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.

The Persian foot was not much more numerous than the Egyptian, but they had six times the number of horse-soldiers.

As soon as the armies stood face to face, Cambyses caused the great Pelusian plain to be cleared of trees and brushwood, and had the sand-hills removed which were to be found here and there, in order to give his cavalry and scythe-chariots a fair field of action.  Phanes’ knowledge of the country was of great use.  He had drawn up a plan of action with great military skill, and succeeded in gaining not only Cambyses’ approval, but that of the old general Megabyzus and the best tacticians among the Achaemenidae.  His local knowledge was especially valuable on account of the marshes which intersected the Pelusian plain, and might, unless carefully avoided, have proved fatal to the Persian enterprise.  At the close of the council of war Phanes begged to be heard once more:  “Now, at length,” he said, “I am at liberty to satisfy your curiosity in reference to the closed waggons full of animals, which I have had transported hither.  They contain five thousand cats!  Yes, you may laugh, but I tell you these creatures will be more serviceable to us than a hundred thousand of our best soldiers.  Many of you are aware that the Egyptians have a superstition which leads them rather to die than kill a cat, I, myself, nearly paid for such a murder once with my life.