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Her Language

MARVIN R. CLARK,

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PUSSY

AND

Her Language

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Sa Vv 2 IAYIS 1895
i MARVIN R. CLARK. \e, a
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2349 7.
Including a Paper on the Wonderful Discovery

of the Cat Language.

BY

ALPHONSE LEON GRIMALDI, F. R.S., etc.

CopyricuT 1895

By MARVIN R. CLARK

a

—_

CHAPTERS.

L—IT WAS THE CAT.”

Il.—A LITTLE INNOCENT WHO KNOWS THE FAMILY
SECRETS.

IIl.—LIKE UNTO OURSELVES.

1V.—NELLY AND TOM.
V.—_MEMORY AND INTELLIGENCE.

‘SS

VI.—_FRIENDS OF THE CAT.

VII._SOME REMARKABLE, TRUE STORIES.
VIII.—HOSPICE DU CHATS.

IX.—_ASTOUNDING REVELATIONS BY THE CAT.
<.—PROFESSOR GRIMALDI’S WONDERFUL DISCOVERY.
XI.—_SIGNS AND SOUNDS. |
XTI.—DESCRIPTIVE LANGUAGES.

XITI.—_LANGUAGE OF DIVINE ORIGIN.

XIV.—POWER OF SPEECH IN THE FELINE.
XV.—ILLUSTRATIVE STORIES.

XVI.—-SUPERIORITY OF THE CAT OVER OTHER QUAD-
RUMINA.

XVIT.—INTELLECTUAL POWER OF THE CAT.

XVIII.—SOME CHARACTERISTICS OF THE CAT.
XIX.—GENEROSITY, CUNNNING AND CAMERADERIE.
XX.—VOWELS AND LIQUIDS PREDOMINATING.
XXI.—CAT WORDS IN COMMON USE.

XXIT.—-A COMPREHENSIVE LIST OF WORDS.

XXIII.—A MUSICAL LANGUAGE.

XXIV.—THE IMPORTANCE OF SIGNS.

PuUoSoY AND HER. LANGUAGE.
¥

AT WAS THE: CAT.”

When, in the fable, that humorcus progenitor of the
human species, according to that sicker, slyer and sill
more humorous, practical joker, Darwin, the monkey, cas*
about him in a sudden emergency for some useful utensil
adequate to the purpose of pulling his chestnuts out of
the fire, his sclfish ambition was rewarded by the sight of
no less distinguished a person than the Cat. Notwith-
standing the piteous protests and flowing tears of Pussy,
she was forced into the service of the monkey, and ever
after there lived in the memory of man that wonderful
story, from which we get the expressive saying of “mak-
ing a cat’s paw” of anything or anybody.

The cruelty of the act and the subsequent greed of
the simian who, despite the appeals of the feline for a
share in the delicious roast, gave her nothing but the
smell, of which he could not have deprived her, appeals
_ to the indignation of a just public. But the suffering and
the tears and the cries of the Cat command the sympathy
of all right-minded people who rest in peace under the
“Banner of Freedom,” and fight against oppression. The
moral is demonstrative, as you will see.

The presiding genius who carries the portfolio and
administers the affairs of the most important otf all the
divisions of the household—the culinary di pczrtment—
the ccok, wisely appreciates the inestimable value of the

ae 5

6 PUSSY AND HER LANGUAGE.

Cat, and never fails to make convenient use of the animal,
even employing her upon occasions. when Pussy becomes
nothing short of a miracle-worker. Of course, the reader
may differentiate the story with common sense, but rarely,
for the word of the queen of the realm of the culinary
department is as the verity of the Law and the Gospel.
The mistress may wonder, and a smile of incredulity may
pass over the countenance of the master of the house, but
the breakage of crockery and the lavish disappearance of
spirits, wine and ale, the wonderful growth of the butcher’s
bill, the prodigal wanderings of butter not strong enough
to sustain its own weight, the overdone appearance of
the breakfast steak, and the underdone appearance of the
dinner joint are attributable only to the household pet,
for the cook hath said “It was the Cat!” Even when the
mistress sadly discovers the queen of the sacred domain,
who has the power to poison the food she dispenses, lying
prone upon the kitchen floor at the dinner hour, the
fumes of the best brandy escaping from her stentorian
lungs and her limbs limp as fresh putty, the bouquet of
the spirits of 1840 comes to the sensitive nostrils of the
lady laden with the murmurings of the cook, ‘It was the
Cat!” and the faithful mistress intuitively reaiizes that
there has been a battle royal between the queen regent
and the agent of the king of that realm where ice appear-
eth not, and all skating is done upon rollers. —

When the extensive disappearance of the family pre-
serves catises inquiry, and the heir of the house is ques-
tioned concerning his knowledge of the loss, he unhesi-
tatingly and solemnly declares that “It was the Cat!”
which is in the usual course of events, and always to be
believed, even when it is noted by the nurse that the
nose of the urchin resembles, in color, that of a man

oe WAS ADEBy CAE.” 7

_whose ways are not those of the temperate, and smelleth
of strawberry jelly, and his chin resembleth that of one
who has but recently been thickly coated with raspberry
jam.

Now, mark the moral. We loudly censure the mon-
key in the fable, and smile at the charges of the others, not
pausing to consider that the sufferings of the flesh are en-
durable, but the tortures of the mind from undeserved
censure are frequently beyond endurance. The great
lover of the Cat, Shakespeare, as if the wrongs of the
calumniated feline in his mind aptly expresses the feel-
ings of the Cat, when he says, through the medium of
Othello:

“Who steals my purse, steals trash; ’tis something, nothing;
"Twas mine, tis his, and has been save to thousands;
But he that filches from me my good name,

Robs me of that which not enriches him,

And makes me poor indeed.”

“Give a dog a bad name, and you send him to”—
the place not hung with icy stalactites. Itis asolemn and
well-known fact that one of a million dogs gets a bad
name, while not one out of a million Cats gets a good one.
It is out of the shadow of this cruel prejudice that I would
lead the Cat, and place her upon the pedestal to which
she should have been raised for the admiration of the
world, long, long ago.

IT.

A LITTLE INNOCENT WHO KNOWS THE FAMILY SE-
CRETS. |

When a startling discovery which virtually concerns
every atom of humanity has been rounded into a fact, so
that the average human intellect may grasp and, after
thoroughly comprehending its value, make the proper
application of it, the sooner it is given to the world for
the benefit of the human race, if benefit there be in the
discovery, the better for the world and all that are upon it.

Such a fact, and one which will go far to revolution-
ize society, has certainly been discovered, and, I hope,
may be presented in so clear and comprehensive a man-
ner that “he who runs may read,’ and readily realize
its vast importance to the world, although its development
will, undoubtedly, spread the greatest alarm wherever it
is made known. ;

It will not be denied, when I make the assertion,
that in every household, in the hovel of the poorest as
well as in the mansion of the richest, in the storehouse,
the factory, the workshop, the mill, the foundry, the news-
paper office, the schoolhouse, the hospital, the theatre,
the counting-room, the great libraries, the ships and the
political headquarters, even in the grand capitol buildings
at Washington, and penetrating, without hindrance, into
the very secret Cabinet meetings at the White House, and
almost everywhere throughout the whole inhabitable
globe, there exists a spy upon whose ears fall the secrets

8 :

A LITTLE INNOCENT. 9

of a nation, which, if breathed at some inopportune mo-
ment, might be its ruin. With an air of insouciant non-
chalance, this ever-present spy meanders everywhere and,
with ears alert to catch the softest whisper, gives token
only of a feeling of innocuous desuetude when scenes and
secrets of the most astounding character are being de-
veloped to the understanding.

From time inimemorial these facts have existed with
the knowledge and consent of everybody, but, strangely
enough, without a thought that it might be possible for
the Cat to communicate the secrets thus surreptitiously
obtained through the careless confidence of humanity.

The safety of such confidences lies entirely in the as-~
sumption of what has hitherto been regarded as a fact,
and, although such utterances have been made in the
presence of this universal spy, there was no possibility
of their communication to the outer world because of its
lack of power to do so. The astonishment following the
recent discovery lies in the fact that this overweening
confidence of man has been sadly misplaced, for I may
state with the firmest faith in the proofs which have been
presented to me, that, notwithstanding the belief to the
‘contrary, the whole world has been misguided and the
ever-present feline community has a language of its own,
and, further, that it has beconie intelligible to more than
one individual, myself among the number.

The importance of this startling discovery cannot be
overestimated. It vitally concerns every human being
in the known world, as may readily be perceived after a
moment's thought. The possibility of the existence of a
language as a means of communication of thoughts and
ideas between animals has, for ages, been a subject of
comment with many, while to those whose association

10 PUSSY AND HER LANGUAGE.

with and fondness for the animal kingdom cannot but ad-
mit that there is no doubt coacerning the truth. In fact,
innumerable evidences of signs and verbal commun:ca~
tions between what are incorrectly stigmatized as dumb
beasts are constantly being demonstrated to the world
but, unfortunately, described as evidences of instinct, al-
though bearing every proof of thought emanating from
the soul as uttered by the human being.

I may be considered as aiming too high in my declara-
tion of what I shall procede to prove, but it is with a
firm belief that I shall be fully able to substantiate my as-
sertion and convince the reader. Such wonderful evi-
dences of the astonishing sagacity of animals have come
to the knowledge of every man and woman that, when
these instances are remembered, I consider myself well on
the road toward demonstrating the assertion that there
is a language of communication between animals.

Explain to me, if you can, why, if they do not posses~
souls, when shrouded in slumber, the horse will neigh and
prance, the Cat will cry, the lion will roar, the monkey
will chatter and the dog will bark and whine while dream-
ing, even as a human being will give evidence of a rest-
less mind when the animal senses are dormant.

Some years ago I possessed a dog who learned, with-
out instruction and with little difficulty, to turn the knob
and thus gain admission through the outer door of my
house to the interior. Last Winter I was in possession
of two Skye terriers, to whom I frequently remarked in a
quiet tone of voice, in the morning, that I would take
them out for a walk in the afternoon, and, at the hour
when they had been taken out by me upon previous occa-
sions, they invariably put their noses together and com-
municated their ideas. -As a result of such communica-

A LITTLE INNOCENT. 11

tion first one and then the other, then both worried me
with their paws and called to me unceasingly, until I kept
my word with them. These are but two of the countless
instances which have come under my observation, as
numberless cases have been met with by others, proving,
beyond denial, that these and other animals are as fu_ly
possessed of memery as is that nobler animal, man.

Call it instinct, if you will, but is that not to be con-
sidered as more than instinct which prompts the Cat to
distinguish between the friend and the enemy of its mas-
ter and mistress, and even to protect them from the at~
tacks of an enemy at the risk of the life of the animal?
The number of such instances is legion. Surely the
faithfulness of our domestic animals cannot be doubted,
bu we may doubt the humanity of man to the animal
kingdom when the evidence of the same senses in what
are termed the lower animals is said to be instinct, while
in the human it is called soul and mind.

It has frequently been remarked by those who have
made a study of the animal kingdom that the intelli-
gence of the lower animals, in many matters, is far
superior to that possessed by human beings. For i:-
stance, the natural, living, breathing barometer is a Cat,
and there are none better. When a Cat washes herselt
in the ordinary manner, we may be sure of bright, sun-
shiny weather, but when she licks herself against the grain
of her fur or washes herself with her paw over the ear, or
sits with her tail to the fire, there will be a storm.

IIT.
LIKE UNTO OURSELVES.

At certain stages in our great journey we sit down and
take a retrospect, going over, hand in hand with memory,
the old road and carefully treading in the same footsteps,
looking upon the same scenes, suffering the old pains
and rejoicing in the same joys. At such times we won-
der at the misplaced confidences and our unexplainable,
as well as our unjust prejudices. We admit our prone-
ness to go with the current when in the swim, and the
natural lassitude which prompts us, rather than argue a
point or spur ourselves to the task of disproving what
may be false, which means work, to take for granted the
theory of another. We often excuse ourselves upon the
plea that one cannot find time, in this short li‘e, to prove
everything, and we must necessarily take for granted
many things, perhaps upon the guarantee of those in
whom we lhave confidence, sometimes because it has
passed into a proverb and at other times for the reason
that we are too tired to go against the current and set our~
selves up for oddities or cranks. But we do stop and
wonder at our prejudices, more particularly because we
have had occasion so many times to completely
reverse OUr opinions, wondering, at the same
time, how we ever could have jumped at the
conclusion that because a nut has a _ sour rind
it must necessarily have a sour kernel, or that the
bristling appearance of the prickly outside denoted that it

12

LIKE UNTO OURSELVES. Be

was prickly all through, and for this reason to be avoided.
We hear a man derided by the mob and follow the
crowd—we discriminate when a woman is talked about
derogatively and avoid her because it is the rule—then,
perhaps, it is in after years, when the object has lived down
the false assertions, at some certain stage in our journey,
we look back, wonderingly, commiserate the sufferings
of one and another and say that it was nothing but preju-
dice, and then what? Then we go on our way and do the
selisame thing over and over again.

How easy it is to do all these things we people of ex-
perience can testify. We say, “Give a dog a bad name,”
and so on, but how singular it would sound if one should
say, “Give a Cat a bad name!” Why, the Cat has it, al-
ready! Are you sure that the almost universally bad
name of the Cat is not pure and unadulterated prejudice,
and, considered as a generality, with the least founda-
tion in fact?

You say that the Cat is treacherous, a thief anda lover
of places, not persons. This is the sum and substance
of humanity’s grievances against the feline. I know ofno
other despicable attributes ascribed to the Cat, and admit
that these would be enough to condemn her, were they
true. But they are not true, saving only in exceptional
cases. Providentially for the Cat, she is provided with
natural means of defence and uses her claws at times and
very justly when imposed upon. I never knew, or heard
of, a Cat who deliberately and out of pure viciousness,
scratched or fought a person whom she might have rea-
_sonably supposed to be her friend. Be just and admit
this fact.

Concerning the charge of thievery, I admit that Pussy’s
derelictions have been proven in exceptional cases, but

14 PUSSY AND HBR LANGUAGE.

plead, in partial justification, the neglect of master or
mistress to properly provide for her, and that her food
was due to her for labor performed, upon the principle
that “the workman is worthy of his hire.” Consider that
Pussy has ridden your house of mice and rats, and con~
tinues, day by day, to perform her duty of keeping the
thieves from your dwelling—that if you profit by her prog-
nostications, she tells you. far better than a barometer,
the truth about the weather, long before there comes a
change—that she even guards your home from intruders—
that she is the first, if permitted to do so, to welcome your
home-coming—that she is ever ready, with her gentle
purr, to express her love for you and with her soothing
song—the gentlest ever heard—to calm your troubled
mind. Think for a moment how her winning ways and
pretty playfulness have amused you for many an hour
and won a warm place in your heart for the little house-
hold pet, then justify her for helping herself when you
either forgot or refused to give her the nourishment she
had so richly earned. This is by way of justification
of the feline, in the exceptional case, when she takes what
may not be regarded as technically her own, although the
equivalent of the same is rightfully her due. Ask your-
self if, when you walk into your landlady’s larder and help
yourself to the viands there because your luncheon is
not ready on time, you are not as great a criminal as
Pussy, who has been equally neglected. Concerning the
accusation that she is fond of places and not of persons, I
will have something definite to say further on.

There is one undeniable fact concerning animals,
which is that when associated with manthey acquire his
ways and imitate his habits. Thus the Cat, but, in a more
‘delicate manner, soon takes upon herself the temper, man-

ee

LIKE UNTO OURSELVES. 15

nerisms, actions and ways of her mistress, and in her life
imitates the actions of the one who is her admiration and
involuntary teacher. Cats, in short, are like ourselves,
and are subject to the same rules that govern all human-
ity throughout the habitable globe. I cannot better illus-
trate and prove this fact than by relating a story that
came under my observation, and from which, while I
vouch for the truth of it, you may draw your own con-
clusions.

AY;
NELLIE AND TOM.

I was a boy of eighteen years of age when my mother
brought home with her, all the way from the State of
Maine, a Maltese Pussy, of full breed. We called her
“Nellie.” After mother had buttered WNellie’s feet, a
process which she said would always keep a cat from run-
ning away from home, the aristocratic Nellie became an
important member of our household, and never deserted
us.

One day I brought home to Nellie a companion who
had been presented to me by a friend. “Tom,” as we
called the boy, was a pure Maltese, and a giant of his kind,
a cheerful, clever and peaceable fellow and an ornament
and pet, for he was admired by evervbody who saw him.
His feet were also buttered, and after a little spat with
Nellie, who, at first, could see no just reason why Tom
should encroach upon her domain, the two became fast
friends, and finally married and raised several litters of
pure Maltese kittens, all of whom we gave to longing
friends save one, which we kept for Nellie’s sake.

Tom remained true to his marriage vows for a long
time, but one day, about six months after his advent in
the household, he was missing, and the neighborhood was
searched for Tom. He remained away until the follow-
ing afternoon, when he returned, looking sheepish, while
his appearance bore unmistakable evidence of his having
been indulging in a debauch. Tom was very crestfallen
and expressed his sorrow to his spouse Nellie, who would

16

NELLIE AND TOM. 17

have nothing to do with him for several days. Poor Tom
was disconsolate, and applied to me for sympathy. Of
course every member of the family reproved Tom for his
waywardness, but the story of the “Prodigal Son” and his
return, in tatters, was not forgotten, although the fatted
calf was omitted, and I was the first to forgive and console
Tom. I used my influence so successfully with Nellie,
who was very fond of me, that once more Tom was taken
into Nellie’s favor and everything went on as usual, ex-
cepting that Nellie gave every evidence of keeping a close
eye upon her erring liege-lord, who was not fully restored
to her confidence.

Some five weeks after, while Nellie was nursing a new
brood of kittens, Tom turned up missing again. We did
not go to any trouble that time to search for him, nor did
we feel any anxiety concerning the wandering minstrel,
knowing from our former experience that he was big
enough and old enough to take care of himself. Three
weary weeks for Nellie went by while she was worrying
for her Romeo, although she tried to conceal her anxiety
behind an appearance of unconcern, while lavishing her
affections upon her infants. At the end of the third week
Tom leisurely strolled into the house and sought Nellie’s
presence. He bore an air of bravado which seemed to
say that he was lord and master of his own tamily, that he
had a right to go whither, and stay there as long as he
pleased. But he was battered and torn, almost beyond
recognition. One eye was completely closed, much of his
fur was gone, he limped when he walked, one ear was en-
tirely bitten through and a portion of it missing, and his
ticad was covered with bloody wounds, while his general
appearance was emaciated, tattered and forlorn. WNellie’s
tail was a sight to behold when she spied Tom, and she

?
—

18 PUSSY AND HER LANGUAGE.

raised herself to a sitting posture and threw upon the de-
bauchee a withering look of contempt which sent his tail
between his legs in less time than it takes to tell it, while
he completely lost his braggadocio air and slunk off to a
corner of the room and Nellie returned to her babies.

After the tramp had received a scolding from each
one of the family, and been thoroughly cleansed and his
wounds dressed, he sat down a few feet from his lawful
wife and moaned and cried for an hour or more, without
once attracting a look of pity from her. After that he
approached Nellie and attempted to ask her forgiveness
for his absence upon some fictitious ground, but that
faithful one raised herself upon her hind legs, spat upon
the battered tramp and then deliberately beat him with
her paws and scratched him with her claws until he slunk
out of the room, a well reproved if not a better Cat. For
more than a week, every time Tom made overtures look-
ing toward a reconciliation, Nellie repeated her chastise-
ment, and I fully believe if any other Maltese Tom had
presented himself during that time, she would have taught
Tom a lesson which he would have remembered to the
end of his life, by adopting him in Tom’s place, and, with
his assistance, driven out upon the charity of a cold world,
her wayward and presumably unfaithful consort. But, al-
though we refused to intercede for him with Nellie, in the
course of time Tom was partly forgiven and was again
kept under the watchful eye of Nellie.

Three months later the vagabond again forgot his
marriage vows and disappeared. This time we gave him
up for lost, as he did not return for a month. Consider-
ing him a thing of the beautiful past, I bought another
Tom and brought him home to Nellie. Singularly
enough, the two did not fraternize, although it was not

NELLIE AND TOM. 19

the fault of the new Tom, and Nellie remained, as she sup-
posed, a widow, with her kittens as her constant care.
Upon them she lavished all of her affections, spitting at
and boxing the new Tom whenever he approached them.

