LTI -J O - — m r-=| ■-.= ^ru ==r^ -1 ^ru =Tr=r~' ^ r^ = n — n- " ^=^ r-=1 _ m "a,rn bridge ^ oplcal Series,. i miav^«vi > o fe 30 THE EXISTING EQUIDAE [CH. At the time when Poliakoff's paper appeared zoologists had settled down to a firm belief that no true wild horses existed, or indeed had existed for a very long time, since Sanson and Pietrement had concluded that all primitive wild horses had disappeared in prehistoric times. True it was that Pallas had declared that he had seen wild horses with suberect manes in Tartary, and Moorcroft and the brothers Gerrard, when they penetrated into Independent Tartary and within the borders of China, met with numerous herds of wild horses, scouring along the table-lands some 16,000 feet above the sea, but it had become a matter of faith with many naturalists that all the wild horses of Asia were sprung from the common Russian country horses turned loose for want of fodder during the siege of Azov in 1697. But in both the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries there were not wanting those who neither believed that all the known wild horses were genuine nor yet committed themselves to the belief that none but feral horses still survived. Thus Pallas, who had himself travelled in Asiatic Russia, was inclined to the same belief as his predecessor Forster, who was disposed to think that all the wild horses in Asia from the Ukraine to Chinese Tartary were descended from strayed domestic animals ; Pallas ^ himself thought that all the wild horses from the Volga to the Ural were the progeny of domestic animals, and that all those from the Jaik, Don, and Bokhara were of the Kalmuck and Kirghis breed, remarking that they are mostly fulvous, rufous and Isabella, whilst he noticed that those on the Volga were usually brown, dark-brown, and silver grey, some having white legs and other signs of intermixture. Linnaeus'"' held that, though the wild horses of the Don were sprung from the horses that had escaped at the siege of Azov, true wild horses survived in Bessarabia and Tartary, whilst Col. Hamilton Smith came to similar conclusions from the information which he himself obtained from Russian oflScei's of experience whom he met in Paris at the time of its occupation by the Allies in 1814. His statements are so important in reference to Prejvalsky's 1 Travels in Russia and Northern Asia, Vol. i. pp. 376-8 (French trans.) ; Vol. VII. pp. 89-92 ; PL I. (in atlas) shows a tarpan of the feral kind. ^ Systema Naturae, p. 432 (Kerr's trans.). Il] THE EXISTING EQUIDAE 31 discovery, or rediscovery, as it may prove to be, that I shall give them in his own words^ : " Whatever may be the lucu- brations of naturalists in their cabinets it does not appear that the Tahtar or even the Cossack nations have any doubt upon the subject, for they assert that they can distinguish a feral breed from the wild by many tokens ; and naming the former Takja and Muzin, denominate the real wild horse Tarjmn and Tarpani. We have had some opportunity of making personal inquiries on wild horses among a considerable number of Cossacks of different parts of Russia, and among Bashkirs, Kirghis, and Kalmucks, and with a sufficient recollection of the statements of Pallas, and Bufifon's information obtained from M. Sanchez, to direct the questions to most of the points at issue. From the answers of Russian officers of this irregular cavalry, who spoke French or German, we drew the general conclusion of their decided belief in a true wild and untameable species of horse-, and in herds that were of mixed origin. Those most acquainted with the nomad life, and in particular an orderly Cossack attached to a Tahtar chief as Russian interpreter, furnished us with the substance of the followinof notice. — The Tarpani form herds of several hundred, subdivided into smaller troops, each headed by a stallion ; they are not found unmixed, excepting towards the borders of China ; they prefer wide, open, elevated steppes, and always proceed in lines or files, usually with the head to windward, moving slowly forward while grazing — the stallions leading and occasionally going round their own troops ; young stallions are often at some distance, and single, because they are expelled by the older until they can form a troop of young mares of their own ; their heads are seldom observed to be down for any length of time : they utter now and then a kind of snort, with a low neigh, somewhat like a horse expecting its oats, but yet distinguishable by the voice from any domestic species, ex- cepting the woolly Kalmuck breed. These animals are found in the greatest purity on the lake Karakoum, south of the lake of Aral, and the Sja-daria, near Kusneh, and on the banks ^ "The Horse" (Naturalist's Library, Vol. xii.), pp. 160-5. - Cf. Pallas, Travels (French trans.). Vol. v. p. 378. 32 THE EXISTING EQUIDAE [CH. of the river Tom, in the territory of the Kalkas, the Mongolian deserts, and the solitudes of the Gobi : within the Russian frontier there are, however, some adulterated herds in the vicinit}' of the fixed settlements, distinguishable by the variety of their colours and the selection of residence less remote from human habitation. Tarpans are not larger than ordinary mules, their colour invariably tan, Isabella, or mouse, being all shades of the same livery, and only varying in depth by the growth or decrease of a whitish surcoat, longer than the hair, increasing from midsummer and shedding in May ; during the cold season it is long, heavy, and soft, lying so close as to feel like a bear's fur, and then is entirely grizzled ; in summer much falls away, leaving only a certain quantity on the back and loins ; the head is small, the forehead greatly arched, the ears far back, either long or short, the eyes small and malig- nant, the chin and muzzle beset with bristles, the neck rather thin, crested with a thick, rugged mane, which like the tail is black, as also the pasterns, which are long ; the hoofs are narrow, high, and rather pointed ; the tail, descending only to the hocks, is furnished with coarse and rather curly or wavy hairs close up to the crupper ; the croup is as high as the withers ; the voice of the Tarpan is loud, and shriller than that of the domestic horse ; and their action, standing, and general appearance, resemble somewhat that of vicious mules. " The feral horses, we were told, form likewise in herds, but have no regular order of proceeding ; they take to flight more indiscriminately, and were simply called Muzin. They may be known by their disorderly mode of feeding, their desire to entice domestic mares to join them, by their colours being browner, sometimes having white legs, and being often silvery grey ; their heads are larger and their necks shorter ; but their winter coat is nearly as heavy as that of the wild, and there is always a certain number of expelled Tarpan stallions among them ; but they are more in search of cover and watery places, the wild herds being less in want of drink and more unwilling to encounter water, being even said not to be able to swim : while the Muzin will cross considerable rivers." I Il] THE EXISTING EQUIDAE 33 I have given this long extract because the account which it contains of the habitat, the colour, the appearance and habits of the true wild Tarpan, and the respects in which it differed from the feral or intermixed herds has a most important bearing on our present discussion. It is to be carefully noted that the Kirghis and Cossacks from whom Hamilton Smith obtained his information respecting the true wild Tarpan, maintained that the pure wild horses Avere only to be found in that very region where Prejvalsky obtained the skin of one killed by the Kirghis camel-hunters, where the brothers Grijimailo shot their specimens, and where the Kirghis have captured the numerous foals imported by Mr Hagenbeck. It is further to be remarked that the young Avild horses obtained by Mr Hagenbeck differ in colour ac- cording to the three different localities from whence they were procured, and that the foals from the western district have their heads, necks, ears, shoulders, back and croup a light red, passing into whitish colour, the nose, the chest, the belly and the legs being of a whitish colour, whilst the mane is light red- brown, the eel-back is pink, ending in the tuft of the tail, the curled hairs of which are light red-brown, white and black, whilst the upper short-haired portion of the tail shows a whitish colour. The foals further east have light ashy-brown hair on the upper part of the body, the nose and under side are white, just the same as the foals from the west, only the outside of the legs being slightly tinted, whilst the fetlocks are black. The mane and spine are a deep brownish colour, and the beard also. The western foals have a whitish iris, the more eastern have a darkish iris. The foals from the most easterly district (Zagan-norr Lake) have a coat of a full yellowish-brown colour, only interrupted by the white belly hair and the distinct black bands at the outside of the legs from the black hair of the fetlocks to above the hock. The nose is white, the mane and the curled hair of the tail are black, and the spine is an intense red-brown colour, the lower jaw beard is of a reddish colour. All these foals bear a more or less curled coat, which is also to be seen on the legs ; the eye is blackish. Let us now compare these descriptions with R. H. 3 34 THE EXISTING EQUIDAE [CH. that given by Smith of the true wild Tarpans which nearly a century ago were declared " not to be found unmixed except towards the borders of China," and which were then found in their greatest purity on the lake Karakoum, south of the Sea of Aral and the Syrdaria near Kusneh and in the Gobi desert, whilst those within the Russian frontiers of that time were adulterated and distinguished by the variety of their colour from the pure herds further east. The true Tarpans " are not larger than ordinary mules, their colour invariably tan, Isabella, or mouse, being all shades of the same livery." Now this would describe very well Mr Hagenbeck's foals from the two most easterly districts, but does not agree with the red heads, necks, backs, and croups of those from the western area. Again, the true Tarpan had a small head, the forehead greatly arched (which we shall soon see to be a characteristic of at least some of the Prejvalsky horses), "the neck crested with a thick, rugged mane, which like the tail is black, as also the pasterns." Now this description does not at all agree with the Prejvalsky foals from the west, for the mane is a light red- brown, and the curled hairs of the tail are light red-brown, white and black, whilst the legs are white, but it tallies quite well with the foals from the second district, which are light ashy-brown coloured instead of red on the head and back, have black fetlocks and the outside of the legs slightly tinted, and have the mane aod spine of a deep brownish colour, and the beard also, thus coming much closer to the description of the pure Tarpan, with its black fetlocks and legs; while the foals from the eastern district, i.e., closest to China, which have a coat of a full yellowish-brown colour, and have not only black fetlocks, but also distinct black bands on the outside of the legs to above the hock, exactly correspond with the picture given us of the unadulterated Tarpan. From these considerations it would appear that (1) Prej- valsky's horse is nothing more than the Tarpan of the older writers ; (2) that if pure Tarpans still survive they are those of the Zagan-norr Lake, and (3) that the divergence in colour of these animals which characterizes those found in the middle district, and in a still greater degree those of the most westerly Il] THE EXISTING EQUIDAE 35 area (especially in the white colour of their legs), is to be ascribed to their being mixed with feral horses rather than to any variation due to environment or any other natural cause. Sanson and Pietrement viewed with suspicion Prejvalsky's discovery, and Pietrement placed the animal under the same sub- species oi Equus w^ith Equus caballus. In this country Dr Sclater took the same view as Poliakoff, whilst Sir W. Flower thought that it might be an accidental hybrid between a Kiang and a Mongolian or some other kind of horse. Flower's caution was quite justifiable at a time when only a single skin was known, although it seems not very likely that such accidental unions as he postulated would occur between different species of Equidae in a state of nature, in view of the well-known objection of the herds of half-wild horses in the Caucasus to intermix in any way. Yet, though many specimens both living and dead, which have since come to hand, render it very im- probable that Prejvalsky's horse is a mule, the theory has retained its hold upon some naturalists down to the present time, who, however, have made no attempt to test the theory by experiment. It is to the indefatigable energy and enthusiasm of Pro- fessor Cossar Ewart, who has done more than any living man to advance our knowledge of the Equidae, that we owe the experiments which seem likely to settle the question finally. It is best to let him speak for himself^ : " With the help of Lord Arthur Cecil I succeeded early in 1902 in securing a maliB wild Asiatic ass^ and a couple of Mongolian pony mares — • one a yellow dun, the other a chestnut. 'Jacob,' the wild ass, was mated with the dun Mongol mare, Avith a brownish- yellow Exmoor pony, and with a bay Shetland-Welsh pony. The chestnut Mongol pony was put to a light grey Connemara stallion. Of the four mares referred to three have already (June) foaled, namely the Exmoor and the two Mongolian ponies. The Exmoor having foaled first, her hybrid may be first considered. It may be mentioned that the Exmoor pony 1 " The Wild Horse " {Equus przetvalskii Poliakoff), Proc. Royal Soc. of Edinburgh, 1903, pp. 460-8. - This animal, now in the Zoological Garden, Eegent's Park, is an onager indicus ( = hemionus indicus, cf. p. 43). 3—2 36 THE EXISTING EQUIDAE [CH. had in 1900 and again in 1901 a zebra hybrid, the sire being the Burchell zebra ' Matopo ' (Fig. 36) used in my telegony experiments. In the case of her Kiang hybrid the period of gestation was 335 days (one day short of what is regarded as the normal time), but she carried her 1900 zebra hybrid 357 days, three weeks beyond the normal time. The Exmoor zebra hybrids are as nearly as possible intermediate between a zebra and a pony ; the Kiang hybrid, on the other hand, might almost pass for a pure-bred wild ass. In Mendelian terms the Exmoor pony proved recessive, the Avild ass dominant. In zebra hybrids the ground colour has invariably been darker than in the zebra parent; but the Kiang hybrid is decidedly lighter in colour than her wild sire, while in make she strongly suggests an Onager — the wild ass so often associated with the Runn of Cutch. Alike in make and colour the Kiang hybrid differs from a young Prejvalsky foal." This comparison Pro- fessor Ewart was enabled to make by means of his hybrid foal with the skin of a very young Prejvalsky foal (for which he was indebted to Mr Carl Hagenbeck). " I have never seen a new-born wild horse ; but if one may judge from the conformation of the hocks, from the coarse legs, big joints, and large head of the yearlings — to their close resemblance to dwarf cart-horse foals — it may be assumed they are neither characterized by unusual agility nor fleetness. The Kiang hybrid, on the other hand, looks as if built for speed, and almost from the moment of its birth has by its energy and vivacity been a source of considerable anxiety to its by no means placid Exmoor dam. When four days old it walked over twenty miles ; on the fifth day instead of resting it was unusually active, as if anxious to make up for the enforced idleness of the previous evening. In the hybrid the joints are small, and the legs long and slender, and covered Avith short, close-lying hair. In the wild horse the joints are large, and the ' bone ' is round as in heavy horses. " As to its colour it may especially be mentioned that the hybrid has more white around the eyes than the wild horse, but is of a darker tint along the back and sides and over the hind-quarters. Too much importance, however, should not be Il] THE EXISTING EQUIDAE 37 attached to differences in colour ; for though the two hybrid foals, which have already arrived, closely agree in their colora- tion, subsequent foals may differ considerably, and it is well known that young wild horses from the western portion of the Great Altai mountains differ in tint from those found further east. " Of more importance than the coat-colour is the nature of the hair. A Prejvalsky foal has a woolly coat not unlike that of an Iceland foal. In the hybrid, the hair is short and fine and only slightly wavy over the hind-quarters. It thus differs but little from a thoroughbred or Arab foal. " The mane and the tail of the hybrid are exactly what one would expect in a mule ; the dorsal band, 75 mm. wide over the croup in the sire, has in the hybrid a nearly uniform width of 12 mm. from its origin at the withers until it loses itself halfway down the tail. The tail, which differs but little from that of a pony foal, is of a lighter colour than the short, upright mane, while the dorsal band is of a reddish-brown hue. In the wild horse the dorsal band is sometimes very narrow (under 5 ram.) and indistinct. In the Kiang sire there are pale, but quite distinct stripes above and below the hocks, and small faint spots over the hind -quarters — vestiges apparently of ancestral markings ; but in the hybrid there are neither in- dications of stripes across the hocks or withers, nor spots on the quarters. In having no indications of bars on the legs, or faint stripes across the shoulders, the hybrid differs from Prejvalsky colts ; it also differs in having a longer flank feather and in the facial whorl being well below the level of the eyes. As in the Kiang and some of the wild horses, the under surface of the body and the inner aspect of the limbs are nearly white. " In the hybrid the front chestnuts (wrist callosities) are smooth and just above the level of the skin; but instead of being roughly pear-shaped, as in the Kiang, they are somewhat shield-shaped, as in the Onager. In the wild horse the front chestnuts are elongated. In the Exmoor dam the hind chest- nuts (hock callosities) are 27 mm. in length and 10 mm. wide. In the sire there is a minute callosity inside the right hock. In the hybrid the hind chestnuts are completely absent. In 38 THE EXISTING EQUIDAE [CH. the absence of hock callosities the hybrid differs from the wild horse, in which they are relatively longer than Clydesdales, Shires, and other heavy breeds of horses. In the hybrid, as in the sire and dam, there are smooth, rounded fetlock callosities (ergots) on both fore and hind limbs. " In the wild horses the hoof is highly specialized, the 'heels' being bent inwards (contracted) to take a vice-like grip of the frog. In the hj'brid the hoof closely resembles that of the pony dam ; it is shorter than in the Kiang, and less contracted at the ' heels ' than in the wild horse. The Kiang hybrid further differs from a young wild horse in the lips and muzzle, the nostrils and ears, and in the form of the head and hind- quarters. The wild horse has a coarse, heavy head, with the lower lip (as is often the case in lai'ge-headed horses and in Arabs with large hock callosities) projecting beyond the upper. The nostrils in their outline resemble those of the domestic horse, while the long, pointed ears generally project obliquely outwards, as in many heavy horses and in the Melbourne strain of thoroughbreds. Further, in the wild horse the forehead is convex from above downwards, as well from side to side, hence Prejvalsky's horse is sometimes said to be ram-headed. In the hybrid the muzzle is fine as in Arabs, the lower lip is decidedly shorter than the prominent upper lip, the nostrils are narrow as in the Kiang : and even at birth the forehead Avas less rounded than is commonly the case in ordinary foals. The ears of the hybrid, though relatively shorter and narrower than in the Kiang, have, as in the Kiang, incurved dark-tinted tips, and they are usually carried erect or slightly inclined towards the middle line. In the wild horse the croup is nearly straight and the tail is set on high up as in many desert Arabs. In the hybrid the croup slopes as in the Kiang and in many ponies, with the result that the root of the tail is on a decidedly lower level than the highest part of the hind-quarters. Further, in the young wild horses I have seen the heels (points of the hocks) almost touch each other, as in many Clydesdales, and the hocks are distinctly bent. In the hybrid the hocks are as straight as in well-bred foals, and the heels are kept well apart in walking. Another Il] THE EXISTING EQUIDAE 39 difference of considerable importance is, that while the wild horse neighs, the hybrid makes a peculiar barking sound remotely suggestive of the rasping call of the Kiang. " The dun Mongol pony's hybrid arrived five weeks before its time, and, though perfect in every way, was short-lived. Only in one respect did this hybrid differ from the one already described. In the Exmoor hybrid the hock callosities are entirely absent ; in the Mongol hybrid the right hock callosity is completely wanting, but the left one is represented by a small, slightly hardened patch of skin, sparsely covered with short white hair. In zebra hybrids out of cross-bred mares the hock callosities are usually fairly large, while in hybrids out of well-bred pony mares the hock callosities are invariably absent. The Exmoor^ pony, though not as pure as the Hebri- dean and other ponies without callosities, has undoubtedly a strong dash of true pony blood; the Mongol pony is as certainly saturated with what, for want of a better term, may be called cart-horse blood." Prof Ewart thus sums up the results of his experiment : \/ " From what has been said, it follows that a Kiang-Mongol pony hybrid differs from Prejvalsky's horse (1) in having the merest vestiges of hock callosities ; (2) in not neighing like a horse ; (3) in having finer limbs and joints and less specialized hoofs ; (4) in the form of the head, in the lips, muzzle, and ears ; (5) in the dorsal band ; and (6) in the absence even at birth of any suggestion of shoulder stripes and of bars on the legs." After this experiment it does not seem likely that zoologists will continue to hold that Prejvalsky horses are the offspring of Kiangs and feral Mongolian ponies-. But as some naturalists had maintained that Prejvalsky horses in nowise differed essentially from an ordinary horse and held that the colts brought from Central Asia were the progeny of escaped feral Mongol ponies, and as others again asserted that they failed to discover any difference between the 1 The Exmoor ponies are said to have derived some good blood from a famous stallion Katerfelto. 2 As these pages are passing through the press the Prejvalsky horses belong- ing to the Duke of Bedford have themselves triumphantly refuted the charge of their being merely mules by having this year (1904) produced oflfspriug. 40 THE EXISTING EQUIDAE [CH. young wild horses in the London Zoological Gardens and Iceland ponies of a like age, Prof. Ewart again resorted to the experimental method. To test the first of these assertions he mated his chestnut Mongol pony with a young Connemara stallion ; to test the second he purchased an Iceland mare in foal to an Iceland stallion. " The chestnut Mongol mare produced a foal the image of herself The foal, it is hardly necessary to say, decidedly differs from the Prejvalsky colts recently imported from Central Asia by Mr Hagenbeck, and it decidedly differs from the wild ass hybrids described above. The Iceland foal, notwithstanding the upright mane and the woolly coat, for a time of a nearly uniform white colour, could never be mis- taken for a wild horse, and the older it gets the difference will become accentuated." "If the Prejvalsky horse is neither a wild ass-pony mule nor a feral Mongolian pony, and if moreover it is fertile (and its fertility can hardly be questioned), I fail to see how we can escape from the conclusion that it is as deserving as, say, the Kiang to be regarded as a distinct species ^" It will be obvious that in view of the facts that the Prejvalsky horses from the two western districts agree in the colour of their legs with the adulterated herds of Tarpans described by Hamilton Smith, while they differ essentially in colour from that of the true Tarpan, and that on the other hand the Prejvalsky horses from the easternmost district correspond accurately to the description of the genuine Tarpan, it would be unwise to maintain that all the Prejvalsky horses imported by Mr Hagenbeck are genuine wild animals unmixed with feral blood, though in view of the evidence which I have set forth one is justified in holding that the Prejvalsky horses from the Zagan-norr Lake are possibly perfectly genuine, and if not absolutely pure from all admixture, at least so little tainted that they practically give us a true picture of the primitive wild stock. Indeed, if they are impregnated with the blood of feral horses, their resemblance to the ass in the absence of the forelock, the upright mane, 1 op. cit., pp. 467-8. \ II] THE EXISTING EQUIDAE 41 and the character of the tail render it all the more certain that there was a primitive variety of horse which had these characteristics so strongly marked that they cannot be easily blurred by crossing with hoi'ses of the ordinary domestic type. Quite recently Dr Salensky^ has urged strongly that Equus przewalskii is a true variety of Equus. He gives the charac- teristics of the Prejvalsky horse as the considerable size of the head, the want of a forelock, the upright mane, the back and shoulder stripes, the characteristic form of the tail, which in some particulars resembles that of the koulan, the size of the ears, which are smaller than in the ass or koulan, and the coloration of the rump, the lower parts of the body, and the striping on the legs, and he holds that the examination of the skull and skeleton leads us, as do the external marks, to the conclusion that Prejvalsky's horse represents a special type, which forms a peculiar race of the sub-species of Equus standing next to Equus caballus. In comparing Equus prze- walskii to other horses he considers that the Tarpan comes first in importance, a view obviously correct in face of the considerations which have been urged above. He starts by citing Gmelin's notice of the Tarpan, the earliest in modern times at least (in his Reise durch Russland). That traveller had the opportunity of seeing them at Bobrowsk (gov. Woronesh), and he describes them as mouse-coloured " with short and crisp mane " {mit kurzer und kraushaariger Mdhne) and says that their legs were black from the knee to the hoof, the head disproportionately thick. The ears sometimes long as in the ass, and hanging, the tail always shorter than in domestic horses, being sometimes well furnished, sometimes sparsely. But Salensky relies chiefly on the official description of a Tarpan captured in 1866 in the ZagradofF steppe on the property of Prince Kotschubei (gov. Cherson) and which was still in the Zoological Gardens at Moscow in 1884. This animal had a forelock but had no callosities on its hind-legs. It was a dark mouse-colour, the legs from hocks and knees down to the pasterns being very black, whilst it had a mane 1 Equus przewalskii (Comptes-Kendus of Imperial Eussian Academy, ] 902), from which my illustration of Prejvalsky's horse (Fig. 18) is taken. 42 THE EXISTIXG EQUIDAE [CH. 48 cm. long hanging down on the left side of the neck. Un- fortunately no minute study was made of its tail, but, as far as can be seen from a photograph, the tail resembled that of Prejvalsky's horse. There are in existence two Tarpan skeletons, one at St Petersburg, the other at Moscow. On the ground of the skull measurements Czerski came to the con- clusion that the Tarpan has all the marks of the group of Oriental horses, being connected on the one side with the Arabian, on the other with the Scottish race to which the ponies belong. The skull comes very near to Equus przewal- skii, although it does not agree with any fully developed skulls of this kind. The number of lumbar vertebrae agree in both Tarpan and Prejvalsky horse, as both have five, but this does not amount to much, as the same occurs in other horses, whilst there are asses with six such vertebrae. The most genuine re- semblance between the Tarpan and the Prejvalsky horse is the black colour of the legs below the knees, a feature very persistent (says Salensky) in the Prejvalsky horse \ and which separates it from hybrid asses, in which the legs are alwaj-s half or wholly white. But Salensky points out that there are some essential differences between the Tarpan and Prejvalsky horse; these are the presence of a forelock in the Tarpan, a longer mane falling down at the side, and a tail more like that of a horse. " All these marks indicate that the Tarpan is a type more specialized towards the horse side than is Equus przewal- skii. Too much stress cannot be laid on the absence of the hock callosities in the only known Tarpan, for such a feature is well known among true horses. The Prejvalsky horse represents a more universal form between the horses and the asses, and this leads to the assumption that more than any other kind of the genus Equus it comes nearest to the common stem-form of horses, asses, and half-asses." When the reader bears in mind the evidence obtained by Colonel Hamilton Smith in 1814 — that there were no pure tarpans within the Russian frontiers — he will at once see that the tarpans described by Gmelin as having sometimes long, some- times short ears, and that the Moscow tarpan with its long hanging mane (in which it differed from the tarpans observed by 1 But this is disproved by the facts cited on pp. 27 and 32. Il] THE EXISTING EQUIDAE 43 Gmelin and Pallas), with its forelock and its horse-like tail, were not genuine wild tarpans, but belonged to the mixed herds of eastern Russia. We must therefore reject Salensky's view that the Moscow tarpan represents a variety of Equus distinct from Prejvalsky's horse, by being more specialized towards the side of the horse. The hypothesis that it was a cross between the true tarpan and a feral horse will likewise account for Czerski's conclusions that it approaches the Arab on the one side and the British ponies on the other, for, as has been already pointed out, Arab horses sometimes lack the hock callosities. We shall presently find that mouse-colour — the hue of the Moscow tarpan — when found in horses is an indication that crossing has taken place. Later on in this investigation it will be shown that mouse-colour and dark mouse-colour in horses are a sure indication of an intermixture of breeds. We may therefore conclude that whilst the tarpan of eastern Asia and the Prejvalsky horse with black legs from Zagan-norr Lake are identical, we must hold that the tarpans of eastern Europe and western Asia have probably been largely crossed with escaped domestic animals for at least two centuries, and probably much longer. To the three kinds of horses which have been just set forth above I shall venture to add a fourth — Equus cahallus lihycus. ASSES. Side by side with Prejvalsky horses the brothei's Grijimailo found two varieties of wild asses in the desert of Dzungaria. The wild asses of Asia fall into a group distinct from those of Africa ; the older zoologists divided them into E. kiang, E. onager, and E. hemippus, which were regarded by some as distinct species, but by others as merely races of the same species, the Equus hemionus of Pallas. The best modern authorities now make at least five subdivisions\ — E. hemionus, E. hemionus kiang Moorcroft, E. onager, E. onager indicus, and E. onager hemippus, whilst of course there may be other races as yet unidentified. All have a dorsal band, but no shoulder 1 Dr W. T. Blanford, F.R.S. {Indian Mammalia, p. 470, 1891) holds that all are simply local races of the same species {E. hemionus). 44 THE EXISTING EQUIDAE [CH. stripe, while their ears are a little shorter than those of the Abyssinian ass. (4) The Dzeggetai {E. hemionus). Mr Lydekker has described a wild ass^ obtained in Kobdo north-west of the Gobi Desei't, now in the possession of the Duke of Bedford. In its make and action " as well as in the general type of coloration, this wild ass agrees essentially with the wild ass of Ladak and Tibet. Both in the winter and summer coats it lacks, however, FiCx. 20. The Kiang'-^. the distinctly rufous-chestnut tint so characteristic of the latter, while it is further characterized by the much less marked contrast between the light and dark areas of the coat." The light areas on the muzzle, buttocks, legs, and under parts being ' Isabella '-coloured* instead of pure white, and thus much less sharply differentiated from the fawn of the rest of the body. 1 P. Z. S., 1904, p. 431 (with Plate) ; cf. Pallas (vii. 92) for Mongol dshigguetei. 2 From a photograph by the Duchess of Bedford. ^ i.e. the colour of the soiled linen of Isabella of Castile. n] THE EXISTING EQUIDAE 45 " The general colour is pale sandy fawn, with the tips of the ears, mane, and dorsal stripe (which is continued down the tail), brown, and there seems to be but little difference in this respect between the summer and winter coats. The dorsal stripe is narrow as in the kiang, and is thus distinct from that of the ghor-kar and onager, which is broader and bordered with white." Mr Lydekker regards this animal "as the true Eqaus hemionus of Pallas, which came from Mongolia, and is known Fig. 21. The Kiang i. to the natives as chigetai (dzeggetai). It is certainly entitled to be regarded as subspecifically distinct from the kiang of Tibet and Ladak, and the latter should be known as Equus hemionus kiang (Moorcroft)." (5) The Kiang {E. hemionus kiang) lives in the upper Indus valley, Tibet, and Mongolia, seldom at a lower altitude than 10,000 feet. It (Figs. 20, 21) differs from the onager 1 This illustration is from a photograph (copyright) of a kiang formerly in the Zoological Garden, Regent's Park, by Mr L. Medland, F.Z.S., well known for his photographs of living animals. 46 THE EXISTING EQUIDAE [CH. in being larger, exceeding 13 hands, and by the narrowness of its dorsal stripe compared with that of the latter animal. Its hind-quarters are much more developed in length and strength. In colour it is rufous-bay, whilst its voice is said to differ from the strident bray of the onager. (6, 7, 8) The Onager {E. onager), the Onager In- dicus, and the Hemippus {E. onager hemippus) differ so slightly in habit ^ that they may be described together. These animals are found on all the great plains of Asia, Chinese Tartary, Tibet, the Panjab, Afghanistan, Western India, Balu- chistan, Persia, and Syria, It is called koulaii by the Kirghis, ghuran or ghur by the Baiuchis, ghor-khur in Hindi, gliour or kherdecht in Persian, in all of which a common element may be recognized. Zoologists now discriminate between E. onager indicus (which is found in North-western India and Baluchistan), E. onager (found in Persia and Turkestan), and E. onager hemippus (found in Syria), whilst it seems probable that the onager of Turkestan'- differs in some respects from that of Persia. The onager indicus is not so dark in colour as the kiang, whilst the typical onager (Fig. 22) "is very white, and in fact might be described as a white animal with a yellowish blotch on the side, another on the neck, and some yellow on the head^" They are usually found in herds of from four to forty, and in spring the mares and foals sometimes congregate in still larger numbers. The ears (Fig. 22) are large, the hair of the tail is short at the base, but grows gradually longer towards the end, which is of a black colour, whilst the mane is erect. The dorsal stripe is dark brown, sometimes with a white edging, and varying in breadth, but normally broader than that of the kiang. Some specimens show a cross stripe on the shoulder, and sometimes the legs show faint rufous bars. It varies in height from 11 to 12 hands. It has been supposed to outstrip in speed the fleetest horses, a notion 1 Blandford, Indian Mammalia, p. 470. - According to Pallas (vii. 92), the koulan of Upper Asia is brownish-yellow with brown dorsal stripe and two bars on legs. ^ I am indebted for this accurate information to Mr E. I. Pocock, F.Z.S., Superintendent of the Zoological Garden, Regent's Park. "] THE EXISTING EQUIDAE 47 apparently as unfounded as the belief that it is incapable of being domesticated. The groundlessness of the former has been demonstrated by the capture of these animals in Cutch by sportsmen mounted on Arabs, Walers (horses from New- South Wales), and country breds\ whilst the latter is shown to be erroneous by the fact that some of the Indians in the army of Xerxes drove chariots drawn by 'wild asses-.' Fig. 2-2. The Onager^. From this it is clear that the peoples of western Hindustan, who did not possess horses, had made the wild ass obedient to the yoke. In Carmania (included in modern Persia), a region bounded by the Indian Ocean and Persian Gulf on the south, and by ^ Tegetmeier, Horses, Asses, etc., pp, 23-5. - Herod, vii. 86, ijXavi'oi' 5i K^Xriras xal dpfxara' inrh 5i To2aL apfiacn virrjaau iTTTTOi Kai ovoi dypioi. ■* The illustration is from a photograph (copyright) from the specimen in the Zoological Garden, Regent's Park, by Mr W. P. Dando, F.Z.S., official photographer to the Zoological Society. 48 THE EXISTING EQUIDAE [CH. i Persia on the west, down to the time of Strabo\ "asses on account of the scarcity of horses" were "generally made use of in war. They sacrifice an ass to Ares, who is the only god worshipped by them, for they are a warlike people." The Carmanians closely resembled the Persians and Medes in their customs. That the onager was regularly captured and domesticated in Assyria in ancient times is clearly established by one (Fig. 23) of the bas-reliefs discovered by Sir A. H. Layard at Kouyunjik (Nineveh). The relief, which is one of a series of slabs recording scenes in the life and hunting expeditions of Assur-Bani-Pal (B.C. 668 — 626), represents two of the king's attendants lassoing a wild ass. The other asses are seen running away-. In ancient times they were well known in Syria, as is clear from the frequent allusions to the wild ass in the Old Testament. Aristotle^ speaks of "those animals called mules (hemionoi) in Syria which are so termed because of their similarity to mules (i.e. domestic mules), though they are not really of the same kind, for they breed freely," and else- where he states that "in Syria there are animals termed mules {hemio7ioi), which, though they are quite a different species from the domestic mules and resemble the wild asses (ol aiypiot ovoi'*), get their name from a certain resemblance to tame mules. Like the wild asses and the domestic mules they surpass in fleetness. These mules breed freely, as is proved by the fact that some were brought into Phrygia in the time of Pharnaces, the father of Pharnabazus, and still continue there. There are now but three, but formerly there were nine." Apparently there were two kinds of wild asses in Syria, differing but slightly from each other, the one known as the ' wild mule ' {hemionos), the other as the ' wild ass ' {onos), the former being probably darker in colour than the latter. Thus one corresponded to the variety termed hemippus or onager indicus, the other to the typical onager. 1 726. ■^ C. Keller (Abstimm. alt. Haustiere) takes them for Prejvalsky horses, but cf. Horses on Figs. 62-4. 3 Hist. Animals, i. 6. ■* Hist. Animals, vi. 36. II] THE EXISTING EQUIDAE 49 10 m > a o Hi a c3 CO 05 M P4 R. H. 50 THE EXISTING EQUIDAE [CH. According to the Book of Wonderful Stories^ attributed to Aristotle, one of the wild asses led the herd, and whenever any of the younger stallions attempted to serve a mare, the master stallion became furious, pursued the colt until he caught him, then stooping down behind him he emasculated him with his teeth. A like belief is still current in India respecting the wild asses of Cutch. In early days the wild ass was well known in Paphlagonia, for Horner^, when speaking of the Eneti who came from thence Fig. 24. The Nubian "Wild Ass^. to aid Priam and the Trojans, describes their land as "the home of wild mules." There can be little doubt that the wild mule ^ 10 (831 a 22) : (pacriv ev "Zvpicf, tCov aypiwv ovoif eva diprjyeicrdai ttjs dyiXrii, €Trei.dav d^ tis vetbrepoi wV tQu ttuXuv e-jri Tiva drjXeiav dva^fj, tov dcpr^youfiepov 6v/xovcr6ai, Kai 8i.wKeiv ecjs rovrov 'iu>% dv KaTaXd^rj tov ttQXov, /cat inroKV\l/as 67rt ra oirladia aK^Xrj ti^ (XTbfx.ari dTrocnrday to. ai.5oia. - II. II. 8.52, 'EveTQv ijdev rj/xidfuv yevos dyporepdoiv. ^ The illustration is from a photograph of the specimen in the Zoological Gardens, Dublin, taken by Mr G. E. Low and given to me by my friend Dr ScharU, the Director of the Gardens. II] THE EXISTING EQUIDAE 51 of Paphlagonia was some form of Equus hemionus, probably the same variety as that called ' mule ' (hemionus) in Aristotle's time. The wild ass of Mesopotamia seems not to be as fleet as a first-rate Arab. Sir A. H. Layard^ in describing a mare of matchless beauty which belonged to Sofuk, a powerful Shammar sheikh, called by her master, Shammeriyah (as if the property of the tribe), says that she was the offspring of a celebrated mare named Kubleh " whose renown extended from the sources of the Khabour to the end of the Arabian promontory, and the day of whose death is an epoch from which the Arabs of Fig. 25. The Nubian Wild Ass"-. Mesopotamia date events concerning their tribe." Mohammed- Emin, sheikh of the Jebours, assured Layard that " he had seen Sofuk ride down the wild ass of the Sinjar on her back." From a passage to be cited later on (p. 125) it is clear that the wild ass (onager) existed all across southern Russia in the fifth century B.C., for it was hunted both by the Sarmatian tribes who lived on the east side of the Don (Tanais) and by the Scythians who occupied the region to the west of that river. It is even possible that the wild ass dwelt in the Danube valley almost down to the beginning of the historical ^ Nineveh and its Remains (ed. 1867), p. 74. - This illustration is from a photograph (copyright) by Mr L. Medland, F.Z.S. 4—2 52 THE EXISTING EQUIDAE [CH. period. It seems certain that neither Sarmatian nor Scythian ever domesticated the wild ass, a circumstance probably due to the fact that they had a more docile and serviceable animal in the wild horses of the same region. On the other hand there is strong evidence that the Arabs had domesticated some kind of E. hemionus from a very early time, for we shall find later on that the Arab tribes possessed Fig. 26. The Somali Wild Ass^. asses from the dawn of history, and Strabo^ when describing the littoral of the Red Sea after Eratosthenes and Artemi- 1 This illustration and the following are from photographs (copyright) of the specimen in the Zoological Gardens taken for me by Mr W. P. Dando, F.Z.S. , of35eial photographer to the Zoological Society. This animal had not hitherto been photograj^hed standing np. - 773 (Didot, 661, 18 sq.), po(TK7}fia.Twv iravToiuiv /xearbv iWwv re Kai ijfj.idvui', Kai KOLfxriXwi' dypiwu /cat i\a.;'- '. :|||^B m \ -^^M ^■» ^1H Tl L ^^^ ^^^2 ^^^^^^ Fig. 37. Typical Burchell Zebra. than any other of the striped Equidae. The ground colour of the upper parts of the body was light reddish-brown or bay, the under surface of the body, the legs and the tail were nearly white. The head, neck, and front of the body were marked with dark brown stripes, which are commonly said to fade away gradually behind the shoulders, the hinder part of the body, save for a broad dorsal stripe, and the legs being free from marks S but according to Dr Noack^ the transverse ^ Tegetmeier, oj). cit. pp. 62-3. 2 "Das Quagga," in Zool. Garten, 1893, p. 289. (library]; 72 THE EXISTING EQUIDAE [CH. stripes reached back as far as the buttocks; they were however completely absent from the legs. The first description of the quagga is that given by G. Edwards^ in 1758: "For size and shape it is much like the last described (i.e. the Mountain Zebra). To speak of its general colour (exclusive of its stripes, which are all black), the head, neck, upper part of the body, and thighs, are of a bright- bay colour : its belly, legs, and the end of the tail are white : on the joints of the legs it has such corns as we see in horses : the hoofs are blackish : the head is striped a little different from the last described (Mountain Zebra) : the mane is black and white : the ears are of a bay colour : it is a little white in the forehead : it hath several broad stripes round the neck, which become narrow on its under side : it hath a black list along the ridge of the back, and part of the tail, and another along the middle of the belly ; the stripes on the body proceed from the list on the back, and some of them end in forks on the sides of the belly, others in single points, and these have some longish spots between them. , The hinder part of the body is spotted in a more confused, irregular manner. The two sides of this, as well as the last described, were marked very uniformly. The noise it made was much different from that of an ass, resembling more the confused barking of a mastiff dog-." 1 Gleanings of Natural History (London, 1758), p. 29, PI. 223. (Cited by Mr Pocock, Ann. Mag. Nat. Hist., 1 Nov., 1904.) My illustration is a reduced facsimile of the plate from the drawing made by G. Edwards himself " from the living animal belonging to his Eoyal Highness the Prince of Wales," in 1751. The legend under the plate is Zebra femina, sive Asina sylvestris Africana, the animal being considered the female of the Mountain Zebra, figured on Plate 27 of the same work and labelled Zebra mas, sive Asi7ius sylvestris Africanus, the latter being drawn from a stuffed skin. It was believed that the quagga was the female of the Mountain Zebra. Edwards states that he " never saw a skin brought over agreeing with this, which makes it a much greater curiosity than the male. I suppose the skins of the female are not counted so beautiful as those of the male, for which reason they are not brought to us. The female hath not till now been figured or described." ^ On the other hand, Thomas Pringle, the well-known poet of South Africa, in his poem " Afar in the Desert," describes it thus : " Afar in the desert I love to ride, With the silent bush boy alone by my side ; Il] THE EXISTING EQUIDAE 73 Here is the description of a quagga as given by Sir W. Cornwallis Harris, who had abundant opportunities of studying (1836-37) the quagga, the Burchell Zebra, and the Mountain Zebra in their native haunts. '* The true zebra is exclusively confined to mountainous regions, from which it rarely, if ever, descends : but the extensive plains of Southern Africa abound with two distinct species of the same genus, the quagga, and Fig. 38. The typical Quagga. O'er the brown Karroo, where the bleating cry Of the springbok's fawn sounds plaintively, And the timorous quagga's shrill whistling neigh Is heard by the fountain at twilight grey, Where the zebra wantonly tosses his ruane, With wild hoofs scouring the desolate plain." Pringle adds in a note " The cry of the qiiagga (pronounced quagha, or quacha) is very different from either that of the horse or ass, and I have endeavoured to express its peculiar character in the above line." (Pringle's lines and note are cited by Mr Tegetmeier, Horses, Asses, Zebras, p. 62.) It is quite possible that the discrepancy between the descriptions of Edwards and Pringle may be due to Pringle's using quagga in the common Boer fashion to describe the Burchell Zebra. 74 THE EXISTING EQUIDAE [CH. the striped quagga, or Burchell's Zebra. These differ little from each other in point of shape or size, both having the tail and ears of the horse, whilst the zebra has those of the ass. Of a pale red colour, the quagga is faintly striped only on the head and neck, but Burchell's Zebra is adorned over every part of the body with broad black bands, which beautifully contrast with the plain yellow-brown. The gnoo and the common quagga, delighting in the same situations, not unfrequently herd to- gether, but I have seldom seen Burchell's Zebra unaccompanied by groups of the brindled gnoo, — an animal differing n)aterially from its brother of the same genus, from which, though scarcely less ungainly, it is readily distinguishable at a great distance by its black mane and tail, more elevated withers and clumsier action ^" Much controversy rages round the quagga, and is likely to continue, since the scantiness of the available data and the hopelessness of obtaining much more precludes the possibility of certainty in conclusions. Mr Pocock has pointed out that the current descriptions of the quagga are made up by blend- ing together animals of different types, and Mr Pocock and Mr Lydekker have suggested that the quaggas figured by Edwards- (Fig. 38), by Harris^ and Hamilton Smith^, may be sub-specifically distinct from the one photographed by York and the specimens preserved in various museums ; and Mr Lydekker has proposed names for two new sub-species — E. quagga greyi (the British Museum, Amsterdam, Tring, and Edinburgh speci- men), and E. quagga loremi (the Vienna specimen). Mr Pocock thinks that Lord Morton's famous quagga stallion known only from a drawing (Fig. 39) belonged probably to the Quagga greyi sub-species^ Mr Lydekker is now very doubtful whether the division into races is justifiable, although it is possible that the Vienna specimen may be distinct, and " despite certain differ- ences in regard to the width and backward extension of the ^ The Wild Sports of Southern Africa (London, 1841), p. 48. 2 Gleanings of Natural History (London, 1758), p. 29, PI. 223. ^ Sir W. Cornwallis Harris, The Game Animals of South Africa (1840), PI. ii. * Horses (PI. xxiv). •'' The Elgin quagga's head, here first published (pp. 436-8, Figs. 131-3), seems to come closest to this category. Il] THE EXISTING EQUIDAE 75 stripes, and also the relative proportions of the white and fawn areas," he is " disposed to regard the quagga, as figured by Edwards, Harris, and Smith, as representing the same type of animal." He believes that the difference between the stuffed quaggas and the figures taken from living animals or fresh skins is entirely due to fading or inaccurate drawing. Mr Pocock' not only adheres to the subdivision given above, but adds a third sub-species — E. quagga danielli (Fig. 40) — which, although " known only from figures and descriptions, is the best marked of the four, and the one that is perhaps the most interesting in the matter of coloration to students of the equine family." The head, neck, and upper part of the shoulders and of the hind-quarters were chestnut, the head being normally striped, the muzzle being black, the neck having sepia-brown stripes much narrower than the intervening areas, tapering and wavy inferiorly and sometimes bifurcating, but falling short of the middle line of the throat. The mane was white with narrow stripes, about thirteen in number, from behind the ear. There were a few stripes on the withers like those on the neck, and not reaching half-way down on the shoulder. Behind the withers there were also a few similar short stripes, but the posterior half of the body and the hind- quarters were neither striped nor spotted. Between the principal stripes on the neck and withers there were here and there a few narrow detached stripes ; the lower half of the shoulder, of the body, and of the hind-quarters as well as the legs were white with a narrow dark rim above the hoof and a dark tuft at the back of the fetlock. The white tail was equine in character, the long hairs extending to the root. In its markings the Vienna quagga comes nearest of all existing specimens or representa- tions to the Burchell Zebra. Mr Pocock has argued with considerable force that the Burchell Zebras and the quaggas of Cape Colony are only sub- 1 Ann. Mag. Nat. Hist., 1 Nov., 1904 (with plate), reduced facsimile of the drawing from life in Samuel Daniell's African Scenery (1804-8), No. 15. (The types are said to be drawn from life.) My figure is a still more reduced fac- simile from the same drawing. I have been enabled to give this figure and that of the typical quagga (Fig. 38) by the kindness of Mr Pocock. 76 THE EXISTING EQUIDAE [CH. specifically distinct, and he includes all the varieties of the Burchell group as well as the true quaggas under the species Equus quagga. On the other hand, Mr Lydekker supports the older view that the Burchell Zebra and the quagga are specifically distinct, on the grounds that (1) the pattern on the forehead of the quagga forms a shorter and more regular diamond than in the Bonte Quagga, and that in the former the centre of the diamond is a pale stripe with four or five dark stripes on either side of it, whereas in all Bonte Quaggas or Burchell's Zebras the diamond is made up of from five to nine stripes, the middle line being black with from two to four stripes on each side: and (2) that quaggas maybe distinguished from Burchell's Zebras (Grant's, Crawshay's, Chapman's, and the typical Burchell's), by the presence on the skull in front of the orbit of a depression claimed to be the remains of a pit which in the case of more archaic forms lodged a facial gland. Mr Pocock replies by showing that Mr Lydekker's first proposition " is not in all cases true either of the ' quaggas ' or the ' Burchell's Zebras '," and against ^Ir Lydekker's second ob- jection he urges that the depression noted in two quagga skulls " belongs to the category of characters likely to appear sporadi- cally as atavisms," and he maintains that " such characters are of doubtful value as a basis for the formation of natural groups ' ; he points out that Mr Lydekker has not cited a single skull of a true Burchell Zebra, and shows that "although the skulls of the female Grant's Zebras [in the British Museum] have practically no trace of the depression, it is very perceptible both to eye and touch in the skull of the stallion." These questions therefore still remain sah judice, but it is manifest that whether the Burchell's Zebras and the quaggas of Cape Colony were specifically or sub-specifically distinct, the relation- ship between them was extremely close. The testimony of most competent observers is unanimous in stating that the quagga was the best adapted for domestication of the striped Equidae, as is proved by the fact that the colonists not unfi^equently kept tame quaggas to run with their herds of horses, since the watchfulness of the former was a "] THE EXISTING EQUIDAE 77 powerful means of protecting its civilized congeners from the attacks of lions. Its extinction therefore is all the more deplorable, and indeed no words can fitly characterize the stupidity of the Dutch and English colonists, who, though dependent for locomotion on horses and oxen, and frequently living in areas rendered deadly to domestic horses and cattle by the ravages of the tsetse-fly and horse-sickness, the latter of which wrought such terrible havoc amongst the horses of the British army in the recent campaigns against the Boers, and Fig. 39. Lord Morton's Quagga^. though they had in the quagga, to all intents and purposes, a native horse, immune from the attacks of the pests so deadly to European horses, and able to thrive on the unkindly herbage of the veldt, thought only of its extermination ; and though the settlers had in Burchell's Zebra at their doors an animal, which. ^ The illustration is from the block which Prof. Ewart had made from Agasse's drawing [Penycuik Exper., p. 65), and which he has most kindly lent to me. 78 THE EXISTING EQUIDAE [CH. if not quite so docile as the quagga, nevertheless enjoyed a similar immunity from the native horse-pests, it was not until 1892 that any effort was made to domesticate this fine animal. At the Agricultural Show held in Pretoria in April of that year the distinguished Irishman, Capt. M. H. Hayes, "broke in a zebra, which belonged to Mr Ziervogel, quiet to ride after about half-an-hour's handling without having to throw him down, tie him head to tail, or to resort to any of the other heroic methods of the horse-tamer." Capt. Hayes having thus shown the ease with which the Burchell Zebra could be utilized, the Boers seem to have at once caught at the idea. Mr Harod Stephens, writing from Pretoria in the following December, stated that the coaching firm of Messrs Zeedesberg had some two months previously [October] purchased eight half- grown zebras from a hunter named Groblaar, who "caught them in a wild state between four and five months ago [i.e. in July or August] by riding after and lassoing them." "During the last month they have been in training for harness, with the result that four of them are perfectly quiet and well-trained, and the remaining four partially trained." "They pull very well and are very willing, and never jib — a vice which is very prevalent in the horses of this country \" The Germans in East Africa, learninof wisdom from the folly of the Boers and English in South Africa, are now utilizing the Grant Zebras in Kilima Ndjaro-, and I learn from Prof Ewart that the same wise policy is being carried out in British East Africa, where in addition zebra hybrids are bred. The survey of the Equidae shows that the tendency to stripes is least in the northern latitudes where the genus first made its appearance in Asia, that this tendency gradually increases as we advance southwards, that it reaches its maximum in the tropical and sub-tropical regions of Africa, and that it shows a tendency to disappear in Chapman's Zebra (Fig. 36) of the Transvaal and Orange River Colony, and to a still greater ^ Tegetmeier, Horses, Asses, Zebras, p. 56. 2 The Field, 1901. I learn from Mr C. W. Hobley, Sub-commissioner in Brit. E. Africa, that the domesticated zebras both tliere and in German E. Africa at first suffered greatly from the ravages of an obscure form of life, but a remedy has now been found, and their utilization is i3roceeding successfully. n] THE EXISTING EQUIDAE 79 degree in the quagga (whose geographical range seems always to have been south of the Vaal River), the stripes on the hind-quarters breaking up into spots (Fig. 38), which in turn disappear (Fig. 39), whilst by the diffusion of colour from the stripes the upper parts become a bay colour, the stripes only surviving from the head to the middle of the back (Fig. 40). To this question I shall return (p. 437) when I shall describe and figure a new specimen of the quagga (Figs. 131-3). Fig. 40. The Daniell Quagga. Now it will be admitted that the Equidae, as a whole or in part, are either gradually divesting themselves of stripes or gradually putting them on, unless it be contended that a separate act of creation has taken place in the case of each species or variety. If as a whole they are in process of getting rid of the marking of a many-striped ancestor, it is clear that the Equidae of Asia and Europe have succeeded in doing this to a far greater degree than their brethren in Africa, to which continent the zebras are confined. On the other hand, if the Equidae, either as a whole or only certain species, are gradually assuming stripes (a less likely hypothesis), it is plain that those 80 THE EXISTING EQUIDAE [CH. of Africa have far outstripped their congeners of the northern latitudes. From these considerations it follows that the presence of manifold stripes all over the body in any member of the genus Equus is a strong indication that it has been long domiciled in Africa, where its progenitors for protective or other purposes either retained and modified the gaudy coat of a common ancestor of all the Equidae, or else put on stripings differing in different species and varieties according to the nature of their environment. That in either alter- native such modifications have taken place as I assume, on African soil, is rendered highly probable by Prof Ewart's careful study of the markings of the zebras, from which he has been led to conclude that the Somali Zebra represents the oldest type, " that the plan of marking in the common zebra might be easily derived by a modification of the stripes in the Somali Zebra, and that by further modifications in the same direction the various patterns presented by the stripes in the Crawshayi, Chapmani, and Burchelli types of zebras might also be obtained. I do not wish it to be inferred that the Burchell Zebras have been derived from the common zebras, but simply that the ancestors of the Burchell Zebras once upon a time more or less resembled in their markings the common zebra of to-day, and that their still more remote ancestors probably resembled in their markings the Somali Zebra \" But it by no means follows that the peculiar markings of the Somali Zebra represent the original livery of the common ancestors of horses, asses and zebras, for we are not more justified in making such an assumption than zoologists five-and-thirty years ago before the discovery of the Somali Zebra would have been warranted in assuming that as the markings of Burchell's Zebra and the quagga could be derived from those of the Moun- tain Zebra, the latter therefore represented in its striping the livery of the common ancestor of all the Equidae. Moreover, the Gr4vy Zebra from Shoa differs in the transverse stripes of the croup, and in its coloration (p. 59), from that from Somaliland. In other words, since it is highly probable that much modification has taken place in the stripings of the 1 Penycuik Experiments, p. 90. Il] THE EXISTING EQUIDAE 81 Equidae on African soil, it must not be assumed that the disposition of stripes in the Grevy Zebra is original, and not as in the case of the other species the result of modification due to environment. Again, we have seen (p. 12) that the presence or absence of hock callosities has been taken as one of the chief means of differentiating Equus caballus from the asses and zebras, and though zoologists are at variance regarding the primal use of these excrescences, they are agreed in holding them to be survivals from a remote ancestor. It is therefore to be carefully noted, that whilst the hock callosities are present in Prejvalsky's horse, and are especially of large size in domestic horses of heavy breed, they are not unfrequently absent in North African horses (and always absent in pure, and frequently in half-bred ' Celtic ' ponies of the British Isles, the Faroes, and Iceland), they are completely wanting in all the asses and zebras, or in other words, in the wild Equidae of Africa (although the wild ass of central Asia occasionally shows a vestige, p. 37). Finally, the true Prejvalsky horse and true tarpan have their fetlocks and lower portion of the leg always black, whereas the asses and zebras have their legs either white or covered with dark and white stripes. It therefore follows that any one of the Equidae which shows stripings all over its body and face, white and black bands on the lower parts of the legs, and does not possess hock callosities has a very strong prima facie claim to be considered African in origin. R. H. 6 CHAPTER HI. THE HORSES OF PREHISTORIC AND HISTORIC TIMES. They buried the dark chief — they freed Beside the grave his battle steed ; And swift an arrow cleaved its way To his stern heart ! One piercing neigh Arose, — and on the dead man's plain The rider grasps his steed again. Longfellow, The Minnisink. Let us now return to Equus cahallus. There is evidence that in the later Palaeolithic time two varieties at least existed in western Europe. Owen held that the ossiferous caves and post-Pliocene deposits of Europe indicate two species, of which one {Equus cahallus) was as large as a middle-sized horse of the present day, whilst the other {E. plicidens) was about the size of a large donkey, but differing from the first-mentioned as well as from the modern horse in the more complex foliation of the enamel on its molar teeth, and he held that the fossil horse had a larger head than the domesticated race. On the other hand, Cuvier and others maintained that no difference can be detected between the fossil horses of the Quaternary times and Equus cahallus save such as can be explained by the difference in size of the animals compared. We have seen that the Pleistocene beds of Essex yield bones and teeth of a large-headed, heavily- built horse, which probably sometimes measured fully 14 hands, whilst from the ' Elephant bed ' at Brighton portions of a slender-limbed horse have been obtained. It is not improbable that at the same period horses of a diminutive size inhabited CH. Ill] PREHISTORIC AND HISTORIC HORSES 83 Ireland, for not long since a lower jaw was found ^ in the marl below the peat near Athlone, co. Galway, which is but twelve and a quarter inches long and four inches at the widest part, and must therefore have belonged to an extremely small race. But as the jaw may have only sunk from the peat into the upper portion of the marl, it is not impossible that the bone may belong to a more recent period. Daring the Quaternary period wild horses were abundant in Europe and formed an important part of the food supply of Palaeolithic man and various wild animals such as the hyaena. Their remains have been found in the Kirkdale Cave, Yorkshire, and Kent's Cavern, near Torquay, which in addition to many bones of horses, hyaenas, and other animals contains much evidence of human habitation. These early men have left us at least one picture of the horse, which they hunted and ate. In one of the caves of the Creswell Crags, on the borders of Derbyshire and Nottingham, was found a small fragment of rib with its polished surface ornamented with the incised figure of a horse-; the head with its eyes, mouth, and nostrils, is admirably drawn, and a series of fine oblique lines, stopping at the bend of the back, are supposed to prove that the animal was hog-maned, but these lines may have simply been the primitive artist's way of indicating the mane, whether hogged or flowing. Prof Boyd Dawkins has shown in his tables of the Pleistocene animals living to the north of the Alps and the Pyrenees that the remains of the horse were found in thirty-one out of the forty stations tabulated ; and Dr Munro has pointed out that the horse was one of the most common animals among the cave-fauna of Belgium, both during the mammoth and reindeer periods. From this it is clear that the horse must have been very common in Belgium. No less common was the horse in France. The station of Solutre, near Macon (Saone-et-Loire), partially excavated by MM. Ferry, Arcelin, Ducrost, Lortet, and others, has revealed a great abundance of implements of flint 1 I am indebted to my friend Dr Scharff, of the National Museum, Dublin, for this information. - Boyd Dawkins, Early Man in Britain, p. 184, Fig. 53. 6—2 84 THE HORSES OF PREHISTORIC [CH. and reindeer horn, and quantities of broken bones, chiefly those of the horse and the reindeer, which had plainly been used as food. On the south side of the settlement piled-up bones of horses formed a sort of protecting wall. The estimate of the number of animals represented by these relics varies from two thousand to one hundred thousand, but it is very difficult to make a just calculation, for the bones were so broken in extracting the marrow, that it was with difficulty a complete skeleton could be constructed for the museum at Lyons. According to M. Toussaint the horse of Solutre was of low stature, the average height being from 1"36 m. (13"2 hands) to l"o8 m. (13"3 hands). The lower jaws were highly developed, Fig. 41. A Prehistoric Horse. and the teeth were so large that they might readily be taken as belonging to animals of a much greater size. The large size of the head* in proportion to the rest of the body harmonizes remarkably with the engraved figures of horses found in some of the Dordogne caves. " The bones of the limbs were strong, with large articulations, prominent muscular attachments, and broad hoofs^." It is noteworthy that in the leg the metacarpal and metatarsal vestigial bones were not united to the main bone, as is usually the case with modern ^ It is worth noting that the head and teeth iu one of the varieties of Prejvalsky's horse are relatively very large (J. C. E.). 2 Munro, Arch. Jour. Vol. lix. pp. 114 sqq. Ill] AND HISTORIC TIMES 85 horses, a fact which supplies an intermediate link between the latter and the Hipparion. The investigations of MM. Lartet and Chj-isty in the caves of the Vezere (Dordogne) have revealed bones of the Equus caballus in great abundance, for in the list of animals whose bones were found in greatest numbers in the caves of La Madelaine, Laugerie, and Les Eyzies, Equus caballus heads the list, followed by Sus scrofa, Cervus tarandus, C. elaplms, C. capreolus, the Irish elk, and various others \ Of seven bone- yielding caves of Vezere all save one supplied remains of the Fig. 42. Head of Prehistoric Horse : Gourdan. horse^ At the famous rock-shelter of Cro-Magnon the bones of the horse were more numerous than those of any other animal, and M. Lartet^ rightly inferred that it must have formed the chief food of its primitive inhabitants. It is clear then that during the Reindeer period the horse was found in considerable numbers in south-western France. 1 Lartet and Christy, Reliquiae Aqiiitanicae, p. 172 ; cf. Muuro, oj). cit., p. 116. - Lartet and Christy, oj). cit., p. 181. 3 Lartet, op. cit., p. 94. 86 THE HORSES OF PREHISTORIC [CH. But the Dordogne caves have furnished us with another class of evidence of the highest importance in the shape of a large series of representations of animals engraved on frag- ments of bone, ivory, or stone, or occasionally carved out of bone or reindeer horn\ It is needless to observe that the animals pourtrayed are those with which the artists were them- selves familiar. Similar drawings and carvings have since been discovered in a number of other caves in France and Switzer- land, " the whole now culminating in a collection of over 300 specimens illustrating the social life of the period, more especially animals and hunting scenes, the former being pour- trayed with singular fidelity and artistic skilP." In the series of portraits the horse figures prominently, especially on the storied reindeer horns and bones from La Madelaine, " all of which unmistakably represent big-headed (cf. Figs. 41-2) animals, with the exception of one or two which show a small head, sharp muzzle, and long ears^." Mr Conrad Merk discovered in the Kesslerloch cave near Schaff hausen a piece of reindeer horn engraved with the outline of a horse, apparently small-headed : " the well-formed head — rather long, with small ears — the upright mane, the graceful, well-formed body, the elegant and light-formed feet, and especially the remarkably thin tail, reaching nearly to the ground, represent without doubt a young, well-bred animal." "This Kesslerloch horse," remarks Dr Munro, "must have been a very different animal from the clumsy, rough pony, with its shaggy tail and big ugly-looking head, figured on bones and horns from La Madelaine." These indications of the possible existence of at least two kinds of horses during the Reindeer period have lately gained further support by the discovery of engravings of a large size and of coloured paintings of various animals, on the walls of some newly explored caves in southern France, especially those of Combarelles and Font-de-Gaune, Commune of Tayac, Dordogne, and not far from the well-known station of Les Eyzies. 1 Reliquiae Aquitanicae, p. 16, B. PI. ii. ; Munro, op. cit., p. 117. '- Munro, loc. cit., PI. i. Fig. 1. 3 Eel. Aqiiit., B. PH. ii, vi-vii, is-x, xix-xx, xxiv, and xxx-xxxi. Ill] AND HISTORIC TIMES 87 As early as 1875 slight traces of this style of decoration had come to light in the cave of Altamira, near Santander, in N.E. Spain. Later on better examples were revealed in the caves of Chabot (Gard), La Mouth e (Dordogne), and Pair-non-Pair (Gironde), in all of which figures of equine animals occurred along with those of other animals regarded as characteristic of the Palaeolithic period. The cave of La Mouthe, explored with signal success by M. E. Riviere, extends for about 260 metres, and on the walls of its inner recess are drawings clearly representing the bison, reindeer, goat, mammoth, and two Equidae. These horses were cut on a panel 128 m. from the entrance. One represents an animal with a small head, slender neck, and well-formed fore- quarters, " but the posterior part is heavy and altogether out of proportion," while the other had a stout neck, a long head directed almost vertically and a hairy chin. "Whatever may have been the defects of the artists, the originals of these two drawings must have been very different animals." Yet one cannot help wondering whether it may not be that it is the fore-part and not the hind-quarters of the first animal which is out of proportion. The cave had been occupied by man both in the Palaeolithic and Neolithic periods, the two strata being separated by a layer of stalagmite of varying thickness. The Neolithic debris con- tained bones of horse, stag, a small-sized ox and other animals. But two caves surpassing in importance those hitherto explored were discovered by MM. Capitan and Breuil in 1901, at Cojnbaxeiles and Font-de-Gaune. It is noteworthy that whilst the former is adoriied with engravings cut more or less deeply by Palaeolithic man, the other is decorated with paintings in ochre and black, or sometimes only in one colour, forming real silhouettes of the animals thus depicted. The painted figures at Font-de-Gaune number 77, comprising forty- nine aurochs, eleven indeterminate animals, four reindeer, one stag, two mammoths, three antelopes, two horses, three geometrical and two scalariform signs. The cave at Combarelles extends for 234 m. The engravings begin about 118 m. from the entrance, and are continued on 88 THE HORSES OF PREHISTOEIC [CH. both sides with only slight intervals for 100 m. Many of the designs are covered with a film of stalagmite. Sometimes the incised lines are emphasised by thin bands of black paint. The figures represent animals in various attitudes in a style and manner of execution resembling those of La Madelaine and other later Palaeolithic settlements. 109 animals have been distinctly made out, whilst 19 have not been identified, and a human face is marked as doubtful. There are 23 whole drawings, and many heads of Equidae. In spite of their evident difficulty in identifying a considerable number of the figures, the explorers hold that these are accurate documents of great palaeontological value. They con- sider that there are at least two species of horses distinguishable among the forty figures already deciphered. " On pent nettement distinguer au moins deux especes tres differentes. Les uns sont de gros chevaux, a criniere ordinaire- ment droite, a queue tres fournie, a grosse tete et nez busque avec levres tres fortes. D'autres sont beaucoup plus elance's, plus fins ; la tete est petite, la criniere, egalement droite et courte, arrive jusqua sur la tete qui est notablement plus petite, le nez parait bien plus droit, que chez les pre- cedents, enfin la queue est implante'e tantot plus bas, tantOt au contraire plus haut, comme celle des bovides ; elle est glabre, souvent terminee par un touffe de polls." If we can rely on the faithfulness of the artists, we have here evidence for the existence in Europe in Palaeolithic times of a small, light-built horse, as well as a stout-built animal with a bushy tail and a large head. But, as the artists of Com- barelles delineated both the breeds alike with a short, erect mane, and as the historical evidence shows that the large-headed horses of the later period which may be held to represent the large-headed animals of Solutre, had very thick, long manes, we must hesitate before accepting as " precise documents for palaeontology " the cave engravings. It is probable that the Combarelles artists simply repi-esented horses' manes in a con- ventional fashion by a number of straight lines. Moreover, it must be borne carefully in mind, that, whilst there is abundant evidence for the large-headed animal in the Ill] AND HISTORIC TIMES 89 remains of Solutre and elsewhere, we have few osseous data for the existence of the supposed small-headed type. Not only have the recent discoveries in caves of the late Palaeolithic period led to the suggestion that at least two distinct species of Equidae were known to their occupants — a thing in itself not at all impi-obable — but to the further theory that man had already subdued the horse to his will. The evidence furnished by the bone-caves of Belgium and Britain led to the conclusion that man hunted the horse like any other animal for purposes of food. The general scarcity of vertebrae of the horse in cave deposits seems to indicate that the hunter took away the more detachable portions to his home, but left the carcase on the field, a method followed in the case of all big game \ Both man and the hyaena alike broke the bones of the horse which formed their prey, but their methods differed ; the former smashed them with hammer- stones, the latter crushed them in his teeth. Further, in the bones broken by men the spongy and cartilaginous portions were not removed, " thus presenting a marked contrast to those gnawed by hyaenas or by the dogs of the 'kitchen-midden' people of Denmark." M. Dupont- inferred from the frequency with which certain caudal vertebrae of the horse were met with in the caves of Belgium that the hunters were in the habit of cutting off and bringing home the tails of their horses as trophies, like the brush of the fox in modern days. Later on we shall see some reason for conjecturing that these tails may have been prized as ornaments. The masses of bones of the horse and the reindeer found at Solutre^ already mentioned, led us to infer that the horse was habitually hunted and eaten for food. But M. Toussaint main- tained that the horse-bones were those of domestic animals, basing his opinion on the fact that the bones showed few old or young animals, being usually those of horses from five to seven years old. But M. Pietrement ^ retorted the argument, show- 1 Munro, op. cit., pp. 123-4. 