The Suffocating Cat – Folk Belief

Nationality: Irish/Italian
Age: 48
Occupation: Lawyer
Residence: Los Altos Hills, California
Performance Date: March 2019
Primary Language: English

This piece of folklore came from my informant, who will be called M. When M was first pregnant with her child in 1999. Her grandma, an Italian woman who was in her late 80s, came by to check on M and see that she was doing well. While visiting M, M’s grandma got very nervous about the cat that my family had at the time.

Text:

M’s grandma: You must be very very careful with that cat in this house M. Cats love warmth and have often been known to cuddle up with babies and suffocate them to death.

Context: M is my family friend who has told me this story often throughout my childhood, usually when we are petting our cat. M to an extent believes this story, and has always been careful with cats around newborns. M doesn’t believe that there is much proof to this story, as she herself has never heard of a cat actually killing a baby. She has seen cats be obsessive about warmth however, and cuddle up very close to her and others. M believes that her grandma did not hear about this through folktale, but actually had seen this happen or heard of it happening, as she says that her grandma was legitimately concerned about the cat.

Analysis: This story is interesting, because there is much folklore surrounding this idea that cats can kill babies. When searching for other folklore surrounding this idea, I was surprised to find folklore that says cats kill babies, but for different reasons and through different ways than suffocation for warmth. I found examples of folklore that says that cats suffocate babies because they are jealous of the amount of attention the babies are getting. I also found folklore that explained that cats like the milk that is in babies breath, and can actually suck the life out of the baby trying to lap up the milk in the babies mouth. The origins of this folktale seem to date back to the 18th century, where in 1791 a jury at a coroner’s inquest in England rendered a verdict to the effect that a Plymouth child had met his death by a cat sucking out its breath (1). Moreover, cats were often right next to a child when it died, increasing the superstition that the child could have been killed by a cat. All in all, cats have a bad reputation in society and are often a bad omen. It is understandable to see why many would think they could be bad around babies.

Works Cited

1) “FACT CHECK: Cats Suck Babies’ Breath.” Snopes.com, www.snopes.com/fact-check/murderous-moggies/.

 

The Golden Arm

Age: 47
Occupation: Lawyer
Residence: Palo Alto, California
Performance Date: March 20, 2019
Primary Language: English

The below folk story is a story my friend, who will be referred to as J, told me he had heard from his dad in Columbus, Ohio. J is a middle aged white man who heard this story when he was a young boy.

Text: There once as a woman who got hit by a car. In the car accident, she lost her arm. However, the man who hit her with his car was very rich, and feeling very guilty, he bought the woman a golden arm.

The woman’s husband was an evil man however, and felt tremendous greed that his wife had a golden arm, and begged his wife to sell her golden arm. However, the wife refused, and the thought of all the things the man could buy with the golden arm drove him insane. He ended up killing his wife, by strangling her in her sleep.

The man attended his wife’s funeral, pretending to be heartbroken, and watched her buried into the ground. That night however, the man snuck into the graveyard and dug up his wife, removing her arm from her dead body.

The man was overjoyed and the next night he stayed up in bed holding the arm, and imagining all he could buy with it. However, that night he was startled by a sudden gust of wind that sounded like it was saying, “giveee mee my arrrrm.” The man fell asleep that night however, and had good dreams. The next night, the man heard another another gust of wind, this time definitely saying “giveee mee my arrrrm.” This continued for the next several nights, each night the sound got louder, clearer, and lasted longer. The man began to get very paranoid, locking all his doors and boarding all his windows, clinging to the arm ever tighter. Eventually, the man couldn’t take it anymore, and when he heard the voice saying “givee mee my arrrrm” that night, he shouted out, “Fine, I have your arm and will give it to you.” The voice of his wife responded, “Come outside and give it to me!” Timidly, the man walked outside, and seeing the ghost of his wife, he handed out the arm in payment to her. At that moment, a lightning bolt struck the arm, electrocuting the man. The ghost of his wife took the arm back, and returned to her grave happy and content.

Context: J told me this story when I was discussing folklore he had heard. He said this was a favorite story of his dad’s that his dad would tell this story to him and his sisters when they were young. J emphasized the importance of the oral telling of this story. He said that when he reads this story, it is not the same. What makes it a good story according to J is that there needs to be a talented storyteller, who can shout to scare his audience and keep them tense the entire story. J said his dad told this story primary because it entertained the children, but also because of the moral lessons it taught. J described how this story shows that being greedy will never make you successful, and how committing a crime will always come back to haunt you.

Analysis: I liked this story and found it interesting because when researching this story, I realized just how many variations of this story exist. The story emphasises the importance of oral storytelling to children. As J said, a story being said orally is a great way to entertain children and teach them lessons at the same time. Also, as J described, this story teaches moral such as not being greedy, a belief in Karma, and an emphasis of not taking something from the dead. It is well known not to mess with the dead, especially steal something from them. It plays into the idea that grave robbers are evil and will be cursed later in life, similar to the idea of how the man who open King Tut’s tomb was cursed and died shortly after. All in all this story is an excellent example of folklore because it has multiplicity and variation, is a way for adults to transfer knowledge to their children, and is also a way morals are spread to different generations.


For another version of this text, visit Joseph Jacobs‘s Collection, English Fairy Tales

Feed a Cold, Starve a Fever

Nationality: German and English
Age: 45
Occupation: Lawyer
Residence: Palo Alto, California
Performance Date: March 10, 2019
Primary Language: English

The following is a folk medicine belief that my informant heard from his mom in the 1980s California. My informant is a middle aged white man who will be referred to as T.

