the rules of European drawing, derived from a comparison of the numerous representations in the sculptures, omitting only their housings and headdress, which may be readily understood in an Egyptian picture.

On grand occasions the Egyptian horses were decked with fancy ornaments: a rich striped or checkered housingt, trimmed with a broad border and large pendent tassels, covered the whole body, and two or more feathers + inserted in lions' heads, or some other device of gold, formed a crest upon the summit of the head-stall. But this display was confined to the chariots of the monarch, or the military chiefs; and it was thought sufficient, in

quadriga with four: we even read of six horses yoked abreast; and Nero once drove a chariot with ten horses at the Olympic games. The twowheeled quadriga was most generally used, and preferred for the circus; the biga was commonly employed in war; it had also two wheels, and contained a warrior and the driver. The pilentum was a carriage principally intended for matrons, when going to the games; it had four wheels, like the rheda, a large travelling coach, and the petorritum, an open town carriage. The essedum was a light swift car, driven in the city, and adopted from the Gauls; and the plaustrum, properly a cart, with two, and occasionally four, wheels, was intended for heavy burdens, though less cumbrous than the four-wheeled carrus, or waggon. The parts of the chariot were the wheels (rota), the body (capsum or ploxemum), the pole (temo), and the yoke (jugum). The nave (modiolus), the fellies (apsides), the spokes (radii), and the metal hoop (canthus), were the parts of the wheel. The yoke was usually of wood, extending over the back of the two horses, of a crooked shape to fit the neck; and it was tied to the pole with leathern thongs, frequently with a pin or ring, as in the Greek and Egyptian cars. Vide Hope's Costumes, plate 271.

* Conf. Virg. Æn. vii. 275.: —

"Instratos ostro alipedes pictisque tapetis,
Aurea pectoribus demissa monilia pendent."

And Hom. Il. ∞, 230.

+ Vide plate 1.

Probably peacock's feathers.

the harness of other cars, and of the town curricle, to adorn the bridles with rosettes, which resemble, and cannot fail to call to mind, those used in England at the present day.*

Blinkerst were deemed unnecessary, as in many countries of modern Europe; but a severe bit appears to have been employed by the Egyptians‡ as by other ancient people §; though, from their mode of representing it, we should rather feel disposed to consider it a sort of snaffle than a curb.

The head and upper part of the neck were frequently enveloped in a rich covering similar to the housing, trimmed with a leather fringe; and the bridle, consisting of two cheek pieces, a throatlash, head-stall, and the forehead and nose straps, though simple, was not unornamental.

No instance occurs of Egyptian chariots with more than two horses, nor of any carriage furnished with shafts and drawn by one horse; they therefore resembled those in general use among the early Greeks, as described by Homer; though the poet occasionally mentions the four-horsed car, answering to the quadriga of the Latins, so

* Vide wood-cut, No. 57.

+ In one or two instances we find something projecting above and at the side of the eyes, which may be intended to represent blinkers. This I conclude from the appearance of their mouths; and a simple bit may be made very severe.

§ Conf. Hor. lib. i. Od. 8. :—

"Gallica nec lupatis
Temperat ora frenis."

frequently represented in sculpture and on ancient coins. Those used by contemporary eastern nations, with whom the Egyptians were at war, were not dissimilar in their general form or in the mode of yoking the horses, even if they differed in the number of persons they contained, having usually three instead of the two in Egyptian and Greek cars: as may be seen from an examination of those represented in the paintings of Thebes, particularly that which is brought with its two unyoked horses, as a present to the Egyptian monarch, by the conquered people of Rot-n-not, and one actually found in Egypt, and now preserved in the museum at Florence, supposed by some to have been taken

No. 58. Car and bow, in the collection at Florence (from the great work of Professor Rosellini).

from the Scythians by the Egyptian victors. The harness of the Persian chariots figured at Persepolis

*Vide wood-cut.

+ Vide wood-cut, No. 53. b. and plate 4.

is equally simple; and as it is interesting to compare the customs of different ancient nations, it may not be irrelevant to the subject to introduce a copy of one taken from the work of Sir R. Ker Porter.*

The Egyptian chariot corps, like the infantry, were divided into light and heavy troops, both armed with bows: the former chiefly employed in harassing the enemy with missiles, and in evolutions requiring rapidity of movement; the latter called upon to break through opposing masses of infantry, after having galled them during their advance with a heavy shower of arrows; and in order to enable them to charge with greater security they were furnished with a shield, which was not required for the other mounted archers, and a long spear was substituted on these occasions for the

It may be seen in the British Museum. Vide also wood-cut, No. 56.

missiles they had previously employed. The lightarmed chariot corps were also supplied with weapons adapted to close combat, as the sword, club, and javelin; but they had neither the spear nor shield; and indeed this last was confined to certain corps, even of infantry, as the spearmen and others, already mentioned. But the heavy foot, and light troops employed in the assault of fortified towns, were all provided with shields, under cover of which they made approaches to the place; and so closely was the idea of a siege connected with this arm*, that a figure of the king, who is sometimes introduced in the sculptures, as the representative of the whole army, advancing with his shield before him, is intended to show that the place was taken by assault.

SIEGES.

In attacking a fortified town, they advanced under cover of the arrows of the bowmen; and either instantly applied the scaling ladder to the ramparts, or undertook the routine of a regular siege in which case, having advanced to the walls, they posted themselves under cover of testudos, and shook and dislodged the stones of the parapet with a species of battering ram †, directed and impelled by a body of men expressly chosen for this service: but when the place held out against these attacks, and neither a coup de main,

*Conf. 2 Kings, xix. 32. "Nor come before it (the city) with shield, nor cast a bank against it." Isaiah, xxxvii. 33.

+ See wood-cut, No. 60.