Hi kids!… This is Si Kichap my beloved cat. Si Kichap is a male cat. It has black stripes on its grayish body.  It is so lovely. Cats can be our best friend too. Since ancient time, cats have been living with human. There was an ancient place where people were very fond of cats and they worshiped them as a goddess. Let us read the fact on The Cats of Ancient Egypt.

Ancient Egyptians worshiped Goddess Bast

Long ago in Egypt, the people prayed to a goddess called Bast. Bast had the head of a cat. So, the people of ancient Egypt also took care of her animals, the cats of Egypt.

Goddess Bast statue

They fed them and looked after them till they grew old and died. No one hurt or killed a cat. When a cat died, they buried it in a special place. There are lots of such places in Egypt where cats have been buried. Today, the Egyptians are digging up these places. The earth in these places is good for plants. So they put this earth in fields and gardens. You had a good life if you were a cat in Egypt in the old days!

(Text is adapted from: English International Reading Programme)

Fertile Egyptian land

[Some meanings: ancient=very old | buried=placed under the ground | take care of=look after well | hurt = give pain to | a special place=a place kept apart (here, dead cats) | earth=mud, soil]

Now, let us answer some questions…