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Our domestic cat came to us from Egypt, where it had been tamed by a long process of kindness, or, it may be, of worship. In no classical writer, Greek or Roman, do we find the cat as a domestic animal before the third century It is first mentioned by Caesarius, the physician, brother of Gregory, the theologian of Nazianzus, who died 369  He speaks of. About the same time Palladius (De re rustica, IV. 9, 4) writes: 'Contra talpas prodest catos (cattos) frequenter habere in mediis carduetis (artichoke-gardens). Mustelas habent plerique mansuetas; aliqui foramina earum rubrica et succo agrestis cucumeris impleverunt. Nonnulli juxta cubilia talparum plures cavernas aperiunt, ut illae territae fugiant solis admissu. Plerique laqueos in aditu earum setis pendentibus ponunt.' Hehn supposes that talpa here means mouse. But whether it means mouse or mole, it is clear that when