2 Dupont, Les Temps Prehistoriques en Belgique, p. 173 (cited by Munro). ^ Pietrement, Les Chevaux dans les Temps Frehistoriques et Historiques, pp. 86-96. * Op. cit., p. 96. ] 90 THE HOESES OF PREHISTORIC [CH. ing that the fact relied on by M. Toussaint was a cogent proof that the bones were those of wild animals, because in a troop of wild horses it is always the most vigorous adults which occupy the post of danger in the rear, and are therefore more liable to be killed. He argued that if these animals were simply kept to be slaughtered it was not necessary to keep them for seven years, for they would have been full grown and better fitted when three or four years old : "Les chevaux de Solutre ne pouvaient etre que des chevaux sauvages, ou bien des animaux utilises comme moteurs pendant quelques aunees avant d'etre sacrifies pour I'alimentation; on ne peut hesiter a admettre que c'etaient des chevaux sauvages qui ont ete chasses, tues et manges par I'homme quateruaire de la localite." MM. Capitan and Breuil have given a fresh start to the domestication theory from certain characters and markings observed by them on some of the engravings of horses in the cave of Combarelles. Let them speak for themselves ^ : " Plusieurs des equides figures presentent des caracteres de domestication tres nets. Le grand equide reproduit (Fig. 4), porte sur le dos, comme on le voit facilement, une large couverture avec ornaments en forme de dents. Un autre porte egalement une couverture tres nettement representee. II en est autour du museau desquels il semble qu'il existe une corde ; enfin un des trois petits chevaux du groupe ci-dessus (Fig. 5) indique porte — ainsi qu'on peut le voir sur la figure, qui reproduit la tete de cet animal au tiers de grandeur naturelle (Fig. 3) — un chevetre indique avec une precision telle qu'il n'y a pas d'erreur possible. Enfin deux animaux portent sur le milieu du corps des signes nettement traces; sur le flanc d'un cheval il existe un signe en losange, et un autre animal, qui semble avoir des cornes, porte sur le flanc trois signes qui ont un aspect alphabetiforme (Fig. 5). "II est impossible de ne pas rapprocher cette particularite des figurations grecques archa'iques de chevaux portant un nom grave sur les fesses. "II parait bien vraisemblable qu'il s'agit sur nos betes de ^ Revue de VEcole d'Anthropologie, 1902, p. 39 ; Munro, op. clt., pp. 120-7. Ill] AND HISTORIC TIMES 91 marques de propriete ou de marques de tribus comme les Wasms en usage chez tous les nomades de Sud algerien." Dr Munro has shown a wise hesitancy in accepting this conclusion. He rightly points out that if the horse had been employed for riding, "we would undoubtedly ere now have had a representation of the fact, either among the varied assortment of objects in the Palaeolithic art gallery, or among the scenes of animal life so fortuitously brought to light in the caves of Combarelles, La Mouthe, and others." He would explain the supposed bridle and covering on the back of the horse by the hypothesis that the hunter after trapping the wild horse brought him home, being able to cow him completely in a short time, and that the supposed horse-cover "may be nothing more than the skin coat of the hunter thrown over the back of the animal when led home by means of a halter made of thongs or withies, to be there slaughtered." But it must be pointed out, that even if the markings on the animals are not accidental, they may very well be purely conventional, such as those to be found on numerous objects in the early Iron age of central Europe and in the geometrical /^\ period of Greece. We have /<^.S:^-.J many representations of horses, |-^l!fcX!X3 dogs, and cows \ decorated with ^''"■*''"»^""''^'"*^'^' circles (Fig. 43), and other de- signs, which the artist had never seen on any animal. So Dutch potters commonly decorated their Delft cows and horses by p^^ 43 Miniature Axe; Hallstatt. scattering little flowers all over them. As M. S. Reinach holds"'', the cave pictures may be due to the desire of the primeval hunters to employ magic in capturing their prey. It is by no means clear that man had tamed the steed in Neolithic times, and from the evidence derived from the British barrows it would appear that there is no authentic case of such 1 So on a late Mycenean vase from Enkomi in Cyprus a cow is pourtra5'ed, the body of which is covered with conventional patterns, which plainly were never seen in nature. - VAnthropologie, 1903, pp. 257-66. 92 THE HOESES OF PREHISTORIC [CH. remains being found in any long barrows. "The bones of the horse," says Prof Rolleston\ " are both durable and conspicuous, and it is difficult to think that if the Neolithic man had used the animal either for purposes of food or for those of carriage, as his predecessors and successors did, we should not have come upon abundant and unambiguous evidence of such use." Lord Avebury has shown that of the 28 cases given by Mr Bateman in which the bones and teeth of horses occurred, " nine were in tumuli which had been previously opened, and in one case no body was found. Of the remaining 18 five were tumuli containing iron, and seven were accompanied with bronze. In one more case, that of the 'Liffs,' it is doubtful whether the barrow had not been disturbed. Of the remaining six tumuli, two contained beautiful drinking vessels of a very well-marked type, certainly in use during the Bronze age, if not peculiar to it; and in both these instances, as well as in a third, the interment was accompanied by burnt human bones, sug- gestive of dreadful rites." Out of 297 interments only 63 contained metal, or about 21 per cent., while out of the 18 barrows with horses' remains, twelve, or about 66 per cent., certainly belonged to the age of metals. Later on I shall offer an argument to show that the use of the horse by man in the British Isles cannot be placed before the end of the Bronze or the beginning of the Iron age. This would be completely in accord with the view commonly held that the primeval horses of Britain whose bones are found in the caves became extinct, and that the horse was reintroduced from the Continent at no long time before the dawn of history. Passing to the Continent we find that there is but scant evidence of the horse in Neolithic times in the Swiss Lake- dwellings, for though Rutimeyer^ held that the horse had been domesticated by the Swiss Lake-dwellers in the Neolithic period, he himself contrasts the extreme paucity of the remains of that animal in the oldest settlements such as Wangen, Moosseedorf, Robenhausen, and Wauwyl, as compared with their abundance in the Bronze age stations. It is generally ^ Greenwell, British Bairows, p. 736. ^ Die Fauna der Pfahlhauten in der Schiveiz (1861), p. 122. in] AND HISTORIC TIMES 93 held that the domestic horse was employed by the Lake- dwellers from the Bronze age, and beyond doubt bronze bits, bronze trappings, and even a bronze wheel and other chariot- fittings have been discovered. Thus a bronze bit completely preserved was found at Moeringen, and a perfect specimen of another made of two tines of stag-horn with a transverse mouth-piece of bone was found at Corcelettes, while many fragments of both kinds, especially side-pieces made of horn, have been obtained from various sites^ But even Moeringen and Auvernier, where these bits make their appearance, belong to the latest Bronze period, and remains undoubtedly of the Iron age, such as a La Tene sword, have been found at least at the former. It must be carefully borne in mind that long after iron had come into use for cutting weapons, bronze, horn, bone and stone continued to be used, bronze being especially adapted for horse-bits and horse-trappings and for fittings for chariots. The Swiss horse was small, as is proved by the bits made of bronze and stag-horn, which have been found at Moeringen and Auvernier. These bits are only three-and-a-half inches wide. Various Swiss sites have yielded great numbers of antiquities of the later Iron age (commonly called the La Tene period, from the fact that this peculiar class of antiquities first became known at the Pile-settlement of La Tene on Lake Neuchatel). The weapons and ornaments are similar to those found on the battle-fields where Caesar overthrew the Helvetians. From the osseous remains of horses found on sites of the La Tene period it is clear that the horses of the Helvetians were of slender build. According to Dr Marek- the La Tene horse agrees in its fundamental characters, size excepted, with the Oriental races of horses, whose typical representative is the ' Arab.' This Helveto-Gallic horse, as he terms it, was 135 — 141 cm. (13-2 — 14 hands) at the withers, and it thus occupies an intermediate position between Arabs and ponies. But it is important to bear in mind that the finest type of Arab is 1 Munro, Lake-dwellings of Europe, pp. 28, 524, etc. Fig. 191 shows various horse-bits. - J. Marek, "Das helvetisch-gallische Pferd " (Abhandl. Schweiz. palaeontol. Gesellschaft, Vol. xxv. 1898); Scharff, R. I. A. Proc. Vol. xxv. Sec. C. 94 THE HORSES OF PREHISTORIC [CH. rarely over 13"2 hands. On a later page (321) these La Tene horses will be identified with a breed well known in north- western Italy and south-western France in the first century B.C., whose descendants still survive in Provence, and it will be shown that this race is Libyan in origin. The Sigynnae, who were the only tribe of all those to the north of the Danube whose name is knoAvn to Herodotus \ "had horses with shaggy hair, five fingers long, all over their bodies, and which were small and flat-nosed, and incapable of carrying men, but which when yoked under a chariot were very swift, in consequence of which the natives drove in chariots." This description of the appearance of the little horses of the Sigynnae of central Europe agrees very well with the skeletons found near Macon. The simous shape of the head tallies well with the ugly-shaped skull and powerful jaws of the bone deposits. We can hardly believe that we have here horses such as those whose bits have been found in the later Lake- dwellings of Switzerland. The depth of their hair forcibly recalls the description of the winter coats of the tarpan, of Prejvalsky's horse, and the Iceland ponies already cited, though it has to be borne in mind that the last-named ponies have often very small heads. Unluckily Herodotus does not give us any information respecting the colour of these little horses, but we shall pre- sently adduce evidence which will render it probable that they were dun-coloured. The reason assigned by Herodotus for the practice of the Sigynnae clearly explains why most early peoples yoked the horse to a car long before they ever habitualh' practised riding". It was apparently the same reason which induced the Britons of Caesar's time to continue the use of chariots, although by that date they had been given up for war by the ■• Y. 9, Tovs 5e ittttoi'? avrwv ehat Xaaiovs inrav to aQ,ua, firi irevre daKTvXovi TO jSddos tH'v Tpi.x<^^, (JfJ-iKpovs 5e Kal ai/j-ovs Kal ddwaTovs duSpas (pepeLv, ^€vyvvfj.e- vovs 5e vtt' ap/j-aTa eluai o^i'xdroi'y dp/uLaTTjXaTeetv di wpos TavTa tovs eirixt^piovs. 2 W. Eidgeway, "Why was the Horse driven before he was ridden?" Academy, Jan. 3rd, 1890, p. 14. Ill] AND HISTORIC TIMES 95 Celts and other inhabitants of Gaul, whose chief strength lay in their horsemen {equites). It will presently be shown that this change in the method of using the horse on the Continent was due not solely to the development in size of the indigenous animal, but to the fact that by the middle of the second century B.C. the Gauls had procured from southern Europe horses of a size far superior to their own and better adapted for riding. Dio Cassius, when speaking of the Caledonians and Maeatae, two chief tribes of northern Britain, says that they "went to war on chariots, as their horses were small and fleets" Since the countr}" which these tribes inhabited would have been much more easily traversed by men on horseback than by wheeled vehicles, it is clear that they used chariots because their ponies, w^hich, in part at least, may be represented by the 'Celtic' ponies of to-day, were too small to carry a full-grown man for any considerable time or distance. The statement of Dio Cassius concerning the practice of the tribes of northern Britain is completely confii'med by the discovery of the remains of a considerable number of chariots in Yorkshire barrows. In one (Fig. 44) of the sixteen tumuli known as Danes' Graves, situated in the parish of Driffield, Mr J. R. Mortimer- and Canon Greenwell, in 1897, discovered the remains of two adult bodies (Fig. 44), the iron tires of two wheels and other pieces of ii^on belonging to a chariot, two iron snaffle-bits, and several rings and ornaments of bronze belonging to the horse- trappings, though not a single bone of a horse was found. The wheels had apparently been taken from the axle. The tires measure respectively 2 ft. 6f in. and 2 ft. 5j in. in diameter, both being If in. broad and ^ in. in thickness. The iron hoops for the naves likewise survived, being 5 in. in diameter (inside), | in. wide, and nearly a quarter of an inch thick I ' Dio Cassius, lxxvi. 12 {ex Xiphilini epit.), iTparetLiovTai U iiri re ap/xdruiv, iinrovs ^x"*''''^' fiiKpovs Kal raxeis, Kal ire^oi 64 eicxi kt\. - Ann. Report of the Yorkshire Philosophical Soc. for 1897, pp. 3-4. ^ Ibid., p. 10. The Yorkshire Philosophical Society have most kindly lent me the block for Fig. 41. D o,^'?c^'0 c. D. +-> Fig. 44. Eemains of a Chariot found at Driffield, Yorkshire. CH. Ill] PREHISTOillC AND HISTORIC HORSES 97 In a group of over 200 small barrows closely resembling the Danes' Graves, which once existed at Arras near Market Weighton, the remains of three chariots were founds The fragments of another chariot discovered in one of the barrows at Hessleskew, were presented to the Museum of the Yorkshire Philosophical Society (which possesses also the relics from Arras and Danes' Graves), by the Rev. E. W. Stillingfleet in 18651 The evidence derived from the finds at Silchester and along the Roman wall confirms the statement of Dio Cassius respect- ing the small size of the British horse. There can therefore be little doubt that the cause which led the Sigynnae to drive in chariots had induced Britons to follow the same custom, even in a country beset with forests and morasses, and where it is obvious that riding on horseback, as in medieval times, would have been much more convenient than driving in chariots, had horses of sufficient size been available. The Belgic tribes of Britain at the time of Caesar's invasion used both horsemen and chariots, for on learning of Caesar's^ intended landing, "they sent forward cavalry and charioteers, which formed their chief arm in warfare." Caesar describes elsewhere the value of the war-chariots, and their method of handling them. "At the first onset they drove the cars in all directions, hurled their javelins, and by the din and clatter of horses and wheels commonly threw the ranks of the enemy into disorder, and making their way amongst the squadrons of the enemy's cavalry they leaped down from their chariots and fought on foot. The charioteers then little by little withdrew out of the fight and placed their chariots in such a way that if they were hard pressed by the enemy they could readily retreat to their own side. Thus in battle they afforded the mobility of cavalry, and the steadiness of infantry. 1 Oliver, History of Beverley, p. 4 (footnote), cited by Mr Mortimer, loc. cit. - For information about all these finds I am indebted to ray friend Canon Greenwell, and also to Mr Platnauer, the curator of the Museum of the Yorkshire Philosophical Soc, York, who (through my friend and former pupil, Mr C. Gutch) most kindly supplied me with photographs of the Arras and Hessleskew remains. An elaborate monograph by Canon Greenwell on all the chariot-burials found in England will appear very shortly in Archaeologia. ^ B. G. IV. 24. R. H. 7 98 THE HORSES OF PREHISTORIC [CH. Daily practice enabled them to pull up their horses when in full speed on a slope or steep declivity, to check or to turn them in a narrow space, to run 'out on the pole and stand on the 3'oke, and to get nimbly back again into the chariot \" This statement, confirmed by other aucient writers^, puts it beyond doubt that it was not lack of intrepidity or agility that induced the Britons to drive their horses instead of mounting on their backs, and also shows that their cars were not scythed. The evidence just offered for the diminutive size of the Irish horse combined with the fact that in the oldest Irish epics the horse is not ridden, for Cuchulainn and Queen Medhbh are always represented as fighting in chariots, renders it highly Fig. 4-5. Bronze Bits: Ireland^. probable that here also the use of the chariot in a country singularly difficult for vehicles was due at least in part to the smallness of the steeds. It is not unlikely,, that as the domesticated horse was intro- duced into Britain, so also was he brought into Ireland at no very remote date, for all the bits and trappings hitherto known belong to the Iron age in that country, where as I have elsewhere argued iron found its way at a comparatively late 1 B. G. IV. 33. - Juvenal, i\-. 126. ^ The larger and more richly decorated bit is one of a pair found along with a pair of the well-known spur-shaped objects, on the hard turf bottom of a bog at Atymon, co. Mayo, in 1891. Ill] AND HISTORIC TIMES 99 epoch. The bronze bits here shown (Fig. 45), each being one of pairs in the Museum of the Royal Irish Academy, belong beyond doubt to the late Celtic period, as is demonstrated by the beautiful ornament on one of the bits and its fellow, as well as on the pair of mysterious pieces of trapping, found at the same time, one of which is figured on a later page. It has been urged that it was easier to learn to drive than to ride. But is this true ? Under modern conditions it may be so, when a person's first essay in driving is made on some old and steady animal tightly embraced in harness and shafts. But when primitive man fir.st subdued the little wild horse, was it easier for him to learn to drive two of these animals, when simply attached by means of a yoke and pole, with free play for their heels, their first instinct being to kick to pieces the rattling, creaking wheels and axle, which formed the primi- tive car, or to learn to sit firmly on his backM The South American Indians found no difficulty in acquiring the latter art when they obtained the horse from the Spaniards. As the Britons were famous for their intrepidity in running out and standing on the chariot pole, and as we shall presently see, Odysseus and Diomedes had no hesitation in getting on the backs of Thracian steeds, it is clear that it was not from fear that either Achean or Briton drove habitually in a chariot instead of riding on horseback. But though mounted men formed the chief weapon of the Gauls in their death-struggle against the Romans, it is clear from both literary and monumental evidence that at no long time previously had the chariot been in universal use among all the Celts of Gaul and north Italy. Thus Diodorus- makes it plain that down to a late date they, like the Homeric Acheans, had regularly gone to war in two-horse chariots, containing each a warrior and a charioteer: the former first hurled spears called saunia at the foe, and then dismounted to finish the combat at close quarters with the sword, the latter being doubtless of that type known as La Tene (Fig. 111). The opening of many tumuli in Champagne has brought to light 1 W. Kidgeway, Academy, 1890, p. 91. 2 y, 29. 7—2 100 THE HORSES OF PREHISTORIC [CH. the remains of Gaulish chieftains, who were interred, seated on their chariots, the horses and trappings being- buried along with them. These interments, as is proved by the swords and fibulae of the La Tene ^ type, cannot be earlier than 400 B.C. and are probably to be set at least a century or two later-. This evidence is completely corroborated by that of Livy*, who narrates that in the great battle fought at Sentinum in Etruria (292 B.C.), in the third Samnite War, when the Romans under Fabius Maximus and Decius Mus overthrew the com- bined Samnites and Gauls, the latter had a thousand chariots (esseda) and cars (carri), the charge of which completely routed the Roman cavalry, and would have decided the battle in favour of the allies, had not Decius Mus, following the example of his father at the battle of Vesuvius in the Latin War, dedi- cated himself and the enemy's host to the infernal gods, and by this act of devotion gave fresh courage to his legionaries to make a stand which led to ultimate victory. It is therefore clear that when the Gauls entered Italy at the end of the fifth or the beginning of the fourth century B.C., they like the Sigynnae on the north side of the Danube were drivers of chariots and not yet riders of horses. How then did it come to pass that though the Gauls of north Italy are still using chariots in 292 B.C., yet by Caesar's day the peoples of Gaul had universally discarded the war- chariot and were employing cavalry alone ? Fortunately suf- ficient evidence has survived from antiquity to enable us to trace the way in which this important change was effected. I am now going to show that the Gauls of north Italy had taken to horseback by the latter part of the third century B.C., and probably much earlier, that the Transalpine Gauls had fully adopted the same practice by the middle of the second century B.C., whilst even the Belgic tribes of the Continent had 1 Ridgeway, Early Age of Greece, Vol. i. p. 410. 2 Morel, La Champagne Souterraine, p. 23, Pll. i. x. etc. 3 X. 28-30, " Essedis carrisque superstans armatus hostis ingenti sonitu equorum rotarumque advenit, et insolitos eius tumultus Eomanorum conterruit equos." Ill] AND HISTORIC TIMES 101 discarded the chariot by Caesar's time, though their kinsfolk who had crossed into south-eastern Britain still retained it in use side by side with cavalry. Later on it will be shown that the Celts of Noricum and the Danube had begun to ride on horseback in the early Iron age, though retaining the use of the chariot, and that by the beginning of the third century B.C. the Celtic tribes of this region had developed a highly organised cavalry system. Furthermore, it will be shown that this change from chariot- eering to riding went pari passu with the importation of superior horses from the Mediterranean area into the Upper Balkan and into the countries beyond the Alps. When Hannibal arrived in north Italy (B.C. 218) ho first came into contact with the Romans in the cavalry engagement on the Ticinus (Ticino). Here his Numidian horsemen, who rode without either bridle or saddle, and his Spanish cavalry who used bridles, at once proved their superiority not only to the Gallic horsemen, whom Scipio^ had placed with his javelin- throwers in his front line, but also to the cavalry of the Romans and the best of their Italian allies which were superior to that of his Gallic auxiliaries. In the year 170 B.C. envoys arrived in Rome from Cinci- bulus, a king of the Gauls. One of the king's brothers addressed the Senate and complained that C. Cassius, one of the consuls of the previous year, had ravaged the lands of the Alpine peoples, who were in alliance with Rome, and had carried thousands of persons into slavery. At the same time envoys came also from the Carni, the Istri, and lapodes with similar complaints. As Cassius was absent in command of an army in Macedonia, the Senate could not take any immediate action, but wishing to appease the anger of the injured tribes they not only sent commissioners to examine on the spot into the charges brought against Cassius, but also loaded the Gaulish envoys with presents, especially the two brothers of Cincibulus. It was decreed that they should be given two torques made out of five pounds of gold, five vases made out of 20 pounds of 1 Livy, XXI. 46, " Scipio iaculatores et Gallos equites in fronte locat ; Romanos sociorumque quod roboris fuit, in subsidiis." 102 THE HORSES OF PREHISTORIC [CH. silver, two caparisoned horses {equi phalerati) with their grooms, cavalry armature, and cloaks, and gifts of apparel for the members of their retinue, bond as well as free. These were the voluntary gifts of the Senate. But at their own request each of the two brothers was granted the right of buying ten horses, and permission to export them out of Italy ^ Twenty stallions brought back by the Gallic chieftains to their home beyond the Alps would in a very few years produce a great effect on the quality of the little indigenous horses, even if no fresh blood was imported. But Caesar himself, in a passage shortly to be fully cited, points out that the Gauls were always importing foreign horses and paying very long prices for them. But as Caesar contrasts the excellence of the Gallic horses with those of the German, it follows that the horses imported by the Gauls must have been brought from the countries lying south of the Alps and Pyrenees. It is very significant that on the series of silver Gaulish coins, the earliest of which may be dated from about 150 B.C., and which from the first commonly display native types and not imitations of Greek or Roman issues, a horseman is one of the most favourite types, whilst practically the chariot nowhere appears, although it forms the regular type on the reverse of the gold coins imitated from the gold stater of Philip II. of Macedon, which bore on one side the head of Apollo, on the other a two-horse chariot ^ It would appear that by Caesar's time the Belgic tribes, who occupied all the region bounded by the Marne, the Seine and the Rhine, had given up the use of chariots, although their brethren who had crossed into south-eastern Britain continued to employ them in warfare, for Caesar does not refer to the use of war-chariots by the former in any of his campaigns against them. Probably by his time they had obtained horses of a kind fully suited for cavalry, and had therefore given up the use of the chariot in war; their relations in Britain, though able to put a considerable number of mounted men into the field, 1 Livy, xLiii. 5, " Ilia petentibus data, ut denorum equorum eis commercium esset, educendique ex Italia potestas fieret." 2 Eidgeway, Origin of Metallic Currency, p. 90. Ill] AND HISTORIC TIMES 103 still retained the war-chariot, whilst with the original tribes of the interior, who had none but very small horses, the chariot apparently still reigned supreme. The monuments of northern Italy demonstrate likewise that though the horse was in use in Italy from the beginning of the Iron age, as is proved by the discovery of bronze horse- bits associated with remains of that period both at Este and Bologna, the chariot was still employed by the Umbrians, though the art of riding on horseback was becoming known. At Sesto Calende, near the point where the Ticino issues from the southern extremity of Lake Maggiore, was found a tomb of the Iron age. It contained a helmet made of plates of bronze rivetted together, two bronze greaves, a very short sword, a lance-head, arrow-heads, two horse-bits, two iron circles (the tires of the chariot-wheels), two large hollow objects, and other pieces of iron belonging to the chariot. The horse-bits are bronze mounted in iron. There was also a bronze bucket ornamented with horsemen, footmen, stags, birds, and dotted circles, and dotted lines. This bucket is one of a class well known in the region lying on both sides of the head of the Adriatic, and may be assigned to the sixth or seventh century B.C. ; from its evidence we may infer that the peoples of those regions had learned to ride the horse at a period much earlier than the tribes beyond the Alps, a conclusion in complete harmony with the evidence of Herodotus respecting the Sigynnae. To the question of the development of riding in Italy we shall presently return. The evidence here stated makes it clear that the Umbrian tribes who had passed down into Italy in the Bronze age and had subdued or driven back into the mountains the aboriginal Ligurians, employed the horse and the chariot from the early Iron age onwards, and that when the Celts, the close kinsmen of the Umbrians, crossed the Alps at a later date, they too came as a chariot-driving and not as a horse-riding folk. We have seen, that though by Caesar's time the Gauls were well- supplied with cavalry, and the war-chariot was virtually extinct, yet they never abandoned its use until they had obtained a superior breed of horses from the southern side of the Alps. 104 THE HORSES OF PREHISTORIC [CH. The Veneti, who lived at the head of the Adriatic, and who have left their name in Venice, had a peculiarly good breed of horses at an early date, or to speak more accurately one family among them owned this valuable possession. These horses were branded with a representation of a wolf "They were remarkable," says Strabo\ "more for speed than for beauty." According to the story the breed had its origin thus : A man notorious for the readiness with which he became surety for others happened to fall in with some hunters who had a wolf in their nets. They asked him in jest if he would go bail for the wolf on condition that he would become responsible for all the damage the beast had done. He agreed, and the wolf being set free at once went and drove a herd of unbranded horses to the steading of his benefactor; he accepted the gift and branded them with a representation of a wolf His descendants kept both breed and brand, and in order to retain the pure strain in their own hands made it a rule never to part with a mare. The statement that these horses were more remarkable for speed than for beauty would of itself suggest that they were only an improved breed of the little horses of central Europe. This is actually confirmed by ancient testimony, for Aelian^ when describing under the name of Lycospades the horses called LycopJiori by Strabo, speaks of them as in appearance thickset and short, and also with flat noses. Dionysius, the despot of Syracuse (B.C. 405-367), got some of the Venetian breed for his stud, in consequence of which Venetian colts became known in Greece and the breed long enjoyed a high repute *l But by Strabo's time it had died out and the Veneti had given up altogether the breeding of horses ■*. There was a shrine in their land said to be dedicated to Diomedes, in which white horses were sacrificed to the hero '. White horses, such as those bred by the Veneti, were held in great esteem in Sicily, and it is highly probable that the famous four-horse chariot drawn by white horses in which Dionysius regularly rode was horsed by the imported Venetian 1 215. ^ H. A. XVI. 24, TTjv 6\f/LV ^ovai aweaTpa/j./j.ivai' /cat ^paxeiav, in 5i crifiriu. » Strabo, 215. ^ Id. 211. ^ ^d. 215. Ill] AND HISTORIC TIMES 105 steeds and their progeny. This practice, which was not fol- lowed by either Hiero or his son Gelon, was revived by the foolish Hieronymus, who clad in purple and wearing a diadem used to drive forth from the palace in a quadriga drawn by white horses, like a second Dionysius\ White horses were apparently in favour with the Sicilian aristocrats at the close of the fifth century B.C. According to Diodorus Siculus^, Exaenetus of Agrigentum, on returning home after his victory with his chariot at the Olympic games in 412 B.C., was brought into the town escorted by 300 bigae drawn by white horses. The statement that white horses were sacrificed by the Illyrian Veneti in a shrine called after Diomedes by the Greeks has every stamp of truth, for we know that it was a general practice amongst the Illyrians to sacrifice horses to a deity identified with Cronus by the Greeks. Moreover, we shall jjresently see that white horses were held in special esteem by the tribes of Germany, and we shall find that the sacrifice of horses was a characteristic of the religion of the Teutonic and Scandinavian peoples. The value set on white horses by the Sicilian Greeks and by various other peoples both ancient and modern was due not to any superiority in speed or other qualities, but rather to the sanctity attached to animals of a white colour, as for instance to white elephants in Further India, and to white asses in Persia. At the dawn of history all the peoples of the Balkan penin- sula like those of the Italian seem to have kept horses, but they all appear to have used the chariot and never mounted the steed. The Upper Balkan was occupied almost wholly by | the closely related Illyrian and Thracian tribes on whom the \ fair-haired people known as Celts to the Greek writers of the | classical period, were constantly pressing down. These Celts / were distinguished from the indigenous tribes, not only by their xanthochrous complexion, but by the fact that whilst all the Illyrian and Thracian tribes tattooed, the Celts never j followed this custom. The Thracians tattooed themselves with figures of animals such as deer, which were probably their ^ Livy, XXIV. 5. ^ xm. 82. 106 THE HORSES OF PREHISTORIC [CH. tribal badges, or even totems. The wolf-brand used to mark the horses of the Veneti was probably the badge or perhaps totem of the clan which owned them. Though the Thracians were using oxen for draught (Fig. 46) in the sixth century B.C., and though by that time the riding of horses must have been very familiar to them from their Greek neighbours on the south and the Scythians on the east, yet it seems certain that two-horse chariots continued to be used by certain peoples in Thrace down to late times. On the hills Fig. 46. Thracian coin snowing Q^gg^j.^. which surround the valley oi the Kritchma, the last affluent of the Maritza (ancient Hebrus) before the latter reaches Philippopolis, there are many large tumuli, which have been partially explored during the last fifty years*. In a pit close to the most remark- able of these, called Doukhova Moghila (" The Barrow of the Spirit"), in 1851 the brothers Shkorpil found the remains of a chariot and a pair of horses. Ten years later a peasant found the remains of another chariot and pair of horses close to the same spot. MM. Gueroff and Berti commenced working at this spot, and at a point nearer to the tumulus they found a body in an upright position, the skull broken, and with an arrow-head still sticking in one of the ribs. Horses and chariots had been placed in trenches running east and west and liad then been covered with earth. They found various objects in iron, bronze ornaments for the bridles, iron bits with bronze attachment, and bronze statuettes for ornamenting the body of the car, consisting of horses, bears sittiug-up, a Poseidon, and two plaques bearing in low-relief horses' heads incrusted with silver. In 1S77-8 the Russians quartered at Philippopolis excavated at the same spot and were said to have found a chariot as well as a silver disc, a silver cup, and a three-legged table. In 1888 sixteen pits were opened and according to MM. Shkorpil each grave 1 Georges Seme, " Vojage en Thrace," Bull, de Correspondance Hellenique, Vol. XXV. (1901), pp. 156 sqq., Figs. 11—23. Ill] AND HISTORIC TIMES 107 contained the bones of two or four horses of a small breed {Equus caballus minor, Linn.), but it does not appear that more than four or eight chariots were discovered. In 1898 M. Dobrusky found near the old workings the fittings of iron and bronze belonging to a chariot and various human skeletons. In 1899 Fig. 47. Grave-stone, Mycenae. — 1900 M. Seure made further explorations and discovered a chariot, which he has described with admirable minuteness, and the remains of horses of a small size. M. Seure would refer this interment to the fourth century A.D., and would assign it to a settlement of Scythians in Thrace, on the ground that the 108 THE HORSES OF PREHISTORIC [CH. Thracians did not bury slaves and horses with their chiefs, whilst the Scythians did both. But there is nothing in the ancient statements ^ respecting the Thracian funeral customs to hinder us from believing that the Thracians might occasionally so honour a great chief inasmuch as concubines were regularly put to death and all kinds of victims were offered. On the other hand, as the Scythians did not use chariots in the time of Herodotus, it is most unlikely that they would have resumed their use in the centuries after Christ, when all other peoples had taken to horseback. The monuments of the Bronze age of Greece, commonly termed the Mycenean period, furnish the earliest evidence of the use of chariots and horses in that country. These monuments are the relics of the Pelasgians, who were the indigenous people of Greece, and also the close congeners of the Illyrians and Thracians; and the grave-stones of the acropolis of Mycenae, on three of which are sculptured in low relief a man driving a two-horse chariot with four-spoked wheels (Fig. 47), may be placed in the fourteenth century B.C. The Homeric poems furnish us with very copious evidence from at least 1000 B.C. respecting the method of employing horses, their breeding, their management, and their colours, not only for Greece itself, but also for Thrace and Asia Minor. We shall first examine the evidence for Thrace. That the Thracians used chariots in war is shown by the episode of the slaying of Rhesus the Thracian king and twelve olF his best men. Dolon, the Trojan spy, when captured by Odysseus and- Diomede, said that if they desire "to steal into the throng of the Trojans, lo, there be those Thracians, new-comers, at the furthest point apart from the rest, and among them their king Rhesus, son of Eioneus. His be the fairest horses that ever I beheld, and the greatest, whiter than snow, and for speed like the winds. And his chariot is fashioned well with gold and silver, and golden is his armour that he brought with him, marvellous, a wonder to behold I" 1 Herod, v. 4 ; PompoDius Mela, ii. 2, 18 ; Solinus, x. 28. 2 II. X. 433 sqq. (Lang, Leaf, Myers). Ill] AND HISTORIC TIMES 109 "Then the twain went forth through the arms, and the black blood, and quickly they came to the company of Thracian men. Now they were slumbering, foredone with toil, but their goodly weapons lay by them on the ground, all orderly, in three rows, and by each man his pair of steeds. And Rhesus slept in the midst, and beside him his swift horses were bound with thongs to the topmost rim of the chariot \" Then Diomede fell to slaying the sleeping Thracians^ " but whom- soever he drew near and smote with the sword, him did Odysseus of the many counsels seize by the foot from behind and drag him out of the way, with this design in his heart, that the fair-maned horses might lightly issue forth, and not tremble in spirit, when they trod over the dead ; for they were not yet used to dead men." Then when Diomede is slaying Rhesus himself, " meanwhile the hardy Odysseus loosed the whole-hoofed horses, and bound them together with thongs, and drave them out of the press, smiting them with his bow, since he had not taken thought to lift the shining whip with his hands from the well-dight chariot. Diomede pondered, whether he should take the chariot where lay the fair-dight armour, and drag it out by the pole, or lift it upon high, and so bear it forth," but yielding to the monition of Athena he "swiftly sprang upon the steeds, and Odysseus smote them with his bow, and they sped to the swift ships of the Acheans." When they had come thither Nestor was the first to hear them, and when they had leaped down to earth the old man asked them whether they had won the horses by stealing into the press of Trojans, or had some god given them to them. " Wondrous like," said he, "are they to the rays of the sun. But never yet saw I such horses, nor deemed of such ^" Plainly then the white horses of the Veneti to which we have just referred were no new feature in the countries south of the Danube, but it is clear from the words put in the mouths of both Nestor and the Trojan Dolon that white horses were unknown both in Greece and on the Asiatic side of the Aegean. J //. X. 469 sqq. '-^ II. x. 480 sqq. » II. x. 543 sqq. 110 THE HORSES OF PREHISTORIC [CH. This inference is fully borne out by the evidence touching the colour of horses supplied by the poems themselves. The Iliad and the Odyssey, which present us with immortal pictures of the fair-haired Acheans, who in the early Iron age became the masters of the Pelasgians of upper Greece and the Peloponnesus, represent those heroes as breeders and drivers of horses. The warrior goes to battle in a two-horse chariot with his charioteer beside him, as was the practice of the Celts of Gaul down to the century before Christ. We have also clear evidence respecting the type and colour of their horses. The evidence of the Iliad amply suffices to show that the horses bred and used by the Acheans were almost uniformly dun-coloured, for the epithet xanthos, commonly applied to them, was used by the Greeks to describe the colour of gold and golden-coloured hair. In two passages at least this epithet is applied generically to Achean horses. Achilles when he rejects in scorn the gifts proffered by Agamemnon, exclaims, " Kine and goodly flocks are to be had for the lifting, and tripods and yellow-dun (xanthos) horses can be bought ; but to bring back man's life neither harrying nor earning availeth when once it hath passed the barrier of his lips^" Again, Nestor relates how once he headed a foray into the land of the Eleans — the land in which Pelops and the Acheans had especially established themselves — " and a prey exceeding abun- dant did we drive together out of the plain, fifty herds of kine, and as many flocks of sheep, and as many droves of swine, and as many wide flocks of goats, and yellow-dun (xanthos) horses a hundred and fifty, all mares, and many with their foals at their feet^" The horses of Achilles which had been given to his father Peleus by Poseidon himself were named Xanthos (Dun) and Balios (Dapple), " swift horses that flew as swift as the winds, the horses that the harpy Podarge bare to the West W^ind, as she grazed on the meadow by the stream of Oceanus^" Here we have the earliest reference to the belief so common in classical times that the fleetest horse came from the West 1 II. IX. 407 sqq. -' II. xi. 680 sqq. 3 /;. xvi. 149 sqq. Ill] AND HISTORIC TIMES 111 and that in that region the mares became impregnated by the west wind, an aetiological myth to explain the swiftness of steeds, who rivalled in speed the strong west wind from the Atlantic. As halios is regularly applied to deer and to the lynx\ there can be no doubt that when it is used of horses it means dappled, and accordingly Achilles' steed was a dappled-dun. These famous steeds had very heavy manes. After the slaying of Patroclus they kept " apart from the battle weeping, since first they were aware that their charioteer was fallen in the dust beneath the hands of man-slaying Hector. They stood unmoved abasing their heads unto the earth. Hot tears flowed from their eyes to the ground as they mourned in sorrow for their charioteer, and their rich manes were soiled as they drooped from beneath the yoke-cushion on both sides beneath the yoke \" Again, when at the funeral games of Patroclus Achilles lays down prizes for the chariot-race, he says that if in some other's honour the Acheans were holding games he himself would compete : " but verily I will abide, I and my whole-hoofed horses, so glorious a charioteer have they lost, and one so kind, who on their manes full often poured smooth oil, when he had washed them in clear water. For him they stand and mourn, and their manes are trailing on the ground, and there stand they with sorrow at their hearts^." In the horses of Achilles, with their long, heavy manes, one dun-coloured, the other dappled-dun, we can recognize the same breed of horses as those used by the Sigynnae of central Europe in the fifth century B.C., and this identification will gain further confirmation from colour and other arguments as our investi- gation proceeds. As the poet seems carefully to note any peculiarity of colouring in horses, such as those of Rhesus alread}' described, and those of Aeneas to be discussed later on, 1 Eur. Hec. 90, Ale. 579. 2 II. XVII. 437 sqq. : oi/Set evt.(TKL/j.\pai'Te Kaprjara' 5dKpva 8i aa.pwv x'lA'iiSij p^e (xvpofx^voicnv T)vi6xoLo irbdui' doKipri 8' efxiaivero x"'''"'? i'ei''7/\r/s f^epLTTovaa vapa ^vybv dpupOT^pudev. ^ II. xxiii. 283 sq., oi!5fi 8e aiv X'^'^'a' eprjp^daTaL. 112 THE HORSES OF PREHISTORIC [CH. it is natural to suppose that the horses used by the different heroes in the chariot-race were of the ordinary dun colour, unless it is otherwise stated. The evidence of Homer renders it certain that horses were bred all over Greece in the early Iron age. We have just seen that the Eleans kept mares in large numbers, and we are told that the horses of Nestor, driven by Antilochus in the chariot-race, were bred by the old chief himself at Pylus\ whilst it is probable that horses w^ere bred in ' horse-pasturing ' Argolis. Thus Aethe^ {Blazer), Agamemnon's mare, which Menelaus drove in the chariot-race along with his own horse Podargus^ (Sivi/t-fuot), had been given to the former by his vassal, Echepolus of Sicyon, as a fee in lieu of following his lord to Trov. Not only were horses largely bred in Homeric Greece, but the ass played a familiar part in the life of the people, as is clear from a famous simile in the Iliad : " And as when an ass passing along by a cornfield, hath overmastered the boys that be Avith him, a lazy ass, round whose ribs full man}^ a cudgel hath been broken, and he maketh his way into the deep coi'n and croppeth it, while the boys smite him with cudgels, and feeble is their force, though with might and main they drive him forth when he hath had his fill of fodder, even so did the great-hearted Trojans and their allies, called from many lands, smite great Ajax, son of Telamon, with darts on the centre of his shield and ever followed after him^" No doubt the ass was of the Nubian species, which had been domesticated at a very early period, and, as we shall see, had been commonly used from very remote times in Egypt, from whence it probably had made its way into Greece. As both horses and asses were thus commonh* kept, it was but natural that the breeding of mules should be carried 1 //. XXIII. 303. 2 j/_ XXIII. 295. ^ II. XXIII. 295 (cf. II. vni. 185, where it is the name of Hector's horse). It probably means ' swift-foot ' not ' white-foot,' since it is used of the harpy Podarge {II. xvi. 150, xix. 400). 4 II. XI. 558. Ill] AND HISTORIC TIMES 113 on, although from the circumstance that two different terms are used for mules — hemionos (' half-ass ') and aureus — it might naturally be inferred that these hybrids were both true mules (the offspring of a mare by a male ass), and jennets (the off- spring of a she-ass and a male horse), but this apparently was not the case, since both terms are applied to the same animals^ and it seems certain that hemionos was a true mule and not a jennet, since the second prize in the chariot-race was a mare in foal with a mule (heinionosy. Mules played a leading part in agriculture and the other ordinary avocations of life, being regularly employed for drawing waggons^, for hauling timber^ and for ploughing, and preferred for the last-named purpose to oxen'. Leaving aside for the moment the Homeric evidence touching horses in Asia Minor let us return to the regions lying north of the Illyrians and Thracians. We have already described the little, large-headed, shaggy horses of the people who lived on the north of the Danube in the time of Herodotus. We shall now show that down to the time of Julius Caesar's campaigns in Gaul this same small ugly breed of horses was the only one possessed by the tribes of Germany, for although in Caesar's time the Germans used horses for riding, his descrip- tion shows that these native horses were of a very inferior kind. " They admit traders into their country rather because they want persons to purchase what they themselves have captured in war than through any desire to buy imported wares. Moreover, foreign horses, in which the Gauls take special delight and for which they pay large sums, the Germans do not employ, but their own native-born horses, which are bad and ugly, they train to endure the severest toil by daily exercise. In cavalry actions they frequently jump off their horses and fight on foot, and they train their horses to remain where they stand, and if need arise they betake themselves 1 Cf. II. XXIII. 115 with 121, and xxiv, 702 with 716. - II. XXIII. 265-6 : iinrov ^drjKev e^ire ddfxriTrii', ^pecpos tj/miovov Kviovffav. 3 II. VII. 332, XVII. 712, XXIV. 702. ■» II. xxiu. 121. 5 11^ X. 352. R. H. 8 114 THE HORSES OF PREHISTORIC [CH. back to their horses with all speed. Nothing, according to their standard, is more disgraceful or a greater mark of laziness than to use a saddle, and no matter how few in number they may be, they boldly attack any number of cavalry furnished with saddles ^" The method of fighting here described is identical with that of the peoples who used chariots, for the latter, as we have seen, regularly descended from their chariots and fought on foot, the charioteers keeping the chariot in readiness close at hand. The Germans had simplified this method of warfare by using their ponies as mere vehicles and not as war-horses ; they dismounted from their horses as others did from their chariots, and leaving their horses to await them, as the others did their chariots, they fought on foot. Thus they were mounted infantry rather than true cavalry. However, by the time of Tacitus we shall find that one tribe of Germans possessed a true cavalry finely organised. It is not improbable that the Germans had once used chariots, but had abandoned the use in warfare in favour of the system of rough-riding, which they may have learned from the peoples who lay east of them, such as the Sarmatians and Scythians. The description of these small, ugly, native German horses makes it clear that they were the old small European horse with a big head, of the same breed as those of the Sigynnae. That the horse had been domesticated and used by some of the Germans from a remote antiquity is rendered clear by various circumstances, foremost amongst which is the fact that, according to Tacitus-, divination from horses was accounted the surest mode of foretelling the future. " It is peculiar to this people to seek omens and monitions from horses. Kept at the public expense, in these same woods and groves, are white horses, pure from the taint of earthly labour ; these are yoked to a sacred chariot (cur^rus) and accompanied by the priest and the king, or chief of the tribe, who note their neighings and snortings. No species of divination is more trusted, not only by the people and by the nobility, but also by the priests, who 1 B. G. IV. 2. 2 Germania, 10. Ill] AND HISTORIC TIMES 115 regard themselves the ministers of the gods, and the horses as acquainted with their will." We shall presently find that the ancient Persians had very similar beliefs and practices concern- ing white horses to those held by their Germanic kinsmen. But in the interval between Caesar and the date when Tacitus wrote his account of Germany, one German tribe had developed a cavalry organization of so high a quality as to call forth the warm admiration of the latter writer. This was the tribe called Tencteri by Tacitus, Tenchtheri by Caesar. In Caesar's day this tribe, being hard pressed by the Suevi, had made their way to where the Menapii occupied both banks of the Lower Rhine. The Menapii on the eastern side hastily removed to the western bank, taking with them all their boats. The Tencteri, thus baffled, pretended to return whence they had come, and the Menapii of the east bank recrossed the river to their homes, thinking that all was now safe. But the Tencteri suddenly returned by a long night march accom- plished on horseback, slew the Menapii, seized their boats, and were thus enabled to cross the Rhine ^ In the time of Tacitus the Tencteri were dwelling on the west bank of the Rhine, near the Chatti and Usipii. The historian states that the Tencteri, " besides the ixiore usual military distinctions, particularly excel in the organization of cavalry, and the Chatti are not more famous for their foot- soldiers than are the Tencteri for their horsemen. What their forefathers originated, posterity maintains. This supplies sport to the children, rivalry to their youths ; even the aged keep it up. Horses are bequeathed along with the slaves, the dwelling- house, and the usual rights of inheritance ; they go to the son, not to the eldest, as does the other property, but to the most warlike and courageous"." Tacitus is probably also referring to this people when he says that the bridegroom brought such gifts as oxen, a caparisoned horse, a shield, a lance, and a sword I Occasionally the horse was burned along with his master on the funeral pyre'*. It will be noted that the Tencteri had crossed the Rhine 1 Caesar, B. G. iv. 4. - Germ. 32. 3 Ih. 18. ■• lb. 27. 116 THE HORSES OF PREHISTORIC [CH. and had thus got into immediate contact with the Gauls, who had ah'eady, from at least the beginning of the second century B.C. (p. 101), been importing good horses and their caparisons at great cost from beyond the Alps, and thus continually improving their native strains. It has also to be remembered that from B.C. 150 the Gauls had practically abandoned the chariot and become essentially a nation of knights, as Caesar found them in his campaigns. These circumstances render it highly probable that the reason why the Tencteri surpassed in horses the rest of the Germans was the fact that their geographical position gave them special facilities for improving their own indigenous horses with which they had reached the Rhine and surprised the Menapii in a night march, in Caesar's day, as already described. The evidence hitherto adduced respecting the use of the horse by the Germans referred only to the tribes of western and central Germany, with whom the classical peoples first came into contact. Tacitus, however, furnishes us with some invaluable information respecting the tribes of eastern Germany, whilst for the north-east we can draw upon native sources. We learn from the former' that Vannius, who had become King of the Suevi by the help of Drusus, though well supplied with native infantry, had to rely for cavalry entirely on the neighbouring Sarmatian tribe of lazyges, whose strength, as the same writer^ tells us elsewhere, consisted solely in horse- men. From the fortunate circumstance that Pausanias^ who wrote in the second half of the second century of our era, chanced to see a Sarmatian corselet in the sanctuary of Aescu- lapius at Athens, the historian was led to give us a vivid picture of the Sarmatians, their mode of life, their arms, and method of warfare. " Here, among other things, is dedicated a Sarmatian corselet : anyone who looks at it will say that the barbarians are not less skilful craftsmen than the Greeks, for ^ Ann. XII, 29-30, " ipsi propria manus pedites, eques e Sarmatis lazygibus erat." - Hist. III. 5, " vim equitum, qua sola valent, offerebant. " 3 I, 21. 5-7 (Frazer's trans. Ill] AND HISTORIC TIMES 117 the Sarmatians neither dig nor import iron, being the most isolated of the barbarous peoples in these regions. But their ingenuity has supplied the defect. Their spears are tipped with bone instead of iron, their bows and arrows are of the cornel-tree, and the barbs of the arrows are of bone. They throw ropes round the enemies whom they fall in with ; then wheeling their horses round they upset their foes entangled in the ropes. They make their corselets in the following way. Every man breeds many mares, for the land is not divided up into private lots, and it produces nothing but wild forest ; for the people are nomads. These mares they not only employ in war, but also sacrifice to their local gods, and, moreover, use them as food. They collect the hoofs, clean them, and split them till they resemble the scales of a dragon. Anyone who has not seen a dragon has at least seen a green fir-cone. Well, the fabric which they make out of the hoofs may not be inaptly likened to the clefts on a fir-cone. In these pieces they bore holes, and having stitched them together with the sinews of horses and oxen, they use them as corselets, which are inferior to Greek breast- plates neither in elegance nor strength, for they are both sword-proof and arrow-proof. Linen corselets, on the other hand, are not so serviceable in battle, for they yield to the thrust of iron ; but they are useful to huntsmen, for the teeth of leopards and lions break off short in them." According to Grunau^ the East Prussians acquired horses and a knowledge of arrow-shooting from the Masuren, a people who lived in what is now Poland, in the district round Warsaw, and whose name still survives in the dance called ' mazurka.' The same writer also mentions a sacrifice of white horses^ and we are told that white horses are to be kept for the gods. Moreover, a sacred shield described by Grunau^ is represented as supported by two white horses. The last statement naturally reminds the reader of the white horse in the arms of Hanover^ The evidence of Grunau concerning the acquisition of horses and a knowledge of arrow-shooting from the Masuren, who were almost certainly a Sarmatian tribe, taken along with 1 Tract, III. 5, 1. 2 Tract, ri. 3, 8. » Tract, 11. 5, 1. •* The cream-white horses used by our king on state occasions are descended from white horses formerly kept in the royal stables at Hanover. 118 THE HORSES OF PREHISTORIC [cH. that of Tacitus at a far earlier period, indicates clearly that the peoples of eastern Germany learned to ride the horse, if they did not also obtain him, from the nomad tribes of ancient Russia. There are no early remains of the horse in Scandinavia, and he only appears in Denmark in the Bronze age, and then he is of small size. The northern mythology indeed indicates that it was only at a late epoch that the horse was either driven or ridden, since Thor, the oldest and greatest of the Northern divinities, is never represented as driving in a chariot or riding on horseback, but always as going on foot. On the other hand, the later members of the Pantheon, such as Odin (Fig. 100), are represented as riding on horseback, and to their horses we shall presently refer. Though in the time of Tacitus' the Swedes (Suiones) are renowned for ships and sea-craft, we hear nothing of horses or horsemen, yet if like the Tencteri they had been noted for the possession and employment of such animals the historian would probably have made some reference to it. But in the sixth century the Swedes had become famous for the excellence of their steeds, since they are likened in this respect by Jornandes'*' {circ. A.D. 550) to the Thuringians. As the Swedes at that time supplied the Roman markets with costly furs, which passed south along the ancient trade-routes through the tribes of Germany, they had not only the opportunity, but also ample means of purchasing horses from upper Europe and the south. And he adds that they were noted for the sable furs which they wore and also exported. Adhils, the Swedish king, was a great lover and breeder of horses^ In the great battle between the gods, the Vanir (Freyr and lerdth) rode through the Eisir (Thor and Odin), but, as Freyr is a Swedish god, and as already mentioned, Thor always journeys and fights ^ Germania, 44. '^ Historia de origine Gothorum, c. 3 (p. 82, ed. 1611): "alia vero gens ibi moratur Suethans, quae velut Thuringi, equis utuntur eximiis ; hi quoque sunt qui in usus Romanorum Saphirinas pelles, commercio interveniente, per alias innumeras gentes transmittunt. famosi pellium decora nigrediue hi, quum inopes vivunt, ditissime vestiuntur." •* Ynglinga Saga, ch. 33. He had the best horses of his time and owned Hrafn, once Ali's, from which sprang another Hrafn given to king Gothgestr. Ill] AND HISTORIC TIMES 119 on foot, whilst Odin never rides except on his mysterious steed, eight-legged Sleipnir, it would appear not improbable that the Swedes were riders of horses before the Norse, and that therefore they, like the Prussians, had got them from the tribes of western Russia, such as the Sarmatians, who, as I have already shown, possessed admirable cavalry from at least the beginning of the Christian era. It is therefore not fir.. ^ — ~ -idi- ran I .ma : _ Fig. 48. Norse Pony from the Isle of Eodo. improbable that the Norse derived their horses in great part, if not altogether, from Sweden. Otherwise they must have derived them from Germany, for we have already noticed (pp. 23-4) the sharp contrast between the ' Celtic ' ponies of Iceland and the Faroes and those of a clumsier build, with large heads, and large hock callosities, which are almost cer- tainly to be ascribed to the introduction of Norwegian blood In either case then it is probable that the original stock of horses in Norway and Sweden, whether derived from Russia or 120 THE HORSES OF PREHISTORIC [CH. from central Europe, was the old heavy-built, large-headed European Asiatic type found at Solutre. In the ponies of the Isle of Rodo, which lies off the coast of Norway considerably to the south of the Lofoden group, we have probably the best living examples^ of the ancient race (Fig. 48). The earliest information concerning the colour of the horses of Scandinavia is contained in Beoivulf, supposed to have been Fig. 49. Norwegian Ponies, near Mundal Glacier. composed in the eighth century. In it we read of fallow {i.e. dun-coloured)^ of 'apple-fallow' {i.e. dapple-dun)^, and white horses ^ From the dun horses described in Beoivulf are probably descended the Norwegian ponies of modern times, which are ^ I am indebted (tlirough my friend Dr Venn, F.R.S.) to Dr Brunchorst, Director of the Bergen Museum, for the loan of the photographs from which this and the Lofoden pony are taken. - 1. 856, fealwe mearas ; for colour meant by fealwe, of, 917 (fealwe straete), 951 (fealone flod). ■' 1. 1266, oeppel-fealuwe mearas. •* 1. 856, mearum ridan on blancum. Ill] AND HISTORIC TIMES 121 usually dun-coloured (Fig. 49^), those from remote districts, such as the pony from Rodo (Fig. 48), being probably the most typical representatives of those of earlier times, for it is certain that the ordinary Norwegian ponies of to-day have been much improved by superior blood from the south. The white horses of Beowulf were in some respects probably well repre- sented down to our own times by the white ponies of the Fig. 50. The last of the old Lofoden ponies (in its summer coat). Lofoden Isles, which became extinct in 1897. I figure here (Fig. 50) the last of these in its summer coat from a photo- graph taken before it was shot in order to be preserved in the Bergen Museum. Gylfinnung gives the names of the gods' horses, which were eleven in number: Heimdal's horse was Gulltoppr (' Gold- topped,' i.e. golden-maned ?), whilst Odin's famous eight-legged steed (Fig. 100) Sleipnir (the offspring of Loki when he turned 1 From a photograph taken in 1904 by my friend Mr J. A. Venn, Trinity College, Cambridge. 122 THE HORSES OF PREHISTORIC [CH. himself into a mare, and a smith's magic-working stallion) was gratt at hit, " grey in aspect or complexion." As the cult of Odin had made its way up northwards from central Europe, and never formed the popular religion of Norway, the fact that Odin is represented as riding on a grey horse, whilst the older Thor always fares on foot, makes it likely that horses of a certain kind had made their way into the North from central Europe. It is also to be remarked that whilst Sleipnir is grey, Heimdai's horse is evidentl}' a chestnut or yellow-dun. We shall presently see that the grey colour of Sleipnir is a valuable indication of the importation of Libyan blood into Upper Europe. From the horses' names given in the appendix to Sijmon's Edda we can learn something of the colours of the horses of a later date. Ali's horse was named Hrafn (' Raven '), Actie's steed was called Grar (' Grey '), whilst other horses are named Soti ('Sooty'), Goelfaxi ('Golden-haired,' i.e. dun), Silfrentopr' (' Silver-topped,' i.e. silver-maned ?). In addition to the dun, grey, and white horses of the earlier period, we now find black horses making their appearance. The Icelandic sagas furnish some useful evidence concerning the horses used by the early Norse settlers in Iceland, who were especially addicted to the pastime of horse-fighting (an amusement practised in modern Siam), and who, until their conversion to Christianity by the simple but effective methods of Thangbrand, the militant missionary sent by King Olaf of Norway in 997, regularly ate horse-flesh on certain occasions. In the saga of Burnt Njal, the scene of which is laid in the tenth century, there are constant allusions to horses and riding, but no description is given of these animals, unless they are of an exceptional kind. " Starkad had a good horse of chestnut hue, and it was thought that no horse was his match in fight " ; Gunnar of Lithend had a brown S and on the great fight between these two stallions and its sequel the development of the tragedy depends. " Now men ride to the horse-fight, and a very great crowd was gathered together, 1 Burnt Njal, lvii-lviii. in] AND HISTORIC TIMES 123 60 a o o C a 03 >5 a still flows in the veins of the horses of the steppes, and in the large agricultural breed, yet as all the horses of superior quality, 9—2 132 THE HORSES OF PREHISTORIC [CH. whether stud or agricultural, are descended wholly, or in part, from Dutch, Danish, Mecklenburg, English, and Arab sires and mares imported at various times since 1712, it will be best to defer our account of modern Russian breeds until after we have treated of the various stocks of medieval and modern times from which they are derived. Just as the Cossack pony from the steppes, though completely modified now by foreign blood, is yet lineally descended from the small steeds of the Scythians and Sarmatians, so the oldest element in the breeds of the various Turko-Tartaric tribes, who may be taken as the modern representatives of the Massagetae, Sacae, and other cognate tribes, is probably derived from the horses of the last-named peoples. It is very important to notice that the Massagetan horse- men not only wore corselets, but also protected their horses with copper breastplates, since this is one of the earliest notices of the use of horse-armour. At a later period, when the Sar- matians aided the Germans against Rome, they wore hauberks (p. 116), and it may prove that the use of the war-coat {bellica vestis) and eventually the use of horse-armour was ultimately derived from the peoples of Eastern Europe and Western Asia. The Turcoman horses primarily belonged to the tribes of Turkestan — the region lying north-east of the Caspian, by some termed Southern Tartary — but they have spread thence along with their first owners into Armenia, Persia, Mesopotamia, and Asia Minor. The modern Turcomans claim the descent of their horses from Arab sires, and are continually improving the breed, as the Turcomans and Kurds are ever anxious to obtain the service of the best Arab stallions for their mares. Yet the description of this improved breed is sufficient to demonstrate that it is certainly not the source of the blood- horse. For, although they have wonderful powers of endurance, their heads are disproportionately large' they have the barrel too small and the legs too long, and are frequently ewe-necked. The best Turcoman horses are found only in Merv and in the Persian province of Khorassan\ They usually stand ^ Hayes, Points of the Horse, p. 606 (ed. 3). Ill] AND HISTORIC TIMES 133 about fifteen to sixteen hands high, and are generally bays or greys, but some of them are black, always with white feet and a white star in the foreheads They are derived from Arab blood, introduced by Tamerlane, who distributed five thousand Arab mares among the Turcomans, whilst Nasir-ed-Din sent them five hundred mares of the same breed"-. The Turcomans and Katschenstzis of Eastern Tartary had a breed called Karahulo, highly valued for its speed and bottom, which was remarkable for a white or grey mane, tail, and feet, while the rest of the body was shining black. There is in Eastern Asia a prevalent opinion that black horses come from the West^ It is most important to observe that we have here an undoubted case of black horses with white feet and a white star in the forehead as a result of crossing the indigenous horses of Upper Asia with so-called Arab blood, for we shall have frequent occasion to notice similar phenomena as our investigation proceeds. A century ago the Kalmucks of Khoten in Eastern Turkestan bred great numbers of small but hardy horses, and great droves of them were exported to the south, as far as the plains of India^ The good qualities of Turcoman horses were remarked by Marco Polo-' (a.D. 1274), who, speaking of Turcomania and the Turcomans, says that " excellent horses known as Turquans are reared in their country and also very valuable mules." The evidence here adduced, so far from indicating that any element in the thoroughbred was derived from the indigenous horses of Russia or Southern Tartary, demonstrates that the peoples of Russia, and the various Turko-Tartaric tribes have been constantly endeavouring to improve their native strain by the admixture of so-called Arab blood. When we advance further east the Turcoman is replaced by his kinsman the Mongolian pony, which belongs primarily to the highlands lying between the Himalayas and Siberia, for as Captain Hayes® points out, " there is no distinctive difference 1 Hamilton Smith, op. cit. p. 239. * Hayes, loc. cit. ; Hamilton Smith, loc. cit. 3 Hamilton Smith, oj). cit. p. 273. * Hamilton Smith, op. cit. p. 273. 5 Vol. I. p. 45 (Yule's trans.). " Points of the Horse, p. 599 (ed. 3). 134 THE HORSES OF PREHISTORIC [CH. between the ponies of Bhootan, Nepal, Spiti, Yarkand, and Mongolia." These ponies have been much less affected by extraneous blood than the Turcoman. " They are strong and sure-footed, but very slow," and stand about 12"1 — 13'2 hands high, and Captain Hayes^ gives thera as the type of the coarse thickset horse of Asia and Europe, and he maintains^ that "as the ancestors of all living horses were inhabitants of Siberia after their emigration from North America, and as Siberia is closely connected Avith Mongolia, it is reasonable to infer that the present Mongolian pony, which has always lived under more or less natural conditions, is nearer the original type of horse than any other domesticated horse." Marco Polo noticed the good qualities of these horses, for when writing of the Tartars, he states that " their horses will subsist entirely on the grass of the plain, so that there is no need to carry store of barley, or straw, or oats ; and they are very docile to their riders. These in case of need will abide on horseback the livelong night, armed in all points, while the horse will be continuously grazing^." In treating of the city of Chandu (now but a heap of ruins, but whose name still survives in that of the river Shangtu), founded by Kublai, he says* : " You must know that the Kaan keeps an immense stud of white horses and mares ; in fact, more than 10,000 of them, and all pure white without a speck. The milk of these mares is drunk by himself and his family, and by none else, except by those of one great tribe, that have also the privilege of drinking it. This privilege was granted them by Chinghas Kaan, on account of a certain victory that they helped him to win long ago. The name of the tribe is Horiad. Now when these mares are passing across the country, and anyone falls in with them, be he the greatest lord in the land, he must not presume to pass until the mares have gone by. He must either tarry where he is, or go a half-day's 1 Points of the Horse, p. 269 (ed. 2). 2 Op. cit. pp. 600, 601 (ed. 3). ^ Vol. I. p. 252 (Yule's translation). •* Marco Polo, Yule's translation, Vol. i. p. 291. Ill] AND HISTORIC TIMES 135 journey round if need so be, so as not to come nigh them; for they are to be treated with the greatest respect. Well, when the lord sets out from the park on the 28th of August, as I told you, the milk of all those mares is taken aud sprinkled on the ground. And this is done on the injunction of the Fig. 53. A Buriat Horseman ^ Idolaters and Idol-priests, who say that it is an excellent thing to sprinkle that milk on the ground every 28th of August, so 1 This and the two following illustrations are from photographs kindly lent me by my friend Mr C. H. Hawes, M.A., Trinity College, Cambridge, well known for his In the Uttermost East (in which two of the same scenes are shown, pp. 441-9). 136 THE HORSES OF PREHISTORIC [CH. that the Earth and the Air and the False Gods shall have their share of it, and the Spirits likewise that inhabit the Air and the Earth. And thus those beings will protect and bless the Kaan and his children, and his wives and his folk and his gear, and his cattle and his horses, and his corn and all that is his. After this is done the Emperor is off and away." Speaking of the festival held by the Great Khan and all his subjects on New Year's Day (which fell in February), Polo^ says that " it is the custom that on this occasion the Kaan and all his subjects should be clothed entirely in white, so that day everybody is in white, men and women, great and small. And this is done in order that they may thrive all through the year, for they deem that white clothing is lucky. Also all the peoples from all the provinces and governments and kingdoms and countries that own allegiance to the Kaan, bring him great presents of gold and silver and pearls and gems, rich textures of divers kinds. On that day, I can assure you, that among the customary presents, there shall be offered to the Kaan from various quarters more than 100,000 white horses, beautiful animals and richly caparisoned." Polo^ also tells us that the Tartars, who were carrying the body of a Khan to the Altai, where all the Khans were buried, put to death not only every human being they met, but also every horse, in order that they might serve the Khan in the life beyond the grave. " When the emperor dies they kill all his best horses in order that he may have the use of them in the other world." This story at once recalls the Scythian customs at the funerals of their kings (p. 128). At the present day cattle and stock-breeding is practically the sole legitimate occupation of all Mongols, and the animal of first importance is still the pony. " He is the commonest of all possessions, the every-day means of locomotion, and the staple topic of conversation. The Mongol who walks is indeed poor, for he must be friendless as well as moneyless. A man who does not own a pony is rarely refused the use of one from a neighbour's drove. From early childhood the Mongol acquires 1 Vol. I. p. 337 (Yule's translation). '- Vol. i. p. 241. Ill] AND HISTORIC TIMES 137 the habit of scrambling on the back of the nearest pony to cover ' any distance over a few yards. The out-door life of both sexes 0) u 3 o p < 2 i and of all ages is spent on horseback (Figs. 53, 55). A good specimen of the Mongol pony is perhaps the best of his size in the 138 THE HORSES OF PREHISTORIC [CH. world for general use. The head and shoulders will be too heavy for elegance, the eyes none too full, the muzzle and crest coarse, and the manners too often objectionable, but the quarters, loins, and legs are good, the barrel deep and long, and there is no deficiency of bone\" Reared on the open steppes, with little or no human care, they are accustomed to great extremes of weather and thrive on the coarsest forage. For mounted infantry purposes in a wild country there is no more useful animal. "The size and character vary Avith the locality. The commonest colour is grey, chestnut follows, and then come bay and sorreP. Stallions are selected animals, especially in North Mongolia, but the mares are not, and no special pains are taken anywhere to improve a breed. Along the China border the ponies are undersized, 12 to 13 hands, the result of the incessant demands of the China markets for all the larger beasts. As one travels northwards, and the China markets become more remote, the horse-flesh improves (12 to 14 hands), and the best specimens of the Mongol pony are found in the valley of the Kerulon." There are said to be about five millions of ponies in Mongolia. Racing is the national pastime of the Mongols, and from May to August pony races (Fig. 54) are the attraction at the temple festivals (Fig. 55) and fairs, and most of the wealthy owners train some of their best ponies for the local meetings. " A racing-stud of dimensions commensurate with rank and wealth is the proper appanage of a prince or jassak, and his ' string ' usually includes some of the fastest beasts of the district. The stud of the Tsetsen Khan is the most renowned in Mongolia." "This national sport is as little affected by money indelicacies, as any that I know of I constantly heard of matches between rival owners proud of the reputation of their stock, but seldom of serious betting on the result. There are prizes to winners, rarely of tempting value. In the Chahar country the stakes are usually an ounce or two of silver (say 2s. 6d. or 55.) ^ Report hij Mr C. W. Campbell, H.M. Consul at Wuchow, on a journey in Mongolia (with a map) presented to both Houses of Parliament (January 1904), p. 35. - In a Chinese hymn known as The Emperor^s horses as many as thirteen colours are referred to, a proof that already the Mongolian Tponj had been crossed with a stock from the West, known to the Chinese from 2nd cent. B.C. (p. 186). m] AND HISTORIC TIMES 139 for a race of ten miles, but now and then an opulent magnate has occasion to be generous, and offers something exceptional — cattle, sheep, or ponies, silk or clothes. The races are never under ten miles." " The Derby of Mongolia is held near Urga under the direct patronage of the Bogdo and is over a course of thirty miles of rough steppe, and the winners are presented to the Bogdo, who maintains them for the rest of their lives in honourable idleness. The jockeys are the smallest boys capable Fig. 55. Bnriat Women setting forth to hill shrine on a feast-day. of riding the distance, which the owners can secured A saddle or seat aid in any form is not allowed ; the jockeys simply roll up their loose cotton trousers as high as they can, and clutch the pony's ribs with bare legs, and all carry long whips. The bridles, single snaffles with raw-hide reins, have each a round disc of burnished silver attached to the headband." As already mentioned, China is the great market for Mongolian ponies. Just outside the Ta-cliing Men, " Great Frontier Gate," which affords ingress and egress through the 1 C. W. Campbell, op. cit., pp. 36—38. 140 THE HORSES OF PREHISTORIC [CH. Great Wall, is held the market. " Hither flock horse-dealers from as far south as Hunan, and ponies from Urga and the Kerulon. In June and July the horse trade is in full swing." The average price of a pony is twenty taels^ As at the present day the Mongolian pony is the chief horse in China, so too was it in medieval, and we may there- fore presume in still earlier, days. Marco Polo, speaking of the province of Carajan (the modern Yunnan), which then formed part of the dominions of the Great Khan, says that the country is one in which excellent horses are bred, and the people live by cattle and agriculture''. In another part of Carajan were " bred large and excellent horses, which are taken to India for sale, and you must know that the people dock two or three joints of the tail from their horses to prevent them flipping their riders, a thing which they consider very unseemly. They ride long like Frenchmen, and wear armour of boiled leather, and carry spears and shields and arblasts, and all their quarls are poisoned^" To this day the tribes of Honhi, in the extreme south of Yunnan, have plenty of horses, buffaloes, oxen, and sheep ^. At what exact period the Chinese began to employ the horse is not certain. Horses are only twice mentioned in the Book of History {Shu Ching), but frequently in the Odes {Shih Clang). King Mu', who visited the West about B.C. 975, travelled in a chariot drawn by eight horses. It would thus appear that in China, as elsewhere, the horse was first driven •*. It is now clear that the thoroughbred horse has not come from any of the stocks which have ranged through Upper Asia and Upper Europe in historical times, and it will be just as easy to prove that it is not derived from any of the horses of Southern China, Further India, or the Malay Archipelago. 