One fine day, to our utter astonishment, the scoundrel,
Tom strolled in upon the scene as nonchalantly as if he
had not been off on a long protracted cruise. But this
time he was covered with sores, and had, in addition, the
mange. He was a sorry-looking Tom, and an animal to
avoid. Even in that condition, I am sure, Nellie would
have nursed him and doctored him until he recovered,
had he been faithful to her. But there was no hope of it
now. She had evidently been thinking deeply about the
newcomer, and was making comparisons.

At first he showed contrition, but when he discovered
the new Tom, who he supposed had asumed his duties
in the household, he did not become an Enoch Arden,
but, with fire in his evil eye and without making proper
inquiries concerning Nellie’s unexceptionable conduct,
with a great bologna sausage of a fuzzy tail and a fearful
shriek for vengeance, he made for Tom Number Two with
the speed of lightning, in the stereotyped manner of an
outraged husband whose lapses of fealty and so on are
forgotten in the greater sin of an interloper.

What might have become of the innocent new fellow
was illustrated in the story of the Kilkenny cats, with this
difference, that one of the two would have been left on
the earth, and it wouldn’t have been the new fellow, for
Tom was the maddest Cat you ever saw. When the toc-
sin of war was sounded by the mangy deserter, Nellie
sprang for him and there ensued a battle royal. There
was war to the knife, from the point to the hilt. The
screams of the combatants were terrific, and the dining-

20 PUSSY AND HER LANGUAGE.

room floor was covered with a constantly accumulating
mass of Maltese fur. In both the new Tom and Nellie,
who, alone, was a host in herself, the mangy Tom found
more than his match, and he was beaten, torn, wounded
at every point, and a total wreck when he scurried out ot
the house and took his sorrowful way down the street,
toward the dock at the foot of Hubert street. Whether
or not he did the best thing he could have done under the
circumstances, and went and drowned himself, is more
original Tom, by the side of Nellie, never knew him more,
for the new fellow thereafter succeeded to his lares and
penates and Nellie and he lived happily together until
Tom number two was shot by some cruel person. After
that Nellie mourned his loss and refused to be comforied
with another, although, of course, there were many Toms
who would have lain down and died for her. She lived
but a short time after the death of her second husband,
and died regretted by all of us.

¥.
MEMORY AND INTELLIGENCE.

We find, upon looking closely and impartially into
our natural gifts, that it is memory that fails and proves
treacherous to us more frequently than any other faculty,
and as we go on with life, the fact becomes more and
more apparent. With the Cat, memory never fails her.
The dog may fail to find his way home, particularly the
little Be but the Cat, never.

No more conclusive testimony concerning the memory
and intelligence of the Cat can be given to a doubting
world than that contained in the following story from the
columns of the New York Press. It is also i'lustrative
of the love of persons as well as places, by the feline.
It is recited in a straightforward manner, and I have no
doubt of its truthfulness. At any rate, if the reader has
his doubts, he can readily, at the cost of a few cents, paid
to Uncle Sam in postage stamps, satisfy himself concern-
ing the story, for names are given and the address is
plain. “Fritz Heath,’ says the narrator, “is the noble son
of a worthy mother, and lives in Syracuse, N. Y. Fritz is
a large gray and white tomcat. Fritz and his mother
are the proteges of Mr. and Mrs. Thomas Heath. Mr.
Heath is a telegraph operator in the employ of the New
York Central Railroad. Both Fritz and Gyp are cats of
unusual size and beauty. Fritz will roll over, jump
through a hoop and turn somersalts at command.
He also has the habit of jumping up to catch the smooth

21

D9 PUSSY AND HER LANGUAGE.

top of the dining-table with his paws and swinging sus-
pended, while he surveys the prospects of his coming
dinner. Two years ago there was mourning in the home
of Heath. Fritz had suddenly disappeared. At night
Gyp came into the house, sniffed at the basket, which-she
and Fritz had occupied together since the latter’s kitten~
hood, and walked disconsolately away. The Heath fam-
ily searched diligently, but Fritz could not be found.

“When two years had passed by, all but Gy» had near-
ly forgotten the missing member of the household. She
could not be induced to go near her basket, which was
still kept beside the fire, and persistently refused to be
comforted. One night recently Gyp jumped into her bas-
ket and, nestling down, began to purr contentedly. A few
days afterward the Heaths, returning from an evening
call, saw a cat which, in the darkness, they supposed to be
Gyp, lying on the doorstep. When the door was opened
the cat ran into the hallway and out again as quickly.
A short time later Mrs. Heath heard the crying at the
door and went down to bring in the homeless cat and
give it something to eat. As soon as she opened the
door the cat darted inside. When it came to the lighted
apartments, Mrs. Heath exclaimed, ‘Why, Tom, that’s
Fritz!’ Hearing his name, the overjoyed Fritz bounded
into Mrs. Heath’s lap, from hers to her husband’s, turned
scmersaults, rolled over and performed all the tricks
he had been taught, as if to thoroughly establish his
identity or express hisgpleasure at getting home.

“Tt surely is Fritz,’ thought the Heaths, and they
examined the cat’s right ear. It was split. There was
little doubt now, but to make assurance doubly sure, a
small stick was thrown down the stairs, into the dark
hallway.

MEMORY AND INTELLIGENCE. 23

““Go get it, Fritz, said Mr. Heath, and the cat darted
down stairs, returned triumphantly with the stick bal-
anced in its mouth, a trick, by the way, common enough
with retrievers, but which few cats have ever been taught
to perform. After a good supper, the reclaimed Fritz
went straight to his basket behind the stove and cuddled
down contented.

“Gyp at first gave the intruder a sharp rap with her
paw, but at once recognized her prodigal son, fell on his
neck and kissed him. Fritz now stays very closely at
home, for his two years’ absence sems to have given him
an increased regard for the family roof-tree.”

This wonderful power of memory in the Cat has sel-
dom been surpassed by any other attribute in the feline, but
there came under my personal observation the following
astonishing proof of the intelligence and motherly love of
the Cat for her young, the relation of which will un-
doubtedly find an echo in the memories of many of my
readers.

While residing on Lexington avenue near Twenty-
fourth street, New York, I had a Pussy who pre-
_ sented the world with a litter of three as pretty kittens as

ever were seen. Their beauty, however, did not com-
pensate for their burden upon the household, because

there was no yard to the house. I kept the little ones
until they were a month old and had grown to be at-

tractive, and offered them to friends and neighbors, all
of whom admired, but regretted that they had neither
use nor room forthem. So, one day I tied about the neck
of each cunning little kitten a bright ribbon, to improve
their appearance, and having secured the mother cat in
the kitchen, I took her babies in my overcoat pockets and
catried them to the Twenty-first street side of Gramercy

4 PUSSY AND HER LANGUAGE.

Park, where I deposited two of them inside the enclosure.
I then went around to the other side of the great iron
fence and placed the other baby in the park and returned
to the house. The day was a cold one in Winter, and the

avenue is a very busy one during the day, being well trav-
eled by pedestrians and vehicles, and the park a consider-

able distance from my residence. Within an hour the
mother, who was supposed to be securely imprisoned in
the kitchen, was heard by the servant crying in the front
area, and upon opening the basement door, I discovered
the Cat with her three beautiful kittens, all safe and sound,
returned and claiming my protection. How the Cat re-
leased herself from her imprisonment in the kitchen, and
by what wonderful power she found the kittens, whom she
must have brought through the street, at the risk of her
life, one by one, is more than I could surmise, and there
they were. My admiration of her was such that I took
in the brood and continued to care for them a month
longer, all the while endeavoring to find homes for the
little ones, but with no success. Finally, recognizing the
necessity of getting rid of the kittens, | carried out the
babies, once more, in my pockets, and deposited them in
an area of a house, ten blocks away, in a busy part of the
city, near Fourth avenue. This time I made sure of the
mother by locking her in a room, but, on returning to
the house, two hours later, I found the three kittens there,
and the mother looking at me appealingly. Although
much disgusted at the determination of the mother, I kept
her kittens until I had induced some friends to take them,
after telling the story and persuading them that the chil-
dren of such a mother must necessarily become wonder-

ful Cats.
Illustrative also of the intelligence, as weil as the

MEMORY AND INTELLIGENCE. 25

praiseworthy liberality and charitableness of the Cat, is the
story in the Sun of Baltimore, Md., of June 22d, 1892, as
follows:

“Mr. James Forwood of Darlington, Hartford Coun-
ty, has a cat which has developed an interes‘ing trait. Being
kittenless, she adopted as her own a brood of motherless
voung chickens, which come to her when she purrs, and
follow her around wherever she goes. When any of the
brood stray into a neighbor's premises the cat follows,
and, picking up each. chick carefully by the back of its
neck, as if it were a kitten, and in the same manner in
which she had been carried when a kitten herself, de-
posits it safely upon its own premises. Calling the chicks
to her, the cat lies down and hovers over them as tenderly
and as carefully as their feathered mother would have
done. The chicks appear to accept the situation and are
thriving.”

VI.

FRIENDS OF THE CAT.

The unjust prejudice concerning Pussy extant in the
United States and England is not common in other
lands. In fact, nowhere outside of the two great coun-
tries named is the prejudice tolerated. In Arabia, the
Cat is worshiped and treated with tendetest care and the
consideration which is her due for duties well performed
and properly appreciated. Arabians, who have always
expressed a great fondness for the feline, in their legends
trace back the origin of the Cat to the time of building |
the great ark by Noah, and they have a fiction that Pussy
was sneezed out of the nostrils of the king of beasts, the
lion. |

_ Whatever may be the origin of the Cat, one fact is
undeniable, which is that she is not indigenous to America.
Some naturalists declare that Pussy was brought over to
America in a ship, and others have arrived at the con-
clusion that it was the wildcat that took passage to our
shores on a sailing vessel, and our kind little household
pet has evoluted from the wild beast of the denser forests.
The tutelary deity of the Cat is Diana, or Pacht, and, ac-
cording to Plutarch, Pussy was not only sacred to the
moon, but an emblem of it, and a figure of a Cat, fixed
upon a sistrum, denoted the moon, just as a frog on a
ring denoted a man inembryo. Hence Cats were treated
with peculiar consideration in Egypt during the reign
of the Pharaohs. Throughout Egypt, upon the death of

26

FRIENDS OF THE CAT. 27

the family pet, the entire household went into mourning,
and the Cat’s funeral was invariably celebrated with great
pomp and impressive ceremonies. The bereaved owners
of the deceased feline testified their sorrow and respect
for the memory of the lost pet by shaving off their eye-
brows. The body was always embalmed, and after the
funeral placed in the temple of Babistis, where it was
visited at stated intervals by members of the household
and mourned over as one of the family.

In the days of Moses and the prophets it was a very
serious thing to kill a cat. Diodorus relates a story of a
Roman soldier, a man of bravery, who accidentally killed
a Cat and was tried, convicted and condemned to die.
This sentence was executed as religiously as if the Cat had
been a human being. It was, in those days, a common -
thing to mete out severe punishment for injuries done to
the feline, and it is to be regretted that some of the s‘ern
laws of the Egyptians, relating to outrages perpetrated
upon the innocent animals, have not descended to this
land and generation, for the better protection of the person
of an innocent animal that harms no one and is of ines-
timable value to mankind.

The Arabs continue to venerate the Cat. Just out of
Cairo stands a mosque, where, in modern times, Sultan
El Daher provides all the Cats of Cairo and its vicinity
in need of sustenance with a plentiful daily repast. From
flat roof and from terrace, from the dusty streets and the
multitudes of filthy alleys of the city, and from their thou-
sands of hiding places, the hungry felines come, at the
hour of prayer, to get their never-forgotten allowance of
food, furnished by their ever-faithful friend of the Orient.
It has been declared to be an outgrowth of superstition,
but there is justice in the remark, “’tis true, ’tis pity, and

25 PUSSY AND HER LANGUAGE.

pity ‘tis, ’tis true,” that the superstition exists only in the
nobler breast of Sultan El Daher, who feeds his pets, the
poor, needy and neglected waifs of other households, then,
with a happy heart filled with the glow of a deed of
charity well performed, he turns his face to the setting
sun and prays for the blessing so richly earned.

Napoleon Bonaparte is said to have hated a Cat with
as great a fervor as was expressed by him for his Aus-
trian and Russian foes. In him we have a strong con-
trast to the great Sultan, although the ridiculous super-
stition of the great soldier of France has gone into a
proverb. Even Shylock, with all his sins and hardness
of heart, had a good word for Pussy, and expressed his
disgust of a cowardly man by saying, “Some men there are
that are mad if they behold a cat—a harmless, necessary
ent.

France’s greatest Cardinal, Richelieu, was of an oppo-
site temperament to Napoleon, for he dearly loved the
Cat. Mahomet possessed a strong passion for the feline,
which has seldom been equaled. It is recorded of the im-
mortal prophet that upon one occasion, when a particular
favorite was lying asleep upon his sleeve, he cut off the
sleeve and left Pussy in a peaceful slumber rather than
disturb her rest. Horace Walpole had a favorite Pussy,
and when she died he mourned her loss so much that the
ever-living author of “Gray’s Elegy in a Country Church-
yard” wrote an ode on the death of Salina, the lovely
Tabby of his friend. Many world-renowned people of
all ages have been noted for possessing large families of
Cats, a fact due, in some cases, to a superstition, but
generally from an intense love for the innocent, beautiful
and useful animal. The author of “The Doctor,” Robert
Southey, when he lived at Greta, near Keswick, pos-

FRIENDS OF THE CAT. 20

sessed a large number of plump and healthy Cats, which
the kitchen-maids nursed and the Keswick apothecary
dosed.

In fact, from time immemorial Pussy has been a com-
panion of the learned. Petrarch had his pet embalmed
and Andrea Doria, one of the rulers of Venice, not only
had his dead Cat’s portrait taken, but also preserved her
skeleton among his choicest mementos. The Cat of Car-
dinal Wolsey sat by his side when he gave audience or
received princes. Rousseau loved Cats, and it is said of
Sir Isaac Newton that he cut a large hole in his barn
for his old cat and a smaller one, beside it, for the young
kittens. Edgar Allen Poe wrote a thrilling tale of a black
Cat, and even the ambitious, blocdthirsty Lady Macbeth
alludes kindly to the household pet. Dr. Johnson had a
Cat upon which he doted, and being seemingly desirous
of perpetuating her fame, he taught her to eat oysters,
a feat never recorded of any other Cat in history. Henry
James, the novelist, wrote with his Cat upon his shoulder.
The effusively polite, sensitively dilettante, conscienceless
and steel-hearted Chesterfield had one redeeming trait,
which was his love for Pussy, if such a cold-blooded man
could be possessed of the faculty of loving. When he
died, he left a pension to his Cats and their posterity after
them. Paul de Kock, the French novelist, had a family of
thirty Cats, and De Musset wrote apostrophes to Cats, in
verse.

Chateaubriand was passionately fond of Cats, and
when he was sent as an ambassador to the Pope, the latter
could think of no more suitable present for the devoted
son of the Church than his predecessor's favorite Cat,
which present greatly pleased Chateaubriand and cost the
great prelate nothing. ‘There is no more familiar figure in

30 PUSSY AND HER LANGUAGE.

the memory of an Englishman than Whittington, once
Lord Mayor of London, with his Cat.

The Greek monks of the Island of Cyprus used to
train the Cats to hunt and kill the serpents with which they
were plagued. In Sicily the Cat is sacred to Saint Mar-
tha, and whoever, either by design or accident, kills one,
it is believed, undergoes seven years of punishment. In
Hungary they believe that a Cat must necessarily be a

good mouser, and she is highly prized there for her in-
estimable qualities.

ne ee

_

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VII.
SOME REMARKABLE TRUE STORIES.

The delicate movement, characteristic reserve and na-
tive modesty of the Cat may account for the supposition
of the ignorant and unappreciative that Pussy is stupid.
This foolish supposition has been refuted by innumerable
instances of her intelligence, which, in many cases on
record and thoroughly authenticated, are marvelous in
the extreme. I will not delve into ancient, history for
proofs of the astonishing intelligence of the Cat and re-
late what is already patent to the world, but will give some
of the best authenticated incidents which have occurred

within a few years in our own land. Very recently the
New York Sun gave an authenticated account of a Cat

owned by Mr. Chester F. Hall, of Danville, Ind., who,
when she desires to enter the house, invariably rings the
bell of the front door and is admitted by the servants.
This, I imagine, is an expression of more intelligence
than is often evinced by many of the Cat's traducers
among the country bumpkins who, with the bell handle
under their noses, have frequently been known to knock
upon the door for admission to the house.
The camaraderie of dogs and Cats, in every land, has
been significantly narrated in every tongue, innumerable
times. It has always been noticed that in such associa-
tions the dog have always bossed the Cat, demonstrating
his arrogant spirit, resulting from his appreciation of the
fact that he is the stronger animal and that “might makeg
| 31

o2 PUSSY AND HER LANGUAGE.

right.” But within my personal observation this bossism
is of a good-natured character, and often amusing. Fre-
quently, too, the canine in the full knowledge of his
superior strength, uses it generously for the protection
of the weaker comrade, and I propose to give an in-
stance of this fact, together with an illustration of the
characteristic insouciance of Pussy, and the sense of

order and the amenities of private life as manifested by the
stronger comrade.
Some years ago my Skye terrier, “Gyp,”’ had a litter

of puppies, and we saved one of them, “Jessie,” who was
brought up with a pretty little kitten. From Jessie’s
birth she manifested a great liking for Kitty, and played
with her as good-naturedly and freely as if she had been a
dog. It is true that Gyp, the mother of Jessie, looked
upon this fraternizing with disapprobation, often telling
her puppy that she was lowering herself by such close
intimacy with the Cat, but the intimacy went on and on.
One never saw Kittie scratch or hurt Jessie, nor did the
latter ever injure, nor even:anger, the Cat. (Puss
mitted Jessie to play all sorts of pranks with her tail, and
the laughter of the entire household has often been pro-
voked by the seeming cunning little ways of both. Jes-
sie would hide behind the door, and as Pussy came gin~
gerly along in search of her playfellow suddenly dash
out upon Kittie, to her palpable consternation, and the
two would roll over and over each other, on the kitchen
floor, in each other’s arms. Neither dog ever interfered
with the food set apart for Kittie, nor was there ever a
wistful glance at tlie dainties upon her plate.

One remarkable circumstance, however, proved the
dogs’ ideas of “the right of domain,’ and demonstrated
the fact that they considered the kitchen the proper plage

SOME REMARKABLE TRUE STORIES. 30

for Kittie. She had always been kept “downstairs,” and
never ventured to go above the kitchen floor, excepting
upon one memorable occasion. The little dogs were per-
mitted to remain in the dining room during the time when
the family were eating. At all other times they were at
liberty to roam about the house at their own sweet will.
One day, the kitchen door being left open, Kittie thought
she would make a new departure, and accordingly strolled
up the kitchen stairs and into the dining room, tail erect
and a “lovely day, to-day” kind of a look upon her smiling
face. Pussy’s appearance and her nonchalant impudence
overpowered the dogs for a moment, and before they had
recovered from their astonishment Pussy had pre-empted
a soft cushion on a rocking chair, which was the especial
resting place of the mother, Gyp, and always regarded as
particularly sacred to her aristocratic ladyship. This was
too much for the dogs. Every member of the family
vacated that chair when Gyp claimed it, and as for Jessie,
she never dared to get upon that sacred cushion.

When the dogs had recovered their equiibrium, aiter
their astonishment at the temerity of the “kitchen cat,” as
they evidently regarded her, they put their noses to-
gether and compared notes, after the fashion of canines,
and then Gyp and Jessie proceeded to the development of
their theory concerning Cats in the dining room. To-
gether they went up to the chair, and each seized a corner
of the cushion upon which Kittie had made herself com-
fortable and at home, and with a suggestion that she was
not asked to sit down, deliberately pulled both Cat and
cushion from the chair, landing Kittie unceremoniously
upon the floor in a very indecorous manner and very
much to her disgust. But the affair did not end here.
Kittie looked from one to the other of her household

34 PUSSY AND HER LANGUAGE.

companions as if doubting the evidence of her senses, and
as much as to ask them if they did not feel ashamed of
themselves for treating a lady in such an undignified man-
ner? She cast a withering glance at them and sidled
toward the table, as if seeking protection from some one
of the family, who were at dinner, and with an injured air
sat down at my side. This was altogether too muca
presumption for the dogs to stand, and their good nature
left them as, prompted by the mother, Jessie sidled up to
Kittie, who locked at the dogs, appealingly, while they
said, as plainly as could be said by dogs, “You are not an
upstairs Cat, Kittie—you are nothing but a kitchen Cat,
and you have no rights here that we are bound to respect.
Go downstairs, like a good little kitten, and the cook
will feed you.”

