The king met his Greek friend with every mark of distinction, and returned a friendly nod when Phanes said:  “I hear that you have been less cheerful than usual since the death of your beautiful bride.  A woman’s grief passes in stormy and violent complaint, but the sterner character of a man cannot so soon be comforted.  I know what you feel, for I have lost my dearest too.  Let us both praise the gods for granting us the best remedy for our grief—­war and revenge.”  Phanes accompanied the king to an inspection of the troops and to the evening revel.  It was marvellous to see the influence he exercised over this fierce spirit, and how calm—­nay even cheerful—­Cambyses became, when the Athenian was near.

The Egyptian army was by no means contemptible, even when compared with the immense Persian hosts.  Its position was covered on the right by the walls of Pelusium, a frontier fortress designed by the Egyptian kings as a defence against incursions from the east.  The Persians were assured by deserters that the Egyptian army numbered altogether nearly six hundred thousand men.  Beside a great number of chariots of war, thirty thousand Karian and Ionian mercenaries, and the corps of the Mazai, two hundred and fifty thousand Kalasirians, one hundred and sixty thousand Hermotybians, twenty thousand horsemen, and auxiliary troops, amounting to more than fifty thousand, were assembled under Psamtik’s banner; amongst these last the Libyan Maschawascha were remarkable for their military deeds, and the Ethiopians for their numerical superiority.

The infantry were divided into regiments and companies, under different standards, and variously equipped.

[In these and the descriptions immediately following, we have drawn our information, either from the drawings made from Egyptian monuments in Champollion, Wilkinson, Rosellini and Lepsius, or from the monuments themselves.  There is a dagger in the Berlin Museum, the blade of which is of bronze, the hilt of ivory and the sheath of leather.  Large swords are only to be seen in the hands of the foreign auxiliaries, but the native Egyptians are armed with small ones, like daggers.  The largest one of which we have any knowledge is in the possession of Herr E. Brugsch at Cairo.  It is more than two feet long.]

The heavy-armed soldiers carried large shields, lances, and daggers; the swordsmen and those who fought with battle-axes had smaller shields and light clubs; beside these, there were slingers, but the main body of the army was composed of archers, whose bows unbent were nearly the height of a man.  The only clothing of the horse-soldiers was the apron, and their weapon a light club in the form of a mace or battle-axe.  Those warriors, on the contrary, who fought in chariots belonged to the highest rank of the military caste, spent large sums on the decoration of their two-wheeled chariots and the harness of their magnificent horses, and went to battle in their most costly ornaments.  They were armed with bows and lances, and a charioteer stood beside each, so that their undivided attention could be bestowed upon the battle.