In a very interesting paper on the cult of Saint Agatha, Violet Alford (1941) discusses the transformation of Saint Agatha 'who once perhaps was Ceres' into Santo Gato, a cat saint. In the Toulouse region this Cat Saint shows a peculiarly vindictive spirit toward women who disobey her well-known rules. The following is a typical story from the Pyrenees. On St. Agatha's Eve a woman stayed up late to spin. At nine o'clock someone knocked at the door. A strange woman came in. She announced 'I will spin too', was given wool and set to work. She span at a furious speed four times faster than her hostess who took fright and ran out to tell the neighbour. The neighbour advised her to go back and cry out as she entered 'The cemetery is on fire'. The strange spinner ran out immediately, crying 'To my little home.' But she came back again to say that the woman of the house had only just saved herself from death, as it was her own shroud she was spinning.
In a very interesting paper on the cult of Saint Agatha, Violet Alford (1941) discusses the transformation of Saint Agatha 'who once perhaps was Ceres' into Santo Gato, a cat saint. In the Toulouse region this Cat Saint shows a peculiarly vindictive spirit toward women who disobey her well-known rules. The following is a typical story from the Pyrenees. On St. Agatha's Eve a woman stayed up late to spin. At nine o'clock someone knocked at the door. A strange woman came in. She announced 'I will spin too', was given wool and set to work. She span at a furious speed four times faster than her hostess who took fright and ran out to tell the neighbour. The neighbour advised her to go back and cry out as she entered 'The cemetery is on fire'. The strange spinner ran out immediately, crying 'To my little home.' But she came back again to say that the woman of the house had only just saved herself from death, as it was her own shroud she was spinning.