The daily morning journal and courier. [volume] (New Haven, Conn.) 1894-1907, 1899-05-29
MAN AND THE HORSE.

! west lndla, the cult OF the morse TOOK lts
rise in Scythia, and on the plains of Tar
tary, probably the true home of the
horse, for the wild steeds of the Steppes
of central Asia-especially the equus
Prejevalskii of Thibet-bear striking re-
semblance to the two Palaeolithic horses
rudely 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 a 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 in length, comprising,
it has been estimated, the remains Of
from twenty to forty thousand animals.
There is no doubt that for very long
period man saw In the horse nothing
more than a plentiful supply of wild
food-stuff. His next step was to half
| tame him, so that large herds valued
first for their flesh, and afterwards 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 Veda. 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 domesticatio the
horse would seem to have gone out Of
fashion as a food, for in the neolthic
age his remains are absent or very rare,
while he reappears in the late bronze
age as a tanned animal. This Is proved
by the discovery 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 nowadays for child's pony. AS
matter Of fact, bits of the size wide
enough for the primitive horse are only
suitable now for donkeys. The most an
cient horseshoes which have been dis
covered, and which belong to the late
iron age, perhaps about the eleventh =
century before Christ, are also very
small From these facts (says the
Road, from examination of the bones,
and from the pictures left for us by pre-
historic 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
u, hot tba tc,, ,al J,a
horse for riding attached high honor to
the creature seated on whose back they
secured with such swiftness. The
horsemen of Thessaly appeared to the
other Greeks through a mist of fable as
centaurs, half-man, half brute, but
wholly divine. And in the frank fashion
of all primitive people, the horseman
gave back to the horse the glory that he
reflected from it, and made of his COM
rade in war and chase kind of deity. !
The ancient Germans took oracles from |
white horses, just as the Egyptians did |
from their sacred oxen. The animals |
We're kept in groves, and gave augury |
by neighing. Among the Slavs, the
sword combined with the horse to fore
tell future events The weapons We're
planted in the ground, and the horses
led among them: by the movements of |
The beasts the attending priests judged
he will of the gods. Among the Morse
men the sacrifice of a horse and the eat
ng of its flesh was token of sacra-
mental allegiance to O6in. Among the
ancient Irish, when king was crowned
n Ulster, it was customary to STAY a
white mare and boil it in vat. Into
his vat the newly made king descended,
md there sat, drinking the broth, and
asting small portions of the meat. The
ating of lorseflesh was so we'll recog-
lized as a heather rite that the early
saints forbade it to their con-
'erts.
Among the Scythians the horse was
leemed sacred to the sun, and it's wor-
hip crossed the Himalayas, and was
arly established among the Rajput
,iugs. Next to human being, who
was, as matter of fact, never
acrlficed in ancient india the horse
vas the most acceptable offering to the
,ods. 1t is laid down in the Puranas
hat the sacrificer Of hundred horses
usts Indra, the king of the gods, from
lis throne and reigns in Paradise
w |
I'd, however of any one having earned
his surprising felicity. Kings, on at
aiming the throne, usually sacrificed. a
orse, their tributary princes perform
1g the more mental duties connected
18th the Aswamedha (horse-sacrifice).
indeed even the office of porter in this
olemn rite could only be assumed by
ne Of royal blood. One of the books of
ne great Hindu epic the Mahabharata,
ontains an account of the Aswamedha
ED by Yudhisthira king of the Pan
us, when he had, by the defeat of the
.auravas, firmly established his rule a
yer northern india. The sacred horse
as turned loose to wander wherever it
sted for a year, while the royal army
,llowed it everywhere at a respectful
stance. Other tribes, whose pastures
crossed, We're given the option of eth
turning out in force to Join the tri-
mph of the horse, or of accepting
ager of battle. At the end of the year :
lie horse was led back to the palace and
lere sacrificed.-St. James Gazette.