THE SHORT-HAIRED DOMESTIC CAT. The domestic cat in history and legend. Part 2.

     It seems that the Kaffir cat was predestined to become a culture-follower, and searched man out of its own accord. We know, furthermore, that the settled Egyptian farmers were greatly afficted by the severe damage done by mice and rats to their hard-won stores of grain. They were always dependent on whether the Nile would flood and briefly make the land fertile, or wether the mass of water from Central Africa would fail to reach them, resulting in aridity and drought. Thus, in order to survive, it was essential for the Egyptians to store ample supplies in their granaries. Naturally these stores of grain attracted hordes of rodents. It was not long before the Egyptians discovered that these pests were the cats' favourite prey. This may have been what caused the cat to become an object of Egyptian cult worship as the 'protector' of their grain supplies.