Thus Food
For Their Support Has Been Appointed And If Any One Kill Any Of These
Animals, The Penalty, If He Do It With His Own Will, Is Death, And If
Against His Will, Such Penalty As The Priests May Appoint:
But
whosoever shall kill an ibis or a hawk, whether it be with his will or
against his will, must die.
Of the animals that live with men there
are great numbers, and would be many more but for the accidents which
befall the cats. For when the females have produced young they are no
longer in the habit of going to the males, and these seeking to be
united with them are not able. To this end then they contrive as
follows, - they either take away by force or remove secretly the young
from the females and kill them (but after killing they do not eat
them), and the females being deprived of their young and desiring
more, therefore come to the males, for it is a creature that is fond
of its young. Moreover when a fire occurs, the cats seem to be
divinely possessed; for while the Egyptians stand at intervals and
look after the cats, not taking any care to extinguish the fire, the
cats slipping through or leaping over the men, jump into the fire; and
when this happens, great mourning comes upon the Egyptians. And in
whatever houses a cat has died by a natural death, all those who dwell
in this house shave their eyebrows only, but those in which a dog has
died shave their whole body and also their head.
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