The Arkansaw traveler., 1888-02-04
BRINGING A BREEZE.
San Francisco Alta.

A w SAk tAtet AS @ NCA HAVNAA N&tN said a lady to an Alta reporter yester- day, referring to & fine Persian cat coiled up on rug. "But often wonder how managed to get her home safe. You see, bought 1t in Calcutta and came homo in sail- ing ship around the cape. We'll, sir, every time we were becalmed tho sail ors would try and get my cat to throw 1t overheard, for they think that do- ing SO will bring wind"
 This Is an old superstition of the mariner. It would be hard to say how it originated, but it Is probable that it WAS originally intended as a sacrifice to Neptune, the god of the sea as on land the gods were propi- .iated by offerings of the devout, so Jack sought to calm the sea gods Ire by offering him cat. The old sailor, even in this advanced age, regards the cat as veritable weather gauge. The old landsman is often puzzled to ac- count for some of the strange sca terms. and questions arc ofien asked as to the meaning of the word "cats- paw" It Is simply quaint idea of the mariner, who sees in the sudden and peculiar zephyr that rufiles the waters a resemblance to the frolics of the cat Does pussy jump around good -humorcdly there will be good breeze and fair. But when she arches her back and swells her tail, then look out, for her scowling look will be as a calm to the storm 1t forcshadows, and the flashes from her eyes but as sparks to the blue streaks of zig rag light ming which will certainly soon illum- mate the sky.
 There Is nothing so tedious, SO az. gravating to the sailor as dead calm. Let it blow never so hard, let the thunder roll and the lightning flash as it may, yet the sailor, wet to the skin and wcaried with toll, prefers it to three weeks stay In the dol drums" In a storm the ship seems at least to be doing something, though that something may be nothing but n steady drift to leeward, as the ship lays to under close rccfcd topsails. But in the calm she lies like log on the water, heading all round the com pass, rolling gently In the ocean swell, the flap flap of the great sails alternating with the swish-swa of the wavelets as the vessel lavcs her sides in the water. Only an occasional catspaw disturbs the surface of the water, filling it for a moment like n passing breath on lady's mirror. Drift, drift, drift, day after day, the great burning sun overhead reflected on the waters until the eye becomes wearied with the eternal brightness. The sailors go about their work list lessly. Not so the officer of the deck. He does not heed the heat nor the stream of precipitation pouring down his face. He paccs the poop with q quiet, nervous tread, whistling for a wind Yes, he is scanning the hori- zon north, south, east and west, and with his whole soul whistles for n wind.
 This is another old, old belief of the sailor. This superstition at least can not bc traced to tine propitiation of the gods. It probably had it's origin in the impatience of the mariner who, while his vessel lay bccalmcd, rcmcm- bered with regret the hoarsc moaning and shrieking and whistling of the wind, and involuntarily tried to imi- tate 1t. And this supposition Is strengthened by the character of the whistling. The sailor does not whls- tie "Annie Laurie" or any other pop 'ular song It is a series of short and long sounds, now high, now low, like those produced by the wind blowing in It's might through the ropes and rigging.
 only little while ago
 was whistting to san Antonio
 For A capful of wind to All our sal.
 And instead of \ breeze he has sent gsle
 So says Longfellow in the "Golden Legend" having doubtless often heard of the sailors superstition. WhistliDg while the wind is blowing is thought to increase the gale. The privilege of whistling is generally confined to the officer of the deck and the captain, not that 1t is actually forbidden to the seamen, but nothing annoys an officer more than to hear sailor or boy whistling, and It is generally stopped by the polite gift of a rope yarn and the dry request to "tie that up." Sir Walter Scott in "Rokeby," has the passage:
 What gales are sold on Lapland's shore,
 How whistle rush bids tempests
 The custom of selling the wind is probably here referred to. This Is aI- most altogether in the past Still, in the north of Europe and the British Isles, there is belief among the fish ermen that the wind is salabIe, and there is on record that one Bessie Mii- Ter, as late A 1914 sold wind t0 the fishermen of the Hebrides for the sum of sixpence head.
 Eailors haze ofher All rersf i | iona ir.