the ladder, nor the ram, were found to succeed, they probably used the testudo for concealing and protecting the sappers, while they mined the place* ; and certainly, of all people, the Egyptians were the most likely to have recourse to this stratagem of war, from the great practice they had in underground excavations, and in directing shafts through the solid rock.

The testudo was of frame-work, sometimes supported by poles having a forked summit, and covered, in all probability, with hides; it was sufficiently large to contain several men, and so placed that the light troops might mount upon the outside, and thus obtain a footing on more elevated ground, apply the ladders with greater precision, or obtain some other important advantage; and each party was commanded by an officer of skill, and frequently by those of the first rank.†

The TрuTаvov or pike of the testudo arietaria of the Greeks and Romans, and the covering or vinea which protected the men while they worked the battering-ram, were nearly on the same principle, and the Greeks most probably borrowed theirs originally from Egypt.

They also endeavoured to force open the gates of the town, or hew them down with axes; and when the fort was built upon a rock, they escaladed the precipitous part by means of the testudo, or by

*The testudo ad fodiendum of Vitruvius, which, he says, the Greeks call ορυξ, ορύγες. Lib. x. c. 21. There was another, quæ ad

congestionem fossarum paratur. Lib. x. c. 20. Vide Egypt and Thebes, p. 235. note †, and suprà, p. 67.

+ Wood-cut, No. 61. Four of the king's sons command the four testudos, a, b, c,

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short spikes of metal, which they forced into the crevices of the stone*, and then applied the ladder to the ramparts.

* Vide wood-cut, No. 61. fig. 5.

It is reasonable to conclude that several other engines were employed in sieges with which the sculptures have not made us acquainted; and the bulwarks used by the Jewst, on their march to the promised land, were doubtless borrowed from those of Egypt, where they had lived until they became a nation, and from whence they derived the greater part of their knowledge upon every subject. These bulwarks being only constructed in the case of a siege, appear to have been similar to some of the mounds or towers employed by the Greeks in later times: they were of wood, and made on the spot during the siege, the trees of the neighbouring country being cut down for the purpose but the Jews deemed it unlawful to fell a fruit tree for the construction of warlike engines, nor were they permitted to use any other than those which grew wild, or in an uncultivated spot. +

Besides bulwarks or moveable towers, we may also suppose the Egyptians adopted destructive missiles, for burning the houses and works of the besieged, like the fire-balls, Tugoßoños 2001, of the Greeks, or the σxuтaλaia, wooden staves, armed with an iron point, and carrying with them lighted fire-brands; and the same mode of protecting their own works, from the assaults of the besieged, was probably resorted to by the Egyptians as by that people.

* The scaling ladder is most frequently represented, and seems to have been very generally used.

+ Deut. xx. 20.

"For the tree of the field is man's life." Deut. xx. 19.

The northern and eastern tribes, against whom the Egyptians fought, were armed in many instances with the same weapons as the disciplined troops of the Pharaohs, as bows and spears; they had besides long swords, rude massive clubs, and knives; and their coats of mail, helmets, and shields, varied in form, according to the custom of each nation. They also used stones, which were thrown with the hand, while defending the walls of a besieged town; but it does not appear that either the Egyptians or their enemies threw them on any other occasions, except with a sling. Indeed we seldom find any people armed with stones, except those who have not yet advanced beyond their infancy in the art of war*; and the same remark applies to the Greeks, during the siege of Troy, some of whom are introduced by Homer, fighting with these rude weapons,—an era, when Grecian manners, and military tactics, were only beginning to emerge from a state of primitive simplicity.

THE ENEMIES WITH WHOM THEY FOUGHT.

The most distinguishing peculiarities of some of the nations at war with the Egyptians, were the

and Lucretius mentions the hands, nails, teeth, stones, and branches of trees, as the earliest weapons:

"Arma antiqua, manus, ungues, dentesque fuerunt,

Et lapides, et item sylvarum fragmina rami.

Posterius ferri vis est, ærisque reperta,

Sed prior æris erat quam ferri cognitus usus." Lib. v. ver. 1283.