An exception must, however, be made in favour of the images of animals, such as rams, sphinxes, and lions, which to the last retained a more pronounced stamp of individuality.

The Egyptians had a special predilection for the feline race.

They have represented the lion in every attitude--giving chase to the antelope; springing upon the hunter; wounded, and turning to bite his wound; couchant, and disdainfully calm--and no people have depicted him with a more thorough knowledge of his habits, or with so intense a vitality.

Several gods and goddesses, as Shu, Anhur, Bast, Sekhet, Tefnut, have the form of the lion or of the cat; and inasmuch as the worship of these deities was more popular in the Delta than elsewhere, so there never passes a year when from amid the ruins of Bubastis, Tanis, Mendes, or some less famous city, there is not dug up a store of little figures of lions and lionesses, or of men and women with lions' heads, or cats' heads.

The cats of Bubastis and the lions of Tell es Seba crowd our museums.