The Egyptian god Sekhmet was mentioned in the What's in a name post and it made me remember my last visit to the British Museum a number of years ago. A Craft friend always paid the Bast figure there a special visit when she went to England and asked me to look in on her favourite goddess when I was there myself. I ended up having only minutes to spare before closing time to find Bast and I couldn't. I found Sekhmet alright- huge and impressive, but where oh where was Bast?
Finally, desperate to keep my promise, I approached one of the Museum security people, figuring he'd know. I whispered my request to him, "Could he please help me find the statue of Bast? (puzzled look) You know, the Egyptian cat goddess..."
He looked very puzzled, then in a VERY loud voice he shouted to his companion on the other side of the hall, "Oi! 'ave you seen a statue of a CAT?" Now everyone was looking. I just wanted to crawl under an urn somewhere. But I did get pointed in the right direction and I found her. I was so shaken by the strange turn in my search for her that I said to the guard the first thing that popped into my head, "Oh. She looks bigger in pictures". The total, stupid tourist. Sorry, Bast. You're beautiful. Tiny, but beautiful. Really.