1 C. W. Campbell, op. cit., p. 8. - Vol. ii. p. 52. 3 Vol. II. p. 63. " Vol. II. p. 101, Yule's note. ^ For this information I am indebted to the kindness of my friend Prof. H. A. Giles. The Chinese profess to tell a horse's age by the teeth up to thirty-two years. •5 At the funeral of Li Hung Chang a chariot and horses made of paper were burned. This probably is a survival from a time when a great man's chariot and horses would have been buried with him, just as his horses were buried with a Tartar khan and a Scythian king. Ill] AND HISTORIC TIMES 141 The so-called China pony is commonly bred in and sent from Mongolia (including Manchuria) to China via Tientsin^, and Darwin- has pointed out that to the " eastward of the Bay of Bengal over an enormous and humid area, in Ava, Pegu, Siam, the Malay Archipelago, the Loo Choo Islands, and a large part of China, no full -sized horse is found." Passing down into Further India, we meet the Burmese or rather Shan ponies, for these useful animals are almost exclusively bred by the Shan tribes of the hills, since in the wide region extending fi*om Rangoon to Mandalay there are no good native ponies. The Shan pony (sometimes also known as the Pegu pony) is about the same height as the Mongolian, from which he is certainly derived, though modified by other blood. He is a great weight carrier, and jumps well, but is slow. Closely akin to the Shan pony are those of Manipur, but they " are smaller and smarter for their size." " These two kinds of ponies," says Captain Hayes, " appear to belong to a distinct breed, which seems to have no relationship with ponies of any other country except, possibly, those of Sumatra and Java." The reason for the probable connection between the last two and the first two breeds will shortly be made clear. The Sumatra ponies (also called Battak or Deli ponies) are bred in the Battak range of hills in Sumatra, and are commonly exported to Singapore from the port of Deli. " They have handsome heads, set on to high -crested necks, are full of spirit, and are simply balls of muscled" The Battak ponies have almost entirely lost their original type from frequent crossing with imported Arabs. The majority of them are brown, but many are skewbald, and their average height is about 11'3 hands, the best measuring from 12"1 to 12"2. One of the latter height, probably the fastest racing pony in Sumatra, was of a chestnut roan. The Gayoe ponies come from the hills which stretch from the Battak mountains to the north end of Sumatra, and "are 1 Hayes, op. cit., p. 599 (ed. 3). 2 Variation of Animah and Plants, 1868, Vol. i. p. 53. 3 Hayes, op. cit., pp. 632-3. 142 THE HORSES OF PREHISTORIC [CH. much more sturdy in build than Battak ponies. They have heavy crests and good shoulders, similar to the latter breed, but their legs are shorter and thicker, and they are stronger behind. They are not nearly so fast nor so fiery as the Battaks." Captain Hayes' believes " that they have not been crossed nearly so much with foreign blood as the Battaks." How it comes that the Battaks have better blood than their neigh- bours is readily explained by the fact that some sixty years ago the sultans and princes of Achen kept high-caste Arabs and supplied the Battaks with Arab blood to improve their ponies, "the result being a blend which combines in almost perfect harmony the fire and the beauty of the Son of the Desert, with the hardiness and endurance of the Battak pony." The original colour of the unimproved Battak ponies is said to have been mouse-grey, with a black stripe down the back ; skewbalds and piebalds are in the majority, although all other colours are met with except ci-eams and greys. " Pure white ponies with red eyes (albinos) and without any marks, remain the property of the chief of the district, and cannot be obtained by purchase." But it would be rash to assume that " the original Battak pony," the type which existed before the in- troduction of Arab blood sixty years ago, was free from all admixture of the latter, since it is more than probable that many centuries earlier Arab horses were imported into Sumatra and Java. And we shall find it also highly probable that the Shan and Manipur ponies owe their peculiar qualities and their resemblance to the Sumatran and Javanese ponies from their having a similar admixture of Arab blood, but in varying degree, as is the case with the Battak and Gayoe breeds. The striped ponies of Java have been cited by Darwin as examples of primitive horses which still retain ancestral stripings. Mr Lydekker holds that because E. sivalensis of the Indian Pliocene is usually characterised by large first pre- molar teeth in the upper jaw, and as large functional premolars are found in some Javanese and Sulu ponies (as also in some zebras), lineal but somewhat modified descendants of £". sivalensis 1 Hayes, op. cit., pp. 633-6 (who also embodies notes from Mr Fitzwilliams and Mr Carl Maschmeyer). Ill] AND HISTORIC TIMES 143 still survive ; again, it has been long known that Hipparion had a deep /ossa in front of the orbital bone, which is supposed to have lodged a gland. Prof. Huxley in 1870 indicated the existence of a rudimentary pre-orbital pit in the skull of Equus sivalensis, an Indian fossil species, and Dr Forsyth Major in 1880 pointed out the existence of a similar feature in Equus stenonis, the closely related species found in the Pliocene beds of the Val d'Arno and its somewhat later ally Equus quaggoides, and he also showed its existence in the Quagga (cf. p. 76); Mr Lydekker has recently directed attention to the occurrence of what he considers " a vestige of the Hipparion's face-pit in the skull of an Indian domesticated horse in the collection of the British Museum," and to the occurrence of a similar depression in the skull of the well-known racer Bend Or, in which it is still shallower than in the Indian domesticated horse. "From the occurrence of the feature in question in these skulls, both of which probably belonged to horses of Eastern origin, and its entire absence in all the skulls of the prehistoric European horse," Mr Lydekker^ has suggested "that the blood-horse," unlike the "cold-blooded horse" of Western Europe, may possibly have been the descendant of Equus sivalensis. Mr Lydekker endeavours to meet the obvious objection that a similar rudimentary pit existed in the European E. stenonis by urging that " it had apparently disappeared in the Pleistocene horse of Western Europe " (cf. p. 470). Mr Lydekker'^ has noted a like depression in the skull of a young ass in the British Museum, whilst Mr Pocock has pointed out a similar feature in the skull of a male Grant's zebra in the same collection (p. 76) ; Mr Lydekker thus holds that the thoroughbred horse as well as the ponies of Java and Sulu are lineal descendants of E. sivalensis and Hipparion. It may be pointed out that the large functional premolars, on which he bases the relationship of the Javanese and Sulu ponies to E. sivalensis, are likewise found in some zebras, and that of the four species or sub-species of Equidae in which the pre-orbital depression occurs three are undoubtedly of African 1 Proc. Zool. Soc, 1904, pp. 426-7. 2 Iqc. cit., p. 431. 144 THE HORSES OF PREHISTORIC [CH. origin, and that there is as yet no proof that either the "Indian domesticated horse" or Bend Or was of oriental lineage. In view therefore of the theories just stated, it is most important to ascertain as accurately as possible the history of the horses of the Indian Archipelago, of the Malay Peninsula, and of Hindustan. When John Crawfurd^ wrote his admirable work on the Indian Archipelago in the beginning of the last century, in many of these islands the horse was still unknown. ' Cavalry,' he writes, "may be looked upon as a matter of pomp and luxury rather than as a useful arm of war. The great and their retainers are mounted upon horses, and in Java and Celebes they are numerous. The latter island in particular contains extensive plains, so unfrequent in the rest, where horse might be employed for the purposes of war with advantage. The horses of that island too are superior in size and strength to those of any other of the Archipelago, and the habit of following the chase on horseback makes the people bolder and more expert riders than are the rest of the tribes. The Javanese are very bad riders, and in many countries of the Archipelago the horse is unknown altogether." As the horse has been used for war by all peoples who have tamed him or long possessed him, this statement is sufficient to raise serious doubts respect- ing the antiquity of the horse even in Sumatra and Java, and we naturally seek for information from earlier sources. The spices for which the western islands of the Archipelago were the emporium had from an early period attracted thither the adventurous merchants of Arabia, who gradually began to establish themselves on the coasts and to propagate the faith of Islam. When the celebrated traveller Ibn Batuta- of Tangiers visited Sumatra and Java in 1345 he found that, although the town of Sumatra was held by an Arab prince, the chief spice-growing parts of that island were still in the hands of the infidels. When he and the merchants that were 1 History of the Indian Archipelago by John Crawfurd, late British Resident at the court of the Sultan of Java (Edinburgh, 1820), Vol. i. pp. 229, 230. 2 Voyages d'lhn Batoutah (translated from the Arabic into French by C. Defremery and Br. Sanguinetti : Paris, 1853), Vol. iv. pp. 230, 231. Ill] AND HISTORIC TIMES 145 with him reached the roadstead of Sumatra, Bohruz, the vice- admiral, came on board and having questioned the merchants permitted thein to land. The town of Sumatra was four miles from the port, and Bohruz wrote to the Sultan to tell of the arrival of Batuta and his fellows. " The latter ordered the Emir Daoulecah, accompanied by the noble Kadhi, Emir Sayyid of Shiraz, and Tadj Eddin of Ispahan and other lawyers to come meet me. They brought one of the Sultan's horses as well as others. I mounted on horseback and my companions did the same." Sumatra was a fine town recently fortified by a wooden stockade and wooden towers. The Sultan Almalic Azzhahir professed that form of orthodox Muhammadanism known as Shafi'y, and he surrounded himself with men learned in the Koran, and his subjects held the same tenets. As this is that one of the four orthodox forms of Islam which is now universal with minute exceptions in the Indian Archipelago and as it is also the prevalent doctrine of Arabia, particularly of the maritime portion of that country, it is clear that the traders who first introduced Islam into the Archipelago came direct from Arabia, and that too at a time when, as we shall soon see, great numbers of horses were being annually brought direct from Arabia and the Persian Gulf to southern as well as western India. From Sumatra our traveller passed to Java (termed by him Moule Djaouah), the entire population of which were infidels. He came to the court of a great sultan, whom he found sitting on the ground before his palace reviewing his troops, who were all on foot. " Nobody in the country has a horse, not even the Sultan ^ The people ride elephants and fight from these animals." This Sultan and all his people were infidels, that is, they practised Hinduism. These very important passages render it certain that at this period there were no horses in Java, and hence the Javanese striped ponies cannot be regarded as a primitive stock ; but as horses were found with Arabs in Sumatra, where that people 1 Voyages d'Ibn Batoutah, Vol. iv. p. 245. My friend Prof. Bevan has kindly pointed out to me that two texts give the reading "not even the Sultan," though others read "except the Sultan." But as the Sultan when reviewing his troops was not on horseback, but seated on the ground, it is most improbable that he had a horse. Transcribers and editors would naturally be inclined to assign a horse to the Sultan, even if no one else in the island had one. R. H. 10 146 THE HORSES OF PREHISTORIC [CH. had recently fortified a stronghold, it is reasonable to infer that the Arabs had already by 1345 brought horses from Arabia into Sumatra, and also that they were probably the first to introduce any horse into the Indian Islands. We can now readily understand why the Javanese are such poor horsemen, why the little Javanese ponies so closely resemble Arabs, and why none of the Indian Islanders, not even in Celebes, ever employed cavalry in war. Furthermore it is now clear that Arab horses had reached Sumatra some five centuries before their re-introduction some sixty years ago by the Sultan of Achen. Finally it is plain that the correspondence between the first premolars in the upper jaw of E. sivalensis, of the Javanese and Sulu ponies, and of the Grevy and Baringo zebras (p. 11), must find a different explanation from that hitherto offered. It is probable that not only was the horse not indigenous in the Indian Archipelago, but that it was not introduced into those islands by the Malays, since they do not appear to have possessed the horse even on the mainland. It is very significant that there is no native Malay word for horse, kuda the ordinary term now in use being simply a Malay form of the Tamil loan- word ghu7'a\ This fact taken in connection with the complete absence of horses in all southern Burmah, whether indigenous or imported, renders it unlikely that any indigenous domesticated horse ever existed in the Malay Peninsula and the contiguous regions. Coming to India itself, we are told by one of the gi'eatest living authorities'^ on the horse, that the native Indian horses are small, and to get speed they must constantly be crossed with Arab or English blood. The evidence of Mr Nelson for South India is especially striking, for speaking of the Madura country he says that " the horse is a miserable, weedy, and 1 I am indebted to my friend Mr W. W. Skeat, M.A., Christ's College, Cambridge, one of the best living authorities on everything Malay, for this information. - Hayes, op. cit., pp. 628-9. As these pages are passing through the press, I learn with sincere regret the death of Capt. Hayes, who was always ready most generously to impart his unrivalled first-hand knowledge of horses of all kinds and from all parts of the world. Ill] AXD HISTORIC TIMES 147 vicious pony, having but one good quality, endurance. The breed is not indigenous, but the result of constant importations, and a very limited amount of breeding^" After hearing such testimony as this we need have no hesitation in accepting implicitly the statements of Marco Polo'' respecting horses in the same region. Speaking of South India he writes : " Here are no horses bred ; and thus a great part of the wealth of the country is wasted in purchasing horses ; I will tell you how. You must know that the merchants of Kis (Kishm), and Hormes (Ormiiz), Dofar, Soer, and Aden collect great numbers of destriers and other horses, and these they bring to the territory of this king and of his four brothers, who are kings likewise, as I told you. For a horse will fetch among them 500 saggi of gold, worth more than 100 marks of silver, and vast numbers are sold there every year. Indeed this king wants to buy more than 2,000 horses every year, and so do his four brothers, who are kings likewise. The reason why they want to buy so many horses every year is that by the end of the year there shall not be a 100 of them remaining, for they all die off. They bring these horses by sea, aboard ships." Polo adds a very important 'statement : " another strange thing is that there is no possibility of breeding horses in this country, as hath often been proved by trial. For even when a great blood mare here has been covered by a great blood horse, the produce is nothing but a wretched wry-legged weed animal, not fit to ride." A medieval Persian writer, in reference to the birth of an elephant at Teheran, declared " that never till then had a she elephant borne young in Iran, any more than a lioness in Rum, a tabby cat in China, or a mare in Indial" In several other passages Polo gives full details of the trade between Arabia and southern India, which was carried on in ships built without any iron, being fastened together only by trenails and twine, made from the husk of the Indian nut^ i The Madura Country, Pt. ii. p. 94. ^ yoi, n. pp. 32.5-6 (Yule). ^ Jour. Asiatic Soc, Ser. 3, Vol. iir. p. 127 (cited in Yule's note to passage of Marco Polo just given). ■* Vol. i. p. 111. 10—2 148 THE HORSES OF PREHISTORIC [CH. exactly like the ships of the same seas described by Procopius seven centuries earlier^ The city of Cail, on the coast of South India, was frequented by ships from the west bringing horses and other wares"''. Aden seems to have been the chief port in Arabia for the export of horses: "There are despatched from the port of Aden to India a very large number of Arab chargers, and palfreys, and stout nags adapted for all work, which are a source of great profit to those who export them. For horses fetch very high prices in India, there being none bred there, as I told you before ; in so much that a charger will sell there for 100 marks of silver and more. On these the soldan of Aden receives heavy payments in port charges, so that it is said he is one of the richest princes in the worldl" Another very important port was Esher, which was subject to the soldan of Aden. " The people are Saracens. The place has a very good haven, wherefore many ships from India come thither with various cargoes ; and they export many good chargers thence to India. All their cattle, including horses, oxen, and camels live upon small fish and nought else beside, for 'tis all they get to eat*." Again, when speaking of Caltu (Kalhat, in Arabia) he says that " they export many good Arab horses from this to India, for as I have told you before, the number of horses exported from this and the other cities yearly to India is something astonish- ing^" He adds here again the statement that horses were not bred in India, and also that the natives did not know how to treat them. If the reader's scepticism is roused by the statement that the horses of Esher were fed on fish, it will be at once allayed when he remembers that at the present day in Kamtschatka the horses and cows in winter subsist entirely on dried salmon® and that in Iceland the ponies are similarly fed on stock-fish. 1 Eidgeway, Early Age of Greece, Vol. i. p. 615. 2 Marco Polo, Vol. ii. p. 357. ^ Vol. ii. p. 434 (Yule). ■» Vol. II. p. 439. 5 Vol. II. p. 448. * Guilleinard, The Cruise of the Marchesa, p. 68 (ed. 2). Ill] AND HISTORIC TIMES 149 Polo shows clearly that the chief, if not the whole, supply of horses to southern India was derived from the Persian Gulf and Arabia Proper, a fact to be borne in mind when we come to deal with the Arab horses of the present day. But it was not only southern India which imported horses, for western India, then as now, drew large supplies of these animals from the west. Speaking of Tana, which is the modern town of Thana, on the landward side of the island of Salsette, about twenty miles from Bombay, he says that it was " a great kingdom lying towards the west, and that the king protected corsairs, which plundered ships, and that he received as his share all horses captured on boards" As in the present day Bombay draws its supply of horses principally from the Persian Gulf, so was it in earlier times, for Polo^ states that " in this country of Persia there is a great supply of fine horses ; and people take them to India for trade, for they are horses of great price, a single one being worth as much of their money as is equal to 200 livres Tournois ; some will be more, some less, according to the quality. Here are also the finest asses in the world, one of them being worth full thirty marks of silver, for they are very large and fast, and acquire a capital amble. Dealers carry their horses to Kisi and Curmosa, two cities on the shores of the sea of India, and there they meet with merchants who take the horses on to India for sale." Colonel Yule remarks that the horses here mentioned were probably the same class of ' Gulf Arabs ' that are now carried thither, but he points out that the Turcoman horses bred in Persia are also very valuable, especially for endurance, as we have already seen. Two hundred livres Tournois was equiva- lent to about £193 sterling. But southern Persia had not been a home of horses from a very ancient period, for we have seen (p. 49) that in Carmania down to the time of Strabo, asses, on account of the scarcity of horses, were generally made use of in war, and that the Carmanians sacrificed asses to their war-god. Doubtless the magnificent Persian asses to which Polo refers were the 1 Vol. II. p. 385. 2 Vol. I. p. 84, with Yule's note. 150 THE HORSES OF PREHISTORIC [CH. descendants of those on which the Cannanians once went to battle. It is noteworthy that Marco Polo says nothing of the prices paid either for ' Turquans ' or Tartar horses, or for those of Yunnan imported into India, though he repeatedly mentions the high prices paid for the horses from Arabia and the Persian Gulf From this it may be justly inferred that the horses of Upper Asia, though very useful animals, were far inferior to the high-priced steeds from Aden and other western ports. The evidence already given puts it beyond doubt that southern Hindustan has never possessed an indigenous breed of horses of any merit, the climate apparently being ill-adapted for the Equidae. The incessant mortality of imported Arab horses, and the speedy degeneration of the few native-bred horses, render it highly improbable that there is in them any primeval strain derived from E. sivalensis. If there really exists such a stock, it is strange that it does not thrive and multiply in India as do the zebras in tropical Africa. After the evidence respecting the native country-bred horses of southern and central India, it is difficult to believe that the Arab race, from which the horse Bend Or was sprung, has been derived from that part at least of the Indian peninsula. It is also clear that in the thirteenth century vast numbers of the best Arabs were shipped direct to southern India, and also to Bombay and the surrounding regions. These facts will be of considerable importance when we come to deal with certain characteristics not only of the horses of Kattywar and Tibet, but also of the ponies of Java and Sumatra, with which the Arabs traded at an early date, for it has been shown that those adventurous merchants reached not only south India and Ceylon, but exercised much influence in the great islands of the Indian Archipelago. But though southern and western Hindustan were not well adapted for the rearing of horses, and had always to depend largely on importation, it is otherwise with the north- western and northern regions. The Aryans of the Rig- Veda were keepers and breeders of horses, which, like their brethren Ill] AND HISTORIC TIMES 151 whom they left behind in their old home in Upper Europe, they did not ride, but yoked in pairs to chariots. Only once do we hear of the riding of horses in the Rig-Veda^, and then it is described in such a way as to indicate that it was ex- ceptional. Probably the horse and chariot were only used for war, as they certainly also possessed the ox-cart, for the red streaks which herald the dawn are described as the cows that draw her waggon. Again, like their brethren in Europe, the Vedic Aryans habitually sacrificed horses to their gods''. The Vedic hymus furnish us with data respecting not only the colour of the horses, but even perhaps their anatomy. The horse normally has eighteen ribs, though occasionally, according to Youatt, nineteen are found, the additional one being always the posterior rib^ It is a remarkable fact that the horse is said in the Rig- Veda to have only seventeen ribs^ and so great an authority as M. Pietrement^ argues that this statement is trustworthy, since in early days the Hindus carefully counted the bones of animals. Yet we must not overlook the circum- stance that the ancient Hindu commentators on the Veda knew that a horse has thirty-six ribs^ We have already seen that in the leg of the horses of Solutre (p. 84) the metacarpal and metatarsal vestigial bones were not united to the main bone, as is the case with modem horses, whilst an additional bone in the hock, and certain abnormal appearances between the tibia and astragalus, are quite common in Irish horses, and not due to diseased Again, ' V. 61-2. 2 ji Y j_ \%2, is a hymn for such a sacrifice. 3 Darwin, Variation of Animals and Plants (2nd ed. 1875), i. p. 75. * R. V. I. 162, 18: catustriiisad vajino devabandhor varikrir asvasya svaditih sam eti. 5 Mnnoires sur Ics Chevaux, a trente-quatre cotes, 1871 ; Les Chevaux dans les temps prehistoriques et historiques (1883), pp. 223 sqq. « Ludwig {Rig -Veda, Bd. iii. p. 186) thinks that the passage is astro- nomical (the 34 ribs = sun, moon and 5 Tpla,nets + 27 nakshatras, and he com- pares the Aitareya Brahmana, ii. 6, 15— a formula recited at the slaughter of other animals. Here we read of 26 ribs, which according to Ludwig means 26 half-months =12 months +1 intercalary month. '' Darwin, Variation of Animals and Plarits, i. p. 52. Prof. Ewart writes to me: "in modern horses living in natural conditions, such as moor and moim- tain ponies, the second and fourth metacarpals and metatarsals are not as far as my experience goes united to the middle metacarpal and metatarsal." ] 52 THE HORSES OF PREHISTORIC [CH. Darwin^ has shown that instances of horses having hornlike projections are not uncommon. Azara'"* has described two cases in South America in which the projections were between three and four inches in length, w^hilst other examples have occurred in Spain and England. It is quite possible that the statement of Megasthenes^ that in Asia there were horses with horns may have been based on like abnormalities. The Vedic horses are called red (arushas), dun (haritas), and ruddy (rohitas), and as all these epithets seem to be applied to the same horses* the animals so described had probably ruddy heads and backs, shading off into dun on the lower parts of the body, as is the case with Prejvalsky's horse. From the muster-roll of Xerxes' army (B.C. 480) we learn that though the tribes of north-west and western India still employed chariots, they had now also horsemen in considerable numbers, " some of the Indians rode on horseback, some in chariots drawn either by horses or wild assess" The chariots drawn by asses probably came from western India, whilst those drawn bv horses and the cavalry came from the north-west. This gets support from the fact that the same list tells us that the Bactrians, who occupied the modern Afghanistan, furnished horsemen, but not chariots". By the time of Alexander the people of the Panjab mainly relied upon their cavalry, although still keeping a limited number of chariots, for the army with which Poras, the Indian king, attempted to stay the conqueror's advance was composed of 4,000 cavalry, about 300 chariots, 200 elephants, and a very large force of infantry^. About 300 horsemen w^ere slain, and all the chariots were broken in pieces^ According to Aelian^ " the Indians regard the horse and the elephant as being most valuable in war, and therefore honour them especially. The king takes particular care to 1 Op. cit., I. pp. 52-3. - Xat. Hist, of the Quadrupeds of Paraguay (trans, by W. Perceval Hunter), pp. 30-1. There is at present a horned thoroughbred near York, and Mr A. Day has a similar animal (Sporting Times, 4 Mar. 1905). 3 Cited by Strabo, 710. * B. V. 1. 14, 12. •'"' Herod, vn. 84. ^ Ibid. ' Arrian, Anab. v. 15,4. 8 Id. V. 18, 2. 9 An. XIII. 25. Ill] AND HISTORIC TIMES 153 see that the keepers of his elephants and his grooms provide good provender for these animals. If they do not, he punishes them very severely." The same writer^ says that the Indian horses were very difficult to ride save for those trained to do so from boyhood, and because their mouths were hard it was customary to control and guide them not with a bit but with perforated muzzles. As will presently be made clear, the untractable temper of the Indian horses at this period is sufficient of itself to show that they were Upper Asiatic and neither Arabian in origin nor themselves the source of the Arab race. The evidence just adduced renders it certain that India as a whole has never been able to breed horses in any numbers of good quality'-, and it is equally certain that in the thirteenth century A.D., and we know not how long previously, two separate breeds of horses kept steadily streaming into Hin- dustan— the Mongolian from the Himalayas, and the Arab and its derivatives from Arabia and the Persian Gulf; it has also been shown that the modern ponies of Bhotan, Nepal, and Spiti may be safely considered as in the main Mongolian, whilst we shall soon find that various breeds of trans-Indus horses, which are largely used in India, and which do not stand heat as well as the ' country-breds ' (mainly of Arab strain, as we have just seen), are merely Mongolian ponies modified by Arab blood. These considerations, when taken along with the description of the Vedic horses just cited, put it beyond doubt that the chariots of the Aryan conquerors of the Panjab were drawn by horses of the Mongolian, i.e. Upper Asiatic, stock. From the facts cited it is clear that there has been a continual blending of the Mongolian and Arab blood all across Hindustan, especially in the northern area, and accordingly ^ Op. cit. XIII. 9. - Prof. Ewart has sent me the following extract from a letter from an Indian chief in the Bombay Presidency dated May 1904: "My daughter has two Shetland pony mares : one of them foaled after her arrival, six years ago. That foal is alive and in good health. Since then both the mares have foaled regularly every year to a stallion that was imported with tliem, but none of the foals live more than a month." 154 THE HORSES OF PREHISTORIC [CH. some at least of the distinguishing features of various breeds may be ascribed to the mixing of the two stocks, and this may be done with still greater safety when these characteristics are the same as those found in horses which without doubt are the result of crossing the two stocks. We have just seen that in Sumatra the crossing of the old breed of ponies with Arab blood has produced piebalds and skewbalds, and perhaps a black dorsal band. Tibet has long been noted for its richly marked horses (commonly called tangums from the Tangustan mountains of Bhotan), piebald, skewbald, and striped, frequently with white legs and marked with such large clouds of bay that two or three spread over the whole body, head, and neck, the head being generally included in the bay colour, and when it comes down over the shoulder and the thigh that colour deepening into black (Fig. 56) : there is also a proportion of black and white in the mane and tail, and not unfrequently black edging on the ears, whilst the callosities are scarcely pei'ceptible on the hind legs^ From the fact that Father Georgi had seen these horses apparently in a wild state on the northern declivities of the Himalayan range, and that d'Hobsonville had also seen such animals (which he describes as below 10 hands in height, and in their winter dress covered with long hair and marked sym- metrically with spots), and from the fact that another account referred to wild spotted horses about Nipchow in Eastern Tartary. about the size of asses but more compact and hand- some, Colonel Hamilton Smith was led " to believe that these tangums, as they are called in India, are a primeval stock from which are derived not only the great proportion of pied horses all over China, and even so far south as the Indian Archipelago," but even the steeds of the Centaurs, from which sprung the Thessalian breed in Greece, and the Borghese piebald breed of Italy. But the wild horses seen by Father Georgi, d'Hobsonville, Moorcroft, and others, were undoubtedly either feral or merely half-wild ponies turned out on the mountains, whilst we have just seen that the pied ponies of Sumatra and Java are merely a modern outcome from blending 1 Hamilton Smith, The Horse, pp. 289-92. Ill] AND HISTOEIC TIMES 155 Ai-ab with native blood, itself already largely of Arabian origin. Furthermore, piebalds and skewbalds are not at all uncommon amongst Indian country-breds, which, as we have seen, are the outcome of crossing the Upper Asiatic horse with the Arab, and on such the trumpeters of the native cavalry regiments are usually mounted. As there is no question of the large Fig. 56. Tangum of Tibet. amount of Arabian blood in such animals, just as in the ponies of Java, we are all the more justified in ascribing the existence of piebalds amongst the tangums of Tibet to a similar blending of the Mongolian and Arabian stocks. It has also to be borne in mind that the Arab stands the heat in India far better than the horses from the north, a circumstance which renders it all the more likely that in country-bred Indian horses it is largely the Arabian element which survives in a far greater degree than the Upper Asiatic. 156 THE HORSES OF PREHISTORIC [CH. According to a recent traveller^ the best Tibetan ponies are creamy fawn-coloured, i.e. yellow-dun. " Many of the fawn coloured Thibetan ponies are brindled, but none of the many I have seen were marked so fully as an exceptionally fine pony bought in Bhotan from a Thibetan merchant. It had a black stripe down the spine ; the tips of the ears, nose, and tip of the tail were black, and it had broad black stripes over the shoulders, flanks and legs, and dappled spots over the haunches." We may here point out that the black colour often seen in the coats of Tibetan ponies is also found in Turcoman horses, which are the result of crossing Mongolian ponies with Arab blood, and that the fawn-colour with stripes of the typical Tibetan pony recalls the mouse-grey with dorsal stripe, the colour of the old Battak ponies of Sumatra, which, as has been shown (p. 142), were largely Arab in origin, whilst, with reference to the bay colour and the stripes so frequently found in the Tibetan ponies, we shall presently have something to say. The very small size of the hock callosities is of the highest importance in view of the fact that the same callosities are frequently reduced in size in the case of the typical piebald and skewbald ponies of Iceland, the Faroes, and in the other ponies classed by Professor Ewart as 'Celtic' and the further circumstance that many North African horses also lack these hock callosities. On the whole the balance of probability is in favour of the piebald colour of the tangums of Tibet being due to the crossing of the Mongolian and Arab stocks, as seems certainly the case with the piebalds of Sumatra. Amongst the ' country-bred ' horses of India, those of Kathiwar hold a prominent position. They are lightly built, the body being very long compared to its depth, but often with good shoulders, good forearms and gaskins, and with good bone below the knee, and they are capable of great endurance. The Kathiwar horses are usually of a rufous grey or khaki colour, and at one time they were not considered well bred unless they had a dorsal band and stripes across the legs. 1 L. A. Waddell, Among the Himalayas, pp. 248 sq. Ill] AND HISTORIC TIMES 157 Sometimes in addition there were stripes on the neck, fore- head and withers. " There are sometimes stripes on the grey and bay Kattywars when first foaled, but they soon fade away\" According to Major-General Tweedie^ the "comparatively uncrossed breeds of horses, mostly dun, or slate-coloured, which still exist in several remote provinces of India, especially Kathiawar, are remarkable for their hardy constitutions, power of endurance, and indomitable tempers," and he mentions among other characteristics their tendency to stripes, and to long ears with their points much turned inward. As Darwin adduced the striped Kathiwar horses as typical examples of the primitive dun-coloured striped animal from which all our domestic breeds have come, and as a stuffed dun Kathiwar horse with stripes is exhibited in the National Museum of Zoology to illustrate this doctrine, it is very im- portant to ascertain, whether the Kathiwar horses are an indigenous uncrossed breed, or if not indigenous an uncrossed breed derived from some other region, or whether they are only a mixed breed of modern formation. If it should turn out that they are neither indigenous nor uncrossed, the argument founded on them by Darwin and succeeding writers will lose its validity. We have just seen that of the peoples from the frontiers of western India, who furnished contingents to Xerxes' army in 480 B.C., the Bactrians supplied horsemen, the Indians chariots drawn either by horses or by ' wild asses.' From this it follows that in some of the countries subject to the Persian king and which bordered on India, horses were scarce and accordingly asses were used instead. As we have already seen (p. 49), the people of Carmania, that is the eastern portion of the modern Persia and the western part of Baluchistan, through want of horses still continued to use asses in warfare down to the time of Christ. Now in view of the fact that the Bactrians (who occupied the modern Afghanistan) supplied cavalry and that the Vedic Indians who lived on the upper Indus had chariots and horses, and that the Indians of that region were amply ^ Darwin, Variation of Animalg and Plants, Vol. i. p. 61. ^ The Arabian Horse, p. 266. 158 THE HORSES OF PREHISTORIC [CH. provided with horsemen aod chariots drawn by horses at the time of Alexander's invasion, it is clear that the Indians who furnished Xerxes with chariots drawn by wild asses were either the tribes from the western side of the Indus, who dwelt in what is now Baluchistan and eastern Persia, or else from the peoples of the eastern bank of that river, who dwelt in what is now Cutch, Kathiwar and Baroda. But, though Cutch is still the stronghold of the wild ass, yet as we have seen that all the region round Bombay was supplied with horses from the Persian Gulf and Arabia in the thirteenth century a.d. and we know not how long before, it is most improbable that the horse was indigenous in Cutch or Kathiwar. On the other hand there is the clearest historical evidence that by the Christian era great numbers of the yellow-dun horses of upper Asia and Europe had been brought into all the regions lying on the east bank of the lower Indus. We saw that the Scythians had been keepers of horses from a remote period and that these horses were probably of the same stock as the Mongolian pony of modern times, and that the wild horses of the Caspian steppes were probably of a light dun colour. Along the ancient highway which led from the Caspian region up the Oxus valley, the Scythian tribe of Sacae forced their way into Bactria (Afghanistan) in the second century B.C., and ultimately overthrew the Greeks who had ruled that region from the time of Alexander. The Scythians then carried their arms across the Hindu Kush, and subdued all the territory previously under Greek dominion extending down the valley of the Indus to the sea. Though these Scythians had been expelled before the time of the Periplus of the Ery- thraean Sea, and the country was then subject to the Parthian king, the name had survived, and it is accordingly called Scythia in that treatise, as indeed it was long after in the days of Ptolemy (120 A.D.), who more distinctly terms it Indo-Scythia. This comprised the whole region adjoining the lower course of the Indus now known as Scinde, together with Cutch, Kathiwar, and Gujerat\ As it is incredible that the Scythians would have ^ Ridgeway, The Early Age of Greece, Vol. i. p. 404. Ill] AND HISTORIC TIMES 159 discarded their horses and invaded Bactria and India on foot, it follows that in the century before the Christian era many horses from the Caspian steppes had made their way into Kathiwar and the contiguous regions. It is not then surprising to find light dun horses in that area,. But, as we know from Marco Polo, that vast numbers of horses were imported from the Persian Gulf and Arabia to Bombay and the surrounding region, and as we have repeatedly seen that Turcomans, Mongols, Malays, and Hindus are ever eager to improve their native breeds by crossing them with Arab blood, there can be no doubt that the Kathiwar horse is a cross between the dun- coloured horse of upper Asia and the Arab, and the better bred they are, the more of the latter blood there is in their veins. As it is absolutely certain that the native horses of Kathi- war have been long saturated with the blood of Arab horses, which have been continually introduced, it is important to notice that in addition to the dun colour which we habitually associate with the Mongolian pony, we here meet both rufous, grey, and bay horses, all of which show a great tendency to dorsal and other stripes, as is the case with ponies of Sumatra also saturated with Arab blood, and likewise with the tangums of Tibet. In view of these facts it would indeed be rash to assume that " the Indian domesticated horse " with a preorbital depression was of an indigenous stock and not rather like all the country-bred Indian horses, of which we have any evi- dence, a blend of the Mongolian pony and the Arab, But as Bend Or, the racer of Arab lineage, had a similar depression, and all the evidence shows that the Arab has not been derived from Hindustan, we must look for the source of Mr Lydekker's " domesticated Indian horse " and Bend Or in some region farther west, and to this point I shall return (p. 470). According to Captain Hayes^ the horses of Cabul, Balu- chistan, and other trans-Indus horses, " which are largely used in India, and which, though stouter and shoi^ter on the leg, are neither as smart nor as hardy in hot climates as the 'country-bred,' may be considered as intermediate between 1 The Points of the Horse (ed. 3), pp. 630-1. 160 THE HORSES OF PREHISTORIC [CH. the East Indian horse and the Mongolian pony." In other words, as the ' country-bred ' horses of India are almost mainly of Arab blood, the Cabuli, Baluchi, and other horses referred to, are cross-breds between the Mongolian pony and the Arab. The horses of the Waziris of Afghanistan are said to be not uncommonly decorated with stripes on the legs, but to this point we shall return later on. Let us now briefly survey the chief breeds of western Asia, south of the great mountain chain. The common horses of Persia are, as already remarked, Turcomans mixed more or less with older breeds, which in their turn were, as we shall see, derived from the same stock as the Turcoman. But the Turcoman horses have been, and are being, modified by Arab blood, and the further west we advance the more is this the case, for in the provinces which lie close to Arabia are found pure-bred, or nearly pure-bred, Arabs. The Turk, or Turkish horse, is sprung from the old Turco- man, identical with the Mongolian horse of upper Asia, but the stock has for many centuries been so saturated with Arab blood that it possesses the docility and the beauty of the latter, yet without its vigour and endurance, whilst from the Turco- man blood arises a tendency to Roman-nosed chaffrons and ewe neck, but the head is well set on. The Turkish horse is chiefly found in Anatolia, and only to a limited extent in Turkey in Europe. The most typical indigenous horses in Turkey at the present day are those bred on the plains near Sivas, and which are termed Kurdistan ponies. The mares are crossed with Arab stallions, and produce the ordinary horses used in Turkish towns\ The ponies properly come from the province of Kurdistan in western Persia, and are therefore from the same upper Asiatic stock as the Turcoman. They are hardy little animals, usually 14 to 14"2 hands high. They have, commonly, coarse heads, thick necks, short bodies, and good bone, especially below the knees, and are very hardy and enduring. They are usually grey or bay^ but according to General Tweedie^ "sooty 1 Hayes, Points of the Horse (ed. 3), p. 603. - Id. p. 608. ^ The Arabian Horse, p. 261. Ill] AND HISTORIC TIMES 161 blacks prevail in the vulgar stock of the pastoral and agri- cultural Kurds round Kar-kuk and Mosul." Advancing westwards from Persia, it is in the region of I'rak, the ancient Babylonia, on the eastern side of the Tigris, that we first meet with Arabs and Arab horses, the capitals of this district being Bagdad and Bussorah ; next in the region between the Tigris and the Euphrates — the ancient Mesopo- tamia— we meet the great Shammar tribes ; then crossing the Euphrates into the region called Shamiya by the Arabs, the Palmyrene or Syrian desert by Europeans, we reach the powerful Anazah tribes, the great hereditary enemies of the Shammar. Both these tribes have migrated into their present territories from central Arabia, probably owing to lack of food at home. There seems to be no doubt that the Anazah, who are said by Lady Anne Blunt to be to the Shammar as 7 to 3, were the first to migrate from Najd. This great nation, composed of many of the wealthiest and most powerful tribes in the peninsula, at an early time became masters of a great part of central Arabia, acquired the rights of pasture throughout all Najd, and possessed the palm-trees in certain districts and many of the most important wells. At the present moment the breeding of the best horses seems practically confined to the two great rival nations, but by common consent of both Bedouins and Europeans the Anazah have the best horses. We must, before proceeding further, define what is meant by an Arabian horse, and it will then be clear that the true Arab horses form but a small proportion of those bred and used even in Arabia itself, and of those exported as ' Arabs ' to India, Syria, Egypt, and Constantinople. Writers on the history of the horse have long since recognised three kinds of horses in Arabia. Youatt, for example, states that there are "three breeds or varieties of Arabian horses: the Atteschi, or inferior breed, on which the natives set little value, and which are found wild in some parts of the desert ; the Kadischi, literally horses of an unknown race, answering to our half- bred horses — a mixed breed ; and the Kochlani, horses whose genealogy, according to the modern exaggerated accounts, has been cultivated during two thousand years. Many written R. H. 11 162 THE HORSES OF PREHISTORIC [CH. and attested pedigrees extend, with true Eastern exaggeration, to the stud of Solomon \" Though, as we shall see, there are many inaccuracies in this statement, it will be found that its main proposition is true. Down to a quarter of a century ago all that was known at first-hand about the history of the Arabian horses was derived from the writings of Niebuhr, Burckhardt, and Palgrave, the former of whom had never visited the great horse-breeding tribes of Arabia, whilst the last-mentioned took but little interest in the horses of the region through which he travelled. Fortunately since 1876 several most competent observers, whose chief interest was centred in the horse, have travelled or lived in various parts of the wide region occupied by the Arab tribes, and have published invaluable accounts of the horse based on their own first-hand knowledge. The late Major Upton", who in 1876, after visiting the Sebaa, Maoli, and other tribes, published, to use the words of Mr W. Scawen Blunt, "an exceedingly good account" of Arabian horses. Next, Mr W. S. and Lady Anne Blunt^ published in 1879 an account of the Bedouin tribes of northern Arabia and the horses bred by them, and in 1881 a diary of a second journey made into central Arabia"*. In the same year appeared a posthumous work by Major Upton ^ ; whilst thirteen years later was issued the sumptuous volume of Major-General Tweedie^ who, having been for many years the British Consul-General at Bagdad, had exceptional opportunities for collecting information, and for checking and criticising the observations of his predecessors, a task which he performed vigorously whenever occasion offered. The following description of the Arabian horses has been compiled from a careful comparison of the facts collected by the writers named, and as they are practically agreed on all main questions, though differing in their theories of the origin 1 The Horse, pp. 22-3 (ed. 4). 2 prazer's Magazine, Sept. 1876. » The Bedouin Tribci of the Euphrates (1879). * A Pilgrimage to Nejd (1881). ^ Gleanings from the Desert of Arabia (1881). * I'he Arabian Horse, his Country and People (1894). IIlJ AND HISTORIC TIMES 163 of the Arabian horse and in various unimportant details, we may assume that all facts of vital importance relating to the various breeds and strains, form and colour, as well as the native traditions respecting their history, are now accurately ascertained. With reference to the three classes just enumerated Upton writes^ : " That there are three such distinct breeds or classes of Arabian horses is an erroneous opinion, but there is some ground for the supposition, which is this : in Syria and some other districts, and in towns near the coast, are to be found three kinds of horses — the Arabian, not as a native, but as a horse of luxury ; the Kidish, which class has no pretension to being an improved breed, and is not of Arab blood at all. Kidish means first a gelding, and the term is applied to any common sort of horse used for travelling or baggage, from the fact that many of this kind are geldings, and some of this sort are runners or pacers, and are used by merchants and other classes of townsmen as hacks. And there is another class well described as ' sons of horses ' in Syria. They are not genuine horses, i.e., Arabian horses; they may be, and often are, the produce of Arabian horses from common mares, be they Kurdish or Turcoman ; they are the sons of horses, but not the sons of mares, i.e., of Arabian mares. Many of these ' sons of horses ' show much blood, and I have seen less bloodlike horses passing as Arabs in India. Considerable numbers of this class are bought up in Syria by agents from Egypt and elsewhere, who give rather a better price than the Turkish government allows for remounts for the cavalry service ; and on horses of this class the cavalry of the army corps of Syria, which is the best horsed, is generally mounted." Upton thus recognised (1) true Arabian horses, (2) common Turkish and Kurdish horses, which are frequently geldings, and (3) half-breds, the offspring of the two first classes, and his statements are confirmed by the other writers. Mr Blunt ^ amply confirms Upton's statement respecting the Kadish or common Turcoman and Kurdish ponies, for he points out 1 Gleaniiu/g from the Desert of Arabia (London, Kegan Paul, 1881), p. 270. ^ The Bedouin Tribes of the Euphrates, Vol. ii. p. 2-16. 11—2 164 THE HORSES OF PREHISTORIC [CH. that descendants of horses, " members perhaps of other original stocks, those of the Russian steppes or of Central Asia, are found still existing in the shape of stout ponies all along the northern edge of the desert — animals diso-vvned by the Bedouins as not being horses at all, yet serviceable for pack-work, and useful in their way. This Chaldean type, from whatever source it springs, stands in direct contrast to that of the true Arabian. It is large-headed, heavy-necked, straight- shouldered, and high on the legs — a lumbering, clumsy beast, fit rather for draught, if it were large enough, than for riding." According to Major-General Tweedie\ "for the simple water-wheels and antediluvian wooden ploughs of the culti- vating classes when horse-power is used, and not mules or horned cattle, it is in the form of nondescript ponies, coming, like the loads carried by them, from the four points of the compass, and called in Arabia kudush (pi. of ka-dish)." Major-General Tweedie^ likewise substantiates Upton's third class — the 'sons of horses' — for he says that "the only animals that we have ever heard called by their sire's family name in the desert have been those which the Bedouins describe as not ' horses,' but ' sons of horses ' — that is, got by a first-class sire out of an inferior mare." According to Upton "among the tribes of the deserts of Arabia the Arabian is the only horse. He is one by himself. The tribes of the interior desert have the best horses^" "Al- though of Arabia alone the Arabian horse may be said to belong- rather to certain families or tribes in the desert of Arabia than to the country or people at large." The best horses are not numerous in Arabia, certainly not in proportion to the size and extent of the country. In the Hijaz (the narrow strip of countr}' along the Red Sea), and iu Yaman there are but few horses, and in Mecca itself these animals are very few in number, the merchants contenting themselves with mules and Kadishes (horses of the common kind). The few true 'Arabs ' at Mecca are purchased from the neighbouring Bedouin. Similarly at Medineh (in Burckhardt's time) there 1 The Arabian Horse, p. 22. ■■* Op. cit. p. 231. ^ Op. cit. p. 270. Ill] AND HISTORIC TIMES 165 were no good horses except those of the sheikh and his followers. The Bedouin, in the Hijaz, are very poor in horses, a few sheikhs only having an}'^, but those near Mediueh have more. Upton shows that the statement that wild horses are found in the deserts is completely fallacious \ There is but one breed of the true Arabian — that termed Kohl, so called from kohl, antimony, because the skin not only on the face but all over the body has the blue-black tint of the human skin when dyed with that mineral, so largely used by Eastern women to enhance their charms. From kohl come the derivatives kheilan and keheilet, the generic names for the horse and mare of this breed respectively. Mr Blunt '^ gives the same derivation for the name of the breed, only he explains it as arising from " the black marks which certain Arabian horses have round their eyes " ; marks which give them the appearance of being painted with kohl, after the fashion of the Arabian women, an explanation rejected by Major-General Tweedie^, who refers the name to the fact that " in this breed, especially in white and grey horses, the skin is characterised by a dark blue tinge which appears through the hairy covering." All existing true-bred 'Arabs,' i.e., horses of the Kohl breed, are descended from one or more of the strains kno^vn as Al Khamseh, The Five. But the origin of the ' Five ' it is not so easy to determine. According to a cominon Arab statement they are the five stocks descended from five out of the seven mares owned by Muhammad, on which the Prophet and his first four successors — Abubekr, Omar, Atman, and Ali — fled from Mecca to Medineh on the night of the Hejira, and which were specially blessed by their master. This, however, seems to be nothing more than a late invention of townsmen, for Upton* states that in the desert he never heard of Muham- mad's mares, nor was his name ever mentioned in any way as connected with the Arabian horse. Another story fashionable amongst the Arab horse-dealers of Bussorah and Bombay is that all pure -bred Arabs are descended from certain mares of King Solomon, who, being 1 Op. cit. p. 27.S. 2 xhe Bedouin Tribes, etc., pp. 266-7. ^ The Arabian Horse, p. 233. "» Op. cit., p. 280. 166 THE HORSES OF PREHISTORIC [cH. a great lover of horses, was one day so absorbed in his stud that he forgot to say his pra3'ers. Stimg by remorse for this omission he turned loose his horses all over the country, where- upon six of the best mares were selected by six individuals, and kept for breeding purposes. Major-General Tweedie^ has shown that this is a mere modern perversion of a passage in one of Muhammad's homilies, in which the Prophet, to admonish his hearers, brought in a fragment narrating how once upon a time the great and pious King Solomon, absorbed in admira- tion of his mares, omitted his evening prayer, and afterwards, when his conscience pricked him, sacrificed his four-footed idols. The other tradition, and that held by all the Bedouin tribes, is that the Five families in Al Khamseh are all descended from one particular mare, called Keheilet Ajuz, "the Mare of the Old Woman^" Tweedie writes^ that "during a long residence in El I'rak and on many journeys we have made constant inquiry on this subject from the Bedouin. One undeviating answer has been given on two points : fii'st, that every noble strain in the Arabian desert goes back to the Ku-hai-la of the old woman ; and further, that it does so through one or other of the lilies which constitute Al Kham-sa." The bii'th of the Keheilet Ajuz was on this wise. An Arab flying before his foes made a short halt, whereupon his mare gave birth to a filly foal. Forced to press on he abandoned the foal. When he once more stopped to rest his mare, to his surprise the foal soon made its appearance, having stoutly followed her mother's tracks. He placed the foal in charge of an old woman, who reared her, and hence arose her name. Some have supposed that the names of the five different strains are merely the invention of modern horse-dealers to impose on the credulity of Englishmen in India. " It is difficult to give more than a guess," says Mr Blunt, "as to the antiquity of the names now in use. The five breeds known as the Kliamsa are not possessed by the tribes of Northern Africa ; and it is therefore probable, that at the 1 Op. cit., pp. 227-8. - Upton, op. cit., p. 280. 3 Op. cit., p. 234. Ill] AND HISTORIC TIMES 167 time of the first Arabian conquest, in the seventh and eighth centuries of our era, they had not yet become distinguished from the general stock. The Emir (Abdul Kadir), however, does not doubt of their extreme antiquity, and I think it is certain that the Keheilans must have been contemporary with Mahomet ; for a breed called Koklani exists in Persia, and we may fairly suppose it to have been brought there by the early Arabian invaders. It has not, however, been kept pure in Persia." I hope presently to make it probable that at least one of the strains goes back to the da^'S before the Prophet. In modern times Carsten Niebuhr^ (not to be confounded with his son B. G. Niebuhr the illustrious historian) seems to be the first who refers to the various strains of the Keheilan race, denominated by him as Kochlcmi, and which are contrasted by him with the Radishes, or town horses of the peninsula. " The Kochlani," he says, " are reserved for riding solely. They are said to derive their origin from King Solomon's stud. How- ever this may be they are fit to bear the greatest fatigues The Kochlani are neither large nor handsome, but amazingly swift ; it is not for their figure, but for their velocity and other good qualities that Arabians esteem them. " The Kochlani are chiefly bred by the Bedouins settled between Basra, Merdin, and Syria, in which countries the nobility never choose to ride horses of any other race. The whole race is divided into several families, each of which has its proper name ; that of Dsjulfa seems to be the most numerous. Some of these families have a higher reputation than others, on account of their more ancient and uncontami- nated nobility. Although it is known by experience that the Kochlani are often inferior to the Kadischi, yet the mares at least of the former are always preferred in the hopes of a fine progeny. The Arabians have indeed no tables of genealogy to prove the descent of their Kochlani ; yet they are sure of the legitimacy of the progeny ; for a mare of this 1 "Description de I'Arabie d'apres les observations et recherches faites dans le pays meme par M. Niebuhr," Copenhagen (1773), Vol. i. pp. 142-4, English transl. Cited by Blunt, The Bedouin Tribes of the Euphrates, Vol. n. pp. 25, 267-9. 168 THE HORSES OF PREHISTORIC [CH. race is never covered unless in the presence of witnesses, who must be Arabians. This people do not indeed always stickle at perjury; but in a case of such serious importance they are careful to deal conscientiously. There is no instance of false testimony given in respect to the descent of a horse. Every Arabian is persuaded that himself and his whole family would be ruined if he should prevaricate in giving his oath in an affair of such consequence. The Arabians make no scruple of selling their Kochlani stallions like other horses ; but they are unwilling to part with their mares for money. When not in a condition to support them, they dispose of them to others on the terms of having a share in the foals, or of being at liberty to recover them after a certain time'." " These Kochlani are much like the old Arabian nobility, the dignity of whose birth is held in no estimation unless in their own country. These horses are little valued by the Turks. Their country being more fertile, better watered, and less level, swift horses are less necessary to them than to the Arabians. They prefer large horses, who have a stately appear- ance when sumptuously harnessed. It should seem that there are also Kochlani in Hedsjas, and in the country of Dsjof ; but I doubt if they be in estimation in the domains of the Imam, where the horses of men of rank appear to me too handsome to be Kochlani. The English, however, sometimes purchase these horses at the price of 800 or 1000 crowns each. An English merchant was offered at Bengal twice the purchase- money for one of these horses ; but he sent him to England, where he hoped that he would draw four times the original price." As Mr Blunt 2 well points out, Niebuhr was a Dane, and his ideal of a horse was formed on the heavy Danish and German horses (not Flanders, as Mr Blunt says) of his own time and country, the origin of which we shall trace upon a later page (p. 334, cf Figs. 93, 98). 1 Niebuhr, loc. cit. Blunt, op. cit. , Vol. ii. pp. 267-8. Tweedie (op. cit. p. 231) says that "the Arab will sell a leg of his mare, that is a certain share in her produce, to a neighbour." 2 Op. cit. Vol. II. p. 267. Til] AND HISTORIC TIMES 169 The five strains of the Kohl breed generally recognised by the Bedouins are: (1) the Keheilan itself, (2) Seglawi, (3) Abeyan, (4) Hamdani, (5) Hadban. (1) The Keheilan strain (says Mr Blunt) " is the most numerous, and taken generally the most esteemed. It contains a greater proportion, I think, of bays than any other strain. They are the fastest, though not perhaps the hardiest horses, and bear a closer resemblance than the rest to English thoroughbreds, to whom indeed they are more nearly related," the Darley Arabian, " perhaps the only thoroughbred Auazah horse in our stud book, being a Kehilan." The Keheilan is not by any means the most beautiful of the strains. Its sub- divisions are very numerous, the favourites being the Keheilan Ajuz, the Keheilan Nowag, the Keheilan Abu Argub, Abu Jenub, and the Ras-el-Fedawi. (2) The Seglawi generally is held in high repute, and has several sub-strains, all of which are highly valued, though the Seglawi Jedran is most esteemed in the desert. " They are, however, comparatively rare, and exist only in a few families of the Anazah, the Shammar no longer possessing any of the breed. The Seglawi Jedran of Ibn Nederi is powerful and fast, but not particularly handsome." (3) The Abeyan "is generally the handsomest breed, but is small and has less resemblance to the English thoroughbred than either of the preceding." The best sub-strain is the Abeyan Sherrak, and a mare of this breed was the most perfect that Mr Blunt saw in Arabia, but her sire was a Keheilan Ajuz. (4) The Hamdani " is not a common breed either among Anazah or Shammar," and only one sub-strain, the Hamdani Simri, is recognised as hadud (worthy) by the Bedouin. Most of the Hamdani seen by Mr Blunt were grey. A very hand- some brown Hamdani horse shown him by the Gomoussa proved to be a Hamdani Simri. The very beautiful white mare, Sherifa, owned by Blunt, was a Hamdani Simri. " She was bred in Nejd, and had belonged to Ibn Saoud. Her head is the most perfect I have seen. She stands 14"2, and is pure white in colour, with the Kohl patches round the eyes and 170 THE HORSES OF PREHISTORIC [CH. nose very strongly and blacklj^ marked. Her ears are long, like a hind's, and her eyes are full and soft. She was admired all over tlie desert. In shape, head apart, she is more like an English hunter than a race-horse." (-5) The Hadban is uncommon now amongst the Anazah, the best having formerly been possessed by the Roala. The best sub-strain is Hadban Enzekhi, and to it belonged a re- markable mare owned by Muhammad Jirro at Deyr. She stood about fourteen hands two and a half inches, and was a bay, with black points, carried her tail very high, and was full of fire. " She looked like a race-horse, thouofh not an English one." There are two other sub-strains not so much esteemed. The blood of any one of the five strains is fi^eely mixed with that of another, care only being taken to secure the best sire. To attain this mares are sometimes sent long distances to the horse of another tribe. From this fact and from inquiries made amongst the Bedouins themselves, Upton ^ concludes, apparently rightly, that Al Khamseh is really one select breed or family, and not five distinct breeds. Besides the Keheilan and its four great derivatives which form Al Khamseh, there are some sixteen other strains, and most of them with one or more strains of blood accounted equal to the Khamseh, whilst two of them — Jilfan and Maneghi — are sometimes included in the Khamseh by townsmen and horse-dealers. (1) The Maneghi is said by some, but without authority, to be an offshoot of the Keheilan Ajuz. These horses are plain and without distinction, have coarse heads, long ewe necks, powerful shoulders, much length, and strong but coarse hind-quarters. They have also much bone and are held in high repute for their qualities of endurance and staying power. There are two sub-strains. (2) Jilfan, with a sub-strain, Jilfan Stam el Bulad, ' Sinews of steel,' to which breed belonged a fine bay seen by Blunt. The Jilfan is beyond doubt the Dsjulfa of Niebuhr, regarded by that writer as the most numerous amongst the Kochlani. 1 Op. cit. p. 279. Ill] AND HISTORIC TIMES 171 Upton, when remarking on the absence of black horses amongst the Bedouin, mentions that such horses are to be seen in Syria, and that they are usually Jelfon (Jilfan). But to this point we shall return. (3) Saadan. The sub-strain Saadan Togan is in high repute. The handsomest and strongest mare possessed by the Blunts was of this breed. She was a chestnut, fourteen hands two inches, of perfect beauty, and immense power, but could not gallop with the Keheilan. (•i) Dakhman. All the horses of this breed seen or heard of by the Blunts were dark bay or brown. (5) Shueyman, with one sub-strain, Shueyman Shah. Faris Sheykh of the northern Shammar had a mare of this breed. She was coarse, but of immense strength and courage. She was dark bay, and about 14'8 hands. (6) Toessan. The only horse of this breed seen by the Blunts was a ba}-, handsome, but very small. (7) Samhan. The tallest and strongest colt seen by the Blunts with the Gomoussa tribe was of this breed. (8) Wadnan, (9) Rishan, (10) Kebeyshan, (11) Mele- khan. (12) Jereyban, (18) Jeytani, (14) Ferejan, (15) Freyfi, (16) Rabdan. Upton's description^ of the Arabian horse is "based upon personal observations of the horses of the Anazah." Their great beauty and " great general length is the striking charac- teristic. This gives them a great stride, a great reach ; they are natural born racers." "Throughout the whole frame of the Keheilan it is the extreme natural appearance of the horse, the absence of any one predominant or conventional point arti- ficially produced, the beautiful balance of power, and symmetry displayed in his form, the just organization of sensorial and structural functions, which cause him to be so beautiful, so perfect an animal. The head is very beautiful (Fig. 57), not only pleasing to the eye in its outline, but beautiful from its grand develop- ment of the sensorial organ, and the delicacy of such parts as are more subservient. It is not particularly small or short in its 1 Op. cit. p. 330. 172 THE HORSES OF PREHISTORIC [CH. whole length, in proportion to the size or height of the horse, but it is large above the eyes, small and short from the eyes to the muzzle. The centre of the eye more nearly divides the length of the head into equal parts than is observable in other horses ; from the top of the head to the centre of the eye will often measure as much as from the centre of the eye to just above the upper edge of the nostril. The head of the horse of the Anazah especially tapers very much from the eyes to the muzzle, and the lower jaw does so equally, or even in a greater degree to the under lip, and if these lines were pro- longed they would meet or cut each other at a short distance only beyond the tip of the nose. The nostril, which is pecu- liarly long, not round, runs upwards towards the face, and is also set up outwards from the nose, like the mouth of a pouch or sack which has been tied. When it expands it opens both upwards and outwards, and in profile is seen to extend beyond the outline of the nose, and when the animal is excited the head of this description seems to be made up of forehead, eyes, and nostrils. Such a head is often supposed to denote a violent temper. It is the type, however, of the head of the Arabian horse, and is, we thought, more marked, and to be seen more frequently among the Anazah tribes than elsewhere. " The ears are beautifully shaped, pointed, and well placed, and point upwards, in a marked and peculiar manner, which is considered a point of great beauty and a great sign of pure breeding. "The neck is of moderate length, and is of a graceful curve or gentle arch from the poll to the withers. It is a strong, light, and muscular neck, with the splenous muscle well de- veloped. The withers are high and run well back, are well developed, and not too narrow or thin. The back is short, the loins are powerful, the croup high, the haunch very fine, the tail well set on and the dock short. The quarters are both long and deep ; the gaskins sufliciently full and muscular without being heavy, ponderous, or vulgar ; the thighs are well let down ; the hocks are clean, large, well formed, well placed, and near the ground. The shoulders are long and powerful, well developed, but light at the points ; the scapulars in] AND HISTORIC TIMES 173 are long and of a good slope, and broad at the base. The arms are long, lean, and muscular, deep at the elbow, which is well developed. The knees are large, and square, and deep. The trapezium or bone at the back of the knee is very promi- nent. The legs are short, deep, and of fair sized bone ; the tendons and ligaments large and well strung. The fetlock joint is large and bold ; the pasterns are long, large, sloping, very elastic, and strong; the feet wide and open at the heels, and not very high in the desert\" Fig. 57. Black Arabian of Imam of Muscat. In height the Anazah horses are usually about 14 hands 3 inches, and the height hardly varies a hand". It is of great importance to note (1) that the Keheilans are the swiftest, and are generally bay, and that they have constantly a white star or blaze on the face, and one or more white feet ; the typical bay horses figured by Major-General Tweedie^ are all distinguished by such marks; (2) that the Hamdani, which are generally grey, are built more like English hunters than race-horses ; (3) that the inferior strains not in Al Khamseh show the largest and strongest horses, but not the swiftest ; 1 Op. cit. p. 334. ^ Op. cit. Frontispiece, pp. 182, 258. Op. cit. p. 343. 