DOMESTICATED MAMMALS AND THEIR USES 223 
Cat is from Persia. But it seems that Puss is the same as Pasht 
and Bubastis, showing so far an Egyptian origin for the animal. 
The ancestral Cats mentioned above are native of Egypt.” So 
far as we know the ancient Egyptians were the first to dis- 
cover the domestic virtues of this animal, and Herodotus tells 
us that they treated it with no little consideration (though it 
scarcely ranked so high as the dog):—‘ When a fire breaks out 
a wonderful thing happens to these animals; for the Egyptians, 
heedless of extinguishing the flames, stand in a line to take care 
Fig. 1160.— Fallow Cat (Felis maniculata) 
of the cats; but those creatures, slipping in between the men, 
or leaping over them, rush into the fire; and when that happens 
deep grief seizes the Egyptians. If in. any house a cat dies 
naturally, all the inmates shave merely their eyebrows: those in 
whose house a dog happens to die, shave the whole of their 
bodies and heads. The dead cats are taken to some sacred 
buildings in Bubastis, where, when embalmed, they are buried. 
With respect to the dogs, they bury them in sacred repositories, 
each in his own town.” 
It is not proposed to refer to Kipling as a zoological authority, 
but those who have not done so (if such exist) should read the 
story of domestication in ‘The Cat that Walked by Himself”, 
as a brilliant tour de force of imagination (in /ust So Stortes). 
