Boots, Dame Mitchell and her cat, the White Cat, Dick Whittington and
his cat, etc. It is the same in Asia, too; for nowhere are such stories
more prolific than in China and Persia.

"To sum up--in all climes and in all periods of past history, the cat
was credited with many propensities that brought it into affinity and
sympathy with the supernatural--or to quote the up-to-date
term--superphysical world. Let us review the cat to-day, and see to what
extent this past regard of it is justified.

"Firstly, with respect to it as the harbinger of fortune. Has a cat
insight into the future? Can it presage wealth or death? I am inclined
to believe that certain cats can at all events foresee the advent of the
latter; and that they do this in the same manner as the shark, crow,
owl, jackal, hyena, etc., viz. by their abnormally developed sense of
smell. My own and other people's experience has led me to believe that
when a person is about to die, some kind of phantom, maybe, a spirit
whose special function it is to be present on such occasions, is in
close proximity to the sick or injured one, waiting to escort his or her
soul into the world of shadows--and that certain cats scent its
approach.

"Therein then--in this wonderful property of smell--lies one of the
secrets to the cat's mysterious powers, it has the psychic faculty of
scent--of scenting ghosts. Some people, too, have this faculty. In a
recent murder case, in the North of England, a rustic witness gave it in
her evidence that she was sure a tragedy was about to happen because she
"smelt death in the house," and it made her very uneasy. Cats possessing
this peculiarity are affected in a similar manner--they are uneasy.