the other is influenced by psychic phenomena--a fact that could scarcely
have failed to be recognized by so keen observers of the occult as the
Ancient Egyptians.

"The presence of the cat's effigy in the temples of Isis might thus be
explained. Over and over again we come across the cat in the land of the
Pharaohs. It seems to be inseparable from the esoteric side of Egyptian
life. The goddess Bast is depicted with a cat's head, holding the
sistrum, i.e. the symbol of the world's harmony, in her hand.

"One of the most ancient symbols of the cat is to be found in the
Necropolis of Thebes, which contains the tomb of Hana (who probably
belonged to the Eleventh Dynasty). There, Hana is depicted standing
erect, proud and kingly, with his favourite cat Borehaki--Borehaki, the
picture of all things strange and psychic, and from whom one cannot help
supposing he may have chosen his occult inspiration--at his feet. So
sure were the Egyptians that the cat possessed a soul that they deemed
it worthy of the same funeral rites they bestowed on man. Cats were
embalmed, and innumerable cat mummies have been discovered in wooden
coffins at Bubastis, Speos, Artemidos and Thebes. When a cat died the
Egyptians shaved their eyebrows, not only to show grief at the loss of
their loved one, but to avert subsequent misfortune.

"So long as a cat was in his house the Egyptian felt safe from inimical
supernatural influences, but if there was no cat in the house at night,
then any undesirable from the occult world might visit him. Indeed, in
such high esteem did the Egyptians hold the cat, that they voluntarily
incurred the gravest risks when its life was in peril. No one of them
appreciated the cat and set a higher value on its mystic properties than
the Sultan El-Daher-Beybas, who reigned in A.D. 1260, and has been
compared with William of Tripoli for his courage, and with Nero for his
cruelty. El-Daher-Beybas kept his palace swarming with cats, and--if we
may give credence to tradition--was seldom to be seen unaccompanied by
one of these animals. When he died, he left the proceeds from the
product of a garden to support his feline friends--an example that found
many subsequent imitators. Indeed, until comparatively recently in
Cairo, cats were regularly fed, between noon and sunset, in the outer
court of the Mehkemeh.

"In Geneva, Rome and Constantinople, though cats were generally deemed
to have souls and to possess psychic properties,