Its sinister reputation — obtained, Heaven knows 

 how, — as the accomplice of witches, and the chosen 

 emissary of the Fiend ; and the evil character it won 

 for itself — again, Heaven knows how, — as an ani- 

 mal equally perfidious and malign. In zoological 

 mythology, and in the folk-lore of every land, it 

 figures darkly, and without esteem. A Hindoo 

 fable represents the cat as living with pretended 

 austerity on the banks of the Ganges. The fame 

 of the new Saint's piety, of his long prayers and 

 rigorous fasts, inspires the little birds and mice 

 with such confidence that they gather around him 

 daily, and are daily devoured. From Alexandria 

 we have the story, retold by iEsop and La Fon- 

 taine, of the cat bride who leaps from her husband's 

 embraces after a scudding mouse. In an Alsatian 

 legend, a cat comes again and again as a nightmare 

 to torment a young joiner. He wakens once to 

 find her stealing into his room through a hole in 

 the chimney-place ; whereupon he stops up the hole, 



