RESULTS OP EXCAVATIONS AT BUBASTIS. 23 



read, but it is a lasting record of the fact that Osorkon I. 

 had done some work in connexion with these capitals. In the 

 same way also Rameses II. put his name under the base of the 

 obelisks he erected, in order that his memory should not perish 

 altogether in case one of his successors should erase all the 

 visible inscriptions of the sides. In my opinion, the inscrip- 

 tion of Osorkon I. records, not that the king had these capitals 

 sculptured, but that he raised them a second time, and he could 

 not have done it if they had been standing, while if they were 

 overthrown, and the temple was more or less in ruin, the fact 

 is easily to be explained. 



The Twenty-second dynasty is called by Manetho the 

 dynasty of the Bubastites. It is most likely that these kings 

 were strangers of Libyan origin ; their family had the here- 

 ditary command of the guard of Libyan mercenaries, called 

 the Ma or the Mashooash ; and it is natural to suppose that 

 it was with the aid of his foreign troops that Shishak, the 

 first of the Bubastite rulers, succeeded in ascending the throne 

 of Egypt. Shishak is well known as the successful enemy of 

 Rehoboam ; he conquered Jerusalem and pillaged its temples ; 

 he made great constructions at Thebes, but he does not seem 

 to have done anything in what is considered as his native 

 city. His name has been found only on a small fragment of 

 limestone. The first king of the Bubastites who adorned the 

 temple with fine sculptures is a king who was little known 

 until now, Osorkon I. As I said before, very likely the 

 temple was in ruins in his time; he rebuilt it, or at least he 

 began doing so ; he raised again the beautiful Hathor capitals, 

 and went to work in the first hall, building up the walls and 

 covering them with finely-carved sculptures, for which he used 

 the material already on the spot, as one may judge from 

 blocks engraved on both sides ; which under Rameses II. were 

 part of the basement, while under Osorkon I. they were at a 

 certain height in the wall. I believe it was in his reign that a 

 change took place in the dedication of the temple. Instead 

 of being a place of worship for the great gods of Egypt, and 

 chiefly for Set, of whom Rameses II. seems to have been a 

 fervent adorer, it became the temple of Bast, the lion or cat- 

 headed goddess, with her accompanying gods, Mahes or 

 Nefertum, called her son, and Horheken, a special kind of 

 Horus. I should think also that the religious custom of 

 keeping cats in the temple and of burying them in 

 holy ground dates from his reign. There is a considerable 

 space in the mound of Tel Basta, which is nothing but a ceme- 

 tery of cats, rectangular pits made of raw bricks, which are full 

 of the bones of these animals, among which some bronzes have 



