i6o THE FIRESIDE SPHINX 



paroxysms of Revenge, and every note grumbles 

 away into Despair." 



More sympathetic and less nervous hearers have 

 found much to interest them in the cat's vocalism, 

 with its flexibility and astonishing variations. " Le 

 chat mise en possession d'une belle et grande voix," 

 wrote Moncrif appreciatively. M. Dupont de Ne- 

 mours, a close and loving student of animals, main- 

 tained that, whereas the dog possesses only vowel 

 sounds, the cat uses in her language no less than 

 six consonants, — m, n, g, h, v, and f . M. Champ- 

 fleury professed to have counted sixty-three notes 

 in the mewing of cats, though he acknowledged 

 that it took an accurate ear and much practice to 

 distinguish them. He also considered the sign or 

 gesture language used by cats to be even more 

 copious and expressive than their audible tongue. 

 The Abb^ Galiani could discern only twenty notes 

 in the most elaborate mewing ; but insisted that 

 these sounds represent a complete vocabulary, inas- 

 much as a cat always makes use of the same note 

 to express the same sentiment. He was able to 

 distinguish clearly between the male and female 

 tones, which he held to be as different in the cry 

 of animals as in the singing of birds. It was his 

 opinion, moreover, that not a single quaver in all 

 the " infernal gallemaufry o' din," which we hear 

 from the moon-lit wall, voices that tender passion 



