Cats.

Manawatu Herald, Volume III, Issue III, 13 January 1891, Page 2

Cats.

_♦ The veneration of sacred animals was a form of religious worship peculiar to the Egyptians, and held such a place in the national religion that it excited the greatest attention even in ancient times. Besides the Apis bulls in Memphis, who possessed their own palace and a magnificent sepulchre, cows, cats, the ibis, sparrow-hawk, dogs, crocodiles and many other animals received divine veneration. Whoever intentionally killed a sacred animal was punished with death. We know that the Egyptians excelled in the art of embalming, and treated not only their relations, but the sacred animals to this process. Consideration of this matter takes us back to the time B.C. and it comes like a shock to read the following, almost sacriligeous act, taken from a Home paper. " Prom Egypt there have been imported several large consignments of mummy cats for fertilising use in agriculture. One day at the rooms of Gordon & Co., (a coincidence in the names) Liverpool, no less than nine tons of embalmed cats were sold. The bones, which came from the Beni-Hassan pit, were purchased at £5 17s 6d per ton. The heads were separately sold at prices ranging from two to five shillings — we suppose a3 curiosities ; the manure lots being mostly broken in fra foments."