CHAPTER XIV 



CONCERNING CAT LANGUAGE 



MONTAIGNE it was who said: "We have 

 some intelligence of their senses : so have 

 also the beasts of ours in much the same measure. 

 They flatter us, menace us, need us, and we them. 

 It is manifestly evident that there is among them a 

 full and entire communication, and that they under- 

 stand each other." 



That this applies to cats is certainly true. Did 

 you ever notice how a mother cat talks to her chil- 

 dren, and simply by the utterances of her voice in- 

 duces them to abandon their play and go with her, 

 sometimes with the greatest reluctance, to some place 

 that suited her whim — or her wisdom ? 



Dupont de Nemours, a naturalist of the eighteenth 

 century, made himself ridiculous in the eyes of his 

 compatriots by seeking to penetrate the mysteries of 

 animal language. "Those who utter sounds," he 

 affirmed, "attach significance to them; their fellows 

 do the same, and those sounds originally inspired by 

 passion and repeated under similar recurrent circum- 

 stances, become the abiding expressions of the pas- 

 sions that gave rise to them." 



