58 Gleanings from the 



The goddefs Pafht or Bubaftis, the goddefs of 

 cats, was under the Roman Empire reprefented 

 with a cat's head, that creature being efteemed an 

 emblem both of the fun and the moon by the 

 ancient Egyptians, partly from its eyes being fup- 

 pofed to vary with the courfe of the fun, partly 

 becaufe they were thought to wax and wane with 

 the moon. Dr. Birch ftates that the earlieft re- 

 prefentation of the cat with which he is acquainted 

 and of whofe date he is certain, is to be found on a 

 tomb in the Berlin Mufeum, apparently of about 

 1600 B.C. It alfo appears in hunting-fcenes of the 

 eighteenth dynafty, and in rituals written under 

 that dynafty, but probably repetitions of a much 

 earlier text. At times it is in a boat with the 

 hunters, but eager to be allowed to fpring into 

 the thickets of aquatic plants ; and again it is re- 

 prefented among the birds ftruck down by the 

 fowler, and apparently taught to work either as a 

 fpringer of the game or as a retriever. When the 

 facred cats died, their bodies were always em- 

 balmed, and behind a temple at Beni Haflan, 

 dedicated to Bubaftis, are pits containing a multi- 

 tude of cat mummies. 1 When Herodotus vifited 

 Egypt, he was naturally ftruck with the exaggerated 

 reverence paid to cats, and devotes a quaint chapter 

 to them which is well worth tranflating. Two 

 fads come out in it ; firft, a certain fcarcity of cats 

 even in Egypt ; and fecondly, the facrednefs of 

 the animal. 



1 Mivart, ut sup. ; and Wilkinson, " Ancient Egyptians," i., 

 p. 236. 



