SOURCES:
"Ancient Sorceries" by Algernon Blackwood

DESCRIPTION: “.. She was a large woman whose hands, feet, and features seemed to swim towards him out of a sea of person.  They emerged, so to speak.  But she had great dark, vivacious eyes that countered the bulk of her body, and betrayed the fact that in reality she was both vigorous and alert.  When he first caught sight of her she was knitting in a low chair against he sunlight of the wall, and something at once made him see her as a great tabby cat, dozing, yet awake, heavily sleepy, and yet at the same time prepared for instantaneous action.  A great mouser on the watch occurred to him.” (“Ancient Sorceries” by Algernon Blackwood)

NOTES: All the townspeople of a little village in Northern France have a habit of turning into cats and performing arcane rites. Not a good time to be from out of town...

HISTORY: John Silence barely appears in this story though he does save the narrator at the end.Blackwood does a great job of what I call the "body-snatcher technique" where everybody around is an enemy, much like in a nightmare. See also The Bagheeta.

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