WHY CATS ARE CALLED TABBY.

Auckland Star, Volume LVIII, Issue 45, 23 February 1927, Page 8

WHY CATS ARE CALLED TABBY.

It is popularly supposed thai the term "old] tabby" is, or used to be. given lo old ladies j because of their fondness for tabby cats, writes i Lieutenant-Colonel Sir George MacMunn. |

Not a bit of it! Nor would it be right to say that cats were called " tabby " because of the old ladies who owned them.

The reason lies far away down the road of I history and takes us lo the times of liaroun el Rasehid and Richard the Lion Hi art. From time immemorial galleys have brought the fabrics of the Kast niro>r. the Levant -u the <-oasts of Kurope. Muslin came from Mosul. Dimity from Damietta. Sarcinncte was K.«rac«-;i silk from Diarbekr. the great walled city of the Kurds, and Damask from Damascus. Outside old Bagdad, on the opposite side of j the River Tigris from the Ravdnd of to-day ! stood the suburb of F.I Tahbyiana. In thai ' -uhurh. without the famous < irc:;,.ir walls of the city of the Caliphs. v-..i- r.air.ifariur.-d a nrh ' rind heavy l.l.ick a::d white w.uer. 1 -::k km.-.vi, !o ilr n;.irket> of Ku.o;..- :: - " T.J 1 hi " • ,'uecn Klizaheth is rerord- d n« ■.- .1:1:. • • , "Tahhi" dre- Mr. I'.-w- w.-ar. IV.* i:*.ita: i.. ;l I "* Tahhi " waistcoat, wlr.-h !!:•■ "p'or ure'.ih"! had pi veil hi:". 1; \v.i-. ! >o. the fa\mir ; tp ! material for the dr------ of cM<tl\ !r<d : <»* of I -tandiiiL*. | Hence it v\fi* thai old 1a....~ ««i. ..ilhd '" old I Tabbies." The cat probably takes The samo name because its fur is of a similar black and white watered design. I