John's Day.
Nowadays, there is a current superstition that a black cat brings good
luck to a house; but in the Middle Ages they believed that the devil
borrowed the form of a black cat when he wanted to torment or get
control of his victims. There are plenty of old traditions about cats
having spoken to human beings, and been kicked, or struck, or burned by
them in return; and invariably, these tales tell us, those who are so
bespoken meet some one the next day with plain marks of the injury they
had inflicted on the froward cat,--which was sure evidence of witchery
and sorcery. Doubtless full many a human being has been put to death, in
times past, on no stronger evidence of being a witch. Humanity did not
come to the rescue of the cat and bring her out from the shadow of
ignominy that hung over her in mediaeval times until 1618, when an
interdict was issued in Flanders prohibiting the festive ceremony of
throwing cats from the high tower of Ypres on Wednesdays of the second
week in Lent. And from that time Pussy's fortunes began to look up.
To-day, travellers on the edge of the Pyrenees know a little old man,
Martre Tolosan, who makes and sells replicas of the original models of
cats found among the Roman remains at a small town near Toulouse. These
are made in blue and white earthenware and each one is numbered. Mine,
bought by a friend in 1895, is marked 5000. They are not exact models of
our cats of to-day, to be sure, but they express all the snug content
and inscrutable calm of our modern pets.
Pages:
166
167
168
169
170
171
172
173
174
175
176
177
178
179
180
181
182
183
184
185
186
187
188
189
190