] 52 THE HORSES OF PREHISTORIC [CH. 



Darwin^ has shown that instances of horses having hornlike 

 projections are not uncommon. Azara'"* has described two cases 

 in South America in which the projections were between three 

 and four inches in length, w^hilst other examples have occurred 

 in Spain and England. It is quite possible that the statement 

 of Megasthenes^ that in Asia there were horses with horns may 

 have been based on like abnormalities. 



The Vedic horses are called red (arushas), dun (haritas), and 

 ruddy (rohitas), and as all these epithets seem to be applied to 

 the same horses* the animals so described had probably ruddy 

 heads and backs, shading off into dun on the lower parts of the 

 body, as is the case with Prejvalsky's horse. 



From the muster-roll of Xerxes' army (B.C. 480) we learn 

 that though the tribes of north-west and western India still 

 employed chariots, they had now also horsemen in considerable 

 numbers, " some of the Indians rode on horseback, some in 

 chariots drawn either by horses or wild assess" The chariots 

 drawn by asses probably came from western India, whilst those 

 drawn bv horses and the cavalry came from the north-west. 

 This gets support from the fact that the same list tells us 

 that the Bactrians, who occupied the modern Afghanistan, 

 furnished horsemen, but not chariots". 



By the time of Alexander the people of the Panjab mainly 

 relied upon their cavalry, although still keeping a limited 

 number of chariots, for the army with which Poras, the Indian 

 king, attempted to stay the conqueror's advance was composed 

 of 4,000 cavalry, about 300 chariots, 200 elephants, and a very 

 large force of infantry^. About 300 horsemen w^ere slain, and 

 all the chariots were broken in pieces^ 



According to Aelian^ " the Indians regard the horse and 

 the elephant as being most valuable in war, and therefore 

 honour them especially. The king takes particular care to 



1 Op. cit., I. pp. 52-3. 



- Xat. Hist, of the Quadrupeds of Paraguay (trans, by W. Perceval Hunter), 

 pp. 30-1. There is at present a horned thoroughbred near York, and Mr A. Day 

 has a similar animal (Sporting Times, 4 Mar. 1905). 



3 Cited by Strabo, 710. * B. V. 1. 14, 12. •'"' Herod, vn. 84. 



^ Ibid. ' Arrian, Anab. v. 15,4. 



8 Id. V. 18, 2. 9 An. XIII. 25. 



