40 Fun Facts About The Cat of Bubastes

In The Cat of Bubastes, which bird are Chebron and Amuba trying to kill when the sacred cat dies?

A hawk had been raiding the waterfowl Mysa kept as pets, so the two friends lay in wait for it; Amuba brought the bird down cleanly while Chebron's shot went astray.

In The Cat of Bubastes, what glances off a twig and kills the sacred cat, to Chebron's horror?

An arrow from Chebron's bow was deflected into the cats' house, where it pierced the largest animal, chosen only two days earlier for the great temple.

In The Cat of Bubastes, which biblical figure carries the beaten Amuba to safety in his chariot?

Moses appears as a prince of Egypt who reveals that he too is an Israelite, set afloat in a cradle as an infant and adopted by a princess.

In The Cat of Bubastes, what animal is dragging off the girl Chebron saves with a blow of his spear?

A crocodile had seized her by the leg, and Chebron struck it on the nose even though he had been taught to hold the creature sacred.

In The Cat of Bubastes, what is the trade of Chigron, who hides Chebron and Amuba from the hunt?

Embalmer Chigron had risen from a small workman through the patronage of Ameres, who trusted him absolutely and left a large sum of money in his hands.

In The Cat of Bubastes, Amuba's home city stands on the western shore of which sea?

The Caspian Sea guards one side of the city's rock plateau, and the preface insists that Egyptian armies really did carry their conquests to its shores.

In The Cat of Bubastes, Ameres is the high priest of which Egyptian god?

Osiris is the god Ameres serves, a post so exalted that priests seeking a new sacred cat call at his house rather than have the animal brought to them.

In The Cat of Bubastes, to which Egyptian city are the captive Amuba and Jethro marched as slaves?

Thebes is where the pair are handed to the high priest Ameres, whose walled house and gardens make the royal palace Amuba grew up in seem a miserable hut.

Which Victorian author of historical adventure stories for boys wrote The Cat of Bubastes?

G. A. Henty wrote 122 books, most of them for children, and said his storytelling grew out of tales he told his own children after dinner.

The preface of The Cat of Bubastes says accidentally killing a cat in Egypt brought what penalty?

Death was the punishment for killing any cat at all, the author insists, and he says the law held until Egypt's dealings with Rome.

Which conquering pharaoh in The Cat of Bubastes leads the army that enslaves Amuba?

Thutmose III, spelled Thotmes in the novel, won so many campaigns that the Egyptologist James Breasted called him the Napoleon of Egypt.

In The Cat of Bubastes, to which fair-haired, blue-eyed people does the young captive Amuba belong?

The Rebu are shown as a warlike tribe skilled in working gold, and the preface notes that Egyptian sculptures depict a conquered people of that name.

In The Cat of Bubastes, which Israelite girl saved by Chebron in Lower Egypt later becomes his wife?

Ruth first joins the household as Mysa's attendant, and the story closes with a double royal wedding in Amuba's capital.

In The Cat of Bubastes, which scheming priest has Ameres killed and then takes his office?

Ptylus turned on Ameres after his son was refused Mysa's hand, and he later carries the girl off to force the match.

In The Cat of Bubastes, what is the name of Mysa's great cat chosen for the temple at Bubastes?

Paucis outshone every rival in size and beauty, though Mysa privately liked her less than her livelier, less stately cats.

In The Cat of Bubastes, how is Neco, the priestly elder brother of Chebron, murdered?

Stabbed in the back outside his own door, Neco may have been mistaken for the eavesdropper who overheard a plot in the temple.

In The Cat of Bubastes, who kills the high priest Ameres once the buried sacred cat is found?

An angry mob, urged on by rival priests, broke down his gate, and Ameres refused to flee because he had done no wrong.

In The Cat of Bubastes, what finally uncovers the sacred cat that Amuba buried among the bushes?

Hunting dogs smelled the body and scratched away the soil that Amuba had carefully levelled and strewn with dead leaves.

In The Cat of Bubastes, how does Amuba's mother, the queen, die as the Egyptians take her city?

She drinks poison the night before the surrender, preferring to join her husband, who had been killed in battle four days earlier.

At Amense's banquet in The Cat of Bubastes, what is shown to each guest as a reminder of mortality?