174 THE HORSES OF PREHISTORIC [CH. (4) that it is in these inferior strains that the colours black and brown are found. The fact that the cross-bred horses are taller and stronger than the pure Keheilans is of great importance, but it must not therefore be supposed that the stock with which the Keheilan was crossed was necessarily taller than the latter, for it can be demonstrated that cross-breds are constantly taller than either of the parents. Frequently a stout mare well under 15 hands by an Arab sire of 14 hands has oflfspring over 16 hands high'. This fact is of great importance, for it renders it clear that size and strength are due not solely to the so-called Arab, and that it was not by this element alone that size was added to the little primeval horses of Europe, so that they became capable of carrying riders instead of being merely useful for chariots. According to Upton about 87 per cent, of genuine Arab horses are of a dark colour ; but not only are horses of grey and white colour found among Al Khamseh, but beyond all doubt great numbers of horses termed Arabs, and sold as such in Syria, Egypt, Turkish Arabia, Constantinople, and India, are grey or white. It is obvious that it will be of great importance if we can obtain from the available data any reliable results concerning the distribution of colour among all tlie high-bred horses of Asia. From Mr Blunt's observa- tions it is now clear that bay is the chief colour among the Keheilans, whilst grey is characteristic of the Hamdaui, and chestnut is found in strains not reckoned in Al Khamseh. Mr Blunt''' writes as follows. "The head of the English thoroughbred differs from the Arab, for where there is a mixture of blood, the head almost always follows the least beautiful type of the ancestors. Thus every horse with a cross of Spanish will retain the heavy head of that breed, though he have but one-sixteenth part of it to fifteen of a better strain. The head of the Arabian is larger in proportion than that of the English thoroughbred, the chief difference being in the depth of the jowl ; the latter is fine and beautifully shaped, but not 1 I am indebted to Prof. Ewart for this fact. - Bedouin Tribes of the Euphrates, ii. pp. 249-54. Ill] AND HISTORIC TIMES 175 very small; the forehead large. The tail is carried high (Fig. 58) both in walking and galloping, and this point is much looked to as a sign of breeding. There is among English people a general idea that grey, especially flea-bitten grey, is the com- monest Arabian colour. But this is not so among the Anazah, Bay is still more common, and white horses, though fashionable in the desert, are rare. Our white Hamdani mare Sherifa, which came from Nejd, was immensely admired amongst the Gomoussa for the sake of her colour almost as much as for her head. Perhaps out of a hundred mares among the Auazah one would see thirty-five bay, thirty grey, fifteen chestnut, and the rest brown or black. Roans, piebalds, duns and yellows are not found among the pure-bred Arabians, though the last two are occasionally among Barbs. The bays often have black points, and generally a white foot, or two or three white feet, and a snip or blaze down the face. The chestnuts vary from the brightest to the dullest shades, and I once saw a mottled brown. With very few exceptions all the handsomest mares we saw were bay, which is without doubt by far the best colour in Arabia, as it is in England ; the chestnuts, as with us, are hot- tempered, even violent ; black is a rare colour, and I never saw in the desert a black mare which I fancied. In choosing Arabians I should take none but bays, and, if possible, bays with black points. " Among the Shammar we saw only two first-class mares, among the Fedaan perhaps half a dozen, and among the Roala, once the leading tribe, none. The Gomoussa alone of all the Anazah have any large number of really fine mares. I doubt if there are two hundred really first-class m.ares in the whole of northern Arabia. The Shammar have not now a single speci- men of the Seglawi Jedran breed for which they were formerly famous. The Montefik in the S(juth, once celebrated for their horses, have allowed the purity of their breed to be tampered with, for the sake of increased size, so necessary for the Indian market, which they supply. It was found that a cross-bred animal of mixed Persian and Arabian blood would pass muster among the English in India as pure Arabian, and would command a better price for his extra height. The Persian or 176 THE HORSES OF PREHISTORIC [CH. Turcoman horse stands fifteen hands two inches, or, even, I am told, sixteen hands ; and these the Montefik have used to cross their mares with. The produce is known in India as the Gulf Arab, but his inferior quality is now recognised. Lastly among the Sebaa themselves, who have maintained the ancient breeds in all their integi'ity, various accidents have occurred to diminish the number of their mares. The deterioration is probably due also to the small number of horses kept for the mares, one horse perhaps being all that is found for two hundred mares. The Shammars have been cut off from the rest of the Arabs for a long time, and with the exception of occasional Anazah horses captured in war, they have no means of renewing their stocks" At the present moment all the blood stock of the Anazah tribes must be related in the closest degree of consanguinity. The horses bred from are not chosen for their size or shape, or for any quality of speed or stoutness, only for their blood. Mr Blunt saw a stallion of great reputation among the Aghedaat, for no other reason than that he was a Maneghi Hedruj of Ibn Sbyel's strain. " He was a mere pony without a single good point, but his blood was unexceptional, and he was looked upon with awe by the tribe." " It is difficult to understand how the pure Arabian race should have in fact retained as much of its good qualities as it has. In all ages aud in all parts of Arabia, to say nothing of the points I have already mentioned, an unpractical system of breeding has prevailed, due in part to prejudice, and in part to peculiarities of climate and soil. The Bedouins only allow the mare a month before and a month after foaling for rest, the foals come at any time of the year. They are weaned after a month and fed on camel's milk. The best colts are sold to the townsmen of Der, Aleppo, and Mosul. The dealers will not buy hadud colts, as they cost about three times as much as the others, and it is easy to forge a pedigree. The fillies are generally kept in the tribe. The Bedouin never uses bit or bridle of any sort, but instead a halter with a fine chain passing round the nose. With this he controls the ^ Blunt, op. cit., Vol. ii. p. 258. Ill] AND HISTORIC TIMES 177 mare easily and effectually. He rides on a pad of cotton fastened on the mare's back by a surcingle, and uses no stirrup. The Bedouin does not know how to tell a horse's age by the teeth, and still less of any dealer's trick in the way of false markings^" Major-General Tweedie^ has gone carefully into the question of the colours of Arab horses and the Arab terms for colour. In England, he writes, "an antiquated idea lingers that the authentic Arab must be grey. When the eminent Assyriologist, Sir H. C. Rawlinson, exhibited in 1864 a bay Arabian stated to have a pedigree of four hundred years, London actually rejected him on the score of his being a bay, and not a grey. This illusion is sanctioned by Palgrave, who says in his article in the Ency- clopaedia Britannica ' that dark bay never occurs in the genuine Nejdee.' If by dark bay he meant dark brown, or quasi- black, the statement might be received subject to qualification. But every Arab prizes dark bay, as understood by horsemen. In the old rhapsodies about horses by desert riders the bay colour is set above every other. In one such passage the descriptive epithet used is Ah-mar. Perhaps ah-mar includes chestnut. Ah-mar may mean bright bay, but unquestionably the ancient Arabic word ku-mait, which Im-ru'l Kais uses, signifies dark bay. Ku-mait is explained as ' the dark red hue verging towards black of the fresh ripe date.' Col. Hamilton Smith describes the Arabian breed as one of great admixture, and this view is illustrated by the diversity of its colours. At the same time this diversity has its limit. Thus the dun colour is most unusual in Arabian horses. Sooty blacks prevail in the vulgar stock of the pastoral and agricultural Kurds round Kar-kuk and Mosul. There are however many different classes of black horses, and those of the Kurds can have no real relationship with those of the black Arabians, one of which was taken by Youatt as a model. Not half a dozen Artibians of this colour have made foot-prints on the turf in India. Occasionally we hear of a noble black, which is the boast of the Ae-ni-za (Anazah), but such of the colour as come our way too 1 Op. cit., Vol. II. pp. 258-9. ^ The Arabian Horse, pp. 260-1. R. H. 12 178 THE HORSES OF PREHISTORIC [CH. much resemble the dismal quadrupeds which in Europe are reserved for the last scene of all. Practically the Ku-hai-lan colours are bay and chestnut, and the numerous different shades of grey and roan. Nobody can pretend to say of any one of these colours that it is more ' typical than another.' There is an Arab saying that the ' kings of horse-kind are those which are of a dark colour.' Another Eastern saying is that ' one should be slow to buy a chestnut horse, and still slower to sell one of that colour which has turned out well.' " The Emir Fai-sal of Najd told Col. Kelly that the finest Arabian horses may be of any colour ; that the prevalent colour among the first blood was various shades of grey; that as a rule the foal received its colour from its sire ; that on the whole, colour went for little, height for nothing, and that blood was everything." We shall presently see why the Arabs set a value on white and grey horses quite disproportionate to their real merits. In view of this native opinion Mr Palgrave may well be forgiven for stating that grey is the colour of the horses of Najd. General Tweedie^ gives valuable details respecting the diffe- rent terms for various colours and their shades as well as their distribution among Kuhailan horses and also among Radishes. He tells us that ah-mar and ku-mait when applied to horses are the same, and remarks that the Arabs use ah-mar to denote a European. Ash-kar denotes chestnut. In ku-mait or ah-mar the mane and tail are black ; in ash-kar they are red or sorrel. Chestnut of a dark copper colour is not very common in Arabian blood horses. Adham, which includes coal-black and dark brown, which might pass for black, is rare in Al Khamseh. Aswad means black, and is synonymous with adham, but horse- men say adham, just as we do not speak of a 7'ed horse, but of a bay or a chestnut. The old poets called a dark coloured or pitch-black horse jaun, and this colour was evidently much esteemed, Passiug on to the white, grey, and roan, he points out that as-far, ' white,' not only means white with a saffron or sorrel infusion, chiefly apparent in the mane and tail, but also 1 The Arabian Horse, p. 241. Ill] AND HISTORIC TIMES 179 milk-white, and under this term the Bedouin include all white and light-grey horses. Ash-hah has the same connotation as as-far except that the infusion into the white is blackish, not yellowish. Am-lah means practically silver-grey, and is applied to all the vaguer shades of grey, whilst ash-al has much the same signification, though in Irak it is strictly used of a horse with much white on the face and in the tail. Ki-li means blue- grey (indigo), and is ' opener ' and with less of black than our iron-grey ; the latter is more of a kadish than a kuhailan colour. Az-rak is a lighter variety of the last named, being a blue or blue-grey colour. It is a colour much prized, and is even further from iron-grey than is the ni-li. Dappling is not very common in kuhailans. Of the greys the az-rak perhaps most inclines to a light fleecy-grey. Rum-ma-ni (from rum- man, the pomegranate) means nutmeg-grey, and it is the 7nu- war-rad, or 'rose-colour' of Najd, and it like all the greys admits of different proportions of white, red, and black. The desert contains no vulgar, patchy, or mealy roans; and no flesh-coloured muzzles and pink orifices. The true nutmeg-roan or nutmeg- grey runs the bay colour close for the prize of excellence in the Arabian bred. No matter how white in the course of years a rum-ma-ni turns, his strawberry spots remain. Ah-rash, flea- bitten-grey, is certainly found in Kuhailan, yet it is also common in kadishes. The Arabs set great store by the markings, such as white stockings and the height to which they rise on the leg. They also draw presages from the whirls in the hair. Curly places or ' feathers ' of certain shape in certain situations are taken for omens that he who owns or mounts the horse will rue it ; and similar arrangements on other spots for assurances of prosperity. Moreover feathers on a horse's neck or body no more indicate high breeding than a twist in the beard does in man. Horses in whose coats hair thus disports itself are commoner among the Shammar than among the Ae-ni-za (Anazah). " The Arab believes implicitly in blood and holds that generosus nascitur, non Jit. If he sees a colt sulking, he at once considers that he is bad from the egg, and thinks nothing about tuition. But the Najd has plenty of resolution. His admirable self-command 12—2 180 THE HORSES OF PREHISTORIC [CH. habitually subdues the fire of his highly nervous tempera- ment ; but if any one would fight him, he will fight. Even the noble mare, which the Arabs compare to the high-born lady, on whom it is meet that all maidens should attend, frequently shows her aversion, when those whom she does not know approach her. The stallion picketed beside the tent is as good as a sentinel. The first sound of an intruder brings him to attention. Generally he will stamp with one fore-foot and challenge, not braying like a ka-dish, but sounding one or two short and sharp notes, to indicate that he will make no terms. On the open plain his strong character is even more exhibited. He seems to increase in size when moved from his standing- place. After a gallop every joint and sinew and useful part stands out, as if made by work and for work. There is very little of the mere 'pet' about him. When his glance is not fixed on some object near him, in which he imagines that there is danger, he is always scanning the horizon. His gentle salu- tations of passing mares are widely different sounds from the bagpipe-like squeals of the I'raki stallion. At the sight of a crowd he neighs out musically like one who is delighted to meet others of his species \" Major Upton, in the work already cited, embodies the result of wide and careful observations made on the horses not only of the Anazah tribes of the deserts of central Arabia, but also on those found in Syria, among the Bedouin tribes in the deserts lying south-west and west of the Euphrates, the coast tribes, such as the Mofitsch, who, though chiefly fishermen, yet breed horses, on the shore of the Persian Gulf, the horses of Erack (Irak), as also those of the Shammar tribes, who occupy most of the country between the Euphrates and Tigris north of Erack. Upton states" that bay is the most general colour of the Anazah horses, and that it is the favourite colour among the Arabs (Fig. 58). "Horses of a very rich dark bay rather than a brown colour are not uncommon. Chestnuts and greys are less numerous, and together would not equal the number of those 1 The Arabian Horse, pp. 267-8. - Op. cit. p. 341. in] AND HISTORIC TIMES 181 of a bay colour. But those colours were all distinct, marked, and good. The Arabs like a decided or clear colour. In other tribes of Bedouin the colour among the grey horses we saw was much less decided. Grey horses were more numerous ; bays are not so general a colour*." Upton did not " remember to have seen any horses or mares among the Bedouin of a black colour, but in Syria and the Turkish districts we occasionally did see blacks, and generally these were said to be Jelfon^" Fig. 58. A Bay Arabian. It is important to remind the reader that the Jelfon strain is not properly included in Al Khamseh, and that accordingly horses of a black colour are not pure-bred, but are the result of blending Al Khamseh with other blood. This is in complete harmony with the facts already stated (p. 183) that the best Turcoman horses of modern times, which are the result of crossing Turcoman mares with Ai^ab stallions, are frequently black, with a star in the forehead, and white feet, and that sooty black horses are commonly found amongst the Kurds, The Arabian Horse, p. 341. - Op. cit. p. 339. 182 THE HORSES OF PREHISTORIC [CH. who, as we saw, have for a long time been constantly crossing their Turcoman ponies with Arab stallions (p. 132). Upton^ noticed very frequently among colt foals, though not in fillies, " a line somewhat darker than the general colour of the animal running in continuation of the mane along the spine, and to be traced for some way even among the long hair of the tail. It is not obliterated with age ; it can be traced in old horses and in those of a very dark colour." The Bedouin tribes of the desert south-west and west of the Euphrates, who are far less migratory than the Anazah, some being almost stationary, and cultivating the soil to some extent, as a rule, have very few mares, and though there are some good mares to be found, they do not present the same appearance of high breeding and class as those of the Anazah, being " less even and more variable in appearance," occasionally ewe-necked, a feature unknown among Anazah horses. Ac- cording to their own account these tribes use little or nothing but Anazah horses as sires, and Upton^ had known instances where mares had been sent long distances to an Anazah horse, whose owner had taken up his temporary abode with one of these tribes. "The colours of their horses are not so decided or distinct nor are bays so decidedly frequent as among the Anazah tribes." They pass on their own colts to other tribes, to the villages on the border of the desert and into Syria and Erack (Turkish Arabia). In Syria, where, as we have already seen, there are the common Turcomans, "the sons of horses," and full-blooded Arabs, many of the horses are called Anazah, but as it seems probable that any desert-bred horses in Syria are obtained from the nearest Bedouin, they have, therefore, Anazah blood in them, and very often are the progeny of Anazah sires ^ Turkish Arabia (the Babylonia of the ancients) is the country which supplies Arab horses both to Constantinople and to India. There are horses of nearly pure Arab blood, and there are horses of a mixed race from the blood of the Arabian introduced upon the former Babylonian, Persian, and 1 Op. cit. p. 339. " Op. cit. pp. 880-1. 3 Op. cit. p. 372. Ill] AND HISTORIC TIMES 183 Median stocks, all passing under the general designation of Arabs. We shall soon make clear the origin of these last-named breeds. " In the district between Euphrates and Tigris there are many breeds of horses," which vary much in class and appearance, " and passed into India are called high or low caste ^" The Indian dealers obtain their supply from agents at Bassorah and Koweit, who get them from people who live near the coasts Most of the horses supplied by these settled people near the coast they breed themselves. " The wandering tribes of the interior of Erack are said to have a great many Persian, Turcoman, and Barb horses and mares, and they sell these spurious mares to those people near the coast who supply the Indian dealer with horses^." Upton saw on one occasion* over thirty horses collected by the Pasha of Bagdad and with very few exceptions they were grey. Elsewhere he observes that " in Turkish Arabia grey horses appear to be so numerous that grey might be said to be the usual colour^" Upton had never visited the Shammar tribes who live in the region between the Euphrates and Tigris north of Erack, but he had many opportunities of seeing horses bred by them. " They present to the eye a somewhat different appearance to those of the Anazah ; they are less bloodlike, and to some extent present a heavier and more beefy appearance. The Shammar are the hereditary foes of the Anazah tribes, but possess Anazah blood in their horses from animals captured in war. The Shammar horses are not much or generally esteemed by the other Bedouin. The Arabs between Syria and the Euphrates do not appear to use Shammar horses, although to many they were close at hand ; yet these tribes will always get Anazah horses as stallions if they can. Above all Anazah are prized by the Shammar, but no Anazah will have a Shammar horse^" The Shammar also appear to have some strains of blood unknown to the Anazah tribes. A famous Shammar mare which could outstrip every horse or mare among 1 Op. cit. p. 361. 2 iijifi p. 362. 3 Ibid. p. 364. ■> Ibid. p. 360. 5 Ibid. p. 341. fi Ibid. p. 356. 184 THE HORSES OF PREHISTORIC [CH. the Shammar was white, and of six selected Shamraar horses seen by Upton in the possession of an Arab gentleman, the only good one, which proved to be a pure Anazah, was chestnut, whilst of the remaining five, which were all inferior, three were grey, and two reddish-grey ^ It seems, therefore, highly probable that a beautifid young mare belonging to a Shammar sheikh described by Layard was of Anazah blood. She was chestnut, " her limbs were in perfect symmetry, her ears erect, slender, and transparent ; her nostrils high, dilated, and a deep red ; her neck grace- fully arched, and her mane and tail of the texture of silk^" To the same Anazah strain probably belonged the mare of matchless beauty owned by the Shammar sheikh, Sofuk, already mentioned, and named Shammariyah^, whose dam was said to be able to hunt down the wild ass with her master on her back (p. 51). " There is some difference in external form to be observed between horses in Syria and those east of the Euphrates, even among such as are supposed to be of genuine Arab blood, but bred respectively in these two districts; and in general character, and in several minute respects, both differ from the Arabian horse, or the Keheilan of the superior tribes of the interior desert. Many horses bred in and to be found in both of the before-mentioned countries are not real Arabs at all, but most are related to, or are partly of Arabian blood ; for it must be understood that the Arabian bears a similar relation to all other horses in the East, as also to the horses of northern and north-western Africa, as does the thoroughbred horse in England to the various half-breds, only in a far greater degree*." We shall soon see that Upton, like all previous writers, completely misunderstood the relation of the horses of Arabia to those of North Africa. The Syrian horses, i.e., horses bred in Syria and on the west side of the desert, of supposed pure Arab blood, and 1 Op. cit. p. 358. 2 Nineveh and its Remains (ed. 1867), p. 66. 3 Op. cit. p. 74. •* Op. cit. p. 375. Ill] AND HISTORIC TIMES 185 the Bagdad — horses of the same pretensions bred to the east of the Euphrates — have not the perfect head and ears of the Anazah. " In neither kind are the jaws so fine, so deep, nor set so wide apart as in the desert Arabian, but the Syrian appears to have cleaner jaws than the Bagdad. Again, the Syrian has a better nostril, though inferior to that of the desert horse. The Bagdad horse frequently, and the Syrian sometimes, has the nostril too small and set too low down. The neck of the Syrian is generally lighter and more muscular than that of the Bagdad horse. The Syrian appears to have better shoulders, the croup of the Bagdad horse is often hand- somer and the quarters better turned than those of the Syrian. Both kinds have good legs and feet, but the Syrian seems preferable in these respects, though inferior to the Anazah horses. The barrel of the Bagdad horse is as a rule longer than that of the Syrian, which latter is more like the desert horse in this respect. On the whole, the Syrian looks a hardier, more active, and more muscular horse ; the Bagdad rather more bulky, and of a more imposing apj)earance. But these are only general indications, as in many instances these dis- tinctions are not so decided or marked \" This general state- ment is in complete accord with the more detailed evidence of Mr Blunt and Major-General Tweedie. We may therefore feel sure that the facts relating to the colours of Keheilan horses and those of inferior strains are accurately known. The evidence here presented makes it clear that the horses of the tribes of Central Arabia are admitted to be the best by all the other tribes ; that the horses bred by the tribes who have the advantage of being able to procure Anazah stallions for their mares come next in quality ; and that the best Arab horses of Syria, though inferior to the Anazah, are yet as a rule superior to those bred to the east of the Euphrates ; while the horses of the Shammar tribes in Mesopotamia show still less of the pure Arab strain. The same evidence demonstrates that amongst the pure-bred Arabs bay and chestnut vastly predominate, grey being seldom, and black and brown never 1 Op. cit. pp. 375-7. 186 THE HORSES OF PREHISTORIC [CH. seen (and that too in spite of the fact that Arab horse-breeders from religious motives have a predilection for white or grey animals) \ and the colours being very decided and pure ; that in Syria there are more grey, and far fewer bay horses, and occasionally black, that in Turkish Arabia grey practically becomes the universal colour, and sooty black is common in the Kurdish horses, whilst the Shammar horses seen by Upton were white, grey, and reddish-grey. It has also been shown that the Syrian Arab is of a coarser build than the Anazah breed, whilst the horses of Turkish Arabia are still more coarsely and clumsily built. Thus the further we advance from Ai-abia Proper, into which we shall find evidence of the importation of horses from North Africa in the centuries after Christ, the more do the horses differ in form and colour from the pure-bred Arab. On the other hand we have absolute proof of the existence of Turcoman horses in great numbers in Syria, in Turkish Arabia, and Armenia. The Turcoman is sprung from the horse of Upper Asia, of which the pure Mongolian pony is the type ; but the Turcoman (which represents the Nisaean horses of Armenia and Media, and the Parthian horses of a later date) has been modified by the admixture of so-called Arab blood. Marco Polo has shown us that in his time the Tartars had vast numbers of white horses, and we know from Herodotus that white horses, either aboriginal or feral, existed in Russia in his own time ; furthermore, we have seen that in Homeric and classical days white horses were known in Thrace, Illyria, and Upper Europe. From this it follows that the tendency to grey and white evinced by the so-called Arabs of Syria and Turkish Arabia, in contrast to the dark colours of the pure-bred horses of Central Arabia, is due to the fact that the Upper Asiatic horse forms the substratum of all the horses of Syria, Turkish Arabia, Armenia, and Persia. It would appear that the black horses occasionally seen in Syria and other parts of Asia Minor are the result of an admixture of Turcoman and Arab blood, since Upton did not 1 Hayes, op. cit. , p. 326 (citing a private communication from Mr W. S. Blunt). Ill] AND HISTORIC TIMES 187 see any of this colour among the Anazah tribes, and also by his observation that the fine black horses which he saw were generally of the Jelfon strain, which is not one of the genuine Al Khamseh. This is completely corroborated by the fact that the fine black horses with a star on the forehead and white feet, which are owned by some modern Turcoman tribes, are known to be the outcome of crossing Turcoman mares with Arab sires. Finally, Upton's testimony confirms the fact already well attested, that the tendency to stripes is especially dominant in pure-bred Arabs and Barbary horses. It is not impossible that the chestnut colour of some Anazah horses, which we have seen to be a colour of the best horses of the Shammar, whose breeds are known to have more Upper Asiatic blood than any other class of ' Arabs,' may result from a slight admixture of a Turcoman strain. The Arab horses used by the Turks are principally imported from Turkish Arabia, where common Turcoman and Kurdish horses have been much crossed Avith Arab blood. Passing across the desert into Syria we find that the common horses there are either Turcoman, or half-breds out of Turcoman mares by Arab sires, whilst Arab horses are in general use, being either bred in the country or imported from the Bedouin of the desert, the latter being much the best. Thus it is clear that at the present hour all over western Asia the main stock is the Turcoman, or horse of Upper Asia, which is continually being improved and modified by Arab blood. We shall presently show that from very early times the same two stocks were similarly meeting and acting on each other. It is most important to note, that as the Arabs from religious motives, like the ancient Germans and Illyrians, the medieval Tartars and modern Sumatrans, have a predi- lection for white and grey horses, but pay little regard to other colours, bay, which has been for ages the colour of the best Keheilan horses, is not the result of artificial breeding, and must therefore be inherent in the race. The Arabs trace the pedigree of their horses through the dams and not through the stallions as with us, just as they 188 THE HORSES OF PREHISTORIC [CH. traced their own lineage in ancient days through females instead of males. This practice is probably also due to their believing, as did the ancient Veneti (p. 104), that the dam is a more important factor than the sire in the production of a good progeny. From this arises the extreme difficulty of procuring the best Arab mares for export, for although a first-class stallion can be obtained for a heavy price in the desert, it is practically impossible to purchase a mare. Aristotle^ was of the same opinion as the Arabs and Veneti, for he says that " among solid-hoofed animals the males have no teats, except those species which take after the mother, as is the case with horses." Later on it will be seen from the history of the English thoroughbred stock that pure-blooded mares had to be imported before the real foundation of the English race-horse was laid. Now let us trace back the history of the horses of Western Asia. The horses of Anatolia and Syria w^ere well known in Europe by the 16th centurj^ for in a series of engravings from drawings made by the artist Stradanus (died 1603) and issued under the title of Equile lohannis Duds Aiistriaci ("The Stable of Don John of Austria "), a picture of ' Natolus,' here reproduced (Fig. 59), is included. As we shall see that not only were the horses and mares of Charles II. which laid the real foundation of the English racing stock procured from Smyrna, but that the famous Darley Arabian was brought from Aleppo, the importance of the horses of this region in relation to the English thoroughbreds will be fully realised. The horses used by the Persians in the Middle Ages were strong enough to carry their own armour as well as their mail-clad riders. The size of their horses gave the Persians superiority over the Turks in the great wars of the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, as the latter were mounted on much lighter horses, and had no defence except their shields^ It would appear that the Persians used large, stout horses probably resembling the Bagdad horses of to-day, and like the latter, originally obtained by crossing the heavy-limbed Upper Asiatic ^ H. A. II. 3. - Hamilton Smith, The Horse, p. 233. Ill] AND HISTORIC TIMES 189 horse with so-called Arab blood, whilst the Turks were probably for the most part mounted on common unimproved Turcoman ponies, although by the sixteenth century the horse known in Europe as the Turk was a fine well-bred animal developed out of the Turcoman pony by continual crossing with Arab blood. In The Stable of Don John of Austria, the 'Turcus' here reproduced (Fig. 60), is included, whilst Thomas Blundeville, writing in 1580, says that the horses which he had seen " come Fig. 59. The Horse of Anatolia. from Turkey, as well into Italy as hither into England, be indifferent faire to the eie, though not verie great nor strong made, yet verie light and swift in their running and of great courage" (cf p. 377). When we go back to Roman times we find that the Parthiaus had the best horses in Asia. Strabo^ says that they were not like the Greek or any other horses "in our parts" (by which he means the countries lying around the eastern Mediterranean) and elsewhere ; he also compares them to the Celtiberian horses of Northern Spain, which were of a grey 1 524, 190 THE, HORSES OF PREHISTORIC [CH. colour, as we shall soon see. Another author^ says that the Parthian horses were regularly of a dun colour (flaviis). The statements of these two writers are by no means contradictory, as might appear at first sight. It is the best horses of the Parthians of which Strabo speaks when he likens them to the Celtiberian grey horses, whilst the other is only referring to the general colour of Parthian horses when he speaks of them as dun-coloured. But the evidence which we have just passed in review has shown that at the present day the horses in the regions included within the Parthian empire, such as the common Turcoman ponies, are regularly of a rufous or dun colour, like the horses of the Vedic Aryan, whilst the superior horses of the same countries, which are the result of crossing the Upper Asiatic blood with Arab horses, are regularly of a grey colour. It is therefore clear that in the first century B.C. the horses of Asia Minor, Armenia, and Persia were practically of the same colours as they are to-day, and it seems that the peoples of that region already possessed horses of a type similar to those obtained in modern times by crossing Upper Asiatic and Arab stocks. Whence this superior element was obtained we shall soon learn. Now Strabo- makes the very important statement that the Parthian horses of his day were similar to the famous Nisaean steeds, which were bred by the ancient Achaemenid Persian kings in the fifth century B.C. The ancient Persians rode habitually on horseback, and no gentleman would ever be seen going on foot anywhere ^ In camp they always hobbled their horses^ and they sacrificed horses as well as bulls to their gods^ According to Arrian a horse was sacrificed every month to Cyrus at his famous tomb at Pasargadae ". For sacrifice they apparently preferred white horses, which they held to be sacred, and which seem regularly to have accompanied the army on the march. So great value was set by the Persians on white horses, probably for sacrifice, that the tribute paid by the Cilicians was set at "three hundred 1 Nisa omnes equos flavos habet. ^ 524. 3 Xen. Cyr. iv. 3, 28. * Ibid. in. 2. s j^^i yju, 24. *> Arrian, Anab. vi. 29; Strabo, 729. Ill] AND HISTORIC TIMES 191 and sixty white horses, one for every day in the year, and five hundred talents of silver \" a fact which shows that white horses were especially plentiful in that region. On the march of Xerxes' host the following order was observed. First came a thousand picked horsemen, then a thousand chosen spearmen, after whom came ten sacred Nisaean horses, splendidly caparisoned. These horses were called Nisaean because they were reared in Media, on the wide Nisaean plain, which produced horses of large size. After these ten horses came the sacred car of Zeus, drawn by Fig. 60. The Turk. eight white horses, followed by the charioteer on foot, and holding their bridles, for no mortal was allowed to mount the seat. After him followed Xerxes himself in a chariot drawn by Nisaean horses, with his charioteer beside him-. When Cyrus was about to cross the large river Gyndes, a tributary of the Tigris, we are told that one of the sacred white horses having in wantonness entered the river and tried to cross it he was swept away by the stream. Whereupon Cyrus was very wroth with the river, and threatened that he would so reduce its stream that henceforth even women might cross 1 Herod, in. 90. 2 Herod, vii. 40. 192 THE HORSES OF PREHISTORIC [CH, it without wetting theii* knees\ Apparently Xerxes thought it desirable to propitiate the rivers which he crossed by volun- tarily sacrificing white horses to them. Thus on his march through Thrace the magi sacrificed white horses into the Strymon-. The muster-roll of the army with which Xerxes invaded Europe (480 B.C.) furnishes an invaluable account of all the horse-breeding peoples who were subject to the gi'eat king. The following were the nations which furnished cavalry : the Persians ; the nomad tribes known as Sagartians, a people half-Persian, half-Pactyan, who supplied eight thousand horses. These men fought with the lasso ; the Medes, the Scythians, the Indians, some on horseback, some in chariots, which were drawn either by horses or wnld asses ; the Bactrians and Caspians ; the Libyans all riding in chariots ; the Caspeirians and Paricaniansl We have no difficulty in ascertaining which of the peoples of Asia at that period had the best horses, for Herodotus has already shown us that the Nisaean enjoyed this position, and he elsewhere^ not only states that they were larger than the Indian horses, but also implies that they were the largest then known. The signet of Darius Hystaspes, the father of Xerxes, which I here reproduce, probably gives us a representation of two typical horses of this famous breed. The signet (which is now in the British Museum) exhibits Darius seated in a chariot drawn by two horses (Fig. 61). But there is no evidence that this was an indigenous breed, for Strabo^ tells us " that the Nisaean horses, wliich are the largest and best and are used by the Persian kings, come, according to some from Media, according to others from Armenia." According to Strabo Armenia was especially suited for horse-rearing. That part of Armenia through which pass those who journey from Persia and Babylon to the Caspian Gates was called the Horse-feeding Mead. In the time of the Persian kings, the royal herds, which numbered as many as 50,000 mares, were pastured there. In another passage Strabo® 1 Herod, i. 189. ^ j;,jrf. vii. 114. 3 jj;^. ^u. 84.7, ■4 Ibid. III. 106. 5 524. 6 529. Ill] AND HISTORIC TIMES 193 declares that Armenia yielded in no respect to Media in its horse-breeding capabilities, " so that the Nisaean horses were produced here which the Persian kings used themselves. The satrap of Armenia had to send each year 20,000 colts on the feast of Mithras." There is evidence that by 600 B.C. Armenia was noted as a horse-breeding region, for according to the prophet Ezekiel the people of Togarmah, usually supposed to be Armenia or part of it, "traded in the fairs of Tyre with horses and mules\" The chief horses and ponies of Armenia at the present day are known as the Karadagh breed, which is said to have been Fig. 61. Imjjression from the Signet of Darius Hystaspes. developed on the southern slopes of the Caucasus, and they have been crossed with ' Arab ' blood, and probably some of them at least with Russian strains, which, as already mentioned (p. 132), are all of modern origin, being derived from Arab and English thoroughbred blood. The Karadagh horses are from 14 to 15 hands high, and are usually bay or chestnut with black mane and tail, and they all have a black dorsal stripe about an inch broad. They are strongly built and are par excellence the harness horses of Persia, and are used as cab horses in Teheran and for all kinds of waggon- work, but are very seldom ridden ^ ^ Ezek. xxvii. 14 : "They of the house of Togarmah traded in thy fairs with horses and horsemen and mules." Others have supposed that Phiygia or Caijpadocia is meant by Togarmah. - Hayes, Points of the Horse, pp. 610-1 (ed. 3). R. H. 13 194 THE HORSES OF PREHISTORIC [CH. Their strong build and want of speed in spite of their cross of ' Arab ' blood proves that the substrate of the breed is the primitive horse of Upper Asia, and though frequent crossing may have made bay and chestnut common colours, it is likely that there is in their veins much of the blood of the ancient Nisaean horses of Armenia and Media, ' the largest ' horses of the Persian empire. As the Parthian horses, which were both grey and also commonly dun, were descended from the Nisaean breed, and resembled it in appearance, we may conclude that the Persian horses of the fifth century B.C. were dun, white, or grey. But we have just seen that dun and white especially characterised the horses of Upper Europe and Upper Asia in classical and medieval times. From this it would appear that the Nisaean horses bred in Armenia were of the Upper Asiatic, i.e. Turcoman stock, and that by 600 B.C. and probably far earlier, the latter had made its way down into Palestine, where, as we have just seen, it still forms the chief element in the ordinary horses of the country. The Median empire had been absorbed into the Persian, but as the horses bred on the Nisaean plain in Media were of the same stock as those of Armenia, and by some were said to have been brought from the latter country, we may con- clude that they were also of the Upper Asiatic stock, though probably modified and improved by another strain, as we shall presently see. It is also highly probable that the horses of the other great monarchies of western Asia absorbed into the Persian empire were mainly of the same Asiatic stock. Though the Lydians in the time of Croesus (560 — 546 B.C.) were admirably furnished with cavalry, they themselves held that the horse was not a native, but an imported animal, as is demonstrated by an incident mentioned by Herodotus \ When the Persians advanced on Sardis, the space in front of the city was filled with serpents, which were eagerly devoured by the horses. Disturbed by the portent Croesus sent to the Tel- messian soothsayers, who declared that it presaged invasion and conquest by a foreign host, for (said they) "the snake is a child of the land, but the horse is an enemy and a stranger." ^ I. 78 : \eyovTes 6(piv ehai 7775 iraida, 'iirvov de TroXifiiov re Kal eTnjXuSa. Ill] AND HISTORIC TIMES 195 On the monuments (Figs. 62-4) of Nineveh the horse plays a prominent role, whether driven under chariots or ridden. The horses of the archers who are fighting with the enemy, and who have consequently both hands engaged, are repre- sented as led by mounted warriors, who ride by their side. They wear skull-caps, probably of iron\ The bas-reliefs of Kouyunjik^ show "warriors urging their horses at full speed, and archers on foot turning backward to discharge their arrows at their pursuers. Beneath the horsemen are rows of chariots and led horses. In their trappings and harness the horses of y,-3>r<»»>-i--t-<»'--^- — — - ^' t >i iiiJiMiiui It 'jYiiL,"inii.aM i 'IBS* Fig. 62. Tiglath Pileser III in his chariot. the Kouyunjik bas-reliefs differ from those represented on the sculptures from Nimround. Their heads are generally sur- mounted by a high arched crest, and bells or tassels are hung round their necks, or, as at Khorsabad, high plumes, generally three in number, rise between their ears. The bridle consisted of a headstall, a strap divided into three parts joining the bit, the straps over the forehead, under the cheeks, and behind the ears. Three richly embroidered straps (Fig. 63), passing round the body of the horse, keep the harness and chariot pole in their place, and were attached to a highly decorated breast-band. To the yoke was suspended an elegant ornament in the form of 1 Layard, i\7?!ere/) and its Remains (ed. 1867), pp. 234-5. 2 Ibid. pp. 362-3. 13—2 196 THE HORSES OF PREHISTORIC [CH. the head of an animal, and a ring which generally enclosed a winged bull. The horses' manes were allowed to fall loosely on the neck, or were plaited, and their tails were tied in the middle with a ribbon adorned with tassels \" The fact that the Assyrian horses seem always to have been controlled by bits and not merely by nose-bands will be of importance at a further stage in our investigations. To judge from the sculptures alone, cavalry must have Fig. 63. Head of a Horse from the chariot of Assur-bani-pal. formed an important part of the Assyrian armies, a conclusion fully confirmed by the Old Testament, where the Assyrian horsemen are frequently mentioned. Thus Ezekiel^ describes the Assyrians as " clothed in blue, captains and rulers, all of them desirable young men, horsemen riding upon horses." Again, Holofernes^ the general of Nabuchodonosor, is stated to have had no fewer than twelve thousand archers on horseback. On the monuments the rider is represented as seated on the ^ Layard, ojj. cit., pp. 237-8. 2 xxiii. 6. 3 Judith ii. 15. i ni] AND HISTORIC TIMES 197 back (Fig. 64) of the horse, which is only adorned with a cloth even when led behind the chariot of the king. Layard^ thought that " the horses of the Assyrian bas-reliefs were evidently drawn from the finest models, and the Assyrian sculptor has not altogether been unsuccessful in their delineation. The head is small and well shaped, the nostrils large and high, the neck arched, the body long, and the legs slender and sinewy." The prophet Habakkuk- characterises the horses of the Chaldees as " swifter than the leopards and more fierce than evening wolves." Fig. 64. Assyrian Lion-hunt. As the connection of Assyria with Armenia was very close, it is probable that the horses which the Assyrians rode and drove, and the possession of which was a chief factor in the story of Assyrian conquest, were largely supplied by Armenia, which was sending horses as far as Tyre in the seventh century B.C., and which supplied the Persian monarchs, and later still the Parthian kings, with vast numbers of excellent horses. But as we shall see j)resently, it is more than probable that the best horses of Assyria had in their veins some of the blood from which both the Arabian horse and our thoroughbreds are 1 Nineveh and its Remains (ed. 1867), pp. 234-5. "- i. 8. 198 THE HORSES OF PREHISTORIC [CH. derived. A recent writer has endeavoured to show that the asses on an Assyrian monument (p. 49) closely resemble Prejvalsky's horse. But, as I have already pointed out that the Asiatic horse is probably derived from Prejvalsky's horse, or rather from a common stock, we need not assume that the Assvrian steeds were actually the latter variety, but simply its derivative, now best exemplified in the Mongolian pony. In the time of Herodotus' the satrapy of Assyria was the most important province of the Persian empire, and bred horses in considerable numbers. The satrap of Assyria (exclusive of war-horses) him- self owned eight hundred stallions and sixteen thousand mares, twenty mares being thus allotted to each horse. As the state- ments of Herodotus already cited show that the Nisaean horses were the best in Asia, the horses of Assyria were evidently not considered first-rate, and we may therefore infer that they were of the Mongolian stock, not so much improved by crossing or selection as the Nisaean steeds of Media and Armenia. As the Assyrian horses of the fifth century B.C. were probably descended from the animals pourtrayed on the Assyrian monuments of the eighth and ninth centuries B.C., the evidence touching their quality which we infer from Herodotus harmonises well with the Mongolian-like appearance of the horses on the bas-reliefs. According to the best authorities- on the history of Baby- lonia, the horse does not appear to have been known in that region much before 1500 B.C. As I have already shown that the Upper Asiatic horse forms to this day the substratum of all the various breeds of that region, we are justified in holding that the first horses known in the Euphrates Valley had come down from Upper Asia. Of course it may be at once suggested that the Nisaean horses of the Persians and their progenitors used by Mede and Assyrian were derived from Arabia, like the best horses in Turkey, Persia, and India at the present day. But to this view there is at least one fatal objection. Herodotus^, when enumerating the nations which supplied horsemen and chariots to the host of Xerxes, does not include the Arabs among them, but expressly states that they only supplied a 1 I. 192. - Hilprecht, Explorations in Bible Lands, p. 527. 3 VII. 86. . . Ill] AND HISTORIC TIMES 199 camel corps, "all riding on camels not inferior in fleetness to horses." On some Assyrian bas-reliefs men mounted on camels are seen flying before Assyrian horsemen, and we may without hesitation recognise the former as Arabs. To the mind of Aeschylus^ all the south-eastern part of Asia Minor was inhabited by Indians, who, men and women alike, roamed from place to place on camels which were ridden like horses, but carried pack-saddles. It may be of course urged that Aeschylus in this passage is alluding not to the Arabs, with whose name he was acquainted, as he mentions them elsewhere, but that he is rather thinking of the Bactrians, who would not inappropriately be termed Indians. But it must be remembered that the Bactrians supplied horsemen and no camels to the army of Xerxes, and that it is only in later writers such as Pollux that they are described as figh ting on camels, which were swifter than horses, more calculated to inspire terror, owing to their size and shagginess, and better adapted to rough work from not suffering from thirst^. From this it looks as if in the fifth century B.C. the Bactrians either had not yet begun to use the camel, or at least had not as yet utilized it for war. Pollux evidently regarded the Bactrian custom as exceptional, for he says that whilst the horse and the elephant are only used for war, asses were employed as pack-animals, oxen for draught, mules for both, whilst camels also carried baggage on pack- saddles. There are two quite distinct species of camels, the Bactrian {Camelus hactrianus) with two humps, and the Arabian (C dromedarius) with only one : though zoologists denominate the Bactrian only as Asiatic, it seems certain that both are such in origin, the former being found in Upper Asia, the latter in Arabia, where, as we shall soon see, wild camels still existed in Strabo's time, for there is no need to assume that all the wild camels then existing there were feral. At the present day there are no wild camels in Arabia ; there are, how- ever, wild Bactrian camels in Lob-nor in Eastern Mongolia (p. 26), ^ Supp. 280-2 : 'Ivdovs t aKovcj uofj-dSas iTnro^dfj.oaii' tlvat KafiriXois d' kt\. ^ Hor. Sat. i. 7. 7-8: Sisennas, Barros, ut equis praecurreret albis; cf. Plant. Asin. ii. 2. 12: nam si se huic occasioni tempus subterduxerit, nunquam edepol quadrigis albis indipiscet postea. ' Aen. XII. 84: qui candore nives anteirent, cursibus auras. These white horses are said to have been the gift of Orithyia, the wife of Boreas, the North Wind. But Virgil as the practical farmer (p. 282) knows that white and dun horses are inferior to bay. I Ill] AND HISTOEIC TIMES 309 the native breeds of Central and Upper Italy, and I have shown on an earlier page that in 218 B.C. the horses of the Roman cavalry were superior to those of the Gauls of Northern Italy. We have already seen that from the outset of the Second Punic War the Roman cavalry was inferior to the Numidian and Spanish horsemen in Hannibal's army, and it is highly suggestive that as soon as Scipio conceived the idea of carrying war into Spain, his first care was to secure the alliance of Syphax, the Numidian king, and to enter into relations with the Masaesylian Massinissa. Indeed it was in no small degree to the aid of the latter, who joined Scipio with a few followers when that general landed in Africa in 204 B.C., that the Romans were ultimately successful in the closing scene of the drama which culminated in the battle of Zama (B.C. 202). " The Romans made a province of that part of the country which had been subject to Carthage, and made over the rest to the rule of Masanasses (Massinissa) and his descendants, beginning with Micipsa. For the Romans paid particular attention to Masanasses on account of his great abilities and friendship for them, for he it was that formed the nomads to civil life and directed their attention to husbandry, and he taught them to be soldiers instead of robbers\" During the years that intervened between Zama and the final destruction of the hapless city Massinissa and his Numidians effectually kept Carthage from regaining anything of her ancient power. Before Massinissa died (B.C. 141) he had so extended his kingdom that it completely enveloped the Roman province, since it reached even as far as the western Syrtis, and exceeded both in extent and population the territory ruled by Carthage, even in the zenith of her power. Carthage once destroyed, the Romans began to look with alarm upon the kingdom of Numidia, with its vast hordes of swift horsemen. On Massinissa's death Scipio Aemilianus had constrained his three sons to share the kingdom, but as two of them soon died, the whole had lapsed to the survivor Micipsa. This able man improved his father's capital Cirta (Constantineh), and established there a colony of Greeks, and he raised it to such importance that it could put in the 1 Strabo, 832. 310 THE HORSES OF PREHISTORIC [CH. field 10,000 horse and twice that number of infantry. Micipsa had two legitimate sons, Adherbal and Hiempsal, and a bastard, Jugurtha, who far exceeded the others in energy and ability. Micipsa at his death divided the kingdom between all three, but quarrels soon broke out, and Jugurtha in no long time became master of the whole. Then commenced the long struggle between Rome and Jugurtha in which the latter routed the Romans more than once, and even made a consular army pass under the yoke. It was not until Rome had found a military genius in Gains Marius, a rude soldier of fortune, and had been induced by him to remodel her whole military system, that Jugurtha was at last vanquished and led in triumph to the Capitol. I have already shown that Micipsa and his successors paid great attention to the breeding of horses and that no less than 100,000 colts were bred annually in their dominions. It was by means of his overwhelming superiority in cavalry that the Numidian king was able for so long to bid defiance to the legions of Rome. In B.C. 125 the Romans had for the first time permanently established themselves in Gaul, after the overthrow of the powerful Ligurian tribe of Saluvii\ and we have seen how in one of their campaigns against the Ligurians a Roman army had been saved from destruction by a body of Numidian cavalry in the Roman service. When Julius Caesar commenced his war of conquest (B.C. 60 — 56), he found that the chief strength of the Gauls lay in their cavalry, which was composed of the ruling class who had crossed the Rhine and become the overlords of the indi- genous population, the latter forming their serfs and dependents and following them to war. The Gauls, as has been repeatedly shown, possessed horses of fine quality, derived from southern lands at great cost. The conquest of Spain had supplied the Roman army with some good horses and cavalry, and now the 1 W. H. Hall [The Romans on the Riviera and the Rhone, pp. 49, 53, etc.) gives the best account of the Ligurians and the Eoman conquest. As these pages are passing through the press, the news of the sudden death of my gifted friend has reached me. The memory of his rare qualities of heart and brain will be long cherished by his many friends. Ill] AND HISTORIC TIMES 311 subjugation of Gaul gave her henceforth, until the barbarians burst through her frontiers, a practically unlimited supply of serviceable horses. In the time of Augustus the ordinary carriage horse and hackney used at Rome and in Central Italy was a ponyi termed mannus'\ As the word is Celtic, it would indicate of itself that the Romans obtained these animals either from Cisalpine or Transalpine Gaul or from both, even if they were not distinctly alluded to as Gallic in the literature of the time^. In their campaigns against the Germans in the first century of our era the Romans seem to have relied entirely on the Gallic provinces for their supply of war-horses ^ whilst St Jerome® writing in the fourth century after Christ, mentions the high value set by worldly men upon Gallic geldings. We shall soon adduce evidence to show that the Roman manni were bred by the Ligurians in what is now north-west Italy and Provence, of which region they were one of the chief productions for export in the first century B.C. (p. 321). The Romans had used geldings for pack-horses from at least the first*' century B.C. and we know not how much earlier. Indeed Cantherius'', 'a gelding,' means properly a ' pack-animal ' and got its secondary meaning from the circumstance that such animals were usually unsexed (c£ p. 167). 1 Isidore, Orig. xii. 1, defines mannus as equus brevior, quern vulgo brunitum, vel hrunitium vocant. Brunitum vel brunitium are emended to burrichum vel burrichium, as there is a gloss jSovppixoLs, but this may be quite unnecessary. ^ Lucr. III. 1076: currit agens maunos ad villam praecipitanter ; Prop. iv. 8. 15: hue mea detonsis avecta est Cynthia mannis (where detonsis means "with hogged manes"); Hor. Od. iii. 27. 6: rumpat et serpens iter institutum, si per obhquum similis sagittae terruit mannos; Id. Epod. 4. 14: et Appiam mannis terit; Id. Ep. i. 7. 76: impositus mannis; Ovid, Am. n. IGJiii.: rapientibus esseda mannis ipsa per admissas concute lora jubas; Sen. Ep. 87: ita non omnibus obesis mannis et asturconibus et tolutariis praeferres unicum ilium equum a Catone descriptum ? * Hor. Od. I. 8. 6: cur neque militaris inter aequales equitat, Gallica nee lupatis temperat ora frenis. * Tac. Ann. ii. 5 : fessas Gallias ministrandis equis. ^ ad Zech. ix. 9. 8 Varro, R. R. ii. 7. 15, but the cantherii mentioned by Plautus (died 187 B.C.) may be simply pack-animals, not unsexed. 7 From Ok. /ca/'t'ijXioj = pack-ass (from KavdriXia, 'panniers'); cf. Cic. N. D. III. 5. 11. 312 THE HORSES OF PREHISTORIC [CH. As by the end of the Republic and the first century of the Empire Rome was mistress of a large part of the known world, and was in a position to obtain not only the best horses within her own vnde bounds, but also to acquire their best steeds from those tribes who did not own her sway, and, as in the first century of our era, chariot-racing had become a furious passion at Rome, and immense sums were spent on it by the four great factions of the Blue (Veneta), the Green (Prasina), the White (Albata), and the Red (Russata), so named from their distinc- tive colours, it is obvious that if we could ascertain what was the best breed of racers at this time, we would be justified in concluding that this was the best in the known world'. In 1903 several fragments of a long Latin ^ inscription were found at Rome, built into a wall to the north of the castle of St Angelo. They turned out to be part of a document of which other fragments had already been publishedl The inscription had been set up in honour of Avilius Teres, a renowned charioteer in the second half of the first century A.D., and it contains a recital not only of his racing career and how he first drove for the Blue (Veneta) and then changed to the Green (Prasina), but what is more to our purpose it gives a list not only of the horses' names which he steered to victory, but also mentions the breeds to which each belonged. Although the inscription is very incomplete, yet in forty-two cases adjectives giving the horse's nationality can be read. Thirty-seven horses are described as Afer, i.e. from that part of Libya comprised in the Roman province of Africa and in the modern Barbary States ; one is styled Maiirus, Mauritanian, one Hispanus, one Gallus, and two Lacoties, i.e. Lacedaemonian. Consequently thirty-eight out of forty-two are actual North African horses, whilst from what we have seen of the history of the horses of Spain we know that the South Spanish horses at this time were almost purely Libyan, and Caesar's evidence respecting the Gallic horses and the constant importation of first-rate horses from the south by the Gauls in the two centuries before Christ 1 Suet. Calig. 55 ; Vit. 7. 14 ; Dom. 7. 2 jjeuue Archeologique, 1903, Juillet et Aout, no. 160, p. 160. 3 Corp. Inscript. Lat., vi. 10053, 10054, 83943. Ill] AND HISTORIC TIMES 313 make it equally plain that the excellence of the Gallic horse was due to his Libyan ancestry. Finally, the history of the horses of Greece renders it certain that the best breeds of that country were saturated with the Libyan blood. The absence of all mention of any Asiatic horses — Parthian, Armenian, Cappadocian, or Arab — is the clearest proof that the racing men of the time did not look to Arabia or any other district of Asia for horses of preeminent speed, and this com- pletely corroborates the evidence of Strabo in the first part of the same century that the Arabs neither bred nor kept any horses at all. It is now beyond all doubt that from the dawn of history down to the early centuries of our era the Libyan horse surpassed all others in swiftness, and that no horse was able to compete with him save those of Spain, Gaul, and Greece, which were themselves wholly or in great part sprung from the same blood. Of course a very different class of horse from the prize- winners of the circus was required for war, hunting, and other practical purposes, and for such the horses of the Parthians, so highly commended by Strabo, and other good breeds of Asia Minor, Greece, and Italy, which we have shown to have been the result of crossing the Asiatic-European horse with the Libyan, were admirably adapted. For the chief breeds of horses in the second century after Christ we have the evidence of Oppian, who flourished about 180 A.D. In his treatise on Hunting (Gynegetica^), he says that though each country has its own breed of horses, he will only mention the most important, and then enumerates the Etruscan, Sicilian, Cretan, Mazicean, Achean, Cappadocian, Mauritanian, Scythian, Magnesian, Epeian, Ionian, Armenian, Libyan, Thra- cian, and Erembian. His enumeration is not according to order of merit or geographical position, but to meet the exigencies of the hexameter metre. The horses of Libya (by which he pro- bably means the Cyrenaica), the Mazicean ^ (Numidian), and 1 I. 166—200. 2 The Mazices of Oppian are the same Numidian tribe as the Mazaces and Mazices of Caesar and Suetonius, and are to be identified with the Libyan tribe of Maxyes, who, according to Herodotus (iv. 191), Uved west of the river Triton. 314 THE HORSES OF PREHISTORIC [CH. Mauritanian horses are mentioned separately, in addition to the well-known old breeds of Greece and Asia Minor. It is very significant that in his wide survey of the best breeds of horses Oppian is silent respecting the Arabs, and from this we are justified in inferring that down to the second century A.D., even if the Arabs had by that date begun to breed horses, their steeds were not yet recognized as of any special merit. It will be noticed that the only Italian breed mentioned is the Etruscan, from which we may infer that for practical purposes it had by that date overshadowed the Apulian breeds. We have seen that in Spain, Africa, and in Western and Central Asia black horses are a regular result from the blending of the African with the European-Asiatic horse, and it is probable that the same holds true for Italy. Down to modern times Tuscany, Ancona, and the region of Bologna have been noted for fine breeds of black horses, all of which have been much influenced by African blood derived from Lower Italy. But as the horses of Tuscany were the best Italian breed known to Oppian, it is not unreasonable to conclude that from these horses are descended, in part at least, some of the fine black horses of modern Tuscany. Horses of similar colour but heavier build are found in Lombardy, but these are probably in good part descended from heavy horses brought by the Teutonic invaders of that region, of whose horses we shall soon speak. These horses of Lombardy have been much influenced in later centuries indirectly by Libyan blood through Turkish and Hungarian horses and also by the admixture of heavier horses from Upper Europe (p. 362). Stradanus pourtrays in his Insuher (Fig. 90) a typical example of the Lombard horse of the 16th century. Let us now return to Central and Upper Europe. We saw that the horses on the north side of the Danube were remark- able for their small size in the 5th century B.C., and that down to the time of Caesar the Germans still possessed only their primitive, unimproved, large-headed horses. But as the Gauls beyond the Alps had shown the keenest desire to improve their native breed by importing horses of superior blood at great cost in] AND HISTORIC TIMES 315 from southern lands, we might assume even without evidence that the Gauls of the lower Danube had for several centuries before Christ been importing horses of improved kinds from Macedonia, Epirus, and Thessaly. But there is not wanting evidence that for a good many centuries before our era the Celts, who dwelt in what is now Styria^ had begun to ride on horseback. At Strettweg, near Judenburg, in that province, a cremation grave of the early Iron Age — formed of large round stones — contained a remarkable series of objects, the most "^^^s ■'^'«^' Fig. 90. The Lombard Horse. interesting of which was a small bronze waggon. The vehicle is a simple platform on four wheels, each of which has eight spokes. At each end are the heads of two animals : on the middle of the car stands a woman, nude save for a girdle j there are four figures of men on horseback, each of whom carries a round shield with a central boss and wears a conical cap. There are altogether thirteen figures on the waggon. In this vehicle we have probably a model of the waggons on which the Celtic tribes conveyed their women and children as they 1 Eidgeway, Early Age of Greece, Vol. i. p. 428, 316 THE HORSES OF PREHISTORIC [CH. wandered into southern lands. The occurrence of horsemen dressed and armed in the fashion of the early Iron Age proves that the Gauls on the north-east of the Adriatic had learned by that time freely to ride on horseback. But as the tribes on the north side of the Danube continued to fight in chariots because their horses were so small, we may infer that the Celts of St}Tia had been able to obtain horses of a better kind from the lower Balkan peninsula. It was almost certainly owing to this advantage that the Gauls of that region had been able to develope a very re- markable cavalry organization, which formed the chief element of success in their invasions of Macedonia and Greece. The description of the admirable cavalry system of those who invaded Greece and got as far as Delphi in 279 B.C., de- monstrates that they had long before procured good strains of horses from Macedonia and northern Greece, and had learned to utilise them, just as quickly as at a later time did their kinsfolk in Gaul, as soon as they had obtained horses of superior quality from Italy or Spain : " When Brennus persuaded his people to invade Greece the assembled army numbered one hundred and fifty-two thousand foot, and twenty thousand four hundred horse. But though that was the number of cavalry always on service, the real number was sixty-one thousand two hundred ; for every trooper was attended by two serfs, who were themselves good riders and were provided with horses. When the cavalry was engaged, the serfs kept in the rear, and made themselves useful thus : If a trooper (ol i7r7revovT€<;) had a horse killed, the serfs brought him a fresh mount : if the trooper himself was slain, the serf mounted his master's horse ; but if both horse and man were killed, the serf was ready mounted to take their place. If the master was wounded, one of the serfs brought the wounded man off the field to the camp, while the other took his place in the ranks. These tactics, it seems to me, were copied by the Gauls from the Persian corps of the Ten Thousand, known as the Immortals. The difference was that in the Persian corps the places of the dead were filled up by enlistment after the action, while with the Gauls the squadron Ill] AND HISTORIC TIMES 317 was brought to its full strength on the field of battle. This organization they called trimarcisia ('three-horse' system) in their own tongue ; for you must know that the Celtic for a horse is marca^." This valuable passage gives us a picture of a society and a military organization closely resembling the feudal system that sprang up in all the countries conquered by the Teutonic tribes after the downfall of the Roman Empire. We have here the medieval knight attended by his squires, though in the present case the latter are not freemen, but belong to the conquered people, and have to follow their lord to war. But the institution here set forth did not belong merely to the Gauls of the Danube, for it would appear that wherever the Celto-Teutonic tribes from Central Europe pushed their con- quests, they established a like system. The squires, here termed serfs {doidoi'^) or bondsmen, are identical with the am- bacti^ of Gaul in Caesar's time, where there was a ruling class of knights (equites) who had passed over the Rhine and con- quered the old melanochrous population of France, the latter becoming the vassals and dependents of their Celtic conquerors. These Celtic lords spent all their time in war, and the greater each was in birth and power, the more ambacti or clientes had he around him. That the institution of ambacti was no new feature among the Celto-Teutonic tribes is shown by the fact that Ennius*, the father of Roman epic poetry (239 — 169 B.C.), knew of it as a Gallic term. I have elsewhere^ shown that the fair-haired Acheans of Homeric Greece had come down from Central Europe into Greece, and conquered the old dark Pelasgic inhabitants, making them into their vassals and dependents, and compelling them to follow them to war. We have seen, on an earlier 1 Paus. X. 19. 4 sqq. (Timaeus, of Locri, was probably Pausanias' authority). 2 For this use of 8ov\os (and 8oi'\da) for a serf or vassal population cf. Aristotle, Pol. ii. 5. 22; Thuc. v. 23. 3 Caesar, B. G. vi. 15 : plurimos circum se ambactos clientesque habent. With amhactus cf. Gothic andbahti = service, andbaltts = servant. •* Paul, ex Fest. p. 4 (Mliller) : ambactus apud Ennium lingua Gallica servus appellatur. 5 Ridgeway, Early Age of Greece, Vol. i. pp. 337 sqq. 318 THE HORSES OF PREHISTORIC [CH. page, how one of these dependents of Agamemnon had to purchase exemption from following his lord to Troy by pre- senting him with a famous mare. It is clear then that long before the Christian era the plains of the Danube were producing horses of excellent quality, and this they continued to do under Roman rule\ The Huns of course brought their own hardy horses from the steppes, but it is almost certain that these were soon improved by crossing with the already improved breeds developed by the I old Celtic occupants of that region. Certainly by the fourth I century a.d., when Vegetius^ wrote, the Huns were .famous for their horsemanship, and he praises the horses of the Huns and other northern peoples for their hardiness and freedom from disease, though left out on pasture through the winter frosts, and never stabled. He remarks that from the example of the Huns the Romans of his own time, who wished to save expense in matters of careful grooming and horse-doctoring, pretended to follow the example of the Huns, whose horses, though left uncared, had such excellent constitutions ^ But Vegetius points out that the northern horses were naturally of a hardier stock, whilst the Roman horses were not only of a more delicate constitution, but were reared more tenderly, being housed from the time they were foals. Accordingly when he describes the chief breeds of horses fitted for the w^ar, the race-course, and for the road, he puts the Hunnish horses at the head of the war-horses, next in order being the Thuringian and the Burgundian, and thirdly the Frisian^. He^ gives a very full account of the Hunnish horse, which I give here in Thomas Blundeville's admirable version. 1 E.g. Dalmatian and Epirote horses (Veg. Ars Vet. iv. 6). 2 Re Mil. in. 26. 15. * Ars Veterinaria, in., prol., sect. 1. 4 Veg. Ars Veterinaria, iv. 6. 3. The mss. read Frigiscos. The Frigisci cannot mean anything else than Frisian, for they must be a northern breed owing to their association with Toringos. 5 Ars Vet. iv. 6. 5: Hunniscis grande et aduncum caput, extantes oculi, angustae nares, latae maxillae, robusta cervix et rigida, iubae ultra genua pendentes, maiores costae, incurva spina, cauda silvosa, validissimae tibiae, parvae bases, plenae ac diffusae ungulae, ilia cavata, totumque corpus angu- losum, nulla in clunibus arvina, nulli iu musculis tori, in longitudine magis Ill] AND HISTORIC TIMES 319 " The Hungarian hath a great and hooked head, and his eyes stand ahnost without his head, his nostrils are narrow, and his jaws broad, his neck is long and rough, with a mane hanging down nearly to his knees, he hath a large bulk, a right back, a long bush tail, his legs be strong, his pasterns small, and his hoofs full and broad, his guts are hollow, and all his body is full of empty corners, his buttocks are not filled with fat, neither do the brawns of his muscles appear, of stature he is more in length than height, and therewith somewhat Fig. 91. The Hungarian Horse. side-bellied, his bones are also great, he is rather lean than fat, which leanness is so answerable to the other parts of his body, as the due proportion observed in his deformity, maketh the same to be a beauty. And as touching his inward dis- position, he is, as Vegetius saith, both temperate and wise, and able to abide great labour, cold and hunger, and very meet for the war." " Camerarius also saith that they be very swift, and quam in altitudine statura, propensior venter, exhaustus, ossa grandia, macies grata, et quibus pulcritudines praestat ipsa deformitas: animus moderatus et prudens, et vulnerum patiens. 320 THE HORSES OF PREHISTORIC [CH. if they be provoked by some injury, they will both bite and strike, otherwise not. Their pace is a trot." The Hungarian horses have been continually improved by the introduction of Libyan blood, derived largely in later centuries through Turkish channels. Accordingly it is not surprising that the Hungarian horse, drawn by Stradanus (Fig. 91), in the "Stable of Don John of Austria," shows little resemblance to the animals described by Vegetius except as regards the copiousness of the mane and tail, which were probably inherited from the ancient horses of the Danubian region. The old Hungarian horse was usually of a bay colour and without any white on the legs, but grey, dun, and chestnut were likewise often found. Since the early part of the last century this type has been entirely changed owing to the constant importation of English thoroughbreds, when the Government began to breed for military purposes and en- couraged the farmers to do likewise. " In almost all cases the Government stallions were half-bred English, and these were placed at breeding depots all over the country^" As is well known, Hungary at the present time supplies some of the best cavalry horses in the world. I have already pointed out that the black horses of Western Asia, Spain, and Italy all result from a mixture of the African bay with the indigenous horses of Asia and Europe. If this principle is sound, the same colour ought to characterize strongly the horses of the Upper Balkan and Danubian regions. But large black horses are so distinctive a feature not only of this area, but also of those lying to the east, that the cavalry of Austria and Russia has been regularly mounted on horses of this colour. Our evidence now makes it clear that black is not an original colour of the horse either in Europe, Asia, or Africa, but that it is an artificial product arising from the mixing of the African stock with the Asiatic-European indigenous horses in the three southern peninsulas of Europe, in Syria, Anatolia, and other parts of Western Asia. Let us next pass into Northern Italy and France. Now 1 Hayes, Points of the Horse (ed. 3), pp. 531-2, embodymg the notes of Mr Reynolds (M.E.C.V.S.). Ill] AND HISTORIC TIMES 321 since the horses of the Celtiberians, who occupied all Northern Spain, were iron-grey, and as the horses of Southern Spain were bay, and occasionally black, and as the Gauls were import- ing horses of superior blood from the south from 172 B.C. and probably much earlier, and in Caesar's time were paying large prices for horses from southern lands, it is but reasonable to expect that some of the oldest breeds in France should show characteristics similar to those of the cross-bred horses of Spain. All French authorities are agreed that the fine breeds {races legeres), of which there were several of great antiquity and excellence in France, are derived from the ' Oriental ' or ' Arab,' or in other words from the Libyan horse. In Strabo's time^ the Ligurians were noted for a particular breed of horses called ginni, i.e. jennets, which the geogi-apher (probably following Posidonius) mentions amongst the chief products and exports of that region. That these jennets were not mules but ponies is made absolutely certain by the statement of Aristotle^ that "the animals called ginni are stunted horses and bear the same relation to horses that dwarfs do to well- grown men." It is therefore certain that the Ligurians had an excellent breed of ponies before the Christian era, and as these ponies were sent down into Italy, we can have little doubt that they were the manni of the Roman writers of that period. The Ligurians, who lived on the Italian side of the Alps, in their struggle against the Romans seem to have had no cavalry, but when in 125 B.C. the Romans undertook for the first time to carve out a province on the Gallic side of the Alps, they came into contact with the powerful tribe of Saluvii, whose capital was Arelate (Aries), and who "vvere well mounted on the horses which they bred in the plains east of the Rhone. To-day in the same district we meet the horse known as the Camargue. It is reared in a half-wild state, and its origin is ascribed " to the introduction of Arab or Numi- dian blood in the neighbourhood of Aries in 125 B.C., when Fulvius Flaccus, the Roman general, occupied the country." 1 202. 2 fjigi^ Animal, vi. 24. R. H. 21 322 THE HORSES OF PREHISTORIC [CH. The original Libyan blood thus obtained is supposed by French writers to have been augmented by the establishment of the colony of Julia (circ. 24 B.C.), and later at the time of the Saracen occupation of Provence (730 A.D.), and later still at the time of the Crusades. The Camargue is a small horse (1"32 — 34 m. = 13"1 hands). His head is a little big, but well set on. His feet are large and often flat ; his coat is always grey. His head and feet point clearly to his European ancestry, whilst the modification of his colour points equally clearly as in the horses of Northern Spain, Syria, Mesopotamia, and Asia Minor, to his Libyan blood. As we have shown that not only were Gallic chieftains importing horses across the Alps long before the Roman occupation of Provence, but that the Celtiberians by the beginning of the first century B.C., and we know not how much earlier, possessed a breed of grey horses, it is more than probable that Libyan blood had been introduced into the region of the Rhone at a time long anterior to 125 B.C. Again, as we have seen that the osseous remains of the horses used by the Helvetians in the first century B.C. (p. 93) are declared by Dr Marek to agree in their fundamental characters, size excepted, with the so-called Oriental races of horses, whose typical representative is the 'Arab,' and as this Hel veto-Gallic horse was l'3o to 1"41 m. in height, almost the same as that of the modern Camargue, we are led to conclude that the Ligurian giniii of Strabo's day were not only the ancestors of the modern Camargue but were the same breed as the horses whose bones have been found in the settlements of the La Tene period. The crossing of the Camargue with the Arab in modern times has given excellent results ^ The Basses Pyrenees and the Hautes Pyrenees are the seat of an ancient breed known variously as that of Navarre, Tarbes, or Bigourdan^. It was derived from Andalusia according to some at a period later than the Arab conquest of Spain, accord- ing to others at the same time, but from what we have already seen it is probable that it had imbibed much Libyan blood 1 Cuyer and Alix, Le Cheval, p. 613. ^ Cuyer and Alix, op. cit. p. 609. Ill] AND HISTORIC TIMES 323 at a far earlier date. In form it is said to fall about midway between Arab and Andalusian. The breed was decadent by the close of the eighteenth centiiry, and has since then been greatly modified by being crossed with Arab and English thoroughbred stallions, the former being used exclusively under the Empire and the Restoration, but in 1833 the English horses were introduced, and since then the horse of Bigourdan has gi'adually supplanted that of Tarbes, being taller than the latter. The crossing has increased its height, which is now 1'60 m. (16 hands), and its head is longer than that of the thoroughbred. In the Eastern Pyrenees we meet the horses of Ariege, which are reared on the plateau of Laderg, at a very consider- able height above sea-level. They have all the characteristics of a mountain type — being ugly and angular, but very hardy and useful. Their relatively large size (1'4.5 — 50 m. = 15 hands at most) is due to the excellence of the mountain pastures. " Everything points to the belief that they are Spanish in origin," for they preserve in great part the character of the Andalusian. The coat is generally black'. The Limousin horse was the glory of old France, for it was esteemed above all others for the saddle, and the royal stables were filled with animals of this breed. The majority of hippo logists are agreed in dating the origin of the Limousin stock to the conquest of Spain and Southern France by the Saracens in the beginning of the eighth century A.D. It has the distinctive characteristics of the Barb. The chief centre for its breeding was in Haute Vienne. It was in full decadence in 1770, and in modern times it has been much crossed with Arab, Spanish, and English thoroughbred blood, and has consequently lost its ancient shape and qualities. Since 1830 English thorough- breds have been exclusively used and have given the race greater size, but not so good a barrel. The Auvergne horse is also ' Oriental,' i.e. Libyan, in origin, being absolutely identical with the horse of Ariege, its colour being generally black. They are not so fine as the Limousin, 1 Cuyer and Alix, op, cit. p. G09. 21—2 324 THE HORSES OF PREHISTORIC [CH. for the head is larger in proportion to their size, but in modern times they have been modified by English thoroughbred blood \ The Landes furnish a breed of horses without doubt partly Libyan in origin. They are reared in a half-wild state, de- pendent entirely on the scanty pasture of their native wastes. They are of small size (1"10 — 30 m. = 11 — 13 hands) with small square heads. They are hardy and untiring. The results from crossing them with big breeds, especially the English thorough- bred, have always been bad, but when these little mares are mated with an Arab, whose height and feeding is much more on a par with their own, the results are excellent. The horses bred in Bas-Medoc are the result of crossingf the indigenous mares with English thoroughbred or Anglo-Norman stallions. Their height should make them suited for cavalry of the line, but in every other respect they are ill-suited for this purpose, being ugly, awkward, nervous, and bad-temperedl The horses of Morvan (whose seat is in Saone-et-Loire and Nievre) are ' absolutely identical ' with the horses of Auvergne and those of Ariege (Eastern Pyrenees). This breed had a great reputation under Louis XV, and is still valued, though degenerated Though the departments of Western France supply but few fine horses, yet Brittany from time immemorial has had an excellent breed, ' absolutely identical ' with that of Morvan, Auvergne, and Ariege. The best French authorities maintain that the Breton horses are ' Asiatic,' i.e. Libyan, in origin. According to M. Sanson the introduction of this type must go back to the Celtic epoch, and he places it under his E. c. hibermicus (p. 2). These horses, known as bidets, are reared everywhere in the mountains and plains of Brittany, especially near Guingamp, Cartaix, Loudeac, Brest, Morlaix, and Redon. They have short, square heads, and they do not exceed 1*50 m. (15 hands) in height. They have been spoiled to a certain extent by the introduction of English thoroughbred stallions*. This breed, which thus extends right across France, from Ariege through Auvergne, and down the Loire into Brittany, ^ Cuyer and Alix, op. cit. pp. 605-6. ^ Cuyer and Alix, op. cit. p. 609. '^ Cuyer and Alix, op. cit. p. 617. * Cuyer and Alix, op. cit. p. 614. Ill] AND HISTORIC TIMES 325 we shall find to be of great importance when we come to inquire into the origin of the Irish Hobby and Ewart's Celtic pony (p. 18). The little horses of the Mouse, Moselle, and Meurthe (the ancient province of Lorraine), are held by Sanson to be 'Arab' in origin. They have great toughness and endurance, though ugly in shape. They are now only to be found amongst the poorest people. Their decadence commenced with the intro- duction of Ukraine blood in 1757, and has been aggravated by the introduction since 1807 of Belgian, Perch eron, and Anglo- Norman blood. Alsace formerly possessed a breed of small horses of 'Asiatic' type, but at the present day the Alsatian horses are of little value \ The breeds of which we have just been speaking are all of a dark colour, like the horses of North Africa and Andalusia, from which they are sprung, and indeed they are commonly black. But, as in Spain we found not only the pure or almost pure Libyan horse of a dark colour, but also a grey breed, partly Libyan and partly derived from the old European stock, which still exists in Northern Spain, the land once occupied by the Celtiberians, and as we have already found such a grey breed in Provence, it is but natural that breeds of a similar origin and colour may be found in Central France also. The most famous of all the French half-bred or intermediary horses is the Percheron, who is as much renowned in his class as the English race-horse is in his. The centre of production of the Percheron is what was formerly the little province of Le Perche, distributed now between the departments of Orne, Sarthe, Eure-et-Loire, and Loir-et-Cher, the actual geographi- cal area of the breed only covering a portion of each of these departments I The principal breeding centres are Mortagne, Bellesme, Saint-Calais, Mont Doubleau, and Courtomer. There are two kinds of Percheron, the little and the big. It is the small or Percheron i^ostier, that was so universally used for posting and for coaching. The head is a little large, souvent 1 Cuyer and Alix, op. cit. p. 617. . ^ Cuyer and Alix, op. cit. p. 640, 326 THE HORSES OF PREHISTORIC [CH. camiise, the forehead large, the eye small but quick and in- telligent, the neck of moderate length with a long fine mane, the back short, the croup round and muscular, and well-rounded sides, the tail set a little low, strong legs with large joints, short pasterns. It is generally grey. The little Percherons horse the Paris omnibuses and the French artiller}'. Various theories have been advanced touching the origin of the Per- cheron, some holding that he is an Arab become heavy under a particular kind of work and feeding in the course of some centuries, others consider him the outcome of the blending of the Breton with the Boulonnais, whilst M. Sanson^ makes it into a separate species, E. c. sequanius, and holds that it de- veloped in the Parisian basin of the Seine (Sequana). MM. Cuyer and Alix ^ accept this view, believing it to be confirmed by the discovery at Grenelle of a skull of Equus caballus, the only quaternary skull of Equidae known up to the time when they were writing (1884), of which the typical characteristics are those of the Percheron breed. Though it is possible that this skull may be that of a cross between the ' Celtic ' pony and the heavy built horse of the Solutre type, yet the grey colour of the Percheron taken in conjunction with that of the Camargue, and the same colour in the horses of Northern Spain, about whose ancestry we are fairly certain, render it far more likely that the Percheron is the outcome of blending the old heavy European horse with Libyan blood derived through Spain and Italy. There are also horses known as the large Percheron, but they must not be confounded with the small or true Percheron, for in the plain of Chartres there are horses of various other breeds, some of them very large and heavy — Breton, Boulon- nais, Flemish, Picard, Norman — but as the mode of rearing tends to assimilate all these horses to the older breed, they are commonly called Percherons and sold as such. It will be remembered that by 100 a.d. the German tribe of Tencteri, who had settled on the left bank of the Rhine, were distinguished from all other German tribes by their love of 1 Zootechnie, Vol. iii. p. 105. . ^ Op. cit. p. 641. Ill] AND HISTORIC TIMES 327 horses and their finely organised cavahy (p. 115). It was pointed out that their superiority in horses over their kindred was due to the fact that they had been able to obtain a better class of horses from their Gallic neighbours, who had been importing at great cost fine horses from southern lands long before the time of Caesar. By the third century the Tencteri, like the Ubii and other tribes, who dwelt on the left bank of the Rhine, had lost their identity under the common term of Franks, which had gradually supplanted the older name of Germans ^ But their kindred on the other side of the Rhine from the Main down to the sea maintained their autonomy in their ancient seats from which they were one day destined to sally forth to conquests pregnant with empire. Next to the Franks on the east lay the Thuringians, whilst on the south from the Main as far as Basel came the Burgundians. As the Tencteri had been able to obtain superior horses and to organise a fine cavalry in the first century a.D., it was but natural that some of the other tribes should soon follow their example. It is not then surprising to find that Vegetius^ {cii'c. 880 A.D.), in his list of breeds suited for war, places the Thuringian and the Burgundian next after the Hunnish, and gives the third place to the Frisian, Unfortunately, Vegetius does not mention the characteristic colour or colours of these different breeds of war-horses, but it is not improbable that many of them were already of a dark colour. Certainly by the beginning of the sixth century a dark colour with blaze on the face characterised the best Roman war-horse of the day. This is rendered clear by the story of the famous fight which took place near the Tiber, when Belisarius, Justinian's great general, with a thousand of his cavalry came suddenly upon a party of the Goths, who were bent on the capture of Rome and had already crossed the river. Belisarius himself fought like a 1 Procopius, de hello Gothico, i. 12: 'Fijvos 8i es tov uiKfavdv ras (KpoXas iroieirai, Xi^iat re evravOa, ov drj Tepfiavol to TraXuLbv (^ktjvto, ^dp^apov idvos, ov iroWov Xdyov rb Kar' apxas a^iov, ot vvv i>payyoi KaXovvTai. 