The St. Johns herald., 1891-07-30
THE HORSE.
Why That Animal Was Driven Eefre It
 Tas Ridden.

Why That Animal Was Driven Eefoce It
 Was Ridden.
 Canon Taylor, in that most interest ing book, 1.-The Origin of the Aryans,' 2 has raised once more a question which has often attracted the attention of scholars, especially those interested in the Homeric poems, says the Academy. Why is it that in the earliest records of the Greeks, Egyptians, Assyrians, Indians, and Celts we find the horse used for drawing chariots, but not yet for riding?
 Canon Taylor remarks: ''It is curious to notice at how late a period men first ventured to mount the swift one;'" 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 exclusively 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 Rhesus which they had captured. This, however, shows that it was hardly from fear that the Greeks did not habitually ride instead of drive their steeds. The same remark applies to the ancient Britons, who, according to the ancient accounts, 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 domesti- cated to carry a 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 represent ative. Canon Taylor says Speaking of the enormous deposit of their bones found at Solutre, near Macon, which contains from twenty thousand to forty thousand skeletons):
 ''This primitive horse was diminu- tive animal, not much larger than an ass, standing about thirteen hands high, the largest specimens not exceed ing fourteen hands. But the head was of disproportionate size, and the teeth were very powerful. He resembled the tarpan or wild horse of the Caspian steppes."
 Even long after he had been domesti- cated he remained very small, as is proved by the bits made of bronze and staghorn which have been found at Mo- ringen and Auvernicr, which belong to the latest bronze age. ''These bits are only three and one half inches wide, and could now be hardly used for child's pony"
 Let us now turn to Herodotus, where, speaking of the unknown regions to the north of the Danube, he says that the only people he can learn of as inhab- iting the region are called Sigyannae, who wear the costume of the Modes, and whose horses are shaggy all over the body, being covered with hair to depth of five fingers, and are small and flat nosed and incapable of carrying men, but when yoked under chariotS they are very swift, and that the na- tives accordingly drive chariots. This description of the external appearance of the little horses of the Sigyannae of central Europe agrees very well with that of the sketches found near Ma con. The sirnous shape of the head tallies well 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 diminutive bits have been found in the later lake dwellings of Switzer- land. It 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 driving long before they ever habit ually practiced riding. It was only after generations of domestication that, under careful feeding and breeding, the horse became of sufficient size to carry a man on his back with ease. That size was held to be of great importance by the Homeric Greeks is proved by Iliad x, 436.
 A Pictured Gem.