Our Cats and All About Them Part 21

The shape of a good greyhound:

A head like a snake, a neck like a drake, A back like a beam, sided like a bream, A _foot like a cat_, a tail like a rat.

_Ale that would make a cat talk._ Strong enough to make even the dumb speak.

"A spicy pot, Then do's us reason, Would make a cat To talk high treason."--D'URFEY.

_A half-penny cat may look at a king_ (Scotch). A jeering saying of offence--"One is as good as another," and as a Scotchman once said, "and better."

_A m.u.f.fled cat is no good mouser._--CLARKE, 1639. No good workman wears gloves. By some is said "muzzled."

_A piece of a kid is worth two of a cat._ A little of good is better than much that is bad.

_A scalded cat fears cold water._ Once bit always shy. What was may be again.

_As cat or cap case_.

"Bouser I am not, but mild sober Tuesday, _As catte in cap case_, if I like not St. Hewsday."

_The Christmas Prince_, 1607.

_As gray as Grannum's cat._--HAZLITT. So old as to be likely to be doubly gray.

_As melancholy as a cat._--WALKER. The voice of the cat is melancholy.

_As melancholy as a gib-cat_ (Scotch). As an old, worn-out cat.--JOHNSTON.

"I am as melancholy as a gib-cat or a lugged bear."[B]

SHAKESPEARE.

[B] A lugged bear is a bear with its ears cut off, so that when used for baiting there is less hold for the dogs.

Gib-cat; an old, lonely, melancholy cat.

_Before the cat can lick her ear._ "Nay, you were not quite out of hearing ere the cat could lick her ear."--_Oviddius Exultans_, 1673, p.

50. That is never.

Dun, besides being the name of one who arrested for debt in Henry VII.'s time, was also the name of the hangman before "Jack Ketch."--GROSE.

"And presently a halter got, Made of the best strong teer, And ere a cat could lick her ear, Had tied it up with so much art."

1664, COTTON'S _Virgile_, Book 4.

_By biting and scratching dogs and cats come together._--HEYWOOD.

Quarrelling oft makes friends.

_Care clammed a cat._--SIR G. C. LEWIS'S "Herefordshire Glossary."

Clammed means starvation; that is, care killed the cat; for want of food the entrails get "clammed."

_Care killed the cat, but ye canna live without it._ To all some trouble, though not all take heed. None know another's burden.

_Care will kill a cat._

"Then hang care and sorrow, 'Tis able to kill a cat."--D'URFEY.

Alluding to its tenacity of life and the carking wear of care.

_Cats after kind good mouse hunt._--HEYWOOD. Letter by F. A. touching the quarrel between Arthur Hall and Melch Mallorie, in 1575-6, repr. of ed. 1580, in "Misc^{y}. Antiq. Anglic." 1816, p. 93. "For never yet was good cat out of kinde."--_English Proverbs_, HAZLITT.

_Cats and Carlins sit in the sun._ When work is done then warmth and rest.

_Cats eat what hussies spare._ Nothing is lost. Also refers to giving away, and saying "the cat took it."

_Cats hide their claws._ All is not fair that seems so. Trust not to appearances.

_Cry you mercy, killed my cat._--CLARKE, 1639. Better away, than stay and ask pardon.

_Every day's no yule; cast the cat a castock._ The stump of a cabbage, and the proverb means much the same thing as "Spare no expense, bring another bottle of _small beer_."--DENHAM'S _Popular Sayings_, 1846.

OF FALSE PERSONS.

_He bydes as fast as a cat bound with a sacer._ He does as he likes; nothing holds him.

OF WITTIE PERSONS.

_He can hold the cat to the sun._ Bold and foolish enough for anything.

INCONSTANT PERSONS.

_He is like a dog or a cat._ Not reliable.

_He looks like a wild cat out of a bush._ Fiercely afraid.

_He's like a cat; fling him which way you will, he'll not hurt._ Some are always superior to misfortune, or fortune favours many.

_He's like a singed cat, better than he's likely._ He's better than he looks or seems.

_He stands in great need that borrows the cat's dish._--CLARKE, 1639.

The starving are not particular. The hungry cannot choose.

_He lives at the sign of the cat's foot._ He is hen-pecked, his wife scratches him.--RAY.

_He wald gar a man trow that the moon is made of green cheis, or the cat took the heron._ Never believe all that is laid to another.

_Honest as the cat when the meat is out of reach._ Some are honest, but others not by choice.