BLACK CATS.

Hokitika Guardian, 11 July 1925, Page 1

BLACK CATS.

.MATERIAL FUR THE SUPERSTITIOUS. AUCKi.A.ND July !>. "Khiek isils for lucid' li.cy say, hut none o: the crew of lac* uaiiiui wore particularly disl nrbed oil ! ue.sflay night when the ship's cat would not he enticed aboard. She had her reasons, apparently, for very shortly afterwards Ihe Wainui was concerned in a collision in Ihe channel. V. hell the vessel returned to the wlmrl the cal .walked a hoard calmly, and proceeding to tho whoolJioiisi* s:;t clown on t'no opem log hook at the page where the account of the collision had just been entered. The crew at once saw ill the cat’s action some occult meaning: at any rate she knew when to stay oil and when to return to tile ship. The incident recalls a similar one that happened during the war. A troopship was about to leave Wellington and the ship's eat . also a black one. was Watching the last of the human cargo go aboard. Among these were two” padres, and the troops were wondering why double ministrations were to bo”thrust upon them. To their amazement- a. third followed, and this one a bishop. The cat was also disturbed, and almost tripped up iho bishop in her wild rush down the gangway for iho wharf. The. troops shouted with joy that she should thus energetically express her disapproval. Sonic ol 1 lu ' superstitious among the crew went in chase of the ship's mascot, hut sue eluded them, climbing an inaccessi >m spot in a wharf shod. The ship sailed without her. hut m less than a month was piled up on a sandbank at the entrance Kingston harbour, Jamaica. The bishop was the first to recall the ominous departure (it the cat :U ■Wellington, and laughingly to take me lil ame to himself.