22 THE FIRESIDE SPHINX 



The nuns were not so badly off who were permitted 

 to keep a cat. 



No one knows the date, and no one knows the 

 route of Pussy's westward voyage, a voyage fraught 

 with peril and disaster. From Cyprus she came, — 

 so say most authorities, — and there is an ancient 

 tradition of a Christian monastery near Paphos, 

 where the Greek monks kept a little colony of 

 highly trained and valorous cats, whose duty it was 

 to destroy the serpents that infested the island. 

 These cats hunted their prey daily "with admirable 

 zeal and address," — I quote from Moncrif, — and to 

 the great benefit of the neighbourhood. But when 

 the Turks snatched Cyprus, they burned the mon- 

 astery, and turned the homeless pussies, not to speak 

 of the homeless monks, adrift upon the world ; — a 

 strange piece of ill-doing for Moslems, who, how- 

 ever contemptuous of cloisters, have always cher- 

 ished cats with exceeding tenderness. The love 

 which Mohammed bore for his fair white cat, Mu- 

 ezza, has thrown a veil of sanctity over the whole 

 feline race ; and no good Ottoman ever forgets that 

 when Muezza slept one day upon her master's flow- 

 ing sleeve, the Prophet — being summoned to the 

 Council — cut off his sleeve, rather than disturb 

 her slumber. 



Proud then, and justly proud, was that true be- 

 liever upon whom was conferred the title — at once 

 magnificent and tender — of "Father of Cats." 



