S6 THE HISTORY AND ART 



fprang into the air, the dolphin funk under ground : 

 upon this fignal, the cable * was removed, and the 

 horfes advanced from their Hands, which were diftri- 

 buted by lot, into the courfe, where they Hood ready 

 to Hart : but in what order and arrangement, whe- 

 ther in a line, or one behind another, is a queilion 

 which has often been difculTed, but is hitherto unde- 

 cided. Nor is it known what laws were to be obferved 

 by the horfes which entered to run, or whether they 

 were confined to any fixed number ; but it appears that 

 they were divided into two clafTes, of full-aged and 

 under-aged horfes ; and that horfes and mares were 

 allowed to contend for the prize. There was likewife 

 a race, called Calpe, in which mares- alone were per- 

 mitted to run ; and with whofe riders it was cufto- 

 mary to leap from their backs towards the end of the 

 courfe, and keeping the bridle in their hand, to run 

 along with them, and fo finifli the career. 



There was alfo another fort of riders, called Aiia- 

 batte, who refembled thefe horfemen of the Calpe in 

 moft particulars, but were difiinguiflied from them 

 in one inflance, being obliged by law always to ride 

 horfes. 



* In the races at prefent performed in Italy, the fignal for the horfes 

 to ftart is oiven by removing a rope from before the horfes — the 

 cuftom beino- derived from this method of the Greeks ; efpecially, as it 

 known, that the Olympic Games were celebrated in Sicily (called 

 Magna Gr^cia), in the fame manner, and with all the circumftances, 

 as in ancient Greece. 



The 



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