The Opelousas courier., 1904-06-11

any means been exterminatcd, and sc
it still remains the only beast of prey
left on English soil that is dangerous
to man. No doubt its ultimate fate
will be that of the wolf and the wild
boar, and ever now it is chiefly known
only to gamekeepers and ~poachers.
A little time ago the race was. com
mon enough in the woods tsaozkehout
Scotland, and is still to Gaaound in
Wales and Ireland. Th7&AsA variety
is larger than the BlR% but the
race seems to be spreadMy;5ver north
ern Europe and it ihIPso found in
northern Asia and y ~SFl.
Some years agoH& as the cause
of a great controY The question
a as to the oR"Sof the ordinary
cf. 1t is a fornS5f the wild cat al
tered ~ domesnation till its 1ttest
qualities surviving or is the ordinary
cat a distinct AJature? Now, though
the domestick is probably the COM
monest quasSped in Europe, there
certainly AGSa time when it was
rare andzas fable. Shylock, indeed,
speaks AssSshe harmless, necessary
cat" ~ all az il it were such a
treaGearas the monkey which his
day Ar exchanged for the turquoise
HI5Ss but we must go to an earlier
gate than Queen E~lizabeth's time.
Pennant. the naturalist, talking Of
'Howel, who ruled over southern
Wales for thirty years and died in
948, says that that excellent prince
did not think it beneath him to ascer-
tain the value of animals and fix the
price at which they should be bought
and sold in his dopjEsons. So he de-
creed that a killing before 1t could
see was to cost a penny; but after it
got it's sight and till it caught its
first house twopence.
Every cat that vas sold was to be
warranted perfect in sense of hearing
and seeing, its claws whole and a
good mouser. If it was deficient in
any Of these points the seller was to
forfeit to the buyer %one-third Of it's
value. Prince Howel's law went fur
Their than this. and had a clause pro-
tecting the owner of the cat-interest-
ing both as giving additional proof
of it's value and as showing the sim
pie ingenuity OF those times.
If any one stole Or killed the cat
that guarded the princes granary he
was to forfeit a mich ewe, its fleece
and lamb, or as much wheat as would
be ascertained in the following way:
The cat presumably dead) was to
be held suspended by the tail, its
head touching the ground, and the
wheat was then to be poured upon it
till the tip Of the tail was covered.
It is clear from this that the do
nestle cat was at that time a very
valuable creature, and one may ven
see the origin of the legend of Dick
Wilmington travelling about with his
singular pet. It is clear, too, that
this was not the wild cat. That ami
NAL was plentiful enough in Prince
Howel's dominions, and all over Eng
land was regarded as veWnin, to be
killed as a pest, and certainly not to
be protected as a household trasure.
There Is a charter of Richard lis
time. given by the King to the abbot
of Peterborough. authorizing the alb
bot to hunt the hare, the fox and
the wild cat, and there is a canon Of
Archbishop Corboye, dated 1927, for
bidding any nun or abbess to use
more costly fur than the fleece of a
lamb or the skin Of a cat. 1t would
seem, therefore. that the domestic
England at a time when the former
was a valuable animal.
Was it, however, a descendant of
the wild cat? The dog has been traced
up to the jacket by removes. numer-
GUS indeed, but no one Of which is
very remote from the previous ones
in the series, while between the wild
cat and the tame cat the essential diff
erences do not seem very great. More
over, the house cat shows this pecu-
1iarity-that there Is scarcely any do
nestle animal that so soon relapses
into a wild state. Londoners know
the London cat and will find it hard
to credit the statement. But game
keepers and gardeners could tell a
different story. A cat that has caught
and eaten a young rabbit DON be-
comes a confirmed poacher. The noe
turnal instincts Of the creature sur
1t will spend the night proving
and hunting. It will disdain Gus
and rat and go for ground game or
pheasant.
Sir William Jardine found a cat
that had kittened on the ridge Of an
uncut corr field. On approaching her
she showed every disposition to de-
fend her progeny, and besides her lay
two young leverets. fresh caught and
It seemed not difficult to be-
lieve that the wild cat might at the
same time advanced toward and cross
ed the boundary which separated 1t
from the tame animal. seeing that the
Another theory was, however, started
by Ruppel, who during his first tray-
els In Nubia, west of the hills near Am
bukol, discovered a cat a third smaller
than the wild one, and in all respects
to the house pet. 1t had,
however. the bushy instead of the ia
tail. but had the short legs
the tabby. Ruppel's theory was
that this animal was a descendant
Of the cat worshipped by the Egypt
Ians, and that to this Eastern super