| CATS...there
is something about their confident personality that we admire. In fact,
the ancient Egyptians were so fascinated by this detached quality of the
cat that they considered them to be nothing less than godlike. To the
Egyptians all cats were divine, and extreme behavior was often acted out
to reinforce this conviction. For instance, if a someone happened to
come across a dead cat in the street, he or she would put on a loud
display of sorrow and mourning just to make sure no one thought that
they were responsible for killing the cat. You see, according to
Egyptian law, being found guilty of cat murder was punishable by death.
Whenever a household cat died of natural causes, the entire family would go through a period of grief, shaving their eyebrows as a mark of their sadness. Deceased cats were very often mummified and entombed with fine jewelry and treasures; a custom usually reserved for only the most powerful and wealthy of the ruling class. (excerpt from "The History of the Domestic Cat ") |