NOTE B, p. 25.
ON THE NAME OF THE CAT AND THE CAT'S EYE.
Our domestic cat came to us from Egypt[1], where it had been tamed by a long process of kindness, or, it may be, of worship[2]. In no classical writer, Greek or Roman, do we find the cat as a domestic animal before the third century a. d. It is first mentioned by Caesarius, the physician, brother of Gregory, the theologian of Nazianzus, who died 369 a. d. He speaks of (
Greek characters). About the same time Palladius (De re rustica, IV. 9, 4) writes: 'Contra talpas prodest catos (cattos) frequenter habere in mediis carduetis (artichoke-gardens). Mustelas habent plerique mansuetas; aliqui foramina earum rubrica et succo agrestis cucumeris impleverunt. Nonnulli juxta cubilia talparum plures cavernas aperiunt, ut illae territae fugiant solis admissu. Plerique laqueos in aditu earum setis pendentibus ponunt.' Hehn supposes that talpa here means mouse. But whether it means mouse or mole[3], it is clear that when
- ↑ Wagner, zu Schrebers Säugethiere, Suppl. ii. p. 536.
- ↑ See Hehn, Kulturpflanzen und Hausthiere, p. 398. It was the Felis maniculata Ruepp., see Hartmann, Zeitschrift für Aegypt. Sprache, 1864, p. 11.
- ↑ The Rev. W. Houghton writes to say that talpae cannot possibly be mice in this passage, but only moles. 'Moles,' he writes, 'are constantly preyed on by weasels and other mustelidae. The Roman method of catching moles, as described by Palladius, is different in no essential way from the one in use at this day. Hehn's proposal therefore is quite unwarranted on Natural History grounds, if not on those of philology. Cats will not eat moles, though they may kill them. The topo or topango of the Italians has a decided reference
