As those great burghers of the forest wild,
The hart, the goat, and he that slew the child[1]
Of wanton Mirrah, in their strength do know
The due observance nature doth me owe."
That the panther had a spot on his hide which bore the form of the moon, and that, like her, it regularly increased to full and then diminished to a crescent, was an error at least as old as Pliny,[2] who likewise tells us of a species of ape that became quite melancholy when the moon was on the wane, and leapt for joy at the time of new moon, and adored it. That the domestic cat and other felidæ have pupils which are but narrow lines in sunshine and are at night dilated is a fact which Science recognises. It was mainly on account of this peculiarity, as I believe, that cats were chosen for the steeds of the Teutonic goddess Freyja,[3] who ruled the night, as her brother Frô or Freyr, in some sort, ruled the day.[4] So Pussy was a kind of symbol of lunar influence; and, as that influence is great on tides, seafaring men pay great respect to cats.[5]
Another bit of folk-lore about the panther is to be found in Noah's Flood;[6] it is referred to as an animal
"whose delicious scent
Oft causeth beasts his harbour to frequent;
But having got them once into his power,
Sucketh their blood and doth their flesh devour."
- ↑ The boar, which slew Adonis.
- ↑ Natural History (Bohn's edition), vol. ii. pp. 274 and 348.
- ↑ Grimm's Teutonic Mythology. (Stallybrass's translation), vol. i. p. 305. For the way in which fairies utilised cats' eyes see Nymphidia [ii. 452]. I shall discuss the passage later on.
- ↑ "Snorri says rain and sunshine arc in the gift of Freyr (as elsewhere of Wuotan and Donar)." A boar was one of his attributes, and the animal was sacrificed both in his worship and in that of Freyja.—See Teutonic Mythology, vol. i. pp. 212-213, and 304.
- ↑ This is only a theory of my own. Another is broached by Mr. Karl Blind in "New Finds in Shetland and Welsh Folk-Lore" (Gentleman's Magazine for March, 1882, p. 356). He points out that in Shetland the cat is called vanega=him or her that goes on the water; and that Germanic tales identify her with the sea. She who "goes on the water" is well represented by a cat if a cat symbolise the moon, for the moon goes on the sea just as a cat likes to do—high and dry above it!
- ↑ [iv. 1532].
