CATACOMBS 



1222 



CATALINA 



ous to man and other animals, referred to at 

 the beginning of this article, are described 

 under their respective titles. M.S. 



Consult Williams's The Cat, Its Care and Man- 

 agement; Champion's Everybody's Cat Book. 



CATACOMBS, kat'akohmz, subterranean 

 galleries and caves forming the usual burial 

 places of the early Christians who did not 

 practice cremation. They bought plots of 

 land, either as communities or families, and 

 under the surface 

 excavated ceme- 

 teries, or crypts. 

 The term cata- 

 comb is said to 

 have been applied 

 originally to the 

 district near Rome 

 which contained 

 the chapel of Saint 

 Sebastian, in the 



vaults of which, CHRIST AS THE GOOD 



SHEPHERD 



according to tra- A symbo i O f the love and 

 dition, the bodies faith of the early Christians. 

 of Saint Peter and Saint Paul were first de- 

 posited. 



The catacombs of the early Christians of 

 Rome consisted of long, narrow galleries, 

 usually about eight feet high and five feet 

 wide, branching off in all directions, forming 

 a perfect maze of corridors. When one story 



CRYPT OF SAINT CECILIA, ROME 



was no longer sufficient, staircases were made, 

 and a second line of galleries was dug out 

 beneath. The graves, or loculi, to receive the 

 bodies, were cut into the walls of the gallery, 

 one above another. They were closed laterally 

 by a slab, on which there was occasionally a 

 brief inscription or a symbol, such as a dove, 

 an anchor or a palm branch, and sometimes all 

 of these. Some of the inscriptions and epitaphs 

 were beautifully carved, some merely scratched 

 upon the slab, and others were painted in red 



and black. In later times beautiful frescoes 

 were common, in which are indicated the 

 Christian faith and devotion. 



It is now regarded as certain that in times 

 of persecution the early Christians frequently 

 took refuge in the catacombs, since burial 

 places had the right of protection by law, 

 and they also gathered there to celebrate 

 in secret the ceremonies of their religion. The 

 practice of burial in the catacombs completely 

 died out in the beginning of the fifth century, 

 and the existence of such subterranean burial 

 grounds was forgotten. Six centuries later 

 excavations laid bare what were then sup- 

 posed to be the ruins of previous cities. 



The term catacombs has also been applied 

 to certain ancient subterranean quarries in 

 Paris, which have been used since 1786 as 

 burial places. It is said that 6,000,000 bodies 

 lie in these catacombs, where the bones are 

 arranged in fanciful designs along the sides 

 of the passages. F.ST.A. 



CATALEPSY, kat'alepsi, a word derived 

 from the Greek katalepsis, meaning a seizure. 

 It is now applied to a condition in (Which a 

 person suddenly becomes unconscious and re- 

 mains rigidly fixed in the attitude assumed 

 when the attack commenced. The seizure may 

 terminate quickly or it may continue for some 

 time. The action of the heart and lungs 

 continues, and the pulse and temperature re- 

 main natural. This condition is generally the 

 consequence of some other disease. Catalepsy 

 has often been mistaken for death, and cases 

 are on record in which full preparation for 

 burial had been made before the mistake 

 was discovered. The assertion has been made 

 that occasionally persons in a cataleptic state 

 are buried alive, but there is slight evidence 

 in support of this. 



CATALINA, katale'na, or SANTA CATA- 

 LINA, a favorite California resort and scene 

 of annual fishing tournaments, is one of the 

 Santa Barbara Islands, near Los Angeles. It 

 is from one to four miles wide and about 



twenty-two miles long. The waters around 

 this hilly, wooded island abound in fish, and 

 following the policy of conservation of natural 

 resources, by act of the California legislature 



