The daily herald. [volume] (Brownsville, Tex.) 1892-1897, 1895-12-27
POWER or SPEECH OF THE CAT.
Argument In Favor OF the Theory Thu
FeIines Can Converse.


Argument In Favor of the Theory That
FeIines Can Converse.
Theories of articulate language in
the animal kingdom are advanced
every day. Some of them are seri-
Gus, like Professor Gamers notion
of an intelligent and ineligible
speech of apes, but the most inter-
esting are those which treat of the
matter in half humorous way
which does not tax the credulity too
far. Such a one is the theory of a
feline tongue, exploited by the blind
author, Marvin Clark, in his little
book on Pussy and Her Language. "
He declares that the smooth and
liquid passages in our poets which
express onomatopeia are but echoes
from that most beautiful Of all lam
guages, that of the cat"
The ono most like it among human
tongues. he says, is the Chinese, tho
sounds in each being musical, mel
lifiuous and pleasing to the senses.
As in the Chinese, too, words in the
cats language have various mean
ings, according TO the infections of
the voice. The number of words is
very great, but the author has made
up no complete lexicon of them as
yet. Tho following II, says q writ
or IN the Buffalo Commercial, are
the most important and frequent in
the conversation which cats struggle
to carry on with members of the
household: Aelio means food; lac,
milk; parriere, open; aliloo, water;
bl, meat; ptlee-Dl, mouse meat;
bleeme-be, cooked meat; pad, foot;
DO, head; pro, nail or claw; tut, limb;
papoo, body; oolie, fur; mi-ouw, be-
ware; burrieu, satisfaction or con-
tent; yiaou, determination; mi
youw, here.
OF primitive words it is believed
there are not more tina. 800 In the
cat tongue, and many of these are
obscure. for the cat relies greatly
upon signs for making its meaning
clear to those who have neglected o
study of its articufate speech. Thus
the last word in the foregoing list is
used by a matronly cat in calling
her family together, and she will
continue to use 1t while caressing
thep1.
But the meaning of the word is
never so well understood by kittens
as when uttered in sharp tone and
a number of times. more as
an explosive than otherwise, for it
Is a warning of danger and call for
instant action from the mother cat,
who Is imperious in her demands for
Then there rs the word "mi-youw,"
which Is varied to wow teiouw-
VOW tow wow-you- ts-s-syow. end
ing in an explosion. The author be-
lieves that the word thus uttered
signifies both defiance and. a curse
land comes so near to bold, bad
that be refrains from
giving the English for it.
There may be skeptical persons
who will ridioule this theory. butwe
should say that it was just as rea-
as Professor Gamers, while
she language of tho cat sounds far
more articulate and significant of de-
sign than the squeaky vocabulary
which he brought homo from goril-
"a land. One thing is certain-the
means for carrying on investigation
in the interesting field of feline Ian.
guage are available in almost every
and to obtain the desired
from which volumi-
nous treatise upon it can be written
it is not necessary to go to Africa
and remain for six months shut up
in cage in the heart of the forest.