During the Middle Ages, however, superstitions flourished. In Europe the cat was associated with the Devil, evil and witchcraft, and hundreds of thousands of cats were killed out of this fear. The destruction of so many cats upset the balance of the rodent population contributing greatly to the spread of a form of the bubonic plague called "black death", in which the deadly disease is transmitted to people by rat fleas. Almost one fourth of the entire population in Europe in the 1300's were killed by this plague; in some parts of France, only one-tenth of the population survived.
0 comments:
Post a Comment