rmed an ugly angle, staggered awkwardly as they were dragged by the
cars driven by Egyptian coachmen.

Next came the war chariots of the young princes of the royal family,
drawn by pairs of thorough-bred horses of noble and elegant shape, with
slender legs and muscular quarters, their manes cut close and short,
shaking their heads adorned with red plumes, frontlets, and headgear of
metal bosses. A curved pole, adorned with scarlet squares, pressed down
on their withers, and supported two small saddles surmounted with balls
of polished brass held together by a light yoke, with curved ends.
Girths and breast-harnesses richly embroidered, and superb housings
rayed with blue or red and fringed with tufts, completed their strong,
graceful, and light harness.

The body of the car, painted red and green, and ornamented with plates
and bosses of bronze like the boss on the bucklers, had on either side
two great quivers placed diagonally in opposite directions, the one
containing javelins, and the other arrows. On either side a carved and
gilded lion, its face wrinkled with a dreadful grin, seemed to roar, and
to be about to spring at the foe.

The young princes wore for a head-dress a narrow band which bound their
hair and in which twisted, as it swelled its hood, the royal asp. For
dress they wore a tunic embroidered around the neck and the sleeves with
brilliant embroidery and bound at the waist with a leather belt fastened
with a metal plate on which were engraved hieroglyphs. Through the belt
was passed a long, triangular, brazen-bladed poniard, the handle of
which, fluted transversely, ended in a hawk's-head. On the car, by the
side of each prince, stood the driver, whose business it was to drive
during the battle, and the equerry charged with warding off with a
buckler the blows directed at the fighter, while he himself shot his
arrows or hurled the javelins which he took from the quivers at the
sides.

Behind the princes came the chariots which formed the Egyptian cavalry,
to the number of twenty thousand, each drawn by two horses and carrying
three men. These chariots came ten abreast, with wheels almost touching
yet never meeting, so skilful were the drivers. Some lighter cars,
intended for skirmishes and reconnaissances came foremost, bearing a
single warrior, who in order to have his hands free while fighting,
passed the reins around his body. By leaning to the right, to the left
or backwards, he directed and sto