Our "Stately, Kindly, Lordly Friend" — The Cat

Auckland Star, Volume LXXI, Issue 70, 23 March 1940, Page 4 (Supplement)

Our "Stately, Kindly, Lordly Friend" — The Cat

To the ancient Egyptians tho cat, called Man-Mai, was ;i holy animal, .symbolising the moon or Ir-j.-. Kxeavations have shown that at the Court of the Pharaohs eats were honied in separate magnificent buildings and were fed upon the choicest foods. After death they were embalmed and buried in tombs as costly as those of royal princes ... As a survival of this cat cult of their forefathers Egyptian Mohammedans, until the beginning of this century, always took several cats with them on their annual pilgrimages to Mecca. The cats travelled in the greatest comfort on a special camel, and the elderly woman of high standing who was put in charge of them was honoured with the title of "Mother of the Cats." Though the Jews must certainly have come into contact with cats, especially during their Egyptian exile, there is no mention of the cat in the Bible. Frequent. references, however, is made to other animals, such as dogs, horses, cattle, swine, asses, lions and leopards. A London table-tennis enthusiast, wearyvof hunting for dropped balls under the table, trained his cats to find the balls on . the floors and bring them back to him.

In Britain there arc several cats that appear year after year in the Budget. The late Lord Snowden, when Chancellor of the Exchequer, once fought in a Parliamentary commission for an increase in the cats' daily milk ration from the pre-war level of 2d to 3d. lliifus XVI., a large, sandy cat, is the official raouser and pet of the Treasury. His oflicc' dates back to the sixteenth century, the original bearer being a cat kept by Cardinal Wolsey. Other Whitehall Departments have official cats too, of which Abanazar, the house cat of Xo. 10, Downing Street, is the doyen. He has survived several Prime Ministers—Lloyd George, Ramsay Mac Donald and Stanley Baldwin —and is now in the service of Mr. Neville Chamberlain.

Minnie, a. cat kept by the Standard Oil Company at New Jersey, figures on the pay roll with a monthly salary of 3 dollars 20 cents. The local ofilce of the Social Insurance Department asked the company to pay premiums for Minnie under the Social Security Act.

A cat inspired the Italian composer Giuseppe D. Scarlatti (ICSS- - with the theme of his famous "Cat Fugue." Scarlatti's cat once jumped on the piano and accidentally struck the notes, G, B, E flat* F sharp, B and C sharp. The composer immediately sat down and wrote a, fugue round this theme, performing it the same night at a concert and announcing it as "a composition by my pet cat."