126 PACK HORSE TRAILS 



some ruthless Caan a Genghis, a Timour, 

 burning all civilization, trampling out the 

 embers of human reason. And in their wake 

 came twilight — the Dark Ages. 



History is a jade. She has a glad eye for 

 soldiers and sportsmen whose business is 

 destruction, but turns a sour face from lousy 

 pilgrims to the shrines of Faith, poor crafts- 

 men and scholars burdened with the tools of 

 Progress, drab merchants who carry Culture 

 in their packs, and all the messengers of civili- 

 zation. Of these her annals are curt and 

 negligent. She has plenty of gossip about 

 Kings more or less human as advertised by 

 scribes more or less venal ; but keeps no 

 chronicle of the pack trails on which the little 

 Dun ponies carried all that made civilization 

 to the camps of the barbarian and the savage. 

 She told us nothing about the hundreds of 

 opulent cities which now lie dead and buried 

 in the Mongolian deserts. One does not like 

 to speak ill of a lady, but her sense of truth is 

 always moderate. 



Adventure is not official!}^ authorized as one 

 of the Muses, but she is as truthful as History, 

 and a deal more amusing as a guide. 



History says that nations who had no horses 

 used to be terrified at the first sight of horse- 



