CAT : SYMBOL OF THE COURTEZAN. 
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• THE CAT. 
The wild-cat is the parent of the domestic cat, as the wild-boar 
is the parent of the hog. The two races are really one. The prim- 
itive type is become rare in France, or is only met with in tbe old 
forests of the East, in Franche Compte, in Lorraine, in Alsace, and 
in Ardennes. It is a charming animal, plump, and soft furred, 
striped and not spotted — of square and majestic countenance. Its 
tail, with large, wavy black rings, like its skin, is stronger and 
shorter than that of the domestic cat. 
The size of the full-grown wild-cat is nearly the same as that of 
the fox. I have killed some that weighed as much as twenty 
pounds. The wild-cat makes very little stir, although it has de- 
clared war to the death against all the small game of earth and air. 
It does not usually make much of a chase ; climbing into a tree to 
see the dogs run, the hunter^s ball soon dislodges it. This is a 
species which would soon disappear did not the domestic cat care 
for its preservation, and sustain it by frequent crossings. Re- 
markable and whimsical as it seems, it is here the female that re- 
turns to savage life ; for this retrogradation on the part of the fe- 
male is contrary to the general law of movement. It is known in- 
deed as the rule, that in all animal and human races, progress is 
effected through the female. Thus there is no example of the 
bitch ever having accepted the misalliance of a host of the woods 
— a wolf or a fox — ^^vhile every day, on the contrary, we find the 
she-wolf listening with the utmost suavity to the amorous propo- 
sals of the dog, and even making advances to him in isolated forest- 
girdled farms. 
The black woman comes to the white man — never the white 
woman to the black man. The daughter of the tradesman aspires 
to the hand of the gentleman ; the daughter of the gentleman sel- 
dom descends to the tradesman. 
Passional analogy — sphinx of all enigmas — could alone give the 
key of this apparent contradiction. It must be remembered that 
Love is a little malicious God whose sport is to invert all social re- 
lations — to upset all conventions — all received ideas, and that the 
Cat is an emblem of Love. Sad love ! if it is permissible to honor 
