The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1899-06-26
THE FRIEND OF MAN.
How the Horse Has Served the HUI.
man Family for Ages.
From the ST. James Gazette


From the ST. James Gazette.
While the cult of the COW originated in
the valleys of the five rivers of north
west India, the cult OF the horse took its
rise in Seythia and on the plains of Tar
tary, probably the true home of the
horse, for the wild steeds of the stepDes
of central Asia-especially the eouus
PreIevalskii Of Thibet-bear striking re-
semblanee to the two Palaeoiithic horses
rudeIy though vigorously drawn upon a
piece of reindeer horn by some artist of
the stone age. This famous primitive
etching was found at La Madeleine, in the
department. Of Dordogne, and no doubt
gives correct idea OF the wild horse,
from whom early man In Europe drew
his chief food supply. The herds of horses
must have been great. indeed, for at one
village alone, at Solutre, near Macon was
found a deposit OF horse bones ten feet
in depth, and more than three hundred
feet i'm length, comprising, il has been es-
tmated, the remains of from twenty &c
forty thousand animals. There is no
doubt that for a very long period man
saw in the horse nothing more than
plentiful supply Of wild food-stuff. His
next step was 20 half tame him, so that
large herds valued first for their flesh,
and afterward for their milk, might be
driven like sheep before the herdsmen.
Later on he was used for draught pur-
poses, especially for the drawing of war
chariots, and to this was long confined.
There is no mention of the art of riding
in the Neda. In ancient Egypt the ass
alone was ridden, and even among the
Homeric Greeks the horse seems to have
been used almost entirely as a car drawer.
Prior TO his domestication, the horse
would seem to have gone out of fashion
as food, for in the neolithic age his re-
mains are absent or very rare, while he
reappears in the late bronze age as
tanned animal. This is proved by the dis
covery of primitive bits made of stays
horn or of bronze. These bits are only
three and a half inches wide. and, as
Mr.. Isaac Taylor tells us in his Origin
of The Aryans," could only be used nova
days for a chiid's pony AS a matter of
fact, bits of the size wide enough for The
primitive horse are only suitable now for
donkeys. The most ancient horseshoes
which have been discovered, and which
beiong 10 the late iron age, perhaps
about the eleventh century before Christ,
are also very small. From these facts
(says the Road, from the examination
of the bones. and from the pictures left
for us by prehistoric artists, the primitive
horse has been reconstructed. He stood
about thirteen hands high--not much
taller than a donkey. The head was
larger than that of the horse of to-day,
and the teeth large and powerful.
1t is, perhaps, small matter for won
der that The nations who first tanned the
horse for riding attached great honor TO
the creature, seated on whose back they
secured with such swifness. The horse
men of Thessaly appeared 10 the other
Greeks through a mist of fable as Cen
turs, half man, half brute, but wholly di-
vne. And in the frank fashion of al
primitive people the horsemen gave back
10 the horse the glory that he reflected
from il, and made of his comrade in war
and chase a kind of deity, The ancient
Germans took oracles from white horses,
just as the Egyptians did from their sa
cred oxen. The animals were kept in
groves and gave augury by neighing.
Among the Slavs the sword combined
with the horse TO foretell future events.
The weapons We're planted in the ground
and the horses led among them. BY the
movement of the beasts the attending
priests judged the will of the gods.
Among the Norsemen the sacrifice of
horse and the eating of its flesh was a
token of sacramental allegiance TO Odin.
Among The ancient Irish, when a king
was crowned in Ulster, It was customary
to STAY a white mare and boil 1t in a vat.
Into this vat the newly made king de-
scended, and there sat drinking the bsoth
and tasting small portions of the meat.
The eating of horsehesh was so well re-
cognized as heather rite that the early
Christian saints forbade 1t to their con-
vents
Among the Scythians the horse was
deemed sacred to the sun, and its wor-
ship crossed the Himalayas, and was
early established among the Raiput kings.
Next to a human being. who probably
was, as a matter of fact, never sacrificed
in ancient India, the horse was the only
acceptable Offering to the gods. 1t Is laid
down in the Puranas that the sacriiicer
of hundred horses Gusts Indra, the king
of the gods from his throne and reigns in
paradise (Swarga) in his Stead. There is
no record, however Of any one having
earned this surprising felicity. Kings on
attaining the throne usually sacrifice
horse, their tributary princes performing
the more mental duties connected with
Aswamedha morse sacrihce). Indeed,
even the office Of porter IN this solemn
rite could only be assumed by one Of roy
al blood. One of the books of the great
Hindu epic, the Mahabnarata contains
an account of the Aswamedha held by
Yudhisthira, King of the Pandus, when
he had, by the defeat of the Kauravas,
firmly established his rule over northern
India The sacred horse was turned loose
to wander wherever it listed for a year.
while the royal army followed It every
where at a respectful distance. Other
tribes, whose pastures Ii crossed, were
given the option of either turning out in
force to join the triumph of the horse or
of accepting wager of battle. At the end
of the year the horse was led back to the
palace and there sacrificed.
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