The Cat of Bubastes: A Tale of Ancient Egypt Read online

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  THE CAT OF BUBASTES

  G.A. HENTY.

  C. of B. THE REBU PEOPLE LED INTO CAPTIVITY.--Page 55.]

  THE CAT OF BUBASTES. A TALE OF ANCIENT EGYPT. BY G. A. HENTY,

  _Author of "The Young Carthaginian," "For the Temple," "In the Reign of Terror," "Bonnie Prince Charlie," "In Freedom's Cause," etc., etc._

  _FIVE PAGE ILLUSTRATIONS BY J. R. WEGUELIN._

  NEW YORK: THE F. M. LUPTON PUBLISHING COMPANY.

  PREFACE.

  My Dear Lads: Thanks to the care with which the Egyptians depictedupon the walls of their sepulchers the minutest doings of their dailylife, to the dryness of the climate which has preserved these recordsuninjured for so many thousand years, and to the indefatigable laborof modern investigators, we know far more of the manners and customsof the Egyptians, of their methods of work, their sports andamusements, their public festivals, and domestic life, than we do ofthose of peoples comparatively modern. My object in the present storyhas been to give you as lively a picture as possible of that life,drawn from the bulky pages of Sir J. Gardner Wilkinson and otherwriters on the same subject. I have laid the scene in the time ofThotmes III., one of the greatest of the Egyptian monarchs, beingsurpassed only in glory and the extent of his conquests by Rameses theGreat. It is certain that Thotmes carried the arms of Egypt to theshores of the Caspian, and a people named the Rebu, with fair hair andblue eyes, were among those depicted in the Egyptian sculptures asbeing conquered and made tributary. It is open to discussion whetherthe Exodus of the Jews from Egypt took place in the reign of Thotmesor many years subsequently, some authors assigning it to the timeof Rameses. Without attempting to enter into this much-discussedquestion, I have assumed that the Israelites were still in Egypt atthe time of Thotmes, and by introducing Moses just at the time hebegan to take up the cause of the people to whom he belonged, I leaveit to be inferred that the Exodus took place some forty years later. Iwish you to understand, however, that you are not to accept this dateas being absolutely correct. Opinions differ widely upon it; and as noallusion whatever has been discovered either to the Exodus or to anyof the events which preceded it among the records of Egypt, there isnothing to fix the date as occurring during the reign of any one amongthe long line of Egyptian kings. The term Pharaoh used in the Biblethrows no light upon the subject, as Pharaoh simply means king, andthe name of no monarch bearing that appellation is to be found on theEgyptian monuments. I have in no way exaggerated the consequencesarising from the slaying of the sacred cat, as the accidental killingof any cat whatever was an offense punished by death throughout thehistory of Egypt down to the time of the Roman connection with thatcountry.

  Yours sincerely, G. A. HENTY.

  CONTENTS.

  CHAPTER I. PAGE The King of the Rebu 7

  CHAPTER II. The Siege of the City 26

  CHAPTER III. Captive 45

  CHAPTER IV. An Easy Servitude 64

  CHAPTER V. In Lower Egypt 83

  CHAPTER VI. Fowling and Fishing 105

  CHAPTER VII. Hippopotamus and Crocodile 125

  CHAPTER VIII. The Conspiracy in the Temple 147

  CHAPTER IX. A Startling Event 164

  CHAPTER X. The Cat of Bubastes 185

  CHAPTER XI. Dangers Thicken 206

  CHAPTER XII. The Death of Ameres 224

  CHAPTER XIII. The Search for Mysa 245

  CHAPTER XIV. A Prince of Egypt 265

  CHAPTER XV. Ameres is Revenged 284

  CHAPTER XVI. Up the Nile 308

  CHAPTER XVII. Out of Egypt 329

  CHAPTER XVIII. The Desert Journey 349

  CHAPTER XIX. Home at Last 365

  CHAPTER XX. The King of the Rebu 384

  THE CAT OF BUBASTES.