Idylls and Lyrics of The Nile By H. D. Rawnsley |
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| I. |
| II. |
| III. |
| IV. |
| V. |
| VI. |
| VII. | VII THE FATHER OF THE CATS |
| VIII. |
| IX. |
| X. |
| XI. |
| XII. |
| XIII. |
| XIV. |
| XV. |
| XVI. |
| XVII. |
| XVIII. |
| XIX. |
| XX. |
| XXI. |
| XXII. |
| XXIII. |
| XXIV. |
| XXV. |
| XXVI. |
| XXVII. |
| XXVIII. |
| XXIX. |
| XXX. |
| XXXI. |
| XXXII. |
| XXXIII. |
| XXXIV. |
| XXXV. |
| XXXVI. |
| XXXVII. |
| XXXVIII. |
| XXXIX. |
| XL. |
| XLI. |
| XLII. |
| XLIII. |
| XLIV. |
| XLV. |
| XLVI. |
| XLVII. |
| XLVIII. |
| XLIX. |
| L. |
| LI. |
| LII. |
| LIII. |
| LIV. |
| LV. |
| LVI. |
| LVII. |
| LVIII. |
| LIX. |
| LX. |
| LXI. |
| LXII. |
| LXII. |
| LXIV. |
 | Idylls and Lyrics of The Nile |  |
14
VII THE FATHER OF THE CATS
Bare to the waist, and wild of locks,
The Dervish on his camel sways,
And back and forward as he rocks
Above the town's tumultuous ways,
He bears the cry by wall and dome,
‘The Father of the Cats has come!’
The Dervish on his camel sways,
And back and forward as he rocks
Above the town's tumultuous ways,
He bears the cry by wall and dome,
‘The Father of the Cats has come!’
The Father of the Cats, he smiles,
And from his camel-bag he takes
A puss he nursed a thousand miles,
And o'er the laughing crowd he shakes
His furry charge, while at his breast
Another purrs to be caressed.
And from his camel-bag he takes
A puss he nursed a thousand miles,
And o'er the laughing crowd he shakes
His furry charge, while at his breast
Another purrs to be caressed.
Another and another peeps
From out the ‘houritch,’ just for fun,
Cat-father prodigal he keeps
Full fifty daughters of the sun,
Who over desert sands have gone
To see the black Kȧȧba stone.
From out the ‘houritch,’ just for fun,
Cat-father prodigal he keeps
Full fifty daughters of the sun,
Who over desert sands have gone
To see the black Kȧȧba stone.
15
The camel, with high nose in air,
Stalks proudly thro' the city's pack,
As if he felt almost aware
That goddesses were on his back,
As if he bore as on he pass't
Astarte, Aphrodite, Bast.
Stalks proudly thro' the city's pack,
As if he felt almost aware
That goddesses were on his back,
As if he bore as on he pass't
Astarte, Aphrodite, Bast.
No more to fair Bubastis' shrine
With pipe and song the votaries seek,
We drink to-day a poorer wine,
The prophet's cup at Zagazeek;
But still the Meccan pilgrim knows
Men pay the Cat-head goddess vows.
With pipe and song the votaries seek,
We drink to-day a poorer wine,
The prophet's cup at Zagazeek;
But still the Meccan pilgrim knows
Men pay the Cat-head goddess vows.
And these poor tabbies, as of old,
Are emblems of the powers that are;
The ‘hadj,’ in tempest, heat and cold,
Feels Passion, sun, and Love, his star,
And dreams the narrow pathway lies
Thro' passionate love to Paradise.
Are emblems of the powers that are;
The ‘hadj,’ in tempest, heat and cold,
Feels Passion, sun, and Love, his star,
And dreams the narrow pathway lies
Thro' passionate love to Paradise.
But what, O Father of the Cats,
Are symbols to a hungry man?
Better to know no mice or rats
Will plague your pilgrim's caravan,
That meal in camel-bags will stay,
If ‘Pasht’ be guardian of your way.
Are symbols to a hungry man?
Better to know no mice or rats
Will plague your pilgrim's caravan,
That meal in camel-bags will stay,
If ‘Pasht’ be guardian of your way.
16
Note.—It is perhaps a relic of the worship of Pasht or Bast at Bubastis, of which Herodotus gives us so glowing an account, that still each year, with the Caravan to Mecca, there goes a camel laden with cats, in the care of an old Dervish who is generally known as the ‘Father of the Cats.’
It is doubtless also with an eye to the preservation of the Caravan from a plague of rats and mice during their halts that poor puss is thus compelled to be an annual pilgrim. The goddess Pasht or Sekhet Bast was a daughter of the Sun, who warred continually against the demon of the night.
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