To this remark Kittie shrugged her shoulders and re-
fused to budge. Then came the funny part of it, which
was not at all funny to the Cat. Jessie edged up to
Kittie upon one side and Gyp sidled up to the other side
of the Cat, and together they actually pushed her along
to the kitchen stairs and forced her to descend to her own
quarters on the floor below. Kittie struggled to get away
from them and remain in the dining room, but they were
too quick for her, and downstairs she went, ful! of
dudgeon, and never after attempted to encroach upon the
territory which the litle dogs claimed for their own. )

This incident did not disturb the friendship existing
between Jessie and Kittie, for they continued to be as fast
friends as ever, but the Cat, certainly, had an idea that
Jessie had been put up to the job by her mother, and I
have no doubt that the cunning Jessie told her so.

These two dogs were the terror of the Cats in the neigh-
borhood, and it was no unusual occurrence to see the

SOME REMARKABLE TRUE STORIES. 30

feline skurrying away from our “farm,” with both sky
terriers at their heels and almost within biting distance.
Woe betide the Cat that either got their teeth into, for
they were dead Cats when either Gyp or Jessie caught
them, as many ati occasion proved. Singularly, how-
ever, they never injured Kittie, but, to show that they
cherished and protected her, I will mention one occur-
rence of the many which came under my own eye. It
was in the summer time, when the windows of the kitchen
were open. Both dogs were reposing in the doorway
when there suddenly appeared upon the window sill, a
Tomeat, who had ventured to come courting Kittie. The
“Young Lochinvar” eyed Kittie lovingly, and approached
the innocent young thing with a polite air, saying, no
doubt, that he would like to persuade her to “tread but
one measure with young Lochinvar,” and that “in all!
the wide border his steed was the best.”

Kittie received the bold suitor, who had not noticed
the dogs, in his eagerness to get near and his admiration
of Kittie. The cunning Dulcinea eyed the canines out ot
a corner of one eye, while she had the other upon the
approaching Tom, and before he had lisped a confession
of his love she, with maidenly instinct and appropriate
modesty, gave the customary wild scream, resembling
that of the maiden in story, when “the villain still pur-
sues her,’ and started to her feet. The dogs sprang up
tn an instant at the call for help uttered by Kiitie, and in
an instant they landed upon the astonished Lochinvar,
who, it may be remarked, “never knew what struck him,”
for we put his cold Catship in the ash-barrel, a few mo-
ments later, and washed the noses of the dogs with a
rough towel, and the remark that it was a cruel act, while
laughing in our sleeves at the suddenness of the “taking

36 PUSSY AND HER LANGUAGE.

off” and the affection of the little protectors, Gyp and
Jessie.

One of the most astonishing incidents upon record,
proving the sagacity, as well as the courage of the Cat,
is of recent occurrence and worthy of recital. The fear-
lessness of the feline, and the wonderful intelligence mani-
fested in her attack upon the animal, in its only tender
part, is something astonishing and unaccountable. in
a combat with a dog, the Cat is frequently victor, but
seldom has she demonstrated her power of conquering a
saurian. The incident is narrated by a correspondent of
the “New York Sun,” under date of April 3, 1892, as fcl-
lows:

“One of the most remarkable combats ever witnessed
in this country occurred on Holmes River, near this
place, last week. In the battle a Cat and an alligator
fought for three hours, with the final result in favor of
the tabby. :

“The alligators have invested the river, and it is con-
sidered dangerous for any person or animal to go near the
banks. ‘The saurians are not large, but they appear to
make up in activity what they lack in size. A house Cat
belonging to Mr. Walton was in the habit of going to the
river and feeding on mussels and such fish as it could
get, and it was noticed several times that when the Cat

moved along the bank a ripple in the water showed that —

an alligator kept pace with it in the stream. The Cat,
however, was aware of the alligator’s presence, but showed
no fear.

“On the day mentioned the Cat approached too near
the water in its eagerness to get a fish, and was grasped
by the hind legs by an alligator about three feet long.
The Cat made a spring and got away, but its leg was badly

ie he fat! wm

:
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FRIENDS OF THE CAT. ot

bitten, and bled freely. The taste of blood seemed to put
the alligator into a frenzy, for it came out on the bank
and continued the pursuit. The Cat turned on its enemy,

and then began one of the strangest sights seen in a long
time. The Cat was so quick that it was impossible for

the alligator to get a bite at it, and the result was that
the saurian soon endeavored to beat a retreat to the water.
But the Cat now began an offensive attack, and cut off
the way, biting the alligator in the throat and tender spots
under the arms, until the reptile was bleeding and almost
exhausted. The fight continued, and when, at last, the al-
ligator gave up, it was bleeding from a hundred wounds.
The Cat was, secmingly, unhurt, except in the wounded
leg, which was injured before the fight began.”

VITIl.
HOSPICE DU CHATS.

In many civilized countries Cat Hospitals have been
established, and for many years sustained by subscriptions
from charitably disposed people. Attached to one of the
Turkish mosques at Alleppo is a Cat Asylum, founded by
a misanthropic old Turk, who placed a great value upon
the Cat, because of the service it had been in r.dding his
eranary of rats. In Philadelphia, Pa., there is a Cat
Refuge, which was established some fifteen years ago, and
during that time has cared for more than thirty thousand
Cats. In the city of Paris, France, is a very extensive
establishment called Hospice du Chats, whose name is an
indication of its object. It has been in existence for many
years, and is maintained by gifts from charitable people
as well as by contributions from the Government and be-
quests from dead lovers of the household pet. This
building, covering a very large space of land, is two stories
in height and expensively built for the exclusive purpose
of sheltering the Cats of France, and there they have been
domiciled, nursed through sickness and cared for to ex-
treme old age, as tenderly as ever human beings were
nurtured. Rooms are assigned to the sexes and different
nationalities, halls and chambers are warmed by steam,
meals are served with religious regularity, and the institu-
tion is run with the same regard to decorum and precise-
ness in every detail as is manifested in a well-regulated
hotel. Many thousands of the feline race have been born,

38

HOSPICES DU CHATS. 39

nursed, grown to old age and died there, within the hos-
pitable walls of this admirable hospice, while a nundred
thousand more have found good homes and tender care
throughout sunny France, by means of the solicitous ad-
ministration of the officers of the institution. | London,
also, boasts of a similar charity, although the hospice in
Paris is the model one of its kind, by which all the others
take pattern. An institution of this kind was projected
some three years ago by some charitably-d'spc sed ladies
of New York, but failed to meet the required indcrsement
of the authorities, and being opposed by the “Society for
the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals,” which claims to
have control of the stray Cats, by virtue of its charter, the
embryo hospice, or Cat Hospital, as it was called, died in
its inception, very much to the disgust of many wealthy
ladies, whose admiration of the feline pet had induced
them to subscribe large amounts for the establishment
of an institution similar to that of the Paris “Hospice du
Chats.” Perhaps, at some future time, Mr. Bergh’s suc-
cessor may become so far yielding as to permit the erec~-
tion of a suitable institution, upon the plan of the French
hospice, where sick Cats may be nursed, tramp Cats may
be cut off in their wickedness, incurably afflicted Cats
may be chloroformed and healthy and restored Cats may
procure good homes throughout the country, while the
breed of the animal may be materially and effectually im-
proved. Should these objects be accomplished through
the instrumentality of such a worthy asylum for the sick
and outcast of our household pets, the delighted ladies at
the head of such an institution may be induced to add to
the benefits of the hospice a thorough course of instruc-

tion in Chesterfieldian politeness and regard for the feel-. .

ings of their immediate neighbors, to be observed, most

40 PUSSY AND HER LANGUAGE.

particularly, during those hours which, by the usage of a
well-regulated community, have been devoted exclusively
to sleep. This course of “belles-lettres” would obviate the
dernier resort of “belling the Cat,’ and bring joy to the
hearthstone of many a would-be slumberer at the witch-
ing hour of midnight, when the ghosts do walk and fire-
arms are frequently heard in the land, the song of the
nightingale being supplanted by the peculiar organ of the
unruly and homeless Cat.

A scientist by the name of Prof. R. L. Garnier, a
native of this country, if I am rightly informed, who has
devoted a lifetime to the devolpment of his theory that
monkeys have a language of their own, has recently been
given great encouragement in the pursuit of his inquiries
by the Government of this country. A large appropria-
tion was awarded to him for the necessary apparatus, of
a scientific nature, and for the purpose of defraying his
expenses of travel through Africa, for the prosecution of
his experiments, and his demonstration, as he fondly
hoped, that these animals have a language of communica-
tion of ideas between themselves. Already he has dis-
covered one word of their peculiar language, which gives
promise of better results after he has been enabled to
properly carry out his experiments. He departed upon
his journey fully equipped with all the scien-
tific instruments and aids which money, lavishly expended
by the Government, could procure. It ts expected that
his experiences will be announced to the astonishment of
the world and revolutionize the old and fallacious beliefs
that animals cannot talk and express their feelings one
to the other. .

Without disparagement of the worthy object of this
scientist, 1 desire to call attention to the fact that, like the

'
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HOSPICES DU CHATS. 4]

poor, we have the Cat always with us, and I would press
the consideration of their necessities as being pertinent to
the question of the comfort and enjoyment of the human
race. That the Government should have considered the
subject of the monkey language of such importance as
to warrant the expenditure of a great sum of money to
Prof. Garnier for the development of this theory is evi-
dence that the same benign Republic should award a
much larger sum for the care, protection and improve-~
ment of the breed of our domestic pets and more par-
ticularly for the development of my theory of the language
of the Cat, which has occupied the lonely hours of many ~
a scientist in this country, and been my study for years
past. When the proper time arrives, I shall hope for en-
couragement from our Government, which has been my
Government for the past half century, for the further de-
velopment of the theories, proofs of which I shall submit
to the public. While I favor missionary work, ] may be
like many others who claim that “Charity begins at home,”
and recommend the Government to make an instant ap-
plication of the doctrine, to the end that it may have a
wholesome effect, intimating that the protecting Protec-
tion is that which protects our own, and particularly our
household vets.

ib
ASTOUNDING REVELATIONS BY THE CAT.

Under the classification of remarkable instances 0:
the intelligence of animals, I omitted one instance, per-
tinent to this story and astonishing to me, unless it may
be regarded as an accident. I will give it wi hout the least
coloring of the truth. The manuscript of the preceding
part of this treatise was prepared some time ago, and
placed in a drawer of my desk with many other rolls
of writing, the drawer being filled with them. For sev-
eral successive nights I heard a peculiar noise in this
drawer, but, although the sounds emit.ed seemed to indi-
cate the gnawing of a mouse, | could not bring myseli
to the belief that such a busy ‘ittle animal could gain ac-
cess to the drawer, or would be able to find anything at-
tractive to him there. However, my amanuensis, having
occasion to open the drawer one day, exclaimed with sur-
prise that the nice had been making a nest in the drawer.
Upon examination we found that the paper gnawed was
this article treating upon the enemy of the mouse—the
Cat—while the other rolls of manuscript remained un-
touched. Now, whether this act was committed in a spirit
of vandalism and to demonstrate the hatred of the destroy~
ers for the subject of the story, or with a mere wanton de-
sire to destroy my property, I cannot surmise. Certain it
is, however, that they singlea out this matter about the
Cat, and left uninjured the other manuscript, thus demon-

42

ASTOUNDING REVELATIONS BY THE CAT. 48

strating the fact, it seems to me, that the Cat story and

none other was the object of their search.
It was at the time when my attention was called to

the subject of the simian language that my memory re-
curred to an important document in my possession re-
lating to the Cat. After a prolonged search, with a d--
termination to rescue it from the oblivion into which I
had unintentionally cast it, 1, with more success than gen-
erally rewards such searches, discovered the document, and
will have the pleasure of presnting it to the public, giv-
ing it a free translation from the Frenck, in which lan-
guage it is written. The history of this wonderful docu-
ment is short. Some years ago I was the editor of a
New York morning newspaper, and one day there chanced
to call upon me at my office a French gentleman ol
about fifty years of age, rather short in stature, fairly
well dressed, with a benevolent countenance, bright, black
eyes, regular features with the exception of a prominent
ncse and the unmistakable stamp of a litterateur. His
hands and feet were small, and he had a nervous air about
him while he gesticulated in the expression of his ideas,
and spoke in a mixture of French and English, just as
all pure Frenchmen are accustomed to do.

He had previously sent in to me his card, which read
thus:
“Alphonse Leon Grimaldi, F. R. S., F. GS, M. OC.
| ie tt du-C. M. F. A. S., M..F-A,, et al,

“Rue de Honore, 13, Paris.
| “Metropolitan Hotel, N. Y.”

Prof. Grimaldi, the French gentleman, preseated him-
self to my wondering eyes as I rose to meet him, and ex-
tended his hand with a Chesterfeldian bow, exclaiming, as
neafiy as my memory serves: See

44 PUSSY AND HER LANGUAGE.

“Jais ver happy for ze honaire of ze attention pour le
editaire of one great journal.”

I replied, of course, that I was proud to meet him,
and asked what he desired to know, and how I could
serve sO great a scientist, for the reputation of this great
man and his wonderiul scientific researches and discover-
ies had reached my ears upon the wings of many foreign
messages even then.

As I replied to the Professor in his native tongue, he
expressed himself as being more at his ease, although
he offerd to converse with me in English, a language in
which, he said, “he was perfectly at home, and spoke
fluently,” as all Frenchmen pride themselves upon being
able to do after a month’s practice, without taking into
consideration that Webster claims words in our language
to the extent of six figures. However, I considered my
French much more comprehensible than his English, and
the conversation was continued in that language, very
much to his delight.
| He informed me that he had made a life study of the
animal kingdom, and that, for many years, unknown to
his most intimate friends and associates in the scientific
world, he had made a particular study of the Cat and its
habits, while of late years he had come to the conc‘usion
that Cats have a language all their own. To my suiprise
he informed me that he had demonstrated in a paper,
which he drew from his pocket, the fact that upon his
theories, and by a close observation of the rules set down
in his manuscript upon the Cat language, the whole world
might acquire it. He presented me with the document in
recognition of my sympathy with him in a subject so near
his heart, and expresed a hope that I might find time in
the near future to examine and print his theories and the

ASTOUNDING REVELATIONS BY THE CAT. 45

results of his investigations. The reason for his keeping
the facts of his researches a secret from his most intimate
friends and his scientific brethren, he remarked, was that
if he had rot carried the subject to a successful termina~
tion, he ii.ver could have lived through the sarcasm and
taunts oi iicse men of science, who would have over-
whelmed him with abuse because of his failure.

I glanced at the title of the paper, and, a‘ter thank-
ing him for his valuable gilt, and promising to rcad it
at some leisure hour, I bade him adieu, and resumed my
duties, having placed the paper in the editorial desk.

To those who are aware of the numberless documents
and the thousands o: ar.i_les upon various subjects which
accumulate in and about the desk of an editor, I need
not explain that this paper was soon buried, so that when
my meory recurred to it, a month later, the document
could not be found, and I finally gave up my quest, and
considered the paper last beyond recovery. Imagine my
rejoicing, however, when, but a few months ago, I found
it intact, and perused its contents with great surprise. I
was the more rejoiced at its recovery because it verifies
my own theories, and proves beyond a doubt that the Cat
has a language whi.h may be spoken by anybody who
will make a study of it. What wonders this discovery ©
will work in every community of the civilized world may
better be imagined than described. The accumulated
secrets of many years will be told, and crimes and mis-
demeanors which until now have baffled inguisi_ors will
be unearthed. and the perpetrators punished; little pecca-
dillos will be given to the gossipers, and even the tender
passages between John and his girl in the parlor or the
sitting-room, in the arbor, or upon the way through
“lover’s land,” will become subject for tattle among gos-
sipers.

> ee
PROF GRIMALDI’S WONDERFUL DISCOVERIES

It is scarcely necessary to recount the wonderful re-
searches of the great Prof. Grimaldi, the great French
naturalist. His name has become a household word, and
his fame world-wide. When I unearthed his carefully
prepared paper it was yellow with age, but his chirography
was a marvel of neatness, and distinct as copper plate. [
have made a literal translation of it, and will give it in his
own words without emendations.

THE CAT
By Alphonse Leon Grimaldi, F. R. S., F. G Sai
DST) dw... MEN Sa ie enor

TI was born with an intense passion for animals. I
am a Frenchman, therefore am I a man of strong passions.
IT have not married. My love is for the animal kingdom,
and it has been returned to me one hundred fold ail my
life. In woman there is deceit, and in ma;1 deception
rules his nature. If I treat an animal with kindness, |
will, invariably, be overwhelmed with gratitude. The
animal never bites the hand that feeds it—the hum-n being
frequently does. Therefore, I live among animais and
‘center my affections in them. I have made my unalter-
able choice. I teach the gentler manners and the mag-
nanimity,.perhaps the greater intelligence of those of
God’s creatures who are far above their self-constituted
masters, and their inexhaustible love of even the hand
that smites, if it be the hand of a beneficiary. You have

AG

PROF. GRIMALDI’S WONDERFUL DISCOVERIES. 47

repeatedly noticed that a large and powerful dog can
never be persuaded to attack or oppress a smaller or a
feebler one. Tell me how frequently you have known a
man of influence, power, riches or strength, to oppress
and take advantage of a feebler or poorer one? Is it
not a daily, nay, hourly occurrence? Have you ever seen
_a healthy animal oppress a sickly one? Never! Times
without number you have been an eyew-tness to the
tender care and solicitude of the well for the sick animal,
and as frequently you have seen the unfortunate provided
_ with every necessary by his more fortunate comrades.

How often do you find these traits in the human
being? For this, and for many other reasons with which
I might tire you, I love all animals but man.

Men declare that only the biped, man, is endowed
with reason. It is false. It is so declared, in order that
man may possess one characteristic that will elevate him
above, and distinguish him from what he chooses, falsely,
to call the lower animals.

Your Noah Webster, who padded your dictionary in
order to make a formidable book, like many another man,
says that animals are not possessed of reasoning powers,
but have only instinct. He gives the definition of instinct
as follows: “INSTINCT. A certain power or disposition
of mind by which, independent of all instructions or ex-
perience, without deliberation, and without having any
end in view, animals are unerringly directed to do spon-
taneously whatever is necessary for the preservation of the
individual or the continuation of the kind.”

This is your American authority, and you must ac-
cept it, for you have adopted the dictionary. By this
definition, and with only one question, I wiil prove to you
that animals have reasoning powers, just as men have.

48 PUSSY AND HER LANGUAGE.

Have not animals an end in view when they gather their
food and build their homes for the winter months, when
they rear their young, anticipate the coming of the night
and of that longer night constituting the darkness of age
and death, when preparing for the coming of their Mas-
ter, and when, with a grand evidence of their superiority
over man, they anticipate the changes of the weather?
The intelligent man admits that animals not only
have minds, but that they reason also. The sooner the
whole world admits this fact the sooner we will arrive
at the truth in the premises, and give the feline her due ©
as well as be just to other animals. The study of natural
history unfolds to the mind a new universe of beauty,
interest and profit. The beautiful book of nature i3 spread
out in inexhaustible profusion to all creatures, and no one
can claim a monopoly of this grand study. Other ani-
mals read it constantly, and seem to understand it better
thanman. Man has not been able, with all his knowledge
of science, to make a barometer which will give as uner-—__
ring calculations concerning the weather as will the ani-
mals which he considers beneath him in intelligence. I
instance more particularly the wild goose, who will indi-
cate the temperature of the season, and I will remark that
there is no compass or needle which can indicate th-
course of a pigeon while it navigates the air equal to its
own instinct. In the hydraulics of nature, the beaver
stands foremost of all living creatures, and the bee is the
sreatest builder in the world. Do you not admit that “in-
stinct” will no longer answer as a name for intelligence
in what you call the “brute” animals? Is it without de-
liberation and without having an end in view that, when
you take a young pigeon from the cote in which it was
hatched, and carrying it in a coop to a distance of four

ws
—

Fne,
AR

PROF. GRIMALDI’S WONDERFUL DISCOVERIES. 49

hundred miles fiom its home, you free it, and it takes
its flight in a bee line for the cote in which it was born?
What shall that quality of mind be called?

