the Cat

The Cat is the Narnian who passes into the Stable during the deception called Tashlan and comes out in a madness of terror. Though the Cat’s part is brief, that reaction changes how Emeth interprets the Stable: what had seemed an imposture now appears to him to involve the presence of the true Tash, whom the conspirators had invoked without believing in him.

Encounter with the Stable

The Cat’s entrance takes place after the Ape announces that anyone who wishes to see Tashlan must enter the hovel one by one. Emeth, watching from outside, has already concluded that the Stable’s supposed god is neither Tash nor any other deity, and that Rishda Tarkaan does not believe in the display. The Cat goes in and returns in a madness of terror. The scene withholds what the Cat encountered; its fear, rather than any description of the interior, supplies the first alarming evidence that something has changed.

Effect on Emeth and the Conspiracy

The Cat’s reaction overturns Emeth’s expectation that the Stable is merely another trick. He takes the Cat’s terror as proof that the true Tash has come among them to avenge the Ape and the Tarkaan. Convinced by this interpretation, Emeth suppresses his anger no longer as passive observation: despite his fear, he offers to enter the hovel himself. The Cat therefore becomes the immediate catalyst for Emeth’s decision, although the narrative does not establish what actually caused the Cat’s state.

Narrative Significance

The Cat’s appearance also marks the limit of the conspirators’ control over their spectacle. The Ape’s public claim that Tash and Aslan are simply different names for the same power has already provoked the animals’ attention, while reports of Aslan’s supposed orders have left them confused and distressed. Against that atmosphere of manipulated belief, the Cat’s unexplained terror makes the Stable’s threshold a source of genuine dread. Later, Emeth’s account confirms the Cat’s role in the sequence without revealing the Cat’s own experience: the animal’s fear is a turning point for another character, not a mystery the story resolves through the Cat’s perspective.