On Cats.

Evening Star, Issue 7344, 17 October 1887, Page 4

On Cats.

A writer in ' Indian Notes and Queries gives some beliefs prevalent in Southern India. We reproduce them below: — }, Accidentally swallowing the hair of a cat is believed to produce severe pain in the stomach. 2. It is unlucky to hear caterwauling going on when starting on a journey. 3. It is unlucky to see a cat on opening the eyes in the morning. 4. It is a heinous sin to pour water over a cat; to be expiated by the construction cf a golden cat and certain ceremonies. 5. Children are taught never to beat a cat, and are told if you do it your hands will shake ever afterwards, so that you be unit Vo to do anything. 6. It is unlucky to mention the word cat, so that, if a butler wants his European master to understand that the cat has walked off with the milk, he will say it has been drunk up by an animal with four legs and one tail, that makes a "mew mew" noise as it runs along. 7. It is, however, considered auspicious to a house if a cat is delivered of the kittens in it —an unusual occurrence. 8. Cat's flesh is prescribed in treatises on medicine as a specific for certain cases of asthma and consumption, but I have not heard of its being actually practised. 9. The astrologers' will tell a person born during pamartham (the 7th lunar astecism) to worship the cat and never to molest it, as an act conducive to hjs salvation, 10. The scull of a black cat is a part of every sorcerer's equipment. 11. In Malayalim the cat is called pucha and pucha-pallu, or cat-tooth, appearing in