The morning call. [volume] (San Francisco [Calif.]) 1878-1895, 1891-03-22
THE PRIMITIVE HORSE.
Was He Driven Before he Was Ridden THAT
Is The Question.
March, 1891.

Canon Taylor, in that most interesting
book, The Origin of the AryanS," has
raised once more question which has often
attracted the attention of scholars, eSpe-
cially those interested in the H0meric
poems; Why is it that in the earliest rec
Ords Of the Greeks, Egyptians, Assyrians,
Indians and Celts we find the horse used
for drawing chariots, but not yet for riding?
Canon Taylor remarks Up. 16l), ''it is curl
GUS to notice at how late a period men first
ventured to mount the swift one y; and he
goes on to say that there is nothing in the
Rig Veda to show that the art of riding
was practiced, and that our first notice of
it IS in the Zend Avesta. The Homeric
Greeks employed the horse almost exclu-
sively for the chariot, riding being only
alluded to in some two or three isolated
passages, as when Odysseus and Diomedes
rode to the ships the horses of Rhe suS
which they had captured ILL., 5l5 CT. Cd. V.
SD. This, however, shows that it was
hardly from fear that the Greeks did not
habitually ride instead of drive their SteedS.
Tie same remark applies to the ancient
Britons, who, according to the ancient ac-
counts, performed wonderful feats OF
agility in running out and standing upon
the pole of the chariot
The true solution may probably be this:
The primitive horse that ranged over the
plains of Europe and Asia was too small
when he was first dOmestcated to carry
man for any great time or distance on his
back. This, of course, would render him
practically useless for warfare. There Is
ample evidence to prove that the primitive
wild horse was of very diminutive size;
probably of all his descendants the Shetland
pony is his best representative. Canon
Taylor says Up. 15S, speaking of the enormous
deposit of their bones found at Soultre, near
Macon which pOn tainS from % O00 To 40 000
skeletcnS):
This primitive horse was dimlnutve animal,
not much larger than au ass, standing about thir
teen hands high, the largest specimens not eX-
ceeding fourteen hands. But the head was OF
dspropofiOnate size and the teeth were very
powerful. He resembed the tarpan or Wild
horse of the Caspian steppes.
Even long after he had been domesticated
he remained very small as if proved by the
bits made of bronze and staghOrn which
have been found at Morngen and Auver-
nier, which belong to the latest bronze age.
'sThese bits are only three and half inches
wide, and could now be hardly used Tor
chld's pony"
Let us now turn to Herodotus. v. 9.
where, speaking of the unknown regions to
the north of the Danube, he says that the
only people he can learn OF as inhabiting
the region are called Sigynnae, who wear
the costumes of the Modes and whose horses
are shaggy all over the body, being covered
with hair TO depth of five fingers, aud are
small and flat-nosed and incapable of carry
ing men, but when yoked under chariOts
they are very swift, and that the natives
accordingly drive charots. This descrip-
ton Of the external appearance OF the little
horses of the Sgynnae of Central Europe
agrees very well with that of the skeletons
found near Macon. The simous shape of
the head tallies we'll with the ugly shaped
skull and powerful jaws of the bone de-
pOsits
We can hardly doubt that we have here
primitive horses such as those whose dimin
utiye bits have been found in the later lake
dwellings of Switzerland. IL seems to me
then that the reason Herodotus here assigns
for the fact that this tribe of Central
Europe drove their horses instead of riding
them is the true explanation why all early
peoples alike employed the horse for driv-
ing long before they ever habltualiy prac-
ticed riding. 1t was only after generations
of demonstration that. under careful feeding
and breeding, the horse became of sufficient
size to carry man on his back with ease.
That size was held to be of great import
ance by the Homeric Greeks is proved by
Had X. 436-The Academy.