Dogs, Cats and other animals have been carried for
hundreds of miles from their homes, and but a few days
elapsed before they return to the place from whence they
were taken. Have they “no end in view,” and is this done
“without deliberaticn?”

There is a species of fish-hawk, in your Northern
lakes, which has most remarkable eyes, microscopic as
well as telescopic. You may often see this! fellow, early
in the morning, hovering over the placid water of some
lonely lake, when he will suddenly dart off, leave the
water and take up his position upon the bare limb of a
blighted tree, and watéh the track over which he flew.
Presently you will see him leave his high perch and, wi‘h
the accuracy and velocity of an arrow, strike the bosom
@rete lake, grasp a fish and bear it to his perch.
Nature has furnished this wise bird with a bait which
enables him to become a successful fisherman. He has
in his throat, or aesophagus, a small sac, in which he
secretes a kind of oil. This oil he drops upon the sur-
face, the fishes are attracted to it, and at once tere 13 a
great commotion in the water. The hawk, seeing this,
takes advantage of the situation, and pounces upon his
prey.

It is silly in.man to assume that all he sees is but the
effect of law. It is more sensible to assume that there is
an intelligence behind law and matter. The intelligence
shown in plants cannot be denied. ‘Take, for instance, the
aquatic plants. They will travel long distances over
walls and other impediments before they will stop their
growth.

20 PUSSY AND HER LANGUAGE.

That animals have a moral sense is evidenced in the
fact of the prominence in their natures of the attributes of
reason, memory, invention, motive, ingenuity, will and
gratitude. Granting these premises, and grant them you
must from the proofs which I have submitted to you, and
- which have come under my own observation, you must
admit that animals reason and think and give the same
evidence of free intelligence observable in human nature.

That dogs, Cats, horses, elephants, birds and even
pigs can be taught to do most wonderiul things, millions
of people can attest from personal observation, and you
have the proof in your own minds, to show free intel-
lectual ability on the part of wild and tame animals.

In my love for the Cat and my preference for that
beautiful animal above all others, | do not stand alone.
Nearly all men of note among the learned, as well as

others, both in ancient and modern times, have signified

their preference for the Cat in the strongest terms. Ma-
homet almost worshipped the Cat, and declared that his
own should have a prominent place in his heaven. Rich-
elieu possessed a house full of Cats, with twenty favorites,
whom he cherished with great care and fed with his own
hands. Shakespeare, Milton, Byron, Moore, Talleyrand,
Edgar Allen Poe, Chateaubriand, Robert Scuthey, Dr.
Johnson, Benjamin Franklin, Julius Caesar, Thomas
Gray, Sir Isaac Newton, Sir Walter Raleigh, Cardinal
Wolsey, Rousseau, Lord Chesterfield, Whittington, Lord
Mayor of London, Plutarch, and thousands of others,
have expressed their admiration of my favorite. Ancient
history tells us of more than one nation that sainted the
Cat, while others still hold the animal in high veneration.

Certainly it must be admitted that the Cat possesses some

wonderful attributes the evidence of which prompts its

mane ee le ee ek Pa er rae .

ee ee a

PROF. GRIMALDI’S WONDERFUL DISCOVERIES 31

distinction. I claim for the Cat a higher order of intel-
lect than exists in any other animal. While I love the
dog, and claim for him a greater degree of intel-ig-nce
than may be accorded to the horse, I class the Cat and ihe
dog to be as distinct in their individuality and with as
much difference as you see existing between man and
woman. The organism of the Cat is of a very delicate
nature, and, therefore, more susceptible to all influences.
They are quicker of perception than any other animal,
and, therefore, they more readily acquire knowledge.

By an extended series of experiments I have demon-
started this fact, and would give the results of my labor
were I not positive that my readers have made a com-
parison of the dog and the Cat, and arrived at the same
conclusion without anything more than a casual observa-
tion. In experimenting, however, my attention was di-
rected with more particularity to the manner of communi-
cation of ideas between Cats, and what was my sur-
prise to discover that they have a language of their own,
embracing not only words but, in a large degree, signs.
You may the better understand me when I call attention
to the fact that there are few words, comparatively, in the
French language, but there is, among Frenchmen, a sign
language; as, for instance, there is no word to express the
meaning or our shrug of the shoulders and the extending
of the hand and forearms. Words cannot express the
feelings of the heart when men and women of every na-
tivity bow their heads before their God. Because of this
predominance of signs in the language of the Cat, it will
be difficult for me to describe their mode of idea-com-
munication; but | will make the attempt, and endeavor to
bring it as clearly as possible to your minds, in order that

you may comprehend it as distinctly as it presents itself
to mine.

X]
SIGNS AND SOUNDS.

Language signifies the expression of ideas by sounds
and by certain articulate sounds which are used as the
signs or the ideas, sounds being regarded as mere aids and
of secondary importance to signs, which are, primarily,
of the greatest importance in language.

By articulate sounds I mean those modulations of the
simple voice or of sounds emitted from the thorax, formed
by means of the mouth and its several organs, namely, —
the teeth, the tongue and the palate. When we give a
name to anything harsh or boisterous we, of course, use
a harsh or boisterous sound, the better to describe our
meaning. By the use of such words as express such
sounds we convey the ideas intended to be expressed.
It is purely natural to imitate, by the sound of the voice,
the quality of the sound or noise which any external
object makes, and to form its name accordingly. In
every language will be found a multitude of words con-
structed upon this principle. We call a certain bird a
cuckoo because of the peculiar sound which he emits.
Regard the fact that in English one kind of bird is said
to “whistle,” another to “chirp,” a serpent to “hiss,” a fly
to “buzz,” a bee to “hum,” falling timber to “crash,” a
stream to “flow,” hail to “rattle,” rain to “patter,” a bell
to “tinkle” or “jingle,” or “toll,” or to “clash” with another,
a board to “creak,” thunder to “roll,” lightning to “flash”

2

*

.
4

SIGNS AND SOUNDS. 53

and a cataract to “roar.” In these instances the analogy
between the word and the thing expressed is most plainly
discernible to the ear. Notice, also, if you please, that in
the names of objects which address the sight only, when
neither noise nor motion are concerned, and still more in
the term applied to moral ideas, this analogy appears to
fail. This shows a superiority of signs over sounds, and
is one reason for according to signs, over sounds, a pri-
mary importance. I have noticed, however, that many
learned men have been of the opinion that though in such
cases the meaning becomes more obscure, yet it 1s not
altogether lost, but that throughout the radical words of
all languages there may be traced some degree of corre-
spondence with the object signified.

Perhaps no language is so peculiar a mixture as your
own, by which I mean the English, which is neither pure
nor indigenous. ‘The rule applies to other languages to
a far less degree, but still it applies. As the multitude of
names increases in every nation and the immense fi_ld of
language is filled up—if it ever gets filled up—words by
the thousands, fanciful and irregular methods of deriva-
tien and composition, come to deviate widely from the

primitive character of their roots and lose all analogy
or resemblance to sound in the thing signified. It is in
such a heterogeneous state that we find words of sound-
signs in language.

Nature taught the members of the animal kingdom
to communicate their feelings, one to another, by those
expressive cries and gestures which are so descriptive.
Afterward, names of objects were invented by slow de-
grees, in aid of signs. Tis mode of speaking by natural
signs could not be all at once applied, for language, in

54 PUSSY AND HER LANGUAGE.

its infancy, must have been extremely crude, and there
certainly was a period in the history of all rude nations
when conversation was carried on by the use of a very
few words, intermixed with a multitude of exclamations
and earnest gestures significant of the meaning intended
to be conveyed.

In the early days, the small stock of words which
were in use, rendered signs absolutely necessary for ex-
plaining the conceptions and rude, uncultivated beings,
not having signs at hand, with the few words which
they knew it was naturally labor to make themselves
understood by varying their tones of voice and accom-
panying their voices with the most significant gesticula-
tions they could make.

The primitive search was for signs and sounds hie
bore an analogy to the thing signified. The pronuncta-
tion of the earliest sounds of the languages was accom-
panied with more gesticulations and with more and
greater inflections of the voice than we now use. Cer-
tainly there was more action in it, and it was conducted
upon more of a crying or a singing tone. Necessity first
gave rise to this primitive yet admirable way of speak-
ing, and it may be said of it that it was action explanatory
of meaning.

Inflections of voice are so natural that to some na-
tions it has appeared easier to express different ideas by
varying the tones in which they pronounce the same word
than to contrive words for all of their ideas. I instance
the Chinese in particular. The number of words in their
language is not great, but in speaking they vary each of
their words by not less than five different tones, by which
they make the same word signify five different things.

a a ee

SIGNS AND ‘SOUNDS. 55

This gives the appearance of singing, or music, to their
speech, so noticeable in their conversation, for these in-
flections of voice, which, in the infancy of language, were
no more than harsh or disconsonant cries, must, as lan-
guage gradually becomes more polished, pass into
smoother and more musical sounds. Hence is formed
what is styled the prosody of language.

It is remarkable and deserves attention that both in
the Greek and the Roman languages this musical and
gesticulating pronunciation was retained in a very high
degree. The Greeks, it is well known, were a more musi-
cal people than the Romans, and carried their attention
to the tone and pronunciation much farther in every pub-
lic exhibition. Aristotle, in his poetics, considers the
music of tragedy one of its chief and essential parts. The
case was more than parallel in regard to gestures, for
strong tones and animated gestures always go together.
At last gesture came to engross the stage wholly, for under
the reigns of Augustus and Tiberius the favorite enter-
tainment of the public was pantomime, carried on entirely
by gesticulations.

XIT.
DESCRIPTIVE LANGUAGES.

A Frenchman both varies his accents and gesticulates
while he speaks much more than an Engl:shman, and an
Italian a great deal more than either. Musical ‘pro-
nunciations and expressive gesture are, to this day, the
distinction of Italy, and this combination of sign and its
aid, sound, the latter being notes for its music, make the
sweetest and most liquid language in existence. The want
of a proper name for every object, obl'ged them to use one
name for many objects, and, of course, to express them-
selves by comparisons, metaphors, allusions and all those
substantive forms of speech which render language figur-
ative.

Poetry is more ancient than prose, and here we have
a remarkable order of speech, such as “fruit give me.”
I, therefore, conclude, as the first fundamental principle in
the organization and procession of word-signs, that this
would be the order in which words should be most com-
monly arranged at the beginning of language, and ac-
cordingly, we find, in fact, that in this order words are ar-
ranged in most of the ancient tongues—the Russian, Slav-
onic, Gaelic, and many others. In the Latin ‘ne arrange-
ment which most commonly obtains is to place arst in the
sentence that word which expresses the principal object,
together with its circumstance, and afterward the person
or thing which acts upon it.

{ desire to impress most particularly upon the reader

56

DESCRIPTIVE (LANGUAGES. D7

the value of signs and sounds in the language, for he
would be a fool, indeed, who would not mark the signifi-
cance ofa tone or a gesture.

The word-signs in the English language number
thirty-eight thousands. This includes, of course, not only
the radical words, but all the derivatives, except the pre-
terites and participles of verbs, to which must be added
some few terms which, though set down in your dictionary,
are cither obsolete or have never ceased to be considered
foreign. They have been introduced into your Noah
Webster, “unabridged,” together with many thousands of
conjunctive and scientific words, for the sole purpose o-
making a big book and claiming that there are one hun-
dred thousand word-signs in the English language. Of
the thirty-eight thousands about twenty-three thousands
are of Anglo-Saxon crigin. The majority of the re-
mainder, in what exact proportion I cannot say, are
Latin and Greek, but the largest share is Latin. The
names of the greater part of the objects of sense, in other
words, the terms which occur most frequently in dis-
course, or which recall the most vivid conceptions, in the
English vocabulary, are Anglo-Saxon. ‘The names of
the most striking objects in visible nature, of the chief
agencies at work and of the changes which pass over it, are
Anglo-Saxon. |

This language has given names to the heavenly
bodies, namely, the sun, the moon and the stars, to three
out of every four elements, namely, earth, fire and water;
to three out of every four seasons, namely, spring, summer
and winter, and, indeed, to all the natural divisions of
time, except one, as day, night, morning, evening, twi-
light, noon, midday, midnight, sunrise, sunset, some of

58 PUSSY AND HER LANGUAGE.

which are among the most poetical terms in the language.
To the same language we are indebted for the names
of light, heat, cold, frost, rain, snow, hail, sleet, thunder,
lightning, as well as almost all those objects which form
the component parts of the beautiful and external scenery
as seen in land, hill and dale, wood and stream. It is
from this language you derive the word most expressive
of the earliest and dearest connections and the strongest
and most powerful feelings of nature, and which are,
consequently, invested with your oldest and most com-
plicated associations. In this language we find the names
of father, mother, husband, wife, brother, sister, son,
daughter, child, home, kindred, friends. It has furnished
the greater part of those metonymies and other figurative
expressions by which is represented to the imagination,
and that in a single word the reciprocal duties and enjoy-
ments of hospitality, friendship or love. Such are hearth,
roof and fireside. The chief emotions of which we are
susceptible, as love, hope, fear, sorrow, shame, and what
is of more consequence to the orator and the poet, as well
as in common life, the outward signs by which emotion is
indicated, are almost all Anglo-Saxon. Such are tear,
smile, blush, to laugh, to weep, to sigh, to groan.
Most of those objects about which the practical reason
of man is employed in common life receive their names
from the Anglo-Saxon.

ee.
LANGUAGE OF DIVINE ORIGIN.

One of our greatest poets says,

“°*Tis not enough no harshness gives offense,
The sound must seem an echo of the sense.”

The words buzz, crackle, crash, blow, rattle, roar,
hiss, whistle, and many others of a like nature and con-
struction, were evidently formed to imitate the sounds
themselves. Sometimes the word expressing an object is
formed to imitate the sound produced by that object, as
wave, cuckoo, whippoorwill, whisper, hum. I have been
thus particular in calling the attention of the reader to
these beautiful characteristics of the Anglo-Saxon be-
cause it is the language of the Cat in so far as word-signs
are used in it for want of action to express the ideas or as
conjunctives more particularly. The smooth and liquid
passages from your poets, which express onomatopoeia,
are but echoes from that most beautiful of all languages,
that of the Cat. Such are the word-signs of Goldsmith,

“The whitewashed wall, the nicely sanded floor,
The varnished clock that clicked behind the door.”

To the credit of the Cat language it must be said that,
while it is esteemed a great beauty in writing and con-
versation, as well as speaking, when the word-signs se-
lected for the expression of an idea convey, by their sound,
some resemblance to the subject which they express, the
Cat language contains none but such words. You will

59

GU PUSSY AND HER LANGUAGE.

remember the most wonderful poem written in the Eng-
liih language, and notice the word-painting in the follow-
ing extract from “Gray’s Elegy in a Country Churchyard,”

“For who, to dumb forgetfulness a prey,
This pleasing, anxious being e’er resigned,
Left the warm-precincts of the cheerful day,
Nor cast one longing, ling ring look behind!”

Pope, also, in his “Essay on Criticism,’ in a man-
ner though different yet scarcely less expressive, gives a
verbal representation of his idea, by the selection of his
terms in the following:

“These equal syllables alone require,
Though oft the ear the open vowels tire,
While expletives their feeble aid do join,
And ten low words oft creep in one dull line.”
And, once again, Pope says,
“A needless Alexandrian ends the song,
That, like a wounded snake, drags his slow length aloz~.
Soft is the strain when zephyrs gently blow,
And the smooth streams in smoother numbers flow,
But when loud surges lash the sounding shore,
The hoarse, rough verse should, like the torrent, roar.
When Ajax strives some rock’s vast weight to throw,
The line, too, labors, and the words move slow.
Not so when swift Camulla scours the plain,
Fiies o’er the unbending corn, and skims along the magn,
I am of the opinion that language is of Divine
origin, and that it was put into the mouth of the Cat, the
same as it was put into the mouth of Adam, by the
Almighty. In this opinion 1 am encouraged by many

of your most prominent writers. In fact, it is the only

LANGUAGE OF DIVINE ORIGIN. 61

sensible theory upon which we can stand. But the very
first expression of a desire was a sign by action of the
muscles, frequently followed by a sound-sign. This has
often been demonstrated when infants have been placed,
for a year or more, in a room where no speech or ex-
pressive action has met either eye or ear, and it has not
yet been doubted. Many men have written upon the
subject of the origin of language, from every point of
view, the majority of these endeavoring to account for
its existence without allowing that it is of Divine origin.
Undoubtedly the first man, Adam, could talk as naturally
as he could hear, see and taste. Speech was a part of
his endowment. Is there anything more wonderful in
man’s talking than in a bird singing, save that speech
is a higher order of utterance? Dumb nature, so called,
performs marvels every day as wonderful as man talk-
ing. The honey bee builds i's cell, ignorant of the fact
that such a construction is a solution of a problem which
had troubled men for centuries to solve—namely, at what
point should certain lines meet so as to give the most
room with the least material and have the greatest
strength in building? This problem is said to have beer.
worked out by a Mr. McLaughlin, a noted Scotch mathe-
matician, who arrived at his conclusion by a laborious and
careful fluctionary calculation. To his surprise and the
surprise of the whole world, such lines and such a build-
ing were found in the common bee cell. Is there any-
thing preposterous in my assertion that the same Creator
who gave to the bee the mathematical instinct, could
endow animals with the instinct of speech? In propor-
tion as the English language has clung to the purest of
Anglo-Saxon words it has gained strength throughout

62 PUSSY AND HER LANGUAGE.

the world, while there have gone down before it the real
British, the Cymeric or Welsh, Erse or Irish, the Gaelic
of Scotland, and the Manx of the Isle of Man. The Brit-
ish Keltic is entirely gone, and the rest are only local.
Besides these, it ousted from the island of Norse the
Norman French and several other tongues which had
sought to plant themselves on English soil.

My illustrious comrade, Prevost Paradol, one of our
most learned Frenchmen, says: “Neither Russia nor
united Germany, supposing that they should attain the
highest fortune, can pretend to impede that current of
things, nor prevent that solution, relatively near at hand,
of the long rivalry of European races for the ultimate
colonization and domination of the universe. The world
will not be Russian, nor German, nor French, alas! nor
Spanish. It will be Anglo-Saxon.”

It was one of Briton’s greatest poets who wrote the
following characteristic lines expressive of the force of
languages:

“Greek’s a harp we love to hear,
Latin is a trumpet clear;
Spanish, like an organ, swells,
Italian rings its bridal bells;
France, with many a frolic mien,
Tunes her sprightly violin;
Loud the German rolls his drum,
When Russia’s clashing cymbals come
But Briton’s sons may well rejoice,
For English is the human voice.”

It is a noticeable fact that there have been five hun-

dred distinct languages, and about three thousand five
hundred colloquials, or about five thousand different

a

LANGUAGE Os OIVINE ORIGIN. 63

forms of speech since Adam’s time. At the present time
five hundred of the primary are dead, so that there are
about nine hundred now spoken on all the earth, with
about two thousand five hundred colloquials.
Canon Farrar says: “We may, therefore, assert, as

Dante did, more than five centuries ago,

“That man speaks, is nature’s prompting;

Whether thus or thus she leaves to you

As you do most affect it.”

I am surprised at some of the heedlessness of your
philologists, and do not wonder that your children have
a hard time of it acquiring your language when they are
so carelessly misdirected in many instances, misled in
many more and given rules which even the fully de-
veloped mind of a man is unable to comprehend. It 1s
not from one alone of your linguists that I take this
definition of the word “language.” “Language is the
expression of our ideas by articulate sounds, such as the
signs of the ideas.’ Your Noah Webster, who gath-
ered together all dictionaries extant, including all scien-
tific words and definitions, and dumped them into his big
book, gives the definition of the word “language” as
follows: “The expression of ideas by words or significant
articulate sounds for the communication of thought.”

Now, if these definitions are correct, and you choose
to accept them as being so, what becomes of the “lan-
guage’ of the deaf and dumb?

KAY.
POWER OF SPEECH IN THE FELINE.

