12 



the burning building and neglected to quench the fire. In spite 

 of all this tender solicitude some cats escaped and cast them- 

 selves into the flames, amid the wild lamentations of the be- 

 reaved and horrified Egyptians. All members 

 of any family bereaved by the death of a cat 

 had their eyebrows sliaved ofl', and the sacred 

 animal was embalmed and then buried at Bubastis. 

 No Egyptian dared run the risk of injuring a 

 cat. There is a tradition repeated by the old 

 historians regarding Cambyses, the Persian king, 

 who attempted to take the town of Pelusium but 

 was beaten back by the Egyptians. The tale runs 

 that he then gave living cats to the soldiers in 

 Bronze statuette of the the frout rauks of his army, which they used as 

 cat of Bubastis. ghiclds, and the Egyptians retired and gave up 

 the town without striking a blow. Diodorus says that a Roman 

 who killed a cat by accident in Thebes was almost torn to pieces 

 by the infuriated populace. 



The exportation of cats was prohibited. An Egyptian com- 

 mission searched the Mediterranean countries to buy and bring 

 back, if possible, every cat which had been taken out of Egypt. 

 The temples of Bubastis, Beni Hassan and Heliopolis were 

 sacred retreats of the deified animal, but that of Bubastis was 

 the "fairest in all Egypt." There the sacred cats were robed, 

 pampered and worshipped during life. There their necks and 

 ears were hung with jewels and ornaments of gold. There they 

 "drowsed and played in the shadows of mighty temples," and 

 there their remains were tenderly and reverently preserved after 

 death. Mummies of cats that had lived in the temple of the 

 Goddess Pasht at Bubastis were greatly venerated by the people, 

 and their tombs contained great numbers of gold ornaments 

 bearing the same letters as those found in the mausoleums of 

 Egyptian kings. Cat mummies were wrapped in fine linen like 

 that in which the remains of kings were swathed. 



"How now are the mighty fallen!" In recent years, great cat 

 burial places have been rifled of their sacred deposits and the 

 bones used to fertilize Egyptian fields, or prepared and shipped 

 abroad, to be sold at $15 a ton as fertilizer. 



Outside of Egypt, with its pictorial art, mummies and in- 

 scriptions, the records of the early history of the cat are few. 

 Little is known about its place in the homes of men between 

 the time of the latest Egyptian records and about 260 B.C. 

 when it appears as already established in Greece and Rome. 



