Siamese
Cat
History
The
Siamese in literature occurs in a five-hundred
year-old manuscript in the National Library
at Bangkok, Thailand. Perhaps written by
residents of the ancient city of Ayudha.
These cats also appear in the Cat-Book Poems
from 1350 C.E., rescued from an ancient Siamese
Library, the book depicts thin-bodied cats
with pointed coats that strongly resemble
the modern breed.
In
the 1880's King Chulalongkorn (the son of
Monkut, whose story is told in "The
King and I") presented a pair of Seal
Point Siamese cats named Pho and Lia to Owen
Gould, English Consul-General in Bangkok.
Gould took them to London and exhibited them
at the Crystal Palace. In 1890 Siamese cats
landed in America, probably as a gift from
the King of Siam to an American friend. Soon
after, they were priced as high as $1,000
each. This began the Western era of the breed,
early in the nineteenth century.
Seal
points, still the best known variety, were
the first to arrive. With their seal brown,
almost black extremities and their pale fawn
bodies, they were sensational. While chocolate
points, with creamy white bodies and milk
chocolate legs, tail, mask and ears did appear
from time to time, it was the blue point
that gained official recognition in 1934.
The blue point has a bluish-white body with
slate blue points. The chocolate point was
recognized next. In 1955 the lilac point
followed and completed the breed. The lilac
point has pinkish gray points with a white
body which makes it most ethereal and delicate
in color.
It
is said that Siamese were once sacred cats,
guarding the Buddhist temples. An old fable:
One day, a valuable goblet went missing and
a pair of cats was dispatched to find the
stolen treasure. After a long journey, the
goblet was discovered and the female cat
stayed to guard it while her male partner
went back to tell the good news. So worried
was she that the goblet might go missing
again, that she wound her tail tightly around
its stem and it became permanently kinked.
For days and nights she sat watching over
the prized goblet, never letting her eyes
wander away, and by the time her partner
returned, her eyes had developed a squint.
Later she produced a litter of kittens -
all of which had kinked tails and squints,
because of her vigilance in guarding the
lost treasure.
Another
fable relates to a Siamese princess who,
fearing that her rings would be stolen, entrusted
her Siamese cat to guard them, placing them
on its tail for safekeeping overnight. One
night, the cat fell asleep, and all the rings
fell off her long slender tail and were lost
forever. the princess decided to tie a knot
in the tail to stop this ever happening again;
and this could be another reason why the
Siamese have kinked tails. The squint and
kinked tail have been bred out and rarely
appear in the modern breed.
The
Siamese is a finely boned and well-muscled
cat, with a tail which is long and thin.
The proud wedge-shaped head bears regally
the ancient lineage of this highborn animal.
The ears are quite large, and yet proportionate,
the eyes are almond shaped and the fur short
and fine.
There
are five kinds of Siamese: the seal point,
the blue point, the chocolate point, the
lilac point and the red point. These designations
refer to the relative darkness of the extremities
- face, ears, tail and feet. |