2 Ars Veterinaria, iv. 6. 2 : ad bellum Hunniscorum longe prirao docetur utilitas patientia laboris, frigoris, famis. Toringos deinde et Burgundiones iniuriae tolerantes. Tertio loco Frisiscos non minus velocitate qnarn continua- tione cursus invictos. Postea Epirotas, Samaricos, ac Dalmatas, licet contu- maees ad frena, habiles armis [ac bellis] asseverant. 328 THE HOESES OF PREHISTORIC [CH. common soldier. "He happened to be riding at that moment a horse well tried in war and who knew well how to carry his rider through in safety. All his body was dark-coloured, but his face from the top of his head to the nose was pure white. Such a horse the Greeks called phalios ('bald') and the barbarians balas ('bald'). This horse was recognised by deserters from Beli- sarius, who had joined the Goths, and they immediately shouted out, "Strike the bald-faced horse." Nothing but the devotion of his body-guard saved Belisarius and his noble charger^ The gallant war-horse here described must have ditfered essentially from the ordinary post-horses of the day, which were kept at the public expense along the great roads of the Empire, and on which Belisarius himself once made a memorable journey, when Justinian, on hearing that the Persians had invaded his dominions, sent Belisarius to oppose them. " Riding on the public horses which are commonly known as veredi (German Pfercl), inasmuch as he had no army with him, with great speed he reached Euphratesia ^" As we may assume that Belisarius' well-tried charger is a fair representative of the best war-horse of the time, it is now clear that already by the beginning of the sixth century a dark-coloured animal, probably either dull black or dark- brown with a white blaze on the face, — features which we have seen to characterise the large cross-bred horses of Asia, North Africa, and Spain — was already the typical war-horse of Europe; and it is not improbable that the Thuringian, Burgundian, and Frisian horses, so highly praised as war-horses by Vegetius, may well have been of a similar dark colour, especially in view of the fact that from before the Christian era the fine cross-bred horses of Northern Spain were iron-grey, a colour which easily passes into black. The Roman contorniates (Fig. 92) of the ^ Procopius, de hello Gothico, i. 18 : ^rvxf Se 'iTnnp TrjviKavTa oxovfji.ei'os, TToX^fiuv T€ Mai' e/xTTei'py /cat Siaauaaadai rbv itn^aTTjv iTncyrafxivii), 6s dy] 6\ov /j.€v TO adJ/jLa (paib^ ■^v, rb /J.hu-rroi' 5e dirav iK K€(pa\i]s dxpi- es pivas XevKOs fxaXuTTa ' TOVTOv'KKXrjues cpaXibv, jSdp^apoi. 8i ^d\au KaXovau 2 Procopius, de hello Persico, ii. 20: 71'oi'S 5^ rriv Hepcruv ^(podou 'lovffTiviavbs /3acrtXei)s, BeXiffapLov atidis iir' aiiroiis ^7re/x\j/ev. 6 Se 'iinrois toIs drj/xocrloii 6xoi^/J.evos, oi)s 5t) ^€p45ovs Ka\e7i' vevofj-iKaaLv, are ov arpdrev/xa ^uv aiiTi^ ^X^"} ^dxei TroXXy is ^ixppaTriaiav d 7 .• r- ,, ' ^ iiG. 110. Irish Horseman ; Book oj Kells. saddles, and the use of bridles or halters we may recognize in the horsemen of the Book of Kells the same equipment as that used by the Irish in the time of Giraldus some four centuries later. It has now been proved that the typical Irish horse as described by Thomas Blundeville in 1.580 was no recent outcome of Spanish sires, as believed by the members of the Royal Commis.sion, but was already in general use in Ireland by the tenth century, if not earlier. But this is not all ; three horse-skulls lately discovered in a crannog (lake-dwelling) are of the highest importance in proving that not only were horses of the North African type used in Ireland as early as the tenth century, but possibly at a considerably earlier date. 1 Wilde's Cat. of the Antiq. of the Roy. Irish Academy, p. 300. 392 THE HORSES OF PREHISTORIC [CH. These three skulls (now in the National Museum in Dublin) were found associated with various antiquities, the character of which has led Mr George Coffey, the keeper of the National Museum of Irish Antiquities, to date the deposit as not later than the tenth century and possibly as early as the sixth century A.D. Dr Scharff, the head of the department of the Irish National Museum of Natural History, has pointed out to me that the skulls, which are beautifully preserved, have the distinctive features of the Arab, i.e. North African horse. The various kinds of evidence here adduced put it beyond doubt that at a period long anterior to the supposed intro- duction of Spanish stallions into Ireland in Tudor times that country already possessed a breed of horses closely related to the North African. The question now arises, Is the typical Irish horse an in- digenous development from an Equus caballus celticus or from E. c. europeus typicus or from both, or is it the outcome of a very early and oft-repeated admixture of North African blood with that of the old European horses, whether an H. c. celticus or E. c. typicus, or with both ? Both Col. St Quentin and Sir Walter Gilbey hold that the superiority of the Irish horses over all others is due largely to the limestone formation of the great central plain of Ireland and the excellence of the pasturage, but probably neither of these writers would maintain that the present Irish horse could have been evolved either out of the typical Great Horse of the Continent and England in the lapse of some centuries, or from the ancient horses of Upper Europe without any blending of other blood. Indeed the very value attached to ' blood ' by Col. St Quentin, when writing of the Irish horse, shows that he, like Mr Kenny, Dr Cox, and the members of the Royal Commission, believes that the Irish horses have in their veins a very large proportion of Arab, i.e. North African blood. It will therefore be hardly asserted by anyone that the Irish Hobbie of the time of Thomas Blundeville had been specialized merely under favourable conditions of soil and climate from the heavy-headed, thick-set horses of Europe and Asia, especially in view of the three skulls from a lake-dwelling just cited, which Ill] AND HISTORIC TIMES 393 alone are sufficient to indicate that horses of the North African type or saturated with North African blood had reached Ireland at a very early period. It is even possible to find some evidence of a far earlier date which has a direct bearing on the origin of the horses whose skulls have been preserved in the peat-buried crannog. I have already pointed out (p. 98) that in the oldest Irish Epic cycle — that of Cuchulainn — the combatants never ride on horseback, but always fight from chariots, whereas the reverse is the case in the poems of the later or Ossianic cycle, as was apparently the established practice when the Book of Kelts was written. Of course various dates have been assigned by scholars to the Cuchulainn Saga, but though it may have been revised and augmented at a later period the main elements in the poems belong to pagan times. The events commemorated in these poems are supposed to have taken place in the first century before Christ, and even though it may not be admitted that they Avere first composed at so early a date it will be generally conceded that the main body of the poems was composed in pre-Christian times, for there is good evidence that some of them were already regarded as of great antiquity in the seventh century A.D. In The Wooing of Emer (who lived at Lusk in co. Dublin) we are told that Cuchulainn went to Alba, i.e. Albion, to perfect himself in feats of arms, and that he learned there the use of the scythed chariot, and in such a chariot he set out to see Emer, after his return from Alba. When Caesar invaded Britain in 55 B.C. he found the Belgic tribes still using chariots, although they also possessed cavalry, whilst for a considerable period later the tribes of the north of Britain continued to use chariots, as we have already seen (p. 95). But it seems most unlikely that they continued to do so for very long after the Roman Conquest. It is not very probable that the use of the chariot for war would have continued in Ireland very long after it had been replaced by men mounted on horseback in Britain. Though this is not the place to deal in detail with the armature and dress described in the poems, it may however be pointed out that both dress and arms seem to belong to 394 THE HORSES OF PREHISTORIC [CH. what is known as the La Tene, or ' late Celtic ' period, so-called from the Gaulish settlement at La Tene, on Lake Neuchatel, where many remains typical of the Gallic culture of the centuries immediately preceding the Christian era were dis- covered. Fig. 111. Sword of La T^ne type in its sheath ; Connantre, Marne. Fig. 112. Iron Sword (La Tene type) in bronze scabbard; Hallstatt^. Fig. 113. Bronze Shield; Bingen-'. The Gauls at that period used long iron swords of a well- defined type (Figs. Ill, 112), carried oblong shields (Fig. 112) instead of the round shields (Fig. 113) of the previous period, 1 W. Ridgeway, The Early Age of Greece, Vol. i. p. 410. - Id., Vol. I. p. 478. Ill] AND HISTORIC TIMES 395 and fastened their cloaks with a peculiar form of brooch (Fig, 114). Now relics of this La Tene culture are not wanting in Fig. 114:. Bronze Fibula; Marne^. Fig. 115. Alderwood Shield; Ireland^. Ireland, for there is a shield of the Gallic type in the Museum of the Royal Irish Academy (Fig. 115) differing completely from 1 Eidgeway, op. cit. Vol. i. p. 4-56. Id., Vol. I. p. 580. 396 THE HORSES OF PREHISTORIC [CH. the earlier round shields used in Ireland (Fig. 118), and from the round shields used by the Irish at a later period, such as that still in the possession of the O'Donovan (Fig. 119). Similarly, brooches of undoubted La Tene or ' late Celtic ' types have Fig. 116. Brouze Fibula; Irelaudi. occasionally been found in Ireland (Fig. 116), and this type of brooch is undoubtedly described in at least one passage of the Cuchulainn Saga, where Cuscraid son of Conchobar, the tall, yellow-haired, grey-eyed king of Ulster, is represented as wearing a dark-grey cloak fastened round him with " a leaf- shaped brooch {delg nduillech) of white metal over his breast ^" This epithet exactly fits such a brooch as that here figured from Navan Rath, co. Armagh (Fig. 116), but could not possibly be applied to the pen- anular (Fig. 117) brooches used in Ireland at a later period, and the genesis of which I have elsewhere traced''. As leaf-shaped brooches closely allied to the Irish brooch here shown, were in use by the Belgic tribes of East Anglia at the time of the Roman conquest of Britain'*, there are good grounds for believing that the poems of the Cuchu- lainn cycle took shape in the period in which are laid the scenes described. Iron swords of the La Tene type have been discovered in Ireland ^ ^ Ridgeway, oj). cit. Vol. i. p. 464. - The Cattle Raid of Cualnge, translated by L. Winifred Faraday, M.A. (1904), p. 120; Yellow Book of Lecan, fol. 46 b, 28. 3 The Early Age of Greece, Vol. i. pp. 589 sqq., Figs. 146—152, 4 Ibid., p. 581, Fig. 131. 5 E. Munro, The Lake-dieellings of Europe, pp. 382-4. Fig. 117. Bronze Fibula ; Ireland. Ill] AND HISTORIC TIMES 397 Such relics seem to indicate that the Irish traditions of the invasion of fair-haired strangers from Gaul, in the centuries preceding the birth of Christ, are based on actual facts, and are not the mere outcome of a romancist's brain. In any case they demonstrate that there was constant intercourse and trade between the Continent and Ireland at that period. Fig. 118. Bronze Shield; co. Limerick^. Fortunately, for our immediate purpose, a description of Cuchulainn's horses is given in T1ie Wooing of Enter. They were " alike in size, beauty, fierceness and speed. Their manes were long and curly, and they had curling tails. The right- hand horse was a grey horse, broad in the haunches, fierce, swift, and wild ; the other horse jet-black ; his head firmly knit, i The Early Age of Greece, Vol. i. p. 479. 398 THE HORSES OF PREHISTORIC [CH. his feet broad-hoofed and slender ; long and curly are his mane and tail. Down his broad forehead hang heavy curls of hair." " That was the one chariot which the host of the horses of the chariots of Ulster could not follow on account of the swiftness and speed of the chariot and of the chariot-chief who sat in it." The horses were guided by " two firm-plaited yellow reins," which shows that only a single rein was used for the pair. From the results obtained in our previous investigations the reader will at once see that Cuchulainn's horses were well bred, the result of crossing the European-Asiatic horse with Libyan blood, as horses of grey and black have been proved to be, whether found among the Turcomans of Central Asia, in Asia Minor, Mesopotamia, Syria, Nubia, the Barbary States, Spain, or France. How came this breed into Ireland ? When we remember that we traced the black horse of Ariege through Auvergne, Central France, along the Loire to Brittany, and when we remember that so great an authority as M. Sanson holds that there is a close kinship between the Breton pony and the ponies of Ireland and Great Britain, and when it is likewise borne in mind that all authorities are agreed in de- riving the pedigree of the horses of Ariege, Auvergne, Morvan, and the Breton ponies from an ' Oriental,' i.e. Libyan, origin, there is at once a strong presumption that Cuchulainn's black steed was of Spanish or Gaulish blood. Again, when we remember that the little horses of Provence, which are grey in colour, are held by the best French authorities to be derived from Libyan blood at least a century before our era, and we also consider the fact that the Percheron, the most famous half-bred horse of France, is thought to have been already in the valley of the Seine from an early period, it seems equally probable that Cuchulainn's grey steed was also derived from either Northern Spain or Gaul. A recent discovery confirms this argument. In 1903 Mr G. Coffey ^ found in the centre of a small tumulus near Loughrea, co. Galway, a cremated burial " on the level of the old surface of the ground. It rested on a rude block of stone, and consisted of an almost plain urn ^ Proc. Roy. Irish Acad. Vol. xxv. sec. C, no. 2, p. 14. ra] AND HISTORIC TIMES 399 inverted over the burnt bones. Directly above the bones lay the skeleton of a woman with its head to the west, and beside it were the remains of a small horse, which lay on its left side with the head to the west," and which had been probably buried along with the human body. The woman was probably a slave killed to be the guardian of her master's graved Dr Scharff ^ who examined the horse bones, states that they all belonged to one individual — a seven-year old stallion of small size. "To judge from the length of the humerus, radius, and metacarpal, the forelimb belonged to a small race of horse or pony. The measurements of these bones are somewhat larger than those given by Dr Marek of an Exmoor pony, but they Fig. 119. The O'Donovau Shield; Skibbereen ». are almost identical Avith those of the largest of the horses found at La Tene," which I have identified with the Ligurian ginni, the ancestors of the grey Camargue. As cremation only came late into Ireland and was never general, being chiefly used by the chieftain class, and as it was practised by the Gauls in Caesar's day and by the Belgic tribes of Kent^ there is a high probability that it came into Ireland with the La Tene, or ' late Celtic ' culture. It is certain that the Loughrea tumulus is pre-Christian and it probably belongs to the period when the La Tene culture came into Ireland. Accordingly 1 Ridgeway, Early Age of Greece, Vol. i. pp. 497, 505. 2 Proc. Roy. Irish Acad. lac. cit. ^ Ridgeway, op. cit. Vol. i. p. 462. ^ Id., Vol. I. pp. 503, 505. 400 THE HORSES OF PREHISTORIC [CH. the horse found in the barrow whose measurements are iden- tical with those of the Helveto-Gallic horses probably either sprung from imported ancestors or had been itself imported. Nor is there any difficulty in proving that constant trade with France and the Peninsula was carried on in the days when the Cuchulainn Saga was composed. It is absolutely certain that already in the early centuries of the Christian era there existed a very considerable trade between Ireland and the Continent. According to the Confession of St Patrick, the apostle of Ireland sailed from that island to France in a ship whose cargo com- prised those famous Celtic dogs^ which in the time of Augustus (29 B.C. — 14 A.D.) also formed part of the exports of Britain' to the Continent, where they were highly valued both for war (cf. p. 419) and the chase, more especially as the Greeks and other Mediterranean peoples possessed few dogs that could run down a hare until they came to know the Celtic vertragus in the third century B.c.^ Indeed Arrian — in what appears to be the oldest reference to the sport of coursing — calls special attention to the fact that some of the Celts who did not live by the chase, but hunted for sport, did not use nets (as did the Greeks), but gave the hare fair play. If dogs were exported from Ireland, there is no reason why the Irish should not have imported horses from France and Spain, for the Irish legends also point to early intercourse between the latter country and Ireland. Thus in The Wooing of Emer — the same poem which contains the de- scription of Cuchulainn's steeds — we read how Emer's father, Forgall the Wily, " went to Emain Macha (the modern Navan Rath) in the garb of a foreigner, as it were an embassy from the king of the Gauls, that had come to confer with Conchobar with an offering to him of golden treasures, and the wine of Gaul, and all sorts of good things besides." This passage occurs in the older redaction of the poem, which is assigned to the eighth century by Prof. Kuno Meyer. From this it is perfectly clear that when the poem was composed there was constant intercourse between Ireland and Gaul. Elsewhere in the sagas we hear of Irishmen going to the coast of Spain and Portugal. 1 Tripartite Life of St Patrick, ed. Whitley Stokes, pt. ii. pp. 362-3. - Strabo, 166. ^ Arrian, Cynegeticus, 3. in] AND HISTORIC TIMES 401 The very accurate knowledge of the geography of Ireland shown by Ptolemy (120 A.D.), puts it beyond doubt that traders from Britain and the Continent frequented the mouths of the Irish rivers in the first century after Christ. It is thus possible that before the beginning of our era the Irish had obtained some horses superior to those which they were then using, the latter being doubtless similar to those diminutive animals, still used, as we have seen, by the tribes of northern Britain to draw their war chariots at least two centuries after the Roman conquest. There is no doubt that the trade between Gaul and Ireland and the British Isles in the first century B.C. was almost entirely in the hands of the Veneti, a tribe of Armorica (Brittany), who excelled in shipbuilding and seacraft, and whom Caesar had great difficulty in reducing to subjection^ They seem to have had the complete control of the Channel, and, as I have shown elsewhere'^ it was these people who wei-e carrying on the tin trade between Cornwall, the Isle of Wight, and the mouth of the Loire when Pytheas of Marseilles made his memorable voyage into our northern seas about 350 B.C., and it was probably the same people who gave the Britons of Kent the news that Julius Caesar was preparing to invade their island home. But, as it was probably to the mouth of the Loire that St Patrick sailed in company with the wolf-hounds, in the fifth century A.D., and as it was to the same haven that the tin of Cornwall was carried when Posidonius visited Britain about 90 B.C., it is exceedingly probable that it also was the port for the trade between Ireland and France at the time when the Cuchulainn Saga first took shape. But as, according to Sanson, the Breton pony, so similar to the ponies of Britain and Ireland, was already in Brittany before Roman times, and as we have proved the Libyan origin of that animal, it is highly probable that superior horses of Libyan blood, such as those of Cuchulainn, were imported into Ireland from Brittany. We have thus a satisfactory explanation of the origin 1 B. G., V. 8. 1. - Eidgeway, ' Greek Trade Routes to Britain,' Folklore Jour. Vol. i. R. H. 26 402 THE HORSES OF PREHISTORIC [CH. of the fine-headed horses of Libyan type, whose skulls have been discovered by Mr Coffey. From this it would follow that Sanson's E. c. Mbernicus is not a separate species, or variety of horse, but only a derivative from the Libyan. In the black Irish Hobbie that beat the best Barbs of the day, in the black Connemara ponies, in the black Hebridean ponies without hind callosities, and in the dark-coloured High- land ponies we seem to have lineal descendants from the black horses, like that of Cuchulainn, which were almost certainly sprung from the same stock as the black horses of Brittany, Auvergne, and Ariege. On the other hand, as there is good evidence of the presence of grey horses in Northern Spain at least two centuries B.C. (p. 256), and it has been made probable that the grey Camargues of Provence are descended from the ginni, which were identical with the horses of the Gauls of the La Tene period, and as there is also good reason to believe that the grey Percheron is of great antiquity in France, and that both it and the Camargue owe their e.Kcellence to Libyan blood (pp. 322, 325), we may reasonably conclude that Cuchulainn's grey steed was, like its black comrade, of Libyan ancestry derived through Gaul. These imported horses would be larger and stronger than the native Irish horses, whose own ancestors had been brought to Ireland at an earlier period. As already stated, the Irish horses of the present day are the best in the world, and as it is in horses of the hunter type that Ireland especially excels, and as these are certainly not spiung from the unalloyed Irish Hobby, it is most desirable to trace the history of modern Irish horses. Without doubt the best representatives of the old Irish Hobbies at the present hour are those ponies of Connemara which have not been adulterated by the Clydesdale blood introduced by Scotch farmers during the second half of the last century, or by the Hackney stallions which, by a blunder begotten of historical ignorance, were introduced by the Congested Districts Board some years ago. As we have already seen, it has been generally held that the Irish Hobby was the outcome of Spanish blood (either derived from horses saved from the wrecked ships of the Armada) or directly through England (as believed by Sir W. Gilbey) or Ill] AND HISTORIC TIMES 403 directly from Spain in Tudor times. Accordingly it has been the fashion to recognise an Andalusian type in the Connemara , ponies, just as it is popularly supposed that a well-known type I amongst the peasantry of the west and south of Ireland is due ' to Spanish blood derived from Spaniards escaped from the Armada, though history shows that, with very few exceptions, these unfortunates were despatched on the shore and left no / time to perpetuate their race. In the chestnut colour, which Fig. 120. Yellow-dun Connemara Pony (so-called 'Andalusian' type). some have taken to be the most usual, writers have seen further proof of an Andalusian origin. But the Connemara ponies of to-day are dun, white, grey, black, chestnut, and bay, the most typical specimens of the so-called Andalusian type being yellow-dun (Figs. 120, 121)\ whilst the most common ^ Ewart, Journal of the Department of Agriculture for Ireland, Nov. 1900, pp. 181 sqq. ; 'The Ponies of Connemara,' in Ireland, Industruil and Agricultural, 1902, pp. 332 sqq. I am indebted to the Irish Department of Agriculture for 26—2 o a a 03 0^ CS u 03 g S a o o I— ( t5 Ill] AND HISTORIC TIMES 405 colour seems to be grey (Fig. 122). Though the old Connemara or 'Andalusian' type resembles in many respects ponies still to be seen in Andalusia, Prof. Ewart has pointed out that they bear a still more striking resemblance to some of the New Forest ponies (Fig. 123), which, as we have seen, are probably related to the Breton ponies and thus have in their veins Libyan blood derived through Spain and France (pp. 322-4), Fig. 122. Light-grey Connemara Pony (so-called ' Andalusian ' type). and possibly also that of the ' Celtic ' pony. They vary from 13 to 13"2 hands : some are black, others grey or chestnut, but the most characteristic specimens are of a yellow-dun colour. Some of these are very fine in the bone with the long pasterns often seen in the New Forest ponies. The ears the loan of all the blocks of the illustrations of Irish horses here shown (through the kindness of Mr T. P. Gill, Under-Secretary for Agriculture and Technical Education, Ireland). 406 THE HORSES OF PREHISTORIC [CH. measure about five and a half inches ; they have a tendency to be roach-backed, as is sometimes the case with Barbs ; when compared with a Spanish jennet or with a Barb, these ponies are relatively shorter in the neck and legs, deeper in the ribs, shorter in the ears, and provided with more powerful jaws. "The Connemara is a slightly altered Barb on pony's legs\" After having followed the pedigree of the Irish Hobby in the previous pages, the reader will not be surprised to find the Fig. 12.3. New Forest Ponies". resemblance and, at the same time, the difference between the Connemara pony and the North African horse. The prevalence of yellow ponies in the west of Ireland is due to the fact that the ancient horses, whether ' Celtic ponies ' or the heavy-built old European horses, were of a dun colour, and were sufficiently prepotent to transmit their colour to a considerable proportion of their descendants, as has been done by the Asiatic element in the horses of Kattywar (p. 139) and by the ancient Spanish ^ Ewart, loc. cit. ^ The illustratiou is from a photograph taken by Mr G. E. Low. Ill] AND HISTORIC TIMES 407 horses to their descendants in the sierras of Spain. The yellow- dun Connemara ponies are highly prized in some districts, not only because they are hardy and easily kept, but also because in staying power and vitality they are more like mules than pure- bred horses. Others of these ponies look more like Syrian Fig. 124. Light-grey Connemara Filly (so-called 'Eastern' type). Arabs than Aiidalusians, and they are frequently grey (Fig. 124). Intelligence, good-temper and courage seem to characterise the majority of the Connemara ponies. In the district of Clifden are bred ponies but little larger than the old Connemara, yet of very different build. The head is beautifully moulded and the face is very intelligent, the ribs are well arched, the shoulders 408 THE HORSES OF PREHISTORIC [CH. good, the loins and hind-quarters well developed, while the short legs stand an enormous amount of wear. A typical specimen of this strain measures 13'2 hands, has ears Arab-like in form measuring six and a half inches, and is of a grey colour (Fig. 12.5). It is quite possible that in this type we have a blend between the old European horses of the Solutre type, the Libyan Fig. 125. Connemara Pony ; Clil'deu district. horse and 'Celtic' pony, the first mentioned giving it its char- acteristic strength of leg. There are also Connemara ponies which resemble more the Irish hunter tj-pe, and which probably have been crossed with large horses from Roscommon or from further east. Some of these make good hunters (Fig. 127). Finally there are ponies sprung from the crossing of the native mares with Clydesdale blood, which comes out in their hairy fetlocks, their small heads, and occasionally very bald faces. - Ill] AND HISTORIC TIMES 409 In the so-called 'Andalusian' and 'Eastern' types we may recognise the descendants of the old Irish Hobbies, which in their turn were descended from the black and grey horses im- ported from Gaul and which no doubt had blended very largely with the ponies previously introduced. We have seen that Connemara ponies not unfrequently lack hock callosities (p. 18), a fact which may point to their 'Celtic' ancestry, though, since many North African horses have a similar characteristic, the Fig. 126. Connemara Gelding of larger type; Cashel. absence of the hind chestnuts in Connemara ponies may be due rather to the Libyan strain. In the stout-legged ponies of the Clifden district we have animals which have probably in their veins more of the blood of the old thick-set European horses of the Solutre type, and we have found at least two other classes of Connemara ponies which are still more horse-like in their conformation : of these, one is due to the recent admixture of Clydesdale blood, whilst the others resemble the Irish hunter, and in fact some- 410 THE HORSES OF PREHISTORIC [CH. times are used as hunters, and we saw that these probably result from blending the large horses of Roscommon or of the east of Ireland with the native ponies. This gradual infiltration of heavier strains shows us how the old Irish Hobby disappeared by degrees from all the eastern, north-eastern and south- eastern parts of Ireland, finally surviving only in the extreme west, and even there hardly quite pure. In other words, in the 1 * 1 v^H 4 ■ J ^^^Hk^P''' f. ■'< ,^w^pr M J ^^M ^^ ^^kE^h .' t^*- HLJ M^H ■■i myi ^^ll^^^^B % 1 Fig. 127. Connemara Pony used as a hunter. parts of Ireland which first passed under English influence the Hobb}^ gave place to or was contaminated by horses of a larger type brought over from Great Britain. This is a fact of great importance, for it offers the true explanation of the origin of the Irish cart-horses (Fig. 128), the crossing of which with thorough- bred stallions since the eighteenth century has produced the Irish hunters. It is not improbable that there were practically no horses save those of the Hobby type in Ireland until after Ill] AND HISTORIC TIMES 411 03 m to 00 C<1 412 THE HORSES OF PREHISTORIC [CH. the Norman invasion in 1172, but there can be no doubt that from that time onwards Ireland has never been without horses of a large size, at least in the English Pale. The passage cited above (p. 389) from Giraldus Cambrensis shows that the Nor- mans brought with them to Ireland the same breed of large horses which their ancestors had carried into England, and on which they charged the Saxons at Hastings. Nor can it be doubted that similar 'great horses' were from time to time imported as well as bred in Ireland, for the Nor- mans, though in many respects becoming ipsis Hihernis Hiher- niores, retained their own method of warfare, and consequently required horses of large size to mount their men-at-arms. Thus when the Pale was troubled by an irruption of the O'Byrnes and O'Moores in 1372, who burned the priory of Athy, John Colton\ the first Master of Gonville Hall (now Gonville and Caius College), and successively Dean of St Patrick's, Chan- cellor of Ireland, and Archbishop of Armagh, raised a force of 26 knights and a large body of men-at-arms, and fell upon the Irish and defeated them with great slaughter. Even within the then narrow limits of the Pale there must have been a con- siderable number of horses capable of carrying heavily-armed men. With the gradual extension of the area occupied by Norman, and later English settlers, the 'great horses ' must have spread likewise and the native Hobbies must have con- stantly been crossed with the larger strain. The same process continued under the Tudors and the Stuarts. A single instance will suffice. Dr Winter, an Englishman, and a graduate of Emmanuel College, Cambridge, who became Provost of Trinity College, Dublin (1652 — 1660), was a great lover of horses and had bi'ought over horses of peculiar merit from England, some of which were stolen from him by the Irish army on one of his journeys with Cromwell's Commissioners-. This loss was amply compensated by substantial grants of land in King's Co., and 1 J. Venn, History of Gonville and Cains College, Vol. iii. p. 9. Bishop Reeves (Irish Arch. Soc. 1850) has published Colton's account of his Visitation of the Diocese of Derry, 1397, with a valuable introduction. - J. P. Mahaffy, An Epoch of Iri.'sh History : Trinity College, Dublin, Its Foundation and Early Fortunes (1903), p. 301. Ill] AND HISTORIC TIMES 413 also at Agher, co. Meath, which his direct descendants still enjoy and where a very large breed of horses said to be de- scended from the Provost's own animals is still maintained^ It is therefore probable that Dr Winter's horses were the 'great' English horses of his own day (p. 366). This example suffices to show how in Meath and Westmeath the native Irish horses were gradually saturated with the blood of the large English horses, from which the Shires and Suffolk Punches are de- scended. It is a well-known fact that horses whose ancestors have long been bred in Ireland are distinguished for their great de- velopment of bone, and for their clean, flat, hard legs, free from the. spongy softness of bone so characteristic of British horses. As the infiltration of the blood of the English 'great horse' had thus gone on slowly for a very long period, the Irish horses of this mixed strain, owing to the extraordinary effects of the Irish soil and climate, did not inherit the softness and flabbiness found in the progeny of the Shires and Suffolk Punches intro- duced towards the end of the eighteenth century, and of the Clydesdales brought in about half a century later. As the English draught-horses imported towards the end of the eighteenth century produced an unsatisfactory progeny, no further attempts were made to improve the breed in this way. The heavier class of native animals, the genesis of which I have just sketched, produced a better type of horse for the needs of Irish farmers. These animals made good roadsters and serviceable harness horses, and, though too coarse for hunting, they had a high spirit and a natural turn for jumping, inherited doubtless from their Hobby ancestors. It was the crossing of such mares with the thoroughbred (Fig. 129) that produced the Irish hunters. By the end of the seventeenth century horses of so-called 'Oriental' blood had reached Ireland, for example the Byerley Turk, brought to Ireland by his owner. Captain Byerley, who served in the army of William III, and 1 Mahaffy, loc. cit. My old friend Rev. T. T. Gray, Senior Fellow of Trinity College, Dublin, of Carn Park, co. Westmeath, tells me that these animals, on which he himself has ridden, are of great size, and that the breed seems certainly derived from the Provost's horses. 414 THE HORSES OF PREHISTORIC [CH. probably had that famous horse at the battle of the Boyne. The mixture of such horses with the native mares laid the foundation of the Irish thoroughbred strain, and fresh thorough- bred blood was continually being introduced, until by the middle of the eighteenth century there were in Ireland up- wards of one hundred imported stallions. From that time onwards the history of the Irish thoroughbred is bound up with that of the English racing stock, but the Irish thorough- bred has continued to preserve traits derived doubtless from the Irish mares first mated with the imported sires of Libyan blood. As the Irish hunters (Fig. 130) are the progeny of the Irish thoroughbred and the Irish cart-mares, on the number and quality of the latter must depend one of the most precious productions of Ireland. The hunters bred in Ros- common are especially noted for their size and great develop- ment of bone, though, they are occasionally coarse, whilst, though the horses reared on the rich grass lands of Meath and Westmeath are not more fleshy and are scarcely equal in bone, they are, however, more shapely than those of Ros- common. The increase of tillage during the French Avar at the close of the eighteenth and the beginning of the nineteenth century gave a great impetus to the breeding of agricultural horses, as the bullock rapidly ceased to be the tiller of the soil, although in certain localities he has lingered on to our own day, both for the plough and the cart. The growth in the number of cart-mares naturally increased the production of weight- carrying hunters, but unfortunately since the repeal of the Corn Laws the shrinkage of Irish tillage has gone on steadily and there has been a corresponding diminution in the number and quality of Irish cart-mares. The larger farmers were the first to lay down their lands in permanent grass, and gradually the cart-mares only remained in the hands of smaller farmers who continued to till their ground, but, as was naturally to be expected, the mares kept by the latter were, as a rule, not of so good a quality as those formerly maintained by the wealthy farmers. The agricultural depression of the last quarter of a century has too often compelled the small farmers to sell their Ill] AND HISTOEIC TIMES 415 a o t3 O C5 ■J 416 THE HORSES OF PREHISTORIC [CH. best fillies, and at the present moment Ireland possesses only some very old and degenerate specimens of an invaluable breeds the loss of which would be little short of a national disaster. Every year the demand for Irish hunters becomes greater and their value increases, and no matter what may be the fate of other classes of horses owing to the competition of motor-cars, the high-class Irish hunter is not likely to suffer through the rivalry of any mechanical contrivance. It is earnestly to be 1 hoped that in view of the fatal damage done to the fine old ' breeds of France by the unwise admixture of foreign strains, and the like injury wrought to Irish horses by contamination with Shire, Suffolk Punch, Clydesdale, Cleveland Bay, and Hackney blood, no further rash experiments of this kind will be tried, but that steps will be taken to rebuild the old breed of Irish cart-horses by the careful selection for stud purposes of the best of those which still survive. Let us now return to the horses of Scandinavia, the Faroes, and Iceland. We saw above (p. 18) that from the absence of hock callosities, the presence of short hair on the upper part of the tail, the shortness of the ears (in which they differ from Arabs), and the fineness of the head and limbs in certain ponies found in Connemara, the North of Ireland, the Outer Hebrides, Faroe Isles, and Iceland, Prof. Ewart was led to his doctrine that a separate variety of horse, which he names E. c. celticus, had survived from the Palaeolithic period in the north-west of Europe. When and whence horses first reached Iceland we have ample evidence. After Harold Fairhair had made himself sole king in Norway in 870 A.D., many of the turbulent Norwegian jarls preferred exile to submission. Among these were Ingolf and Leif, who set forth to Iceland in 871 A.D., and finally settled there in 874 a.d. Three years later Kettle Haeng led a further body of settlers to the same island. Gradually Harold Fairhair began to extend his authority and to root out the Vikings from the Western Isles, and after the fall of Thorstein the Ked in Scotland there was a rush of settlers from the British Isles to Iceland (890—900). ^ Journ. Dept. of Agriculture (Ireland), Oct. 1904, pp. 25 sqq. HI] AND HISTORIC TIMES 417 R. H. 27 418 THE HORSES OF PREHISTORIC [CH. When lugolf and his folk settled in Iceland that island had never known any human inhabitants save a few Irish anchorites, who cannot be deemed to have contributed anything towards the population, or to the domestic animals found there later on. If these ecclesiastics had brought horses with them — a thing in itself not very likely — these animals would have been Irish or Hebridean in origin. On the other hand the Norse settlers brought with them their families, house- hold goods, and domestic animals, amongst which horses were almost certainly included. It is important to bear in mind that although all these colonists were Norsemen, more than half of them, as is definitely proved by the Landnamaboc — an ancient record of the names, ancestors, and holdings of the early settlers — had been living in the British Isles before they removed to Iceland, and that only a minority went direct from Scandinavia. It is therefore highly probable that the original stock of the ponies of Iceland and the Faroes came partly from Ireland, and partly from Norway, but as has been well pointed out the proportion that came from the former country was probably greater, inasmuch as some of the settlers from Scan- dinavia did not go directly to Iceland, but first went and sojourned for a while in the Western Isles. It is therefore not improbable that if these colonists brought ponies with them, the latter would be of the Hebridean or Irish breeds. That the ponies of the Hebrides had been brought from Ireland by the Irish monks who settled at loua (lona) is ren- dered almost certain by a famous passage in Adamnan's Life of St Columha^. In the evening of his life the old man, worn out with age, went about lona in a cart to visit the brethren who were at work on the other side of the island. On the day he died, he and his attendant Diormit " went to bless the barn which was near at hand, and after having blessed two heaps of winnowed corn that lay therein, the saint left the barn, and in going back to the monastery rested half-way at a place where a cross, which was afterwards erected, and is standing to this day, fixed into a mill-stone, may be observed on the roadside. 1 Adamnan's Life of St Columba (Reeves' ed.), pp. 95-6. Ill] AND HISTORIC TIMES 419 While the saint, bowed down with old age, sat there to rest a little, behold, there came up to him a white pack-horse, the same that used, as a willing servant, to carry the milk- vessels from the cow-shed to the monastery. It came up to the saint and, strange to say, laid its head on his bosom, inspired, I believe, by God to do so, as each animal is gifted with the knowledge of things according to the will of the Creator : and knowing that its master was soon about to leave it, and that it would see him no more, began to utter plaintive cries, and, like a human being, to shed copious tears on the saint's bosom, frothing and greatly wailing. The attendant seeing this began to drive the weeping mourner away, but the saint forbade him, saying : ' Let it alone, as it is so fond of me — let it pour out its bitter grief into my bosom.' Then the saint blessed the work-horse, which turned away from him in sadness." From what we have learned about the sanctity of white horses, it may not be rash to suggest that the prescience (p. 114) of St Columba's horse was not unconnected with its white colour in the mind of good Abbot Adamnan. Moreover it is clear from the sagas that there was constant intercourse between Ireland and Iceland in the tenth and eleventh centuries, and that Irish slaves and Irish wolf-dogs were known in the latter island. Thus Otkell of Kirby had an Irish thrall named Malcolm \ whom his brother Hallbjorn the White had brought out to Iceland. Again, when Gunnar of Lithend, then in sore peril, was parting from his friend Olaf the Peacock, the latter said : " I will give thee three things of price, a gold ring, and a cloak, Avhich Moorkjardtan the Erse king owned, and a hound that was given me in Ireland ; he is big, and no worse follower than a sturdy man. Besides, it is part of his nature that he has man's wit, and he will bay at every man, whom he knows is thy foe, but never at thy friends ; he can see too in any man's face, whether he means thee well or ill, and he will lay down his life to be true to thee." After that he said to the hound, " Now shalt thou follow Gunnar, and do him all the service thou canst." The hound went at once to ^ The Saga of Burnt Njal, xlvii. 27 420 THE HOESES OF PREHISTORIC [CH. Gunnar, and laid himself down at his feet'. It will be re- membered that Otkell of Kirby was the owner of the two dun horses with stripes on their backs — the two best in all the country. If slaves and dogs were brought from Ireland, it is not unreasonable to suppose that horses also would occasionally form part of the cargo of the homeward-bound Icelander. The reader will also remember that two other horses of exceptional merit are described in Burnt Njal — the chestnut stallion of Starkad and Gunnar's brown one. But our investigations have made it clear that the colours chestnut and brown in horses are a sure indication of a large proportion of Libyan blood. It is also to be noted that in Otkell's dun horses with dorsal stripes we may have an outcome of Libyan blood, similar to that so well exemplified in the horses of Kattywar — but with this feature we shall have to deal at greater length in the next chapter. We have had good evidence for believing that there was a considerable element of Libyan blood, derived through Spain and France, in the best horses of Ireland, the country from which a large proportion of the original stock of Iceland was derived. It will also be remembered that, according to Sanson, some North African horses lack hock callosities, the absence of which often characterises Iceland and Faroe ponies. It cannot, therefore, be held that the fine heads and limbs, small joints and the absence of hock callosities in the ponies of Iceland and the Faroes, as well as those of the Outer Hebrides and some found in Ireland, are solely due to these animals being descended from a small horse which inhabited the north-west of Europe in late palaeolithic times. But as it is possible that the ' Celtic ' pony in the north-west of Europe and the small Libyan horse of North Africa are both descended from the small horse of the Brighton ' elephant bed/ the Libyan blood which passed into Ireland through Spain and France may well have been there combined not only with the coarse European type, but also with a closer relative, and accordingly not a few of those (especially the bay, black, The Saga of Burnt Njal, lxix. Ill] AND HISTORIC TIMES 421 brown, and chestnut) ' Celtic ' ponies which lack hock callosities may derive this feature from a double line of ancestry. On the other hand, it is plain, as we have shown (p. 346), from the mention of black horses in the early literature that the best horses of Scandinavia were saturated with Libyan blood loncj before the colonisation of Iceland. This blood was probably derived through Germany, where the Frisians already possessed, in the fourth century, the famous breed of black horses still known by their name, and whose pedigree can be traced back to the horses owned by the Tencteri in the first century A.D., and still earlier to the horses imported by the Gauls from Mediterranean lands. It is therefore clear that in the best horses brought from Norway to Iceland and the Faroes there may have been a fair proportion of Libyan blood. The presence of black, brown, chestnut, or striped dun animals in Iceland and also in the Faroes may therefore be due not only to the horses brought from Ireland, but also to those direct from Scandinavia. But Prof. Ewart informs me that, as far as he has seen, " Iceland and Faroe ponies in their ears, heads, manes, and tails are never like the large Barbs and Arabs, though Hebridean horses in which there is Spanish blood (introduced in the eighteenth century) frequently are like long-eared Arabs." But it by no means follows that all the horses brought by the first colonists, or even those Avhich came in later, were of a superior breed. On the contrary, the descriptions of the black and grey steeds of Cuchulainn, of Otkell's dun horses with dorsal stripes, and of the chestnut and brown horses of Starkad and Gunnar, all of which are commended for their peculiar ex- cellence, show clearly that there were plenty of inferior animals, either of the old thick-set, heavy-limbed, large-jointed European-Asiatic horse, or possibly derived from an ancient horse of lighter build — Ewart's ' Celtic ' pony itself, the de- scendant of the slender-built horse whose remains are found in the Brighton 'elephant bed.' That ponies with large heads and of a heavy build were familiar in Iceland in medieval times is proved by an old picture preserved in Iceland and reproduced by Bruun. But as 422 THE HORSES OF PREHISTORIC [CH. it is clear that the chestnut and brown ponies of Iceland had certainly Libyan blood, and as, on the other hand, the heavy- headed ponies of the picture seem almost certainly sprung from the old heavy type of European horse, it may be urged that it is difficult at first sight to show that any Icelandic or Faroe ponies owe their characteristics to the slender-built horse of palaeolithic times, though it is quite possible that in some Icelandic ponies the presence of short hair on the upper part of the tail, instead of the long hairs so characteristic of the Libyan stock, is a feature derived from this ancient light-built horse. But it seems difficult to derive the ' Celtic ' ' tail-lock ' (p. 18) from the Libyan infusion, whilst the fact that Icelandic and Faroe ponies more frequently lack hock callosities than is as yet proved to be the case with North African horses, indicates that this feature may not be wholly derived from Libyan ancestors, but may be due in some measure to an old ' Celtic ' pony. We have now passed in review all the chief breeds of horses of prehistoric and historical times, and the evidence has led us to the following conclusions : (1) that the horses of Upper Europe and Upper Asia were always dun or white, the vast \ majority of them being thick-set, slow animals, though in the north-west of Europe there was the ' Celtic ' pony, an animal of much lighter build, more elegant shape, and probably greater speed; (2) that these coarse, thick-set horses of Upper Asia and Upper Europe have continually kept making their way into the regions lying south of the great mountain chains which cross the Asia-European Continent ; (3) that these horses first made their appearance in Babylonia not long before 1500 B.C., and about the same time in Palestine and Greece; (4) that the Arabs of the Peninsula did not become possessors of this or any other horse until after the Christian era ; (5) that at some date not long prior to 1500 B.C. the kings of the xvillth Egyptian dynasty were already in possession of horses of a type com- pletely different in shape, colour and manner of carrying their tails, from the Asiatic horses, though closely resembling in these particulars the best Arabian and Barbary horses of modern times ; (6) that these horses are regularly depicted on Egyptian Ill] AND HISTORIC TIMES 423 monuments as of a dark colour ; (7) that by B.C. 1000, and we know not how much earlier, these horses were so highly esteemed by the horse-driving peoples of Western Asia that King Solomon imported them from Egypt at a great price, not only for himself but also for all the kings of Syria and for the kings of the Hittites ; (8) that this bay breed was already in the Troad before B.C. 1000, and was there regarded as not only divine, but as quite different in origin from the dun and white horses of Greece and Thrace ; (9) that it was even then distinguished by a star in its forehead, a feature which to this day is characteristic of the pure-bred Arab horses and their deriva- tives ; (10) that already these horses were swifter than all others ; (11) that the Greek legends regarded the horses bred near the Atlantic as the swiftest; (12) that Pegasus, the fabled winged steed, was said to have been born in Libya; (13) that the Libyan horses were the swiftest in the Roman Circus ; (14) that these African horses have been continually sought for by the peoples of Asia and Europe for the purpose of improving the quality of their own indigenous horses, and that consequently their blood has influenced the horses of Asia as far as China and those of Europe as far as Ireland ; (15) that it is to the blending of the bay horses of North Africa with the dun or white horses of Asia and Europe in varying degrees that are due not only all the improved breeds of the world, but also the various shades of grey, rufous-grey, roan, skewbalds, piebalds, chestnut, brown, and black ; (16) that the white bracelets or stockings so frequent not only in bay, but also in black horses, are due to the Libyan strain, and that the white star or blaze on the forehead frequently found in domestic horses is due to the same cause ; (17) that the peculiar blend of the two strains which results in black often produces great strength combined with fair speed ; (18) and that for this reason the black horse through the ages has been especially valued for war from Turkestan to England, and from Morocco to Sweden ; (19) we have likewise seen that the horse has everywhere been driven under chariots before he was ridden, and that it was the Libyans in Africa and the Turko- Tartaric] tribes in Asia who first began to ride habitually on horseback, 424 PREHISTORIC AND HISTORIC HORSES [CH. Ill and that the Greeks probably first learned this art from North Africa. Finally, we have learned a lesson that all the races which have in their turn held the mastery in Asia, Africa, and Europe, have owed the extension of their power, or the preserva- tion of their liberty, to the possession of horses, whether they were Egyptians, Syrians, Libyans, Medes, Persians, Scythians, Macedonians, Carthaginians, Numidians ; that the lack of horses till after the conquest of Gaul was the great weakness of Rome ; that the acquisition of the horse by the Arabs was a main factor in the spreading of Islam ; and that had not the Franks owned good horses by 732 a.d. Western Europe might have been enslaved by the Saracens ; that the possession of horses enabled the Normans to conquer at Hastings, and the possession of great war-horses was the sure means of preserving one's own country or conquering that of others throughout the Middle Ages ; even when armour was discarded the new cavalry mouiited on light horses became an engine of war more formidable than any yet known; whilst Marlborough's great victories were largely due to his cavalry. With the improve- ment of fire-arms and the ability of infantry to resist cavalry it seemed as though the days of the horse-soldier were over, but the recent war in South Africa has shown that in the future struggles of the nations mounted infantry are likely to play an all-important part. Accordingly, though the place of the horse under the carriage, the omnibus, the waggon, and even the plough itself, may be taken by automobile engines, never in the history of the world was there greater need of horses to draw artillery and to carry infantry. It is therefore imperative that this country should not shut its eyes to the need of breeding horses suitable for war, and that careful steps should be taken to preserve our good breeds and not permit them to be contaminated and destroyed by rash experiments in breeding. CHAPTER IV. THE ORIGIN OF THE LIBYAN HORSE. The Kiug, sir, hath wagered with him six Barbary horses. Shakespeare, Hamlet, v. 2. We have now briefly surveyed the history of all the chief breeds of horses — modern, medieval, and ancient — and we have been led steadily to the conclusion that the best horses are sprung wholly or in part from a North African stock, the lightly built horses excelling in speed being pure or almost pure derivatives, whilst the large heavy cart-horse breed owes much to the same blood when blended with the coarse, large-headed, short-necked stock. Of the origin of the latter we have full knowledge, for we have seen that it is the indigenous horse of Upper Asia and Europe, and we have found a wild species of Equidae — Prejvalsky horse or the tarpan — existing down to our own time in Central Asia and Eastern Europe ; it has been shown not unlikely that the ordinary Equus caballus of Europe and Asia and the Prejvalsky horse have sprung from a common immediate ancestor, or, what is less likely, that the former has developed out of the latter. But it is altogether different with the thoroughbred stock, inasmuch as Africa does not possess any wild horses such as the tarpan, although she is the mother of the Abyssinian ass, and at least three species of zebras (not including the recently lost quagga). We have now to face the problem of the origin of this Libyan horse, which I shall provisionally term Equus caballus lihycus. We have seen that it has been commonly held that all our domestic horses have come from a single stock, a view 426 THE ORIGIN OF THE LIBYAN HORSE [CH. largely based on the fact that all interbreed with fertility. But, as I have already pointed out, this is no criterion, since animals which are regarded as distinct species, such as the dog, wolf, and jackal amongst carnivores, and the common ox, the zebu, and grunting yak amongst herbivores, also interbreed and produce fertile offspring \ As I have shown that M. Sanson's E. c. africanas, which he supposed to be a primeval stock of North-east Africa, has no historical basis, the Dongola breed, on which he principally based his argument, being merely a cross-bred animal of comparatively recent date, we must there- fore look elsewhere for the source of the Libyan horse. As it is found among the Libyan tribes from the dawn of history, it is obvious that it was either developed from the ordinary horses of Asia and Europe, which they had obtained already domesti- cated, or else it was an indigenous species which had reached Africa either through Asia or through Asia and Europe, and had been there highly specialised by its peculiar environment, and domesticated by the Libyans themselves. The first alter- native seems very improbable, since we have traced Libyans with chariots and horses up to a period almost contemporary with the first appearance of the horse on Egyptian monuments, and we have presented reasons for believing that the Egyptians, who admittedly borrowed the horse and the chariot from some other people or peoples, were using Libyan chariots about 1400 B.C., that they do not appear to have had the horse much before 1500 B.C., and that along with the light chariot with four-spoked wheels they had obtained the horse from the Libyans (p. 227). We have seen that by Homeric days it was a general belief in Greece that the swiftest horses came from the Western Ocean, and that horses of a bay colour— the ever constant livery of the Libyan horse and its derivatives — were already known in Asia 1 Report by C. W. Campbell, H.M. Consul at Wuchow, On a Journey in Mongolia, Jan. 1904, p. 36: "The yak (Bos (jrunnie7is), here (Mongolia) called sarlik, is kept in the place of cattle to a considerable extent throughout the mountainous parts of North Mongolia. Hybrids of the yak and ordinary cattle are common, and their milk is much esteemed." See also Blanford, Indian Jlanunalia, p. 491. IV] THE ORIGIN OF THE LIBYAN HORSE 427 Minor as far superior to the very best blood from the north, whilst by the tenth century B.C., although the Hittites and Syrians had plenty of horses, they were eager to purchase horses from Egypt at a great price, whilst in the post-Homeric myth Pegasus, the most famous of all steeds, is represented as born in the western Libyan desert. All these facts prove that before the end of the second millennium B.C. the Libyan possessed horses far superior in speed to those of Europe and Asia, and also that these horses were already distinguished by their bay colour with a star in the forehead, which characterises the Libyan stock and its posterity to this very hour. As the Egyptians did not obtain horses until the sixteenth century B.C., it is obviously impossible that the Libyans, supposing them to have obtained the horse for the first time from the Egyptians, could have developed by Homeric times a race of horse so absolutely distinct from all others bred since, even in times when men have expended much care and skill in pro- ducing artificial varieties. But as it has been pointed out (p. 209) that the Arabs, who take such pride in their horses and their pedigrees, are ignorant of the very first principles of breeding, it is most unlikely that the nomad Libyans, who never kept any account of strains, such as Al-Khamseh, or practised castration, would have produced artificially in a com- paratively short time the most wonderful breed of horses that the world has known, and with characteristics so indelibly fixed that they can permanently modify the form and colour of all other breeds. If it be objected that there is no record of wild horses in Libya, either in ancient or medieval times, and that conse- quently there never was any indigenous horse for the Libyans to domesticate, I reply that remains of fossil horses have been found in North Africa, that though at present there is not any kind of ass either striped or unstriped in that same region, yet undoubted evidence has been given that there was in that area some kind of wild ass in the time of Herodotus, that many- striped asses existed in the Great Oasis down at least to the tenth century a.d., and we know not how much later, and finally that, according to Pigafetta (p. 60), there were zebras 428 THE ORIGIN OF THE LIBYAN HORSE [CH. in Barbary in the sixteenth century. That some parts of the region lying between Egypt and the Atlantic were admirably adapted for horses is proved by the accounts of Numidian and Cyrenean horse-breeding and by the fact that the kumrahs, the descendants of horses that have run wild, flourish in Northern Nigeria, where they are occasionally captured and broken in. How easy it is to exterminate the Equidae and other larger mammals has unhappily been too well demonstrated in our own time by the extinction of the quagga and all but complete destruction of the mountain zebra in South Africa, and the reduction of the vast herds of the North American bison to a few hundreds, which can only maintain a precarious existence under artificial protection. There are various reasons which lead especially to the destruction of the wild horse. In the first place it has been valued as food by many tribes, who have not domesbicated it ; secondly, when once a community has learned to tame and utilise the horse, the wild horse becomes a valuable prize when taken alive; thirdly, when the chief wealth of a community, such as those of the Tartars, the Gauchos, and the Pampas Indians, consists of horses, herds of wild horses are a constant nuisance and danger, as the domestic animals are often enticed away by their wild relations ; fourthly, where pasture is often scarce, as in various parts of Africa, pastoral peoples, such as the Boers and Australian stock keepers, are always anxious to exter- minate, or at least to lessen, the numbers of the large her- bivores. If it be said that it is only by the use of fire-arms that such extermination takes place and that it could not be effected by men armed merely with spears, javelins, and lassoes, and that it is not at all likely that domestic horses handicapped by a rider's weight could overtake their unweighted wild brethren, these assertions can be at once disproved by modern instances. How men on horses and without fire-arms are able to ride down wild horses and to kill or capture them is made clear by Azara^ who relates that the Gauchos of the Pampas constantly 1 Quadrupeds of Paraguay, p. 14 (Eng. trans.). IV] THE ORIGIN OF THE LIBYAN HORSE 429 persecute the wild droves and drive them away from their neighbourhood to prevent the domesticated horses from joining the wild ones. " Men on horseback drive the haguals before them until they are tired ; when fresh men and fresh horses continue the chase, press upon and urge them on both sides, killing vast quantities of them with chuzos or spears, without ceasing to gallop or slackening their pace." The same observer^ points out that "all horses run swifter when mounted than when galloping loose, especially if ridden without a saddle." North America offers very valuable instances of a similar kind. Dr Richai'dson - states that " herds of wild horses, the off- spring of those which have escaped from the Spanish possessions in Mexico, are not uncommon on the extensive prairies that lie to the Avest of the Mississippi. They were once numerous on the Kootannie Lands, near the northern sources of the Columbia, on the eastern side of the Rocky Mountain ridge, but of late years they have almost been eradicated in that quarter. They are not known to exist in a wild state to the northward of the fifty-second or fifty-third parallel of latitude. The young stallions live in separate herds, being driven away by the old ones, and are easily snared by using domestic mares as a decoy. The Kootannies are acquainted with the Spanish-American mode of taking them with the lasso." Major Long^ says that the Osages hunted the wild horses, which are exceedingly fleet. " They go in large parties to the country of the Red Canadian River, where they are to be found in considerable numbers. When they discover a gang of the horses they distribute themselves into three parties, two of which take their stations at different and proper distances on the route, which by previous experience they know the horses will most probably take when endeavouring to escape. This arrangement being completed, the first party commences the pursuit in the direction of their colleagues, at whose position they at length arrive. The second party then continues the 1 Azara, oj). cit. p. 29. 2 Fauna lioreaU- Americana : or the Zoology of the Xortliern Parts of British America (1829), pp. 231-2. 3 Fauna Boreali-Americana, pp. 232-3. 430 THE ORIGIN OF THE LIBYAN HORSE [CH. cbase with fresh horses, and pursues the fugitives to the third party, which generally succeeds in so far running them down, as to noose and capture a considerable number of them. The domestic horse is an object of great value to the nomadic tribes of Indians that frequent the extensive plains of the Saskatchewan and Missouri, for they are not only useful in transporting their tents and families from place to place, but one of the highest objects of the ambition of a young Indian is to possess a good horse for the chase of the buffalo, an exercise of which they are passionately fond. To steal the horses of an adverse tribe is considered to be nearly as heroic an exploit as killing an enemy on the field of battle, and the distance to which they occasionally travel and the privations they undergo on their horse-stealing excursions are almo.st incredible. An Indian who owns a horse scarcely ever ventures to sleep at nightfall, but sits at his tent door with the halter in one hand and his gun in the other, the horse's fore-legs being at the same time tied together with thongs of leather. Notwith- standing all this care, however, it often happens that the hunter, suffering himself to be overpowered by sleep for only a few minutes, awakes from the noise made by the thief galloping off with the animal. The Spokans, who inhabit the country lying between the forks of the Columbia, as well as some other tribes of Indians, are fond of horse-flesh as an article of food ; and the residents at some of the Hudson Bay Company's posts on that river, are under the necessity of making it their principal article of diet." At the beginning of the eighteenth century there were many wild horses in Virginia^ and they became a great nuisance to outlying settlers, by enticing away their domestic horses. As the latter were English in origin, the wild horses were modified to some extent, though the Spanish traits still pre- dominated. Similarly the feral horses of East Victoria in Australia became a constant source of annoyance and loss to the settlers in that region, until they were at length all captured. For the following account of these animals I am indebted to my friend Dr A. W. Howitt, of Metung, Victoria, the famous 1 Wallace, The Horse of America, p. 204.- IV] THE ORIGIN OF THE LIBYAN HORSE 431 Australian ethnologist^ : " Wild horses have been running in the mountainous country of East Gippsland, in which are the sources of the Buchan River, and through which the Snowy River and its tributary the Deddik River flow. To this I must add the dividing range from Omeo to j\Iount Kosciusko. These wild horses probably date back in places to a time antecedent to the discovery of Gippsland in 1842. On the Manero table- land which lies on the New South Wales side of the border, and extends up to Kosciusko and Kiandra, and Sunit, as also from the country to the heel of the dividing range, I have no doubt that horses escaped and became wild. Of course these have been of all kinds. On the high mountain plateau which lies between the upper Tambo River and the sources of the Buchan River I have seen horses which can be best described as dwarfed cart-horses, and probably were the descendants of light draught stock used by prospectors and miners in the early times of gold discovery — after 1850. The country they lived in is very high and cold, being covered in winter with snow, and altogether ill adapted to feral horses. In the warmer but very hilly country which lies to the east of the Snowy River in Victoria, for instance at Gatemurra, Deddik, and Tubbut, the horses were of a much better stamp, in many cases showing good breeding, partly due to the excellent stamp of the New South Wales horses of about 50 years ago, but also to the fact that a Persian horse, imported by Benjamin Boyd, of Twoford Bay, escaped and lived for many years after in the Deddik, Gatemurra, and Tubbut country. The grey horses which occurred there may be attributed to his influence. " The horses of this district were in many cases very good, being especially sure-footed, but frequently were broken down by galloping when driven over the mountainous and exceed- ingly rough country which they inhabited. I have often seen one of these ' mobs,' as they are called, coming down the mountain side when disturbed at a gallop. I remember one instance on the western side of the Snowy River, where a number were killed by running against trees, or by being crushed against them by others of the horses in their flight. 1 Dr Hewitt's letter is dated September 14 (1904). 432 THE ORIGIN OF THE LIBYAN HORSE [CH. At one time about twenty years ago the horses became such a nuisance in the cattle stations in the district that steps were taken to get rid of them. This was most successfully done by building a yard of tree trunks on one of their main tracks, which led from one valley across a range to another. This was left open at each end for a time until the horses became accustomed to pass through it. Then a slip of white calico about 18 to 24 inches wide was fastened at each side of the entrance to the yard, continued from tree to tree for a consider- able distance, diverging from the track on either hand. The wild horses being then driven from their feeding-grounds in the valley started to escape along the track across the range, and having entered between the two converging lines of calico were driven into the yard, the farther opening having been closed. The other entrance could be closed behind them. It was a usual practice to catch them and hobble them with plaited strips of green hide (salted and dried) before they were let out of the yard to prevent them escaping again and to admit of their being watched while grazing in the neigh- bourhood. Finally, they were driven to some market. I know of cases w^here they were driven to the coast, say at Bega, and sold at half-a-crown a head to people to repay themselves Avith the skin and hair, the flesh being boiled to feed pigs. I may add that so far as I remember it was not found to be possible to run in one of those ' mobs ' to a yard, as they separated, the stronger ones outstripping the weaker. I re- member another plan being tried. The ' mobs ' on the western side of the country — near the Snowy River — were all started by a number of men on horseback, who drove them at full speed to the other side of the country, not themselves going all the way, but making as much noise by shouting and cracking whips as possible. The horses having gone even as much as eight miles, were turned back by other men ; after a couple of days most of the horses had separated, and were scattered all over the country in twos and threes and even singly, many were lame, and some were then caught, but the expenditure of horseflesh in doing this was not compensated by the result. After this the method by a yard and calico ' wings ' was IV] THE ORIGIN OF THE LIBYAN HORSE 433 adopted. Much of the country is now fenced and stocked with sheep. I imagine that the feral horses are not to be found excepting in the higher, more rugged, or scrubby country outside the fencing." It is now clear that for various reasons herds of wild horses are almost certain to be exterminated in any region where the inhabitants are at all numerous and keep domestic horses. Having rejected the view that the Libyan horse is a purely artificial breed developed by the Libyans out of the ordinary domestic horses of Asia and Europe, let us examine the evidence in favour of the second alternative — that the Libyan horses were descended from wild horses which nassed into North 1. Africa from Asia or from Europe or from both. Colonel Hamilton Smith held that our domestic horses are descended from five original stirpes — the bay of Western Asia, i.e. Arab, the white, the black, the dun, and the pied — and he believed that dark stripes were a special characteristic of the dun stirps. Though Darwin rejected Hamilton Smith's doctrine of five original stocks, he found in the latter's dun-coloured stirps with a tendency to stripes the bases of his own hypothesis. From the facts that " horses in various parts of the world often have a dark stripe extending along the spine, from the mane to the tail," and that "occasionally horses are transversely barred on the legs, chiefly on the under side," and "more rarely have a distinct stripe on the shoulder, like that on the shoulder of the ass, or a broad dark patch representing a stripe," and from a consideration of the general tendency of horses to revert to a yellow-dun hue, Darwin' was led to the conclusion that " the seven or eight species of Equidae now existing are all descended from an ancestor of a dun colour more or less striped," and elsewhere^ he argued from the results of his experience in crossing pigeons and fowls that "the progenitor of the group was striped on the legs, shoulders, face, and probably over the whole body like a zebra." He thus assumed that the first horses domesticated by man (from which he held that all ^ Variation of Animals and Plants under Domestication, Vol. i. pp. 58-9. 