It is not true that all animals have vocal chords. Some
are marsupial, such as the kangaroo, and have mem-
branous vocal chords, which stretch upon themselves and
so cannot be stretched by the arvtenoid muscles. A few
of them are mammalia, such as the giraffe, the porcupine,
and the armadillo, have no vocal chords, and are, there-
fore, mute. This is also the case with the cetacea, the
loud bellowing of the whale being produced by the ex-
pulsion of water through the nostrils during the act of
expiration. Serpents have no vocal chords, and their
hiss is the result of breathing forcibly down through a
soft glottis. Frogs have no trachea, so that their larynx
opens into the bronchial tube, but the loudness of the
croaking of male frogs is due to the distension of two
membranous sacs at the side of the neck. Some frogs
have membranous vocal chords, others two reed-like
bodies, the anterior ends of which are fixed, while the pos-
terior ends with the ventricles of the larynx and the
larynge pharyngeal sacs looking into the bronchi are
free.

The vocal organs of both man and the other animals
present a general resemblance to each other, despite vary-
ing degrees of development. Cats have a sac between
the thyroid cartilege and the oshyiodeum, which have
much to do with the modifying and increasing of the

64

POWER OF SPEECH IN THE FELINE. 65

tones of the voice. The laryngeal sacs are small, and thus
prevent what might be a shrill cry, such as the deafening

shrieks of the monkeys of Africa. The epiglottis 1s com-
paratively small, and there are proportionately small cav-
ities in the thyroid cartilege and the oshyiodeum, which
communicate with the ventricles of the larynx and the
laryngea-pharyngeal sacs, which give the peculiar softness
of imusical tone to the feline, as may be noted by a
merely casual observer, and is accounted one of the most
delightful characteristics of the Cat.

The brain of the Cat so closely resembles that of
man as to force the unwilling admission from anatomists
and physiologists that in form and substance they bear
so close and striking a similarity that it must be con-
ceded that they are, to all intents and purposes, the
same in substance and conformation, and differ only in
weight and size. It will be seen, from this admission of
the greatest of physiologists and anatomists, possessed as
men are of the natural prejudice against all animals, sav-
ing only man, in the way of his ascendency in every
respect above all other animals, that, in the proportion of
weight of brain and under similar circumstances, the
intelligence of the Cat is equal to that of man. These
forced admissions must necessarily carry conviction with
them, so that I shall hope, at no distant day, to hear
the admission of what to me is a proven fact, that in the
ratio of the size of the two brains the Cat is equal
in intelligence to man under the same existing circum-
stances.

The negro of America, brought up in ignorance and
under servile conditions, a slave, classified as cattle, was
once considered an inferior order of the human species

66 PUSSY AND HHR LANGUAGE.

by some, and by many as a biped, but a long step be-
neath his now regarded white brother. Time and ex-
perience developed the fact that the negro was suscep-
tible of cultivation, and his ebony brain, contained in a
skull of twice and thrice the thickneas of the white
man’s, has been polished to a high! degree, in exceptional
cases, although I must admit that this polishing has been
found to be in proportion to the degree of amalgamation
with other races, particularly that of the white man.

Anatomists are unanimous in their opinions and
their experiments show conclusively that the Cat has a
much finer and more delicate organism than the dog.
Upon this universal deduction I argue that they are more
sensitive than the dog, a proposition which meets the
approval of every naturalist, anatomist and pathologist
who has ever taken the subject into consideration. In
fact, it is almost universally conceded that Cats are fully
as intelligent as dogs, and by many the feline is regarded
as the superior animal in every respect.

Prof. William Lindsay, M. D., F. RS, F. LS, Hom
Member New Zealand Institute, says in his remarkable
work, entitled “Mind in the Lower Animals”: “The lower
animals are subject.to the same kinds of bodily diseases
as affect men They are subject to the same kinds of
mental disorders, productible by the same causes as in
man.” He asserts that Cats readily comprehend and
thoroughly understand man’s words and the conversa-
tion of men. The following attributes he ascribes te the
Cat, namely, “a moral sense in so far as it involves, a,
honesty; b, sense of duty or trust; c, sense of guilt and
shame; d, concealment of crime.

They are self-sacrificing, even to death, understand-

POWER OF SPEECH IN THE PELINE. 67

ing man’s language, verbal and other, including the read-
~ ing of human character and words, the interpretation 01
facial expressions, use of money and knowledge of its
power and the principle of barter, buying and selling,
self-control, appetite, co-operation with man, both in use-
ful service and in crime, sensitiveness to insult or affront,
neglect, injustice, punishment and reproof, discovery of
murderers and murders, lost or stolen property, idea of
time, tune, number, order, succession of events. On the
whole the place next to man, as respects both intellect
and morals, is usually assigned to the dog, a rank. which
is, undoubtedly, due to his intimate association with and
careful training by man for countless generations, for
there can be no question as to the hereditary transmis-
sion and consequent accumulation of the truths, good or
bad. of education by or in imitation of man.

“Man ascribes to the Cat spitefulness, selfisLness,
cold cruelty, stealthiness, treachery and attachment to
place and not to person. The poor Cat has, probably,
been as much maligned and misunderstood as it has been
petted. We are told that its apparent affection is only
‘a cupboard love,’ and that this is popularly supposed to
be sufficient to account for its propensity to pilfer eatables
and drinkables. It is said to be attached to place, not to
person, to stick to a given house, even when a master ora
mistress who has heaped kindness upon it has had occa~
sion to change quarters. Absurd stories are told as to
its sucking children’s breath. To speak of a scandal-
propagating, sour old maid as ‘spiteful as a Cat’ is so
common, and we hear the Cat so frequently accused of
stealthiness or treachery—of the enjoyment of the tor-
tures of its victims and of calculating cruelty, and yet

68 PUSSY AND HER LANGUAGE.

Wood tells us, ‘instead of being a greedy, selfish animal,
it is really a very unselfish and generous one, capable of
great sacrifices. Jesse mentions one that fed a jay twice
a day with mice. Another Cat always brought and laid
at her master’s feet the mice she had caught, before she
would eat them; she made use of them as food only when
they were given back to her by her master. The attach
ment of the Cat is frequently as great to person as to
place, such attachment, however, depending usually on
how far she is understood, sympathized with and kindly
treated.

“Cases have been given of Cats following their mas-
ters from house to house and place to place, accompany-
ing them on visits to other people’s residences as uncon-~
cerned as a dog. They may be trained to guard and
defend like a dog.” |

This author speaks of the affection of the feline for
the canine and gives many proofs instancing the feeding
and nourishing of a sick dog by a Cat, and of Cats and
dogs living together, in the same kennel, of which there
have been innumerable instances. Other authors who in-
dependently -verify these assertions by the relations of
personal observations are Mockridge, Lubbock, Belt,
Hogue, Pierre Huber, Francois Huber, Latreille, Nemour,
Dr. Franklin, Paisley, Boyer, Spaulding, Houzeau, Nich-
ols, Menauly, Leroy, Burnett, Jebb, Fleming, Ferrier,
Gillies, Gudden, Czermak, Flourens, Smellie, Marville, ].
G. Wood and many others. |

Strong proofs in refutation of the ridiculous asser-
tion that the Cat is a lover of place and not of person
have been multiplied until their name is legion. Strong-
est of all these proofs are the verified narratives of most

POWDR OF SPEECH IN THE FELINE. 69

reliable people and recited in books of authors who are
above question as to veracity. There is, in fact, no need
of deceit in this demonstration of the truth in this re-
gard, for where the intellect is but ordinary, the evidence
of the eye is conclusive to those who may have wit-
nessed the action of the maligned animal, and the char-
acter of the truthful author, whose honesty of purpose
and freedom from deceit have never been imougned, wil
be taken for all it is worth by all searchers after the
truth.

Prof. Wood, the celebrated naturalist, relates a won-
derful story of a Cat, as follows:

“A Cat recently exhibited a mysterious intuitive
power, which equaled if not surpassed any story of its
kind and narrated. She was the property of a newly
married couple, who resided toward the north of Scot-
land, where the country narrows considerably, by reason
of the deeply cut inlets of the surrounding sea. Their
cottage was at no great distance from the ocean, and
there they remained for several months. After a while
the householders changed their locality and took up their
residence in a house near the opposite coast. As the in-
_tervening country was so hilly and rugged that
there would have been much difficulty in transporting the
household goods, the aid of a ship was called in, and,
alter giving their Cat to a neighbor as a present, the man
and his wife proceeded by sea to their new home.

“After they had been settled for some weeks, they
were surprised by the sudden appearance of their Cat,
which presented itself at their door, dirty, ragged and
half starved. As might be expected, she was joyfully

70 PUSSY AND HER LANGUAGE.

“It is hardly possible to conceive whence the animal
could have obtained her information. Even if the usual
means of land transport had been taken, it would have
been most wonderful that the Cat should have been able
to trace the line of journey. But when, as in the pres-
ent instance, the human travelers went by water and the
feline traveler went by land, there seems to be no clue to
the guiding power which directed the animal in its course
and brought it safely to the desired goal.”

XV.
ILLUSTRATIVE STORIES.

Another story, told by Dr. Wood, is proof of the
falsity of the constantly repeated assertion by many
naturalists that the Cat is a lover of locality and not of
persons, and although it seems almost a matter of super-
fluity to relate it, I will narrate it in order to fix the truth
beyond contradiction, in the minds of doubters of the
real fact.

“Many years ago we changed our residence from one
part of Oxford to another, and, having been told that
Cats have no affection except for locatiiies, my parents
thought that they would not distress thcir Cat by taking
her into a house which she would not lke, and, accord-
ingly, left ‘Nutty’ at home. But, after we had been
settled down some eight or ten days, Nutty made her
appearance among us and displayed by every means in
her power her delight at rejoining her old friends. She
was terribly emaciated, and had evidently endured great ~
hardships, but in a few days her rich tortoise-shell fur |
had sleeked itself down and she had recovered her wonted
beauty.”

I take the following from “Gleanings in Natural His-
eee by Edward Jesse, F. L. S., London, 1838. It
demonstrates the love of the feline for persons and the
society of human beings and her innate desire to protect
both her master and his property, characteristics which
have heretofore been attributed alone to the dog and

(a 7

12 PUSSY AND HER LANGUAGE.

denied existence in the feline animal. Of the latter trait
there are thousands of instances which have come under
the observation of many people, and have becn recited
in the numerous volumes which I have consulted in
preparing this paper. The story of this old writer is as
iollows:

“Cats are generally persecuted animals, and are sup-
posed to show but little attachment to those who are kind
to them. I have known a Cat, however, to evince great
uneasiness during the absence of her owner, and it is
stated that when the Duke of Norfolk was committed to
the Tower, in the reign of Queen Elizabeth, a favorite
Cat made her way into his prison room by getting down
the chimney. ) |

“Cats have been known, also, to do their best to pro-
tect the property of their masters as well as dogs. A man
who was sentenced to transportation for robbery in-
formed me, after his conviction, that he and two others
broke into the house of a gentlemna near Hampton Court.
While they were in the act of plundering it a large black
Cat flew at one of the robbers and fixed her claws on
each side of his face. He added that he never saw any
man so much frightened in his life.

“Mr. White, in his ‘Natural History of Selborne,’
states that of all quadrupeds Cats are the least disposed
toward water, and will not, when they can avoid it, deign
to wet a foot, much less to plunge into that element.
The following fact, however, communicated to me by a
friend who lived several years in Jamaica, will prove
that, in cases of necessity, they take to water, and is also
another instance of the attachment of animals to the
places where they are bred. Being in want of a Cat, one

ILLUSTRATED STORIES. TS

was given him which was not full grown. It was put
into a canvas bag, and a man on horseback brought him a
distance of five miles from the place where it was bred.
It had never been removed before. In doing so, he had
to cross two rivers, one named the Mino, which is about
eighty feet wide and two and a half feet deep, and run-
ning strong. The other, called Thomas’s River, was
wider and more rapid, but less deep. Over these rivers
there were no bridges. The Cat, when it arrived, was shut
up for some days, and when supposed to be reconciled to
her new dwelling she was allowed to go about the house.
The next day, however, she was missing, and was found,
shortly afterward, at her old abode.

“We had one cunning old black Cat,’ says a corre-
spondent of Dr. Wood, “whose wisdom was acquired by
sad experience. In early youth he must have been very
careless, for at that time he was always getting in the
way of the men and the wine cases, and frequent were
the disasters he suffered from coming into collision with
moving bodies. His ribs had been often fractured, and
when nature repaired them he must have handed them
over to the care of her ’prentice hand, for the work was
_ done in a rough and knotty manner.

“This battered and suffering pussy was, at last, as-
sisted by a younger hero, who, profiting by the teaching
of his senior, managed to avoid the scrapes which had
tortured the one who was self-educated-

“These two Cats, ‘Senior’ and ‘Junior, appeared to
swear—Cats will swear—eternal friendship at first sight.
An interchange of good offices between them was at once
established. ‘Senior’ taught ‘Junior’ to avoid men’s feet,
and wine-cases in motion, and pointed out the favorite

v4 PUSSY AND HER LANGUAGE.

hunting ground, while ‘Junior’ offered to his mentor the
aid of his activity and physical prowess. “Senior had a
cultivated epicurean taste for mice, which he was too old
to catch, and he therefore entered into a solemn league
and covenant with ‘Junior’ to the following effect: It
was agreed between these two low contracting powers
that ‘Junior’ should devote his energies to catching mice
for the benefit of ‘Senior,’ who, in consideration of such
feudal service, was daily to relinquish his ciaim to a cer-
tain allowance of cats’ meat, in favor of ‘Junior.’

“This curious compact was actually and seriously car-
ried out. It was an amusing and touching spectacle to
behold young pussy gravely laying at the feet of his elder
the contents of his gamebag- On the other hand,
‘Senior,’ true to his bargain, licked his jaws and watched
‘Junior’ steadily consuming a double share of ca‘s’ meat.”

Mr. Bidil writes from the Government Museum of
Madras to “ Nature,” relating this instance of reasoning
in a Cat:

“In 1867 I was absent from Madras for two months,
and left in my quarters three Cats, one of which was an
English tabby, a very gentle and affectionate creature.
During my absence the quarters were occupicd by two
young gentlemen, who delighted in teasing and frighten-
ang the Cats. About a week before my return the Engush
Cat had kittens, which she carefully concealed behind
-bocksheives in the library. On the morning of my re-
turn I saw the Cat and petted her, as usual, and then left
the house for about an hour. On returning to dress, I
feund that the kittens were located in a corner of my
dressing-room, where previous broods had been deposited
and nursed,, On questioning: the servant how they came

ILLUSTRATED STORIES. 75

there, he at once replied, ‘Sir, the old Cat, taking one by
one in her mouth, brought them here.’ In other words,
the mother had carried them, one by one, in her mouth,
trom the library to the dressing-room, where they lav
quite exposed. I do not think I have heard of a more
remarkable instance of reasoning and affectionate confi-
dence in an animal, and I need hardly say that the latter
manifestation gave me great pleasure. The train of rea-
soning seems to be as follows: “Now my master has re-
turned, there is no risk of the kittens being injured by the
two young savages in the house, so I will take them out
for my protector to see and admire, and keep them in the
ecrner in which all my former pets. have been nursed in
safety.’

“The attachment of the dog and the Cat is sometimes
curiously manifested,” says Prof. Wood, and he con-
tinues: “In a large metropolitan household there had
been a change of servants, and the new cook begged, as a
favor, to be permitted the company of her dog. __ Per-
mission was granted, and the dog took up his quarters
in the kitchen, to the infinite disgust of the Cat, who
thought her dignity insulted by the introduction of a
stranger into her special domain. In process of time,
however, she got over her dislike and the two animals
became fast friends. At last the cook left and took with
her the dog.

“After an absence of some length, she determined on
paying a visit to her former companions, her dog accom-
panying her as usual. Pussy was in the room when the
dog entered, and flew forward to greet him. She then
ran out of the room and shortly returned, bearing in her
mouth her own dinner. This she laid before her old

76 PUSSY AND HER LANGUAGE.

friend, and actually stood behind him as he ate the food
with which she so hospitably entertained him.

“This anecdote was related to me by the owner of
the cat, and there can be no reason to doubt it.

“In a chateau in Normandy lived a favorite Cat, which
was plentifully supplied with food, and had grown fat and
sleek on her luxurious fare. Indeed, so bounteously was
her plate supplied that she was unable to consume the
entire amount of provisions laid before her. This super-
abundance of food seemed to weigh upon her mind, and
one day, before her dinner time, she set off across the
fields and paid a visit to a little cottage near the roadside,
where there lived a lean Cat. The two animals returned
to the chateau in company, and after the feline hostess
had eaten as much dinner as she desired she relinquished
the remainder in favor of her friend.

“The kind-hearted proprietor of the chateau, seeing
this curious act of hospicality, increased the daily allow-
ance of meat and afforded an ample meal for both Cats.
The improved diet soon exerted its beneficial effect on
the lean stranger, who speedily became as near comfort
ably sleek as her hostess.

“In this improved state of matters she could not eat
as much as when she was half starved and ravenous with
hunger, and so, after the two cats had dined, there was
still an overplus. In order to avoid waste, and urged by
the generosity of her feelings, the hospitable Cat set forth
on another journey, and fetched another lean Cat from a
village at a league's distance.

“The owner of the chateau, being desirous to see
how the matter would end, continued to increase the daily
allowance, and had, at last, as pensioners of his bounty,

TLLUSTRATED STORIES. "7

nearly twenty Cats, which had been brought from various
houses in the surrounding country. Yet, however raven-
ous were these daily visitors, none of them touched a
morsel until their hostess had finished her own dinner.
My inforinant heard this narrative from the owner of the
chateau.

“In the conduct of this hospitably minded Cat there
scems to be none of the commercial spirit which actuated
the two Mincing Lane Cats, but an open-pawed liberality,
as beseems an aristocratic birth and breeding. The
creature had evidently a sense of economy as well as a
spirit of generosity, and blending the two qualities to-
gether, became the general almoner of the neighboring
felines. There must have been also great powers of con-
versation between these various animals, for it is evident
that they were able to communicate ideas to each other
and to induce their companions to act upon the imparted
intormation.

XVI.

SUPERIORITY OF THE CAT OVER OTHER QUADRUMINA.

The recent experiments of Prof. Feriier, according
to his own interpretation of the phenomena, tend to
show that human and animal language are identical—
that the barking of a dog and the mewing of the Cat are
equivalents of speech in man, and that the faculty of
language in man and other animals has virtually the
same seat in the brain. He describes opening the mouth,
putting out the tongue and barking, in the dog, mew-
ing, spitting or hissing, in the Cat, as signs correspond-
ing to speech. But it needed not the experiments of the
physiologist or the pathologist, or the scalpel of the anato-
mist, to tell us that the dog’s bark, the cat’s mew and the
horse’s neigh, as well as the corresponding vocal ex-
pressions in other animals, are the analogies of speech or
speaking in man Language in animals is both natural
and acquired. In both cases it may be the result of self
tuition or man’s instruction and training. In both cases
its variety is to be remarked upon, and, just as in man,
this variety, which involves expressiveness, or the sign
thereof, is frequently, if not always, in proportion to the
degree of cultivation or education of the speaker. The
interpretation of animal language, in its varied forms, is
of the utmost importance in relation to the discrimina~
tion of notes. It is known, but with accompanying diffi-
culties which arise mainly from the following causes or
source: first, the significance of animal language has

78

SUPERIORITY OF THE CAT. 79

been little studied by man; second, the wishes or thoughts

are expressed in an infinite variety of ways, not only in
different tribes, genera or species, but, in different indi-

viduals of the same species and different members of the
same family and different offspring of the same parent, in
different ages of the same individual, in the same indi-
vidual at different times and under different circumstances.
The mode of expressing the passions is different in differ-
ent animals. Many of the utterances of animals are such
distinct imitations of the human voice and other sounds
as to deceive even man himself:

I do not credit the Darwinian theory of evolution
with being in the line of common sense. In this doubt
of its correctness [ think I am joined by the great ma-
jority of mankind. In some human beings who think
as I do upon this subject, the wish may be father t> the
thought, for a matter of pride, because no man takes kind-
ly to the assertion that his progenitors were apes and
baboons, or something akin to these, and this may be
classified as a very commendable pride in the human
being. Nor do I believe that the domestic Cat is an
evolution from the wild-cat, or the puma, or the jaguar,
or anything of their species. The resemblance has de-
ceived more than one of the best writers upon the subject,
as it certainly tends to do. Naturalists are at variance now,
as they always have been, upon the subject of the true
origin of the Cat, for while some declare that the do-
mestic Cat evolves from the wild-cat, others claim, with
as much sincerity, that the wild-cat comes from the do-
mestic feline. One author, in proof of such an assertion,
remarks that the wild-cat is not indigenous to the soil of
America, and must, therefore, have evolved from a do-

SO PUSSY AND HER LANGUAGE.

mestic animal, our household pet, as there was no other
way for the wild animal to get to this country—an argu-
ment which would scarcely apply to other animals. I
cannot see the force of such an argument, nor do | bring
myself to the belief that the beautiful and loving house-
hold pet is descended from the ferocious and compara~
tively enormous wild-cat or anything of its species, any
more than I can believe that the dog is an evolution from
the lion, the catamount from the tiger, the sprat from the.
whale, or man from the ape. The natural tendency to
domesticity in the Cat is antagonistic to this theory of
evolution, as are many other individualities of the feline,
and I shall, therefore, claim that our Cat is not even a
distant relative of the wild animal, but is so far removed
that the comparison is not only odious but incorrect.
Prof. E. P. Thompson, in his valuable treatise, en-
titled “Passions of Animals,” gives to the feline race the
following characteristics: “Perception, touch, taste, smell,
hearing, sight, recollection, memory, imagination,
dreams, playfulness, homesickness, thought, discrimina-
tion, attention, experience, sense of injustice, computation
of time, calculation of number, sensation, tone and power
of sensation, sympathy, joy, pain, anger, astonishment,
fear, sympathy of suffering, cruelty, desire, fellowship o-
joy, compassion, appetite, impulse, instinct, self-preserva-
tion, tenacity of life, temptation, hibernation, form and
color, distribution, habitation, cleanliness, change of habi-
tation, locality, postures and use of natural weapons, care
of young, affection for offspring, imitation, social impulse,
communication, language, curiosity, sagacity, tempera-
ment, foTesight, cunning, artifice, dissimuation, attach-
ment, fidelity, gratitude, generosity, vanity, love of praise,

ZOPMERIORITY OF THE CAT. 81

jealousy, predominancy, hatred, revenge, love, and train- |
ing.”

