66 THE HORSE AND ITS RELATIVES 



numbers of Japanese works of art. M. Reinach 

 thinks that ' the flying gallop ' was devised as an 

 intentional expression of energy in movement. I 

 venture to hold the opinion that it was observed 

 by the Mycenaeans in the dog, in which Muybridge's 

 photographs (now before me) demonstrate that 

 it occurs regularly as an attitude of that animal's 

 quickest pace or gallop. It is easy to see 'the 

 flying gallop' in the case of the dog, since the 

 dog does not travel so fast as the galloping horse, 

 and can be more readily brought under accurate 

 vision on account of its smaller size. It is quite 

 in accordance with probability that the early 

 Mycenaean artists, having seen how the dog gallops, 

 erroneously proceeded to put the galloping horse 

 and all other animals which they wished * to make 

 gallop ' into the same position." 



This chapter may be brought to a close by 

 a few remarks in regard to the past and present 

 geographical distribution of the horse family and a 

 brief reference to certain Hindu myths and customs 

 relating to the horse. At the present day the 

 group, in a wild state, is restricted to the Old World, 

 where it is widely distributed in Asia and Africa, 

 while, as is shown in the next chapter, it existed 

 at a comparatively recent date in Eastern Europe. 

 In Asia it does not, however, extend farther east 

 than Western India and Mongolia, or further north 

 than the latter country and Tibet. The Asiatic 



