Democratic Sentinel, Volume 16, Number 5, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 19 February 1892 — CATS AND DOGS. [ARTICLE]

CATS AND DOGS.

CURIOUS FACTS ABOUT MANKIND'S FAVORITE PETS. Dogs Descended Variously From Coyotes, Wolves and Jackals— Cats Domesticated by the Ancient Egyptians. ‘•Cats and dogs have a varied ancestry,” said a naturalist to a Star writer. People commonly imagine that in speaking of dogs they are referring to a single species which Ims many varieties. But in reality the name is mereiy a conventional ono. under which are grouped in popular parlance all of the domes'looted caniihe. The North American coyote is in fact, much nearer to the greylioun 1, zoologically speaking, than the pug is. It is simply a wild dog. So is the wolf likewise. From just such wild types man’s faithful four-tooted friends are descended. “When Columbus discovered America ho found that the Indians possessed dogs. They were direct descendants of the wild coyotes of the plains. You can find a beautifully mounted group of ooyotos in a glass case at the National Museum—a male, female and young ono. Their resemblance to certain domesticated dogs is very striking. On the other hand, the Eskimo dog is derived from the wolf. Doubtless the first dogs which were trained to serve mankind were the jackals of Asia, which are to this dnv very intelligent and doeilo when turned. There was a kind of dog kept by the ancient Egyptians which was evidently obtained by breeding from a slenderly built species that is wild in Africa at the present time. “Wherever the ennidm , have boon found by'mtui the most docile of them have been transformed into domesticated dogs. Young ones were reared and bred from, the best tempered and most intelligent specimens being preserved from generation to generation, until finally tho beasts became gentle and affectionate servants. Spreading over Europe from Asia the human race brought with it the tallied progeny of the jackal, and from this original sourco are presumably derived most of the European breeds that uro best known to-day. By artificial selection mankind has actually boon able to create races of useful brutes.

“With eats the .ease is in some respects the same. The first people known to have domesticated them were the auoient Egyptians, on whose monuments representations of these animals are found its early us JfiOO B. C. It is on a tomb erected uho it 11100 I!. C. that, puss first appears unmistakably as a domesticated creature, being shown seated beneath u chair. In ancient Egypt the cat was an object of religious worship and was even an inmate of the temples There was actually a eat goddess named Buliastis, who wus always depicted as having a cut's baud. Behind the tempie dedicated to her at linui Hasson grout pits have ( beeit, found cmitauiing multitudes (if oat mummies. The out was also regarded as an embjcin of the sun, its eyes being supposed to vary in eolorwith tlio progress of that luminary through thp heavens. Likewise its eves were believed to undergo u change ouch lunar month, for which reason the beast was also sacred to the mo n.

“ Herodotus said that when a cut died a natural death in an Egyptian house tho occupants of the dwelling went into mourning nud shaved off their eyebrows, When a tiro ocourred they were more anxious to save the cat thun to extinguish tho conflagration. Nevertheless, in some parts of the same country cuts were regarded as unclean animals, for a creature which was considered sacred in one town was often viewed with horror as impure In a neighboring city. That was tho case with the crocodile in Egypt, which in some parts wus ruthlessly hunted and destroyed, while in others it was made a pot of, laden with gold onmmimts und waited upon by priests. “The ancient Egyptian cut wus the progeny of a species that is wild in that country to-day, being known as the seiiM municuiutu. This latter may lie Regarded ns the ancestor of nearly all existing pussies of domesticated varieties, its descendants were brought from Egypt to (ireece and llomo, whence they spread over Europe. When tlio Homans invaded Britain they found plenty of wild cuts in the woods, but the people owned no tuino ones. The felis muuiculntu is of a yellowish color, darkifr on the buck and whitish underneath, with obscure stripes on the body and a tail ringed toward tho end. "Cats are so common nowadays that people do not realize their value, although they would soon do so if they hud to get along 'without them fora while and suffer from tlio plague of vermin which would arrive through unrestricted multi ply Dig of tlio pests which the pussios destroy and drive away. So late as tho middle ages cals tvero comparatively source in Europe and were so highly prized that any person who killed one was obliged to pay u fine. This penalty sometimes required to he paid-in the shape of a pile of wheat big enough to cover tho slain animal when it was hold vertically by the tip of its tail, the nose touching the ground. “Conditions other than those of mere breeding seem to have much influence on the development of physical character iu cats. In one authenticated ease a tabby which hud lost her tail by having that appendage run over gave’ birth in her next litter to three stump-tailed kttteiis out of seven. The Manx cut is not the only tailless variety. In the Crimea is oiuid another kind of cut which lius no tail. The domesticated Malay eat lias a tail that is only about ono huff tho usual length and very often it is tied by nature in a sort of knot whicli cannot bo straightened out. It is said tliut in China there is a cat that has drooping ears, though 1 am not able to vouch for the truth us to that point. The Mombas cat of the west coast of Africa is covered with stiff, bristly hair. A Paraguay cat is only one-quarter as big as the ordinury cut of this part of tho world. It has a long body and short shiny hair. In South America there is a race of cats which do not know how to miuuow.”