14 



were roasted in iron cages, over fires, in company with eflBgies 

 of murderesses. The worrying of cats by dogs was a common 

 sport. Boys tied cats together in pairs by their tails and hung 



them up to see them fight. Thus, per- 



^'■^v — ->^^^ secution, fear and torment followed poor 



^■•vT / ^^n\ pussy through the ages until the eight- 



^-— -^^ST^T"""^"-— ^N^«S) eenth century, when superstition began 



to lose its hold. Even now, however, 

 some terror of the cat remains in many lands; many persons 

 regard her with aversion, if not with hatred, and so the old in- 

 heritance of fear still darkens pussy's pathway, and she keeps 

 the attitude of apprehension as she slinks across the street. 



The folklore of many peoples teems with superstitious cat tales 

 and fables, many of them showing aversion, dispraise or suspicion. 

 People still keep black cats away from the cradle in Germany. 



Puss has a large place in literature and has added many words 

 and proverbs to the languages of mankind. Fully fifty English 

 words or phrases have been derived from her, and now in the 

 twentieth century she is coming again to her own. Her star — 

 eclipsed since the fall of the Goddess Pasht — again has reached 

 its zenith. Carefully guarded from harm by humane societies, 

 unrestrained by law or public sentiment, pampered, petted, wor- 

 shipped almost as of old, "queen" of the cat show, attended by 

 her most "humble slaves," puss faces the dawn of a new era. 

 Dozens of books are devoted wholly or in part to chronicling the 

 history, varieties, diseases, friends and enemies of cats, and every- 

 thing pertaining to the beloved pet. There are cat magazines, 

 cat clubs and cat homes. The attitude of present-day "cat 

 worship"^ is that the "queen" can do no wrong. A lady adver- 

 tises in the "London Standard" for live birds with which to feed 

 her cat. Another inserts the following notice in a Berlin paper: — 



Wanted, by a lady of rank, for adequate remuneration, a few well-behaved 

 and respectably dressed children, to amuse a cat in delicate health two or 

 three hours a day. 



FITNESS, CHARACTER AND INTELLIGENCE. 



The cat family (FelidoB) includes the lion, tiger, leopard, 

 panther, cheetah, jaguar, ocelot, puma, lynx, ounce, wildcat and 

 many small forms. There are at least sixty-six species scattered 

 widely over the globe. This family always has been regarded by 

 naturalists as carnivorous, rapacious, unsocial, cautious, some- 



1 This exproMion i» not coined in derision, but is quoted from a cat lover's book. 



