FT263

The belief that Britain’s ABCs are descendants of big cats which escaped in the past, or were released when the 1976 Dangerous Wild Animals Act made them expensive to keep, is an example of what the late John Michell called ‘Explanationism’ – in that its popularity can be explained by its convenience, not by the evidence. Apart from the fact that 80 per cent of ABCs are jet black (a colour possible only among leopards and jaguars, and rare even among them) there is their improbable ubiquity – no outpost of Britain, it seems, is without the occasional glimpse of a mysterious big cat. However it is the Mull panthers which have put the final nail in the coffin of the ‘Escapes and Releases’ theory of ABC provenance.

In 1985, just after Di Francis had written her seminal book Cat Country, and long before cat flaps and websites had become established features of British life, Mrs GW Brodie wrote to Di with the details of a peculiar extraordinary encounter she had been thinking about for years:

“About seven years ago while on holiday, on a quiet, early morning, we were driving very slowly spotting wild birds when we met a big cat.

“This cat was what we assumed was a black Labrador dog – until he crossed the road and scrambled over rocks and on into the foothills of Ben More, when we saw he was unmistakably feline. We had an excellent view of him. He had that slack piece between the lower ribs and hindquarters which enables them to leap.

“I assumed someone had abandoned one of the panther or cheetah family to fend for itself…

“I have been there many times since then, and as yet I have never been fort­un­ate enough to see that magnific­ent cat again. And a cat he certainly was, and in the very best condition.” [1]

The Brodies’ sighting was on the Isle of Mull off the west coast of Scotland. It is cut off from the mainland by the Sound of Mull, a little over a mile wide at its closest point, almost three miles at its widest. There are no zoos on Mull for such an animal to escape from, and no menageries have visited it – indeed when I rang the post office there to query this, they laughed. It is doubtful that any terrestrial felid could swim the distance from the mainland to Mull, even if it wanted to, and of course a person would have to be mad deliberately to release a panther there, with all the problems of transport over the water, when there is the equally wild but much more easily-accessible splend­our of the mainland Scottish Highlands in which to let it go.

However, if Mrs Brodie’s sighting ruined the Escapes or Releases Theory, then subsequent events completed the demolition. On 15 September 2002, another couple were enjoying a holiday on the island. In one witness’s own words:

“We were sitting by the stream whilst my partner recounted stories of her childhood memories… She suddenly asked me to turn round slowly and when I did I saw a large black cat lying on a small hill about 100 yards away. I knew the distance and the height of the grass, having walked over that area the previous day. It lay watching something (we saw its profile) and then slunk away out of sight. We had watched it for about two minutes and estimated the length of its head and body, but not including its tail, to be 4ft.” [2]

The same autumn, three amateur naturalists holidaying in the same area saw a similar animal. One of them described the event:

“On Thursday 24 October, at about 3pm, when we were returning from the Ross of Mull, we noticed a dark, or black, animal walking along the grass verge by the side of the road. We were about 150 yards away, and at that point we thought it was a dog. However, as we got nearer it turned sideways, crouched briefly, and leapt away into the trees. Immediately on seeing its profile I realised it was a large cat-like creature. It was definitely not a domestic cat as it was far too large, and I immediately said to my brother, ‘that looks like a panther!’ He agreed that it certainly had the features of a large cat and that it definitely was not a dog, domestic cat or deer… I am convinced what I saw that day was indeed a big cat.” [3]

If ABCs are released pets, then either there must have been not one but two black panthers released on the island at the time Mrs Brodie saw hers – about 1978 – which subsequently bred, or else someone decided to carry out exactly the same, mad idea 25 years later, for leopards do not live more than about 15 years.
Yet it is not just the past few decades that have produced black cats on Mull – the history and folklore of the Highlands provides glimpses of a strange and sinister method of invoking them. The American writer Carl Van Vechten (1880–1964) recounts in gruesome detail a story which he originally derived from an early 19th-century source, CG Horst’s Deuteroscopy, concerning what was called in Gaelic the Taigheirm:

