THE CAT OF ANTIOUITY 7 



bears in all twenty-eight young, or as many as the 

 moon hath revolutions. And though this may be 

 but a fable, yet it is certain that her eyes do enlarge 

 and grow brilliant with the filling of the moon, and 

 do contract and lose their light with its decline." 



What a pleasure it must have been to study nat- 

 ural history in the ancient days, when the general 

 absence of information left the historian liberty and 

 leisure to tell really interesting things. 



The temple of Bubastis, says Herodotus, was the 

 fairest in all Egypt, and the festival held in honour 

 of the goddess was the gayest of the year, thousands 

 of pilgrims speeding along the pleasant water-ways 

 to enjoy themselves piously at her shrine. Often 

 they carried with them the mummies of dear dead 

 cats, to be interred in the neighbourhood of the 

 temple ; and often they bore, as offerings to the 

 shrine, animals of great size and beauty, or with 

 especial markings that denoted sanctity, and insured 

 their admittance into the circle of the elect. To 

 these pilgrimages, and to the sacredness of the 

 temple cats, may be traced — so says Ignace Gold- 

 ziherin his " Culte des Saints chez les Musulmans " 

 — a curious custom which survived until recent 

 years among Egyptian Moslems. When the cara- 

 vans bound for Mecca were preparing to start from 

 Cairo, and the city was celebrating their departure 

 with the feasts of Mahmal, one camel was set apart 



