THE SHEPHERDS. 427 



compressed into the nation. The shepherd tribes had 

 a natural aptitude for war. They lived almost entirely 

 on horseback ; they attacked wild beasts in hand to 

 hand conflict on the open plain, and they often fought 

 with one another for a pasture or a well. They were 

 attracted by the crops of the agricultural people, whom 

 they conquered with facility. Usually they preferred 

 their roaming life, and merely exacted a tribute of 

 corn. But sometimes a people worsted in war, exiled 

 from their pastures, wandering homeless through the 

 sandy deserts, discovered a fruitful river plain, in which 

 they settled down, giving up their nomade habits, but 

 keeping their flocks and herds. They reduced the 

 aborigines to slavery ; made some of them labourers 

 in the fields ; others were appointed to tend the flocks ; 

 others were sent to the river or the coast to fish ; 

 others were taught the arts of the distaff and the 

 loom ; others were made to work as carpenters and 

 smiths. The wives of the shepherd conquerors were 

 no longer obliged to milk the cows and camels, and to 

 weave clothes and tents ; they became ladies, and were 

 attended by domestic slaves. Their husbands became 

 either military nobles or learaed priests ; the com- 

 mander-in-chief or patriarch became the king. Foreign 

 wars led to foreign commerce, and the priests de- 

 veloped the resources of the country. The simple 

 fabrics of the old tent life were refined in texture and 

 beautified with dyes ; the potter's clay was converted 

 into fine porcelain and glass ; the blacksmith's shop 

 became a manufactory of ornamented arms ; ingenious 

 machines were devised for the irrigation of the soil ; 

 the arts and sciences were adopted by the government, 

 and employed in the service of the state. 



Here then we have a nation manufactured entirely 



