ihoto: Mrs.,S.f. Uarke 



' WHITE TO MOVE. 



THE BOOK OF THE CAT. 



CHAPTER I. 



CATS OF THE PAST. 



origin of the cat has 

 J_ puzzled the learned, and 

 the stock from whence it 

 sprang is still, in the opinion of 

 some, a mystery for the zoologist 

 to solve. 



Historians tell us that the 

 feline race came into existence 

 about the same time as the horse. 

 Reference is made to the cat in 

 Sanskrit writings over 2,000 years 

 old, and still earlier records are 

 found in the monumental figures, 

 inscriptions, and cat mummies 

 of ancient Egypt. These care- 

 fully-preserved relics of the past 

 MUMMY OF A assist us in answering the ques- 

 tion as to how this least tameable 

 of animals became domesticated. 

 There are many legends con- 

 cerning Puss and the manner in which she first 

 sprang into existence. A surprising account of 



CAT. 



(At the British 

 Afuseittii. ) 



the cat's creation is found in the works of an 

 Arabian naturalist. It is as follows : "When 

 Noah made a couple of each kind of animal 

 enter the Ark, his companions, as well as the 

 members of his family, said to him, ' What 

 security can there be for us and for the animals 

 so long as the lion shall dwell with us in the 

 same vessel ? ' The patriarch betook himself 

 to prayer and entreated the Lord God. Imme- 

 diately fever came down from Heaven and 

 seized upon the king of beasts, so that tran- 

 quility of mind was restored to the inhabitants 

 of the Ark. But there was in the vessel an 

 enemy no less harmful this was the mouse. 

 The companions of Noah called his attention 

 to the fact that it would be impossible for them 

 to preserve their provisions and their clothes 

 intact. After the patriarch had addressed re- 

 newed supplications to the Most High, the lion 

 sneezed, and a cat ran out of his nostrils. From 

 that time forth the mouse became so timid that 

 it contracted the habit of hiding itself in holes." 



