Q:"...I'm looking for an authority on these subjects to set us all
   straight. Are you around, Bob?'
 
A: Sure, but I'm trying to escape.
 
"3. Ferrets were domesticated before cats."
 
Double False.  No way this is true.  The domestication of cats predates the
earliest reference to ferrets by at least 2000 years and without doubt,
that time will be extended to create an even larger gap.  This suburban
myth is intimately linked to the idea that Egyptians domesticated the
ferret, which is also totally false.  There are *NO* mummies of polecats or
ferrets, there are *NO* hieroglyphs of polecats or ferrets, and the natural
history of Egypt has *NO* polecats or ferrets living in the area.  I
challence ANYONE to provide a mummy, skeleton, 'glyph or fossil showing
ferrets were in Egypt prior to the domestciation of the cat, or even in the
same ballpark.
 
This mistake stems from three basic misunderstandings.  First, an older
King James translation mentioned "ferret" in Leviticus; a translation
rejected by all other translations of the verse, including Jewish and
modern translations.  This mistranslation has been fixed in the modern KJ
translations.  This mistranslation was reported at length in Smith's
dictionary of the Bible more than a century ago, where the more proper
translation was reported to be "crawling thing" which is today interpreted
to mean lizard or gecko.
 
A second misunderstanding is the reference by Strabo and others to "Libyan
Ferrets." To this day, this reference is unclear, and no one really knows
what to make of it.  It was repeated, erroneously, by all sorts of people
(including Linneaus) who read the Strabo account and gave it face value.
My personal interpretation (which is not better nor worse than any other)
is that the reference to Libya is really a reference to the Phoenicans.  At
the time of Strabo, Rome owned Egypt.  If ferrets were in Egypt, he (or
others) would have reported it.  Even though by Strabo's time the
Phoenican-Roman quarrels had been resolved vastly in favor of Rome, Libya
was marginally considered "Phoenican." Libya still conducted trade and
pirating in the Mediterrean and along the coasts of western Europe and
Africa, although dramatically decreased compared to before, but
none-the-less a tradition that lasted until USA (and later British and
French) involvement in the Barbary Coast wars in the early 1800s.  I
suspect ferrets were either brought out of Spain or northeast Europe by the
Phoenicans, and Strabo, instead of giving a hated enemy credit for
anything, simply said they were from Libya.  In other words, while Strabo
knew his source of ferrets came from Libyan traders, it by no means
indicates they were domesticated at that location.  Sort of like "the
French kiss." Just a reference, not an origin.
 
The third misunderstanding stems from a lack of knowledge of the natural
history--and common household practices--of Egypt as reported in the
heiroglyphics of the day.  Fox and Chuck Morton's book reports are a
reference to a hieroglyph showing a domesticated ferret and taken as
evidence they were domesticated by the Egyptians.  At great telephone and
time expense, I traced down that heiroglyph, and it clearly shows a
mongoose.  While mongeese bodies resemble those of ferrets quite closely
due to convergent evolution, the 'glyphs show a dark or banded tail on a
light animal without a mask.  Those 'glyphs can ONLY be referring to a
mongoose; an albino ferret would have a light tail, and a sable ferret
would have a mask.  Egyptian mongeese have dark or banded tails and uniform
faces and that is exactly what is depected on the 'glyphs.  Did the
Egyptians take artistic license?  They have been shown to be extremely
accurate in all the depictions of animals, even those attached to human
bodys.  They were clearly drawing pictures of an animal well known to them;
a mongoose, not a ferret.
 
Cats were sacred, temple animals; common Egyptians used mongeese to control
rats and mice, and in fact, one could argue that the ancient Egyptians
started to domesticate mongeese about the same time as the cat.  Of course,
as the cat became more popular--and common--they trickled down from the
nobility to the peasantry, and the use of the mongoose declined (but has
never ended, even today).  I mean, who wants to use a common mongoose when
you can use a noble cat?  These are the clear facts: There are thousands of
recovered mongeese mummies, 0 ferrets/polecats.  Mongeese live in Egypt, 0
ferrets/polecats.  Mongeese are drawn on heiroglyphs, 0 ferrets/polecats.
There is simply no supported reference to Egyptian ferrets from any
reputable source.
 
The "Egyptian Domestication Before The Cat" is a fable, originating in
in a Biblical mistranslation, supported by a Libyan reference and a poorly
understood heiroglyphic.  Spreading it in the light of the facts is
unethical and dishonest, even if it is honestly meant to better ferret
lives by "proving" a history of domestication.  I look at it this way;
spreading misinformation harms our cause in the long run because it shows
we are dishonest and creates a lack of confidence in other statements we
make, such as "pet ferrets are safe," or "pet ferrets cannot live as feral
animals." If we want to be taken seriously in our attempts to legalize and
protect our ferrets, we better be prepared to allow the truth to shine
forth, and misinformation is nothing but smoke.
 
Now, here's something for you to choke on.  I have been eMailed from
several sources in California that a CaCa Fishing Gestapo agent is arguing,
verbally and on paper, that fanatic ferret owners are spreading lies and
misinformation in order to make ferrets legal and is citing our "Egyptian
ferrets" as an example of our exaggeration and dishonesty.  If we are
discredited because of a single misstatement supported by well-meaning but
erroeneous people, think what we lose in other arguments.  Some people have
worried about Jack Hanna statements.  Well, Jack is a devil people can see
and recognize; this in-Egypt-before-the-cat myth is a devil that sneaks in
and chokes our truthful arguments to death, invited by ferret loving people
who so desperately want to help ferrets that they hurt them by destroying
credibility and truth.
 
Bob C and 20 MO' Battling BeelezaBobs.
[Posted in FML issue 2543]