16 



SECTION III. 



ox A>fcr£xr management, equitation and iurmture. 



IT remains to advert to that degree of proficiency at which the 

 ancients had arrived, in tlie management and array of the Horse. 

 Herodotus, the most ancient, and probably most deserving of credit 

 among the ancient historians, describes the Persians so attached to the 

 Horse, that the art of horsemanship was held among them, as one of 

 the most necessary branches of education, and taught to their children 

 at five years of age. In the reign of Cyrus, the breed had been scarce 

 in Persia, but had been by that prince so extended and improved, and 

 from his example the Persians had become such lovers of them, that 

 they were few, and those of the very meanest class, who did not keep 

 Horses; and it was even rendered ignominious by a decree of the mo- 

 narch, for a Persian who possessed a Horse, ever to be seen abroad on 

 foot. It is, however, recorded of that luxurious people by Athengeus 

 and Xenophon, that unlike their neighbours the Parthians and other 

 hardy and warlike nations, the Persians caparisoned their Horses with 

 many soft and thick housings of cloth, more coveting the luxury of set- 

 ting on horseback at their ease, than the honour of exhibiting them- 

 selves bold and skilful horsemen. 



The ancient allegory of the ceufaurs, imaginary beings, of a human 

 form in the foreparts, whilst the hinder were those of a horse, arose natu- 

 rally from the appearance of a skilful horseman, firmly and gracefully 

 fixed upon his horse, and governing his every motion at will, the animal 

 and his rider appeared but one and the same body, actuated by the same 

 vital functions, and informed by one and the same spirit. This mighteven 

 pass for reality, with secluded and ignorant savages, who had never be- 

 fore seen a Horse; and we learn from history, that on the first landing 



of 



