EGYPT’S FAVORED CATS 
the favorite of Pasht, who, in smiling mood, had given her to the world; 
and the deep veneration in which she was held provoked biting jests from 
travelers, who then, as now, lacked sympathy for strange customs and 
strange gods. . . .: 
“The exact era of Pussy’s domestication in Egypt is lost in the dawn of 
history. It was so very long ago that our minds grow dizzy contemplating 
the vast stretch of centuries. A tablet in the Berlin Museum, which has 
on it a representation of a cat, dates from 1600 B.c.; and another, two hun- 
dred years older, bears an inscription containing the word maz, or ‘cat.’ 
The temples of Bubastis, of Beni Hasan, and of Heliopolis were the most 
sacred haunts of this most sacred animal. There, petted, pampered, 
wrapped in silken ease, and, above all, treated with that delicate reverence 
she is so quick to understand and appreciate, she lived her allotted lives, 
and there, when all nine were well spent, her little corpse was lovingly em- 
balmed, and buried in a gilded mummy case with dignified and appropriate 
ceremonial. 
“The great burying grounds of favored Egyptian cats were the thrice- 
blessed fields of Speos Artemidos near the tombs of Beni Hasan, where 
thousands of little mummies reposed for centuries. It was reserved 
for our rude age to desecrate their graves, to fling their ashes to 
the four winds of heaven, or, with base utilitarianism, to sell the 
poor little swathed and withered bodies — once so beautiful and gently 
tended — for any trifling sum they would bring from ribald tourists who 
infest the land. Many were used even as fertilizers of the ancient soil — 
a more honorable fate, and one which consigned them gently to oblivion.” 
Now who or what was this little Egyptian cat, so respected 
and loved and made immortal? History does not record its 
paternity, nor legend throw light upon its origin Egyptian 
and kindred. But the mummy has revealed the W#%¢# 
secret. When, moved by curious interest, you ascend the Nile 
to Beni Hasan, and bend your steps to the pit tombs of the 
sacred cats behind the ruins of the great temple of Bubastis, 
you may perchance catch sight of a living and elegant wildcat 
watching you from some rocky knoll, or, oblivious of your 
noiseless approach, furtively creeping toward a trochilus by 
the riverside or stiffening its muscles for a leap upon some 
toothsome hare or jerboa. In that lithe and eager beast, 
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