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 hundred years older, bears an inscription containing the word Maū, or cat. The temples of Bubastis, of Beni Hasan, and of Heliopolus 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 embalmed, and buried in a gilded mummy case with dignified and appropriate ceremonial. Her
"splendid circled eyes
That wax and wane with love for hours,
Green as green flame, blue-grey like skies,"
were believed to be emblematic of the waxing and the waning of the sun, and added to the mysterious sanctity of her reputation.
Plutarch held that she also represented the moon, because of her nocturnal habits, and of her singular fecundity. "For it is said that she brings forth at first one kitten, afterwards two, and the third time, three; and that the number increaseth thus until the seventh and last birth, so that she
