gypt and Mohammedan Spain lost most of his
fighting qualities.[1093]

[Sidenote: Military organization of nomads.]

The daily life of a nomad horde is a training school for military
organization. In the evening the flocks and herds are distributed with
system around the camp to prevent confusion. The difficult art of a well
ordered march, of making and breaking camp, and of foraging is practiced
almost daily in their constant migrations.[1094] The usual order of the
Bedouin march could scarcely be surpassed by an army. In advance of the
caravan moves a body of armed horsemen, five or seven kilometers ahead;
then follows the main body of the tribesmen mounted on horses and
camels, then the female camels, and after these the beasts of burden
with the women and children. The encampment of tents with the places
for men, arms and herds is also carefully regulated. More than this, the
horde is organized into companies with their superior and subordinate
leaders.[1095] John de Carpini describes Genghis Khan's military
organization of his vast Tartar horde by tens, hundreds and thousands,
his absolute dominion over his conquered subjects, and prompt absorption
of them into his fighting force, by the compulsory enlistment of
soldiers out of every freshly subjugated nation.[1096] In the same way the
Hebrew tribes, when preparing for the conquest of Canaan, adopted from
the desert Midianites the organization of the horde into tens, hundreds
and thousands under judges, who were also military leaders in time of
war.

[Sidenote: Capacity for conquest and political consolidation.]

Thus certain geographic conditions produce directly the habitual and
systematic migration of the nomads, and through this indirectly that
military and political organization which has given the shepherd races
of the earth their great historical mission of political consolidation.
Agriculture, though underlying all permanent advance in civilization, is
handicapped by the lack of courage, mobility, enterprise and large
political outlook characterizing early tillers of the soil. All these
qualities the nomad possesses. Hence the union of these two elements,
imperious pastor superimposed upon peaceful tiller, has made the only
stable governments among savage and semi-civilized races.[1097] The
politically invertebrate peoples of dark Africa have secured the
back-bone to erect states only from nomad conquerors. The history of the
Sudan cannot be understood a