494 THE DEVELOPMENT OF EQUITATION [CH. 



fact that the extremities of the two arras are always furnished 

 with means of suspension. Some are perforated close to the 

 extremity (Fig. 138 b), as if meant to be suspended. In most 

 specimens, however (as in Fig. 139), there is a groove on the 

 inside of the upper portion of each arm extending for some 

 distance, and this groove is crossed a little below the end by a 

 bronze loop (Fig. 139 b) which could be slipped on a hook, thus 

 enabling the whole to be attached to*the lower side of some 

 object such as the yoke. In specimens of the second class 

 where the loop has been accidentally broken off, its place has 

 been supplied by a hole bored right through, which is plainly 

 meant to admit the passage of a hook. When once the hooks 

 fastened into the under side of the yoke were slipped through 

 the loops or holes in the extremities of the spur-shaped objects 

 they could not easily jump off. The analogy between these 

 Irish bronzes and the primitive wooden pair found along with 

 the Florentine chariot is very close, and they would both seem 

 to have fulfilled a like function. 



We may take it that the harness of the Homeric mule-car 

 was practically identical with that of the Homeric chariot, for 

 otherwise the harness of Priam's chariot would probably have 

 been described. Now, we are told that the yoke was 'well- 

 fitted' with oiekes, literally 'steerers,' which are explained by 

 the ancients themselves as "a kind of rings through which the 

 reins were passed." This fact shows that from very early times 

 it was found necessary to have some kind of rings attached to 

 some part of the harness through which the reins might be 

 passed, and thus kept them in place and free from entanglement 

 with the horses' manes, and give more power to the charioteer. 

 The reins in the Assyrian chariot seem to have passed through 

 some such contrivance fastened to the under-side of the yoke 

 (Fig. 62). In the Egyptian, Mycenean, Hittite, and Assyrian 

 chariot the yoke, as was the case in Homer, was the only part 

 to which such 'steering-rings' could be attached, though the 

 reins might have been passed under a strap going round the 

 horse's body, as is the case on the monument of Seti I (Fig. 68). 

 As apparently no such rings were ever fitted into the yoke of 

 the Florentine chariot, any such contrivance for guiding the 



