50 BOMBAY DUCKS 
In the Middle Ages cats were feared rather than 
loved, and, as we shall see, cats are not now, nor ever 
have been, universally popular. The mysterious air of 
the cat, its nocturnal habits, its terrible caterwaulings, 
which often sound like the cries of human beings in 
distress, and its shining orbs, all tended to cause the 
belief that cats were witches’ familiars. 
Sailors, who are invariably superstitious, object to 
having cats on a ship; but when once a cat finds its 
way on board it is usually allowed to remain there, for, 
were pussy thrown overboard, a furious storm would 
assuredly arise. 
Before passing on to demonstrate the popular dislike 
of cats, let me quote the excellent description of the 
animal given by Bartholomew Angelicus: “He is a 
full lecherous beast in youth, swift, pliant, and merry, 
and leapeth and reseth on everything that is afore him, 
and is led by a straw and playeth therewith, and is a 
right heavy beast in age and full sleepy, and lieth slyly 
in wait for mice, and is aware where they be more by 
smell than by sight, and hunteth and reseth on them 
in privy places, and when he taketh a mouse he playeth 
therewith, and eateth him after the play. In time of 
love is hard fighting for wives, and one scratcheth and 
rendeth the other grievously with biting and with claws, 
and he maketh a rueful noise and ghastful when one 
preferreth to fight with another, and hardly is he hurt 
when he is thrown down off an high place. And when 
he hath a fair skin he is, as it were, proud thereof, and 
goeth fast about, and is oft for his fair skin taken of the 
skinner and slain and flayed.” 
