Ill] AND HISTORIC TIMES 353 



foot-soldiers, in spite of the fact that the names of Hengist 

 (cf Germ, hengst = stallion) and Horsa indicate a love for the 

 noble animal, though the veneration in which white horses 

 were held by the German tribes may sufficiently explain the 

 popularity of horse names among chieftain families. But it 

 must be carefully borne in mind that Hengist and Horsa were 

 neither Angles nor Saxons, but Jutes \ and it is not impossible 

 that that tribe may have begun to use horses at an earlier 

 period than their kinsmen and neighbours. Though from the 

 names of Hengist and Horsa and from the existence of the 

 famous White Horse cut in the chalk in Berkshire, it has been 

 commonly assumed that the Saxon banners bore the device of 

 a white horse, there is not the slightest evidence that such was 

 the case. 



Procopius^, writing in the 6th century a.d. in reference to 

 a war which arose between the Angli settled in Britain and the 

 Varni who dwelt on the east side of the Rhine, in consequence 

 of the king of the Varni having repudiated his betrothal to an 

 Anglian princess, thus describes the former : " These islanders 

 are the most valiant of all the barbarians with whom we are 

 acquainted and they fight on foot. For not only do they not 

 know how to ride, but it is their lot not even to know what a 

 horse is like, since in this island they do not see a horse, not 

 even in a picture, for this animal seems never to have existed in 

 Brittia. But if at any time it should happen that some of them 

 either on an embassy or for some other reason should be living 

 with Romans or Franks or with any one else that hath horses, 

 and it should there be necessary for them to ride on horseback, 

 they are unable to mount, but other men have to help them up 

 and set them on the horses' backs, and again when they wish to 

 dismount they have to be lifted and set down on the ground. 

 Neither are the Varni horsemen, but they too are all infantry. 

 Such then are these barbarians." 



Procopius is of course quite mistaken in the belief that 

 there never had been horses in Britain. But, though the 

 Byzantine Greeks of the 6th century knew but little about 



1 Cf. Bede, Ecc. Hist., chaps, xiv — xv. 

 - De hello Gothico, iv. 20. 



R. H. 23 



