214 RIDING 



the difficult circumstances in which he was placed. We are 

 told by De Quatrefages that the cave-dwellers of the Dordogne 

 were of a race ' belle et intelligentej so that as early as the qua- 

 ternary period we .find a people having a knowledge of the horse, 

 and able no doubt to subjugate it. Can we not, with no very 

 great stretch of fancy, picture one of these strong and hardy 

 men vaulting upon the back of a captured horse, and, with the 

 aptitude for dominating animals that must have been developed 

 by his mode of life, taming the wild will of the steed by a will 

 wilder and more determined than its own ? The knowledge of 

 the strength and fleetness of the horse must have suggested to 

 such a man the possibility of bringing this speed and strength 

 into his service ; and we cannot believe that such an idea should 

 long lie dormant, or that it remained for the Shemitic races of 

 the Euphrates valley, who looked upon the horse as a mere 

 beast for draught, to bring into subjection an animal whose 

 capabilities for nobler purposes had been known for thousands 

 of years. 



The bit, as we understand that instrument, could not have 

 made its appearance until the ' age of bronze.' When the horse 

 is first shown upon the Egyptian monuments, the bit, the bridle, 

 the harness, and the chariot are complete the bit usually 

 shown upon the Egyptian remains, and the same thing may be 

 said of the pictures upon the Assyrian monuments, having a 

 plain mouthpiece with cheek-pieces. The early horsemen un- 

 doubtedly employed a halter of raw hide, or a thong of that 

 material passed through the mouth, to direct and control their 

 steeds. 



For many ages the bit was, I think, a plain bar, or perhaps 

 later a snaffle. We shall find no evidences of any change in 

 the form until we come to consider the horsemanship of the 

 inventive Greeks. 



The bridles of the early horsemen of Egypt and of Asia 

 were highly ornamented, with tassels, crests, and embroideries ; 

 and the furniture generally was rich and elaborate. 



The saddle, as we understand it, was not known to the 



