by markdamaroyd » March 14, 2011, 9:55 am
The old name for Thailand was Siam until 1949. I looked up the meaning of Siam to discover it means ‘Freedom’, ‘Land of freedom’ or ‘Land of the free’. Believed to have originated in Siam, the Siamese cat here, known as wichien-maat means ‘moon diamond’. That probably explains why so many late night prowling street cats meow, fight and generally run amok to the huge annoyance of slumbering humans. Apparently, many early Siamese cats were cross-eyed to compensate ‘for the abnormal uncrossed wiring of the optic chiasm’. Many had a kink in their tails too. My theory is, the moon diamonds became cross-eyed and ended up with kinky tails resulting from receiving invitations to go away from agitated human feet - in a kind and gentle fashion of course! However, in the Land of Freedom, free means free. Carry on cats.