56 Gleanings from the 



their progeny have much tendency to revert in 

 colour and appearance to the type of the true 

 /. catus. Its colour is a dark-grey, or grey-brown 

 ftriped with black. The cat in queftion seemed 

 to the writer too rich in colour, with an under- 

 fhade of yellow, which was fufpicious. Colour, 

 hov/ever, is proverbially deceitful in natural hiftory 

 inveftigations. The head was too round, the legs 

 too flender, and the tail not fufficiently abrupt; 

 and thefe are important flruclural differences. 

 Adhuc Jub judice Us eft. Two or three other hints, 

 moreover, feem to point to the conclufion that the 

 domeftic cat is a foreign importation. The curious 

 penalty, for inftance, denounced in the old Welfh 

 laws againft him who mould kill the king's cat, 

 4 'the keeper of the royal granary," appears to 

 fuggeft that a cat was a fomewhat rare and valuable 

 animal. The offender was compelled to pay as 

 much corn as would cover the cat's body when 

 held up by the tip of its tail. Dick Whittington 

 and his cat is another indication of the foreign 

 extraction of the animal. Being fent to Barbary, 

 it fold for a good price, and enriched its mailer. 



All the evidence points to Egypt as the country 

 where cats were originally domefticated in the 

 Weft, though it was known in India 2,000 years 

 ago. They are wrong who derive the cat's appear- 

 ance in Europe from Perfia, and ftate that its name 

 Pufs is a mere diminutive of Perfe. Dr. Brugfch- 

 Bey (hews that one of the titles of Ofiris was Bafs, 

 the cat (or leopard), whence, with more proba- 

 bility, comes our word Pufs. His wife, Baft (the 



