; they were sure that the
tempests she would then raise would be much worse than any they had yet
encountered; and they implored his lordship to let her remain
unmolested. "There was no help, and they could only hope, if she were
not affronted, they might, at the end of their time, reach England in
safety."

Black cats were always more especially connected with superstitious
feelings, and I was once accosted by a peasant's wife, who, with a phial
in her hand to contain it, requested I would give her a few drops of
blood from the tail of my black kitten; not only to bring luck to her
hearth, but to keep pestilence from her doors. Even lately, a working
woman told me not to turn a stray black cat from my house; for, if I
did, I should never have any prosperity afterwards. Captain Brown tells
us that on Hallowe'en, it was usual in Scotland for families to tie up
their cat, in order to preserve it from being used as a pony by the
witches that night. Those who neglected this precaution, ran the risk of
seeing their cat scampering through the fields, with a witch on its
back, on the high road to Norway. A black cat was commonly sacrificed by
the ancients to Hecate, or among the Scandinavians to Frea, the northern
Hecate. A black cat, sent with a prayer-book and a bag of sand into a
new house, so as to precede the proprietor in possession, was formerly
deemed essential to ensure prosperity to the person changing his abode.
To steal a black cat, and bury it alive, is in the Irish Highlands,
considered as a specific for a disorder in cattle, termed "blacklegs,"
which otherwise proves fatal.

There is yet another peculiar feeling respecting cats--namely, the
strange antipathy which some persons entertain towards them, and is
equally unassailable with that of superstition. Of course, in many
instances, illness and weak indulgence, have greatly increased it, but
in some cases, it has been, unconsciously harboured, and in others
unconquerable. A friend of mine told me, that through life this feeling
had accompanied him, in spite of every endeavour made to eradicate it.
When a little boy he awoke one night, with that trembling and cold
perspiration which always assailed him when a cat was in his vicinity;
and, screaming for help, he intreated the servant who entered to take
away the cat which was in the room. The man searched, but found no
traces of puss. His young master still persisted she was there, but a
renewed search proved e