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The Bodleian Library has a delightful set of postcards of medieval cats. I used one once for a dinner invitation: at first glance it looks like a banquet scene. Closer inspection, however, reveals that it is a white cat presiding over a communion table, with four black cats in attendance, one of which is holding a knife ready to attack what appears to be a red fish on a platter. A red cat is playing the bagpipes. The caption calls this `a white cat officiating at the animals' communion, from the margin of a Missal written and illuminated for a Benedictine monastery in the diocese of Durham in the third quarter of the 15th century (MS Laud Misc. 302, fol. 210 recto)'. Bonnie Blackburn ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ Bonnie Blackburn 67 St Bernard's Road Oxford OX2 6EJ tel. 01865 552808 fax 01865 512237 e-mail: [log in to unmask] %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%