ur times, would
unquestionably have brought himself within the sweep of the Society
for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, and the Duke of Beaufort's
Humanity Act.

We learn from Herodotus that in his days it was customary, whenever
a cat died, for the whole household at once to go into mourning, and
this although the lamented decease might have been the result of old
age, or other causes purely natural. In the case of a cat's death,
however, the eyebrows only were required to be shaved off; but when
a dog, a beast of more distinguished reputation, departed this life,
every inmate of the house was expected to shave his head and whole
body all over. Both cats and dogs are watched and attended to with
the greatest solicitude during illness. Indeed, by the ancient
Egyptians the cat was treated much in the same way as are dogs
amongst us: we find them even accompanying their masters on their
aquatic shooting-excursions; and, if the testimony of ancient
monuments is to be relied on, often catching the game for them,
although it may be permitted to doubt whether they ever actually
took to the water for this purpose.

In modern Egypt the cat, although more docile and companionable than
its European sister, has much degenerated; but still, on account of
its usefulness in destroying scorpions and other reptiles, it is
treated with some consideration--suffered to eat out of the same
dish with the children, to join with them in their sports, and to be
their constant companion and daily friend. A modern Egyptian would
esteem it a heinous sin indeed, to destroy, or even maltreat a cat;
and we are told by Sir Gardner Wilkinson, that benevolent
individuals have bequeathed funds by which a certain number of these
animals are daily fed at Cairo at the Cadi's court, and the bazaar
of Khan Khaleel.

But a tender regard for the inferior animals is a prevailing
characteristic of the Oriental races, and is inculcated as a duty by
their various religions. At Fez there was, and perhaps is at this
day, a wealthily-endowed hospital, the greater part of the funds of
which was devoted to the support and medical treatment of invalid
cranes and storks, and procuring them a decent sepulture whenever
they chanced to die. The founders are said to have entertained the
poetical notion that these birds are, in truth, human beings,
natives of distant islands, who at certain periods assume a foreign
shape, and after they have satisfied their curiosi