Our Cats and All About Them Part 18

_Cat-call._--"A tin whistle. The ancients divided their dramas into four parts: _pro'tasis_ (introduction), _epit'asis_ (continuation), _catas'tasis_ (climax), and _catas'trophe_ (conclusion or _denouement_).

The cat-call is the call for the cat or _catastrophe._"--BREWER'S _Dictionary of Phrase and Fable._

"Sound, sound, ye viols; be the cat-call dumb."

DUNCIADE, I. 303.

The modern imitation of "cat-calls" is caused by whistling with two fingers in the mouth, and so making an intensely shrill noise, with waulings imitating "catterwaulings." Also a shrill tin whistle, round and flat, set against the teeth.

_Cat-eaten Street._--In London; properly "Catte Street" (STOW).

_Caterpillar._--"_Catyrpelwyrm_ among fruit" is corrupted from old French _Chatte peleuse_ (PALSGRAVE, 1530). "Hairy cat;" the last part of the word was probably a.s.similated to _piller_, a robber or despoiler (PALMER'S _Folk Etymology_).

_Caterwauling._--The wrawl of cats in rutting times; any hideous noise.

Topsel gives _catwralling_, to "wrall;" "wrawl," to rail or quarrel with a loud voice; hence the Yorks.h.i.+re expression, "raising a wrow," meaning a row or quarrel. There is also the archaic adjective _wraw_ (angry).

Caterwaul, therefore, is the wawl or wrawl of cats; the _er_ being either a plural, similar to "childer" (children), or a corrupted genitive.--BREWER'S _Dictionary of Phrase and Fable._

"What a caterwawling do you keep here!"

SHAKESPEARE, _Twelfth Night_, Act II., Scene 3.

"To yawl.--To squall or scream harshly like an enraged cat."--HOLLOWAY (Norfolk).

"Thou must be patient; we came crying hither; Thou knowest the first time that we smell air, We _waul_ and cry."

_King John_, Act IV.

_Cat-eyed._--Sly, gray eyes, or with large pupils, watchful.

_Cat-fall._--A rope used in s.h.i.+ps for hoisting the anchor to the cat-head.

_Catfish._--A species of the squalus, or shark (_Felis marinus_). The catfish of North America is a species of _cottus_, or bull-head.

_Catgut._--A corruption of "gut-cord." The intestines of a sheep, twisted and dried; not that of a cat, as generally supposed. Also, it is stated by some, the finer strings for viols were made from the cat. Mr.

Timbs says the original reading in Shakespeare was "_calves'_-gut." "A sort of linen or canvas with wide interstices."--WEBSTER.

_Cat-hamed._, or _hammed._--Awkward; sometimes applied to a horse with weak hind-legs, and which drops suddenly behind on its haunches, as a cat is said to do.

_Cat-handed._--A Devons.h.i.+re term for awkward.

_Cat-harpings._--"Rope sewing to brace in the shrouds of the lower masts behind their respective yards, to tighten the shrouds and give more room to draw in the yards when the s.h.i.+p is close hauled."--_Marine Dictionary._

_Cat-harping fas.h.i.+on._--Drinking crossways, and not as usual, over the left thumb. Sea term.--GROSE.

_Cat-head._--"A strong beam, projecting horizontally over the s.h.i.+p's bows, carrying two or three sheaves, above which a rope, called the cat-fall, pa.s.ses, and communicates with the cat-block."--_Marine Dictionary._

_Cathood._--The time when a kitten is full grown, it is then a cat and has attained maturity, that is, cathood.

_Cat-hook._--A strong hook fitted to the cat-block.

_Cat-lap._--Weak tea, only fit for the cat to lap, or thin milk and water. In Kent and Suss.e.x it is also often applied to small, _very_ small beer; even thin gruel is called "cat-lap." Weak tea is also called "scandal-broth."

_Cat-like._--Stealthy, slow, yet appertaining more to appearance.

_Catlings._--Down, or moss, growing about walnut-trees, resembling the hair of a cat.

_Cat o' Nine Tails._--So called from being nine pieces of cord put together, in each cord nine knots; and this, when used vigorously, makes several long marks not unlike the clawing or scratching of a cat, producing crossing and re-crossing wounds; a fearful and severe punishment, formerly too often exercised for trivial offences.

