Milesian
friends, cannot sufficiently praise), declares the cat to be a sacred
animal. Divine honors are paid to these fortunate quadrupeds as well as
to many other animals, and he who kills a cat is punished with the same
severity as the murderer of a human being."

Till now Rhodopis had been smiling, but when she perceived that Phanes'
banishment had to do with his contempt for the sacred animals, her face
became more serious. She knew how many victims, how many human lives, had
already been sacrificed to this Egyptian superstition, and how, only a
short time before, the king Amasis himself had endeavored in vain to
rescue an unfortunate Samian, who had killed a cat, from the vengeance of
the enraged populace.

[The cat was probably the most sacred of all the animals worshipped
by the Egyptians. Herod tells that when a house was on fire the
Egyptians never thought of extinguishing the fire until their cats
were all saved, and that when a cat died, they shaved their heads in
sign of mourning. Whoever killed one of these animals, whether
intentionally or by accident, suffered the penalty, of death,
without any chance of mercy. Diod. (I. 81.) himself witnessed the
murder of a Roman citizen who had killed a cat, by the Egyptian
people; and this in spite of the authorities, who in fear of the
powerful Romans, endeavored to prevent the deed. The bodies of the
cats were carefully embalmed and buried, and their mummies are to be
found in every museum. The embalmed cat, carefully wrapped in linen
bandages, is oftener to be met with than any other of the many
animals thus preserved by the Egyptians. In spite of the great care
bestowed on cats, there can have been no lack of mice in Egypt. In
one nomos or province the shrew-mouse was sacred, and a satirical,
obscene papyrus in Turin shows us a war between the cats and mice;
the Papyrus Ebers contains poisons for mice. We ourselves possess a
shrew-mouse exquisitely wrought in bronze.]

"Everything was going well," continued the officer, "when we left Memphis
two years ago.

"I confided my pair of cats to the care of one of the Egyptian servants
at the palace, feeling sure that these enemies of the rats would keep my
dwelling clear for the future; indeed I began to feel a certain
veneration for my deliverers from the plague of mice.

"Last year Amasis fell ill before the court could adjourn to Memphis, and
we remained