252
NOTES AND QUERIES. [12 s.i. MAR. 25, me.
gladness. Thirdly, it sharpens its claws when
full of valour. Fourthly, its female nurses the
kittens of any other females with a perfectly
good will. Fifthly, its pupils change their shapes
according to the hours of the day. Sixthly, its
nose is always cool at the tip. Seventhly, it
rejoices whejn one strokes its throat. Eighthly, it
perishes in a place quite out of human sight, as
if it wills not to let man see its dying look, which
is unusually ugly. Ninthly, it is very passionately
fond of the Matatabi not only does it eat it,
but also it rubs its body with the roots, stems, and
leaves of the plant, well knowing it is its super-
lative panacea." Kaibara, * Yamato Honad,'
1708, torn. xvi.
The Matatabi (Actinidia polygamd) is a climbing shrub of the order Ternstroemiacece, which also comprises the tea-plant and Camellia japonica. As its pentapetalous flowers bear a certain resemblance to those of the celebrated Japanese plum (Prunus Mume), its blooming branches, intentionally deprived of the leaves, are often used in the art of flower arrangement and called summer Mume. Its fruit resembles the jujube, but with acrid taste, and is salted and eaten by mountaineers. Besides, the plant produces a sort of gall flattish in form, and tasting more acrid than the fruit. It is dried and sold by druggists under the name of Matatabi. The cat is so fond of it that a widespread proverb compares one's dotingness to the cat and Matatabi. When it is given the gall, it behaves as if suddenly possessed caressing and rolling it about before its tasting, and drivelling and ejaculating during its eating. All its distempers, no matter how serious, are cured thereby. Moreover, the burning of the Matatabi is held to be the surest means of recalling a stray cat. It appears from the following quotation that a similar plant occurs in Ceylon :
" In connexion with cats, a Singhalese gentle- man has described to me a plant in Ceylon, called Cuppa-may-niya by the natives ; by which, he says, cats are so enchanted, that they play with it as they would with a captured mouse ; throwing it into the air, watching it till it falls, and crouching to see if it will move. It would be worth in- quiring into the truth of this ; and the explanation of the attraction." Tennent, ' Sketches of the Natural History of Ceylon,' 1861, p. 32, note.
I shall close this reply by noting that here we have an old usage of feasting a cat that has attained the bodily weight of one kwan ( = 8-281 lb.). Some folks still cling to the superstition that cats, when grown very old, acquire a demoniac power and do various mischiefs. Hence one uses to tell it how long he would like to keep it when he gets a cat in his house ; when the term draws near its expiration, it is said to disappear of its own accord. KUMAGUSU MINAKATA.
Tanabe, Kii, Japan.
THE EIGHTEEN SEVENTIES : * PINAFORE *'
AND TENNIS (12 S. i. 149).' H.M.S. Pina-
fore ' was first produced at the Savoy
Theatre on the night of May 28, 1878, so it
is obvious that the songs from it could not
have been sung on board a German man-of-
war in the spring of 1873.
The question of when lawn tennis was first played in some shape or form covers a very wide field of research, as will be gathered from a perusal of an exhaustive treatise on the game by C. G. Heathcote in the " Bad- minton Library " volume on ' Tennis, Lawn Tennis, Fives, &c.,' as well as in Julian Marshall's ' Annals of Tennis," published by The Field office in 1873. It is recorded in Nichols's ' Progresses of Queen Elizabeth,' for example, that
" when Queen Elizabeth was entertained at Elvetham in Hampshire by the Earl of Hertford r after dinner, about 3 o'clock, ten of his servants,. Somersetshire men, in a square green court, before Her Majestie's windows, did hang up lines, squaring out the form of a tennis court, and making a cross line hi the middle ; in this square they played, five to five, with handball, with bord and cord, as they tearme it, to the great liking ot Her Highness."
But, to quote Mr. Heathcote' s words : " For all practical purposes it may be said, that the epoch of lawn tennis dates from no more distant a period than 1874, when Major Wingfield resuscitated it by the introduction of sphairis- tike."
WrLLOUGHBY MAYCOCK.
The following is an extract from * H.M.S. Pinafore, or the Lass that loved a Sailor,' written by W. S. Gilbert, composed by Arthur Sullivan, price Is., London, Metzler & Co., p. 2 : " First produced at the Opera Comique Theatre, on Saturday, May 25th, 1878, by the Comedy Opera Company (Limited), Manager, Mr. R. D'Oyly Carte." See also 'The Dramatic List,' edited by Charles E. Pascoe, revised and enlarged edition (c. 1880), sub nom. ' Barrington, Rutland.'
The first of the Gilbert and Sullivan operas was, I think, 'Thespis, or the Gods Grown Old,' produced at the Gaiety Theatre Dec. 26, 1871. See * Dictionary of National Biography,' sub nom. ' Gilbert.'
ROBERT PIERPOINT.
The first request to Gilbert and Sullivan for a light opera came from John Hollings- head, the result being 'Thespis, or the Gods Grown Old,' at j the Gaiety Theatre Dec. 26, 1871. No other manager approached them until D'Oyly Carte in 1875 proposed they should again collaborate, and ' Trial by
