Our Cats and All About Them Part 20

_Cat-heather._--A finer species of heath, low and slender, growing more in separate, upright stalks than the common heath, and flowering only at the top (_Aberd._).

_Cat-hole._--1. The name given to the loop-holes or narrow openings in the wall of a barn (_S._). 2. A sort of niche in the wall of a barn, in which keys and other necessaries are deposited in the inside, where it is not perforated.

_Cat-hud._--The name given to a large stone, which serves as a back to a fire on the hearth in the house of a cottager (_Dumfr._). Sw. G., _kaette_, denotes a small cell or apartment, which corresponds to the form of the country fireside; also a bed; a pen. _Hud_ might seem allied to Teut. _huyd-en_, _conservare_, as the stone is meant to guard this enclosure from the effects of the fire.

_Catling._--Small catgut strings for musical instruments, also a kind of knife used in surgery.

_Cat-loup._--1. A very short distance as to s.p.a.ce (_S._); q. as far as a cat may leap (HOGG). 2. A moment; as, "I'se be wi' ye in a _catloup_"--_i.e._, instantly. "I will be with you as quickly as a cat can leap."

_Catmaw._--"To tumble the _catmaw_," to go topsy-turvy, to tumble (_S.

B._).

_Catmint._--An herbaceous plant (_Mentha felina_), that cats delight to roll on.

_Cat's Carriage._--The same play that is otherwise called the "King's Cus.h.i.+on," q.v. (_Loth._).

_Cat's Cradle._--A plaything for children, made of pack-thread on the fingers of one person, and transferred from them to those of another (_S._).

_Cat's Crammocks._--Clouds like hairs streaming from an animal's tail (_Shetland_).

_Cat's Hair._--1. The down that covers unfledged birds (_Fife_); synon.

_Paddockhair_. 2. The down on the face of boys before the beard grows (_S._). 3. Applied also to the thin hair that often grows on the bodies of persons in bad health (_S._).

_Cat-siller._.--The mica of mineralogists (_S._); the _katzen silber_ of the vulgar in Germany. Teut., _katten silver_, _amiantus_, _mica_, _vulgo argentum felium_; Kilian.

_Cat's Lug._--The name given to the _Auricula ursi._--LINN.

(_Roxburgh._).

_Cat's Stairs._--A plaything for children, made of thread, small cord, or tape, which is so disposed by the hands as to fall down like steps of a stair (_Dumfr._, _Gall._).

_Catstone._--One of the upright stones which support a grate, there being one on each side (_Roxb._). Since the introduction of Carron grates these _stones_ are found in kitchens only. The term is said to originate from this being the favourite seat of the _cat._ _See_ Catstone (English).

_Catstone-head._--The flat top of the Catstone (_ibid._).

_Catsteps._--The projections of the stones in the slanting part of a gable (_Roxb._). _Corbie-steps_, synon.

_Cat's-Tails._--Hare's Tail Rush (_Eriophorum v.a.g.i.n.atum_). LINN.

_Mearns_; also called _Canna-down_, Cat Tails (_Galloway_).

_Catten-Clover._, _Cat-in-Clover._--The Lotus (_South of S._). Sw., _Katt-klor_ (Cat's Claws).

_Catter._--1. Catarrh (b.e.l.l.e.n.dEN). 2. A supposed disease of the fingers from handling cats.

_Catterbatch._--A broil, a quarrel (_Fife_). Teut., _kater_, a he-cat, and _boetse_, rendered _cavillatio, q._, "a cat's quarrel."

_Catwitt.i.t._--Harebrained, unsettled; _q._, having the _wits_ of a _cat_ (_S._).

_Kittie._--A North-country name for a cat, male or female.

_Kitling._--Sharp; kitten-like.

"His _kitling_ eyes begin to run Quite through the table where he spies The horns of paperie b.u.t.terflys."

HERRICK, _Hesperides_.

_Kittenhood._--State of being a kitten.

"For thou art as beautiful as ever a cat That wantoned in the joy of kittenhood."

SOUTHEY.

_Kittenish_, kitten-like.

"Such a kittenish disposition in her, I called it; ...the love of playfulness."--RICHARDSON.

_Kit_, or _kitten._--A young cat. A young cat is a kitten until it is full-grown, then kittenhood ceases.

A school-boy being asked to describe a _kitten_, replied: "A _kitten_ is chiefly remarkable for rus.h.i.+ng like mad at nothing whatever, and generally stopping before it gets there."

_Puss gentleman._--An effeminate man.--DAVIS, _Glossary._

"I cannot talk with civet in th' room, A fine puss gentleman that's all perfume."

COWPER'S _Conversations._

CAT

PROVERBS.

_A BLATE cat makes a proud mouse_ (Scotch). An idle, or stupid, or timid foe is never feared.

_A cat has nine lives, a woman has nine lives._ In Middleton's _Blurt Master Constable_, 1602, we have: "They have nine lives apiece, like a woman."

_A cat may look at a king._ In Cornwall they say a cat may look at a king if he carries his eyes about him.

"A Cat may Look at a King," is the t.i.tle of a book on history, published in the early part of the last century. On the frontispiece is the picture of a cat, over it the inscription, "A cat may look at a king,"

and a king's head and shoulders on the t.i.tle-page, with the same inscription above.

_A cat's walk_, a little way and back (Cornwall). No place like home.

Idling about.

_A dead cat feels no cold._ No life, no pain, nor reproach.

_A dog hath a day._--HEYWOOD. In Ess.e.x folks add: _And a cat has two Sundays._ Why?