eel. It is one
cat blood.'"

"Approaching the bed to obtain a nearer view of the patient, I
discovered the cause. Turning down the bed quilt to make an
examination, you may imagine my surprise and horror to observe a
ghastly and bloody object lying across the abdomen of the sick man. A
nearer examination revealed this to be an immense cat which had been
ripped up from chin to tail, and laid warm and bleeding, with all its
appurtenances, upon the unhappy patient. All through the day the
brother, Pierre; had been kept busily engaged in hunting up animals of
various kinds, which were to be excised in this manner and applied as
poultice."

"In uncivilised communities the animal whose healing virtues are
supposed to be most potent is the cat, and the cure is most certainly
assured if the cat be absolutely black, without a single white hair. In
this community, however, deprived of many of the domestic felicities,
the absence of cats made it necessary for poor Pierre to employ any
animal on which he could lay his hands; so, throughout the day, birds
and beasts, varied in size and character, were offered upon this altar.
The cat which I discovered, however, was evidently that upon which
their hopes most firmly rested; for, upon the failure of other animals,
recourse would be had to the cat, which had been kept in reserve. The
state of preservation suggested this."

"A very slight examination of the patient showed me that there was
practically no hope of his recovery, and that it would be almost
useless in me to attempt to change the treatment, and all the more that
I should have to overcome not only the prejudices of the patient and of
his sister-in-law, but also of his very able-bodied brother, whose
devotion to his own peculiar method of treatment amounted to
fanaticism. However, I determined to make an attempt. I prepared hot
fomentations, removed the cat, and made my first application. But no
sooner had I begun my treatment than I heard Pierre returning with a
freshly slaughtered animal in his hand. The most lively hope, indeed,
triumph, was manifest in his excited bearing. He bore by the tail an
animal the character of which none of us were in doubt from the moment
Pierre appeared in sight. It was the mephitis mephitica, that mephitine
musteloid carnivore with which none of us desire a close acquaintance,
which announces its presence without difficulty at a very considerable
distance; in short, the animal vulgarly know