. THE DOMESTIC CAT. 



only tends to prove that Cats were not anciently 

 domesticated in Greece ; for it is known, that in 

 Egypt they were kept in great numbers, and were 

 objects of sacred veneration there in very remote 

 periods. So much were they respected by the 

 inhabitants of Lower Egypt, that formerly it was 

 made a capital crime wilfully to kill either a Cat or 

 an Ibis; and whoever, even accidentally, caused the 

 death of one of them, was always severely pu- 

 nished, ' 



The Turks have a sacred respect for Cats, ori- 

 ginating in a tradition that Mahomet, who flou- 

 rished in the seventh century, had so great a love 

 for one of these animals, that, being once con- 

 sulted upon a point of religion, he chose rather to 

 cut off the skirt of his garment, on which the Cat 

 lay asleep, than to disturb her repose by forcibly 

 taking it away*. 



The early Britons seem to have entertained a 

 very high sense of the utility of these animals. In 

 the tenth century, the price of Cats was even in- 

 serted in the laws of the land. A kitten, before it 

 could see, was rated at a penny ; as soon as proof 

 could be had of its having caught a mouse, the 

 price was raised to two-pence; and a tolerably 

 good mo user was rated at four-pence, a great sum 

 in those days. Mr. Pennant considers that this 



* Tournefort's Voyage into the Levant, ii. p. 63. 



high 



