8 THE FIRESIDE SPHINX 



for the sole use of an old woman who bore the 

 honourable title, Mother of Cats, and whose duty it 

 was to carry to the Holy City a number of Persian 

 pussies. Her position was no sinecure, for all the 

 distinction it conferred, the cat's rooted aversion to 

 travel rendering it a troublesome charge ; and the 

 venerable " Mother " finally gave place to a young 

 and active man, better able to cope with his sackful 

 of turbulent prisoners. What strange survival of 

 an ancient practice induced pious Moslems to send 

 to the Prophet's shrine the animals that their far- 

 away ancestors had carried devoutly to the temple 

 of Bubastis ? No one knows. The links between 

 old and new have long ago been broken ; and, as so 

 often happens, the custom lingered on for countless 

 years after its significance had been lost to men's 

 unreasoning minds. 



The great burying-grounds of favoured Egyptian 

 cats were the thrice blessed fields of Speos Artemi- 

 dos near the tombs of Beni Hasan, where thousands 

 of little mummies reposed for centuries. It was re- 

 served for our rude age to disturb their slumber, to 

 desecrate their graves, to fling their ashes to the 

 four winds of heaven, or, with base utilitarianism, 

 to sell the poor little swathed and withered bodies 

 — once so beautiful and gently tended — for any 

 trifling sum they would bring from ribald tourists 

 who infest the land. Many were even used as fer- 



