74 THE FARMER AT HOME. 



wool hard, in order that the shawl may be soft. They use a spindle 

 which consists of a ball of clay, with an iron wire attached. The 

 finger and thumb of the spinner are kept smooth by steatite powder. 



CAT. A domestic animal, whose good and ill qualities are too 

 generally known to need a description. The ancient Egyptians paid 

 a religious homage to this little animal ; and among them nothing 

 could more expose a man to popular rage, than killing a cat. The 

 following is, in substance, related by Diodorus Siculus, as a fact of 

 which he was an eye-witness. While embassadors from Rome, which 

 was at that time the proud mistress of the world, were in Egypt, and 

 were treated by the Egyptians, not only with all the courtesy of 

 respect, but with all the servility of fear, one of their attendants hap- 

 pening unintentionally to kill a cat, this circumstance excited such a 

 general horror and indignation, that neither the remonstrances of the 

 officers sent by Ptolemy, their king, nor the fear of the Romans, could 

 save the unhappy man from the fury of the populace. " What is 

 called the Wild Cat, is an animal in most respects similar to our 

 common cats, but different in its disposition and dimensions. It is 

 much larger, stronger, and fiercer, than any of our domestic cats, 

 and seems to be of the same disposition and color as the wolf." 

 Strings for musical instruments, of superior and unrivalled excellence, 

 are made of catgut. 



CATAMOUNT. One of the most fierce and dangerous quadru- 

 peds of North America. It is supposed to be the same animal which 

 the ancients called lynx, and which is known in Siberia by the name 

 ounce. In the form of its body it much resembles a common cat ; it 

 is generally of a yellow color, bordering upon a red or sandy, and is 

 larger than the largest dogs. Some years ago, a catamount, at Ben- 

 nington, in Vermont, took a large calf out of a pen, where the fence 

 was four feet high, and carried it off upon his back. With this load 

 it ascended a ledge of rocks, where one of the leaps was fifteen feet in 

 height. Two hunters finding the catamount upon a tree, one of them 

 discharged his musket, and wounded it in the leg. It descended with 

 the utmost agility and fury, did not attack the men, but seized their 

 dog by one of his ribs, broke it off in the middle, and instantly leaped 

 up the tree again with astonishing swiftness and dexterity. The 

 other hunter shot him through the head, but his fury did not cease 

 but with the last remains of life. 



CATARACT. In farriery, a disease in the eyes of horses, in 

 which the crystalline humor is rendered opaque, and the vision im- 

 peded or destroyed. The only certain method of cure in these com- 

 plaints is to remove the lens by means of extracting or couching. By 

 the first mentioned operation, an incision is made into the eye, and 

 the opaque lens taken out by the second, it is depressed by the point 

 of a couching needle, thrust into the eye, and being carried to the 

 lower part of the chamber of the eye, or vitreous humor ; it is left 



