The porpoise[24] is known as “Abu Salâma” or “Father of Safety,” its useful habit, in days of long ago, being supposed to be the conveyance to shore of shipwrecked sailors. But one day, according to tradition, a porpoise rescued a negro, who, as soon as he reached shore, most ungratefully put a knife into poor Abu Salâma. Since that day shipwrecked mariners have had to shift for themselves. (Note how the blame is put on to the subject race. Prof. D’Arcy Thomson[25] gives a similar superstition regarding another kind of dolphin at Rio de Janeiro, where it is said to bring home the bodies of drowned sailors, and to defend swimmers against another genus which is dangerous to man.) No one will destroy a cat or drown young kittens. This is not merely misplaced compassion or respect for life in general, as they bury[26] superfluous puppies without any qualm. Perhaps it is a relic of the ancient Egyptians’ reverence for these animals. I tried to point out the inhumanity of allowing cats to multiply unchecked, and found that the avoidance of causing suffering to the cat had little, if anything, to do with the matter. “If they die of starvation it does not matter, but we must not kill them.” The consequence is that every town and village swarms with miserable half-starved cats. I was once staying in a house where the balcony, on which we dined, overhung the sea at a height of perhaps 30 feet. A miserable cat, which had adopted the house as her residence, came and made herself a nuisance by the usual feline methods. One of the guests rose, caught, and threw her over the balcony into the sea. It seemed rather callous, but obviously such an animal’s destruction lessens the amount of misery in the world. I could hardly believe my eyes two days later, when that same cat walked on to the verandah. It appears that the process, which I had thought necessarily fatal, was repeated on this cat at recurring intervals, the dose being only sufficiently powerful to take effect for two or three days, after which she was as actively disagreeable as ever, and it had to be repeated. Talking of cats there are not less than seven names for this one beast in Arabic! I wish I had taken down the complete list as my informant gave it, but one of the two I know is a good instance of onomatopœia, or instinctive naming from sounds associated with the object. The Arabic _gutt_ is obviously the same as cat, and may be the same word by actual derivation, but the Red Sea word is “Biss,” which, the Arab not being able to pronounce the letter P, is the same as “Puss.” It is hard to believe that this should actually pass through Egypt to finally be used in England as a merely “pet” name. It must have arisen independently in the two countries.