Keightley devotes a whole chapter of his _Tales and Popular Fictions_ to the legend of Whittington and his Cat, in which he points out how many similar stories exist. The _Facezie_, of Arlotto, printed soon after the author's death in 1483, contain a tale of a merchant of Genoa, entitled "Novella delle Gatte," and probably from this the story came to England, although it is also found in a German chronicle of the thirteenth century. Sir William Ouseley, in his _Travels_, 1819, speaking of an island in the Persian Gulf, relates, on the authority of a Persian MS., that "in the tenth century, one Keis, the son of a poor widow in Siraf, embarked for India with a cat, his only property. There he fortunately arrived at a time when the palace was so infested by mice or rats that they invaded the king's food, and persons were employed to drive them from the royal banquet. Keis produced his cat; the noxious animals soon disappeared, and magnificent rewards were bestowed on the adventurer of Siraf, who returned to that city, and afterwards, with his mother and brothers, settled on the island, which from him has been denominated Keis, or according to the Persians Keisch." Mr. Halliwell-Phillipps quotes from the _Description of Guinea_ (1665) the record of "how Alphonso, a Portuguese, being wrecked on the coast of Guinney, and being presented by the king thereof with his weight in gold for a cat to kill their mice; and an oyntment to kill their flies, which he improved within five years to 6000l. in the place, and, returning to Portugal after fifteen years traffick, became the third man in the kingdom."[1] Keightley also quotes two similar stories from Thiele's _Danish Popular Traditions_ and another from the letters of Count Magalotti, a Florentine of the latter half of the seventeenth century. Mr. Lysons gives much information as to the great value of cats in the Middle Ages, but the writer of the _History of Whittington_ does not lead us to believe that they were dear in England, for he makes the boy buy his cat for one penny. The two following titles are from the Stationers' Registers. The ballad is probably the one subsequently referred to as by Richard Johnson:-- "The History of Richard Whittington, of his lowe birthe, his great fortune, as yt was plaied by the Prynces Servants. Licensed to Thomas Pavyer, Feb. 8, 1604-5." "A Ballad, called The vertuous lyfe and memorable death of Sir Richard Whittington, mercer, sometymes Lord Maiour of the honorable Citie of London. Licensed to John Wright, 16 July, 1605."