164" THE ANCIENT EGYPTIANS. CHAP. XIV. 



After showing how prolific Egypt was in domestic 

 animals, Herodotus mentions* two peculiarities of 

 the cats, by which he accounts for their numbers 

 not increasing to the extent they otherwise would. 

 But these, like other prodigies of the good old 

 times, have ceased in Egypt, and the actions of 

 cats, like other things, have been reduced to the 

 level of common-place realities. He tells us, that 

 "when a house caught fire, the only thought of the 

 Egyptians was to preserve the lives of the cats. 

 Ranging themselves therefore in bodies round the 

 house, they endeavoured to rescue those animals 

 from the flames, totally disregarding the destruc- 

 tion of the property itself; but, notwithstanding all 

 their precautions, the cats, leaping over the heads 

 and gliding betw^een the legs of the bystanders, 

 rushed into the flames, as if impelled by divine 

 agency to self-destruction." Were this true the 

 love of their domestic animals must frequently 

 have sacrificed several contiguous houses, during 

 their exertions to prevent the suicide of a cat ; but, 

 however great the grief of the Egyptians, in wit- 

 nessing these wonderful cases of a feline felo de 

 SBf we may make some allowance for the exagger- 

 ation of a Greek t, and doubt the neglect of their 

 burning dwelhngst stated by the historian. 



That their numbers do not diminish in Egypt, 



* Herodot. ii. GO.; and AlVinn, vii. 27. 



'j- I have h;i(l occasion to observe, that TIerodotus has sometimes 

 sacrificed trutli to the pleasure of setting forth an amusing contrast to 

 Greek customs, and strii<ing Ins readers or hearers with suri)risc. Se- 

 veral instances of this may he pointed out in his Euterpe, 35 and 36. 