_Cat_ or _dog wool._--"Of which cotte or coa.r.s.e blankets were formerly made" (BAILEY). "Cot gase" (refuse wool). "Cat" no doubt was a corruption of "cot."

_Cat-pear._--A pear, shaped like a hen's egg, that ripens in October.

_Cat pellet._--The pop-gun of boys, one pellet of paper driving out the other. Davis in his "Glossary" thinks it means "tip-cat." Probably it may be the sharpened piece of wood, not the game, that is different altogether, he quotes.

"Who beats the boys from cat pellet, and stool ball."

_British Bellman_, 1648.

_Cat-salt._--A salt obtained from b.u.t.ter.

_Cat-salt._--"A sort of salt beautifully granulated, formed out of the bittern or leach brine, used for making hard soap."--_Encyclopaedia._

_Cat's-eye._--A precious stone, resembling, when polished, the eye of a cat. It has lately become fas.h.i.+onable.

A large collection of Burmese, Indian, and j.a.panese curiosities was lately sold by auction. The great attraction of the sale was "The Hindoo Lingam G.o.d," consisting of a chrysoberyl _cat's-eye_ fixed in a topaz, and mounted in a pyramidal base studded with diamonds and precious stones. This curious relic stood 2 inches in height. It was preserved for more than a thousand years in an ancient temple at Delhi, where acts of devotion were paid before it by women anxious to have children. The base is of solid gold, and around it are set nine gems or charms, a diamond, ruby, sapphire, _chrysoberyl cat's-eye_, coral, pearl, hyacinthine garnet, yellow sapphire, and emerald. Round the apex of this gold pyramid is a plinth set with diamonds. On the apex is a topaz 1 10-16ths inch in length, and 9-16ths of an inch in depth, shaped like a horseshoe; in the centre of the horseshoe the _great chrysoberyl cat's-eye_ stands upright. This is 15-16ths of an inch in height, and dark brown in colour, and shaped like a pear. An extremely mobile opalescent light crosses the length of the stone in an oblique direction. When Bad Shah Bahadoor Shah, the last King of Delhi, was captured and exiled to the Andaman Isles, his Queen secreted this gem, and it was never seen again until, being distressed during the Mutiny, she sold it to the present owner. The gem was finally knocked down at 2,450 to Mr. S. J. Phillips, jeweller, New Bond Street.

_Cat's-foot._--To live under the cat's foot, to be under the dominion of a wife, hen-pecked.

_Cat's-foot._--A plant of the genus _Glechoma pes felinus_, ground ivy or gill.

_Cat's-head apple._--A large culinary apple, considered by some in form to bear a resemblance to a cat's head. Philips in his poem "Cyder" thus describes it:

" ...The cat's head's weighty orb, Enormous in growth, for various use."

_Cat-silver._--An old popular name for mica or talc.

_Cat-sleep._--A light doze, a watchful sleep, like that of a hare or of a cat who sits in front of a mouse-hole, a dozy or a sleeping wakefulness.

_Cat's-paw._--Any one used by another for getting them out of a difficulty, and for no other reason, is made a cat's-paw of. The simile is from the fable of the monkey using the cat's paw to take his chestnuts out of the fire. A light breeze just ruffling the water in a calm is called a cat's-paw. Also a particular kind of turn in the bight of a rope made to hook tackle on.

_Cat's-tail._ (_Typha latifolia_).--A kind of reed which bears a spike like the tail of a cat, which some call reed mace; its long, flat leaves are much used for the bottoms of chairs.

_Cats'-tails._--Mares' tails (_equisetum_).

_Cat-stane._--"Battle-stone. A monolith in Scotland (sometimes falsely called a Druidical stone). The Norwegian term, banta stein, means the same thing. Celtic--_cath_ (battle)."--BREWER'S _Dictionary of Phrase and Fable._

_Cat-sticks._--Thin legs; compared to the thin sticks with which boys play at cat (Grose).

_Catsup_ or _ketchup._--A corruption of the Eastern name of "Kitj.a.p." Is then the syllable "cat" a pun on "kit" or "kitten" (a young cat)? Surely not.

_Cattaria._--_Nepeta Cattaria._ _Mentha felina_, the herb cat-mint.

_Cattery._--A place where cats are kept, the ordinary name when a person keeps a collection of cats.