Ill] AND HISTORIC TIMES 151 



whom they left behind in their old home in Upper Europe, 

 they did not ride, but yoked in pairs to chariots. Only once 

 do we hear of the riding of horses in the Rig- Veda 1 , and then 

 it is described in such a way as to indicate that it was ex- 

 ceptional. Probably the horse and chariot were only used 

 for war, as they certainly also possessed the ox-cart, for the 

 red streaks which herald the dawn are described as the cows 

 that draw her waggon. Again, like their brethren in Europe, 

 the Vedic Aryans habitually sacrificed horses to their gods 2 . 



The Vedic hymns furnish us with data respecting not only 

 the colour of the horses, but even perhaps their anatomy. The 

 horse normally has eighteen ribs, though occasionally, according 

 to Youatt, nineteen are found, the additional one being always 

 the posterior rib 3 . It is a remarkable fact that the horse is 

 said in the Rig- Veda to have only seventeen ribs 4 , and so great 

 an authority as M. Pietrement 5 argues that this statement is 

 trustworthy, since in early days the Hindus carefully counted 

 the bones of animals. Yet we must not overlook the circum- 

 stance that the ancient Hindu commentators on the Veda knew 

 that a horse has thirty-six ribs 6 . 



We have already seen that in the leg of the horses of 

 Solutre (p. 84) the metacarpal and metatarsal vestigial bones 

 were not united to the main bone, as is the case with modern 

 horses, whilst an additional bone in the hock, and certain 

 abnormal appearances between the tibia and astragalus, are 

 quite common in Irish horses, and not due to disease 7 . Again, 



1 v. 61-2. 2 R. V. i. 162, is a hymn for such a sacrifice. 



3 Darwin, Variation of Animals and Plants (2nd ed. 1875), i. p. 75. 



4 E. V. i. 162, 18 : catustrinsad vajino devabandhor vankrir asvasya svaditih 

 sam eti. 



5 Memoires sur les Chevaux, a trente-quatre cotes, 1871 ; Les Chevaux dans 

 les temps prehistoriques et historiques (1883), pp. 223 sqq. 



6 Ludwig (Rig -Veda, Bd. in. p. 186) thinks that the passage is astro- 

 nomical (the 34 ribs = sun, moon and 5 planets + 27 nakshatras, and he com- 

 pares the Aitareya Brahmana, n. 6, 15 a formula recited at the slaughter of 

 other animals. Here we read of 26 ribs, which according to Ludwig means 

 26 half-months 12 months + 1 intercalary month. 



7 Darwin, Variation of Animals and Plants, i. p. 52. Prof. Ewart writes to 

 me: "in modern horses living in natural conditions, such as moor and moun- 

 tain ponies, the second and fourth metacarpals and metatarsals are not as far as 

 my experience goes united to the middle metacarpal and metatarsal." 



