IN ASIA. 7 



tinguished for their stately appearance and lofty action. Old Blundeville, 

 from the inspection of many of the ancient sculptures, says that these were 

 more heavy-headed than the heroes of the Parthians*. Perhaps they were so ; 

 but no one can dispute the stateliness of their figure, and their proud and high 

 and equal step. Although often ridden, they were better calculated for the 

 chariot. This kind of horse seems to have pleased the ancients ; and their 

 painters and statuaries are fond of exhibiting them in their most striking 

 attitudes. The horses in the cut at the commencement of this chapter are 

 illustrative of the remark. Oppian says of them, what is true at the present 

 day of many horses of this character, " when young, they are delicate and 

 weak ; but strength comes with years, and, contrary to other horses, they are 

 better and more powerful when advanced iHr^get," 



The PARTHIANS fought on foot in the army of Xerxes. Either they had 

 not begun to be celebrated as horsemen, or there were reasons which no author 

 states for their being dismounted at that time. No very long period, however, 

 passed before they became some of the most expert riders that the world could 

 produce, and were reckoned, and justly so, almost invincible. They are 

 described as being exceedingly active and dexterous in the management of their 

 horses. They were as formidable in flight as in attack, and would often turn 

 on the back of the animal, and pour on their pursuers a cloud of arrows that 

 at once changed the fortune of the day. 



Vegetius gives a singular account of the manner of their breaking in their 

 horses, and rendering them sure-footed when galloping over the most irregular 

 and dangerous grounds; for they were lighter and hardier horses than those of the 

 Cappadocians or Medes, and better for their peculiar pace and manner of fight- 

 ing. A spot of dry and level ground was selected, on which various troughs or 

 boxes, filled with chalk or clay, wero placed at irregular distances, and with 

 much irregularity of surface and of height. Here the horses were taken for 

 exercise ; and they had many a stumble and many a fall as they galloped over 

 this strangely uneven course ; but they gradually learned to lift their feet 

 higher, and to bend their knees better, and to deal their steps sometimes 

 shorter and sometimes longer, as the ground required, until they could carry 

 their riders with ease and safety over the most irregular and dangerous places. 

 Then it was that the Parthians could fully put into practice their favourite 

 manoeuvre, and turn upon and destroy their unsuspecting foes. They could 

 also travel an almost incredible distance without food or rest*. 



To the Scythians, the Medes, and the Parthians, in after times, and in rapid 

 succession (if, indeed, they were not different names for hordes of one common 

 origin), succeeded the Ostraces, the Urals, the Monguls, the Calmucks, the 

 Nogays, the Visigoths, the Ostrogoths, and the Huns all people of the vast 

 plains of Central Asia, which has been well denominated the nursery of 

 nations. These were all horsemen. Some of their leaders could bring from 

 two to three hundred thousand horsemen into the field. The speed of their 

 marches ; their attacks and their retreats ; the hardihood to which they inured 

 themselves and the animals by which they were carried ; the incursion, and often 

 Settlement, of horde after horde, each as numerous as that to which it succeeded ; 

 these are circumstances that must not be forgotten hi our rapid sketch of the 

 horse. 



At the end of the eighth century, when the Saracens overran a great part d 

 Europe, they brought with them a force of 200,000 cavalry, in a much highci 

 state of discipline than the Goths and Huns of former ages. 



* Biundeville'sFowerChiefest Offices, p. 3. t Quot sine aqua Parthus millia currai 

 t Bcicngei'j vol. i. j>. 22. equus. Propertius, lib. iv. eleg. 3. 



