Bismarck weekly tribune. [volume] (Bismarck, Dakota [N.D.]) 1884-1943, 1898-04-29
FOLK TALES OF CATS.

lOlIA .IALILO OI CAlG.
THE ORIGIN OF TaBBY is TRACED
BACK TO THE EGYPTIANS.
Sir Henry Wyat's Feline Friend and How |
It Saved Him From Death by Starvation
o. Deoreed by the Wicked King Rioh-
ard III.
Some scholarly enthusiast should write
Q volume on the folklore Of cats. So long
% we believed that the domestic cat de-
scended from the wild European species
its appearance in legends and fairy tales
was in no way more puzzling than that of
the fox or the wolf, but science has
wrecked that comfortable theory, and it
seems to follow that all the folklore of oats
has arisen in historic time-a conclusion
well worth the study of those who take In.
terest in such subjects. Our cats are a |
heritage from ancient Egypt. Max Muller
p%ronouncos that over the Sanskrit word is
comparatively recent" India received
the animal probably from the Greeks, who
themselves had only lately become ao-
quainted with 1t.
Tho Intelligent schoolboy will jeer at
this assertion. Docs not Aristophancs re-
for to tho gale, an. is not gallo a cat: Tho
husbandman in "Tho Peace suspects it
Of stealing game from his larder. "Any-
how" he says, 81 heard the gallo making
q great noiso thorc last night" What
could this household pot DO unless a cat?
Professor Rolloston has demonstrated that
1t could DO tho white breasted marten and
was, in fact, q delightful little creature
for those who could bear its smell, md
one not to be surpassed ut lnousing. 1t
would seem that tho Romans were not
familiar with cats. even in Pliny's day,
for he evidently thinks that they snlelled
like a gale. 1t is alleged that the whole
Roman literature contains less than half q
dozen illusions to cats before the Christian
, era.
Upon tho other hand, u cat Ia represent.
ed in n Of tho grandest and apparently
ono of tho Oldest Etruscan tombs. It has
just caught a mouse n holds 1t. No
doubt there was intercourse between the
/ Tuscans and the Egyptians. But in north
ern mythology tho chariot of Freyga, or
Frigga, is drawn by two cats. She was
goddess of love and luck, very properly as
: sooiated with a creature which is gentle
and tender at tho domestic hearth, but en-
terprising in courtship and fearless in
meeting a rival. Is it to be credited that
Froyga's cats were the wild variety? The
matter is not SO unimportant as it looks,
but decidedly this is not tho place for an
excursus upon the date of tho Asa gods.
In u very carly saga we find q wicked
man, Thorolf Sleggja, defying the vonge-
ancc of his noighbors under protection of
20 cats. At lungth tho chief of tho district
mustered IS mon and assailcd tho house.
Thorolf posted his cats at tho door, ''and
they looked very fierco, moving and roll
ing their eyes" Whom the chief APP
proached, "thcy cried out and began to
act hideously." So no remarked, "Ihis is
4 wicked company" and Withdrew to tho
fenco, whore his men pitched firebrnnds
on tho roof and set it blazing. .Ihorolf
burst out presently with n chest of silver
undo each arm, caught ono of his enemies
and jumped into tho %neighboring bog,
holding him tight. Mother bodies nor
treasure could be recovered. Tho site of
his house was haunted by cats ever after
ward, "und evil was thought to dwell
there"
A volume is needed for this subject, be-
cause among other reasons it must be il
lustratcd by stories, or tho public will be
bored, and stories fill up. A nero string
of facts "gocs in at one ear and out at tho
other" In such n volume tho legend Of
Dick Wilmington would require several
scores OF pages for proper treatment. Hero
we say nothing about it.
But there is another folklore tale of the
same class not nearly SO familiar to tho
public. Sir Henry Wyatt was committed
to the tower by Richard III and pitifully
treated. He had Mother bed nor clothes
and only food enough to keep him just
alive. Winter set in, and no was like to
perish with cold. Ono night a cat slid
down tho chimney, came to him purrin2
and confident, as to it's master, curlcd it.
self upon his chest and kept him warm till
morning. Then it passed up tho chimney
again, to reappear presently with Il pigeon,
which it put into Sir Honry's hand and
vanished for tho day.
When the jailcr ann he begged for
moro food, but tho man replied that he
burst not. "Thcn wilt thou dress any I
provide?'' asked Sir Henry. Very willing
ly tho jailer promised, and no kept his
word, though startled and alarmed ut
sight of tho pigeon. SO things went on for
a time. But wicked Richard determined
to starve his enemy to death and gavo or
dcrs to that effect. Then the cat paid sew
eral visits during tho day, bringing a pi-
geon each time, and the jailer, rightly con
Guiding that "there were miracles about -
revorently cooked them. So Henry out
lived his prosecutor, and the story is ex-
tant to this day among the munilnents of
that ancient family, but not transcribed
by tho hero, as we understand, nor in his
generation. The account states, however,
that a picture of Sir Henry, with tho cat
and the pigeon, was to DO seen. Like owl.
dence is put forward in Whittington's
case.
Since all things are possible, it must not
be said that either wondrous narrative is
untrue. But meantime we class them
both among folk tales.-PnN Mall Ga.
zette.
Edison Won't Talk Into q Photograph.