CATS Of THE PAST. 



twisted round and round the 

 body, forming curious patterns 

 in two colours. The head 

 would be carefully encased and 

 sometimes gilded ; the ears 

 were always standing upright. 

 These curious mummies look 

 something like bottles of rare 

 wine done up in plaited straw. 

 Sometimes the mummy would 

 be enclosed in a bronze box 

 with a statue of a cat seated 

 on the top. Mummies of cats 

 with painted faces have been 

 found in wooden coffins at 

 Bubastes, Specs, Artemidos, Thebes, and 

 elsewhere. Here is an illustration of a kitten 

 brought to me from the Boulak Museum. 

 The picture gives but little idea of the care 

 and neatness which must have been em- 

 ployed in wrapping up the dear little dead 

 bodies. The linen used is of the finest. The 

 ears of the tiny kitten are each separate and 

 distinct, and the muzzle of the creature shows 

 distinctly through the delicate wrappings. 

 Scarcely a good museum in the country now 

 that has not some specimens of cat mummies. 

 In some of these we notice that eyes have 

 been added after the 

 mummy has been en- 

 cased and the embalm- 

 ment completed. Most 

 of the cats that died in 

 the far-away time were 

 thus embalmed and 

 sent for burial to the 

 holy city of Bubastes, 

 near Thebes, on the 

 banks of the Nile. 



The Temple of Bu- 

 bastes, according to 

 Herodotus, was the fair- 

 est in all Egypt, and 

 here special reverence 

 was paid the cat. The 

 local goddess of this 

 city was Pasht, who was 

 represented as a woman 



MUMMIFIED KITTEN. 



(hi the poisession of 

 Miss Simpson.) 



THE WORSHIP OF PASHT IX THE TEMPLE OF BUBASTES. 

 (British Mjtscitm.) 



with a cat's head. Cats were kept in the temples 

 sacred to them, and doubtless the head cat of 

 the Pasht's temple was a very splendid speci- 

 men, who, living the life of great luxury, would 

 be buried with the pomp and magnificence 

 of a royal personage. 

 It was at Bubastes, 

 on the banks of the 

 Nile, that an annual 

 festival in honour of 

 the goddess Pasht was 

 held. We are not told 

 whether the cats took 

 any part in the proceed- 

 ings. From the towns 

 and villages within hail, 

 pleasure parties were 

 sent in boats up and 

 down the river to the 

 city, and on their pas- 

 sage the men and wo- 

 men who crowded these 

 boats made merry all 

 the long summer day. V A CAT GOD OF EGYPT . 



The WOmen Clashed (From Hit British Museum.) 



their cymbals and 



danced, and the men played on their flutes. 

 Seventy thousand people, it is said, assembled 

 at this feast, and they sacrificed victims and 

 drank a good deal of wine. Perhaps the cats 

 were treated to an extra dish of some dainty 

 to mark this red-letter day in the annals of 

 their patroness and goddess. 



