CATS. By R. Vashon Rogers. CATS are not of any very great import ance in the eye of the law in this part of the nineteenth century. In studying legal history we find, about the beginning of the tenth century, Howel Dda, or Howel the Good, a conspicuous king in South Wales, in the government of which he succeeded his father Cadell. He inherited from his mother, Elen, possessions in Powis, and his influence seems to have been powerful throughout North Wales. Perceiving the laws and customs of the country to be violated with impunity, he summoned the archbishops, bishops, nobles, and other chosen men to meet at Y Ty Gwyn ar Dav with him. After spending all Lent in prayer and fasting, he selected from the whole assembly twelve of the most experienced persons, and adding to their number a doctor of laws, named Blegywryd, committed to them the task of examining, retaining, expounding, and abrogating the laws. The work when completed was sanctioned by Howel, and duly promulgated; and maledic tions were pronounced on those who did not observe them as they were set forth, unless they were altered by the concurrence of the country and the lord. Wales being of some size, before long local customs arose, somewhat differing; ideas differed, and so the versions of the laws. Hence we have three separate codes, — the Vencdotian, which was in force in North Wales; the Dimetian, in West Wales; and the Gwentian in the Diocese of Landav. The provisions in these codes concerning cats we wish to relate. In the Venedotian Code ( chap. xi. book iii.) we find: (i) "Guerth kenen cath ew or nos y ganer hyt yny agoro y lygeit keinhaoc kyfreith," etc., which being interpreted into the vulgar tongue means, " The worth of a kitten from the night it is kittened until it
shall open its eyes, is a legal penny : and from that time until it shall kill mice, two legal pence : and after it shall kill mice, four legal pence: and so it shall always remain." The penny, we may point out, was, by the code, the value of a lamb, a kid, a goose, or a hen; a cock or a gander was worth twopence; a sheep or a goat, fourpence. " ( 4 ) The teithi [or qualities] of a cat are, to see, to hear, to kill mice, to have her claws entire, to rear and not to devour her kittens : and if she be bought, and be deficient in any one of these teithi [qualities], let one third of her worth be returned." The Dimetian and the Gwentian Codes (doubtless) very properly draw a distinc tion between cats and cats. The former says (book ii. chap, xxxii.), — to save the proof reader we will only give the English, — ( 1 ) "The worth of a cat that is kilied or stolen : its head is to be put downwards upon a clean, even floor, with its tail lifted upwards, and thus suspended, whilst wheat is poured about it, until the tip of its tail be covered : and that is to be its worth : if the corn cannot be had, a milch sheep, with her lamb and her wool, is its value: if it be a cat which guards the King's barn. (2) The worth of a common cat is four legal pence." The Gwentian code hath it thus: "(1) Whoever shall kill a cat that guards a house and a barn of the King, or shall take it stealthily: it is to be held with its head to the ground, and its tail up (Capite deorsum posito, et cautla sursum erecta), the ground being swept, and then clean wheat is to be poured about it, until the tip of its tail be hidden : and that is its worth. (2) An other cat is four legal pence in value." The attentive student will observe that neither Howel Dda nor his legal adviser Blegywryd made any provision for the pos sible case of the King intrusting his granary to the care of a Manx cat.