2 Id., Vol. II. p. 17. R. H. 28 434 THE ORIGIN OF THE LIBYAN HORSE [cH. our domestic races, no matter what their form and colour, are descended) were of a dun colour. But he himself points out that though "all English breeds however unlike in size and appearance, and several of those in India and the Malay Archipelago, present a similar range and diversity of colour, the English race-horse, however, is said never to be dun-coloured." He thought^ that this might be explained by the fact that "as dun and cream-coloured horses are con- sidered by the Arabs worthless and fit only for Jews to ride, these tints may have been removed by long-continued se- lection." But as it has been demonstrated that the Arabs did not develope their famous horses by selection solely from the dun-coloured horses of ancient Persia or any other part of Asia, but, several centuries after Christ, obtained it from North Africa, where it was already of a dark colour at least a thousand years before the Arabs ever possessed a horse, it is obvious that Darwin's theory of the origin of the bay colour is based on a false assumption. Again, as we have shown that whenever horses of a light colour are met with in Arabia, and in other parts of Western Asia, they are always kadishes, or in other words the coarse, thick-set, slow type of Upper Asia, the contempt of the Arabs for such horses is due to the fact that horses so coloured are always inferior, and not to any dislike of their livery, since they hold, as we do, that " a good horse is never of a bad colour," and we have also seen (p. 186) that the Arabs, like many other peoples, from religious motives have a preference for white and grey horses. It is then clear that Darwin's explanation of the dark colour of the English race-horse and his progenitors does not supply a vera causa. If the bay colour of the Libyan horse has only been acquired by artificial breeding, and if, as Darwin held-, "colour is a fleeting characteristic," the descendants of such horses when they become feral and return to a state of nature ought to revert to dun colour, or at least show a tendency to do so. Yet we have seen that although the Pampas horses descended from some 1 Variation, Vol. i. p. 58. ^ Variation, Vol. i. p. 53. IV] THE ORIGIN OF THE LIBYAN HORSE 435 dozen Andalusian stallions and mares turned loose in 1535, have been living under perfectly natural conditions for more than three centuries and a half, yet, as already noticed (p. 263), Azara^ states that amongst the "numerous herds of wild horses that had passed under his observation, he had never seen any colour but bay, some inclining to brown, in others more or less to red, and whenever a piebald, black, or any other coloured horse is seen, it is immediately known to have been a domesticated individual, which had made its escape or had been carried off by the wild herds." Elsewhere 2 he says that it is "unaccountable, the wild horses being, as I have observed, all bay, how so great a variety of colours is found amongst the tame, although black and dark-coloured are extremely scarce ; I must also mention that white, bay, and greyish-coloured horses, and above all chestnut piebalds (sabinos), the ground colour of whose coat is white, with an infinity of obscure and cinnamon-coloured specks or spots, pass for the best swimmers." I have pointed out already (p. 263) that the white, grey, and other light-coloured horses of South America are derived from the horses of Upper Spain, whilst the Pampas horses are sprung purely from those of Andalusia. But as the Andalusians are in great part of Libyan blood, and as their wild descendants of the Pampas obstinately refuse to revert to a dun colour, as they ought to do if their bay livery has simply been developed by artificial breeding, it is reasonable to infer that, whilst the Asiatic ancestors of the Libyan horses were dun-coloured, the bay colour of the Libyan horse was gradually acquired in North 1 Quadrupeds of Paraguay , p. 14 (English trans.). As I pointed out before, Col. Hamilton Smith, who seems to have worked direct from Azara's original Spanish, translates as ' bay ' what the English translator renders ' chestnut,' but as Col. Smith had given great attention to the vast variety of names for different shades of colour used by Spanish writers on horses, and as the Pampas horses seem really to be what we term ' bay,' this rendering seems to be the true one. Mr Darwin {Variation, Vol. i. p. 64), who cites Azara's French edition of his work, agrees with Col. Smith, for he cites Azara {Les Quadrupeds du Paraguay, Tom. ii. p. 307) as stating that "90 out of 100 horses were 'bai- chatains,' the remainder were ' zains,' that is without any white ; not more than 1 in 2000 being black." ■•^ Quadrupeds of Paraguay, p. 31 (Engl, trans.). 28—2 436 THE ORIGIN OF THE LIBYAN HORSE [CH. Africa. We have seen that the quagga, whose habitat was bounded by the Vaal River on the north and extended as far as lat. 32° S., had not only divested itself of its stripes to a still greater degree than the Burehell zebra, but had assumed a general bay colour except on its lower parts. Mr Pocock^ has admirably traced the various gradations in coloration from Grant's zebra in North-east Africa to that of the Quaggas in the Cape Colony. The first of these is striped all over down to the very hoofs with black in strong contrast to its white ground colour, but even in British and German East Africa " the pale interspaces begin to be washed with brown and to be filled in with narrow intervening stripes, and such forms are difficult to distinguish from E. selousi of the Mashonaland plateau. From these may be traced a series of gradations represented by the local races named after Chapman, Wahlberg, and Burehell, in Avhich the stripes gradually dis- appear and thin upwards from the fetlocks to the shoulders and haunches, while those on the body lose their connection with the mid-ventral band and becomino- shorter leave the belly unstriped. Concomitantly the intervening ' shadow ' stripes increase in number and definition as they extend for- wards towards the neck, then the normal stripes themselves turn brown, and the ochre-stained brown colour deepens in hue. In Burchell's the shadow stripes reach the head, and the last of the complete stripes is the one that extends backwards from the stifles to the root of the tail, the hindquarters and the legs being practically, and the belly actually, stripeless. It is but a step from this to the extinct Grey's quagga, in which the stripes of the body were fused together and blended to a great extent with the brown of the intervening areas, those on the neck being exceedingly broad, and broken up by paler tracts of hair." This process is admirably illustrated by the head and neck (Figs. 131 — 3) of a quagga, hitherto unnoticed by the students of the Equidae, to which my attention was called by my friend Dr W. L. H. Duckworth-, M.A., Fellow of Jesus 1 ' The Coloration of the Quaggas,' Nature, 1903, pp. 356-7. - Dr Duckworth (who has laid me under many obligations) on a hasty visit IV] THE ORIGIN OF THE LIBYAN HORSE 437 College, Cambridge, and which is here for the first time pub- lished. It is in the museum of the Elgin and Morayshire Society at Elgin, to which it was "presented in 1861 by John Maclean, Esq., of King Williamstown, British Kaffraria," according to a document hunted up for me by the most obliging curator, Mr Gordon Taylor, to whom I am indebted for the following description. " There are nine stripes on the face (Fig. 131), spreading out and meeting in a point on the fore- head about three inches below the ears and meeting in the same way about four inches above the nose, with four or five running upward and inwards above each eye. The ears are smaller than those of the zebra. The ground colour of the head and face is a dark fawn, the neck (of which there are about 1-5 inches attached to the head) inclines to dull brown above, passing into a fawn colour below. On the portion of the neck attached to the head there are six dull white interspaces mixed with brown hairs measuring from half-an-inch up to an inch in width, the widest being nearest the body, the stripes themselves being very irregular and wavy and being completely fused on the throat. The hair of the almost erect mane is mostly reddish-brown tipjjed with a darker shade, having patches of white, the largest bunches being where the interspaces meet the mane. The stripes on the face are white, the spaces between them a dull brown, showing a decided contrast to the ground colour of the face. On the side of the face, running down across the jaw, are six or seven stripes of the same shade of brown, but no white." Of the described specimens of the quagga (pp. 70 — 7), Mr Pocock thinks that the Elgin specimen comes much nearest to E. greyi, but he thinks it may belong to a new type. The importance of an additional fragment of quagga is increased by the fact that it is the only one of the existing specimens the provenance of which is known. The change in coloration from E. granti (pp. 63-9) to Daniell's quagga (p. 78) was probably due to "a change of habitat from bush to open plain. A new method of conceal- to the Elgin Museum last September noticed a specimen labelled 'Quagga' and at once called my attention to it. 438 THE ORIGIN OF THE LIBYAN HORSE [CH. ment by means of shadow contraction was required and was gradually perfected by the toning down of the stripes on the upper side and the suppression of those on the hind-quarters and legs^" Mr Pocock thinks that the ruddiness of Cape Firt. 131. The Elgin Quagga. m Colony quaggas was acquired by two different processes- the case of Daniell's quagga by a deepening of the red of the ground colour or interspaces and the reduction in the length ^ Ann. Mag. Natural History, 1904, p. 328. I IV] THE ORIGIN OF THE LIBYAN HORSE 439 Fig. 133. The Elgin Quagga (left side). 440 THE ORIGIN OF THE LIBYAN HORSE [CH. and the width of the black stripes on the neck and shoulder concomitantly with their suppression on the body, the result being a chestnut or bay-coloured animal with narrow black stripes on its fore-parts " ; in the case of Grey's quagga (and the Elgin specimen) by an increase in the width and brownness of the stripes, followed by their fusion and loss of definition on the body, the result being a ruddy-brown animal marked with narrow pale bands (the interspaces) upon the head, neck, and shoulder, as in the Elgin specimen here figured. Now as the Libyan horse makes its first appearance amongst the nomadic tribes of Libya whose territories were about lat. 32° N. it is fair to suggest that similar conditions of climate and food and a like need of a protective colour suited for life in open plains had produced the bay colour in both the quagga and Libyan horse. It will also be remembered that the quagga closely resembled the horse in the character of its tail. It has likewise been shown that the feral horses of North America sprung from Spanish horses chiefly from Northern Spain after three centuries wore liveries of black, grey, roan, roan pied with dun, and dun frequently with dorsal stripes derived from their cross-bred ancestors, the dun with stripes not being a reversion to a primal ancestor, but simply the coat inherited from the dun-coloured striped horses of the sierras of Spain. The swiftest horse known in Homeric days was a bay with a star in his forehead ; in Greek classical times, the dark horses of Libya were the swiftest known and the same horses bore away the palm from all others in the Roman circus in the first century of our era ; and the Saracens, so soon as they got possession of these horses, became the swiftest riders in the world, and the best Anazah horses of the present day are bay with a star in the forehead and 'bracelets.' If then it could be shown that in a definite series of cases where very well bred, but not quite pure-bred, horses have been bred solely with a view to speed, the increase of speed in the stock has been -steadily accompanied with the gradual disappearance of all other colours except bay (or chestnut), we should get a IV] THE ORIGIN OF THE LIBYAN HORSE 441 very substantial corroboration for our conclusion that the primeval colour of the Libyan horse was bay. The English race-horse supplies exactly the test case that we seek. Major-General Tweedie^ when discussing the colours of Arab horses, makes the following valuable observation on those of the English thoroughbred: "The production by man through methodical selection of breeds of horses of one colour, is as intelligible as the distribution by nature of troops of wild horses, every individual of which resembles the surface of the ground. But another fact here presents itself, which seems still to await explanation. Except in so far as statistics show that there have been more winners of one colour than of another colour, English breeders for the turf may safely be acquitted of all preference, or fancy, respecting colour. And yet, equally in our islands and at the Antipodes, the long course of scientific breeding, of which our racing stock is the product, has practi- cally resulted in its becoming a family of bays and chestnuts — two colours essentially one. In olden times when England was full of fresh Eastern blood, greys were as often seen at the starting-post as they were down to a much later period in New South Wales and Victoria. In the thirty years preceding 1866 it was estimated^ that the Derby had been won by seven chestnuts, seven browns, and sixteen bays ; the St Leger by five chestnuts, eight browns, and seventeen bays, and the Oaks in like proportion. The tendency of the highest breeding in latitudes far separated is to wipe out in horses all colours save bay and chestnut." Now, as it will be remembered that Major- General Tweedie is a firm advocate of the theory that the Arab horse is a purely artificial product, his testimony is all the more valuable as it is that of a hostile witness. An examination of the colours of the winners of the Derby, Oaks, and St Leger* for the three decades from 1870 to 1899 inclusive proves that not merely has grey disappeared altogether 1 The Arabian Horse, p. 267. - E. H. Copperthwaite, The Turf and the Race-horse, ed. 2 (1866), p. 144. * As the Racing Calendar does not attach colour marks to the lists of winners of the Derby, Oaks, and St Leger, I had to compile my table by going through the volumes of the Racing Calendar for the years tabulated. 442 THE ORIGIN OF THE LIBYAN HORSE [CH. and that black has ahiiost gone, but that chestnut (which Major-General Tweedie holds to be the same colour as bay) is also disappearing as well as brown. Table I, of the colours of the winning horses in the Derby, Oaks, and St Leger from 1870 to 1899 : Decade Bay Chestnut Brown Black or Brown Black 1870-9 15 12 2 1 0 1880-9 16 8 5 0 1 1890-9 17 6 7 0 0 From the table it is clear that during the last third of the past century bay has been slowly gaining upon both brown and chestnut combined, and that brown has been gaining upon chestnut. Thus the dun element, which as we already believed from our previous investigations when mixed with bay gives chestnut, is steadily being eliminated and our racing stock is becoming a breed of bays and browns with a steady tendency to become eventually purely bay. The same tendency is shown still more emphatically if we take the colours of the first three horses in each of the three great races just named. Table II \ showing the colours of the three first horses in the Derby, the Oaks, and the St Leger from 1870 to 1899 : Decade Bay Chestnut Brown Brown or Black Black Bay or Brown 1870-9 36 34 13 4 2 1 1880-9 42 28 16 0 2 1 1890-9 54 16 17 1 0 2 Out of 90 horses bay only had 36 in 1870-9, but rose to 54 in the last decade; whilst chestnut ^ which was repre- ^ This table is not quite complete, for the colour was omitted in one instance in the Calendar, though those of the winners are given without fail. ^ With reference to the proportions of chestnut found in the two sexes the results are as follows: Totals for thirty years: colts 41, fillies 36. 1870-9: colts 20, fillies 13; 1880-9: colts 9, fillies 19; 1890-9: colts 12, fiUies 3. The great decrease in chestnut in the last decade is therefore especially seen in the mares. IV] THE ORIGIN OF THE LIBYAN HORSE 443 sented by only 2 less than bay in the first decade, has sunk to 16 in the last ; brown has gained slightly at the expense of chestnut, rising from 13 to 17. There can be little doubt in view of these facts that the English racing stock is steadily becoming bay. Table II shows that the intermediate steps between black and bay are (1) a hue which cannot be described as a really black or really brown, (2) true brown, (3) bay-brown, true bay being finally reached. Chestnut seems to pass into bay either directly or indirectly through brown. Thus dun and white (the characteristic colours of the old European-Asiatic horses), first disappeared, then grey went, black is almost gone, chestnut is following it slowly, and brown at a still slower rate. I have shown in the course of our investigation that black, dull black, brown, various shades of grey, and probably chest- nut, are due to the intermixture of Asiatic horses with Libyan in various proportions. But as the Asiatic horse of historical times is thick-set, coarse, and slow in pace, and inevitably injures the speed of the pure Libyan strain when crossed with it (as in the case of the 'Gulf Arabs,' p. 175) every attempt to improve the speed of such a mixed breed will inevitably tend to eliminate every Upper Asiatic element. But as the original Arabs, Barbs, and Turks which formed the basis of our thoroughbred stock (p. 382) were, with the single ex- ception of the Darley Arabian, all more or less contaminated with European and Asiatic blood {e.g. the Yellow Turk, the White Turk, Hutton's Grey Barb, Grey Wilkes, etc.), the unceasing efforts of breeders to obtain greater lightness and speed are continually eliminating the Asiatic and European element, and accordingly dun and white have long disappeared from, and grey, black, chestnut and brown horses are gradually ceasing to be found in, our blood stock. But as increase of speed is gradually rendering the English thoroughbred a purely bay stock, and as from the earliest times of which we have any record the Libyan horse has been not only the swiftest horse known, but also has been of a bay colour, we are justified in concluding that his bay colour is as funda- mental a characteristic as his speed, and that it is due not to artificial selection, but to natural specialisation. 444 THE ORIGIN OF THE LIBYAN HORSE [CH. Nor must Darwin's second conclusion — that the ancestor of all the Equidae was striped like a zebra — be accepted in its entirety. We have already seen (p. 78) that the tendency to stripes is least in the northern latitudes, where the genus first made its appearance in Asia, that this tendency gradually in- creases as we advance southwards, that it reaches its maximum in the tropical and sub-tropical regions of Africa, and that the stripes show a tendency to disappear in Burcheil's zebra of the Transvaal and Orange River Colony, and to a still greater degree in the quagga, whose range seems always to have been south of the Vaal River. I showed that if the Equidae as a whole or in part are gradually divesting themselves of stripes, those of Africa have retained their stripes much more tenaciously than those of Asia, or if as a whole, or only in the case of certain species, they are gradually assuming stripes, those of Africa have far outstripped their congeners of the northern latitudes, and I argued that the presence of manifold stripes all over the body in any member of the genus Equus is a strong indication that it has been long domiciled in Africa, where its progenitors for protection or recognition or for some other purpose, either retained and modified the coat of a common ancestor of all the Equidae, or else put on striping differing in different species and varieties according to the nature of their environment or for other reasons. These considerations suggest that the tendency to zebra stripes in certain domestic horses may be less due to reversion to the colour of a remote ancestor, than to their being descended from the Libyan horse. It is therefore worth examining the evidence collected by Col. Hamilton Smith, Darwin, Ewart and others for the exist- ence of such markings in horses. If it should turn out that all such animals are of undoubted North African origin, or at least very probably have some of that strain in them, our contention that the Libyan has been domiciled and highly specialised in North Africa from a very remote period, and that he is distinct from the Asiatic horses of recent epochs, will have received very substantial corroboration. Let us now examine all the instances on which Darwin based his conclusion, supplementing them as we proceed with fresh examples: — IV^] THE ORIGIN OF THE LIBYAN HORSE 445 1. Mr Edwards examined twenty-two foals of race-horses, and twelve had the spinal stripe more or less plain. 2. A bay mare (belonging to Mr Darwin), descended from a dark brown Flemish mare by a light grey Turcoman horse, was put to Hercules, a thoroughbred dark bay, whose sire Kingston and dam were both bays ; she had a colt which ultimately turned out brown, " but when only a fortnight old it was a dirty bay, shaded with mouse-grey, and in parts with a yellowish tint : it had not only a trace of the spinal stripe, with a few obscure transverse bars on the legs, but almost the whole body was marked with very narrow dark stripes, in most parts so obscure as to be visible only in certain lights, like the stripes which may be seen on black kittens. These stripes were distinct on the hind-quarters, where they diverged from the spine and pointed a little forward : many of them as they diverged became a little branched, exactly in the same manner as in some zebrine species. The stripes were plainest on the forehead between the ears, where they formed a set of pointed arches, one under the other, decreasing in size downwards towards the muzzle ; exactly similar marks may be seen on the forehead of the quagga and Burchell's zebra. When this foal was two or three months old all the stripes entirely disappeared \" 3. Prof. Ewart's'^ high-caste Arab filly Fatima, bred by Mr Wilfrid Blunt, even when full-grown, shows as distinct stripes in the region of the knee and hock as are to be found in Norwegian dun-coloured ponies, and she has in addition to a dorsal band faint indications of markings across the withers. 4. Major Upton noticed very frequently among colt foals (though not in fillies) of the pure-bred Al-Khamseh horses of the Anazah tribes of Central Arabia "a line somewhat darker than the general colour of the animal running in continuation of the mane along the spine, and to be traced for some way even among the long hair of the tail. It is not obliterated with age ; it can be traced in old horses and in those of a very dark colour ^." 1 Variation, Vol. i. pp. 60-1. '^ Ewart, Penycuik Experiments, p. Ixx. 3 Op. cit. p. 339. 446 THE ORIGIN OF THE LIBYAN HORSE [CH. 5. Mr Edwards had seen a nearly thoroughbred chestnut horse which had the spinal stripe and distinct bars on the legs\ 6. Col. Hamilton Smith- speaks of dun horses in the sierras of Spain which have a spinal stripe, and we have found the descendants of Spanish horses in Mexico and the Western States frequently of a dun colour marked with stripes (p. 265). But we have seen that all the horses of Spain from before the Christian era were more or less impregnated with Libvan blood (p. 256). 7. Out of 300 South American horses imported into Madras many had transverse stripes on the legs and short shoulder stripes^. The most strongly marked individual was a mouse- dun with the shoulder stripe slightly forked. We have shown that the Andalusian horses are almost wholly Libyan in blood, and that other Spanish horses are largely imbued with the same blood, and also that the South American Pampas horses are descended from some Andalusian horses introduced by the early Spanish settlers. 8. The Karadagh horses, which are the best native horses of Armenia to-day, were originally the dun horses of the southern slopes of the Caucasus. Many of them have been recently crossed with Russian blood (p. 193), which is of course largely Libyan, and probably have had much of the same strain through Arab and other channels. They are usually bay or chestnut with black manes and tails. They all have a dorsal stripe about an inch broad from the mane to the tail*. 9. In the north-western parts of India striped horses of more than one breed are very common. In Kattywar the native horses are usually of a rufous-grey or khaki colour. At one time Kattywar horses were not considered pure unless decorated Avith a dorsal band and bars across the leos. Some- times in addition there were stripes on the neck, forehead and withers^ The Kattywar horses are often fifteen or sixteen hands in height, and are well, but lightly built. 1 Darwiu, Variation, Vol. i. jd. 60. - The Horse, p. 275. ■* Darwin, Variation, Vol. i. p. 61. ■* Hayes, Points of the Horse, pp. 610-11. ^ Ewart, Exper. Contributions, p. 21. IV] THE ORIGIN OF THE LIBYAN HORSE 447 " There are sometimes stripes on the grey and bay Katty- wars when first foaled, but they soon fade away^" But we have seen (p. 157) that the horses of all North-western India are a blend of the dun-coloured aboriginal horse of Upper Asia and Arab horses which have been imported in enormous quantities annually into India, and whose blood has saturated the Turcoman horses. The fact that the Kattywar horses are dun, rufous-grey, and bay is sufficient proof in the light of our investigations that they are largely mixed with Arab blood, a conclusion strongly corroborated by their slender build, and the fact that " a horse is not considered pure unless he shows stripes " indicates that these stripes are a special characteristic of horses which have the greatest amount of good Arabian, i.e. North African, blood in their veins. 10. The horses of the Waziri are said to be not uncommonly decorated with stripes on the legs. But, as we have seen above, the horses of Afghanistan and Baluchistan (p. 159) are cross- breds between the Mongolian and the Arab, and there is some evidence for the existence of Arab blood in Afghanistan at least as early as the thirteenth century A.D. For Marco Polo", speaking of Badakshan, says that " it produces numbers of excellent horses remarkable for their speed. They are not shod at all, although constantly used in a mountainous country and on very bad roads. They go at a great pace, even down steep descents, where other horses neither would nor could do the like." And Messer Marco was told that " not long ago they possessed in that province a breed of horses from the strain of Alexander's horse Bucephalus, all of which had from their birth a particular hiark on the forehead. This breed was entirely in the hands of an uncle of the King's ; and in con- sequence of his refusal to let the King have any of them the latter put him to death. The widow then in despite destroyed the whole breed, and it is now extinct." We have already repeatedly seen that a star in the forehead is especially characteristic of the North African horse and its various 1 Darwin, Variation, etc., Vol. i. p. 61. - Vol. i. p. 156 (Yule). 448 THE ORIGIN OF THE LIBYAN HORSE [CH. derivatives. The statement that the best breed of Badakshan had a peculiar mark in the forehead curiously confirms the native belief that the strain had come from the westward. 11. We saw (p. 154) that the Tibetan ponies are the most richly decorated horses in Asia, and that they were mainly of Mongolian stock, but had probably been crossed with Libyan blood, like all the horses of western, north-western, and northern India. They are frequently piebald and skewbald, like the Sumatra ponies, sprung from the crossing of Arab horses with native ponies of a mixed Arab and Upper Asiatic stock, and as the Tibetan ponies also show dorsal and other stripes, like the ponies of Sumatra and Java just mentioned, and the horses of Kattywar, which are saturated with Arab blood, we may reasonably conclude that the colouring and striping of the Tibetan ponies are due to the blending of Arab blood with that of the Mongolian pony. 12. The Shan^ ponies have not unfrequently spinal, leg, and shoulder stripes ; 13 the Burmese, and 14 Javanese j^onies are frequently dun-coloured, and have three kinds of stripes " in the same degree as in England'-^." 15. Two bay Pegu ponies had leg stripes^ and 16 two Chinese ponies — one of the Amoy, the other of the Shanghai breed — in colour light-dun, had each the spinal stripe, the latter an indistinct shoulder stripe ^ But I have already shown that all the horses of India, both Hither and Further, have been largely mixed with Arab blood, which has streamed for at least a thousand years into all parts of Hindustan, and thence into the lands beyond, and along with manifold other Arab influences into the great islands of the Malay Archipelago, which previously possessed no horses (pp. 142-6). We have seen (p. 141) that the Shan (Burmese) or Pegu ponies, the Manipur ponies, and those of Sumatra and Java resemble each other. But as the Javanese and Sumatran ponies are largely impregnated with Arab blood, and as all the horses of India are saturated with the same strain, we need not 1 Darwin, Variatio7i, Vol. i. p. 61. 3 Ibid. 2 Ibid. * Op. cit. Vol, I. p. 62. IV] THE ORIGIN OF THE LIBYAN HORSE 449 hesitate to believe that the Shan and Manipur ponies have been similarly crossed. Nor need we be surprised to find in China ponies showing traces of stripes, when we recall the vigorous horse-trade between China and India in the days of Marco Polo, and when we bear in mind the repeated evidence of the steady determination of every tribe in Asia and Europe from the dawn of history to obtain for their mares the services of sires of the Libyan stock. Moreover we know from the Chinese docu- ments that about B.C. 100 the emperor sent westwards to obtain horses of an improved breed from Turkestan\ whither it is highly probable horses of a mixed Libyan strain had found their way from Bactria. The fact that the two Pegu ponies cited by Darwin were of a bay colour in itself shows that they had a large infusion of Arab blood. The occurrence in various parts of Eastern Asia of dun- coloured horses with stripes can be completely accounted for by the historical fact that in the horses of all those regions there is a large substratum of Upper Asiatic blood, which has been more or less improved by the repeated introduction of Arab sires, as has been the case in Western Asia also (p. 183). And as in the latter region the predominant colour is that of the native Turcoman and Kurdish mares, which has been but slightly influenced by the dark colour of the Libyan sires, so too in Eastern Asia, whilst the structure and quality of the breed have been improved by the Arab sires, the latter have not been able to modify to any great extent the light colours of the native mares, though not unfrequently transmitting to their progeny their own zebra-like markings. Let us now return to Europe. 17. " On the Continent the offspring of black sires satu- rated with Arab blood are often more or less distinctly striped-." 18. The Cleveland Bays which resulted from crossing Yorkshire cart-mares with a Barb, had almost invariably a dorsal stripe (p. 386). This appears probably due to the Barb blood. 1 H. F. Osborn, Century Magazine, Nov., 1904, p. 16. - Ewart, Exp. Contributions, p. 21. K. H. 29 450 THE ORIGIN OF THE LIBYAN HORSE [CH. 19. Two bay English carriage-horses had each a black spinal stripe ; one of them had on each shoulder a light shoulder stripe, and the other had a broad, black, ill-defined stripe running obliquely half-way down each shoulder ; neither had leg stripes \ 20. A bay Highland cob belonging to Prof. Ewart had a shoulder stripe nearly a foot in length, and a neck stripe that extended quite two-thirds across the neck, and six short stripes on the body behind the shoulder stripe". 21. The offspring of dark Highland pony sires not unfre- quently show markings. 22. Darwin had seen marks on the forehead of a fully-grown fallow-dun, cob-like horse (which had also a conspicuous spinal stripe and its front legs well barred), marked similar to those on the forehead of his own foal. 23. A bright fallow-dun cob had its front legs transversely barred on the under side in the most conspicuous manner. 24. A bright fallow-dun colt, fully three parts thorough- bred, with very plain ti'ans verse stripes on the legs. 25. A small, purely-bred, light fallow-dun Welsh pony had a spinal stripe, a single transverse stripe on each leg, and three shoulder stripes ; the posterior stripe corresponding with that on the shoulder of the ass was the longest, whilst the two anterior parallel stripes arising from the mane decreased in length in a reverse manner to that in the next instance. 26. A rather large, lightly-built, fallow-dun, Devonshire pony^, with a conspicuous stripe along the back, and with light transverse stripes on the under sides of its front legs, and with four parallel stripes on each shoulder. Of these four stripes the posterior one was very minute and faint : the anterior one, on the other hand, was long and broad, but interrupted in the middle and truncated at its lower extremity, with the anterior angle produced into a long tapering point. "The shoulder stripe of the ass occasionally presents exactly the same appearance." 27. A dark leaden, mouse-coloured pony had leg stripes, but not very conspicuous. 1 Darwin, Variation, Vol. i. p. 60. - Op. cit. p. 105. ^ Variation, Vol. i. pp. 610-11. IV] THE ORIGIN OF THE LIBYAN HORSE 451 As no one will dispute the fact that our carriage-horses, riding horses and trappers are the result of a judicious blend of the coarse, thick-set Asio-European horse and the thoroughbred, and as it is also admitted that many of our native ponies, such as the Welsh and Exmoor, have been largely mixed with North African blood, the occurrence of stripes on such horses as those cited by Darwin can be readily accounted for on the hypothesis that the stripes are due to thoroughbred blood. In several of the instances given he himself states that the animal so marked was well bred, or else his description shows that such was the case, so there can be no doubt of the presence of Libyan blood in these animals. Our investigations have likewise shown that all shades of black and chestnut are due to a blending of the Libyan with the northern blood. 28. A pony said to be Welsh, in colour mouse-black or dark slate-grey, with a dorsal stripe, four stripes across the withers, and one or two indistinct ones on the leg^ 29. A chestnut-dun cart-horse had a conspicuous spinal stripe, with distinct traces of shoulder stripes but none on the legs. 30. A large, heavy Belgian cart-horse, of a fallow-dun colour, had a conspicuous spinal stripe and traces of leg stripes, and tAvo parallel stripes on both shoulders. 3L Another rather light cart-horse of a dirty dark cream colour, with striped legs, and on one shoulder a large ill-defined dark cloudy patch, and on the opposite shoulder two parallel faint stripes. But I have already shown that the large cart-horses of England have been imported from the Continent, and that these large breeds were evolved by infusing the blood of the Libyan horse into the little horses of Upper Europe. It has also been shown that dark sires saturated with Arabian blood constantly beget progeny marked with stripes. It is therefore not a matter for surprise if stripes occasionally appear on cart- horses both in this country and on the Continent. 32. We have seen that the colour of the horses of the 1 This animal was examined by my friend Dr W. L. H. Duckworth, M.A., Fellow of Jesus College, Cambridge, at the Cambridge Midsummer Fair, 1904. 29—2 452 THE ORIGIN OF THE LIBYAN HORSE [CH. North in early days was dun. In modern Norway the colour is dun, varying from cream colour to dark mouse-dun ; and an animal is not considered purely bred unless it has the spinal and leg stripes. A large proportion (one-third) have striped legs, one pony having seven on the fore-legs and two on the hind-legs, but only a few exhibit shoulder stripes ^ 33. A sand-coloured (yellow-dun) Norwegian pony, with black mane and tail, in the possession of Prof. Ewart, has stripes on the face, neck, body, and legs. " On the forehead there are two all but complete frontal arches and portions of five others. Being of a reddish-brown colour, these stripes are easily seen when the forelock is thrown back. The uppermost (orbital) arch ends in the frontal tuft, but instead of forming an actually pointed arch as in Matopo (his Burchell's zebra), it forms a somewhat rounded arch, as in the Amsterdam quagga" and in one of Prof. Ewart's zebra hybrids. Fragments of the other arches are most distinct in the middle of the forehead. " In having seven more or less complete frontal arches," says Prof. Ewart", " this pony differs from my Burchell zebra, in which there are only three distinct arches in the corresponding posi- tion. When the incomplete arches are ' restored,' a pattern is formed which is almost intermediate between that of the Amsterdam quagga and the Somali zebra. From within the lowest arch several obscure lines, such as occur in zebra-ass hybrids, can be traced along the face. The stripes doubtless originally ended in or near a mealy-coloured muzzle, such as we find to-day in typical Exmoor ponies and some Somali zebras." In this Norwegian pony " there are only a few light hairs at the tip of the ears, but immediately below there is a broad black band, and an indistinct band near the base. Had the tip been lighter in colour, the ear of this pony would have not a little resembled in its decoration that of my Burchell zebra." Ewart has seen two other ponies, in colour light dun — 1 Darwin, Variation, Vol. i. p. 61. It is right to add that during the present summer (1904) my friend Dr Venn, F.E.S., and his son Mr J. A. Venn have examined for me a large number of Norwegian ponies at various coast towns in Norway, without having met a single instance of striping. - Penycuik Exp., pp. 102-3, fig, 36. IV] THE ORIGIN OF THE LIBYAN HORSE 453 one from Shetland, the other from Norway, " with the tips for quite half an inch almost white. In both cases a broad dark band extended across beneath the light tip\" Prof. Ewart adds that he has seen only two ponies with stripes on the face, and that he thinks that facial stripes are extremely rare. The same authority^ has "only seen faint indications of stripes on the side of the face, but from what he has seen he has no hesitation in saying that were a sketch made showing all the sti'ipes of which fragments have been observed on the face of the horse during the present generation, the sketch Avould closely resemble the head of one of my (Ewart 's) hybrids and less closely the Amsterdam quagga." We shall see very shortly that Ewart's hybrids show the decoration not of their sire Matopo, a Bnrchell zebra of the Chapman variety, but that of the Somali zebra. Prof. Ewart's Norwegian pony has only a short shoulder stripe, and she has a number of ill-defined stripes in front of the shoulder stripe^. She has three short stripes on the body behind the shoulder stripe, and an extremely well-developed dorsal band "as distinct and as broad as it crosses the croup as in my Burchell zebra." The edges of this band " give off short processes — rudiments of developing stripes, or vestiges of dwindling ones, such as are seen in some of the quaggas and in zebra-ass hybrids." " In another light dun-colon red pony there are ten cer- vical stripes. As these ten stripes only extend about half- way along the neck, and as stripes are sometimes present immediately behind the ears, there may have been quite twenty stripes in the ancestors." Prof. Ewart^ remarks that "sometimes the shoulder stripes bifurcated some distance above the shoulder-joint," and thus suggests not so much the zebra as the quagga and zebra- hybrids, and that " as a rule the neck stripes are short and in- distinct, but that in some cases he had seen three or four cervical stripes nearly as well defined as in the zebras, whilst in one case he had observed several stripes extending into the mane." 1 Ewart, op. cit. p. 104. - Op. cit. pp. 103-4. 3 Op. cit. p. 105. ■» Op. cit. pp. 105-6. 454 THE ORIGIN OF THE LIBYAN HORSE [CH. He adds that once only had he seen " as many as five distinct stripes extending from the dorsal band across the back." First let us notice that stripes are in Norway, as in Kattywar, the marks of good breeding. Bnt, as in the latter case, we know absolutely that the native horses have been saturated with Arab blood, the stripes in Norwegian ponies may be similarly explained. We have traced the improve- ment of the breeds of horses in Upper Europe from the second century B.C., when the Gauls began to import from the south a superior tj^pe of animal, and we saw that by Caesar's time Gaul was well supplied with southern horses. We also ascribed the superiority of the horses of the Tencteri, the only German tribe of the time of Tacitus which appears to have been well- mounted, to their close proximity to the Gauls. It is thus clear that by the second century A.D. a good deal of Libyan blood had made its way into Central and Upper Europe. It is not then surprising if by the tenth century excellent horses imbued with southern blood were found in Norway and Iceland. We have seen that the best horses mentioned in Burnt Njal are a chestnut, a brown, and two dun-coloured horses with black stripes down their backs, these last " were the best steeds to ride in all the country round." Here, again, the combina- tion of black stripes with special excellence points to the same explanation as that given for the striped horses of Kattywar. If the stripes were but a characteristic feature of the dun stock of Northern Europe, why should horses of this description be superior to other duns, both in ancient and modern times ? On the other hand, as soon as we recognize that the stripes are due to the presence of North African blood, the cause of the superiority of such animals is at once obvious. This is fully confirmed by Olaus Magnus, who says (p. 348) that the light dun is especially the livery of the wild horses of Europe, and that horses of this colour were always the worst (a view held by Virgil man}' centuries earlier), but that the be.st of them were those with a dorsal stripe. But since dun without stripes was the colour of the unimproved wild or feral horses of Europe, and the best duns whether in medieval Iceland and IV] THE ORIGIN OF THE LIBYAN HORSE 455 Europe or in modern India are commonly striped, and as we have shown that the striped horses of Kattywar owe their superiority to the infusion of Libyan blood, and since the striped dun horses of Spain are certainly a blend of the old dun European horses and the Libyan, we may conclude with high probability that stripes in all such cases are mainly due to the infusion of Libyan blood. An analysis of the instances of striped horses here adduced proves that the great majority were pure Arabians, English thoroughbreds, Spanish horses derived from North Africa, Pampas horses descended from Andalusian horses, three-quarter bred and half-bred horses, English carriage-horses and cobs, well-bred Welsh and Devonshire ponies, Kattywar, Burmese, and Javanese ponies largely infused with Arab blood, the progeny of dark sires saturated with Arab blood, and the off- spring of dark Highland ponies. Prof. Ewart has lately informed me that he has seen three Mongolian ponies which show markings. They are particularly well defined in one in his own possession, but, as she is very fleet and shows clear indications of a good deal of Arab blood, we must not hastily ascribe the stripes to her Asiatic rather than to her Libyan blood. The account given on an earlier page (p. 138) of the Mongolian ponies shows that they are much mixed in blood, and as there is good reason to believe tljat the Chinese became acquainted with the fleet horses of the West at a compara- tively early period, we need not be surprised if the Mongols, like the Turcomans, Kurds, and other horse-keeping tribes of Asia, were always anxious to infuse Arab blood into their own slow ponies. Mongolian ponies have not come under the observation of scientific men to the same degree as the horses of other parts of Asia, and, consequently, the absence of more instances may be simply due to lack of information. Prof. Ewart has recently received from Mr Hagenbeck a Prejvalsky two-year old mare which has a distinct dorsal band, faint markings across the withers, and conspicuous bars in the vicinity of the knees and hocks. We have already seen that the Prejvalsky horses are thus marked, but unfortunately as the question of the purity of 456 THE ORIGIN OF THE LIBYAN HORSE [CH. the specimens is very uncertain (p. 34), we cannot venture to say whether such markings are primitive in the stock or due to crossing with feral horses. On the other hand stripes are rare in cart-horses, which, as we know, are chiefly sprung from the old coarse, thick-set horses of Asia and Europe. We must, therefore, conclude that such stripings are in a special degree characteristic of the Libyan horse and his derivatives, and are not equally common in all breeds of horses. But as manifold striping is especiall}" characteristic of the Equidae of Africa, we may not unreasonably infer that the ancestors of the Libyan horse had long lived in Africa. Prof. Ewart^ has pointed out that in " highly bred foals with very fine coats there are often at birth across the sides and croup, and especially in the vicinity of the flank feather, naiTOw markings that might be mistaken for stripes. These markings are caused by the hair being arranged in well-marked tracks or ridges, separated by almost hairless spaces. In these tracks, which were very distinct at birth in a cinnamon-coloured foal I bred this year, out of a bay half-Arab mare — the sire was a chestnut thoroughbi'ed horse — we have, it may be, a restoration for a time of an ancestral condition. Sometimes along with these hair-tracks or ridges there are faint stripes, seen only in certain lights, but evidently in part due to subtle colouring. Stripes of this nature I noticed plentifully scattered over a reddish-grey foal out of my flea-bitten New Forest pony by the grey Arab Benazrek. More common and more evident are comparatively broad wavy bands often seen across the croup and on the brow of half-bred bay foals. These bands may occupy the position of ancestral stripes — stripes out of which the colour has been completely washed since they ceased to count in the struggle for existence." Ewart based his sup- position on the fact that " they occupy the position of stripes in a yellow-dun Norwegian pony, and of the stripes over the croup of one of Lady Meux's [zebra] hybrids (p. 463), which may have been inherited either from the American trotting horse or from a remote common ancestor." 1 Penycuik Experiments, pp. Ixxvi-vii. IV] THE ORIGIN OF THE LIBYAN HORSE 457 The result then of our examination of the occurrence of stripes in horses has led us to the conclusion that such stripes are very often to be traced to North African blood. But as we have seen that it is in Africa the Equidae show a special tendency to stripes, and that it is there alone they are found with stripes all over, as was the case with Darwin's colt, whose markings, as the reader will remember, resembled those of certain zebras, we are justified in inferring that the tendency to stripes which is so marked a feature of the North African horses and their derivatives is due to the circumstance that that strain is not a mere recent differentiation under domesti- cation and artificial breeding of an Asiatic domestic breed, but is rather to be considei*ed a species specialised during a long lapse of time in Libya under conditions somewhat similar to those which have produced the zebras. It has been supposed that certain experiments conducted by Prof Cossar Ewart in order to test the truth or falsity of the commonly received doctrine of Telegony, confirm Darwin's hypothesis that the common ancestor of the Equidae was a striped animal. The theory of Telegony gained much support from the famous letter of Lord Morton to Dr Wollaston, of Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge, then President of the Royal Society. In it Lord Morton stated that he had mated his quagga stallion (Fig. 39) " with a young chestnut mare of seven-eighths Arabian blood, and which had never been bred from." The offspring was a filly, striped not only on the body but also on the legs, which were not so marked in her quagga sire. Lord Morton sold the chestnut mare to Sir Gore Ouseley, who bred from her by a very fine black Arabian horse a filly and a colt, which according to Lord Morton, in their colour and the hair of their mane had " a striking resemblance to the quagga." The filly and colt were in some respects more striped than either the quagga or quagga hybrids From this it was inferred that the quagga had so infected the mare that her union with him influenced the offspring of her subsequent matings. In order to test this, Prof. Ewart ^ Phil. Transactions, 1821, p. 21 ; Ewart, Penycuik Experiments, p. 59. 458 THE ORIGIN OF THE LIBYAN HORSE [CH. crossed Matopo (Fig. 36), a stallion of the Chapman variety of the Burchell zebra, with mares of different kinds and colours as a preliminary, intending after they had foals to put them to ordinary horses. The results of these subsequent matings seem to put it beyond all doubt that there is no sound evidence for Telegony, at least as far as the Equidae are concerned. But the results of the mating of the mares with Matopo are in themselves of the highest interest apart from any question of Telegony. The hybrids, as was to be expected, were striped indeed like zebras, but instead of reproducing the broad charac- teristic markings of the Burchell species, to which their sire belongs, they showed numerous stripes not only narrow like those of the Somali zebra (Fig. 28), but showing the same arrangement, exhibiting on the forehead the round arches seen on the forehead of the Somali zebra instead of the pointed arches of Matopo, and bearing marks on the croup unknown on the Burchell zebra, but peculiar to the Somali and Mountain zebras. The oldest of the hybrids, RomulusS was out of a thirteen hands, black, Island of Rum pony. "The well-bred, nearly black ponies of the Scottish Western Highlands and Islands, which have long been under observation, form a dis- tinct breed, well adapted in many ways for crossing with zebras. Their resemblance to Eastern horses has been accounted for by saying that they have descended from sires which escaped from the ships of the Spanish Armada." But I have shown above (p. 400) that these dark-coloured ponies of the Western Isles and Highlands of Scotland are to be traced back to North Africa through France and Spain from before the Christian ei'a, and their origin is no more to be ascribed to the horses from the Spanish Armada, than are the Connemara ponies to Spanish horses similarly obtained or imported during the Tudor period. "In the plan of his striping Romulus was utterly unlike his sire, and when a careful examination was made it became evident that in the number and arrangement of the markings he was not unlike a Somali zebra." "Instead of the four or five acutely pointed frontal arches of his sire, there are fourteen 1 Penycuik Exper., pp. 29-33 (figs. 9-11). IV] THE ORIGIN OF THE LIBYAN HORSE 459 rpimded arches, that remind one of the face of a Somali zebra. Instead of twelve cervical stripes as in Matopo, there are in Romulus twenty-four cervical stripes, all of which can be traced into the mane. In having so many cervical stripes he seems to be more primitive than even the Somali zebra (in which I have never seen more than fourteen cervical stripes), but closely agrees with one of my zebra mares, when the shadow stripes are included." Romulus likewise had at birth numerous spots arranged in nearly transverse rows over the loins and rump, which as he gi-ew older united to form somewhat zigzag narrow bands, almost identical in their direction with the narrow stripes over the hind-quarters of the Somali zebras. "Counting from the shoulder stripe to the root of the tail, there are forty- three stripes in the hybrid — about the same number as in the Somali zebra." Of all the hybrids Remus is most like a zebra. His mother was Biddy, an Irish mai-e, three-parts bred, in colour bay, with black points and black mane and tail. " Remus's ground colour is light bay, the stripes — numerous and distinct, except over the croup which has a mottled appearance — are of a dark bay or brown tint. In his hoofs, mane, and tail, and in the body- hair Remus is of all the hybrids most like a zebra^" Baron de Parana has made experiments by crossing a zebra stallion of the true Burchell type (Fig. 37), a white-legged variety with distinct shadow stripes, in build not far removed from the extinct quagga (Fig. 38), with South American mares. All the Brazil hybrids out of ordinary mares very closely resemble " Romulus in their markings — the legs being well striped, notwithstanding absence of markings on the legs of their sire — but they have rounder quarters and are apparently more cob-like in build"." It has been commonly held that these hybrids revert in their decoration to a remote common ancestor of the Equidae. But it is also possible, and I venture to think more probable ^ ' Experimental Contributions to the theory of Heredity, Reversion, and Telegony in the Equidae,' Trans. Highland and Agricultural Soc. of Scotland, ser. 5, Vol. xiv. (1902), p. 41. - Ewart, Experimental Contrib., pp. 47-8. 460 THE ORIGIN OF THE LIBYAN HORSE [CH. that the hybrids have not reverted to a remote ancestor, but rather to the immediate ancestor of the North African horses, with the blood of which Biddy, the three-quarters bred Irish mare, the well-bred Island of Rum pony, and the South American mares were saturated. We have just seen that beyond reasonable doubt there is a special tendency to exhibit zebra stripes in the Libyan horse and its descendants, whether they be in the Pampas of South America or in Kattywar, Tibet, or the Malay Archipelago. It is therefore not im- probable that Prof E wart's hybrids show stripings closely resembling those of the zebra of North-eastern Africa instead of those of their sire because their mothers had in their veins more or less of the blood of the North African horse, which has retained or developed a tendency to stripes resembling closely in size and distribution those of the Somali zebra under con- ditions somewhat similar to those under which have arisen the stripes in the latter animal. The reader however will remember that it was shown (p. 80) that although the plan of marking in the Somali zebra represents the oldest type amongst zebras, it by no means follows that the peculiar markings of the Somali zebra represent the original livery of the common ancestor of horses, asses and zebras. A simple experiment seems to confirm this view. I mated a Muscovy drake ' Hans ' (a gift from my friend Dr Gadow) with a common white Aylesbury duck. The Muscovy is, in spite of its name (which is a mere corruption for musk), a South American species, whilst, as is well known, the Aylesbury is derived from the Mallard or common wild duck. The progeny^ eight in number, resemble clearly in their colouring the Mallard, each showing the colouring of the corresponding sex in the wild ancestors (Fig. 134). But it will hardly be maintained that the colouring of the hybrids, which proved 1 My hybrids have proved absolutely sterile, though they paired off at an early age. The ducks did not lay a single egg, and a Pekin and an Aylesbury duck mated with one of the hybrid drakes did not produce a single fertile egg. One of the ducks was examined after death, and showed only vestigial ovaries, though a drake similarly examined had apparently the organs of reproduction fully developed. IV] THE ORIGIN OF THE LIBYAN HORSE 461 sterile (like Ewart's zebra hybrids), is a reversion to a remote common ancestor of both ]\[uscovy and Mallard, and not rather to the Mallard, the immediate ancestor of the white Aylesbury duck. But as the markings on the zebra hybrids resemble in character the narrow markings of the Somali zebra, we are led to conclude that this peculiar characteristic of the North African horse is not due to a comparatively recent differentia- tion under domestication of the domestic Asiatic horse in Fig. 13i. The Muscovy drake ' Hans ' and his hybrids by a white Aylesbury duck. Libya, but rather that living for a vast period under conditions similar to those which have produced the peculiar stripings of the Somali zebra, it has been so highly specialised as to constitute a separate species. The circumstance that large functional first pre-molars are found in some of the horses of South-eastern Asia (as for instance in Javanese and Sulu ponies), which I have shown to be almost wholly of Libyan blood, and also in the Somali zebra and some members of the Burchell group (p. 142), points to a similar conclusion. 462 THE ORIGIN OF THE LIBYAN HORSE [CH. All these considerations point to the conclusion that when the land-bridges were still unbroken between Europe and Africa, at least one variety of Equidae, probably Eqiius stenonis or some allied species (p. 10), had crossed over into the region lying between that occupied later on by Eqiius caballus in Europe on the one hand, and that by the Somali zebra on the other, had there been still more specialised, had differentiated its stripes and subsequently almost completely lost them, and pa7^i passu had assumed a nearly uniform bay colour. As Prof. Ewart's experiments have shown that it is most improbable that the stripes on the foals of Sir Gore Ouseley's chestnut mare, by the black Arabian, were due to infection from her former mate the quagga, the stripes in these foals are to be ascribed to the fact that the chestnut being seven- eighths Arab had an inherent tendency to such markings, and as she is said to have come from India, the frequency of the occurrence of such stripes on well-bred Kattywar horses renders still more probable such a tendency in her. Further- more, as we have seen that on the Continent black sires saturated with Arab blood frequently beget offspring with stripes, a fortiori, there must have been a very strong tendency to produce offspring with stripes in the black Arabian stallion as well as in the chestnut mare. The fact that the quagga h^'brid was more striped than its quagga sire seems to indicate that the stripes on the hybrid, especially those on its legs, were due not merely to the quagga, but also to its dam ; the further fact that her subsequent foals by the black Arabian were in some respects more striped than the hybrid suggest that the striping in their case may have been due to the dark black Arabian as well as to the dam. The presence of stripes on the legs of the quagga h^'brid, though such were absent in the quagga, is completely paralleled by the occurrence of stripes on the legs of hybrids bred by Baron de Parana from a true Burchell zebra (with white legs) and South American mares. As the latter are largely of Andalusian, and consequently of North African blood, and as South American horses constantly shoW' stripes, the^ markings on the legs of the hybrids may in part be due to their dams, IV] THE ORIGIN OF THE LIBYAN HORSE 463 and need not be referred to a remote common ancestor of the Burchell zebra and the South American mares. Further confirmation of my doctrine that the tendency to stripes is due to the presence of North African blood is afforded by Prof. Ewart's experiments, which point to the conclusion that the less Libyan blood there was in the mares mated with his zebra stallion, the less defined were the stripes in the offspring. Lady Douglas, a young fifteen-hands bay cart-mare by Matopo produced Brenda, who in make and dis- position is quite unlike all the other hybrids : she is of a bay Fig. 135. Chapman's variety of the Burchell Zebra. colour and not very distinctly striped. As a foal she was less intelligent than her hybrid half-brothers and sisters. Lady Douglas next by Matopo had Black Agnes, who " is almost black, so black that the stripes, though abundant, are hardly visible at a distance of a few yards. Black Agnes may have derived her colour from a recent maternal ancestor." Contrast the description of the offspring of the cart-mare with that of Remus (p. 459), the son of the three-quarters bred Irish mare Biddy. Again, the hybrids bred at Theobalds by Sir H. Meux out of a Chapman zebra mare lend some support to this contention. The eldest, by an English pony, is a yellowish- 464 THE OKIGIX OF THE LIBYAN HORSE [CH. brown, but faintly striped ; the second, by an American trotting- horse, is brilliantly and richly decorated with brown stripes over a bright bay background ; the third hybrid, by a Shetland or Highland pony, is only very faintly and partially striped \ It is almost certain that the American trotting-horse was better bred, i.e. had more North African blood in him, for most of the blood in such trotting-horses is thoroughbred"'', than either of the other sires, a supposition rendered all the more likely by the fact that his progeny was bay, a sure index, as we have seen, of the presence of Libyan blood. This cir- cumstance may well account (prepotency apart) for the fact that the hybrid by the American horse is much more richly striped than those by the other sires. If then the hybrids of horses and zebras are the more striped, in proportion as the horse parent, whether it be sire or dam, is better bred, there is certainly a prima facie pro- bability that stripes are more connected with North African than with Asiatic blood. Darwdn's view that the original ancestor of the Equidae w^as a dun-coloured animal striped all over was based, not merely on the occurrence of stripes in horses, which we have just discussed, but on his belief that such stripes were common in dun-coloured horses, and that there w^as a tendency in horses to revert to dun colour. But it must be confessed that the facts do not w^arrant his conclusion. In the first place, we have just seen that stripes are specially characteristic of the North African horse and its descendants. But, as we have shown on an earlier page, that the North African horse is invariably dark in colour unless there has been admixture from Europe or Asia, it follows that stripes, so far from being more closely connected with dun colour, are in reality as constant a feature of dark-coloured horses, such as the pure Arab of the Anazah breed, the English thoroughbred, and the South American pampas horses, the last mentioned being, as we saw above (p. 435), universally of a dark colour, bay largely predominating. 1 Ewart, Guide to Zebra Hybrids, pp. 33-4, figs. 28, 29 (Shetland pony sire). ^ Wallace, The Horse of America, pp. 456-7. IV] THE ORIGIN OF THE LIBYAN HORSE 465 In the four regions — Spain, Mexico, Kattywar and Norway — where stripes frequently occur in dun-coloured horses, we were able to make it highly probable that there was a large admixture of North African blood. From this it is clear that stripes are at least as often a concomitant of dark as of dun colour. Moreover, if Darwin's hypothesis of a dun-coloured ancestor with stripes is sound, dark colours such as bay and brown must be of more recent origin, and accordingly there ought to be a great readiness on the part of the progeny of a light-coloured animal when mated with a dark to revert to the light. Bub Prof. Ewart's zebra stallion "has never been able to stamp his own peculiar pattern or his own colours on his hybrid offspring. The ground colour has been determined by the dams of the hybrids. The hybrids of the better bred mares are of a bay or chestnut hue — the prevailing colour of Arab foals; the hybrids of the Highland, Shetland, and Iceland mares are of a dun colour, and thus they probably take after the horses that in olden times inhabited the north temperate regions ^" There is a general belief that sta)-s and blazes are found amongst all kinds of horses. But we have now seen that (1) the bay horse has come from North Africa, (2) that it is specially prone to stripes on the head, legs, and back, and (3) that it and its derivatives are frequently characterized by having a star or blaze on the forehead and by white ' bracelets ' or ' stockings.' These considerations suggest that the star in the forehead of the Libyan horse corresponds to the light- coloured space included by the central arch in the forehead of the zebra, whilst the white ' stockings ' are an extension of the light-coloured band which intervenes between the hoof and the first dark band on the leg of the Somali and Mountain zebras. But as this tendency to stars and ' stockings ' cor- responding to certain markings in the zebras is characteristic of the Libyan horse, it is another indication that that animal has been differentiated in the same region as the zebras. Of course others would explain the presence of ' stockings ' and ^ Ewart, Exper. Contr., p. 41. R. H. 30 466 THE ORIGIN OF THE LIBYAN HORSE [CH. stars as due to in-breeding, and doubtless such markings may well arise from that cause. But there is no reason why they should not likewise occur under natural conditions, for the Quagga which turned bay in an environment similar to that in which the Libyan horses lived, had " a little white in the fore- head" (p. 77), and the Elgin specimen also has white on the face. Prof. Ewart has a photograph of a Mountain zebra with a ' stocking,' whilst the white legs of the Burchell zebra and the Quagga are only more thoroughgoing examples of the same tendency. As the North African horse had a star in the forehead before 1000 B.C., and as the Libyans do not seem to have given any thought to artificial breeding down to the time of Christ, it is difiicult to suppose that the stars and ' stockings ' in Libyan horses were the result of in-breeding. Nor is this all, for another argument of great weight is supplied by the colour of the skin. We have already shown that from the beginning of written history white horses are found all across Upper Europe and Upper Asia, and we found reasons for believing that wherever white horses make their appearance in Mediterranean lauds, such as Greece, Italy, Sicily, Egypt, and North Africa, they are the result of importations from more northern regions, as was certainly the case with the famous white horses of Dionysius of Syracuse, the strain having been imported by that despot from the Veneti at the head of the Adriatic, whilst the white and grey Arabs found in Egypt and North Africa in modern times are imported thither from Syria and other parts of Asia Minor. It has also been shown that there is no tendency to revert to dun or white colour among the thousands of Pampas horses which are descended from the North African horse. Thus a light colour — dun, skewbald, or white — is an essential charac- teristic of Upper European and Upper Asiatic horses, whilst a dark bay or brown, with a constant tendency to stripes, is the stamp of the Barbary horse and the true Ai'ab of Al-Khamseh. Moreover it has been clearly shown that the blue-black, antimony-like colour of the skin of Al-Khamseh horses is so marked a feature that it has furnished the generic name for the breed (Kohl) It will be remembered that the skin is of this IV] THE ORIGIN OF THE LIBYAN HORSE 467 dark colour, even on those parts of the body which are covered with Avhite hair, as for instance in the star on the forehead. On the other hand, the skin of white horses is usually white, though in grey horses it is generally dark. But it has been shown that grey horses are especially common where the North African blood is mixed with the Asiatic, whilst the white horse is essentially the child of the regions lying north of the great central mountain ranges of Europe and Asia, where it has been specialised under conditions analogous to those which make the stoat and the ptarmigan turn white in winter, and have perma- nently clothed in white the Arctic hare and the Polar bear. Moreover, it is a fact well known in India that white horses have not the same power of enduring heat as bay and grey. But, as the latter have dark skins, while the former have a white skin, we may reasonably infer that the pigmentation of the skin helps to give the bay and grey horses their power of withstand- ing tropical heat. It follows that the dark skin of the African horse, like that of the negro, has been developed in a hot climate. But this specialisation cannot have been produced by the residence of the Asiatic horse in North Africa from the date of its importation already domesticated into Egypt about B.C. 1500, for it might just as well be argued that a fair-haired, light-skinned people from Europe, if transported to Africa would in an equally short period develope the peculiar skin of the negro. It is of the highest importance to note that the zebras, which have admittedly been specialised in Africa, have dark skins like that of the Libyan horse. The skin of the Burchell zebra Matopo is described by Prof. Ewart^ " as dark throughout ; under the white hair the skin is of an iron-grey colour, elsewhere it is nearly black, owing to the pigment in the hair roots." Thus the skin of the zebra is dark beneath his light as well as his dark parts, exactly as the skin of the Al-Khamseh horse is dark under its white markings as well as under the gi-ound colour. We are therefore led in- evitably to conclude that the dark skin of the Libyan horse is the result of its having been domiciled in North Africa for long ages before it was ever domesticated. ^ Penycuik Experiments, p. 75. 30—2 468 THE ORIGIN OF THE LIBYAN HORSE [CH. We have seen that according to Sanson many North African horses and ponies frequently lack hock callosities, which have been generally regarded as one of the chief distinctions between Equus caballus and the asses and zebras, and Prof Ewart has pointed out the same peculiarity in the ' Celtic ' ponies. But we have seen that the dark-coloured cross-bred ' Celtic ' ponies are certainly closely related to the dark breeds of Brittany, Auvergne, and Ariege, which beyond doubt owe their form and colour to the mixture of Libyan blood with the indigenous horses of France. We have also seen that the Libyan horses have been crossed from several centuries before Christ with horses from Europe in order to give them greater strength, whilst it is absolutely certain that a vast proportion of the so- called Arabs, especially those of a grey colour and large size, such as the Gulf Arabs bred by the Montefic tribes of South Arabia, and the horses of Babylonia, have a very large propor- tion of Asiatic blood in their veins. But as the hock callosities are the special feature of both the domestic Asiatic horses and also of Prejvalsky's horse, it would indeed be strange if Arab horses of a coarser type and many North African horses, which have much of the old European strain (derived through Spain) in their veins, should not have inherited hock callosities from their Asiatic and European ancestors. Of course it is possible that, as in Upper Europe there were two distinct types of horse — the slender and the coarse — so in North Africa there may have been a heavy type, corresponding to the old European horses of Sohitre as well as the small slender horse, for it would indeed be rash to maintain (especially in view of Prof Osborn's researches) that only one variety of horse had roamed the plains of Libya in remote epochs. But there is not a scrap of historical evidence to show that the Libyan tribes from the Nile to the Atlantic originally possessed any domestic horse except the small slender type, which I term E. c. lihycus, whilst the presence of horses of a heavier type in those parts of North Africa which were in contact with Asia, Greece, Italy, and Spain, is fully explained by the abundant evidence of the introduction of the heavy horses of Asia and Europe into that region. IV] THE ORIGIN OF THE LIBYAN HORSE 469 Again, although ergots (fetlock callosities) are generally present in all domestic horses, Prof. Ewart has shown that they are frequently absent in Icelandic and occasionally in Hebridean and Connemara ponies, whilst Captain Hayes^ has " noticed their frequent absence in pure-bred Arab horses and in thoroughbreds." The same great authority observes that "the nearer a horse approaches the heavy draught type, the thicker is the growth of the callosities on his legs." In view of the complete absence of hock callosities and also of ergots in many horses of the same race, and the fact that such callosities seem universal in Prejvalsky's horse and the Mongolian pony, and that the more nearly a horse approaches the coarse type, the larger are such callosities, and the nearer he approaches the Libyan and Celtic types (in which they are sometimes completely absent), the smaller they become, the evidence indicates that E. c. lihyciis either had completely discarded or had a general tendency to get rid of both hock and fetlock callosities. In the Libyan horse and its derivatives — the Arab, the Andalusian, and the English thoroughbred — the tail is different in structure, in its covering and in the manner in which it is carried (Figs. 58, 68, 73, 75) from that of the Prejvalsky's horse and the Mongolian pony (Figs. 18, 53). Yet this is no more a mere outcome of artificial breeding since the Christian era than is the bay colour and the star in the forehead, for we have found the same feature in the horses driven by Seti I (p. 217), in those under Cypriote chariots on vases dating from 1000 B.C. (p. 288) and in those ridden by Libyans (p. 243) pourtrayed on the pottery found at Daphnae and dating from 600 B.C. Look at the well-bred Sicilian horse on the coins of Panormus (p. 255). The animal carries his tail in the characteristic fashion that we associate with Arabs, Barbs, and thoroughbreds. We have already seen (p. 143) that since my paper appeared Mr Lydekker, in view of the facts that Hipparion had a deep pre-orbital pit for a gland, that E. sivaUnsis, an Indian fossil horse, had a rudimentary pre-orbital pit, and that he himself » The Points of the Horse, pp. 319-20. 470 THE ORIGIN OF THE LIBYAN HORSE [CH. had found a similar depression in the skull of ' an Indian domesticated horse ' and also in that of Bend Or, had sug- gested that the 'blood-horse,' unlike the 'cold-blooded' horse of Western Europe, may possibly have been the descendant of E. sivalensis. As these pages are passing through the press Mr Lydekker announces^ that he and Dr Ray Lankester have found that a like depression occurs not only in the skulls of the racers Bend Or and Stockwell, but also in those of Eclipse, Orlando, and Hermit, as well as in that of an Arab horse, and that "at present they fail to detect it in any of the ordinary English and Continental horses. It appears to be also lacking in horse-skulls from the drift and turbary of Europe. On the other hand it exists, in a less rudimentary condition, in the fossil horses of India," and Mr Lydekker repeats his suggestion that the ' blood-horse ' is of Indian origin. But I have already shown (p. 143) that it is most unlikely that ' the Indian domesticated horse ' on whose skull Mr Lydekker's argument depends was of pure Indian or Asiatic origin, since all Indian country-bred horses are saturated with so-called Arab blood, and accordingly this skull cannot be taken as a link between E. sivalensis and the Arab. On the other hand we have seen that Hipparion was common in Europe and Africa, that E. stenonis (a species closely related to E. sivalensis), which is found both in Europe and Northern Africa, had a deep pre-orbital depression, and that its later ally, E. quaggoides, had a similar feature, that Mr Lydekker himself (following Dr Forsyth Major) has pointed out the existence of this depression in the now extinct quagga, and also in the skull of an ass, and that Mr Pocock (p. 76) has shown a similar depression in the skull of a male Grant's zebra. Now as all the living Equidae which show this feature and whose origin is known — the quagga, Grant's zebra, and the ass (Nubian) — are African species or subspecies, the occurrence of such a character- istic in any of the living Equidae is a prima facie indication that it is African in origin. But as Mr Lydekker and Dr Ray Lankester have now shown that such a depression occurs in all ^ Times, 14 February, 1905. IV] THE ORIGIN OF THE LIBYAN HORSE 471 the skulls of Arabs and thoroughbred horses which they have examined, we have another clear indication that the ancestors of the Libyan horse had long lived on African soil. But as E. stenonis of Southern Europe and Northern Africa and its later ally E. quaggoides had a pre-orbital depression as well as E. sivalensis, there is no need to go to India for the fossil ancestors of the Libyan horse, and the true explanation of the presence of such a depression in ' an Indian domesticated horse ' is to be found in the historical facts that the Arabs got their ' blood-horse ' from North Africa, and that for ages these so-called Arab horses have been pouring annually into India and are there crossed with the dun-coloured Asiatic horses. If we could rely on the statement or rather on the reading of the text of Strabo in the passage where he declares that the Libyan horses have longer hoofs than those in any other region, it would further support the view that that animal has been specialised in Africa, where all the Equidae have hoofs of a longer conformation than the horses of Asia. It is certainly a fact of considerable interest that in some high cafete Arabs the hoofs are longer than in the quagga\ It would seem there- fore that Strabo's statement had a basis in fact. Nor is it only in colour and other external respects that the Libyan differs from the Asiatic horse. As the cry of the quagga, from which that animal derived its name, was distinct from that of the zebra (p. 73 n.), so the voice of the Libyan horse differs from that of his vulgar Asiatic brother. This is rendered clear by the evidence of Major-General Tweedie already cited (p. 180), who, as before remarked, may be regarded as a hostile witness. In speaking of the Kuhailan horse he thus writes^: "The stallion picketed beside the tent is as good as a sentinel. The first sound of an intruder brings him to attention. Generally he will stamp with one fore-foot and challenge ; not braying like a kadish, but sounding one or two short and sharp notes, to intimate that he will make no terms."..." His gentle salutations of 1 Ewart, Exper. Contr., p. 21. 2 y/jg Arabian Horse, pp. 267-8. 