114 THE HORSES OF PREHISTORIC [CH. 



back to their horses with all speed. Nothing, according to 

 their standard, is more disgraceful or a greater mark of laziness 

 than to use a saddle, and no matter how few in number they 

 may be, they boldly attack any number of cavalry furnished 

 with saddles ^" 



The method of fighting here described is identical with 

 that of the peoples who used chariots, for the latter, as we 

 have seen, regularly descended from their chariots and fought 

 on foot, the charioteers keeping the chariot in readiness close 

 at hand. The Germans had simplified this method of warfare 

 by using their ponies as mere vehicles and not as war-horses ; 

 they dismounted from their horses as others did from their 

 chariots, and leaving their horses to await them, as the others 

 did their chariots, they fought on foot. Thus they were 

 mounted infantry rather than true cavalry. However, by the 

 time of Tacitus we shall find that one tribe of Germans 

 possessed a true cavalry finely organised. It is not improbable 

 that the Germans had once used chariots, but had abandoned 

 the use in warfare in favour of the system of rough-riding, which 

 they may have learned from the peoples who lay east of them, 

 such as the Sarmatians and Scythians. 



The description of these small, ugly, native German horses 

 makes it clear that they were the old small European horse 

 with a big head, of the same breed as those of the Sigynnae. 

 That the horse had been domesticated and used by some 

 of the Germans from a remote antiquity is rendered clear by 

 various circumstances, foremost amongst which is the fact that, 

 according to Tacitus-, divination from horses was accounted the 

 surest mode of foretelling the future. " It is peculiar to this 

 people to seek omens and monitions from horses. Kept at 

 the public expense, in these same woods and groves, are white 

 horses, pure from the taint of earthly labour ; these are yoked 

 to a sacred chariot (cur^rus) and accompanied by the priest and 

 the king, or chief of the tribe, who note their neighings and 

 snortings. No species of divination is more trusted, not only 

 by the people and by the nobility, but also by the priests, who 



1 B. G. IV. 2. 2 Germania, 10. 



