Tradition / Region: Czech Mythology
Alternate Names: —
Category: Cat
The Myth
The Prachatice Cat is a sinister manifestation of cats acting under supernatural influence, capable of intelligence, coordination, and deadly intent.
One night, after a village celebration, a drunken farmer stumbled home and heard strange music coming from his barn. Curious, he opened the doors and let the moonlight reveal the scene inside.
There, a gathering of cats had assembled. They were not behaving like ordinary animals—each cat held its own tail in its mouth and played it like a musical instrument, producing eerie sounds like flutes and pipes. In the center, a dance was taking place: a cat whirled together with the farmer’s own large black tomcat.
The spectacle was unnatural and unsettling, but the farmer reacted with anger rather than fear. He cursed his cat and threatened it, dismissing what he had seen as drunken nonsense. Then he went inside and fell asleep.
During the night, the black cat entered the house silently. It approached the sleeping man and, in a calculated act of revenge, forced its tail down his throat, suffocating him.
By morning, the farmer was dead.
The story left behind a lasting warning, remembered in local tradition:
cats are not always harmless creatures, and what appears tame may conceal something dangerous.
The Prachatice Cat embodies the idea that animals—especially cats—can serve as vessels of hidden forces, capable of turning against humans when disrespected or provoked.
Sources
sagen.at contributors. (n.d.). Katzenmusik. In sagen.at, from https://www.sagen.at/texte/sagen/tschechien/watzlik/katzenmusik.html