Lore of the Cat: The Trickster and The Fighter ~ Pawprints and Purrs, Inc.

The Trickster: The means employed by natural cats to secure their prey have always been ingenious. There are many fables in which the cat set out deliberately to trick, and to take advantage of, more gullible animals. It is portrayed as a gifted actor, a first class strategist and a great fraud. La Fontaine shows the cat as being even more cunning than the fox; for, although both are hypocrites and swindlers, in the last resort the cunning tricks of the cat prove superior to those of the fox.

The Penitent Cat has become proverbial. A typical story is found in the Indian epic, the Mahabharata. There was a cat who sat on the banks of the River Ganges, feigning penitence for all his sins, prarticularly those of cruelty to other animals. For days he practised austerities by the river, gradually building up a reputation for saintliness. The asceticism of this holy animal inspired confidence in the birds and mice of the area. They gathered around him in great numbers, to do him honor and to put themselves under his protection. Every day, when the cat was surrounded by trustful prey, he would lead them to the river, presumably to wash away their sins. It was always during the "mystical" experience that the cat had his main meal of the day.

Another cat who had repented of all his crimes was called upon to act as judge in a dispute which had arisen between a sparrow and a hare. Unfortunately, the judge appeared to have become stone-deaf, and he begged the sparrow and the hare to come to him and confide their arguments in his ear. With complete faith in the cat's reformation, they approached him and were both promptly devoured.

Aesop tells of a cat who made no pretense of repentance, but rather fancied himself as an actor. He happened to hear that there was sickness among the birds in a nearby aviary, so he dressed himself up as a physician and set out, complete with a cane and bag of medical instruments. Presenting himself at the aviary, he inquired after the health of the sick birds, offering to prescribe remedies for all their ills. On this occasion, however, his ingenuity failed, for the birds smelled not a rat, but a cat.

Egyptian fables tell of cats who force their services on animals which they intend later on to devour. There is a papyrus which shows a cat, dressed as a peasant, driving a flock of geese with a stick.

An Italian fable describes the adventures of a cock who wanted to be Pope. The foolish bird accepted the offer - made by his friend, the cat - to accompany him to Rome, and was eaten on the first day's journey.

La Fontaine describes the antics of a cat called Rodilard, who was the scourge and terror of all mice and rats. One day, Rodilard was feeling very hungry, so he devised a means of procuring a real feast. He hung himself upside down beside a wall ...resisting gravitation's laws... but, although he appeared to be hanged, in fact he held a hidden cord in his claws. The mice, believing that Rodilard had at last received his due for all the crimes he had mercilessly committed, thronged round him in the highest of spirits; then ran off to spread the good news to the rats. Rats and mice by the dozens soon appeared and wandered blissfully around hunting for food, exploiting to the full their false security. Their joy was short lived, for suddenly Rodilard pulled the cord, sprang to the floor and was soon gorging himself on the victims of his stratagem.

But this was not the end of his tricks, for it annoyed Rodilard that a number of mice had escaped into their holes. He found some meal and covered the whole of his body with it, then:

Squatted in an open tub
and held his purring and his breath,
Till out came the vermin to their death. A relief in a Spanish cathedral shows a stately pageant entitled Execution of the Cat. This piece of sculpture illustrates the story of a tabby which is at the usual trick of pretending to be dead. It lies on a bier, borne by a long procession of rodents carrying banners, vessels of holy water, aspergillis, crosiers and censers. The executioner, a rat with an axe, marches with official dignity under the litter. A second scene shows the cat pouncing on the rat, while the other members of the cortege disperse in all directions, scattering the paraphernalia over the ground.

The saying to let the cat out of the bag means to give away a secret and is closely linked with a pig in a poke. Country folk would bring a bag to market which they said contained a suckling pig, but for which they had in fact, substituted a cat. If the purchaser was gullible enough to buy a pig in a poke without examination, the owner got away with it; but if the buyer opened the carrier, then he let the cat out of the bag.

In addition to its penchant for trickery, the cat, with its padded feet and stealthy approach, is undeniably a thief (or "pussyfoot"). In fact, the same word, pussyfoot, appears to have been used in Sanskrit for both cats and thieves. Not only does the cat steal fish and meat intended for human consumption, it will deprive other animals of hard-won meals. So associated is the cat with theft that Hungarian peasants insist that only a stolen cat will make a good mouser. This particular character trait resulted in cats' becoming the victims of an odious rite practised in southern Slavonia. Here a thief would blind a cat, then burn it - for he believed that if he threw a pinch of its ashes over the man he intended to burglarize, he had every chance of getting away with his crime.

