this gentler characteristic, of bast as goddess of perfumes, following lower egypt's loss in the wars between upper and lower egypt, meant that in the middle kingdom of egypt she became seen as a domestic cat and not as a lioness. owing to associations with the maternal nature of cats, bast was also regarded as a good mother and she was commonly depicted with kittens. sometimes egyptian women who wanted children wore an amulet showing the goddess with kittens; the number of kittens on the amulet would correspond to how many children the woman wanted to have.