46 THE HORSE OF AMERICA. 



placed on their flanks, and wheeled about on unsaddled horses 

 guided by a bridle of rushes. 



At a very remote period there were two tribes in the interior of 

 Spain, the Celtae and Iberi, that were greatly distinguished for 

 their love of independence and their bravery in defending it. 

 The antiquarians have failed to give us any information as to- 

 what they were or whence they came. They were contempo- 

 raneous with some of the early colonies of the Phoenicians. Their 

 tactics in battle seemed to have been to break the enemy's ranks by 

 a charge as cavalry, and to then dismount and fight on foot. They 

 united as one people and called themselves Celtiberi. Where' 

 they got their horses, or whether they had them before the- 

 Phoenicians arrived, are questions that cannot be answered. 



The Visigoths, or western Goths, overran Northern Italy, set- 

 tled in Southern France and eventually passed over into Spain, 

 where they established a dynasty that lasted over two centuries and 

 until it was overthrown by the Saracens, A.D. 711. Roderick, 

 the king of the Visigoths, went out to battle with the Saracens, 

 arrayed in his most showy apparel, and mounted on his splendid 

 chariot, made of ivory and set with precious stones. As the bat- 

 tle progressed he saw what he had good reason to believe was 

 treachery on the part of one wing of his army and he alighted 

 from his chariot, mounted his horse called Orelia and rode away 

 while his soldiers were being butchered. He was the last of the 

 Gothic dynasty. There had been a battle between the navies of the 

 Saracens and the Goths, A.D. 680, fifty-one years earlier, in which 

 the fleet of the Saracens had been entirely destroyed, and at that 

 time the Saracens occupied the whole of the southern shore of 

 the Mediterranean. The word "Moors," as often used to desig- 

 nate the people of Northern Africa, is not well chosen, for it really 

 belongs to but one of many different tribes of different names. 

 The term "Saracen" anciently meant only an Arab born, but 

 since the middle ages it has come to mean any and all adherents 

 to the Mohammedan religion, in the usage of Christian people, 

 and is particularly apposite when speaking of a number of tribes 

 engaged in a common cause. 



The people of Northern Africa were not negroes as we under- 

 stand the word, but a mixture of different races. When the 

 Phoenicians settled among them they were nomadic barbarians, 

 possessing a country of great riches without knowing it. Under 

 the tuition of their new masters they made great advances in 



