e period, which are evidently
exaggerated. Coming down to modern times, we see that
Mehemet-Ali, from 1830 to 1840, had nearly 120,000 men in
Syria, Egypt, and the Sudan; and in 1841, at the time when
the treaties imposed upon him the ill-kept obligation of
reducing his army to 18,000 men, it still contained 81,000.
We shall probably not be far wrong in estimating the total
force which the Pharaohs of the XVIIIth dynasty, lords of
the whole valley of the Nile, and of part of Asia, had at
their disposal at 120,000 or 130,000 men; these, however,
were never all called out at once.

** We have no direct information respecting the armies
acting in Syria; we only know that, at the battle of Qodshu,
Ramses II. had against him 2500 chariots containing three
men each, making 7500 charioteers, besides a troop estimated
at the Ramesseum at 8000 men, at Luxor at 9000, so that the
Syrian army probably contained about 20,000 men. It would
seem that the Egyptian army was less numerous, and I
estimate it with great hesitation at about 15,000 or 18,000
men: it was considered a powerful army, while that of the
Hittites was regarded as an innumerable host. A passage in
the Anastasi Papyrus, No. 1, tells us the composition of a
corps led by Ramses II. against the tribes in the vicinity
of Qocoir and the Rahanu valley; it consisted of 5000 men,
of whom 620 were Shardana, 1600 Qahak, 70 Mashauasha, and
880 Negroes.

The infantry was, as we should expect, composed of troops of the line
and light troops. The former wore either short wigs arranged in rows
of curls, or a kind of padded cap by way of a helmet, thick enough to
deaden blows; the breast and shoulders were undefended, but a short
loin-cloth was wrapped round the hips, and the stomach and upper part
of the thighs were protected by a sort of triangular apron, sometimes
scalloped at the sides, and composed of leather thongs attached to a
belt. A buckler of moderate dimensions had been substituted for the
gigantic shield of the earlier Theban period; it was rounded at the
top and often furnished with a solid metal boss, which the experienced
soldiers always endeavoured to present to the enemy's lances and
javelins. Their weapons consisted of pikes about five feet long, with
broad bronze or copper points, occasionally of flails, axes, daggers,
short curved swor