during the engagement. A complete set of weapons was carried in
the chariot--lances, javelins, and daggers, curved spear, club, and
battle-axe--while two bow-cases as well as two large quivers were hung
at the sides. The chariot itself was very liable to upset, the slightest
cause being sufficient to overturn it. Even when moving at a slow pace,
the least inequality of the ground shook it terribly, and when driven
at full speed it was only by a miracle of skill that the occupants could
maintain their equilibrium. At such times the charioteer would stand
astride of the front panels, keeping his right foot only inside the
vehicle, and planting the other firmly on the pole, so as to lessen
the jolting, and to secure a wider base on which to balance himself.
To carry all this into practice long education was necessary, for which
there were special schools of instruction, and those who were destined
to enter the army were sent to these schools when little more than
children. To each man, as soon as he had thoroughly mastered all the
difficulties of the profession, a regulation chariot and pair of horses
were granted, for which he was responsible to the Pharaoh or to his
generals, and he might then return to his home until the next call to
arms. The warrior took precedence of the shield-bearer, and both were
considered superior to the foot-soldier; the chariotry, in fact, like
the cavalry of the present day, was the aristocratic branch of the army,
in which the royal princes, together with the nobles and their sons,
enlisted. No Egyptian ever willingly trusted himself to the back of a
horse, and it was only in the thick of a battle, when his chariot was
broken, and there seemed no other way of escaping from the melee, that a
warrior would venture to mount one of his steeds. There appear, however,
to have been here and there a few horsemen, who acted as couriers or
aides-de-camp; they used neither saddle-cloth nor stirrups, but were
provided with reins with which to guide their animals, and their seat
on horseback was even less secure than the footing of the driver in his
chariot.

[Illustration: 318.jpg AN EGYPTIAN LEARNING TO RIDE, FROM A BAS-RELIEF
IN THE BOLOGNA MUSEUM]

Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from a photograph by Flinders Petrie.

The infantry was divided into platoons of six to ten men each, commanded
by an officer and marshalled round an ensign, which represented either
a sacred animal, an emblem of the king or