Green-Mountain freeman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1844-1884, 1871-08-02
Our 4lOung folks.
snirerning.CatS.

concerning Cats.
4 common superstition charges eats with
sucking the breath of infants thereby caus-
ing their death by strangulation. This is
false accusation, a. pussy's mouth Is so
formed anatomically that She would not
be able to DO so sanguinary deed did she
wish it. Instances are on record where
eats have crawled into rradle or bed
and lain down on an infants face, not prob
able with any criminal though
children have been found dead under such
circumstances-butp purely for the sake Of
the warmth Of the infants body and cloth
ing.
Every body has heard Of the Kilkenny
cats who fought in a saw-pit until only q
tail Of either combatant was left. This Is
said to be an ailegory designed to tipity
the ruin which centuries of litigation and
environments on the subject Of conflicting
rights and liberties brought to the rcspcc-
tive cxchequcrs Of Kilkenny and Irish
town, separate corporations existing with
in the limits Of one city, and the bound
aries Of whose respective Jurisdictions mad
never been definitely marked out by Am
authority which either was willing to rec
oguizc. These struggles were commenced
A. D. 1897, and fought, only as ye-try-
men can fight, for over three hundred
years, at the end Of which time IL might
be supposed, very little wa~ left, Gnanei-
ally speaking Of either party
There is. however, another story of q
great cat-tght ia the same neighborhoal-
Onc summer night all the cats 10 the city
and country OF Kilkenny were absent
from their homes. ana next morning
plain near the city was strcwoi with thnu-
and- Of dead eats and i was supposed
that almost all the cats ID Ireland joincJ
in the fight. as was shown by collars OBI
the necks Of some Of the dead, bearing tac
names Of places in aIl quarters o. ireland.
The cause of the quarrel is not known.
but there are men alive who knew per-
sons. jnce dead, who actually Inspected
the field.
1t was once upon "a time trick of d
countrymau to bring cat 10 market ia 3
bag, and substitute it for a sucking piE Iu
another bag. which he sold TO the uuwAry
when he got a chance. II the trick wa
prcmaturely discovered, it was called .ct-
ting the cat out of the bag If otherwise.
he who made the bad bargain was sand %
have bought a pig IN poke.
Cats usually fall o. their feet. because
of the ease with which they balance them
selves in Ieaping from d hight, which
power Of balancing Is, in some degree,
produced by the fcxibiiity ct the heel,
the bones ii which have no fewer thau four
joints. \ cat, when falling " TIL its head
downward, curis IT. body 20 that ID, All,
forms an arch. while the leg remain rE-
tended. This 50 changes the position of
centre Of gravity, that the body makes 4
haIt-turn in the air, and the feet become
lowest
The French Of cat is clat5 German,
haf1e the Italian, katie the Spanish.
cato the Dutch and Danish, Int the
Welsh, cath the Latin, cat1s. the French
OF puss Is ullneftc. The only language lH
which the name Of the cat is significant IS
the lend, where the word g0tH, almost
identical with the Spanish gat0, means
place. word peculiarly significant in re-
ference to this animal, whose attachment
Is peculiar to place and not to the person,
so strlklngly indicated by the dog. Ii il
ES+f7i''- 1HtAS pa a. N+~A4f~+- 4ASAi- ttiN
Egyptian name pasht but the derivation
Is generally agreed 10 be from the Latin
P11SuS Ia little boy or pisa Ia little giril
In Abyssinla, cats are 50 valuable that
marrlagable girl, who IS likely to come
IN for cat, Is looked upon as quite an
heiress.
Apollo created the lion to terriiy his
sister Diana, and She tuned his fearful
beast into rldicule by mimicking it in the
form OF 4 cat. Cats were dedicated to
Diana. not only when She bore her proper
name, but when she was called 'liecate.
Witches who worshipped Hecate had al
ways a favorite cat.
There is Cape on the Isle of Cyprus
which was once called Cat Cape a mon
astery stood there, the monks Of which
were bound By VOW to keep great
number Of cats, to destroy the snakes with
which the island abounded. At the sound
of certain bell. the cats came troopinr
home to their meals, and then rushed out
again to the chase. When the Turks con
quered the island, both the cats and their