by L A Vocelle
Except that she should miss her prey.
I saw her to the dove house climb,
With cautious feet and slow she stept,
Resolved to balance loss of time
By eating faster than she crept.
Her subtle foes were on the watch
And mark’d her course, with fury fraught,
And while she hoped the birds to catch,
An arrow’s point the huntress caught.
In fancy she had got them all
And drunk their blood, and suck’d their breath;
Alas! She only got a fall,
And only drank the draught of death.
Why, why was pigeon’s flesh so nice,
That thoughtless cats should love it thus?
Hadst thou but lived on rats and mice,
Thou hadst been living still, poor Puss.
Curst be the taste, howe’er refined,
That prompts us for such joys to wish,
And curst the dainty where we find
Destruction lurking in the dish
(Gooden, 1946, p. 25; Repplier, 1901, p. 24).
In another poem, Abbasid Prince Ibn Al MuTazz, who was assassinated one day after becoming king, mourns the loss of his cat. “Cat you went and you didn’t come back. You were like a son to me! Loving you so, how could we forget you?”
Moreover, during the Middle Ages Sultan Baybars (1260-1277), the first ruler of the Turkish Mameluk dynasty, so loved cats that within the mosque that he built in a northern district of Cairo there was a garden where stray cats were fed every day between noon and sunset.
THE CAT IN PERSIA
Before reaching the Far East, cats travelled through Persia and India via the Silk Routes where Persian Zoroastrians, in sharp contrast to the Arab Muslims, considered the cat evil and treacherous. During the Sassanian Empire (AD 224-651), the cat in Zoroastrian mythology was said to have been created by an evil spirit based on a myth in the Dadestān ī dēnīg†,where Jamak mated with a demon and thus gave birth to a cat (West, 2009, p. 419). Moreover, if a cat urinated in water, all the fishes in the sea would die (Omisdsalar, 1990). In contrast to the Muslim beliefs mentioned in the Hadith, Zoroastrians, much like Christians of the time, believed that even if a bowl from which a cat had eaten were washed seven times, it would still be unclean. Finally, eating food that had even touched a cat’s whiskers caused one to waste away (Boyce, 1977, p. 163).
Even though demonized, Zoroastrians still kept cats as pets and mousers. In the 7th century, the king of the Sassinands, Khosrow Parvez (AD 590-628), wanting to destroy the city of Ray because it was his enemy’s home town, sent a newly appointed governor there who ordered all the cats to be killed. With the merciless murder of all the cats, the mouse population went unchecked, forcing the people to abandon their homes. And as the wicked King had wanted, this ultimately threatened the collapse of the city. However, by persuading the king to remove the governor with the playful antics of a kitten, the queen saved the city and the cats again took up their vigilant guard against the mice (Omisdsalar, 1990).
EATING CAT MEAT
Both Arabs and Berbers often ate cat meat even though laws forbade it. According to both Persian and Arabic sources, eating the meat of a black cat offered protection from magic. Furthermore, a consistent diet of cat’s meat inspired amazing feats of courage because cats habitually attacked prey much larger than themselves. For this reason, Isma’ili assassins regularly ate cat meat (Omisdsalar, 1990).
Not everyone was a connoisseur of cat meat, however, and several stories survive of Persians and Sufis fondly keeping cats as pets. Kittens were more valuable than adults, and women often fawned over them so exceedingly that they even dressed them up in earrings and necklaces, dyed their fur, and would allow them to sleep with them.
In addition, the Deylamite prince Rokn-al-Dawla (AD 947-77), became so attached to his cat that petitioners tied their written requests to the neck of his favorite pet in order to make sure that the prince would notice them. Even a Sufi sheikh had tiny shoes made for his cat that slept on his prayer carpet in order to protect it against the pampered feline’s sharp claws. When one of the Sheikh’s servants found cause to beat the cat, the sheikh demanded that he apologize to the discontented animal (Omisdsalar, 1990).
In Persian folklore black cats and even white were often seen as manifestations of Jinn or even the devil himself. Because of this, Persians believed the cat was an ill omen especially if seen first thing in the morning. And if a cat appeared in a dream, it was considered a symbol of thievery.
