A HISTORY OF CAVALRY. 



J 'I '■ 



driving tliem from pasture, and vaulting from one 

 to another as a feat creating surprise ; which leads to 

 the inference that horsemanship as an art was almost 

 unknown in his day. 



It is asserted by P^re Amyot that chariots of some- 

 what the same style as those mentioned in Homer were 

 in use in China as far back as 2600 B.C., and that 

 cavalry also were in use about the same time in that 

 country.' It is difficult to say, however, whether these 

 statements are based upon reliable evidence. The 

 Chinese pride themselves greatly upon their antiquity, 

 and one is apt to fancy that some of their history is like 

 the Welsh gentleman's pedigree, which contained a note 

 opposite the name of the tenth or twelfth member of his 

 family, to the effect that about this time lived Adam 

 in the garden of Eden. 



Chariots were used in India at a period more remote 

 than the siege of Troy. In Egypt also chariots were 

 in use in the eighteenth century before the Christian 

 era, or more than five hundred years before the Trojan 

 war. When Joseph was taken into favour by Pharaoh, 

 he made him ride in the second chariot which he had,^ 

 showing that chariots were in use for some purpose at 

 that early date. This is the earliest mention of the use 

 of the horse in history. 



At the time of the exodus of the children of Israel 

 from Egypt, Phaiaoh " made ready his chariot and took 

 his people with him, and he took six hundred chosen 

 chariots, and all the chariots of Egypt, and captains over 

 every one of them,"* and pursued after the Israelites 

 with " all his horses and chariots and his horsemen and 

 his army." * 



It is somewhat doubtful whether Pharaoh had any 

 cavalry, properly so called, for the horsemen mentioned 

 in connection with the chariots were probably the men 

 who fought in them and managed the horses, and not 

 horsemen in the modern acceptation of the term. Horse- 

 men are not represented on Egyptian monuments, even 



* Baidin, article Cavalerie. ^ Genesis xiv. 28. ' Exodus xiv. 

 6, 7. ^ Ibid. xiv. 9. 



