456 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



94) that the yoke, Sanskrit, yuga = that which Joins, was first invented 

 for the pair of oxen to draw the plow with, it being likely that they 

 were first put to this heavy work, and afterward used for drawing 

 carts, rather than that the idea of drawing a cart by oxen should have 

 occurred before putting them to plow. This, though not absolutely 

 certain, seems a very reasonable argument ; while the yoke and pole, 

 being so much better suited to the ox than to the horse, point to oxen 

 as the earliest draught-beasts. The history of successive changes 

 seems well shown in the Latin Jumentum, a beast of burden, from 

 jugumentum = yoke-ment, which word keeps up the memory of the 

 original yoke, though other modes of transporting burdens had come 

 in. The Latin jumentum is used for the horse, etc., but not for the 

 ox ; and ^xq\\q\x jument has still further lost the old idea, now meaning 

 merely a mare. One further remark is suggested by the harness of 

 the ancient Egyptian chariot, where the yoke is provided with two 

 saddles coming down on the withers of the horses. As is well known, 

 cavalry was by no means general among the armies of the ancient 

 world. The early Aryans, like the Homeric heroes, were charioteers, 

 not horsemen, nor are there any ancient Egyptian horsemen to be seen 

 on the monuments. On the other hand, the wari'iors of Palestine are 

 there to be seen on horseback, and hoi'se-soldiers appear on the Assyr- 

 ian sculptures. In old times, however, the horseman is mostly seen 

 riding a barebacked horse, or with a cloth or pad only. It seems to 

 have been gradually that saddles i^roj^er began to be used in Assyria, 

 and among the Greeks and Romans. Looking, now, at the Egyptian 

 yoke-saddles of the chariots, one may suspect that from them were 

 derived not only the harness-saddles in modern use, but also our riding- 

 saddles. Journal of the Anthropological Institute. 



PHYSICAL EDUCATION. 



By FELIX L. OSWALD, M. D. 

 DIET (continued), 



BUT, under all circumstances, make a firm stand against the poison- 

 habit. It is best to call things by their right names, The efi^ect 

 upon the animal economy of every stimulant is strictly that of a poison, 

 and every poison may become a stimulant. There is no bane in the 

 South American swamps, no virulent compound in the North American 

 drug-stores chemistry knows no deadliest poison whose gradual and 

 persistent obtrusion on the human organism will not create an unnat- 

 ural craving after a repetition of the lethal dose, a morbid appetency 

 in every way analogous to the hankering of the toper after his favorite 



