THE KILKENNY CATS.

Temuka Leader, Issue 1990, 4 January 1890, Page 2

THE KILKENNY CATS.

The Irish Btory o£ the two cats of Kilkenny, who fought and fought till there was naught left fyut their tails has its origin in faGt, as told in Lipincott's Magazine. In 1798, during the Irish rebellion Kilkenny was garrisoned by Hessians. The soldiers used to amuse themselves by tying two cats together by their tails and hanging them over a clothes line, when they would fight desperately till one or other, or both, perhaps, were killed. When this cruelty became known to the officers they determined to stop it, and so sent an officer every day to watch for any oifence of this kind, and to punish the offender. The soldiers would keep a man on the watch themselves, and when the word was given of the approach of an officer the cats would be let loose. One day the man neglected to keep a look but, and the officer coming upon them suddenly, one or | the soldiers divided the cats' tails with I his sword, and the cats ran off,

" leaving their tails behind them," like--80-Peep's sheep. The officer enquired about the curious sight op two cats' tails hanging on the line, aud was told that two cats had fought desperately, destroyed each other all but the tails, and the soldiers had picked up these appendages and hung them on tts line. To state the story according to Irish authorities, Brewer says : "This is an allegory of the municipalities of Kilkenny and Irishtown, who contended so stoutly about boundaries and rights to the end of the sixteenth century that they mutually impoverished each other—ate up each other, leaving only a tail behind." "De G-übernatis" says Conway in his Zoological Mythology, "has a curious speculation concerning the original of our familiar fable ' The Kilkenny Cats,' which he traces to the German superstition which dreads the combat between cats as presaging death to the one who witnesses it."