The evening times. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1895-1902, 1901-06-13
BOWED BEFORE ANIMALS
Times When Egyptians INDUCED
In Curious Worship.

/ Their Temples Built in Honor of
Serpents. Bulls. and Cats-SnrcO-
phaEuses of the Divine Apis With
in the Shadows of the Pyramids.
Visitors to the British Museum, inspect
ing the antiquities In the Egyptian rooms.
are much interested in the array of cat
mummies in one Of the wall cases. Won
der is often expressed why cats and crocO-
dies should have been embalmed and why
! the gods Of Egypt should have various
animal heads, such as the lion, the jackal,
the ibis, and the hawk. 1t seems so in
, credibly stupid as well as so superstitious,
considering how advanced the Egyptians
were in civilization and culture They
could build temples, erect massive ODE
iSks and carry out great engineering
works There are sculptured figures in
the museum which date from $500 B. Q.
| There are manufactured articles and
specimens of writing probably a thousand
years older than that This ancient people
possessed an ingenious form OF hero
giyphic writing in which a feather was
the letter A and a lion the letter L But
a feather was also the emblem Of truth.
and all the letters had been embIe1ns or
symbols of things and qualities.
Does II not occur TO US that perhaps the
animal heads were symbolic also and the
cats and GrOcodiIes were enbalmed be
cause OF their sacred significance? The
Egyptians were not fools. and We must
not laugh at their worship Of the cat
without seeking to understand it
Trees, serpents, and other things had a
place IL the religious symbolism Of the
Egyptians. The persea tree seems to
mark the place Of sun rising on miGsum-
m=T day, and, CUriously. there was a
great cat connected with this tree. In
the seventeenth chapter Of the Book Of
the Dead the cat IS explained 70 be Ra
himself, the chief god i serpent was Of
ten carried in long mystical procession.
and N some of the pictures q cat is rep
resented n the act OF cutting off its head.
Along with the ass. the cat is called a
Sdyer or great words in the Hall Of the
Two Truths
These instances are enough to show that
the cat had place II the religious sym
bo.ISn Of the Egyptians. The lion. the
serpent the SsocOdlC- the bull. and other
animals each had its special significance.
The bull was so important that a sacred
bull called the Apis was kept at Meynuh!S
ana treated with great respect Bat he
vas Hot allowed to live more than TWEEN
t}-iiFe wears, and the most likely reason
IS that he represented Z lunar cycle Of
Twenty-Five years, which must terminate
puuctual!y- When he was taken through
ask and tell how Old he was. and he would
thus be a walking almanac. If ne old
not die naturally he was drowned at the
age OF twenty five. because the new cycle
had TO begin and q new divine Anis must
De found. But he was hcnored by being
em5almed and buried in a granite saT-
cophaGus IN the neIShboThood Of the Fy-
Tamids-
The burial place Of the sacred bulls was
discovered by MaIiette in 1851 and every
visitor 70 Egypt goes to see these Jonbs.
90 he i F-tf
inscription. For example. IN the TWEEN
tieth year the month Mesori- the TWEEN
tieth day. under the reign OF King
PSametlk ! the majesty OF the living Apis
departed to heaven. This god was car
ried in peace Ito his buriaD TO the beauti-
fuI land Of the west
Now, there was burial place for sacred
cats. as well as sacred bulls, and the rea-
son was no doubt the same-HameIy. that
they had place IN the symbolic worship
y cemetery Of cats existed near BuDdStis.
which IS the modern Tel Basta- not far
from ZaE-a-zig Junction, on the railway.
Buried IN the mound NJ NaVlie some
years ago found the ruined temple Of
Bast or Pasilt- the cat goddess, Who gave
her name to the city. The foundation Of
Bubastis carries Us back to the beginning
of the historical times Of Egypt and Is
contemporary with the pyramids, the old
est monuments.
IIeroGotus says. The temple stands in
the middle Of the city and Is visible on all
sides As one walks around II: for as the
city has been raised Up by an en- bank
ment while the temple has been left IN
touched IN its original condition, You look
down upon II wherever You are \ low
= all runs round the enclosure having tg-
ures engraved upon II and inside there IS
q grove Of beautiful. tall trees growing
round the shrine which contains the
image Of the goddess And concerning
the goddess herself he says The BUbaS-
It's Of the Egyptians is the same as the
aTterais Of the Greeks To this We may
add that the ArteniS Of the Greeks is
generally said TO he the same as the Di-
ana Of the Rom ms. 4 goddess OF light
70 presenting the -Tnooa-
Thus We SEE thar BaSt or PaSht was
connected with the cat on the one hand
and the moon on the other So il Is quite
feasible that puSs when she figures a. a
symbol in the Egyptian worship repre-
seuts something in the domain of astT0n-
Omy and the calendar. ovid calls the cat
the sister Of the moon. and says that
PaSht took the form Of a cat TO avoid Ty-
pEou- According TO PlutaTCh. q cat
placed IN o IuStrum denoted the moon. 1t
is q night animal. and its eyes EISten IN
the dark. Hyde Cake remarks that there
are phenomena Of peTiCdiciyy In the cat
which are supposed 20 have given rise TO
its relationship 10 the moon What I
think I have discovered. or at least made
clearer than It was before. is that the
cat was an inteTCaIaTy month, added in
the 12Jth year. to TCctify the calendar
The Gentleman's Magazine.