CHARIOTS AND HORSEMEN 135 



possession of the Libyan chariot which made 

 the Egyptians powerful enough to rid them- 

 selves of the artful but not very warlike 

 children of Israel. 



It is amusing to note the ways of the tribal 

 poet in Israel who describes the murrain of 

 cattle as killing off every horse in the length 

 and breadth of Egypt, then out of spite kills 

 them all over again by drowning in the Red Sea. 



Setting the date of the Exodus at B.C. 1580, 

 it would be about b.c. 1540 that the Israelites 

 were afraid to attack the Canaanites w^ho had 

 good iron chariots. In the same way a nation 

 armed with muzzle loading guns might hate to 

 molest an army with quick-firing artillery. 

 Forty years later, about e.g. i 500, horses began 

 to appear in Mesopotamia, a bad lookout for 

 Israel, destined some six centuries afterwards 

 to be trampled under by Babylonian chariotry. 



Some day we shall have a science of compara- 

 tive chronology to guide us in our studies, and 

 so be able to see how little improvements in 

 horse-breeding, or the use of iron in building 

 chariots, affected the rise and fall of nations. 

 In the meantime some known facts of Red 

 Indian history may help us to understand 

 events in ancient Asia. 



In primitive Red Indian life the tribes were 



