"Puss, Puss!"

Evening Post, Volume CIV, Issue 150, 22 December 1922, Page 16

"Puss, Puss!"

The Story of the Gat,

■ Mr. Aylmev Cecil Strong, in an article on "The Coming of the Cat," says the dog would be a more difficult subject, for it is probable that as far back as the time when man could bring. up and discipline a wolf's cub there wera dogs. The Egyptians made much oi cats, protected and worshipped' them. But Herodotus says that Egyptian families went into mourning when a dogi died. However, Mr. Strong says nothing about that. His subject is.the cat. He is inclined to think that iJ the Egyptians had domesticated tht* mongoose; that animal Wpukl no\V be sitting on the hearth or sunning itseif on the garden wall. He insists that tho cat in ancient Egypt was really sacred, not nominally so. Diodorus is cited an an authority for the statement that.cats dying in a military campaign wera brought home for burial, although the soldiers- might be on short rations,\ enduring frightful privations. After the Romans . conquered Egypt, they, with their usual sagacity, tolerated cat love or worship. Diodorus tells th« story of a. mob tearing a Roman soldier /'to pieces" because he had accidentally slain a cat. An office of Keeper, of Cats was hereditary.. The Turks adopted Felis domestica. in Cairo homeless cats were fed by order of the Kadi. Accordirig to Lane, translator of the Arabian Nights, the Sultan Ez-Zahir Beybarg founded a home for cats in a- garden near his mosque. It must be 'admitted that in Constantinople the consideration -for cats was not so tender.

There can be no doubt that the Egyptians were a persistent and patient people, for we should probably have no domestic ca.t to-day if they had not adopted Felis caffra, the wild cat of the desert, and trained the progeny for generations. This appears to be settled, although there are scientists who.point out that the colour' of the fur on the under surface of the wild caX's foot is yellow to the heel bone, while that of the domestic cat is generally black. There are said to be other, differences of coloration, but who can believe that tho domestic cat was always a tame, orderly and discreet animal, clean in its. habits, wise of: aspect, and given to philosophical meditation? It is significant that the domestic Gat mates with the wild cat in all countries, so that pedigree becomes a baffling problem. In the township of Ludlow, Vermont, a woman used to exhibit two wildcat cubs, Which she had brought up, on the bottle. Her boy had discovered them in a hollow log ill a mountain pasture before their eyes, were open. They, slept in her lap and submitted to fondling until they were as big as an Airedale' dog, but-eventually they died of civilisation. Evidently the domestic cat was evolved only after a great many generations of intelligent and unremitting care. Mr. Strong finds that the domestic cat did not become a ," familiar figure " in Europe until the first' century \of the Christian era. It was imported from tigypt. 'Vv'hen the Romans finally evacuatsd Britain about AS). 436 the family cut was performing its toilet on tho doorstep. But it was 500 years later before the cat got into tho statute-book. In 936 Hywal Dda, Prince of South Wales, had a law enacted for the protection of cats. It seems that tho Romans did not hold the animal in high esteem, for while "fragments of hor6es,- dogs, and goats " have been found in the ruins of Pompeii and Kerculaneum, remains of the cat were absent. ...

,Mr.. Strong has collected some' agreeable etymological data... For instance,. the gipsies who came .from North-.w.es-.'tern India ;'and brought .cats vrith/them ■called the.female pishika.. "This form," we are,told, ".seems .to tally w.ith. the Persian . pushofc .or, piishnak," hence puss, the term Of endearment. The old Egyptian name for rthe cat was ma-u, "an obvious onomatopoetic." / Apparently we owe. the word cat to the Romans. They called the animal "catus," which, meant the "knowing one," and the word passed into the Romance languages as chat and gato.