A beautiful engraving from a rare British Victorian natural history book.
 
A lovely image of an Egyptian Cat carrying her young.
This is an animal of great historic interest, as its remains have been found embalmed in the Egyptian monuments. At the present day (1892) it is found in Abyssinia and Egypt. It is about the size of an average Domestic Cat, but has a longer tail. The general colour is light tawny or yellowish-grey, with dark transverse bands. The tail is tawny, white below, and ringed only at the termination. (1892)
As a revered animal and one very important to Egyptian society and religion, the cat was afforded the same mummification after death as humans were. Mummified cats were given in offering to Bast; in 1888, an Egyptian farmer accidentally uncovered a large tomb containing tens of thousands of mummified cats and kittens. This discovery outside the town of Beni Hasan contained around eighty thousand cat mummies, dating back to 1000-2000 BC. (Wikipedia) |
 Very Good
Please Note: There is very faint shadowing from the text/pictures on the reverse of the print. This is hardly noticeable and does not detract from the beauty of the print.
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