WILD TARPAN AND ITS RELATIONS 73 



the onager — under which name may be understood 

 the wild horse — was haunted in the Ardennes, as 

 well as bears, stags, and wild boars. In Italy wild 

 horses were seen for the first time during the rule 

 of the Longobards, under King Agilulf. 



" In 732 Pope Gregory III. writes to St. Boni- 

 face : ' Thou hast permitted to some the flesh of 

 the wild horse, and to most that of the tame. 

 Henceforward, holy brother, thou shalt in no wise 

 allow it.' So, up to that time the Apostle of the 

 Germans had been very liberal, perhaps because in 

 his native island he had been accustomed from his 

 youth to the habit which appeared so horrible to 

 the Italian at Rome. Among the benedictions of 

 Monk Ekkehard of St. Gallen (about a.d. iooo) to 

 be pronounced over the meats to be served in the 

 refectory of that monastery, one refers to the flesh 

 of wild horses, which must therefore have been 

 eaten by the pious brethren. An old German 

 proverb says : ' A foal taken from a herd of wild 

 horses will sooner be tamed than a depraved man 

 learn to be ashamed.' In the Salksen-spiegel, 

 where it treats of women's outfit and dowry, it is 

 decreed that wild horses which have not always 

 been guarded shall not be reckoned as part of such 

 property. In a Westphalian document of 13 16, the 

 fishing, game, and wild horses of a certain forest are 

 apportioned to one Hermann. Not alone in the 

 time of the Merovingians, but at the end of the 



