94 THE FIRESIDE SPHINX 



their derivation to the cat ; such as " cat-handed,"" 

 a Devonshire term for awkward ; " a cat's walk," 

 which in Cornwall signifies a little walk near home ; 

 "cat-lap," very weak tea or broth, fit only for 

 Pussy's food; "cat-nap," the lightest of dozes; 

 " cat-call," 



" Sound, sound, ye viols ; be the cat-call dumb.'' 



" caterwauling," 



" What a caterwauling do you keep here ! " 



and the familiar "cat's-paw," " cat's-eye," and "cat 

 o' nine tails." Allusions to the animal's nine lives 

 — Heaven knows she needed them ! — are frequent 

 in early English plays. " 'T is a pity you had not 

 ten lives, — a cat's and your own," says Jonson in 

 " Every Man in His Humour ; " and Middleton in 

 " Blurt, Master Constable," makes the off-hand as- 

 sertion that cats "have nine lives apiece, like a 

 woman." 



Some of the most common expressions seem 

 meaningless enough, yet have been handed down 

 from parent to child for endless generations, until 

 they have become a tradition in every nursery. 

 How often has the word "she" been checked upon 

 our infant lips by the certainty of hearing for the 

 fiftieth time that "she" is the "cat's mother.?" 

 Little English children, however, especially if they 

 be bred in Norfolk, are told that "she" is the 



