PUSSY IN PRIVATE LIFE.
VII.
PUSSY IN PRIVATE LIFE.
No animal has known greater vicissitudes than our pleasant little house-familiar, Pussy. He had his day of glory in the far past, when armies retreated before him; his day of divinity, too, as the mighty basalt cat-headed goddesses in many a museum still testify. And then, having had in his life-time all that heart of cat could wish, after death he became a mummy and received funeral honors.
Just how it happened, no one knows, but a few thousand years later we find Pussy no longer reverenced. Instead of a divinity he was regarded as the accomplice of witches, and burned in holocaust on St. John’s Day, or tormented for the amusement of such evil kings as Philip II. of Spain. Later still, and final stage of his decadence, he was valued in direct proportion to his usefulness—becoming now a mere drudge, and now a joyless plaything for children. Could Egyptian heart have dreamed it?
But Pussy’s fortunes are again rising. He is no longer a stale divinity, but he is becoming—what is far better in this age of progress—a social power! Even in his worst estate he had always warm friends and admirers; now, he has a party. For, “you either love cats, or you do not love them,” says a witty author; and statistics go to prove that those who love cats are the majority to-day.
CAT-HEADED EGYPTIAN
GODDESS, BAST OR
BUBASTIS.
(From a bronze in the
British Museum. )