THE CAT.

Daily Telegraph (Napier), Issue 3145, 27 July 1881, Page 4

THE CAT.

Cats are curious cattle. They are selfish. They are grasping. When the attributes were parcelled out among the animals, the catgut the gift of music. She got it by violins. No one knows where cats come from, but, since the fashion of seal sacques came in, everybody knows where most of them go to. But this is kept a profound secret among the owners of seal garments. They set the Beal of secrecy upon it. Perlups they are wise. Thecathas nine lives—that is to say, she lives nine times longer than she ought. Thi3 suggests a problem, which lovers of mathematics—there are those, alas ! who love them—can puzzle over. If ifc takes nine tailors to make one live man, and nine lives to make one cat, what does a catamount to ? (Correspondents sending answers will please encloso a threecent stamp, not for publication, but for the use of the compiler of this authentic history.) The cat is not subject to tax. Efforts have been made to inserfc a clause in the dog law to include cats, but this far the cats have been able to insert their own claws. Not only do they escape tax, but the taxidermist also. They do their own stuffing. At the time of the flood Father Noah endeavoured to keep the cat out of the ark, but the cat got her back up, and went in under tho guise of the camel. Until very recently, every ship has since that time carried a cat. Many stones are told of the seafaring cat, including nine tails, which are often red. In Egypt cats were regarded as sacred To kill one was punishable with / " death. The cat remembers this, and to this day takes a fence on the slightest provocawhen a cat died all the inmates house went into mourning. Now the go out into the night and erect to her memory. They don't wait *jjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjj|Horning. Egyptians worshipped a cat-headed

deity, and mariners, who cling to old superstitions, still set up cat-heads in their ships. The Egyptian cat lived in a dark age; the modern cat closes her existence in a sausage. Catskins were a favourite dress trimming in tho Middle Ages, whence arose tho proverb that a skinned cat is better than it looks. The cat's kin are now exclusively used as a trimming for back fences. A catkin is a young cat, and is great on tho spring. In the spring she may be seen on the topmost branches of the willows. Cats were introduced into England from the island of Cyprus. They are not found in the cypress now ; only on willows. In ancient Wales a cat fetched tho same price as a calf. Her modern wails now frequently fetch a whole cowhide in the shape of boot leather. Cats are very mewsical. They are all base singers. The nocturne is their favourite composition. Nox is their especial deity. Knocks always accompany their concerts. Cats do not open their eyes until nine days old. Do they ever close them again ? Nein. Throw a bootjack at a sleeping cat and you will be convinced of this. fats are supposed to be accomplices of witches, is probably because they love the darkness rather than lijiht. It is said that cats are cleverer than dogs, and more easily trained. They are great pedestrians, and can make more laps in a given time than any other animal. They are generally heal'hy, notwithstanding we hear of ' the cat ill upon a thousand hills.' A great many more things might be said about the cat. But silent be, it is the cat ! — The Graphic,