IIORSE-BACK RIDING. 129 



and forming not the amusement but the dehght and 

 dominant passion, or, to speak more truly, the serious 

 occupation of a whole nation, and that nation the most 

 renowned and polished the world could then boast, 

 have experienced the same unhappy fate as the people 

 among whom they originated and perished with them. 



Thus, through the negligence of historians, whose 

 duty it was to chronicle the institutions of their 

 country, we have no adequate record of these spec- 

 tacles, but are able to form only a confused idea of 

 them, founded in many respects on pure conjecture. 

 In regard to the goals, we are no more accurately in- 

 formed. Pausanias makes a mere passing allusion to 

 them in the following passage : ** At one of these 

 goals we see a statue of Hippodamia, holding a rib- 

 bon in her hand, as if about to crown Pelops, already 

 sure of victory;'* but these words, "one of the 

 goals," are sufficient to prove that there must have 

 been several. Common-sense, indeed, teaches us 

 that at least three were necessary : one for horses, 

 another for two-horse chariots, and a third for cars 

 drawn by four horses. 



Now, imagine this multitude of horses and char- 

 iots all assembled at the gathering-place, for the 

 purpose of affording Greece a spectacle worthy of 

 herself. The combatants are prepared, and the 

 horses, only waiting the signal to fly at lightning 

 speed into the lists, testify their ardor and impatience 

 by the restlessness of their movements. We compre- 