Concerning the almost universal belief that the dog
is a more intelligent animal than the Cat, while the classi-
fication of animals, in the order of intellect, by many au-
thors, gives the first place to the dog, the second to the
Cat and the third to the horse, I cannot agree with them,
because the facts are all against such an order of classi-
fication. I protest against the preferment of the dog to
the feline for many reasons, not the least of which is the
established and apparent fact that the construction, of the
Cat is finer than that of the dog. It goes without saying
that the dog has been given far more and better oppor-
tunities for learning and refinement than the Cat. The
dog is the constant companion of man. He goes with
him everywhere, to his place of business, to his farm, to
his work of every nature, upon his walks abroad, to the
enjoyment of his sports, to the tavern, even to the church,
and, when the day’s work and pleasures are over, to his
home, and frequently to his bed-chamber. The dog is
with the man, his constant companion, from the cradle to
the grave, and from his constant companionship come
the knowledge and intelligence of the canine, developed
by constant observation of man’s habits, mode of expres-
sion, likes, dislikes, associations and moods. It dust be
admitted by the most obtuse that the Cat has never been
giver such privilege; consequently, to compare the Cat
with the dog, in the matter of intelligence, is an apparent
injustice. Give to the feline the same advantages which
are bestowed upon the canine, and the superiority of the
Cat will be immediately appreciable. Prof. George J.
Romanes, in his valuable work, “Animal Intelligence,” re-

82 PUSSY AND HER LANGUAGE.

cently published, says in relation to the injustice done the
feline animal by naturalists in general:

“The Cat is, unquestionably, a highly intelligent ani-
mal, though, when compared with its great domestic
rival, the dog, its intelligence, from being cast in quite a
- different mold, is very frequently underrated. Compara-
tively unsocial in. temperament, wanderingly predaceous
in habits and lacking in the affectionate docility of the
canine nature, this animal has never, in any considerable
degree, been subject to those psychologically transform-
ing influences whereby a prolonged and intimate associa-
tion with man has, as we shall subsequently see, so pro-
foundly modified the psychology of the dog. Neverthe-
less, the Cat is not only by nature, an animal remarkable
for intelligence, but, in spite of its naturally imposed dis-
advantages of temperament, has not altogether escaped
those privileges of nurture which unnumbered centuries
of domestication could scarcely fail to supply. Thus, as
contrasted with most of the wild species of the genus
when tamed from their youngest days, the domestic cat
is conspicuously less uncertain in its temper toward its
masters, the uncertainty of temper displayed by nearly all
the wild members of the feline tribe, when tame, being, of
course, an expression of the interference of individual
with hereditary experience.”

The delicacy and carefulness of the Cat were never
more characteristically illustrated or more gracefully de-
scribed than by Prof. Philip G. Hamerton, in his inter-
esting and graphically written “Chapter on Animals,” in
which he takes occasion to say:

“One evening, before dinner time, the present writer
had occasion to go into a dining room where the cloth

Shai

SUPERIORITY OF, THE CAT. 83

was already laid, the glasses already upon the sideboard
and table, and the lamp and candles lighted. A Cat,
which was a favorite in the house, finding the door ajar,
entered softly after me, and began to make a little ex-
ploration after his manner. [| havea fancy for watching
animals when they think they are not observed, so I
affected to be entirely absorbed in the occupation which
detained me there, and took note of the Cat’s proceedings
without in any way interrupting them. The first thing
he did was to jump upon a chair and thence up on the
sideboard. There was a good deal of glass and plate
upon that piece of furniture, but nothing as yet which, in
the Cat’s opinion, was worth purloining, so he brought
all his paws together on the very edge of the board, the
two forepaws in the middle, the others on both sides, and
sat, balancing himself for a minute or two whilst he con-
templated the long, glittefing vista of the table. As yet
there was not an item of anything eatable upon it, but
the cat probably thought he might as well ascertain
whether this were so or not by a closer inspection, for,
with a single spring, he cleared the abyss, and alighted
noiselessly on the tablecloth. He walked all over it, and
left no trace. He passed among the slender glasses,
fragile stems, like air-bubbles cut in half and balanced
on spears of ice, yet he disturbed nothing, broke nothing
anywhere. When his inspection was over he stepped out
of sight, having been perfectly inaudible from the begin-
ning, so that a blind person could only have suspected his
visit by that mysterious sense which makes the blind
aware of the presence of another creature.

“This little scene reveals one remarkable character-
istic of the feline nature, the innate and exquisite refine-

S4+ PUSSY AND HER LANGUAGE.

ment of its behavior. It would be infinitely difficult, prob-
ably even impossible, to communicate a deticacy of this
kind to any animal by teaching. Why should se tread
so carefully? It is not from fear of offend:ng her mas-
ter and incurring punishment, because to do so is in con-
formity with her own idea of behavior, exactly as a lady
would feel vexed with herself if she broke anything in her
own drawing-room, though no one would L1-me ker mala-
dresse, and she would never feel the loss. A dog on yel-
vet is evidently out of place; he would be as happy in
clean straw; but a Cat on velvet does not awaken any

sense of the incongruous. If animals could speak, the dog
would be a bluff, outspoken, honest fellow, but the Cat

would have the rare talent of never saying a word too
much.”

XVII.
INTELLECTUAL POWER GF THE CAT.

The immortal Shelley possessed an intense sense of
the supernatural, and, while being a lover of the feline,
appeared to be convinced of the fact that Cats have an
articulate language formed of easily distinguishable words,
purely Anglo-Saxon. The following s'o-y, demonst ative
of these facts, may be discounted by some of the more in-
credulous, but it must be remembered that Shelley was
renowned for his veracity, and is, therefore, entitled to
credence. He relates the following narrative as he heard
it from Mr. G. Lewis:

“A gentleman on a visit to a friend,” says he, “who
lives on the skirts of an extensive forest, on the east of
Germany, lost his way. He wandered for some hours
among the trees, when he saw a light ata distance. On
approaching it he was surprised to observe that it pro-
ceeded from the interior of a ruined monastery. Before
he knocked, he thought it prudent to look through the
window. He saw a multitude of Cats assembled around
a small grave, four of whom were letting down a coffin
with a crown upon it. The gentleman, startled at this
unusal sight, and imagining that he had arrived among
the retreat of fiends or witches, mounted his horse and
rode away with the utmost precipitation. He arrived at
a late hour at his friend’s house, who had sat up for him.
On his arrival his friend questioned him as to the cause

of the traces of trouble visible in his face. He began to
85

86 PUSSY AND HER LANGUAGE.

recount his adventure after much difficulty, knowing that
it was scarcely possible that his friend should give faith
to his relation. No sooner had he mentioned the coffin,
with the crown upon it, than his friend’s Cat, who seemed
to have been lying asleep before the fire, leaped up, say-
ing, “Then, I am the King of the — and, ca
up the chimney, was seen no more.’

Prof. Hamerton, in quoting the above, comments
upon the story as follows:

“Now, is not that a remarkable story, proving at the
same time, the attention Cats pay to human conversation
even when they outwardly seem perfectly indifferent to it,
and the monarchical character of their political organiza-
tion, which, without this incident, might have remained
forever unknown to us? This happened, we are told, in
Eastern Germany, but in our own island, England, less
than a hundred years ago, there remained many a Cat, it
is said, fit to be the ministrant of a sorceress.”

Concerning the origin of the domestic Cat, Rev.
J. G. Wood in his “Illustrated Natural History,” says:
“The Egyptian Cat is the origin of the domestic Cat. It
is conjectured that the domestic Cat was imported from ~
Egypt into Greece and Rome, and from thence to Eng-
land.”

“The Cat,” continues Dr. Wood, “is a sadly calumni-
ated creature. The Cats with which I have been most famil-
iar have been as docile, tractable and good-tempered as
any dog could be, and displayed an amount of intellectual
power which would be equaled by very few dogs and
surpassed by none. The most conspicuous varieties of
the domestic Cat are the Manx and Angora. Angora
Cats have long, silky hair and bushy tails, while the Manx

INTELLECTUAL POWER OF THE CAT. ST

Cat’s body is covered with close fur, and is tailless.”
Dr. Wood, in his most interesting work, relates sev-
eral stories confirmatory of the fact that the Cat 1s won-
derfully endowed with intellectuality, and I select the fol-
lowing as being the most pleasing:

“Three years ago I had a lovely kitten presented to
me. Her fur was of beautiful blue-gray, marked with
glossy, black stripes, according to the most improved
zebra or tiger fashion. She was so very pretty that she
was named ‘Pret,’ and was, without exception, the wisest,
most loving and dainty pussy that ever crossed my path.
When Pret was very young, I fell ill with a nervous fever.
She missed me immediately in my accustomed place,
sought for me, and placed herself at my door until she
found a chance for getting into the room, which she soon
accomplished, and began at once to try her little best to
amuse me with her little frisky, kitten tricks and pussy-cat
attentions. But soon finding that I was too ill to play
with her, she placed herself beside me, and at once estab-
lished herself as head nurse. In this capacity few human
beings could have exceeded her in watchfulness, or mani-
fested more affectionate regard. It was truly wonderful
_ to note how soon she learned to know the different hours
at which I ought to take medicine or nourishment, and, .
during the night, if my attendant was asleep, she would
call her, and if she could not awake her without such

extreme measures, she would gently nibble the nose of the
sleeper, which never failed to produce the desired effect.

“Having thus achieved her purpose, Miss Pret would
watch attentively the preparation of whatever was needed,
and then come and, with a gentle purr annonuce its ad-
vent to me. The most marvelous part of the matter was

88 PUSSY AND HER LANGUAGE.

her never being five minutes wrong in her calculation of
the true time, even amid the stillness and darkness of
the night. But who shall say by what means this little
being was enabled to measure the fleeting moments, and
by the aid of what power did she connect the lapse of
time with the needful attentions of a nurse and her charge?
Surely we have here something more than reason.”

The reverend gentleman goes on to say: “The never-
failing accuracy of this wise little cat was the more sur-
prising since she was equally infallible by day or night.
There was no striking clock in the house, so that she
could not have been assisted by its aid, nor was it habit,
for her assiduous attentions only began with the illness
and ceased with the recovery of the invalid. Instinct,
popularly so called, will not account for this wonderful
capability so suddenly coming into being, and so sudden-
ly ceasing. Surely some spirit-guiding power must have
animated this simple little creature, and have directed her
in her labor of love.

“Another time, while Pret was yet in her kittenhood,
another kitten lived in the same house, and very much
annoyed Pret by coming into the room and eating the
meat which had been laid out for herself. However, Pret
soon got over that difficulty by going to the plate and, as
soon as it was placed in the accustomed spot, picking out
all the large pieces of meat and hiding them under a
table. She then sat quietly down, and placed herself
sentry over the hidden treasure, while the intruding Cat
entered the room, walked up to the plate and finished the
little scraps of meat that Pret had thought fit to leave her.
After the obnoxiouas individual had left the room, Pret
brought her concealed treasures from their hiding place
and quietly consumed them.

INTELLECTUAL POWER OF THE CAT. 89

“When any one was writing Pret was rather apt to
disconcert the writer. She always must needs try her
skill at anything that her mistress did, and no sooner was
the pen in motion than Pret would jump on the table.
and, seizing the end of the pen in her mouth, try to direct
its movements in her own way. That plan not answering
her expectations, she would pat the fresh writing paper
with her paw, and make sad havoc with the correspond-
ence.

“Clever as Pret was, she sometimes displayed an un-
expected simplicity of character. After the fashion of the
cat tribe, she delighted in covering up the remnants of
her food with any substance that seemed most convenient.
She was accustomed, after taking her meals, to fetch a
piece of paper and lay it over the saucer, or to put her
paw into her mistrzss’ pocket and extract her handker-
chief for the same pz¥pose. These little performances
showed some depth of reasoning in the creature, but she
would sometimes act in a manner totally opposed to ra-
tional action. Paper and handkerchiefs failing, she has
been often seen, after partly finishing her meal, to fetch
one of her kittens and lay it over the plate, for the pur-
pose of covering up the remaining food. When kitten,
paper and handkerchief were all wanting, she did her best
to scratch up the carpet, and to lay the torn fragments
upon the plate. She had been known, in her anxiety, to
find covering for the superabundant food, to drag a table-
cloth from its proper locality, and to cause a sad de-
molition of the superincumbent fragile ware.

“At last Pret died, and one of her offspring became
a mother, and I conveyed herself and kitten to her
former home. Although she had not seen the house
since her early kittenhood, she recognized the locality at

90 PUSSY AND HER LANGUAGE.

once, and, pulling her kitten out of its basket, established
it in her accustomed bed on the sofa.

“One of her offspring is now domiciled in my own
house, and there was rather a quaint incident in connec-
tion with its departure.

“Minnie knew perfectly well that her kitten was
going away from her, and, after it had been placed in a
little basket, she licked it affectionately, and seemed to
take a formal farewell of her child. When next I visited
the house Minnie would have nothing to do with me,
and when her mistress greeted me, she hid her face
in her mistress’ arms. So I remonstrated with her, tell-
ing her that her little one would be better off with me
than if it had gone to a stranger, but all to no purpose.
At last I said, ‘Minnie, I apologize, and will not so offend
again.’ ) Le
_ “At this remark Minnie lifted up her head, looked me
straight in the face, and voluntarily came on my knee.
Anything more humanly appreciative could not be imag-
ined.

“For many days after the abstraction of her off-
spring, Minnie would not approach the various spots
sanctined by the presence of her lost child, and would not
even repose on a certain shawl, knitted from scarlet-wool,
which was her favorite resting-place. She is a compac-
stonate pussy, like her late mother, azd mightily distress-d
at any illness that falls on any of the household. When
her mistress has been suffering from a severe cough, I
have seen Minnie jump up on the sofa and put her paw
sympathetically on the lips of the sufferer. Sneezing
seems to excite her compassion even more than coughing,
and causes her to display even a greater amount of sym-
pathy.”

yy i=.

AVI.
SOME CHARACTERISTICS OF THE CAT.

One strong characteristic attributed to the Cat by its
enemies and traducers is quarrelsomeness. I wil not take
the trouble to deny the assertion, but leave the reader t>
deny it out of his own, experience, and will give two ver-
sions of the old story of the Kilkenny Cats, so frequently
quoted in demonstration of the fighting qualities of Pussy,
who is, evidently, only too eager to live in peace with all
the world, in conformity with her great desire for com~
fort.

The story generally told is that two felines fought in
a saw-pit with such ferocious determination that, when
the battle was over, nothing could be found remaining of
either combatant except the tail, the marvelous inference
to be drawn therefrom being, of course, that they had
devoured each other.

The ludicrous anecdote has, no doubt, been generally
looked upon as an absurdity of the Joe Miller class—
but this, according to a writer in the English “Notes and
Queries,” is alla mistake. He continues, concerning the
historical matter of the Kilkenny Cats, “I have not the
least doubt that the story of the mutual destruction of
the contending cats was an allegory designed to typify the
utter ruin to which centuries of litigation and embroil-
ment on the subject of conflicting rights and privileges
tended to reduce the respective exchequers of the rival
municipal bodies of Kilkenny and Iri_h.own—separate

91

92 PUSSY AND HER LANGUAGE.

corporations, existing within the limits of one city, and
the boundaries of whose respective jurisdictions had never
been marked out or defined by any authority to which
either was willing to bow. Their struggle for precedence
and for the maintenance of alleged tights invaded com-
menced A. D. 1377, and were carried on with truly feline
flerceness and implacability until the end of the seven-
teenth century, when it may be fairly considered that
they had mutually devoured each other, to the very tail,
as we find their property all mortgaged, and see them each
passing by-laws that their respective officers should be con-
tent with the dignity of their stations and forego all salary
until the suit at law with the other pretended corporation
should be terminated, and the incumbrances thereby
caused removed with the vanquishment of the enemy.”

Those who have taken the story of the Kilkenny Cats
in its literal sense have done grievous injustice to the
character of the grimalkins of the “fair critic,’ who are
really quite as demure and quietly disposed a race of tab-
bies as it is in the nature of any animal to be. ‘The other
story, which, to my mind seems mere probable than the
one just recited, is given by my friend, Mr. S. Clark Gould,
in his “Notes and Queries,” as follows:

“During the rebellion which occurred in Ireland, in
1798, or, it may be, in 1803, Kilkenny was garrisoned by
a troop of Hessian soldiers, who amused themselves in
barracks by tying two cats together by their tails and
throwing them across a clothes-line to fight. One of the
officers, hearing of this cruel practice, resolved to stop it.
As he entered the room, one of the troopers seized a
sword, cut the tails in two as the animals hung across_
the line, and thus suffered the two cats to escape, minus |

SOME CHARACTERISTICS OF THE CAT. 93

their tails, through the open window, and when the officer
inquired the meaning of the two bleeding tails being left
in the room, he was coolly told that two cats had been
fighting, and had devoured each other, all but the tails.”

Before Noah Webster asserted that “the lower ani-
mals” only possessed instinct, which he defined as a power
“or disposition of mind, by which, independent of all in-
struction or experience, without deliberation, and without
having any end in view, animals are unerringly directed to
do spontaneously whatever is necessary for the preserva-
tion of the individual or the continuaticn of the kind,”
he should have read the following authenticated stories,
illustrative of the forethought of the Cat. The first of
these I take from an English magazine, called “Nature.”
and it is communicated by Dr. J. R. Frost.

“Our servants have been accustomed, during the
late frost, to throw crumbs from the breakfast table to
tne birds, and I have, several times, noticed that our cat
used to wait there in ambush, in the expectation of a
hearty meal from o.¢€ or two of the assembled birds.
Now, so far, this circumstance is not an example of ab-
stract reasoning, but to continue. Jor tl.e ‘ast few days
this practice of feeding the birds has been Icit off. The
cat, however, with an almost incredible amount of fore-_
thought, was observed by myself, together with two other
members of my household, to scatter crumbs on the grass
with the obvious intention of enticing the birds.”

