Statue in stone of a priest wearing a leopard-skin, dating to the XXVIth dynasty (589-570 B.C.), in the Walters Art Museum, Baltimore, MD, USA. The leopard-skin is a garment that distinguished the high-ranking priests. The leopard was probably an animal whose important symbolic value, like that of other felines, was associated with certain deities, among whom was the goddess Mafdet, who was often represented with a leopard’s or a cat’s head. The animal’s spotted skin suggested probably a connection with the starred sky, so that in certain representations of priests, the garment is sparkled with stellar signs (as for example the statue of the priest Anen, in the Egyptian Museum, Turin, Italy, figure below). It is possible that this priestly attribute derives from an ancient age, when the persons who conducted the ceremonies wearing animal skins were deemed to transform actually themselves, acquiring the shape and the characteristics of the animal.

[Source: http://art.thewalters.org/detail/40805/standing-priest-wearing-leopard-skin/; ]