The Cat of Bubastes
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40 free The Cat of Bubastes trivia questions with answers — literature quiz, new questions added Oct 2026.
The Cat of Bubastes is a Victorian adventure novel that drops a captured prince into the household of an Egyptian high priest, then sends him running for his life after one unlucky shot. Young readers have been picking it up for well over a century, and it still works as a fast tour of daily life in ancient Egypt. This quiz follows the story from the fall of Amuba's city to the journey home: the friendship between Amuba and Chebron, the conspiracy among the priests, the accident with the sacred cat, and the escape up the Nile and across the desert. A few questions step outside the plot to the author, the preface and the real history behind the setting. It is written for anyone who has just finished the book, whether for class, a reading group or their own pleasure. Every answer comes with a short explanation, so a wrong guess still points you to the right chapter.
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Q 01In The Cat of Bubastes, which bird are Chebron and Amuba trying to kill when the sacred cat dies?
A hawk
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.
Q 02In The Cat of Bubastes, what glances off a twig and kills the sacred cat, to Chebron's horror?
An arrow
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.
Q 03In The Cat of Bubastes, which biblical figure carries the beaten Amuba to safety in his chariot?
Moses
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.
Q 04In The Cat of Bubastes, what animal is dragging off the girl Chebron saves with a blow of his spear?
A crocodile
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.
Q 05In The Cat of Bubastes, what is the trade of Chigron, who hides Chebron and Amuba from the hunt?
Embalmer
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.
Q 06In The Cat of Bubastes, Amuba's home city stands on the western shore of which sea?
The Caspian 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.
Q 07In The Cat of Bubastes, Ameres is the high priest of which Egyptian god?
Osiris
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.
Q 08In The Cat of Bubastes, to which Egyptian city are the captive Amuba and Jethro marched as slaves?
Thebes
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.
Q 09Which Victorian author of historical adventure stories for boys wrote The Cat of Bubastes?
G. A. Henty
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.
Q 10The preface of The Cat of Bubastes says accidentally killing a cat in Egypt brought what penalty?
Death
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.
Q 11Which conquering pharaoh in The Cat of Bubastes leads the army that enslaves Amuba?
Thutmose III
Thutmose III, spelled Thotmes in the novel, won so many campaigns that the Egyptologist James Breasted called him the Napoleon of Egypt.
Q 12In The Cat of Bubastes, to which fair-haired, blue-eyed people does the young captive Amuba belong?
The Rebu
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.
Q 13In The Cat of Bubastes, which Israelite girl saved by Chebron in Lower Egypt later becomes his wife?
Ruth
Ruth first joins the household as Mysa's attendant, and the story closes with a double royal wedding in Amuba's capital.
Q 21In The Cat of Bubastes, which animal does Chebron say has no spirit to defend itself when hunted?
A hippopotamus
A hippopotamus, held by nooses and speared from the bank, dies so tamely that Amuba likens the sport to slaughtering a cow.
Q 22In The Cat of Bubastes, what do the lake fowlers hurl into rising flocks of ducks?
Throwing-sticks
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.
Q 23In The Cat of Bubastes, what do priests use the hidden stairway behind the temple's great idol for?
Faking the god's replies
Q 14In The Cat of Bubastes, which scheming priest has Ameres killed and then takes his office?
Ptylus
Ptylus turned on Ameres after his son was refused Mysa's hand, and he later carries the girl off to force the match.
Q 15In The Cat of Bubastes, what is the name of Mysa's great cat chosen for the temple at Bubastes?
Paucis
Paucis outshone every rival in size and beauty, though Mysa privately liked her less than her livelier, less stately cats.
Q 16In The Cat of Bubastes, how is Neco, the priestly elder brother of Chebron, murdered?
Stabbed in the back
Stabbed in the back outside his own door, Neco may have been mistaken for the eavesdropper who overheard a plot in the temple.
Q 17In The Cat of Bubastes, who kills the high priest Ameres once the buried sacred cat is found?
An angry mob
An angry mob, urged on by rival priests, broke down his gate, and Ameres refused to flee because he had done no wrong.
Q 18In The Cat of Bubastes, what finally uncovers the sacred cat that Amuba buried among the bushes?
Hunting dogs
Hunting dogs smelled the body and scratched away the soil that Amuba had carefully levelled and strewn with dead leaves.
Q 19In The Cat of Bubastes, how does Amuba's mother, the queen, die as the Egyptians take her city?
She drinks poison
She drinks poison the night before the surrender, preferring to join her husband, who had been killed in battle four days earlier.
Q 20At Amense's banquet in The Cat of Bubastes, what is shown to each guest as a reminder of mortality?
A model mummy
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.
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.
Q 24In The Cat of Bubastes, what do Chebron and Amuba haul up behind them to escape the temple priests?
A workmen's ladder
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.
Q 25In The Cat of Bubastes, what weapon does Jethro use to kill the priest behind the murder of Ameres?
A heavy club
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.
Q 26In The Cat of Bubastes, how is Chebron disguised when he helps rescue Mysa from her kidnappers?
As a peasant woman
As a peasant woman Chebron felt sure nobody would know him, whereas Amuba was too tall and broad for the same disguise.
Q 27In The Cat of Bubastes, which faith do King Amuba and Chebron slowly spread among their people?
Belief in one God
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.
Q 28In The Cat of Bubastes, what post does Chebron hold once Amuba is king?
Chief minister
Chief minister, adviser and friend to the king, Chebron helps bring in Egyptian irrigation, stone building and wheeled carts.
Q 29In The Cat of Bubastes, what do Amuba and Jethro pose as on re-entering their conquered homeland?
Persian traders
Persian traders carried on almost all commerce in the region, so the disguise let the party pass from village to village unquestioned.
Q 30In The Cat of Bubastes, which animals does Jethro hire at Ælana to carry the party toward Palmyra?
Camels
Camels are described as little used thereabouts, and Jethro gets his from an Arab who had fallen ill and missed his caravan home.