Mythology_. The lines referring to cat-worship are as follow:--

'You cry and wail whene'er ye spy a cat,
Starving or sick; I count it not a sin
To hang it up, and flay it for its skin;'

from which it appears this gay free-thinker was not only somewhat
sceptical in his religious notions, but, moreover, a hard-hearted,
good-for-nothing fellow--one who, had he lived in our 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