Persians used cats in many medicinal concoctions just as the ancient Egyptians and Greeks had. A cure for a fever was to use cat’s dung mixed with oil, and cat’s blood was said to cure leprosy. A Persian proverb states that because the cat realized that its dung was useful as medicine, our recalcitrant feline decided to bury it. Because of the cat’s close association with fertility and child birth, stories of its ability to cure infertility were well known. To cure infertility, a woman held the placenta of a cat over her head while pouring water on it. The water running over the woman’s head cured her. Another cure for infertility was to take cat hair, game meat and a string of seven colors to the bathhouse and then put them into an oven (Omisdsalar, 1990).
THE CAT IN INDIA
In India the cat, known in Sanskrit as Acoubouk† or Margara, was frequently mentioned in the original fables of Bidpay, also known as the Panchatantra. The original of the Panchatantra, or the Five Discourses, is credited to a king who feared that his sons would not be able to wisely rule his kingdom. Duly concerned, he asked his wazir† to help him solve this problem. The wazir decided to write the easily understood fables that contained lessons the king’s sons needed in order to rule their kingdom successfully. The original fable The Belling of the Cat, which is often accredited to Aesop, appears in this collection. Another fable, The Devout Cat, is a short tale wherein a partridge and a hare go to a wise, ascetic cat to seek a resolution to their dispute. Both the partridge and hare are wary of the cat and stand a safe distance from him. After some time, however, the two start to trust the cat and move closer to him as the cat feigns not to be able to hear them. Once they approach near enough, the cat grabs and kills them both. Thus, the cat is proved to be both treacherous and evil (figure 4.9).
A cat is also carved in a huge stone created in the 7-8th centuries in Mahabalipuram. Called Arjun’s penance, some scholars believe that the carving depicts Arjun’s quest to find a weapon to vanquish his enemies; others believe it is the legend of the River Ganges arrival on earth.
Figure 4.9. Cat with a Fish, Calcutta, 19th Century, Victoria and Albert Museum, London
Even more disastrous to the cat’s reputation, was that it was blamed for the death of the Buddha. Legend states that a mouse was sent to fetch the dying Buddha some medicine but was attacked and devoured by a hungry cat. Not receiving the medicine, the Buddha died, and the unrepentant cat did not even shed a tear nor mourn the Buddha’s death.
As if this were not enough to demonize the cat completely, in Bengal, located in the northeast region of India, a black vampire cat was thought to be the vessel of a witch called a Chordewa. Visiting the houses of the sick and dying, she ate their food and then summoned the soul of the helpless one to depart the body through lips that she licked (Summers, 1926).
THE CAT IN CHINA
By some Western accounts the domestic cat arrived in China around 200 BC (Turner, Bateson, & Bateson, 2000) having been most probably acquired from Roman merchants. However, much earlier Chinese mythology mentions the cat goddess Yifan Zhang, who was known to have led a legion of cats to uphold righteousness and to found the Chinese nation before the Shang Era. This might support new found proof of the cat’s domestication in China as early as 3000 BC. In addition, the Chinese Book of Rites, compiled during Confucius’ time (1050-256 BC), describes an annual sacrificial offering in honor of cats made by the Emperor. “They met (and gave sacrifice to) the represe
ntatives of the cats, because they devoured the rats and mice which injured the fruits of the field.” (Legge, 1885, rite 25).
Above all, the Chinese believed the cat to be a mystical creature that had unfathomable spiritual powers (Werness, 2006). The Emperor Wen, during the Sui Dynasty in AD 598, believed that his brother-in-law and his mother had used cat spirits to cause his Empress to fall ill. At the trial, a female servant testified that the brother-in-law’s mother had regularly made sacrifices to cat spirits encouraging them to murder the rich Empress. If killed by a cat spirit, all the possessions of the victim were inherited by those who lived in the same house as the spirit. The brother-in-law’s mother had wanted the riches and jewels of the Empress, and had hoped by persuading the cat spirit to haunt her, she could cause the Empress to die. The Empress took pity upon them and spared their lives, but consequently, the Emperor exiled all those who summoned cat spirits (Van Vechten, 1921).
