26 EDOUAED NAVILLE. 



standing each in his shrine. The priests, of whom there 

 are a great variety, carry offerings of fishes and birds, 

 vases, very likely of precious inetals, or sacred standards. 

 Sometimes they seem to execute dances, sometimes they lie 

 quite flat on the ground, sometimes also they are accom- 

 panied by ugly dwarfs. The emblem of Amon is in his sacred 

 boat, and is carried on the shoulders of the priests, and the 

 king himself is sometimes borne on a litter. It is not im- 

 possible that this great festival, which, as I said, was based 

 on an old tradition, had something to do with the calendar. 

 Though he celebrated it in honour of Amon, Osorkon II., who 

 in his cartouche calls himself the son of Bast, completed the 

 dedication of the temple to the goddess; it was he who 

 erased the name of Set, where it was still visible, and replaced 

 it by Mahes, as it is seen on several of the columns. He had 

 also a great desire to inscribe his name as often as possible, 

 for it is met with nearly as often as Rameses II. 



I do not insist on monuments of small importance of the 

 Twenty-fourth and the Twenty-sixth dynasties. The most 

 western hall, and the largest, was built by the first king of 

 the Thirtieth dynasty, Nekhthorheb, the last king of the 

 last native dynasty. In spite of the long wars which they 

 had to wage against the Persians, the princes of the Thirtieth 

 dynasty, said to be Sebennytes, have left us very large and 

 important constructions, especially in the Delta. They seem 

 to have taken as the object of their imitation the kings of the 

 Twelfth dynasty ; under their reign there is a revival of 

 Egyptian art which is quite marvellous, and they have left us 

 monuments which can be compared only to the works of the 

 best period. The decoration of the western hall was not 

 finished, but, in order to show that it was to Bast that it was 

 dedicated, Nekhthorheb changed his cartouche, and, instead 

 of calling himself son' of Isis, as everywhere else, he is styled 

 son of Bast. The most beautiful part of the hall was the 

 shrine of red granite, which was at the end. Three fragments 

 of it are now in the British Museum ; the religious sculptures 

 which cover them are of the most exquisite workmanship, 

 and were worthy of the beautiful temple in which the shrine 

 was deposited. 



If we add to this long catalogue of monuments two Greek 

 inscriptions referring to statues being erected by two higher 

 officials of the time of Ptolemy Epiphanes, we shall have 

 reached the lower limit of the period over which extend the 

 annals of Bubastis, such as we recovered them in the excava- 

 tions. We are able now to trace some of the principal events 

 in the history of the city and the country during 3,500 years, 



