I then proceeded
to add some facts directly relating to the votive offerings laid at
the feet of the goddess.
"The greater number of pilgrims, before returning home, left a
souvenir of their visit at the feet of Bast. It was a votive stele
with a fine inscription, and a picture showing the donor worshiping
his goddess; or a statuette in blue or green pottery, or if they were
wealthy, in bronze, silver, or sometimes gold: the goddess would be
standing, seated, crouching, with a woman's body and a cat's head, a
sistrum or an aegis in her hand. During the Greek period the figures
were in bronze or in painted or gilded wood surmounted by a cat's head
in bronze, many were life-size and modeled with elaborate art; they
had eyes of enamel and amulets on the forehead."
The learned authority went on to explain that these accumulated
offerings were after a time stored by the priests in cellars or in
pits dug expressly for them, "veritable _favissae_ similar to those of
classical times." They accumulated in thousands, large and small, some
intact and fresh as when just made, others already out of shape and of
no value. The places of concealment were soon forgotten, and the
stores hidden therein reposed beyond the reach of men until the day
when the chances of excavation brought them to light.
My notes completed, I turned my attention to the little image of green
enamel ware which Gatton had left with me for examination.
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