Why do we speak of not having a 'cat-in-hell's' chance?

At first sight this is as puzzling as the well-known footballer's lament of being as 'sick as a parrot'. In both cases the mystery is solved if you know the original, unabbreviated saying which has long since been discontinued. The complete cat phrase is: 'No more chance than a cat in hell without claws'. It was originally a reference to the hopelessness of being without adequate weapons. (The original parrot saying, incidentally, was 'as sick as a parrot with a rubber beak' a similar allusion to the lack of a sharp weapon.)