A model mummy about three feet long was presented to each diner in turn, but the guests knew the custom so well that the laughter soon resumed.

In The Cat of Bubastes, which animal does Chebron say has no spirit to defend itself when hunted?

A hippopotamus, held by nooses and speared from the bank, dies so tamely that Amuba likens the sport to slaughtering a cow.

In The Cat of Bubastes, what do the lake fowlers hurl into rising flocks of ducks?

Throwing-sticks of curved wood, about two feet long, often bring down three or four birds apiece, and the fowlers' cats then fetch both birds and sticks.

In The Cat of Bubastes, what do priests use the hidden stairway behind the temple's great idol for?

Faking the god's replies is its purpose: a priest speaks through a slit at the idol's lips, a trick that pains Chebron when the boys stumble on it.

In The Cat of Bubastes, what do Chebron and Amuba haul up behind them to escape the temple priests?

A workmen's ladder left by painters restoring the wall figures took them to the top, and they carried it along to climb down the outer wall.

In The Cat of Bubastes, what weapon does Jethro use to kill the priest behind the murder of Ameres?

A heavy club in Jethro's hands first shatters the priest's sword, and Jethro declares he is carrying out an execution, not a murder.

In The Cat of Bubastes, how is Chebron disguised when he helps rescue Mysa from her kidnappers?

As a peasant woman Chebron felt sure nobody would know him, whereas Amuba was too tall and broad for the same disguise.

In The Cat of Bubastes, which faith do King Amuba and Chebron slowly spread among their people?

Belief in one God comes to them from the private teaching of Ameres and from an Israelite girl, and Amuba spreads it without closing the old temples.

In The Cat of Bubastes, what post does Chebron hold once Amuba is king?

Chief minister, adviser and friend to the king, Chebron helps bring in Egyptian irrigation, stone building and wheeled carts.

In The Cat of Bubastes, what do Amuba and Jethro pose as on re-entering their conquered homeland?

Persian traders carried on almost all commerce in the region, so the disguise let the party pass from village to village unquestioned.

In The Cat of Bubastes, which animals does Jethro hire at Ælana to carry the party toward Palmyra?

Camels are described as little used thereabouts, and Jethro gets his from an Arab who had fallen ill and missed his caravan home.

In The Cat of Bubastes, which sea do the fugitives reach after leaving the Nile to cross the desert?

The Red Sea carries them north by ship to the gulf now called Aqaba, a route chosen to keep them out of Lower Egypt.

In The Cat of Bubastes, in which hillside town do the wounded travellers rest for a week?

Petra is only a large village of low stone houses in the story, which adds that it afterward rose into a place of importance.

In The Cat of Bubastes, Ameres takes Chebron to inspect a new canal on his estate in which region?

Goshen is the land the novel says was given to Joseph’s family, and Ameres finds its people the hardest in Egypt to recruit for public works.

The real city of Bubastis, namesake of The Cat of Bubastes, was sacred to which feline goddess?

Bastet was first worshipped as a lioness and only later shown as a cat; the novel calls her Baste, Bubastes or Pasht.

In The Cat of Bubastes, which sacred animal alone ranks above the temple cat of Bubastes in dignity?

The Apis bull, like the cat, had to bear particular markings, and without them the cat's post could stand empty for years.

In The Cat of Bubastes, what do the men of the household shave off while mourning Neco?

Their eyebrows come off for forty days of strict mourning, when the household also gives up meat, wine and even the bath.

In The Cat of Bubastes, which meat is absent from Amense's banquet because Egyptians never eat it?

Mutton is missing because, the novel says, large flocks of sheep were kept only for their wool; beef, goose and gazelle are all served.

With which greeting to young readers does the author open the preface of The Cat of Bubastes?

My Dear Lads is how the preface begins, before crediting tomb paintings and the dry climate for how much is known of Egyptian daily life.

Besides writing novels such as The Cat of Bubastes, its author worked in which profession?

As a war correspondent for the Standard newspaper he covered the Austro-Italian War, the Franco-Prussian War and the Ashanti War.

In The Cat of Bubastes, why does the Egyptian king spare every life in Amuba's captured city?

Its defenders fought bravely, and the king says he shows little mercy to cowards but treats men as men.