DOMESTICATED MAMMALS AND THEIR USES 



223 



Cat is from Persia. But it seems that Puss is the same as Pasht 

 and Bubastis, showing so far an Egyptian origin for the animal. 

 The ancestral Cats mentioned above are native of Egypt." So 

 far as we know the ancient Egyptians were the first to dis- 

 cover the domestic virtues of this animal, and Herodotus tells 

 us that they treated it with no little consideration (though it 

 scarcely ranked so high as the dog): " When a fire breaks out 

 a wonderful thing happens to these animals; for the Egyptians, 

 heedless of extinguishing the flames, stand in a line to take care 



Fig. 1 160. Fallow Cat (Felis maniculata) 



of the cats; but those creatures, slipping in between the men, 

 or leaping over them, rush into the fire; and when that happens 

 deep grief seizes the Egyptians. If in any house a cat dies 

 naturally, all the inmates shave merely their eyebrows: those in 

 whose house a dog happens to die, shave the whole of their 

 bodies and heads. The dead cats are taken to some sacred 

 buildings in Bubastis, where, when embalmed, they are buried. 

 With respect to the dogs, they bury them in sacred repositories, 

 each in his own town." 



It is not proposed to refer to Kipling as a zoological authority, 

 but those who have not done so (if such exist) should read the 

 story of domestication in "The Cat that Walked by Himself", 

 as a brilliant tour de force of imagination (in Just So Stories]. 



