70 THE REPTILES OF EGYPT. 
formed part of an inscription of Apepi, one of Ihe kings of Avaris before the XVII Ith 
Dynasty, preserved in the British Museum (1101). 
Lizards are to be seen in the hands of seated human figures painted on the outside 
of the coffin of Pachrat-Heru-A-Usheb, in the British Museum (6666) ; these lizards 
are represented with swollen feet : and a similar lizard is found on the inner coffin of a 
priestess of Amen from Der-el-Bahari (24794 B.M.), held upwards by the tail in the 
hand of an erect hawk-headed human figure standing before a seated figure, apparently 
of Amen. It also occurs on the other side of this coffin, in the hands of similar hawk- 
headed figures. Evidently the same kind of lizard likewise appears in the hands of men 
in the tomb of Eameses III. Professor Flinders Petrie has shown me two figures of genii 
also holding lizards, from the north brick pyramid of Dahshur. There is a necklace 
in the British Museum consisting of a string of small red stone beads 1 , and between 
each bead hangs a gold pendant, about half an inch long, alternately in the form of a 
lizard and of a small oval. Whether these lizards were merely regarded as ornaments, 
or perchance as charms, it is impossible to say, but, in other necklaces, the sacred perch 
(Lates niloticus) also occurs as a pendant. The only lizard which all of these lizard- 
figures suggest to me is Ptyodactylus, which, from its striking characters, doubtless 
quite as much impressed the imaginations of the ancient Egyptians as it does those 
of the inhabitants of the Nile valley of the present day. As a frequenter of caverns 
and dark chambers, it may be that the hawk-headed figure holding it up by the tail 
represents Har-Hat, the guardian of temples. 
1 The necklace is among some Egyptian ornaments, but no number is visible. 
