MUIRHEAD`S MYSTERIES: FROM ROCKET CAT TO HONKY CAT,OR WAS SIR ELTON JOHN ZOOLOGICALY CHALLENGED?!

A story came to light today from the 16th Century which proves that the world of cats is far stranger than even the great Sir Elton John could believe and that he must have been zoologicaly challenged in the politicaly correct sense, as no way could any Honky Cat have evolved from the pitifull cats of 16th Century Germay, as today`s (Friday March 7th) Guardian reports. What happened after 1972 when Honky Cat was released has so far eluded Forteans and Uber Geeks such as myself. Perhaps John-ites/afficionadoes/devotees will tell us , as they listen to Rocket Man.

Read on...

ROCKET CAT ? Mystery of 15th*-century flaming feline

You`re a 16th - century German prince plotting to crush a peasant rebellion or perhaps leading an army against the Ottomans or settling a score with a rival.What`s a guy looking for an edge to do? The answer of course is rocket cats.

Illustrations from a circa-1530 manual on artillery and siege warfare seem to show jetpacks strapped to the backs of cats and doves , with the German text helpfully advising military commanders to use them to
"set fire to a castle or city that you can`t get at otherwise".

"...The illustrations caught the attention of researcher Mitch Fraas.

" It clearly looks like there`s some sort of jet of fire coming out of a device strapped to these animals," said Fraas ,a historian at the university` library...The treatise was written by an artillery master, Franz Helm of Cologne. According to Fraas`s translation, Helm explained how to use animals to deliver incendiary devices: 

" Create a small sack like a fire-arrow. If you would like to get at a town or castle, seek to obtain a cat from that place. And bind the sack to the back of the cat, ignite it, let it glow well and let the cat go, so it runs to the nearest castle or town...Where it ends up in barn or hay or straw it will be ignited" (1)

* This should be 16th.

The only comfort I can draw and it`s only a small crumb is that we are slightly more civilized today.

The story reminds me of the one in Judges chapter 15, in the Old Testament where Samson ties burning torches to the tails of 300 foxes or jackals and lets them loose in the crops of the Philistines , which
burn down.

1. The Guardian March 7th 2014.