AND LOWER EGYPT. 289 



of infinitely more sensibility. In a word, short of 

 deification, as in the time of the ancients, it is im- 

 possible iur them to be better treated. 



The cats in this country, it is true, arc very- 

 gentle and ver\ familiar. They have no distrust 

 of man, the ferocious character which, in some 

 parts of France, renders them a race of animals 

 rather wild than domestic. But these differences 

 are as much the work of man as the effect of the 

 influence of climate. In the department where I 

 live, and in those adjacent, the cat, especially in 

 the country, is the most miserable of beings, next 

 to the horses set apart to husbandry. Masters and 

 servants agree in hunting the cat, in beating her, 

 in pel ling her with stones, in worrying her to 

 death by the dogs, after having almost starved her 

 to death. If hunger, which her leanness clearly 

 witnesses, incites her to spy the moment for steal- 

 ing a little morsel, the pretended thief, because 

 nature would not suffer her to let herself die of 

 absolute inanition, pays, with her life, the address 

 she had employed to support it. How is it possible 

 that cats should not assume, undi r the discipline of 

 such masters, whose cruelty to animals borders on 

 barbarity, a wildness of physiognomy, an impress 

 of ferociousness ? And if you compare those 

 wretched cats of my country, with such a<= are en- 

 tertained at Paris, where, more kindly treated, and 

 vol. 1. 1 sheltered 



