The conspicuous position thus accorded to the cat as a warder-off of evil fortune seems oddly paralleled, though not imitated, by the place accorded to the same animal in popular European folklore.

Yet in truth there is scarcely any contemporary Bashi-Bazoukery on Bulgarian soil.

Off on the crest of a swell a moving figure was seen now and then. Antelope, said the hunters.

Facebook’s unencumbered, efficient, agile, hackerish style is to make everything seem ‘easy’ – and when you need, in one of Zuckerberg’s favourite phrases, to ‘move fast and break things’, you just shrug.