How did the myth that cats sometimes steal people’s breath when they sleep get started? –Rick Weaver, North Bay, California
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To many people, “cats may still presage evil, particularly if they are black; they may still, as has been widely held throughout the world, cause the death of a child by creeping upon it and sucking its breath,” one of my cat books notes. Furthermore, “Lilith, the dark goddess of Hebrew mythology, changed herself into a vampire cat, El-Broosha, and in that form sucked the blood of her favorite prey, the newborn infant.” The authors describe such beliefs as “without factual substantiation.”
Cecil is willing to concede this fear may be exaggerated. Another source of the fear, however, may be crib death, also known as Sudden Infant Death Syndrome, whose cause is not well understood.
As so often happens in this wicked world, Cecil has been misunderstood. I did not mean to suggest that use of the plural necessarily meant nobility, only that it sometimes did, especially when used with a proper name (e.g., degli Alberti). You can see why. If you were to introduce yourself rather grandly as David of the Bowies (and by the way, Dave, what’s a rock legend such as yourself doing in Greenbelt, Maryland?), people would definitely get the idea that you considered yourself one of the swells. For similar reasons the would-be big bananas of the Italian Renaissance referred to themselves in the plural; thus Lorenzo de’ (short for dei) Medici, Lorenzo of the Medici. In short, a plural could well mean you’re descended from the quality, especially if your family came from central or northern Italy. But it’s just as likely you’re an ordinary shlub. Another of Cecil’s correspondents points out that Thomas della Fave, the name of the guy who originally wanted to know if he came from nobility, translates as “Thomas of the Beans.” What’s more, it’s misspelled–it should properly be delle Fave. One more reason to think twice before putting on airs.
