I know not whence it is derived; but for centuries cats have been connected with superstition and sorcery. They have always been regarded as attendants upon witches; and witches themselves have been said to borrow their shapes when on their mysterious expeditions. I was once told, that Lord Cochrane was accompanied by a favourite black cat in a cruise through the northern seas. The weather had been most unpropitious; no day had passed without some untoward circumstance, and the sailors were not slow in attributing the whole to the influence of the black cat on board. This came to Lord Cochrane's ears, and knowing that any attempt to reason his men out of so absurd a notion was perfectly useless, he offered to sacrifice this object of his regard, and have her thrown overboard. This, however, far from creating any satisfaction, only alarmed the men still more; they were sure that the tempests she would then raise would be much worse than any they had yet encountered; and they implored his lordship to let her remain unmolested. "There was no help, and they could only hope, if she were not affronted, they might, at the end of their time, reach England in safety." Black cats were always more especially connected with superstitious feelings, and I was once accosted by a peasant's wife, who, with a phial in her hand to contain it, requested I would give her a few drops of blood from the tail of my black kitten; not only to bring luck to her hearth, but to keep pestilence from her doors. Even lately, a working woman told me not to turn a stray black cat from my house; for, if I did, I should never have any prosperity afterwards. Captain Brown tells us that on Hallowe'en, it was usual in Scotland for families to tie up their cat, in order to preserve it from being used as a pony by the witches that night. Those who neglected this precaution, ran the risk of seeing their cat scampering through the fields, with a witch on its back, on the high road to Norway. A black cat was commonly sacrificed by the ancients to Hecate, or among the Scandinavians to Frea, the northern Hecate. A black cat, sent with a prayer-book and a bag of sand into a new house, so as to precede the proprietor in possession, was formerly deemed essential to ensure prosperity to the person changing his abode. To steal a black cat, and bury it alive, is in the Irish Highlands, considered as a specific for a disorder in cattle, termed "blacklegs," which otherwise proves fatal.