Staunton spectator and vindicator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1896-1916, 1910-02-25
DOMESTICATlON OF CATS
COMPARATIVELY RECENT
GREEKS SEEM TO HAVE EMPLOYED THE
FELINE IN HUNTING, ESPECIALLY
AS A RETRIEVER II MARSHES
-DEIFIED IN EGYPT.

1
AS A RETRIEVER X MARSHES
-DEIFIED IN EGYPT,
The domestication of cats appears to
have been comparatively recent thing.
There is no mention whatever in the
Bible of cats, the tsyim found in the
prophets probably being jackals. Nor
does the ailouros of the Greeks seem to
have been domesticated until a late day,
and the Romans did not welcome the
cat to their firesides untll.the days of
Pliny. The Egyptians seem to have
had various species of this animal, three
of which are still to be found in Africa
but inasmuch as no cat is depicted on
any monument contemporary with the
Pyramids, we may conclude thatit was
not domesticated even in Egypt before
the year 1888 B. G., that being the old
est date deducible from the "Funeral
Ritual" where the cat is sometimes
seen under the armchair of the mistress
of the house, along with dogs and mon
keys.
Evidently the cat was much more
valuable animal at that time than in
this day, and it was probably to encour-
age the breeding of it that it was ad-
mitted into the class regarded as sacred,
says Harper's Weekly. The cat was
used in hunting, there being pictures
extant which show cats springing from
boats into the marshes to retrieve the
ducks which have been killed by their
masters. In painting found in a
Theban tomb cat is represented stand
ing on her hind legs resting her front
paws on the knee of a man who is
about to throw the crooked stick called
shbot, which resembles the Australian
boomerang, at some game.
There are many false ideas regarding
the cat held by a great many persons,
among others that cat can see better
at night than in the daytime, and that
it is able to see in perfect darkness. AS
matter of fact, the cat, like all other
animalsscannot. see at all in perfect
darkness, though, with the assistance
of its whlskersssor feelers, and its sure
footedness, it is able to move about
with some agility. A cat can see bet
ter in the dusk than can a human be-
ing, however, because the cats eyes are
sensitive to the ultraviolet rays of the
spectrum, and the pupil is capable of
great expansion, thus admitting all the
fight there is available; but see in alb
solute darkness it cannot.
Another firmly-rooted idea is that
cats, if give the opportunity, will suck
the breath out of sleeping children.
This is utterly absurd. A cat, liking
warm, clean place, will, if it has
chance, slip into child's crib, and, if
the crib is narrow, may happen to take
up position on top of the baby. Asa
good-sized cat will average ten pounds
in weight, while an average baby at
one month of age will weigh only eight
pounds and at four months only twelve
and one-half pounds, it may be readily
comprehended, if we imagine proper
tionate weight in warm flesh and soft
fur on top of our own bodies, that it
may be serious thing-the baby may
be smothered to death, as has some
times happened. AS for the cat suck
ing the breath from the child, the
shape of the cats mouth makes it i'm
possible, even if it should so desire, for
it to interrupt respiration by the mouth
and the nose of the child at the SAM
time.
In Holland cats are bred as fur-bear-
ing animals.