88 Proceedings of the lioyal Physical Society. 



precision tell qu'il n'y a pas d'erreur possible. Enfiu deux 

 animaux portent sur le milieu du corps des signes nettement 

 traces ; sur le fianc d'un cheval il existe un signe en losange, 

 et un autre animal, qui semble avoir des cornes, porte sur le 

 flanc trois signes qui ont un aspect alphabetiforme (Fig. 5). 



" II est impossible de ne pas rapprocher cette particularite 

 des figurations grecques archaiques de chevaux portant un 

 nom grave sur les fesses. 



" II parait bien vraisemblable qu'il s'agit sur nos betes de 

 marques de propriete ou de marques de tribus comme les 

 Wasms en usage chez tons les nomades du Sud algerien" 

 {Rev. de I'Ecole d'Anthropologie, p. 39, 1902). 



The evidence here adduced in support of the theory that 

 these figures represent horses in a state of domestication is, 

 in my humble opinion, by no means so conclusive as the 

 explorers appear to imagine. It is founded on the supposi- 

 tion that some of the animals are represented as bridled and 

 draped with some kind of ornamental coveriag; and that 

 other animal figures are marked with well-defined characters, 

 which may possibly turn out to be letters of an alphabet ! 

 In face of what has already been said on the probability 

 of the horses of Solutre having been trapped or lassoed, and 

 so cowed in their capture as to be readily led to the hunter's 

 abode, I hesitate to accept these arguments as proof of 

 domestication, at least in the sense in which the term is 

 now used. The wild horses of South America, when lassoed, 

 are quickly tamed there and then by the application of more 

 or less violeut measures. If professed horse-tameis of the 

 present day can bring the most spirited and intractable 

 animal into a state of abject docility in a few minutes, why 

 should these wild hunters not do the same ? And if the^ 

 did, what scene could be more reminiscent of success in the 

 chase, or more appropriate to adorn the walls of their 

 sombre retreats, than a captured, subdued, and bridled 

 horse ? Moreover, it is difficult to conceive what useful 

 purpose domestic horses could serve in a community in 

 which hunting was the main source of existence. Had they 

 been utilised for riding we would undoubtedly, ere now, 

 have had an equestrian representation of the fact, either 



