HORSE-BACK RIDING. 115 



ORIGIN AND PROGRESS OF HORSE-RACES. 



The Curetes, or Dactyli, the five brothers to whom 

 Rhea had intrusted the education of Jupiter, having 

 completed their allotted task, departed from Mt. Ida, 

 and went to Elis. 



"One day, the eldest brother, Hercules, in order 

 to relieve the tedium of their new condition, proposed 

 that they should run a race, and offered as a prize to 

 the successful contestant a crown of olive." (Me- 

 moires de I'Abbe Gedoyn.) 



According to the legend this sportive contest v^as 

 the origin of those games which in succeeding ages 

 gained such celebrity, and for which the Greeks, 

 especially, ever manifested the most enthusiastic 

 fondness. 



Undoubtedly the first races were simply foot- 

 races. The horse roamed his native wilds a magnifi- 

 cent but savage creature, for the art of training his 

 fierceness and rendering him subservient to the use 

 of mankind had not yet been discovered. Neces- 

 sity, the mother of invention, 'was still to make 

 known to the people of those early times the advan- 



