Natural Hi/lory of the Ancients. 6 1 



favourites of the love-goddefs (Grimm's " Northern 

 Mythology," tranflated by Stallybrafs, i., p. 305.) 

 In fpite of the proverb : 



" Catus saspe satur cum capto mure jocatur," 



Mr. St. John Mivart is of opinion that the cat, 

 when tormenting a moufe, is not doing fo from 

 native cruelty, but in order to keep her claws in 

 order, juft as her big brother, the tiger, is com- 

 pelled to fcratch the bark of trees, efpecially the 

 Indian fig-tree, in order to cleanfe his claws. 

 Japanefe cats, like thofe of the Ifle of Man, are 

 taillefs. The cat is a favourite on tavern figns ; 

 our own Cat and Fiddle matching the Flemifh 

 " Le Chat qui Fume," and the equally well-known 

 " Chat de St. Jean " with its long tobacco-pipe. 



Cats were not domeftic animals with the 

 Hebrews, any more than dogs. It is not fur- 

 prifing, therefore, that they are pafled over in 

 filence in Holy Scripture. In Baruch vi. 22, 

 indeed, is a curious paflage which occurs in what 

 purports to be a letter of Jeremiah to the captives 

 about to be led into Babylon by Nebuchadnezzar. 

 In it the prophet tells them of the fenfelefs idols 

 they will there fee, and adds, " upon their bodies 

 and heads fit bats, fwallows, and birds, and the 

 cats alfo ;" but the pafTage is in all probability a 

 forgery of the firft century B.C. 



From Egypt cats feem to have been introduced 

 into Greece, and thence into Rome. A frefco 

 painting of a cat was difcovered at Pompeii. 

 Thefe animals were not much prized, however, 

 by either Greeks or Romans. The only paf- 



