SALVE ROMA! A Felidae Novel - U.S. Edition (27 page)

BOOK: SALVE ROMA! A Felidae Novel - U.S. Edition

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But without aiming for this purposely, with that strategy grandmas probably started a sheer »bluff failure« in tribal history – at least that’s what anthropologists believe: As women grew older and older, the human childhood prolonged, and with that the phase, in which humans gather knowledge. This caused the evolution of bigger brains, which enabled our ancestors to develop language, tools and culture. A totally different theory says that there are no fertile grandmas among us humans, because their fertility would have caused trouble in our evolutionary history. For example they would have survived their husbands and would have attracted other men due to their fertility. But with that they would have endangered their already existing children. It is a fact that among primitive peoples many stepchildren
become victims of infanticides.

5
.

As a matter of fact, cats and Christians should have gotten along very well: They both had immigrated to Europe from the same corner of the world, and they both had made a very good start. The house cats shared the retreats with the first pious hermits and kept the mice away from the food. In the bible itself felines – except for lions – are not mentioned. They are said to have existed in the original transcripts, but were cut out later. As the saying goes, the Jews held the sacral role against the cats, which they played amo
ng their foes in Ancient Egypt.

In the beginning early Christianity was in favor of cats. According to a pious legend, in the year 600 a wandering monk received audience by Pope Gregory I. in Rome. In order to test the monk’s obedience, the pope ordered him to kill the most valuable he got. At that the monk pulled a small cat out of the sleeve of his frock. The pope stopped him with a wave of his hand and also pulled a cat out of his sleeve. Above all, the poor people believed to the seal of Mother Mary in the »M« on the forehead of many tabby cats. Also, the cat was the only pet allowed in some nunneries. In pious paintings a kitten alwa
ys accompanies the Virgin Mary.

But in the early Middle Ages when the influence of the heathen gods finally vanished and Christianity began its historical triumph, a fatal change of mind happened. All of a sudden the churchly thirst for power arose to exterminate all leftovers of atheist folk belief without mercy. The cats were hunted extremely grimly, because they were connected to the proscribed fertility cult. The same animal, which had been the perfect symbol of the female and the maternal, now was charged with the reputation of a »hellspawn«. From this time one the icy w
ind of persecution blew at her.

In the middle of the 13th century, Brother Bertold of Regensburg, a Franciscan friar, preached from the pulpit that the cats’ breath spread the plague.
At the same time he got exited about apostates: »Der Ketzer heißt deshalb Ketzer, weil er in seiner Art keinem Tier so gleicht wie der Katze
!
(The
heretic is called heretic because his behavior reminds a lot of cats – the German word
»
Ketzer« (heretic) sounds very similar to the German word
»
Katze
«
(cat).
)
«
For cats the peaceful times of happy mouse-hunting and the cozy nap at the warm heater were well and truly over, when in 1484 Pope published the fatal bull: »
Summis desiderantes affectibus
«. With this he mandated the persecution and killing of all cats and those who harbored cats. According to the church’s opinion, the latter were wizards and witches, who were in league with the devil.

Between the 12th and the 14th century all miscreant sects were accused of worshipping the devil in the shape of a big black cat. Faith communities like the Templar and Cathari were villainized, as they were said to be hold unspeakable rituals, which colorably led to cannibalism, sacrifice of infants, excessive orgies and last but not least the solemn anal kiss of a black cat. Together with heretics and »witches« cats were condemned to hell and held up to the inquisition. With the rise of the witch-hunt, which lasted for about 300 years and reached its high-point in the 16th and 17th century, also countless cats lost their lives due to fire, sword or other gruesome acts. Often the possession of a cat was enough to be called a witch and be sentenced, especially when the cat was black and
the owner was old and fragile.

