The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1881-11-02
The Place of the Cat in Mythical
Stories.

[Carl Blind, in Contemporary Reyiew.l
According to the tale current in the Upper
Palatinate of Bavaria, the Wanen are heath
ems hailing from person that had been en-
chanted by the Evil One into Wana, or TOM
cat, and propagating themselves by intercourse
with the human race. Often, these Wanes
appear in cat shape. If Wane is recognized
as such, in spite of his human form, and ad-
dressed by his name as "Wana," or "Wana-
lusch,' or "Devips Wana,' he at once changes
into a cat and flies forever. In the Twelfth
Nights the Wanes hold great mystic festi-
val. Altogether they are in close connection
with the witches. 1t will be remembered that
the 'Twelfth Nights" were the time when the
Vanic Freyr, or Fro, made his yearly process
sion, and when joyousness and Yulepe were
the rule everywhere Why should, however,
the Wanes OF the Upper Palatinate of Bavaria,
who are described as heathens, be converted
into cats? A team of cats drew the Vanic
Freyja Of the Mortimer. Among the Scandi-
navians and among the Germans, Freyja,
Freia-Holda, or Frau Holle makes the wealth
er. Her brother, Freyr, "rules over all rain
and sunshine and all growth on the earth, and
he is to bo appealed to for fruitfulness and
peace" Water and light, rain and sun are
under the auspices of the divine vanic pair of
brother and sister. Every ancient cosmogony
seeks to explain the origin Of things from its
own point Of view, though different cosmogo-
nies put different elements or forces Of nature
into the foreground. Now, the conception OF
the sun as a cat is one that may be traced back
into the dimmest antiquity. In the Egyptian
Book of the Dead, which was already Of inn
mense antiquity at the time Of the twelfth dy.
nasty the Great Cat (''Mau') is mentioned,
which in ancient gloss, anterior to the
twelfth dynasty, is explained as the symbol Of
the sun, or rather, as the Sun-god himself
"There can be no mistake" says NJ. p. LIE Page
Renouf, ''as to the identity of the animal, for
the picture of it is found in numberless copies
of the Ritual" There was a custom among
the Egyptians to drive away the typhon, the
representative of the evil forces of nature-for
instance, the scorehing wind-by means of a
rattle adorned with a cats head. The sacred
ness of the cat among the dwellers near the
Nile is well known. Every museum of num-
mics proves it. Bubastis, too, the aughter Of
that Isis which resembled our Nerthus, was
represented with a cats head. Now the glow
ing cats eye tyDiied the sun, or also the moon.
Here we have the thread of poetical or mytho-
logical connection between the cat and the So
lar or lunar goddeSses and the employment of
those symbols of benefcent orbs of heaven for
driving away evil forces of nature. As the sun
and weather deities are often at the same time
erotic deities, double connection is constitut-
ed. This explains the German proverb, Her
die Kdtzen germ hat, hat bel Weibern Glack,
and other sayings referring TO marriage in con-
nection with cats, to whom, in popular belief q
great deal of amorousness is ascribed. Freyjas
team. in all probability, was at first composed
of lynxes, before the cat had been introduced
into the North. The lynx has his name from
the light; his shining eye, therefore, symbol
lied the sun. The custom in Northern Eng
land to destroy kittens born in May (the Ger
man Wonnemond, or Love month, originally
dedicated to Freia) because it is supposed that
ii they sWera allowed To- attain -eatheod- -thsg@
manic view having been converted into its very
opposite by the introduction of Christianity. In
the same way, Friday-Freyjas days in
many parts of this country still held to be an
unlucky day for marriage. Yet, in some dis
tricts, Freyja's day is still recognized as the
best day for marriage especially in Scotland,
where, according to the Registrar-G General,
nearly half of all the marriages namely, 43.3
per cent? are celebrated ON that day. As far
as China-consequently also among the Tura-
nian races-we meet with the cat symbol in the
sense of weather protection. A wooden cat
put on the gable end of the roof is considered
to keep watch, and ward off unpropitious intiu--
ences. So did wooden horses heads-s symbol
of the great weather-god Wooden, or Odin-
among the Saxons of old. On the homesteads
of Westphalian peasants these horse symbols
may still be seen.