imals have been the cause, perhaps, of so many superstitions as the
common domestic _Cat_; most of them are too well known here to require
repetition, but the still prevalent, popular prejudice that this creature
sucks the breath of sleepers, especially children, and thereby kills them,
has been signally refuted by modern naturalists, who observe, that even if
it were capable of drawing a person's breath thus, the construction of its
mouth renders it impossible to impede the respiration of the slumberer
through mouth and nostrils at the same time; this vulgar superstition
probably arose from cats liking to lie warm, and nestling consequently in
beds, cribs, and cradles. To dream of cats is considered unlucky, denoting
treachery and quarrels on the part of friends. Cats, from no apparent
cause, seeming shy, agitated, and traversing the house uttering cries, as
if alarmed, is believed to forbode sudden and causeless strife between the
members of the families with whom they reside. That the breath of these
animals is poisonous, that they can play with serpents and remain
uninjured, whilst their fur communicates the infection of the venom of
those reptiles, that they lend themselves readily to infernal agents and
purposes, that certain portions of their bodies possess magical properties
and were efficacious in the preparation of charmed potions, and that they
are partly supernatural creatures, endowed with a power of bringing good
or evil fortune upon their possessors, with other facts just as credible,
was once devoutly believed by the illiterate, as it is partially at this
very day.[1]

_Dogs_ are generally supposed to possess the faculty of beholding spirits
when they are invisible to mortals, and of foretelling death by lamentable
howls. It is lucky to be followed by a strange dog. The Welch believe in
the apparition of certain spirits under the form of hunting dogs, which
they call dogs of the sky (cwn wybir, or cwn aunwy:) they indicate the
death of a relation or friend of the person to whom they appear, but
though generally accompanied by fire, are innocuous. The tradition of the
Spectre Hound of Peel Castle (Isle of Man) or _Manthe Doog_, is well
known. The religious superstition of Mahommedans lead them to consider the
dog as an unclean animal; but the dog of the Seven Sleepers, according to
a tale in the Koran, is, say the faithful, the only animal admitted into
heaven. A more sweet and soothing creed is held by "th