The Empress Wu Zetian (AD 624-705) established the short lived Zhou Dynasty and was the only woman to rule China as an Emperor rather than an Empress. By ruthlessly manipulating the Emperor Gaozong into believing that his wife, the Empress Wang, had killed his only daughter, Wu, who was only a lowly consort at the time, began her plot to cast suspicion on the Empress in order to take her place. In fact, historians today believe that she herself had cold-heartedly killed the daughter. However, the Emperor believed the story and replaced the Empress Wang with Wu. It was not enough to have the Empress’s throne, and Wu tortured the Empress Wang and her consort Xiao, causing them to suffer slowly in wine jars before they were taken out and beheaded. The consort Xiao cursed Wu as a monster and said that she hoped to be reincarnated as a cat and Wu as a rat so that she could chase her into eternity. The Chinese believed that after death a person became a cat, and the Empress Wu took the curse seriously, thereafter forbidding anyone in the palace to keep one.
Other fearful beliefs concerning the cat took the form of eerie tales, myths and legends. In one such story an old woman was accused of keeping a baby up at night by riding around on her cat and terrifying the poor child. To solve the problem, the woman was starved to death and the cat beaten to death; the child was said to have slept peacefully afterwards. Additionally, if a cat jumped over a coffin, the deceased would rise and live again. The zombie only succumbed to complete death if beaten with a broom. If a cat jumped over a corpse, the person’s soul entered the cat. If a cat jumped over a girl’s coffin, she would become a vampire if the cat was not found and killed (Van Vechten, 1921).
Strict measures ensured that a cat never entered a room with a corpse, as it was feared that the cat, while leaping over the dead body, would impart an evil force causing the person to turn into a vampire.
Although seen as a magical animal with supernatural powers over life and death, in many instances the cat was a loved and devoted pet.The poet scholar Chang Tuan in around AD 1,000 had seven cats with names such as, Phoenix and Drive-Away-Vexation, Guardian of the East, White Phoenix, Purple Blossom, Brocade Sash, Cloud Pattern and Ten Thousand Strings of Cash (Bast, 1995, p. 21, 87).
In fact, during the latter part of the Chinese T’ang and Sung Dynasties (AD 618-1279) cats were pampered and often interesting subjects of poems and paintings. Here Mei Yao Ch’en (1002-1060) writes a heartfelt poem to his dead cat.
Sacrifice to the Cat that Scared all the Rats
When I had my Five White cat,
The rats did not invade my books.
This morning Five White died,
I sacrifice with rice and fish.
I see you off in the middle of the river,
I chant for you: I won’t neglect you.
Once when you’d bitten a rat,
You took it crying around the yard.
You wanted to scare all the rats,
So as to make my cottage clean.
Since we come and board this boat,
On the boat we’ve shared a room.
Although the grain is dry and scarce,
I eat not fearing piss or theft.
That’s because of your hard work,
Harder working than chickens or pigs.
People stress their mighty steeds,
Saying nothing’s like a horse or ass.
Enough—I’m not going to argue,
But cry for you a little.
CATS IN CHINESE ART
Cats also became the main subjects of many Chinese paintings. The Chinese word for cat is a homonym for the word octogenarian, and so from this association, the cat symbolized long life. The calico cat, for some unknown reason, has been blessed as the symbol of wealth (Lang, 2004). And so, when pictured in paintings or scrolls, cats denote the meaning of longevity and wealth. In the early 10th century painting Wasps and Cat from Tiao Kuang-Yin’s album Flowers and Sketches from Life a white cat intently watches a wasp flying in front of it. Another early painting called Lady by Chou Wen-Chu of the Five Dynasties, portrays a lady sitting peacefully reading a book in her garden as a black and white cat sits at her feet (figure 4.10).
Sung Dynasty (AD 960-1279) representations are so detailed that each hair has been drawn in separately while capturing the feline emotions of fear, surprise, and joy. Many depictions show cats as prized pets with some wearing red ribbons around their necks, and later, in the Ming Dynasty, they are adorned with red tassels and gold bell collars. In the painting Calico Cat Under Noble Peonies a black and white cat is even tied up, implying that it must be someone’s pet (figure 4.11).
A calico cat bristles and hisses at an intruding dog in a hibiscus garden in the painting Hibiscus and Rocks by LiTi (figure 4.12).
