he dark.
On this account the cat is likened to the moon. But in Egypt feline
eyes shine with supernatural lustre. Mr. Hyde Clarke tells us that
"the mummies of cats, which Herodotus saw at Bubastis, attested
then, as they do now, to the dedication of the cat to Pasht, the moon,
and the veneration of the Egyptians for this animal. The cat must
have been known to man, and have been named at least as early as
the origin of language. The superstition of its connection with the
moon is also of pre-historic date, and not invented by the Egyptians.
According to Plutarch, a cat placed in a lustrum denoted the moon,
illustrating the mutual symbology. He supposes that this is because
the pupils of a cat's eyes dilate and decrease with the moon. The
reason most probably depends, as before intimated, on another
phenomenon of periodicity corresponding to the month. Dr. Rae
has, however, called my attention to another possible cause of the
association, which is the fact that the cat's eyes glisten at night or in
the dark. It is to be observed that the name of the sun in the Malayan
and North American languages is the day-eye, or sky-eye, and that
of the moon the night-eye." [193] Our own daisy, too, is the _day's
eye_, resembling the sun, and opening its little pearly lashes when
the spring wakes to newness of life.

The Nubians "pay adoration to the moon; and that their worship is
performed with pleasure and satisfaction, is obvious every night that
she shines. Coming out from the darkness of their huts, they say a
few words upon seeing her brightness, and testify great joy, by
motions of their feet and hands, at the first appearance of the new
moon." [194] The Shangalla worship the moon, and think that "a
star passing near the horns of the moon denotes the coming of an
enemy." [195] In Western Africa moon-worship is very prevalent.
Merolla says: "They that keep idols in their houses, every first day
of the moon are obliged to anoint them with a sort of red wood
powdered. At the appearance of every new moon, these people fall
on their knees, or else cry out, standing and clapping their hands, 'So
may I renew my life as thou art renewed.'" [196]

H. H. Johnston, Esq., F.Z.S., F.R.G.S., who had just returned from
the region of the Congo, related the following curious incident
before the Anthropological Institute, in January, 1884. It looks
remarkably like a relic of ancient worship, which gave the fruit of
the body for the sin of t