Staunton spectator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1849-1896, 1852-03-17
MISCELh, !, A N Y.
Fran Chambers El'inh' rg Journal
cyraSTEE; or CATS,

The newspapers have recentlybeen Ghron
icing, as fact provocative OF esleol". mom 'nn
der, the enterprise Of some speculative i'ei- t.
chant of New York, who has JGst been Dis
patching cargo ofono hundred catS 70 the
republic. of New Granada, in which it would
appear the race, owing, as we may believe,
to the frequently disturbed state OF the coun-
try, has become almost extinct.
Your cat is domestic animal, and natu-
rally conservative in its tastes--ayerse,
therefore, to uproar, and to all those given
to change. It's propcnsities are to medlta-
ton and contemplative tranquility, Tor
which reason it has been held in reverence
by nations of similar sta;d and composed
disposition, and has been the favorite COM
panion and constant friend of grave phi
losophers and thoughtful students. By the
ancient Egyptians cats were held IN the
highest esteem; and we learn from Diodo-
rus Siculus, their Gives and safeties" were
rendered more dearly than those of any 9TH
er animal, whether biped or quadruped.-
''Ie who has voluntarily killeda consecrat-
ed animal, says this writer, els punished
with death but if any one has even IN
voluntarily killed a cat or an ibis, 1t is I'M
possible for him to escape death the mob
drags him to it, treating him with every
cruelty and sometimes without waiting for
Judgment to be passed. This Treatment in
spires such terror, that if any person hap
pen to find one of these animals dead, he
goes to distance from it, and by his cries
/ and groans indicates that he has found the
animal dead. This superstition is so deep
/ " rooted IN the minds of the Egyptians, and
the respect they bear these animals IS so
profound, that at the time when their king,
! Ptolemy, was not yet declared the friend
of the Roman people-when they were pay
ing all possible court to travellers from Italy,
and their fears made them avoid every
ground of accusat ion and every pretext tol
making war upon them--yet Roman having
killed cat the people rushed to his house,
aud neither the entreahes of the grandees
whom the king sent for the purpose, nor the
terror of the Roman name, could protect
this man from pupishmeut, although the acI
was involuntary. | do not relate this an
ecdote," adds the historian, "on the author
! ity of another, for | was an eyewitness o
/ it during my stay in Egypt
During their lives, the consecratcd cats
were fed upon fish, kept for the purpose in
tanks; and 'when one Of them happened tc
die" says the veracious writer just cited
'it was wrapped in linen, and after the by
standers had beaten themselves on the
breast it was carried to the Tarichea, where
I it was embalmed with coedria and other sub
stances which have the virtue Of embalm'
iug bodies, after which it was Inferred in
the sacred monument Ii has puzzled no
a little the learned arch9ologists, who hav,
! endeavored to discover a profound phiioso
phl figured and symboized in the singular
mythology of the Egyptians, to explain how
il is tha, in Thebes, where the sacred char
acter cfthe cat was held in the highest rev
erencc, and cherished with the greatest de-
votion, not only cmbalmed cats have beer
found, but also the bodies Of rats and mice
which had been subjected to the same anti
putrcscent process. If, however, HHrodo
tus is to be credited, the EgytIans owed {
deep debt of gratitude to mice tor the ven
era lie historian assures us, aud On the un
m, ,sticuablc authority Of the Egyptian
pr;est, that when Sennacherib & his arm!
iay at Fslusium, mighty corps Of fel'
mice entered the camp by night, and eatIn;
no the quvcrs, bowstrings, and buckler
lis2thers Of the Assy,ian troops IN TINS sum
mary syhiou liberstea Egypt from the ter ,
ror Of the tnteateasd inT~ SION lfIoaols ~ N }
The exlstencc of mice mu,nmies ray DC ac
counted for in this way, and il-ic'0r''n'
to no violent supposition-Nsc p:esU'@'' " "
the good work which tho tiny pa'Fio's 81
sagaciously accomplished that their cousln'
german the rats we've assistant, the whole
matter receives a satisfactory explanations
The hypothesis, it is submitted, is not "t'h
ont plausible recommendations on its be-
half. There is cxtant fragment OF a com
edy, entitled The Cities" written BY the
Rhodian poet Anaxandrides, in winch 'hf
Egyptian worship of ANNALS is amu9ngil
enough quizzed A translation will be tonne
in Dr.. Prichard's ,4naiysis ot Egyptian .Mg
hofogy. The lines referring to cat-worshil
arc as follows:
'Yon cry and wall whene'cr sc spy cat
Starving or sick | count it not 4 SIN
To sIns tup, ald Hay il for It's skin;
from which ii appears this gay iree-th'nkc