Both the cat's habitual thieving and many of its tricks described in fables arise out of, and serve, its innate laziness. There is a story of a cat and sparrows, in which the cat pretends to allow the hungry birds to eat bread and then eats them. Another is about a cat and mouse partnership, in which the cat tricks the mouse into obtaining food, then eats the mouse. The cat will let its head rule its heart in order to indulge its love of comfort and get food without the effort of hunting it. The old adage, All cats love fish but fear to wet their paws, refers to someone who, like the cat, is anxious to possess something valuable, but is unwilling to take the trouble or risk necessary to acquire it.

In Christian symbolism, the cat sometimes represents apathy. The "copycat" is someone who slavishly imitates another, instead of relying on his own inspirations. This has probably arisen from the cat's imitative ability, for kittens are taught to copy the habits of one another, and in some cases, even of human beings.

Although the cat appears to have a perfectly good memory, it is associated in folklore with forgetfulness, which again points to a certain sluggishness. In Russia, Jewish boys were not allowed to stroke a cat lest they lose their memories. This may possibly have been due that cats eat mice, and mice are considered to be a cause of forgetfulness. It is said that the kink in the tail of the Siamese is to remind it of something which it has not yet remembered.

The gib cat is renowned for its melancholy, another state of lowered vitality. A naturalist writing in 1843 said, Most of the former [he cats] that are kept are emasculated, in which state, always accompanied with a subdued and melancholy appearance, then they are called Gilberts or Gib Cats. A joke has to be very funny indeed if it is to be enough to make a cat laugh. And the false grin of the "Cheshire Cat" presumably covers a sinking heart.

If these traits are sins, they are sins of omission; but somehow this inability to "come up to scratch" seems to underlie many of the cat's more active crimes.

The Fighter: The fighting instinct is exceptionally strong in cats, the males begining to fight as soon as they reach maturity. Often their fights last many hours, for much time is spent glaring at and stalking each other with backs arched and hackles risen. From time to time, blood curdling screams rise from their choking throats.

There is an ancient story of a Persian king called Hormus, who found himself besieged by rebels. A wise old man appeared and told the king that he could rout the enemy in a single day if he was able to find a cat faced man to lead his officers. Eventually, a cat faced mountaineer was found. The king immediately made him a general. Such was his prowess that, with only twelve thousand men at his disposal, he beat an enemy army of three hundred thousand.

Tales are told of cat headed Irish warriors. Like the Irish king known as "Carbar of the Cat's Head," they wore helmets entirely covered with skins of wild cats, which gave the impression of their being cat headed.

Battles between cats and rats (such as the one in The White Cat) have been popular literary subjects. Although the cat is a terrific fighter, it is not always depicted as the winner.

An Egyptian papyrus depicts a great battle between armies of cats and rats in which the rats seem to be getting the most of it. (It is virtually a parody of battle scenes of the nineteenth dynasty pharaohs which decorate walls of Theban temples.) The rat pharoah stands upright in a chariot drawn by dogs, leading his army against cats who are defending a fort. The rats, gracefully poised with bows, shower the enemy with arrows and their steeds trample on the fallen cats.

A famous Persian story written by a fourteenth century satirist, tells of a battle of "Rats against Cats." The army of cats was led by ...a dragon of a cat, drum-bellied, shield-chested, serpent-tailed, eagle-clawed, and the rats were led by an astute, brave and judicious rat, commanding three hundred thirty thousand soldiers armed with bows and arrows, lances and swords. The two mounted armies met in an open plain and fought bravely with huge casualties. The cats finally charged at the heart of the rats' army, spreading confusion in their ranks. Just when the rats appeared to have lost the battle, one of them felled the horse of the cats' leader. Quickly the cat was bound and taken to the rat king. The rats beat drums of joy as the leaderless cat army broke up and dispersed in shame.

To fight like Kilkenny cats means to fight, with determination and pertinacity, until both sides have lost everything. The saying derives from the story that, during the Irish rebellion, Kilkenny was garrisoned by a troop of soldiers who amused themselves by tying two cats together by their tails and throwing them across a clothesline to fight. When the officer on duty appeared, one of the soldiers cut the two tails with a sword and the cats made off. When the officer was asked about the bleeding tails, he was told that two cats had been fighting and had devoured each other except for the tails. This story is a most distasteful one, but is typical of the kind of thing that has attracted the legend of the cat.

There is a German belief that, to an invalid, the sight of two cats fighting is an omen of approaching death. Tuscan children play a game, known as the game of souls. It has been suggested that the two German cats play the same role as the Devil and Angel who come to dispute for the soul in the Tuscan game.

Petty malice - a spitting sort of spite that goes by the name of cattiness - is very liable to lead to squabbling. Aesop has expressed the intense aversion that naturally exists between cats and dogs, describing a pair who were:

...Often falling into strife
Which came to scratching, growls and snaps,
And spitting in the face, perhaps.
People who are always quarrelling are said to lead a cat and dog life.