ON DRAUGHT. '555 



in their warfare. Pharaoh despatched six hundred chosen chariots in pur- 

 suit of the Israehtes, while the rest of the army followed with all the 

 chariots of Egypt : here, therefore, they were in general use, and serving 

 as the cavalry of the present day. Moreover, the oldest records which 

 enter into any detail of their construction describe them as in a very tor- 

 ward and perfect state. ,i r j 

 . At the siege of Troy, nearly three thousand years ago, they formed, 

 according to Homer, the cavalry of the Greeks and Trojans ; and every 

 officer or hero of good blood possessed, at least, a pair of horses and a 

 charioteer. , ^ Ac 

 These chariots being built to run over broken ground, where no roads 

 existed, were made low and broad, and they were by no means badly con- 

 trived for the purpose for which they were intended ; the wheels were con- 

 structed with a nave and spokes, felloes and tires ; and the pole a, appears 

 to have been fixed on the axle-tree, b, in the manuer shown m Jig. ^b. 



The body of the chariot was placed upon this frame. The team generally 

 consisted as we have before stated, of a pair of horses, attached to the pole ; 

 six and even a greater number of horses were, however, frequently har- 

 nessed abreast, but in that case a second pole was generally affixed to the 

 axle-tree so as to have a pair of horses attached to each pole, and the axle- 

 trees themselves were always made nearly as long as the whole width 



occupied by the horses. , . , „ i .■ a 



They appear to have had light chariots for more domestic purposes, and 

 four-wheeled carriages for conveyance of heavy goods ; and certainly King 

 Priam when he went to the Grecian camp to ransom the body ot his son 

 Hector travelled >vith some degree of comfort and luxury ; he rode himself 

 in a ' beautiful new-built travelling carriage,' drawn by favourite horses 

 while the treasures, intended as a ransom, were conveyed m a four-wheeled 

 wao-son drawn by mules. All these details, as well as the mode of harness- 

 ing'the horses, which operation, it must be confessed, was performed by 

 Priam himself and his sons, are fully described m the twenty-fourth book 



That Homer was well acquainted with the construction of the spoked 

 wheel running freely upon the axle-tree, and, perhaps, even with the mode 

 of hano-ing the body of the carriage upon straps for springs m the same 

 manner as the public coaches are to this day m many parts of France, and, 

 till lately even in the neighboui^iood of Pans, is evident from the passage 

 in which he describes Juno's chariot. He there says while Juno was put- 

 ting the golden bits to the horses, Hebe fastened on the wheels to the iron 

 axles 'These wheels had eight brazen spokes, and the felloes were of 

 gold,' and the tires of brass.'— ' The seat was fastened with gold and silver 



'^^ This of course, gives us Homer's ideas of perfection in a chariot. 



All the epithets which could convey ideas of swiftness were apphed to 

 these chariots and to the horses, but we have no positive information as 

 regards the real velocity with which they would travel : as roads were 



