ABSTRACT
For a long time manufacturers of different nationalities have been accustomed to seek out the burying grounds of animals throughout Egypt. It seems that the cats of this year were discovered near Beni-Hassan in the place called by geographers Speos-Artemidos. Statuettes of cats of different sizes, portraits of the goddess Bastit with a cats head, or of the god Nofirtoumou, are mingled with the mummies. Scholars have studied them and are unanimous, Virchow, recently in recognizing them as Felis maniculata and Felis chaus. Wilkinson quotes in support a fairly large number of mural paintings where they stalk through the reeds, routing out little birds. In Egypt, the ichneumon and the cat were always associated. Thence come the thousands of bronze cats, big and little, with which all the antiquaries of Europe and Cairo. It would be a pity not to profit by such an invasion of Egyptian cats, and to try to obtain a definite solution of the question.
