E X T E N S I O N CATS AND BELIEFS Cats became domesticated later than dogs but it is impossible to know when exactly. No pictures of a cat have been found among prehistoric paintings. The earliest known picture of a cat dates back to about 2600 BC. Cats have been connected with religious beliefs since then. For example, the Egyptians believed that a cat could be the personification of a god; they buried and mummified1 their cats. The Chinese had an agricultural god that had taken the form of a cat; the Peruvians had a cat-god representing fertility; the Irish had a god with a cat s head, the northern Europeans had two goddesses linked with cats. Whereas there is no reference to cats in Greek mythology, the Romans had cats both as religious symbols and as pets. They understood, in fact, that cats could protect gardens from mice and rats. In the Middle Ages, the Christian Church, instead, thought that cats, especially black ones, were Satan himself. In the 12th and 13th centuries some religious sects2 were accused of carrying out rites with cats. 1. mummified: treated a dead body with special oils, wrapping it in a piece of cloth, to preserve it. 2. sect: religious group. 80