Wakan Sansai Zue
One folk belief about the "bakeneko" is that they lick lamp oil. In the Edo period encyclopedia Wakan Sansai Zue, it is said that a cat licking this oil is an omen of an impending strange event. People in the early modern period used cheap fish oils in lamps, e.g. sardine oil; that could explain cats wanting to lick them. Also, at that time the Japanese diet was based on grains and vegetables, and while the leftovers were fed to the cats, as carnivores, the cats would have lacked for protein and fat and therefore been even more attracted to lamp oils. Moreover, the sight of a cat standing on its hind legs to reach a lamp, its face lit with anticipation, could have seemed eerie and unnatural, like a "yōkai". Cats may have regularly drunk lamp oil because it was derived from fish oil. The stealing of household objects is commonly associated with many Japanese ghosts, and thus the disappearance of lamp oil when a cat was present helped to associate the cat with the supernatural.