OF THE MIDDLE AGES. 33 



cats, and give some very striking proofs of their value at that time. 

 Heel Dha died about A.D. 948, after a reign of 33 years, about 400 

 years before Whittington's birth. Tliese enactments are so curious that 

 I cannot help inserting a few of them in illustration of my argument. 



" The Vendotian Code :" — 



" XI. The worth of a cat and her teithi (t. e. her qualities) this is — 



"1st. The worth of a kitten, from the night it is kittened until it shall open its 

 eyes, is a legal penny, 



*' 2nd. And from the time that it shall kill mice, twopence. 



" 3rd. And after it shall kill mice, four legal pence ; and so it always remains. 



" 4th. Her teithi are to see, to hear, to kill mice, and to have her claws." 



The "Dimetian Code" is as follows: — 



"XXXII. Of Cats. 



"1st. The worth of a cat that is killed or stolen. Its head is to be put down- 

 ward upon a clean even floor, with its tail lifted upwards, and thus suspended, 

 whilst wheat is poured about it until the tip of its tail be covered, and that is to 

 be its worth. If the corn cannot be had," (remark this, " if the com cannot bo 

 had," because when corn is scarce it enhances the cat's value,) then " a milch 

 sheep, with her lamb and its wool, is its value, if it be a cat which guards the 

 king's barn. 



" 2nd. The worth of a common cat is four legal pence. 



" 3rd. The teithi of a cat, and of every animal upon the milk of which people 

 do not feed, is the third part of its worth, or the worth of its litter. 



"4th. Whosoever shall sell a cat {cath) is to answer, &c., and that she devournot 

 her kittens, and t'nat she have ears, eyes, teeth, and nails, and be a good mouscr." 



In " The Gwentian Code," chap. XX., the value of a cat is increased 

 since the former edicts. After relating the mode of calculating tlie 

 value of the king's cat, by holding it by the tail and coveiiug it with 

 wheat, it says, as to the cat's qualities : — 



" 3rd. That it be perfect of car, perfect of eye, perfect of teeth, perfect of tail, 

 perfect of claw, and without marks of fire."/« 



If a cat was found faulty in any one of those particulars, a third 

 of her price was to be refunded to the purchaser. There were two 



present in the very congregation." If they had introduced that animal from the 

 East, and had become thereby acquainted with its valuable properties, and had, 

 consequently, like good IIocl, some stringent laws as to its preservation, it might 

 readily be supposed by an ignorant multitude, that the cat was an object of worship 

 among them. 



m Ut adustus timet incendia Cattus. — Metellns, in Quinnalihus, in Du Cange's 

 Glossary. 



