ambitious men, apparently of distinguished birth, who intermarried with princesses of the Ramessid family, and succeeded in founding the twenty-second dynasty. The names of the family who thus came to the front are clearly not Egyptian,—Nimruth, Usarkon, Takelath are the Assyrian Nimrod, Sargon, and Tiglath; but whilst their names point to an Assyrian origin, their religion and customs had become purely Egyptian, even before they set up their throne at Bubastis.[1] The first sovereign of this dynasty was Sheshenk (the Shishak of the Old Testament), who gained the ascendency over the whole land, and drove the last of the priest-kings to take refuge in Nubia. The city of Napata, standing on the bank of the Nile, and near a lofty hill known as the Holy Mountain, became the seat of the sacerdotal kings. It was a fertile, prosperous, and peaceful region, and
- ↑ The Egyptian Pa-Bast, or the city of Bast. It was situated in the eastern portion of the Delta, and was of immemorial antiquity. Under the kings of the twenty-second dynasty, it attained great splendour, and the worship of Bast became wide-spread and popular. Herodotus saw her magnificent temple, and the festival celebrated in her honour with such splendour and revelry. Bast was almost identical with Sechet—the lioness and the cat were sacred to her. Her worship was exceedingly popular under the later dynasties, and this led to the widespread reverence with which the cat was regarded in those days.
