Cat's Gold

This is the story of Chat's gold. In the land of Saint-Malo, there were formerly more fairies in the sea and on the shores than there were shepherdesses tending the sheep in the moors and on the capes. If I have correctly understood the lesson of the old legends, it was these Falkland fairies who left local girls with a taste for beautiful dresses.

Cat's Gold

The light silver ribbons that shine on the surface of the waters of the bay, in the calm that follows the storms, these ribbons that we call feelings of the Virgin at first were the long trains of the marvelous coats that the Ladies of the Sea loved to throw off. But these coquettes, as you will see, did not have too much malice.

One moonlit evening, on Paramé's honey, a troop of fairies engaged in the round dance, which has always been their favorite pastime. It happens that twelve young people were celebrating on the same night. When they were a little warm to drink, a madness entered their heads; they decided to go and invite to the country dance, scared they were, the beautiful fairies of the strikes. These did not think they should refuse. A fairy is a woman and always secretly flattered by the search for men.

But, during the dance (who were the ringers?), they noticed that the boys had shortness of breath and woolly legs. So they flew into a rage. With a wave of their chopsticks, they changed the ill-mannered into six big black tomcats and six white cats. Are we to believe that half of the dozen young people were girls? There legend does not say so clearly. If true, it would also show that fairies are jealous.

But when they saw the poor animals meow in distress as they circled around their tails, the natural kindness of the Saint-Malo fairies softened their hearts. They promised the farauds to restore them to their original form as soon as they had spun, for each of them, a gold mantle and a silver robe woven in the sole mica of the beach.

The task would not have been long or difficult, for the eyes of a cat would soon have sorted out, along the sand sparkling under the moon, the thousands of white and yellow mirrors from which they were to lift the clothes of the Ladies of the Sea. But the fairies told them that they could only get away while the twelve strokes of midnight struck in Saint-Malo.

The six cats and the six cats set to work without delay. Every night, between the first and the twelfth bell ring, a snoring arose on the strands, soft and regular. Those who walked on this side could see, in some places, flows of gold and silver, as if the water of the sands was streaming with spangles. Under their cat skins, it was the twelve Falklands (maybe six Falklands!) Who sped breathlessly the scale of the mica.

Since that time, when a twink dozes by the hearth and purrs, sitting on his tail, it is said that he spins his spinning wheel. And if the girls of the house take him willingly on their knees and caress him with gentle hands, it is no doubt that they expect a silver dress and a gold cloak from him.

When all the fairies were dressed from head to toe, they are said to have struck cats with their wands and made them into humans again. We do not say whether they found their friends and relatives or whether several centuries had passed over their heads. I think they refrained from going to the beach from now on when they were hot to drink and even without having drunk.

What is certain is that it is very rare to see real cats straying on sea sand. In Saint-Malo, however, argent de chat remains the name of gray mica. When this mica lights up with a blond reflection, it becomes “cat's gold”, from which the ladies of the sea ceremonial coat was woven.