On holidays notably sadistic »exorcisms« were done to cats. Alone or together with witches, infanticides, bandits or the wicked they were hung or tied up in sacks and drowned. They were coated with pitch, got their ears and tails cut off and were thrown into boiling water. At the Feast of St. John the Baptist cats often were put into a basket, which was solemnly set on fire by the bishop. In Ypern in Western Flanders it was a common ritual to throw living cats from the steeple during the »cat month« February. At some remote period this spectacle tur
ned into an unburdened funfair.

Despite this relentless prosecution, many people stuck to their heathen belief and created the premises for fact that the old cat mythologies survived the inquisition. For example, the symbolic cross connection between women and cats celebrates a comeback in modern culture; in Northern Europe black cats are seen as lucky charms again, and even the Egyptian belief in cats’ divine origin has pa
rtially survived the Dark Ages.

6
.

»Man is a reasoning animal«, the Roman philosopher Seneca once said. Cats have a similar relationship with swimming than their two-legged masters have with reasoning: They know how to do it, but they avoid it whenever it’s possible. Most cats would never put themselves into the wet element by choice, and salt water seems to stick in their claws the most. When it comes to saving their own skin though, even the most hydrophobic pussyfooter comes up with respectable arts of swimming. A swimming cat is unlikely to drown, unless it is totally exhausted or has to struggle against high waves. The Ancient Egyptians by the way didn’t just have cats to guard their granaries but also to as
sist them with fishing.

The instinctive revulsion of water seems to have its cause partially in the fact that moisture steals the cat fur’s ability to insulate. In warmer Southern areas cats are a little more sympathetic with water. The »Turkish Van«, which is also called Turkish Swimming Cat and whose name comes from the salty Lake Van in Turkey, even has a blast with H
2
O: This cat loves to jump into the water, and sometimes it even swims towards arriving ships. Among the wild relatives of our soft mousers real nixies can be found. In contrary to the lion, which is able to swim like all cats but is not a real friend of water, the tiger displays an extraordinary love for the wet element. The kittens already splash around in water, and in the summer heat there doesn’t seem to be a more comfortable thing for tigers tha
n a nice pool time. Jaguar and
s
erval
also swim and fish with passion. The Southeast Asian fishing cat naturally wades through shallow water and is said to hunt for fish even by swimming and diving. The Indian bengal cat even managed to resettle from the mainland to s
urrounding islands by swimming.

Although house cats are able to keep their heads above the water, we can’t just leave them to the wet element with no strings attached. Dangers lurk in half-filled bathtubs, rain barrels and swimming pools. Slippery rims can easily mean death by drowning. Therefore don’t leave half-filled bathtubs unattended, and cover rain barrels, which are not filled to the bursting point. The deathtrap of a swimming pool can be defused with an angular ramp. It’s rather unlikely that cats drown in a pond. To keep them from tangling in water plants or not being able to climb up the pond bank, one should leave the littoral zone free from winders. It is possible to revive a drowned cat by grabbing the rear legs and swinging the cat heavily between one’s own legs. This should remove the water from its lungs and stimulate breathing. If the breathing doesn’t return, an artificial re
spiration and/or a cardiac massage may be required.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Akif Pirin
ç
ci

Pirinçci was born on the 29th April 1959 in Istanbul. He began to write fiction at a young age, and published his first novel
Tränen sind immer das Ende
(literally meaning
»
tears always are the end
«
) in 1980, at the age of 21. His next literary work, published in 1989, was the novel
Felidae
, a work of crime fiction with cats as the main protagonists. The novel has been translated into 17 languages and became an international bestseller. Due to the enormous success of the novel, Pirinçci expanded his concept of
»
cat crime fiction
«
and published several sequels to
Felidae
, out of which only one, namely
Felidae on the road
(
Felidae II)
, has been translated into English. An animated movie based on
Felidae
, the script of which had been co-written by Pirinçci, has been produced in Germany in 1994, and was also dubbed in English. Pirinçci has published several other novels which were not set in the fictional reality of the
Felidae
series. He had a big success with his fantastic thriller "The
Back
Door" which was made into a German moving picture and will be remade by Hollywood.