98 Proceedings of the Royal Physical Society. 



Mycense, which cannot be dated later than 1200 B.C. Though 

 the Mycenaean chariots have only four spokes in their 

 wheels, while those on the Egyptian monuments have six, 

 they have otherwise so many elements in common as to 

 suggest that the early Greeks derived their knowledge of 

 horses either direct from Egypt or through the Semitic 

 peoples of Asia Minor. According to Schrader ('' Prehistoric 

 Antiquities of the Aryans," 1890, p. 260), the art of riding 

 was practised neither by the Greeks of Homer nor by the 

 Hindus of the Eigveda. This use of the animal he supposes 

 to have originated with Turko-Tartaric races. The terms for 

 riding in the Indo-European languages not only differ from 

 one another, but are apparently of recent date. There seems 

 to be no doubt, if we can depend on the deductions of philo- 

 logists, that the primitive Aryans were acquainted with the 

 horse, but whether the animal was domesticated or wild, it 

 is difficult to say. There is no evidence to show that they 

 used horses for riding or driving, but they may have bred 

 them for food. 



From Caesar we learn that another branch of the Celtic 

 people, viz., those inhabiting Britain, made use of war- 

 chariots, a custom which probably reached tlieni during the 

 " Late Celtic " period, though, strange to say, the author 

 makes no mention of this mode of fighting among the Gauls. 

 Livy, however, informs us (X. 28, 29) that the Gauls had 

 one thousand chariots in their army at the battle of Sentinum 

 (295 B.C.). That the Celts of the early La Tene period in 

 France and Switzerland used war- chariots is proved by the 

 discovery of several sepulchral tumuli containing the remains 

 of a warrior associated with a chariot, horses, and military 

 accoutrements. Similar interments have also been occasion- 

 ally met with in British barrows of the " Late Celtic " period 

 (" Prehistoric Scotland," p. 133). From an incidental remark 

 in Caesar ("Alexandrian War," chap. 75), it appears that the 

 soldiers of Pharnaces, King of Pontus, used scythed chariots 

 at the battle of Zela. Herodotus (V. 9) says of the horses of 

 the Sigynnae that they " are shaggy all over the body, to five 

 fingers in depth of hair : they are small, flat-nosed, and 

 unable to carry men ; but when yoked to chariots they are 



