Cat
the Felis catus ferus, a species and earthen ware. It is an important market for the agricultural produce of the surrounding district. It has a beaufrom the European forests. In its wild state it differs from the domestic animal and several convents. Pop. about 12,000. larger head, and stronger limbs. Its color is grayish-brown, with darker, transverse undulations. Its manners resemble those of the lynx, living in woods, and preying on young hares, birds, and a variety of other animals, which it seizes by surprise. At what period cats, became inmates of human first domesticated in Egypt. The cat belongs to a genus better armed for the scles, are destruction of animal life than all other quadrupeds. The short and powerful this period, to determine, but there is good reason to believe that they were at first domesticated in Egypt. The cat belongs to a genus better armed for the destruction of animal life than all other quadrupeds. The short and powerful jaws, moved by vigorous muscles, supplied with most formidable trenchant teeth; a cunning disposition, combined death-blow. All animals considerably in pursuit, gives them great advantages weaker than themselves prove objects of pursuit; but the mouse is their favorite game; for which they will patiently wait ing claws enable them to inflict a certain pursuit; but the mouse is their favorite death-blow. All animals considerably for a whole day till the victim comes within reach, when they seize it with a bound and after playing with it, put it to death. The pupil of the eye in most game; for which they will patiently wait for a whole day till the victim comes within reach, when they seize it with a bound and after playing with it, put it a little in the dark, and contracts when to death. The pupil of the eye in most animals is capable of but a small degree of contraction and dilatation; it enlarges the light pours upon it too profusely; but in the eyes of cats this contraction and dilatation is so considerable that the pupil, which by day appears narrow and small, by night expands over the whole surface of the eye-ball, and gives the eyes a luminous appearance. By means The cat goes with of this peculiar structure, their eyes are better adapted for vision at night than in the daytime; and they are thus fitted for discovering and surprising their young for 63 days and brings forth from three to six at a litter, which remain blind for nine days. The varieties of this animal in a domestic state are very cleanly animal. The cat goes with cleanly animal. young for 63 days and brings forth from blind for nine days. The varieties of this animal in a domestic state are very numerous. numerous. places for the burial of the dead, the bodies being placed in graves or recesses many Oriental nations. In Sicily and hollowed out in the sides of the cave. Caves of this kind were common among the Phoenicians, Greeks, Persians, and Caves of this kind were common among Asia Minor numerous excavations have been discovered containing sepulchers, and the catacombs near Naples are remarkably extensive. Those of Rome, however, are the most important. The term catacumbæ is said to have been originally applied to the district near Rome which contains the chapel of St. originally applied to the district near cording to tradition, the body of St. Peter was first deposited; but (besides its general application) it is now applied in a eral application) it is now applied in a ranean burial-places in the neighborhood town itself as well as the neighboring CATALEPSY country, and are said to contain not less than 6,000,000 tombs. They consist of long, narrow galleries usually about 8 feet high and 5 feet wide, which branch off in all directions, forming a perfect maze of corridors. Different stories of galleries lie one below the other. Vertical shafts run up to the outer air, thus introducing light and air, though in small quantity. The graves or loculi lie longwise in the galleries. They are closed laterally by a slab. The earliest that can be dated with any certainty belongs to the year 111 A. D. In early times rich Christians constructed underground burying-places for themselves and their brethren, which they held as private property under the protection of the law. But in course of time, partly by their coming under the control of the Church and partly by accidents of proprietorship, these private burying-grounds were connected with each other, and became the property, not of particular individuals, but of the Christian community. In the 3d century A. D. there were already several such common burying-places belonging to the Christian congregations, and their number went on increasing till the time of Constantine, when the catacombs ceased to be used as burying-places.
From the time of Constantine down to the 8th century they were used only as places of devotion and worship. During the siege of Rome by the Lombards in the 8th century the catacombs were in part destroyed, and soon became entirely inaccessible, so that they were forgotten, and only the careful and laborious in vestigations of moderns, among whom De Rossi (Roma Sotterranea) and Parker (The Catacombs) may be mentioned, have thrown anything like a complete light on the origin and history of the catacombs. There are extensive catacombs at Paris, consisting of old quarries from which has been obtained much of the material for the building of the city. In them are accumulated bones removed from cemeteries now built over.