Elmore bulletin. [volume] (Rocky Bar, Idaho) 1889-1906, 1890-06-21
MuMMlFlEp CATS
a Feline cemetery In Central Egypt Dsas
bed of Its Dead.

A cat four thousand years old Is not
altogether familiar object to English
men, and can scarcely be regarded as an
everyday visitor TO these shores. The
arrival. therefore, OF 1915 tons OF such
cats in Liverpool Is an incident that can
not hut lay a heavy strain upon the
British capacity for experiencing amaze
ment. Not the least astonishing feature
Of this unique event IL that the con-
signment in question, described with
commercial crispness as "a parcel of
embalmcd cats" consists exclusively OF
feline mummies aptly, but accidental
ly, cuilcd from catacomb in Central
Egypt There are no fewer than lso.-
900 of these swathed and spicod remains
in the ''parcel" that reached this coun-
try few days ago, and they have al
ready been sold for fertilizing purposes
to Liverpool manure merchant, tho
auctioneer who disposed OF them using
one OF the deceased cats heads rs n
hammer whercwith 10 knock down the
"lots."
According to a correspondent, 1t has
long been believed in Psychological cir
cles that huge cat cemetery was in exc
istence somewhere about on the left
bank OF the Nile. One day last autumn
a fellah husbandman, while engaged in
the agricultural pursuit OF digging at q
place called Beni Hassan. discovered
this ancient burial ground by q very
simple process. The soil which he was
turning into pit which, on further ex-
animation. proved to be spacious sub
terranean cave, tenanted by uncounted
I legions of dead cats. Everr one of these
corpses had been sedulously embalmed,
I and swaddled so TO speak, in cloth cere-
ments, in the very best style of the urf~
dertaker's craft, as practised in the land
OF the Pharaohs some twenty centuries
before the commencement of the Chris
7 tian era.
I The news of this strange discovery
/ spread swiftly through Beni Hassan and
4 the adjoining districts, whence laborers
soon fiocked to the newly-opened cave,
( and set to work with might and main to
I disinter its venerable occupants. Why
these cats had been mummifed, and
when they had come 10 be arranged So
systematically in their subterranean
quarters, were secondary considerations,
naturally enough, TO the hueolie Egyp-
tian mind-in fact, 'the sort OF things no
fcllah could understand, but the peas
ants of the Nile are keenly alive to the
commercial value OF embalmed "cats
and dogs, and each ohsccner beast, tc
which Egyptian dotards once did bow,
either as high-class manure or as a
peculiarly quick and fragrant com,
bustible. With exemplary promptitude
and dispatch, therefore, they dug uI
some hundreds Of thousands of mum
mics several ''lots" of which were pur
chased on the spot by local farmers
while others found their way down river
10 the storchouses OF an Alexandria
merchant This worthy, being of q
speculative turn OF mind, shipped then
OIL to Liverpool ION sale OF return,
where they fetched tritle less than L.
ton. Thus, for a matter OF thre,
ponies or so, a British "bone-b buyer
has become the sole possessor OF nearly
200, 600 fine old crusted Egyptian eats
each of which, at the time of its de
cease, had been deemed worthy of spe
cial embalment and honorabl sepulture
according TO the rites of Memphis, Blu
bastis and Thebes, "in that case mad,
and provided. London Telegraph.