Another correspondent writes to the same maga-
zine as follows:

, “A case somewhat similar to that mentioned by Dr.
Frost, of a Cat scattering crumbs, occurred within my
own knowledge in a neighbor’s yard. During the recent

94 PUSSY AND HER LANGUAGE.

severe winter a friend was in the habit of throwing crumbs
outside his bedroom window. ‘The family have a fine,
black Cat, which, seeing that the crumbs brought birds,
would occasionally hide himself behind some shrubs, and
when the birds came to their breakfast would pounce
upon them with varying success. The crumbs had been
thrown out as usual one afternoon, but left untouched,
and during the night a slight fall of snow occurred. On
looking out next morning, my friend observed puss busily
engaged in scratching away the snow. Curious to learn
what she sought, he waited, and saw her take the crumbs
up from the cleared space and lay them, one by one, on
the snow. After doing this she retired behind the shrubs
to await further developments. This was repeated cn
two occasions.”

In further proof of the fact that Pussy possesses a
wonderfill power of forethought, Prof. Romanes tells this
story as coming from a correspondent:

“While a paraffine lamp was being filled, some of the
oil fell upon the back of our Cat, and was afterward
ignited by a cinder falling upon it from the fire. The
Cat, with her back in a blaze, in an instant made for the
door, which happened to be open, and sped up the street
about a hundred yards, where she plunged into the vil-
lage watering-trough, and extinguished the blaze. The
trough had eight or nine inches of water, and Puss was
in the habit of secing the fire put out with water every
night. The latter point is important, as it shows the
data of observation on which the animal reasoned.”

Another correspondent, after describing a Cat and
parrot in their amiable relationship, proceeds to the fol-
lowing narration;

SOME CHARACTERISTICS OF THE CAT. 95

“One evening there was no one in the kitchen. Cook
had gone up-stairs and left a bowl of dough to raise by
the fire. Shortly after the Cat rushed up after her, mew-
ing and making what signs she could for her to go down-
stairs, when she jumped up and seized her apron and
and tried to drag her down. As she was in such a state
of excitement, cook went and found Polly shrieking, call-
ing out, flapping her wings and struggling violently, up
to her knees in dough and stuck quite fast.

“No doubt if she had not been rescued she would
have sunk in the morass and been smothered.”

Mr. Belshaw, writing to “Nature,” says: “I was sit-
ting in one of the rooms of a friend’s house the first
evening there, and on hearing a loud knock at the front
door, was told not to heed it, as it was only the kitten ask-
ing for admission. Not believing it, I watched for my-
self, and very soon saw the kitten jump onto the door,
hang on by one leg, and with the other forepaw right
through the knocker, rap twice.”

As being of general interest, I take the following ex-
planation of the common theory that the Cat has nine
lives, from “Zoological Recreations,’ by William J.
Eeaderip, Ff. RK. S.:

“The expostulating tabby in ‘Gay’s Fables’ says to
the old beldame:

"Tis infamy to serve a hag,
Cats are thought imps, her broom a nag;
And boys against our lives combine,
Because, ‘tis said, your cats have nine.
“The Cat probably owes this reputation to a nine-
fold vitality, not only to its extraordinary endurance of
violence and its recovery from injury, which frequently

96 PUSSY AND HER LANGUAGE.

leaves it for dead, but also to the belief that a witch was
empowered to take on her a Cat’s body nine times.”

In demonstrating the finer sensibilities of the feline
race, Prof. Wood says:

“Some Cats appear to nave a strong sense of honor,
and will resist almost every temptation when they are
placed in a position of trust. Still, some temptations ap-
pear so powerful that the honorable feelings cannot re-
sist them. For example, one Cat would resist every lure,
except a piece of fried sole, another could never with-
stand the allurements of a little jug of milk or bottled
stout. She would have boldly averted her head from the
same liquids if they were placed in a basin or saucer, but
the little jug, in which she could just dip her paw, and
lick it possessed irresistible fascination for her. And as
other examples, I have known several cats who possessed
a strong taste for fermented liquors, and I have seen one

f these creatures eat a piece of bread, soaked in pure
brandy, and beg earnestly for a further supply.’

XIX.
GENEROSITY, CUNNING AND CAMARADERIE.

Possibly there is no better way for an author to illus-
trate his subject or punctuate an argument than by quot-
ing the most interesting and conclusive stories which are
directly to the point. I have done so and will continue
to do so in this chapter, hoping that the stories narrated
will not only be of interest, but impressive and conclu-
Sive.

From “Petland,” by Rev. J. C. Wood, I take the fol-
lowing story, which is illustrative of the generosity and
seli-sacrifice of the feline animal. It is a relation about
“Pret,” the grandson of the original of that name, of
whom the reverend gentleman had something to say in
a previous chapter:

“He was fond of entertaining his friends in the yard,
and was in the habit of bringing dinner to the club for the
benefit of his acquaintances, and then wanting a second
dinner on his own account, in the evening. He even
went so far as to be disgusted with the meals furnished
to a neighboring cat, thinking that cat’s-meat was not
fit for feline consumption. Acting upon this supposition,
he was seen to take away the cats’--meat as soon as it was
brought by the itinerant purveyor, to carry it into the
cellar, bury it under a heap of coals, and to take his own
dinner upstairs for his friends.”

The imitative power of Pussy has never been illus-
trated with more force than in the story which I take
from the work by Prof. George J. Romanes, and which

eccurred, as he states, under his personal observation.
97

98 PUSSY AND HER LANGUAGE.

“For myself, I may say that my own coachman one
had a Cat which, certainly without tuition, learned to open
a door that led into the stables from a yard, into which
looked some of the windows of my house. Standing at
these windows when the Cat did not see me, I have many
times witnessed her modus operandi. Walking up to the
door, with a most matter-of-course kind of air, she used
to spring at the half-hoop handle, just below the thumb-
latch. Holding on to the bottom of this half-hoop with
one forepaw, she then raised the other to the thumb-_
piece, and while depressing the latter, finally, with her
hind legs, scratched and pushed the doorpost so as to
open the door. Precisely similar cases have been de-
scribed by my correspondents as having been witnessed
by them.”

It may be interesting to the reader to know that Prof.
Darwin, in his great treatise upon animals, declares that
Cats with blue eyes are invariably deaf. My experience
has not proven this assertion, and, if it is as true as
other assertions, in “The Origin of Species,” for instance,
the evc lution of man from the ape, I think the reader has
just cause for doubt.

Sir Richard Phillips says in “Million of Facts,” Ameri-
can edition, page 48: “The Angora Cat has one eye blue
and the other yellow.” Also, on page 49: “Perfectly
white Cats are deaf.”

Kegarding this last assertion, I will say I once owned
a “perfectly “white Cat, which was a Tom, weighing
twenty-five pounds, who was not deaf, and I cannot com-
prehend any just reason why a white Cat should be deaf,
or what the color of the fur has to do with the ear or her
hearing

GENEROSITY AND CUNNING. oy

The statement has been made in the works of several
writers upon animals and their habits that dogs and Cats
would riever fraternize. I have not a doubt that the ex-
perience of most of my readers will serve to demonstrate
the contrary, as my own experience undoubtedly does.

_ Illustrative of the superior in‘elligence of the Cat,
Prof. Romanes gives the following stories:

“Mrs. Hubbard tells me of a Cat she possessed that
was in the habit of poaching young rabbits, to ‘eat pri-
vately in the seclusion of a disused pig-sty.. One day
this Cat caught a small black rabbit, and, instead of eating
it, as she always did the brown ones, brought it into the
hcuse, unhurt, and laid it at the feet of her mistress.
‘She clearly recognized the black rabbit as an unusual
specimen and apparently thought it right to show it
to her mistress. Such was not the only instance this Cat
showed cf zoological discrimination, for on another oc-
casion, laying caught another unusual animal, viz., a
stoat, she also brought this, alive, into the house, for the
purpose of exhibiting it.” |

Mr. T. B. Groves tells, in “Nature,” of a Cat which, on
first seeing his own reflection in the mirror, tried to fight
it. Meeting with resistance from the glass, the Cat next
ran behind the mirror. Not finding the object of his
search, he again came to the front, and while keeping
his eyes deliberately fixed upon the image, felt round the
edge oi the glass with one paw, whilst with his head
twisted around to the front he assured himself of the
persisterice of the reflection. He never afterwards conde-
scended to notice the mirror.

A wonderful faculty of the Cat is her quick perception
of the uses of mechanical appliances. In corroboration
of this assertion, I introduce the following stories:

100 PUSSY AND HER LANGUAGE.

Couch, in his “Illustrations of Instinct,” page 196,
fives a case within his own knowledge, of a Cat which,
in order to get some milk which was kept in a locked
cupboard, used to unlock the door by seating herself on
an adjoining table and “repeatedly patting on the bow of
the key with her paw, when, with a slight push on the
door, she was able to open it. The lock was old and the
key turned in it on a very slight impulse.”

As a still further instance of the Cat’s high apprecia-
tion of mechanical appliances, I give an extract from a
paper by Mr. Otto, which will have been read at the
Linnean Society, before this paper is published.

“At Peara, the residence of Parker Bowan, Esq., a full-
grown Cat was one day accidentally locked up in a room,
without any other outlet than a small window moved on
hinges, and kept shut up by means of a swivel. Not long
afterwards the window was found open and the Cat gone.
This having happened several times, it was, at last, found
that the Cat jumped upon the window sill, placed her
forepaws as high as she could reach against the side, de-
liberately reached with one over to the swivel, moved it
from its horizontal to a perpendicular position, and then,
leaning with her whole weight against the window, es-
caped.” |

Illustrative of the camaraderie of the Cat with human
beings, and of the fact that she can, and frequently does,
overcome her natural antipathy to water, Prof. Romanes
tells the following interesting tale:

“A fisherman, of Portsmouth, England, called Robin-
son Crusoe, made famous by Mr. Buckland, had a cat
called “Puddles, which overcame the horror of water,
characteristic of his race, and employed his piscatorial

GENEROSITY AND CUNNING. 101

talent in the service of his master, who said of him: ‘He
was the wonderfulest water Cat as ever came out of Ports-
mouth Harbor, was Puddles, and he used to go out a-
fishin’ with me every night. On cold nights he would sit
on my lap while I was a-fishin’, and poke his head out
every now and then, or else I would wrap him up in a
sail, and make him lay quiet. Hed lay down on me
while I was asleep, and if anybody come, he’d swear a
good un, and have the face off on ’em if they went to
touch me, and hed never touch a fish, not even a little
teeny pout, if you didn’t give it to ‘im. I was obliged to
take him out a-fishin’ or else he’d stand an’ yowl and marr
till I went back and ketched him by the poll and shied
him into the boat, and then he was quite happy. When
it was fine he used to stick up at the bow of the boat and
sit a-watchin’ the dogs,’ meaning dog-fish. “The dogs
used to come along by the thousands at a time, and when
they was thick all about, he would dive in and fetch’em
out, jammed in his mouth as fast as may be, just as if
they was a parcel of rats, and he didn’t tremble with the
cold half as much as a Newfoundland dog who was used
to it. He looked terrible wild about the head when he
came out of the water with a dog-fish. I larnt him the
water myself. One day, when he was a kitten, I took
him down to the sea to wash and brush the fleas out of
him, and in a week he could swim after a feather or a
cork.”

XX.
VOWELS AND LIQUIDS PREDOMINATE.

In the foregoing chapters, I have quoted largely from
the best anatomists, physiologists, naturalists, patholo-
cists, philologists and linguists, in support of my theses,
the most important of which are:

First—That the Cat is of a more delicate organism
than the dog and, therefore, more susceptible of refine-
ment and everything that goes toward making it a su-
perior animal.

Second—That it possesses a higher order of intelli-
gence than any other of the quadrumina, and, conse-
quently, more brain-power equal to that of man, in the
ratio of its size.

Third—That with the same advantages or as-ociation
with man and equal advantages of time and opportunity,
the Cat will prove herself possessed of all the attributes
which have been so much admired in the dog, besides
the many admirable personalities accorded to her, and dis-
prove the faults which have been ascribed to the feline
by a prejudiced people.
| If the reader will admit my arguments to be good
enough to prove my theses, it will go a long way toward
the admission of my theories concerning the language of
the Cat, which my investigations have proven to me to
be not only a possibility, but a fact beyond dispute. I
have been thus particular in the foregoing chapters, in
order to lay a foundation for what follows concerning

102

VOWELS AND LIQUIDS PREDOMINATE. 103

the interpretation of a sign and word language, given to
the Cat as language was given to man by his Maker.
~The possibility of the cultivation of such a language is
an important point in my argument, and I give, in sup-
port thereof, no less, as there cannot be any greatcr, au-
thority in the English language than Prof. A. H. Sayce,
the eminent philologist, who, in his “Introduction to the
Science of Language,” remarks: “We must be careful
to remember that language inc‘udes every kind of in-
strumentality whereby we communicate our thoughts and
feelings to others, and that the deaf mute who can com-
municate only with the fingers and lips is as truly gifted
with the power of speech as the man who can articulate
his words. The latter has a more perfect instrument at
his command, but that is all. Indeed, it is quite pcs 1512
to conceive of a community in which all communications
were carried on by means of the hands alone. To this
day the savage tribes makes large use of gectures, and we
are told that the Grevos, of Africa, admirabiy imitate the
persons and tenses of the verbs by this means only.

In the word part of the language of the Cat there are,
probably, not more than six hundred fundamental words,
all others being derivatives. | Consonants are daintily
used, while a wide berth is given to explosives and the ~
liquid letters “1” and “r” enter into the great majority of
sounds. The sounds of the labials are not frequently
heard, but the vowels, a, e, 1,0 and u, go far toward
making up the entire complement of words in the lan-
guage of the Cat. |

I say that there are not, probably, more than six hun-
dred primitive words, because I have not, after years of
search, discovered more than that number, and am of the

104 PUSSY AND HER LANGUAGE.

opinion that the spoken words will not number more,
The difficulty of fixing the number of spoken words may
be realized from the fact that the signs are so universally
used, to the neglect of the sounds, that the opportunity
afforded to catch the sound and interpret the meaning is
rare. In short, while the words do exist, they are never
used excepting when actual necessity requires their use.
Signs are not only more comprehensive than sounds,
but the meaning is conveyed more quickly and with
greater ease emphasized. Sounds are used chiefly to
attract attention where signs would fail. Therefore,
signs are used to the exclusion of sounds, whenever they
will answer the purpose.

The Chinese language is more nearly like the Cat lan-
guage than any of the existing languages, and so closely
resembles it in very many respects as to almost persuade
me that the language of the Cat was derived from it. It
is a wonderful thing, and well worth our attention, that
no people are more fond of the feline than the Chinese,
who utilize the little animal to a greater extent than peo-
ple in any other part of the world. It is not a fact gen-
erally known, but it is a fact that reveals itself to all for-
eigners who visit the Celestial Empire, all of wizom
assure us of its truth, that the Chinese use the Cat to tell
the time of day. This they are enabled to do by a close
observation of the contraction and elongation of thie
pupil of the eye. It is said to be an unerring sign and
always answers the purpose of correctly indicating the
hour and part of an hour where a clock is not at hand, or
may be too costly an article of household furnishing for

the poorer classes among the moon-eyed creatures of the
Orient.

VOWELS AND LIQUIDS PREDOMINATE. 105

In the Chinese language there are few words, and, like
the Chinese, the sounds uttered in the Cat language are
musical tones, mellifluous and pleasing to the senses.
Like the Chinese, too, the words have various meanings,
according to the inflections of the voice. The resem-
blance in the use and disuse of certain letters, is signfi-
cant, and never more so than in the constant infusion
of the vowels. Take, for instance, the word “micouw,” so
frequently heard, uttered by the feline, and meaning, liter-
ally, “here,” and we find in it a word of five letters, three
absolute and one “possible” vowels.

Give attention, for a moment, to the word “purrieu,”
which is a note af satisfaction and content, and give at-
tention to the number of vowels and the Frenchman’s
roll of the liquid “r,” so that it comes to the ear like “pur-
f-r-f-r-r-r-r-r-rieu,’ with a gradually ascending inflection.
In plain English, it means “happy,” or, more compre-
hensively, perhaps, “all is quiet along the Potomac,” and
“I am as happy as a clam at high water,’ expressions
whose weight and importance were better understood by
the soldiers of the army of the Potomac, after the Battle of
Bull Run, and by lovers of the crustacean, than by ord1-
nary people.
| A matronly Cat will always use the last-mentioned
word in calling together her famliy under ordinary circum-
stances, and continue it while caressing them, frequently
merging it inte a song much lower and sweeter to the
sense than the lullaby we all have heard from the lips of

‘the gentle mother while nestled tenderly upon her heart.
The meaning of this word is never so well understood by
kittens as when uttered in a sharp tone and repeated a
number of times more as an explosive than otherwise, for ©

106 PUSSY AND HER LANGUAGE. 4

it is a warning of danger and a call for instant action
from the mother-Cat, who is imperrious in her demands
for obedience, which is the first law in her famliy life.

The sounds of the lab‘als, b, f, m, p, v, w and y, are
more frequently heard in words of anger han otherwice, as,
for instance, in the significant war-cry and notes of de-
fiance, out on the woodshed, in the hours of the night
when fair Luna is enthroned in the peaceful sky, in con-
tradistinction to the batttle-field in the back yard. This
may be written “mie-ouw, vow, wow teiow yow tiow, wow
yow, ts-s-s-s-syow!” ending in an explosion. The signif-
cation is both a defiance and a curse, and comes so near
to bold, bad swearing that I hesitate to put in words the
English of it. The word “yow,” means extermination
from the face of :he earth, and when the common word
“mieouw” is used with strong emphasis upon the first
syllable, it means “beware!” for the fur is about to fly.

XXII.
CAT WORDS IN COMMON USE.

The disposition of the Cat to mouth her words has
given the impression to many who have studied her utter-
ances to conclude that most, if not all of her words begin
with the sound of the letter “m,” and this is an error which
cost me months of wasted it.ne while seeking to evolve
the Cat language. It is natural for a Cat, as well as a
necessary precaution in every animal, including man, to
keep the mouth closed and breathe only through the
nostrils, excepting while in the act of eating, drinking or
speaking. It will be noticed that when the mouth is open
the sound that comes most naturally and readily is that
of the letter “m.” ‘The deception originated in this fact.
I will admit a tendency of the feline to anticipate the word
with this sound, but to suppose that every word of the Cat
language commences with that sound is erroneous. The
plaintive cry for food, “aelio,’ was, for a long time, set
down by me with the letter “m” preceding it, and it was
not until I had appreciated the uselessness of that letter
preceding the word “lae,” meaning “milk,” that I disre-
garded the letter “m,”’ and arrived at the true spelling ot
these and many other words which were uttered singly
or at the beginning of a sentence. The word “alieeo,”
_ meaning “water,” is subject to the same misspelling, there
being no “m” at the beginning of it, but the word uttered
at the door, when the Cat wants it opened, “parrierre,”

107

108 PUSSY AND HER LANGUAGE.

meaning “open,” is never preceded with the labial, as it
could not be pronounced in company with the letter “p.”

The utterance of the word “bl” may have been noticed
by an observer when the mother-Cat has brought a mouse
to her kitten. I have given as close a resemblance to the
sound as possible, in the English language, and it signi-
fies “meat,” and not “mouse,” as one might be led to sup-
pose, “ptleo-bl,” meaning “mouse-meat,” and “bleeme-bl,”
cooked meat.

The word “pad” means “foot,” and “leo” signifies
“head.” “Pro” is the feline for “nail or claw,” and tat
for “limb,” while the body is called “papoo” and the fur
“oolie.”

