One of the Turin papyri chronicles the courtship of a shaven priest and a songstress of Amen in a series of spirited vignettes; while on the back of the same sheet are sketched various serio-comic scenes, in which animals parody the pursuits of civilised man.

An ass, a lion, a crocodile, and an ape are represented in the act of giving a vocal and instrumental concert; a lion and a gazelle play at draughts; the Pharaoh of all the rats, in a chariot drawn by dogs, gallops to the assault of a fortress garrisoned by cats; a cat of fashion, with a flower on her head, has come to blows with a goose, and the hapless fowl, powerless in so unequal a contest, topples over with terror.

Cats, by the way, were the favourite animals of Egyptian caricaturists.

An ostrakon in the New York Museum depicts a cat of rank _en grande toilette_, seated in an easy chair, and a miserable Tom, with piteous mien and tail between his legs, serving her with refreshments (fig.

161).