INTRODUCTION. 83 



although he may have missed their line of retreat 

 across the Jordan, by taking the road along the 

 Syrian coast, it appears, if faith can be placed in 

 relations more legendary than historical, that he 

 penetrated into Bactria ; and from his era horses 

 are evidently used in Egypt. But although these 

 animals are seen in numerous battle-pictures repre- 

 senting his wars and conquests, and are drawn with 

 a skill which marks the perception of high bred 

 races, we must not take them to be all coeval, but 

 as tokens of refinement in art during successive 

 ages. The abundance of war-horses they pourtra} 

 is an exaggeration, for, as already shown, they an 

 unnoticed until the era of Joseph, and therefore ot 

 recent introduction, when the shepherd kings were 

 already expelled; nor numerous at the time of 

 Exodus, since the whole that could be called out, 

 indeed on a short notice, but still from that part 

 of Egypt where provender was most abundant, 

 amounted, in the pursuit of Israel, only to six hun- 

 dred chariots of war, " all the chariots of Egypt ;" 

 which implies either an enormous destruction in the 

 murrain of cattle, or a very scanty establishment of 

 horses in the district of Memphis, two being the 

 amount for each chariot in Egypt. This shows 

 how little reliance can be placed in the profane 

 historians, who allowed twenty-seven thousand cha- 

 riots to Sesostris, and one hundred thousand chariots, 

 with a million of horsemen, to Semiramis. * 



* These hieroglyphic pictures show by the cross, the Swas- 

 teka cross of Budhu, figured on the robes of several foreign 



