Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1890-02-22
1890.
THOSE MUMMIFlED CATS.
The Experiment Of Using Them as a snbsti.
Iufe for Gnnmo.

The Experiment Of Using Them as snbsti.
Iute for Gnnno.
London Saturday Revlew.l
An eminent person of science has de-
scribed the thriftiness Of nature; how she
stored her vegetable produce for millions of
years, put it out to interest in the shape Of
coal, and finally made manufactures possi-
bic, with all the happiness which they bring
to miserable mortals. Keep e thing, its
use will come" and even cats, the
least utilitarian OF creatures, come
in useful if they are only kept
long enough. Just az nature had thrift in
her mind when she stored coal at an age
when nobody wanted it, so the ancient
Egyptians had an eye on our necessities
when they mummifed all their cats. The
Egyptians mummifed mice, bulls. alliga-
tors and animals in general, partly because
they were as rule gods, partly to supply,
we presume, the fauna of Amenti, the home
of the dead.
Not long ago modern fellah fell into an
ancient cats cemetery by accident, and
found himself among the rather CHASTITY fe-
line mummies of 1000 years ago. Then
awoke the modern spirit, chartered two
steamers, and carried 20 tons OF tail-waggers
off to Liverpool. These cats had been divine,
all of them children of Pasht. When they
died the neighbors cried, the fam
lily shaved itself and went into mourn
ing. at a fire the main object OF
everybody was not to put the fire out, but to
keep the cats out of it. ''The cats lie COW
ertly in wait" says the old translator Of
Herodotus, )'and sodenly coursing toward
the place, mount and skip quite over the
heads of the people into the fire, at which
chaunce, whenever it comes to pass, the
Egyptians are extremely sorrowful. A cat
dying is solemnly caryed to the temple,
where, being powdered with salte. she is
after buried in the city Of Bubastis."
Ifan ancient Egyptian met friend with
no eyebrows, he knew that a cat was dead
in the house and behaved with sympathetic
solemnity. And now all these hundreds of
thousands of cats, which had been waiting
hopefully till Osiris came again, are to be
made useful. Every one of them was sep
arately and neatly laid out in his tight little
shroud 1000 years ago. To-day they are
manure, and the divine bodies,
scattered over the British fields,
may effect saving in guano.
They fetch R3 lbs Cd ton, and there go to
the ton about 5000 of these minor divinities.
Why should not Apis and the dog Anubis
be treated In the same manner, ana there is
no money to be made out of the mummifed
children of Sebak, the father of crocodiles?
Verify this is the last poor plunder of o
ruined land.
Each dead cat is worth, at present quota
tions, little less than a haIfpenny The
sacrilege seems hardly worth the trouble,
and we have yet to see how Pasht the fierce
cat goddess of Bubastis, will accept the in
suit. To spectators we might say, 'Let
sleeping cats lie,P but probably even the
sleeping dogs will be shipped off in the
same manner if the experiment with the
puss of ancient Khem is successful. There
NAV still be slight prejudice against using
human mummies in the same fashion, or,
again, Cheops and Chephren may make fat
the fields of Europe.