Figure 4.10. Lady, Chou Wen-Chu, Five Dynasties, 10th Century, National Palace Museum, Taipei
Figure 4.11. Calico Cat Under Noble Peonies, 12th Century, Sung Dynasty, National Palace Museum, Taipei
Figure 4.12. Hibiscus and Rocks, Detail, 12th Century, Sung Dynasty, National Palace Museum, Taipei
In yet another painting by LiTi entitled Portrait of a Cat, an orange and white cat holds its paw up expectantly waiting for something interesting (figure 4.13).
Figure 4.13. Portrait of a Cat, Sung Dynasty, National Palace Museum, Taipei
I Yuan-chi, another Sung Dynasty artist, captures a monkey clutching one of two kittens. The kitten’s features clearly express fear as the second kitten looks on worriedly. The monkey’s expression is one of unconcern. Both kittens have red ribbons around their necks (figure 4.14).
Figure 4.14. Monkey and Cat, I Yuan-chi, Sung Dynasty
National Palace Museum, Taipei
In the painting Children Playing on a Winter Day, two children, most probably a sister and a brother, holding cat toys, are ready to play with their black and white cat that is again wearing a red ribbon collar (figure 4.15).
Figure 4.15. Children Playing on a Winter Day, Su Hanchen, 1130-1160, National Palace Museum, Taipei
In an anonymous painting of the same period called Cats Playing, eight cats are in various positions of play in a garden (figure 4.16).
Figure 4.16. Cats Playing, Anonymous, Sung Dynasty, AD 960-1279,
National Palace Museum, Taipei
THE CAT IN JAPAN
The cat reached Japan from China in the late 900’s during the Edo period reign of Emperor Ichigo (AD 986-1011). At first only the rich could afford such a rare pet, and so the cat became popular amongst royalty. The young Emperor loved his cats, and when on the 19th day of the 9th month of the year 999† a cat in the palace gave birth to kittens, he gave orders that a wet nurse take care of them as if they were the Emperor’s own new born children. The Emperor even went so far as to order tailors to make tiny suits of clothing for them. Giving the mother cat the name Myobu No Omoto, the Emperor granted her a rank equal to that of a lady in waiting (Van Vechten, 1921).
Lady Sarashina, in her diary that covered the years AD 1009-1059, lovingly describes the relationship that she had with her pet cat. “Once in the Rice-Sprout month, when I was up late reading a
romance, I heard a cat mewing with a long-drawn-out cry. I turned, wondering, and saw a very lovely cat. ‘Whence does it come?’ I asked. ‘Sh,’ said my sister, ‘do not tell anybody. It is a darling cat and we will keep it.’ The cat was very sociable and lay beside us. Someone might be looking for her [we thought], so we kept her secretly. She kept herself aloof from the vulgar servants, always sitting quietly before us. She turned her face away from unclean food, never eating it. She was tenderly cared for and caressed by us. Once sister was ill, and the family was rather upset. The cat was kept in a room facing the north [i.e. a servant's room], and never was called. She cried loudly and scoldingly, yet I thought it better to keep her away and did so. Sister, suddenly awakening, said to me, ‘Where is the cat kept? Bring her here.’ I asked why, and sister said: ‘In my dream the cat came to my side and said, I am the altered form of the late Honoured Daughter of the First Adviser to the King. There was a slight cause [for this]. Your sister has been thinking of me affectionately, so I am here for a while, but now I am among the servants. ‘O how dreary I am!’ So saying she wept bitterly. She appeared to be a noble and beautiful person and then I awoke to hear the cat crying! ‘How pitiful!’ The story moved me deeply and after this I never sent the cat away to the north-facing room, but waited on her lovingly. Once, when I was sitting alone, she came and sat before me, and, stroking her head, I addressed her: ‘You are the first daughter of the Noble Adviser? I wish to let your father know of it.’ The cat watched my face and mewed, lengthening her voice. It may be my fancy, but as I was watching her she seemed no common cat. She seemed to understand my words, and I pity her. At midnight of the Deutzia month [April, 1024] a fire broke out, and the cat which had been waited on as a daughter of the First Adviser was burned to death. She had been used to come mewing whenever I called her by the name of that lady, as if she had understood me. My father said that he would tell the matter to the First Adviser, for it is a strange and heartfelt story. I was very, very sorry for her” (Omori & Doi, 1920, pp. 23-26).