VARIETIES 35 



tinents ages ago, when the first members were 

 subdued, subjugated, and, by handling, reduced 

 to house-pets, or at least to that semi-domesti- 

 cation which renders them familiar with man, 

 and useful in stables and granaries for the 

 destruction of small vermin, or to be petted in 

 dwellings as companions. 



The domestication of the cat took place at a 

 very ancient period. From its small size, and 

 the fact that it is not a choice article of diet, it 

 is not wonderful that we find few or no traces 

 of the smaller varieties of the cat in the dol- 

 mens or kokkenmoeddings of Denmark and 

 northern central Europe, nor in the caves of 

 the troglodytes of France, Siberia, and the 

 British Islands. The first evidence of the cat 

 in connection with man is to be found in the 

 ancient monuments of Egypt, Babylon, and 

 Nineveh. 



In the Egyptian Gallery of the British Mu- 

 seum is an excellent painting of a tabby-cat, 

 which seems to be aiding a man who is captur- 

 ing birds. The cat is mentioned in inscriptions 

 as early as 1684 B.C., and it was certainly domes- 

 ticated in Egypt thirteen hundred years before 



