THE WILD CAT. 159 



and even when their land was in possession of the hostile force, the people rose like one man, 

 and demanded the life of a soldier who had killed one of these sacred animals. So deeply 

 were these ideas implanted in their minds, and so determinately did they persist in their 

 demand, that the invading general yielded to their religious enthusiasm, and actually delivered 

 the unwitting offender into their hands. 



The Egyptian Cat was not only honored and protected during its lifetime, but even 

 after death it received funeral honors such as only fall to the lot of distinguished or wealthy 

 personages. 



There were several methods of embalming in use among the Egyptians, by which the 

 bodies of the dead were, for a time, withheld from the natural and beneficial process of decay, 

 only to yield to its power a few hundred years later. ^Of these modes, only the most elaborate 

 has left its records on the still existing bodies of the mighty dead. The carcass of the plebeian 

 might be drenched and soaked in the antiseptic mixture, and so be preserved for a time. But 

 it was the privilege for kings and rulers alone to have their bodies imbued with costly drugs 

 and sweet spices, and to lie unchanged in their tombs for thousands of years, until their mum- 

 mied remains were removed from their long repose, and exhibited to the public gaze of a 

 people who, in their own royal time, were but a race of naked savages. The privilege which 

 was denied to the workman was granted to his Cat, and we have in this country many speci- 

 mens of mummied Cats, their bodies swathed, bandaged, and spiced in the most careful man- 

 ner, partaking of this temporary immortality with a Rameses or a Pharaoh. 



The species of Cat which was thus glorified by these ghastly honors of the charnel-house, 

 is the animal which is represented in the engraving. It is supposed to be the original stock 

 from which descended the race of domestic Cats which found their home by the Egyptian's 

 hearth, and were so piously cherished' by that strange, intellectual, inexplicable people. It 

 is indigenous to Nubia, and has been found on the western side of the Nile, inhabiting a dis- 

 trict which was well furnished with brushwood, and broken up into rocky ground. 



The general color of this animal is something like that of the Pampas Cat, but not so clear 

 or bright, as a brownish-gray tint is washed over the white portions. On the back, the color 

 is deeper than on the remainder of the body. The Tinder portions of the body and inside of 

 the limbs are a grayish-white, the gray disappearing under the throat and about the cheeks, 

 leaving those parts of a pure white. Many streaks and dashes of black, or ochry- yellow, are 

 spread over the body and limbs, two of the lighter stripes encircling the neck. Its eye is 

 bright golden yellow. 



The Egyptian Cat is about the size of an ordinary domestic cat, being nine or ten inches 

 in height, and two feet five inches in length ; the tail is about nine inches long. 



Few of the Felidpe are so widely spread, or so generally known as the Wild Cat. It is 

 found not only in this country, but over nearly the whole of Europe, and has been seen in 

 Northern Asia, and Nepaul. 



It is true that many so-called Wild Cats are found in the snares set by the gamekeeper 

 to protect the pheasants, hares, and partridges under his charge, but in ninety -nine cases out 

 of every hundred, these captured robbers are nothing more than domesticated cats which have 

 shaken off the trammels of their civilization, and have taken to a savage life in the bush. Even 

 tame and petted Cats have been known to take to poaching, and to bring to their owner a daily 

 pheasant or partridge. There are few more dangerous foes to game than the domestic Cat, 

 and the Wild Cat gets the credit of its misdeeds. 



Whether the Wild Cat be the original progenitor of our domestic Cat is still a mooted 

 point, and likely to remain so, for there is no small difficulty in bringing proofs to bear on 

 such a subject. It is certain that if such be the case, the change from savage to domestic life 

 must be of very long standing, for it is proved that certain distinctions between the Wild and 

 domestic Cat are found in full force, even though the domestic Cat may have taken to a 

 wild life for many a year. There are several points of distinction between the Wild and the 

 domestic Cat ; one of the most decided differences being found in the shape and comparative 

 length of their tails. 



