312 



Chinese Clay Figures 



of i 6 2 i , where no description of them , however, is given . The armor parts 

 for the croup, neck, breast, and trunk, consist of plate mail ; they represent 

 the tradition of the Ming period, and may be identical with those of the 

 Yuan. It is not known to me whether horse armature was still employed 

 under the Manchu dynasty. Fig. 55 is here inserted after Cibot; from 

 what Chinese source this illustration is derived I do not know. It is 



Fig. 55. 

 Chinese Sketch of Caparisoned Horse (from L. P. Cibot, Lettre sur les caracteres 



chinois, Brussels, 1773). 



interesting as showing a horse with complete equipment, — a facial mask 

 or frontal with chanfrin of scale armor, neck and shoulder guards of 

 plate mail, and a chabraque enveloping the trunk. 



From what has been set forth above in regard to the relations be- 

 tween Iran and China, it appears also that Chinese horse mail might 

 have been influenced from the same direction. This influence is very 

 probable ; but the discussion of this matter may be left for the present, as 

 it is preferable to wait until a thorough investigation of Iranian horse 

 mail has been made by a competent specialist; ample material for such 

 study is particularly furnished by the Persian miniatures. 1 



1 In an illuminated manuscript of the Shah-nameh preserved in the Royal Li- 

 brary of Munich, and representing the costume and arms of the Persians in the 

 seventeenth century, according to Egerton, the combatants generally wear conical 

 helmets with solid guards over the neck and ears. The horses as well as their riders 

 have a complete covering of mail with alternate rows of gold and silver scales (W. 

 Egerton, 111. Handbook of Indian Arms, p. 142). In ancient India, elephants and 

 horses were protected by armor (G. Oppert, On the Weapons, Army Organization, 

 and Political Maxims of the Ancient Hindus, p. 8, Madras, 1880). The Chinese 