Text: Feed a cold, starve a fever.

Context: T heard this folk belief from his mother who was a nurse. His mom followed this belief as well, and if T had a cold, she would feed him a lot, and if he had a fever, she would just give him small amounts of soup. T’s mother was German, but had grown up in America. The reason behind this folk belief is that it was believed that eating heated up the body, and if you fed someone while they had a cold, it could warm them up, but visa versa if you didn’t feed someone who had a fever, it could cool them down. T says he never thought this worked particularly well, and he never instilled this belief on his children. However, T also said that he never questioned his mothers knowledge as a child, and always thought that eating with a cold would help him recover faster as a child. However, T does believe in the placebo effect, and thinks that there is some advantage to thinking you are helping your body, even if you aren’t at all.

Analysis: I liked this folk belief, and like many others the first question I had was whether or not it worked. When I looked it up, their were numerous articles written about it, all of which said that there is very little evidence to support it but also very few studies to disprove it. Due to the sheer amount of articles regarding it, it seems like this is a common folk belief and according to Scientific America,  “This saying has been traced to a 1574 dictionary by John Withals, which noted that “fasting is a great remedy of fever. (1)” This folk belief shows the importance of the knowledge we receive from our parents. If our parents tell us something is going to make us feel better, we never question it and always accept it. It also shows how well folk beliefs can spread, with this belief being heard and used by so many different people, despite having no scientific or medical support.

For a more in depth examination of this folklore go to

O’Connor, Anahad. “The Claim: Starve a Cold, Feed a Fever.” The New York Times, The New York Times, 13 Feb. 2007, www.nytimes.com/2007/02/13/health/13real.html.

Works Cited

1) Fischetti, Mark. “Fact or Fiction?: Feed a Cold, Starve a Fever.” Scientific American, 3 Jan. 2014, www.scientificamerican.com/article/fact-or-fiction-feed-a-cold/.

 

Swimming Folk belief

Age: 19
Occupation: University Student
Residence: Columbus, Ohio
Performance Date: April 2019
Primary Language: English

The following folksaying was collected by my friend J. J is 19 years old and from Ohio.

J: My mom would always jokingly tell me “Don’t swim an hour after after you eat.”

Context: J told me that his family has a lake house and they often go swimming in the summer. His mom has told him this, but nobody in J’s family actually believes it, including his mom who told J this. J says that the belief behind this saying is that after you eat, all your blood and energy goes to your stomach, and your arms and legs therefore lose blood and energy to keep you up if you are swimming. J says that it is logical, but in his experience, he sees no difference in his swimming abilities before and after he eats. J says his mom told him this because she thought it was an interesting belief and wanted to share it with J, but didn’t believe in it and never prohibited J from swimming after he ate. J told me this folk saying in a group and it delved the group into a conversation as to whether this folk saying has any truth to it.

Analysis: This is a common folk saying that I too have heard in my lifetime. I have never heard of anyone following this folk saying however, and J felt the same way. It is surprising to me that this folksaying has survived for as long as it has, considering there seems to very few people who follow it.  It shows how people like to share information and beliefs they have heard, even if they don’t believe in it, as it can start an interesting conversation. It also shows that folk sayings are reliant on logic, not on science.

Ghost on MA-70

Nationality: American
Age: 20
Occupation: Student
Residence: Los Angeles
Performance Date: 2/22/2019
Primary Language: English

[The subject is PD. His words are bolded, mine are not.]

Context: PD is a college student from Massachusetts. He is Caucasian, of Irish-Catholic heritage, and has lived in the United States for his entire life. This story was told to a small group of people during a party, just after midnight, when the conversation had shifted to ghost stories.

PD: It was like… this is how I know it was definitely a ghost, because it was like 2 AM, like broad daylight, like I was driving from Clinton to Worcester, and like to get from Clinton to Worcester is like this ten mile stretch of like nothing but woods. Like no people, no houses, no nothin’… and I was like stuck behind this like 19-like 80s, 90s, like fuckin’, like a… it was like a Plymouth, like a car they don’t even like make anymore and shit. And the dude was going like 10 miles below the speed limit, and I was like fuckin’ pissed as shit. And like out of nowhere, the dude just like pulls over to the road, and like gets out of his car, and sprints and just like leaps over the fence and into the woods. And I’m like, ‘what the fuck was up with that?’ So ten seconds later I do a three point turn and turn around, dude’s gone, car is gone, I don’t know what in the fuck happened, but I asked my fuckin’ boss Emily, who’s like been in the parks department for like five hundred years, and she was like, “oh yeah, I’m pretty sure like a bunch of people died on route 70 back in the eighties before we started like improving it.” And I’m pretty sure I saw a ghost!

Thoughts: At the beginning of the story, I think PD meant to say it took place at 2 PM, since it was in broad daylight, and he was sure that this was a ghost because he could see it clearly. I noticed that this legend is very dependent on the modern time frame that it is set in, because the old style of car that the ghost was driving stood out to the storyteller, and connects to what Emily had said about the roads being unsafe in the eighties. I also found it interesting that the car the ghost was driving was said to be a Plymouth, since the story takes place in Massachusetts and Plymouth, Massachusetts is one of the oldest towns in the United States and is generally thought of as a place with lots of history and folklore, including ghost stories.