86 THE FIRESIDE SPHINX 



reading there no answer to the question, he ran 

 back to the house, reappearing in a moment with 

 a large cat in his arms. Pushing open its eyelids 

 with his forefinger, — an operation to which the 

 animal submitted with a patience evidently born of 

 long habitude, — he said carelessly, " Look, it wants 

 still an hour and more to noon." When the mis- 

 sionary expressed his amazement at this primitive 

 time-piece, other natives explained to him that on 

 cloudy days their cats always served them as dials. 

 " They pointed out that the pupils of the creature's 

 eyes grew gradually narrower until noon, when they 

 were little more than thin perpendicular lines, and 

 that with the descent of the sun began their slow 

 expansion." 



It was the waxing and waning of the light in 

 Pussy's beautiful eyes, with the waxing and wan- 

 ing of the day, which gave her, centuries before, 

 her proud preeminence in the great Sun-temple of 

 Heliopolis. 



Maister Salmon is the only English writer who 

 has a word to say on this subject, and even he con- 

 fesses he has never taken the trouble to make any 

 observations for himself. The sole use of the cat 

 in England was to hunt mice and rats ; and while 

 there are constant allusions in early English letters 

 to her vigilance and prowess, while she figures in 

 proverbs, and old saws, and rude rhymes, it is sel- 



