196 ANECDOTES OF ANIMALS. 



have been connected with superstition and sorcery. Thoy 

 have always been regarded as attendants upon witches; 

 and witches themselves have been said to borrow their 

 shapes when on their mysterious expeditions. I was 

 once told that Lord Cochrane was accompanied by a 

 favourite black cat in a cruise through the northern seas. 

 The weather had been most unpropitious ; no day had 

 passed without some untoward circumstance ; and the 

 sailors were not slow in attributing the whole to the 

 influence of the black cat on board. This came to Lord 

 Cochrane's ears, and knowing that any attempt to rea- 

 son his men out of so absurd a notion was perfectly 

 useless, he offered to sacrifice this object of his regard, 

 and have her thrown overboard. This, however, far 

 from creating any satisfaction, only alarmed the men 

 still more. They were sure that the tempests she would 

 then raise would be much worse than any they had yet 

 encountered ; and they implored his lordship to let her 

 remain unmolested. 'There was no help, and they 

 could only hope, if she were not affronted, they might 

 at the end of their time reach England in safety/ 



Black cats were always more especially connected with 

 superstitious feelings ; and I was once accosted by a 

 peasant's wife, who, with a phial in her hand to contain 

 it, requested I would give her a few drops of blood from 

 the tail of my black kitten, not only to bring luck to 

 her hearth, but to keep pestilence from her doors. Even 

 lately a working woman told me not to turn a stray 

 black cat from my house, for if I did, I should never 

 have any prosperity afterwards. Captain Brown tells us 

 that on Hallowe'en it was usual in Scotland for families 

 to tie up their cat, in order to preserve it from being used 

 as a pony by the witches that night. Those who no- 



