THE HORSE IN WAR 7 



must be assumed to have preceded driving, there* is evi- 

 dence to show that chariots in great numbers were em- 

 ployed in war before cavalry came into common use. In 

 the first home of the horse, his utility was all but limited 

 to war ; camels were the freight-carriers on a large, asses 

 on a small, scale ; bullocks were as much a usual means 

 of passenger transportation as camels ; and they were no 

 doubt then, as now in parts of the Orient, steady and 

 rapid travellers. No one who has not seen the trotting 

 bullock has any idea of how fine a driver he is ; as well 

 bred as a racer, as quiet as the traditional (not the actual) 

 lamb, he will go his forty miles in seven or eight hours 

 to your entire satisfaction. But the bullock was of no 

 use in war. He was lacking in character as much as his 

 brother the bull was ungovernable. The utility of the 

 horse as an adjunct to armed man soon impressed itself 

 on his owner. The higher the warrior could tower above 

 t.he common herd of soldiery, the more terrible his aspect, 

 and the deadlier his aim with lance and arrow. To fight 

 from above downward was always the desideratum in 

 the days of short -carry jactile weapons; and from this 

 ambition came the steed's early appearance in battle. But 

 to debase him to the purposes of pleasure was, for many 

 generations after he became an every-day matter, never 

 dreamed of. He was altogether too noble an animal ; and 

 we can well imagine that he impressed himself upon the 

 ancients with the same force he exerts on us. 



We find the very best of cavalry in ancient Jimes. The 

 Greeks ran against a very serious problem in the Persian 

 light horse when they first trod the soil of Asia Minor. 

 While the best infantry in existence, they in nowise com- 

 pared as horsemen with the Asiatics until Alexander's 

 Companion Cavalry showed them what good material and 

 intelligent drill would do. But Alexander's methods were 



