Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 13, 1902.djvu/46

34 "I am the oldest," said the one who had made the suggestion, "I am the cat that Adam had." The other said, "You are undoubtedly elderly, but not so old as I, for I was on the earth before the hempen feet (i.e. the rays) went under the sun. Hand over the butter." He ate so much that he began to swell, and became so heavy that he could not run, and so when a hungry wolf came down to the shore he fell a victim. "It is not good to be telling lies," as the cat said when the wolf ate him.

When Lazarus died, nasty creatures (rats and mice) threatened to devour the body. Our Lord came, and baring the breast of His friend, breathed upon the hair, and there appeared a little cat, which is why a cat likes to sit upon a person's chest.

The first milk of a cow after calving should be drunk by a dog. The cat must certainly not have it first, for the dog has ordered the cow to have milk in four teats, but the cat ordered only three.

The cat does not flourish in damp or draught, and is consequently a very degenerate animal in the Outer Isles, but that it does sometimes reach a mature age is shown by the saying that "his first seven years are passed joyously and pleasantly in the sun, but his last seven years are passed heavy-headed, large-headed, sleepy, by the fire." The cat's more ordinary length of life is denoted in the saying, "Three ages of a cat to the age of a dog, three ages of a dog to the age of a man, three ages of a man to the age of a deer, three ages of a deer to the age of an oak-tree," though what the people in the Hebrides know about oak-trees it would be hard to say.

If a cat goes into a pot, it is a presage of fish coming to the house. If a cat scratches on the ground it is a sign of death, for it is looking for a corpse.

A dog howling by day without sufficient cause is said to be observing a phantom funeral, a warning of a real one to follow.