uur Domestic Animals. 311 



or Margara, the gay, in the Sanscrit language. For this va- 

 luable testimony I am indebted to the politeness of M. Chezy. 



An express passage in Diodorus Siculus proves the existence 

 of the cat in the wild state in the north of Africa *. He says, 

 that Agathocles, after taking Phillena, Mischela, and Hippaci, 

 cities of Numidia, and lastly Miltene, led his army over high 

 mountains which were 200 stadia in breadth, and were filled with 

 wild cats," aty^ove^m. " There," says he, " no kind of bird makes its 

 nest, whether in trees or in the ravines, on account of their 

 hatred for the cats." It was more on account of the attacks to 

 which they were exposed from these animals. The fact is well 

 observed ; it expresses one of the habits of the cat, which, whe- 

 ther wild or tame, is a hunter, and lives on prey. The circum- 

 stance of accounting for the absence of nests, by the hatred of 

 the birds towards the cats, is defective. After passing this chain, 

 Agathocles found himself in a country full of monkeys, •xii^x.m, 

 from which these villages derived their name, and might, says 

 Diodorus, be literally translated into Greek by the word 



The poet Memesian f, who lived at Carthage, names the 

 wild cat as an object of his huntings, with the fox, the wolf, 

 the ichneumon and the hedgehog. 



Nos timidos lepores, imbelles figere damas, 

 Audacesque lupos, vulpemque captare dolosam 

 Gaudemus ; nos flumineas errare per umbras 

 Malumus, et placidis ichueumona % quaerere ripis, 

 Inter arundineas segetes, felemque minacem 

 Arboris in trunco longis praefigere telis, 

 Iraplicitumque sinu spinosi corporis 

 Ereni ferre domum. 



M. Abel Remusat has supplied me with this valuable docu- 

 ment. The cat has been known in China for a great number 

 of centuries, under the name of Mao §, derived from the cry 



• XX. 58. t Cyoregetic, v. 61. 



X It is seen that the ichneumon then existed near Carthage. 

 § Tlie cat, in Chinese, Mao or Miao, in Japanese, Ncgoma. Its Chinese 

 name is derived from its cry. It is a small quadruped which takes rats. There 



