Tales Of Cats

: Folk-lore And Legends Scandinavian

The house of Katholm (Cat-isle) near Grenaac, in Jutland, got its name

from the following circumstance.



There was a man in Jutland who had made a good deal of money by improper

means. When he died he left his property equally among his three sons.

The youngest, when he got his share, thought to himself--



"What comes with sin goes with sorrow," and he resolved to submit his

money to the water
ordeal, thinking that the ill-got money would sink to

the bottom, and what was honestly acquired swim on the top. He

accordingly cast all his money into the water, and only one solitary

farthing swam. With this he bought a cat, and he went to sea and visited

foreign parts. At length he chanced to come to a place where the people

were sadly plagued by an enormous number of rats and mice, and as his

cat had had kittens by this time, he acquired great wealth by selling

them. So he came home to Jutland, and built himself a house, which he

called Katholm.



There was one time a poor sailor out of Ribe, who came to a foreign

island whose inhabitants were grievously plagued with mice. By good

luck he had a cat of his own on board, and the people of the island gave

him so much gold for it that he went home as fast as he could to fetch

more cats, and by this traffic he in a short time grew so rich that he

had no need of any more. Some time after, when he was on his deathbed,

he bequeathed a large sum of money for the building of Ribe Cathedral,

and a proof of this is still to be seen in a carving over the east door

of the church, representing a cat and four mice. The door is called

Cat-head Door (Kathoved Dor).



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