Ill 



ANTIQUITY OF THE FANCY MOUSE 



Variations of the word "mouse" found today in many 

 European languages go back through the Latin mus and 

 Greek mus or mys to mush in Sanscrit (100), the mother 

 tongue of the race. In Sanscrit mush is derived from a verb 

 meaning "to steal." This suggests that man was well 

 acquainted with the mouse and its predatory habits before 

 the separation of the Aryan tribes in Asia some four thou- 

 sand years before Christ. One of the old Zoroastrian legends 

 says that the moon chases away the clouds as a cat (weasel?) 

 chases mice. 



Rats and mice abounded in the ancient world from earliest 

 times, especially where grain was stored. There are numer- 

 ous historical accounts of excessive increase of these rodents 

 constituting veritable plagues in ancient civilizations, some- 

 times accompanied by disease (138). 



Stories of rats and mice became early incorporated in 

 the folklore of the ancient world along with anecdotes about 

 their enemies the cat and the weasel. A specific word for 

 house mouse as well as legends concerning it exist today in 

 nearly every human dialect. 



In Egypt. The fact that rats and mice appear so rarely 

 in Egyptian art is probably due to the fact that they were 

 considered undesirable animals, and for this same reason 

 the Nubian cat, as a destroyer of rats and mice, was deified 

 before the Third Dynasty (c. 2800 B.C.). 



The sacred cat Bubastis (see Fig. 1) was not only the 

 patron goddess of the prosperous delta city of Bast, but also 

 the goddess of love and feminine fashion. Iphthimis her son 

 was the god of goodness. In the holy city of Bast stood the 

 famous cat mausoleum, where the remains of sacred felines 

 were ceremoniously laid to rest in bronze or wooden cat- 



