162 EDOUARD NAVILLE. 
standing each in his shrine. The priests, of whom there 
is a great variety, carry offerings of fishes and birds, 
vases,—very likely of precious metals,—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 IT., 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. 
T do not insist on monuments of small importance of the 
Twenty-fourth and the T'wenty-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 beantiful 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 Hpiphanes, we shall have 
reached the lower limit of the period over which extend the 
annals of Bubastis, such as wo 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, 
