arm of the military service to the very end of the
empire.

Next to the war-chariots of the Assyrians we must place their cavalry,
which seems to have been of scarcely less importance in their wars.
Ctesias, who amid all his exaggerations shows glimpses of some real
knowledge of the ancient condition of the Assyrian people, makes the
number of the horsemen in their armies always greatly exceed that of the
chariots. The writer of the book of Judith gives Holofernes 12,000
horse-archers, and Ezekiel seems to speak of all the "desirable young
men" as "horsemen riding upon horses." The sculptures show on the whole
a considerable excess of cavalry over chariots, though the preponderance
is not uniformly exhibited throughout the different periods.

During the time of the Upper dynasty, cavalry appears to have been but
little used. Tiglath-Pileser I. in the whole of his long Inscription has
not a single mention of them, though he speaks of his chariots
continually. In the sculptures of Asshur-izir-pal, the father of the
Black-Obelisk king, while chariots abound, horsemen occur only in rare
instances. Afterwards, under Sargon and Sennacherib, we notice a great
change in this respect. The chariot comes to be almost confined to the
king, while horsemen are frequent in the battle scenes.

In the first period the horses' trappings consisted of a head-stall, a
collar, and one or more strings of beads. The head-stall was somewhat
heavy, closely resembling that of the chariot-horses of the time,
representations of which have been already given. It had the same heavy
axe-shaped bit, the same arrangement of straps, and nearly the same
ornamentation. The only marked difference was the omission of the crest
or plume, with its occasional accompaniment of streamers. The collar was
very peculiar. It consisted of a broad flap, probably of leather, shaped
almost like a half-moon, which was placed on the neck about half way
between the ears and the withers, and thence depended over the breast,
where it was broadened out and ornamented by large drooping tassels.
Occasionally the collar was plain, but more often it was elaborately
patterned. Sometimes pomegranates hung from it, alternating with the
tassels.

The cavalry soldiers of this period ride without any saddle. Their legs
and feet are bare, and their seat is very remarkable. Instead of
allowing their legs to hang naturally down the horses' sides, they draw
them up till their knees are