17 



of the Spaniards, in America, their horsemen were actua ly supposed 

 by the Mexicans to be centaurs; hence the ancient fable, that mankind 

 were originally taught the art of horsemanship by those imaginary 

 beings. 



The ancient Avriters have assigned the honour of first mounting the 

 Horse in Greece, to the Thessalians who inhabited mount Peliou, 

 and Pliny the elder celebrates Bellerophon, asihe iirst great horse-breaker, 

 a name Avhich afterwards became common to all who distinguished 

 themselves in that practice. The earliest purpose to which horses were 

 applied, it is affirmed, was to hunt the wild bulls, which ravaged the 

 cornfields, and in this exercise the horsemen Avere armed with javelins. 

 According to Pliny, Julius Ca?sar, from this ancient chase, first derived 

 the idea of those bull-fights, with which he annually entertained the 

 citizens of Rome, whence in all probabilit}^ the practice extended to 

 Spain, then a Roman province, where and in Portugal, it continues, 

 in all its primitive features of horror and barbarity, to the present time. 

 The Greek word hippocentaur, is derived from the custom of encount- 

 ering bulls on horseback, implying an horseman attacking bulls. 



All arts must necessarily be rude and simple in their commence- 

 ment, and compassed by the easiest means. So it was, as we learn from 

 histor}^ with the first breakers of horses, who were totally ignorant of 

 the great convenience of bridles and saddles, important discoveries of 

 succeeding ages of a far later date. Having, by whatever means, sub- 

 dued and reconciled the Horse to servitude, those primitive horsemen 

 taught him also to obey the various sounds of the human voice, guiding, 

 accelerating his motions, or checking his career, with a wand or switch. 

 We read of this simple method of riding, even at as late a period as 

 the Punic wars, practised by the cavalry of Niimidia and Mauritania, 

 opposed to the Romans, and, according to Silius Italicus, by the Cartha- 

 ginians themselves. Livy notices the uncouth and ungraceful appear- 

 ance of the Horses managed in this way, capitibits alte stantibus, their 

 heads standing on high, their necks straight and stretched out, their 

 noses turning upwards into the air. Horses, both Arabians and Barbs, 

 accustomed to this form of going, have been formerly noticed by the 

 English writers, under the name of star-gazers, and the present writer 



