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Physiologus

by Edward the Gentle

She is called "Mouser" because she is fatal to mice. The Vulgar call her "Cetus" because she CATches things (a CAPTura), while others say it is because she lies in wait (CAPTat); i.e. because she watches. So acutely does she glare that her eyes penetrate the shades of darkness with a gleam of light. Hence from the Greek comes "Catus" i.e. "acute".

She is shaped in all ways like the lioness, except that her ears be pointed and she is smaller in all her proportions.

Aristotle says that the female cat is peculiarly lecherous and wheedles the male to have congress with her, hence Sebastian Brant wrote:

The cats pursue the mice in haste,
When once they've had a little taste.
Women who've tried out other men,
Become so bold and shameless then.

Cats may bring home venomous infections, as the cat who, playing with a serpent daily, sickened an entire monastery, though she herself was unharmed, or may poyson (ed. note; no relation to clan Oahu.) a man with very looking on him. Cat's haire eaten unawares stoppeth the artery and causeth suffecation. If taken in the mouth, the haire of cats causes wens or the King's Evill.

Bread baked with cat dung will frighten mice and rats from the cupboard. Cat meat, when salted and sweetened, draws wens from the body. Warmed, it cures hemeroids and paines of the back. A powder made by burning the head of a pure black cat without a hair of white upon him, will cure cataracts or paines of the eyes, if blown into the eyes thrice daily. For Gout, Aylsins prescribes a fat cat sod. Anoint the sick part with ointment made of the fat and bind wet wool over it.

Drawn from T. H. Whites' Book of Beasts,
Beryl Rowlands, Animals with Human Faces
And An Elizabeth Bestiary

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