472 THE ORIGIN OF THE LIBYAN HOESE [CH. passing mares are widel}' different sounds from the bagpipe- like squeals of the Iraki stallion." We have thus the un- impeachable testimony of a first-rate observer who has had exceptional opportunities over a long period of years for study- ing the Kuhailan and the kadishes (common Turkish horses) and the half-bred horses of the Euphrates region, and who, in spite of his preconceived notion that the Kuhailan has been produced by purely artificial breeding from the common horses of Asia, has nevertheless been forced to point out the remark- able difference in voice between the pure-bred Arabian and the horses of undoubted Asiatic lineage. Not only physical characteristics, but also temperament must be taken into consideration in discriminating between species and sub-species, as is clearly shown in the cases of the intractable Mountain zebra and the more docile Burchell species. The difference in disposition between the Asiatic- European horses and the Libyan and its derivatives has been noticed, as we passed in review the breeds of various regions. The Libyan down to the Christian era and probably long after rode his horse without a bit, simply guiding it with a nose-band or a switch (p. 240), the Egyptians seem to have used the former contrivance for controlling their chariot-horses (p. 228), the ancient Andalusian horses were noted for their docility (p. 256), and their descendants the Pampas horses of South America, after having regained their liberty for three centuries and a half, are the most docile in South America ; the ancient and medieval Irish rode their Hobbies with a mere halter unprovided with a bit, and the Arab to this hour employs only a nose-band to steer his foray steed ; Col. Hamilton Smith has pointed out that frequent crossing of the Turcoman with Arab blood has rendered the well-bred Turkish horse almost as docile as his Arab ancestors, and the extraordinary tractability of the Prussian Trakehnen breed derived from English thoroughbreds and Arabians is a well known feature at the present moment. The ease with which Arabs and thoroughbred horses are broken in compared with cross-bred and inferior horses is a matter of common notoriety amongst horse-breakers, and we observed that horses of Libyan blood have been constantly taught to IV] THE ORIGIN OF THE LIBYAN HORSE 473 dance to music and to perform tricks. On the other hand Prejvalsky's horse is remarkable for its indomitable temper, and the Mongolian pony is famous for its bad manners ; as the horses of Libya were proverbial for their gentleness before the Christian era, so on the contrary the horses of North- western India are specially mentioned by Aelian on account of their violent tempers and the difficulty of riding them, which necessitated the use not merely of bits but of muzzles to control them (p. 153), a fact in itself sufficient to disprove Mr Lydekker's theory of the Indian origin of the Arab horse ; that the horses of Eastern Europe were of a similar tempera- ment is rendered highly probable by the statement of Strabo that the Scythians and Sarmatians were the only peoples who habitually castrated their horses, which they did to make them more easy to manage (p. 25), and we have seen that the term kadish applied to common Turcoman horses seems primarily to have meant a gelding. The legend of the flesh- eating mares of Diomede of Thrace points to a general belief in the savage nature of the ancient horses of that region, whilst in Roman times the horses of Dalmatia and Epirus, which were heavy horses fit for war, were noted for their bad tempers^ and the cross-bred horses of Persia descended from the Upper Asiatic stock were noted for their intractability-. Finally we have seen that cantherius, the Roman term for a gelding, meant originally a pack-horse, and therefore an inferior animal of the Upper European type. We have seen the Libyans, Egyptians, medieval Irish and modern Arabs all riding and driving the Libyan horse without a bit, but on the other hand the Homeric Acheans were using bronze bits to control their dun-coloured horses before 1000 B.C., and bits of a primitive kind made not only of bronze or copper but also of horn and bone are found in the Lake- dwellings of Switzerland and in the pre-historic graves of Russia and Central Asia, whilst the Massagetae in the fifth century B.C. rode their horses with copper bits (p. 130), and 1 Vegetius, Ars Veterin., iv. 6. 6: postea Epirotas, Sainaricos, ac Dalmatas, licet contumaces ad frena. - Ibid., nisi labore subigetur assiduo, adversum equitem contumax. 474 THE OKIGIN OF THE LIBYAN HORSE [CH. the peoples of North-western India used not naerely bits but muzzles to control the Upper Asiatic horses. It seems there- fore certain that the invention of the bit at so early a period by the peoples of Asia and Europe was due to the intractable nature of the indigenous horses, whereas the Libyan horse and his descendant the Arabian is ridden to this hour with nothing more than a nose-band. We have in this another specific difference between the two animals. If the Libyans had obtained the horse already in a state of domestication from Asia or Europe, they would probably have borrowed the bit, and it is inconceivable that they could in a short time have influenced the stubborn temper of the Asiatic horse to such a degree that not only their own horses, but all the descendants of these animals down to the present, even after they have been feral for centuries, are stamped with extraordinary docility and good temper. It is clear that the difference in temperament between the Libyan and Asiatic horse has not been acquired under domestication, but is fundamental, and this of itself is a sufficient indication that the Libyan horse is a naturally differentiated species or variety. It is significant that the ' Celtic ' pony, which may be in part descended from a northern branch of the same variety as the Libyan horse, is also remarkable for its docility. We have noted the well known belief that chestnut horses are frequently bad tempered, even when well bred, and reason has been given for thinking that chestnut colour in English thoroughbreds and even in Anazah horses is the outcome of a small strain of Asiatic blood. Now that we realise the funda- mental difference in temper between the Asiatic and the Libyan horses, we at once understand why a cross temper should be a concomitant of chestnut colour. Moreover if, as is commonly held, the 'Arab' horse is more prolific in Barbary than in other regions where it at present exists — from India to the British Isles — we may reasonably infer that as North Africa is best suited for its propagation, it was there that the stock was originally differentiated ^ 1 Col. Hamilton Smith, "The Horse," Naturalist's Library, Vol. xii. p. 214. IV] THE ORIGIN OF THE LIBYAN HORSE 475 Finally, how comes it that no breed of Asiatic horse has ever been so improved by careful selection, or even by the admixture of African blood, as to be able to contend in speed with the latter, unless it be that the North African horse has been differentiated from the Asiatic horses during a very long lapse of time ? It has been pointed out that the English thoroughbred only really arose when mares as well as horses of North African blood were imported by Charles II, and it is a well-known fact that no three-quarters bred horse has ever beaten a thoroughbred. The astonishing superiority in speed of North African horses over all others seems to indicate that that strain is the outcome of natural specialisation carried on through countless generations. We have now examined the available data for tracing the history of the thoroughbred horse, and we found that the historical evidence put it beyond doubt that it originated in North Africa, from whence it has gradually kept spreading northward and eastward from at least 1000 B.C. The evidence of its characteristic bay colovir, the not unfrequent occurrence of stripes on its head, body and legs, its dark skin resembling that of the zebras, its special fecundity in North Africa, all point to its being no merely artificial breed formed under domestication by careful selection by man, but indicate clearly that it is a distinct variety developed duiing a long succession of time in Libya, under conditions similar to those which have produced some of the zebras with their finelv-formed limbs, their dark skin, and striped bodies. The only other conceivable alter- native is that domestic horses from Asia were crossed in North Africa with some variety of striped African Equidae. I men- tioned this as a not wholly impossible alternative when writing in 1902, for the fecundity of zebra-horse hybrids had been held as not impossible by leading experts \ and as an animal deposited by the King in the Zoological Garden, Regent's Park", in that year was alleged by some to be the offspring of a horse and a zebra-hybrid. But as Prof Ewart has now demonstrated the sterility of zebra-horse hybrids, and since the animal sent home 1 Ewart, Guide to the Zebra Hybrids (Edinburgh, 1900), p. 34. - Proc. Zool. Soc, 1902, Vol. n. p. 225. 476 THE ORIGIN OF THE LIBYAN HORSE [CH. to England from South Africa by Lord Kitchener as the re- puted offspring of a horse and a zebra-horse hybrid, has been proved to be only a zebra-horse hybrid (Fig. 136)\ this alterna- tive must be summarily rejected. All zoologists are agreed in regarding the African wild ass as a species distinct from the Asiatic group of asses on the grounds that it is grey instead of being rufous-brown, that it has a shoulder stripe, that its ears are a little longer, and that it has more frequently dark bars on its lower limbs. Mr Sclater holds that the Somali ass is a species separate from the Nubian because it is more grey in colour, has no shoulder stripe, has numerous black markings on the legs, smaller ears and a longer mane, and some make the Asiatic ass into three separate species, whilst those who do not, make them into three or more sub-species or varieties; and some have even made four valid species out of the Burchell group of zebras. Mr Lydekker holds that the Burchell zebra and the Quagga are specifically distinct on the grounds that (1) the pattern on the forehead of the Quagga forms a shorter and more regular diamond than in the Burchell zebra (Bonte quagga) and that in the former the centre of the diamond is a pale stripe with four or five dark stripes on either side of it, whereas in all Bonte quaggas or Burchell zebras the diamond is made up of from five to nine stripes, the middle line being black with from two to four stripes on each side, and (2) on the ground that quaggas may be distinguished from Burchell zebras by the presence on the skull in front of the orbit of a depression (p. 76) ; and the same authority regards as " subspecifically distinct from the kiang of Tibet " a wild ass from Mongolia which differs simply in colour from the kiang (pp. 44-5). Now as the Libyan horse differs from the Asiatic by being bay instead of yellow-dun, by the shape of its head, by a pre-orbital depression in the skull, by the set of its ears, by frequent tendency to stripes on the back, legs, shoulders and face, by having typically white ' bracelets,' by having usually a white star or blaze on the forehead, by its dark skin, by the absence of hock callosities, by the absence ^ Proc. Zool. Soc, 1903, Vol. i. p. 2, fig. 1. The animal is the offspring of a male zebra and a common pony. IV] THE ORIGIN OF THE LIBYAN HORSE 477 or small size of the ergots, by the length of the hoof, by the covering and set-on of the tail, by its voice, by its disposition, and by its speed, I submit that if the African ass is a distinct Fig. 136. Zebra-pony Hybrid. species from the Asiatic, a fortiori, Equus cahallus lihycus must be considered a distinct species, or at least a distinct sub-species. It is for others to decide on the cogency of my arguments. CHAPTER y. SUPPLEMENTARY. THE DEVELOPMENT OF EQUITATION. The antique Persians taught three viseful things, To draw the bow, to ride, and speak the truth. Byron, Don Juan. Although the art of equitation does not fall strictly within the scope of the present work, yet, as it has been necessary in the course of our historical survey and in discriminating between the Asiatic and Libyan horses to mention the various methods of captviring, controlling and utilising the steed em- ployed by the horse-owning peoples of the ancient world, it will not be out of place if we sketch briefly the chief steps in the evolution of equitation. It is not improbable that amongst the Turko-Tartaric tribes the horse was first domesticated not for locomotion, but, like the ox amongst other races, for the sake of its milk and flesh, and just as at a later stage the cow-keeping peoples began to use the ox to draw the plough and cart, so the Turko-Tartaric race began gradually to use their horses as a means of transport and locomotion. The deeply-rooted love of mares' milk which still characterises Kalmucks and other Tartars seems to indicate that it has formed a substantial part of the nutrition of their race throvigh long ages. The horse was ready to hand on all the vast plains of Upper Asia, where neither wild sheep, goats, nor cattle were to be had. On the other hand neither the Aryans of the Rig-veda nor the Libyans seem ever to have drunk mares' milk, probably because they had possessed cows, sheep and goats, and had been accus- CH. V] THE DEVELOPMENT OF EQUITATION 479 tomed to drink the milk of these animals before they had mastered the horse. The Lasso. The capture of the wild horse was of course the first step towards its domestication. This must have been accomplished either by the capture of foals or of animals not yet full-grown. This could hardly have been effected without employing a rope or cord of some kind, and as in modern times when man desires to domesticate either zebras or feral horses, he always resorts to the lasso, and as I have offered abundant proof of the use of the lasso amongst various peoples of the ancient world (pp. 49, 117, 130, 192), it seems certain that when man first essayed to tame the steed he used a rope with a running noose to ensnare his victim. The Whip. From the inherent tendency in mankind, especially in the lower stages of civilization, to beat unmerci- fully domestic aiiimals, we may without hesitation assume that the lassoed horse was well belaboured with stick and cudgel to cow and subdue him, and as all forms of the whip have grown out of the primitive stick or switch, we are justified in giving the whip precedency over the halter. This is rendered all the more probable by the fact that the Libyans frequently guided their docile horses solely by a switch (p. 240) and that the medieval Irish often controlled the descendants of the Libyan horse b}^ a rod with a crook at one end (p. 389). The Bridle. In each region where the horse was domes- ticated, it seems certain that the first device which can be properly termed a piece of harness was the halter or headstall. For it is most unlikely that man after capturing the horse with the lasso, would have ventured either to mount on the back of his new possession or to yoke him to any kind of wheeled car without some means of controlling him. Thus though the Libyan horses were so docile that the rider could guide them with a switch, yet their masters regularly used halters (p. 240), as did also the medieval Irish. Indeed the straw halters still to be met in some remote parts of Ireland remind us of the rush halters of the Libyans and may be regarded as the most primitive representative still surviving of the earliest step in horse trappings. 480 THE DEVELOPMENT OF EQUITATION [CH. The Bit. It has been shown that the Libyan horse, whether driven under the chariots of Egyptian kings in the second millennium B.C., or ridden by the native Libyans in the centuries before Christ, or in the present day when ridden by Arabs or driven under the Neapolitan carrozzella, was and is controlled by a noseband without any bit, and the evidence is equally clear that from the earliest times the Asiatic-European horses have had to be controlled by a bit at first made of horn and bone and later of copper, bronze and iron, whilst in at least one case it was found necessary in ancient days to muzzle the horses of North-western India. The primitive bits found in Asia, Russia, and in the Swiss Lake-dwellings consist of two side pieces and a cross piece, a type which survived in the bits brought by the Huns into Europe. The earliest literary evidence for the use of bits is furnished by the Iliad, for in one passage the bronze bits are placed between the jaws of the horses. As regards the shape of those bits we have no means of judging, but as they were used to control the dun- coloured horses of Upper Europe brought down by the Acheans into Greece, there is a i^rima facie probability that they were of the type found in Central Europe. Bits of this type were pro- bably known to Xenophon\ for though he holds that it was necessary for a horseman to have two kinds of bits — one with smooth and moderate-sized links, the other with heavy links, with sharp points (in order that when the horse takes the latter into his mouth he may be offended with its roughness and con- sequently let it go), and after he has been trained with the rough bit, he may be ridden with the smooth, yet he emphati- cally urges "that whatever sorts of bits may be used, they should all be flexible, for wherever a horse seizes a rigid bit, he has the whole of it fast between his teeth, as a person when he takes up a stick wherever he lays hold of it, raises up the whole. But the other sort of bit is similar to a chain, for of whatever part of it a person takes hold, that part alone remains unbent, but the rest hangs." The bits used in North-western Europe in the early Iron Age (pp. 96, 98) were more or less flexible, for in the middle they were either single jointed or double jointed (Fig. 45). ^ De re equestri, 10. 6. V] THE DEVELOPMENT OF EQUITATION 481 The Chariot. We have already seen that in most regions men employed the horse for draught before they habitually rode upon his back, not because they were afraid to mount him, but because he was either too small to be used effectively as a charger, or because where he Avas of sufficient size to carry a man easily, it took a long time before men were able to devise weapons and methods of warfare suitable for a man mounted on horseback. For example, peoples who carried large oblong shields, like the Egyptians, the Greeks of the Mycenean (Bronze) Age, or the Assyrians, would have to discard their national shields and adopt a new shape better adapted for a horseman. How unsuited the large oblong shield was for cavalry, is proved by the fact that although the Roman infantry carried the scutum, the cavalry carried the round shield, though even the latter was not the best possible shape for a horse- soldier. Accordingly the Teutonic peoples, such as the Normans, who had once used circular shields, when they began to fight on horseback, devised a shield large at the top and tapering towards the bottom somewhat like a boy's kite. Such are the shields carried by the Norman knights on the Bayeux tapestry, and from this type came the later medieval shield, which through its importance in heraldry has become the conventional idea of a shield in modern times. This shield tapering towards its lower end was admirably suited for horseback, its broad upper part protecting the bearer's body, whilst the tapering lower part fitted down along his thigh, thus obviating the incon- venience arising from a circular shield of any size, the lowest part of which, if it covered the wearer's body, would have had its bottom resting on the front of the saddle ; if to obviate this it was worn to one side, it would leave a considerable portion of the body exposed. Again, tribes whose chief weapon was the bow, like the Scythians and many other nations, would have to learn to shoot from horseback before they could use their horses effec- tively in warfare. On the other hand the archer had little difficulty in shooting with precision from the chariot, as was the practice with the Egyptians (p. 217) and the Hittites (p. 215). R. H. 31 482 THE DEVELOPMENT OF EQUITATION [CH. Where the bow was not the national weapon it was long before man was able to develop weapons adapted for horseback, the warrior simply used the chariot and horses as means of rapid locomotion to meet the foe, whom once reached, he dis- mounted in order to do battle with the arms long used before the advent of the horse. Such seems to have been the case not only in Europe but also in Afi-ica, whilst it seems equally true of the peoples of Asia Minor and of the Vedic Indians, though it is possible that the Turko-Tartaric tribes of Upper Asia may have ridden the horse from the outset. Yet as the Scythians down to the fifth century and later lived in waggons drawn by oxen, it is not improbable that they once lived in waggons drawn by horses, and that it was only when they got cattle at a later time they yoked the more patient and steady-going ox instead. Though indeed the Sarmatians, both men and women, rode on horseback it must not be assumed that they never had passed through a previous waggon-living stage like that of the Scythians, for although the Libyans, men and women alike, all rode on horseback in later times, yet it is certain that in the earlier period they habitually used chariots. The Sarma- tians may therefore once have used the horse under the chariot, as did the Vedic Indians and the Libyans. The Sledge. Hitherto it has been a generally received article of faith that wheeled vehicles and the modern spoked- wheel have had an evolutionary history much as follows. First men fastened to poles their scanty household goods and either themselves dragged them along (or more probably made their wives do so), when they shifted from one camp to another ; in some cases they may have utilised their dogs for this purpose, as was perhaps the practice of certain North American Indians before they had tamed the feral horses of the prairies, an event which wrought a marvellous revolution in the social life of the Indians of the West, who from being feeble com- munities, dwelling along the banks of the great rivers, which yielded them abundance of fish, and who but rarely could kill a bison, were suddenly metamorphosed into jwwerful tribes of horsemen faring well on the flesh of the vast herds of bison, V] THE DEVELOPMENT OF EQUITATION 483 and who made their tents from, and clad themselves and their families in, the warm robes of their noble quarry. After these Indians had become possessed of horses it cer- tainly became their practice on striking camp to pack up all their goods and chattels in the skin tents and tie the bundle on the pole, and trail the poles behind their horses, whilst the dogs were even employed to draw smaller loads on trailing stakes. From such a rude beginning as that last mentioned it seems fairly certain that the Eskimo of the Far North developed their famous dog-sledges. There can be no doubt that the sledge is the first step in the evolution of the wheeled vehicle. The sledge or slide-car^ has played a considerable part in the life of the more remote districts of these Islands down to our days, for such were still in use in Strathglass, Kintail, and elsewhere in Scotland in the years 1863 and 1864. It con- sisted of two shafts, the body being formed by two pieces of wood bent in a semicircle, the ends of which were fastened to the shafts, the one close behind the pony, and the other a little distance behind ; the arches were steadied at the top by a piece of wood running from the one to the other. Thin slats of wood formed the bottom of this primitive contrivance. This vehicle is still in use in the glens of Antrim under the Gaelic name of carr sliunain. The Wheel. It is assumed that the next step was to place beneath such a sledge or slide-car a roller formed out of the cylindrical trunk of a tree, but as Dr Haddon well remarks, " there does not appear to be any positive evidence to render this view absolutely certain." Herr Stephan described a very primitive car that he saw in Portugal : a log is cut from a large tree, the central portion is hacked away so as to leave a solid disc at each end, joined together by an axle. The next step was to form the block wheels of two separate cross- sections of a tree trunk, but fixed firmly on a separate axle- 1 For the following account of the slide-car and other primitive vehicles, as well as block wheels, I am indebted to the admirable statement of the traditional view given by Dr Haddon in The Study of Man (London 1898), pp. 161—199. 31—2 484 THE DEVELOPMENT OF EQUITATION [CH. tree, the wheels not yet revolving on the axle. Then to get greater lightness two or more holes were cut in the solid wheel, the solid portions left being the precursors (as is supposed) of the felloe and spokes made of separate pieces. Finally, the axletree no longer revolves, but is firmly fixed to the cart, and the wheels, now made of spokes, revolve upon it, being kept in their places by linch-pins inserted into a hole in each extremity of the axle. At first sight nothing can be more plausible than this hypo- thesis, but when it is closely examined it must be confessed that there are but few facts to support it, and that those few are capable of other explanations. * In the preceding pages we have passed in review the earliest vehicles used by the horse-keeping peoples of the world, and in every case where we had any evidence — in Egypt under the xviiith dynasty, in India under the Vedic Aryans, amongst Hittites, Assyrians, Persians, Libyans, Mycenean Greeks (Bronze Age), Homeric Acheans (Iron Age), the Gauls of Northern Italy, as well as those of Gaul itself, ancient Britons and ancient Irish — everywhere the chariot wheel is formed of a felloe, a hub or nave, and of spokes ranging in number from four to ten or even twelve. It is therefore clear that the chariot is never found with solid wheels such as are supposed to have been the forerunners of the spoked wheel. Nor is this a matter for surprise. The horse, as we have seen, was throughout early and medieval times used almost solely for war. As speed and mobility were the grand requisite in the war-chariot, it is obvious that solid wheels, such as those used under Portuguese and Chinese ox-carts, would have rendered the vehicle useless for war. We may, therefore, safely con- clude that from the first the war-chariot never had block wheels. But it may be said that although the war-chariot from the first was fitted with spoked wheels, nevertheless the solid wheel had long preceded it, having been invented for purposes of agriculture, and that doubtless the ancient ox-cart, which was not built for lightness and speed like the chariot, was furnished with clog wheels. Yet if the reader Avill look at the picture of V] THE DEVELOPMENT OF EQUITATION 485 the Thracian ox-cart (p. 106), the oldest representation of any such vehicle that has reached us, his faith in this second hypo- thesis will be shaken on discovering that this ox-cart runs on four-spoked wheels. If it be said that this cart belongs to a comparatively advanced period, and that in earlier days, when agriculture was in its infancy, the carts used had solid wheels, I at once reply that amongst two at least of the great races which at the dawn of history had domestic horses — the Libyans and the Turko-Tartaric peoples — agriculture was scarcely, if at all, practised, for both were essentially nomadic ; whilst though the Scythians in later times at least used four- wheeled waggons to convey their families, the Libyans never used either ox-cart or ox-waggon for that purpose. It must also be clearly borne in mind that primeval agriculture had no need for the cart. Corn was not bound in sheaves as with us and carried home on carts or waggons. The ears of corn only were snipped off, gathered into baskets and carried to the threshing-floor or garner. Indeed, in the days when North Africa was one of the chief granaries of Rome, a basketful of corn-ears was placed as the symbol of Africa on a coin of Hadrian. Again, as there was no manuring in the common field system, there was no need of a cart for manure. The functions which in our minds are so inseparably associated with carts and waggons were in the earliest stages of society discharged by human beasts of burden, as they still are over a large part of Africa, and later on by pack-animals, as they were in medieval Europe and are in wide regions of the earth down to this very hour. These facts suflficiently refute Dr Hahn's' theory that wheeled vehicles did not arise from the sledge fitted with a roller, for in that case (said he) wheeled vehicles would have arisen wherever rollers have been employed. He main- tains that the waggon arose only in the district from which agriculture originally spread, which he assumes to be Greece, He believes that the waggon was primitively a holy imple- ment, consecrated to Demeter, the great goddess of agriculture and fertility, and that it only subsequently became a secular 1 Demeter und Baubo (1896, Liibeck) ; Haddon, o^;. cit. pp. 170-1. 486 THE DEVELOPMENT OF EQUITATION [CH. farm implement. He avers that the waggon came into being because miniature wheels in the form of the common spindle whorls were already in general use. Dr Hahn points out that he deals only with the four-wheeled ox-waggon, which was used for religious purposes. But, as it has just been shown, there is no evidence for the use of either the two-wheeled ox- cart or the four-wheeled ox-waggon in primitive agricultural communities, whilst it seems certain that the Libyans, who never used ox-carts at all, had invented a very light form of spoked wheel at least by B.C. 1500. Dr Haddon' has already pointed out that there is no reason to believe that agriculture was discovered only in some area of Eurasia, and that the art thence spread over the greater part of the habitable globe, and " it seems more in consonance with Avhat we know of the history of sacred institutions and implements that the waggon had an industrial origin and that it may well be that it arose in close connection with agriculture." But though it may well have arisen in connection with agriculture, as Dr Haddon says, yet it may have come into use at a comparatively late period, and long after the invention of the war-chariot. The ox-cart or ox- waggon indeed was certainly in use in Greece in the seventh century B.C., for a certain Argive lady wished to go to the festival at the Argive Heraeum in a waggon and pair. When the oxen did not arrive in time from the pasture, her two sons, both distinguished athletes, yoked themselves to the waggon and drew their mother to the temple'^. But if Dr Hahn's theory is sound, we ought to find the ox-waggon not merely in the early classical period, but in Homer. Yet neither the two- wheeled ox-cart nor the four-wheeled ox-waggon appear in the poems, though the four-wheeled mule- waggon plays a conspicuous part. In such a vehicle Priam brought with him the rich gifts with which he set forth to the camp of the Acheans to ransom Hector's body from Achilles. '" Thus having spoken fleet Iris departed from him and he bade his sons make ready the smooth-wheeled mule-waggon (amaxa) and bind the wicker carriage thereon^. 1 The Study of Man, pp. 170-2. ^ Herod, i. 30. 3 II. XXIV. 188-90. V] THE DEVELOPMENT OF EQUITATION 487 " Thus spake he and they fearing their father's voice brought forth the smooth -running car, fair and new, and bound the body thereof on the frame ; and from its peg they took down the mule yoke, a boxwood yoke with knob and well fitted with guiding-rings ; and they brought forth the yoke-strap, of nine cubits with the yoke. The yoke they set firmly on the polished pole on the rest at the end thereof, and slipped the ring over the upright pin, which with three turns of the strap they lashed to the knob, and then belayed it close round the pole, and turned the tongue thereunder. " Then they brought from the chamber and heaped on the polished car (apene) the countless ransom of Hector's head and yoked strong-hoofed mules that work in harness, which on a time the Mj^sians gave to Priam, a splendid gift, but for Priam they yoked the horses that the old man kept for his use and tended carefully at the polished crib'." That Priam's mule-car had four wheels is shown by another passage ^ In the Odyssey^ we hear of " two-and-twenty excellent four-wheeled waggons (amaxai)," and apparently such too was the vehicle in which Nausicaa set out with her maidens to wash linen in the river^ It was " a high waggon (apene) with good wheels and fitted with an upper frame." " Without the palace they made ready the smooth-running mule-wain {amaxa) and led the mules beneath the yoke and harnessed them under the car, whilst the maiden brought forth from her bower the shining raiment." From these extracts it is, clear (1) that the amaxa (waggon) is identical with the apene or car commonly drawn by mules also in the classical period. Thus in B.C. 500 a race for mule- cars was established at Olympia (abolished in B.C. 444). Anaxi- las, the despot of Rhegium, not many years after won the prize with his mule-car, and commemorated this event, as well as the fact that he was the first to introduce the hare into Sicily, by placing his victorious mule-car and the hare as types on his coins (Fig. 137). It will be seen that this mule-car has four-spoked wheels, and, as the epithet " easily running " is applied to the 1 II. XXIV. 265-80. ••^ Ihid. 324. 3 Ocl. IX. 242. * Od. VI. 68 sqq. 488 THE DEVELOPMENT OF EQUITATION [CH. mule-car in the Homeric passages just cited, and we also learn that Nausicaa's mules trotted briskly off with the waggon, it is most unlikely that the Homeric waggon had block wheels. Now, as the Homeric mule-car, the classical mule-car, and the Thracian ox-cart about B.C. 500 all have spoked wheels, there is therefore no evidence for the existence of the use of solid wheels under either mule-car or ox-cart in early times in the countries round the Aegean. If such did once exist there before the invention of the spoked wheel, it must have been at a time anterior to the appearance of the horse both on the monuments of -Egypt and on the tombstones of Mycenae. But it has just been shown that the use of the ox-cart for agriculture at so early a period is extremely unlikely. Accordingly, so far from the ox-cart with solid wheels being the precursor of the chariot, it is most likely that the latter was the first to be in- vented for purposes of war, and that later a stronger and cheaper form of vehicle for oxen was modelled after the chariot for everyday use — a simple platform on which a wicker creel or crate like that of the Homeric mule-car could be placed. Of course it will be said that block wheels survived in the British Isles down to our own time, — that in 1775 goods Avere conveyed about Dublin on carts furnished with solid wheels about 20 inches in diameter, that solid-wheeled carts may still be seen in the North of Ireland from Donegal to Down, and that two kinds of block-wheeled carts were in use in Inverness about 1730, both of them being simply modifications of the slide-car still surviving in Antrim, with wheels about a foot and a half high, but which were soon worn very small. Yet it must not be assumed that such wheels were the first kinds known in all these localities. It is most improbable that any kind of wheeled cart was in use in Ireland in early times, yet there were war-chariots with spoked w^heels in Ireland at the time of Christ. Again, it is on record that in Borrowdale wheeled vehicles did not make their appearance until about 1770; and when these novelties did reach the lakes they were clumsy and awkward in character. Clog- wheels were the first type used on farm carts, yet spoked wheels had long been in general use all over England, and had been known in the island from y] THE DEVELOPMENT OF EQUITATION" 489 before the Christian era. It is most important that cheap sub- stitutes be not taken for genuine survivals of a primitive type. To the former category we may assign not only the block-wheels of Borrowdale, Inverness, and Ireland, but also certain wheels seen on Greek vases consisting of a felloe and two parallel cross-pieces, crossed by another at right-angles (a variety in which some have recognised the first step towards a spoked wheel). To the same category I would likewise refer the Portuguese wheels made out of a single piece of wood in which two elliptical holes are cut, the wheel itself being clamped with bands of iron. This wheel and others like it have been supposed to be a first step towards a spoked wheel, but they are rather to be regarded as cheap and clumsy substitutes, as are also the solid wheels built up of three pieces of plank common Fig. 137. Coin of Messana. in Galicia, the Canaries and amongst the Zuili Indians in Mexico, who have borrowed them from the Spaniards. These wheels are regularly clamped together by iron bands, although in Mexico they are said to be sometimes unshod. In all cases of solid wheels the wheel is fixed on the axle, and does not revolve on it. Yet in the Florentine and Homeric chariot the wheels play freely on the axle. It can therefore hardly be maintained that we have genuine survivals of the first stage in the evolution of the wheel in the Portuguese and Spanish waggons with their revolving axles and wheels fixed to the axle, for it is clear that the principle of the wheel revolving on the axle has been known from an age far anterior to any evidence of the existence of an ox-cart with solid wheels. But it is not in itself probable that solid wheels were evolved at a date when iron was not yet known, and copper was com- 490 THE DEVELOPMENT OF EQUITATION [CH. paratively scarce in most parts of the ancient world. The hewing of a section of a tree trunk two feet in diameter to serve as a solid wheel rather indicates a period when tools of a superior kind were available, or otherwise the task would have been so difficult that man would probably have resorted to some other method of shaping discs on which to set the frame of his car, though of course it is not utterly impossible that man by dint of hacking with a bronze, copper, or even a stone axe, could have managed to rough-hew a pair of solid wheels con- nected by an axletree out of a tree-truuk. But as such wheels could never have been of practical use for war-chariots, and the Libyans, who had never any ox-cart, had devised for themselves long before they had metal in any quantity beautifully light chariots, in the structure of which no metal was employed, it is most unlikely that their spoked wheels were evolved from an antecedent block wheel. In the Florentine chariot the wheels are four-spoked and are 38 inches in diameter, both felloe and spokes being made of rods about one and a half inches in diameter. The spokes fit into a hollow hub formed of a wooden cylinder about nine inches long, with fairly thick walls through which the axle runs. The whole structure of this chariot is that of wicker and meshwork (p. 225). It is therefore far more probable that the spoked wheel was an adapta- tion from a circular piece of wicker-work, such as might be used for a shield or for some other purpose. The simplest form of such a circular frame consists of a rim strengthened and kept in shape by two other rods crossing each other at right-angles, thus forming four radii or spokes. The four-spoked wheel is found in the oldest representations of the chariot in Egypt, in Crete, Cyprus, and on the mainland of Greece. That it was considered by the Greeks the most ancient form of wheel is shown by the fact that in the myth of Ixion that miscreant is represented as bound to a four-spoked wheel. As the wheels of the Florentine chariot revolve on the axle, there is no reason to believe that such wheels only came into existence after a long period during which block wheels fixed to the axle had been in continuous use. We may reasonably conclude that the light war-chariot was invented long before the ox-cart or mule- V] THE DEVELOPMENT OF EQUITATION 491 cart, and that so far from the spoked wheel having been evolved from the block wheel, the converse is really the case. In the tomb of the father and mother of queen Teie, the wife of Amon-hotep III and the mother of Amon-hotep IV, Mr Theodore M. Davis has just found a pleasure chariot broad enough to hold two persons, richl}^ painted and encrusted with gold. The leather work belonging to it is still as fresh as when it was first made. It is fitted with six-spoked wheels still covered with their wooden tires \ This fresh discovery shows that the conjecture of Mr Carter and Mr Newberry that the wheels of the chariot of Thothmes IV had been fitted with metal tires is wrong. There is no reason now to doubt that it, like the newly discovered chariot and that at Florence, had no metal shoeing on its wheels. We have seen that the mule-cart in Homer is fitted Avith wheels of lightness and elegance, and there is really nothing to distinguish them from those of the chariot. We have a full description of the Achean chariot in the Iliad, for we cannot doubt that the chariot of the goddess Hera is a faithful copy of those used by her worshippers, save that the car of the immortals is represented as being made of precious metals. " So Hera the goddess queen, daughter of great Cronos, went her way to harness the gold-frontleted steeds ; and Hebe quickly put to the car (ochos) the curved wheels of bronze, eight-spoked, upon their axletree of iron. Golden is their felloe, imperishable, and tires of bronze are fitted there- over, a marvel to look upon ; and the naves are of silver, to turn about on either side. And the body of the car (dij^hros) is plaited tight with gold and silver straps, and two rails (antux) run round about it. And a silver pole stood out therefrom ; upon the end she bound the fair golden yoke, and set thereon the fair breast-straps of gold, and Hera led beneath the yoke the horses, fleet of foot, and hungered for strife and the battle- cryl" This description when compared with actual specimens found in Egypt gives us a very clear view of the structure of the chariot, the plaiting with straps of gold and silver at once 1 Times, 10 March, 1905. 2 ji y 721 sqq. 492 THE DEVELOPMENT OF EQUITATION [CH. recalling the floor of the Egyptian chariots with their plaited leather meshwork (p. 22o) in which we may recognise the first step towards leathern springs. The Harness. The elaborate account of the harnessing of Priam's mules above cited when taken in conjunction with other passages in Homer, with the harness found in the tomb of Thothmes IV, and representations of Egyptian chariots (Fig. 68), with the description of the Assyrian chariot-harness (pp. 195-196), with the Hittite (Fig. 67), with the Persian (Fig. 61), and with numerous representations of Greek chariots in classical times, enables us to form a clear idea of the nature of the harness used in early times and the method of attaching the horses to the car. Whilst the harness seen on the monument of Seti I and found in the tomb of Thothmes IV belongs to a date anterior to Homer, that seen on the Assyrian monuments falls several centuries after that period. It is therefore but natural to find that whilst the Egyptian and Homeric horses are attached only by breast-straps, the Assyrian have also elaborate body bands which maybe taken as the forerunners of the saddle or straddle of modern harness. The Rein-rings. Attached to the yoke of the Florentine chariot (Fig. 69) are seen two Y-shaped objects, which must have hung down from the yoke or some other part of the harness or chariot. They are of wood, and the arms of each are pierced with holes near the extremity. The height of the whole is seven inches, the width from hole to hole not being more than four inches, and the tail ends in a large round bone stud, one and a half inches in diameter, which shows that the object was not meant to be inserted into a hole in any part of the yoke or chariot. They cannot have been collars (as com- monly supposed) to rest on any part of the horses' necks, for they are obviously too small for that purpose, and are quite different from the actual collars found in the tomb of Thothmes IV figured in Mr Davis's publication (p. 227). Associated with the pairs of bronze bits not unfrequently found in Ireland are usually pairs of spur-shaped bronze objects (Figs. 138, 139). ^] THE DEVELOPMENT OF EQUITATION 493 Each of the specimens here shown (Figs. 138, 139) is one of a pair found along with the pairs of bronze bits, examples of which are given (p. 98, Fig. 45). These objects could not have stood upright on the yoke or anything else, for the two arms are neatly rounded off (see Fig. 138 b, where an end is shown in detail): again, the tail could not have been inserted into a hole in the yoke or anything else, for in both the examples Fig. 138. Ancient Irish Eein-ring (all-dual) ? figured the end is ornamented, more especially in Fig. 138, where, as will be seen (Fig. 138 a), it is beautifully ornamented in the ' late Celtic ' style, as are also the ends of both arms, one of which, as already stated, is shown in detail (Fig. 138 b). As this curious piece of metal work could not have stood up on either end, and as neither end was meant to be inserted into any other object, clearly these mysterious implements were suspended with the tail hanging free, as is demonstrated by the 494 THE DEVELOPMENT OF EQUITATION [CH. fact that the extremities of the two arras are always furnished with means of suspension. Some are perforated close to the extremity (Fig. 138 b), as if meant to be suspended. In most specimens, however (as in Fig. 139), there is a groove on the inside of the upper portion of each arm extending for some distance, and this groove is crossed a little below the end by a bronze loop (Fig. 139 b) which could be slipped on a hook, thus enabling the whole to be attached to*the lower side of some object such as the yoke. In specimens of the second class where the loop has been accidentally broken off, its place has been supplied by a hole bored right through, which is plainly meant to admit the passage of a hook. When once the hooks fastened into the under side of the yoke were slipped through the loops or holes in the extremities of the spur-shaped objects they could not easily jump off. The analogy between these Irish bronzes and the primitive wooden pair found along with the Florentine chariot is very close, and they would both seem to have fulfilled a like function. We may take it that the harness of the Homeric mule-car was practically identical with that of the Homeric chariot, for otherwise the harness of Priam's chariot would probably have been described. Now, we are told that the yoke was 'well- fitted' with oiekes, literally 'steerers,' which are explained by the ancients themselves as "a kind of rings through which the reins were passed." This fact shows that from very early times it was found necessary to have some kind of rings attached to some part of the harness through which the reins might be passed, and thus kept them in place and free from entanglement with the horses' manes, and give more power to the charioteer. The reins in the Assyrian chariot seem to have passed through some such contrivance fastened to the under-side of the yoke (Fig. 62). In the Egyptian, Mycenean, Hittite, and Assyrian chariot the yoke, as was the case in Homer, was the only part to which such 'steering-rings' could be attached, though the reins might have been passed under a strap going round the horse's body, as is the case on the monument of Seti I (Fig. 68). As apparently no such rings were ever fitted into the yoke of the Florentine chariot, any such contrivance for guiding the ^] THE DEVELOPMENT OF EQUITATION 495 reins must have been either suspended from the yoke or attached to it by strings. The two Y-shaped objects were probably suspended from the yoke, much as they are at present (Fig. 69), and through them the reins were passed and kept in their place. The more elaborate bronze objects found in Ireland probably served a like purpose, for as already argued they must certainly Fig. 139. Ancient Irish Eein-ring (aZ^dua?) ? have hung down. This view can be supported from the oldest Irish texts — in these the name for reins is all : thus Laeghaire Buadach's chariot "had two pliable beautiful alls," and it had likewise "two rich yellow all-dualach," literally, "two rich yellow rein-loops," or " rein-rings." Dr Sullivan thought that these rings were on a straddle, but as it is very unlikely that the Irish chariot-horses wore straddles, it is far more 496 THE DEVELOPMENT OF EQUITATION [CH. probable that the all-dualach were attached in some way to the yoke, as was the case with the Homeric steerers. We may therefore conclude that the curious wooden objects on the Florentine yoke were really a primitive contrivance for keeping the reins in place, and that the Irish implements are simply more elaborate forms of the same type. The Scythed Chariot. The addition of scythes probably prolonged the use of the chariot for \var, as such " scythe-bear- ing chariots " became a formidable arm when driven against bodies of footmen. Thus, although owing to 'villainous salt- petre' the medieval knight with lance in rest has long departed, nevertheless lancer regiments still linger on in the armies of modern Europe, partly as a survival, and partly because they are found useful in certain conditions of modern warfare. Certainly, whenever we hear of the employment of war- chariots at a late period they are usually described as 'scythe- bearing.' The chariots used by the Persians at the battle of Cunaxa were so equipped, and chariots still more elaborately armed were employed in Syria at a much later date. Thus in the great battle between Eumenes of Pergamus and Antiochus of Syria, the latter placed in the front of his line four-horse chariots, furnished both with scythes and spears. Spears fastened round the pole projected like horns ten cubits in front of the yoke to transfix everything that came in the way ; two scythes were attached to each end of the yoke, one fixed on a level with the latter, the other sloping towards the ground, the former being meant to cut away every obstacle from the side, the latter to strike foes already prostrate, or endeavouring to escape by passing under the more elevated blade, whilst from each axle two other scythes extended set at different angles like those attached to the yoke. But Eumenes managed to stampede the chariot-horses of his adversary, which turned round and dashed into their own ranks, and Antiochus suddenly found his army panic-stricken and routed by the engines which he had devised for the destruction of his foes\ Doubtless such occurrences as this were always liable to 1 Livy, XXXVII. 41. V] THE DEVELOPMENT OF EQUITATION 497 occur and accordingly we hear little of scythed-chariots in the armies of the civilised peoples of the Mediterranean from this time forth. The war-chariot only lingered on among the more barbarous peoples of the north-west of Europe, and amongst the remote Libyan Phanisii, by the latter of whom also it was now furnished with scythes. Riding. When men began to ride regularly on horseback at first they sat simply on the bare back of the steed, which in Asia and Europe, as we have seen, was from the first controlled by some form of bit, though the Libyan used at most but a noseband. The Greeks of the fifth century paid great attention to the shape of the bit, as is made clear by the elaborate directions respecting it given by Xenophou ^ The Horse-cloth. The first step towards a saddle was naturally some kind of cloth placed on the horse's back for the greater comfort of the rider. The Assyrians had already made this first advance by the eighth century B.C. (Fig, G4), and it was certainly known to the Greek settlers in Egypt by B.C. 600 (Fig. 72), whilst it had become a fully recognised part of the equipment of the Greek and Macedonian horse-soldier (Fig. 87) by the beginning of the fourth century B.C., if not earlier. The earliest literary testimony is that of Antiphanes^ the comic poet, who began to exhibit plays in 387 B.C., and his contemporary Xenophon^ The former speaks of "the coverlet for a horse." But bare-backed riding was still regularly practised, as we know from the latter writer^, and apparently the jockeys in the races at the great festivals of Greece rode bare-backed (Fig. 86), as is the case in Mongolian horse-races held at temple feasts at the present hour (p. 139). The cloth known as an ephippion (horse-cover) had come into universal use amongst the Romans by the time of Caesar (cf p. 114), though the German tribes considered it disgraceful and a mark of laziness to use it, and were always ready, riding ^ De re equestri, 10, 6. 2 Meineke, Com. Fragm., iii. p. 3, to ecpiTr-mou aTpQ/xa. 3 Eq. VII. 5, TO eipiinriov. * loc. cit. R. H. 32 498 THE DEVELOPMENT OF EQUITATION [CH. - bare-backed, to attack any number of cavalry so equipped (ephippiati ^). The Saddle. It seems certain that attempts to make the horse-cloth more comfortable for the rider were made from time to time, and that it was gradually turned into a sort of pad. This is the stage in which the Arab who rides on a cotton pad and without stirrups still remains. Although there is a well-known representation of a Scythian saddle closely resembling the modern type, there is no evidence for the existence in the Roman empire of a saddle with a regular tree until the fourth century A.D., when on the column of Theodosius (a.d. 380) the true saddle with bow behind and before appears for the first time, and it is seen placed over the old horse-cloth from which it had been itself evolved. Henceforth it is known as the cJiai?' (Latin sella, whence French selle). The Stirrup. Although objects which might be taken for stirrup-leathers are seen attached to the Scythian saddle mentioned above and to a Roman ephippium on a coin of Labienus, stirrups (staffae, stapides) are not mentioned in literature till about A.D. 600. It is significant that there is no native word in either Greek or Latin for the stirrup, and the names for it in French as well as in English are of Teutonic origin. The English stirrup is simply a contracted form of Early English, stige-rap (from stigan = ' to mount,' and rap — 'rope'), i.e. ' mounting-rope.' Again, the French etrier is from the Old High German estrifa (modern Germ. st7'eif= Engl, strip), a strap of leather. The original form was estrivier, the v of which survives in etriviere, the stirrup-leather. This evidence, taken in combination with that of the Scythian saddle and the coin of Labienus, makes it fairly clear that the first stage in the development of the stirrup was the attachment of a rope or a strap of leather to the riding-pad to assist the ^ Ephippium is glossed by Nonius as " tegimen equi ad mollem vecturam paratum"; cf. Horace, Ep. i. 14, 43, "optat ephippia bos piger, optat araie caballus." In the Digest stragula is used for a horse-cloth (cf. Martial, xiv. 86: ' stragulum veredi '), V] THE DEVELOPMENT OF EQUITATION 499 rider to mount. The Germanic origin of the names for the stirrup and the known difficulty in mounting on horseback and retaining the seat when mounted experienced not by the Germans of the south and west, whom Caesar knew, but by those of the north-west such as the Angles and their immediate kindred (p. 353), clearly indicate that the stirrup was the inven- tion of the large-limbed heavy-built Teutonic tribes of the Lower Rhine and the contiguous region, from whence it gradually spread southwards and eastwards along with the con- FiG. 140. Persian Stirrup (bronze inlaid with silver; 15th century). quests of the Franks. The next stage was to attach to the strap or rope a piece of metal in which the foot might rest more comfortably and securely. This stage can be clearly seen at the present day in Abyssinia, where the stirrup-leather and stirrup consist of a rope and a metal ring just large enough to receive the great toe. The next step would be to insert the whole of the bare foot in a larger ring. A reminiscence of this step can be seen in medieval Persian stirrups, which are formed of a circular piece of bronze with a plate for the foot shaped and ornamented to resemble a naked foot, as is 32—2 500 THE DEVELOPMENT OF EQUITATION [CH. the case in a pair dating from the fifteenth century from Gwalior in my own possession (Fig. 140). The Spur. The Greeks of classical times do not appear Fig. 141. Prick-spurs. 1. Ancient Eoman. 2. Xorman spur, Castle Jordan, Co. Westmeath. 3. Norman spur. 4. Tuddenliam Eiver, Suffolk. 5. Medieval English spur. to have used the spur. Xenophon certainly does not mention it as part of the horseman's equipment, although he recomends the use of top-boots. But it seems to be indicated on the foot V] THE DEVELOPMENT OF EQUITATION 501 of an Amazon seen on a Greek vase dating from the century (4th B.C.) in which Xenophon lived. Bronze spurs have indeed been found at Dodona, but they probably belong to a com- paratively late period. The Romans used spurs from at least B.C. 200, and probably much earlier, for there are constant references to them in litera- ture from Plautus (B.C. 200) downwards, and many specimens are extant (Fig. 141, no. 1). They are all prick-spurs, a form which continued in use everywhere in Europe down to at least the thirteenth century. Thus the Norman prick-spur from Castle Jordan, Co. Westmeath (Fig. 141, no. 2), must be later than Fig. 142. 1. Medieval Eowel-spur. 2. Fifteenth Century Rowel-spur. the Norman conquest of Ireland (1172), as the native Irish rode in their bare feet. I here figure various forms of the prick-spur, three of which are from the fine collection of Mr W. B. Redfern, one (no. 2) from the Murray Collection in the Cambridge Archaeological Museum, whilst no. 4 is a fragment (iron) found in Tuddenham River, Suffolk, now in my own possession. It was gradually felt that the prick-spur was too severe, and Fig. 141, no. 5, shows the fir.st step taken towards a less severe type, as the prick is now prevented by a sort of rosette from furrowing too deeply the horse's flank. It was no great step from this form to the rowel-.spur, which has continued in use ever since (Fig. 142)^ The great 1 Both these specimens are in Mr W. B. Redfern's fine collection. 502 THE DEVELOPMENT OF EQUITATION [CH. development of horse-armour in the fifteenth century rendered it necessary to elongate to an extraordinary degree the heel of the spur (Fig. 142, no. 2), in order that the rider might be able to reach the unprotected lower part of the horse's body. But with the disappearance of horse-armour the heel soon shrank to the proportions which it has practically retained ever since. The Horse-shoe. It was maintained in the sixteenth century by the famous Gesner that horse-shoes fixed on with iron nails were not employed down to the time of Vegetius {circa a.d. 380). There is indeed clear evidence that the Romans in the first century B.C. did place some kind of shoes on oxen and mules, for Columella speaks of hempen shoes (soleae sparteae) being used for oxen, while Catullus alludes to a mule losing its shoe (solea) in the mud. But it is almost certain that the shoe was a slipper made of hemp or leather tied on the animal's foot, just like the boots placed on horses employed to draw mowing machines on large lawns. In the first century after Christ Nero, who travelled with a train of one thousand carts, had his mules shod with silver soleae, whilst his wife, Poppaea, outdid him by having her mules fitted with shoes of gold. It is probable that the silver and golden shoes were simply leather slippers such as those just referred to, the upper portions of which were covered with plates of precious metal, but it is possible that soleae made altogether of metal may have been used, and that the golden and silver shoes just mentioned may have been all of metal, something like those shown in Fig. 143, nos. 5 and 6. Such a type ought certainly to be the first step in advancing to metal from the hempen or leathern slipper. But as such a metal shoe would not give a secure foothold for the animal, the next step would be to cut a portion out of the middle of the sole, thus both saving metal and giving the horse a surer footing. Once such a step was made, less and less metal would be placed under the horse's foot, until finally the shoe was nothing more than a rim of metal which was not carried round the heel. The attach- ment to the foot would then be made by nails driven through the outer part of the hoof. The later steps in this supposed evolution, as I have given it, are of course only hypothetical. J V] THE DEVELOPMENT OF EQUITATION 503 There is however no reason to doubt that iron shoes have been found in France associated with objects indicating that Fig. 143. Old English Horse-shoes. they were in use during the Roman period, and certain horse- shoes remarkable for their small size, narrowness, and vvavy 504 THE DEVELOPMENT OF EQUITATION [CH. outside margin (produced by the stamping of the nail-holes, in which process the iron bulged out along the edge) may be assigned to that age. There are also small iron horse-shoes found at Silchester which certainly must have been used during the Roman occupation of this island. It is probable that the practice of employing some kind of protection for the feet of mules and horses in Italy and elsewhere in Roman times was due to the great paved roads which formed the high- ways of the Empire, and along which the public post-horses were constantly passing. But it must still remain an open question whether the iron horse-shoe was invented in Italy, or in some other southern land, or north of the Alps among the Celts in the regions where iron had probably first been systematically worked and used by that people. As the Angles had no horses when they came to Britain it is most unlikely that they brought any peculiar shape of horse-shoe, and Prof. McKenny Hughes is probably quite right in main- taining that many ancient horse-shoes found in England and commonly denominated Saxon, belong to a pei'iod posterior to the Norman Conquests But it is probable that although the shoeing of horses has been continuously practised in this island from the Roman period downwards, the majority of horses in medieval England went barefooted, as was the case not only over most of the world in medieval times, but is still universal among Arabs, Tartars, Gauchos of the Pampas, and in the Western States of America. Ornaments. As man attached to his own person certain objects for protection and decoration, so he not unnaturally treated his horse in the same fashion. We have seen tassels on the Assyrian horses, which of course may have been simply ornaments, but in the light of what we know of such ap- pendages to the harness of horses, asses, and camels in modern times, it is much more likely that they were some form of 1 "On Ancient Horse-shoes," Proe. of Cambridge Antiquarian Society, Vol. X. pp. 249-58 (with a plate of illustrations, for the use of which in this work I am indebted to my friend Prof. Hughes, and the Council of the Cambridge Antiquarian Society). V] THE DEVELOPMENT OF EQUITATION 505 amulet. I have elsewhere tried to show that jewellery and all ornament originated not in aesthetic but in magic, and that probably holds true to a large degree of the ornaments on horse-harness. The modern Italian attaches a piece of badger's hair or a tooth to his horse's bridle in order to avert evil. The ancient Italian used a piece of wolf-skin or a wolf's tooth for the like purpose. The modern Greek places an elaborate amulet to his horse's neck; the modern Kabyles of Kairwan hang round their asses' necks a thick woollen cord (purple and white), to which is attached two triangular amulets covered with purple velvet, embroidered with imitation Arabic writing in gold thread, and having a small round bvitton between them ; whilst the Arab regularly fortifies his camel against ill luck by an amulet attached to its neck. It is therefore not un- likely that the tassel attached to our modern cavalry bridle may be a survival of some such amulet, whilst, as has been already pointed out by others, the brass ornaments on the blinkers of our dray-horses may be survivals of similar protective charms. At the same time it must be borne in mind that our draught-horses are the descendants of the medieval war-horses, who not unfrequently had ornaments attached to their bridles consisting of their owners' arms on a small shield. The pieces of brass on the blinkers of modern draught-horses, with their conventional ornament, may in part at least be only debased imitations of medieval heraldic decorations. ADDENDA ET CORRIGENDA. P. 58. I here add a summary of the facts about the Abyssinian zebra collected by Job Ludolphus to which attention was first called by Mr Edward Bidwell {Field and P.Z.S., 1901, ii. 2), and which were printed very fully by Mr H. Scherren in the Field (March 4, 1905). Job Ludolphus summarised the information collected by the Jesuits concerning the Abyssinian zebra in his Historia Aethiopica (1681). In his Cominentarius (1691) he added much interesting matter, some of which he gleaned from Abyssinians, whom he met at Rome while collecting material for his Aethiopic Grammar and Lexicon, and perhaps from some of the Jesuit fathers. In his Commentarius he deplores the fact that on account of its large head and long ears this beautiful creature should be called an ass, by people ignorant of its proper name — that is as stated in the Historia (i. 10), zecora in Abyssinia, and on the Congo zebra. Then he quotes Philostorgius, an ecclesiastical writer (circ. 385-425), to the effect that the country produces very large wild asses, black and white, not spotted but zoned from the spine on to the sides and belly. Jacobus Gothofredus, who annotated Philostorgius, thought these were onagroi, wild asses of the Western Asiatic race, adding that no one else had so described their coloiation. Ludolphus points out that Philostorgius does not use the ordinary Greek name onagroi, but onoi agrioi (and insists on their size). ' This animal,' he says, " was not unknown at Rome, whither all wonderful things were sent," thus anticipating Mr Lydekker's suggestion {Royal Natural History, li. 505), that the hippotigris of the Roman circus was an Abyssinian zebra. He also suggests that it was confused with the onager by those who had not seen that species or that it was called onager because people did not know its real name. Martial (xiii. 101) is cited and due stress is laid on the epithet 'beautiful' ADDENDA ET CORRIGENDA 507 applied by that author to the beast. Once more he deprecates its being called an ass and says that the ears by which it is disfigured might be cropped as is done in Germany with horses that have very long ears. " And it has a horse-like head somewhat too long, as I have seen here {quod hie vidi)." Father Tellez in a report to the Superior at Rome speaks of the beauty of the animal, the equal width of the stripes, which seem to form curves on the flank "as the picture will show you better than any description could do." Ludolphus may have used this picture for the illustration in his Commentarius reproduced by Mr Scherren in the Field (March 4, 1905, p. 375). Though the animal in Ludolphus' plate differs in many important respects from Grevy's zebra, there can, as Mr Scherren maintains, be no doubt that it was intended for that species. Ludolphus lays stress on three characteristics — its great size, for in the Historia he says that it was as big as a mule, its equine head, and its long ears. The animal in the plate more nearly resembles a Grevy zebra than does that figured by Pigafetta resemble any -v-ariety of the Burchell zebra, for one of which it was undoubtedly meant. These Abyssinian zebras even reached Japan, for Ludolphus learned from one Emmanuel Nawendorff, a native of Altenbnrg, resident in Batavia, that King As-saghedus sent some to the Governor of the Dutch East India Company at Batavia, who in his turn pre- sented them to the Emperor of Japan. In return the emperor sent 10,000 silver taels and thirty Japanese dresses, so, as Nawendorff says, they were amply paid for. One specimen at least had reached Europe alive before the time when Ludolphus wrote, for a French writer had seen the animal alive at Constantinople. He said that among other gifts brought by the Abyssinian envoy to the Grand Seigneur was an ass with a very beautiful skin, if indeed it were natural. This however he declined to vouch for, not having examined the animal, but he noted the more than ass-like size, the large head, long ears, and the regularity of the stripes "of the breadth of a finger," though he called the dark stripes chestnut-brown instead of black. Tellez also thought that he detected a reddish tinge in them. Ludolphus suggests that the discrepancy might be due to the differences of age or perhaps to geographical distribution (vel pro diversitate regionum diversos habeat colores). The Abyssinian envoy had started with three zebras as gifts for the Sultan, but two died on the way. These were flayed and the skins were presented 508 ADDENDA ET CORRIGENDA with the survivor to the Grand Seigneur. Ludolphus was quite right in his suororestine that the difference in coloration was due to difference environment, for (as stated above, p. 58 n.) the Somali race of E. grevyi has the ground colour pale brown or ochre with chocolate stripes. P. 64. Ward's Zebra. This sub-species, named after Mr Ward by Prof. Ewart, " is found in the vicinity of Lake Nakuro to the north of the Lombori Hills not far from Naivashi and the Uganda Railway. In its long ears, narrow hoofs, and gridiron it approaches the mountain zebra, and it is practically the mountain zebra of the Naivashi plateau." Prof. Ewart (who has kindly supplied me with this note) will shortly publish a full paper. Equus Foai. Mr Pocock has kindly furnished me with the following very complete note on this most important sub-species. EQUUS FOAI. Prazak and Trouessart, Bull. Mus. d'Hist. Nat., Paris, v. pp. 350-354, 1899. Ground colour ochre yellow ; of belly white. Stripes black, narrow and numerous, those on tlie body meeting the mid-central line. Legs completely striped externally and internally to the fetlocks ; pasterns black. Muzzle deep chestnut-brown, without yellowish tan colour above the nostrils. On the neck thirteen stripes cross the mane between the ear and the shoulder stripe. Behind the shoulder stripe there are from 8 to 10 complete vertical stripes, with their dorsal extremities at right angles to the spinal stripe, which is in contact with only the first and second of these (1 to 9). The last body stripe with its dorsal end turned obliquely backward on to the croup and running parallel with the spinal stripe towards the root of the tail. The hind-quarters from the croup down to a point in a line with the belly, marked with about 9 obliquely longitudinal stripes. The upper two are united by 7 or 8 very short transverse stripes like the so-called gridiron of Crawshay's zebra. The anterior extremities of the upper 2 or 3 meet the last body stripe ; but none extend for more thtin a few inches beyond the haunch on to the body. There are no " shadow stripes." The spinal stripe is narrow behind the withers but expands on the croup to 4 or 5 cm. Except for a short distance behind the withers it is isolated from the body and croup stripes throughout its length. Tail striped, its tuft black. Ears with ADDENDA ET CORRIGENDA 509 basal and subterminal black patch, the extreme tip white. Chestnuts small, somewhat as in E. grevyi. Loc. Mountainous country opposite Tete on the north bank of the Lower Zambesi. Differs from all the races of E. burchelli in the presence of a much greater number of principal stripes upon the body and hind- quarters and in the fact that the dorsal extremities of all the body stripes with the exception of the last do not bend obliquely back- wards towards the croup but are approximately at right angles to the spinal stripe. In this particular it resembles both E. grevyi and E. zebra ; but differs from both in that on the croup, the stripes adjacent to the spinal stripe are parallel with it, and point towards the root of the tail, as in Burchelli, instead of being at right angles to it. Hence there is no "gridiron," such as is found in E. zebra; and no trace of the circular or annuliform ari'angement of the stripes round the root of the tail which is characteristic of E. grevyi. Also in the size and shape of the head and ears and in general build it approaches E. burchelli much more nearly than E. zebra or E. grevyi. P. 76. The pre-orbital pit in the skulls of Quaggas. Mr Pocock [Ann. and Mag. of Natural History, Vol. x., series 7, May, 1905, p. 516) now believes that Sir W. Flower was right in saying that no trace of the pre-orbital depression seen in the skull of Hipparion is to be found [in the adults] of any of the existing species of Equidae. The dissection of the skulls of horses slaughtered in the Garden has shown that the depression is sometimes present but more often absent : it exhibits indeed every gradation between a hollow perceptible to the eye and touch and a perfectly flat bony surface. From this hollow or from the corresponding area of the skull arises a long muscle which passes forwards to supply the upper lip and nose; and he "believes that its sole significance is to give an increase of surface for the attachment of muscular fibres." He therefore thinks that this pit never contained a gland, though the large depression in the skull of Hippariou was probably not for muscular attachment but for a gland as hitherto supposed. Ono- hippidiurn has a pit even larger than that of IJipparion and it lies higher on the face, in correlation with the extremely elevated fronto-nasal region of the skull, but in two casts of the skull of Onohippidiuni there may be noticed a little below and in front of the orbit an additional quite shallow depression, forcibly recalling 510 ADDENDA ET CORRIGENDA both in position and development the pre-orbital muscular de- pression that exists in some skulls of recent Equidae. Mr Pocock points out that in the Museum of the Royal College of Surgeons there are skulls of two stallion quaggas and in neither of them is a trace of the depression perceptible. P. 97. British Chariots. There are the remains of two chariots in the British Museum, and Mr R. A. Smith, of the Department of Prehistoric British and Medieval Antiquities and Ethnography, has kindly given me the following measurements of their tires. 1. Arras (Green well, British Barroivs, p. 455). These are in diameter 2 feet 10 inches; in width 1| inches. 