The Taigheirm was an infernal magical sacrifice of cats, the origin of which lies in remote pagan times, in rites dedicated to the subterranean gods, from whom particular gifts and benefits were solicited by nocturnal offerings. Through Christianity, these sacrifices were modified and were offered now to the infernal powers, or as they were called in the Highlands and the Western Isles of Scotland, the Black-Cat Spirits. According to Horst’s Deuteroscopy, black cats were indispens­able to the Taigheirm:

“After the cats were dedicated to all the devils… one of them was at once put on the spit, and amid terrific howlings, roasted before a slow fire. The moment that the howls of one tortured cat ceased in death, another was put upon the spit, for a minute of interval must not continue if an agent would control hell; and this must continue for four entire days and nights, if the exorcist could hold out, still longer, and even if till his physical powers were absolutely exhausted, he must do so. After a time, infernal spirits appeared in the shape of black cats. There came continually more and more of these cats and their howling mingled with that of those roasting on the spit was terrific. Finally a cat of monstrous size appeared with dreadful threats. The gift of second sight was usually the recompense of the Taigheirm…

“One of the last Taigheirm… was held in the middle of the 17th century in the Island of Mull. The spot is still marked where Allan Maclean, at that time the sacrificial priest, stood with his assistant, Lachlain Maclean. The infernal spirits appeared, some in the early progress of the sacrifices, in the shape of black cats. The first glared at the sacrificers and cried, ‘Lachlain Oer’ (Injurer of Cats). Allan, the chief operator, warned Lachlain that he must not waver but must keep the spit turning incessantly whatever he might see or hear. At the end of the second day a monster cat arrived with a horrid howl and assured Lachlain Oer that… he would never see the face of God. ‘Bring on all the devils of hell and I will not stop until I have completed my work,’ cried Lachlain. At the end of the fourth day, a black cat with fire flaming from his eyes perched on the end of a beam in the roof of the barn and his howl could be heard quite across the straits of Mull into Morven. One is not surprised to learn that on the last day Allan was wholly exhausted by the apparitions and could only utter the word ‘Prosperity’ before he became unconscious. But Lachlain was still self-possessed and able to continue. He demanded prosperity and wealth. Both got what they asked for. It might be added that men of such nerve should be able to get anything they wanted on earth.

“On his death bed, Allan informed his friends that if he and Lachlain (who had died before him) had lived a little longer they would have driven Satan from his throne. When Allan’s funeral cortege reached the churchyard, those persons endowed with second sight saw at some distance Lachlain Oer, standing fully armed at the head of a band of black cats, from which streamed the odour of brimstone.” [4]

Van Vechten’s gruesome tale turns from fabulate to memorate, however, in one of his footnotes, written presumably in about 1920. He adds: “The night of the day I first learned of the Taigheirm, I dined with some friends who were also entertaining Seumas, Chief of Clann Fhearghuis of Stra-chur, who informed me that to the best of his knowledge the Taigheirm is still cele­brated in the Highlands of Scotland.”

Whether or not the Taigheirm continues to produce huge black cats, or whether the original apparitions are immortal, and whether they are somehow linked to the presence of modern ABCs are questions which remain hanging in the clear air of that beautiful island.

However, Mull continues to produce surprises. On the afternoon of 12 July 2009, Tony Bentley and his wife were walking from Fidden to Fionnphort along the track from the campsite when “from behind a mound a pure black animal slowly crossed the road from right to left. It was only about 25–30m ahead of us, and I had it in view about 10 seconds. At first I assumed it was a dog… then I realised the animal was too long and sleek to be a dog. Its height was roughly 50–70cm, length somewhere between 90–150cm, and it had a long, slender tail. The head was held low compared to a dog and the movement was feline.

“I told my wife to look as it crossed the road and she saw it as it disapp­eared into the ferns on the other side… Its head and back were still visible for a second or two above the ferns, which gave us a better idea of height when we reached the spot. It was larger than our golden retriever.”

Tony was alarmed enough to tell a local farmer and the Big Cats In Britain research group. “At the risk of sounding a crank (after all, how would a big cat get on to Mull?) I felt I should report this in case anything happened and I hadn’t spoken up.”

Notes
1 Letter to Di Francis, 1985.
2 Big Cats In Britain (BCIB).
3 Name and address supplied. Round & About (Mull Newsletter), Jan 2003.
4 Carl Van Vechten: The Tiger in the House, AA Knopf, USA, 1922; online at www.bartleby.com