THE EGYPTIAN CAT. 



191 



chiefly of the moderately sized rodents which inhabit the same country in great pro- 

 fusion, and it is by no means so dangerous a foe to poultry as the ocelots or the chati. 

 The length of the animal, inclusive of the tail, is rather more than three feet, the tail 

 occupying about eleven inches. Its height, when adult, is rather more than a foot. 



EXCEPTING for a certain upright and watchful carriage of the ears, the EGYPTIAN CAT 

 has a very domestic look about it. 



This animal is supposed to be the species which was so honored by the ancient 

 Egyptians, that they refused to attack an invading army which bore a number of Cats 

 in their front rank; and even when their land was in possession of the hostile force, 

 the people rose like one man, and demanded the life of a soldier who had killed one 

 of these sacred animals. So deeply were these ideas implanted in their minds, and so 

 determinately did they persist in their demand, that the invading general yielded to 

 their religious enthusiasm, and actually delivered the unwitting offender into their hands. 



The Egyptian Cat was not only honored and protected during its lifetime, but even 

 after death it received funeral honors such as only fall to the lot of distinguished or 

 wealthy personages. 





PAMPAS C\T.Leoyardus Pageros. 



There were several methods of embalming in use among the Egyptians, by which 

 the bodies of the dead were for a time, withheld from the natural and beneficial process 

 of decay, only to yield to its power a few hundred years later. Of these modes, only 

 the most elaborate has left its records on the still existing bodies of the mighty dead. 

 The carcass of the plebeian might be drenched and soaked in the antiseptic mixture, 

 and so be preserved for a time. But it was the privilege for kings and rulers alone to 

 have their bodies imbued with costly drugs and sweet spices, and to lie unchanged in 

 their tombs for thousands of years, until their mummied remains were removed from 

 their long repose, and exhibit to the public gaze of a people who, in their own royal 

 time, were but a race of naked savages. The privilege which was denied to the work- 

 man was granted to his Cat, and we have in this country many specimens of mummied 

 Cats, their bodies swathed, bandaged, and spiced in the most careful manner, partak- 

 ing of this temporary immortality with a Rameses or a Pharaoh. 