2. Beverley (British Barroivs, p. 456). The tires are in diameter 2 feet 8-9 inches, and in width 1| inches. P. 100. Mr R. A. Smith has kindly given me the measurements of the tires of a Gaulish chariot from Somme Bionne now in the British Museum (Morel, La Chamjxigne Souterraine, p. 29). The tires are 36 inches in diameter, and in width one and one-fifth inch. Canon Greenwell's measurements for the Arras specimen are not quite the same, but rust and distortion render any measurements merely approximate. P. 218. No representations of Egyptians on horse- back. Though no Egyptians are ever seen on horseback my friend Dr Garstang has just called my attention to the fact that on the outer North Wall at Karnak, which has been lately cleaned by Mr Legrain for the Egyptian Government, in the picture of Seti I that monarch is seen in pursuit of the " vile Kheta " (Hittites). He himself is in his chariot (cf. p. 217), but some of his fleeing enemies are riding on horseback. It does not of course follow that because fugitives are seen on horseback they habitually rode, for in their flight they might well cut loose the horses from the chariots, and leap on their backs as did Odysseus and Diomede after the capture of the steeds of Rhesus (p. 109). It is quite possible, as I have said, that some of the Asiatic peoples who kept horses may have ridden on horseback from the first, but as the Hittites were using - war-chariots several centuries later than the time of Seti I (cf. p. 215), it is not very probable that they habitually rode on horseback in the time of that king. P. 236. With reference to my argument that the xviith and xviiith dynasties were Libyan in origin, my friend Mr F. W. Green ADDENDA ET CORRIGENDA 511 points out that it gains support from the fact that the worship of Amraon, whose name appears in the names of various kings of the New Empire, rises into special prominence under those dynasties. For there was not only the great oracle of Ammon in the Oasis of Siwa (p. 239), but there was also a shrine of that god in the Great Oasis. Now, as the Libyans regarded the shrine in the Oasis of Siwa with special veneration, it is not at all likely that it was simply established there for the first time by an Egyptian king, and it is not more probable that the cult of Ammon was not native in the Great Oasis and had only been established by an Egyptian monarch at a later period. The fact that Ammon seems especially the god of horses under the New Empire is not without significance. The Libyan god would naturally be the patron of the Libyan horse. Accordingly, just as the names of its kings are compounded with the name of Ammon, so too were those of the royal horses, e.g. "Ammon bestows strength," and "Ammon entrusts him with victory" (p. 218). P. 239. For "Oasis of Suva" read " Oasis of Siwa." Pp. 265 sqq. Prof. Ewart, who during the past winter and spring has been studying the hoi'ses of the West Indies and Mexico, on his return wrote to me as follows respecting the statement of Bernal Diaz which I have cited, and my conclusions respecting the horses of Spain and those brought by the Spaniards to the West Indies and Mexico : " I have seen hundreds of horses, many most interesting. Towards the south of Mexico, especially in the Mitla region, a very considerable percentage of the horses are without ergots and hind chestnuts, or have them very small. In north Mexico, where American blood prevails, wartless ponies are extremely rare. In Mexico and Jamaica alike reversion seems to have been at work, producing a primeval beast suited to a warm dry climate in the one case, a warm moist climate in the other. Doubtless the reverts are a mixture of Spanisli and Libyan types. I think all the evidence I have collected may be said to support your view about a Libyan variety (or species) — a variety which has been modified in various directions by the Arabs" (May 1, 1905). "The colours are very much what Diaz noted, but the nearer the Libyan type the less the evidence of striping, the nearer the cart type the commoner the vestiges of stripes. In the south of Mexico striping was less in evidence than further north. Prof. Osborn, who went specially 512 ADDENDA ET CORRIGENDA in search of striped primeval forms, came aci'oss nothing worth photographing. In the ' Forest ' variety still found in western Ross the striping is far more complete than in any horses seen in the West Indies or Mexico" (May 24, 1905). Prof. Ewart's results will shortly be published, in Proceedings of the Royal Society of Edinburgh. P. 402. Spanish blood in the Hebrides. Prof. Ewart has supplied me with the following note from Walker's History of the Hebrides, Vol. ii. p. 160 (Edinburgh, 1808). Walker, who was Professor of Natural History in the University of Edinburgh, had visited the Highlands and Islands six times between 1760 and 1786. The Spanish blood was introduced by Clanranald, who on returning from Spain a short time before he was killed in 1715 at the battle of Sheriffmuir " brought with him some Spanish horses, which he settled in his principal island of South Uist." These in a con- siderable degree altered and improved the horses in that and the adjacent islands. Even in the year 1764 not only the form but the cool, fearless temper of the Spanish horse could be discerned in the horses of that island. These at the time both in figure and disposition were the best horses observed in the Highlands, and though of low stature were judged more valuable than any other horses of the same size. As the Spanish horses brought by Clanranald exercised such an important effect on the ponies of the Hebrides and Highlands, and as their descendants are recognized in modern Hebridean ponies of the ' Celtic ' type (lacking hock callosities and having no ergots or very small ones), but which are black in colour, such as that figured on p. 22, and in view of the fact lately ascertained by Prof. Ewart (p. 511) that the horses of Libyan type brought to Southern Mexico by the Spaniards frequently lack hock chestnuts and ergots, we are still further justified in holding (1) that black ponies such as that driven by Cuchulainn, the black Irish Hobbies of medieval times, and the black Connemara ponies of to-day are descended from Libyan blood derived through Spain and Gaul before the Christian era, and (2) that the absence of hock callosities in the ponies of the ' Celtic ' type is certainly due in a large part to the presence of this African blood. INDEX. Aahmes I, 215 Abdul Kadir, 167, 206 Abeyan strain, 169 Abraham, had no horses, 204 Abyssinia, ass of, 52 Acarnania, horses of, 302 Achaia, tombs in, 293 Achean horses, dun-coloured, 110 Acheans, 110, 251, 289; horses of, 285; use bits, 473 Achen, Sultans of, 142; kept high- class horses, 142 Achilles, 218, 294; horses of, 110 Adamnan, abbot, 418 Aden, horses exported from, 147 Adham (colour), black and brown, 178 Adhils, king of Sweden, his horses, 118 Adrastus, first of the Danaans to drive a chariot, 286 ; his horse Arion, 285 Adustion, 372 Aediles, 307 Aelian, account of horse, and ele- phant, 153; describes Indian horses, lb.; on Venetian horses, 104 Aelius Gallus, expedition into Arabia, 213 Aeneas, horses of, 290 Aeschylus, 199 Aetna, city of, 296 Aetnaean steed, 296 Aetolia, horses of, 302 Afghanistan, horses of, 447 Africa, horses of, 184 African, blood, 373; horses, 312 Agamemnon, 112 Agasse, his drawing of Lord Morton's quagga, 77 Ageladas, the sculptor, 295 Agher, Co. Westmeath, 413 Agricultural Society, Eoyal, 386 Agriculture, Irish Department of, 405 Agrigentum, white horses at, 105 Ahmar, bay, 177 ; denotes a European, 178 Alba, 393 Albino horses, 142 Alby Hall, 384 R. H. Aleppo, 176, 384; Darley Arabian obtained there, 188 Alexander the Great, 153, 253, 306; his political genius, 220 Alexandria, 220; its library, 220 Ali, his charger, Egyptian in origin, 212 Ahx, 342 Al-Khamseh, 205, 381; names of, 166; origin of, 167; original stock, still in North Africa, 207 ; strains freely mixed, 170 ; sub-strains of, ib. ; colours of, ib. ; the strains of, 165 ; unknown in North Africa, 247 Almaine, the, 337; High, 377 Alsace, horses of, 325 Altai Mountains, 27, 135 Altamira, cave of, 87 Alvarado, 269; joins Cortes, 269 Alzada, of Pampas, 262 Amasis, 244 Amazon, 384 Ambacti, of Gauls, 317 Amblere, 359 Amblers, Celdones and Asturcones, 258 America, 4; fossil horses of, 8; North, feral horses of, 440 ; horses of, 265 ; South, horses of, 261, 271 American, thoroughbreds, 385; trot- ting horse, 464 Ammon, oasis of, 239, 511; shrine of, 222; temple of, 238 Anatolia, horses of, 188 Anazah, 169; horses so called, in Syria, 182; stallions most prized, 183; tribes, 161; their migration, 161 ; occasionally have black horses, 177 Anchises, horses of, 290; mares of, 291 Anchitherium, 6 Anchorites, Irish, 418 Andalusia, horses of, 258, 259, 323, 387 ; colours of, 257-8 Andalusian type, supposed in Conne- mara, 403 Angles, 334, 335; begin to ride, 330; not able to ride, 353 33 514 INDEX Angli, 329, 335, 353 Anglo-Norman horses, 324 Angola, 59; zebra of, 55 Annandale, Mr N., 21 Antilles, horses from, 269 Antimachus, 286 Antimony, 165 Apis, 222 Apocalypse, horses of, 209 Apollo, 286 Apulia, horses of, 308 Aquitania, 332 Arab, blood, 142; merchants, 151; honesty in horse-dealing, 177; horse, 5; horses, 161, 344; in Irak, 161; of coarse type, have large hock callosities, 250, probably cross-bred, ih.; spoiled by crossing, 175; strains inferior, 173; three kinds of, 168; with large hock callosities, 38; with large under-lip, 38 Arabia, 145; horses exported from, 148; its description, 200; no horses, 201; no mules, ib.; no swine, ih.; no wild horses in, 165; three kinds of horses in, 161; Central, 161; lack of food in, ih. ; Peninsula of, never had wild horses, 207; Turkish, horses of, 182; sent to India and Constantinoi^le, 182 Arabian, 163, 381 ; Darley, 382 ; Mark- ham, 364, 378; horse, 164; defini- tion of, 161; described, 171, 180; differs from Iraki stallion, 180 ; horses, colours of, 177-9; height of, 173; inferior strains of, 173; in Irak, Syria, etc., 180 Arabs, Auazah tribes of, 161; con- quests of, 213 ; do not contribute horses to Xerxes' host, 198 ; in Su- matra, 145 ; method of tracing pedi- gree, 187 ; predilection for white or grey horses from religious mo- tives, 186 ; supply camel corps to Xerxes, 199 ; their conquests due to the acquisition of the horse, 213; truth of, 168; reluctant to sell mares, ih.; tribes of interior deserts, 164 Araxes, river, 129 Arbela, battle of, 304 Arblast, 140 Arcadia, horses of, 301 Arcelin, M., 83 Arcesilas, 253 Archers, horse, 194, 196; Scythians, 482 Arches, on forehead, 445, 452 Archipelago, Indian, horses in, 144; Islam in, 145; horses not indigenous in, 145 Aretas, Nabataean king, 202 Argolis, 285 ; horses of, 302 Ariege, horses of, 323, 398 Arion, the horse of Adrastus, 285 Aristophanes, 296 Aristotle, 296, 300; describes wild mules, 49 ; on horses, 188 Aries, 321; races at, 330 Armada, 402 Armagh, brooches found near, 396 Armature, of Irish, 389 Armenia, 132 ; horses of, 18, 192, 446 Armenian horses, in modern times, 193 Armour, 336, 355, 389; discarded, 306 ; horse, 132 ; not worn by Irish, 388; Persian, 188 Arras, chariot burial at, 97, 510 Arrian, 190, 400 Arrow-shooting, 117 Arrows, poisoned, 140 Aryans, drive chariots, do not ride, 151; kept horses, ib.; sacrificed horses, ib. Ashkar, chestnut, 178 Asia, horses of, 306; Central, 164; Western, horses of, 160 sqq. ; Western, origin of horses of, 188 Asia Minor, 132, 199 Asinus, 12 Ass, African, 52; differences from Asiatic, 53; Asiatic, 12; African, ih.; Somali, ih.; domestic, in Egypt, 218; hybrid, 37; hair of, ih.; hy- brids, 35, 36, 39 ; in Homeric Greece, 112; shoulder stripe of, 450; So- mali wild, 53-4; wild, 208, 476; Asiatic, habits of, 50; capture of, in Assyria, 49; domesticated by Arabs, 52 ; in Scythia, 50; not so swift as horses, 50; old stallion emasculates young ones, 50 ; west of Nile, 56 ; asses, 7, 47, 204; Asiatic, division of, 43 ; Asiatic, two species of, 52 ; domesticated, in Western India, 47; draw Indian chariots, 192; of Job, 203 ; of Persia, 149 ; sacrificed to war-god, 150; used by Carmanians, 49; wild, 43 s(/5., 202; wild, inDzun- garia, 43; wild, in Syria, 49; with horns, 56; without horns, 56; with six lumbar vertebrae, 42 Assouan, 238 Assur-bani-pal hunting, 49 Assyria, wild asses of, 49 Assyrian, empire, 230; horses, 194; horses, origin of, 198 Asturcones, 258, 388 Asturia, horses of, 258, 266 Atahualpa, the Inca king, 271 INDEX 515 Atavism, 76 Athlone, 83 Athy, priory of, burnt, 412 Atteschi, of Arabia, 161 Atymon, 98 Augeas, 251 Australia, feral horses of, 431; wild horses of, 18 Australian, race-horses, colours of, 441 ; thoroughbreds, 385 Austria, horses of, 345; ponies of, 845 Auvergne, horses of, 823 ; colour of, ib. Avaris, capital of Hyksos, 230 Avebury, Lord, horse, late in Britain, 92 Avilius Teres, the charioteer, 312 Azara, 8, 9, 125, 152, 262, 428, 434 Azov, Sea of, 126; siege of, 80 Aztec emiiire, 270 Babylonia, horses of, 161, 198 Babylonian monuments, horse on, 235 Bactrians, 157, 192 ; furnish horsemen but no chariots to Xerxes, 152; supply camels, 199 Badius, 291 Bagdad, 161, 162; horse, compared with Syrian, 186; horses of, 184; Pasha, horses of, 183 Baguals, 18, 429; Pampas horses, 262 Bai-chataine, 484 Baines, Mr, his journey, 66 Baio, 291 Balances, 210 Balas, 'bald,' 828 Balboa, 269; his death, 270 Bald-faced charger, 328 Bald Galloway, 882 Balkan, horses in, 105 Baluchistan, horses of, 159, 447 Balzano, 378 Barb, 323; crossed with Yorkshire cart-mares, 386; described, 249; Button's, 248-9, 381-2 Barbarian, 877 Barbary horses, 248, 376 Baroda, 158 Barra, ponies of, 18 Basclenses, 388 Bas-Medoc, horses of, 324 Basques, 388, 389 Basra, 167 Bas-reliefs, 194; Hittite, 215 Bateman, Mr, 92 Bath, Wife of, 859 Battak, ponies of, 141, 156 ; colours of, 141, 156; mouse-grey, 142, with dorsal stripe, ib. Battle, of Arbela, 304; of the Boyne, 418; of Crecy, 359; of Falkirk, 356-7 ; of Hastings, 354 ; of Leuctra, 300 ; of Poictiers, 338 ; of Toulouse, 332 Battus, king of Cyrene, 238 Bavaria, horses of, 344 ; their docility, ib. Bay, 193, 258, 261, 262; chief colour of Kuhailan, 174; Cleveland, 886; colour, 156, 302; colour, origin of, 434; colour of the MarkhamArabian, 378; horse, 359; horse, in Iliad, 289 ; horse, of Diomede, 291 ; horses, 173, 211, 357-8; inherent in North African stock, 187; of Kuhailan breed, 178; offspring from bay stal- lion and chestnut mares, 374 ; origin of the various terms for, 291 ; stock, of Libya, 248; the best colour, 175; with black points, 170; bays, 385; numerous in Kuhailan, 169 Bay Malton, 881 Bayeux tapestry, 354 Beards, of Mauri, 240 Becbuanaland, 59 Beddard, Mr, 5, 200 Bede, 330, 354 Bedford, Duke of, 26, 44 Bedouins, 164 Beetewk, breed of, 351 Behring's Straits, 10 Belgic tribes of Britain, 351, 393 Belgium, horses of, 341 Belisarius, 827; his charger, 327-8 Bells, on horses, 195 Benat-el-Ahwaj strain, 207 Bend Or, 159; skull of, 11, 470 Beowulf, 120, 344 Berberah, 58 Berenger, Richard, 384 ; on Godolphin Barb, 884 Berkshire, White Horse of, 353 Bernese Jura, 345 Bernie, shirt of mail, 381 Berwick, Duke of, 882 Bevan, Prof. A. A., 146 Beverley, chariot at, 510 Bhotan, 153, 156 ; ponies of, 134 Bidden, Mr Herman, 870 Bidder, Mr G. P., 283 Bidets, 824 Bidwell, Mr E., 506 ; on Abyssinian zebra, 58 Biedma, Hernandez de, 273 Bigourdan, horse, 822 Bison, 9, 428; in Paeonia, colour of, 300 Bit, Assyrian, 195; invention of, 474; not used by Arab, 176; not used by 33—2 ^516 INDEX Libyans, 472 ; bits, horse, 129, 473 ; of horn, 93 ; of bone, of bronze, ib. ; Mongolian, 139 ; not used by medie- val Irish, 389; of bronze, 98; used by Acheans, 473 ; used by Assyrians, 196 ; used for Asiatic horses, 473, 480 Black, 258; colour of Ariege horses, 323 ; found in inferior Arab strains, 173 ; not original colour, 261 ; Heb- ridean ponies, 402, 512; Highland ponies, 402, 512; horse, 346, 397; horse, syn. of Great Horse, 366; Irish ponies, 401 ; horses, 177, 210, 250, 335, 341, 342, 344, 346, 347, 357-8, 369, 397 ; as cavalry mounts, 368; come from West, 133; in France, 325 ; in Greece, 292 ; in Morocco, 248; Jelfon strain, 181; large, 335 ; not pure Al-Khamseh, 181 ; of Germany, Holland, Flan- ders, Friesland, Denmark, 331; re- sult of mixture, 186 Black Agnes, 463 Blauford, Dr, 426 Blaze, 384; on face, 327; on fore- head, 374, 465 Bleeding Childers (or Bartlett's Chil- ders), 384 Blood, 386; esteemed above all things by the Arabs, 176 Blow-fly, 9 Blundeville, Thomas, 318, 336, 371, 376 ; on colours of horse, 372-3 ; on English horse-breeding, 363; on Flemish horses, 337 ; on Friesland horse, 340; on Spanish jennet, 259, 340; on Turk horse, 189 Blunt, Lady Anne, 161, 162, 208 Blunt, Mr W. S., 162, 165, 166, 206, 445 ; doctrine of origin of Kohl breed, 207-8; on Kadish horses, 163 ; on white horses, 186 Boats, 115 Bohemia, 345 Bombay, 149 Bone-caves, of Britain and Belgium, 89 Bones, burnt, in tumulus, 399; horse, in tumulus, 398; metacarpal and metatarsal, 152 ; of horse, 84, 85 ; of horse found with his master, 354 ; of reindeer, 84 Bonte quagga, 476 Book of Kells, 390 Boots, Norman, 354 Bordeaux, 333 Boreas, sire of horses, 290 Bos, gaurus, 4; gntnniens, ii. Bosnia, ponies of, 345 Botletle, river, 66 Boudissy, a Coptic king, 56 Boulonnais, 2 Bows, 240, 481 Boyne, battle of the, 414 Bracelets, on horses, 373 Breastplates, for horses, 130, 132 Breeding, not understood by Arabs, 176 Brenda, 463 Breunus, Celtic king, 316 Breton pony, 3 Breul, M., 87 Bridegroom's gifts, 115 Bridle, 479; AssjTian, described, 195; bridles, 254 ; not used by Numidians, ib. ; made of rush, 240; Mongolian, 139 ; on Irish crosses, 390 Brigandines, 273, 274 Brighton, 'Elephant-bed' at, 11 Britain, 393; Belgic tribes of, 351; no horses in, 353 British, charioteers, 98; horses, on the Continent, 361 ; Isles, horses of, 352 Britons, use chariots, 95 Brittanj^ horses of, 324 Broncho, 264 Bronze Age, axe of, 390; stations in Switzerland, 92 Brooch, from Navan Eath, 396 ; leaf- shaped, 396; penanular, used in Ireland, 396; brooches, Gallic, 394; gold, 248; La Tene, 396; penanular, 396 Brood mares, in Thrace, 306 Brown, found in inferior Arab strains, 173; not in Al-Khamseh, 383 Brumbies, 18 Brunchorst, Dr, of Bergen, 120 Brunn, Mr Daniel, 124 ; his book, 24 Bucephalus, bred in Thessaly, 304 Bucket, at Sesto Calende, 103 Buckingham, Earl of, 379 Buckley, Mr, on Chapman's zebra, 66 Buenos Ayres, 262 Buffalo, 140 Bullock, plough, cart, 413, 414 Burchell zebra, 20, 59, 68, 445; de- scribed, 66 Burckhardt, on Arab horses, 162 Burgundian horses, 318, 344 Burgundians, 327; conquered by Franks, 329-30 Bui'ial customs, 128 Burial of horses with their masters, 128 Buriat, horseman, 135 ; women, 139 Burmese ponies, 141, 448 Burnt Njal, saga of, 122; horse-fight, 122 INDEX 517 Bussorah, dealers of, 161 Byerley, Capt., owner of the Byerley Turk, 413 Byerley Turk, 378, 382, 413 Byzantine emperors, 306 Cabul, horses of, 159 Caesar, 93, 334, 351, 393, 401 Call, city of, 148 Caledonians, 352 ; horses of, 95 Caliphs, Arab, conquests of, 214 Callimachus, 253 Callosities, 12, 14; of Prejvalsky's horse, Clydesdales and Shires, 38; scarcely perceptible on hind legs of tangums, 154; absence of, 23, 476, 511; absent in the following: — Celtic pony, 18; Connemara ponies, (6.; Faroe ponies, ib. ; Hebridean ponies, lb. ; Iceland ponies, 18, 420 ; Irish ponies, 409 ; Welsh pony, 18. Hock, 156; in hybrid, 39; on fetlocks, 12; absence of, 250; absent in North African horses, 468 ; callosity, 7 ; hock, minute on Onager iiuiiciis, 37 (cf. Chestnut and Ergot) Caltu, port of, 148 Calzeti, 374 Camargue, 399; grey, 402; of Pro- vence, 321 Camarina, horses of, 276 Camel, Bactrian, 199; -breeding, 201 ; corps, Arab, 199 ; domestication of, 200; in Egypt, ib.; statuette of, ib.; camels, 199 ; used in war, 202 ; wild, 26, 199, 202; in Lobnor, 200 Camerarius, 259, 319 Campbell, Mr C. W., 140, 426 Candace, queen of the Ethiopians, 238 Canfield, Dr, on colours of prairie horses, 265 Canoes, 273 Cantherius, meaning of, 311; its pri- mary meaning, 473 Capitau, M., 87; on supposed domes- tication of horse in Palaeolithic times, 90 Car, sacred, of Zeus, 191 Caracalla, 55 Carajan, 140 ; horses of, ib. Carian mercenaries, 243 Carmania, 47 ; asses of, 150 Carmanians, a warlike people, 49 ; saci'ifice asses to war-god, ib. Carni, 101 Carpus, 8 Cars, at Sentinum, 100 ; four-wheeled, 487 Carter, Mr Howard, finds a chariot, 227 Carthage, 239, 253, 309 Cart, Portuguese, 483; see Ox-cart Cart-horse, 355 ; with stripes, 451 ; English origin of, 372 Cart-mare, Irish, 414; Lady Douglas, 463 ; Yorkshire, 385-6 Carvings, in bone, 86 Casperians, 192 Caspians, 192 Cassius, 101 Castor, 8 Castor and Pollux, on Eoman coins, 308 ; ride white horses, 295 Castration, in England, 360; of horses, 125 ; of horses, practised by Gauchos and Pampas Indians, 125 ; practice of, 473 Catlin, 265 Cattle Eaid of Cualnge, 396 Caucasus, 126 Cauchois horse, 2 Cavalarice, of 6. Markham, 377 Cavalry, Assyrian, 196; Athenian, 298; English, 368; Macedonian, 303, 304 (described); Numidian, 310; of Celts, 316; of Goths, 329; of Macedon, 303; of Narvaez, 269; of Porus, 153 ; of Sybaris, Croton, and Tarentum, 279 ; of Thessaly, 303 ; rise of, in Greece, 292 ; Eoman, 100, 309 ; Thessalian, 301, 481 Cave-dwellers, 240 Caves, Altamira, 87 ; Chabot, Cress- well Crags, 83 ; Kent, 11 ; Kessler- loch, 86 ; Kirkdale, 83 ; La Mouthe, Pair-non-Pair, 87 ; Combarelles, 86 ; Font-de-Gaune, 86; La Madelaine, 85 ; Laugerie, 85 Cecil, Lord Arthur, 35 Celdones, of Gallaecia, 258 Celebes, horses in, 144 Celle, horse-breeding of, 342 Celtiberian horses, 256, 260, 321 Celtic, cavalry, 316; dog, 398; pony, 18, 352 ; pony, differs from Arab and Barb, 421 Celts, did not tattoo, 105 ; of Italy, 100; of Noricum, 101; of Dan- ube valley, 101 ; of Styria, 315, 316 Central Arabia, horses of, 162 Centuries of horse, 308 Cervu.s tanindu.s, 85 Chain-mail, 355 Chaldean type of horse, 164 Chauipagne, tumuli of, 99 Chandu, 134 Chapman, Mr J., his journey, 06 Chapman's zebra, 463; its distribu- tion, 65 i 518 INDEX Chariot, 305, 355 ; at Florence, 328 ; described, 223-4; burials, in Thrace, 106; fittings, 93; fittings, in Thrace, 107; four-horse, 238, 251; four- horse, invented bj' Libyans, 247; made without metal, 226; of Sesto Calende, 103 ; of Thothmes IV, 227; price of, 214; -race, 295; -race, at Olympia, 276; racing, at Rome, 312; scythed, 247, 393, 496; two- horse, 252, 285, itil sqq.; chariots, 151, 152, 157, 351; Assyrian, 194; of Acheans, 289; with eight-spoked wheels, 289; of Britons, 95, 97, 510; of Britons not scythed, 98; in Champagne, 100; Egyptian, 223- 6; of Gauls, 95, 510; of Indians drawn by asses or horses, 192 ; Irish, 98, 397; Irish fight from chariots in Cuchulainn Saga, 393; of Irish crosses, 390; of iron, 226; of Lib- yans, 192 ; on Mycenean grave- stones. 107; of Sigynni, 94; on vases, 352 ; remains of, 95 ; scythed, 240 ; Thracian, 109 ; used by Britons, 393 ; used by Romans, 306 ; Yorkshire, 95 Charioteer, a famous Roman, 312 Charles I, fond of horses, 366 Charles II, his stud, 380 sqq.; his Royal mares, 381 ; horses and mares of, 188 Charles Martel, 332-3 Chartres, horses of, 326 Chatti, 115; famous for their infantry, 115 Chaucer, 359 Chauci, 335 Chestnut, 8, 178, 193, 248, 300, 375 ; dark copper-coloured not common in Kuhailan, 178; due to mixture, 187; fine bright, 374; found in strains outside Al-Khamseh, 174; horse, 122; horses, bad temper of, 474; horses, in Greece, 300; hunt- ing gelding for James I, 379 ; mare, 171, 184; Mongol mare, 35; origin of, 212 ; red, 376 ; now typical colour of best Suffolk Punch, 376 ; -roan, 141 Chestnuts, 13, 14, 37, 385; absence on fore-legs, 13; hind, absence of, 13; of ass hybrid, 37 Chigetai (Dzeggetai), 44; voice of, 52 China, borders of, 31; Great Wall, 140; ponies, 139, 449 Chinese emperors, tombs of, 236 Chinghas Kaan, 134 Chivalry, Teutonic, 331 Choenix, 210 Christy, Mr H., 85 Chuzo, 429 Cilicians, pay tribute of white horses, 190 Cimarrona, of Pampas, 262 Cincibulus, a Gallic chief, 101 Circus, factions in, 312; rider, 252 Cirta, 239, 309 Clanranald, 512 Clarke, Sir Ernest, 364, 370, 377, 378, 386 Cleostheues, the horse-breeder, 295 Cleveland Bays, 386, 449; origin of, 386 Cleves, duchy of, 338 ; the horse of, 338 Clifden, ponies of, 407 Cloak, dark grey, 396 Clonmacnoise, cross of, 389, 390 Cloth, saddle, 197 Clovis, 329 Clydesdale, breed, 368, 409; horses, 402 Clydesdales, in Ireland, 413 Coach-horse, Yorkshire, origin of, 386 Coach, horses for, 379 Coaches, stage, 366 Coffey, Mr George, 392, 398, 402 Coin, of Potidaea, 301 ; with mare and foal, 306 Coins, Gaulish, 102; of Carthage, of Panormus, 253; of Sicilian cities, 276; Roman, 307 Co., King's, 389 Colonists, stupidity of, 77 Coloration, of zebras, of Libyan horse, 439-40 Colour, certain colours indicate mixed breed, 43; dark, 174; grey, 174; white, 174; bay, 174; of African ass, 53; of Asiatic, ib.; of Arab horses, 174; of Byzantine war- horses, 328; of Celtiberian horses, 256, 257; of horses, 30; of Karadagh horses, 193; of Kattywar horses, 156; of kia^ng, 46; of onager, 46; of Kurdistan ponies, 160 ; of Nisaean horses, 194; of Norwegian pony, 452; of Onager indiciis, 47; of Par- thian horses, 190 ; of Prejvalsky's horse, 152; of Vedic horses, 152; received from sire, 178 ; terms for, used by Arabs, 177; of Turcoman horses, 133; white legs, 35 ; colours of Arabian horses, 175, 177-182; of Barbary horses, and Moorish horses, 248; of Libyan horses, 248; of Con- nemara ponies, 403; of English race-horses, 385 ; of horses, 186, 261, 348, 371, 373, 398; of horses killed at Falkirk, 357; of horses INDEX 519 of Mexico and Texas, 266 ; of modern Spanish horses, 258; of Pampas horses, 262; of prairie horses, 265; of Shire horses, 368; of wild horses, 32 ; table of, 441-8 ; the best, 372 Colton, John, Archbishop, 412 Colt's head, symbol, 215 Columbus, 264 Conchobar, king of Ulster, 396, 400 Coneyskins, 382 Congested Districts Board, 402 Congo, 59 ; zebra of, 55, 60 Connemara, Celtic pony of, 18; pony, 40, 388; ponies, 4:02 sqq.; absence of hock callosities in, 409; colours of, 403; origin of, 405-6; so-called 'Eastern' type, 408 Connemara- Welsh pony, 20 Conquests, Arab, due to acquisition of horse, 213 ; due to horses, 218 Constable, Mr A., 388 Constantineh, 239 Constantinople, 161 ; horses sent to, 182 Consuls, allowed horses, 307 Coutorniates, 329 Conway, Prof. K. S., 223 Copper, 130 Copperthwaite, Mr E. H., 441 Corax, a black horse, 295 Corn Laws, 414 Corsairs, plunder ships, 149 Corselets, linen, 117 Cortes, 266; his horses, 269; sets sail for Mexico, 269 Cossacks, 31 Cotton, pad of, used for riding, 177 Cow, flesh of, 222 Cox, Dr Michael, 387, 392 Cradock, zebras near, 62 Crannog, horse skulls from Irish, 391 Crawfurd, John, 144 Crawshay, Mr, 68 Crawshay's zebra, 61, 68 Crecy, battle of, 359 Cremation, 398 Cresswell Crags, cave in, 83 Crete, 220 Crisp, Mr, his Suffolk staUion, 374 Croesus, horses of, 194 Cro-Magnon, rock shelter, 85 Cromwell, Oliver, 366; buys a black horse, 380; his Commissioners, 412 Cross-bred horses, 324 ; taller and stronger. 174 ; cross-breds, 160, 248- 50; head longer in, 323 Cross, at Clonmacnoise, 389; Irish, 890 Cualnge, Cattle Raid of, 396 Cuba, 266, 269; conquered, 267; horses, wild oxen, and hogs, 271 Cuchulainn, 98, 396; his horses de- scribed, 397 ; Saga of, 393 sqq. Curium, vase of, 289 Curule, ofSces, 307; horses, ib.; chariots, at Rome, ib. Cutch, 158 ; asses of, 47 Cuvier. Prof., 82 Cuver and Alix, 322, 842 Cuzco, 271 Cyprus, vase-paintings, 289 Cyrene, 238, 251, 253; its horse- breeding, 238 Cyreneaus, send war-horses to Alex- ander, 253, 306 Cyrus, 129, 191 ; crosses Gyndes, 191; horses sacrificed to, 190 Czerski, Dr, 43 ; on tarpan, 42 Dalmatia, horses of, 318, 327; bad temper of, ib. Dam, supposed to be the more im- portant parent, 188 Danes' Graves, chariot burial, 97; chariot from, 95 Daniell's quagga, 75 Danish horse, 2 ; horses, 342, 343 Daphuae, 242 Dappled-dun horses, Beowulf, 120 Dappled horses, ill D'Arcy, Eoval mare, 382 D'Arcy Turk, 382 Darien, horses brought to, 269 Darius, 211; signet of, 192 Darley Arabian, 169, 382; his portrait and colour, 384 Darley, Mr, 384 Darwin, Charles, 3, 9, 151, 152, 157, 265, 433-4, Ui sqq.; cites striped ponies of Java, 142; on origin of Arab horse,209, of English thorough- bred, ib. Date colour, 177 (cf. Spadix) Date-coloured horses, 348 Davis, Mr T. M. , excavates a tomb, 227 Dawkins, Prof. Boyd, 83 Day, Mr A., has a horned horse, 152 Debae, use camels in war, 202 Decius Mus, 100 Defenneh, 242 Deli, 141 Delphi, 316 Denarius, Roman, 308 Denmark, 118 Depression, in horse skulls, 470; see Fossa Derby, winners of, 441 Descent of a horse, 168; through males, 881 520 INDEX Desert, Gobi, 32; Mongolian, ib. ; Pal- myrene, 161; Syrian, ib. Desmatiixpus, 6 Destriers, 147, 355 Devonshire Childers, same as Flying Childers, 384 Dextrarii, 355 D'Hobsonville, 154 Diaz, Bernal, on horses, 267, 511 Digits, 13; lateral, 8; primal, 7; primal five, 6 Dio Capsius, 95 ; mentions zebra (hippotigris), 55 Diodorus, 99, 105 Diomede, captures horses of Aeneas, 290 Dionysius, of Syracuse, imports Ve- netian horses, 104; his white horses, 278 Dioscuri, 308 Dobrusky, M., 107 Docility, of Bavarian horses, 344; of Libyan horse, 472 ; of Spanish jen- net, 340 Docking, of horses, 140 Dog, 4; Celtic, 398; Gunnar's Irish, 419; interbreeds with wolf and jackal, 426; dogs, Celtic, 400; Irish, 419 ; wolf, 401 Dolon, 108 Domestic horses, earliest, 4 Domesticated Indian horse, 159 Domestication, of horse, 128; of ox, 128 Don, river, 51, 126 Dongola, breed of, 2, 219; a cross, 250 ; horses, described, 249 Dordogne, caves of, 85; figures in, 84 Dorsal stripe, of hybrid ass, 37, 386, 445 ; in Cleveland Bay, 386 Draught-horses, 346 Drenthe, breed of hearse horses, 342 Dshigguetei, 44 ( = Dzeggetai) Dsjulfa, 170; strain of, 167 Dublin Co., 393, 488 Ducaila, Sultan of, 248 Duck, Aylesbury, 460 ; Muscovy, wild, ib. Duckworth, Mr W. L. H., 436, 451 Ducrost, M., 83 Duke of Newcastle, 378 Dukhova Moghila, barrow of, 106 Dun, 175; striped, 260; striped, in Mexico, 269 ; the worst horses, 260 ; Mongol pony, 39 Dun-coloured horses, 110, 296, 357, 465; of Acheans, 289; of Spain, 257; with dorsal stripe, 257, 348; in Beowulf, 120; in Veda, 152; on vases, 294 ; with stripes, 274 ; with stripes, in North America, 265 Dupont, M., 89 Durr grass, 58 Dutch, stupidity of Dutch colonists, 77; horse, 368; horses, 341, 350 Dynasty, Egyptian, xviith, xviiith, xixth, 236 Dzeggetai, 44, 52; of Mongolia, 44 Dzungaria, wild horses of, 26 Ears, i^rojecting outwards, 38 Earth, mother of Arion, 286 Eastern, blood, so-called, 10 ; sires, 381 Eclipse, pedigree of, 382 ; his pos- terity, 384; skull of, 470 Edom, 202 Edward I, 356 Edward III, promotes horse-breeding, 358 Edwards, Mr, 445, 446; first de- scribed quagga, 72 Egypt, 161, 204 ; exports horses, 251 ; horse in, 215 Egyptian, conquests, due to horses, •218 ; horses, 215-6, 229 ; horses, dark colour of, 218 ; kings, tombs of, "236 ; terms for chariots, 215, for charioteer, 216 ; xviith dynasty Libyan in origin, 236 Egyptians, did not ride, 216, 510 ; who they are, 222 Eight-legged horse, its origin, 347 Eisir, 118 Elements, doctrine of the, 371 Elephant, 153 ; at Eome, 55 ; birth of, 148 ; skin of, used as shield, 240; elephants, 307 ; in India, 153 ; in Java, used in war, 146 Elephant-bed, of Brighton, 82, 421 Elephantine, 222, 238, 243 Elis, 251 ; horses of, 285 Elizabeth, queen, on progress, 362 Elk, Irish, 85 El Masudi, on zebras, 56 Emain Macha, modern Navan Bath, 400 Emir, Wooing of, 393, 400 Emir, Fai-sal of Najd, his view of horses, 178 Emmanuel College, 412 Enactments to raise the standard of horses, 360 English Colonists, stupidity of, 77 English, great horses, 355-6 ; horses brought to Ireland by Dr Winter, 412; race-horse, 212; thoroughbred, 323, 324 ; thoroughbred, crosses of, 324 ; thoroughbreds, 350 ; thorough- breds, effect on progeny, 323 Engravings on bone, 86 INDEX 521 Eocene, 6 Eohippus, 6 Epaminondas, 301 Epidaurus, horses of, 302 Epirote liorses, 327 Epirus, horses of, 318 Equidae, ancestor of, 444 ; striping of, 79-90; the existing, 12 sqq. Equitation, 478 sqq. Equus, africanns, 2 ; antiquoruin, 61 ; aryanus,^-, asiaticus,2; asiniis, 52; belgicus, 2; Boehvti, 61 ; hritannicus, 2; Bitrchelli, 59: c. germanicus, 342; c. hibernicus, 401 ; c. libycus, 469 ; c. inongolicus, of Pi^trement, 229 ; caballus, 12, 16; caballus celticus, 12, 18 ; caballus libycus, 425 ; Chap- mani, 61, 65; cornplicatus, 8, 263; Crawshayi, 68; excelsus, 264; foai, 64, 508 ; fraternus, 8 ; frisius, 2 ; gervianicus, 2 ; hemiomis, 43, 45 ; hibernicus, 2 ; kiaiig, 12, 43 ; inon- golicus, 3 ; namadicus, 10 ; occiden- talis, 8; onager, 43; pacificus, 264; pectinatus, 264; Przewalskii, 12; quagga DanielU, 75 ; quaggoides, 143, 470; robustus, ligeris, 10; »%- lousi, 61; sequanius, 2; sivalensis, 10, 11, 142, 470; had pre-orbital pit, 469; somaUcus, 12, 53 ; stenonis, 10, 143, 462, 470; tow, 8; irarrf/, 64 ; zebra, its description, 62 ; 2e?)ra Hartmanni, 62; ze&ra Penricei, 62 Eratosthenes, 51 Ergot, 13, 15 ; absence of, 13 ; ergots, absence of, 477 ; absence of, in Celtic pony and in Arabs, 19 ; frequently absent in Icelandic, He- bridean and Connemara ponies, in pure bred Arabs and thoroughbreds, 469 ; of ass hybrid, 38 ; see Cal- losities Erichthonius, mares of, 290 Erlenbach, black breed, 345 Erman, Prof., 216 Esau, 204 Escholtz Bay, 8 Esher, port of, 148 Esseda, Gallic, at Sentinum, 100 Essex, Pleistocene beds of, 11 Este, 103 Estremadm-a, horses of, 258 Ethiopians, 240; Troglodyte, 238 Etruscan, horses, 314 Eudes, 332 Eunuch, Ethiopian, 238 Euphrates, 161 ; horses of, 198 Eurasia, 7 Ewart, Prof. J. C, 5, 7, 40, 55, 59, 61, 64, 66, 68, 79, 152, 403, 421, 445, 450, 452, 457, 508, 511-12; his Celtic pony, 18 ; experiment with Asiatic ass, 35 ; experiment with chestnut Mongol pony, 40 ; his zebra hybrids, 463 Ewe-necked horses, 182 Exaenetus, of Agrigentum, 105, 276 Exchequer Polls, 355 Exmoor pony, 399 ; has good blood, 39 ; her hybrid, 35 ; ponies, 39 Export of horses, forbidden, 360 Eyzies, 85 Ezekiel, 193, 196 Fairs, horse, 193 Falkirk, battle of, 357 Fallow-dun cob, 450 Faraday, L. Winifred, 396 Faroe Islands, 22 ; origin of ponies of, 418 Faroe, ponies, 22, 352, 416 ; pony, 23, 24; without callosities, 23 Fatima, Arab filly, striped, 445 Feet, white, 181, 373-4; in Kuhailan, 173 Females, descent through, 381 Fenwick, Sir John, 381 Feral horses, 428 sqq.; capture of, 432 ; extermination of, 433 Ferry, M., 83 Fertility, of breeds, 4 ; of Libyan horses in North Africa, 475 Fetlocks, hairy, 408 Fezzan, 238 Fibulae, La Tene, 100 Fillies, kept in tribe, 176 Finnish horses, 347 Fish, horses fed on, 148 ; used to feed horses and cows, 149 Fitzwilliams, Mr, 142 Flamen, 307 Flanders, 356 ; horse, 377 ; horse of, described by Blundeville, 337 ; stallion, 364 Flea-bitten grey, 301 Flemings, mares of, 337-8 Flemish horse, 2 Flint implements, 83 Florida, Adelantado of, 271 ; horses landed in, 271 Flower, SirW., 5, 13, 56; on Prejval- sky's horse, 35 Flying Childers, bay colour of, 384 Foal, 40; Arab, 37; Prejvalsky, 36; reddish-grey from grey parents, 456 ; thoroughbred, 37 ; Arab, how reared, 176; highly bred, markings on, 456; of race-horses, striped, 445 ; of Sir G. Ouseley's chestnut mare, 462 Forehead of wild horse, 38 522 INDEX Forster, the traveller, on wild horses, 30 Fossa, in skull of Quagga, 76; in skull of certain Equidae, 143, 509 ; pre-orbital, in Hipparion, in E.sival- ensis, in E. stenonis, and E. quag- goides, in Quagga, in domesticated iiorse, in skull of Bend Or, 143 ; in 'blood' horses, 469-70; pre- orbital in young ass and in male Grant's zebra, 143 Four-horse, chariot, 251 ; chariot, on vases, 252 ; chariots, 238 France, horses of, 320 sqq. Franks, 327, 329, 353; begin to employ cavalry, 330 ; conquer Thu- ringians and Burgundians, 329-30 ; method of fighting, 330; Kii>uarian, 338-9 French horses, colour of, 325 Frenchmen, ride long, 140 Freyr, a Swedish god, 118 Friesland horse, 339, 340, 364, 377; described by Blundeville, 340 ; a good trotter, 340 ; origin of Pinz- gauer breed, 346 Frisian horses, 318, 327, 421 Frisii, 335 Funeral horses, 342 Fur, trade in, 118 ; sables, ib. Gadow, Dr Hans, 460 Gaetuli, 238 Galicia, 258 ; horses of, ib. Gallic, brooches, 394 ; cavalry, 101 ; chieftains buried on their chariots, 100 ; shields, 394 ; spears, called saunia, 99 Games, funeral, 252 Ganymede, 290 Garamantes, 238 Garrison, at Elephantine, 238 Garstang, Dr, 510; on Hyksos, 233 Gascony, supplies horses to the English king, 359 Gauchos, 125, 428 Gaul, horses of, 312 ; ambacti of, 317 Gauls, have chariots in Italy, 100 ; horses of, 310 ; of Lower Danube, 315 ; serfs of, 316 ; used chariots, 95, 99 Gayoe ponies, 141 Gazelle, 208 Gedrosia, 201 Gela, coins of, cavalry of, 277 Geldings, 163, 478; large grey for the king's coach, 379 ; price of, ib.; used by Romans, 311 Genealogies, of Arab horses, 167 Gentleman, the medieval, 293 Georgi, Father, 154 Gerard, the brothers, 30 German, great horse, 336 ; modern horses, 341 Germanicus, E. c, 342 Germans, horses of, 113, 332 ; utilize zebras in East Africa, 79 ; venerate white horses, 114 Germany, heavj' horses of, 342 ; horse- breeding in, 342 ; horses of, 314, 334-5 Gestation, of horses, 16; of asses and zebras, ib.; period of, 36 Ghor-khur, 45, 46 Ghour, 46 Ghur, 46 Ghuran, 46 Gilbey, Sir W., 355, 363, 386, 392 ; on Irish horses, 386 ; on origin of Irish Hobbie, 402 Giles, Prof., 140 Gill, Mr T. P., 405 Ginni, of Liguria, 321 Giraldus Cambrensis, 354, 388, 389, 412 Gmelin, Dr, 42, 43 ; his notice of tarpan, 41 Gnoo, 73 ; accompanied quaggas, 74 ; brindled, accompanied Burchell's ZGorfi 74 Gobi desert, 28, 31 Godolphin Barb, 382, 384 Gods' horses, names of, 121 Gods, ride, 118 Goethe, on Selene's horse, 297 Gos-Magog, 384 Gold, 130 ; brooches, 248 ; ornaments, 240 ; trappings, bits, etc., 129 Gonville Hall, 412 Gothland, large war-horses of, 347 Goths, attack Eome, 327 ; cavalry of, 329 Grant's zebra, described, 70 Grave, shaft, at Mycenae, 285 Gravestone, at Mycenae, 285 Gray, Rev. T. T., 413 Great horses, 363, 364 ; scarcity of, 366 Greece, Bronze Age of, 251, 285 ; horses of, 285 sqq., 292, 300-2 Greek, chestnut horses, 300 ; horses not shod, 298 ; mercenaries in Egypt, 223; war-horse, 299-300 Greeks, 244 ; at Cirta, 239 ; descents upon Egypt, 220 ; did not use saddles, 299 Green, Mr F. W., 510 Greenwell, Canon, 92, 95, 97, 510 Grenada, horses of, 258 INDEX 523 Grevy zebra, 11, 57-8, 59, 69 ; hoofs of, 59 ; chestnuts of, 59, 50(5 Grey, 258, 379 ; Celtiberian horses, 257 ; colour, 174 ; flea-bitten, 301 ; New Forest ponies, 405 ; not original horse colour, 261 ; i^ommely, 359 ; ponies, 343 ; racing mare of James I, 379; usual colour in Turkish Arabia, 183; horses, 122, 346, 357-8, 397, 398, 402, 431 ; Hamdani, 173 ; in Bagdad, 183 ; in France, 325 ; out- come of mixing North African with upper Asiatic and European blood, 186 Grey Hautboy, 382 Grey Wilkes,' 382 Greyhound, 363 Grijimailo, the brothers, 26, 83, 43 Grunau, 117 Guillemard, Dr F. H. H., 149 Gunnar, his brown horse, 122 ; his dog, 419 Gutch, Mr Clement, 97 Gylfinnung, 121 Gyndes, river, 191 Hackney, English, 386 ; stallions, 402 Hadban, strain, 169, 170 Haddon, Dr, 483 Haflinger ponies, 345 Hagenbeck, Mr Carl, 26, 28, 33, 58 Hahn, Dr, 484 Hair, mode of wearing, 239 Hakluyt, Richard, 271 Half-breds, 163 Halicarnassus, Mausoleum at, 306 Hall, Mr W. H., 310 Hallstatt, swords from, 394 Halter, 479 Hamdan, 205 Hamdani, colour of, 169 ; shape of, 170; strain, 169, 206 Hampshire sheriff, 356 Hannibal, 101 ; his cavalry, 254 Hanover, horses of, 342 Hanoverian, 341 Hans, Muscovy drake, 460 Harness, 492; of chariot, 228 Harquebushes, 259 Harold P'airhair, 416 Harold, king, at Hastings, 354 Harris, Capt. Cornwallis, 67 ; de- scribes quagga, 73 Hart-draver, name of Friesland horse, 341 Hartwell, 60; translation of Pigafetta, 59 Harwood, Sir Edward, 366 Hasdrubal, 256 Hastings, battle of, 354 Hauberk, 331, 336, 355 Havannah, 271 Hawes, Mr C. H., 135 Hawk, mark of a gentleman, 293, 363 Hawkewood, Sir John, 361 Hayes, Capt. M. H., 5, 13, 69, 141, 159, 193, 320, 342, 350, 386 ; breaks in a zebra, 78 ; on Indian horses, 146 ; on Mongolian pony, 134 Head, length of, characteristic of cross-bred horses, 298 ; longer in cross-breds, 323 ; of horse, on Attic tombstones, 294 ; size of, 323 Headstall, 479 Hearse horses, 342 Hebridean pony, black, 20 ; flat-nosed variety, 21 Hebrides, ponies of, 18, 418; Spanish blood in, 512 Height, of Arabian horses, 173 Heiiudal, his horse, 121, 346 Hejira, 165 Helios, horse of, 297 Helmets, conical, 315 Helvetian horses, 322 Helvetians, 93 Helveto-Gallic horse, 322, 399 Hemionus indicus (or Onager iiidicus), 43 Hemionus, in Syria, 49 Hemippns, 12 ; in Syria, 49 Henga country, Crawshay's zebra of, 68 Hengist, 353 Henry II, horses of, 355 Henry VII, forbids export of horses, 359 Henry VIII, his enactments to raise the standard of horses, 360 ; forbids export of horses, ib. Hermit, skull of, 470 Herodotus, 94, 198 ; on wild asses, 56 Hervey, Lord Francis, 364 Hessian horses, 341 Hessleskewe, chariot-burial, 97 Ilihcniicus, E. c, 324, 401 High Almaiue, stallion, 364 High-caste Arabs, 183 Highland ponies, 402, 450 Hijaz, the, 164, 165, 213 ; horses of, 164 Hilprecht, Dr, 198, 214 Hindus, 151 Hindustan, Southern, had no indi- genous horses, 150 ; ill adapted for the Equidae, ib. Hipparion, 85, 'ilO; antelopinum, 6; fossa in skull of, 142, 143, 469 ,524 INDEX Hippemolgi, 127 Hijjpobosca, 9 Hippolytus, quadriga of, 294 Hippotigris, 55 Hittite inscriptions, 215 Hittites, 234 ; kings of, 214 ; no horses in Abraham's time, 235 ; regai'ded as Mongolian, 234 ; sup- posed to have introduced the horse to Western Asia, 234 ; who were they? 214 Hobbie, black, beat Barbary horses, 377, 512 ; cause of its disappear- ance, 410; 'English,' 361; Irish, 361, 388; origin of, 392 Hobbies, Irish, 388-90 ; black, Irish, 402 Hobbini, i.e. Hobbies, 388 ; English, Irish Hobbies so termed in France, ib. Hobbles, on horses, 130, 190 Hobbye, Irish, 377 Hobelarii, i.e. Hobbies, 390 Hobley, Mr C. W., 79 Hock callosities, absence of, 23 Hocks, bent, 38 Hogged mane, 130 Hogs, in America, 273 ; price of, ib. ; wild, in Cuba, 271 Holinshed, Ralph, 360; on Enghsh horses, 352 Holman, Messrs, 216 Holofernes, 196 Holstein, horses of, 341 Homer. 107 ; has not myth of Pega- sus, 289 Homeric Age, 252, 289 Hommel, Prof., 216 Hoof, of Prejvalsky horse, 38 ; of Libyan horse, 470 Hoofed animals, 5 Horiad, tribe, 134 Horns, of reindeer, 84 ; on horses, 152 Horsa, 353 Horse, black, 210; bones, 92, 354; bones, in tumulus, 398 ; cloth, 497; domestic, late in Ireland, 98; driven in China, 140 ; tigured on bone, 83 ; fossil, in Belgium and France, 83 ; fossil, of Essex, 11 ; head of, on Attic tombstones, 294 ; horned, 152 ; in Babylonia, 198 ; late in Egypt, 215; La Tene, size of, 93 ; Libyan, 5 ; Malay name for, 146; North African, 5 ; not indigenous in Southern Persia, 150 ; not native in Lydia, 194 ; of cave paintings of Dordogne, 19, 85 ; on coins, 253 ; of Julius Caesar, 8 ; of Seius, 302 ; of Selene, 297; of Helios, i&.; price of, 214 ; red, 209 ; remains of, 399 ; ribs of, 151 ; ridden, 251, 252 ; sacrifice of, 129 ; small, of Pleistocene, 19 ; used as food, 84 ; with 34 ribs, 151-2 ; yellow, 210 ; horses, ac- quisition of, by Egyptians, 218 ; as a bridal gift, 115; Assyrian, 198; buried in Gaulish graves, 100 ; cap- tured by corsairs, 149 ; carriage- horses, 4; cart-horses, 4; dark, 244; destruction of American, 9 ; do not breed in South India, 148; domestic, 4 ; drawings of, in caves, 87 ; ex- port of, forbidden, 359-60 ; fed on fish, 149 ; feral, 4, 18, 32 ; five-toed, 7 ; one-toed, 7 ; fossil, in America, 8; fossil, in N. America, 264 ; fossil, two kinds in Essex Pleistocene, 82, in marl in Ireland, 82; hearse, 342 ; Helvetian, 322 ; hunters, 4 ; im- ported into England, 356 ; Indian, bad tempered, 473 ; Indian, ridden with muzzles, 153 ; in Indian Archipelago, 144 ; in Palaeolithic period, 89; in Zechariah, 211 ; killed at Falkirk, 357 ; ' kings of horses are dark,' 178; left behind in Texas, 273 ; lumbar vertebrae of, 42 ; Libyan, 240 ; Lydian horses eat snakes, 194 ; mentioned by Chaucer, 359 ; mentioned in Koran, 213 ; not indigenous in Malay Pen- insula, 146 ; none in Nabataea, 202 ; number of, used by Queen Elizabeth on her progresses, 362 ; Numidian, 241 ; objection of, to tread on dead, 109 ; of Acarnania, 302 ; of Acheans, 110 ; of Aeneas, 291 ; of Aetolia, 302 ; of Anchises, 291 ; of Antilles, 269 ; of the Apocalypse, 209 ; of Arcadia, 301 ; of Argolis, 112, 302 ; of Bigourdan, 322 ; of Cabul, Balu- chistan, and Trans-Indus, 159 ; of Cortes, 269; of Cuchulainn, 397; of Dalmatia, 318 ; of De Soto, 274 ; of Dongola, 249 ; of Elis, 112 ; of Epidaurus, 302 ; of Epirus, 318 ; of Germans, 113 ; of Greece, 292, 300- 3 ; of India, 146 nqq. ; of large size, 246 ; of La Tene, 322 ; of Mace- donia, 302 ; of Mexico, 266-7 ; of Navarre, 322 ; of Peloponnesus, 301 ; of Pyrenees, 322 ; of Sigynni, 94; of Solutre, described, 84; of Syria, differ from those of Bagdad, and both inferior to Anazah, 184 ; of Tarbes, 322; of Texas, 266-7; of the Mausoleum, 306 ; of Thrace, 302 ; of Tros, 290 ; of Veneti, 104 ; INDEX U-' 525 price of, 147-8 ; ridden without bridle, 241 ; roadsters, 4 ; Roman, sent to Masinissa, 248 ; Russian, 30 ; sacrificed, 117, 151, 190 ; sacrificed, among Veneti, 105, by Illyrians to Cronus, 105 ; sacrificed at Rome, 307 ; scarce in Carmania, 49 ; slain at funeral, 128 ; slain by Tartars at funeral of a Khan, 136; sous of, 164 ; Spaniards, De Soto's followers kill their horses, except four or five, 273 ; trappers, 4 ; tribute of white, 190 ; two kinds in Palaeolithic time, 89 ; unknown in many islands of Indian Archipelago, 144 ; white, amongst the Veneti, 104 ; white, in Sicily, 105 ; wild, 16, 18, 30 ; wild, extermination of, 433 ; wild, in Quaternary period, 83 ; wild, of North America, 265 ; with horns, 152; with stripes, 450; orna- ments, 504 Horse-archers, 196 Horse-armour, 132 Horse-bits, 129 ; in Swiss Lake-dwell- ings, 93 ; of iron, 95 ; iron, at Sesto Calende, 103 Horse-breeding, 239, 355, 363; Arab ignorance of, 209 ; in Arabia, 205 in Armenia, 193 ; in England, 358 in Germany, 342 ; in Greece, 112 in Numidia, 310 ; in Sicily, 276 ; in Thrace, 306; Irish, 386 sqq.; of Cyrene, 239 ; of Libyan tribes, 238; peoples, 192 Horse-fair, 140 ; outside London, 355 Horse-feeding Mead, 192 Horse-fightinK, in Iceland, 122-3 Horse-flesh, 430 ; eating of, 122 Horse-hoofs, used for making corse- lets, 117 Horseman, on Gaiilish coins, 102 Horse, Master of the, 381 Horsemen, Assyrian, 194 ; Bactrian, 152; in Book of Kells, 391; Spanish, 271 Horse-shoes, 352, 502 sqq. Horse-sickness, 10, 77 Horse-trade, Indian, 183 Hound, mai-k of a gentleman, 293; on tomb, 293 Howitt, Dr A. W., 431 Hrolf, the Ganger, 335 Hughes, Prof. McKenny, 505 Hungarian horse, 319, 377 ; stallion, 364 Hungerford, Sir Walter, 363 Huns, horses of, 318 Hunters, Irish, 408, 413 Hunting scene, 390 Hutchinson, Miss, translation of Piga- fetta, 60 Hutton's, Bay Barb, 382 ; Grey Barb, ib. Huxley, Prof., 143 Hyaena, in caves of Britain, 83 Hybrid, coat of, 37 ; zebra-horse, 476 hybrids, Brazilian, 459; duck, 460 Ewart's, 463, 468; zebra, 452 zebra-ass, 453 ; zebra, bred in British East Africa, 79 ; zebra, of Sir H. Meux, 463-4 Hyksos, 3, 215, 218, 229, 2.36; de- rivation of name, 234 ; identified with Hittites, 233; kings of, 230; expulsion of, 238 Hypanis, river, 125 Hypohippus, 7 Hyracotherium, 6 lapodes, 101 lazyges, 116 Iberian horse, 256 Iberians, warfare of, 256 Ibn Batuta, 145 Ice Age, 10 Iceland, colonisation of, 416, 418 ; conversion of, 122 ; horse-fighting in, 122 ; yellow-dun pony of, 18 Iceland ponies, 14, 21, 23, 352, 416; colour of, 24 ; origin of, 418, 420 ; without hock callosities, 23 Idumea, 202 Iliad, bay horse in, 289 In-breeding, 466 Inca, capture of, 271 India, gets horses from Kalmucks of Khoten, 133; horses of, 146 sqq.; ill adapted for horse-breeding, 153; North-western, 151 ; obtains horses from Turkish Arabia, 182 ; pied horses of, 349 ; Western, asses of, 47 Indian Archipelago, 144, 145 Indian horses, bad-tempered, 473 ; muzzles used for, ib. ; domesticated, skull of, 159 ; vicious, 153 Indians, 157, 199 ; chariots drawn by horses or wild asses, 152, 192 ; drive wild asses, 47 ; employ chariots, 152 ; have horsemen, 152 ; North American, 430 ; Pampas, 262 ; Querenda, 125 Indies, West, horses of, 511 ; see Cuba Indo-Scythia, 158 Indus, 157 Infection theory, 462 Ingolf, goes to Iceland, 416 ; settles in Iceland, 418 / 526 INDEX Inscription, Latin, 312 Inscriptions, Hittite, 215 Inverarity, Dr, 54 lona, 418 Ionian mercenaries, 243 Irak, horses of. 161 Ireland, La Tene period in, 394 ; Normans in, 354 ; North, ponies of, 18 ; trade with Spain, 389 Irish, native, wore no armour, 388 ; armature of, 389 ; fight from chariots, 893 ; method of fighting and riding, 388 ; representations of, 388-90 ; anchorites, in Iceland, 418; bronze axes, 390; brooch, 396; cart-mares, 414 ; chariots, 98 ; crosses, 389- 90 ; dogs, 419 ; Epic, armature in, 393 ; Hobbies, 361, 377, 388- 90; Hobbies, exported to France and Italy, 388 ; horse, origin of, 391 ; horses, 352, 386 sqq. ; horses, bought for France, 387 ; horses, legs of, 151 ; horses, modern, 402 sqq.; horses of a larger size, 412; horses, representations of, 389, 390 ; horse- skulls, 391; hunter, 417; hunter, origin of, 410 ; hunters, 413 ; mare, 463 ; slaves, in Iceland, 419 ; thoroughbreds, 414 ; trade with Gaul and Spain, 400, 401 Iron, 129 ; bits, 95 ; chariots of, 226 ; tires of wheels, 95 ; horse-bits, at Sesto Calende, 103 ; late in Ire- land, 98 ; not used by Sarmatians, 117 Iron Age, 103 ; in Greece, 112 ; in Italy, 103 Ironsides, 366 Isabella-coloured, 32, 34 ; meaning of, 44 Ishmael, 206 Isidore, on dun horse, 260 Islam, in Indian Archipelago, 145 Istri, 101 Italy, horses of, 278-9, 314 Jabin, 226 Jackal, 4, 426 James I, 364 Jarls, Norwegian, 416 Java, horses of, 144, 349 ; ponies, 141, 448 ; ponies with large functional pre-molars, 142 ; striped ponies of, 142 ; Sultan of, 145 Javanese, very bad riders, 144 Javelin, 240 Jelfon, strain, 167, 181 ; black horses, 187 ; colour of, 171 ; often black, 171 ; in Syria, 181 Jennet, of Spain, 259, 377 ; its docility praised by Blundeville, 340 ; of Li- guria, 321 Jensen, Dr, 215, 234 ; origin of Hittites, 214, 234 Jilfan ( = Jelfon) strain, sometimes included in Al-Khamseh, 170 Job, 203 John, Don, of Austria, his horses, 188; the Stable of, 189 John, King, imports horses, 356 Johnston, Sir H. H., 262 Jornandez, 118 Joseph, 218 Josejjhus, 230 Jugurtha, 310 Juliacus, 338 Juliers, horse of, 338 Julius Caesar, 310 Jutes, 353 Jutland, horses of, 341, 342 Kaau, Kublai, 134 ; his white horses, (6. Kadischi, a mixed breed, 161 Kadish, 471 ; horses called, 164 ; its primary meaning, 473 ; voice of, 180, 434 Kalmucks, horses of, 133, 351 ; their waggons, 127 Karabulo, breed, 133 Karadagh, breed, 193 ; horses of Ar- menia, 446 Karakoum, 31 Kar-kuk, 161 Katerfelto, famous stallion, 39 Kathiawar, horses of, see Kattywar, 156 Kattywar, 158, 260; dun-coloured horses of, 465 ; horses of, 349, 446 ; horses, described, 156 ; horses with stripes, 156 Keheilan ( = Kuhailan), strain, usually bay, 165, 169 ; look more like thoroughbred, (7;. Keheilet, 165 Keheilet Ajuz, 166 Keller, C, on Assyrian bas-relief, 49 Kells, Book of, 390, 391 Kells, cross of, 390 Kenny, Mr Matthew, 387, 392 Kent's Cave, 11 ; bones in, 83 Kerr, Prof. Graham, 9 Kertch, 130 Kesslerloch cave, 86 Kettle Haeng, goes to Iceland, 416 Kherdecht, 47 Khorassan, best Turcoman horses, 132 Khoten, horses of, 133 Kiang, 20, 35, 45, 476; hybrid (so- called), 36; voice of, 46, 52 INDEX 527 Kiciish, meaus a gelding, 163 ; not of Arab blood, 163 King, horses of, 355 King, of Gauls, 316 ; Scythian, his burial, 128 King's Co., 390, 412 Kings of horses, are dark, 178 Kings, Seleueid, 306 Kirghis, capture wild horses, 27 ; horses of, 351 ; hunt wild camels, 26 Kirkdale cave, bones in, 83 Kitchener, Lord, 476 Kladrub breed, 345 Knight, Chaucer's, 359 Knights, at Athens, 293 Kobdo, 27, 28 Kochlani, mentioned by Niebuhr, 167 ; of Arabia, 161 ; where bred, 167 Kohl, 165 Kohl breed, 165, 168 ; earliest refer- ence to, 205 ; origin of, 166, 206-9 ; origin in North Africa, 246 ; strains of, 169 ; tail of, 229 ; theories of its origin, 207 ; myth of origin, 213 Koklani, in Persia, 167 ; cf. Kochlani Kootannie lands, 429 Koppatias, colour of horses? 296 Koran, 145 ; passages about horses, 213 Koulan, 41, 46 Koumiss, of Kalmucks, Nogais, and Scythians, 127 Kouj-uujik, bas-reliefs of, 195 Kremer, Dr A. V., 216 Kublai, 134 Kuhailan, horse, 472; voice of, 180 Kuhl ( = Kohl) breed, 165; origin of name, ib. Ku-mait, dark bay, 177 Kumrah, 18, 428 Kurdish mares, 163, 449 Kurdistan, ponies of, 160 ; ponies, colours of, 160 Kurds, 132 ; anxious to obtain Arab stallions, 132 ; horses of, 161 ; sooty black horses of, 181 Kusneh, 31 Laban, 204 Laconian horses, 312 Ladak, kiang of, 44 Laderg, plateau of, 323 Lake Baringo, zebra from, 11 Lake-dwellings, Swiss, 92 Lampagie, 333 Land-bridges, 10 Landnamaboe, the, 418 Langobardi, 335 Lankester, Dr Kay, 470 La Plata, wild horses of, 262 Lartet, M. , 85 Lasso, 428, 429, 479 ; used by Sagar- tians, 192; used by Sarmatians, 117; used by Scythians, 130 ; used to cap- ture wild ass, 49 ; used to catch zebras, 78 La Tene, culture in Ireland, 394 ; horses of, 322, 398; period, 93, 100 ; period, in Ireland, 394 ; swords, 396 Laumont, breed of, 344 Lavenham, 364 Layard, Sir A. H., 49, 197 ; descrip- tion of Arab mare, 50 ; describes chestnut mare, 184 Layard, Mr, describes Chapman's zebra, 65 Leather, boiled, 140 ; morocco, 228 Leeds Arabian, 382 Leg, i.e. share, of mare, 168; legs, white, 374 Legion, Piomau, 308 Leidy, Mr, 7 Leif, goes to Iceland, 416 Leopards, 208 Leucippus, 292 Leuctra, 300 Library of Alexandria, 220 Libu, Libyans, 222 Libya, 5 ; asses in, 56 Libyan Egyptians, 238; horse, hoofs of, 470 ; voice of, ib. ; its docility, 472-3 ; most fertile in North Africa, 474 ; origin of, 428 ; horses, 219, 245; horses, described, 240; horse- breeding, 238; horsemen, described, 241; tribes, 219, 238 s^g-.; Libyans, at Marea, 222; chariots of, 192, 247; dress and arms of, 240 ; had no metal, 226; invent four-horse chariot, 247 Libyphoenicians, 239 Life Guards, mounted on black horses, 369 Liguria, horses of, 321 Ligurians, 256 Limestone formation of central Ire- land, 392 Limousin horse, 323 Lincolnshire trotting-horse, 374 Linnaeus, on wild horses, 30 Lion, does not breed, 148 ; hunt, 215 Lions, 77, 208, 240 Lippizaner horses, 346 Lister Turk, 382 Lofoden Isles, extinct ponies of, 26 ; pony of, 121 528 INDEX Loire, mouth of, 401 Lombards, 334, 33-5 Lombard}', horses of, 314 London, horse-fair outside, 354 ; its hearse horses, 342 Long, Major, 429 Lopez, Odoardo, his description of zebra, 61 ; his tame zebra, ib. Lopliiodontidae , 5 Lorraine, horses of, 325 Lortet, M., 83 Loughrea, tumulus near, 398 Low Countries, horses of, 337 Low, Mr G. E., 51, 406 Lucretius, 1 Ludolphus, 506 ; his account of Abys- sinian zebras, 58 Lusitania, mares in, conceive from West Wind, 257 Lusk, Co. Dublin, 393 Lydekker, Mr E., 5, 13, 44, 67, 142, 159, 469, 470, 476, 506; describes the wild ass, 44 ; divides quagga from Burchell zebra, 76 ; on depression in quagga skulls, ib.; on wild asses, 52 ; on E. xivalensis, 142 Lydians, horses of, 194 Macedonia, horses of, 301, 303; Upper, 305 Macedonian, cavalry, 303 ; horses, 305 Maclean, Mr John, 437 Maeatae, horses of, 95, 352 Mahaffy, Dr J. P., 412 Mail, 331 Major, Dr Forsyth, 143, 470 Major, John, on Irish Hobbies, 388 Malay Peninsula, had no indigenous horses, 146 Mammoth period, 83 Man-at-arms, horse for, 363 Maneged horses, i.e. war-horses, 855 Maneghi sub-strain, 170 Mane, of mares, hogged, 130; yellow, 300 Manetho, 236 ; his account of the Hyksos, 229-30 Manipur pony, 141 Manni, 321 Mannus, 311 Maoli, tribe, 162 Marca, Celtic name for a horse, 317 Marea, 243 ; people of, Libyans, 222 Marek, Dr, 93, 322, 399 Mare, leg of, i.e. a share, 168 ; old Irish, 387 ; Sir Gore Ouseley's, 462 ; suckling foal, 306 ; mares, 364 ; allotted to each stallion, 198 ; Arab, given to Turcomans, 133 ; Arab, hard to purchase, 188; herds of, 192 ; in Lusitania, conceive from West Wind, 257; Kurdish and Turcoman, 163 ; not sold by Arabs, 168 ; of Anchises, 291 ; of Erichthonius, 290 ; of Muhammad, 206 ; Eoyal, 382-3 ; the King's, 381 Mare-milkers, 127 Mai-eotis, Lake, 222 Markham Ara,bian, 378 ; bay in colour, ib.; price of, 379 Markham, Gervase, 377 Markham, Mr John, 378 Marl, horse jaw in, 83 Marmidae, Libyan tribe, 238, 247 Marriage law, of Sarmatians, 126 Marseilles, captured by Franks, 330 Marsh, Mr, 7 Marshall, Mr F. H., 19 Marske, 383 Masaesylii, 239 Masai-land, 65 Maschmeyer, Mr, 142 Mashonaland, 436 Masinissa, 239, 309 ; sent Roman horses, 248 Massagetae, 129 Master of the Horse, 381 Masuren, 117 Masylii, 239 Matopo, 70, 458 Matschie, Dr, 61 Mauri, 239, 242 ; description of their habits, their mode of fighting, their horses, 239 Maiiritauia, horses of, 312 Mausoleum, chariot-group of, 306 Mazurka, origin of name, 117 Meath, hunters, 414 Mecca, horses in, 164 Mecklenburg, horses of, 342, 343, 350 Medes, 192 Medhbh, queen, 98 Media, horses of, 18 ; Nisaean plain in, 191 Medineh, horses at, 164, 165 Megalopolis, 301 Megasthenes, horned horses, 152 Melanippus, 292 Memphis, 230, 244, 336 Menapians, 115 Mendoza, founds Buenos Ayres, 262 Menes, 229 Men, slain by Tartars at funeral of a Khan, 135 Mercenaries, Carian and Ionian, 243 ; Greek, 223 Merdin, 167 Merk, Mr Conrad, 86 INDEX 529 Merv, best Turcoman horses, 132 Mesohippus, 6 Mesopotamia, 132 ; horses from, 216 ; Shammar tribes of, 161 Messenger, 385 Metacarpal bones, 84 Metal, Libyans use no, 226 Metatarsal bones, 84 Metopes, from Selinus, 278 Metuug, 431 Meurthe, horses of, 325 Meux, Sir Henry, his zebra hybrids, 463 Mexico, 8 ; horses of, 267, 511 ; dun and striped horses of, 269 ; dun-coloured horses of, 465 Meyer, Prof. Kuno, 400 Micipsa, Numidian king, 239, 309 Milk, of mares, 127, 478 ; mares, poured on the ground, 134 Minoya, 273 Miocene, 6 Mioliippus, 6 Mississippi, 266,' 272 Missouri, 430 Mithras, feast of, 193 Moerder, M., 350 Mograbins, horses of, 249 Mongolia, 45, 426 ; camels in, 200 ; ponies of, 134 ; wild ass of, 476 Mongolian, jockies, 139 ; mares, 27, 35 ; pony, 4, 136, 186 ; pony race, 138 ; pony, striped, 455 ; wild ass, 45 Mongols, 3 ; always ride, 136 Montefik, tribe, horses of, 175 ; have spoiled their breed by using Persian horses, 176 Montelius, Dr Oscar, 347 Moorcroft, 30, 154 Moore, Major J., 350 Moorish, horse, 242; horses, 248 Morocco leather, Libyans famous for, 227 Mortimer, Mr, 95 Morton, Lord, his quagga, 77, 457 Morvan, horses of, 324 Moscoso, Luys de, 273, 274 Moselle, horses of, 325 Mosul, 161, 176 Motor-cars, 414 Mountain, affects type, 323 Mountain zebra, 68 ; called wild pard, 62 ; description of, 63 Mouse-colour, 43 Muhammad, 332; his camels, 206; homilies of, 166; mares of, 165; successors of, ih. Muhammad ben Ahmed, 56 Mukden, tombs of Chinese emperors at, 236 R. H. Mulberry-black, horse, 258 Mule, in Cuba, 271 Mule-breeding, in Greece, 302 Mule-car, 486; race with, 276, 487 Mules, 164; in Greece. 113; in Turcomania, 133 ; preferred for ploughing, 113 ; wild, in Homer, 50 ; wild, in Syria, 49 Multiple nature of horse evolution, 7 Munro, Dr Robert, 8, 83, 84, 89, 396 Murcia, horses of, 266, 270 Mustangs, 8, 18 Muzin, feral horses, 18, 31, 32 Muzzles, used on Indian horses, 153, 473 Mycenae, 252 ; tombstones of, 107 Mycenean Age, horses in, 285 Myrrh, 202 Nabataea, 51, 208 ; no horses in, 202 Nabuchodonosor, 196 Name, for horse, Malay, 146 ; of horse, 317; names, for horse, 128; of horses, 121, 122, 295; of horses, raven, sooty, golden-haired, silver- topped, gold-topped, 122 Narvaez, Pamphilo de, 272; brings horses to Florida, 272 Nasamones, 238 Nasir-ed-Diu, gives Arab mares to Turcomans, 133 Navarre, horses of, 322 Neapolitan, 377; horses, 344 Nebuchadnezzar, 19 Neckband, of Libyan horse, 240 ; of Arab horses, ib. Negro, skin of, 467 Neigh, of horse, see Voice ; of Prej- valsky horse, 39 Nejd, 162 ; Arabs migrate from, 161 ; dark bay in, 177 Nelson, Mr, on Indian horses, 146 Neohipparion, 7 Nepal, ponies of, 134, 153 Nestor, 109, 251 Neuchatel, 394; Lake, 93 Newberry, Mr Percy E., finds a chariot, 227 ; on Hyksos, 233 Newcastle, Duke of, 366, 378 New Forest, pony, 456; ponies, 19 Nicopol vase, 130 Niebuhr, Carsten, 167, 246 ; on Arab horse, 162 Nigretes, 240 Nike, 276 Nile, 52, 219 ; western mouth of, 220 Nineveh, monuments of, 195 Nisaean horses, 186, 192; like Parthian, 190 ; sacred, 191 Noack, Dr, 53, 71 ; on quagga, 71 34 530 INDEX Nogai Tartars, 127 Nomads, 202 ; of Morocco, 242 Nome, Sethroite, 230 Norfolk horse, 2 Noricum, Celts of, 101 Normandy, 334 Norman horses, in Ireland, 412 ; sad- dles, 354; war-horses, 355; shields, 481; Normans, in Ireland, 354, 389 ; introduce heavy horses into England, 354 Norsemen, 335, 354 Norse settlers in Iceland, 418 Northmen, 334 Norway, 416; dun-coloured horses of, 465 ; horses of, 119, 347 Norwegian, ponies, 451-2 ; stallions, in Faroes, 22 ; stallions, in Iceland, 21 Nose-band, 196, 284 Nostrils, 185 Nubia, 2, 56, 219 ; ass of, 52 Numidia, 309 Numidian, horse-breeding, 239 ; horse- men, 254, 309 ; horsemen, described, 241; kings, 239 Numidians, Hannibal's, 101 Nyassaland, 68 Oaks, the, 441 Oasis, great, Ammon, Siwa, 511 Odin rides on Sleipnir, 118, 348 O'Donovan, the, his shield, 396 Odysseus, in Egypt, 220 Oeland, ponies of, 348 Oestrus, 9 Olaf, the Peacock, his dog, 419 Olaus Magnus, 347, 358, 373 Olbia, coins of, 131 Oldenburg, horses of, 342, 343 Oligocene, 7 Olisipo, 257 Ohve oil, 202 Olmutz, archbishop of, 345 Olympia, races at, 276 Olympic games, 251 Onager, 12, 36, 45, 46 ; in Scythia, 125; in Syria, 49 Onager, indicus, 43, 46 ; hemippus, 46 Oncean grove, 286 O'Neill, Henry, 390 Oppian, 259, 313 Orlando, skull of, 470 Orlov Trotters, 350 Ornaments, 504 Orohippus, 6 Osages, 429 Osborn, Prof. H. F., 7, 262, 264, 511 Osnabruck, 342 ; breed of hearse horses, ib. Ossetes, 126 Othello, 376 Otkell, his Irish thrall, 419 ; his two dun ponies with stripes, 420 Ouseley, Sir Gore, 462 ; his mare, 457 Owen, Prof., 82; on horse in Egypt, 215 Ox, 4, 478 Ox-cart, 481, 486 ; in Eig-Veda, 151 ; Thracian, 105 Oxen, Scythian, have no horns, 127 ; wild, in Cuba, 271 Pachynoloplnis, 6 Pack-saddle, 199 Pad of cotton, used as saddle, 177 Paeonia, bison in, 300 Paget, Col. A., 58 Painting of a horse, 293 Palaeolithic period, horses in, 88 Palaeotheriidae, 5 Palestine, horses of, 211 Palgrave, Mr, on Arab horses, 162 ; sanctions illusion that best Arabs are grey, 177 Pallas, 30, 43, 127 ; description of wild horses, 30; on dzeggetai, 44 Palm-trees, 161 Palmyra, desert of, birthplace of Darley Arabian, 384 Palmyrene desert, 161 Pampas, 8, 428 Pampas horses, 262 sqq., 446 ; com- pared with horses of western prairies, 265 Pampas Indians, 428 Panama, 270 Panjab, people of, 153 Panormus, coins of, 253 Panthers, 240 Panticapaeum, 130 Paphlagonia, home of wild mules, 50 Paraguay, 10; cattle in, 9; no feral horses in, ib. Parana, Baron de, 459 ; his zebra hybrids, 463 Paricanians, 192 Parliament, efforts of, to promote horse-breeding, 355 Paroas, a serpent, reddish-brown, 300 Parthenon, 297 ; horses of, ib. ; of Pheidias, ib. Parthian horses, 18, 189, 194, 260; described by Strabo, 189 ; like Celti- berian horses, ib. Pasterns, 374 Patagonia, 8 Patricians, Sabine in origin, 306 Pedigree, Arabs trace through dams, 187; pedigrees of Arab horses, 162 INDEX 531 Pedrarias, 269, 271 Pegasus, 252 ; earliest representation of, bis birthplace, 245 ; myth of, 289 Pegu, pony, 141; ponies, 448 Pelasgians, 107 Pelopidas, bis dream, 300 Peloponnesus, horses of, 301 Pelops, 251 Percberon horse, 2, 325 sq. ; grey, 402 Pericles, 295 Periplus, 158 Perissodactyles, 5 Perseus, 252 Persia, asses of, 149 ; good Turcoman horses, 132 ; horses of, 160 ; included Carmania, 47 Persian, 381 ; horse, 175, 431 ; horses, of Middle Ages, 188 ; kings, their horses, 190; stallions, 350 Persian Gulf, 149 Persians, 192 ; ancient, rode habitually, 190 ; used scythed chariots, 247 ; venerate white horses, 115 Peru, horses of, 270 Peter the Great, 351 Petra, 202 Petrie, Prof., 215, 233 Phalanx, Macedonian, 303 Phalios, 'bald,' 328 Pharaoh, 204 Pharusians, 240 Pheidias, horses of, 297 Phenacodus, 6 Philip II of Macedon, 302 ; horses of, 303 Philippopolis, 106 Phillips, Mr Lort, shot Somali ass, 54 Phoenix, bay, 295 Phrygia, 49 Piebald chestnut, 435 Piebalds, 142, 154, 175 Pied horses, 348-50 Pietrement, M., 3, 30, 35, 89; his E. c. mongolicus, 229 ; on Aryan horse, 151 Pigafetta, description of zebra, 59 Pinzgauer breed, 346 Pirogues, 273 Pit, pre-orbital ; see Fossa and De- pression Pizarro, 270, 271; his horses, 269 Platnauer, Mr, 97 Pleistocene, 7 Pliny, why mares' manes are hogged, 130 Pliocene, 6 Plotius, Aulus, 203 Plough-bullocks, 414 Ploughing, with mules, 113; with oxen, 113, 354 Plumes on horses, 195 Plutarch, 300 Pocock, Mr R. I., 66, 72, 75, 76, 436, 470, 508-10 ; on chestnuts of Gr^vy zebra, 59 ; on Gr^vy zebra, ib. ; on pre-orbital fossa in male Grant's zebra, 143 ; on quaggas, 74 ; on reversal of hair on spine of mountain zebra, 63 Poictiers, battle of, 333 Pole, 224 ; covered with red leather, 228 Poliakoff, 26 Polidore Virgil, 359 Polo, Marco, 134, 447; notes Tartar horses, 134; on Indian horses, 146; praises Turcoman horses, 133 Polyphyletic law, 7 Pompey, 203 Ponies, 351 ; black Hebridean, black Highland, 403 ; Connemara, 402sqq., 408; Exmoor, 399; Faroe, 352, 416; Iceland, 352, 416 ; Irish, of Solutre type, 409; Javanese, 11 ; Norwegian, 847; of Austria, 345; of Bosnia, 345; of Denmark, grey, 344 ; of Kurdistan, 160 ; of Oeland, 348 ; of Russia, 345 ; of Sulu, 11; pony, Connemara, 388; Mongolian, described, 138 ; race, Mongolian, ib. Portuguese in Congo and Angola, 55 Porus, has both chariots and horse- men, 153 Poseidon, 301 Posidonius, 257, 401 Potidaea, coin of, 301 Pottery from Daphnae, 244 Powerscourt, Viscount, the late, 367 Praetors, 307 Prairie, horses, colours of, 265; western, horses of, 264 sqq. Prejvalsky, his horse, 26; foal, woolly coat, 37; foals, described, 27; foals, their colours, 33; horse, 13, 38, 152, 425; description of, 26, 41; picture of, ib. ; indomitable temper of, 473 ; considered a mule, 35 ; its relation to tarpan and to Equus caballus, 41 ; horses, young, re- semble dwarf cart-horses, 36; not all genuine, 40 Premolars, functional, in some Java- nese and Sulu ponies, 142 Pre-orbital depression, in horse skulls, 159, 469, 470, 476 Prescott, W. H., 267, 270 Price, of chariot, 214 ; of hogs, 273 ; of horses, 150, 214, 218, 273, 296, 532 INDEX 357 ; of horses bought for James I, 379 ; of Markham Arabian, ib. ; of pony, 140 ; of slaves, 273 Pringle, Thomas, on cry of quagga, 73 Priory of Athy, 412 Prizes for races, 138 Procopius, 306 ; on Britain, 353 Progress, royal, 362 Protohippus, 6, 7 Provence, captured by Franks, 330; grey horses of, 325 Prussian, horses, 343; East, horses, 344 Prussians, East, 117 ; learn arrow- shooting and acquire horses, ib. Psammetichus I, 223, 238, 242 Psaumis, 276 Psylli, 238 Ptolemy, his accurate knowledge of Ireland, 401 Ptolemy Philadelphus, 200 Pungwe river, 66 Punic War, 309 Pyrenees, horses of, 322 Pyrrhus, 307 Pytheas, 401 Quagga (or Quacha), 12, 71 sqq., 428, 445 ; disappearance of stripes in, 79 ; habitat and colour of, 436 ; had white in the forehead, 466 ; its distribution and coloration, 71 ; its voice, 73 ; relationship to Burchell zebra, 76 ; Amsterdam, arch in fore- head of, 452; Bonte, 67, 476; Elgin, 436-8; hybrid, 457, 462; Lord Morton's tame, 76, 77 Quaggoides, E., 470 Queen Elizabeth, 362 Querandese Indians, 262 Eace, pony, 137 ; with ridden horse, 291 Eace-horse, at Olympia, 276 ; colours of, 440; origin of, 475 ; English, 212 ; English, origin of, 209 ; English, never dun-coloured, 433 ; race-horses, English, 377; English, now race of bays and chestnuts, 385 ; foals of, 444 ; monuments to, 276 ; of Eo- mans, 312 ; origin of, 188 Eaces, prizes for, 139 ; length of, ib. • winners of, ib. Eacing, 254 Eacing, among Mongols, 138 ; injured the breeding of great horses, 366 ; passion for, ib. Eacing mare, 379 Eameses II, 222 Eas-El-Fedowi, the name of the Darley Arabian, 384 Eaven, as a horse's name, 122 Eawlinson, Sir H. C, 177; his bay Arabian, ib. Eedfern, Mr W. B., 501 Eed-horse, 209 ; horses, in Veda, 152 Eed-roau, 346 Eed Sea, 164 Eeeves, Bishop, 412, 418 Eeinacb, M. S., on cave drawings, 91 Eeindeer horns, 84 Eeindeer period, 83 Eein-rings, 492 Eeins, 397 Eemus, the hybrid, 459 Eeyce, Eobert, 364, 370 Eeykjavik, 23 Ehacotis, 220 Ehesus, 107 Ehine, 327; crossed by Tencteri, 115; provinces, 341 Ehinoceros, at Eome, 55 Ehone, 254 Eibs of horse, normal number, 151 Eichard II promotes horse-breeding, 358 Eichardsou, Charles, 381, 383 Eichardson, Dr, 265, 429 Eidgeway, Prof., 7, 99, 223, 315, 399, 401 Eider, circus, 252 Eiding, 252, 497 ; Arab method of, 177 ; in Eig-Veda, 151 ; Irish method of, 388 ; learned by Greeks from Libya, 292 ; not practised by Egyptians, 216; later than driving, 481 Eig-Veda, 151 Elvers, horses sacrificed to, 192 Eivi^re, M., 87 Eoads, 366 Eoadster, old English, 386 Eoala tribe, 170 Eoan horse, in Cuba, 271 Eodo, island of, its ponies, 26, 120 Eollestou, Prof., 92 Eoman, noses, 345 ; cavalry, 481 ; race-horses, 312 Eomans, 353; inferior in cavalry, .306; race-horses of, 254 ; use chariots, 307 Eome, zebra at, 55 ; elephant at, ib. ; rhinoceros at, ib. ; tiger at, ib. Eomero, John, 262 Eomulus, 458 Eoscoe, Eev. J., 67 Eoscommon, horses of, 408 ; hunters, 414 Eoses, Wars of, 359 Eouncy, a, 359 INDEX 533 Eoyal mares, 381 Russia, horses of, 350 ; ponies of, 345 Eussian, horses, 132, 193 ; steppes, 164 Russians excavate at Dukhova Moghila, 106 Rutimeyer, 4 ; on the horse, 92 Eye, Mr, his edition of Hakluyt, 273 Sabeans, 201 Sabinos, 435 Sables, 118 ; called Saphirinae pelles, ib. Sacae, 129 Sacrifice, of bulls, 190; of horses, 151; of horses at Rome, 307 ; of horses, by Persians, 190 ; of horses, to Cyrus, ib. ; of white horses, 117 ; white horses preferred, 190; of ass, 150 Sacrificial animals, 222 Saddle, 498; not used by Assyrians, 197 ; pack-saddle, 199 ; pad used for, by Arabs, 176; saddles, not allowed by Mongols in racing, 139 ; not in Book of Kells, 391 ; not used by Greeks, 299 ; of Normans, 354 Sagartians use lasso, 192 Sagas, horses in, 122 Sahara, 207, 247 Salatis, king of Hyksos, 230 Salensky, Dr, 42 ; on Prejvalsky's horse, 40 Salsette, isle of, 149 Saluvii, 321 ; Ligurian tribe of, 310 Samnites, 100 Samphoras, term applied to horses, 296 Sampson, 384 Sanctity of white horses, 187, 190, 210 San Domingo, 266 ; horses introduced, 267 San Lucar, 271 Sanson, M., 2, 13, 30, 35, 219, 229, 250, 325, 401, 420 ; his eight species, 1 ; his two groups, 4 Santiago, 271 Saracens, 148, 322, 323; in Spain, 258 ; invade Spain and Gaul, 332 Sardinia, horses of, 274 Sardinian, 377 Sardis, 194 Sarissa, 304 Sarissophori, Macedonian, 304 Sarlik, Mongolian name of yak, 426 Sarmatae, 116 Sarmatian women, law of marriage, 126; rode on horseback, ib. Sarmatians, 50 ; castrate horses, 125 ; horsemen only, 116; corselet, ib.; arms, ib.; use lasso, 117; their weapons, ib. ; do not use metal, ib. ; sacrifice horses, eat them, ib. ; their horses, 125, 482 Saskatchewan, 430 Saturn, typical Suffolk Punch, 375 Saunia, Gallic spears, 99 Saxons, 334 Scandinavia, 118; horses of, 346, 416 Scaurus, Aemilius, 202 Scedaus, daughters of, 300 Scharff, Dr, 51, 83, 392, 399 Scherren, Mr H., on Abyssinian zebra, 58 Schleswig-Holstein, horses of, 342 Sehliemann, Dr, 285 Scipio, 308 Scipio Aemilianus, 309 Sclater, Mr P. W., 476; on Prejvalsky's horse, 35; description of Somali ass, 53 Sculptured group of horses, 295 Scutum, 481 Scythed chariots, 247, 393 Scythia, Indian, 158 Scythian, funeral customs, 136; horses, in India, 158, 159 ; women, differ from Sarmatian, 126 Scythians, 50, 158, 192 ; castrate horses, 125; their horses, 125; Nomad, 126 Seal, Great, Charles I on, 366 Sebaa tribe, 162 Sedbury, Royal mare, 382 Seglawi strain, 169 Seine, 326 Seius, horse of, 302 Selene, horse of, 297 Seleucid kings, 306 ; use scythed chariots, 247 Selinus, archaic metope from, 277 Selous, Mr, zebra named after him, 66; zebra of, 436 Semites, 232 ; had no horses in time of Abraham, 235 ; obtain horse late, 203 Sentinum, 100 Sequanius, E. c, 326 Serfs of Gauls, 316 Serjeants of the king, 356 Serpent, 300 ; serpents eaten by horses, 194 Servius Tullius, constitution of, 308 Sesto Calende, 103 ; chariot of, ib. ; bi;cket at, ib. Sethroite, nome, 230 Seti I, horses of, 229 Sen re, M., 107 Shadingfield stock, 375 Shafi'y, form of Islam, 145 Shakespeare, 294 34—3 534 IXDEX Shammar, sheikh, 50; tribes, 161; horses of, ib. Shan ponies, HI, 448 Shark, 385 Sheep, 129 Shekels of silver, 214 Shepherd kings, 229-30 Sheriff, of Hampshire, 355, 356 ; of Wiltshire, 356; sheriffs, 358 Shetland-Welsh mare, 45 Shields, bronze, 394 ; Gallic, ib. ; Irish, 396 ; round, 315, 481 Ships, built without metal nails, 148 Shire Horse Society, 369 Shire horse, typical, 368 ; colour of, 368; in Ireland, 413 Shirt of mail, 331 Shkorpil, the brothers, 106 Shoa, zebra of, 57 Shoes, horse, 298 Shoulder-stripe, in African ass, 53 Sicamber, 338 Sicambri, 338 Sicilian horses, 313 Sierras of Spain, horses of, 260 Signet of Darius, 192 Sigynnae, 94, 345 Silchester, 352 Silver, 130; talents of, 191 Simonoff, M. de, 360 Singapore, 141 Sinjar, ass of, 50 Sivalensis, E., 469 Siwa, oasis of, 239 Size of horses, 246 Skarphedinn, 123 Skeat, Mr W. W., 146 Skeleton of woman, 398; skeletons, human, 107 Skewbalds, 142, 154 Skin, colour of, 466, 476 ; of African horse, 467 ; of horses, 165 ; of negro, 467 ; skins, 240 Skull of horse, 326; skulls, horse, from Irish craunog, 390, 391 ; of horses, 143 ; of zebras and quaggas, 76 Slaves, Irish, in Iceland, 419; price of, 273 Sledge, 482-3 Sleipnir, Odin's eight-legged steed, 119, 346; his origin, 121; grey colour of, 122 SUde-car, 483 Smetanka, 850 Smith, Col. Hamilton, 30, 42, 74, 177, 433, 446, 472, 474; his five stirpes, 1 Smith, Mr A. J., 376 Smith, Mr R. A., 510 Smyrna, horses from, 188 Solomon, imports horses from Egypt, 214 ; mares of, 165, 166, 207 ; stud of, 162, 167 Solon, his class of knights, 293 Solutre, S3; horses of, 89, 151, 370; horses of low stature, 84 Somaliland, 56 ; zebra of, 57 Somali wild ass, 54, 476; zebra, 58, 459 ; habitat, 58 ; striping of, 458 Somers, 362 Sons of horses, 163, 164 Sooty, as a horse's name, 122 Sooty black horses of Kurds, 177 Sorrel, a bad colour, 372 ; coloured horse, Suffolk Punch, 368 ; horses, 357-8, 371 Soto, Ferdinando de, 271 ; dies by the Mississippi, 273 Spadix, derivation of, 291 Spain, cave remains in, 87 ; dun horses of, 265, 465; horses of, 254, 312; horses of sierras of, 260 ; Irish trade with, 387, 389 Spaniards, 8, 266 Spanish, breed, 345, 512 ; cavalry, 101 ; horsemen, 254 ; horses, 343, 387 ; horses, colours of, 258; jennet, 259, 377 Spanker, 382 Spears, 99, 429 Spiletta, 383 Spiti, ponies of, 134, 153 Spokans, 430 Spurs, 500; Norman, 354 Stade, horse-breeding of, 342 Stakes for a race, 138 Stallion, Irak, 472; Neapolitan, 364; staUions, 356, 360, 364 ; Anazah, prized, 183 ; Babylonian, each al- lotted twenty mares, 193 ; King Stephen sends round, 356 ; one hundi'ed imported into England, 356 ; Persian, 350 Star, 187, 250, 261 ; in forehead, 173, 181, 258, 374, 447-8, 476; stars, 465 ; correspond to certain marks in zebras', 465 ; in forehead, 376 Starkad, 122 Starling-coloured horse, 296 Statins, 301 St Columba, 418 Stenonis, E., 462, 470 Stephanides, William, 345 Stephen sends round stallions, 356 Steppes, studs of, 351 Stevenson, Mr J., 390 Stilhngtleet, Rev. E. W., 97 Stirrup, 498; not used by Arabs, 177; stirrups, Norman, 354; not in Book INDEX 535 of Kells, 391 ; not on Kells cross, 391 ; not used by Irish, 390 St Leger, 441 Stocking, in mountain zebra, 466 ; white, on horse's leg, origin of, 465 ; stockings on horses, 373 Stockwell, skull of, 470 Stokes, Dr W., 400 Stot, 359 St Patrick, 400, 401 St Quentin, Col., 386, 392 Strabo, 190, 220, 471 Stradanus, 337, 338, 340 ; his drawings of horses, 188, 242, 260 Striped, dun horses, 261 ; horses, of Tibet, 154 ; horses, of Waziris, 160 ; horses, Tibetan, 156 ; ponies, of Java, 142 ; Tibetan ponies, 156 ; stripe, dorsal, 372, 386 ; dorsal, in Cleveland bay, 386 ; dorsal, in Battak ponies, 142 ; dorsal, of Karadagh horses, 193 ; stripes, cervical, 453-4, 450 ; concomitant of dark colour, 465 ; dorsal, on Arab colts, 182 ; facial, rarity of, 453 ; in dun horses, 465; in horses, 444 sg^., 511; in hybrids, 459 ; on dun horses, in Spanish sierras, 257; on dun horses of Mexico, 269; on horses, 373; on Kattywar horses, 157 ; on onager, 37 Striping of the Equidae, 79 Stroxton Tom, 368 Strvmou, white horses sacrificed to, 192 Stud of Tsetsen Khan, 138 Stud-book, 381 ; Suffolk, 370 Stuttgard, stud of, 344 Styria, 346 ; horses of, 315 Suevi, 115, 116 Suffolk, Breviary of, 364 ; Stud-book, 370 Suffolk Punch, 2, 346, 366; its history and origin, 370 sqq.; later history of, 374; in Ireland, 413 Suiones, 118 Sultan, of Ducaila, 248; of Java, 145; of Sumatra, 145; Sultans of Achen, their horses, 142 Sumatra, ponies of, 141 Sumpter horses, 362 Sun, worshipped by Massagetae, 129; horses sacrificed, ih. Surcingle, 177 Sutherland, Mr, 16 Swayne, Capt., 58 Sweden, horses of, 119, 349 Swedes, horses of, 118 Swimmers, horses as, 435 Switzerland, cave remains in, 86 ; horse remains, lake-dwellings, 92 ; horses of, 344 Sword, La Tene, 99 ; swords, 100 ; of La Tene period, 394; La Tene, found in Ireland, 396; of Mauri, 240 Syene, 238 Syphax, 309 Syrdaria, 31 Syria, 161 ; export of horses from, 163 ; horses of, 167, 184 Syrian, desert, 161 ; horse, compared with Bagdad, 185 Syrians, 243 Tablets of Tel-el-Amarna, 214 Tacitus, 334 Tael, 140 Tahpanhes, 242 Tail, as test of breeding, 304 ; docked, 140; of Arab, 174; of ass hybrid, 37 ; of horse, 8 ; of Kohl breed, 229 ; set high in Prejvalsky horse, and in desert Arabs, 38 ; setting of, 245, 254, 477 ; structure, covering, and carriage of, 469 Tail-lock of Iceland pony, 18 Takja, 31 Tamerlane gives Arab mares to Turco- mans, 133 Tanais, river, 125 Tangums, have very small hock callo- sities, 154 ; of Tibet, 350 Tangustan, 154 Tapestry, Bayeux, 354 Tapirs, 5, 6, 9 Tarbes, horses of, 822 Tarentum, horses of, 278 Tarpau, 1, 31, 34, 40, 41, 425; coat of, 33 ; description of, 32 ; its pecu- liar voice, 31 ; mouse-coloured, 41 ; skeletons of, 42; true, not larger than ordinary mules, 34 ; their colour, ib. ; voice of, 32 ; like mule, ih. ; tarpans, 35, 125 Tartars, 30 ; their horses, 134 ; slay men and horses at funeral of a Khan, 135; use of camels, not early, 200 Tartary, 18 Tassels on horses, 195, 504 Tasso, 257 Taylor, IMr Gordon, 437 Teeth, Arab does not tell age by, 177 ; for age, 140 ; of Gr^vy and Baringo zebras, 146; of Javanese and Sulu ponies, 142 ; of zebras, ib. ; pre- molars, 142, 461 Tegetmeier, Mr, 16, 26, 28 ; on Somali zebra, 58 536 INDEX Teheran, cab-horses of, 193 Telegony, 457 Tel-el-Amarna, tablets of, 214 Temper, 375 ; bad, of chestnuts, 474 Temple, Sir W., 387 Tencteri, 335, 338; cavalry of, 115; horses of, 115, 326, 331, 339 Tent-dwellers, Arab, 201 Terah, 204 Terms for colour, 177 Tertiary period, 4, 5 Teutonic chivalry, 331 Texas, horses of, 267, 271 ; Spaniards leave horses behind in, 273 Thana, town of, 149 Thangbrand, converts Iceland, 122 ; stops the eating of horse-flesh, ib. Thebaid, kings of, 236 Thebans, white horses of, 295 Thebes, seat of New Empire, 236 Thera, 253 Thessalians, white horses of, 296 Thessaly, horses of, 285, 301 Thor, does not ride, 118 Thoroughbred, American, 385 ; Austra- lian, ih.; English, 380 sqq.; the Irish, 414 ; Melbourne strain, 38 Thorshaven, 23 Thorstein, the Bed, 416 Thothmes IV, his tomb, 227 ; his chariot, 227-8 Thrace, horses of, 302 ; white horses of, 289 Thracian, horses, 306 ; war-chariots, 107 Thracians, 105; horses of, small, 107; tattoo, 105 Thrall, Irish, in Iceland, 419 Thuringian horses, 318 Thuringians, 327; conquered by Franks, 329-30 ; laws of, 332 Tibet, horses of, 349 ; its piebald horses, 1 ; ponies of, 154 ; wild horses of, 18 Tibetan ponies, colours of, 156 Ticinus, 101, 255 Tiger at Eome, 55 Tigris, 161; horses of, 183 Timaeus, king of Egypt, 230 Tin trade of Britain, 401 Tiree, ponies of, 18 Togarmah, horses of, 193 Tom, river, 32 Tomaris, queen, 129 Tombs, in Achaia, 293 ; of Egyptian kings, 236; of Chinese emperors, ib.; Valley of, ib. Toulouse, battle of, 882 Toussaint, M., 84, 89 Trade, with Gaul, 401 Trajan, 202 Trakehnen, horse, 472 ; stud of, 344 Trans-Indus horses, 153-4, 159 Trimarcisia of Celts, 317 Tripod, 251 Troglodytes, 238 Trojans, horses of, 290 Tros, 290 Trot, very hard, of German horse, 337 Trotter, Norfolk, 386 ; its origin, ib. Trotting, desired in horses of service, 364 Trotting horse, American, 463 ; Lin- colnshire, 374 ; mares, 364 Tsetse-fly, 10, 77 Tumulus, 398 Turcae, 129 Turcoman, black horses of, 187 ; horses, 156, 176, 181 ; horses, colours of, bay, grey, black, white feet and a star in forehead, 133; mares, 168, 449; ponies, 168 Turcomania, 133 ; horses, ib. Turcomans, get Arab mares, 183 ; horses of, 132 ; obtain Arab stallions, 132 Turk, Byerley, 382 ; Lister, ib. ; White, ib. ; Yellow, ib. Turk, horse, 160, 377; horses, in England, 189; the, 189, 378 Turkestan, horses of, 132 ; wild ass of, 47 Turkish Arabia, horses of, 182 Turkish, cavalry, how mounted, 163 ; horses, 344, 381, 472 Turko-Tartaric names for horse, 128 Turquans, 133 Tuscany, horses of, 814 Tusgul Sea, 26 Tweedie, Major-Gen., 157, 160, 162, 165, 441, 471 ; doctrine of origin of Kohl breed, 207; on kiidiish, 164; on colours of Arab horses, 177 ; on origin of Kohl breed, 209 Tyre, horses and mules at fairs of, 198 Ubii, 327 Ukraine, 1, 30; blood, 825 Ulster chariots, 398 Umbrians use chariots, 103 Upton, Major, 162, 163, 164, 166, 180, 240, 445; notes stripes in Arab horses, 182; on colours of Arab horses, 180 ; views on horses of Syria and Bagdad, 184 Urga, the 'Derby' of Mongolia, 139 Urn, covering burnt bones, 398-9 Usipii, 115 INDEX 537 Val d'Arno, fossil horses of, 143 Vandals, 334, 835 Vandyck, his portrait of Cromwell, 366 Vanir, 118 Varni (Werini), not horsemen, 353 Vases, Greek, 293 ; show chariots, 252 Vedic, horses, 151 ; Indians, 157 Vegetius, 319, 327, 341 Veneti, 104 ; of Armorica, 401 ; their horses, 104 Venn, Dr J., 120, 412, 452 Venn, Mr J. A., 121, 452 Vertebrae, lumbar, in tarpan, 42 ; in Prejvalsky horse, ib. Vertragus, the Celtic dog, 398, 400 Vesuvius, battle of, 100 Vez^re, cave of, 85 Victoria, feral horses of, 430 Viking period, 354 Vikings of Western Isles, 416 Virgil, Polidore, 359 Virginia, wild horses in, 430 Voice, of dzeggetai, 52 ; of kiang, 46, 52 ; of other asses, 52 ; of horse, 477 ; of Irak stallion, 472 ; of Kadish, 471 ; of Kuhailan different from Kadish, 180 ; of Libyan horse, 471 ; of onager, 46 ; of tarpan, 31 Waddell, Mr L. A., 156 Waggon, four-wheeled, Styria, 315 ; waggons, Scythian, drawn by oxen, 127, 482 Wahlberg zebra, 436 Walers, 47 Wall, Great, of China, 140 Wallace, Mr J. H., 385, 430 Wall-eyed horses, 349 Walwich Bay, 65 War-chariots, 351 ; used against Pyr- rhus, 307 Ward zebra, 64, 508 War-horse, 203 ; typical, of Byzantine period, 328 ; Cyrenian, 253 ; of Lower empire, 329 Warriors slain at funerals, 128 Waziris, horses of, 159, 447 Wells, ICl; dug, Arabia, 207 Werini (same as Varni), 329, 335, 354 Western Asia, horses of, 188 Westmeath, 413; hunters, 414 West Wind imjiregnates Lusitanian mares, 257 Wheel, 483 scjq. ; four-spoked, six- spoked, eight -spoked, 225, 228 spoked, 484 ; origin of, 485 wheels, 223, 224; block, 483-4 488; chariot, 95; eight-spoked, 315 eight-spoked, on Irish chariots, 390 eight-spoked, on Irish crosses, ib.; tires of, 95; evolution of, 482 Whip, 479 White, Arab, 169 ; Arab love of white horses, 178 ; elephant, sanctity of, 105; feet, 181, 250, 373; feet, in Kuhailan, 173 ; horse, drowned in Gyndes, 191 ; horse, in Apocalypse, 210; horse, of Berkshire, 353; horse, of St Columba, 419 ; legs, 374 ; star or blaze, 374 ; stars, 376 ; worn by Tartars on New Year's Day, 134; white horses, 120, 135, 174, 289, 294, 295, 296, 346, 466 ; among Germans, 105, 114, 353; among Scandinavians, 105 ; at Agrigentum, 276 ; at Rome, 307 ; belong to upper Asia and Europe, 186 ; draw Zeus' chariot, 294 ; in Greece, 292 ; in Sicily, 105, 278 ; in Thessaly, 301 ; in Thrace, 107 ; Julius Caesar drawn by, 307-8 ; of Kublai Kaan, 134; sacrificed, 294; sacrificed by Persians on march, 190 ; sanctity of, 105, 186, 187, 294, 419; tribute of, 190; wild, 125; used for divination by the Germans, 114 Why Not Royal mare, 382 Wife of Bath, 359 Wild ass, 50 ; in Scythia, 125 Wild horses, 16 ; extermination of, 433 ; of North America, 265 ; in Spain, 257,260; not found in Arabia, 165, 207 ; variation of colour, 27 ; why destroyed, 428 Wilde, Sir AV., 391 William III, charger of, 367 William, de Sancto Mauro, 355 Wiltshire sheriff, 356 Winchester, 356 Wind, ' Drinkers ' of the, 249 ; West, impregnates Lusitanian mares, 257 Winter, Dr, his horses, 412 Wolf, 4, 208, 426; as a brand, 104 Wolf-dogs {see Dog), 401 Wollaston, Dr, 457 Woman, skeleton of, 398; nude, on horseback, 244 Women, ride on horseback, Libyan, 242 Woodbridge, 368 Wurtemburg, horses of, 844 Xanthippus, 395 Xenophon, 480 ; description of a good horse, 298 Xerxes, army of, 152; his car, 191; Indians in host of Xerxes, 47 ; roll of his army, 192 ; sacrifices white horses to rivers, ib. 538 INDEX Xyston, 304 Yak, 4, 426 Yaman, horses of, 164 Yarkund, 134 Yellow, 175 Yellow horse, 210 Yemen, 164 Yoke, 224 Yorkshire, barrows, chariots in, 95 ; cart -mares, 385-6; coach -horse, 386 Youatt, Mr, 151, 161, 177 Young, Arthur, 368 ; description of Suffolk Punch, 370 Yucatan, 269 Yule, Col., 147, 150 Yunnan, horses of, 140 Zagan-norr, lake, 28, 40 Zain, 434 Zaizan, 26 Zama, 309 Zambesi, 66 Zebra, 7, 55 sqq. ; Burchell, 59, 436, 445, 472,476; Burchell, domestica- tion of, 78; Chapman's, 12; Craw- shay's, ih. ; Grant's, ib. ; Grevy's, 12, 59; Gr^vy, Imperial or Somali, 58; hybrids, 36, 452; hybrids, bred in East Africa, 79 ; hybrids, hock cal- losities, 39 ; large hybrids are out of well bred mares, ih. ; in Angola, 55 ; in Congo, ih. ; known to Eomans, ih.; Mountain, 12, 56, 62, 472; pre-orbital depression in skull of, 143 ; Somali, striping of, 458 ; teeth of, 142 ; Wahlberg's, 436 ; Ward's, 64, 508 ; zebras, coloration of, 436; now utilized in British East Africa, 79 ; west of Nile, 56; see also Equus Zebra-ass hybrid, 453 ; -horse hybrid, 476 Zebu, 4, 426 Zechariah, 211 Zegredoff steppe, tarpan of, 41 Zeus, car of, 191 ; di-awn by white horses, 294 CAMBEIDGE: PRINTED BY JOHN CLAY, M.A. AT THE UNIYEESITY PRESS. 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