THE CAT. 231 



friend that they may look upon man as a kind of 

 locomotive tree, pleasant to rub against, the lower 

 limbs of which afford a comfortable seat, and 

 from whose upper branches occasionally drop 

 tit-bits of mutton and other luscious fruits ! We 

 may laugh at this hypothesis, but certainly in 

 many ways the cat's behaviour gives colour to it. 

 If the ancients found no difficulty in imagining 

 that beings bearing human shape habitually 

 changed places with trees, why should not the cat 

 transfer its pristine instinctive notions concerning 

 trees to men ? It would be but one instance of 

 the extremely common habit of arguing by 

 analogy from the known to the unknown. Cer- 

 tainly the wild cat was a solitary roamer, securing 

 its prey, as a rule, without any aid from its kind. 

 In a sense the trees were its chief friends, for it 

 found a comfortable home in the hollow trunks, 

 and a safe refuge from its foes among the 

 branches. 



How can we tell that the cat's ancient dwelling- 

 place was in the forest ? Firstly, because every 

 kitten takes to climbing trees almost as readily as 

 a young duck takes to water ; and, secondly, be- 

 cause almost all cats are striped or mottled after 

 a fashion almost invariably adopted by denizens of 



