Wherever the Cat is found as a domesticated animal it is held in great esteem. This feeling was carried to its greatest extent by the ancient Egyptians, whose devotion to their pets was such that, according to Herodotus, when a fire broke out, they cared for nothing but the safety of their Cats, and were terribly afflicted if one of them fell a victim to the flames. On the death of a Cat, the inhabitants of the house shaved off their eyebrows, and the deceased animal was embalmed, and buried with great solemnity in a sacred spot. Many Cat mummies have been found in the Egyptian tombs, and some are to be seen in the British Museum, together with similarly preserved specimens of human beings, and of sacred Calves. Some individuals were wrapped separately in ample bandages covered with inscriptions; others of a less degree of sanctity were preserved in numbers with a single wrapping for several. Their movements and their cries were consulted as oracles, and the murder, or even the accidental felicide of one of them, was punished by death. [Illustration: TEETH OF DOMESTIC CAT.] The earliest account of the Cat in Britain is as far back as A.D. 948. “That excellent prince _Howel Dha_, or _Howel the Good_, did not think it beneath him, among his laws relating to the prices, &c., of animals, to include that of the Cat, and to describe the qualities it ought to have. The price of a kitling, before it could see, was to be a penny; till it caught a Mouse, twopence. It was required, besides, that it should be perfect in its senses of hearing and seeing, be a good mouser, have the claws whole, and be a good nurse; but if it failed in any of these qualities, the seller was to forfeit to the buyer the third part of its value. If any one stole or killed the Cat that guarded the prince’s granary, he was to forfeit a milch ewe, its fleece, and lamb, or as much wheat as, when poured on the Cat, suspended by its tail (the head touching the floor), would form a heap high enough to cover the tip of the former. This last quotation is not only curious as being an evidence of the simplicity of ancient manners, but it almost proves to demonstration that Cats are not aborigines of these islands, or known to the earliest inhabitants. The large prices set on them, if we consider the high value of specimens at that time, and the great care taken of the improvement and breed of an animal that multiplies so fast, are almost certain proofs of their being little known at that period.”[48] Moreover, as the Wild Cat was abundant in Britain at this or at more recent periods, it is tolerably certain that this species is not the parent of our domestic kinds. [Illustration: MUMMY OF EGYPTIAN CAT.]