The most surprising characteristic of the Cat is, un-
doubtedly, her wonderful appreciation of the passage of
time and the invariable correctness with which the feline
notes the hour and even the minutes after the hour, without
the aid of, or even appearing to comprehend the value of
a clock in computing time. This wonderful gift was one
of the first of my discoveries, as it was one of the most in-
teresting rewards for my labors. Appreciating that the
Cat must have recourse to sounds for the expression of
the hours in their conversation, I applied myself to the
study of them, and was astonished at the rapidity with
which I acquired the Cat-words standing for numbers. In
this labor I was materially aided by my knowledge of the
tendency of the feline to gesticulate, and when a number
was spoken I noticed, regarding the lowest of them, that
the Cat would significantly pat her foot, say once for one.
twice for two and so on, even to seven times occasionally,
The highest numbers were not difficult of attainment by
the Cat language, because of the lack of gesticulations

CAT WORDS IN COMMON USE. 109

comprehensive of the quantity. By other signs I arrived at
a correct conclusion and became as perfect in the words
and their meanings as the Cat herself. I was greatly re-
joiced at tliis easy victory, and regarded it as a good omen
of success in my more difficult undertaking of acquiring
the full language, not anticipating the years of toil, whose
arduousness, however, was lightened, at long intervals, by

success. The numbers, correct beyond doubt, are as fol-
lows:
1.—Aim. 24.—lKile-su. 47.—Sule-el.
2.—Ki. 25.—Kile-im. 48.—Sule-ic.
3.—Zah. 26.—Kile-lah. 49.—Sule-no.
4-—Su. 27,—Kile-el. 50.—Im-le.
5.—_Im. 28.— Kile-ic. 51.—Imle-aim.
6.—Lah. 29.—Kile-no. 52.—Imle-ki.
7.—F 1. 30.—Zah-le. 53.—Imle-zah.
8.—lc. 31.—Zahle-aim. 54.—Imle-su.
9.—No. 32.—Zahle-zah. 55.—Imle-im.
10.—End. 33.—Zahle-ki. 56.—Imle-lah.
11.—F'st. 34.—Zahle-su. 57.—Imle-el.
12.—Ro. 35.—Zahle-im. 58.—Imle-ic.
13.—Zah-do. 36.—Zahle-lah. 59.—Imle-no.
14.—Sudoo. 37.—Lahle-el. 60.—Lah-le.
15.—Im-doo. 32.—Zahle-ic. 61.—Lahle-aim.
16.—Lah-doo. 30.—-Zahle-no. 62.—Lahle-ki.

17.—E]-doo.

40.—Su-le.

62.—Lahle-zah.

18 —Ic-doo. 41.—Sule-aim. 64.—Lahle-su.
19.—No-doo. 42.—Sule-k1. 65.—Lahle-im.
20.—Ki-le. . 43.—Sule-zah. 66.—Lahle-la.

21 —K ile-aiin.

ao —K Wle-ki.

23.— Kile-zah.

44.—Sule-su.
A5 = Stlle-m.
46.—Sule-lah.

67.—Lahle-el.
68.—Lahile-tc.
69.—Lahle-no.

110 PUSSY AND HER LANGUAGE.

70.—El-le. 81.—Icle-aim. 92.—Nole-ki.
71.—Elle-k1. 82.—Icle-k1. 93.—Nole-zah.
72.—Elle-tim. 83.—Icle-zah. 94.—Nole-su.
73.—Elle-zah. 84.—Icle-su. 95.—Nole-im.
74.—Elle-su. 85.—Icle-im. 96.—Nole-lah.
75.—Eile-im. 86.—Icle-lah. 97.—Nole-el.
76.—Elle-lah. 87.—Icle-el. 98.—Nole-ic.
77.—Elle-el. — 88.—Icle-ic. 99.—Nole-no.
78.—Elle-ic. 89.—Icle-no. 100.—Aim-hoo.
79.—Elle-no. 90.—No-le.

80.—Ic-le. g1.—Nole-aim.

The word “hoo” means “hundred. The word “milli”
stands for “thousands” in the English language. The
word “zule” means “millions,” and a millionaire in the Cat
language is a “zuluaim.”

Concerning the sense of the arrangement of sounds
for the numbers I have nothing to say, for I cannot account
for their selection, but the musical sweetness of the sounds
in conjunction is wonderfully striking. | Mark the eu-
phony of the language in the expression of numbers con-
junctively, for instance, in expressing the amount ninety-
nine millions, seven hundred and forty-three thousands,
two hundred and thirty-four—‘nole-no zulus, el hoo sule-
zah. millis,ki hoo zahle-su. Again, let the ear catch the
music as I give you, in the Cat language, the expression
of one hundred and fifty-seven millions, six hundred and
fifty-four thousands, eight hundred and thirty-nine—‘aim
hoo imle-el zulus, lah hoo imle-su millis, ic hoo zahle-no.”
Once more, let me express the euphony in the interpreta-
tion into the Cat language of eight hundred and eighty-
eight millicns, four hundred and ninety-one thousands,
seven hundred and sixty-five—‘ic hoo icle-ic zulus, su hoo

GAT WORDS IN COMMON USE. 111

nole-aim millis, el hoo lahle-im.” Now take the table and
you may find much pleasure in making up your own com~
binations of figures, none of which will be other than mu-
sical.

The expression of the time of day by the man on the
tramway, is the expression of the time of day in the Cat
language by the feline as, for instance, in telling that the
time was eight-eighteen, the Cat would say “ic ic-doo;”
twelve forty-five would be “ro sule-im;’ nine thirty-seven,
“no zahle-le;’ three thirty-three, “zah zahle-zah;” eight
thirty-eight, “ic zahle-ic;” two twenty-two, “ki kile-ki;”
four thirty-nine, “su zahle-no;” five fifty-five, “im imle-im;”
six twenty-three, “lah kile-zah,” and so forth.

XXII.
A COMPREHENSIVE LIST OF WORDS.

It is not my intention in this mere paper to give
a lexicon of the feline language. So short a treatise could
not comprise so elaborate a work. Even were the space
adequate, I have not, as yet, accumulated the informa-
tion, because the time devoted to the subject has not been
adequate to the labor of investigation, which is, neces-
sarily, intricate and far-reaching. Neither do I propose
to mystify the reader by giving that must misleading of
all inventions of the linguist, a grammar of the feline lan-
guage, any more than I intend to inflict a dictionary upon
the world. Jf I succeed in presenting to the reader a
comprehensive, or in any appreciable or satisfactory degree
comprehensive conception of the Cat language, demon-
strating what I know of my own knowledge, after years
of investigation, that the Cat has a distinct, simple and
fully adequate language, universal for all particular pur-
poses, and intelligible to all felines, as well as to all hu-
manity who will seek to acquire it, I will have accom-
plished my object for the present. In this paper my de-
sire is to lay the foundation for a larger structure in the
future. My greatest desire is to interest the world in this
worthy subject and induce investigations by others. I
have no wish to be selfishly exclusive. I do not seek
any honor or remuneration for my labors and discoveries.
My reward will come with the reward to the feline, which
must necessarily follow that elevation of the Cat succeed-
ing the recognition of the fact claimed by me.

112

COMPREHENSIVE LIST OF WORDS. 113

Tt have not yet discovered that any naturalist, linguist,
philologist or scientist has, thus far, either presented or
advocated the theory of the feline language comprehen-
sive enough to be understood by man, but I bear in mind
what your great Shakespeare wrote, “There are more
things in heaven and earth, Horatio, than are dreampt of
in your philosophy,” and allow, without dispute, that all!
I have written may have been thought out and even
printed by some other writer than myself, but it is, at
least, new to me, and I think the reader will admit that
it is new to him as an entirety. Of course every reader
has heard the peculiar cries and expressions of the Cat,
and will remember some word or words, and will have
no difficulty in following up his or her investigations.

Remembering that mere words form but a very small
part of the feline language, I desire to lay particular stress
upon the signs which, in the Cat language, are paramount
and always intelligible to man, no matter what tongue he
may choose to speak or from what part of the world he
may come. One of the beauties, as well as one of the
advantages of the muscular signs of an expression is that
it needs no grammar, no dictionary, no elaborate treatise
upon rhetoric, etymology, syntax, prosody or other ad-
vantages of belles-lettres, to refine and perfect it. Be-
cause of this happy fact, the uneducated man, as we are

apt to call those who are ignorant of our acquirements,
may express his thoughts as fluently, as correctly and as

eracefully as his superiors in knowledge, wealth and re-~
finement. JBy the sign-language a whole sentence may
be expressed better in a fraction of a second than by the
word language in a much greater space of time. There-
fere, its importance is of inestimable value,

\

114 ' PUSSY AND HER LANGUAGE.

—

I have already given seventeen of the most im-
portant words of the feline language, with their English
equivalents, as follows:

PRIMA ire ain Hes iy eee Food

Pace ect rh we oe ee ee Milk

athe gl = (Oe ere Open.

Filo: oe os aa a aoa etait Water.

BS os oc eae os beet ee ee

Pier bl oo oe oe ee Mouse meat.
Bleeine-Din. 1). we eee Cooked meat.
: Lert ¢ escent aa. <i ACME Foot.

EG oR ee eee eee Head.

PO So ae ee eto ‘Nail or claw.
i Th Sige yas passa cee atend oa ae ge Limb

PavOO. eee ee Cees Body

(Joliet hr ce ee Fur

NA OUIy 2 es 2 ook ee Beware.
Panic! oan was wae Satisfaction or content.
Oris oo te ae eee Extermination.

Mreouw. i- i. 3% See ck es edere.

POEL,
A MUSICAL LANGUAGE.

To correctly interpret the words of a sentence, the
important fact must be borne in mind that the order of
speech is not the same in the feline tongue as in almost
any other language. I claim to be master of forty-nine
different and distinct languages, and none but the Latin
and the French—my native tongue—approach in regular-
ity the order of speech of the feline language. In t'1e lat
ter the order of speech is as it was with Adam. Prim-
itively, in the construction of sentences, the most imp rant
word of the subject matter was given first. I claim that
all languages would be bettered, to a great extent, if this
order were cbserved, and I cannot withhold my con-
demnation of the inconsistent and reckless men who false-
ly asserted themselves to be learned, who carelessly con-
trived many of the languages of communities of people.
I believe the language of signs to be God’s language, and
that it cannot be improved upon. I never have found a
grammar of any language, not even the French gram-
mar, all sufficient and adequate to the purposes for which
it is supposed to have been intended. In fact, you may
say that grammars are beyond my comprehension, if
you like, and I will not deny the allegation, for I know
that they are beyond the understanding of the grand ma-
jority of human beings of all tongues.

Neither have I ever found a dictionary, in any lan-
guage, which gives correct definitions of a majority of

115

116 PUSSY AND HER LANGUAGE.

the words in common use. ‘The reader has been in-
formed of my estimation of the great American diction-
ary compiled by Noah Webster, who was, 1 have no
doubt, a very gcod and erudite man, but one subject to
strong temptations, such, for instance, as those of pub-
lishers, whose blandishments are irresistible to many
writers and apt to mislead the honest author.

In the feline language the rule is to place the noun
or the verb first in the sentence, thus preparing the mind
of the hearer for what is to follow. To my thinking, this
is the proper form of speech and the only arrangement of
words for any language. I never could admire the
speaker who launches out in a mystifying rhapsody on
some human being or some subject near his heart, by
saying something after this manner: “Mr. Chairman, I
am about to name a gentleman who,’ et cetera, and “a
man well known to all the world as a,” et cetera. In this
strain long continued, until the hearers tire of the mystifi-
cation and call loudly, in their justifiable impatience, for
the inconsistent orator to give the name of the individual,
as he should have done at first, so that the hearers might
compare notes while the eulogy was proceeding. When
I read, or listen to the reading of a letter, 1 want to
know, first of all, the name ofthe writer, for in him cen-
tres all the interest I may have in the information con-
tained in the communication. By the measure of my 1n-
terest in the writer, I measure the interest in his letter.

According to the primal order of speech and the man-
ner of the construction of sentences in the Cat language,
vou will hear such utterances as these: “Milk give me,”
“Meat I want,” “Mary I love,” “Going out, my mistress?”
“Sick Iam,” “Happy are my babies,”

A MUSICAL LANGUAGE. 117

In the translation of words of the feline language
the inflection of the voice must constantly be kept in
mind, for this, as well as the sound, denotes the meaning’
intended to be conveyed. For instance, “meouw,” spoken
in the ordinary tone of voice, means “how,” and is a
salutation of good-will, expressed in English by “Good
morning,” “Good evening,’ or “How d’ye do?” When
the same word is uttered in a high tone of voice the first
syllable “me,” strongly emphasized, as indicated in ‘ me-
ouw,” hatred, or something akin to it, is expressed by the
feline. Similarly, the word “purrieu,” when spoken with
a leng roll of the letter “r” and a rising inflection to the
last syllable, is a call of the mother to her kittens; when
spoken with a shrill inflection to the last syllable, the
word is a note of warning to her loved ones, and when
the word is uttered in an ordinary tone of voice, while the
Cat rubs her side against the dress of her mistress, it de-
notes satisfaction, affection, or it may be a part of the
feline’s system of cajolery. The word “yew,” also, when
uttered as an explosive, is the Cat’s strongest expression
of hatred, and a declaration of war, but it is, also, her
word for expressing a feeling of pain, or giving notice that
she is ill, when uttered in an ordinary, or perhaps, in a
low tone of voice. In short, there is scarcely a word in
the feline language whose meaning is not subject to four
or more directly opposite interpretations, according to
the inflections given in its expression. “Poopoo” means
tired—“poopoo” with a slight emphasis upon the first
syllable means sleep—“poopoo” with a strong emphasis
upon the last syllable means work, and this drives the
paterfamilias out after food for the infants and mother,
but when the last syllable is spoken in an explosive tone,

118 PUSSY AND HER LANGUAGE.

such as poor Mr. Caudle might have uttered when hen-
pecked by his tantalizing wife during her curtain lec-
tures. The same word “poopoo” when uttered with a
falling tone on the last syllable, is an expression of sor-
row and grief.

I do not know of any sounds more soothing to the
nerves of man as musical, or as musically correct in
rythm, intonation or melody, as the song of the Cat when
at peace with all the world. I have listened to it many
times, and many times endeavored to translate the words
of the song, but, owing to the fact that she sings with
closed mouth, no word has been distinct enough to sepa-
rate from other words of the song. Perhaps at no distant
day science, through the medium of electricity, may fur-
nish a means of discovering not only the words of the
singer, but also many words of the feline language which,
through ignorance, are now mouthed by the Cat for lack
of knowledge of the importance of emphasis and clear-
ness of expression. |

XXIV.
THE IMPORTANCE OF SIGNS,

Signs, in the feline language, are almost invariably
made through the medium of the muscles, and are ade-
quate to every expression. To this language they are an
absolute desideratum. Almost invariably they accompany
the word-signs of the language from a habitually un-
coustrained feeling and a desire to better convey the
meaning of the speaker.

To put into words every such expressions is more
than word-language is capable of, which is the strongest
proof of the inadequateness of words for the proper and
sufficient expression of ideas, and the superiority of signs
for the manifestation of ideas and desires. No tiresome,
nisleading and fallacious grammar, no stuffy, lame, mean-
ingless dictionary, no wearisome spelling-book, contain-
ing words which are all “at sixes,” born in the prize-ring,
with a heritage of hatred for each other, and refusing
forever to become reconciled one to the other; no un-
pronounceable pronouncing dictionary, in which words
are all zigzag, stubbornly resisting every attempt to
straighten out and stand them upright, like a man, but
determined to inscribe themselves upon the brain in
‘every conceivable pyrotechnical contempt of straight
lines or uniformity in any respect, askew in reckless profli-
gacy, in defiance of euphony and as uncontrollable as they
are funny; no ridiculously prolix analyzer, no hobbling
treatise upon syntax or prosody of a heterogeneous lan-

119

120 PUSSY AND HER LANGUAGE.

guage of word-signs, invented to confound those who
ssek, as well as those who possess a knowledge of the
language of signs. Yet many signs refuse to be di
graced by being rendered into words.

Noticeable among those of the signs unpronotnce-
able are many expressed by the sons of Judah, Levi and
Benjamin, such as the bending forward of the shoulders
and extending of the hands, palms upward, and the pla-
cing of the index finger to the right hand upon the right
side of the nose; the Frenchman’s shrug of the shoul-
ders, the gyration of the Englishman’s finger while the end
of the thumb rests upon the point of his nose; the twirl of
the Irishman’s shillelah, and his expressive manner of
puffing smoke from his short-stemmed dhudeen; the sud-
den change from animation to stolidity in the German,
and the multitudinous and inexpressible signs of the
gesticulating children of sunny Italy.

In the sign language of the Cat an expression ‘is
conveyed in the same manner as by the human being, but
the feline has a great advantage over man in the posses-
sion of more utilizing forces. ‘There is the language of
the ear, the tail, the limb, the body, the facial, including
the mouth, the nose, the eye, the brow, the chin, the lip
and the whiskers, the motion of the whole and the signifi-
cant general appearance, as in the carriage while in mo- —
tion, and the form when at rest.

The language of the tail cannot be misinterpreted,
suggestive as it is of the feelings of the Cat. When she
raises it, like a flagstaff, we know that she is proud of
herself and satisfied with her condition. as well as the con-
dition of all other things. When the appendage is an
appendage to all intents and purposes, and streams out

THE IMPORTANCE OF SIGNS, 121

in the rear of its possessor, she is not letting the grass
erow under her feet. When it waves from side to side it
is a token of dislike of position and significant of a
change. When it curls under her body it is a sign of
fear, and when it is extended with the fur on end,
“like quills upon the fretful porcupine,” there is a strong
probability that there will be commingled in the air un-
theological imprecations, a sulphurous blue tinge and
loose fur. When it lashes from side to side it signifies a
war of extermination. When it twitches, that is a sign
of amusement. When it is pointed toward the fire it
speaks of rain. When it inclines toward the door it says
that its mistress may go shopping without an umbrella,
and while it is curled upon its side it betokens that all is
quiet along the owner’s line of life.

These, among many signs given by use of the tail,
have been noted by everybody. The facial signs are more
numerous, and a multitude of signs find means of com-
munication through the medium of the ear, the limbs, the
feet and the trunk. So plain must the signs be to every
human being, of whatever mental capacity, that I deem
it a work of supererogation to occupy the reader’s time
“in an explanation of what is so palpably apparent, and I
therefore leave the subject, hoping that watchful care and
pleasant study will fully develop the feline language to
the end that the Cat may be understood as she really is,
and elevated from a degrading position to one of still
greater usefulness. In conjunction with the study of
the feline language, and as an aid to its acquirement, I
would recommend the remodeling of the English lan-
guage, so that it may, to a larger degree, be compre-
hended by those who. are acquainted with it. I would

122 PUSSY AND HER LANGUAGR.

direct attention particularly to the words ending in
“ough,” such as “cough, bough, rough, though, through,
although, enough, sough, tough, trough, and plough.”

I would have you notice that you seem undecided
which to say, whether “men clothing,’ or “men’s
clothing,” the plural of “man” being “men.” You will re-
member that the plural of “ox” is “oxen,” not “oxes,”
the plural of “fox” is not “foxen,” but “foxes.” Jam sur-
prised when I take a glass of wine with an English-
speaking gentleman to sea him touch my glass with the
rim of his own and to hear him say: “Here we go!”
while he remains stationary and makes no attempt to
leave me. I am hoping for the time to come when the
reformation of the English language will be so complete
that when the conductor on a tramway cries “look out!”

he will mean what he says, so that the Frenchman may
save his head from being crushed by putting it out of the

carriage window because of the misdirection of the off-
cial of the train. I shall hope for such reformation as
will save me from insulting a widow, unintentionally, by
innocently telling her that I am aware that her worthy
and lamented husband has kicked over the bucket, be- —
cause I was informed that it was the proper expression in
the English for our French word “mort.”

Hoping, by your aid, for better things for my fa-
vorite, the Cat, and thanking you very much for your
kind attention to my paper, I have the honor of wishing
you au revoir. ALPHONSE LEON GRIMAELDT,

THE IMPORTANCE OF SIGNS. 125

The work of the Professor is complete as far as he

has gone. I shall expect to hear from him again, some
day, if his paper meets with encouragement from the peo-
ple of this country.
- There can be no doubt that with the aid of the phono-
eraph and other modern instruments which have re-
cently been discovered, and which he so significantly
anticipated in his references to clectricity, great progress
will be made in translating and disseminating the feline
language. In aid of this object, as well as to povide
proper homes and medical attendance for the felines, with
an eye to their comfort and the improvement of the
breed, material assistance should be given by the ruling
powers in every nation. It is a subject of vast impor-
tance and I leave it for the consideration of the great
American public and other nations as well.

MARVIN R. CLARK.

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Jom,
WHC
We have anice Iom, he is death toarab,
__ And bis fur is as soft as a mitten,
He is spotted with while though as blackasa hat
And though aged-is as spry as a killen

Lom never seems lired of washing his face.
Jind be keeps himself tidy and slick .
es as cleanly as if he belonged fo our race

Alnd | think thats why Toms never sick.

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How he Kept himself always so clean.
He looked up in my face, seemed lo answer with pride

They wash me with Pyles Pur-Pur-Pearline.

194

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WRITE AS FOLLOWS:

WILLIAM MASON,

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HENRY HOLDEN HUSS,

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