ABSTRACT
One of the most common assumptions is that animals are able to foresee approaching dangers. The existence side by side of two currents, the learned tradition and genuine folk-belief, is clearly visible throughout the domain of animal lore. Totemic beliefs have also been invoked for the purpose of explaining the vast group of stories relating how the hero or the heroine, was suckled by an animal or animals. The domestic animals, cattle, sheep, hogs and horses, while connected with numerous superstitious customs, have collected but little folk-lore about them which can be properly classed as ‘animal lore’, no doubt for the same reason that accounts for the relative poverty of ‘dog lore’. The character of the cat as the most recent of domesticated animals comes out clearly in its unusually important role in popular belief and superstition.
