34 
THE CAT IN THE EAST. 
nerally-received opinion; but Mr. Buppel, 
in bis travels in Nubia, discovered a small 
species of wild-cat, smaller than the Euro¬ 
pean, which corresponds in many more 
particulars than the English; and this is 
now more generally supposed to have been 
the parent of the domestic cat. It is pro¬ 
bable that they may be derived from seve¬ 
ral different sources; and the tortoise-shell 
cat is often called the Spanish cat. It is cer¬ 
tain that the Egyptians had domestic cats at 
a very early period and held them in great 
esteem, as they figure largely in the paint¬ 
ings on the interior of the tombs, and many 
mummies of them are found, carefully em¬ 
balmed.” 
“Do you think they worshipped them, 
aunt?” asked Daisy. 
“I am not sure that they worshipped 
them; but there is no doubt that they 
treated them as sacred,—perhaps something 
as the Hindoos do the Brahminic bulls and 
certain kinds of monkeys. In ancient 
times they were very rare in the West of 
Europe, and high prices were asked for 
them. Nine hundred and forty-eight years 
after Christ, Hoel, the good king of Wales, 
